John Depuy in Florence, Ohio in 1840

John Depuy and family

Depuy's in 1800 Census

Benjamin De Pugh, is living in Aurelius, Cayuga, New York.  John, a son was born in 1798 and is living with him.

1790 Mamakating, Ulster, NY Census Ben Sr.

John Depuy loses land

Published in the Onondaga Standard on September 23, 1835:
John De Puy faces foreclosure on his parcel of land #80 in Lysander, (Baldwinsville) on 10 July 1835.

John is living on this property on this date.

John Depuy in 1820, 1830 Lysander

John Depuy, living in Lysander, Onondaga,  New York in 1820.\















John Depuy, living in Lysander, Onondaga, New York in 1830

Benj Depuy affidavit for pension

Department of the Interior
Bureau of Pensions
{Revolutionary War Records Section]

...military history of Benjamin Depuy,
a soldier of the REVOLUTIONARY WAR, ...

S31645
Dates of Enlistment or Appointment, Length of Service, Rank, Officer under - Captain then Colonel, State
April 1778 6 mos. Pvt. Abraham Cuddebeck Newkirk N.Y.
Apr 1779         4 mos “ Abraham Cuddebeck Newkirk “
Mch 1780 9 mos “ Abraham Cuddebeck Newkirk “
During 1781,
1782 & 1783         “ Abraham Cuddebeck Newkirk “



Battles engaged in: None Stated
Residence of soldier at enlistment: Mamaking, Ulster Co., N.Y.
Date of application for pension, Sept 11, 1832.  His claim was allowed.
Residence at date of application, Lysander, Onondaga, Co., N.Y.
Age at date of application, born Dec 29, 1764, in Mamakating, Ulster Co N.Y.
Remarks: Son of Benjamin Depuy

FILES:

Benjamin Depuy
12.068

At a Court of Chancery held for the State
Of New York at the village of Onondaga
In the county of Onondaga on the
Seventh day of September one thousand
Eight hundred thirty two     [7 Sep 1832]

Present: - Daniel Morley, Vice Chancellor of the
   Seventh Circuit

Benjamin Depuy of the Town of Lysander in the
County of Onondaga, aged sity seven years, who being
first duly sworn according to Law doth on his oath
make the following declaration in order to obtain the
benefit of the act of Congress passed June 7, 1832 -
He was born in the Town of Mamaking, in the
County of sullivan, New York, December 29, 1764 -
He has no record of his age in his possession but has
understood that the family records were burned in
1779 - He lived in that town until 1793 with the
exception of a few months during the war.  In the
spring of the year 1778, a party of persons of whom
he was one, volunteered to build a fort on the Never-
Sink River.  They were under the command of Capt
Cuddeback & officer by the name of Newkirk
commanded at Fort Dewitt, about a mile farther
up the river.  The fort was for the protection of
the Frontiers & to guard against Indians & Tories
had previously attacked & carried off a number of
families in the neighborhood, & for greater safety
the families remaining removed into the fort
when it was completed.  They continued to keep guard
at the Fort during the onsuing simmer & fall.  The persons
who were at the fort (which was called Fort Depuy)
as far as he recollects were Benjamin Depuy, his father;
Samuel Depuy, Moses Depuy, Elias Gumear, Abraham
[new page]
Cuddeback & Jacobus Cuddeback, head of families –
there were also John Depuy, James, a colored man,
three sisters of the despondant all of whom are now
living.  During the summer and fall, they kept scouting
parties out in the woods to watch the Indians and Tories,
but they saw nothing of them until the month of October
in that year, when a large body of them, & as he
now thinks between two and three hundred, under the
command of Brandt made their appearance.  Oh
Ken approach all who occupied Fort Depuy abandoned
it in haste & escaped to Dewitts Fort where there
was a small party of men.  The Tories came up &
commenced firing on the Fort & also fired on
the cattle in the fields.  They burned a number
of houses & barns in the neighborhood & destroyed
considerable property.  They killed about six persons
who were not in the Fort, & then retreated & did
not make their appearance again that year.
In the following winter he left the Fort & went
to live with his uncle in the Town of Rochester in
Ulster Co. New York & remained there until the
spring of 1779 when he returned to his fathers, in
Mamakating & enlisted to keep guard in the Fort
until the Month of August in the ensuing summer when
his father removed to what was called Wallkill -
he went with him & stayed until the whole family
moved back to Mamakating.  In the summer of
1779 there was a company @ DeWitts Fort commanded
by Capt’ Wood who were called nine months men
& who assisted to keep guard the Frontiers & to keep
off the Tories.  During that summer, the Tories and
Indians made an attack on a settlement four or
five miles below Dewitt Fort & burned nearly
the whole settlement, including some mills & a
meeting house.  They carried off some cattle
[new page]
and a number of prisoners.  Brandt, he thinks, commanded
the enemy.  In the ensuing winter they remained at
home near Dewitts Fort where a guard was kept -
The winter was uncommonly severe & they suffered
no inconvenience from the Indians or Tories –
In the spring of 1790 they rebuilt Fort Depuy.
This fort they continued to guard until the end
of the war, assisted nine months in the year
by parties of militia from the East, & for the remaining
three years the duty devolved on the residents at
that place.  He cannot now recollect the precise
nine of his service, but it was between four & five
years, during which time he was taken altogether
from agricultural employments & obliged to be
constantly on guard, & frequently to scour the
woods.  Said Depuy, his brother, now living &
James, a colored man also living were engaged
in the same service, & continued in it until the
end of the war.  Cornelius Wallace also living
was also in the same service during the same
length of time but was stationed about a mile
below at what was called Gumaer Fort –
In 1793 he moved to Aurelius in Cayugo Co.
New York - in 1802 he moved to Marcellius in
Onondaga Co. & in 1804 he moved to Lysander
in the same county where he now lives.
He has no documentary evidence in his pos-
session to show his services – He hereby all____?
Every claim whatever to a pension Except the present
Y declars that his name is not on the pension roll
of the agency of any State.
Sworn ....          Benj Depuy signature
...Daniel Moslley
   Circuit Judge & Vice Chancellor

