Person:Samuel Teter (9)

Disputed Parentage

Some researchers believe that Capt. Samuel Teter may have been a son of Johann Georg Dieter, who was one of the later Germanna Colony immigrants. Samuel's Find-A-Grave biography claims that he was born in October 1737 on the South Branch of the Potomac River (then in Orange County, Virginia), the son of Johann Georg Dieter and his wife Maria Magaretha Luttman, but Samuel's name does not appear among records of their known children. More research is necessary to prove Samuel's parentage.

The birthdate of October 1737 may be a composite of the dates on the cemetery monument in Union County (died Oct. 6, 1823 aged 90 yr.), which replaced the lost original gravestone, and a WPA veterans' graves registration card from the 1930s, which lists 1733 Penna. and 1737. None of these birthdates match the earliest known record in the family Bible. The location, South Branch of the Potomac, came from Samuel's invalid grandson Samuel D. Teter of Ross County, Ohio, in a letter dated June 26th, 1866, reluctantly dictated in answer to persistent queries from Lyman Draper and Narcissa Doddridge (Draper 5E42–43, Wisconsin Historical Society).¹ Miss Doddridge's comments to Mr. Draper imply that she did not consider this grandson a reliable source. He himself was quoted further, "You can make out a Biography of Capt. Sam Teter to suit yourself without fear of any living person contradicting any statement you may make." Indeed, other descendants have passed down different stories.²

One problem with the Dieter-Luttmann claim is that this family lived on the south side of the Robinson River, not the south branch of the Potomac, in the 1730s. The children moved as a close-knit group to North Carolina and finally to the south branch of the Potomac--long after Samuel's birth, and during the time he was completing service as a Maryland soldier in the French and Indian War. (Compare George Teter's 1736 land grant, digitized at the Library of Virginia website, Images and Indexes, Virginia Land Office Patents and Grants, “Land Office Patents No. 16, 1735,” 475; the Germanna notes by historian John Blankenbaker; and French and Indian War records MS 375 and 375.1 at the Maryland Historical Society.)

The unknown inventor of Samuel's alleged Dieter-Luttmann connection may have confused Hans Jorg/Johann Georg Dieter (Robinson River), who arrived on the ship Molly in 1727, with Jorg Dieter who arrived on the ship Allen in 1729. Joseph Kellogg, researching Teter families during the 1950s (Family History Library microfilm 875399), compared the signature on Jorg Dieter's 1729 Pennsylvania Oath of Allegiance with the signature of a Jorg Dieter on a 1738 road petition from settlers at Opequon Creek in Virginia. He believed that the signatures matched. Kellogg cited the traveling minister Johann Caspar Stoever, who baptized children Maria, Susanna, and Johann George of the Opequon Dieter family in the late 1730s; and the Frederick County, Virginia court record of daughter Margaret's 1746 indenture to Martin Cartmell. Despite a lack of evidence Kellogg suggested that Samuel was a son of the Opequon Dieter family, or of a Jacob Teter named on another road petition from the area in 1744.

Other Teter groups share similar uncertainties and sometimes identical claims. The confusion led to the establishment of a YDNA project for variations of the Teter surname in 2009. Participation has increased slowly. Results as of 2012 support a match between descendants of Captain Samuel Teter, George Teater in Kentucky, and Samuel Teeter in Missouri, although their common ancestor remains unknown. A descendant of Elisha Teters in Columbiana county, Ohio, had similar but not conclusive results. A descendant of the Dieter-Luttmann family had distinctly different results, as did a descendant of Henry Teter in Morgan county, Ohio, and a descendant of the Morisons Cove, Pennsylvania Deeters. More participation is needed for a reliable comparison.

