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A Chronicle of the SEE family and their Kindred

written and compiled by Irene See Brasel (1892 - 1963)

Scanned, edited and published here by Henry M. Conor, her fourth cousin, twice removed.

About the Author

Irene Melba See was born 9 Sep 1892 in Kinmundy, Marion County, IL, the fourth child of Michael Henry See and the first child of Michael's second wife, Alice Harrell . She married on 6 Apr 1921, to Glenn Dale Brasel of Salem, IL. They moved to Hoopeston, IL in 1922, where Glenn coached football, basketball, golf and tennis at the then named John Greer High School for the next 24 years. She raised three children; Priscilla Susan b. 10 Sep 1922, Edith Dorothea b. 15 Aug 1924 and Ned Gwynne b. 1 Feb 1928.

Irene was a member of the First Christian Church of Hoopeston, the Barbara Standish Chapter of the D.A.R., and the Hoopeston Hobby Club. She began in the 1940's to record the result of her genealogical research in handwritten notes, which later became her Chronicle. The exact date of her last efforts is not known, but notations on the Family Group Sheets included in the book are dated 1960. She passed away on 5 July 1963, after an extended illness.

Irene's ancestry is as follows:
* George Ludwig (See) Zeh b. 1689 d. 23 Aug 1751 m. Mary Margaret (Tschudi) Judy b. 1699
d. 14 Feb 1758
* * Michael Frederick See b. 1712 d. 14 Jul 1763 m. 1744 Catherine Vanderpoel b. 30 Jun 1725
d. 1806
* * * Michael See b. 1751 d. 17 May 1792 m. 1776 Elizabeth Morris b. 8 Aug 1753 d. 1800
* * * * Michael See b. 1 Apr 1785 d. 10 Sep 1827 m. 29 Jun 1808 Nancy Jane Greenlee b. 10 Mar
1794 d. 23 Jun 1871
* * * * * Henry W. See b. 27 Feb 1822 d. 14 Jun 1863 m. 21 Jul 1850 Judith Allman b. 12 Sep
1828 d. 30 Mar 1892
* * * * * * Michael Henry See b. 5 Oct 1856 d. 29 Jan 1940 m. 28 Oct 1891 Alice Harrell b. 21 May 1873 d. 28 Oct 1944
* * * * * * * Irene Melba See b. 9 Sep 1892 d. 5 Jul 1963 m. 6 Apr 1921 Glenn Dale Brasel

The Chronicle was provided to me, and permission to distribute it, by Susan Brasel Stoner, for which my thanks.

A CHRONICLE OF THE SEE FAMILY AND THEIR KINDRED - Compiled by Irene See Brasel

The figures of our forefathers may appear as dim silhouettes, as one peers down a vista of several hundred years, but not boldly revealed by the stories of their courage and daring, ambitions and accomplishments, their sorrows and sacrifices. Indeed, they have demised to us a legacy which could enrich and shape our lives with its inspiration and challenge. The thought of sharing this inheritance, impels me this effort of preserving these stories and records to re-create the colorful life of their times.

"It is my opinion that he who receives an estate from his ancestors is under some kind of obligation to transmit the same to their posterity." --- Benjamin Franklin

Family origins are often difficult to trace. One cannot regress many generations until facts may sometimes give way to legend and tradition. This is true of the family tree of the Sees which rooted in the remote past has stood through the centuries like the live oak of the South, its verdant branches hung with festoons of mossy tradition. With this in mind an attempt is made here to preserve in order the truth of this family history as fully as can be established against the back-drop of the religious and political movements of the past. Pursued by ruthless persecution and oppression, they moved from country to country, where the meager records of their sojourns have been lost in the countless wars among the European nations.

The origin of the Sees of America is said to be Swiss, probably from the lake regions of Zurich and Lucerne. During the Reformation, they came under the influence of Ulrich Zwingli (l484-1531) the great Swiss Protestant reformer, a contemporary of Martin Luther and John Calvin, and thence forward were firm and staunch Protestants.

Eventually, Zwingli's followers, for economic reasons, left Switzerland to find new homes. In France the Swiss Protestants associated with and became very friendly with the followers of Calvin. About 1560 this sect became known as Huguenots. Under Henry of Navarre they prospered and expanded. When he became Henry IV, they were granted even greater religious freedom, in the edict of Nantes. Henry IV was assassinated in 1610, and severe persecution immediately followed under the Cardinals Richelieu (15 -1642) and Mazarin (1602-61) and King Louis XIV, who revoked the edict in l685.

At the close of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) the German provinces of Silesia, Moravia, and Bohemia were practically depopulated. To restore their ravaged territory, the rulers offered attractive concessions to settlers, including religious freedom.

The Sees had long withstood the relentless persecution of the French government for they now considered themselves Frenchmen. Now, they decided to move to a less dangerous realm where they would be secure in their faith. To Silesia they went along with thousands of others - a migration that was to prove an irreparable loss to the economy of France.

The Sees seemingly were satisfied in the country of their adoption and soon became Germanized. Here, they became identified with the Schwenkfelders, a sect of Baptists. Their founder was Caspar Schwenkfeld von Ossing, a Silesian Knight and Councilor to the Duke of Liegnitz of Prussia. For two hundred years, his followers were tolerated by the German emperors. At last, they, too, were subjected to persecution.

In 1708 an inquiry was ordered made of the Schwenkfelder doctrine and practices. These apparently conflicted with the Catholic church, so in 1720 a commission of Jesuits was appointed to go there and convert them by force. By 1725 this persecuted sect sought shelter in Upper Lusatia, Saxony. After eight years they resolved to immigrate to America to the colony of Georgia.

After arriving in Holland, a new decision was made to go instead to Pennsylvania "to the asylum for the harassed sons and daughters of the relics of the Reformation, whither William Penn himself invited the persecuted of every creed and religious opinion," to quote Professor Rupp. Some came in 1733 but the greater part in 1744.

Prior to this, many had fled to Holland and others to England. Peter See is said to have been one leaving his family in Silesia. If true, doubtless he was the Peter See, who left France in 1667. He is said to have gone to the New York colony in l686 at the same time as the first English governor general, Sir Edmond Andros. There is proof that Isaac See and his wife Esther and their son Isaac and his wife Maria were of the number who came on the vessel with Gov. Andros.

They had escaped from France, gone to England and remained until the boat sailed. They were accompanied by two relatives, Nicholas DeVaux and Jean LeCompte All settled in Harlem. Many of Isaac See's descendants reside today in Duchess and Westchester counties in New York. Among the Revolutionary soldiers, who claimed Isaac See as their ancestor, was Isaac See (1741-l806), who assisted in the capture of Major Andre, September 22, l780. Riker says in his History of Harlem - "The See family whose name is recorded early takes several forms of Cie, du Cie, Siek, Zy, and Sie." Another source says the Swiss form was Seevis, with the ending dropped later.

Many ships were chartered to convey the thousands of Swiss, Germans, and Huguenots seeking peace and security in the colonies. The British government encouraged this wave of immigration. One notes the vessels were of British registry with British masters. There were the Small Snow, the Bilander, Brigantine, and others. Passengers numbered from 75 on the Snow to 412 on the larger ships.

Philadelphia was the point of entry and its docks and wharves were scenes of activity as the vessels made return trips with regularity. Passenger lists named the heads of families and boys under sixteen years of age; females were unlisted. The immigrant was required to sign an oath of loyalty to the government upon his entry. The original lists of the names of these Swiss, German and other immigrants were on file in the Secretary's office in Harrisburg and published in 1857 by Prof. Daniel Rupp in an edition called A Collection of Thirty Thousand Names, etc. In list 32, September l8, 1733, was Palatines, the Brigantine, Pennsylvania, Merchant of London, John Stedman Master, from Rotterdam last from Plymouth. Passengers were 71 males above 16; 56 females, 37 males under 16, 64 males and females under 16 - in all 191. The name of John Ludwig See appears.

The family comprised of George See and his wife, Margaret Judy (Tchudi) See, their sons Frederick (1712), Michael (1730), and George (1732), their daughter Eleanor (1710), and her husband, Mathias Yoakum; seemingly all were born in Silesia, or the Palatinate. John Bernhard See, who arrived November 25, 1740 was their son. He was then 26 years of age according to the captain's list of the "Loyal Judith." The long interval between John and the two younger sons may be explained by the fact that other children were born but died. Circumstances seem to indicate that these dates are approximately correct. In list 78, November 25, 1740, Palatines imported in the ship Loyal Judith, Lovell Paynter, Commander from Rotterdam, last from Deal - 265 passengers. Johan Bernhard See.

Research has failed to uncover any record of the Sees' ten year sojourn in Pennsylvania where they are related to have lived in Bucks County. John See or Johan Bernard See was the third child. According to his signature on the loyalty oath, he was twenty-six years old when he arrived in Philadelphia in 1740, thus making his birth to occur in 1714. There is no record of any marriage.

The story goes that when John See went to the Greenbrier and tried to locate his brother, he knocked at a cabin door after dark one night and said, "I am trying to find my brother, Frederick See." It was indeed the home of Frederick, who instantly said, "Well you have found him. That is my brother, John; I know that voice," although they had not seen each other for some time.

On August 19, 1756, Frederick Sees was bonded with Adam and John Dickinson as administrator for John Sea. (Found in Abstracts of Wills, August Co., Virginia) John was about forty-two years old at the time of his death.

GEORGE LUDWIG AND MARGARET JUDY SEE

These are our first American ancestors in so far as recorded proof is obtainable. They had endured hardship and peril to reach a domicile where religious freedom was vouchsafed. They were destined to end their days in the valley of the South Branch described as the "garden spot of America, everywhere rich land, abounding in turkeys, deer, and game" to quote George Trumbo. It also abounded in Indians, one might add. Life was fraught with danger.

The Indians constantly harassed the settlers and few dared venture far from the forts; almost every habitation had to be fortified. Many lost their lives or property. Andrew Trumbo told of Conrad Harness' murder with his wife and baby coming from the Presbyterian services where the baby was christened. (From Rev. Shane's interviews with Virginians in Kentucky in Preston and Virginia papers). George Yoakum, grandson of Mathias Yoakum relates an encounter with the Indians.

The trough was where the river went down a narrow gorge between the mountains for six or seven miles. Col. Van Meter had a fort at the upper end of the trough where one Waggoner commanded at the time and 36 men collected to go to Lynch fort.

The men separated at the Falls of the South Branch right where one Moore now lives, a brother to my Lord Moore. Eighteen went back down the trough. They saw thirty six Indian fires as they came down. The Indians were cooking near the mouth of the trough. They ran into the bushes when they saw the eighteen whites coming. The whites went up to the fires and the Indians opened fire on them. This battle lasted all day. The "guns got right hot." One mile from this battleground across the plantation was the fort. When the fort sent no help, they threw their guns into the river and swam across. When they reached the fort, Waggoner would not open the gates. They had to run two miles to Lynch's Fort on Buttermilk.

Several were killed; others were wounded. Waggoner afterward sent for some of these men and when they came he had them flogged for calling him a coward.

Michael See (referred to as Michael Adam See by some sources) was three years old when the family came to the Colony of Pennsylvania. Michael See (1730) married Barbara Harness (1732) daughter of Michael Harness in 1750. They were the parents of George, Adam, Mary (Polly), Hannah, Christina, Barbara, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Dorothy (Dolly).

