Sent by Mary Trumbo.
Roger Dyer was at least on the border of middle age and for that period was a person of quite good circumstances. He evidently went into the wilderness of his own free choice, and seems to have possessed the qualities ofleadership and venturesomeness. On coming to Virginia from Pennsylvania he first located at Moorefield, but finding the damp bottom land malarious, he moved higher up the valley in search of a healthful sopt. Two of the other members of the group were of his own family, and the other three were presumably former neighbors if not relatives also.
In the latter year (1755) Roger Dyer fell into a term of ill health and made a will wherein 29 persons were listed with whom he had had business dealing of one sort or another (Among those named John Cravens)
By the close of 1757, not less than 40 families, or 200 individuals were living in what is now Pendleton County. There was a little mill at the Dyer settlement. In the Dyer settlement judging by the character of its people, it is probable that there was some makeshift to provide elementary instruction for the young people.
Fort Seybert stood a fourth of a mile south of the Fort Seybert postoffice. The tragedy at Fort Seybert took place April 28, 1758. There were survivors to return from captivity and relate the event. The account they gave us has been kept very much alive by their descendants in the vicinity.
The attacking party was composed of about 40 Shawnees led by Killbuck. There is a vague statement that one Frenchman was among them. The only mention of Upper Tract in the Fort Seybert narrative is that an express was sent there for aid, but turned back after coming within sight of the telltale column of smoke from the burning buildings.
The number of persons "forting" in the Dyer settlement was perhaps 40.
Very few of them were men, several having gone across the SHenandoah Mountains the day previous. Some of the women of the settlement also appear to have been away. There was a fog shrouding the bottom of the South Fork on this fateful morning, and the immediate presence of the enemy was unsuspected.
William Dyer had gone out to hunt and was waylaid near the fort. His flintlock refused to prime and he fell dead pierced by several balls.
The people slain in the massacre were 17, some accounts putting the number at 21 or even more. Among them were Captain Seybert, Roger Dyer, and the bound boy Wallace, whose yellow scalp was afterward recognized by Mrs. Hawes. It is the brunette captives that Indians have preferred to spare.
Including William Dyer, the four names are the only ones now remembered. It is worthy to note that apart from Seybert and the two Dyers none of the heads of families in the region around appear to be missing.Dyer Settlement
The Dyer Settlement, afterwards called Fort Seybert, was so remotely situated that it seems to be in the nature of a miracle that the first settlers found their way into the upper South Fork Valley. Their only way of ascent in making settlements was by following the water courses. About five or six miles downstream the South Fork River disappears between two mountains into a gorge. It is five miles before the river breaks into open country below. Only horseback travel has ever been possible through this Gap, and that by crossing the river back and forth. Even today there is no road there.
Wheter the families were acquainted beforehand and traveled together to buy their land in the South Fork Valley in Virginia is not known, but as early settlers usually traveled in groups they probably were. It is a recorded fact on Nov 5th, 1747, seven men bought tracts of adjoinging and from Robert Green of Orange County, Virginia, John Patton, Senior, his sons, Matthew and John,Jr., Roger Dyer and his son, William, John Smith, and William Stephenson formed the group of first settlers in the upper South Fork river valley south of the gorge.
Roger Dyer came into Virginia from Lancaster County, Pa where he had owned land. The earliest that is now known of Roger Dyer is that he took out a warrant No 9 for land in Lancaster County, Pa 25 Jan 1733. (Stroundsburg
Township, near Stroudburg Borough, southeast of the city of Lancaster).
Source: The Dyer Settlement and Fork Seybert Massacre by Mary Lee Talbot 1937Roger Dyer
One of the pioneers of Augusta Co. Va. was Roger Dyer who bought land on the South Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac in 1747. He settled there shortly afterwards with several other families. Less than ten years later a fort was built on land adjoining Roger Dyer's tract, called Fort Seybert.
In the spring of 1758, when Indians appeared in the vicinity of Fort Seybert they killed William Dyer, the older of Roger Dyers two sons, when he went out to hunt. After the inhabitants of the "Dyer" Settlement realized that the Indians were there in the fort. Very shortly, on Apr 28, 1758 the Indians led by Killbuck, captured the fort, massacred all of those in the fort except those they took as captives. Later the massacured victims who numbered seventeen or more, were buried in a common grave.
