Rebecca Regina (Walters) Statler (abt. 1746 - 1826)

Born about 1746 in Conococheague Settlement, Antrim, Lancaster County, Province of Pennsylvania

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 20 Feb 1826 at about age 80 in Shade Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States

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Biography

Birth

Rebecca Regina Walter[s] was born about 1746 to Casper Joseph and Barbara Baer Walter at Rankin's Mill, Conococheague Settlement, Antrim Twp., Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She had at least three older siblings, John, Ephriam, and Mary; and at least one younger sibling as well.^[1]

Early Family Residence

On January 21, 1742, Casper Walter had warranted 400 acres of land in Antrim Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the Conococheague settlement. This farm became part of Cumberland County in 1750, and the 1750 tax list for Antrim Township, Cumberland County lists Casper Walter. This farm is now located in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, near the city of Greencastle.

In 1749, Casper Walter also purchased land in Augusta County, Virginia, (now Hampshire County, West Virginia), near the city of Romney, where his son Ephraim settled in 1765.

Family Massacre and Abduction by Indians

On August 8, 1756, the Casper Walter homestead in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania was attacked by Indians who were likely in league with the French forces at Fort Duquesne (today Pittsburgh, PA) and who swept through Lancaster County attacking British homesteaders.^[2] At the time the Indians attacked, Mr. Walter had been reading his bible on the front porch and the children were playing in the yard near the house. When he heard their screams, he grabbed his rifle from inside and ran to the door, where he was shot by an Indian’s rifle fire and fell dead in the doorway. The Indians also reportedly killed and scalped at least one of Casper’s neighbors, who was not identified by name.^{[1] [3]}

The Indians set fire to the Walter homestead and other nearby buildings, burning them to the ground; and carried off several of Casper's children, including Rebecca Regina (indicated to be about ten years old at the time); her sister Mary, age 11; brothers John, age 13; Ephraim, 12; and an unnamed younger brother, who was killed on the forced march. Reports also indicate other neighborhood children were abducted with the group. A neighbor boy that John Walter had been playing with at the time of the attack, managed to flee a short distance to Kesecker’s Mill, from which point an alarm went out to Fort Allison, about a quarter of a mile away. Capt. Potter and his men reportedly arrived in time to prevent Casper Walter from being scalped after his death. The dead were buried in a nearby meadow.^[1][4]

Rebecca Regina also appears to have been partially scalped during the raid, although she lived through the ordeal (and reportedly bore the scalping scar for the rest of her life). ^[5]

Local leaders and militia immediately pursued the raiding band. The band with the children first retreated to Kittanning Village led by native King Shingas, some 50 miles west of Fort Duquesne; but when that camp was attacked and destroyed by rescue forces led by British Col. John Armstrong in September 1756, some of the Indians (including King Shingas) escaped with the captives and retreated another 150 miles to a camp near what is today Muskingham, Ohio, where they were again located by British forces on the 14th of November, 1756.^[1]

Many of the captives at Kittanning were rescued by Col. Armstrong, among them a woman named Mrs. Mc Cord, who was captured by Indians at Fort Mc Cord earlier in 1756. She says that when it was known that the whites were upon them, orders were dictated to the squaws to flee to the woods with the captives. Rebecca was one of those taken to the woods.^{[1] [6]}

Return to Pennsylvania

A treaty was forged in 1762 to return Rebecca, her siblings, and other white captives to British hands. In the treaty, Shingas and his group agreed to surrender all the white captives held by them. They never fully fulfilled this obligation, but in early July 1762, King Beaver of the Delaware tribe, did agree to surrender captives held by him and King Shingas.^[1]

Some of the captives, including Rebecca, were returned at Fort Bedford, Pennsylvania on July 16, 1762, at which time families who had lost children in the prior decade were invited to come and try to identify any of their lost dependents.^{[1] [7]}

Notices had been given requesting all persons who had lost children, due to the Indians carrying them into captivity, to come and reclaim them. Many of these captives had been taken when very young and had grown up to boyhood and girlhood in the wigwams of the Indians, having in the meantime forgotten their own language as was mentioned earlier. Such was the case of Rebecca Regina Walter. When her mother arrived to see if she could recognize her children, she could not. Then she remembered how she used to sing an old German hymn to her daughter, many years before, and the child was very fond of it. In her dilemma, she thought of this hymn and began to sing it:

Alone, yet not alone am I,

Though in this solitude so drear,

I feel my Savior always nigh,

He comes my dreary home to cheer.

