Mary Seaworth Dibert

"The first European to cast his lot and take up his abode within territ orial bounds of Bedford County was none other than a dauntless Huguenot - - who found his way thither from Virginia at a very early date, approxi mately 1710, even before the first trader passed this way. He must hav e followed the trail of the great Shawannee Convoy of 1698 from Old Tow n on the Potomac by way of the old warrior trail through to Allaquippa G ap and thence westward. He being a Huguenot, a French-Swiss, was befri ended by the Shawannees and also being by marriage a relative of Martin C hartier, who was held in high esteem by the Shawannee nation, he receiv ed all the consideration of a fellow tribesman. He was doubtless the f ounder of Fort Wingan, which was the first trading station in the colon y west of the Susquehanna and was located not very distant from what la ter became Fort Bedford. Fort Wingan was probably destroyed at the ins tigation of Paxton traders about 1732 by renegade Delaware Indians." "John de Burt and his wife Mary Seaworth settled in what is now 'Dutch C orner' in Bedford Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. ....savages m assacred John, Mary and seven of their twelve children. One of the fiv e that escaped, Christopher, returned with his wife and baby in 1740... .savages killed and scalped Christopher. For seventeen years he lived o n land he could not even buy legally, as it still belonged to the India ns. It was not until nine years after his death that his son Michael t ook out a warrant in 1766 on the land. From then until 1976 [when this b ook was written] the deeds for this land has always been in the Dibert n ame. Which makes two hundred and ten years one family owned land they l ived on for two hundred and thirty six years." "John Dibert, born 1685 in Europe, a French Huguenot, apparently the ol dest son of Frederick and Magdalena, came to America 1707, probably wit h Baron DeGrafenberg. He and his wife, Mary Seaworth, settled in that p art of Pennsylvania later to become Bedford County, in the neighborhood o f the present Messiah Lutheran Church in 1710. John and his wife were u nquestionably the first white settlers west of the Susquehanna. John's w ife was supposed to have been the daughter of Martin Chartier, who came t o America with LaSalle about 1675 and who, having become estranged, cas t his lot with the Shawnee Indians and intermarried with them. In 1732 t he Dibert family was attacked by Indians and the father and mother were m assacred, -- notably, the year of Washington's birth." "About 1707-08 a party of Indian traders French, Swiss, a Virginian and o thers established a trading center in the Connolloway District (which w as embraced in original Bedford County) now a part of Fulton County, no t far from the Maryland line......John Dibert, a French Huguenot, the p rogenitor of the Dibert family of Bedford County, who settled in 1710 i n Dutch Corner about nine miles north of Bedford was unquestionably one o f the party. He, his wife and several children were murdered, massacre d in 1732 by a party of renegades. Dibert through his wife was closely a llied to the Shawannee Indians and consequently could live safely at th at early date in such advance frontier. Donegal traders, jealous and e nvious of his advantageous position as a trader, with a large circle of I ndians were suspects in the promotion of this heinous massacre. Dibert w as undoubtedly connected with Ft Wingan, which we know was existent 173 0. It is possible that Ft Wingan was destroyed by the same ruthless ou tlaws that murdered the Diberts. It is a strange coincident that the r uthless Dunning should have taken over the Indian trade of this section ." "John and Mary de Burt and seven of their twelve children were killed b y savages in 1732. Those that escaped were: Wilhelm, two daughters, M ichael and Christopher de Burt. All but Christopher stayed in Virginia . Christopher changed the spelling from De Burt to Dibert and returned t o what is now Bedford County, PA, in 1740." "John Burt was a Pennsylvania Indian trader as early as 1723. In 1728, h e lived at Snaketown, forty miles above Conestoga on the east side of t he Susquehanna.....John Burt or de-Burt married Mary Chartier Seaworth, a d aughter of Martin Chartier and his Shawnee wife. The name became Diber t in the Bedford County, Pennsylvania records. The large family was at tacked on the Pennsylvania frontier in 1732 and seven out of twelve chi ldren were killed. Five escaped, however, and Charles Christopher Dibe rt was one of these..." "Records in the Library of Congress show the following: the first perm anent white settlement west of the Susquehanna River was made in 1710, b y one John de-Burt and wife Mary Seaworth, the daughter of Martin Chart ier and his Indian wife. It has been established that the name de-Burt l ater became Dibert." "IV. The Diberts (deBurts) of Bedford County. John deBurt and his wif e, Mary Seaworth, settled in Cumberland (later Bedford) County in 1710, ( Ref. 8). This was the first white settlement west of the Susquehanna R iver. John deBurt and his wife, Mary Seaworth, were true pioneers livi ng among the Indians. John was French and Mary was French and Indian, b eing the daughter of Martin Chartier and his Indian wife. In 1732, the p arents and seven of their twelve children were killed in an Indian mass acre. Five of the children survived by hiding. After the massacre, th ey fled back east.......To assist the reader in time relationships, it i s noted that John deBurt settled in western Pennsylvania more than 270 y ears ago, sixty-six years before the Revolutionary War, twenty-five yea rs before Daniel Boone (1735-1820) was born. Daniel Boone was born in R eading, Berks County, Pennsylvania 150 miles to the east of the place w here John deBurt settled...." "....some where west of the Susquehanna River....John de Burt and his w ife Mary Seaworth settled in what is now 'Dutch Corner' in Bedford Town ship, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. The county of Lancaster was only a t hree year old baby, when the savages massacred John, Mary and seven of t heir twelve children. One of the five that escaped, Christopher, retur ned with his wife and baby in 1740...." "Snaketown - John Burt, one of the earliest traders on the Susquehanna, r esided at an Indian town on the river, forty miles above the Conestoga, c alled Snaketown." NOTE: Upon his arrival here in 1710, it was part of Chester County. By t he time of his death, it was part of Lancaster County. Today it is par t of Bedford County

