When Peter Smith died in the fall of 1773, he left his widow and ten children with no estate to support his family, except a location for three hundred acres of land, including the mouth of White Deer Creek, whereon was an excellent mill seat. His widow was of the type who did not sit idly by and let her neighbors help support her family, but realizing that a grist and saw mill were both much wanted in that new country at that time, and being urged to erect these mills, she set about the task.
The widow Smith was able to borrow some money and by June, 1775, she had both mills in operation. They served the inhabitants in the White Deer Valley and for many miles on the east side of the West Branch of the Susquehanna.
During the summer of 1776, there was an urgent demand for rifles for the Continental Army and for the use of the old men and boys who remained at home to protect the women and children from the sudden attacks of the Indians, while they were doing the work about the farm and the fireside. So Catherine Smith installed a boring mill, and the records show that a great number of gun barrels were bored in this mill. She also added a hemp mill.
Her eldest son went to the army and this made her work the heavier, as he was her best help. He was killed in the service.
The Indians became active following the great Wyoming massacre, July 3, 1778, and after Colonel Thomas Hartley had chastised them during his successful expedition in the late autumn of 1778, they again became bolder when the soldiers were withdrawn and the year 1779 was one of the most terrible along the frontier of the Susquehanna Valleys.
Nearly all the inhabitants had left during the “Great Runaway,” in July, 1778, and only the most venturesome had returned. The militia were recruited locally and were under the command of Colonel John Kelly.
In May a band of nearly a score of Indians killed John Sample and wife in White Deer. Christian Van Gundy and Henry Vandyke with four others learned of the murder and went to the scene to bring away any who survived the massacre. Six more men were to follow the next day.
When Van Gundy arrived at Sample’s he had slabs put up against the door and water carried up in the loft. After dark an Indian approached the house, barking like a dog, and rubbing against the door, but no attention was paid to him. The party inside lay down and slept until three o’clock, when Van Gundy got up to light a fire. The Indians surrounded the house, and mounting a log on their shoulders, tried to beat in the door. Those inside fired, wounding two, whom the Indians carried off, but not before they set fire to the house.
Van Gundy mounted the roof, and knocked off enough boards to reach the fire, which he extinguished. An Indian shot him in the leg and one of the others was shot in the face.
At daybreak they voted whether to remain and fight or attempt escape.