John Friend, Sr., of Friendsville

DAR Ancestor # A042642

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Friend-1303

According to Pat (Friend) Thompson:[1]

Origins

John Friend Sr. was probably born about 1728 in the Monocacy Hundred, Prince George’s County (now Frederick County) Maryland and passed away about 1808 in Allegany County (now Garrett) County. John Friend Sr., commonly known as “Old” John Friend, was the son of Nicholas Friend and the great grandson of Nils Friend. Nils Friend was the first Swede of his family to immigrate to the new world in 1648. John Friend Sr.’s lineage can be trace[d] back to Nils as follows:

• Nils Larrson Friend (Abt. 1619 to Abt. 1686)
  • John (Johannes) Nilsson Friend I (Abt. 1666 to Abt. 1737)
    • Nicholas Friend (Abt. 1700 to Abt. 1791)
      • John Friend Sr. (Abt. 1728 to Abt. 1808)

Citing The Maryland Militia in the Revolutionary War [2], the Daughters of the American Revolution report that Friend served as a private in the Maryland Militia . [3] John Friend's gravestone reads:[4]

• JOHN
• FRIEND, SR.
• PVT
• WASHINGTON COUNTY
• MD MIL
• REV. WAR
• 1808

Misinformation

A sign created by the Maryland Historical Society at Friends' Graveyard in Friendsville, Maryland, reads:[5]

Nearby are the graves of John Friend, Sr. (1732-1808), Kerrenhappuch Hyatt (d. 1798), his wife, and their son Gabriel (1761-1852). John and Gabriel were soldiers in the revolution. The first permanent settlors in Garrett County, they settled on the Youghiogheny River at "Friend's Fortune," now known as Friendsville.

Thompson writes:[6]

There are several items about John Friend Sr. that are found in earlier reports which I have discounted and/ or removed from my personal genealogical records. The four important points are:

• I can find no documentation that the middle name of John Friend Sr. was Lewis or Levis.
• I can find no documentation that the maiden name for John Friend’s wife, Karren Happuch was Hyatt (various spellings).
• I believe John Friend Sr. was born about 1728, rather than the commonly published 1732 date.
• I have edited my files by removing Charles Friend as a brother to John Friend.

Numerous researchers believe Nicholas Friend had a son named Charles and that is a possibility. However the Charles Friend of early Garrett County that lived at McHenry, MD and later by Oakland, MD, appears to have been the son of Israel Friend of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (WV). I believe that Charles and John Friend Sr. were second cousins. Glen Swartz observed that John Friend would have had to be at least age 21 in 1750, when he petitioned the Frederick County court, justifying a birth year no later than 1729.[7] The DAR repeats the claim that Kerrenhappuch's last name was Hyatt and claims that John was born ca. 1732 in Pennsylvania.[3]

Family

John Friend's wife's first name was Karrenhappuck; her maiden name is unknown. She was born around 1733 in Maryland or Virginia, was married in 1751 or 1753 in Virginia, and died 13 October 1739 in Friend's Delight, Sang Run, Allegany County, Maryland.[8] Their children were:[8]

• Gabriel (who married Elizabeth Brunnell)[3]
• Sarah
• Nicholas
• Rebecca
• Susan
• John (Jr.) (who married Elizabeth Ward)[3]
• Augustine
• Joseph (who married Sarah Mary Green)[3]
• Charles (who married Prudence)[3]

According to Swartz, the children were all born in Little Cacapon River, Hampshire County, then part of Virginia, now part of West Virginia.[9]

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7269489/john-friend

John Friend served in the Revolutionary War, Enlisting 15 Jul 1776 has a Private in Cpt. Coulson's Company, Washington County, Maryland, Militia

I had to create a new memorial because old disproved information just would not go away (the older it is the more it is repeated).

John Friend (Sr.) was never know as "Old John," except in "Indian Blood" by Olsen in 1968. In that she speculated he might be the son of a mother last named Lewis. That was disproved over a decade ago. But, is the origin of the supposed middle name Lewis.

His death was in Allegany County which was created from Washington County, Maryland in 1789. Garrett County was not created until 1872.

I've been there and photographed the roadside historical marker, it is not accurate, but the claims made on that marker will continue to be repeated forever.

A government memorial was erected to him in this cemetery, but there is no extant record or marker as to his actual burial place.

The last known record of him was a deed dated 1 Jun 1808 and recorded 5 Jul 1808. He presumably died between that date and 1810. There is no extant record of his death.

His date of birth is about 1728, not 1732, based on his petition in the Frederick County, Maryland, Order Book (3:210)

Between 1749 - 1753 John Friend worked as a chain-carrier with George Washington on his survey team In 1764, a year after peace was formally established, following Pontiac's uprising, a white man named John Friend walked up the mountains from the Potomac River on the trail of a fur trader which followed a buffalo trace.He crossed the crest of the Alleghenies, then descended to the sole Indian village of the area on the Youghiogheny.Here he bought land.He traded an iron pot for several cornfields and a few rough dwellings.Then he returned to the Potomac.A year later he came back.He settled on the land.(now Friendsville).Source - Garrett County, a History of Maryland's Tableland by Stephen Schlosnagle.(see page 3)

John Friend's tract (in 1774) was "Friend's Fortune".Source - "Indian Blood", Evelyn Guard Olsen, pg. 50.

