The Family

I decided to create a section of my blog for my mother, Susan Fulton Fish, to share her stories about researching our family history. Each time she posts I’ll share a freebie for you to enjoy…..

So take it away Mom….

The Honorable George Plumer, my 3rd great grandfather, was the father of Elizabeth Plumer, my 2nd great grandmother, the fourth wife of Henry Fulton, my 2nd great grandfather.

The following information has been taken from the book: “The Old and New Monongahela” by John S. VanVoorhis, published in 1893. We are indebted to the writings of the late Isaac Craig of Allegheny, Pa., for the following interesting biographical sketch of Hon. George Plumer.

George Plumer was of English descent. His ancestors were of an ancient and honorable family. Members of the Plumer family were among the earliest settlers in Massachusetts. From that State Jonathan Plumer immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1750. He was a commissary to General Braddock in 1755, and after Braddock’s inglorious defeat he settled at Old Town, near Fort Cumberland. A tradition in the Plumer family has it that he was with Forbes when that “Head of Iron” took possession of Fort Duquesne in 1758, and named it Pittsburgh. He returned east with Forbes’ army, and located at Fort Frederick. Here he met and married Miss Anna Farrel. In 1759 we have an account of Plumer at Fort Pitt, but not until 1761 did he bring his family to the west. In that year, by permission of Colonel Boquet, he built a cabin and “made valuable improvements” on a tract of 1,500 acres of land along the Allegheny River which he had become jointly interested in with Colonel Croghan, who had obtained it on a grant from the Indians. This land includes the location of the United States Arsenal and the Allegheny Cemetery.

The peace of Fontaineblean, “which secured to the British crown this long-disputed section,” was signed on November 3, 1762. Immediately after British possession was assured emigrants began to flock in from Eastern Pennsylvania, Virginia, Scotland and the North of Ireland. Jonathan Plumer’s cabin was one of the pioneer structures outside of Fort Pitt. It was located about 100 yards east of where the old Ewalt mansion now stands, which was built by Samuel Ewalt, who purchased the property when it was sold by the sheriff at the suit of Croghan’s creditors. In that rude frontier cabin, whose blue wood smoke curling among the trees was a guide for the settlers on the 5th day of December, 1762, the first white child was born west of the Allegheny Mountains under British dominion. He was christened George Plumer, and his after career was as notable as his birth. (This land today includes the United States Arsenal and Allegheny Cemetery in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh, PA)

The youthful Plumer became a noted hunter and scout, and occasionally accompanied parties of surveyors. Soon after the close of the revolution he met Miss Margaret Lowrey, the youngest daughter of Colonel Alexander Lowrey, of Lancaster County. Miss Margaret was visiting her sisters here, Mrs. Daniel Elliott and Mrs. John Hay, when she met the strapping young backwoodsman in buckskins. It was a case of love from the beginning, and shortly the young couple were engaged. When the engagement was announced to Mrs. Hay there was a storm. The Lowrey family were wealthy and proud. Mrs. Hay opposed the match and threatened to send Miss Margaret home. Before this could be done the youthful couple set an example which has been followed by many ardent lovers since. They eloped, and were married in August, 1784, but the girl henceforth was an outcast from home.

The newlywed couple’s first home was a log cabin built by George Plumer on the right bank of Pucketos (now Puckety) creek near Fort Crawford within the present boundaries of Westmoreland county. This cabin was built on 300 acres of land. Their life together began without a hope of her father’s forgiveness. Plumer cleared the land and hunted the game that abounded in the woods. They were often annoyed by Indians and were compelled to take refuge in the woods and in Fort Crawford. There is something pathetic in the situation of the high born girl who preferred to share the dangers and privations of such a life with the man she loved, rather than give him up for the luxuries of the Lowrey home and a share of the Lowrey fortune.

George Plumer and Robert Hays being called upon to perform a month’s military duty as scouts, a Pittsburgh attorney took advantage of their absence to send a surveyor to survey their lands, and had a patent taken out before they knew anything about it. By this scoundrelly action they lost their all. Shortly after this Plumer met his father-in-law for the first time. Colonel Lowrey had a large body of land north of Hanna’s town, near Greensburg, about which there was litigation, and preparatory to the trial of the case, he was there with a party of surveyors to fix the boundaries. Plumer was hunting in that direction and met the party. Being well acquainted with the surveyors, he shook hands all around, and then he was presented to his astonished father-in-law.
The unexpected meeting was a trifle embarrassing to Plumer. He invited his father-in-law to go home with him and see his daughter and grandchildren. But the Colonel declined, and bade him a cold farewell. But in a day or so who should appear at the little log cabin in the woods but the stately Colonel Lowrey, unannounced, but greeted with a tearful welcome.