She had not finished the first verse before her long-lost daughter rushed into her arms.^[1]

The other children were also returned to the mother at a later date: Mary about a month later and Ephraim and John not until November, 1764, more than two years after Mary and Rebecca’s return. (Rebecca’s brother, Ephraim, while in captivity, had been "adopted" by a Shawnee Indian chief, named Yougashaw, to replace a son of his who had been killed.)^[1]

Marriage

Rebecca Regina Walter married Casper Statler soon after her return to the British in 1762. Casper Statler (Stotler) was born about 1740, and was reared in the Conochocheague settlement, that settlement now constituting Franklin County, PA. Casper and Rebecca are believed to have been reared in the same settlement and were probably playmates before her captivity in 1755. The first account of him is as an ensign in Captain Edward Wards’ First Battalion, PA Regiment prior to 1757. He fought in the French and Indian War under the command of Col. Armstrong at Fort Bedford, and this regiment accompanied Gen. Forbes army in the reduction of Fort Dusquesne at Pittsburgh in 1758, on their return. It is believed that Casper was stationed at Fort Bedford in 1759 when Rebecca and the others were received back from the Indians at the Fort.^[1]

Casper Statler, in marching along the Forbes military road over the Allegheny Mountains in 1758 and 1759, passed over the land on which he subsequently settled. This was then in Cumberland County, in 1771 in Bedford County and in 1795 in Somerset County. It appears that he was pleased with this Allegheny wilderness for he then went back in 1762 and selected the tract of land on which he, a few years later, erected his house and other buildings. This place, on the west slope of the mountain, where he first built his cabin, was known as "The Fields" and is now known as the Guy Lambert Farm.^[1]

According to David Husband, of Somerset Co., he stated in his annals that "Rebecca and Casper were married soon after her release and that they then moved immediately to the frontier." While it may be possible that they settled on the western side of the Alleghenies in 1762, they may not have done so until 1768, as there was a severe penalty against settlers on the Indian’s land west of the mountain until that year. On the 24th day of February, 1768, the Governor issued a proclamation warning settlers to leave their settlements. However, in the fall of 1768, the Indians released all of this land in Southwestern PA to the proprietors. There it was that Casper Statler and his wife settled on the land he had located in 1762. They built their home on land that Casper had passed over during his military service, while marching along the Forbes military road over the Allegheny Mountains in 1758 and 1759. This homestead was first located in Cumberland County, in 1771 in Bedford County and in 1795 in Somerset County. This place, on the west slope of the mountain, where he first built his cabin, was in Shade Township, known as "The Fields", and is now (c2010) known as the Guy Lambert Farm.^[1]

[Their] family consisted of the following children:

1. Casper Statler Jr. b. 19 Apr 1767 m. Anna Mary Lambert
2. Mary B. Statler b. 1768 m. John M. Lambert
3. Elizabeth Statler b. 1770 m. George Lambert
4. John Statler b. 1773 m.1 Catherine Lambert; 2 Molly ????
5. Samuel Statler b. 15 Jan 1776 m. Magdalena Mostoller
6. Emanuel Statler b. 1776 m. Catherine Mostoller
7. Eleanor Statler b. 1788 m. Peter Schell^[1]

Descendants

Casper Statler died 12 Apr 1798. In 1805, there was a Petition of Writ of Partition, setting forth that he had died seven years earlier, owning 19 tracts of land, containing a total of 4,332 acres. In two of the lands, an Emanuel Statler, probably his brother, but possibly his son, was part owner. These lands were appraised and divided among the children and they were under obligation to pay his widow, their mother Rebecca Regina, the interest on one-third of the appraised value of the land during her life. (Being a minor, a Mr. Casper Keller, was appointed guardian of Eleanor after her father’s death. Rebecca died 28 years after Casper, on 20 Feb 1826, at the home of a daughter.^[1]

In 1904, Mary Statler Sproat Hillegass died. She was a granddaughter of Rebecca. In her obituary, it retold briefly, the entire story of Rebecca Regina Walter, coinciding pretty much with details as set down in this narrative, with a few small differences, most notably the date of the captive exchange which was listed in this obituary source as 31 Dec 1764, with the exchange being made by Col. Bouquet at Carlisle.14 We know that the exchange of Rebecca, was made at Lancaster, two years earlier by the Moravian, Mr. Post.^[1]

An interesting story about Rebecca follows. "(Rebecca’s) years as an Indian captive fitted her for the wife of a pioneer settler. Long years after Casper and Rebecca had become settled in their mountain home, and after they had been able to supply themselves with the luxuries of a good home, through industry and management, a delegation of some twenty-five Indian chiefs and braves and a military escort were passing along the Forbes Road, along which the Stotlers lived, to a conference with the ‘Great White Chief’ of the white people.^[1]

It was evening when this delegation arrived at the Stotler Farm and the officers in charge asked permission to stop here for the night. The Indians built a fire near a large spring of water. Mrs. Stotler soon recognized several of the Indians as belonging to the tribe which had held her captive. Informing the officer in charge of the party this, she expressed the wish to see the old chief that she pointed out. The chief was then invited to come to the Stotler house.^[1]

