Old postcard from eBay showing the area where Richard's family lived
Quoted from Weavers of a Legacy (see source note):
"J. M. M. Gernerd, editor of The Now and Then, interviewed Richard Rogers (son of Samuel I) in 1874 when Richard was 83 years old. Gernerd captured some of Richard’s memories and escapades as a child growing up in the wilds of the virgin Pennsylvania forests.
Richard’s stories of encounters with wild animals give us a vivid picture of just how dangerous life could be on the frontier. Three of Richard’s adventures are noted below:
He (Richard) related with great minuteness how he went out one morning on the flat below the Forks to bring in the oxen, with his rifle on his shoulder, as was then the common custom, when leaving the house, and had a most terrific encounter with a deer.
He (Richard) related with great minuteness how he went out one morning on the flat below the Forks to bring in the oxen, with his rifle on his shoulder, as was then the common custom, when leaving the house, and had a most terrific encounter with a deer.
He said he found a large doe with the cattle and shot her. Just as he fired she slightly changed her position, in consequence of which the ball merely stunned her. When he went to bleed her she was almost instantly on her feet again, and attacked him with great fury. He undertook to hold her, but her strength surprised him. The combatants now rolled over each other, back and forth, in the savage struggle for life. She fought him until, as he said, his “shirt was torn into ribbons,” and he was “almost naked.” When he at last succeeded in using his knife, he was himself so nearly exhausted that he was for some minutes hardly able to move.
Once he killed a wolf on the same flat below the Forks with a hemlock knot. He said he was driving some young cattle through the woods, along the creek, when the wolf jumped from behind a tree and started for the stream. He managed to get between the animal and the creek, and just as it raised to attack him, with bristles up and mouth open ready to bite, he struck for its head. Overreaching his mark, he hit it a stunning blow on the back, but before the enraged beast could recover, he dispatched
it with a blow on the head.
When nearly grown up Richard went one day with several of his younger brothers to inspect a bear trap that they had set several miles away in the forest. On returning it began gradually to grow strangely and unaccountably dark. He said “a queer feeling” came creeping over them. They saw a flock of seventeen deer; the nimble-footed creatures did not seem anxious to get away, but appeared to be, as they were themselves, strangely disconcerted.
Once he killed a wolf on the same flat below the Forks with a hemlock knot. He said he was driving some young cattle through the woods, along the creek, when the wolf jumped from behind a tree and started for the stream. He managed to get between the animal and the creek, and just as it raised to attack him, with bristles up and mouth open ready to bite, he struck for its head. Overreaching his mark, he hit it a stunning blow on the back, but before the enraged beast could recover, he dispatched
it with a blow on the head.
When nearly grown up Richard went one day with several of his younger brothers to inspect a bear trap that they had set several miles away in the forest. On returning it began gradually to grow strangely and unaccountably dark. He said “a queer feeling” came creeping over them. They saw a flock of seventeen deer; the nimble-footed creatures did not seem anxious to get away, but appeared to be, as they were themselves, strangely disconcerted.
The boys stopped at a corn field some distance from the house to do some hoeing, but the mysterious darkness continued to increase, and they could not work. The younger brothers began to cry. Richard now said, “Come, boys, I guess we might as well go home,” with all the apathy he could muster, but secretly he himself was no less strangely affected. They went home and were soon comforted. The darkness was caused by a total eclipse of the sun."
Weavers of a Legacy by Jean Paterson Rosencrantz, 2006. P. 22. http://grimshaworigin.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/WeaversOfLegacyByJeanLand.pdf
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Source
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My connection to Richard Rogers (1791 - 1875) great-uncle of wife of 1st cousin 3x removed
Samuel Rogers (1761 - 1828) father of Richard Rogers
John Rogers (1787 - 1858) son of Samuel Rogers
Rebecca A Rogers (1813 - 1878) daughter of John Rogers
Emma Little (1846 - 1933) daughter of Rebecca A Rogers
Eldorous H Whitehouse (1852 - 1938) husband of Emma Little
Mary Carroll Rankins (1827 - 1909)--my 3rd great aunt--mother of Eldorous H Whitehouse
Joseph P Rankins Sr. (1801 - 1882)--my 3rd great grandfather--father of Mary Carroll Rankins
Eleanor Ruth "Ellen" Rankins (1822 - 1914)--my great great grandmother--daughter of Joseph P Rankins Sr.
Oscar J Ellis (1852 - 1907)--my great grandfather--son of Eleanor Ruth "Ellen" Rankins
Eva Josephine Ellis (1888 - 1943)--my grandmother--daughter of Oscar J Ellis
Daniel Lawrence Harris (1907 - 1972)--my father--son of Eva Josephine Ellis
Clair Marie Harris--me--I am the daughter of Daniel Lawrence Harris
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