Demons in Human Form: Adin Beebe and Philip Crysler

Thomas Cole, View on the Schoharie, 1826, Fenimore Art Museum

After the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired at Lexington and Concord, a significant number of American colonists adopted what could be described as wary neutrality. In the case of the colonists living on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River in present-day Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, this neutrality lasted for almost two years.

But by early 1777, many of them had decided that they had to demonstrate their opposition to the Revolution. On March 31, 1777, John Butler, the Deputy Superintendant of the Indian Department, wrote from Fort Niagara that he had "received letters from seventy of the inhabitants of the Susquehanna by one Depue, expressing a desire of entering into His Majesty's service as Rangers." One of the these letters was likely authored by my fifth great-grandfather, Joshua Beebe.

244 years later it is difficult to know why Joshua became a Loyalist. Joshua, the son of Joshua Beebe (1713-1797) and Hannah Brockway (1718-1819), was born in East Haddam, Connecticut in 1738. About 1760, he married Mary Secord who had been born in New Rochelle, New York in 1736. The births of Joshua and Mary's two oldest children, Adin (1761-1843) and Secord (1764-1859), were registered in Ashford, Connecticut.

According to family tradition Charlotte (1767-1852) was also born in Ashford, while Amasa (1769-1852) and Asa (1772-1861) were born in York, in southern Pennsylvania. No primary sources have been found to support this but York appears in Roy Beebe's An Ordinary Family: Extra-Ordinary Times, and in Ken Annett's article on the Beebe family published as part of his Gaspe of Yesterday series. In her article, "In Search of Mary Beebe," Alex Newman speculates that Joshua and Mary had settled on the Susquehanna as early as 1769 but had fled to the safety of York during the First Pennamite War.

The Susquehanna River at Mehoopany

Joshua and Mary's daughter Sarah was born on January 6, 1775. Sarah is known to have been born on the Susquehanna, which suggests that Joshua and Mary had settled there in 1774 at the same time as Mary's brothers Peter and James Secord. James and Peter farmed near Mehoopany, while another brother, John Secord, was located downriver near Tunkhannock. All four appear on the 1776 tax assessment list for the "Up the River" district.

In a letter dated April 1, 1871, John Secord Beebe (1813-1872), a grandson of Joshua and Mary wrote to his half-brother William Thomas Beebe (1840-1918) and described the general location:

The Secords with your grandfather Beebe moved to the Susquehanna the river after winding throug[h] the mountains came into a flat country called Wyoming leading down to the Chesapeak Bay. They were amongst the first that settled on the [illegible word] lands amongst the mountains, one of there farms was the first as they came to the mouth that is to say the country was flat or more level from that toward the Chesapeak each one of the four of them had taken as heads of family one of those [illegible word] flats being a large flat on one side and mountains on the other, opposite your grandfathers farm in the river was an island by some called Long Island whilst others called it Peach Island.

The North Branch of the Susquehanna River rises at Lake Otsego in New York. It flows southwest and crosses into Pennsylvania twice before merging with the Chemung River at Tioga Point. The river then flows southeast through the Endless Mountains in Pennsylvania. After emerging from the mountains the Susquehanna turns to the southwest and flows through the area known as the Wyoming Valley until it merges with the west branch at Sunbury.

Johannes Ettwein's 1768 Map
of the North Branch. Source:
Unity Archives, Herrnhut, Germany

In the 18th century, the area in which Joshua and his brothers-in-law settled was claimed by both Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Disputes arose over land ownership between the "Yankees" who purchased their property from Connecticut's Susquehanna Company, and the "Pennamites" who had acquired title from Pennsylvania. The skirmishes and mutual harassment that occurred are referred to as the Yankee-Pennamite Wars.

By the start of the Revolutionary War, the Wyoming Valley was firmly under the control of the settlers from Connecticut. In January 1774, the Wyoming Valley had been incorporated into a town named Westmoreland and annexed to Connecticut's Litchfield County. This was done despite Pennsylvania having formed Northumberland County in 1772. In December 1775, an attempt by Pennsylvania to forcibly evict the Yankee settlers failed, and in October 1776, Westmoreland was formally established as a county of Connecticut.

