Mark Bird and his wife Mary Ross were well connected.Mark’s sister, Rachel Bird, married James Wilson, Mary’s sister, Gertrude Ross Till, married George Read, Mary’s brother was George Ross. Allthree men signed the Declaration of Independence. Mary was also half sister to Aeneas Ross, whose son was John Ross. John married Betsy Ross, the flag maker. John died early in the Revolutionary War while guarding military stores at Philadelphia.
Mark Bird bought several large portions of land in 1770. Mark Bird andhis brother-in-law, George Ross, went into partnership in the construction of the “Mary Ann Furnace”. Mark’s wife’s name was Mary, and George’s wife’s name was Ann. The first furnace was built on the Susquehanna River. In 1771 he erected the Hopewell Furnace on French Creek.Hopewell Furnace is about 5 miles from Birdsboro, PA.
Hopewell Furnace in the American Revolution
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| Iron workers casting a cannon at Hopewell Furnace during the Revolutionary War. NPS Illustration |
Mark Bird then built the “Gibraltar Forge” in Berk County; next he added a slitting mill in 1783. He owned 10,883 acres of land, which made him the highest taxpayer in Berk Co. in 1774.
“The British, in the years before the Revolution, passed laws prohibiting American colonists from making any iron products except in the form of rough, cast iron bars. The idea was that these would be shipped to England for refinement into finished products. American iron masters ignored these regulations, however, and turned out huge amounts of wrought iron products that were commercially competitive. By the 1770s,colonial furnaces, which had great advantages in the form of water power and use of local natural resources, were well established” 1
“In the popular demonstration at a Reading for the Revolution, Mark Bird took and active part. At the meeting of December 5, 1774 Mark Bird was selected as one of the committee on Observation, recommended by Congress in January 2, 1775, he was chosen one of the delegates to the Provincial Congress and placed on a committee of Correspondence. He was also prominently identified with the military movement, having in 1775 and 1776 severed as lieutenant Colonel of the 2nd Battalion of the county militia, which was formed out of the companies in the vicinity Birdsboro.
This is a letter form Mark Bird.
Sir: Berk County, 7th August 1776
I believe there was a Resolve of Conviction to advance Fifty Shillings a man to the Associators that is to march to Jersey after there being mustered by the Committee. As my Battalion will not be ready for that for two days or three, it will delay it to long after to send for the cash, taket his opportunity to acquaint you for it, there will be about three hundred men in the Battalion. I have provided provisions, tents, and uniforms at my own expense. If you do not think proper to send me cash without the Committees order, as the expense is chiefly paid except the advances you’l please to send me five hundred pounds for Ball, that has been spent, and ready to sent the Committee of Safety , they were contracted by Mr. Owen Biddle and that will enable me to take my Battalion to the place appointed at my own expense, it can be hereafter settled at a more Lasure time and acc’t.
Your Very Humble Serv’t 3
The 2nd Battalion was in service at or near South Amboy in the fall of 1776 and may have constituted part of the “Flying Camp”. In 1775 and 1776 he officiated as one of the judges at the County Courts.”3
“He was a public-spirited citizen, member of the Pennsylvania Assembly,Chairman of its Committee of Safety, during the Revolutionary War and a Colonel of the Pennsylvania troops during the struggle. He served as Assistant Quartermaster General of the Continental Army under Thomas Mifflin and advanced much money to the cause.”4
Mark Bird was also involved with the prisoner camps at Reading Pennsylvania.
Reading February 4, 1776
Gentlemen: A number of English soldiers, who were lately taken in Canada, have arrived here, with their wives and children. The committee was immediately assembled, and although they were much surprised at so large a party being ordered here without any previous notice, and,without any person attending them to supply them with necessities, yet,understanding that it was the pleasure of Congress the said soldiers should be quartered here, they immediately appointed Mr. Henry Haller, a member of the committee to provided houses fire-wood and provisions for the party who must have otherwise suffered much at this severe season.As we are totally acquainted with the pleasures of the honorable congress as to the particular qualities of the provisions to be allowed these prisoners, we have dispatched an express to you gentlemen,desiring you will, by his return, be pleased to procure and send to us the directions of Congress to govern us in this matter. As Mr. Haller has been an active member of this committee, and is a very suitable person,we beg leave to recommend him to be Commissary for the soldiers stationed here. We are gentlemen your most obedient servant.By Order of the Committee of Correspondence.
Mark Bird, Chairman
Mark Bird received a contract for 115 cannons to be cast for the American Navy for $2000.
Mark Bird went to the aid of George Washington after his defeat at Brandywine.