George See, the youngest child born 1732, and his wife Christiana were the parents of seven children. Her family name has never been learned. Their children were: sons George, Adam and John, and daughters Phebe, Mary, Elizabeth and Catherine.

On August 28, 1751, Frederick See qualified as administrator of the estate of his father, George See. Final settlement was made the following year August 24th, when it was appraised and sold or divided. This is found in Chalkley's Abstracts Vol. 1, p. 30. Romney was the old county seat of Hampshire County at that time, and became county seat of Hardy County when Hampshire was divided.

One of the earliest wills on record is that of Margaret See, the widow of George See. It is as follows in its entirety:

"In the name of Cod and men the Will and Testament of Margaret See. To my oldest son Frederick See I leave and bequeath one shilling sterling. To my son George See I leave the rest of my Goods and Chattels to be equally divided between Michael See, Felty Yokeham, Jacob Yokeham, Mading See, Barbara N. See, Mary See and Jacob See this Being my Last will and testament all other wills heretofore to be void and of no efect as witness my hand and seal this 28th day of March 1757 one thousand seven hundred and fifty seven. Signed sealed and delivered in Presents of us

her mark

James Taoffs (?) Margaret X See

David Crags

"At a court held fore Hampshire County the 14th Day of February 1758 on the motion of George See son of Margaret See who made oath according to Law Certificate is granted him for obtaining Letters of Administration of said Decedent's Estate with her last will and Testament annod (?) Security who upon the said George together with Michael (Harry and William Cunningham) his Securities entered into and acknowledged their Bond in the Penalty of One Hundred Pounds for his due Administration of the said Decedent's Estate of Performance of her Will which is ordered to be recorded."

It is to be noted that Margaret See names three sons Frederick (he is said to have been provided for previously), George, and Michael and two grandsons Felty and Jacob Yokeham. Then follows the names of Mading See (could it have been Madeline?), Barbara N. See, Mary See, and Jacob See. Since we have the names of all of the children of the above sons and of Eleanor See Yoakhum' s boys, perhaps these are also her grandchildren, children of John See deceased in 1756.

It might be well to observe here, that by some various descendants of George (or as George Ludwig as given) and Nargaret See use the names, Michael Frederick and Michael Adam, in referring to their eldest son and their third son. The Sees had lived many years in the German provinces and acquired many of the manners common to those places. They followed the German's custom in naming their sons. However, all county court records, historical accounts, census and tax reports use the names Frederick See and Michael See. Particular evidence is given in Margaret's will made March 28, 1757 and recorded in Hampshire County, Virginia, in which she names her sons, Frederick See, Michael See and George See.

Conrad Yolkcom and George Yolkcom, sons of Eleanor See and Mathias Yolkham, returned to the Greenbrier prior to the Revolutionary War and both served in defending the frontier against the Indians as is attested in the Public Service Claims (original document in Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia). The names of Conrad Yokem and George Yokim are on the tax lists for Greenbrier compiled 1783 to 1786. Records of other sons of Mathias and Eleanor See Yolkham are to be found in Hampshire County.

The First Census of the new United States taken in 1790 gives Hampshire County Virginia as the residence of eight of the Yolkham sons; viz, Page 22 "Yoakum, George, four whites; page 24, Yoakum, Jacob six whites, four blacks; Yoakum, Philip P. six whites one black, and Yoakum, John four whites." On page 72, "Jacob Yoakum, nine white souls, one dwelling, one other dwelling. Philip Paul Yoakum, one white soul, one dwelling, three other buildings, John Yoakum, six white souls one dwelling, one other dwelling."

In Harrison County page 70: "Michael Yoakum, four white souls, one dwelling, Elizabeth Yoakum, five white souls, one dwelling and two other buildings."

George Yoakum, grandson of Mathias and Eleanor See Yoakum, born December 3, 1763 at Harness Fort in Hampshire County now Moorefield in Hardy County, W. Virginia said, "My father was married on Dan River in North Carolina. When Moorefield was laid out I was about six years old and drew for my father Jacob Yoakum in the lottery, and drew the lot next to the court house, the best one in town."

George Yocum (1763) was married 1786-7 in Mercer County, Kentucky (Harrodsburg) to Rebecca Powell. Their children were: Jacob (l787-l848); Sarah married David Tremble; Amelia (1793-1883) married Samuel Darneille; Abel married Susan Frame; Elizabeth (1794) married John Frame; Nancy married Benjamin Shafer Davis; Stephen Powell (1800-1874); George W. Jr., and three unnamed daughters.

It will be noted there is a question regarding Jacob Yoakum in the list of Mathias Yoakum's sons. Evidently there is an error in the order of their birth and he must have been the third rather than tenth if he were father of George Yoakum in the above paragraph.

From Abstracts of Wills of Hardy County by E. L. Judy which appeared in D.A.R. magazine, June 1940. Items selected were of generally leading pioneer settlers of the South Branch Valley. Philip Powle Yokum - sons John, Jacob George, Philip and Michael; daughters Barbara Starr and Elizabeth, widow of James Renick; and children of daughter Catherine Beverly. Personal representatives were John and Jacob Yokum. Witnessed by Anthony Baker, Jr., Anthony Baker, Sr., William Heath, William Cunningham, and Adam Harness, December 9, 1807. On June 12, 1810, Michael and Jacob Yokum were witnesses of the will of John Harness.

Again from the Abstracts of Wills of Augusta County Virginia, Augusta County Court, page 318-319 - March 21, 1764, Charles Lynch's bond (with William Thompson and Alex Thompson) as administrator of Valentine Yoacum. The same bond for administrator of Frederick Sea estate entered the same date.

FREDERICK SEE (1712-1763)

Frederick See was the oldest son of George and Margaret Judy See. He came to Pennsylvania with his parents and their family in 1733 which would be at the age of twenty-one. He married Catherine, the daughter, perhaps of Abraham Vanderpool who came to Pennsylvania in 1738. At that time the Sees were still in Bucks County. They were the parents of six children: Lois, George, Michael, Catherine, Elizabeth and John.

In 1744 the Colony of Virginia purchased all the land east of the Ohio River from the Indians and opened it to settlers. Favorable reports of this land reached the Sees in Bucks County. So, Frederick went to this frontier wilderness to inspect it, walking the entire five hundred miles there and back. This fact was related by his wife Catherine in later years. as well as the following incident; one night along the way, Frederick came to a small town and applied at the inn for a bed, and was informed that there was none.

Noticing a vacant house nearby, he asked permission to use it; it was granted, but he was told the house was "haunted." However, undaunted, he took his Bible and blanket, rolled up and went to sleep. Awakened by a noise in the night, he arose and stood by the door. As the "ghost" entered Frederick hit him over the head, tied him up securely and returned to his slumber. The next morning he called the landlord of the inn. It developed that the "ghost" was a negro, whose master had sent him to play the part and so depreciate the value of the property by the report that it was "haunted" and thereby enable him to buy the house which was priced beyond his means. The land proved very satisfactory. Here in the rich valley of the lower branch of the Potomac, the family moved in 1745 and took up their abode close to Colonel Van Meter's Fort in the locality of Moorfield, Hampshire County, Virginia, in the later years this area became Hardy County. In 1751 Frederick went to their holdings along the Greenbrier and so became one of the first settlers of the region.

The Sees, Yoakums, and Harness' were the first settlers in the South Branch Valley. Mathias Yoakum, Michael Harness, and George Stump were the first white men to bring wagons into the valley. Westfalls, Hornbecks and Abraham Vanderpool were others to come. Since Abraham Vanderpool witnessed a great many documents for the Harness, See, and Westfall families and since he was with the Sees on the Greenbrier in 1753, it has been suggested that he was Frederick's father-in-law.

In a memoir dated July 15, l798 and spread on the Records of Greenbrier County, Virginia, in Deed Book 1, page 754, John Stuart says: "In an old original patent, dated June first, 1750, granting privileges of taking up certain lands, paying for each 50 acres, one shilling yearly, also cultivating and improving a three-acre part of each fifty acres, every year. Surveys were made with dates giving information as to early settlers. 1750-Nov. 22, Felty Yockum 48O; 1751-Apr. 22, Frederick See, 48O; May 1, George See, adjoining Archibald Clendenning 360; Oct. 1, John See, Now Days at Deep Spring, 250.'

Thus these earliest settlers on the Greenbrier River were kinsman. Frederick See and his two brothers John See and George See and his nephew Felty Yoakum.

Frederick See established his home on this land in Greenbrier in the Big Levels section on Muddy Creek. Here he brought his family and a settlement grew up around him. Other kin followed, two other Yoakum boys, Conrod and Valentine, and Abraham Vanderpool were here in 1753.

In 1755 war broke out between France and England. The Indians were incited by the French to make war on the back-country inhabitants of Virginia (the original territory of Old Greenbrier). All who were then settled on the Greenbrier were obligated to retreat to the older settlements for safety. Beginning in 1762, the settlement of Greenbrier was renewed. Among the settlers were Frederick See, Archibald Clendenning, Joseph Carroll, Felty Yoakum and others with their families; to the number of more than a hundred.

Two small blockade forts had been erected as strongholds into which the settlers were to flee at the approach of danger. One fort stood below the present town of Alderson, West Virginia, and the other at the juncture of Mill Creek with Muddy Creek. Another house-fort was that of Archibald Clendenning's, about three and one half miles southwest of Lewisburg in what is now Fort Spring district.

On June 16, 1763, Cornstalk^*, chief of the Shawnees, and sixty warriors suddenly appeared at the settlement at Muddy Creek. They came professing friendship and bringing with them much game which they had procured enroute. The inhabitants feeling secure in the belief that the hostilities (1755-1762) were over remained outside the fort (as did their neighbors the next day at Clendenning's). Preparation for a huge feast was soon underway and Frederick See killed one of his few precious cattle to supplement the venison and wild game supplied by the Indians. ^* Indian name: Keigh~tugh-qua

At a given signal the next day the Shawnees fell upon the settlers, killing and scalping all the men except one, plundering and burning their homes, and taking the women and children prisoners. Leaving a few warriors behind to guard the terrified, dazed and anguished group, Chief Cornstalk and his band went some twenty miles to the Clendenin settlement, again wearing the mask of friendship to disguise their horrible purpose.

Clendenin was a brave man and a hunter of renown and believed himself to be on good terms with all the Indians, who came to hunt deer and elk in these savannahs. On the day of the massacre, he had just returned from an excursion near the spring of Lewisburg and had three fine elk. The advent of the Indian's friendly visit and the return of the hunters soon attracted all the people, between fifty or a hundred to his home near the stockade being twenty paces apart. The Indians were entertained and feasted on the fruits of Clendenin's hunt and every other item of provision which could be mustered.

An old woman, who was one of the settlement, having a very sore leg and having understood that the Indians could perform the cure of an ulcer, showed it to one near her and asked if he could heal it. His answer was to bury his tomahawk in her brain and raise a fearful war cry. This seemed to be the signal for a general massacre. Too late, Clendenin with one child in his arms, started for the brush but was felled in his tracks. Again, every man was killed (except Conrad Yolkum) and the women and children made captive.

Conrad Yolkum, suspicious of the Indian's professed friendship when they arrived at Clendenin's, took his horse out under the pretext of hobbling it at some distance from the house. Soon afterward, he heard the report of guns and outcries from the house and alarmed, mounted his horse and rode as far as Lewisburg.

