Discussion of Israel Friend's widow: He lived on both sides of the Potomac River, as did John Valentine House. Both men were traders with the Indians. House descendants have the tradition that says Sarah was daughter of a Chief. Her Indian name was Bokavar. After she married to HOUSE, she had a son Levi HOUSE born @ 1755. Then she left House and went west with an Indian group. She took her son, but when he was older he came back to Va. and lived with his father. John Valentine House remarried and had several more children. A branch of Friend descendants says this remarriage was by prior arrangement, that Sarah was an Indian, and both men were explorers and trappers. As an Indian, she would not have had any rights and hence needed an English husband. Her first husband arranged for her to have a second husband. This was for her "protection", but also to ensure that her first husband's land was not swindled away from the sons. These stories are not necessarily contradictory, and they do paint an interesting picture. Sarah/Bokavar might have resented these white men deciding who she would marry. It seems likely she would have felt more valued among the Indians. Amid the whites, she would have been a figurehead, owning her dower rights to the land that really belonged to the sons. She was also probably young enough to want to make some of her own decisions, such as going west. 1755-56 were years of great Indian hostility against the frontier settlers. (It was likely she was Shawnee.) In 1761/63 in Frederick Co., Va., Charles FRIEND, son of Israel, asked that John Valentine HOWE (sic) be a guardian. I have a lot of evidence that Charles was born @ 1730, and was living farther south in Va. at this time. I suspect that he was asking his step-father to see to his interests in the area for him. If the legend is true, Charles' own father wanted HOUSE to take care of the widow, and (by implication) the property too. My research shows that guardians were almost always used to protect property, not to protect a minor. Guardians were also used to protect dower rights if the woman was absent or incapacitated. As late as the 1796-1805 time span, there is a continuing law suit over the property of Israel Friend on the Potomac River, Va., suing against Charles FRIEND as son of Israel. Clear chain of title had not been maintained, and the suit dragged out . . .probably because Charles had a sister in Ohio or Ind. and they were looking for her as having possible claim on the land. Has anyone done research on these folks? I am looking for any further clues I can find. Corinne Hanna Diller Houston, TX Cdiller@juno.com