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Note: N365 His first name was Fred, but he always used Robert.
1790 Dobbs Co., NC census shows Moses with 1 son (Robert) and 1 daughter and a wife. 1800 Kershaw Co., SC, shows Moses with 2 sons under 10, 1 son 16-26 (Robert?), 1 male, 26-45 (Moses), 1 female 16-26. 1810 Anson Co., NC, shows Moses with 4 sons under 10, 2 sons 10-16, 16-18 (Robert?), 1 male 26-45, 1 female 26-45). 1820 Prince William Parish, Beaufort Co., SC: 2 sons under 10, 1 male 26-45 (Robert), 2 daughters under 10, 1 female 16-26. Living next household was his brother, Josiah, 16-26 and wife, 16-26, no children. 1830 Covington Co., AL census: Robert Hart, a male 10-15, 1 male 15-20, 1 male 40-50 (Robert) 1 female, 15-20. There appears to be no mother in the household. He was living next household to Moses Hart, Sr., age 70-80 who was must surely his father. 1840 Dale Co., AL census: A male, 50-60, is living in the household with Josiah L. Hart. I believe that to be Robert, because he was still there in 1850. Apparently, his wife was deceased. They were living near the Wilkinsons and Powells, Robert’s two daughters. 1850 Conecuh Co., AL census: Robert, 65, was living in the household again with his son, Josiah. 1860 Walton Co., Florida census, Pg. 963, Eucheanna Area. Dated 20 June 1860. Dwelling #236, Family # 236. Wilkinson, Elisha 47M Farmer R/E $160 P/E $350 P/B Ala. Wilkinson, Chasey 46F Domestic P/B S. C. 8 Children P/B Ala & Fla. Hart, Robert 73M Laborer P/B N. C.
His birthdate and birthplace were recorded in a family Bible, that of Elisha Wilkerson. Wilkerson Old Field Cemetery is located between Caney Creek, Gaskin and Natural Bridge communities.
This is the Robert Hart who is in the Indian attack story recorded in McKinnon's book, A History of Walton County and Brunson's book, Pea River Reflections. Robert's brother, Josiah, and his family were all killed by the Indians in May, 1837, and then an attack was made on Robert's family. They defended themselves successfully, and the attack ended when Robert shot the Indian chief. According to a family story told by my Grandpa Will Walther, his grandfather Josiah Hart, a son of Robert, was also injured by the Indian attack. He bore a deep scar inflicted by an Indian's weapon. (Passed on by Earl Walther)
Article by Dr. Brian Rucker titled "West Florida's Indian Crisis of 1837." It can be found in the Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 69 (Jan 1991). In it Dr. Rucker describes Walton Co. as the seat of the war. He states: "Renegade Creeks who opposed removal attacked isolated farmhouses, steamboats, frontier settlements, and travellers in the area from Columbus, Georgia, to Eufala, Alabama. These maruading Indians began moving westwardly to the upper reaches of the Pea River where they were defeated by militiamen in February and March of 1837. Following these losses, the renegade Creeks broke up into smaller bands and moved southwesterly along the courses of the Choctawhatchee River into Walton County, Florida, murdering and pillaging as they travelled. Ron Jones, Ward Newsletter.
WELLBORN'S ALABAMA MOUNTED VOLUNTEERS - POUNCEY'S CO. Hart, Josiah L., Private Hart, Moses, Private Hart, Robart, Sergt.