Deciding that he must have been mistaken, he rode back to ascertain the truth, but as he neared Clendenin's a number of Indians fired at him. Fortunately all missed, and he fled, going to the fort on Jackson River, spreading the alarm as he went. But the people refused to believe this warning and were massacred at will by the few pursuing Indians, who continued their raid to Carr's Creek in Rockbridge County.

The Indians completely destroyed the settlement and then herded their prisoners, including Mrs. Clendenin and her baby and two small children, westward to Muddy Creek where they joined the captives there and all were kept for several days, awaiting the return of the small Indian band that had gone into Rockbridge county.

Driven to despair by the cruel and unprovoked murder of her husband and friends, Mrs. Clendenin boldly charged the Indians with perfidy and treachery and although the bloody scalp of her husband was flaunted in her face and the tomahawk threateningly raised over her head, she never ceased to revile them.

When the Shawnees were all re-assembled at Muddy Creek, the Indians set out for Ohio. In going over Kenney's Knob, the prisoners were in the center and Indians front and rear, Mrs. Clendenin slipped into a thicket unnoticed. Her escape was revealed when the baby she had handed to one of the women began to cry. Mrs. Clendenin though pursued, managed to elude her foes and returned that night, a distance of ten miles, to the tragic scene of the massacre.

She covered her husband's body with trash and rails and hid in an adjacent cornfield where she spent the night agitated with fear and despondency. Later, as she regained her composure and strength, she resumed her flight and reached the Jackson River fort in safety. Eventually, the two children of Archibald Clendenin's were restored to their mother. Ann Clendenin's grave in the Old Welch graveyard was marked at a ceremony during the 160th Anniversary of Greenbrier County, June 1938.

CATHERINE SEE AND CHILDREN IN CAPTIVITY

The destination of the Shawnees was Old Town near the present city of Chillicothe, Ohio on the banks of the Scioto River. The captives forced along at the tireless pace of the Indians, tried valiantly to keep up for well they knew it was a matter of life or death; any who weakened and fell behind, any crying babe was ruthlessly killed. The trek ahead was long and grueling, a distance of one hundred sixty five miles as the crow flies, over some of the most rugged terrain east of the Mississippi River. Two mountain ranges lay ahead, the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny, not to mention the streams and rivers to cross.

Catherine See, keenly aware that her younger children would soon he exhausted by the hardships of the journey, resolved with a courage born of desperation, to save them from an inevitable fate. One of the warriors rode along the trudging line made up of about one hundred fifty women, young boys and children, many burdened with the loot the Indians had collected. His mount was a horse the property of Frederick See. It was perhaps the third day on the trail that Catherine requested that he give up the horse that her children might ride. This the Indian angrily refused to do. Seizing a pine knot from the ground, Catherine knocked him off the horse. He sprang up brandishing his tomahawk and would have killed her then and there, but for the interference of the other Indians who admired her fearlessness and called her the "fighting squaw." Catherine was permitted to keep the horse and use it for her family.

At length the weary prisoners and their captors reached Old Town across the Ohio River. One can well imagine the excitement that prevailed on the return of the victorious chieftain and his band; the shouting and rejoicing of the inhabitants as a great procession of both sexes and ages doubtless poured out of their dwellings on hearing the signal gun and peculiar whoop announcing the return of the raiders. Then followed the ceremonies usual for the occasion. There were the trophies to see, the utensils, tools, guns, clothing, horses, etc., all seized from the settlements; and the great number of white captives. One ceremony which provided the Indians with entertainment was an ordeal to which nearly every prisoner was subjected; it was to "run the gauntlet." It was done in this manner; a large number of squaws and Indian boys armed with clubs and switches lined up in two rows facing each other, then the prisoners were compelled to run between the lines, while the Indians struck them with their sticks and threw dirt or rubbish in their faces.

Catherine See's turn came. She was now about 48 years of age and had spent the past twenty-five years of her life on the frontier, where to remain alive was to become physically tough and mentally alert. Doubtlessly the story of her triumph in getting her horse had spread through the village and the Indians were eager to see the "fighting squaw" undergo this test. They were not to be disappointed, for to their astonishment, Catherine suddenly seized the club of the nearest Indian and swinging it lustily right and left, soon had the Indians overcome and scattered.

In accordance with Indian custom a general council decided the division of the spoils and the fate of prisoners taken by the tribe. The older daughter, Catherine, was given to the son² of Chief Cornstalk for his wife. This girl could hardly have been more than fourteen. How the older boys were placed is unknown and Catherine and the younger girl were taken into some family; at least all were under shelter except little John, who had to stay outside with the Indian dogs. One can imagine that housing was strained by the sudden addition of one hundred fifty prisoners.

It so happened one day that most of the tribe left the village for some special purpose. Catherine was left behind in charge of an aged squaw, who was subject to seizures of some kind. On this day, the old woman had one of these attacks and fell into the fire.

². Elinipsico

Catherine calmly placed her foot on the old woman's head and held it there until she died. When the Indians returned and heard Catherine's report of the happening (what she chose to tell) she received no blame as the old squaw's condition was generally known. There was one less in the wigwam and John then could sleep inside. Later he was adopted by an Indian family, as were also the Brown and Zane children.

COLONEL HENRI BOUQUET'S EXPEDITION AGAINST THE OHIO INDIANS

With the two settlements of Muddy Creek and Clendenin's destroyed by the invasion of the Shawnees, the few remaining settlements were practically cut off from the East after 1763. The Indians continued the war and on some of their excursions went to within a few miles of Staunton, Virginia. Appeals for relief from the border country at length were heeded and the British government ordered Colonel Henri Bouquet to make an expedition against the Ohio Indians to put an end to these deprecations and force the return of their captives.

Colonel Bouquet's headquarters were at Fort Pitt, one hundred and fifty miles from the Shawnee towns on the Scioto. Here he had assembled his regular troops, the Royal Americans, and two hundred Virginia Rangers; many were volunteers. For the meeting with the Shawnee chiefs, he marched down the Ohio River to the forks of the Muskingum where a stockade camp was prepared. In 1763 Bouquet had defeated the Indians at Bushy Run with a small force - five hundred regulars against a large Indian contingent. The Indians, over-awed by his former victory and by his boldness in penetrating so far into the wilderness, were ready to make peace and give up their white prisoners.

With his army drawn up in battle array, Bouquet met in conference with the Ohio chiefs where they tendered him an offer of peace. His reply was a master stroke.

In part he said . . . "and now I am come among you to force you to make atonement for the injuries you have done us. I have brought with me the relatives of those you have murdered. They are eager for vengeance, and nothing restrains them from taking it but my assurance that this army shall not leave your country until you have given them ample satisfaction. I give you twelve days from this date to deliver into my hands all prisoners in your possession, without exception; Englishmen, Frenchmen, and children; whether adopted into your tribe, married, or living among you under any denomination or pretens E="Arial"> The chief sources for Bouquet's expedition are thirty manuscript volumes in the British Museum which were transcribed for the Canadian Archives in Ottawa. The following is from a photostatic copy of pages 317-318:

List of Prisoners going to Fort Pitt under the command of Capt. Lewis Nov. ye 15th 1764.

Camp at Muskingum Nov. ye 15 1764

Received from Capt. Lewis Durry A. D. Q. M C, the above Sixty Captives which I am to deliver to the commanding officer at Fort Pitt having signed two receipts of this same Tenor and date. - Chas. Lewis

Endorsed: List of Prisoners Sent by Captain Lewis to Fort Pitt the 15th November 1764.

These most certainly are names of Virginia captives. There is Mrs. Gilmore and two children; Margaret Yokeham, the wife of either Felty or Valentine; Peggy Reyneck (Renick); the two See boys and Mary See, which could be Mary Catherine See, the mother or younger sister. The list reveals the physical condition of children; the fact that some either didn't know their own names or the clerk was lax in recording it.

When the day came for the captivated's departure, scenes of grief and anguish prevailed for many Indians refused to give up their beloved adopted children and many half-savage children clung frantically to their foster parents. Despite orders from Colonel Bouquet many of the Indians followed the returning army at a distance. Only a night or two after leaving the Muskingum, little John See stole away from the encampment and rejoined the Indians.

Tradition tells that his Uncle Michael See gave a trader one hundred dollars to get him back. John See returned to Hampshire to live with his uncle's family. He told Nancy Greenlee See when he visited at Point Pleasant in Mason County, Virginia on his way from Kanawha Falls to Indiana about 1825 that when he was a lad returned from the Indians his Aunt Barbara used to tell some of the family to watch and follow him on his excursions into the forest for fear he would return to the Indians.

We can well imagine the rigors of this winter journey through the forest to the fort at the forks of the Ohio. Later the captives were taken by their military escort to Carlisle, Penn. where their relatives had been awaiting to be reunited with the long lost, the supposed dead. That scene defies description. There was joy, sorrow, tragedy, and disappointment; many were unclaimed and utterly homeless.

Catherine See had her burden of grief for her daughter, Elizabeth (Catherine) did not return with the captives; legend recites that she was the mother of an Indian babe and either remained with the Shawnees by choice or restraint. Her story is unknown. Only one fact is recorded. It is found in the diary of Van Meter, who with George Harness, whose wife was a See, and a Stump made a trip from Moorefield, Virginia to Chillicothe, Ohio and met a Mrs. Johnson who was related to them all. She was a daughter of Frederick See, who had been killed by Indians. (From Ohio Archaeological Records).

The Virginia captives were doubtlessly placed in the custody of Captain Morgan of the Virginia Rangers. One source says they were taken to Staunton where they were restored to their relatives.

The See family returned to Hampshire County to live with their kindred. Catherine See married John Hardy, pioneer of Hardy County. Later they all returned to the Greenbrier, where John Hardy's name appears on the county tax list in 1783-1786. There is no record of the daughter, Lois, but tradition relates that she married ______ Van Bibber, as yet this fact is unconfirmed. There is little, too, regarding the youngest Catherine (Elizabeth). But a tattered copy of Reverend John Anderson's marriage records from 1776 to about 1785 gives Peter Tho- or Sho- to Elizabeth Lee (See) in January 1776.

This Peter Tho- or Sho- is probably Peter Shoemaker and Elizabeth, daughter of Frederick See. Whether Elizabeth or Catherine were older, or the names interchanged, one can only guess. Peter Shoemaker was in Greenbrier County 1783-1786. They are said to have moved to Kentucky to the Big Sandy. Catherine See, known in later life as "Aunt Kitty" Hardy died in 1806 or 18O7. Truly her history is remarkable, a span of four score years and ten in time; in distance- from the Rhine River to the Greenbrier. Nancy Greenlee See remembered seeing her- this grandmother of her husband, Michael See III.

THE THREE SEE BROTHERS

The brothers, George, Michael and John See left records which prove that each took part in the defense of their country against both the Indians and the English and helped to establish American independence.

GEORGE SEE (1749-1854) SON OF FREDERICK SEE

The resettlement of Greenbrier County after Six years of devastation started again in 1769 when Colonel John Stuart, among others, came from Augusta County to Frankford. The Sees and other displaced families returned about the same time to their original holdings.