“We find that the next recorded account of a white man's passing through our county was that of Martin Chartier, the white leader of the Shawnee Indians, in the year of 1695, as they were migrating to the Ohio River from Virginia. This tribe arrived on the great East-West Trail at Alliquippa's Gap, by the Warriors' Trail. Since the East-West Trail crossed over the ridge at the Willows, east of the Narrows, this migration may have been a factor in the location of the first permanent settlement by a white man west of the Susquehanna River.

Records in the Library of Congress show the following: the first permanent white settlement west of the Susquehanna River was made in 1710, by one John de-Burt and wife Mary Seaworth, the daughter of Martin Chartier and his Indian wife. It has been established that the name de­ Burt later became Dibert. Records in Deed Book "A" in Bedford County Court House .show copies of warranties to Christopher Dibert, taken out by his son Michael in 1766, in Cumberland County. In one Michael mentioned; "This is the land my Father returned to, which was his Father's (John) settlement." Doing much research, not only in Bedford County but in Virginia, Humphrey Dibert found that John and Mary Dibert and seven of their twelve children were massacred by the Indians in 1732. The five that escaped made their way back to their kin in Virginia. Of the three sons and two daughters, only one, Charles Christopher, returned to Bedford County.

John and his wife Mary traveled up Indian Paths to what is now known as the Dutch Corner area of Bedford County, PA (then it was Indian land and was illegal for non-Indians to settle on), and built their home, known as “Fort Wingwan” (also known as For Wingam, Wingawn and other variations) in 1710. They had twelve children between 1710 and 1732.

However, in 1732, the Diberts were attacked and John, Mary and seven of their children were killed. A daughter who was about 16 years old led the other surviving children, including Charles Christopher, back to Virginia to family that they had there (one reference says that she led them to Jamestown to where an Uncle lived, another reference says that she led them to family near Manakintown).

John Dibert and Mary Seaworth’s son Charles Christopher returned to the area in 1740 with his wife, Eve Margaret Nei, and young son Michael, to re-settle on the land that had once been his home.

   To see some descendants of Charles Christopher Dibert, click here:  Descendants of Charles Frederick Christopher Debart.