It was a warm autumn day when James took his nine year old brother beyond the clearing to gather grapes. It was necessary that they gather as much as possible. The Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians had harried the little troop at the fort until they had not been able to store up food for the coming winter. Soldiers could not stray far from home so even meat was hard to get. (1)

The boys were working quickly not too far from the fort when a curdling cry went up behind them. In panic, the grapes were dropped as both boys sprang for the doors of the fort. A heartrending cry was heard as the smaller, slower brother was caught and tomahawked. (2)

James fell into Mary's arms as she rushed to meet her boys. She had heard the cries but could not believe that only one was to meet her. Through this agony, they fired their weapons into the forest as the Indians fought and then withdrew.

This was only one of the many times the Indians had shown themselves since they had started on their voyage down the Ohio earlier that spring. No one had ever gotten used to it. The danger was constant and even sickness was taking its toll.

Everywhere men were fighting. The Americans for their independence and the Indians for their lands. The British were constantly stirring up the Indians against the little forts in Kentucky. Intriques and plots were going back and forth between the Spanish, British and western Americans. Around Pittsburg no one was considered trustworthy. (3)

Along the seaboard the British troops were successfully invading the southern states and gradually cutting them off one by one. Even Virginia was being threatened. George Rogers Clark received neither the recruits nor the supplies he had been promised for his western offensive. Just when he should have pushed on to take Detroit, he was forced to recall the troops and concentrate them just south of the mouth of the Ohio. (4)

To convince the Virginians that a new fort was practical and necessary, Clark wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson who was then Governor of that state. In the letter of September, 1779, he stated that such a fort "would Amediately become the Key of the whole Trade of the Western Countrey and well Situated for the Indian deportment in General Besides Many Salutary effects it would Rendr during the War by Awing our Enemies the Chickasaws and the English posts on the Mississippi." (5)

On May 12, 1778, Clark left Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on the Monongahela River, and in ordinary flat boats with few men, floated past Fort Pitt and on past Wheeling. At both places he stopped and took on supplies. Early in June the party arrived at the "Falls of the Ohio." Here where the present site of Louisville, Kentucky now stands on Corn Island, he constructed a temporary fort. It was here that troops joined him from Virginia and Kentucky. (6)

While at this site, Clark prepared for the voyage to the Mississippi. He had to recruit soldiers and their families and take provisions. The means to this end are stated in a letter from John Todd, Jr. to Thomas Jefferson, written June 2, 1780:

MAY IT PLEASE YOU (sic) EXCELLENCY

On Consulting with Col. Clark we found it impracticable to maintain so many petty posts in the Illinois with so few men and concluded it better to draw them all to one post. The Land at the Junction of the Ohio & Missisipi was judged best Situated for the purpose as it would command the Trade of an extensive Country on both sides of each River & might serve as a Check to any Incroachments from our present Allies the Spaniards whose growing power might justly put us upon our guard and whose fondness for engrossing Territory might otherwise urge them higher up the River upon our side than we would wish. The Expenses in erecting this new post & victualing the men would have been Obstacles unsermountable without a Settlemt Contiguous to the Garrison to support it whose adventurers would assist the Soldiers in the heavy Work of Building their fortifications. I therefore granted to a certain Number of Families four Hundred Acres to each family at a price to be Settled by the General Assembly with Commissions for civil & militia offices & the Necessary Instructions. Copies agreeable to the printed forms heretofore delivered me by the Governor & Council Lest the withdrawing our troops from St. Vincenne might raise suspicions among the Citizens to our disadvantage: I have sent to Majr Bosseron the then district Commandant blank Commissions with powers to raise one Company & put them in possession of the Garrison with assurance that pay and rations shd be allowed them by the Governmt.

I enclose you also a Return of the Cloths &c. which I sent down by Mr. Clark to Capt. Dodge who I appointed Agent agreeably to your Excellencys Letter as Mr. Lindsay desired to be discontinued. When Col. Clark left the falls his Officers & Men to the Amount perhaps of 120 were well Cloathed except in the article of Linens Mr. Lindsay had not arrived the 8th of May last from Illinois & I have not heard whether the Goods from Orleans were yet arriven. Capt Dodge was also to receive them from Lindsay.

Mr. Isaac Bowman with 7 or 8 men & one family set off from Kaskaskia the 15th of Novr last in a Batteau attended by another Batteau with 12 men & 3 or 4 families in it bound to the falls of the Ohio. I judged it safer to send to the Falls many Articles belonging to the Commonwealth by Bowman than to bring them myself by Land. Bowmans Batteau fell into the Hands of the Chickasaw Indians & the other arrived in March or April at the French Lick on Cumberland with the Account that bowman and all the men except one Riddle were killed & taken I incluse your Excellency a List of such Articles as belonged to the State as well as I can make out from my Detached Memorandums. My Books & many Necessary papers being also lost.