DePuy Family Association

There is a DePuy Family Association but it is under the title The Brodhead Family Association.  The original president, Jean Smith started this association years ago and it came to include the DePuy family but they never had their name changed.  They have compiled about 13 volumes of DePuy Family information and you can contact the current president, Kevin DePuy at kevincoreyd@yahoo.com.  Source:  Jackie Depuy Banahan 12/12.  Others had previously shared this information with me but I had not blogged it.  I thought I would share it with others as well.

Compiled History

This is a compiled history of all known information by Allyson Hunt Wood of her ancestors David Canfield and Elizabeth Story Depuy Canfield. It contains documents, photos and information about the couple, who their parents are and a bit about their children. The basic same information is located at hunthistories.com.

Ben Jr.'s questionable death date

According to headstones, we believed that Benjamin Depuy Jr. died in 1842.  However, some people believe this is the same Benjamin that died on 19 Jan 1845, in Cold Springs, Lysander Township, Onondaga County, New York.

  It is possible these are the same Benjamin's but family records were burned about 1798 and area records are far from "good".  No other Benjamin has been identified that could possibly be this one that died in 1845.  

Source:   Onondaga Standard Examiner - January 29th 1845   New York

The Owasco Dutch Reformed Church, in Owasco, Cayuga, New York.  Benjamin Depuy Jr. would most likely been involved in helping to build this church and later attended it for a time. Cornelius VanAuken paid $2.00 for his seat.  This building was begun in 1810.

The seats were sold to obtain the money for the building.  The seats were only for those who purchased them, and perhaps their family. They could be sold to another if need be, but if they remained unoccupied for more than two years, they would again become the possession of the congregation and they could in turn resale them or use as they saw fit.

The settlement of Owasco can be traced to six families from Ulster and Orange Counties, NY (1794):  Adam Fries, Samuel Depuy, Benjamin Depuy, Daniel Miller, Moses Courtright, Elijah Price (who became a judge of Cayuga County).

In 1795 10 more families arrived from Gettysburg, Pa.  Jacob Brinkerhoff, Roetiff Brinkerhoff, Thomas Johnson, Abraham Bodine, Charles Vantine, Luke Brinkerhoff, James Dales, Isaac Percell, Jacob Loyster and Andrew Johnson.

The first church, Dutch Reformed,  in the county was organized in 1796,  at the home of Col. John L. Hardenburgh.  In 1797, a site was selected on land owned by Jacob Brinkerhoff (in possession of Harmon Robinson in 1896).

