Daniel McHenry (son of John McHenry and Susannah McNeal)276 was born August 5, 1755 in Stillwater, Columbia Co., PA, and died 1824 in Col. Co. Pa276. He married Mary Stevens on 1775 in Pennsylvania.
Notes for Daniel McHenry: Daniel McHenry, first offspring of John and Susanah McNeal McHenry
"Blazes a Trail in Fishingcreek Valley"
The young Daniel was a hunter and trapper, with little save his knowledge of woodcraft as a means of support. The parents of the maiden of his choice opposed his suit. They threatened to send their daughter away, to the "Nuns" at Bethlehem on the Lehigh. "They cannot send you farther than I can go after you" said Daniel. And so, he won his bride and took her to the newly made settlement on the West Branch while he went off to war.
In the Revolutionary War, Daniel McHenry served with Company B, Northumberland Regiment, first as Lieutenant, then as Captain. In Meginness History of the West Branch, published 1857, page 190, is mention of the company commanded by Lieutenant Daniel McHenry, at the battle of Red Bank. Daniel McHenry was commissioned Captain September 11, 1777. He was wounded at the battle of Red Bank, being shot through the ear and given a slight scalp wound, the scar of which he would sometimes show to his descendants.
At the time of the Indian massacres of 1778, Daniel McHenry was at Chillisquaque having come on furlough to defend his family on the unprotected frontier. At the time of the Big Runaway, he did not flee with the others but waited until reflections of burning cabins up the river warned of immediate danger. Taking his two horses, his wife, two children and a feather bed, he crossed the river that was swollen beyond its banks by a great freshet. The night was pitch dark and they could not see the opposite shore. "Daniel I cannot cross this dreadful river" said the young wife. "You must, else 'tis the river of death at the bloody hands of the Indians", her husband told her.
Tied on her horse with rope about her waist in the hands of her husband, she shut her eyes and gripped her baby. She could hear her husband whispering to his horse as they swam the swift current "take us through, brave Bevan, take us through". She knew they had reached the shore when he said "God of mercies, I thank thee".
At the first house to which they came they were received and cared for generously. Their next child was named for their benefactor, Daniel Butterfield. There are many descendants of Daniel Butterfield McHenry in Central Pennsylvania.
After being driven out by the Indians, Daniel McHenry did not go back to the West Branch but sought a place in what was then the unbroken wilderness of upper Fishingcreek Valley. In 1784 he made his first trip of exploration up the valley, following the Indian trail up the creek from the frontier settlement which is now the town of Bloomsburg, to choose the place where he and the generations after him should live.
The site he selected was on a slight elevation overlooking the creek and the valley at Stillwater. The home of the late Daniel McHenry, grandson of Daniel the 1st, and of O.D. McHenry, great grandson, now occupies the same site.
Early in 1785, Daniel McHenry made his second trip up Fishingcreek. This time he took with him his axe, his gun and his dog and some grain for seed in his knapsack. All summer he labored, felling trees and building a log house. By fall he was ready for his family to come to their new home. They had been left with her father at Chillisquaque.
Daniel McHenry "took up" or purchased from the state something over a thousand acres of land. In the earliest patent, dated 1793, the consideration mentioned is twenty pounds for 800 acres, something less than ten cents per acre. This tract was called "Manchester Manor" and with succeeding purchases extended from what is now called Pealertown to the site of the old McHenry Distillery and the lower end of the borough of Benton.
Daniel McHenry was described by one of his grandchildren as a spare, florid complexioned man of medium height, erect carriage and small, well formed hands and feet. In his later years he was thrifty and eonomical and acquired considerable property. A strict Presbyterian and far from any church he would call together his children and neighbors and lead them in exhortation. The grace he asked before meals was "Chief, bless us".
Despite disaster and hardship of pioneer life, he gave thought to the mental training of his children and, early in 1794 he hired a young man from Philadelphia, Henry Heiss by name, to stop at his home for three months to teach his children.
1790 PA Census Index, Page 20: McHenry, Daniel/PA/Allegheny Co./013/1790/01-03-01-00-00
1850 PA Census Index, Pg. 2355: McHenry, Daniel, Sr. / PA / Columbia Co. / Fishing Creek Twp. / 1850 / 769 / 202
More About Daniel McHenry: Date born 2: 1755276 Date born 3: August 5, 1755276 Burial: Unknown, St. Gabriel's Col. Co. PA.276
More About Daniel McHenry and Mary Stevens: Marriage: 1775, Pennsylvania.
Children of Daniel McHenry and Mary Stevens are:
+John Hunter McHenry, b. June 24, 1785, Columbia, PA, d. March 17, 1868, Stillwater, PA.
Daniel McHenry (b. August 5, 1755, d. 1824)
Notes for Daniel McHenry: