Benjamin Griswold Burt
1780-1826 of Potter County, Pennsylvania was born January 18, 1780 in a Fort in Chemung, New York. He was married to Mercy Rickey before 1806 and they had eight children; Elisha H. Burt, Joanna Burt, John Keating Burt, Sarah Burt, Israel Burt, Elizabeth Burt, Benjamin Burt and Hannah Burt. He was the son of Benjamin Burt 3rd and Johanna Parshall. Benjamin died May 10, 1826 and is buried in Card Creek Cemetery in Potter County, Pennsylvania. His son John Keating Burt FAG memorial # 28415071 was born Aug 25, 1811 and died Sept 6, 1898 in Roulette, Potter County, Pennsylvania. John is also buried in Card Creek Cemetery with his wife Orilla Lyman.
From the book “historical collections of the state of Pennsylvania “by Sherman Day (page 600)
Benjamin Griswold Birt, Esq., In the year 1808 an east and west road was opened through Potter County. Messengers John Keating & Co. of Philadelphia owning large tracts of land in the northwest part of the county, agreed with Isaac Lyman Esq., to undertake the opening of the road. In the fall of 1809 Mr. Lyman came with several hands and erected a rude cabin into which he moved in March 1810. He then had but one neighbor in the county who was 4 miles distant. I moved in on May 4, 1811 and had to follow the fashion of the country for building and other domestic concerns, which was rather tough there being not a bushel of grain or potatoes nor a pound of meat except wild to be had in the county; but there were leaks and nettles in abundance which with venison and bears meat seasoned with hard work and a keen appetite made a most delicious dish. The friendly Indians of different tribes frequently visited us on their hunting excursions. Among other vexations were the gnats, a very minute but poisonous insect that annoyed us far more than mosquitoes, or even than hunger and cold and in the summer we could not work without raising a smoke around us. Our roads were so bad that we had to fetch our provisions fifty to seventy miles on pack horses. In this way we lived until we could raise our own grain and meat. By the time we had grain to grind Mr. Lyman had built a small grist-mill, but the roads still being bad and the mill at some distance from me I fixed an Indian samp-mortar to pound my corn and afterwards I contrived a small hand-mill by which I have ground many a bushel -but it was hard work. When we went out after provisions with a team we were compelled to camp out in the woods and if in the winter to chop down a maple for cattle to browse on all night and on this kind of long fodder we had to keep our cattle a good part of the winter. When I came here I had a horse that I called “Main Dependence” on account of his being a good steady old fellow. He used to carry my whole family on his back whenever we went to a wedding, a raising, a logging-bee, or to visit our neighbors for several years -until the increasing load compromised myself, my wife and three children - five in all. We had often to pack our provisions eighty miles from Jersey shore. Sixty miles of the road was without a house and in the winter when deep snows came on and caught us on the road without fire, we should have perished if several of us had not been in company to assist each other. The want of leather after our first shoes were worn out was severely felt. Neither tanner nor shoemaker lived in the county. But “necessity is the mother of invention”. I made me a trough out of a big pine tree into which I put the hides of any cattle that died among us. I used ashes for tanning them instead of lime and bears grease for oil. The thickest is served for the sole leather and the thinner ones dressed with a drawing knife, for upper leather and thus I made shoes for myself and neighbors. I had 14 miles to go in winter to mill with an ox team. The weather was cold and the snow deep, no roads were broken and no bridges built across the streams. I had to wade streams and carry the bags on my back. The ice was frozen to my coat as heavy as a bushel of corn. I worked hard all day and got only 7 miles the first night, when I chained my team to a tree and walked 3 miles to house myself. At the second night I reached the mill. My courage often failed and I had almost resolved to return, but when I thought of my children crying for bread I took new courage.
1780-1826 of Potter County, Pennsylvania was born January 18, 1780 in a Fort in Chemung, New York. He was married to Mercy Rickey before 1806 and they had eight children; Elisha H. Burt, Joanna Burt, John Keating Burt, Sarah Burt, Israel Burt, Elizabeth Burt, Benjamin Burt and Hannah Burt. He was the son of Benjamin Burt 3rd and Johanna Parshall. Benjamin died May 10, 1826 and is buried in Card Creek Cemetery in Potter County, Pennsylvania. His son John Keating Burt FAG memorial # 28415071 was born Aug 25, 1811 and died Sept 6, 1898 in Roulette, Potter County, Pennsylvania. John is also buried in Card Creek Cemetery with his wife Orilla Lyman.
