She died there and is buried in the old settlers’ graveyard. Her bones were disturbed when a barn was erected many years later, being identified by a venerable neighbor, by her peculiar protruding teeth.
A few years after this incident a man came to the place, having traveled from Ohio to see the old mill site. He said he was a son of Catherine Smith, and that if justice had been done her, they would still own the place.
A part of the foundation of the second mill, built by Widow Smith, serves the same purpose in a fine modern mill of today.
When soldiers were sent into that vicinity they used the Widow Smith’s stone house. General James Potter, under date of September 18, 1780, says: “I marched the remainder, consisting of 170 men up the West Branch to Fort Swartz. I then went to Colonel Kelly, who lay at the mouth of White Deer Creek, with eighty men.” This was the Widow Smith’s Mill.
General Braddock Defeated by French
and Indians July 9, 1755
General Edward Braddock arrived in March, 1755, at Alexandria, Virginia, and at the head of two Irish regiments, under Colonels Dunbar and Halket, marched to Fredericksburg, Maryland.
This distinguished officer was sent to command an expedition against the French at Fort Duquesne. He commenced his march from Wills Creek, now called Cumberland, Md., June 10, 1755, with 2000 men, regulars and provincials.
Braddock was haughty and egotistical and entertained no doubt of his success. He advised the Governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, that soon as he captured Fort Duquesne he would leave there the guns, ammunition and stores he captured in it, but if the enemy first destroyed the fort, he would build another.