Many necessary articles of Intelligence yet remain unmentioned. I will enjoy no Leisure untill I shall have fully acquainted you Excellency with the Situation of Ilinois.

I have the Honor to be with the greatest Respect Your Excellency Most Obedient & humble Servant.

Peter Hildebrand joined Clark to go to a new fort which they would name Fort Jefferson. Peter's brother, John Hildebrand, had taken his family in 1770 down the Ohio in a flatboat they had built themselves. Upon reaching the Mississippi River, they ascended it to Ste. Genevieve. John moved his family inland and settled at Big River at the mouth of Saline Creek. (8) To satisfy Spanish law, they had taken the oath of allegiance to "His Catholic Majesty." (9)

"Peter Chouteau sworn says that John Hildebrand inhabited and cultivated the said land in 1780, when deponent, by order of the Lieut. Governor went out on the premises to warn said Hildebrand to abandon same on account of Indian depredations. This order was obeyed by Hildebrand as well as all the inhabitants of Meramec." (10)

John Hildebrand had become the first pioneer settler in the land which was to become Jefferson County, Missouri. (11)

Perhaps it was to join this pioneer and brother that Peter accepted the proposition of 400 acres to take his family into the wilderness of the Chickasaw's territory.

The spring of 1780 troops were moving in many directions on the American continent. To cut off Spanish aid to the Americans, the British troops from the north and south were ordered to move simultaneously to capture all the villages from New Orleans to St. Louis. (12) The British were trying to accomplish this feat by employing the Indians. It was at this time the Pierre Chouteau was sent to warn the John Hildebrand family. [John moved his family down river to Natchez where Elizabeth McCourtney said that he had a couple of daughters married. (13) It was a couple of years later in 1783 that Jonathan Hildebrand was born in what became Tennessee (Washington Co., N.C.?)].

On April 14, Clark set out from Louisville for the purpose of building the fort which was located five miles below the mouth of the Ohio at the "Iron Banks," and named Fort Jefferson. (14) The flotilla arrived at the destination the twentieth of April, 1780. (15)

They had barely enough time to build the protection of a fort when the families at Fort Jefferson underwent a severe siege. (16) They managed to plant a few crops that summer but were in constant fear of attack. Even though their hold on this new land was only tentative (in fact, they had failed to obtain the ordered concessions from the Indians) the spirit of democracy and the desire for recognition prompted the inhabitants of the fort to petition Virginia for the creation of a new county. James Pigot, Ezekiel Johnson, Henry Smith, Joseph Hunter and Mark Iles signed the petition. Many others signed these petitions during 1780 and three new counties were formed as part of Virginia: Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln. (17) These were eventually the mother counties of Kentucky.

Clark was called upon to lead the defense of other Kentucky and Illinois forts. During his absence, Fort Jefferson came under attack by a force of Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians led by Colbert, a Scotsman. The attack continued six days and nights. Before the attack commensed, a letter was sent back to the Falls of the Ohio for provision stating that they were eating their last buffalo meat and hardtack. Many were very very ill and many had died. The crops were destroyed and lost. Even fresh water was scarce.(18)

Only about half of the garrison of thirty men under Capt. Robert George were able to fight. Those who could hold a gun were fighting for their very lives and the lives of their families there with them. When it seemed that all was lost, the supplies of food, water and even ammunition almost exhausted, reinforcements from Kaskaskia arrived. Somehow a soldier had managed to get past the Indians to call for help.

After this narrow escape, very few families could be induced to remain at the settlement. They went down river and others went to the Illinois country. This was the first large group of Americans to settle in Illinois. (19)

John Hildebrand and David Hix were soldiers under Clark who settled on the east side of Kaskaskia near the mouth of Nine Mile Creek. (20) This John Hildebrand was entitled to a land grant in Illinois for the cultivation of land in Illinois prior to 1788. (21)

In 1782 Peter Hildebrand obtained a Spanish settlement grant and came to Missouri. He located on the southern bank of Big River about ten or twelve miles above its mouth at the Meramec River. Peter had a son, Abram, born there in 1782 and a daughter, Elizabeth, in February of 1784. In August of 1784 Peter was shot by Osage Indians. He had gone out on horseback to hunt with a gun and tomahawk when he was killed two miles below his cabin. His horse came back with its saddle so one of his elder sons was sent to Morgan's Lick for help.

