John Anson Range, Jr. and Nancy "Ann" Myers

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Husband John Anson Range, Jr. ¹

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           Born: 8 Apr 1772 - New Bedford, Lawrence Co, PA
     Christened: 
           Died: 28 Oct 1851 - LeBoeuf Twp, Erie Co, PA
         Buried:  - Mackey Hill Cemetery, Mill Village, Erie Co, PA

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         Father: Lt. John Range (1746-1826) 2
         Mother: Mandlin Shallos (      -      ) 3

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       Marriage: 12 Apr 1798

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Wife Nancy "Ann" Myers ⁴

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            AKA: Mary Myers 5
           Born: 9 Jun 1784 - Maryland
     Christened: 
           Died: 8 Dec 1860 - LeBoeuf Twp, Erie Co, PA
         Buried:  - Mackey Hill Cemetery, Mill Village, Erie Co, PA

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         Father: Henry Meyers (1761-1849) 6
         Mother: Mary Sarah Stroble (1766-1835)

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Children

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1 F Sarah "Sally" Range ^{4 7}

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           Born: 27 Mar 1800 4
     Christened: 
           Died: 5 Mar 1878 4
         Buried: 

         Spouse: William Hunter (1794-1879) 4 8
           Marr: 6 Aug 1816 4

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General Notes: Wife - Nancy "Ann" Myers

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She was a well-known "herb doctor."
Her horse was named "Mollie". There was no license necessary for the practice of medicine. One article said she had a 'fairly rotund figure'; the Pittsburgh Press article 'Traveling Herb Doctor' by Harry Ridgway describes her: 'her buxom figure, well above the 37-26-37 numerals, vibrated in harmony to the canter or trot of her faithful roan mare. Her steel-rimmed spectacles were kept in place by small black cords reaching to the back of her head. She wore heavy wool stockings, winter and summer. Black Braid created a touch of femininity to her masculine-looking outfit.'
She rode astride, with voluminous saddle bags behind, filled with her herbs and roots from field and garden. An extra pair of heavy wool stockings was drawn over her shoes in winter--calf-length skirts were the common thing; hers had copious pockets. These pockets were always full and bulging, making her already ample form enormously wide. Aunt Nancy's legs looked well able to support their burden!
The cabin dwellers scattered in the clearings and settlements loved and respected her. She was always welcome at every pioneer home\endash it was an honor to entertain the doctor. There is a story of how a band of wolves followed her so close and howled so menacingly that she was glad to see the candle glimmering in a window of Ransom Davis' home and was still more thankful to get her horse safely into the log barn and herself into the house where the iron pot, with plenty of a venison boiled dinner still warm in it, was swung out from the chimney corner.
Calling a doctor in the days when Nancy Range brewed her herbs for all the ills that flesh is heir to, was often a problem. Only a few of the settlers owned horses; slow-plodding oxen were the common beasts of burden. When sudden illness made its appearance, it had to be serious if a doctor were to be sent for. A horse was procured if possible\endash it could make better time than a man or boy on foot. Men walked 20 and 30 miles, running if possible in order to make time. When they reached Nancy, she instantly dropped her herb brewing, her spinning or dyeing while a stout son saddled and bridled the roan mare and brought her to the door.
Through rain and wind this good woman was on her way to relieve the sick, through snow, belly-deep on her horse, over precipitous icy paths that wound the dipped through the winter woods and through inky darkness and torrid summer heat when the dense forests held the humidity like a sponge, she went to her patients, nor asked if she would be sure of her pay. She worried little about her pay\endash she might often be seen riding homeward with a quarter of lamb, a bolt of homespun or a sack of onions, accepted in payment for her services.
At her cabin home near the headwaters of the Little Brokenstraw Creek, Nancy had a large herb garden\endash it was 100 yards long and something like half as wide. In it grew the various simples she regularly employed in her practice-the foxglove, catnip, lobelia, peppermint, elecampane, smartweed, golden seal, spearmint, spikenard. Nearby was the forest where she gathered the fragile bloodroot, the fragrant myrrh, the waxen-flowered mandrake (May apple), the ruddy-rooted sassafras, tag alder, slippery elm and a score of others. If there was a blossom, leaf, bark or root that was good for something, she was familiar with it and knew just where to find it! Foxglove reduced dropsy; sassafras thinned the blood, yellow dock was a wonderful blood purifier, golden seal acted as a general tonic and was a cure for stomach ailments; boneset had few equals as a cure for colds. Queen of the Meadow was an herb much used by the Indians for colds. Nancy never loved Indians but she was nevertheless fond of saying that this and that among her collection of curatives was "reliable Indian remedy".
In the latter years of her life she administered to the souls of men and women as well as their bodies; she preached on Sundays in a log school house\emdash hers was the good old fashioned hell fire preaching with eternal bliss for the righteous and sulphurous suffering for the damned. When she was in her seventies and living in Erie County near the present site of Union City, Nancy announced she would not be here long and would preach her own funeral sermon the following Sabbath. A large congregation assembled on this most unusual occasion\emdash a woman preaching her own funeral sermon! Two weeks later she went to her reward.

1 —, History of the Counties of McKean, Elk, and Forest, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 938.

2 —, History of the Counties of McKean, Elk, and Forest, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 834, 938.

3 Emma Siggins White, Genealogical Gleanings of Siggins and Other Pennsylvania Families (Kansas City, MO: Tiernan-Dart Printing Co., 1918), Pg 128.

4 Emma Siggins White, Genealogical Gleanings of Siggins and Other Pennsylvania Families (Kansas City, MO: Tiernan-Dart Printing Co., 1918), Pg 130.

5 Emma Siggins White, Genealogical Gleanings of Siggins and Other Pennsylvania Families (Kansas City, MO: Tiernan-Dart Printing Co., 1918), Pg 131.

6 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 1001.

7 —, History of the Counties of McKean, Elk, and Forest, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 934, 943.

8 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 542.