French Jacob's place part 1 Traditional Cache
French Jacob's place part 1
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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French Jacob's place along the route to Brush Valley through the narrows. A stopping place since frontier times. You can follow the story in this 3 stop series cache. Please get photos and post for album- thanks We hope you enjoy the local history lesson.
There were two additional men in the patrol at French Jacob's Mill - Patrick Watson (killed a week later at the Watson homestead incident near in White Springs (buried in the Lewis Cem.) ) William Fisher who narrowly escaped when he slipped and a shot went just over his head into a log beam of the original mill. He died in 1819. The original mill was dismantled and the said beam was preserved and moved to the Reish farmstead nearby (original Christopher Johnson homestead) The beam was used in the barn construction. The farmstead is now owned by Judy Spence. Sadly, the beam was lost during a fire in the barn years ago.
(1) Tombstone Inscriptions of Union County Mary Belle Lontz a compilation of cemetery listings started using listings originally from 1926 pg 140
Soldier Buried on the Herman Farm Near Turkey Run School House South of Mifflinburg George Eztweiler Jr. killed by Indians May 18(sic) 1780
(2) You will also notice that the actual headstone erected in 1888 has the wrong date- He was killed May 16 not May 26 1780.
(3) The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania C. Hale Sipe Has, certainly, the most detailed account of the burials of the four slain rangers : my notes in ().
pg 618 States that: The following day messengers started for Philadelphia with an appeal for assistance ( See Mathew Smith letter dated May 18th) Also accounts of the physical neighbors surrounding the mill- Christian Shively and Henry Pontius.) A detail started for New Berlin, carrying the bodies of the slain soldiers . When John Clark's farm was reached (currently West end of Mifflinburg on Chestnut Rt (RT 45) across from VFW, recently auctioned) the party divided. Those carrying the bodies of Foster and Chambers were compelled, on account of the warm weather, to make burial in the Lewis graveyard. The other party, bearing the body of Etzweiler, buried it on the farm of John Brook, where the grave was marked: and the body of McLaughlin was carried to New Berlin, and buried in Dry Run Cemetery."
Also refer to account from John Blair Linn's Annals of Buffalo Valley
The French Jacob's Mill account starts on page 187
Annals of Buffalo Valley 1780 chapter starts on pg 180.
Please also see fellow Rev. War historian researcher specializing in frontier ranger history from 2010
(visit link)
Please also see The Millmont Times newspaper article by yet another fellow local researcher Tony Shively from 2006
(visit link)
see Mifflinburg Telegraph article with excerpt from Dr. Mary Belle Lontz.
(visit link)
Now being a living history geek- several friends and I have discussed this topic at length on several occasions and have a re-creation of the walking route, using googlemaps, that they traveled you can see topographically that these were the only way to pass through those parts of the ridges and valleys that are now roads. I have also attached a link to the satellite image of the burial location of Private Etzweiler.
(visit link)
(visit link)
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