Roger Dyer was massacred; a son, James and a daughter, Sarah Dyer Hawes were taken as captives. All five of the children of Roger Dyer left descendants. William had two small sons, Roger and John, at the time he was killed. Hannah Dyer married Frederick Keister, and has many descendants in West Virginia and elsewhere. Sarah Dyer married Henry Hawes before the massacre, and had on daughter, Hannah. After her return from captivity with
the Indians she married Robert Davis. They had several children. Hester Dyer married Matthew Patton and has descendants in Kentucky. James Dyer, the youngest, had sixteen children. Many of the descendants of Roger Dyer
pioneered to Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and some went as far west as the state of Washington. Others still live in Virginia and West Virginia(88.) ROGER DYER (12.) (2.) (1.):
b. 23 June 1754, Augusta (later Rockingham, now Pendleton Co., W. Va.) Co., Va.; d. 19 November 1843, Pendleton Co., Va., (now W. Va.) ; m. c1776, Augusta Co., Va., to SUSANNAH BILZZARD, d/o John and Mary C. (---). Blizzard; b. date and place not known; d. prob. Pendleton Co., Va., date not known.
CH: (434.) Margaret; (435.) Ruth; (436.) James; (437.) Mary; (438.) William; (439.) John D.; (440.) Hannah; (441.) Elizabeth. (R76).
1790 Census of Va. (1784 Tax List).: Rockingham Co., Va., List of James Dyer: Roger Dyer, 6 white, 1 dwelling, 5 other buildings.
Sent by Everett Trumbo. D/o John Blizzard and Mary Campbell.
(434.) MARGARET DYER (88.) (12.) (2.) (1.):
b. 12 March 1777; no further record. (R60).
(89.) JOHN DYER (12.) (2.) (1.):
b. c1758, Augusta Co., Va. (now Pendleton Co., W. Va.) ; d. date and place not known; m. ? ; descendants have not been traced.
1790 Census of Va. (1784 Tax List)., Rockingham Co., Va., List of James Dyer: John Dyer, 4 white, 1 dwelling, 1 other building.
(90.) MARY CRAVENS (12.) (2.) (1.):
b. c1760, Augusta Co., Va.; may be the Mary Cravens who m. 1799 in Rockingham Co., Va., to Josiah Harrison. (R77). descendants have not been traced.
(91.) HANNAH CRAVENS (12.) (2.) (1.):
b. c1762, Augusta Co., Va.; m. June 1779 to Jonathan Evans. No further record.
FOURTH GENERATION: GRANDCHILDREN OF JOHN HIATT, JR.(93.) WILLIAM CRAVENS (12.) (2.) (1.):
b. 1776, Augusta Co., Va.; d. 1826 in Southern Indiana; m. 29 January 1794; in Rockingham Co., Va., to JANE HARRISON, parentage not known; b. date and place not known; d. date and place not known. William Cravens was a Methodist Minister, and a well-known Circuit Rider in the Blue River section of Southern Indiana in the 1820's. Descendants have not been traced."This year (c1821 - editor)., William Cravens, from Virginia, who had been a local preacher of long standing, and of much notoriety, was received on trial by the Missouri conference, and placed on the circuit with the Ruter. Cravens was a man of respectable talents, and possesses a world of wit, and good common sense and was one of the most undaunted men that ever lived. He abhorred sin of all sorts with a perfect abhorrence, but more particularly the sins of drunkenness and Negro slavery. Against these he declaimed with a zeal which made the wicked quail before him, even in the aristocratic parts of Virginia. It was natural to suppose that when he came to a free state he would cease his declamations against the sin of slavery; but no. Some had their slaves hired out in slave states, and were yearly drawing their wages. These were made to feel agony under his withering rebuke. Many more had sold their slaves, and had come to Indiana and had purchased homes for themselves and children with the price of their slaves, and were now zealous declaimers against slavery. These were denounced by him as blood-stained hypocrites, who were worse that the actual slaveholder, who was now holding slaves and treating them kindly. He seldom preached a sermon without making all who made, sold, or drank ardent spirits feel uneasy. Ruter labored as well as he could, and Cravens was ardent and powerful; but with all their toil, they had only thirty-three of an increase; but doubtless many of those who had joined the preceding year were converted and greatly improved in their religious knowledge and experience." (Introduction and Progress of Methodism in Southeastern Indiana, by Wiley, Indiana Magazine of History, XXIII, 256.)
(94.) JOSEPH CRAVENS (12.) (2.) (1.):
b. 1769, Augusta Co., Va., (later Rockingham Co., now Pendleton Co., W. Va.) ; d. 1842, prob. Rockingham Co., Va.; m. 179-, prob. Rockinham Co., Va., to MARY ___, parentage not known; b. date and place not known; d. date and place not known. Joseph Cravens was a physician of Harrisonburg, Rockingham Co., Va.
CH: (442.) John (Others.)
(95.) JAMES CRAVENS (12.) (2.) (1.):
b. 1773, Augusta Co., Va.; d. 1821; no further record.