About Samuel Teter

Captain Samuel Teter's nephew, Joseph Doddridge, related Samuel's words in the fall of 1782 when their farms were under threat of attack by an Indian war party: "He was in Braddock's defeat, Grant's defeat, the taking of Fort Pitt (DuQuesne) and nearly all the battles which took place between the English and the French and the Indians, from Braddock's defeat until the capture of that place by General Forbes."³ Samuel's service from 9 October 1757 to 30 December 1758 under Captain Joshua Beall, from 31 December 1758 to 26 April 1759 under Colonel John Dagworthy, further labor on Fort Cumberland, and final receipt of his pay on 8 March 1763 is confirmed in Maryland's French and Indian War Account Books (MS 375) at the Maryland Historical Society. His name in these records is spelled Samuel Teater, like his probable relative George Teater who served at the same time under Captain Alexander Beall and Colonel Dagworthy, later settling in Garrard County, Kentucky. The period 1757-1759 includes General Forbes' campaign, Major Grant's defeat, the battle at Fort Ligonier in Pennsylvania, and the capture of Fort DuQuesne. No records have been found detailing Samuel's earlier life and military service. His origin and parentage remain unresolved.

After his marriage to Mary Doddridge in about 1769, Samuel lived through Pennsylvania county border changes from Cumberland (1767) to Bedford (1771). The Doddridge family had left Maryland for Pennsylvania after the French and Indian War, settling near Friend's Cove in the vicinity of Fort Bedford. Samuel and Mary can be presumed to have married there. In 1773 the young Doddridge and Teter families relocated to the new Westmoreland County, which was also claimed by Virginia as Augusta County in 1773 and Ohio County between 1776 and 1781. After the territorial claims were settled in favor of Pennsylvania, Westmoreland County was divided again and the families found themselves in Washington County, in Hopewell township (later Independence township) near Buffalo Creek. There they had built Doddridge's Fort and Teeter's Fort.⁴ While a Virginia citizen, Samuel served as a militia captain for Ohio County (“David Shepherd Papers,” Draper 1SS, 2SS, 5SS, Wisconsin Historical Society); also as a juryman and road builder. He later served in Pennsylvania militia companies.

About 1797 Samuel and Mary sold their farm, "Plantation Plenty," to Isaac Manchester and moved with six of their seven children, two daughters-in-law, and at least four grandchildren to Ross County, Ohio. Only their daughter Susannah stayed behind with her husband Zaccheus Biggs. The extended Teter family may have taken the Ohio River route from Wheeling to Portsmouth and joined other settlers moving into Ohio. A 1798 Ross County, Ohio court case involved a dispute between partners who had bought Samuel's two boats and paid him with Kentucky money. After a few years and the death of their youngest son Daniel, Samuel and Mary sold their Ross County land to their third son, John, and went to live in Union County, Ohio with their daughter Charity Teter and her husband Thomas McDonald, where they died in 1823 and 1838 respectively.⁵

Teter family Bible (Philadelphia: John Adams for Mathew Carey, 1803) inherited and shared by descendants of Charity Teter McDonald

Veteran's grave registration card (Works Progress Administration, 1930s)

1.   Lyman C. Draper Manuscript Collection
   Draper 5E42–43, 26 June 1866.

   Letter dictated by Samuel D. Teter of Ross County, Ohio, in answer to queries from Lyman Draper and Narcissa Doddridge

2.   Various accounts of Samuel Teter's origins by his descendants.

   The 1905 obituary of another grandson, Samuel E. Teter, from an unidentified Iowa newspaper stated that "The grandfather of the subject of this sketch came from Germany and first settled in Maryland." A connection to Elisha Teter of New Jersey and Columbiana county, Ohio, was claimed in Maxwell History and Genealogy by Florence Houston et al. (Indianapolis: C. E. Pauley and Company, 1916), though Elisha lived a generation later than Samuel. Earle P. Huff, in The Doddridge family in England and America, ca.700 A.D.-ca.1950 (Family History Library microfilm 1688781), quoted great-great-grandson James Gibson Teter's story of "four Teter brothers who emigrated from England to America," of which "our" Pennsylvania ancestor was named George. If true, this story does not rule out an earlier German origin, since these Teters could have been German immigrants passing through British ports on their way to the colonies.