The following appears at http://www.genevapubliclibrary.org/genevareaper/general/Reaper%2068%20Fighting%20Indians.pdf
Early Settlers Fought Indians For Survival What does a churn of buttermilk have to do with Geneva County history? Early settlers in what is now Geneva County used that churn full of milk to put out a fire set by Indians.The incident is recorded by W. F. McDuffie in a letter to the editor of the Geneva County Reaper on May 29, 1902. McDuffie's letter was written to answer an inquiry made by W, L. Andrews of Opelika in the May 15, 1902. At the time it was written, McDuffie was 71 years old and had lived in Geneva County since 1833, three years before the Indian attack about which he wrote. In 1836, McDuffie recalled, two years before the town of Geneva was established and 32 years before Geneva County was created, Indians attacked two Geneva County families. One of these, the Josiah Hart family on Pea River, near Central City, was murdered. The other family, four or five miles away, survived afer barricading the house and fighting off the Indians for several hours. According to McDuffie, the Josiah Hart family was milking their cows when the Indian raid happened. The men were guarding while the women did the work. After the raid, seven adults were found dead at the cowpens, but one baby girl was still alive. Despite a terrible head wound, she survived to grow up in the community, marry and raise a family. Two of her granddaughters, Misses Angeline and Minnie Marlow, lived about eight miles north of Samson for a number of years. McDuffie wrote that the Bob Hart family survived the attacking Indians. He tells it like this: The dogs broke out to bark when one of Mr. Hart's daughters went out to look and received a ball through her arm. They (the Indians) then charged the house and the lady ran around it two or three times trying to get in. She finally was rescued by leaping into the house before the Indians succeeded in killing her. “At Bob Hart's house that morning,” according to McDuffie, were Hart, his son, Mose, and his son-in-law, Dan Powell, and three women. The men barricaded the house and fought off the Indians for about an hour and a half. During this time, the Indians set fire to the house, but the family put out the fire by throwing a churn of buttermilk on it. During the fight, two or three Indians were killed and then finally driven off. Dan Powell then rode to Josiah Hart's house and there found the murdered family and the baby girl. He then went for help to “Pate's Company.” The men of “Pate's Company” came and “buried the dead and afterward pursued the Indians” to Gum Creek (Sweet Gum Head), Florida, where a “desperate fight occurred on the 7th day of May, 1836”. Thirty-seven Indians were killed in the battle. One white man, John B. Crews, was lightly injured. It was from this battle that an Indian child returned to Geneva county. One of the men who chased the Creeks was the grandfather of the late Jim Early, a Geneva County resident in 1900. Early brought back an Indian child and reared her as a member of his family. According to reports of this battle, and of the Indian child, some of her descendants live in South Alabama today. Note: My grandfather, Will Walther, grandson of Robert Hart, also told of this incident to his children, and his son, Earl Walther, passed it on to me.
The following is a more recently discovered account of the attack on the Hart family, and it was written just 4 years after the attack: Pickwick Married — Ch. XXI. In Which Mr. Pickwick Peruses A Tale of War and Bloodshed
“Mary Hart The Creek War of 1836-7 was a most barbarous one, and continued nearly two years. The governor of Alabama, mustered fresh troops for the period General William Wellborn received the command. During the winter of 1836-7, a large number of reluctant Creek Indians were attacking families in the Pea River area (where our Robert Hart and his family lived). General Wellborn heard of an encampment of Indians on the banks of Pea River. With a company of two hundred and ten mounted men, he set off in search of the foe. General Wellborn’s troops were successful in those battles. A thorough description of the battles can be found in the original story. At this point, our family became involved. Quoting: “On the morning of this day, a pursuit of the retreating foe was ordered, the trail of which led them down the Pee, to the plantations of two brothers, Josiah and Robert Hart, (Barbara’s note: Robert Hart was my great-great-great grandfather.), about forty miles below the battleground above described. As they approached these settlements, it needed no prophet’s ken to anticipate the fate of these unhappy families. The Indians, still counting scarcely less than two hundred warriors, came upon them the second night. “Josiah Hart had a wife, a son, and two daughters, the youngest of whom, Mary, was nine years of age. The family of Robert Hart, living about a mile from his brother, consisted of himself, two sons, a married daughter, and son-in-law. The log cabin of Robert, as is usual in that of the country, was built in two separate parts, with an open space or court between, over which the