The first pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church was Rev. Abraham Brokaw.

Arena Van Auken Depuy headstone in Riverside, Baldwinsville, Onondaga, New York.

Benjamin Depuy Jr.'s headstone.
In the background you can see a large white painted tree trunk.  Right near it is Benjamin's wife, Arena',s headstone.  She is buried right next to  her daughter Elizabeth S. Davis.







Benjamin's headstone, located right next to the road by the office, and by his son Dr. James Depuy's monument.

Check this out. Probable family!

http://williamscountyohiogenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/11/divorce-action-in-williams-county-ohio_01.html#comment-form

SGEOR Temple Records for John's postumous baptism

A birth record shows John Depuy being born 1 Dec 1798 in Owasco, Cayuga, New York, christened 16 Jun 1799 in the Dutch Reformed Church in Owasco.

However, Elizabeth, John's oldest daughter, records that his birth date is 2 Feb 1799 (no location listed in this record).

We do not know why there is a discrepency but also note that Elizabeth also gave an incorrect death date for her father since we found him alive in the 1850 census in Illinois.

Benjamin Depuy Jr., John's father, states in his application for a pension from the Revolutionary War, that all family records were burned in 1799. This may be part of the reason for the differing dates of John's birth date.

Family Group Sheet of David & Elizabeth D. Canfield

This family group sheet was put together by Ollie Hunt Jones, great granddaughter of David and Elizabeth.

Benjamin Depuy Jr. Pension Application

Elizabeth Depuy and David Canfield Headstone

Headstone of Elizabeth Story Depuy and David Canfield. This headstone is located in Washington County in a little ghost town named Hamblin. The cemetery sits on a small hill in the beautiful valley, surrounded with a little fence to keep the cattle out. David and Elizabeth made their home in this little valley after travelling with the saints from Nauvoo, and spending a number of years in Provo, Utah.

This is not the original headstone but was placed later after the original had weathered. The spelling of Depew on the headstone was thought to be how she spelled her last name at that time. Spelling was not a big deal in the early days and some records do show the name spelled Depew as well as Depui, and Depuy.

Mrs. Elizabeth S. D. Canfield Closes Remarkable Career

1850 Homer, Wills, Illinois Census

Proof that the family tradition that John died in 1849 is not correct since he is still living in 1850.

Marriage Record for Canfield/Depuy

DOUBLE CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW CLOSER!

David Canfield and Elizabeth Story Depuy's marriage record from Defiance, Will, Ohio dated 1 Oct 1843.

Index Reference: SLC FHL 977.1113 V22W 1824-68
Ohio Marriage records, Vol. 1, page 69:

emailed from:

Williams County Records Center,107 W. Butler St.,Bryan, OH 43506,419-636-8253, wcrc@wmsco.org

Heart-breaking letter from Samuel Dupui (Depuy)

Newspaper Extracts, Documents from Colonial History of New Jersey Newspapers, First Series, Vol 4, 1756-1762. Page 576-577

“Extract of a Letter from Lower Smithfield, to a Gentleman in the Jerseys, dated Jan. 22, 1756.

Sir,

— I am left in a deplorable Condition, by the Province I belong to, and for what Reason I know not, and what to do I know not. To leave all to Savage Enemies is very hard, to be left by my own Country, and to be forced to fall their Prey, is still harder. Therefore I am now come to this

Resolution, that if your Province will send me a Number of Men, with sufficient Officers to Guard me, I will give them the Use of my Plantation,

or otherwise, allow them Fifty Pounds a Year during the War, towards bearing the Expences, or if they shall seem meet, let them build a Fort, provided I have the Crop now in the Ground. Sir, the Greatness of my Confusion at the Present unfits me to write; therefore hope my distressed Condition, will be a sufficient Apology for this indirect Letter. The two Capts. Trump and Astin, of this Province, with fifty Men each, had I am informed, strict Orders not to come a-near me, or lend me any Assistance; still at the same Time applied to me for Provisions,

