William Herdman Mossman and Sarah Gillis
Husband William Herdman Mossman 1 2 3 4
Born: 1765 - near Belfast, Ireland 1 5 Christened: Died: 20 May 1851 - Mercer Co, PA 6 Buried: - Rock Ridge Cemetery, West Salem Twp, Mercer Co, PA
Father: John Mossman, Sr. (1709-1802) 3 4 7 Mother: Elizabeth Herdman ( - ) 3 4 7
Marriage: 1794 - Whitehall, Dorchester Co, MD 5
Wife Sarah Gillis 2
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
Father: Robert Gillis ( - ) 5 Mother:
Children
1 M Robert Gillis Mossman 6 8
Born: 1 Oct 1795 - Fayette Co, PA 8 Christened: Died: 25 Aug 1847 - Greenville, Mercer Co, PA 8 Buried:Spouse: Margaret "Peggy" Christy ( -1865) 6 9 Marr: 27 Sep 1821 8
2 M John Mossman 10
Born: Christened: Died: Bef 1888 Buried:
3 M Thomas Mossman 10
Born: Christened: Died: Bef 1888 Buried:
4 F Elizabeth Mossman 10
Born: Christened: Died: Bef 1888 Buried:Spouse: John McCrumb ( - ) 10
5 M William Mossman 10
Born: Christened: Died: Bef 1888 Buried:
6 F Lovina Mossman 10
Born: Christened: Died: Bef 1888 Buried:
7 M James Mossman 10
Born: Christened: Died: Aft 1888 Buried:
8 M Allen Mossman 10
Born: Christened: Died: Bef 1888 Buried:
General Notes: Husband - William Herdman Mossman
On reaching maturity his brothers, James and Francis, and sister, Eleanor, emigrated to Maryland, about 1783, where the last mentioned married and remained. James and Francis removed to Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Their siblings, John, William H., Nancy and Lillias, accompanied by their father, also emigrated to Maryland, landing in Baltimore on March 25, 1790. William H., Nancy, Lillias [and possibly their brother John] and their father removed to Fayette County, and joined James and Francis.
In the autumn of 1797 Francis and William H., with John and Thomas Gillis, visited the Shenango Valley and selected a body of land in what is now West Salem Township, Mercer County, lying along the Ohio line. They then returned to Fayette County, and the following year, accompanied by several more to whom they had spoken of the new country, again came out and made some improvements on their lands. In 1799 they moved their families, and became permanent residents of the township. The Mossmans included James, Francis, William H., Nancy, Lillias and their father. James settled across the state line in Muskingum County, Ohio. [HMC 1888, 607]
In the year 1781, in company with his father, John Mossman, then in his eighty-second year, and one sister, he emigrated to America, stopping in Baltimore County, Maryland, until 1795, during which time he married, and with his wife, his father, and sister, removed to Fayette County, Pennsylvania, where, leaving his family, he started upon a tour of exploration.
In the fall of 1797, an enterprising party of six men left Fayette county, to explore the unsettled parts of Allegheny County, then con-sidered the Far West. At Pittsburgh, two of their number turned back, but the remaining four, consisting of Thomas and John Gillis, and Francis and William Herdman Mossman, whose spirit of adventure had instigated the enterprise, continued the journey.
On leaving Pittsburgh, the travelers followed an old Indian trail north-ward, until about half-way between the present locations of Greenville and Mercer, when they struck north-westward, where a bridle path, marked by blazes on the trees, indicated the course taken by some previous travelers. Following this, they came to what is now West Salem township, and after a few days spent in exploring the country, they each made selection of a claim, and proceeded to girdle a few trees and build a small cabin. Their provisions were now becoming scarce, and, with anxious hearts, they turned their backs upon their new possessions and returned to their old homes, after an absence of about two months, having made the entire journey on foot, carrying their guns and knapsacks on their backs, and camping out for the most part at night. During the year 1798, they returned to establish more fully their titles, accompanied by several neighbors, who, after selecting claims, cleared one or two small patches, built several cabins, and then proceeded about the first of October, 1799, to remove their families, consisting of the Melvins, Cherrys, Baylies, Laugheads, the Gillises, and Mossmans.
