Surveyed to
Frederick Swagerty,
 Dec. 13, 1769 from a warrant issued to John Gallaher on September 8, 1755 Cumberland, Pennsylvania, Fermanagh Twp.
This is a 1904 true copy of an original survey on file in the Pennsylvania Department of Internal Affairs, Harrisburg.  Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
 Copied Survey  Books
  C- 63  p177

Map of Perry County   The modern map (below) shows the peninsula of land as in above survey, as Cocalamus Creek flows around the peninsula and then turns south to flow southwesterly and into the Juniata River just below Millerstown.   U.S. Route 17 follows the Sunbury Path.   The old road connected 18th century settlers in south Fermanagh and Greenwood Townships  with  the Susquehanna River, about ten miles away.

 Frederick Swagerty
Fermanagh Township,
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania 
Land and genealogical research and narrative
 by Iris Teta Eubank Wagner
For my grandmother, Fanny Swagerty Eubank

   Frederick Swygart -  Rapho Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

1763 Tax List of Fermanagh Township, Cumberland County
There are fifty-one entries on this first tax list of Fermanagh Township in 1763.  Nineteen entries are settlers on unwarranted land, as was Frederick.

Evidence from the land records of Lancaster County and the 1763 tax record of Fermanagh, show that Frederick probably moved from Rapho Township in Lancaster County in early 1762 or 1763 to settle on unwarranted land in Fermanagh Township in Cumberland County.

Evidently, in 1763  there was still a threat of Indian attack west of the Susquehanna, and settlers in numbers fled to safe territory east of the Susquehanna.  As an example, Joseph Greenwood, who lived in Pfoutz Valley and for whom Greenwood Township is named, is on the list of Fermanagh taxables in1763 for 500 warranted acres.   In 1764 he removed temporarily to Paxton Township, on the east side of the Susquehanna River, away from the Indian threat.  In 1767 he returned to his 500 acres, which were now in Greenwood Township. Other settlers who had fled in 1764 also returned to their land.  Joseph Greenwood  is on the 1768 Tax List for Greenwood Township.

Frederick, too, may have had to leave the area in 1764 because of the Indian threat.  His earliest land record in Cumberland County is West Side Application # 3414, Tract # 60, surveyed May 10, 1768, shown below on the Greenwood Township Warrantee Map.

Greenwood Township Warrantee Map "A" -   pdf file
area west and north of Cocolamus Creek was included in Fermanagh Twp. until 1789
Greenwood Township Warrantee Map "B" - Warrantees' names and Tract #'s - pdf
Greenwood Twp, Cumberland County, became Greenwood Twp, Perry County in 1820.
     
Frederick's Four Tracts of Land in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

On map below in bold line and numbers are Frederick's Tracts of Land
(1)  Tract # 60  -  Greenwood Township
(2) Tract # 76  Fermanagh Township
(3) # 77  -  Fermanagh Township
(4)  Tract on Little Mahantango Creek (survey shown below)  - Greenwood Township

    Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website, Pennsylvania State Archives, Land Records
    (Frederick's tracts and adjacent land holders in bold outline  and numbers by T. Wagner)
 

First Survey, Tract # 60 -  On April 11, 1767 Frederick made application to have 200 acres surveyed on the east side of Cocolamus Creek.  One-hundred and seventy-three acres were surveyed on May 10, 1768, for Frederick Sweikert, Appl. # 3414.  John Ross' # 3413 application is listed just above Frederick's.  Below, the West Side Application record.  (Note:  It was Pennsylvania land law of the time that the applicant applying for a warrant to have land surveyed had to accept the number of acres surveyed .)

 Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg.

Greenwood Township  was formed in 1767, therefore Frederick's Tract # 60, surveyed on May 10, 1768 was located in the newly formed township.  The first paragraph in the chapter on Greenwood Township, written by A. L. Guss, from Ellis & Hungerford describes the boundaries of  Fermanagh at the time Greenwood was erected, and this boundary remained until 1789, when Mifflin County was created.  Notice, particularly the phrase, ". . . except that portion of the present Greenwood Township lying north of the mouth of Cocolamus Creek, which then belonged to Fermanagh Township . . ."

Second Survey, Tract # 77 - On December 13, 1769, Frederick surveyed in the right of John Gallaher's warrant dated September 8, 1755.  After this 1769 survey, Tract # 77a, 48 acres and Tract # 77b, 105 acres, were not resurveyed until 1820 for Henry Gable (# 77a, 48 acres), and in 1822 for the heirs of George Neigley (#77b,105 acres). 
Where Frederick lived   Frederick's records in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, from 1770 through 1782 are all of  Fermanagh Township.  Evidence of the records so far leads to the conclusion that Frederick lived on the land he surveyed in the right of John Gallaher in 1769, Tract # 77.  The last tax list on which Frederick is included is the 1782 List of Taxables in Fermanagh Township.  In 1783 he is included on the first List of Taxables in Greene County, North Carolina.

Tract # 71  David Miller's improved Tract in 1780, the year he bought James Gallagher's 222 acres.

