John VanBebber

     John VanBebber was born in 1765 at Gloucester County, Virginia Colony, America. He was the son of Isaac Michael VanBibber and Sarah Davis. John VanBebber married Margaret Chrisman, daughter of Isaac Chrisman and Jane Scott, in 1787 at Russell County, Virginia. John VanBebber died in 1818 at Claiborne County, Tennessee, at age 53 years.
     He Draper Manuscripts Vol ?
Pages 168-171

...........destined for Philadelphia to market leaving his son-in-law Philip Coe to attend his warehouse & business. At the head of the large island just above Gallipolis, & the only island b3tween Gallipolis & Point Pleasant, in attempting to cross the strong Current at the head of the island, the boat careened upon the drift wood at the head of the island, &
filled with water in shallow water. No lives were lost -- but everything in the boat got wet & the gingsang much damaged. Sending to Point Pleasant, some 3 miles distant, for aid to raise the boat -- John VAN BIBBER & others came to his aid. Dried some of the gingsang spread on the shore, but all was injured, so he did not get half price -- besides, the delay at Point Pleasant, caused him to reach Philadelphia immediately after a fall in the price. As it was, Col. Boone lost by the operation all had to be washed when dug, strung & dried in the sun.

By John VAN BIBBER's invitation, Col. Boone & family went and stopped a while at his house, while Col. Boone was getting the boat & cargo in readiness to resume. At Van Bibber's left a little white girl whom Col. Boone had brought up from Limestone, where she was delivered up from captivity by the Indians probably at the Treaty in '87 & had since lived in
his family. Her name was Chloe Alinn, some ten years old, who had been taken prisoner from Greenbriar, where she was subsequently sent to her friends.

Mr. John Van Bibber (uncle of Mrs. Nathan Boone) who settled in Greenbriar from Yadkin, before the Revolution as he lived there in 1774 & was in Point Pleasant battle -- with several others, Ferguson &^ Bronson among them, made a very successful bear hunt in the fall, made canoes, & partly filled them with bear's oil, & started for Natchez for market, used greatly by Spaniards & French in various cookeries -- & before reaching there, they unfortunately concluded to practice a deception by pouring in a quantity of water in the canoes, & the oil would rise on top -- & sold the whole cargo by quaffing. They had not got far from Natchez, returning by land, when they were overtaken by a superior party in pursuit, fired on & some killed, & the survivors dispersed, some of whom starved.

Col. Daniel. Boone was out on a hunting tour, (all things considered Col. N. Boone & I think it must have been in about Jan or early Feb 1780 as the winter before he was in Carolina, & the winter he was very likely mostly if not entirely in VA on the Legislature, as he was away when Nathan was born, March 2'nd, '81) & was came across the tracks of a man in the snow, followed them a little distance & overtook him -- it proved to be John Van Bibber, in a nearly starving condition, without ammunition, who related his adventure & hardships, & that his companion Bronson had given out a mile or so behind, from weakness & exhaustion & there had stopped to die. Bronson was soon reached, & the two conveyed to Boone's hunting camp -- where they soon rested up -- Boone furnished them with ammunition, as Van Bibber had a gun, & they went on home. Ferguson, a neighbor of Van Bibber's, & another of the bear old party got home. As several were understood to have perished, is
probably another evidence it happened during the hard winter of 1779-80. Killing bear when fattened in the fall mostly, would probably he some 25 days going down to Natchez in canoes & good water -- would have given about the proper time for slow traveling in snow, to reach Kentucky in Jan or February.

Until Boone & Van Bibber met on this occasion in Spring of 1788, Boone had heard nothing from him after their parting at his hunting camp. This is Col. N & Mrs.s Boone's recollection of the affair. Two daughters living of John Van Bibber's one Mrs. Col. Andrew Donnelly -- the other Mrs. John Reynolds -- both at or near Kenawha salt works. John Van Bibber was in Point Pleasant battle, & at that time lived in Greenbriar. Returning to Point Pleasant having settled & closed his (Daniel Boone) business at Limestone -- his movable property -- there sold out his merchandise -- residing at the Point, in one of the upper occupied houses just up the Kenawha from the Point. Did not renew the stock of goods but possibly once -- & possibly not at all. Had to trade them off for furs peltries.