July 15, 1776, John Friend and his neighbors enrolled in the Washington County Militia, Skipton Company, at Cumberland MD.Source - "Indian Blood", Evelyn Guard Olsen, pg. 60. John Friend was allotted two military lots of 50 acres each as a settler.Source - "Indian Blood", Evelyn Guard Olsen, pg. 75.

Land Deed of Sale; 1793; John and wife Keronhappuch to Luke Huff, dated 09 Sept. 1793; Hampshire County, WV Deed Book 9, page 323; LDS Film 0588704; NOTE:Sale price was for forty pounds for 75 acres.

John Friend was residing with his son Gabriel in Friendsville, Maryland in 1800. On June 1, 1808, Old John transferred the deed for "Friend's Delight" to John Friend, Jr.This was Old John's last signature of record.Source - "Indian Blood", Evelyn Guard Olsen, pg. 87. Friend, John, Sr, 1808, Pvt Wash Co Md Mil Rev War (Gov. marker).Source - Maryland's Garrett County Graves, pg. 80.

Family

https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/f/r/i/James-A-Friend/GENE7-0001.html

Children of JOHN FRIEND and Kerenhappuch are:

• i. NICHOLAS (III)5 FRIEND, b. Abt. 1760, Virginia; d. 1776. Notes for NICHOLAS (III) FRIEND: Nicholas Friend was the eldest son of John Friend of Friendsville.Nicholas was killed in 1776 in the Colonist War (Revolutionary War). He fell in the Crossings neighborhood.(Schraft's History).Source - "Indian Blood", Evelyn Guard Olsen, pg. 60.
• 2. ii. GABRIEL FRIEND, b. June 17, 1761, Maryland; d. January 08, 1854, Friendsville, Garrett Co., Maryland.
• 3. iii. CHARLES FRIEND, SR., b. 1766, Hampshire Co., Virginia; d. 1828, Missouri.
• 4. iv. JOSEPH FRIEND, b. 1768, Virginia; d. Abt. 1860.
• 5. v. JOHN LEWIS FRIEND, JR., b. 1763, Allegany County, Maryland; d. May 23, 1849, Sang Run, Garrett Co., Maryland.
• 6. vi. AUGUSTINE FRIEND, b. Abt. 1778, Friendsville, Garrett Co., Maryland; d. Missouri.
• vii. SUSANNA FRIEND, b. Bef. 1767, Friendsville, Garrett Co., Maryland; m. ANDREW HOUSE, JR.; b. March 06, 1758; d. January 1835. Notes for SUSANNA FRIEND: Susan (or Susanna) Friend and her husband Andrew House settled in Sang Run.They left the property (part of Friend's Felight) to Betsy Hoye and went to Columbia Co., Ohio. Susan (Friend) House and her sister, Sarah (Friend) DeWitt moved away from MD in 1816, the year the corn could not grow.Source - "Indian Blood", Evelyn Guard Olsen, pg. 109. , Notes for ANDREW HOUSE, JR.: Andrew House and his wife Susan (Friend) House were allotted military lots as settlers at Blooming Rose in 1787.Source - "Indian Blood", Evelyn Guard Olsen, pg. 75. In the 1800 census, Andrew House was listed as head of a household of nine at Sang Run, MD.Source - "Indian Blood", Evelyn Guard Olsen, pg. 87.
• 7. viii. SARAH FRIEND, b. 1774, Friendsville, Garrett Co., Maryland.
• ix. REBECCA FRIEND, b. 1770, Friendsville, Garrett Co., Maryland; m. (1) JOSEPH BUTLER; b. 1772; m. (2) ANDREW HOUSE; b. Abt. 1766. Notes for REBECCA FRIEND:Rebecca Friend and her husband Joseph Butler settled in Dunkard Bottom.They went to Ohio in 1808. Notes for JOSEPH BUTLER:,Joseph Butler and his wife, Rebecca (Friend) Butler of Dunkard Bottom went to Ohio in 1808.Source - "Indian Blood", Evelyn Guard Olsen, pg. 109.

  ---

original signature of John Friend, Sr. of Friendsville, MD (Jun 1, 1808) From the deed which transfer 100 acres of Friend's Delight to his son, John Friend, Jr. (Allegany County Maryland Land Records, Book E, pp. 331)

References

• https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/f/r/i/James-A-Friend/GENE7-0001.html
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7269489/john-friend

1. Thompson, Patty Friend. John Friend Sr. of Friendsville, Md. Frederick, MD: Emma Gus Press, 2007, p. 21. URL: http://www.friendfamilyassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/J...
2. Clements, S. Eugene, and F. Edward Wright. The Maryland Militia in the Revolutionary War, p. 243. Silver Spring, Maryland: Family Line Publications, 1987. ISBN: 0940907011 9780940907010.
3. John Friend, Ancestor #A042642, Daughters of the American Revolution,. http://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search_adb/?action=full...
4. Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 05 September 2020), memorial page for Pvt John “Old John” Friend Sr. (1732–17 Jan 1808), Find A Grave: Memorial #7269489, citing Friend Family Graveyard, Friendsville, Garrett County, Maryland, USA ; Maintained by Deborah Miller (contributor 46570607) .
5. Friend Family Graveyard, Find a Grave, URL: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1959897/friend-family-graveyard
6. Thompson, pp. 22-23.
7. Swartz, Glen "Who are you? - America to Europe", updated 2012-06-03, accessed 2018-07-29. URL: https://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=glen_swa...
8. Thompson, p. 35.
9. Swartz.
10. Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed 26 Feb 2021), "Record of John Lewis Friend", Ancestor # A042642.