Dr. Jeremiah Duvall

Mingo was a slave owned owned by Jacob Ryan, and bought by Dr. Jeremiah Duvall for 1 steer. He became the property of the Foster family who took him to Pennsylvania. In 1793 Richard Foster gave him a piece of land for life. The Foster, Duvall, and Fenner families built him a cabin and furnished him with what he needed.

Source: http://home.comcast.net/~eleom/genealogy/foster_history.htm

Soon after the Revolutionary War Dr. Jeremiah Duvall came to Broad Top Township, Bedford Co., Pa. from the vicinity of Annapolis, Md. He secured title to his land in 1785. Dr. Duvall brought with him several men and families. His object was to establish a colony. He was a man of culture and talent and for years was the leading man among the settlers. He was a physician of good attainments and practiced medicine over a wide area. ____________________________________________________________________ From History of Bedford and Somerset Counties by Blackburn and Welfrey - 1906 Batha Karr batha.k@worldnet.att.net writes as follows:

Broad Top township, situated in the ne part of the county, was taken form Hopewell and created into a separate township April 16, 1828. Dr. Jeremiah Duval was one of the earliest pioneers of this region. He came from Annapolis, Maryland, and brought with him a number of families besides his own. He secured title to his land here in 1785. The wife of Jeremiah Shreves, one of Dr. Duval's colonists, was the first person buried in the old cemetery known as Duval's graveyard. She came after her husband, and died the night following her arrival.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GScid=44712&GRid=8...

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Source: Daily News, Huntingdon, PA, dt 23 Feb 1963 Pioneers of the Broad Top Region by Albert M Rung: Excerpts from 1882 Paper

Jerry Duvall, M.S. – We now come to notice one of the most useful amongst the settlers – he being the only doctor nearer than Bedford for 30 years. This Jerry Duvall was born in Prince Georges Co., MD. In 1750, his father educated him for an Episcopalian minister, but instead of taking up the ministry he turned elsewhere. About the year 1775 he married Sarah Penn, and they had quite a number of children and were all born in Md. but two, Annie and Asa, the later now living on Broadtop and known as Doctor Asa Duvall, he was born in the year 1800. Jerry Duvall came to Broadtop in the year 1789, bringing his family and entire stock of household goods on pack horses. Edward and Benjamin Penn and the doctor put up tents to live in and remained in them for some time. They were chased from the Duvall house three times by the Indians and compelled to hunt shelter elsewhere. The Dr. brought with him from Md. three of his negroes, one of them being the celebrated chief, ‘Mingo,’ this African died in the year 1815 at the age of 99, of whom we will make mention again. Life of Dr. Duvall Dr. Duvall was made a local preacher for the Methodist church in 1795 and it is said of him that he preached a sermon every Christmas day from 1796 to 1831. For the first five years he was the preacher as well as the doctor for the new settlement on the Broadtop mountains. He was born while the English and French were contending for the ownership of the colonies. He was 30 years old when the English gained sole control of the 13 colonies. He was 25 years old when the battle of Lexington was fought, and by the time the war closed which gave us the ‘land of freedom’ he had quite a family around him. He lived to see the mother country taught a lesson in the war of 1812 and to see the 13 states grow to 24 – to vote for 7 presidents – he lived to see the population of Bedford county reach 25,000 and to see Broad Top township produce 5000 bushels of wheat in one season. The farm he owned comprised part of the best coal land on the mountain. The celebrated Duvall shaft is on the property where the Riddlesburg Furnaces got their coal from the time of building until about 1872. But as ‘it is appointed unto man once to die,’ he was no exception to this appointment and in his Bible, which was shown us we find recorded that Doctor Jerry Duvall, a minister of the Gospel departed this life, on Sunday evening Feb. 12, 1832; age 82 years, and was laid to rest in the cemetery which is on the road leading from Fairplay to Dudley, in which his name can be seen. Thus ended the days of one of the most no ble and useful men that old Bedford county can call to memory, a kind doctor, a faithful preacher, and obliging neighbor and a learned man.

Indian Story Doubted

The writer of the foregoing has made a statement that might arouse some question. Dr. Jerry Duvall, he claimes, came to the Broad Top region in 1789, then we are told that Dr. Duvall and two others, evidently his sons, ‘were chased from the Duvall house three times by the Indians and compelled to hunt shelter elsewhere.’

It is somewhat doubtful as to whether any marauding Indians still infested this area of the Broad Top in 1789 or later, as the close of the Revolution caused their rapid banishment beyond the Alleghenies. However, it is known that the red man was master of the wilderness and could always find a safe refuge from which to depart on depredations, thence returning without any trace to be followed. The wild Broad Top region could have served well in this respect, just as we have been told of the Backlog Valley, where a number of Indians are said to have found secret haunts and remained for years after others had departed. So it is possible that some marauding Indians found remote areas in the Broad Top mountains with like conditions, and the account to follow will further indicate that Indians were on the move here later than generally believed.

A week after The Independent’s above sketch, another contribution by its historical writer appeared, on July 8th, 1882 which follows: (Thomas Johnston Sketch follows)

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Broad Top Township was organized fromm Hopewell Township as early as 1834. One of the earliest physicians of the county was Dr. Jeremiah Duval who practiced mediciine in Six Mile Run and was instrumental in founding the early settlement in 1785. Dr. Duval died in 1832.