Sarah Piper

Sarah McDowell, daughter of William McDowell, and sister of the wife of Archibald Irwin, was born, November 30, 1738, upon her father's farm near Parnell's Knob, in the Cumberland Valley. With slender chances of education, except that afforded by careful home-training and instruction, the early childhood of Sarah was spent on the frontiers, until after the defeat of General Braddock, when her family fled towards the Susquehanna, and for sometime resided in the vicinity of Carlisle. It was here, possibly, she became acquainted with William Piper, who was an officer in the Provincial service. They were married December 29, 1759. They continued to reside in the Cumberland Valley, near Shippensburg, until after 1768, when they removed to a tract of land in Northumberland county.

(Source: Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, Clarence M. Busch, State Printer of Pennsylvania, 1896, Jay Gilfillan Weiser, pp. 476-489, ?The Frontier Forts in the Cumberland and Juniata Valleys.?)