roof of the building extended, the door of each part being in the middle of this court, opposite to each other. Aware of the dangers to which he was exposed, Mr. Hart had ‘chinked’ the logs, before open, and admitting of being fired through by the musketry or rifles of an enemy, leaving here and there a port-hole, through which the tenants might be able to repulse assailants. He was also provided with nine pieces of firearms, rifles, double-barrel and other, kept constantly charged, and ready for a sudden emergency. In one of these buildings, the whole family slept by their arms and ammunition, which the watch-dog kept his post without. “At the mid-hour of this fatal night, they were suddenly awakened by the earnest barking of the dog, and the simultaneous yells of the Indians. The dog was soon silenced by the rifles of he savages; and the subsequent stillness without, except when interrupted by the occasional light tread or sudden bound of the wily foe around the house, reconnoitering, in preparation for the execution of his purpose, was fearful. Having failed in their usual stratagem of driving out the tenants of the house in affright, by the yells of their onset, in an opposite direction, where they would be sure to fall into the hands of a party in ambush, they sought opportunity to make an attack through the crevices of the logs which composed the walls of the building. Not succeeding in this, for the reason before mentioned, and not venturing yet to enter the court, for fear of a fire from within, which had not yet opened upon them, their next device was to kindle a fire under the side of the dwelling, by which, if successful, they were sure of their prey. This, however, they could not well do in the dark, without becoming marks for an unseen hand. Accordingly, the first attempt proved fatal to those engaged in it, and two or three Indians fell before the sure aim of the rifle from within the walls. Hour after hour, in painful suspense, passed away, with now and then a shot from either party, to little or no purpose, except that a chance ball from an Indian rifle found its way between the logs, and wounded Mr. Hart’s daughter in the arm. Not daring to strike a light, they endeavored, as well as they could, to bind it up, and to staunch the blood. At length a lurid light cast upon the clouds, discovered to Mr. Hart that his brother’s house was in flames, and a yell of triumph broke from the horde of savages by whom he and his children were environed, secure, though less successful hitherto, in accomplishing the same object. The flames rose higher, and threw upon this besieged habitation a flood of light, that compelled the besiegers to retire behind the outhouses for protection, as they would otherwise be exposed to the fire of Mr. Hart and his sons. “Day dawned at last, and a desultory fire was commenced, as chance invited, and as an Indian head was exposed to view. Several of the Indians fell. Exasperated by these failures, they resolved to set the house on fire at any hazard. They collected combustibles, chose their position, and rushed with fire and kindling-wood under the stick chimney of the house, where, as it happened, the rifles from within could not be brought to bear. The smoke was soon felt in the house, and not a moment was to be lost. Despair finds weapons; and by the concert of an instant, a bold device was projected, to strike through the frail chimney-back on the heads of the Indians, and by a sudden sortie, drive them from the field, to purchase to themselves and opportunity to escape to the Fort, about seven miles distant. It was done. Three or four Indians were killed, and the rest fled. In some two hours after, Mr. Hart and his children were all safely lodged in the Fort, having left their house to pillage and flames, to which it was doomed in the course of that morning, so soon as the Indians had mustered a stronger force, and returned to renew the attack. Plunder was all they had to enjoy. “About thirty-six hours after the Indians had quitted the plantation of the Harts, General Wellborn and his men came in sight of the smoking ruins of Josiah Hart’s habitation and out-houses…. All the Josiah Hart family were dead, horribly mutilated and left naked. One daughter, Mary, was left alive but in poor condition. Wrapped in a blanket, she was carried on horseback in the arms of General Wellborn to the Fort, and was committed to the charge of her uncle Robert and his family, whose escape has already been narrated. “The troops started off in hot pursuit of the fleeing foe, and after two days’ march overtook them in Florida. Thirty-nine of them were slain in the engagement that ensued; many prisoners were taken, with the booty from the pillaged houses of the Harts; and the rest took flight to the town of Conchatto-Mecco, where they surrendered for emigration, and the Creek war was ended.” Google Books: The Teetotaler; Edited by George W. M. Reynolds; No. 51 (V.2 No. 8), Saturday, June 12, 1841, pp. 57-58; London: George Henderson, Old Bailey, Ludgate-Hill, M.DCCC.XLI https://books.google.com/books/about/Teetotaler.html?id=eABQAAAAYAAJ
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