William King was the picture of despair. He soon returned to Northumberland, and later moved up to Vincents Island. Many years later he learned that his daughter was still alive, and he started on foot with knapsack on his back, accompanied by an old Indian, for Niagara. He soon found Sarah, but had to travel far and suffered severe hardships before he succeeded in finding Ruth.
They reached their home on the island at Milton. They afterward lived at Jaysburg, the present Williamsport. Descendants of the sturdy people are now residents of that city.
Among those taken captive were Peter Wyckoff and son, Cornelius; Thomas Covenhoven and a Negro. The latter was burned in the presence of the other prisoners. Peter Wyckoff was fifty-four years old, and lived with the Indians two years before he and his son were given their freedom.
This affair occurred in the present city of Williamsport, where West Fourth Street crosses the stream which flows down Cemetery Street. There is a boulder erected near the spot which bears a bronze tablet telling of the event.
At the time this was a natural thicket of wild plum trees, which yielded fruit of remarkable size and flavor for nearly a century after the massacre. The road leading to this spot was the old Indian trail and formed a safe place for the concealment of lurking savages.
Colonel William Crawford Captured by
Indians June 11, 1782
During the spring of 1782 the Indians, who had removed the seat of their depredations and war to the western frontiers of Pennsylvania, and Eastern Ohio, assembled in large numbers at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, which they used as place of general rendezvous and from which they went out to the places they decided in council should be attacked and destroyed.
The principal places to which they made incursions were along the Ohio River, especially in Western Pennsylvania. So serious was the situation along the frontier, and so bold had the savages become that Congress directed a regiment of volunteers to be raised to subdue them.