In the Spring of 1774 the Assembly of Williamsburg, then the capital of our government, received intelligence of the hostile appearance of the Indians who had fallen upon the settlements and traders and were making other arrangements for war. General Andrew Lewis and his brother, Colonel Charles Lewis, delegates respectively from Botetourt and Augusta counties, were in command of their county militias at the time. At once they sent couriers to the frontier settlements requesting each to put themselves in a position of defense. General Lewis ordered Colonel Stuart to send out scouts along the Indian trails to protect the late settlements and to report on war plans.

It is to be remembered that relations between the American colonies and the British government were fast approaching the breaking point. John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, was the last royal governor of Virginia. His domineering conduct and his support of some of Great Britain's oppressive measures, caused him to be hated by the Virginians. Finally, the indignation of the people compelled the reluctant governor to take up arms to suppress the very savages he was thought to have encouraged and incited to hostility by his intrigues, with the idea of distracting the colonists' attention from the real issues of the times.

Arrangements were made to carry out an expedition against the Shawnees and the other tribes of the northern confederacy lead by the crafty and able Chief Cornstalk. Briefly, the plan was for Lord Dunmore to lead an army of volunteer militia from the counties of Frederick, Shenandoah and the settlements toward Fort Pitt, while General Lewis was to command a southern division of like troops collected from Augusta, Botetourt and the counties south of the Blue Ridge.

While Dunmore was to proceed down the Ohio River, General Lewis was to advance along the Kanawha and the whole army assemble at the mouth of the Great Kanawha on the Ohio on the first of October 1774.

General Lewis' army of eleven hundred men assembled in Greenbrier at Camp Union (Lewisburg) about the fourth of September. On the eleventh the march to the Point (Point Pleasant) began. It was a distance of one hundred sixty miles through a trackless forest, rugged and mountainous and progress was both slow and difficult. Captain Mathew Arbuckle, a famous hunter and Indian fighter, was their guide. After nineteen days, the Ohio was reached and the army went into encampment on the point of land between the two rivers. Provisions and ammunition transported by pack animals and droves of cattle arrived soon afterward. Among the volunteers from Greenbrier to join with Captain Arbuckle were two young men, George and Michael See, who as young lads, had been held prisoners by the Shawnees for a year and a half. They were useful as scouts, knowing full well the Indians' tactics.

None will suppose that Colonel Lewis had a contemptible army to do with, who has any knowledge of their previous exploits. It was chiefly the Shawnees, who in the nineteen years preceding the Battle at Point Pleasant, had consistently defeated all troops sent against them. Afterwards the defeats at Blue Licks and of General Harmar and Wayne were due chiefly to the Shawnees.

Colonel John Stuart's, Memoirs of Indian Wars, states that-

"Of all the Indians, the Shawnees were the most bloody and terrible, holding all other men, Indians as well as whites, in contempt as warriors, in comparison with themselves. This opinion made them more restless and fierce than any other savages; and they boasted that they had killed ten times as many white people as any other Indians did. They were a well-informed, active and ingenious people-were assuming and imperious in the presence of others not their own nation, and sometimes very cruel."

October first arrived but no Lord Dunmore and his army. It developed that he had changed his plan and sent word to General Lewis by three men, one time Indian traders, to proceed to the Shawnee village where he would join Lewis and his forces. The envoys from Dunmore arrived on the ninth of October and Lewis found their talk very suspicious of conspiracy. A McCullough stated that but recently, he had left the Shawnee towns and gone to Dunmore's camp.

Next morning, two young men from Lewis' camp set out very early to hunt deer. Two or three miles up the Ohio they unexpectedly stumbled upon a large encampment of Indians. The Indians fired on discovering the hunters, killing one. The other fled and reported to General Lewis that he had seen "a body of Indians covering four acres of ground as closely as they could stand by the side of each other." At once the army was activated. Immediately two detachments under the oldest captains were ordered out, Augusta troops under Colonel Charles Lewis and Botetourt under Colonel William Fleming. They advanced in two lines four hundred yards from the camp in sight of the camp guards. The Indians fired the first volley, killing the two scouts in front of the two lines.

Just as the sun came up terrific firing began-thus the famous Battle of Point Pleasant was to go down into history as one of the most important frontier engagements. Colonel Stuart declared "this battle was in fact, the beginning of the Revolutionary War."

The battle raged all day with every inch of ground contested, finally in hand-to-hand combat. Night came and still both armies held, although victorious the Virginians could neither advance or retire, fearing an ambush or night attack which the Indians' actions seemed to warrant. Under this pretense they had retreated across the river in the darkness taking their dead with them.

The victory was decisive but it was costly. The Virginians' loss was fifty three men killed, a total of one hundred and forty killed and wounded, nearly one fifth of the troops. Colonel Charles Lewis was mortally wounded in the first round of fire. Ten or more other officers lost their lives. Graphic accounts of the battle as given by participants are found in Mrs. Livia Simpson-Poffenbarger's book, the Battle of Point Pleasant.

After burial of the Virginia dead, General Lewis order entrenchments to be made around the camp and leaving a garrison, marched the army across the Ohio River to the Shawnee towns. Here Dunmore was already negotiating.

Dunmore's conduct through the entire maneuver was suspicious of connivance with the Indians and incensed the troops who wanted to continue the war to the extermination of the Indians. In fact, it is stated, they would have killed Dunmore, but for his bodyguard of fifty men.

Many of the officers and men in this initial Revolutionary conflict were soon in the colonial armies. George and Michael See were with Captain Mathew Arbuckle's "borderers" defending the frontier and their younger brother John was in the Continental Line with George Washington and General Wayne.

References to George See are rather meager. In a suit, Levicy vs. Morris (Chalkley vol. 21, p. 98) he deposed in Kanawha that he came to the county as a soldier under Mathew Arbuckle and that John Morris was with him. This is evidence that he was in the battle at Point Pleasant. On Christmas Day, 1777, he was married to Martha George in Greenbrier by the Rev. John Alderson.

His name is on the Greenbrier County tax lists 1783-1786. During 1797, George See and his wife Martha made several deeds to lands below Elk River in Kanawha County. Ten years later (1807) deeds for three pieces of land were made, one for two hundred acres to his nephew, Frederick See, son of his brother Michael.

The most interesting of all data relating to George See is to be found in a Grant displayed in the Greenbrier County Museum, Lewisburg, West Virginia. It is a Land Office Treasury Warrant issued by Henry Lee, Esquire, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia for four hundred and sixty four acres of land in Greenbrier County on the west side of Muddy Creek, joining the lands of Peter Shoemaker and John Wilson and including a survey made for Frederick See in the year 1751. It was issued in Richmond, Virginia, September, seventeenth, 1792.

Two years later (1794), Peter Shoemaker, "attorney in fact" for George See and Patty, his wife, sold 365 acres of the land granted George See by patent, to Jacob Hockman for the "sum of Five Shillings current Money of Virginia." This deed also is on exhibit. The description of the land expressed "by poles and degrees" also depends upon certain sycamores, sugar maples, white oak, and hickory trees. A deed to Peter Cline for the other hundred acres is recorded at Greenbrier Court House.

From 1795-1797 George See was in Kanawha County, where he served on the grand jury; was appointed to committee to make new road on south side of Kanawha; directed to cut and clear a wagon road; six months later was cited for failure in duty as a surveyor. Refers in a deed to himself March 12, 1808 as 'late of Kanawha County." Evidently the time that he moved to Kentucky probably on the Big Sandy River to be joined later by his brother, John See.

The next record of George finds him in Missouri, November 23, 1832, D. F. F., p. 6a. Deed recites that George See then lived in Ralls County, Missouri.

The data which follows was taken from papers on file in the pension claim R-9361 based on the military service of the only George See that is found in the Revolutionary War record of the Veterans Administration. "George See applied for pension February 12, 1835, at which time he was seventy nine years of age and was living in Marion County, Missouri. He alleged that while living in Greenbrier County, Virginia, he served in the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774 under Captain Mathew Arbuckle. He also alleged that he enlisted in 1776 and served one year in Captain Arbuckle's Virginia company.

His claim for pension was not allowed, as he failed to furnish proof of the alleged service in accordance with the requirement of the pension law. George See stated in 1835, that his brother, John, who was then living at or near Flat Rock, Indiana, had served with him in the Revolutionary War.

In 1854, one Washington See was living in Marion County, Missouri and one George See acted as witness for him in that year; their relationship to the soldier was not shown." Signed by A. 0 Hillyer, Executive Assistant to the Administrator. (The Washington and George See in the above were likely sons or grandsons of George See.)

Report of U. S. Secretary of the Interior, dated February 16, 1852 on suspended and rejected pension claims showed George See, Palmyra, Marion County, Missouri, suspended for further proof.

The proof which George See needed so badly in 1835 and again in 1852 is now available. Anne Waller Reddy names him on page seventy in West Virginia Revolutionary Ancestry, also Greenbrier Court June tenth, 1782 allowed George Sea's claim for rations. There are two reports on the death of George See, the Revolutionary soldier, one that he died near See's Creek, Marion County, Missouri, near Palmyra. Another source states that he moved to Peoria, Illinois about 1850, with his sons, George and Michael, where he died at the age of one hundred five.

MICHAEL SEE JR. (1751-1792) SON OF FREDERICK SEE

The lives of the two brothers George and Michael See ran parallel. Together they had experienced the massacre on Muddy Creek, Indian captivity, participated in the battle of Point Pleasant, served under Captain Arbuckle in border warfare, established their homes in Greenbrier and later both moved on down the Kanawha Valley.

Michael See, born about 1751 in Hampshire County, Virginia, married Elizabeth Morris in 1776. She was the daughter of William Morris, pioneer of Kanawha, who settled about twenty miles above the present site of Charleston, West Virginia. Elizabeth, born August 8, 1753, is said to have been the widow of John Shull, who left a son John. Proof is unavailable.

In 1777, the Ohio Indians agitated by British agents, again became troublesome. Chief Cornstalk came to the garrison at Point Pleasant to give warning that the tribes planned to join the British as allies. Captain Arbuckle thought it best to detain the chief, his son Elinipisco, Redhawk, a Delaware chief, and another Indian as hostages. Here in November 1777 all were murdered by soldiers of the garrison to avenge the death of a Virginia soldier, one Gilmore, killed while the Indians were prisoners. The Governor of Virginia offered a reward for the arrest of the murderers, but they went unpunished; for this act of treachery, Cornstalk's followers took to the war path to avenge his death.

In July 1778, an Indian band of two hundred warriors crossed the Ohio River and failing in their attack on the garrison at Point Pleasant, set off up the valley toward the Greenbrier region. Captain McKee, in command of the garrison, noting the route taken by the Indians, sent two scouts disguised as Indians, at the risk of their lives, to warn the settlement in Greenbrier. Although the Indians had a two day start, the scouts, Philip Hammond and John Prior, overtook the band about twenty miles north of Lewisburg. Passing on with great speed to Colonel Donnally's, they gave the alarm of the approaching raiders. The aroused settlement fled to Donnally's fort. Dick Pointer, the negro servant of Michael See, was one of the sixty men, women, and children gathered in the stockade. The two young scouts warned Colonel Donnally to store a supply of water. They told of the suffering for water at Point Pleasant in the same emergency. A hogshead of water was secured and placed against the kitchen door of the fort. Early next morning, John Pritchard, a white servant of Donnally's, left the fort leaving the gate ajar. He was tomahawked. The sentinel, William Hughart, saw Indians and spread the alarm. The gate still open, the outer yard was soon full of Indians, who began cutting down the kitchen door. Dick Pointer jumping about with a gun in his hand called, "Massa what must I do?' "Shoot, and quick at the bunch, damn you." Dick obeyed, killing nine Indians with his blunderbuss loaded with a variety of missiles. The recoil laid the negro flat. Hammond fired another shot and the door was closed. The sleeping refugees were now aroused and soon opened fire through the port holes. The battle continued throughout the day. The Indians tried every conceivable way to take the fort. Meanwhile, a relief party of sixty seven from Lewisburg under Captain Johnson started for the Fort and though the Indians opened fire, managed to enter without casualties. By nightfall the Indians withdrew having lost seventeen, while the whites had four killed.

