Anna Banta

She was not born a Shuck.

http://www.ingenweb.org/inswitzer/bios/bantaDaniel.html

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Ann SEEVER was born Nov. 2, 1759 and married S Petrus “Peter” DUREE about 1774 while living in the Conewago Colony in Adams/York County, Pennsylvania. S Petrus DURIE was born on 13 JUL 1754 in Schraalenburgh (Bergen Co), New Jersey and was killed by Indians near White Oak Spring Station (Madison Co), Kentucky, in MAR 1781, at 26 years of age. (In 1873 a daughter-in-law, Eleanor Van Arsdale Banta, wife of son, Henry D Banta (1785-1867), stated that although her name is spelled SEEVER on the Conewago Church records at the baptism of the two children, it really was "Shafer," apparently a German name.) However there are some records that indicate the family may also have gone by the name of “SHUCK”. And thus is introduced some confusion about her real family name.

The death of Anne’s husband, S Petrus DUREE, as a result of a massacre by Indians has been well documented as one reads about the history of Kentucky. It was described in great detail in “The Banta Genealogy” written by Theodore M Banta in 1893. Following is a summary of that recitation.

The colonist, after arriving in Limestone (now Maysville, Kentucky), spent a few days there and then left for a settlement about eight miles away. It appears that is settlement may have been White Oak Spring Station. From there, they moved on a short way to a location they selected where they planned to build a cabin. At the end of three days had a cabin up and finished, which was to answer for a dwelling house and fort.

On the fourth morning, Duree and his two brothers-in-law went a short distance from the house where the savages attacked them. At the first fire, one of the brothers-in-law was killed on the spot, and Duree himself received a ball through his chest, inflicting a mortal wound. Wounded, he ran to the cabin door before he fell. The other brother-in-law was cut off from the cabin by a fleet-footed Indian and tomahawked. Duree’s sister, hearing the fuss, ran to the door and was shot dead. Duree's wife saw the whole tragedy through a porthole with her three little children at her side. The Indians, either becoming alarmed at something or supposing they had killed all the "pale faces," disappeared without breaking into the cabin.

Duree's wife dragged her dying husband into the house and used every effort to stop the blood, which was flowing copiously from the wound. Every other remedy failing, she literally corked the orifice of the wound with her handkerchief. Duree revived sufficiently to entreat his wife to take the children and flee to the fort, telling her that he was bound to die and that she could be of no further service to him. As the poor woman stood gazing at her dying husband, surrounded by death on every side, her three little children clinging to her, Duree pointed to the door and uttered with feeble voice: "Save yourself and children, go, go!" The conflict was short but terrible. The awful decision was made.

Having made up her mind to try to reach the fort, she mounted one child on her shoulders, taking another in her arms and the third at her side, was soon flying with all possible speed along the blazed way towards Limestone, a distance about eight miles. A blinding storm of rain and sleet setting in, she soon lost the “trace” and wandered in the trackless wilderness until late in the evening, when she again discovered the blazed track, and although she had traveled all day she found herself not more than a mile from the bloody scene from which she was fleeing. She had gone but a short distance however; when she met the other families coming out to join them, and told them the sad story.

While they were discussing the best course of action to take, the Indians raised the war whoop in the distance. It appears they were on the track of Duree’s wife and in a few minutes more she would have been murdered with her helpless babes, without mercy. The men saw the situation at a glance. To make a stand there in the wilderness with the women and children was out of the question, hence they cut their packs from the horses and let them fall to the ground, and mounting the women and children, the race back to the fort commenced in good earnest. The horses, maddened by the fierce yells of the redskins, went tearing through the thick under growth, lacerating the lower limbs of their riders badly, besides which no accidents occurred and they all reached the fort safely. The next morning they sent out a force sufficiently strong to drive off the Indians and bury their dead.

A few years afterward this incident, the brave and somewhat reckless Capt. Dan Banta met the widow Duree, having heard of her fame.  She exactly suited him.  It is enough to say he courted and married her, and bravely did she stand by him while he played a conspicuous part in reclaiming Shelby County from the wilderness of nature. Captain Dan died on December 15, 1827 and his wife, Anna, died two years later, December 19, 1829.    SOURCES:

Beadle, J. H. 1880 History of Parke County, Indiana (from Historic notes on the Wabash Valley and History of Vigo & Parke County) Chicago: H. H. Hill & N. Iddings, Publishers

Portrait & Biographical Record of Montgomery, Parke & Fountain Counties, Indiana. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1893, Page 134

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Anna Banta

Birth: 1759 Death: Jun. 10, 1829

Anna Shuck Duree Banta.

Family links:

Spouse:

 Daniel Banta (1765 - 1827)*

Children:

 Wyntie Durie Gordon (1777 - 1841)*

 Henry D Banta (1785 - 1867)*

*Calculated relationship

Note: Aged 70 years

Burial: Old Bethel Cemetery Switzerland County Indiana, USA

Created by: Gary Galván Record added: Aug 16, 2005 Find A Grave Memorial# 11543516

Source: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi/www.linkedin.com/in/johnma...

http://nealsgenealogy.awardspace.info/shanagne.htm