Most of those who had settled "up the river," however, had either acquired their land from Pennsylvania or were squatters. The tension between Yankees in the Wyoming Valley and those upriver was such that at a meeting held in January 1776 in Wilkes-Barre it was resolved that a committee:

... proceed up the river and let the people known that the inhabitants of Westmoreland are not about to kill and destroy them and take any of their effects as reported, but they may keep their effects and continue in peace on reasonable terms provided they conform to the laws of the Colony of Connecticut and the Resolves of the Continental Congress, and confirm their intentions by signing the subscription paper for that purpose that said committee will produce.

Undoubtedly, Joshua's decision to remain loyal was influenced by his wife Mary's brothers. All three became rangers in the Indian Department at the same time of Joshua. In October 1775, James Secord had been appointed captain of the Ninth Company, 24th Regiment, Connecticut Militia, but was replaced the following June because he was "suspected and accused of Tory proclivities."

Tioga Point

In March 1776, John Secord had been arrested and accused of spying, providing intelligence to the enemy, and helping escaped British officers to make their way to Niagara. John petitioned the Continental Congress complaining of the infringement of his rights. Congress referred his case to the Governor of Connecticut, and John was freed. John subsequently abandoned his farm near Tunkhannock and moved further upriver to Tioga Point at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chemung Rivers.

In the spring of 1777 Joshua Beebe and his 15-year-old son Adin, left their farm on the Susquehanna and headed for Fort Niagara. They were part of a substantial group that included James Secord and his sons Solomon, Steven, and David; Peter Secord and his son Cyrus; John Secord and his son John; Abraham Wartman and his son Adam; and Jacob Bowman with his son Adam.

John Butler noted the arrival of the Susquehanna Loyalists at Niagara in a letter to Governor Guy Carleton on April 8, 1777:

Since my letter to Your Excellency of the 31st ulto, several people have arrived from the Susquehanna, who inform me of more being on their way and more to follow them in a few days.

Joshua and Adin appear on "A List of Persons Employed in the Indian Department" dated Niagara, June 15, 1777. The following month Butler brought his rangers to Oswego to rendezvous with Brigadier General Barry St. Leger. St. Leger's expedition left Oswego on July 26 and travelled overland to Fort Stanwix which was besieged beginning on August 2. On August 6, Joshua, Adin, and the other rangers were part of the ambush of American reinforcements known as the Battle of Oriskany.

The Siege of Fort Stanwix was lifted on August 22 after the British received misleading intelligence that an American relief column commanded by Major General Benedict Arnold was approaching. A few days later at Oneida Lake, St. Leger gave leave to the Susquehanna rangers "to go home for their families and to bring off some cattle."

Joshua was with the group that went home since his son Joshua was born the following year. Joshua and Adin evaded capture that winter when a Patriot force commanded by Nathan Denison arrested "sundry Tories" and sent 17 of them to prison in Connecticut. Among the prisoners were Jacob and Adam Bowman who were released in 1780 but then recaptured a few weeks later.

In September 1777, John Butler received permission to form the provincial regiment known as Butler's Rangers. Butler's instructions from Governor Carleton were to place volunteers who could speak one or more of the Haudenosaunee languages and were "acquainted with their customs and manner of making war" into the first two companies. Most of the Susquehanna loyalists were transferred from the Indian Department into Butler Rangers. When Joshua and Adin returned to Fort Niagara they were placed in the company commanded by John Butler's son, Capt. Walter Butler.

On May 1, 1778, the two companies of Butler's Rangers left Fort Niagara for Tioga Point. On June 28 the Rangers, accompanied by a few hundred Haudenosaunee warriors,  set off by canoe down the Susquehanna, past the farms of Joshua and his neighbours. On July 1, the Rangers captured Fort Wintermoot and Fort Jerkins, and on July 3, at the Battle of Wyoming, routed a Patriot force of 360 commanded by Nathan Denison and Zebulon Butler. Forty Fort surrendered to Butler the following day.

At some point shortly before or after the Battle of Wyoming, Mary Secord and her children abandoned their farm on the Susquehanna and travelled upriver to Tioga Point. In her claim for losses, Mary reported crops left in the ground ("wheat, corn, potatoes and turnips") confirming an early summer departure. John Secord Beebe's letter provides additional details:

On their march up the river on there way to Canada they came to a place called Tellga point being a point of land formed by another river coming into the main river. There they encamped for several days. There your grandfather bade his wife and family farewell, bound to N. Y. on business of importance from which he never returned. There also was your father born 3 or 4 days after his father left.

