The Whitmore family is one of my favorite families to research. Their story contains massacres, kidnappings, rescues, love and reunions.
Peter Whitmore was born in Germany in the 1730s. He married Maria Sheets around 1760 in Schoharie county, New York. They had 9 children: Sarah, Philip, Mary, Catherine, Ann, Peter, George, John and another child whose name is unknown.
The family moved from New York to New Jersey to Columbia county, Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1778, Indian tribes showed up on their land. Peter, his wife Maria and their oldest son Philip were immediately killed. Sarah, Mary, Peter, George, John and the baby were kidnapped. The baby kept screaming and so it was killed as well. Catherine and Ann had been in the woods and were not found by the Indians.
Three tribes divided up the children. Sarah went with one. Peter and George with another. Mary and John with the last one. Sarah would marry another Indian captive, Horatio Jones. Peter and George were soon freed by their Indian abductors. Peter settled in New York and George eventually moved to Ohio.
Mary and John were adopted into the Indian tribe that captured them. Soon Daniel Servos rescued John and adopted him into his own household in Lincoln county, Ontario. John would marry Daniel's daughter Madgalena Servos. John is my 5th great grandfather. Their children were Daniel Servos Whitmore, Catherine Whitmore, Peter Whitmore, George Whitmore, Eliza Magdalena Whitmore (she married Canadian writer William Kirby), and Anna Whitmore.
Mary was rescued years later by her maternal uncle Jacob Sheets. They settled in Stormont county, Ontario where she married Henry Hoople. Decades later Mary and John were reunited through the help of William Kirby.
Daniel Servos Whitmore married Eliza Jane Lawrence. Their children were Louisa, John Young, Eliza, Ann, Daniel Servos Jr. and my third great grandmother Sophia Jane.
A wonderful, well researched book on the Whitmore family is The Whitmore Saga by W M Baillie.
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