In a message dated 9/3/2006 8:51:03 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes: Hi Lois: You've raised some interesting points here I'd never really thought about, most notably Barbara (Bowser) Bittinger's age when the last of her and Henry's children were born. Age 45 is definitely pushing it. I wonder now about the last 5 of her children. Also, one census record standing alone doesn't mean much; but in the case of the twins, Jonathan and Solomon Bittinger where there appear to be 5 census records showing them born in Ohio. That's significant. Then regarding William H. Bittinger's descendants- I'd never given too much thought to it, but I think I recall Ferne Beachy telling us once that she had Indian blood. Her father was William Edward Buckle, son of Joseph Buckle and Alice Bittinger, daughter of William H. Bittinger. Appearances can be deceiving as has been discussed here, but Ferne does have a ruddy complexion. I met one of her brothers once and one sister, but I don't recall that either shared that trait with Ferne. Ferne was a very hard working farm wife in her younger days and spent hours in the sun, so it's really hard to tell if her darker complexion came from that, or from her ancestry. So you've convinced me there is a possibility that some of Henry Bittinger's children could have had a different mother than Barbara Bowser and possibly were of Indian ancestry. Sorry it took me so long to figure out what you were getting at. Sam No problem Sam. This is even longer ;o) I am very close to the Indian history--I find it very fascinating and at times overwhelmingly sad. As my memory fades on some things, it seems this lineage will forever be in my mind and heart. I have a lot of Cherokee blood through my mother's side. My sister-in-law did her lineage. What a time she had tracing that back. She ran into all kinds of difficulty. There is Northern Irish mixed with Cherokee, Spanish and English on her side. The one great paper record she was able to obtain on my mother's 2nd great-grandparents mistakenly duplicated the groom's mother's name (Rebecca) as the name of the mother of the bride's--the mother of the bride name should have been Elizabeth Victoria Wilson Bales. Elizabeth and Mary Allis Boles/Bales, my mother's mother were the only two my mother spoke of in her Cherokee line. She told us that Elizabeth was a Cherokee herb doctor (tribal doctor). I tried for sometime to connect my Bales lineage with Tecumseh Bayles (Shawnee) but was unsuccessful. As it turns out, Henry Bittinger was probably more closely connected. :o) The following was excerpted from Tecumseh and the Bayles Family Tradition by G. H. Bayles (Register of Kentucky Historical Soc.). I find this very interesting as Tecumseh and Henry Bittinger were born about the same time. Perhaps Henry lived near Ice's Ferry when his last five children were born or at least the twins, Jonathan and Soloman (born 5/1814 in OH, born two years after Tecumseh died). Tecumseh ("Shooting Star"), is believed to be the son of a captured girl Mary Bayles (b. 1763) the daughter of Governor Jesse Bayles and Marie Monraine, of S.C. and Tecumseh's father, thought to be Peckishinoah, Chief of the Shawnee at the time. The Bayles family came from the vicinity of Winchester, VA, in the Shenandoah Valley to settle near Ice's Ferry in 1770. It is not certain when Tecumseh was born (est abt 1779-1780--d. in the war of 1812). One says he was born on Hacker's Creek; another, on Mad River, still another, in old Chillicothe (means "The Old Campsite"). A description given of Tecumseh was that "His height was about five feet nine inches, his face oval rather than angular, his nose handsome and straight, his mouth beautifully formed, like that of Napoleon I, as represented in his portraits; his eyes clear and transparent hazel, with a mild, pleasant expression when in repose, or in conversation, but when excited in his oration, or by enthusiasm of conflict, or when in anger they appeared like balls of fire; his teeth beautifully white, his complexion more of a light brown or tan than red." Another description given by Capt. Glegg in Aug 1812, said "His complexion (is) light copper, countenance oval, with bright hazel eyes beaming cheerfulness, energy and decision." Indians do not have oval faces or hazel eyes." Mary was held captive for several years before the Chief married her. While the chief was away, Mary and Tecumseh (two years old) were traded for several Indians and returned to her family. Tecumseh was never fully accepted by the white settlers and left at age 14 to return to the Shawnee. He later became their chief--he kept his mother's maiden name. His mother married Andrew Ice in 1782 (Tecumseh was about 3). They had at least two sons, Jesse and John Ice before Tecumseh left home. He often visited his home, and was always on the friendliest terms with his mother's people and their neighbors. The night before the battle in which he lost his life, he and his two half brothers (Jesse and John), soldiers in the American Army, sat on the trunk of a fallen tree and visited for some time. The above was written by G.H. Bayles--his grandfather was Tecumseh's first cousin--his father was his first cousin once removed. Mr. Bayles goes on to say there is no scrap of documentary evidence to support this story. Mr. Bayles goes on to say that his father's uncle, John Bayles, b. in 1801-2, Tecumseh's first cousin, remembered him well and often told his father stories about him. G. Bayles said his hazy recollection is that he was also told the stories, but he was only 14 when his father died. A very early recollection was of his father telling them one day as they went up Quarry Run that Tecumseh was born right around there. For years Bayles had the idea that Tecumseh was born in one of the little houses, then standing, at Henry Clary furnace, which they were passing when he was told the story. The houses were not built till about 1833 (after Henry's time). In 1905, G. Bayles' father on a visit to Buffalo saw numbers of Indians displaying their wares for sale. One who said he was a Salamanca Indian told his father that his great-grandmother was a white captive girl from Morgantown named Jimmeson (Jamison). When he learned what