European and indiginous American fought fierce battles as the Europeans expanded their territory.
A blockhouse or garrison house is a small, isolated fort. The typical blockhouse was two stories with the second story overhanging the first. It had small openings to allow residents to shoot attackers without being exposed.
Lush forests in Colonial America allowed settlers to build wooden homes.
Bauman is also spelled Baughman, Baumann, Boman, and Bowman.
Northampton County, Pennsylvania is on the eastern border of the state in the Lehigh Valley. It was formed in 1752 from parts of Bucks County. Easton is the county seat.
Women played an essential role in American society as mothers and homemakers.
Pennsylvania is one of the 13 original states and was originally founded in 1681 as a result of a royal land grant to William Penn, the son of the state's namesake.
Sybilla (Isabella) Bauman Truby was born about 1738 Marlborough Township, Montgomery (was Philadelphia) County, Pennsylvania. According to her tombstone she died when she was 63 years old. Her parents were John Dietrich Bauman and Eva Elizabeth Beil. About 1755, she moved with her family to Northampton County, Pennsylvania which is now Lower Towamensing Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania.
During the uncertainties of the war between the Native Americans and the German settlers of Eastern Pennsylvania, her parents put her in the school for girls established by the Moravians at Bethlehem.
She married Colonel Christopher Truby about 1760. Christopher was born in 1736 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His parents were Christopher and Maria Catherine Truby.
Christopher and Sybilla's children included:
Christopher Truby (1761, maried Susanna Lauffer), Michael Truby (1762, married Mary Ann Kline),
Catherine Truby Rohrer Marshall (1763, married Frederick Rohrer and John Marshall),
Elizabeth Truby Ruff (1769, married Adam Lauffer and John Ruff),
John Truby, (1772, married Mary Magdalene Reamer),
Jacob Truby (1773), and
Mary Ann Truby Hovey (1775, married Simon Hovey).
They lived in Bedford, which is now in Westmoreland, County, Pennsylvania on the site of the town of Greensburg, the county seat of Westmoreland county.
In 1774, Christopher was a county commissioner and on June 11, 1777 he was a justice of the peace. In February, 1778, he was captain in the Westmoreland Militia. Michael served as a drummer in the militia.
During the American Revolution, they owned a blockhouse in Hempfield Township. They lived there with neighbors as a refuge from the enemy.
On August 18, 1784, Christopher was re-elected justice of the peace and was made judge of the court of common pleas.
Serveral land warrants were recorded in Christopher's name. A warrant dated August 16, 1784 was for a tract of 274 acres adjoining the lands of Dewalt Mechlin and Philip Kuhns. Another warrant dated December 5, 1785 was for 202 acres on the banks of a branch of Sewickley creek adjoining the lands of William Jack and others.
In 1790, Christopher was a lieutenant-colonel in General Josiah Harmar's campaign against the Miami and Shawnee. He also signed a letter addressed to General Jackson along with other inhabitants of Westmoreland county.
Sybilla died on August 24, 1801 in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Pennsyvania. Christopher died February 20, 1802. They were laid to rest in the Old German Burying Ground (Old German Cemetery) on South Main Street in Greensburg, Pennsylvania which no longer exists. Their were moved to the crypt of Zion's Lutheran Church in 1938 and their original tombstones set in the wall.
Montgomery County, in southeast Pennsylvania was created on September 10, 1784, out of land that was originally part of Philadelphia County.
The Moravian Church is a Protestant denomination that was started in the early 15th century in the Czech Republic.
from The Pittsburgh Press, January 17, 1937
Pioneer Trio To Be Honored With Reburial
Greensburg Will Pay Tribute At Services in Lutheran Church
A Pioneer couple who braved the bleak wilderness of Westmoreland County in its Indian-harassed days, was to be honored today at a ceremony in Zion Lutheran Church. Colonel Christopher Truby and his wife, Sybilla, who were buried 135 years ago in the old German Cemetery on South Main St, were to have a new resting place of honor in the crypts under the chancel of the church. A third interment will be that of Rev. Michael Truby, founder of the Lutheran Congregation, whose body has been taken from the same neglected cemetery for reburial in the sanctuary.
