Bradford Family 4

BRADFORD FAMILY IN VIRGINIA

After serving in the fight for independence, John returned to Hampshire County, Virginia. About one year later (1778) he met and married Johanna Regina “Hannah” Shrout. Hannah was born May 17, 1762, and was baptized April 22, 1764 at St. Michaels Lutheran Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is the same church her parents, Johan “Peter” Shrout (Peter came to America from Germany in 1754) and Anna Clara Feuerbach were married on March 28, 1760. The Shrout family moved to Hampshire County, where Peter Shrout acquired land about 2.5 miles west of Scherr, which he would farm.

On March 31, 1779, Joseph Bradford was born to John & Hannah. Then, on March 27, 1781, a daughter, Nancy Bradford, was born.

On October 19, 1781, General George Washington and his army had blocked the army of British General Cornwallis on a narrow peninsula at Yorktown. With the assistance of a large French fleet, the British were forced to surrender. “The Treaty of Paris”, that ended the Revolutionary War, was signed on September 3, 1783, and was ratified in Philadelphia, on January 14, 1784. The British now recognized American independence.

On August 21, 1783, George Bradford was born. The next year (1784) the “First Census” was taken, listing John Bradford, 4 whites, no blacks, one building, 3 horses and 3 cattle. If the Bradford family wanted to go to the Hampshire County Courthouse in Romney (Romney was incorporated in 1762 when Lord Fairfax selected Pearsall’s Flats as a town site and named it Romney for a port in the English Channel. The County was created out of Frederick & Shenandoah County in 1753), it meant a trip of 44 miles. In 1785, Hardy County was created and the trip to Moorefield (Moorefield was chartered as a town on 62 acres owned by Conrad Moore in 1777) was only 25 miles. The next year, Peter Bradford was born on January 27, 1786, in Hardy County.

The “1787 Census” listed the Bradford family, but now with only 1 horse and 1 cattle. But of more importance, in “1788” many Fairfax lands were taken up by the state and were sold for taxes. On May 5, 1788, a piece of John Bradford’s 230 acres was surveyed and found to be 133 acres. This tract of land was located in Hardy County on the drains of the South Fork of Patterson Creek and was once part of Peter Reeve’s 400 acres that he obtained in 1764. (Robert Louther surveyed a plot of 412 and 400 acres. He then assigned it to Joseph Watson, who then assigned the 412 acres in 1761 and then the other 400 acres in 1764 to Peter Reeve). The 133 acres was located .07 miles SW of Lahmansville and was next to the lands of Job & William Welton (John Welton came to America in the 1730’s and by the 1750’s had settled on Lunice Creek. It was here they raised nine children, including Job & William). On November 2, 1788, a fifth child was born to John & Hannah, John Bradford, Jr.

The Bradford farm was 11 miles north of the village of Petersburg. The village was named after Jacob Peterson, who opened the first store in an area settled by German colonists in about 1745. It was to this village that the Bradfords would travel for various merchandise. The trip by wagon would take most of the day and the entire family would travel on these special days.

Between 1776 and 1781, the Second Continental Congress had the well-nigh impossible task of coordinating the war effort. They found great problems with the domineering states, which considered themselves sovereign and independent. After the war, the Constitutional Convention was convened in Philadelphia from May 15, 1787 to September 17, 1787. A “new” constitution was drawn up in Independence Hall. Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution and was followed by Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland and South Carolina. New Hampshire became the ninth state, and she ratified it on June 21, 1788. This ratification meant the Constitution was not the supreme law of the land (Virginia, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island, then quickly ratified it). The first Congress assembled in New York City, with the House of Representatives convening on April 1, 1789, the Senate met on April 6. Congress then examined the ballots of the presidential electors. George Washington with 69 votes was elected President and John Adams with 34 votes was Vice President. On April 30, 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States.

On September 22, 1791, Elizabeth Bradford was born, followed by William Bradford, on September 11, 1794, Hannah Bradford, on January 1, 1797, and Gasper Bradford, on February 20, 1799.

The country was growing and the new states of Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee entered the United States. President Washington served his first term and was then elected for a second. When his second term was served, he refused a third. President John Adams was elected President and was inaugurated as the second President on March 4, 1797. The country and John Bradford were shocked when it was learned that President Washington died December 14, 1799. To John, Washington was always remembered as the “General;” with whom he had served during the Revolutionary War. It is believed that he named his third child after the General.

Nancy Bradford married James Tucker in 1799 and then Joseph Bradford married Elizabeth Dixon in 1800 (these were the first two children of John & Hannah to marry). Then on January 27, 1801, John & Hannah had their 10th child, James Bradford. In the next six years, John & Hannah became 7-time grandparents (Joseph & Elizabeth had three, James & Nancy had three, and George, who married Mary Stingley in 1805, had one). Then on January 12, 1804, John & Hannah had their eleventh and last child, Mary Bradford.