James Hildebrand (the son of Peter and who escaped in 1780 when Moses was killed) did not come to Missouri with his father. He remained in Illinois and married. In about 1790 when moving to Missouri in a boat, the Shawnees attacked and killed the family. (22)

By the time the fort was abandoned, Col. Clark was in Richmond. We learn of the situation at Fort Jefferson in a letter to him from Richard Harrison, "From the accounts we have had from Fort Jefferson, that place being allmoast destitute of Men and Officers, occasioned by the Chief of them turning Merchants, and others going down the River, I have thought it my duty to Repair to that poast Immediately . . . . what few that is there when I go down I will do all in my power to Incourage them in order to Keep up the place for I Shall always be of the Oppinion that Some where about there will be one of the first places in this State in a very few Years." (23)

Despite Harrison's efforts and Col. Clark's hopes, this fort was abandoned in 1781.

During Clark's campaign of 1778-9, a James Hildebrand (spelled Helderbrand, Heldebrand and Heldbrand on the rolls) served. He enlisted 21 July 1778 and was on payrolls until 31 July 1782. We have no way to prove the relationship of this James to Peter who served in 1780. This James would have had to be born in 1762 at the latest and probably earlier than that. If he was born in 1762 he would have been 16 years old at the time. So it is more likely he was born in the 1750s as was Peter. This could mean that James was a contemporary of Peter, and possibly his brother. We do know that Peter named his first son James but his estimated birth was ca 1772. If and when a marriage record is found for Peter and Maria, some of these problems could be cleared up.

Margery H. Harding has compiled a listing of the payrolls along with some clarifying history of the Clark campaigns. She has published under the title: George Rogers Clark and His Men; Military Records, 1778-1784, The Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort, KY. (copies donated by Bob Hildebrand). The following excerpts are interesting.

"1778: Capture of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes. In Williamsburg Clark was commissioned Lieutenant colonel by Gov. Patrick Henry and authorized to raise seven companies of militia. . . His public orders were to defend KY, but his secret orders were to proceed against the English forts on the Mississippi and Wabash river. He hoped to recruit soldiers from the upper Ohio and Monongahela River areas, but when he arrived at . . . Brownsville, PA on 1 Feb 1778, he found the men in no mood to leave their own settlements undefended. The Indians had attacked Wheeling Fort on 1 Sept 1777. . . With recruiting help from William Harrod in the Shenandoah Valley, from Joseph Bowman in Frederick Co., from Capt L. Helm in Farquirer Co. in VA and from Maj. Wm. B. Smith on the Holston River settlement in southern VA and N.C., Clark had 150 volunteers, far short of the number authorized. . . Col. Clark had planned to redezvous at Corn Island in the Ohio River, but recruits from the Holston River Valley in N.C. (became Tennessee) and KY were few. 50 men deserted when told where the expedition was going. Only four companies volunteered to go. They were those of Joseph Bowman, Leonard Helm, Wm. Harrod, and John Montgomery. But these officers had serving with them some of the finest subordinates in the service of Virginia: John Williams. . . these men left Corn Island with Clark and went to Kaskaskia in the Ill. country on 24 June 1778. . . "

The payroll of John Williams' Company of Infantry stationed at Kaskaskia under command of Colo. Geo Rogers Clark commencing July 12th. 1778 & ending May 31st. 1779: James Helderbrand (served 328 days and was paid 21 L, 10 s, 8 d) Clark was commissioned from Virginia. Before the Revolutionary war the whole Northwest Territory was considered Virginia Territory all the way to the Mississippi River. The southwest border of Pennsylvania was disputed as part of Virginia at another time. Clark was recruiting from Pennsylvania, Virginia and what became Tennessee and Kentucky.

James Heldebrand is also on a payroll of Kentucky Militia under William Hogon in active service in Defence of Bryans Station in the year 1780, 15 May to 18 Aug. in Kentucky. This was also the period that Fort Jefferson at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi was under attack.

James was on another payroll 30 May 1780 to 30 Nov 1781: A payroll of Capt Richard Brashears Co. in the Illinois Regiment commanded by Col. John Montgomery in the Va State Service. John Montgomery was from the frontier area of Virginia. His family was prominent in Greenbrier County. Capt. Brashears may have come from some place else. James Hellebrant was listed as a private.

This James Hildebrand served under George Rogers Clark in the war for the west as did Peter. There is also record that when Peter's brother, John, left Missouri in 1780 that he signed on with Clark at Kaskaskia.

There were early Hildebrands in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Tennessee was considered part of North Carolina before 1797. It is interesting that Jonathan (b. 1783) gave his birthplace as Tennessee. Until other records surface, we can only wonder at the family connections of our Hildebrands.

The Hildebrand Database provides the original documentation to this work as well as for many Hildebrand lineages in the U.S.