According to his baptism record, Joshua and Mary's son Joshua was born on 29 Jul 1778. Tioga Point was where Mary's brother John had settled after he left his farm near Tunkhannock. Joshua, John Depue, and Thomas Hill had been sent with dispatches for General Sir Henry Clinton in New York.

In her Claim for Losses, Joshua's widow, Mary described what happened:

I Mary Pearson late Mary Bebee Widow to the deceased Joshua Bebee Farmer residing at Susquehannah in the Province of Pennsylvania was driven from our Property since the late unhappy Dissentions in America on account of my Loyalty to His Majesty and attachment to the British Government and my Husband and Son joined the British Army under Colonel Butler at Niagara 1st April 1777 and was sent with Dispatches from Niagara by the order of Colonel Boulton and Colonel Butler to the Royal Army at New York and delivered his Charge and took the Small Pox and died.

The "Evidence of Mary Pearson" was heard at Quebec on July 31, 1787. The commission added the following information:

Her late Husband Joshua Beebe was born in America, in 1775 he was settled on the Susquehanna, he never joined the Rebels, but joined Butler’s Rangers in 1777, he went with an Express to New York from Susquehanna and died of the Small Pox in 1778 – Claimant came into Canada in 1778 and is now married to Christopher Pearson. She has 7 Children by Beebe in Canada, Eden [Adin] at Niagara 23 years – Seacord [Secord] 21, Charlotte 20 married to S. Chatterton at Chaleur, Emeiser [Amasa] 18 – Easse [Asa] 15 – Sarah 12 – Josh 10

Finally, there is the certificate of John Depue attached to the Upper Canada Land Petition of Elias Smith:

I do hereby Certify that Elias Smith, now of this place in the Year 1778 when I was on Express with a packet in company with Jonathan Bebe and Thomas Hill from Niagara to New York was recommended to him as being a true subject to His Majesty and that we might rely on him for any assistance we might want (he then living on Cortland Manor) in order to forward us through safe and on our applying to him he then did furnish us with provision, and kept us concealed in the woods till he got a Young Woman to go to New York (as it was impossible for a Man to go through the American lines without being strictly examined) and return back that me might know which to go to avoid the Guard. We then thought it most safe to divide the letters, and Jonan Babe & Thos Hill went and got th[r]ough safe.

The Haldimand Papers include a State of Subsistence prepared by Walter Butler dated 24 Dec 1780 that records Joshua Beebe's death on 28 Oct 1778.

Mary and her children would have been escorted to Fort Niagara in August or early September, well before the retaliatory Hartley Expedition reached Tioga Point in late September. Fort Niagara, however, was ill-equipped to support large number of refugees.

On November 11, 1778, the commanding officer of Fort Niagara, Lieutenant Colonel Mason Bolton, wrote to Governor Frederick Haldimand:

I have sent down to Montreal a considerable number of families who have suffered a great deal of distress on account of their attachment to Government. Many of them have not only been driven from their lands, but plundered of everything they had in the world and came in here in a ragged, starving condition. I have ordered some blankets, &c, to be bought for sufficient to serve them to Canada and thought it best to remove them from this post where provisions are of so much consequence.

Two days earlier, Thomas Carleton, Quartermaster General, had written to Haldimand from Montreal that, "22 families of loyalists (111 persons) are on their way from Niagara; some have arrived, and in want of clothing." Later that month Carleton had reported an additional 12 families (84 persons) from Niagara and that had he billeted them "on the inhabitants" of Point Claire on the Île de Montréal.

It is quite possible that Mary and her children were with the second group as "Widow Beebe" with six children were recorded in billets at Point Claire in July 1779. They would have travelled by boat and batteau to Montreal once news of Joshua's death had reached Niagara. As a soldier in Butler's Rangers, Adin remained behind.

Return of Loyalists
October 24, 1779

In the summer of 1779, Mary and her children were sent downriver to the newly constructed refugee camp at Machiche on the north side of the St. Lawrence River west of Trois-Rivières. Here they would remain until June 1784.

