RHEA-L Archives

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Subject: 2nd Page Samuel Rhea
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 22:16:23 -0400 (EDT)

We can picture the joy when the voyage was over at last and they arrived at
Chester, Pennsylvania. A resting place was found in Chester County,
Pennsylvania, wher on January 17, 1755, their second child, John, was born.
Of course the first thought of the new settlers was to obtain land of their
own.

One of the first things learned by Samuel Rhea, in his search for land, was
the fact that the Penn Proprietaries had given instructions to their agents
that they should separate the Scotch-Irish and German emigrants, as they did
not agree, and some rioting had resulted from ill feeling between them. The
Scotch-Irish were therefore restricted to the Cumberland Valley. The Rhea
family moved on to Mill Creek, five miles below Lancaster, for a time. Then
Samuel Rhea with his growing family journeyed to the Cumberland Valley, in
search of land, following the road from Lancaster to Carlisle. They traveled
on horseback through mud, across many streams, and finally reached Carlisle.

A description of such a journey is taken from the Diary of Rev. David
mcClure, 1774. "On this journey we overtook several families moving from East
to West. The man carried a gun and axe on his shoulders. The wife had the
rim of the spinning wheel in one hand and a loaf of bread in the other. Two
pack horses were loaded with the bare necessities of life. On top of the
baggage of one was a sort of wicker cage in which a baby lay, rocked to sleep
by the motion of the horse. There was a cow, which bore a sack of meal on
her back." It is probably a realistic picture of the Rhea family as it
travelled from Lancaster to Carlisle.

It is probable that the family stayed some time in Carlisle, as Cumberland
County ws then the scene of appalling Indian outrages, and the settlers were
fleeing to Carlisle, York, and other places of safety. The history of that
period shows that at this very time the fair Cumberland valley was suffering
from incursions of the Indians, and the savages wer committing the most
appalling outrages and cruelties. That they came int the neighborhood in
which Samuel Rhea located, near Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, is shown in
M'Cauley's Historical Sketch of Franklin County, viz: "On March 29, 1757, the
Indians killed one woman at Rocky Spring and carried off eleven prisoners. On
April 2, 1757, two men wer killed on Conochocheague Creek." A number of
others wer killed in the vicinity, and as late as 1763, a large body of
Indians invaded Franklin County, and murdered a number of persons, setting
fire to houses,etc. Most of the settlers fled for safety with their
families, some to the fort at Chambersburg, others to the fort at
Shippensburg, and others to Carlisle or York County. History says there were
as many as 1400 of the panic-stricken settlers in Shippensburg at one time.
After putting their families in places of safety, many of the fearless
pioneers returned to look after their abandoned homes, horses, cattle and
crops.

In the meantime, Samuel Rhea prosecuted his search for land, finally settling
in Green Township, in what later became Franklin County. Into this
neighborhood, Samuel Rhea and his family moved about 1757, braving the
dangers of the wilderness, wild beasts, and savages,---setling on the
Conochocheague Creek. William Lindsay made application to the Province of
Pennsylvania for a grant, warrant, or patent, number 1188 on Sept. 9, 1766,
for 370 acres, 143 perches of land. This tract which had been surveyed for
him, was situated in Green Township, which later became Franklin County.
Samuel Rhea made some arrangement with William Lindsay so that this
application was assigned to him and he received the grant on October 12,
1804, paying $268.21. At the same date he paid for and received warrants for
40 acres in Green Township; 124 acres in Green Township; and 111 acres in
GreenTownship. We believe that Samuel Rhea at once bought a farm, probably in
Green Township, where he moved, but in addition to the warrants for land paid
for in 1804, there is a receipt signed by Joseph Kebbe, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, for 110, for 100 acres of land on Chestnut Ridge, dated March,
1785, making a total of 746 acres owned by Samuel Rhea.

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