Many to Return
The Sunday afternoon memorial service has brought back descendants of the famed first families. From Bethlehem, Pa, has come Mrs. Alexander Graff, the former Miss Mary Truby. She Is a great- great-granddaughter of Colonel Christopher Truby, Rev. Edgar H. Daugherty, president of the Greensburg conference of the United Lutheran Church, and Rev. William A. Zundel, a leading historian of the church, also are coming.
A colorful history is behind the Truby's. Col. Christopher was a son of a Swiss immigrant, born in the central part of the state in 1736. In 1760 he married Sybilla Bauman, then a sheltered school girl in the Moravian Seminary in Bethlehem. A short time later the two came to what is now Westmoreland County and patented three large tracts of land from the colony.
Captain in Militia
In 1778 Truby became a captain in the Westmoreland Militia, with his young son, Michael, a drummer boy. During the Revolutionary War he erected a blockhouse on his lands which women of the district occupied when Indians attacked the settlement. As county commissioner, a justice of the peace and judge, it was the 5-foot-2 soldier-settler who did much to start the frontier community on its period of growth. Through it all Mrs. Truby worked side by side with her husband. ...
Bucks County, Pennsylvania is one of three original Pennsylvania Counties and was formed in 1682. Originally it was a large territory that included all of what would later be Berks, Northampton, and Lehigh.
A militia is a military unit composed of citizens who are called up in time of need.
Armstrong County, Pennsylvania., Her People, Past and Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914, pp. 975-976, Transcribed November 1998 by Joyce Sherry
Col. Christopher Truby. . . came to this section from Bucks county, Pa., where he was born in 1736, and settled on land which is now part of the site of Greensburg, Westmoreland (then Bedford) county, about 1771.
He was one of the important men of the region in his day, having been commissioner for Westmoreland county in 1774, and justice of the peace June 11, that year. On Aug. 18, 1784, he was reelected justice of the peace and judge of the court of Common Pleas of the county.
He owned a blockhouse or fort upon his property in Hempfield township, Westmoreland county, which was a place of refuge for the early settlers. He built the first courthouse at Greensburg.
During the Revolutionary war he was extremely active in the Colonial cause. In February, 1778, he was a captain of the Westmoreland county militia, his son Michael (who was an early settler of Kittanning, Armstrong county) acting as drummer whenever the company was called into service. In 1790 Christopher Truby served as lieutenant colonel in General Harmar's campaign against the Indians, he and Maj. James Paull commanding the battalion of Pennsylvania militia. A letter from the war department, Washington, D. C., to Miss Elizabeth R. Robinson, Nov. 11, 1903, shows the following:
Christopher Turby served as a member of Colonel Barr's Detachment of Pennsylvania Militia, Revolutionary war (rank not stated), which was ordered out on an expedition to the Indian country by Bridadier General Hand, commanded by Col. Alexander Barr. His name appears on a general pay abstract of the detachment. This abstract, dated March 9, 1778, shows the soldiers in service from Feb. 10, 1778, to March 8, 1778.
Christopher Truby died Feb. 20, 1802, and was buried in the German cemetery at Greensburg. His name appears with those of William Findley, John Kirkpatrick, Frederick Rohrer, Dr. Simeon Hovey, James Hill, and others, as supporters of the government and George Washington, in a petition dated 1794 (inhabitants of Westmoreland county).
Colonel Truby married Isabella Bowman and had seven children, the four sons being Michael, Christopher, Jr. (Born 1761, died 1845, buried near Millers Eddy, in Perry township, Armstrong county), Jacob and John.
Michael Truby, son of Christopher, is named on the list of pioneers for Revolutionary and military services in Armstrong county, granted pensions as soldiers of the Revolution by Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature March 20, 1838.
George Washington ( 1731/32 – 1799) was the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution and first president of the United States (1789–1797).
