Exploits of a Tiger Mom in Captivity

#52ancestors

Week 10: Strong Woman

Exploits of a Tiger Mom in Captivity

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley ©2018

Catherine Sea (See/Zeh) appears in various publications pertaining to the history of Augusta County, Virginia, Bouquet’s Expedition, and the Muddy Creek Massacre. The Shawnee called her “Fighting Squaw” for her defiance of a warrior and for successfully running the gauntlet. I think of her more as a Tiger Mom, fighting to save her children and herself.

Catherine Sea was one of the approximately 200 captives whose release was obtained by Col. Henry Bouquet. Her name appears among those released at Fort Pitt in December 1764. She had been a captive of the Shawnee since July 15, 1763. On that day, a party of 80 or 90 Shawnees arrived at Muddy Creek (Augusta County, Virginia) where several scattered families, including the Seas, were living. The Indians killed and scalped Catherine’s husband, Fredrick Sea, and the other men, then took the women and children prisoners and forced them to go to Ohio.

Family stories claim that the Sea children held up [on the long trek to Ohio] for two to three days. But, the smallest, John, was quite weak and Catherine, his mother, feared for his life. Seeing a warrior riding their stolen horse, Catherine indicated to him that she wanted it. When he refused, she picked up a club and attempted to knock him off the horse. About to kill her, the amused Indians prevented the warrior from doing so, calling her a “fighting squaw."

Once they reached the Indian campgrounds in what is now Ross County, Ohio, the Shawnee had a celebration. The women were forced to sing for them, and Catherine was called upon to run the gauntlet. Grabbing a stick she began making whirling moves and swinging the stick, which pleased the Indians. Another family legend claims that Catherine was able to iniquitously secure places for her children so they could sleep inside when the weather became cold. However, through the years, the history, the legends, and the genealogical data about her have become increasingly intermingled and distorted. Historically, she lives on in such publications as “Indian Captives Released by Colonel Bouquet.”[i]

She also is found in many family trees — in print and online. The latter require careful examination as few of them are sourced and almost all of them have the “wrong” Catherine. See an earlier blog of mine about this:  “Fighting Squaw.”

https://shakingfamilytrees.blogspot.com/search?q=fighting+squaw

So who was this Catherine Sea? It has long been claim that her maiden name was Vanderpool, but nothing in primary sources has been found to substantiate this — such as a marriage record, or a mention in deeds, or in a will of her purported father. However, proximity places a Vanderpool family in Augusta County, Virginia and “on the Greenbrier (river)” in the right time period. That family was Abraham Vanderpool’s and he was the only one of that name who settled there. He had a daughter named Catherine. This Abraham Vanderpool was from the Newark, New Jersey area, but he had been baptized 9 February 1709 in the Dutch Reformed Church in Albany, New York.[ii] His parents and the family removed to New Jersey ca 1725-30.

Abraham married first Jannetje Weibling about 1733, probably in New Jersey and by her had six children, among whom was Catherine “Kitty” Vanderpool who was baptized 14 May 1738 in the Second River Dutch Reformed Church (Second River) in Belleville, Essex County, New Jersey.[iii] In the early 1740s, Abraham and Jannetje removed to the frontier of Virginia, living on the South Branch and the Greenbrier. Three sons — Wynant (named for Abraham’s father), William and John — are believed to have been born to them in the 1740s in what was then Augusta County, but no birth records have been located and probably do not exist. Settlers on the American frontier in the mid-18^th century had more pressing needs than the recording of vital records.

Jannetje died about 1747 as Abraham married secondly to a Rebecca [—?—] whose surname is unknown. They were married about 1748 and in 1751 they sold 430 acres in Augusta County[iv] and in 1753 are listed as living on the Greenbrier (River)[v]. The last known record of Abraham Vanderpool in Virginia is when he is in Winchester in May 1757. By August of that year he appears in land records in Orange County, North Carolina.[vi] He remained in North Carolina until about 1778 when he and Rebecca removed to what’s now Tennessee, where they both died.