From the book “historical collections of the state of Pennsylvania “by Sherman Day (page 600)
Benjamin Griswold Birt, Esq., In the year 1808 an east and west road was opened through Potter County. Messengers John Keating & Co. of Philadelphia owning large tracts of land in the northwest part of the county, agreed with Isaac Lyman Esq., to undertake the opening of the road. In the fall of 1809 Mr. Lyman came with several hands and erected a rude cabin into which he moved in March 1810. He then had but one neighbor in the county who was 4 miles distant. I moved in on May 4, 1811 and had to follow the fashion of the country for building and other domestic concerns, which was rather tough there being not a bushel of grain or potatoes nor a pound of meat except wild to be had in the county; but there were leaks and nettles in abundance which with venison and bears meat seasoned with hard work and a keen appetite made a most delicious dish. The friendly Indians of different tribes frequently visited us on their hunting excursions. Among other vexations were the gnats, a very minute but poisonous insect that annoyed us far more than mosquitoes, or even than hunger and cold and in the summer we could not work without raising a smoke around us. Our roads were so bad that we had to fetch our provisions fifty to seventy miles on pack horses. In this way we lived until we could raise our own grain and meat. By the time we had grain to grind Mr. Lyman had built a small grist-mill, but the roads still being bad and the mill at some distance from me I fixed an Indian samp-mortar to pound my corn and afterwards I contrived a small hand-mill by which I have ground many a bushel -but it was hard work. When we went out after provisions with a team we were compelled to camp out in the woods and if in the winter to chop down a maple for cattle to browse on all night and on this kind of long fodder we had to keep our cattle a good part of the winter. When I came here I had a horse that I called “Main Dependence” on account of his being a good steady old fellow. He used to carry my whole family on his back whenever we went to a wedding, a raising, a logging-bee, or to visit our neighbors for several years -until the increasing load compromised myself, my wife and three children - five in all. We had often to pack our provisions eighty miles from Jersey shore. Sixty miles of the road was without a house and in the winter when deep snows came on and caught us on the road without fire, we should have perished if several of us had not been in company to assist each other. The want of leather after our first shoes were worn out was severely felt. Neither tanner nor shoemaker lived in the county. But “necessity is the mother of invention”. I made me a trough out of a big pine tree into which I put the hides of any cattle that died among us. I used ashes for tanning them instead of lime and bears grease for oil. The thickest is served for the sole leather and the thinner ones dressed with a drawing knife, for upper leather and thus I made shoes for myself and neighbors. I had 14 miles to go in winter to mill with an ox team. The weather was cold and the snow deep, no roads were broken and no bridges built across the streams. I had to wade streams and carry the bags on my back. The ice was frozen to my coat as heavy as a bushel of corn. I worked hard all day and got only 7 miles the first night, when I chained my team to a tree and walked 3 miles to house myself. At the second night I reached the mill. My courage often failed and I had almost resolved to return, but when I thought of my children crying for bread I took new courage.
Benjamin Griswold Burt
1780-1826 of Potter County, Pennsylvania was born January 18, 1780 in a Fort in Chemung, New York. He was married to Mercy Rickey before 1806 and they had eight children; Elisha H. Burt, Joanna Burt, John Keating Burt, Sarah Burt, Israel Burt, Elizabeth Burt, Benjamin Burt and Hannah Burt. He was the son of Benjamin Burt 3rd and Johanna Parshall. Benjamin died May 10, 1826 and is buried in Card Creek Cemetery in Potter County, Pennsylvania. His son John Keating Burt FAG memorial # 28415071 was born Aug 25, 1811 and died Sept 6, 1898 in Roulette, Potter County, Pennsylvania. John is also buried in Card Creek Cemetery with his wife Orilla Lyman.
From the book “historical collections of the state of Pennsylvania “by Sherman Day (page 600)
Benjamin Griswold Birt, Esq., In the year 1808 an east and west road was opened through Potter County. Messengers John Keating & Co. of Philadelphia owning large tracts of land in the northwest part of the county, agreed with Isaac Lyman Esq., to undertake the opening of the road. In the fall of 1809 Mr. Lyman came with several hands and erected a rude cabin into which he moved in March 1810. He then had but one neighbor in the county who was 4 miles distant. I moved in on May 4, 1811 and had to follow the fashion of the country for building and other domestic concerns, which was rather tough there being not a bushel of grain or potatoes nor a pound of meat except wild to be had in the county; but there were leaks and nettles in abundance which with venison and bears meat seasoned with hard work and a keen appetite made a most delicious dish. The friendly Indians of different tribes frequently visited us on their hunting excursions. Among other vexations were the gnats, a very minute but poisonous insect that annoyed us far more than mosquitoes, or even than hunger and cold and in the summer we could not work without raising a smoke around us. Our roads were so bad that we had to fetch our provisions fifty to seventy miles on pack horses. In this way we lived until we could raise our own grain and meat. By the time we had grain to grind Mr. Lyman had built a small grist-mill, but the roads still being bad and the mill at some distance from me I fixed an Indian samp-mortar to pound my corn and afterwards I contrived a small hand-mill by which I have ground many a bushel -but it was hard work. When we went out after provisions with a team we were compelled to camp out in the woods and if in the winter to chop down a maple for cattle to browse on all night and on this kind of long fodder we had to keep our cattle a good part of the winter. When I came here I had a horse that I called “Main Dependence” on account of his being a good steady old fellow. He used to carry my whole family on his back whenever we went to a wedding, a raising, a logging-bee, or to visit our neighbors for several years -until the increasing load compromised myself, my wife and three children - five in all. We had often to pack our provisions eighty miles from Jersey shore. Sixty miles of the road was without a house and in the winter when deep snows came on and caught us on the road without fire, we should have perished if several of us had not been in company to assist each other. The want of leather after our first shoes were worn out was severely felt. Neither tanner nor shoemaker lived in the county. But “necessity is the mother of invention”. I made me a trough out of a big pine tree into which I put the hides of any cattle that died among us. I used ashes for tanning them instead of lime and bears grease for oil. The thickest is served for the sole leather and the thinner ones dressed with a drawing knife, for upper leather and thus I made shoes for myself and neighbors. I had 14 miles to go in winter to mill with an ox team. The weather was cold and the snow deep, no roads were broken and no bridges built across the streams. I had to wade streams and carry the bags on my back. The ice was frozen to my coat as heavy as a bushel of corn. I worked hard all day and got only 7 miles the first night, when I chained my team to a tree and walked 3 miles to house myself. At the second night I reached the mill. My courage often failed and I had almost resolved to return, but when I thought of my children crying for bread I took new courage.