For this heroic act, Pointer was given his freedom and the public built a cabin for him on land given by one John Davis. Dick died in 1827 and was buried in Lewisburg Cemetery.

Small parties of Indians visited the Greenbrier section twice after the battle of Donnally's Fort; the last time in 1780. In the years 1783-1786, the three See brothers were still in Greenbrier County (names on Greenbrier Tax List).

A fort had been erected at Point Pleasant just after the battle at the mouth of the Kanawha, called Fort Blair, which was later destroyed. In 1776, Captain Mathew Arbuckle built Fort Randolph near the same site, garrisoned at the expense of the colony of Virginia, and commanded by Captain Arbuckle and later Captain William McKee. Prior to July 12, 1779, Fort Randolph was evacuated after which it was burned by the Indians. In 1785 a third fort was built at the Point on the Ohio River.

New Fort Randolph was commanded by Colonel Thomas Lewis and from that time on the white man has never ceased to reside at Point Pleasant.

Ten years after the Revolution, Indian hostility on the frontier of the young nation still made life for the settlers unsafe. By this time the Sees had joined the tide of westward land-seekers and had moved down the Kanawha Valley and settled on Crooked Creek about a mile above the mouth of the Kanawha River. Michael See and his wife, Elizabeth, and their four children, George, Michael, Frances and Frederick were living at the Fort with other settlers near Point Pleasant.

For several years these pioneers were forced to spend more time in the forts than at their homes. Michael See was a signer of the petition to the Governor of Virginia, September 19, 1791 asking protection for citizens of Greenbrier County against the Indians. (Virginia State Papers) October 3, 1791, John Morris, John Hansford, John Jones, Reuben Slaughter and Michael See were recomended as fit persons to execute the office of Magistrates in Kanawha County.

On May 23, 1792, Michael See was supervising the cultivation of the crops for the settlers at Fort Randolph. A squad of ten soldiers had been sent from the Fort to guard the men while they worked. The day was warm and the soldiers retired to the shade of a tree and engaged in a game of cards to while away the time. A band of Wyandottes slipped up and under their very noses, killed Michael See and Robert St. Clair and took Thomas Northup and a negro boy, Jonathon Pointer, who belonged to Michael, prisoners.

That night at the Fort, Elizabeth See gave birth to a son, Willlam, from whom are descended the Sees of Mason County, West Virginia. Michael See was buried near the Fort. Story tells that in after years the Mason County Courthouse was built with one corner over his grave and another over the grave of Cornstalk, the Shawnee chief killed after the battle of Point Pleasant.

Today a two acre state park Tu-Endie Wei marks the site of the famous battleground. Congress, recognizing the claim that Point Pleasant was the "First Battle of the Revolution" passed a bill in 1908 to aid in the erection of a monument "to Commemorate the Battle of the Revolution fought at this point between Colonial troops and Indians October 10, l774." An eighty-four foot granite shaft stands in the center of the park; the statue of a stern-faced Virginia militia man stands guard at the base. Also within the park is the monument to Chief Cornstalk and one bearing fifty or more names of Revolutionary soldiers buried in Mason County. The name of Michael See is on this monument.

Virginia State Papers Vol. 5, p. 561 gives a letter from George Clendenen to the Governor of Virginia dated May 26, 1792 in which he says: "The Indians are daily committing depradations within this county. On Monday week last, they killed two very Reputable Men to-wit; a certain Mich'l See Esquire, and Mr. Roland St. Clair. At the same time they took a white boy and a negro.

Also from the same papers Vol. 6, p. 238 "Roll of Captain John Morris which was in service from March 15, 1792 to January 1, 1793. Among these soldiers being; Lewis Tackett Jr. and under remarks; "At Michael Lees (Sees) at Point Pleasant till after Lee's death, then at Col. Clendenen's."

It would seem from Clendenen's letter to the Governor that Michael See was killed by the Indians in May 1792 rather than 1791 as it has been generally understood.

On record in Kanawha County Court, Virginia dated April 1, 1793, Deed book A, page 33: Elizabeth See and Leonard Morris appointed administrators of the estate of Michael See, deceased. Gave bond for £ l000 with John Reynold surety.

From same record: Thomas Lewis, Leonard Cooper and John Van Bibber appointed to appraise the said estate of Michael See and make return of the same at the next court. The following return was recorded July 16, 1794, Jn Reynolds Clk.

1 Still and worm appraised 7£10S

1 negro wench 40£

1 negro boy 40£

1 bedsted and counterpin 5£

1 bed 1 counterpin & coverlead 2£

1 cow 1 yearling l8£ 5s

1 yearling 15£

1 yearling 15£

Sundry Queensware l£

7 ps old pewter lO£

1 old sett of plow irons 9£

Total £ 122 4S

It has been stated that Michael See's widow married Captain John Van Bibber, commissary at Fort Randolph. It is unverified as yet. A marriage license was issued in 1799 in Kanawha County to Thomas Cobbs and Elizabeth See. The Deedbook C p. 331, March 12, 1808 George See and Frederick See to Thomas Cobbs, power of attorney. One can only hazard a guess as to any connection in the above with Michael See's widow.

Several records of the heirs of Michael See are in the County Court, Clerk's Office Kanawha County, Virginia (now West Virginia) to-wit; August 10, 1807, Deed book D. page 311-

George See, Carroll Morris and wife Frances, Michael See, Frederick See and William See, heirs of Michael See, deceased, to Andrew Donnally - 400 acres of land.

December 12, 1814 Deedbook D.p. 328- William See of Mason County, Virginia, 1/5 interest as a child of Michael See, deceased, to James E. Harris - lands.

November 24, 1814 Deedbook D. p. 329-

George See and his wife Polly, of Lynchburg, Virginia, title to lands descended to him and four brothers and sisters from their father, Michael See, deceased, deed to James E. Harris, for 200 acres below mouth of Campbell's Creek.

February 14, 1800

Michael See, orphan of Michael see, deceased, made choice, with approval of counsel, of John Reynolds, as his guardian, who gave bond for $l,000 -- with Edward Graham, surety.

April 14, 1803

Will of William Morris filed in and proved by oaths of Joseph Carroll and Michael See-bond $10,000. Appraisers: John See, Jos. Carroll, Leonard Morris and John Moss.

From the Mumford Reports p. 303

In 1814 Michael See brought a suit in Mason County against- Greenlee, and claimed a tract of 400 acres of land demised (willed) to him by Michael See. This suit was decided in See's favor by the Court of Appeals of Virginia in 1819.

The above recorded transactions indicate that Michael See, Jr. had holdings of at least a thousand acres of land along the Kanawha at the time of his death.

The Revolutionary Service record of Michael See, Jr. was accepted by the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution June 6, 1940. Anne Weller Reddy lists the name of Michael See on page 70 in West Virginia Revolutionary Ancestry. In the Virginia State Library at Richmond, Virginia is an original document, known as Public Service Claims. It states: (in part) "At a Court held for Greenbrier County, June 10, 1782 Present.

Samuel Brown William Ward Michael Woods John Henerson and John Anderson. Gent. The following claims were allowed and Ordered to be Certified To-wit.

To George Sea 74 Rations State 3 14 G.

To Michael Sea 74 Do State 3 14

To John Jones 74 Do State 3 14

To Leonard Morris 74 Do State 3 14

To John Morris 74 Do State 3 14

To William Morris 74 Do State 3 14

To Conrod Yolkcom 140 Do State 7 00

To George Yolkcom 194 Do State 9 14

In the above list all the men were relatives of Michael See (Sea). Besides his brother, the three Morris' and John Jones were brothers-in-law, and Yolkcom boys were cousins.

From Revolutionary Notes and Declarations of Service gathered by Dr. Joseph T. McAllister of Hot Springs in Virginia. Chalkley's vol. 2 p. 487. John Young's Declaration; deposed that Michael See was with him in Virginia Militia.

Two folk-tales declare that Michael, just prior to his death wrote to his sister Elizabeth (Shoemaker) in Fleming County, Kentucky that he was coming to see her with the intention of moving there after harvest. Land where he was, having become valuable, he intended selling for cash and taking up larger holdings in Kentucky. The other relates that Elizabeth had a premonition of her brother Michael's death.

JOHN SEE (1757-1846), SON OF FREDERICK SEE

The third son, and youngest child of Frederick and Catherine See, was born in 1757 in Hampshire County, Virginia. His early life has already been related. We know that Greenbrier County was his home in manhood along with his brothers George and Michael. Near the close of the Revolution on September 3, 1780, he was married to Margaret Garrat. (The name Jarrett was corrupted into a variety of spellings as further records reveal). This is according to Rev. John Alderson's marriage record.

John See's services in the War for Independence is best described in his own petition for a pension in 1832 while he was living in Henry County, Indiana.

State of Indiana Henry Circuit Court

Henry County September term 1832

On this 29th of September in the year 1832 appeared before the Honorable Henry Circuit Court (it being a court of record) in the State of Indiana, John See aged 75 years who being duly sworn according to law deposeth and doth upon his oath make the following declaration in or on/ac to obtain the benefits of the provisions of the act of the 7th of June 1832: That he enlisted in the army of the United States in the year 1776 under Captain Arbuckle in Greenbrier County Virginia for the term of one year for the purpose of defending the western frontier of Virginia from the incursions of the hostile Indians.

He was then marched to the mouth of the Kenhawa where they remained for nearly twelve months and in the meantime they erected a fort at the mouth of the said Kenhaway and was discharged in September 1777 having served one year.

That he thinks it was in the year 1779 he enlisted in the Army of the United States for the term of three years in Bottetourt County Virginia under Captain Lapsely in the 12th Virginia Regiment in General Scott's Brigade, from thence he joined the main army at a place called West Camps in Pennsylvania under the command of General Washington. We then went into winter camp at Valley Forge, at this time your applicant was under the command of Captain Breckenridge, from Valley Forge the main army was marched to Monmouth, New Jersy, where a battle was fought where your applicant engaged with the rest of the army. The army was then marched to White Plains, they re turned to New Jersy and went into winter quarters in Middleboro. During the next winter the army encamped on the North River and your applicant was discharged the next Spring at Camden, South Carolina, having served three years. During this service he was in the battle of Monmouth under General Washington at Stony Point, General Wayne and in Germantown under General Washington and the aforesaid John See, the applicant, relinquished every claim whatsoever to a pension or annuity except the present and he declares that his name is not on the pension roll of any agency in any state or territory in the United States.

Sworn and subscribed in open court this 29th day of Sept. A.D. 1832.

his

Witness John Elliott Clk. John X See

mark

State of Indiana Henry Circuit Court Sept. Term 1832 Henry County

And the said court do hereby declare their opinion that the above named applicant was a Revolutionary Soldier and served as he stated.