His daughter, Catharine “Kitty,” grew up on the frontier of Virginia and it is much more likely that she was the “Fighting Squaw” — a 25-year-old rather than the older Catherine Vanderpool many family trees have claimed. The Catherine Vanderpool who was bp. 1725 in New York City was a younger sister of Abraham Vanderpool and the paternal aunt of the younger Catherine. The older Catherine grew up in the Newark, New Jersey area and evidence points to her having married William Sandfort, as his second wife, in 1741 in Bergen County, New Jersey. That locality is near where her parents and most of her siblings lived. Her brother, Abraham, was the only one out on the Virginia frontier.

Colonel Bouquet negotiating the release

of the Indian captives 1764-1765.

The problem with so many family trees is that they have assumed that the Catherine Vanderpool, bp. 1725, was the wife of Fredrick Sea, and since most of Fredrick’s known children were born in the 1740s and 1750s, her name and age to be the wife and mother “fits,” BUT (always the big problem in genealogy), what’s been overlooked is that Fredrick Sea married first Maria Ottilia Stemple 22 May 1744 in Pennsylvania,[vii] and while no marriage record has yet been found for Fredrick Sea and Catherine Vanderpool (bp. 1738), she probably was his second wife, the mother of his younger children and stepmother to his older ones. This makes sense when you compare the ages of the SEA children that are given on the “Indian Captives Released by Colonel Bouquet” in 1764-1765. They were: Peggy, 19; Sally, 10 and Mary 7 (all listed as taken from the Greenbrier, which helps distinguish them). There’s also a John Sea is listed as age 7. These 4 SEAs are on the G list of the captives. The other SEAs listed are: Catherine, George, Michael and Mary. The children born between 1745 and about 1754 most likely are children of Maria Ottillia Stemple, the first wife of Frederick Sea. But, the children — John, George, Mary, and Sally, who were born ca 1755 to 1761, would be Catherine Vanderpool’s children.

Historians and genealogists have assumed that all of the SEA children on the captive lists were the children of Catherine, the wife of Fredrick in 1763. However, it is my conclusion that some of them are her children, but others are her stepchildren — and they all deserve to be recognized properly, even though Catherine apparently was a Tiger Mom to all of them. 

---

[i] The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, Volume 39, Number 3, Fall 1956. Available in PDF. https://journals.psu.edu/sph/article/view/2529/2362

[ii] Dutch Settlers Society of Albany, Yearbook, Volume 41 (Albany, New York  1966-1968), p. 13

[iii] Genealogy Magazine of New Jersey, Vols. 3 and 4: Catharine bp. 14 May 1738; d/o Abraham Vander Poel and Jannetje Wibling, Second River (Belleville) Reform Church, 1727-1794, Belleville, Essex County, New Jersey.

[iv] Lyman Chalkley, Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, 1745-1800, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 3 volumes, 1912-1913, reprint, 1965), Virginia Land, Marriage, and Probate Records, 1639-1850 extracted from the Original Court Records of Augusta County, Virginia, Vol. 1, p. 423.

“25th May, 1751. Abraham Vanderpool  and Rebecca to George Yoccum (Yoccomb), No. 10 held by patent of Lord Fairfax, 19th October, 1748, on ye south fork of ye Wappaconee (or) Great South Branch of Potomac, 430 acres. Endorsed and delivered to James Machir for George Harnost, Sr., one of the heirs of the grantee, 16th July, 1806. Teste: Wm. White, Thomas Moore.”

[v] Chalkley, p.  307. “MAY, 1753. Rogers and Sutton vs. Vanderpool.--Not executed by reason Abraham Vanderpool lives on Greenbryer.”

[vi] Orange County [N.C.] Records, Vol. V, Granville Proprietary Land Office, Deeds & Surveys, 1752-1760, edited by William D. Bennett, CG (privately published, NC: Raleigh, 1989). Abraham Vanderpool (1709-1778) removed to Orange County, NC area by 20 August 1757 where he is found as a Sworn Chain Carrier on that date. (353. 25 July 1760. Harmon Husband, planter, 10 schillings, on waters of Sandy Cr. and Rocky R. called Level's Addition Tract . . . surveyed 20 August 1757, Abraham Vanderpool and Joseph York, SCC.) [p. 120.] referencing also N. C. Patent Book 14:409

[vii] Pennsylvania, Lutheran Baptisms and Marriages, 1730-1799 [database online], Provo, UT, USA. Ancestry.com Operations Inc. 2000. Original data: Early Lutheran Baptisms and Marriages in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA, USA: n.p., 1896. John Friederich Zeh, marriage date: 22 May 1744; marriage place: Swatara, Pennsylvania; spouse: Maria Ottilia Stempel.