The Colonel fairly overwhelmed his long lost daughter and her little sons with embraces, and everything went well after that. That reconciliation between a disobedient daughter and an irate father was notable as the first event of its kind west of the Alleghenies.
Lowrey followed up the reconciliation by giving Plumer and his wife their choice of three fine tracts of land near the mouth of Big Sewickley creek. The selection was made and Plumer erected a house at the mouth of the Sewickley, near West Newton. So attracted was Col. Lowrey with his son-in-law’s enterprise and thrift that two years later he presented him £800 (84,000) to erect mills on his property.

The next year the Colonel came again and found the saw mill running, and masons at work on the foundation of the grist mill. He was delighted and presented Plumer with £300 more and sent him burr stones for the mill.

The following year Mrs. Plumer and her sister Mary went East to see their father, and just before they started for home he gave them each five hundred pounds. Soon after his wife’s return Mr. Plumer was taken down with fever, from which he recovered slowly. During his protracted illness a sudden freshet swept away his mill-dam, which in his feeble condition greatly discouraged him, and finally, in connection with his physician’s warning against continued hard work, induced him to sell his mills, with some adjoining lands, to Maj. Michael and Adam Frichman. In the following year Mr. Plumer built a large square log house on the upper portion of his farm to which he removed and in it spent the remaining portion of his days. Early 1808 he opened a store in connection with his large distillery and farming business.

In 1812, Mr. Plumer was elected to the (Pennsylvania) Legislature, and was re-elected in 1813, 1814, 1815, and 1817. On the 24th of June, 1818 he lost his wife, the beloved of his youth. In her cultivated and refined society he had in a great measure overcome the disadvantages of imperfect education, and suited himself for the higher duties which, in the latter years of his life, he was called to perform.

In 1820, Mr. Plumer was elected a representative to the Seventeenth Congress of the United States, and was re-elected to the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Congresses.

On the 14th of November, 1821 he was married to his second wife, Miss Martha Dean, of Indiana County, PA, who survived him some years.

In 1826 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church decided to establish a theological seminary west of the mountains, and a board of directors, consisting of twenty-one ministers and nine ruling elders, was elected by ballot to report the following year a suitable location for it in or near Pittsburgh. Mr. Plumer was one of the nine ruling elders; he, however, did not favor the site finally selected on Hogback Hill in Allegheny Town, (present day North Side, Pittsburgh, PA) but advocated the purchase of Braddock’s Field.

In 1832, Mr. Plumer was again urged to permit his name to be used as a candidate for Congress, but he declined, and spent the remainder of his days in the quietude of private life.

We close this sketch of one of the representative men of the early day of Western Pennsylvania with the following notice of his decease from the pen of his nephew, The Rev. William S. Plumer, D.D., at that time editor of the newspaper Watchman of the South, in which it appeared in Richmond, VA, June 22, 1843 Died, near West Newton, Pennsylvania, on the 8th (January 8, 1843) Hon. George Plumer, who was a representative in Congress for six years from the Westmoreland district, aged eighty years, six months, and three days. It has been said of him that he was the oldest man living born west of the mountains. He outlived all his brothers, of whom he had seven. He was by nature remarkably generous and kind. A more affectionate relative no man had. He has left a large family of children and grandchildren.

His last illness continued more than four weeks. A large concourse of sympathizing friends and acquaintances attended his burial from his own residence, where his pastor, Rev. Mr. Gillett, delivered an appropriate and impressive discourse. By a fall in winter he received considerable personal injury, but recovered so far as in the month of May to ride several miles to Sewickley Church, where he conducted a prayer-meeting with much ability and solemnity. That night he was taken with violent pains through his whole frame. From the first of his attack he believed it would be fatal, and set his house in order. His views of religious truth were clear and solemn and appropriate. The blessed doctrine of the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ imputed to believers lay near his heart and was all his hope. He recommended the blessed Saviour to all who visited him. He had spiritual conflicts in his last hours, but hope and faith triumphed. Thus has fallen asleep one of the best of men, who while living was revered by all good men who knew him; one who proved what uprightness and the fear of God can do for those who are called to drink deeply of the cup of human suffering and sorrow. May his children and relatives (the editor of this paper is his nephew) and their descendants have like precious faith, and obtain like good report.