At Machiche, refugees were housed in one of at least twenty square timber building measuring eighteen by forty feet. Each building had a double chimney and was divided into two rooms. The Beebe family would have occupied one room while another family occupied the second. Beds, blankets, bedclothes, cooking utensils, shoes, and clothing were provided. Cast iron stoves were installed, several acres of gardens were planted, and a number of masonry ovens were built. By the time of Mary's arrival a schoolhouse had also been constructed and a schoolmaster had been appointed.

On August 15, 1781, Mary had her five youngest children baptised at Trois-Rivières. On October 1 of the same year she married Christopher Pearson (1736-1827), a widower with two daughters.

Joseph Bouchette's 1815 Plan of the District of Gaspe. Source:
 Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Centre, Boston Public Library

In February 1784, and again in May, a notice was published in the Quebec Gazette offering free land and passage to Loyalists willing to settle on the Baie des Chaleurs. In June 1784, 315 refugees and discharged British soldiers boarded the brigs Polly and St. Pierre, the snow Liberty, the Hoy St. Johns and four whaleboats, and sailed for Paspébiac on the Gaspe Peninsula. The family of Christopher Pearson which now included Mary and her children were recorded aboard the Polly.

Charles Robin (1743-1824)

Paspébiac was the location of a fishing station operated by Charles Robin, a native of Jersey who had come to the Gaspe in 1766. In 1777 it was home to several families of Acadians who Robin had recruited from the thousands who had been deported to France during the Seven Years War. Further to the west was the settlement of Bonaventure which had been established by Acadian refugees in 1760. Accompanying the loyalists aboard the Polly was Major Nicholas Cox, the Lieutenant Governor of Gaspe.

Cox relates how the Polly was twice driven back to Bic by a gale that continued for five days. When the fleet reached Paspébiac, Cox had representatives from each ship sent ashore "to view the land," however, the Loyalists, "could agree about any one thing." The ships then headed for the Acadian settlement of Bonaventure where they was safe harbour for the ships and shelter for the women and children. While at Bonaventure, Cox convinced the loyalists to settle the unoccupied land to the west of Paspébiac, which became known as Little Paspébiac:

My coming here has opened the eyes of the Loyalists, and they are now convinced that this land is not so good as at Paspebiac ... I believe that they would have been glad to have taken possession of their [the Acadians] improvements but after convincing them of the impossibility of interfering with the inhbitants or their land, they have agreed to return to Little Paspebiac.

The Acadians had earlier impressed Cox as a "sober industrious people" who "are improving and cultivating the land which produces exceedingly fine wheat, barley and oats," so he was reluctant to displace them. Cox also received several letters from Charles Robin expressing concern about the impact the loyalist settlement would have on his "interests" at Paspébiac. In one letter, Robin wrote:

Give me leave also to recommend to your attention the old settlers of this place who have already improved the lands about their houses in confidence that their labour and industry would not be taken from them.

Cox's solution was to reserve 1000 acres for Charles Robin and 50 acres for each of the Acadian families at Paspébiac. On 3 Aug 1784 the loyalists drew for their lots. Christopher Pearson received 600 acres as the father and step-father of seven children. Secord Beebe, who was 19 years of age, received 100 acres in his own name.

1785 Survey of Little Paspebiac. Source: Library and Archives Canada

Mary remained in what became known as New Carlisle for the rest of her life. Secord Beebe left New Carlisle for the Wentworth Valley in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. Charlotte Beebe married Samuel Chatterton, a discharged soldier of the 31st Regiment of Foot who had arrived at New Carlisle aboard the Liberty. Amasa Beebe never married but became Protonotary of the District Court of Gaspe. Asa married twice, while his sister Sarah married Andrew Caldwell. Sarah's 1823 gravestone is the oldest monument in New Carlisle's Presbyterian burial ground. Joshua Beebe married three times and died in 1844. His third wife, Mary Watt, was 35 years younger than Joshua and also younger than the five children of his first marriage.

While the exact date of her death is not known, two letters from Adin Beebe to his brother Amasa show that Mary lived past well her 100th birthday. In his letter of 1838 Adin writes, “In yours of 1836, I find that our mother is still living."  In his letter of 1843, however, he reflects on the “demonstrated frailty of man” and gives "thanks to those whom I esteem for the attention they paid our deceased mother.” 

