After the indians took Michael's scalp, his wife Mary (Keiffer) Delo fled to Westmoreland County where earlier Delo authors contended she had relatives. Inspection of the record revealed many Keiffers in the county as well as a definite relationship between them and Mary's son, George. Mary allegedly remarried, to a Jacob Smith of Hempfield township, Westmoreland County. Several Jacob Smiths resided in that county in the late 1700s; one even resided in Hempfield township but his wife's name was Elizabeth. Nevertheless, a Jacob Smith was a witness to George M. Delo's first land transaction in 1798 - in fact, Frank S. Delo stated that George had borrowed money from Jacob (his step-father) to make the deal. As for Mary's relatives, a Henry Keiffer was George's partner in one land transaction in September 1798 and Jacob Smith was a witness to at least one of Henry's land purchases. The exact relationship between George Delo and Henry Keiffer cannot be ascertained with certainty from the record, but it is quite possible that Henry was George's uncle .A Henry Keiffer and a Jacob Smith (both of Westmoreland County ) died in 1833. Neither had written a last will and testament, but a Dr. Marchand, resident of Greensburg, made application to distribute Jacob Smith's estate. This is significant only because, according to Frank S. Delo, a Dr. Marchand treated George M. Delo's first son, Daniel, for a dislocated shoulder around 1820; the above documented association between Smith and Marchand further increases the credibility of earlier Delo accounts of the family. Our first record of George M. Delo is his land transaction of June, 1798. Between then and 1799, George married Eva Catherine Kuhns (Kuntz). The 1800 Census shows George, his wife and one son in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County. The child was Daniel. Eva Catherine Kuhns was born in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania in 1778. Her parents came from the Palatinate of Germany, as did George's ancestors. Records of old Harrold's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Westmoreland County show that she was confirmed there on April 20, 1794, at the age of sixteen.
There was no reason to assume that the Kuhns and Delo families had been associated prior to the marriage of George and Eva. History, however there are some interesting possibilities, especially when data is not sufficient to determine events exactly. The following is an example:
1. Eva's father was Bartol Kuhns. All of his children, including Eva, were born in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The birth dates are recorded in the old Jordan Lutheran Church, Macungi Township, Lehigh Co.
2. Bartol was repeatedly found in records which contained the name of Jacob Kuhns. Frank S. Delo believed that Jacob was Bartolls father. Let us suppose that this was true.
3. Now, Jacob Kuhns was discovered to have arrived in Philadelphia on the Ship Priscella, on September 11, 1749. Only FIVE DAYS LATER, Nicholas Delon (of York and Lancaster Counties) arrived in the same port from the same point of origin.
4. Several vague associations between Delos and Kuhns in eastern Pennsylvania include: John Delon and Bartol Kuhns were members of the same Batallion in 1780; a Nicholas Dillow had a warrant for 300 acres in Northampton Co. (the parent county of Lehigh) in 1774; Michael Hartman Dillow (who moved to North Carolina) resided in Upper Milford Township, Lehigh County, very close to the residence of the Kuhns - at the same period of time c.a. 1760.
5. In addition, we are sure that George M. Delo's father, Michael Dillow, originally came from eastern Pennsylvania (or perhaps W. Va., just south of York Co., Pa.) and could have been the son of another Michael "Delo” or a Nicholas "Delo".
Is all of the above unrelated circumstance, or was there a definite relationship between the Kuhns and the Delos in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the mid-17OOs? George M. Delo's land transactions indicate that he remained in Westmoreland County at least till 1805, that Jacob Smith and Henry Keiffer were among his close associates, and that George was a distiller in 1798 - ONE fact that the very reverend Frank S. Delo conveniently omitted from his account. It appears that George, Eva and their four children left Westmoreland County in 1806 to make the trip to newly opened lands in Clarion County (then it was Venango County). That could not have been a very easy journey. Even today, the river valleys are deep, the streams are fast and the woodland extremely thick. The trip must have taken a good ten days. Today, by car, it takes about 2.5 hours! Venango County was first opened for settlement in 1800. The southern portion of the county became the northern half of Clarion County in 1840. George settled there, not far west of Clarion, the present county seat. George and his family made the journey with a number of Smiths and Keiffers, for the latter names are found in later years as neighbors of George. it was later discovered that the heirs of Henry Keiffer of Westmoreland County were, as of 1833, mostly residents of Clarion County. The Reverend Benjamin F. Delo) wrote about his grandfather George's relocation to Clarion County:
George located about four miles southwest of the present location of Clarion. Three years later, he moved to the mouth of the Piney Creek (a branch of the Clarion River), having sold his original tract of land to his half-brother Henry Smith. Later - no date given - he buys on the north side of the Clarion River and builds between the Canoe and Beaver Creeks. John Kuhns, brother-in-law, locates next door.
Frank S. Delo adds that "At the mouth of the Canoe Creek, George built a saw mill said to be the first one west of the Allegheny Mountains. About a half mile south of the mill, he built a boat bottom scaffold, went into the lumber business and flourished financially." The place on the river where George chose to build his boat bottom scaffold is still known as Delo's Eddy and is located, as one elderly Clarion Co. gentlemen told this author - "at the wide quiet spot on the bend". The banks of the river are heavily overgrown and full of snakes. Nothing was visible from the shore, but a young adventurer I met by the river told me that you can still see a few foundations as you pass down the river by canoe. George was in Clarion County only a few years before he chose to serve his country in the War of 1812. He was forty years old at the time and the father of six children, the oldest of whom was not over thirteen years of age. George was a private with Dale's 132nd Regiment, Pennsylvania Militia. He was paid $10 per month as a member of Captain Neleigh's Co., "while doing duty at Lake Erie by order of General David Mead, 16th Division". Neleigh (Neely in the records) was George's neighbor, as were the Bests, Keiffers and Smiths who also served in Neleigh's Company. Frank S. Delo adds a little dimension to the record.