From the minutes of the Continental Congress:
"February 19, 1778; Mark Bird sent 1000 barrels of flour to George Washington’s starving troops at Valley Forge by the Schuylkill River. This was only about a four or five days supply, but this enabled his army to survive, to recuperate to battle again.
March 11, 1778, Ordered that a warrant be issued on Joseph Borden,Esq. Commissioner of the loan office, in the State of New Jersey for 50,000 dollars in favor of Colonel Mark Bird, on the application of General Mifflin, late quarter master general who is to account for the same.
April 8, 1780, The Board represent that by letter from the Board of War and Ordnance, of the 29 and 30 of last month, it appears four special contracts were some time since made under their direction by Colonel Benjamin Flower, commissary general of Military stores, with Udree &Co., John Patton, Mark Bird, and Robert Coleman, iron masters for sundry supplies and military stores, that the said contracts have been completed and the stores proved and accepted—and that a balance is due each of them.
Ordered, that a warrant be issued on the treasurer in favor of Mark Bird,for one hundred and twenty-five thousand six hundred and ninety-one dollars.
September 19, 1783, The memorial of Mark Bird dated Delaware Mills,September 15, relative to his accounts and the balance due him, and asking that the chain, which was prepared to throw, across the Hudson River, be delivered to him, was on this day referred to Abraham Clark, Mr.Thomas Simmons and Mr. Benjamin Hawkins.
The committee refused his request for the chain, on the ground that he was a creditor of the United States, along with others and no particular order should be given in his behalf.
The decline of the Bird fortune began shortly after the war. A flood on Hay Creek ruined much of his property and the postwar depression only added to attempt to avoid financial collapse, b borrowing money form John Nixon, a Philadelphia merchant, and the next year from his brother in law, James Wilson. He tried to obtain a long-term loan from a group of financiers in Holland but was unsuccessful. His fate was sealed. Two years later he assigned all his interests to John Nixon, and in April 1788,the Hopewell and Birdsboro properties were advertised for sheriff’s sale.
1788 in financial ruin, Mark Bird, with his family migrated to North Carolina. In 1791, Mark Bird received from the Governor, seven grants of land along Rocky River in Pendleton District 4859 acres.”2
After a failed partnership Mark Bird in 1803 granted his son Edward (my ancestor) the power of attorney to dispose of the land in Pendleton District. “In 1804 and 1805, Mark had to sell his slaves and some of his land. He lost the property at High Shoals in a sheriff’s sale in 1806.” 2
Mark Bird died 1812 in Rutherford Co., N.C. and is buried at Concord Baptist Church near Bostic.
Mark Bird’s son Col. Edward Bird my ancestor fought in the War of 1812.Edward’s daughter Eliza Hannah Bird married William Henderson Carroll.Eliza Hannah Bird Carroll died the day they were to leave for Texas in 1854. Their son Thomas Marion Carroll, II was born in York Co., SC, the first of 7 children of William Henderson and Eliza Hannah Bird Carroll.
Revolutionary War Soldier – Iron Master
Mark Bird
Both Thomas Marion and his father served in F Co., 17th SC Infantry, in the Confederate Army. Thomas Marion enlisted November 27, 1861, and was wounded at the Battle of Antietam, Sharpsburg, Maryland, and September 17, 1862. Near the end of the war he was captured at Petersburg, VA,March 25, 1865, the same day his father was wounded at Petersburg and captured. The war ended at Appomattox, VA on April 9, 1865, and Thomas Marion was released from prison at Point Lookout, VA on June 26, 1865.His mother had died November 1, 1854, and, on July 6, 1856, his father had married Susannah Bostick, daughter of John and Cynthia Harrill Bostick.Shortly after the war, on December 8, 1865, Thomas Marion married Pricilla Bostick, the younger sister of his step-mother (bondsman was Andrew McDaniel, and witness was J. B. Eaves). They lived in Rutherford Co., NC and were the parents of 8 children. After Priscilla's death, he married MarthaE. Watkins on October 29, 1891 and they were the parents of three children.He and his first wife, Priscilla are buried in the Bethany Baptist Church Cemetery in Forest City, NC.5
1. From a article by by Joseph J. Devanney
2. From “The Ironmasters Kin” by Vera N. Hardin
3. From “Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County Pennsylvania”, compiled by Morton L. Montgomery
4. From “The Great Clan of Ross with Heraldic Arms of the Principal Families and Genealogies of the Cadet Branches In Scotland And the New World” by John Robert Ross, M.D. B.Sc.
5. From Carroll Genealogy by Alex Carroll, Joe Gold & Melvin Ware:
http://www.nps.gov/hofu/index.html
https://www.nps.gov/hofu/learn/historyculture/hopewellintheamericanrevolution.htm
Col. Mark Bird is one of twenty supplemental ancestors that Tom McCormick has proven.