proof-genealogy.com
![](photo%20not%20available.jpg) |
Johann |
Jacob Powley
"Jacob" |
Birth Date: |
October 14, 1744 |
Birth Location: |
Not known |
Death Date: |
June 21, 1814 |
Death Location: |
Ontario, Canada |
Burial:
|
Cataraqui United Church Cemetery
Cataraqui, Ontario, Canada |
|
Parents |
Father
Not known.
(?-?) |
Mother
Not known.
(?-?) |
|
|
Siblings (in birth
order) |
Not known.
|
Marriage |
Johann Jacob Powley married
Annetje (or Nancy) Van Voorst. |
|
|
Children (in birth
order) |
1
Hannah
Powley
1771-1787 |
2
William
Powley
1773-? |
3
Elizabeth
Powley
1775-1848 |
4
Francis
Powley
1776-1861 |
|
|
|
|
5
Jacob
Powley
1780-1871 |
6
James
Powley
1783-1838 |
7
Mary B.
Powley
1793-1864 |
8
Rebecca
Powley
1795-1882 |
|
|
|
|
Notes |
|
According to genealogist Wilman Davis, "an oft repeated
story about these two pioneers [Jacob and Nancy] came to me through
Charles Wendell David -- born (1885) near Onarga -- a graduate of
Northwestern University; Oxford in England; Wisconsin (M.A.), and Harvard
(Phd.) -- a top scholar."
Jacob and Nancy had settled on
a farm near Schenectady, New York. One day Jacob was busy ploughing
(about 1773 or 1774), when a roving band of Indians came, seized him,
killed his horses, and roasted the horse meat. Jacob was fortunate
to get a piece of the horse's shank. After the Indians feasted, they
took what meat they could carry and headed west across country, taking
Jacob with them. They made long, swift passages. By and by the
shank became unfit to eat and had to be thrown away. Jacob became
very weak. He was a small man, about 110 pounds, jet black hair,
piercing black eyes, very white skin. On coming to a river, which
now flows through Watertown, New York. Jacob played out and and
Indian raised his tomahawk to kill him. One of the Indian squaws
(who had evidently taken to Jacob), knocked the tomahawk out of the way,
picked him up and carried him on her shoulders across the river.
They went a short distance further where they had hidden their canoes,
paddled down the river, crossing the foot of Lake Ontario around the north
side of Wolfe Island to Kingston, Ontario. The Indians went to the
British garrison there where they sold Jacob for three strings of beads
and two hatchets.
Jacob then served three years in the British army,
getting a shilling a day and a pint of beer. Jacob sold his beer,
saved the money, and after the War of Independence, was discharged and
started home with gold hidden in the back of one of his boots. On
the road home he was met and robbed by another group of Indians, but they
did not find the gold in his boot. The rest of the trip home was
uneventful -- and he walked in on his wife Nancy after nearly five years.
Nancy, who had remained loyal to England all through the war, was hated by
her neighbors. So they bought a team of oxen and a wagon and headed
north to Canada, where, in due time, they arrived near Kingston. The
British government gave them about 600 acres near what is now known as the
village of Westbrook. |
|
![](Rita%20Stevenson%20ancestors/Powley%20-%20Drawing.jpg) |
Sources |
-
Brant
Gibbard's Genealogy Home Page,
http://home.ca.inter.net/~bgibbard/gen/
|
|