George Delo was one of the organizers of the Minute Men of Beaver Township, Clarion County, for the defense against the indians and the English. George and Jacob Keiffer were members of the same company. Their first call to action came August 1813 to go to Lake Erie. The second call was again to Lake Erie, from January 3rd to February 11th, 1814, to protect the builders of Commodore Perry's victorious fleet. George returned from the excursion as a Sergeant.
In February, 1820, Eva Delo died from Tuberculosis. Her tenth and most recent child, Henry died about the same time. They were buried together. George was 47 years old, in the prime of life and had nine children to care for, so he married Eve Hummel Laughnor (1786 - 18??) of Beaver Township. She brought her own cheering section - four sons and two daughters by her first marriage. Eve was the daughter of Christopher Hummel of Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. Her first husband, Daniel Laughnor, was killed in 1812 at the mouth of the Kiskiminitas. Ten plus seven makes for a rather full house - especially the log cabin variety. One might suppose that 15 children were enough, but George and Eve added four more to the clan during the first six years of their marriage. Their last child was born when George was 53 and Eve was 40.Over the years, George bought and sold land in Clarion County: in Richland Township where he first lived, then in Beaver Township where he moved to in the 1830s. His earliest purchases, between 1806 and 1830, do not appear in the county courthouse reocrds. According to Frank S. Delo, George purchased 300 acres at Walnut Bend on the Allegheny River, six or seven miles above Oil City in 1842. There he planned a trading center and called it Georgetown. His daughter, Esther (Fry) received 160 acres of that land when George died. George passed away at age 75 on March 11, 1848. His will was short and simple "Build a small comfortable home for my beloved wife Eve on Lewis Delo's farm as near the spring as conveniently can be, on the place I now reside on". As of 1850, Eve Delo was residing alone in Richland Township, Clarion County where Lewis had his farm, so apparently George's wish was fulfulled. The items in George's estate were not listed in his will, but everything was to be "equally divided" among the thirteen children except for John, the eighth child, who was to receive only one dollar. (Why?) George was buried next to his first wife Eva in Union Cemetary, Wentlings Corners, Beaver Township, Clarion Co., Pennsylvania. The cemetary is not more than two miles north of Delo's Eddy on the Clarion River. George was an enterprising and ambitious person. He was married and had several profitable land transactions in Westmoreland County while in his twenties, then moved his family to a wilderness just opened for settlement as his father Michael had done thirty years before in Washington County. George's attempt at a trading post at age 70 may speak of a restlessness. It was certainly a trait of many of his sons and grand-sons. But between the lumber business and his land deals, George must have made a good if not comfortable living. He found a need to help his country in time of war and records indicate that he was a religious person. His name is found in the Journals of the History of the Pittsburgh Synod as a member of the building committee to erect the first church in his township. The church housed both the German Reformed and the Evangelical Lutheran Congregations.
12. Catherine Delo
Catherine, the eleventh child of George Delo - and the first of Eva Laughnor She was born in Beaver Township, Clarion Co., Pennsylvania. There she grew into beautiful womanhood. Becoming temporarily impaired in mind, a Dr. Carr was instrumental in her recovery and they were married. She had a family of four boys and one girl. Two of the boys, one named William, were killed by a rolling log. The girl was named Josephine. The doctor built a boat to migrate with. Before reaching Cincinnati, Ohio, their boat was wrecked by a collision with a steamboat. After instituting suit against the owners of the steamboat he went his way to Memphis, Tennessee. Having a brother in Mississippi, he started to drive there. At his place, he died, leaving Catherine with one boy. Leaving her child with his uncle, Catherine started back to Pennsylvania for help. There she met Mr. Charles Sherman and they were married. When the trip back to Beaver Twp. was finished and she was ready to return to Mississippi, her husband disappeared. Having heard from him that he had a cousin in Chicago, she went to that city hoping to learn his whereabouts. The cousin knew nothing about him. Hopeless, she went into domestic service for a livlihood. At length she met Mr. Frederick Reich. Their interests became mutual and they were married. Owning a farm in Dalton, Illinois, he took her to his home where they lived until her death in 1883. After the Civil War was over, Catherine had tried in vain to find her boy. Both he and his uncle had disappeared.
22. John Joseph Delo
John, the eighth child of George and Eva Delo. He first appears in the 1840 Census in Richland Twp., Venango Co. with a wife and young lad in his teens - which could not very well have been his son. Allegedly, his wife remarried, to Mr. Blair who ran a general store at Blair's Corners in Beaver Twp. The only clue to her identity was a record in the Clarion County Deed books, where a Judy Delo purchased 18 acres of land in Richland Twp. in 1849. The date and place fit in with John's death, and no other Judy Delos were found anywhere in the family.
25. Henry Delo
Henry, the tenth child of George and Eva Delo was the last of Eva's children. Henry was born in July, 1819 only to die of unknown cause, some eight months later. He is buried with his mother in the cemetery at Wentlings Corners and his name is on her tombstone.