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"Isaac Baldwin had eight sons, among whom were Isaac, Thomas, Waterman, Rufus, William and Henry.
Daughter Adah Captured by Indians. "The Elmira Advertiser says she was taken prisoner by the Indians at the Massacre of Wyoming, in 1778, at the age of sixteen, shaved, painted, and sent on foot, over the mountains and through the swamps, to the Delaware, at Easton. The paper proceeds to say that her experience, during her captivity among the Indians, was startling and remarkable, but I am unable to relate to it." Baldwin Genealogy, Charles Candee Baldwin, 1881, Pg 630.
Isaac and his sons in the Revolution
Isaac Baldwin, Sr., lived for some time at Canterbury, Windham County, CT; removed to Wyoming Valley, PA in 1772/3 settling in Pittston Township; living there at the time of the Wyoming Massacre in 1778. He left with other survivors [sic to CT]. He is found in the records of 1783 with his sons Thomas, Waterman, and Isaac Jr. The family moved to Newton/Newtown [now Elmira] in then Tioga [now Chemung] County, NY before 1791. (Harvey, O.J.: History of Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming (Valley) PA, vol. 3:1408).
Served as private with Sullivan's army with his son Isaac, who was wounded; they are both buried near the battlefield in Baldwin cemetery, Lowman (Chemung), NY where a monument was erected to commemorate the battle of Chemung (Cemetery Inscriptions). The battle of Newtown occurred 29 Aug 1779 during Sullivan's campaign against the Iriquois. (Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, 1779 in Pennsylvania and New York. Chemung Co. Historical Society, Elmira, NY) Revolutionary War: [DAR Lineage Book 81:351]
See more about this family in the Revolution below: Thomas and Waterman Baldwin.
Charles Candee Baldwin in his Baldwin Genealogy, 1881, adds about Thomas:
The following is from the "Elmira Advertiser: "Thomas Baldwin, or Sergeant Baldwin, as he is known in the "History of Wyoming," was one of our most noted Indian scouts during all the struggles between the settlers at Wyoming (**Pennsylvania**) and the marauding Indians. He was first among the foremost of that class of men.
The pages of Wyoming history everywhere tell of his daring and successful exploits, one of which Mr. Miner thus gives: 'On Friday, 7th of September, 1781, a band of Indians made an attack on the Hanover settlement, and took off Arnold Franklin and Roswell Franklin, Jr., the sons of Lieut. Roswell Franklin, who had shot an Indian the preceding June. Several horses were stolen and much grain in stack consumed by fire. In April following, Sunday, the 7th, 1782, the Indians, still burning with rage and intent on vengeance, rushed into Lieut. Franklin's house and took off his wife and four remaining children, one an infant; set fire to the building, which, with the furniture not plundered, was consumed to ashes.
Parties went immediately in pursuit. Sergeant Thomas Baldwin led seven determined men, with great celerity, taking an unfrequented course to head the savages. Arrived at Wyalusing, near sixty miles, they were satisfied by examining the fording place that the Indians had not crossed the stream; pushing on till they came to the mountain nearly opposite Asylum, a slight breastwork was thrown up, and arrangements made to receive the enemy. Every precaution had been taken to conceal the defence by setting up bushes in front; but the wary chief, on approaching, discovered the snare, changed the route of his party, leaving the path, and attempted to ascent the hill and pass Baldwin's party of fifty or sixty rods more easterly.
The attack was instantly commenced; a mutual fire was opened, and continued for some time with spirit, and yet with caution-the Indians being desirous to get of with their prisoners an plunder, and the pursuing party being afraid of hurting Mrs. Franklin and the children. In the midst of the firing, the two little girls and the boy sprang from their captors and found refuge with their friends. Instantly the savages shot Mrs. Franklin and retreated. The chief, either to preserve the infant prisoner as a trophy, or to save himself from being a mark for the American rifles, raised the babe on his shoulder, and thus bearing her aloft, fled. Having recovered three of the children, and seeing the bleeding remains of the mother, the Yankees suspended pursuit. Mrs. Franklin was buried as decently as circumstances permitted, and the children were brought safely to Wyoming, where they arrived on the 16th. Two of the men, Sergeant Baldwin and Oliver Bennet, were wounded, the former severely, but he enemy's fire."