---

'Fighting Squaw'

Which Catherine Vanderpool Was the "Fighting Squaw"?

We not only have a plethora of Abrahams, Johns and Wynants, but also of Catherines in the Vanderpool family. One of our Catherines is so popular she is "claimed" by two different families—the SEAs and the YOAKUMs—as having married into them. Some say she is the Catherine who was captured by the Shawnees in July 1763 at the event known as the Muddy Creek (now West Virginia) Massacre, led by Chief Cornstalk
Some claim she is the daughter of Abraham Vanderpool (bp. 1709 in Albany, New York) and others claim she is his sister. Neither group has produced a marriage record or any conclusive evidence to prove that their Catherine was a Vanderpool.
Abraham did have a daughter named Catherine by his first wife, Jannetje WEIBLING—she was baptized 14 May 1738, in the Second River (Belleville) Dutch Reformed Church in Essex County, New Jersey. We have no further information on her. However, she certainly cannot be the Catherine who married George YOAKUM (as some claim) in 1744 in Wallpack, [sic] New Jersey. Not at age six! Nor is she likely to be the Catherine who married a YOAKUM with a marriage date of 25 April 1751 in Virginia. In 1751, Abraham's daughter, Catherine, would have been only 13 years old..
The 1751 date apparently is taken from the date of a transfer of land from Abraham and Rebecca Vanderpool to George Yoakum. Dutch girls of this generation seldom married before 18 or 20, and again no evidence has ever been provided for such a marriage. In George YOAKUM's 1789 will in Hardy County, Virginia [Will Book 1, p. 37] his wife's name is given as Catherine, but that does not prove she was a Vanderpool.
The other piece of evidence researchers have used is the Virginia land transaction of Abraham Vanderpool and his (second) wife, Rebecca. The problem is that it has been misinterpreted, in my opinion. Abraham and Rebecca (grantors) transferred 430 acres of the South Branch of the Potomac to George Yoakum (grantee) on 25 May 17511.This property eventually (on 16 July 1806) went to George HARNOST [HARNESS] Sr., one of the heirs of the grantee. The land was not given to George YOAKUM (as a wedding gift or for any other reason) and nowhere in the record does it indicate any relationship between the grantor (Vanderpool) and the grantee (Yoakum). A grantee is someone to whom the title of property is transferred. It is suspected there were family connections among the Vanderpools, Harness and Yoakum families, but they have been not determined. It is possible that they were just neighbors on the Virginia frontier.
Abraham Vanderpool obtained this piece of property by a patent granted to him 19 October 1748 and because Rebecca signed when the property was transferred three years later, that's evidence that she was his wife at the time it was acquired, which helps to narrow down the date when they were married. Lord Fairfax, from whom Abraham obtained this patent (first title deed is usually called a "grant" or "patent") in 1748, leased his land under two types of patents. The first type was for 21 years at one shilling a year per each hundred acres. The second type was a three lives lease (the lifetime of usually the husband, wife, and youngest son). No quitrents were due the first year and thereafter the annual fee was minimal. The patent required the leaseholder to build a cabin with a masonry chimney, fence and cultivate land, and plant fruit trees. Which type of patent Abraham Vanderpool had is not known.
Of course, it is quite possible that Abraham's daughter, Catherine, married George YOAKUM, but at a later date, because she was too young to have been the mother of the children YOAKUM researchers have attributed to her—those born in the 1740 and early 1750ss. Others claim that Frederick Michael SEE (SEA/ZEH) (ca 1710-1763) married Catherine VANDERPOOL, the sister of Abraham. They have used her baptism record [30 June 1725 in the Dutch Reformed Church records in New York City], and some list a marriage date of ca 1744 in Wallpack, [sic] New Jersey or in Pennsylvania, but no solid evidence or any documents of such a marriage have been presented.
While Abraham's sister would fit for age and in proximity—if she had been living near her brother at the time—the later is doutful for by July 1741, Abraham is in Smithfield, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and there is another problem. We have a marriage on 18 January 1741 in Bergen County, New Jersey of a Catherine (aka Catrine) VANDERPOEL to a William SANDFORD (some say this original Dutch name was ZANDFOORT). If this is Abraham's sister, she would be a 16-year-old bride, which is young, but plausible, and Bergen County is next to Essex County, where the parents of this Catherine had resided since about 1725. If this is Abraham's sister, then she was already married in 1744 when it is claimed she married SEE .
A William SANDFORD of New Barbadoes Neck, Bergen County, New Jersey, left a will dated 22 Feb. 17492 in which he mentioned a wife, Catherine, and a number of children. Executors of his estate in April of 1750 were John VANDERPOOL and John LOW, with VANDERPOOL renouncing. It appears that this John VANDERPOOL was the brother-in-law in this instance and it is his sister who was the Catherine who married William SANDFORD in 1741. The family of Wynant Vanderpool and Catherine DeHooges (parents of John, Abraham, Catherine, et al) lived in Essex County, New Jersey, next to Bergen County, and brothers often are found in probate records pertaining to their siblings, especially those of their widowed sisters.
There is another problem though. If this Catherine Vanderpool is the sister of John and Abraham VANDERPOOL and is the one who married William SANDFORD in January 1741, she would have had eight children in nine years as eight children are mentioned in Sandford's 1749 will. Not impossible, but unlikely. Of course, the children mentioned in the will are his children (William SANDFORD's) and his widow, Catherine, is not necessarily the mother of any or of all of them. Another nebulous factor pointing to William SANDFORD's wife as being the sister of John VANDERPOOL is that another sister, Marguerite VANDERPOOL (bp. 1714), purportedly married a Johannes ZANTVORD (or SANDFORD), but no evidence or source is given and I have not yet found the record. Moreover, whether there is a relationship between these two SANDFORD (ZANTVORD) men has not been determined. If there is one, it might provide one more connection and suggest that these Vanderpool sisters married brothers or relatives—something that happened frequently.
Catherine (Vanderpool) SANDFORD was a widow in 1750 and might have later remarried, but she appears to have been left in comfortable circumstances,, and with eight children, it is not likely she would have removed to the wild frontier of Virginia from the relative comfort and safety of the Bergen County, New Jersey area to be where her brother Abraham was then located (he is found in various records of Augusta County, Virginia, ca 1746-1757).
There are a few other Catherine VANDERPOOLs perched upon our family tree, but they are too old or too young to even be considered in this instance as potential wives of YOAKUM or SEE.
I'll go out on a limb, so to speak, because everything in genealogy is subject to revision if and when new evidence surfaces, and suggest that it was Abraham's daughter, Catherine, by his first wife (born in 1738) who married as a second wife to Frederick Michael SEE, probably in the mid- to late-1750s and is the one known as "Fighting Squaw," a survivor of the 1763 Muddy Creek Massacre.