Tract # 78  was James Gallagher's 222 warranted acres, which reached to the Juniata river. James
Gallagher was Commissioner of Ferries in early Fermanagh. From Tracts 71 and 78 David Miller developed Millerstown.  Harrison Hain's  History  of  Perry County is in digital  format on Google Books.

Third Survey, along Little Mahantango Creek

This third tract
is located about five miles northeast of the previous tracts.
On September 7, 1770, 159 acres in Greenwood Township on Little Mahantango Creek were surveyed to Frederick Swagarty on his West Side Application # 5413, dated March 31, 1769, a  tract in the southwest corner of present Susquehanna Township, Juniata
County, near the Perry County line.

    Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website.
    True copy drawn in 1904  from an original survey on file in the Pennsylvania                   
    Department of Internal Affairs, Harrisburg.
                                                                                                               
 From John Woolf  Jordan's history of
   the  Juniata Valley :
      "The first settlement back from the river [Susquehanna] was commenced in August, 1766, when  James Gallagher warranted a tract of 211 acres near the southwest corner of the township [Susquehanna Township] ."
Gallagher later sold the property to Samuel Osborne, another early  settler, and by  the early 1880's it was owned partly by Levi Light.

The map at right is Jacob Gish's 1849 survey of 120 acres of Frederick's original 159 acres.  On this survey the public road is indicated, and two roads, one leading north and one leading south are also shown.  The roads on this 1849 survey follow the modern roads - Bucher Hollow Road  and Andy Stroup Road -  shown on the modern map of Susquehanna Township   (below right)

  James Gallagher's Survey
  on Little Mahantango
  At left is James Gallagher's tract of
   211 acres on Little Mahantango Creek
    in Greenwood Township, surveyed on
    March 31, 1770, by order to survey
    # 929 on August 22, 1766. This tract
   is adjacent to Frederick's Mahantango
    tract, shown above.  This Gallagher
    tract was sold to Samuel Osborne,
   

  Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website.
  True copies drawn in 1904  from original surveys on file in the Pennsylvania                   
  Department of Internal Affairs, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

 From Ellis and Hungerford's history :
      "Samuel Osborne, one of the commissioners to run the line [ Greenwood Township], lived in the limits of  the present township [1886] of  Susquehanna, and owned, at the time, the tract in the southwest  corner  of  the township, now owned in part by Levi Light."

On the map at right the tracts of Frederick Swagerty and James Gallagher were likely along what is now  called Dobson Run on this modern map.

The 1849 survey for Jacob Gish  show the public road and two intersecting roads are within the boundary of Frederick Swagerty's land.  On this modern map (right) the two intersecting roads  that appear to follow the route of the 1849 roads are Bucher Hollow Road and Andy Stroup Road.

                                                           
                                                              Susquehanna Township, now in Juniata County, Pennsylvania

Fourth Tract # 76 a,b,c Fermanagh Township
Deeded to Frederick from William Patterson on November 7, 1781.  Excerpt from the deed :

 " . . . I, William Patterson of Cumberland County have sold to Frederick Swagert one-hundred and ten acres of land situate in a long square piece and Beginning at David Miller's [Tract # 71] Northeast Corner a Dead Oak & extending along Thomas Bull's line [Tract # 79]  to said Frederick's line to Cocalamus Creek in Fermanagh Township, Cumberland County, in consideration of fifty pounds specie, being part of a Tract of Land granted by the Proprietaries to Samuel Harris of New Jersey . . ."

Tract # 79 on the Warrantee map (above) was Thomas Bull's survey in the right of John Gronow's warrant of April 7, 1774.  John Gronow was Thomas Bull's father-in-law.  Thomas Bull married Sarah Gronow.   John Gronow warranted and patented Gawen Erwin's early tract which is located along Cocalamus Creek between James Gallagher's 222 acres and John Gallaher's 159 acres, in whose right Frederick surveyed in 1769.

Tract # 76 was Samuel Harris's "Master Tract"  - 308 acres - from which William Patterson must have bought from Samuel Harris and had surveyed the Tracts #76 a, b, c.  (No record found of the survey. Patterson Grantee record search to come.)
                                                                 ______________

St.Michael's Churchyard  A satellite view of the old churchyard where numerous gravestones can be seen.  The location is about four miles northeast along Sunbury Path from where Frederick lived on Tract # 77, and just a short distance southwesterly on Millrace Road.
 

Old St. Michael's Evangelical Lutheran Churchyard
Two of the three oldest gravestones still standing in St. Michael's Churchyard mark the grave sites of Frederick's son and daughter Frederick and Elizabeth.
          Frederick Swigorty :  September 1, 1761 - March 4, 1777
          Elizabeth Swigorty :   1756 - February 2, 1777

The baptismal record of St. Michael's began in October, 1774, by the minister of the congregation, Rev. Michael Enderlin.  Elizabeth Schwigerty, age nineteen,  and her younger sister Maria Schwigerty, age sixteen, were baptized and confirmed into the Evangelical Lutheran Church on October 30, 1774. Elizabeth may well have been a twin sister to her brother Abraham Swagerty.  Proof of Elizabeth's age in October, 1774 at confirmation, documents her birth year as 1755. Abraham is documented by Revolutionary War records to have been born in 1755.