Teams, &c. Upon which I told them they should have no Help from me, as I was obliged to the Jerseys for what Help I had, and therefore thought it my Duty to Help those from whom I receive Help. On that they broke through Orders, and let me have Twenty Men, which I Hourly expect to be taken from me. They are now building a Fort One Mile West of Broadhead’s, from my House, and Four from the Water Gap, and from whence all the Inhabitants are fled. I went with Mr. Scot, and others that were with him, last Monday to the Camp, where we heard the melancholy News of Mr. Bemper, and his Company of Sixteen Men, and a Girl, who were going to drive down his Cattle to the Jerseys, being

attacked by a Party of Indians, who killed them all, except two of Trump’s Men, and a Boy, who made their Escape, one of whom came to the Camp. The next Day Trump, Broadhead, and others, to the Number of Forty, went to bury the Dead, found only Eight of them, of whom Bemper was one; there was Five of them scalp’d, all stript naked and laid a-cross the Road, in three different Places. The same Day my Brother Daniel’s House was beset by a Party of Indians, to the Number of Sixty, who burnt the Barn, killed Two Men, and wounded three

more, and had it not been for Doct. Kennedy, who by Chance called in just before the Attack was made, the whole, with a Number of Women and Children, would have been destroyed. I sent a Dispatch to the Camp, but without Success. I then sent Eleven of my Men along the Hill Side, who fell on their Rear; we found it all bloody, by which we have Reason to believe we ballanced their Accounts, only they carried off the Doctor’s Horse, with all his Drugs, Instruments, &c. They had fir’d the House in three Places, which was put out by the Doctor; But had not the good Capt. Salnave of New Jersey, came to their Assistance, who had one of his Men likewise wounded, they must [have] entirely perished

in the Flame; they burnt the House the next Day” I fear it will be the Fate of us all. I this Day remov’d my Sister, Mrs. Dowl, to my House, who lived 9 Miles Distance. The Gap is why-laid, so that No-body can Pass, but what are shot at; This Evening we espied two Indians within Fifty Rods of my House. I received the several Sums of Money, sent me by Mr. Scott, from the good People of your Province, towards the Relief of the Distress’d, and gratefully return Thanks in their Behalf for the same. For further Particulars of my unhappy Situation. Mr. Scott and Doct. Kennedy can give you Information, they both being Present, and well acquainted with the aboe Relations.

I am, Sir, still relying on your Friendship, and assure yourself that your good Services in this, shall be allways esteem’d as a great Obligation, to

Samuel Dupui.

— The Pennsylvania Journal, Feb. 5, 1756. No.

687.

Indian Troubles 1756 - Near Depuy Area

Newspaper Extracts, Documents from Colonial History of New Jersey Newspapers, First Series, Vol 4, 1756-1762. Page 576-577

“Philadelphia, February 5. In our last Mention was made of Mr. Daniel1 Dupuy’s House being beset by a Number of Indians, but that they were beat off by Capt. Salnave, and a Party of his Men, who came very opportunely to his Relief, and saved his House, for that Time. We have Advice since, that Mr. Dupuy not thinking it safe to stay at his Place any longer, removed into the Jerseys’ upon which the Indians returned and burnt it, and every Thinkg Else they could find. 2 – The N. Y. Mercury, Feb. 2, 1756.

1. Samuel.

2. For additional papers relating to the Indian outbreak in the Fall of 1755, see JN. J. Archives, VIII, Part II., passim; XVI., 560-585.

Atmosphere of Indian Trouble - near Depuy family

“New-York, June 7. About a Fortnight ago, the House of one Capt. Hunt, at Paulin’s-Kills, 25 miles above Black-River, in New-Jersey, was burnt by the Indians, and Hunt’s Brother and a Negro Man, are mission, and are supposed to be either carried off, or cruelly murdered by the Savages. About two or three Days after, the House of one Swartwout, near Paulin’s Kills also, was burnt by the Indians; Swartwout himself, and three Children are missing; and his Wife and two Children are killed. A Ball went into the Woman’s Back, and lodged in her Breast; and the Throat of one of the Children was cut quite across. ‘Tis imagined this Murder was committed in the open Day, as none of the People were scalped, perhaps owing to the Timerity of the Indians least they might be surprized unawares; and by the Children being found Dead with Flowers in their Hands, which ‘twas supposed they must have been gathering but a few Hours before. As this Murder has been perpetrated several Miles nigher the Inhabitants of New-Jersey, than where the Forts have been lately been built, upwards of 60 Families at and near Paulin’s-Kills, have removed down towards Amwell, in order to avoid the Danger they seem’d exposed to by their cruel blood thirsty and latent Enemies —The New York Mercury, June 7, 1756.

