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About Captain John Martin Wetzel Revolutionary War
A Patriot of the American Revolution for VIRGINIA - PENNSYLVANIA with the rank of Captain. DAR Ancestor # A123604
THE WETZEL FAMILY
From The History of Marshall County, by Scott Powell, 1925, Pages 47-69.
Of the many names of early settlers in the Upper Ohio Valley, none is more familiar than WETZEL.
JOHN WETZEL settled on the waters of Big Wheeling Creek in what is now Marshall County at an early day and soon became identified with the stirring events of the times. He was of German descent. It is not known from what colony he came. Some say from Pennsylvania and others from Maryland. He seems to have known the Zane family before he started in search of a home in the Ohio Valley. He had five sons and two daughters. The names of the sons were Martin, Lewis, Jacob, George, and John. The daughters were Susan and Christina.
Wetzel took up a claim about fourteen miles from the mouth of Wheeling Creek and improved it and also took up land elsewhere. When the Indians became hostile, a fort was built at the forks of Wheeling Creek on the land of David Shepherd and was known in history as Shepherd's Fort, and as a place of refuge for the settlers at and above the forks of Wheeling Creek in time of danger until abandoned the twenty-seventh of September, 1777, and burned by Indians later. After that they went to Fort Henry at Wheeling until about the year 1785 when Shepherd rebuilt the fort, when they left the fort at Wheeling and returned to the fort at the forks of the creek which was much nearer their improvements and more convenient.
John Wetzel took up a claim on Middle Island Creek and was on his return from it that he lost his life.
In the summer of 1787, as he and a companion were returning to Wheeling Creek from his improvement on Middle Island Creek, he was killed by Indians. They were paddling up the river on the west side and were nearly opposite Baker's Station when some Indians on the west or Ohio side of the river ordered them to land. This they did not do and the Indians fired upon them and shot Wetzel through the body. Realizing the nature of the wound, he ordered his companion to lay down in the canoe while he plied the paddle and got out of range of the guns of the Indians. They landed at Baker's Station where Wetzel died shortly after landing. He was buried at what has long been known as Grave Yard Run, a short distance below Captina station on the Ohio River Division of the B. & O. Railroad. Until the past few years a grave marker of common sandstone marked the place where the body lay. On it was the simple inscription, J. W., 1787. The stone has been broken and carried away until none of it remains to mark the spot where he was buried. The largest piece of it known is now said to be in a museum at Philadelphia.
JOHN T. WETZEL gave the following account of the Vetzel family, which has been handed down as tradition and adds somewhat to the history of the members and supplies a missing link in the history of the family.
He said that John Wetzel, Sr., lived at Oldtown, Rockingham County, Virginia, at an early day, and that his grandfather, Martin Wetzel, was born there and he thinks some of the other children were born there. From Oldtown he removed to Pennsylvania and lived for some time not far from Wills Creek, then a frontier settlement and became acquainted with the Zanes, Shepherds and Earliwines and came with them when they came to Wheeling Creek in search of homes in the forest of Northwestern Virginia.
Wetzel and Earliwine settled in what is now Sand Hill District, Marshall County, and Shepherd settled below on another branch of the creek.
The elder Wetzel spent much time in taking up and improving tomahawk claims, other than the one taken up on the waters of Big Wheeling Creek. He took up claims down the river and he was on his way home from working on one of his claims when he was killed.
He had taken up a claim on Middle Island Creek and had been there at work in the summer of 1787 and was returning with his sons, Martin, Lewis and George and a man by the name of Scott. A dog belonging to him was also in the canoe with them. When they reached a point almost opposite Baker's Station in Cresap's Bottom, they were attacked by some Indians concealed on the west side of the river. The elder Wetzel was killed and his son George was shot through the body. The bullet that went through the body of George killed the dog that lay in the canoe. George told the others to lie down in the canoe and he would paddle them out of danger, as he was already fatally wounded. Martin and Scott did as directed but Lewis did not; he loaded his gun and fired at the Indians till out of range of them.