The journey was tedious, as they had no means of conveyance but packing on horseback. Each settler was furnished with an iron kettle for making maple-sugar, and these were closely packed with sacks of flour, in order to make the least possible bulk, which was a very important consideration, as the horse must frequently pass through narrow paths filled with brush and low underwood. But breaking a kettle or displacing a pack were of trivial importance, compared with the dangers of lying out at night surrounded by howling wolves.
Mercer county, at that time, had neither wagons nor wagon-roads, and even the best paths had not been selected, nor the most suitable places for crossing the streams. The journey occupied some two weeks; the men, with the exception of the infirm, walking and leading the heavily-laden horses. Upon their arrival, each betook himself to his own cabin. The Melvins and Cherrys were on the east, and the others on the west of what is known as the Big Hollow, on the Vernon and Greenville road. The Gillises were located in a cabin near the house later occupied by James J. Mossman. How the little colony spent that winter can only be imagined, there being no record of its weary days. W. H. Mossman's family lived in the same cabin with the Gillises, until the following spring, (1800), when they removed to their own home on a farm where Mossmantown now stands.
This house, which was of the same type as all the others in the settlement, was about twelve feet square, with a smooth, ground floor, and bare walls of unhewn logs, and roof of chestnut-bark, its only door, being so low that an ordinary-sized person was obliged to stoop to enter, was made of clapboards, and hung on wooden hinges, and was fastened by a wooden latch on the inside, to which a tow string was attached, which passed through a hole in the door and hung upon the outside, and, as a token of hospitality, it was always found hanging out. When the inmates went from home, the door was locked by tying the string around a pin in one of the logs. In place of a window, there was an opening between two logs, and was closed, when necessary, by a board fitted to its size. The chimney was of the stick-and-mud pattern, rudely coursing its way upon the outside to the peak on the roof.
The furniture was not of the most delicate design, elaborately carved and beautifully touched with French burl, but was of such material as could be conveniently split with an axe from the surrounding forest. The bedstead consisted of one post and two rails, and was built in a corner of the room, by boring holes in the wall about four feet in one direction, and six feet in another, and the rails were mortised to the post by tenons cut with the axe. The table was formed by placing clapboards upon two sticks, driven into the wall in the cracks between the logs. Rough stools served for chairs, and two wooden hooks above the door first constituted the gun-rack, but were afterward replaced by the more dignified material of deer-horns.
During the fall of 1800, the game seemed to have left the woods, and for nearly two months the settlers were forced to subsist upon corn, pumpkins, and potatoes, and the colony were on the point of despair, when, taking his gun for a final trial, W. H. Mossman succeeded in killing a wild turkey. Others were shot shortly after, and deer became abundant again, and no want was experienced during the remainder of the winter.
In 1802, the Mossmans were called upon to pay the last tribute of respect to their father, who died at the residence of his son, William, at the advanced age of ninety-three, and was buried on the farm of his son, Francis.
He served in the War of 1812.
General Notes: Wife - Sarah Gillis
from Maryland
1 —, History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1877), Pg 84.
2 —, History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Its Past and Present (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 607, 819.
3 J. G. White, A Twentieth Century History of Mercer County Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1909), Pg 704.
4 Bertha Mossman Kaler, Concerning the Family of Mossman (Self-published, ~1912(?)), Pg 3.
5 Bertha Mossman Kaler, Concerning the Family of Mossman (Self-published, ~1912(?)), Pg 4.
6 Bertha Mossman Kaler, Concerning the Family of Mossman (Self-published, ~1912(?)), Pg 35.
7 —, History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Its Past and Present (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 606.
8 —, History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Its Past and Present (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 819.
9 —, History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Its Past and Present (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 1145.
10
—, History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Its Past and Present (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 607.
Home | Table of Contents | Surnames | Name List
This Web Site was Created 15 Apr 2023 with Legacy 9.0 from Millennia