Joseph Brant - Marriage and Family

Marriage and Family

On July 22, 1765, in Canajoharie, Brant married Peggie (also known as Margaret). Said to be the daughter of Virginia planters, Peggie had been taken captive when young by Native Americans. After becoming assimilated with midwestern Indians, she was sent to the Mohawk. They lived with his parents, who passed the house on to Brant after his stepfather's death. He also owned a large and fertile farm of 80 acres (320,000 m2) near the village of Canajoharie on the south shore of the Mohawk River. Peggie and Brant had two children together: Isaac and Christine. After attacking his father in a fight, Isaac died as a young man of a wound. In March 1771, Peggie died from tuberculosis.

Brant married again. His second wife Susanna died near the end of 1777 during the American Revolutionary War, when they were staying at Fort Niagara.

While still based at Fort Niagara, Brant started living with Catherine Adonwentishon Croghan, whom he married in the winter of 1780. She was the daughter of George Croghan, the prominent Scots-American colonist and Indian agent, and Catharine Tekarihoga, a Mohawk. Through her mother, Adonwentishon was head of the Turtle clan, the first in rank in the Mohawk Nation. As the clan matriarch, her birthright was to name the Tekarihoga, the principal sachem of the Mohawk nation. Through his marriage to Catherine, Brant also became connected to John Smoke Johnson, a grandson of Sir William Johnson and relative of Chief Hendrick.

With Catherine Croghan, Brant had seven children:

• Joseph;
• Jacob (1786–1847);;
• John. Catherine selected him as Tekarihoga at the appropriate time. He never married.
• Margaret
• Catherine
• Mary
• Elizabeth. She married William Johnson Kerr, grandson of William Johnson and Molly Brant. Their son later became a chief among the Mohawk.