Author: John Sawyer
Title: History of Cherry Valley, from 1740 to 1898
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1898
Page Numbers:
URL:
Excerpts regarding: Moses Nelson and widow Dunlop
Page 8
CHAPTER II – THE EARLY DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION
Page 15
On the hill at the upper end of the valley, in a direct line from the Fort stood the log house of Col. Samuel Campbell, on the site of the residence now occupied as a summer home by his great-great-grand-children; a half mile to the east and on the same level was the house and shop of James Moore, the blacksmith of the settlement, on the lands now owned by Elisha Flint, and North of him lived a Nelson family. About the same distance to the North of Col. Campbell’s was the home of his father-in-law, Matthew Cannon (disputed); while at an equal distance to the West, was the home of John Campbell, now the summer home of the writer. The present Jackson Millson farm was then occupied by James Campbell.
Page 41
… longer in the burning building, when he bethought himself of a cellar door close up to which grew a field of hemp. Creeping through this he was fortunate enough to escape through the hemp unperceived by the Indians, who continued dancing, yelling and shooting around the house until it was burned to the ground. Then they continued on their way, happy in the thought that the bones of the supposed victim were buried in the ashes of his dwelling.
The peace of the settlement was undisturbed during the following year and confidence was beginning to return to the settlers, when, without warning, on the 24th. of April, 1780, a party of seventy-nine Indians and two tories descended on the ill-fated settlement. Eight of the settlers were killed and fourteen carried into captivity, and the settlement was this time completely wiped out of existance; the Fort, church and the few buildings left after the first incursion being burned to the ground. Thus in a few hours were the results of the labors and struggles of nearly forty years destroyed; the valley returned again into the undisputed possession of the beasts and the birds, and Cherry Valley, a few years before, the largest and most prominent of the Frontier settlements of New York, was but a name.