John Tidd, Sr

Biography:

John Tidd was one of the first settlers at what became known as the Brodheads. Named after Daniel Brodhead, one of the first settlers in Dansbury, recognized the need of spiritual leadership among the people living there and requested the the Moravians at Nazareth, Pa. send one of their missionarys to Dansbury. They readily complied and D. Brodhead built a house along the now Brodhead creek for a parsonage. There was not any church building so weekly meetings were held in private homes, changing every week or so. A church was built in 1752-3 but was burned during the 1755 raid. Sven Roseen was one of the first missionaries to serve there and excerpts of his diary, dates concerning the Tidds, is also enclosed. His dairy was written in German and parts have been translated into English.

His diary indicates that Benjamin, John and William were brothers and that Benjamin, at this time, had eight children, the twins and six others.

See the Newspaper account in sources on Benjamin. It says and family, so that's a loss of 10 People.

This corresponds with information in two depostions made by Betsy Tidd Henry, one of Martin's daughters, in 1853 and 1855, supporting the identification of James Tidd, Susan Tidd Smith, Sarah Tidd Struby and Polly Tidd Draper as being the children of her Uncle, William Tidd, a Rev. War Vet. and his second wife Ann Bristol.

From the journal of Captain Johannes Van Etten, 1757, as reprinted in “Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania”:

“[June 1757:]

23. In the morning, near Eleven O’c, the fort was allarm’d by some of the neighbours who had made their escape from the Enemy, five of them in Company near Brawdhead’s [Brodhead%E2%80%99s] house, seeking their horses in order to go to mill, was fir’d upon by the Enemy, and said that one of them, John Tidd by name, was Kill’d, whereupon I immediately Draughted out 9 men, myself making the tents, in as private a manner as possible, and as privately went back into the mountains in order to make a discovery… [%E2%80%A6Here follows an account of pursuing and driving off the Indians...] Being come, we found him Kill’d and Scalp’d, his Body and face Cut in an inhuman manner, Cattle also lying dead on the Ground, where upon they all went of and left me with my small number to take care of the Dead man; whereupon we took him up and Returned to the fort; in which time my men that went to Easton Return’d to the fort.

24. Att about nine in the morning, having made redy, I went with 18 men and buried the man [Tidd], then went from the grave in search and found 15 Cattle, Horses and hogs dead, besides two that was shot, one with 5 bulits, the other with one, and yet there are many missing, out of which the Enemy took, as we Judg, the value of two Beaves and almost one Swine – in the Evening sent an Express by two men to the Maj’rs.”

Research Notes:

She says that her father, Martin, was William's youngest brother and that Martin was next to the youngest of fourteen or fifteen children of her grandfather, John Tidd, four of whom died in infancy. This information corresponds with the diary as the twins were the 7th and 8th children and Martin and another daughter born after the twins. Elizabeth also says that her father, Martin was 84 years old when he died in 1834, thus setting his birth year as 1750.

• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Aug 10 2016, 23:24:18 UTC

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• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/146419954/john-tidd