According to the record of the Hildebrand family, as given by Henry Hildebrand of Jefferson County, Missouri, to the authors ofthis work; the seventh generation back reaches to Peter Hildebrand of Hanover. He was born in 1655, and was the youngest son of a nobleman. His father having died while Peter was yet a boy, he was educated at a military school, and after arriving to manhood, he served several years in the army. Returning at length, he was vexed at the cold reception he received from his elder brother, who had inherited the estate with all the titles of nobility belonging to the family. He resolved to emigrate to the wild solitudes of America, where individual worth and courage was the stepping stone to honor and distinction.

His family consisted of a wife and three children; his eldest son, Jacob, was born in 1680; when he was ten years of age the whole family emigrated to New Amsterdam, remained three years and then settled in the northern part of Pennsylvania, where he died a few years afterwards.

Jacob Hildebrand's second son, Jacob, was born in 1705. He was fond of adventure and joined in several exploring expeditions in one of which he was captured by a band of Miami Indians, and only escaped by plunging into the Ohio river and concealing himself under a drift of floating logs. His feelings of hostility against the Indians prompted him to join the expedition against them under Lieutenant Ward, who erected a fort at what is now called Pittsburg, in 1754, here he was killed in a vain attempt to hold the garrison against the French and Indians under Contrecoeur.

His third son, John Hildebrand, was born in 1733, and at the death of his father was twenty-one years of age. Like most of the frontiersmen of this early period, he seemed to have an uncontrolable love of adventure. His most ardent desire was to explore the great valley of the Mississippi. At the period of which we are not speaking (1754), he joined James M. Bride and others and passed down the Ohio river in a canoe; to his regret, however, the company only reached the mouth of the Kentucky river, cut their initials in barks of trees, and then returned. In 1770 he removed to Missouri. His family consisted of his wife and two boys--Peter was born in 1758, and Jonathan in 1762. He built a flat-boat on the banks of the Ohio, and taking a bountiful supply of provisions, he embarked with his family. To avoid the Indians, he kept as far from each shore as possible, and never landed but once to pass around the shoals. On reaching the Mississippi he spent more than a week in ascending that river to gain a proper point for crossing. He landed on the western side at Ste. Genevieve.

Viewing the country there as being rather thickly settled, he moved back into the wilderness about forty miles and settled on Big River at the mouth of Saline Creek. He was the first settler in that country which was afterwards organized as Jefferson County. He opened a fine farm on Saline Creek, built houses, and considered himself permanently located in that wild country. The Indians were unfriendly, and their hostility toward white settlers seemd to increase until 1780, when Peter Chouteau, by order of the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, went to see Hildebrand and warned him to leave on account of Indian depredations. He then removed to Ste. Genevieve.

In 1783, Peter Hildebrand left Ste. Genevieve and settled on Big River in the same neighborhood where his father had resided. He had a wife and four children, whose names were Isaac, Abraham, David, and Betsy. He was a good marksman and very fond of hunting. After he had resided there about one year, the was shot and killed by the Indians on the bank of Big River one morning while on his return from hunting wild game; after which the family removed nearer to a settlement.

In 1802, David Hildebrand settled on Big River, and aboaut the same time Jonathan Hildebrand settled himself permanently on the same river. He lived until the commencement of the late war, and then died at the age of one hundred years. He had three sons, whose names are George, Henry and Samuel.

In 1832, George Hildebrand and his family moved higher up on Big River and settled in St. Francois County -- his house was the Hildebrand homestead referred to in these pages--and he was the father of Samuel S. Hildebrand, whose Autobiography we now submit to our readers.

There appear to be a number of discrepancies in this record with testimony of Peter's daughter, Elizabeth McCourtney, when she was interviewed by Lyman C. Draper:

**The Peter who was father to Isaac, Abraham, David and Betsy (Elizabeth) was a BROTHER to John the Pioneer. This information was typed up incorrectly in several sources and has been a problem to researchers ever since.

**Peter, the brother, came to Missouri several years later when he and his family came down the Ohio with George Rogers Clark. They helped establish Fort Jefferson, then came to Missouri (Upper Louisiana) in about 1782 or 3.

**According to Elizabeth, Peter had some older sons who went out to get the body when he was killed by Indians. We don't know who these sons might have been.

We have the 1850 Jefferson County Census record which gives Jonathan Hildebrand's age and consequent birth as 1783 in Tennessee. This gives a whole generation's difference which indicates that the above record left out a whole generation. We know that there was a Bartholomew who was a son of a Jonathan and we have Bartholomew's descendants. If John and Margaret brought two sons with them in 1770, they were not the same Peter and John/Jonathan who appear later in Jefferson County, MO records.

We do know that John and Margaret left the area about 1782 and went to Kentucky and Tennessee for almost 20 years. We find their daughter being married in Jefferson Co. KY and Jonathan born in 1783 in TN. There is enough time to have lost a whole generation. We do not know what happened in that 20 years but if there were a Jonathan born in 1762, he could have married and had a son born in 1783 in Tennessee. We do not know if John (1733) had any other sons. The above account says he brought his family to MO in 1770. We do not know who they were except that his wife was Margaret.

We have the probate record of John in 1814 with Margaret and Jonathan his administrators/ heirs. No other son is mentioned. Jonathan's probate is not filed. Many questions could have been answered if we had his record.