Mrs. Stotler then spoke to the chief in his own language. He was greatly surprised and asked how she had learned the ‘Indian Talk.’ After she mentioned several incidents that had occurred in his family and tribe while she had been a captive, the old chief recognized her as the pale-faced squaw who had been with them so long and had fallen asleep when the white men came for her. The old chief was greatly pleased and asked about her brother. She told him that her brother, John, had returned to live with the Indians, which also pleased him."^[1]

Death / Burial

Rebecca Statler died Feb. 20, 1826, aged 90 years. She and her husband, Casper Statler, are both buried in the Statler Cemetery, on the Guy Lambert Farm, near Reels Corner, Shade Twp., Somerset Co., PA.^[8]

Rebecca’s tombstone reads:

"In memory of Rebecca Stotler

wife of Casper,

who departed this life February 20, 1826

Aged 80 years

Why do we mourn departed friends

Or shake at death’s alarms?

It is but the voice that Jesus sends

To call us to His arms.".^[8]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17} Whetstone, Rebecca. A Compiled History of Casper Statler and Rebecca Regina Walter.
2. ↑ Per family historian Rhonda Whetstone, we know that the murder of the family took place on a Sunday morning when Rev. Steel preached, as reports indicate that Mrs. Steel, and some of the neighbors had gone to church, while Mrs. Steel’s children and other children were at the Walter home in the care of Joseph Walter. Although several accounts written through the years list the date as July 8, it can be proven it was August by looking at a perpetual calendar. The 8th does not fall on Sunday in July 1756, but it does in August.
3. ↑ According to some accounts, Rebecca’s mother had gone to Sunday services and when Mrs. Walter returned from the church, she found her husband dead and the children either dead or gone and the house burned. Other, more believable accounts, state that Mrs. Walter was tortured and burned but did survive. She later married Henry Householder, a neighbor.
4. ↑ In all of the accounts of the children, I have only ever seen the names of those taken, so if there were older children (as at least one account indicates), who were not taken by the Indians but rather murdered there, there seems to be no record of them. Due to the fact that Casper and Barbara were married in 1735, and their earliest "known" child, John, was born in 1743, I think it may be safe to assume that the account of other Walter children being killed is correct, as they may have had several children between 1735 and 1743. What is known for certain is that Rebecca, her sister Mary and three of her brothers were taken. Rebecca was approximately ten at the time of the capture. Her brothers were John, age 13; Ephraim, 12; and an unnamed younger brother, who was killed on the forced march. Her sister Mary was 11. In later years, Rebecca recounted how they had forced her to carry her little brother, but after going some short distance, the Indians got tired of worrying about him and dashed his head against a tree. They were about to kill her also when a squaw who had taken a fancy to her (tradition says she was a beautiful little girl with piercing black eyes), saved her life and kept her until she was surrendered in 1762.
5. ↑ Once back in civilization, Rebecca Regina always wore a bonnet, allegedly to obscure her scalping scar. Upon her death, Rev. Sam Williams, who was asked by Rebecca’s son-in-law, Peter Schell, to perform the funeral service, recounted later how "upon arriving at the home, Mr. Schell took him to the room where the deceased lay. Approaching the corpse of a very aged woman, Mr. Schell drew back her cap and showed Rev. Williams that this woman had been scalped and then narrated the story of her capture by the Indians, 70 years before."
6. ↑ George Cox, who was captured by Indian forces in Feb. 1756, said, "When I got to Kittanning, there were over 50 white captives and Col. Armstrong rescued only 13 of them." It is clear that the other captives, including Rebecca and her brothers, were taken to Muskingam. It also appears that she and her brothers remained there until they were delivered in 1762 (This date is not correct for her brothers, they were not released until 1764.). In the meantime, per reports, they forgot the use of their own language and acquired the use of the Indian language. They also became acquainted with the habits and customs of Indian life.
7. ↑ Frederick Post, a Moravian missionary, was deputized to escort these Indians, with their captives, to Lancaster, PA. It is proper to state here, something in regard to this good man. In 1759, the Governor of PA, gave him a passport. It appears from the journal of Mr. Post, that he reached Fort Bedford on the 16th of July, 1762, at noon, where he was cordially received and remained one or two days. It is notable that Rebecca Regina Walter found rest within the same Fort in which her future husband, Casper Statler, had been stationed as an ensign in September 1759. There is a very detailed account in Mr. Post’s journal, telling how he led the Indians and their captives from Tuscarora, OH to Lancaster, PA in 1762.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} Find A Grave: Memorial #43965322

• Family Tree of Rebecca Regina Walter, FamilySearch.org (viewed 11 March 2018, 14:22), entry for Rebecca Regina Walter; contributed by various users.
• Ephriam Walters Family of Fayette Co., Pennsylvania. Timothy Steven Kubicek. Last Updated 18 January 2001.