Adin Beebe continued serving with Butler's Rangers until the end of the Revolutionary War. As a member of Captain Walter Butler's company he was likely at the Cherry Valley Massacre in November 1778 when Butler and the Mohawk war leader Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant) failed to prevent Seneca warriors from slaying thirty non-combatants. He may also have been at the Battle of Newtown in August 1779 when the Haudenosaunee and Butler's Rangers made an unsuccessful stand against the Sullivan Expedition. 

Assuming Adin stayed in Walter Butler's company, he may have been one of 150 Rangers who participated in the Battle of Johnstown on October 25, 1781, and could have been present when Butler was killed at West Canada Creek on October 30, 1781. A letter written by Lieutenant Alexander McDonell of the Rangers describes what happened:

We had no other encounter until the 30th at Canada Creek, which we had scarce crossed when the rebels appeared on the opposite side. They expected to overtake us before we could ford the creek, which is very deep and rapid. As soon as they perceived us, they gave a general discharge. We returned the compliment and kept up a pretty brisk exchange of such favours for near ten minutes, when the gallant Captain Butler was unfortunately shot through the head by a rifle ball. The loss of this active and promising Officer cannot be too much lamented.

On the Return of Loyalists at Niagara dated November 30, 1783, Adin appears as a corporal in Lieutenant Colonel's John Butler's Company. By the time Butler's Rangers disbanded the following summer he had been promoted to Sergeant. Rather than rejoin his family on the Baie des Chaleurs, Adin decided to "settle and cultivate the Crown Lands opposite to Niagara," and was granted 300 acres fronting on Lake Ontario in Louth Township.

Adin married sometime between July 1784 and December 1786.  It is clear from Adin Beebe's Upper Canada Land Petitions "that his wife is Daughter of Philip Chrysler." The consensus amoung Beebe researchers is that her name was Dorothy. The name Dorothy, however, does not appear in any primary sources. The 1783 return shows Philip Crysler and his wife Elizabeth had a daughter Elizabeth, aged 18, a daughter Margaret, aged 16, and a daughter Lehen [Magdalena), aged 7. Elsewhere in the return are 14 year old Heironymus Crysler and 15 year old John Crysler who had both joined Butler's Rangers. The births of all five are recorded in the records of St Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Schoharie, New York.

The most likely candidate for Dorothy is Margaret who was born on November 1, 1766. Most children of German descent were given two personal names, however, in the St Paul's Evangelical Lutheran records, only one name typically appears. Margaret, therefore, may very well have been Margareth Dorothea.

1790 map showing the Schoharie River and the headwaters
of the Susquehanna. Source: Harvard University Library

Philip Crysler, the son of Hieronymus Krausler (1713-1751) and Maria Margareth Braun (? - 1753), was born in the Schoharie Valley about 1741. His grandparents had been among the nearly 3,000 German Protestant refugees (Palatines) who had arrived in New York from London in 1710. Philip married Elisabeth Braun on November 19, 1762, and moved northwest to New Dorlach in 1769.

Philip enlisted in the King's Royal Regiment of New York on August 15, 1777 during the Siege of Fort Stanwix. He appears on the regiment's muster roll dated January 21, 1778 at Laprarie near Montreal. The following year he transferred to Butler's Rangers.

In October 1780, Philip took advantage of a large scale raid by British forces on the Schoharie Valley to bring his family from their home in New Dorlach to Niagara. The joint raid by the King's Royal Regiment of New York, Butler's Rangers, and regulars from the 8th and 34th Regiments, was commanded by Sir John Johnson. Accompanied by Mohawk, Seneca, and Cayuga warriors, the expedition left Oswego on Lake Ontario on the 2nd and arrived at the head of the Schoharie Valley on the 16th. Gavin Watt in The Burning of the Valleys writes that the following day Johnson's forces, "marched 12 miles, fought several skirmishes, invested a fort and created a conflagration beyond imagination. For men who had already traversed a wilderness over rough trails and on very short rations, it had been exhausting."