Byrone Cadwallerader Judges

John Anderson

I, John Elliott Clerk of the Court of Henry County do hereby certify that the foregoing contains the original proceedings of said Court in the matter of the application of John See for a pension.

SEAL In testimoney whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal of this office this 29th day of September A.D. 1832

Witness John Elliott, Clerk

Further record shows that John See's name was inscribed on the roll of Indiana at a rate eighty dollars per annum to commence on the 4th day of March 1834 when he received arrears and semi-annual allowance to the amount of two hundred dollars.

Evidently John See's memory at 75 was not so reliable as it was earlier. He surely enlisted in 1777 rather than 1779 for the battle of Germantown was fought October 4th, 1777, and General Washington made winter quarters at Valley Forge December 1777.

From his declarations, John See is shown to be one of the sturdy, rugged soldiers who endured all of the hardship, privation, and suffering that dogged the colonial army through the entire war. John See trudged from the mouth of the Kanawha to White Plains, New York and ended his service after a torturous march through the swampland of the south at Camden, South Carolina; the infantry traveled on foot and usually made their way home from point of discharge as best they could.

We are glad to find this record of compensation for his endurance and valor, found in Virginia Military Patent Records Vo. 10, page 206, December 1797. Warrant No. 4833 for 100 acres, land issued to him in consideration for his services for three years as a private in the Virginia Continental Line in the Revolution.

From a book called War 4, page 352, Virginia State Library is another record: John

See's balance of full pay as a sergeant of infantry in the Virginia Line Continental Establishment, amounting to £58-18s 3d. was delivered to George Clendenen.

John See and Margaret, his wife, were residing in Kanawha County in 1809 for they executed many deeds to lands in the county. The U.S. census 1810, Kanawha County lists the John See family of thirteen members, six boys and five girls, two were over 26 years of age and two under ten years.

Other Kanawha County records include: John See sworn in as grand juror January 6, 1795; August 1, 1796, appointed overseer of the road; however, he seemed derelict in civic duty and was indicted for failure to keep roads in repair March 6, 1797; April l4, 1803, John See was named an appraiser of estate of William Morris.

Page 35 Graham's Family History by David Graham says: "Among the early settlers in the vicinity of Lowell, W. Va. was a man by the name of See, who lived on and owned afterwards the land owned by David Keller Sr. The exact time of his settlement is not known but tradition points to a very early date. He should be classed as among the very first settlers of the locality. See, like Van Bibber sold out to Conrad Keller and sought holdings further west; of his meanderings through the untrodden forests or how often he relocated and then moved onward, nothing is definately known, save that later in life, about 1818, he found a permanent home on the Big Sandy River in Kentucky, where his descendants are today (1890)."

In 1930, I. Will See of Louisa, Kentucky wrote: "When my great grandfather came to Kentucky, he settled on the Big Sandy River, fifteen miles south of Louisa, Ky."

However, in 1818 John See was already in Indiana as is shown by deeds that he executed in Wayne County, Indiana. The Kentucky sojourn of the John See family is uncertain, for in the period between October 17, 1809 and March 13, 1817, they were still in Kanawha where John and Margaret executed many deeds to land.

The final record of John See comes from Macon County, Illinois dated May 20, 1839. From Judiciary Records: John See, Sr. and Jonathon See executed a bond or note to David Morris and John See, Jr., administrators of the estate of George See, deceased. Margaret, wife of John See died in Koscuisko County, Indiana.

JOHN AND MARGARET GARRAT SEE'S CHILDREN

According to the Rev. Michael See, grandson of John See, in a letter dated February 24, 1877, Mediapolis, Iowa to Mrs. Margaret Elizabeth Hayes, of New London, Iowa, great-granddaughter of John See, the family consisted of the following:

George See (1781-1839) married Nancy Wilson in Virginia in 1810. He died in Macon County, Illinois.

David See, (was) born in Kanawha County, Virginia and married there to Leah Jarred (1791-1856) about 1810. They moved to Cass County, Indiana. David See died at the age of 84 years, and both David and Leah See were buried in the Hoover Cemetery in Cass County. They had a family of fourteen children. Their names were: Abraham, Elizabeth, George, Peter, William, John, Margaret, Nancy, David, Jacob, Mary and three children who died in infancy.

Elizabeth See Nice, great granddaughter of John See of Brawley, California gave the following account of the family of David See in a letter dated July 15, 1906, to Captain T. J. J. See, Mare Island, California: "John See died in the Civil War, death caused by a rupture while building breastworks and was buried at the place where he died.

David See died in Benton County, Indiana. Other Kanawha County records include: John See sworn in as grand juror January 6, 1795; August 1, 1796, appointed overseer of the road; however, he seemed derelict in civic duty and was indicted for failure to keep roads in repair March 6, 1797; April 14, 1803, John See was named an appraiser of estate of William Morris.

Page 35 Graham's Family History by David Graham says: "Among the early settlers in the vicinity of Lowell, W. Va. was a man by the name of See, who lived on and owned afterwards the land owned by David Kelley, Sr. The exact time of his settlement is not known but tradition points to a very early date. He should be classed as among the very first settlers of the locality. See, like Van Bibber sold out to Conrad Keller and sought holdings further west; of his meanderings through the untrodden forests or how often he relocated and then moved onward, nothing is definitely known, save that later in life, about 1818, he found a permanent home on the Big Sandy River in Kentucky, where his descendants are today (1890)."

In 1930, I. Will See of Louisa, Kentucky wrote: "When my great grandfather came to Kentucky, he settled on the Big Sandy River, fifteen miles south of Louisa, Ky."

However, in 1818 John See was already in Indiana as is shown by deeds that he executed in Wayne County, Indiana. The Kentucky sojourn of the John See family is uncertain, for in the period between October 17, l809 and March 13, 1817, they were still in Kanawha where John and Margaret executed many deeds to land.

The final record of John See comes from Macon County, Illinois dated May 20, 1839. From Judiciary Records: John See, Sr. and Jonathon See executed a bond or note to David Morris and John See, Jr., administrators of the estate of George See, deceased. Margaret, wife of John See died in Koscuisko County, Indiana.

George See died somewhere in Illinois.

William and Peter See died in Cass County and were buried in the Hoover Cemetery there.

Jacob See (father of Mrs. Nice) was born in Kanawha County, Virginia. Emigrated at the age of seven with his parents to Henry County, Indiana, then later to Grant County, Indiana, where he was a pioneer settler. In 1849 he crossed the plains with a covered wagon and oxen to California, secured interests in the gold mines and ran a provision store for the miners.

In 1850, he returned to Grant County and married Mary Jane Lisbon, October 5, 1851. The next year, he again crossed the plains to California accompanied by his wife, his brother David and wife and his brother Abraham See's eldest son, William. They had some very narrow escapes from the Indians. Mrs. Nice states that she was born November 27, 1852 at Salmon Falls, in Elorado County, California, where her mother died August 1, 1853 at the age of twenty one.

"My father returned to Indiana in 1855, going by water to the Isthmus of Panama, thence by boat to New York, then by rail and stage to Indianapolis, from there to his father's home in Cass County on horse back; he carried me, his baby, on the horse. In 1856 he married Catherine Etter. Of this union, four children were born, one of whom is now living, Frank See of Logansport, Indiana. Catherine See died in 1863."

"Mary See, who married a Jarrett, died at Logansport, Indiana. She was buried in Hoover Cemetery. Abraham See, who served in Company 13, 46th Regiment of Indiana, volunteered for three years of the Civil War, died in Logansport April 5, 1895, at the age of 72 and was also buried in Hoover Cemetery, Cass County."

Mary or Polly (born December 20, 1787 - died 1877) eldest daughter of John and Margaret Garred See, married John Nugen (1775-1858) in Virginia, then moved to Cass County, Indiana, where they reared their family. Four of their sons moved to Iowa in 1840. Jarred See (1785-1957) married Florence (or Flora) Garred (1795-1885) in 1813. In 1820 they moved to Lawrence County, Kentucky, where his father-in-law, David Garred lived. Their children were Emily, Jane (1816-1891), married Jacob H. Peters in 1838, John, William, Margaret, David, Garred, Florence and Elizabeth.

Charles Frederick See, the father of the Rev. Michael See of Wyman, Iowa, was born in Kanawha County, Virginia in l790, married Sarah Milburn (1794-1859). Died in Missouri.

John See, Jr., married Elizabeth Philpott and died in Indiana. Michael See, who died young in Indiana, married Hannah Nugent. Elizabeth See married Elihu Ellis. They lived in Grant County, Indiana where she lived to a great age. Hannah See (1795-1866) married Wesley Prior. She is buried in a cemetery near New London, Iowa where some of her descendants live. Her grave has been marked by the John See Chapter of D.A.R. of New London with a bronze tablet mounted on a small boulder as a memorial to a "real daughter" of a Revolutionary soldier.

THE CHILDREN OF MICHAEL SEE, JR. (751-1792) AND HIS WIFE ELIZABETH MORRIS

They were the parents of five children, George, Frances, Michael, Frederick and William.

George See, the eldest child, born about 1778, married Mary Wilson, November 17 1810 and lived at Lynchburg, Virginia. November 24, 1814, they "gave title to lands descended to him and four brothers and sisters from their father, Michael See, deceased, deed to James E. Harris, for 200 acres below the mouth of Campbell's Creek." (Deed Book D, Page 328, Kanawha County Court record). Also, August 10, 1807, Page 311 of same Deed Book, George See and other four heirs of Michael See, deeded to Andrew Donnally 400 acres of land. Kanawha County Court records account for one thousand acres of land bequeathed to the daughter and four sons.

It is said George and Mary (Polly) See were childless and that they moved to Charleston, Virginia, where he became a contractor.

FRANCES SEE, DAUGHTER OF MICHAEL SEE, JR.

The date of her birth is uncertain. She married her cousin, Carroll Morris, a grandson of old William Morris, Sr., the pioneer of Kanawha County. Carroll Morris was the son of Major "Billy" Morris and his wife, Catherine Carroll.

The Department of Archives and History of West Virginia, Rage 125, names Carroll Morris in Captain John Morris' Company of Rangers of Kanawha County, called into service by General Henry Knox, Secretary of War, May 1 to September 30, 1791. He lost his life attempting to swim across the Kanawha River, just below Upper Creek Shoals. He was an excellent swimmer, but in crossing the river near the shoals, the current drew him under the water.

Carroll and Frances See Morris had six children: Maria married John Hansford; Letitia married Norris Whitaker; Parthenia (Pantha Jane) married John Greenlee; Catherine married Dr. Southerland; Michael; and Carroll, Jr.

After Carroll's death Frances Morris married Christopher Ringsberry and lived at Terre Salinas a few miles from Charleston, Virginia. Later they moved to Wayne County, Iowa around 1844 where she wrote to kinfolks back home that it was the "best country she ever saw. Everything grows well." She died at Blue Grass.

Frances See Morris has been described by her sister-in-law, Nancy Greenlee See, wife of Michael See III as being tall and very strong, having piercing black eyes and dark complexion. It is said that she could stand in a half bushel measure and lift a two bushel bag of wheat to her shoulder. It is also related that she shot a wild turkey which was sitting on the limb of a dead tree on the opposite bank of the Kanawha, a distance of some three hundred yards.

