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Archiver > MDGARRET > 2004-09 > 1095807309


From: Janice Sisler <>
Subject: Re: [MDGARRET] Augustine Friend
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 18:55:14 -0400
References: <6828-414B8723-319@storefull-3176.bay.webtv.net> <002a01c49fbc$68eac1a0$0101a8c0@cfitzgerald> <005d01c49fe0$2c8ff8a0$6402a8c0@S0028482859>
In-Reply-To: <005d01c49fe0$2c8ff8a0$6402a8c0@S0028482859>


Pat and all:

Ann Sisler wasn't born in the 1700s and the Sislers hadn't yet arrived
in Maryland, much less WV, by 1778 - by all available references and
research.

Janice

Pat Thompson wrote:

>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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>
>.
>
>
>

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