Taken Prisoner

I have been writing quite a bit about the Koontz family of my ancestry, and I want to continue by going farther back in the line.  But before we go back a generation, I want to tell about Johannes Koontz’ wife, Dorothy Clodfelter.  She had been married previously to Peter Neufang, a man who had a very sad childhood.  He was born about 1748 in Steinbach, Saarland, Germany to the blacksmith George Balthasar Neufang and his wife, Anna Barbara (Bushling) Neufang.  The family departed for Pennsylvania, with permission from the authorities, from Saarbrucken, Germany in May or June of 1748, with sons Peter (infant) and Martin (3).  Tax records show the family living “beyond the First Ridge of Mountains on Schuylkill” in Pennsylvania in 1753, a very exposed and primitive area at the time.  A cousin of Balthasar, Caspar Neufang, and his wife Barbara, lived across the river and overland a little way.

On March 6, 1756, Peter (aged 8) and his mother were headed to the home of Caspar and Barbara Neufang, to help in the delivery of a child.  Balthasar had stayed home to care for the other children, of which there were now five total.  Sadly, on the way Anna and Peter were attacked by Native Americans near the Schuylkill River.  She was scalped and killed and young Peter was taken captive.   Apparently the trouble with the Eastern Delaware Indians stemmed from a massive land deal with Governor William Penn, Northeast of the Neufang homestead.

After witnessing his mother’s death, Peter was forced to march about 50 miles to the main Delaware village to the West, Kittanning, along with 100 other prisoners from the region.  It was said that Peter was “lucky” to have been adopted by the tribe to replace a lost loved one, or to serve as a slave.  Most were killed or cruelly tortured, and survivors were driven back beyond the Blue Mountains.  By late 1756 over 300 Pennsylvania settlers had been killed and militia scouts reported 347 vacant farms in this area.  Balthasar and his children probably took refuge at Fort Lebanon, just a few miles South of his homestead.

It was not until March of 1758 that Teedyuscung, the Indian Chief, agreed to peace, following an attack on Kittanning by the military.  On December 1, 1759, Peter was finally released at the age of twelve and personally delivered to Governor Hamilton of Pennsylvania by Teedyuscung himself.  But he had been with the tribe so long that he no longer knew how to speak German.  Imagine how difficult his childhood had been!  At the time that he was returned to his father, Balthasar was a Private serving in the 2nd battalion of the Pennysylvania Regiment, and he had been remarried.  What a reunion that must have been!

Peter Neufang married our Dorothy Clodfelter sometime before 1773, but apparently had no children and had died (mysteriously) by November of 1775, when she married our Revolutionary Patriot, Johannes Kuntz.  In North Carolina Dorothy’s sister, Anna Maria, married Peter’s brother, Martin; and her sister Susanna married Peter’s brother, George.  All three families are found in the genealogical records of Davidson County, North Carolina, but the name spellings are often different — Neufang (also spelled Nifong), Clodfelter (Glattfelder) and Koontz (Kuntz, Koonts, Coonce, etc.). What amazing trials some of our ancestors faced!