FREDERICK SEE, SON OF MICHAEL SEE, JR.

Few traces of this fourth child of Michael and Elizabeth Morris See are to be found. His name is on the deed Michael's heirs made to Andrew Donnally for 400 acres of land August 10, 1807, Deed Book D, Page 311, Clerk's Office, Kanawha County, Virginia (West Virginia). Miss Clara See gives an account of Frederick as related by her father, who was a nephew. Frederick See was said to have been with a showboat which plied its itinerary up and down the Ohio and Mississippi. In New Orleans he made the acquaintance of a well-to-do widow from Texas. Their friendship climaxed in marriage and he returned with her to her native state to live. One unfounded story tells that he was a soldier with Sam Houston in the Mexican War. Mexican War records do not list his name.

The last reference to Frederick See was during the Civil War when young Charles Michael See, son of Shull M. See, came in contact with a couple of young See brothers, Confederate prisoners under his guard. They identified themselves as the sons of Frederick See as described above. Details of this meeting have not survived the passage of time.

WILLIAM SEE (1792-AFTER 1844), SON OF MICHAEL SEE, JR.

William See was the fifth child of Michael See and Elizabeth Morris. His birth occurred the night of May 17, 1792, the fateful night that saw his father slain as he directed the cultivation of the crops for the settlers forced to stay at Fort Randolph, because of the depredation of the Wyandottes, Mingoes, and other tribes, up and down the Ohio River.

Nothing remains to tell us of his life except the terse legal records of the county courts of Kanawha and Mason Counties and that of the War Department, Washington, D.C.

William's name is the last in the list of heirs of Michael See granting the 400 acres of land to Andrew Donnally; also from the Deed Book D, Page 328, December 12, 1814, William See of Mason County, Virginia, 1/5 interest as a child of Michael See, deceased, to James E. Harris lands.

Records in the Adjutant General's Office, War Department, show "that William See served as a private in the War of 1812 in a company of infantry commanded at various times by Lieutenant and Captain Andrew Bryan and Lieutenant Moses McClintic, 2nd Regiment (Evans) Virginia Militia." His service commenced September 21, 1812 and ended March 20, 1813. This company was from Mason County.

William See married Sarah Prewett and had a large family. His descendants have lived in Mason County, West Virginia down to the present The last contact with this branch of the family was made many years ago when Dr. Granville Prewett accompanied a patient to Parkersburg, West Virginia and spent some time in trying to locate these distant See kin. He eventually found one old lady who remembered his parents, Stokes and Minerva See Prewett, and the time of their departure for Illinois. Dr. Prewett, Marshall, Illinois, was a grandson of Nancy Greenlee See and Michael See III.

MICHAEL SEE III (1785-1827), SON OF MICHAEL SEE, JR.

Michael, with his mother Elizabeth Morris See and the three brothers and sister, continued to live at Fort Randolph, Point Pleasant, Virginia for some time after his father's death at the hands of the Wyandottes. He was born April 1, 1785. He was married February 15, 1808 to Nany Greenlee, daughter of John Greenlee and his wife Jane Reynolds in Mason County, Virginia by Francis Watkins. Nancy was born March 10, 1794 and was only fourteen years old at the time of their marriage.

Michael's name is included in the heirs in Deed Book D, Page 311, who made the deed to Andrew Donnally August 10, 1807, for 400 acres of land in Kanawha County, Virginia.

From the 6th Mumford Reports, Page 303 - "In 1814 Michael See brought suit in Mason County against .... Greenlee, and claimed a tract of land demised (willed) to him by Michael See. This suit was decided in See's favor by the Court of Appeals of Virginia in 1819."

The above mentioned Greenlee was doubtlessly William Greenlee, whose name re-appears from time to time in the history of Michael and Nancy See's family.

In 1812 when war broke between Great Britain and the young nation of the United States, Michael and Nancy G. See were living in Mason County on a small farm some distance from Point Pleasant. In 1815 Michael enlisted at Point Pleasant in the Virginia volunteers and served as Captain of his own company known as Captain Michael See's Company, 106th Regular Virginia Militia. His service commenced February l8, 1815 and ended March 8, 1815. (From War Department, Adjutant General's Office). He was sent to Norfolk, Virginia, and returned home after an absence of one month in consequence of peace having been declared.

Under an Act of March 3, 1855, entitled "An Act in addition to certain Acts granting Bounty Land to certain Officers and Soldiers who have been engaged in The Military Services of the United States"; Nancy See, widow of Michael See, Captain Virginia Militia, War 1812, received a grant #95,89O for 120 acres issued December 28, l859. This land was located in Melecosta County, Michigan and was sold to Delos A. Blodget, October 27, 1862. At this time Nancy 0. See was living in Marion County, Illinois, and the document of sale was witnessed by her son-in-law, F. B. Shelton and C. A. Russell, when she personally appeared before Tilman Baser, Justice of the Peace.

Michael See III died September 10, 1827 at their farm in Mason County and left Nancy widowed at thirty three and nine children. Their names and births were Schull Morris See, born February 19, 1809; Jane, born February 26, 1811; Elizabeth (Betsy), December 27, 1812; Minerva, January 23, 1815; Frances, April 23, 1817; John, July 13, 1819; Henry, February 27, 1822; Michael, March 18, 1824; and Frederick, September 17, 1826.

The following sketch of the family is given by Miss Clara See, Kinmundy, a granddaughter of Michael and Nancy Greenlee See and related to her by her father, their son Michael See.

"The Salt Works" in Charleston were the greatest in America at that time. By accident, a man digging a well, found a deposit of salt. In early times Charleston was known as "the licks" as the deer would go there to lick salt. Shipping the salt on flat boats to the West was important. Grandfather (Michael See III) worked on flat boats carrying the salt from Charleston down the river to the Ohio at Point Pleasant. Grandmother's (Nancy Greenlee) brother Hamilton Greenlee was a pilot on the Kanawha for several years.

Grandfather owned a small farm and a water mill. At the time of his death a company had built a mill above him and had taken the water from him. Grandfather was engaged in a lawsuit to recover these rights at the time. Later the case was dismissed. He left his wife and children in very poor condition financially.

He was described as a large man, dark complexioned, very strong, and well liked by all who knew him.

After his death, Grandmother, who was always sickly, was forced to take her family to live with her father John Greenlee and her brother Hamilton. Aunt Jane had gone to Charleston to stay with her Aunt Frances Ringsberry

Once Aunt Frankie and Jane came to visit Grandmother and her family. After a short stay, Aunt Frankie asked Jane if she were ready to go back home. Jane replied, "I am not going to leave this half-clad, underfed family. My duty is here with them." Jane was then about 18 years old. They moved back to the little farm. They had a team of horses and a few farming implements, including hoes. Shull was old enough to work on the river. John, only about ten years old, plowed and used the team. The younger ones, with the help of Jane, hoed. My father said Jane could get more work out of a boy with a hoe, than anyone he ever knew.

Their crops were much better than those raised by the neighbor men. Jane could weave and had learned to make men's clothing while with her Aunt. After this the family was free from want.

The sisters and the brothers, Shull and John, married quite young. This left Uncle Henry and my father to keep a home for Grandmother and Aunt Jane. Fred lived with Aunt Betsy and Uncle Eldred Shelton. My father began working on the river when he was 14 years old. Uncle John was never on the river as he always farmed.

About 1840 people began going West to buy government land in Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, offered at one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. Uncle Stokes Prewett's (he married Minerva See) half-brother, Robert Prewett, had moved to Marion County Illinois. He wrote to his relatives of the fine country in Illinois. Soon Stokes and Minerva Prewett and two or three small children moved and bought land adjoining that of Robert Prewett whose house was just west of the present I.C.R.R. reservoir south of Kinmundy. Aunt Minerva soon wrote her mother urging the family to come to Illinois.

In March 1844, Grandmother, Aunt Jane, the three boys, Henry, Michael, and Frederick, together with Uncle Eldred and Aunt Betsy Shelton left Mason County, Virginia for Marion County, Illinois.

They had three wagons. Uncle Eldred had a fine team and wagon. He was bringing with him about one thousand dollars in gold he had received from the Shelton estate. He loaned his money at 10% interest. Money was so scarce it was almost impossible to get any in this new country.

Grandmother had a good team and a funny old wagon. It had been made by her father, John Greenlee, at his blacksmith shop. Uncle Henry and Father had bought a new wagon and each had a fine young mare. Father had worked for a man a summer for his colt. It was bred from the same stock as General Robert E. Lee's horse, "Travellar."

These young men were the handsomest chaps ever seen! Lovely dark curly hair, complexions prettier than a girl's, and eyes beyond description. (Old timers have told me this - old ladies!) They knew all the new steps and songs, having always returned home by steamboat from Cincinnati and New Orleans. They were the best wrestlers yet.

They traveled to Illinois most of the way on the Old National Trail. Father said you could see anything from a handcart to the finest carriages of that day. Everybody going West.

As they had no house when they arrived, they rented a little cabin northeast of the present Kinmundy Cemetery. It was the property of Uncle Harvey Gray and his mother, who had gone to Tennessee to settle an estate and expected to be away a year.

The boys, Henry and Father, bought eighty acres of prairie land and eighty acres of timber in what is now Kinmundy Township. (The prairie land where we (Cousin Clara and I) now live. The boys did not farm their own land that first year. They rented a field of Robert Pruett's. They plowed from the present Methodist Church west to the road in front of the Jack Foster place. The large stump of an oak tree that is in front of the Foster place (1938) is that of an oak tree the boys would climb to take aim at deer that came to drink from a branch of a creek just east of the old Judge Snelling house.

Between fanning the boys hauled logs. After they finished their corn, they built a double log house, joined by a covered dog-run a quarter of a mile north of the Shelton's with whom Uncle Fred lived; they made a log stable for the horses, and split out rails for fence to keep the stock (Jane had a cow) and dug a well. They moved into the cabin in December.

The boys wanted to buy more land. There was then government land in what is now Omega Township. There was no work to earn money in this country. Uncle Fred had decided to go back to Virginia to work on the river - "a boating."

Uncle Henry suggested that one of them (Uncle Henry or Father) go back, too, and earn money to buy the land.

My father and Uncle Fred started back to Virginia about the 18th of January 1845. It has been Spring-like weather all Fall and Winter, but the day they left the weather changed. They had to walk to Odin in the bitter cold to catch the stage for St. Louis. From here, they went by boat to Cairo and then up the Ohio to Point Pleasant. My father was in Virginia about one year. He came back home on the Ohio River to Shawneetown, then walked home. The money he had earned was in coin. It first wore through a thick leather wallet. He wrapped it in his handkerchief - it, too, wore through; when he reached home, his pockets were worn out.

The boys, Henry and Mike, now bought land in Omega Township, eighty acres of timber and eighty acres of prairie. Uncle John See, who came to Marion County from Mason County, Virginia after 1845, bought the farm still owned by the John Lenhart family (south of Kinmundy) but wanted to go where he could have a large farm. He sold his farm to a man named Gibbs, then moved to land in Omega (still owned by his descendants).

As the double log house began to seem small for two families, Uncle Henry proposed to my father that if he would give him five hundred dollars for his share of the improvements and help him put up buildings on his new homestead, he would take the Omega land and give Father the Kinmundy land.

