John Hupp and Ann Rowe

---

---

Husband John Hupp ^{1 2 3}

---

           Born: 1747 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 1782 - Washington Co, PA 4
         Buried: 

       Marriage: 

---

---

Wife Ann Rowe ³

---

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

---

Children

---

1 F Mary Hupp ⁵

---

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: [Unk] Smith (      -      ) 5

---

2 F Margaret Hupp ⁵

---

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: [Unk] Titus (      -      ) 5

---

3 M John Hupp ³

---

           Born: 27 Jul 1780 - Donegal Twp, Washington Co, PA 5
     Christened: 
           Died: 12 Mar 1864 5
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Ann Cox (      -1875) 3
           Marr: 19 Jan 1813 5

---

4 F Elizabeth Hupp ⁶

---

           Born: Abt 1782
     Christened: 
           Died:  - Donegal Twp, Washington Co, PA
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Francis Rodgers (      -1829) 7 8

---

---

General Notes: Husband - John Hupp

---

His family came from Holland, near Dortrecht, to Maryland, where they first settled, afterwards coming to Dutch Fork, Donegal Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania.

He and a neighbor, Jacob Miller, were both killed on Easter Sunday, 1782. They started together to visit a friend, not knowing that a party of Indians had come raiding. They had nearly arrived at their friend's house, when suddenly they were met by the natives in the path that led through the lonely and uncultivated forest, and they were killed and scalped. Soon the news came to the few settlers that the Indians were making a raid among them, and they all left their homes and made a speedy effort to seek safety in the Miller block-house. Soon the few settlers who had succeeded in gaining the blockhouse were surrounded by a party of about seventy Shawanese Indians, and almost without any ammunition, and totally without provisions to eat. The wives of Miller and Hupp were among those who escaped to the fort, and they there prepared ammunition to keep off the Indians. At this moment the raiders, leaping from their concealment, appeared in every direction around the blockhouse, and a hot and continuous firing commenced. The female band, in despair and anguish, were forced to the conclusion that the blockhouse would soon be taken by storm, or envelop them in its flames, and there seemed no hope of a successful resistance. But with daring courage they, nerving their arms and steeling their hearts to the severe duties of the moment, snatched up their rifles, fired at the approaching savages, and then ran from porthole to porthole, protruding the muzzles in different directions to convey the idea of a great force in the house, at each presentation causing the savages to cower behind trees or other objects for protection. This strategy of the pioneer heroines without doubt saved the few inmates from an immediate and horrible death. The Indians, evidently filled with chagrin and disappointment, skulked about the blockhouse till nightfall, and then a few of them left during the night, bearing away with them the scalps of Miller and Hupp. The loss of these two men to the neighborhood was severely felt at a time when men were so much needed; but all hearts in that blockhouse were overflowing with thankfulness and gratitude to a kind and merciful Preserver for vouchsafing to them His aid. With sad and anxious hearts the wives of Miller and Hupp lived in hope that their loving husbands would soon arrive in safety at the block-house, not knowing then that they were massacred by the Indians; so the lifeless bodies of Miller and Hupp remained for several days where they had fallen. By and by some friends and a few settlers, concluding it was safe to leave the fort, with cautious steps and armed with a few guns, set out in search of Miller and Hupp, whose bodies they found less than one-half mile north of the fort, on a ridge in a small path that led through the dense forest. (The field was later owned by Clint Miller). They brought the lifeless bodies to the Miller blockhouse, and prepared them for burial. They were interred in one grave, a few yards from the block-house, and placed side by side, each body being wrapped in a sheet, without any coffin, and some rude puncheons were placed around them in their grave. There was no time for the mourners to prepare a box or coffin for their departed friends, as they did not know how soon the Indians might return.

He was the founder of the family in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and he came from Maryland, on a pack-horse, penetrating into what was then a dangerous wilderness. He was a squatter on the land which his descendants later owned, building a small cabin under an apple tree which was still standing into the twentieth century. While living there he shot enough deer to make twenty patterns of buckskins and with them went eight miles to West Liberty. There he traded the skins to Michael Cox for 1,500 acres of land on a part of which he had previously squatted and erected his cabin. This was a part of 2,200 acres acquired by Mr. Cox by "tomahawk right." Mr. Hupp then penetrated the dense forests to Harrisburg, carrying his money in his saddlebags, and at that point received the patent to his land. This instrument was of parchment, written with walnut ink and a goose quill pen, and stated the amount of money paid for the patent, in the various coins of different nations. This was in possession of the widow of his grandson, Joseph Hupp, in 1910. On this place John Hupp lived with his wife and the three children until the spring of 1782. On the Saturday afternoon preceding Easter Sunday of that year, a white man, riding a foam-flecked and exhausted horse, came notifying settlers that Indians were coming from the Ohio River to kill all the whites on Dutch Fork. John Hupp took his wife, two daughters and son, the last named being the youngest and about two and a half years old, through the dense woods, which lay between his place and the block-house, known as Fort Miller, located on the Philip Miller farm adjoining his own. After their arrival they heard firing of guns and assuming Indians were attacking Rice's Fort, the next block-house below them, the men departed to help the lower fort, leaving none but the women and children, one very aged man and a lad in his teens. The firing by the Indians was but a decoy, for after the departure of the men, the Reds, numbering about seventy, made an attack on Fort Miller. The aged man sat down and cried, "We are all going to be killed." It was then that the wonderful presence of mind and heroic qualities of Mrs. Hupp asserted themselves. She said: "Quit your crying and go to loading guns." He loaded the guns while Mrs. Hupp would shoot first from one side of the block-house, then from the other, with the idea of deceiving the enemy as to the number of defenders. In the meantime she told the lad to run to the lower fort and notify the men to return. The door was unbarricaded and opened sufficiently to let the boy rush through. He vaulted the fence and headed toward the other fort. The Indians were secreted, but at sight of him made their appearnce and bombarded him with their missiles of war and shot. Seeing it was useless to go ahead, he turned toward the block-house again. One Indian pursued him closely and struck at him as he went over the fence, the tomahawk sinking into the rail as his hand left it. The boy's arm was broken by a bullet but otherwise he was unhurt. The men had heard the shooting and quickly returned, but not an Indian was seen again that day. The following morning, Easter Sunday, Mr. Hupp and Philip Miller went out to look for their stock, as no Indian was in sight. They went some 300 yards north, and not seeing their stock, stooped down at the spring to get a drink. While thus engaged, Mr. Miller having had his drink and Mr. Hupp being down with his body resting on his hands as he drank, they were fired upon. Mr. Miller fell in his tracks, and John Hupp as he raised up was shot downward in the breast. He ran about seventy yards toward the fort, before he fell dead. He was buried at Fort Miller. His son, also named John Hupp, who was in the block-house and but two and a half years old at the time, as soon as he became old enough, carried on his shoulder a slab of stone from the creek to his father's grave. This unostentatious monument sufficed, there being no better obtainable west of Philadelphia in that day.

1 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 744.

2 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 532.

3 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 957.

4 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 531.

5 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 958.

6 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 757.

7 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 754.

8 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 751.