Tragedy struck the family on July 24, 1804, when Hannah’s father, Peter Shrout killed his wife, Ann. It was reported that he accomplished it by ramming a broomstick down her throat. They were both about 65 years old and had been married for 44 years. The answer to “why” was never answered. Peter Shrout wrote his Will on the 24th (probated on December 12th) leaving his estate to his children: Peggy Shrout, George Shrout (Exec), Hannah Shrout (Bradford), Mary Richardson and grandson, George Shrout (son of George). On the 28th, Peter was arrested and pled not guilty. General Joseph Neville (member of the House of Burgesses and Revolutionary War veteran) while Justice of the Peace tried Peter for murder. He was found guilty by a 12-man jury and sentenced to death by hanging. Peter was allowed to carry a stick to his hanging. Instead of dropping the stick as a signal, it is said that he defiantly threw it into the air. He died October 12, 1804. On January 14, 1807, the Peter Shrout settlement listed the accounts of 22 persons that included Joseph Bradford, George Shell, George Stingley, James Tucker and John Welton.

General Harmer and General St. Clair had both failed to quiet the Indians in the Northwest Territory. President Washington, in 1792, instructed General “Mad” Anthony Wayne to carefully build up a strong army and remove the Indian menace. On July 28, 1794, General Wayne led thirty-five hundred combat-ready troops north of the Maumee Valley. Waiting were the Seven Nations (Shawnee, Delaware, Potawatomie, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa and Seneca) under the command of Blue Jacket. Two miles in front of the British Fort Miami (Toledo, Ohio), the Indians had a thick line of over-turned trees. “The Battle of Fallen Timbers” took place on August 20, 1794, and Wayne’s soldiers crushed the tribes. He then burned their towns and plundered their cornfields on the rivers of St. Joseph and St. Mary, effectually ending all Indian warfare in the Ohio area. One year later General Anthony Wayne called all the Indian Chiefs to Fort Green Ville where they would smoke the ceremonial pipe and bid for peace. Attending were 1,100 Indians from the Chippewas, Delawares, Eel Rivers, Kaskaskia, Miamis (Chief Little Turtle), Ouilemons, Ottawas, Piankeshaws, Potawatomis, Shawnees (Chief Black Hoof – at Braddock’s defeat & Battle of Point Pleasant and Blue Jacket – captain of Indian forces at Fallen Timbers), Weas, and Wyandotte’s (missing was Chief Tecumseh who refused to attend). The historic “Treaty of Fort Greenville” was signed by all the Chiefs, which meant that most of Ohio, and the cities of Chicago, Detroit, Toledo and Vincennes became American (this period in history from the Indian troubles in 1771, through the Dunmore War, to the Treaty of Fort Greenville, are all covered in the Award winning book “The Frontiersmen” by Allan W. Eckert – available in paperback).

Thomas Jefferson became the third President in 1801. The next year, Ohio became the 17th State (in 1804 Muskingum County was created, followed by Tuscarawas in 1808 from part of the Muskingum County. In 1811, Coshocton County was created out of Muskingum & Tuscarawas County). The following year in 1803, France sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States. Lewis and Clark’s expedition left for the west, reaching the Pacific Ocean and then returning in 1806.

“The Battle of Fallen Timbers”, “Treaty of Fort Greenville”, Ohio becoming a state, the Lewis & Clark expedition, all pointed out that the west was now open for settlement. From Fort Pitt to the Illinois prairies, there was a total of 20,000 Indiana and 10,000 soldiers, hunters, squatters and settlers in an area of seventeen hundred acres. Families from Hampshire and Hardy County, Virginia, were among the many that were moving west. From 1790 to 1800, the population in Hardy County had dropped by 709 persons. The 1810 census recorded a loss of another 1,314 persons. The families of Thomas Butler, Isaac Meredith, Nicholas Miller, Joseph Severns and Robert Darling had already left the county and had settled in Coshocton County (the little tar bucket, which hung under the tailgate of the Darling wagon, is in the Miller-Preston Room in the Johnson-Humrickhouse Memorial Museum in Coshocton, Ohio. Hannah Bradford Wood, 8th child of John & Hannah, would later be buried in the Darling Run Cemetery near Warsaw.

John Bradford had told his wife for many years, that he had a dream of taking his family to Ohio and settling. The dream started 32 years earlier, when John, while serving in Major Angus McDonald’s Regiment, had on July 12, 1774, gone with the regiment to destroy Indian villages, including Wakatomica (near present Coshocton). This engagement was the opening of the Dunmore War, but also allowed John to witness the beautiful Ohio country.