Lucy Philena Canfield Emmett Day

THANKS FOR THE PHOTOS JIM!

I will label later when I have my records open, but this is Lucy Philena Canfield. I assume these are all Emmett children. I decend from the oldest in the Day family - Emma.

Shawnee-on-Delaware - Nicholas DePui / Depuy

Fort DePuy Location  

January 25, 2021 by Pete Sauvigne http://pete7a.com/fort.pdf  

Shared with Permission July 12, 2021

Summary  

The DePuy home was stockaded and garrissoned as a fort during the French and Indian War 1755-1763. However the  building we know as Fort DePuy did not exist until after the war, and is about 200 feet outside the old stockade, which  no longer exists. The present building, long known as Manwalamink, was built in 1785 by a later Nicholas DePuy. Below  is a 1896 map showing the relative locations of the old fort and Manwalamink, labelled as Robert DePui's house. 

Until the 20th century, it was never claimed that Manwalamink was within the stockaded fort. The Worthington family  never claimed that. However, after the mid 1900’s it became common belief that Manwalamink was the old fort. “Fort  DePuy” remains another fine name for the structure, to commemorate the events that occurred nearby.  

History  

Nicholas DePuy (1682-1761) was the first permanent European settler of the lower Minisink area. His grandfather, also  named Nicholas DePuy was a French Heugenot refugee who landed in Dutch New Amsterdam (now NYC) in 1662.  Nicholas “the settler” first built a log house in Shawnee  

1725-1727 and purchased much land: first from the  

Lanape, then again through the Penns. He developed a  

prosperous plantation and lived in harmony with the  

Lanape. By 1755 Indian relations had soured and many  

homesteads were attacked as the French and Indian  

War broke out. In 1755 the Depuy house was  

stockaded as a fort by family and neighbors. It was  

soon garrissoned with soldiers. 

As Nicholas “the settler” was in his 70's, most war-time accounts report his son Samuel as head of the family. Military  records describe a spring within the stockade and adequate accommodations for soldiers. The house had been much  improved from the settler's original log house some 30 years earlier, was built of stone, but was never called a mansion.  Another Nicholas was a teenager during the war. To clarify, below is the DePuys' direct line, significant to Shawnee:  

Nicholas DePui c1625-1691 French Huguenot immigrant  

Moses DePui c1657-1754 Ulster County NY  

Nicholas DePuy 1682-1761 FIRST SHAWNEE SETTLER 

Samuel DePuy 1716-1766 French & Indian War  

Nicholas DePuy 1738-1808 Built Manwalamink 1785  

Nicholas DePuy 1788-1816  

Robert R. DePuy 1814-1898 last DePuy in Shawnee  

In 1785 Samuel's son Nicholas built the mansion called Manwalamink near the fort's site. Since peace had prevailed for  years, the stockade had likely been burned for firewood, and stones from the fort site were reused elsewhere.    

Today there are no signs of the old fort site, but the spring still flows, presently through a pipe passing under a gravel  path. The spring is over 300 ft from Manwalamink.  

Evidence of 2 Sites  

1. The map at the top. This was produced for the state government specifically to locate frontier fort sites. 2. The spring location. It is unreasonable that a stockade could surround both Manwalamink and the spring. No other  frontier forts were that large, and this one was built by farmers, not soldiers.  

3. Prior to the 20th century, it was NEVER claimed that Manwalamink was the same house stockaded during the Indian  war. These early references all indicate that it was not:  

 1886 Mathews, Alfred. H "Nicholas (2d) son of Samuel, built the stone house .. at Shawnee in 1785"   1895 Browning, Charles H. " and very near the present house of Robert DePui”  

 1896 Richards, H.M.M "It was about 200 ft. west by south of Mr. Robert Depuy's present farm house"   1925 Brodhead, Luke W. "... near the location of the present stone mansion"  

 1927 Keller, Robert Brown "near the original dwelling, was built by Robert R. De Puy's grandfather, Nicholas" 

This article claims that Manwalamink was on the fort site, but also states that original features were put up in 1785. This could only be true if  the "site" meant more of the DePuy lands, not just the stockade.  

