Ann (Wallace) McIlduff (1745 - 1831)

Born 1745 in Drakemyre, North Ayrshire, Scotland

Descendants

Died 18 Aug 1831 at about age 86 in Export, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, United States

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Biography

Ann Wallace and her parents came Scotland with Rev. Cuthbertson who was a Reformed Presbyterian circuit rider in Pennsylvania. They were held in Northern Ireland for a year to minister to the Reformed Presbyterians (Covenanters) there, They arrived on 5 Aug 1751 at New Castle, DE (Pennsylvania) with other Covenanters and settled in Path Valley, Pennsylvania.

From Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania:

His (John McIlDuff's) wife, Ann, and her youngest child, Alexander, once experienced a thrilling adventure with just such a party of Indians. After the burning of Hannastown, the savages were returning to their villages in the forest fastness, and, not content with the devastation they had wrought in that village, were burning and destroying every habitation in their homeward path, slaying and scalping the owners and their families. Mrs. Mcllduff and her baby had gone for a walk just as the Indians arrived. She was able to hide with her child and dog in the bushes not far from their cabin, the exigencies of the occasion not allowing her to take further flight. The red men approached with their ear-splitting shouts and dashed into the home, reappearing with cries of disappointed rage at finding it unoccupied. A torch was quickly applied to the building and the band gathered around until the worst of the flames, to them the best, had subsided. The danger, imminent and threatening, in which the mother and her child stood at that time is realized when stories of massacres under similar conditions are related, and it was only because of the graciousness of an all-wise Providence that the story of the descendants of the then infant Alexander may be written. John Mcllduff arrived shortly after the raid and found his wife. He dedicated the place for a church. He was one of the organizers of the Seceder's Church, of which he was an elder until his death, which occurred September 22, 1816, at Duff's Mills, Westmoreland county. His wife's death occurred in the same place and both are buried in the Old Tent Graveyard at Export, Pennsylvania. He married Ann Wallace, of Scotch-Irish descent and had three sons : Alexander, John, Robert and one daughter Ann.

Sources

• Jordan, John W. Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (Lewis Historical Pub. Co., New York, 1915, Vol 1, p. 270-273)
• Find A Grave: Memorial #33444846