Sergeant Thomas Baldwin and his brother Waterman were both members of Capt. Robert Durkee's Company, and afterward Capt. Simon Spaulding's Company, of which John Jenkins was Lieutenant. They served all through the Revolutionary war; were in the battle of Bound Brook, at Milestone, in the Hartley campaign in 1778, the Sullivan campaign in 1779, and in several other important actions, and ended active service at Yorktown in 1781, assisting at the capture of Cornwallis and his army."
During his last capture it was decided that he must be burned and preparations were begun to that end. The terrible ceremony had proceeded so far that "Wat", as he was familiarly called, had shaken hands as a last farewell to many of the prominent braves and was about to grasp the hand of Cornplanter, the famous Indian chief. His wonderful coolness and intrepidity at such a moment so struck the chief that he refused to allow the ceremony to take place and at once adopted Baldwin as his son. He was later on released and allowed to go to Philadelphia, then the seat of the United States government, to effect a treaty.
Mr. Baldwin had in his possession a silver mounted saddle, presented to him by General Washington, and a horse called Rhonoke, which is said to have performed marvelous feats. On one occasion, while pursued by some Pennsylvania officers, he fled over the hills in New York state instead of taking the river road. His trail was discovered and the men of the law were hot upon it. High upon the mountains Baldwin came upon the home of a family whose chief wealth consisted of a number of cows and whose best building was the milk house built on the side of the hill, over a spring. Watt had long before performed some kind act for this family which he had forgotten, but which the wife who happened to be alone on the premises, remembered. She saw as he rode up that he was in trouble and had heard the galloping of the horses farther down the hill. She suggested that he ride into the milk house and rest himself. It was at best a cooped-up place, but Rhonoke went into it as though he know why, never disturbing the gourds and pots lying on the stone floor and never making the slightest noise. The woman threw the officers off the track and Watt continued on his way to New York.
Mr. Baldwin was one of General Washington's messengers and was trusted
implicitly by the great man. When a surveying party was sent out to determine
the line between Pennsylvania and New York one of the number was killed
by an Indian. The tribe to which the murderer belonged was pursued and
compelled to surrender the guilty Indian to the whites. It was decided
to send him to Niagara for trial and a subscription was taken up. Only
fourteen cents was raised but Baldwin and a few others agreed to take him
to Niagara for that amount. It was the quickest trip ever recorded, as
they covered the distance of three hundred miles between sunrise and sunset
of the same day. Other interesting tales are told of Watt Baldwin, who
figured in many exciting adventures." History of the
Genesee Country (Western New York) Comprising the counties of Allegany,
Cattaraugus, Chautaugua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara,
Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates Illustrated
Volume III 1925 The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company Chicago Call #974.7
H2do vol. 3.
Charles Candee Baldwin, in his Baldwin Genealogy, 1881, adds about
Waterman:
The Elmira Daily Advertiser of Aug. 20, 1875, gives the following account of him: 'Waterman Baldwin was a resident of Pittston until 1798, and about that time removed to the neighborhood of Elmira. He was for some time an agent of the U. S. Government among the Indians in Western New York. In 1808, he was engaged in getting out lumber for marked in the neighborhood of Starkey, and had a sawmill and store there. He had been a merchant at Pittston. He m. Celinda Hazen.
Says the Advertiser: "Waterman, the third son of the elder Isaac, as in the list noted above, was a remarkable character. It is believed he filled to the full his measure of usefulness during the Revolutionary war, (in a capacity similar to that of Harvey Birch, whom Cooper has made immortal in the novel of the "Spy.") and under the immediate eye of Washington himself. At least Watt, as he was called, prided himself as "one whom Washington had trusted." He is the hero of Chedayne, in the novel of Ausburn Tamer, entitled "Chedayne of Katono," says the Elmira Daily Advertiser, of July 20, 1878. He possessed a silver-mounted saddle, which had been given him by the officers of the army, and a horse, called Roanoke, which performed some feats that were prodigies. Watt was also an adopted son of the famous Indian Chief, Cornplanter, who had been struck by his bravery and coolness, shown under discouraging circumstances. He did not take very kindly to the ways of civilization, preferring life on the mountains and in the woods, taking care of himself with this rifle and his knife. Innumerable incidents of a striking and humorous character were told of him, few of which have ever seen the light, but all of which deserve telling and preserving. He was among the taxables of Pittston, Luzerne county, Penn., in 1796."
Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania Massacre, scene of one of the great tragedies during the Revolution, a British sponsored Indian massacre of civilians, is near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, about 80 miles south of Chemung, New York, where the family migrated after the war.
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