Margaret Kleine

Married in a Indian ceremony.

Margaret Cline was born in 1759, in the Mohawk Valley in New York State. The following year, marauding Indians raided her father?s farm, killed her parents and her brothers and sisters, sparing only Margaret and her older sister, Elizabeth. Their lives were spared because one of the squaws with the raiding party had recently lost two daughters due to disease, and secured permission to adopt Margaret and Elizabeth as replacements for her two dead children. Sometime later, Chief Joseph Brant was attracted by the two girls, bought them from the squaw, and brought them up as slaves in his household. When in 1784, after the Revolutionary War, the Five Nations (now Six Nations including the Tuscaroras) moved to the Grand River Reserve, Margaret and Elizabeth moved with them.

She was later adopted by Chief Joseph Brant, "Thayendangea".

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From the Appendix in the Report of the Minister of Agriculture, 1903

HISTORY OF

Mrs. Jean Baptiste Rousseaux.

BY ALEXANDER SERVOS.

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Margaret Kleine was born of German parentage in the year 1759, in the Mohawk Valley, now the State of New York, then a British colony. She was taken.by the Indians, when a child about one year old, during the war with the Indians. The Indians killed her father by tying him to a tree and whipping him to death with the ramrods of their rifles. From the shock of witnessing such an awful death his wife fell dead. The young child was then taken, along with her sister who was then fourteen years old, by the Indians. On the loss of her mother she cried and was threatened with death by the exasperated Indians, and, in order to keep the child quiet Elizabeth filled her mouth with leaves so she could not make a noise. A short time after that Chief Joseph Brant seeing these two white children with the Indians, took them himself and brought them along with him to Niagara, and from there in due course of time they were taken to Brantford on the Grand River, where they lived with the Brant family until Margaret was fourteen years old. During this time Brant had discovered some of her near relatives, at or near Kingston. Mrs. Brant being unwilling to give up the young girl, Chief Brant arranged to let her go to. her relatives. He fitted out a bark canoe with blankets and provisions, and, the girl, canoe and outfit were conveyed across the country from Brantford to Burlington Bay at night by the Indians, and he directed her how to proceed by keeping along the shore of the lake, she being alone during all the voyage. At night she pulled the canoe on shore, made a fire and slept in her blankets. The time occupied in going that distance was sixteen or eighteen days. On. reaching Kingston she had no difficulty in finding her relatives, Chief Brant having given her full particulars how to find, them. She was well qualified to paddle a canoe, having been taught that art by the Indians. through living so long with the Brant family.

On arriving at Kingston she found her relatives and lived with them until she married Jean Baptiste Rousseaux in 1780, who was a Frenchman, born and educated in Paris. He had gone to England and from there came to America with General Wolfe, .and was with him at the taking of Quebec. After a short time he became intimately acquainted with Chief Joseph Brant and very quickly learned the Indian language and became proficient in speaking it, so much so that through the influence of Chief Brant he was appointed interpreter to the Indians, and held that position until his death in 1813. He died in the town of Niagara and was buried in St. Mark?s cemetery.

After marriage Rousseaux and wife went to the village of Ancaster, a small village in the then Gore District, now the county of Wentworth, and kept a general store. About the year 1793 he built a grist mill in the village for grinding wheat for the farmers, and, for those days, did a large and thriving business, and acquired a good deal of wealth, besides large tracts of land throughout the country. Their family consisted of four daughters and two sons, namely : Elizabeth, who married ______ House of the county of Norfolk. Rainet married Elijah Secord, who afterwards kept a store in Ancaster, and finally settled in the township of Barton, where he and his brother, John, built the Albion mills. A number of their descend.ants are still living. Margaret married Thomas Davis, who settled in the township of Saltfleet, and left a large family, many of them still living.. Catharine, or as she was called, Kate, the youngest daughter, married Daniel Kerr Servos of Niagara in 1816, who at that time belonged to the barrack department at Niagara, where he was employed from the close of the Wars of 1812-14 to 1818, in which war he served as private, corporal, sergeant and lieutenant, after which he removed to the head of the lake and purchased a farm, lots 3 and 4 in the township of Barton county of Wentworth, where he resided until his. death in 1857. His widow died in 1882. They raised a family of four daughters and three sons, besides two sons who died when quite young. The daughters were Margaret Ann, who married Matthew Brock Secord, both living to an old age, leaving many descendants. Elizabeth Gertrude, who married Alexander Rennie of Toronto, who had a large family, and died several years ago in Hamilton, where his widow now resides. Mary Euretta, who married Andrew M. Crooks,is now a widow living in Plainsville, New Jersey, Amelia Jane married Philip Perry, both dying in Buffalo, N.Y., William, the eldest son, married Margaret Crooks, Alexander, the writer of this short sketch, has been living at Niagara for the past forty-four years, and Ethelbert, who died three years ago in Hamilton. George Rousseaux, the eldest son, married Mary Rogers of Niagara and left a family of one son and five daughters, some of whom reside in Hamilton and others in Toronto. Joseph Brant, the youngest son, married Margaret Davis of the township of Barton.

Now we return to say what became of Elizabeth Kleine, the sister of Margaret She lived with the Brant family for several years. Mrs. Brant, being a very passionate woman, Elizabeth ran away from them, assisted by Chief Brant in getting away. Meeting Daniel McCrimmon, a young Scotchman who lived near where the town of Cayuga is now situated, she married him, and after a few years they settled on a farm in the township of Binbrook, county of Wentworth, where she lived to a very great age.

Daniel McCrimmon, about the year 1815 while on a hunting expedition got lost in the woods, and his remains were found .along with his rifle, two years afterwards in a hollow tree, where he had climbed to protect himself from the wild animals. The remains were found there by some men who were hunting in the bush. It was proven by the rifle and knife that he carried and the steel and tinder box.

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On 12 Feb 1818 a Mr. Clench, seconded by a Mr. Nellis, moved for leave to bring the following petition to the Commons of Upper Canada and the Honorable Legislative Council, in Parliament assembled:

"The Petition of Margaret Rousseau, of the Township of Ancaster, Widow, Humbly Sheweth: That Your Petitioner is the Widow of the late Jean Baptiste Rousseau, deceased, who was a Captain in the Indian Department, and on Service with the Indians during the late War until the month of November, 1812, and on the 16th of the said month was taken ill when on duty, having been actively employed the whole of that season on a deputation to the Indians at Lake Huron, &c., &c., &c. His strict observance to the service intrusted to his command as is well known to some of Your Honorable Members, brought on disease, which ended a life long devoted to the welfare of His Majesty's Government.

Your Petitioner would beg leave to state that she has made application to the Board appointed for the District of Gore in hopes of having her name inserted on the Pension List, but not being able to obtain same, for reasons perhaps good, is therefore induced to make this appeal to Your Honors, relying on the justice of her application, feels confident that her case will meet with the liberality of investigation that will put her on that grade with others similarly situated, who are now on the Pension List.

And Your Petitioner, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

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