  Frederick Swagerty
Revolutionary War Records
Militia of the Fourth Battalion, Cumberland County,
 and
Frederick Swagerty, State of Pennsylvania,
Cumberland County, Fermanagh Township,
Tax Lists

January 1777 -  James Gibson's company of Milita of the Fourth Battalion
During the Revolutionary War  Frederick served with a battalion of militiamen who lived in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.  Colonel James Wilson commanded the Militia of the Fourth Battalion of the county. Almost fifty years old in 1777 Frederick served as a Private in Captain James Gibson's company.  Lieutenants in the company were Arthur Cunningham and Isaac Thompson.  Ensign was Thomas Bull, who lived on an adjacent tract of land to Frederick's Tract # 77 along Cocalamus Creek in Fermanagh Township.  Sergeants were Andrew Nelson, Hugh McAlister, John Thompson, and John Hamilton. Corporals were Robert McCammon, John Moon, Andrew Kidlinger, and George Armstrong.  The Drummer was Nathaniel Moon and Fifer was Philip Quigly. Capt. James Gibson certified this list of men to be a "true return" of his company in January, 1777.

Frederick's son and daughter, Frederick and Elizabeth, died in early 1777.  The family lived on the original John Gallagher land warrant that Frederick had had surveyed in 1769 along Cocalamus Creek.  Both of his other surveyed tracts were in Greenwood Township. 

July 1778 - David Bowl's company of militia of the Fourth Battalion
Frederick continued to serve  in the Fourth Battalion according to muster records of July, 1778.  He was serving with Captain David Bowl's company at this time.  Bowl lived east across Cocalamus Creek, adjacent to Frederick's warranted Tract # 60 in Greenwood Township.  Lieutenant was Samuel Huling; Ensign Abram Wilson; and privates were many of the same families, if not first names, of the 1777 return.

First State Tax - Cumberland County - Fermanagh Township - 1778
Pennsylvania's First State Tax was taken in 1778.  Frederick is on this tax list, living in Fermanagh Township.   In addition, several men who served with Frederick in Capt. Gibson's company are on this list.

1778 Tax List of Freemen of Fermanagh - not married nor owning land.  Frederick's son Abraham Swagerty is on this list.   Twenty-year-old Abraham Swagerty had earlier in 1775, at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, joined the First Pennsylvania Regiment serving in one of the two companies of the famed Pennsylvania Riflemen, who marched from Carlisle to Boston in the summer of 1775, and then during the fall and into December crossed the Maine Wilderness to Quebec, led by General Benedict Arnold.  Abraham was wounded and taken prisoner by the British during the Patriots's aborted attempt to take Quebec.  He was released months later in July, 1776.  After his release in New York City, Abraham evidently returned to recuperate at his father's home in Fermanagh Township.   Abraham, who later figured prominently in the surveying of millions of acres in the future state of Tennessee, probably learned his skill in surveying from John Armstrong of Cumberland County.  Armstrong, a leading resident and well-known surveyor in Cumberland, operated a school at Carlisle.

January 1779 - James Gibson's company of militia
Man for man, the names that appear on the 1779 muster roll of Capt. James Gibson's company of militia are the same as those that appear on the 1777 roster of men.
(to continue)

Original Narrative Copyright © Teta Eubank Wagner 2009

_____________

Sources :

 Pennsylvania Department of Internal Affairs, Harrisburg, original surveys.   The Pennsylvania  Archives, Harrisburg. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website. Digital Documents,

 Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Pennsylvania State Archives, Digital Documents,
 including Land Records (East Side Applications, Westside Applications, Warrant Register,
 Patentee Register)

  F. Ellis and A. N. Hungerford, editors,  History of that Part if the Susquehanna and Juniata  Valleys, embraced in the Counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Everts, Peck, & Richards, 1886.

 John Woolf  Jordan, Librarian, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, A History of Juniata Valley and
 its people, Vol. I, illustrated, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York

Harrison Hain, History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, Including Descriptions of Indian and Pioneer Life from the Time of Earliest Settlement, Hain-Moore Company, Publishers, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Rev. David H. Focht, A.M., Churches Between the Mountains : A History of the Lutheran Congregations in Perry County, Pennsylvania, Chapter V, Section III, St. Michael's Church in Pfoutz's Valley, Greenwood Township.

Silas Wright, History of Perry County, in Pennsylvania, from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Millerstown, 1872, Wylie & Griest, Printers, Bookbinders and Stereotypers, 1873.

Ralph Beaver Strassburger and William John Hinke, Pennsylvania German Pioneers, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 ( the signature edition, p466) of the Ship Lists, Pennsylvania German Society, 1934.

Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy, Third Edition, Ancestry Publishing, 2006.

Irene M.Griffey, Earliest Tennessee Land Records & Earliest Tennessee Land History, Clearfield Company, Inc., reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc, Baltimore, Maryland, 2003, pp384,385.

Thomas Perkins Abernethy, From Frontier to Plantation in Tennessee : A Study in Frontier Democracy, Chapter: Jackson, Blount, and Sevier, Southern Historical Publications No.12, University of Alabama Press, 1967, p173.