Sarah Springer

Daughter of Col. David Shepherd & Rachel Teague.

First marriage: Francis Duke.

• Children with Francis: John, and Francis Jr. Duke.
• Francis Duke was killed by indians at Fort Henry in September of 1777.

Second marriage: Levi Springer.

• Children with Levi: Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth, Lydia, David, Rachel, Job and Dennis Springer .* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Oct 1 2021, 0:54:32 UTC

Sarah Shepherd was born c1755 in Mecklenburg (later Shelpherdstown, West Virginia), in Frederick County, Virginia. [1][2][3]

She was the third child and second daughter of David and Rachel Teague (1735-1795) Shepherd[4] [5],7[6],[7] When she was about 18 she married Francis Duke (11 Feb 1752 - 1 Sep 1777)[8][9][10] She bore a baby boy (John S. Duke (1774-1849) by him and was soon pregnant with a second child (Francis, b1777).[11]They moved with her family to Ohio County, south of Fort Pitt.

Francis, who was born in Ireland, was the son of John Duke, an early settler of Berkeley County, Virginia, and had migrated with him to the colonies. Francis and Sarah lived at Beech Bottom, twelve miles below Wheeling, where a block house had been erected after the Indian troubles started. Francis was Commissary and in charge of the Fort.

On receiving word of the attack on Fort Henry, Francis rushed to give aid at the fort but was shot by the Indians before he could reach the safety of the fort, but being so near, the Indians waited for darkness before dragging his body into a cabin and then scalped him and stripped his body. De Haas, in his "History of Western Virginia," says: "Just before the withdrawal of the enemy, Francis Duke, son-in-law of Colonel Shepherd, rode up to the fort and had almost gained the gate, when an Indian shot him. His death was greatly regretted as he was a brave and generous man and of much service on the frontier.

He had been stationed at Beech Bottom block house, as assistant commissary, and getting information of the attack, mounted his horse and rode with all speed to the scene of the operation, here, alas, to meet untimely death. His remains, with those of his nineteen-year-old brother-in-law, William Shepherd, who was killed on the same day, were interred near the spot where the Northwestern Bank stands (at Wheeling). In consequence of the great loss at Wheeling in September, 1777, and the death of Colonel Shepherd's son and son-in-law, Francis Duke, it was determined in the fall of that year to abandon the place and send the families to Redstone (now Brownsville, Pennsylvania.). The fort was accordingly evacuated on 21 September 1777, and soon after the Indians burned it to the ground." [12]

In 1780, about two-three years after Francis’s death, Sarah married Levi B. Springer, Sr. (4 May 1744 - 23 Mar 1823), a widower about ten years older than herself, whose wife had died a year after the death of Francis Duke, leaving her husband with some half-dozen children. [13],[14][15][16][17][18] Sarah Shepherd Duke Springer bore him nine more children over the next two decades:

1. Sarah Springer (1782-1842)
2. David Springer (1785-Bef 1889)
3. Dennis Springer (1787-1866)[19]
4. Rachel Springer (1789- )
5. Annie Springer (1790- )[20][21]
6. Job Springer (1792-1855)[22]
7. Elizabeth Springer (1794-1828)
8. Lydia Springer (Cir 1795- ) [23]
9. Hannah C. Springer (1801- )[24]

Sarah died on 25 October 1832 in Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in the 77th year of her age and is buried in the Great Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery in Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania.[25]

• Reference: WikiTree Genealogy - SmartCopy: Oct 1 2021, 1:10:52 UTC

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• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LCZ2-MCL