"Murder of Catharine Merckley" in History of
the Schoharie Valley by Jeptha Simms

Early the following morning, while Johnson's force prepared to advance to the Mohawk River, Philip Crysler accompanied by two Rangers, and 17 Mohawk warriors led by headed west to New Dorlach. As Philip helped his family prepare for the trip to Niagara, the rest of the party went to  the farm of Michael Merckley. 13-year-old John Merckley and his sisters Anna and Elizabeth were taken prisoner as was their cousin Martin and a young lodger. When Merckley and his niece Catharine arrived home they were shot dead and scalped. The warriors then proceeded to the farm of Sebastian Frantz. Sebastian avoided capture but his son John was seriously wounded, and his wife and other children were taken prisoner. One child, Henry, later escaped which so angered his captor that John was killed and scalped.

Hearing gunfire, Elizabeth Crysler urged Philip to "put on his Indian clothing" and save the Frantz family as they had helped her in the three years Philip had been absent. Although he was unable to save John, Philip convinced the Mohawk warriors to leave the rest of the Frantz family unharmed. Mrs. Frantz never recognized the "blue-eyed Indian" as her neighbour.

Accompanied now by the Crysler family, the raiding party headed to a nearby mill where a number of the owner's slaves were captured. They then began the arduous journey back to Fort Niagara. Within a few miles John Merckley and the lodger began crying and were inconsolable. One of the Mohawk warriors dragged the boys out of sight before killing and scalping them.

19th century historians Jeptha Simms and William E. Roscoe both accuse Philip of planning the attack on the Merckley farm. In his 1845 History of Schoharie County, Simms speculates that Philip was taking revenge on Michael Merckley because Philip's daughter had been impregnated by Merckley's son but had refused to take responsibilty. In his 1888 account, Roscoe describes Philip and his brothers as "demons in human form, whose brutal acts outvied those of the uncivilized barbarian, and are a stain upon the history of civilized mankind."

Map of the Niagara District, Upper Canada, 1815
Source: Library and Archives Canada

Butler's Rangers was disbanded in June 1784. While most of the Rangers were granted land west of the Niagara River as a reward for their service to the Crown, Philip joined the Loyalists who were settling on the St. Lawrence River west of Montreal. Philip appears on the 1784 Williamsburgh Return with the remark, "Gone to Niagara for his family." Also on this return is Philip's brother, John Crysler, who had been a Lieutenant in the Indian Department at Niagara.

In the 1787 Return of Loyalists & disbanded troops settled in the District of Niagara, "Eden Bebie" is listed as a head of household with one woman. He had eight acres of land cleared and five bushels of wheat sown. Adin's daughter Lucretia was born about 1788, followed by Druscilla a year later. Amasa Beebe was born in 1791. Joshua was born in 1795, Solomon in 1798, and Asa about 1801.

A "Return of Land Granted" prepared by Deputy Surveyor General Augustus Jones in 1792 shows that Adin had only received 300 acres of the 600 acres he was entitled to. In 1794, after the Province of Quebec had been divided in Upper and Lower Canada, Adin received a commission as a Lieutenant in the Lincoln Militia, having previously been an ensign in the Nassau Militia. He served as Town Clerk of Louth from 1793 to 1795 and again from 1799 to 1804.

During the War of 1812, Adin's sons Amasa and Joshua served in the 1st Regiment of Lincoln Militia.  Initially, Amasa and Joshua were with the 2nd Flank Company and were likely present at the Battle of Queenston Heights in October 1812. When the Volunteer Battalion of Incorporated Militia was created to replace the flank companies, Amasa and Joshua transferred to Capt. Jacob Ball's company.

Adin died in Louth on November 7, 1843 at the age of 82. He was predeceased by his wife, his daughter Druscilla, and his sons, Joshua and Asa. He was buried three days later in a small family graveyard located close to the shore of Lake Ontario. Any gravestones that existed disappeared in the late 1800s, and when the Queen Elizabeth Way was constructed in 1939, any trace of the cemetery was destroyed.

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Beebe, Adin. Letter to Amasa Beebe, July 16, 1838. Public Archives of New Brunswick, MC 1.

Beebe, Adin. Letter to Amasa Beebe, September 28, 1843. Public Archives of New Brunswick, MC 1. 

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