Early American Colonists and pioneers had to make everything necessary for daily life and skilled craftsmen were essential.
Historically an esquire (Esq. or Esqr.) was the title of a man who ranked below a knight in the English gentry. Later it designated a commoner with the status of gentleman and was used by attorneys.
18th century primer
A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People, Volume 3 by Lewis Publishing Company
. . .Christopher Truby of Holland, was naturalized in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held at Philadelphia, the 25th, 26th and 27th days of September, 1740,
having resided the space of seven years and upwards in his Majesty's colonies in America.
Christopher Truby, the second, was born in 1736, in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, of which county his father is recorded as a resident at the time of his naturalization. About 1771 Christopher Truby, the son, moved to Bedford, now Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and settled upon land which subsequently became a portion of the site of the town of Greensburg, the county seat of Westmoreland county. In 1774 he was commissioner for the county, and on June 11, 1777, was commissioned one of the justices of the peace for Westmoreland county.
In February, 1778, he was captain in the Westmoreland Militia, and throughout the Revolution was the owner of a blockhouse, or fort, erected upon his premises in Hempfield township, which was occupied by his family and neighbors as a refuge from the enemy. From this building scouting expeditions against the Indians were frequently sent.
August 18, 1784, Christopher Truby was re-elected justice of the peace, and was made judge of the court of common pleas of Westmoreland county. In 1790 he served with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in General Harmar's campaign against the Indians, commanding, in association with Major Paull, the battalion of Pennsylvania Militia. He was one of the signers of a letter addressed to General Jackson by the inhabitants of Westmoreland county.
The records of the Pennsylvania land office show Christopher Truby to have been the owner of three tracts of land situated in Hempfield township. Westmoreland county, and acquired by purchase from the state. Two of these were surveyed on warrants granted to him, and the third on an application entered by Philip Fasselman. The earliest of the warrants is dated August 16, 1784, and was issued for a tract consisting of two hundred and seventy-four acres adjoining the lands of Dewalt Mechlin and Philip Kuhns. The second warrant is dated December 5, 1785, and the land for which it was granted was surveyed December 5, 1787. It comprised two hundred and two acres situated on the banks of a branch of Sewickley creek, and adjoining the lands of William Jack and others. The warrant for this tract included an improvement made in 1772. Greensburg was laid out upon land owned by Christopher Truby and General William Jack, who contributed for the nominal sum of six pence ground for the erection of a court-house and prison.
Christopher Truby married before leaving his native county Isabella Bowman, and seven children were born to them: Michael, of whom later; Christopher, Jacob, John, and three daughters. Christopher Truby, the father, died February 20, 1802, and is buried in the German cemetery, Greensburg. A stone at the head of his grave bears the inscription:
Here lies the body of Colonel Christ. Truby, Esq., who departed this life ye 20th day of February, 1802, Aged 66.
Beside him lies the body of Isabella, his wife, who died August 24, 1801, aged sixty-three years.
Michael Truby, son of Christopher and Isabella (Bowman) Truby, while still a boy served with his father in the Westmoreland Militia, acting as drummer whenever the company was called into action. Beyond this fact nothing seems to be known of him except that he was the father of a son. also named Michael. This Michael Truby, the second, was a blacksmith, following his trade at Kittanning, Pennsylvania. He was a Whig and a member of the German Lutheran church. His wife was Mary Schreckengost, and the following were their children:
Henry, married to Lawless;
Daniel, married to Sarah Schreckengost;
Philip, married to Phoebe Reynolds;
Eve, to Jacob Buckley; Levina, to Jacob Raireck;
Rebecca, to Andrew Waugaman;
Susannah, to Solomon Altman, and
Isabella, to Samuel Elgin.
A blacksmith forges and shapes iron with a hammer and anvil.
A Whig was originally a supporter of the American Revolution and from about 1834 to 1855 was a member of the political party that opposed the Democrats. The party supported the supremacy of Congress over the Presidency and favored modernization and economic protectionism.
