John Boyd and Mary Urie

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Husband John Boyd ¹

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           Born:  - Ireland
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

       Marriage:  - Cumberland Co, PA

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Wife Mary Urie ¹

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 10 Feb 1764 2
         Buried: 

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Children

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1 M David Boyd ¹

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           Born: Abt 1758
     Christened: 
           Died: 1830 3
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Elizabeth Henderson (      -      ) 1
           Marr: Cumberland Co, PA

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2 M John Boyd ¹

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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3 F Sarah Boyd ¹

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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4 F Rhoda Boyd ¹

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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General Notes: Husband - John Boyd

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He came [from Ireland?] to America when just a lad, and settled in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
While he was on a business trip to the house of Stewart, his children were all captured by the Indians, and his wife scalped and killed. The husband and father, on returning to his little home, found his cabin in flames, and the mutilated body of his wife lying upon the ground. The children were nowhere in sight, and the agonized father, after a frantic but almost hopeless search, gave up the quest and mourned them as dead. Meanwhile the little ones had been carried off by the Indians. The son John and the two daughters were never heard from afterward, but David was taken to Fort Du Quesne in 1758. He was then returned by the old Indian who adopted him, and remained with his father at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

On the 10th day of February, 1764, when John Boyd was at the house of his neighbor Stewart, a band of marauding Indians burned this house. John Boyd hurried home to give the alarm, well knowing the danger to his own house and home, when he discovered his cabin in ashes, and his wife and three children\emdash two boys and a girl\emdash had been carried away by the Indians. It seems that two Indians had straggled from the band that burned Stewart's house, and had surprised and captured David and his young brother while they were gathering bark at some distance from the house. They then entered the cabin and took what they wanted, took prisoners the mother and daughter, set fire to the house and destroyed it. The mother not being able to travel, the attackers took her into the woods a short distance from her home and murdered her. David was only about six years of age when he witnessed this tragedy, and he was compelled to carry the scalp of his murdered mother with him\emdash a circumstance which he never afterwards could forget. After the massacre of Mrs. Boyd the Indians separated, one squad taking with them David and the others his brother and sister, after which he never saw them again. On arriving at the Indian camp he had to undergo the usual ordeal of "running the gantlet," which consisted of running a certain distance between two files of Indians, including women and boys, each of whom tried to hit him as he went by, with a club or other weapon, and this he had to do for some time every morning. Noticing that one of the Indian boys seemed especially desirous of inflicting punishment upon him, he determined to resent his savage attacks and accordingly the next time he was called on to run the gantlet, he carefully noted his enemy, and on reaching him gave him a blow that sent him staggering. This pleased the chiefs and many of the older braves, and the former, declaring that he would make a good Indian, relieved him from submitting to the ordeal any further. Henceforth he became a favorite with the band. He was adopted by one of the chiefs as his son and also, with the usual ceremonies, as a member of the tribe, and remained with the Indians subsequently for three years and six months, during that time suffering many hardships and meeting with various adventures. About this time, as the result of Bouquet's expedition, there was a general delivery of white prisoners to their friends by the Indians, and the old chief who had adopted David, being now well advanced in years and expecting soon to be called to the "Happy Hunting Grounds," finally determined to take the lad back to Cumberland County and deliver him to his relatives, if they could be found. He accordingly carried out this intention, though David, who had become much attached to him, wept bitterly at being obliged to part with his protector. He resided in the neighborhood of his former home for about eighteen years, served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and also married and became the head of a family. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church at Silver Spring, in Cumberland County, under the ministrations of Rev. William Waugh. About the year 1786 he removed with his family to Washington County, and purchased a farm some three miles east of West Middletown, on the Washington road, and became a pioneer settler of this western country and one of the organizers of the Presbyterian Church at Upper Buffalo. His ashes lie in the beautiful cemetery at that place near those of his beloved pastor, Rev. Dr. Anderson.

1 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 902.

2 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 951.

3 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 903.