George Plumer and Martha Dean
Husband George Plumer 1 2 3 4 5 6
Born: 5 Dec 1762 - Westmoreland Co, PA 1 4 5 6 Christened: Died: 8 Jun 1843 - near West Newton, Westmoreland Co, PA 4 6 Buried:
Father: Jonathan Plumer (1724- ) 1 2 5 7 8 Mother: Anna Farrell ( - ) 2 5 8
Marriage: 14 Nov 1821 9
Other Spouse: Margaret Lowrey (1765-1818/1818) 2 3 4 6 10 - Aug 1784 4 6 9
• Note: This may be the same person as : George Plummer.
Wife Martha Dean 5 9
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
• Note: This may be the same person as : Martha Simpson.
Children
General Notes: Husband - George Plumer
He was born in 1752. [HWC 1882, 644]
HWC 1882, 661 lists ten children for this couple but in another place [662] states that there were eleven.
Col. George Croghan having obtained a grant from the Indians of fifteen hundred acres on the Allegheny River, extending from Two-Mile Run up to the Narrows, Jonathan Plumer became interested in the grant, and in the summer of 1761, "by permission of Col. Henry Bouquet, built a cabin and made many valuable improvements thereon" (Binney's Reports, vol. ii., page 95, et seq.), and it was in that cabin that George Plumer was born.
When Jonathan Plumer built his cabin all that region was in a state of transition. The claim of the British had not been acknowledged by France, and the territory to the westward was held by force of arms. At the last, on the 21st of January, 1763, intelligence was received in Philadelphia that on the 3d of the previous November preliminary articles of peace between France and England had been signed, and as speedily as the army express of those days could reach Fort Pitt, the announcement there was greeted with great joy and thanksgiving. "This peace," says a writer in Mr. Craig's "Olden Time," "removed forever from our vicinity all fear of the arts and arms of the French." George, the son of Jonathan Plumer, was the first male child born "to the westward" under the "British dominion."
The portion of Croghan's grant owned by Jonathan Plumer was held by him till about 1777, when he sold it back to Croghan; but he, Col. Croghan, was then in financial troubles, and the whole was sold at sheriff's sale in July, 1783, and bought by Samuel Ewalt, whose old home on the land was yet in good condition one hundred years later. The Plumer cabin stood about one hundred yards east of the Ewalt mansion.
George remained with his parents, becoming a noted hunter and scout, and occasionally accompanying parties of surveyors.
Soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, Miss Margaret Lowrey, the youngest daughter of Col. Alexander Lowrey, of Donegal, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, came over the mountains to visit her sisters, Mrs. Daniel Elliott and Mrs. John Hay.
Col. Lowrey was a prominent, wealthy, and influential Indian trader of that day. Miss Lowrey first met with George Plumer in the store of Mr. Elliott, who introduced him quite kindly to her, as he had a friendly regard for the young "Buckskin."
They had occasional meetings, and became engaged; but Mrs. Hay, with whom Margaret was staying, opposed the match, but in the following August of 1784 they made a "runaway match" of it and were married.
The first home of the newly-married pair was on the right bank of the Pucketos (now called Puckety) Creek, near Fort Crawford, where the husband had taken up three hundred acres of land and built a log cabin and cleared thirty acres. Here they struggled against cares and trials new to the wife, with no hope of the father's forgiveness. He worked hard, clearing and cultivating the land. Deer, bears, turkeys, and other game were abundant, and afforded them all the fresh meat which they needed.
They were, however, often annoyed by Indians, and compelled to take refuge at night in the adjoining woods, and occasionally in Fort Crawford.
Their neighbors were Samuel Skillen, James Gray, Alexander Logan, and Robert Hays, who had married Mr. Plumer's sister Nancy.
George Plumer and Robert Hays being called on to perform one month of military service as scouts, an attorney of Pittsburgh took advantage of their absence to send a surveyor to survey their lands, and had patents taken out before they knew anything about it; by this they lost their all.
Up to this time Mr. Plumer had never met his father-in-law; their meeting was a curious one. Col. Lowrey had a body of land north of Hannastown, about which there was some litigation. Preparatory to the trial of the case, Col. Lowrey was out with surveyors, when George Plumer, who was hunting in that direction, accidentally met the party. The surveyors, with whom he was well acquainted, after shaking hands, introduced him to his astonished father-in-law; but the colonel, having been prejudiced against him by John Hay, was cold and distant, but eyed him sharply. Mr. Plumer, however, maintained his serenity, and making gradual approaches to the colonel, finally invited him to go home with him and see his daughter and grandchildren. But the colonel declined, and after shaking hands they separated.