My mother had just been paid money from her father's estate; so Father bought Uncle Henry out, exchanging deeds. I do not know the year Uncle Henry moved. I think he rented a house to live in while he prepared his home. (This is true).

My father said he would ride over to Uncle Henry's each day. He would "cross the prairie." He would start from home cross-country to where the Ed Craig farm now is. No fences, prairie grass was higher than his head on horseback. There were whipsawed boards Uncle Henry and Father sawed in the smokehouse many years later when I boarded with Cousin Charlie See as a teacher at the Old Camp Ground school.

Uncle Fred stayed on in Virginia, married Virginia Barnett and moved with her people to Wayne County, Iowa, near Corydon. They came to Illinois during the Civil War.

HENRY SEE (1822-1863) SON OF MICHAEL SEE III

Henry See, son of Michael See III (1785-1827) and Nancy Greenlee (1794-1871), was born February 27, 1822 in Mason County, Virginia. He came to Marion County, Illinois with his mother and two brothers Frederick and Michael IV. On July 21 1850 Henry married Judith Allmon (1828-1890), daughter of Thomas and Sarah Wilkenson Allmon.

Thomas Allmon came to Marion County, Illinois from Tennessee, settled five miles north of Salem. His wife was said to have been of Portuguese descent. The story goes that the people at home in Tennessee received glowing accounts of the fine country here in Illinois and the plentiful game which abounded but were skeptical of such reports. One old man said, "Well when Tommy writes back about the country we will get the truth." Soon Tommy wrote telling how many deer could be seen grazing from the Hartland hill near where he had settled. But the old fellow shook his head and said, "Oh, he's just like all the rest now that he's moved out there."

The story of Grandmother Allmon's nationality as remembered by her grandson, Michael Henry See, is that on one occasion when she told of her Portuguese origin, a tipsy fellow over hearing the statement exclaimed, "A Ginni-gee by Gar." It is believed that she came from Pennsylvania, and it is established that she spoke with an accent of some sort. She and Thomas had a family of 15 children.

Grandfather brought a seedling peach with him from Tennessee. It was a large white cling, which became known as the Allmon peach. Later nursery men tried to cross it with other varieties in order to get some color to it, but only succeeding in adding a faint pink, and we now know it as the Heath Cling. Many people set out the peach, and Grandmother Judy See had several trees, selling the fruit for as much as $3.00 a bushel - not long after the Civil War - also getting the same price for a bushel of black cherries.

Thomas Allmon had a horse mill where people brought corn to be ground. Uncle Thomas Smith of the Omega vicinity told of taking a grist to Allmon's mill but was too late to get it ground that day, so many others were ahead of him. He had to stay overnight. The next morning early, Grandfather called to the boys, "Hiram." "Yes, sir," responded Hiram instantly, and sprang out of bed, at once one after another, the other boys' feet hit the floor; without a word all dressed and left for the barn and the chores, and were seen no more until breakfast.

The family also had a lathe for wood turning and the boys made much of their furniture when they started their homes. Grandmother Allmon spent her last years with her son, Jackson. One morning at breakfast as she was drinking a cup of coffee she was stricken with a stroke, but lived for a year, a bedridden invalid. Her daughter, Judith See, tried to drive over to see her every month and Uncle Jack scarcely left the farm for any length of time during her long illness.

Henry and Judith were the parents of six children, George (1851-1937), who married Molly (Mary) Garner (1852-1928) and later married Molly's sister, Lee Garner (1864-1940), Sarah Elizabeth (1854) who died in infancy, Nancy Catherine (1855-56), Michael Henry V (1856-1940), who married Sarah Ann Craig (1855-1889) and then a second marriage to Alice Harrell (1873-1944), Thomas W.(1858-1911), who never married and spent much of his life at Anna State Hospital and Charles (1860-1939), who married Alice Gramley.

They farmed "across the prairie" in Omega Township. The homestead in later years became the home of Charles and Alice Gramley See (a place some of you readers visited during your childhood). Henry died June l4, 1863 from an injury sustained while digging a well and is buried in Eastland Cemetery near Kinmundy, Illinois. After his death Judith and her four young sons continued to farm the land in Omega Township. She died March 30, 1890 and is buried in Eastland Cemetery near Kinmundy.

MICHAEL HENRY SEE V (1856-194O), SON OF HENRY SEE

Michael Henry See V was born in Marion County, Illinois, Omega Township, October 15, 1856, son of Henry and Judith Allmon See and grew to manhood in the same locality. At an early age he was converted and affiliated with the Southern Methodist Church at Old Camp Ground where he faithfully served in various capacities.

In 1877 he was united in marriage with Sarah Ann Craig (1855-1889), daughter of James (known as Uncle Jim) and Catherine Wilkinson Craig. They were the parents of five children: Myrtle (1880) who died at the age of three months, twin infants who died shortly after birth April 7, 1878, Ellis Leroy, November 21, 1881 and Otis Elroy, July 2, 1883. Sarah Ann died February 16, 1889 and is buried in Cockrell Cemetery southeast of Kinmundy, Illinois.

On October 23, 1891 Michael married Alice Harrell (1873-1944), daughter of William James and Pachel Pless Harrell. In her autobiography Alice indicates that her ancestors were English and Pennsylvania Dutch and that in her very early years she and her father had a very close, loving relationship. She states that "no one could see the shadow that hung over our house. The summer I was four years old my mother died, leaving my sister, ten years old, my brother, two years old and I, too young to realize our great loss; but there was a great change soon evidenced in the home . . . in less than a year a stepmother came to rule our home." She states that her father went with her and Michael to the minister's house for the marriage ceremony.

According to Alice, Michael was patient, not quick to criticize, and simple in his manner of living. Money was never plentiful with the living coming off the farm and occasionally he got some carpentering to do. He was painstaking and conscientious in whatever work he engaged.

They were the parents of seven children: Irene Melba (1892), Eunice Velma (1894), Hobart Harrell (1896), Edith Fern (1897), Winifred Elma (1900), and twins Charlene and Georgia (1902). Georgia died at eight months of age. They lived in a house near Michael's boyhood home until around 1904 when Michael built a two story house on the land he had inherited from his parents. Alice often read to the children and a high priority with Michael and Alice was an education for their children.

Edith Fern See recalls that when she was a young child Uncle Jim Craig (Sarah Ann Craig See's father) would come to their house often and her mother, father and Uncle Jim would sit around and talk. One story Edith remembers is a tale told by Uncle Jim. The Craig family came to Illinois from Kentucky when Jim was a young boy and the family traveled with the Lincoln family; Nancy Hanks Lincoln was a relative of the Craigs. As they came overland one mule was to be used by Jim and Abe Lincoln. According to the story Jim had to walk the distance as Abe would not share! The Craigs settled in Marion County and the Lincoln's went on north.

When Irene and Eunice were in high school they would room in the home of a Kinmundy resident and then Michael and Alice would pay the room rent with eggs, potatoes, beans and other garden items. The family had a team of horses, Mae and Maude. Edith Fern tells the story that one time Irene stayed overnight with a friend in Kinmundy. The mother told Edith to drive Mae to town but park the buggy at the Methodist Church on the hill and walk down-town and get Irene. She did not want Edith to cross the railroad track with Mae and the buggy. Edith says she was nine years old at the time.

In 1912 Michael had the misfortune of having the scaffolding under him break while at work on the old Baptist Church in the southwest part of Kinmundy. The fall injured his back and finally caused him to lose his eyesight. Around 1914 the family moved to Kinmundy and Michael transferred his church membership to the Kinmundy Southern Methodist Church and when it terminated to the Methodist Episcopal Church. With this handicap he was still able to make his own way about the streets of town and could find any business house in Kinmundy. For many years he made two daily trips to the business district to get the mail and visit with the local gentlemen. During the winter months when walking was restricted by the weather Alice would read the Bible, newspaper and books to Michael.

Hobart Harrell began preaching at the age of 18 and the writings of Alice in her autobiography indicate that when our country entered the World War Hobart "felt it his duty to God and as a patriot to volunteer." He reported October 3, 1917 to Camp Grant and in May 1918 was sent to the front lines. He fell in action August 8, 1918 by machine gun fire being one to answer a call for volunteers to wipe out a machine gun nest. He died near Fismes, France. In 1931 Alice Harrell See was one of the many Gold Star Mothers to travel to France to visit the grave of fallen sons.

In 1933 Buster, a brown and white fox terrier who was the pet of the children of Charlene See Miller, came to Kinmundy to live after her death. He became the constant companion of Michael See and made the daily trips to town. The man and his dog were inseparable.

In 1939 the big two story white house with two large porches burned and many family treasures were lost. Michael and Alice moved into a house one block east of their first home in Kinmundy. Michael died January 29, 1940 and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Kinmundy, Illinois. Alice Harrell See died October 28, 1944 and was interred at Evergreen Cemetery.

CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN OF MICHAEL SEE V

(1856-194O) SON OF HENRY AND JUDITH ALLMON SEE

Wife (1) Sarah Ann Craig 8/14/1855-2/16/1889

Twin infants 4/7/1878 died soon after birth

Myrtle 1880 died 3 months, 18 days

Ellis Leroy 11/21/1881-2/21/1955 m. Ella Merideth, Mary _____

Otis Elroy 7/2/1883-5/15/1966 m. Elizabeth Newbieser

Elroy Howard 6/23/1912-10/17/1964

Maurice Ray 9/23/1913 m. Mary Rebecca Waggoner

Wife (2) Alice Harrell 5/21/1873-1O/28/1944

Irene Melba 9/19/1892-7/5/1963 m. 4/6/1921 Glenn Dale Brasel

Priscilla Sue 9/10/1922

Edith Dorthea 8/15/1924-11/27/1994

Ned Gwynne 2/1/1928

Eunice Velma 7/23/1894-6/17/1980 m. John Harold Kettles 4/26/1919

Janet Haroldine 2/19/1923-unknown

Franklin Alan 2/5/1930

Hobart Harrell 3/3/1896-7/8/1918 killed Fismes, France, unmarried

Edith Fern 8/23/1897-5/30/1989, unmarried

Winifred Elma 11/5/19O0-11/21/1979 m. Frederick Carl Lamwersiek 5/18/1926

Elma Marie 10/14/1927

Robert Louis 1/24/1929

James Frederick 12/26/1932-3/16/1979 m. Goeffy Davis 1961

Charlene 3/21/1902-12/17/1933 m. George Washington Miller 3/21/1920

Ray George 10/17/1921

Donald Keith 7/19/1922-9/29/92

Harold Richard 12/14/1923

Phyllis Jean 10/14/1925

Doris Elaine 6/5/1929

Georgia 3/21/1902-11/1902

SEE FAMILY IN MARION COUNTY, ILLINOIS

Prepared by Irene See Brasel for Kinmundy Centennial Booklet

Issued by Kinmundy Woman's Club, 1957

Mrs. Nancy Greenlee See came to Kinmundy Township in 1844 from Point Pleasant in Mason County Virginia (West Virginia since 1863). With her were two daughters, Jane, the eldest, and Elizabeth and her husband, Richard Elred Shelton, and the three younger See boys. The widow of Michael See, Captain of the 106th Regular Virginia Militia of the War of 1812, she was left at thirty-three with nine children to rear; Shull Morris, Jane, Elizabeth, Minerva, Frances, John, Henry, Michael and Frederick.