JACOB HUBER: HEARSAY
WITNESS TO BRADDOCK’S DEFEAT AT THE MONONGAHELA IN 1754
Chapter 1: Odds and Oddities of
Ancestry
Why do we tend to trace and place
prime importance on ancestors that share our current family name? Do we really believe that familial character traits
(if such things even exist) are shaped more by a Holzworth or Bell than by a
Metzger or a Hoover (Huber)? Simple
genetics and simple arithmetic suffice to tell us that our nature and nurture
endowments going back six generations must be more or less equally derived from
64 individuals and 32 sets of parents.
So let’s talk about our sixth
grandfather Jacob Huber [Hoover] (1730-1801). We know for certain that he served in the
revolutionary war as a private in Captain Heyser’s company at the battle of
White Plains in New York[1]. Both Maryland and Pennsylvania Archives
include information on this company given that citizens from both colonies were
enrolled.
We know about a Jacob Huber,
probably our Jacob Huber, by the chance happenstance that this Jacob Huber was
a hearsay witness to a particularly bad but critical moment in American
history. This is what he heard and then
testified to:
"The
Examination of Jacob Hovre, a Wagoner, belonging to the Army under the
immediate Command of General Braddock, taken under Oath before the
Honourable Robert Hunter Morris, Esqr., Governour of the Province of
Pennsylvania, at Carlisle, in the County of Cumberland, the 17th July, 1755.
"This
Examinant saith that he was in Col. Dunbar's Camp the tenth of July, Instant,
and was inform'd that Two Officers who had come from Fort Cumberland, and had
proceeded early in the Mourning with a Party of Indians to join General
Braddock, returned to the Camp about three Hours after the set out, and a
Rumour spread that there was bad News, and that the Officers could not pass to
the General by Reason of the Indians. That about nine or ten o'clock the
same Day this Examinant saw and spoke with several Waggoners who were come into
Col. Dunbar's Camp from General Braddock's, and who inform'd this Examinant
that Gen'l Braddock with his advanc'd Party of fifteen Hundred Men had been
attacked on the Ninth Instant within five miles of Fort Du Quesne by a great
many Frenc and Indians, who surrounded them; That the Action lasted three
Hours; That the most part of the English were killed; That General Braddock was
wounded and put into a Wagon and afterwards killed by the Indians; That Sr.
Peter Hacket and Cap'tn Orme were also killed. And this Examinant further
saith that he saw some SoLdiers return into Colon'l Dinbar's Camp, whom he was inform'd
had been of General Braddock's advanced Party, some of whom were wounded, some
not; also saw Two Officers carried on Sheets, One of whom was said to be Seit
John St. Clair, whom the Examinant was inform'dhas received Two Wounds; That
about Noon of the same Day Col. Dunbar's Drums beat to Arms, and both before
and after that many Soldiers and Waggoners, with other Attendants upon the
Camp, took to flight, and amongst others this Examinant; And further saith
not. "JACOB HUBER. "Sworn the day and Year above written
before "ROB't H MORRIS."[2]
How
did our sixth great grandfather happen to be at this place at this time, the
momentous moment, which some historians believe led most directly to the American
Revolution?[3] To answer this question, we will follow the
path taken by a young frontier surveyor and would-be soldier, the scion of a
well-connected Virginia family with a significant interest in the Ohio Company,
land speculators with enormous financial incentives to secure the Ohio River
valley for their heirs and their colony.
We will then return to the genealogical data and tie in the fortunes of
our humble Pennsylvania Dutch forbearers to the events and fallout of the
crushing defeat of General Braddock near Fort Duquense (Pittsburg) on July 9,
1755, and the escape unharmed of his callow twenty something aide-de-camp, the
surveyor George Washington.
[1] Revolutionary War record, Maryland Archives, Vol 18, pg
263-264, roll of Capt. Heysers
Co., date 10/23/1776. Among the privates
on the muster roll appears the name of Jacob Hoover; pg. 218. Jacob Hoover,
German regiment, discharged, 10/12/1779 in PA, archives 5th series, Vol. 3, pg.
793-794. Capt. William Heysers Co. Pvt Jacob J. Hoover went to Bedford Co., and
died there. (Ref S.A.R. Register pg 405.) Copies of verified original source
documentation of the service and his lineage is on file at the DAR library under
Patriot No. A057844. The documentation includes family bible
records, wills, muster rolls, tombstone images, among other things.
[2] Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania: From the
Organization to the Termination of the Proprietary Government. Vol. VI,
Containing the Proceedings of Council from April 2d, 1754, to January 29th,
1756, both days included. Harrisburg 1851 at pages 483-484. E-book
free download at www.books.google.com. PDF copy on file in DAH Library.
Depositions of Mathew Laird and Michael Hoover (relationship to Jacob Huber not
yet determined), at pages 482-483, are substantially the same as the deposition
of Jacob Huber. 2. The three
depositions are cited in Francis Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe: The French and
Indian War, ISBN: 1-4209-3106-7 at page 107. Digireads, (Stilwell, KN
2008) and in Francis Parkman, "Parkman: France and England in North
America” Vol. 2, ISBN 0-940450-11-9 Library of America (Penguin Putnam Inc.
1883).
[3] The first identification of our Jacob Huber to the
Jacob Huber of the deposition appears in Hulda Hoover McLean, Genealogy of the Herbert Hoover Family
at 36 (Imprint Stanford University,
Hoover Institute 1967; copy at DAR Library, DC). “Jacob Huber served under Gen. Braddock
against the French and Indians in 1775 [sic]…” No source document is
cited. Confusion in the relationships,
if any, in the various Huber families results from German naming patterns in
which a few common first names such as Jacob and Johannes (John) have a high
frequency, especially among the children of siblings. For more on the difficulties of positive
identification and professional quality genealogical research on the
Huber/Hoover lines see, Kris Hocker, "My
Hoover Research,"
at http://www.krishocker.com/hoover-research. (accessed 5 May 2013).
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