George died that night and was buried on the banks of Grave Yard Run beside his father, both in coffins made of hickory bark. This account was given by Martin Wetzel and preserved traditionally by his descendants and clears the mystery of what became of George, whose name is never mentioned in the many stirring events of the bloody Indian war that broke out in the year 1777 and closed with the Battle of Fallen Timber in 1794.
http://www.lindapages.com/marshall/powell-7.htm
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HISTORY OF THE ANCESTORS, FAMILIES, AND DESCENDANTS OF PARIS PATRIC COMISFORD, BY BILL COMISFORD
Third Generation
13. Mary Bonnett (1735-1805) - Mary Bonnett was born about 1735 in Paoli, Chester County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Jacob Bonnett and Ann Marie (Ancien) Desreux. Mary married John Martin Wetzel in Rockingham, Virginia in 1756 and they settled on the South Branch of the Potomac in Virginia.
John was the Captain of the Virginia Rangers, and was with Lewis bonnett during the French and Indian War. Both families would soon leave the South Branch of the Potomac in search of new opportunities. They settled along Big Wheeling Creek, which is now the Sand Hill District, in Marshall County, Western Virginia. Later Fort Wetzel was built at this location. The wagon train included the Zane's, who would establish Wheeling on the Ohio River, the Bonnetts, the Eberly and the Rosecranze families, who all settled in this area. History records show that all these men and their sons were to become notable scouts and Indian fighters in the settlement of the Ohio River Valley Frontier. Captain John Wetzel and his son Martin were in the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. Martin was one of the soldiers who survived the Foreman Massacre near McMechen and was among the defenders of Fort Henry in 1777. Martin, his brother Lewis, and his dad Captain John Wetzel, were also among the defenders in the second attack on Fort Henry on September 11-13, 1782, against the British and the Indians, which is known as the last battle of the Revolutionary War. In 1782, Martin and Lewis were among the defenders of Fort Beeler against the Mohawk and Shawnee Indians.
On June 11, 1786, Captain John Wetzel, along with Captain John Baker, was killed by Indians while crossing the Ohio River at Captiva. There is a monument in their memory, located on Route 7, between Moundsville and Martinsville, West Virginia.
Mary passed away in June of 1805 on Wheeling Creek, in the home owned by her son Jacob Wetzel. She was buried in McCreary Cemetery.
GEDCOM Source
@R-1244206470@ U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60525::0
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1,60525::7506825
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@R-1244206470@ U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60525::0
GEDCOM Source
1,60525::7506825
GEDCOM Source
@R-1244206470@ U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60525::0
GEDCOM Source
1,60525::7506825
GEDCOM Source
@R-1244206470@ U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60525::0
GEDCOM Source
1,60525::7506825
GEDCOM Source
@R-1244206470@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.
GEDCOM Source
Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=85766440&pid...
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Captain John Martin Wetzel Revolutionary War's Timeline
| 1733 |
1733
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Paoli, Chester, Pennsylvania, Colonial America
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| 1747 |
September 16, 1747
Age 14
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Arrived in Philadelphia aboard the Palatine Imported Queen Elizabeth Hope, from Rotterdam via Deal England
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1747
Age 14
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From Switzerland, via Rotterdam?
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| 1751 |
August 11, 1751
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Frederick, Frederick, Maryland, United States
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| 1757 |
December 1757
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South Branch Cedar Creek, Rockingham County, Virginia, Colonial America
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| 1759 |
1759
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South Branch Cedar Creek, Shenandoah County, Virginia, Colonial America
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| 1760 |
1760
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Bedford County, Virginia, United States of America
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| 1761 |
1761
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South Branch of Cedar Creek, Shenandoah, VA
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| 1762 |
1762
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South Branch Cedar Creek, Shenandoah, Virginia, USA
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