Misconception  

By the early 21st Century almost everyone believed that Manwalamink was the Indian war house. All had heard this  many times. It is easy to see the large building with this historic name and propagate the error. False assumptions could  easily be made about Manwalamink since:  

A. It was built by Nicholas DePuy as the family home. However, this Nicholas was the grandson of the first settler. 

B. It has a small spring behind it. Much too small to support a garrison, especially in dry weather. 

C. It has an iron fireback cast in 1746. These are portable, as it now sits in a room not built until 1907. 

D. It sits on DePuy land along the river across from the upper island, just a little further upstream. 

E. The DePuy family records were destroyed in Robert R. DePuy’s time, as he laments in H.M.M. Richards’ book.  

The first reference yet found that implies that Manwalamink was on the fort site is from a 1946 newspaper article:

This ambiguity evolved into the common  misunderstanding that Manwalamink existed in  1755 and was built by Nicholas Depuy, the first  settler of Shawnee.  Many historians erroneously propagate bad  information. That is why the oldest records are the most reliable. 

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Chris Francz for startling me about this.  

References  

Richards, H.M.M The Indian Forts of the Blue Mountains, Report of the Commission to Locate the Sites of the Frontier  Forts of Pennsylvania, Vol 1, Clarence M. Busch, State Printer of PA 1896 pages 322-328  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/1pa/1picts/frontierforts/ff13.html 

Brodhead, Luke W, "The 200th Anniversary of the Settlement of Shawnee" Monroe County Historical Society 1925  

Browning, Charles H. The American Historical Register Sept 1894-Feb 1895, Philadelphia, the Historical Register  Publishing Company p.529  

Keller, Robert Brown, History of Monroe County PA, The Monroe Publishing Co 1927 p.23  https://digital.libraries.psu.edu/digital/collection/digitalbks2/id/18388/ Part_02  

Mathews, Alfred. History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania 1938 R. T. Peck and Co. 1886 p. 1054 Sauvigne, Peter C. “DePui lineage related to Shawnee, PA” 2019 http://pete7a.com/DePuiFamilyShawnee.pdf  

Manwalamink  

 ~ 1898  

“FORT DePUY”  2021

The following article was put up previously, and may not be correct with this new research from Pete Sauvigne.  

The Poco..... [Newspaper] Vol. 81, No 240: The Stroudsburgs, PA: [my copy came from correspondence and I do not have date [ 1975], nor full name of the paper. Typed without original newspaper format]

The past is prologue

Early years most dramatic

(Editor's Note: This is one of a weekly series by Bobby Westbrook on some of the historic places in this area, the people who built them and how the years have changed them - a countdown through 1975 toward the Bicentennial year of 1976.)

By Bobby Westbrook

SHAWNEE-On-DELAWARE -- Those who like their American history stereotyped with accounts of Indian raids on frontier forts can find plenty of authenticated material centering around Fort DePui. On its site now stands the lodge for overflow guests from Shawnee Inn behind the Fred Waring home in the village.

To put things in perspective, those few troubled years were not the most important nor the most typical of life in the earliest settlement in this area, where peace, farming, trade and progress were keynotes. But they may well be the most dramatic.

Thanks to research done by Russell Cramer II of Stroudsburg, the story of those troublesome times can be documented from state and military archives.

Certainly the Indian troubles weren't the fault of the first settler, Nicholas DePui who lived with them in peace for many years.

Nicholas DePui, whose French Huguenot grandfather, also Nicholas, had come to the New World in 1662, and was born in Rochester, [Ulster] N. Y. It was in 1725 that, seeking a lost boy or a lost horese, he came down the Delaware River and found the fertile valley on the Pennsylvania side of the river.

Entranced by the prospect, he spent two years preparing the land and building a house before he brought his wife and their 10 children down from Rochester to settle on the banks of the Delaware in 1727.

It may be that white settlers had been before him on that site. Just three years later, in 1730, a team of surveyors sent out from Philadelphia made their way upstream.

"After a fatiguing journey, there being no white inhabitants in the upper part of Northampton Counties", after leading their horses with difficulty through the water gap, they came at last to the DePui plantation where they found "great hospitality and plenty of the necessaries of life".

They also found "a grove of apple trees of size far beyond any near Philadelphia." These may have been planted by the Dutch who worked the copper mines on the Jersey side of the river as early as 1654 and may have cultivated the land here before the Penn Charter.