his father's name was, he said his great-grandfather's particular friend had a white captive wife by that name and their son was the Great Chief Tecumseh. The Indian said Tecumseh was born in the Indian camp under the rock ledges in the fork of Quarry Run about a mile from the river, and described it as a place where huge fragments of rock projected from the hillside and some extended out above ground forming a shelter for the camp. He said he had never been in this country but gave a reasonably close description of a trail crossing the Monongahela near Point Marion, crossing the Cheat a little higher up, going over Cheat Neck, up the river past Ice's Ferry to near where Mont Chateau now stands, leaving the river and following a beach around the hillside to and across Quarry Run just above the fork, then up the hill to the rock camp. From the camp, the trail continued, he said, across the mountain the glades of Sandy Creek, Briery Mountain and on south and east across the range (to flint deposits). Bayles went to where the pike crosses Quarry and he and his brother walked down along the run to near the fork. There we found just such rocks as the Indian had described; such as are in Rock City, near Painter Rock (Cooper's Rock Park). They saw no evidence of a camp other than the rocks, nor did they find any artifacts. We are reminded here that a hundred years ago that region was well developed industrially and a thriving village stood only a mile from this site. Several writers give Tecumseh's birthplace as Chillicothe. Since the word means "camp ground," it might just as well be the camp ground on Quarry Run as some other camp ground in Ohio. (Makes you want to go check it out huh . . . maybe I will get the chance some day) Since the above was written, Mr. Bayles received some correspondence on Aug. 20, 1946, from N. F. Kendall, Historian and Genealogist, Grafton, WV, quoting from some old family records. He said, in part: Jeremiah Kendall (1758-1843), an Indian Scout and frontier "Ranger," was a great uncle of his grandfather, Elias Kendall. Jeremiah and his son, Gen. William Kendal left in his paper many personal "memoirs," some of which his nephew, Rev. William Kendall, his great-grandfather, copied--also copied by his father, W.B.C. Kendall. This one on Tecumseh: Being an "Indian Ranger" on frontier guard duty along the upper Ohio, had, on at least eleven different occasions to meet in conference with the Shawnee Indian Chief (before and after his appointment as chief) on grievances between whites and Indians. He always wanted to be a friend of the whites, so long as they (whites) would deal fairly with him. To Jeremiah Kendal, Tecumseh was always anxious to make agreements, and he always observed them. His mother was a white girl, captured by Indians when about ten or eleven years of age. A Mr. Ice told him she was captured on Buffalo Creek. Tecumseh says: "She was taken near Ice's Ferry, and her name was Mary Bayles, and when about 15 years of age she was compelled to marry his father, who wanted a son by a white woman. His father had two other Indian wives. While his father the Chief was away at war, his mother and himself was exchanged for two Indian women and three Indian men. On his return he (the chief) was very mad. When he was told that he could visit his son any time he wanted to, and be a friend to Tecumseh's mother's people, this pleased him." Tecumseh also told Ranger Kendall that his father and his half brothers and sister, who were full blooded Indians, visited him many times at Ice's Ferry, "which," he says, "was not far from his birth place. He says "I visited them at their home, where Springfield, OH, is, about four times, and they always brought me back to mother." In a third note Kendall said: "I asked Tecumseh why his father compelled this white girl to marry him. He answered "Good Indians never have children out of wedlock; must be married." I also asked if his father thought well of his white wife. Tecumseh answered "Yes; she was no slave; she was his favorite squaw (wife). He planned that she should head a new clan and tribe. He treated her with great kindness" (Mr. Ice informed me that Mary Bayles never had an unkind word for her Indian friends). It is believed that Tecumseh, while at Ice's Ferry, must have seen Gen. Washington when he crossed there in 1784, as well as the great Methodist missionary and pulpit orator, Ashbury, when he preached there the same year. Practical cessation of Indian atrocities along the frontier is generally credited to Gen. Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers in 1794, but Tecumseh's well-known humanity as shown on many later occasions may well have been the influence that controlled the roving bands. It was about 1793 that he left Ice's Ferry and rejoined the Indians. He became a firm and almost fanatical opponent of white aggression on Indian lands; and, failing to get any satisfaction from Gen. Harrison, then governor of that region, he joined the British, became a Brigadier General in their army and was the strongest force fighting against the Americans in the land battles of the War of 1812. Tecumseh's stubborn determination to fight it out instead of run away brought on the battle of the Thames where he was killed in the fight. His body was never seen again by white men and his burial place has never been discovered or divulged. *** My Mother (Lena Victor Harwood Philpott Hetrick) never knew her mother. Mary Allis died when Mom (the baby) was only two years old, leaving four girls ages 13, 9, 6 & 2--Their father was a Hostler for the RR--he died alone in a boarding house in Mt. Hope 10 years later--both parents died from TB/ consumption. Mom also spoke about Sam Houston and the Alamo as if she lived during that time--almost like Sam was an old family friend. I did some research and found that her g-grandmother, Elizabeth Victoria Wilson Bales, was a teenager at the time Sam married a Cherokee woman (his second marriage). So that's that . . . I will send the study I did on the Henry Bittinger family in a separate email. There may be some little clues in there I haven't covered. It will also include the story Bob Brenneman told me about his great-grandfather William "Bill" Bittinger. Lois