Frederick Hesser / Hartman Tragedy

Frederick Hesser served as a drummer boy with General Washington's Continental Army in 1976, later became Schuylkill County Sheriff from 1814 to 1817, and was crier of the Schuylkill County Court in Orwigsburg; he was buried at St. John's U.C.C. Cemetery in Orwigsburg in 1846. In the fall of 1755, while Mrs. Hartman and her son Christian were at a mill, Indians came to the Hartman home, shot John Hartman and his son George, burned their home, and captured daughters Barbara, age 11, and Regina, age 9; at the close of the Indian Wars, Mrs. Hartman and Regina were reunited through the singing of a German hymn, while Barbara was killed by the Indians.

Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania · United States