But the old trader's heart was touched, and he followed his son-in-law in a day or so, and entering the cabin unannounced, overwhelmed his daughter and her little sons with embraces, and all was well again. After spending some days with them he told Mr. Plumer that there were three fine tracts of land near the mouth of Big Sewickley Creek belonging to Simon Gratz (with whom he was in extensive business relations), and for him to go and make a selection, and he would give it to him and his wife. This was speedily done, and in 1791 George Plumer built a house on the tract, at the mouth of the Sewickley, and moved into it.
After the Plumers had been two years on their new place Col. Lowrey made them another visit, and was so much pleased with improvements by Mr. Plumer's energy and industry that he gave him eight hundred pounds to erect mills.
The next year the colonel was out again, and found the saw-mill up, running, and masons at work on the foundation for a grist-mill. He was delighted, and gave Mr. Plumer three hundred pounds, and sent him burr-stones for his mill. The following year Mrs. Plumer and her sister Mary went East to see their father, and just before they started for home he gave each of them five hundred pounds.
Soon after his wife's return Mr. Plumer was taken down with fever, from which he recovered slowly. During his protracted illness a sudden freshet swept away his mill-dam, which in his feeble condition greatly discouraged him, and finally, in connection with his physician's warning against continued hard work, induced him to sell his mills, with some adjoining lands, to Maj. Michael and Adam Frichman.
In the following year Mr. Plumer built a large square log house on the upper portion of his farm, to which he removed, and in it spent the remaining portion of his days.
Early in 1808 he opened a store in connection with his large distillery and farming business. In 1812, Mr. Plumer was elected to the Legislature, and was re-elected in 1813, 1814, 1815, and 1817,
On the 24th of June, 1818, he lost his wife, the beloved of his youth. In her cultivated and refined society he had in a great measure over-come the disadvantages of imperfect education, and suited himself for the higher duties which, in the latter years of his life, he was called on to perform.
In 1820, Mr. Plumer was elected a representative to the Seventeenth Congress of the United States, and was re-elected to the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Congresses.
In 1826 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church decided to establish a theological seminary west of the mountains, and a board of directors, consisting of twenty-one ministers and nine ruling elders, was elected by ballot to report the following year a suitable location for it in or near Pittsburgh. Mr. Plumer was one of the nine ruling elders; he, however, did not favor the site finally selected on Hogback Hill, in Allegheny Town, but advocated the purchase of Braddock's Field.
In 1832, Mr. Plumer was again urged to permit his name to be used as a candidate for Congress, but he declined, and spent the remainder of his days in the quietude of private life.
We close this sketch of one of the representative men of the early day of Western Pennsylvania with the following notice of his decease from the pen of his nephew, the Rev. William S. Plumer, D.D., at that time editor of the newspaper Watchman of the South, in which it appeared in Richmond, Va., June 22, 1843:
"Died, near West Newton, Pennsylvania, on the 8th inst., Hon. George Plumer, who was a representative in Congress for six years from the Westmoreland district, aged eighty years, six months, and three days.
"It has often been said of him that he was the oldest man living born west of the mountains. He outlived all his brothers, of whom he had seven. He was by nature remarkably generous and kind. A more affectionate relative no man had. He has left a large family of children and grandchildren. His last illness continued more than four weeks. A large concourse of sympathizing friends and acquaintances attended his burial from his own residence, where his pastor, Rev. Mr. Gillett, delivered an appropriate and impressive discourse. By a fall in the winter he received considerable personal injury, but recovered so far as in the month of May to ride several miles to Sewickley Church, where he conducted a prayer-meeting with much ability and solemnity. That night he was taken with violent pains through his whole frame. From the first of this attack he believed it would be fatal, and set his house in order.
"His views of religious truth were clear and solemn and appropriate. The blessed doctrine of the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ imputed to believers lay near his heart and was all his hope. He recommended the blessed Saviour to all who visited him. He had spiritual conflicts in his last hours, but hope and faith triumphed.
"Thus has fallen asleep one of the best of men, who while living was
revered by all good men who knew him; one who proved what uprightness and the fear of God can do for those who are called to drink deeply of the cup of human suffering and sorrow.
"May his children and relatives (the editor of this paper is his nephew) and their descendants have like precious faith, and obtain like good report." [HWC 1882, 659]
General Notes: Wife - Martha Dean
from Indiana Co, PA
1 George Dallas Albert, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 658.
2 Samuel T. Wiley, Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: John M. Gresham & Co., 1890.), Pg 569.
3 Franklin Ellis & Samuel Evans, History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Everts & Peck, 1883), Pg 762.
4 William Henry Egle, M.D., M.A., Pennsylvania Genealogies; Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1896), Pg 19.
5 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 697.
6 John W. Jordan, LL.D, A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People, Vol. III (New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1908), Pg 37.
7 John W. Jordan, LL.D, A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People, Vol. IV (New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1908), Pg 72.
8 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 656.
9 George Dallas Albert, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 660.
10
George Dallas Albert, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 659.
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