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Archiver > MDGARRET > 2004-09 > 1095773863


From: "Pat Thompson" <>
Subject: Re: [MDGARRET] Augustine Friend
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 09:37:43 -0400
References: <6828-414B8723-319@storefull-3176.bay.webtv.net> <002a01c49fbc$68eac1a0$0101a8c0@cfitzgerald>


It was Old John's son Augustine Jr. who moved to Missouri
and later returned
to visit with his son Augustine. The wording of D. Harrison
Friend's letter
does raise some questions as to which Augustine married Ann
Sisler on that
visit...was it
Old John's son "Augustine Jr." or Old John's grandson
Augustine?
If Ann Sisler was b: abt. 1778, as some claim, I would tend
to think she
married Old John's son "Augustine Jr."
---------- -------------------- ------------------
------------------- -------------------
How solid is the birth date for Ann Sisler (1778)? I agree
with Kathleen, if that is indeed close to her birth year,
she must have married Augustine, SON of Old John Friend.

I believe Augustine, Old Teen, Friend, brother of Old John
never left (what is today) Garrett County. He is mentioned
in too many articles written of the area. From my notes:

Glades Star, Vol. 1, page 62
"John Friend, Sr., is the ancestor of the Garrett County
Friends. His brothers, Andrew, Charles and Augustine, moved
down the Youghioghany to Turkeyfoot Township (Confluence),
Pa., where they were on the assessment roll of 1772.

Glades Star, Vol 1, page 62
AUGUSTINE FRIEND RESIDED AT Teen GLADE NEAR SWALLOW FALLS AS
EARLY AS 1744. ERIC BOLLMAN WROTE OF HIM IN 1796; "HE IS A
HUNTER BY PROFESSION.-------We HAD CHOICE VENISON FOR
BREAKFAST AND THERE WERE AROUND HIS HOUSE AND NEARBY A GREAT
NUMBER OF DEERS, BEARS, PANTHERS, ETC.-----------IF EVER
ADAM EXISTED HE MUST HAVE LOOKE LIKE THIS TINN FRIEND, I
NEVER SAW SUCH AN ILLUSTRATION OF PERFECT MANHOOD." Large,
strong and brawny; every limb in magnificent proportion,
energy in every movement and strength in every muscle, his
appearance was the expression of manly independence,
contentment and intelligence. His conversation satisfied
the expectations which it awakened. With gray beard, 60
years old, 40 of which he had spent in the mountains, and of
an observing mind, he could not find it difficult to
agreeably entertain people who visited for information. He
is a hunter by profession.

Glades Star, No. 20, Dec. 1945, page 158; "A map of Maryland
and Virginia, dated 1794, shows "A. Friend" located at the
Dunkard Bottom on Cheat River. There were two Augustine
Friends--Old "Teen", sometimes referred to as Augustine, SR
and Augustine Friend, son of John. According to "The Hoyes
of Maryland, " W. W. Hoye in 1790 borrowed a horse of
Augustine Friend, SR., at Dunkard Bottom.

Indian Blood, p. 113, says that: "Brother John dead since
1808, buried on family lands. Brother Teen? o! Teen was just
fine, batching at his place a Swallow Falls, although pretty
old and sometimes riding a mule someone on the National Road
had presented to him, but still lightly treading the
forests, and with sure instinct, initiating novice hunters
into the art of hunting."

Glades Star, No. 20, page 158
Published in the "Turf, Field and Farm" of 1878 (Skinner's
magazine) and republished in " A Sporting Family of the Old
South" by H. W. Smith. "We were then to call at the cabin of
the nonagenarian (p.a.t. -meaning "one who is ninety or
between ninety and one hundred") Steen Friend, the venatic
oracle of the whole countryside, who in childhood had
actually seen a wild buffalo on the Maryland soil and in
manhood had slain elk, bear and panther in these very
glades, and who moreover had killed the very biggest trout
ever seen in the glade waters.
........At a distance of perhaps two miles down the glade,
but on the opposite side, the chief pointed at a thin column
of smoke rising before a clump of trees - that was the place
of our destination. We could not make directly for it, for
the creek, with perpendicular banks, sullenly creeping over
a bed of black mud, fathoms deep, interposed. It was not to
be forded, so we had to make for a long bridge, a mile
further down, and as we came near it I spied - what for a
moment I took to be a raccoon seated on the edge of the
creek but which turned out to be that old Mountain
Methuselah - Steen Friend, sitting as immovable as a hungry
bittern watching for his dinner. The old fellow's body was
concealed by the bank, his head appeared above it, covered
by a coonskin cap so arranged, with the tail hanging down
the back and the head protruding in front, that it looked at
a little distance much like a living pet coon perched upon
his venerable master's head. Steen told us he had heard our
guns and that he had been waiting for us. He had strung
upon a forked willow twig a fine mess of trout that might
have averaged a quarter of a pound. His tackle was of the
rudest kind, but strong enough to have held a small
leviathan. He remarked that he was getting a mess of fish
for his neighbor *"McH". *McH = John McHENRY then resided
opposite the Big Boiling Spring near the present village of
McHenry.

...................................Just as we were mixing it
(a tansy julep), old Steen rode up on a venerable
mouse-colored mule that had been given to him for services
rendered some ten years back by a director on the great
National road so much discussed in Congress in General
Jackson's time. The old fellow declined the proffered
julep, remarking that he had "no use for licker with yarbs
in it, he warn't sick" - but he would take a little
straight. He declined to come to breakfast, having taken
that meal by candle-light at home.

page 164, Glades Star...."Skinner's account is the last
record we have of old Augustine Friend. He is said to be
buried near the grave of his father Nicholas at the Buffalo
Marsh. And his descendants? We have found no trace of the
members of his "large, attractive family." Perhaps they
have been swallowed up in the great west, and have forgotten
their ancestor's hunting ground in Maryland." (I am not at
all sure that "large, attractive family" means his wife and
children. The Augustines' of the area were often confused.
From the life style written of Old Teen, I tend to believe
he was a bachelor, living in the world he loved, the
wildness.)


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