3.   Doddridge, Joseph; John S. (John Sturgis) Ritenour; Wm. T. (William Thomas) Lindsey; and Narcissa Doddridge. Notes on the settlement and Indian wars of the western parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania : from 1763-1783, inclusive, together with a review of the state of society and manners of the first settlers of the western country. (Parsons, West Virginia: McClain Print. Co., 1960)
   222.
4.   Doddridge, Joseph; John S. (John Sturgis) Ritenour; Wm. T. (William Thomas) Lindsey; and Narcissa Doddridge. Notes on the settlement and Indian wars of the western parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania : from 1763-1783, inclusive, together with a review of the state of society and manners of the first settlers of the western country. (Parsons, West Virginia: McClain Print. Co., 1960)
   272-273.
5.   Doddridge, Joseph; John S. (John Sturgis) Ritenour; Wm. T. (William Thomas) Lindsey; and Narcissa Doddridge. Notes on the settlement and Indian wars of the western parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania : from 1763-1783, inclusive, together with a review of the state of society and manners of the first settlers of the western country. (Parsons, West Virginia: McClain Print. Co., 1960)
   286-287.

References on Samuel Teeter page 1 correction, Elisha lived a generation later than Samuel. Elisha Teeter. did in fact live at the same time and same place in Washington co Pa as Samuel Teeter

Various accounts of Samuel Teter's origins by his descendants, Questionable quality.

A connection to Elisha Teter of New Jersey and Columbiana county, Ohio, was claimed in Maxwell History and Genealogy by Florence Houston et al. (Indianapolis: C. E. Pauley and Company, 1916), though Elisha lived a generation later than Samuel.

Carroll Twp. (pp. 691-697)

History of Washington County, Pennsylvania*

On the 21st of May, 1785, Jacob and Simon Fegley Elisha Teeters three hundred acres adjoining the Monongahela River, Mingo Creek, and Paul Froman Jr's tract, being lands purchased by the Fegleys of John Colvin, Jan. 24, 1780. Teeters obtained his patent for the same May 15, 1787, and Aug. 19, 1794, sold two hundred and ninety-seven acres to Sheshbazzar Bentley. James Rice received a warrant for a tract of two hundred and sixty-three acres of land, entitled "Romania," April 12, 1796, and the same was surveyed for him Oct. 20, 1797. It adjoined lands of Abraham Frye and the Monongahela River.

As the early settlers were chiefly Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, or descendants of such, not many years elapsed ere houses of worship, rudely constructed though they were, were erected at various convenient places in this and adjoining townships. Thus about the year 1785 a Presbyterian Church was built on the road leading from Parkison's Ferry to Brownsville at a point near the present line dividing Carroll and Fallowfield townships

Independence Twp. (pp. 824-835)

History of Washington County, Pennsylvania* Early Settlements.-The first authentic record found of a permanent settlement in the present territory of Independence township is of that made by John Doddridge, who came here from Bedford County, Pa., in 1773. Upon a Virginia certificate he took up four hundred and thirty-seven acres of land, which was surveyed to him April 6, 1786, under the title of "Extravagance." This tract was adjoining the one soon after warranted to Samuel Teeter, and upon it was built the "Doddridge Fort," of which Samuel Teeter, a relative of the Doddridge family Samuel Teeter was a relative of the family of John Doddridge Oath of Allegiance

I do solemnly, in the presence of Almighty God, swear and declare that I will faithfully and sincerely support the Constitution of the United States, and obey all laws thereof, and will discontinue opposition thereto, except by way of petition and remonstrance, and all attempts to resist, obstruct, or ill treat the officers of the United States in the execution of their respective duties, so help me God.

Each person, in taking this oath, was required to subscribe his name thereto, as well as sign the following pledge:

In pursuance of the oath hereto annexed, I do hereby engage and associate to and with all others who may subscribe these presents to countenance and protect the officers of the United States in the execution of their duties according to law, and to discover and bring to justice all persons who may be concerned, directly or indirectly, in illegally hindering or obstructing the said officers, or any of them, in the execution of their duty, or in doing any manner of violence to them, or either of them. In witness of all which I have hereunto subscribed my hand the day and year opposite my name.

5 Jan. 1795 - before Eleazer Jenkins, Strabane Township

Elisha Teeters,

Cross Creek, 11 Sep. 1794 -

Alexander Wells, Richard Wells,

Slaveholders in the 1790 Washington County Pennsylvania Census

Wells, Richard 2

Wells, Alex'r 4

Teters, Elisha 1