Transcript:Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 28 (Page 115)

Periodical

Source:Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 28, Number 1

Article Title

"The Three Joseph (Van) Gundys" by Mary K. Meyer

Transcribed Text

... have been in the militia as he was only about ten years old at the time.

As for Joseph commanding a company in General John Sullivan's expedition against the Indians in Pennsylvania and New York state, it is possible but again we have been unable to establish it as a fact.

We know that in the spring of 1779 many of the able bodied men in the Susquehanna Valley were preparing to enter "boat service," that is, the convoying of Sullivan's commissary up the north branch of the Susquehanna River.

One Adam Schaefer, a resident of Northumberland county, was drafted into Benjamin Weiser's Northumberland county Militia and was on a tour of duty between 1 January and 10 March 1777; marched to Philadelphia and thence to Princetown, New Jersey. Schaefer was also in a company of drafted militia on 1 May 1778, and marched against the Indians on the West branch of the Susquehanna to Wallis Station.From the last of August until the end of October 1779, he boated supplies (flour, etc.) by canoe from Coxtown to Sunbury for the use of General Sullivan.

Inasmuch as Joseph Van Gundy was on the same tour of duty with Captain Weiser's Company in January 1777, it would seem reasonable he too continued on to Princeton. It is also possible he joined the other men in the area in convoying supplies for Sullivan's army, although there is some evidence that he was living back in the Lebanon county area at the time.

In the late 1770's there were numerous Indian forays into the Susquehanna and Juanita valleys and a great many settlers in the outlying areas fled back to the settlements and their former homes for protection. This was probably the case with Joseph's family. There is evidence that Joseph himself returned to the present Lebanon county area following his tour of service with Benjamin Weiser's Company. On 11 November 1777, Joseph Van Gundy took the Oath of Allegiance as a resident of the area. There is also evidence that Joseph again served with the Militia, this time in Lancaster County.

There is concrete evidence that Joseph's family had returned to the Stumpstown area by 1780, for on 5 October 1779 a son Joseph was born to Joseph and Magdalena, and was baptized at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Stumpstown (now Fredericksburg) in April 1780. His sponsors were Frederick and Elizabeth Kamper (Gamper).

Another child was born to Joseph and Magdalena on 26 June 1782. She was named Catharine Susanna and Baptized at the Swatara Reformed Church in Jonestown, (now) Lebanon County. This does not necessarily indicate a move on the part of the family, as Jonestown and Fredericksburg are only a few miles apart. Susanna was confirmed 30 April 1797, age 14 years, at ...

Sources

• Image: American Ancestors: Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 28, Number 1, Page 115.
• Transcription: "Ancestors of Samuel J. Davis & Sherry L. Kirk: Information about Joseph Van Gundy" in Genealogy.com