Silas Benedict

Reference: 135.8

	Born	25 Oct 1745 in Danbury, Fairfield, Connecticut
	Died	3 July 1778 in Wilks-Barre, Lazerne, PA
	Married	Abt. 1776 to Mary (Lydia) Weeks

• Father: Abraham Benedict
• Mother: Sarah Hickok

Children:

• Silas Benedict Jr.^? b. June 13, 1777

The Parents of Silas

The Early Years of Silas

Silas and Mary

Mary was born abt. 1761 at Long Island City, Queens, New York, USA. Mary was very young when she married Silas, abt 15 or 16 years old. She lost her husband Silas July 3, 1778 after giving birth to Silas Junior.

The final Years of Silas

Silas Benedict was Slain at the massacre of Wyoming July 3,1778. Another family upon whom the blow fell with great force and severity was that of Mr. Jonathan Weeks. He resided upon a large farm, about a mile below the Borough of Wilks-Barre, with his sons, Philip, Jonathan and Bartholomew. Silas Benedict, a son-in law, (Miner in his History of Wyoming, p. 238, gives an account of the Massacre in which he says Silas Benedict married a granddaughter of Jonathan Weeks), Jabez Beers, an uncle, Josiah Carman, a cousin and a boarder named Robert Bates. These seven men, from a single household, all seized their arms and hurried to the field, and they all fell with their Captain, whose name was McCarrican, a man of letters and teacher of the Hamlet School. Two days after the battle, a party of Indians visited the house of Mr. Weeks and demanded breakfast. Having obtained their demand, they next informed Mr. Weeks that he must quit the valley forthwith. The old man remonstrated, "all my sons have fallen," said he with emotion, "and here I am left with fourteen grandchildren, all young and helpless."*** They allowed him his oxen and wagon, with which he took the sobbing women and their little ones back to the County of Orange, whence they had migrated to Wyoming. (Stones Wyoming, p.273.)

(IF INTERESTED)The Battle of Wyoming 3 Jul 1778 a small band of patriotic Americans led by Col. Zebulon Butler and Col. Nathan Dennison battled a combined British, Tory and Indian force three times their number.

Following the battle, the dead lay unburied on Oct. 22 Lt. John Jenkins and a detail of men gave them a common burial where they fell. In 1833 the mass grave was reopened and bones of 83 men removed and sealed in a vault. In 1860 a sixty-two foot high monument was erected along Route 11 in Wyoming, Luzerne county, PA. (The two above paragraphs, from Decendants of John Lindsay, Rootsweb World Connect Project).

Footnotes

Sources

"Genealogy of the Benedicts in America", by Henry M. Benedict; 1st pub. 1870; orig. avail. at Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington, DC.

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-- DonaldElliott - 26 Mar 2006 -- DonaldElliott - 05 Feb 2008