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Benjamin Racer: Family Lore vs. History

1) The story tells of Benjamin Racer's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather who was said to have survived an Indian attack by hiding in a boat as a boy. He was then adopted by the tribe and given the name "Racer". 2) However, the author's research found this story was likely not accurate. Baptismal records show Benjamin was actually born in Pennsylvania to Belgian immigrants, not French nobility. 3) While some details like Benjamin's large family and settling in Ohio were accurate, the author acknowledges embellishing parts of the story and incorporating fictional Native American characters and speeches. The story is presented as fiction rather than verified history.

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Gordon Clark
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127 views2 pages

Benjamin Racer: Family Lore vs. History

1) The story tells of Benjamin Racer's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather who was said to have survived an Indian attack by hiding in a boat as a boy. He was then adopted by the tribe and given the name "Racer". 2) However, the author's research found this story was likely not accurate. Baptismal records show Benjamin was actually born in Pennsylvania to Belgian immigrants, not French nobility. 3) While some details like Benjamin's large family and settling in Ohio were accurate, the author acknowledges embellishing parts of the story and incorporating fictional Native American characters and speeches. The story is presented as fiction rather than verified history.

Uploaded by

Gordon Clark
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

1

Introduction

To The
Beginning

The story of Benjamin Racer is part of my family lore. Benjamin was my great-great-
great-great-great-grandfather. In 1964 my paternal grandmother, Edna Sheets Clark, compiled a
written family history that included the following story:
“Back in 1752, Benjamin DeCorsa was born in Normandy, France, the youngest son of
Count DeCorsa who was killed by Indians as was an older brother when the boat in which they
were riding was attacked. Young Benjamin was told by his father to lie flat in the bottom of the
boat (a row boat) for protection, which he did till the boat was beached, then he leaped from the
boat and ran into the woods where he evaded the Indians for several days but was finally
captured. Because he was so fleet of foot Benjamin was adopted by the Indians and given the
name ‘Racer’ which name he continued to use the rest of his life. The family in America used no
other name. Benjamin lived with the tribe until he reached young manhood, then escaped with a
white prisoner whom he liberated. Later Benjamin joined the British army and married the
daughter of Major David Chestnor. Four children were born, two girls and two boys. In 1798 he
moved to Marietta living in the stockade for a while, then moved north east of Marietta to a
place known now as the Plummer farm, but then government property. The property is still
owned by a great grandson, Val Racer.”
I grew up awed and inspired by this wonderful story. However, like so much family lore
orally passed down from generation to generation, I discovered in researching this book that this
story probably is not historically accurate.
For instance, the name ‘Racer’ may simply be the English equivalent of ‘DeCorsa.’
Furthermore, ‘Count Teunis DeCorsa’ was neither a count nor French, but rather of Belgian
stock, descended from one of the founders of the Dutch West India Company that originally
settled New Amsterdam, later called New York City. According to existing baptismal records,
Benjamin and his twin Hannah were born in Dansbury, Pennsylvania (then part of New Jersey
Colony), the oldest of five children. A surviving newspaper account of the time records that in
the Indian attack Benjamin lost his Father and three cousins, not “an older brother”. According
to one early Racer family legend, Indians indeed captured Benjamin, but he may have stayed
with them only a short time before being liberated by another White captive, rather than the
other way around as my Grandmother wrote.
We know the place names as recorded in White history, including the infamous
Dansbury Massacre, but since history is written by the victors, we know little of the Indian side.
Therefore I can only surmise the tribal affiliation by the location of the attack. Likewise we
know the genealogy of the Whites involved such as Benjamin’s many relatives and even Crazy
Palgrave, but we do not know the Lenape, so I gave them names mined from my own
imagination. I also ascribed speeches to some of these made-up Lenape which actually were
delivered by historical Native American characters (albeit recorded by Whites).
2

It is true, as my Grandmother says, that Benjamin’s side of the family tree kept the name
Racer, and many Racers (and Decourseys) exist today, scattered throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, and elsewhere. These are my distant cousins. It is also true that Benjamin had 18
siblings and half-siblings, including a twin. All these children and their parents were born in
America, mostly in western New York and Pennsylvania. In his first marriage, Teunis DeCorsa
and his family were members of The Old Dutch Reformed Church of Sleepy Hollow in
Tarrytown, NY, the same Sleepy Hollow immortalized by Washington Irving's "Legend of
Sleepy Hollow". Some of my forbears are buried there in the Old Dutch Burying Ground, across
from Philipsburg Manor, Sleepy Hollow, NY.
All that having been said, I still prefer my Grandmother’s account. Therefore I offer this
story as greatly embellished fiction, not as history. I hope you will take it as such.

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