1. Abraham Vanderpool and Rebecca to George Yoakum. Date: May 25, 1751. Chalkey Abstracts, Vol. 3, pg. 293. Lyman Chalkley's three-volume Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia Extracted from the Original Court Records of Augusta County, 1745-1800 (Rosslyn, Va., 1912-1913; reprint, 1965).

2. New Jersey Wills, 1670-1750. SANDFORD/SANFORD. Extracted from Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey, First Series Volume XXIII; Calendar of New Jersey Wills, Volume I 1670-1730; edited, with an introductory note on the Early Testamentary Laws and Customs of New Jersey, by William Nelson; Paterson, N. J., 1901. p. 401. Lib. E, p. 408. 1749, Feb. 22. Will of: SANDFORD, William, of New Barbadoes Neck, Bergen Co., yeoman;. Only son, William, my plantation (300 acres) and 150 acres of meadow on the eastward part. If he dies without lawful heirs, said land and meadow to be divided equally among my surviving children. Wife, Catherine, to have the use of same during widowhood. Residue of my meadows on New Barbadoes Neck to be divided equally between wife and daughters, viz: Mary, Benington, Sarah, Elizabeth, Francis, Rachel and Catherine. To said wife the great Bible, and to daughter Sarah the silver tankard. Executors John LOW and John VANDERPOOL. Proved 7 April, 1750. John VANDERPOOL renounces and John LOW qualifies. Witnesses James STILL, Elipt. JOHNSON, Thomas ALLING.