1780-1826 of Potter County, Pennsylvania was born January 18, 1780 in a Fort in Chemung, New York. He was married to Mercy Rickey before 1806 and they had eight children; Elisha H. Burt, Joanna Burt, John Keating Burt, Sarah Burt, Israel Burt, Elizabeth Burt, Benjamin Burt and Hannah Burt. He was the son of Benjamin Burt 3rd and Johanna Parshall. Benjamin died May 10, 1826 and is buried in Card Creek Cemetery in Potter County, Pennsylvania. His son John Keating Burt FAG memorial # 28415071 was born Aug 25, 1811 and died Sept 6, 1898 in Roulette, Potter County, Pennsylvania. John is also buried in Card Creek Cemetery with his wife Orilla Lyman.
From the book “historical collections of the state of Pennsylvania “by Sherman Day (page 600)
Benjamin Griswold Birt, Esq., In the year 1808 an east and west road was opened through Potter County. Messengers John Keating & Co. of Philadelphia owning large tracts of land in the northwest part of the county, agreed with Isaac Lyman Esq., to undertake the opening of the road. In the fall of 1809 Mr. Lyman came with several hands and erected a rude cabin into which he moved in March 1810. He then had but one neighbor in the county who was 4 miles distant. I moved in on May 4, 1811 and had to follow the fashion of the country for building and other domestic concerns, which was rather tough there being not a bushel of grain or potatoes nor a pound of meat except wild to be had in the county; but there were leaks and nettles in abundance which with venison and bears meat seasoned with hard work and a keen appetite made a most delicious dish. The friendly Indians of different tribes frequently visited us on their hunting excursions. Among other vexations were the gnats, a very minute but poisonous insect that annoyed us far more than mosquitoes, or even than hunger and cold and in the summer we could not work without raising a smoke around us. Our roads were so bad that we had to fetch our provisions fifty to seventy miles on pack horses. In this way we lived until we could raise our own grain and meat. By the time we had grain to grind Mr. Lyman had built a small grist-mill, but the roads still being bad and the mill at some distance from me I fixed an Indian samp-mortar to pound my corn and afterwards I contrived a small hand-mill by which I have ground many a bushel -but it was hard work. When we went out after provisions with a team we were compelled to camp out in the woods and if in the winter to chop down a maple for cattle to browse on all night and on this kind of long fodder we had to keep our cattle a good part of the winter. When I came here I had a horse that I called “Main Dependence” on account of his being a good steady old fellow. He used to carry my whole family on his back whenever we went to a wedding, a raising, a logging-bee, or to visit our neighbors for several years -until the increasing load compromised myself, my wife and three children - five in all. We had often to pack our provisions eighty miles from Jersey shore. Sixty miles of the road was without a house and in the winter when deep snows came on and caught us on the road without fire, we should have perished if several of us had not been in company to assist each other. The want of leather after our first shoes were worn out was severely felt. Neither tanner nor shoemaker lived in the county. But “necessity is the mother of invention”. I made me a trough out of a big pine tree into which I put the hides of any cattle that died among us. I used ashes for tanning them instead of lime and bears grease for oil. The thickest is served for the sole leather and the thinner ones dressed with a drawing knife, for upper leather and thus I made shoes for myself and neighbors. I had 14 miles to go in winter to mill with an ox team. The weather was cold and the snow deep, no roads were broken and no bridges built across the streams. I had to wade streams and carry the bags on my back. The ice was frozen to my coat as heavy as a bushel of corn. I worked hard all day and got only 7 miles the first night, when I chained my team to a tree and walked 3 miles to house myself. At the second night I reached the mill. My courage often failed and I had almost resolved to return, but when I thought of my children crying for bread I took new courage.
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