However, it was Nicholas DePui who came and stayed and his imprint on the area was to make Shawnee at one time the center of trade and hospitality for the whole area.

Nicholas DePui purchased the 3,000 acres of land from the Indians with Delaware chiefs signing the deed of Sept. 18, 1728. However, he found it necessary to repurchase the land from heirs of William Penn in 1733.

In the spacious stone house he built on the banks of the river, he was considered a friend by the Indians, who traded with him, sometimes sought his home as a refuge and some who worked on the plantation.

What sparked the Indian rebellion was the increasing pressure of English settlers coming up newly opened roads to the sough, frustrations arising from the Walking Purchase of 1737, the threat of the Iriquois -British coalition from the north. It all broke out locally when 200 Indians attacked the home of Daniel Broadhead in East Stroudsburg on Dec. 11, 1755.

In Shawnee, the settlers took the initiative in providing for their own protection, selecting the substantial house of Nicholas DePui and erecting around it a roomy stockade.

According to the Provincial Commissioners report of 1755, they found "The country all above this town is evacuated and ruined, excepting only the neighborhood of DePui's, five families which stand ground."

It was a square fort with swivel guns mounted at each corner, but, as an inspection report pointed out, "is open to attack from the hill above." On a navigable river, with its own spring within the stockade, where settlers later dipped their sheep, and well supplied their food, Fort DePui was named by Benjamin Franklin as a commissary base for all the Minisink area forts.

However, it was not Fort DePui but the neighboring home of Nicholas' son, Daniel, built about where Shawnee Inn now stands, which bore the brunt of a full-fledged Indian attack on Jan. 21, 1756.

Captain Salmare, stationed at nearby Fort Van Campen across the river, while scouting with his men on the New Jersey side, saw a fire over the river. "We crossed the river with 25 men", he reported, "and found upwards of 50 Indians attacking the house, who fled when they were fired upon." In Daniel's home he found two men killed, three wounded and 18 survivors. The Indians had burned the bard and fired the house in several places. They returned the next day and burnt the house but its inhabitants had found shelter.

Fort DePui, the home of Nicholas, was never attacked, whether because of his friendship with the Indians or the troops garrisoned there is pure conjecture. The soldiers were charged with protecting isolated farmers during their harvest. Attacks gradually tapered off and peace had returned by 1764.

[Photo in paper, but not included here] Walk-in-fireplace - The fireplace in the oldest part of Fort DePui Lodge, half obscured by the black gas range, still shows traces of the oval bakeoven in the back.

[Top Photo in newspaper, but not included here] Present Fort DePui Lodge - The present Fort DePui Lodge of Shawnee Inn on the banks of the Delaware show the Victorian influence of C. C. Worthington, founder of Buckwood Inn and Golf Course, now Fred Waring's Shawnee Inn, in additions and gables. The original Fort DePui at the left, shows the small door in the first floor section, typical of the earliest houses in this area.

 **Family Note: My Benjamin Depuy Junior served to defend this fort and lived here for one year.

Photos included here were found at www.bedandbreakfast.com

MORE NOTES BY ALLYSON:

I show this Nicholas in my records as the following:

Nicolaes Dupuy, born 12 Mar 1701, Kingston, Ulster, New York.

  Christening: 3 Dec 1682, Kingston Church, Ulster, New York

   Died - 1761, Lower Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania
   Buried - Presbyterian Church, Shawnee, Pennsylvania

wife: Wyntje Roosa

  born in Hurley, Ulster and christened 4 Jun 1682 Kingston, Ulster, New York

  died 1760.

My relationship: Nicolaes is a brother to Moses Jr, making him an uncle to my Benjamin Sr.

My Benjamin Jr. lived in the fort for one year while serving in the military.
Source of Photos:  taken by and of Allyson Hunt Wood and Marsha Lockerby Pilger, 2010 trip to "Uncle Nicholas's"

Fort Depuy in Shawnee, PA

Previously thought to be a part of the original fort from the Revolutionary war but the preceding article shows that cannot be possible.

Shared by Jackie Depuy Banahan, 

John Depuy 1830

In Lysander, Onondaga, New York.

John 30-40,

Lucy 30-40,

Elizabeth Story Depuy 6,

Philena Arena 2,

?1 female 60-70

? 1 female 15-20

David Canfield

Photo of David Canfield and the funeral remembrance at his passing.

David Canfield 1840