Hillman published a letter found among some papers on Monroe Co., Penna in Historical Society at Philadelphia... The letter dated December 20, 1755 reads as follows:

"The enclosed is a list of persons killed and houses burnt in the upper part of Northampton County, as near as I could collect, which may be depended upon as authentic. The barbarous and bloody scene which is now open in the above place is the most lamentable that perhaps has ever appeared. There is no person who is possessed of any humanity but would commiserate the deplorable fate of these unhappy people. There may be seen horror and desolation, populous settlements deserted, villages laid under ashes, men, women and children cruelly mangled and massacred, some found in the woods very nauseous for want of interment, some just reeking from the hands of their savage slaughters, and some hacked and covered all over with wounds. (259v) Samuel Dupui seems to be very near being in the same deplorable situation, and will unavoidably share the same fate with his neighbors. On his applying to Mr Stewart and myself, we raised a fine company of men to go to his assistance, and when we arrived there, we were informed that Brodhead's house, which is about five miles further down, was surrounded and besieged by the Indians, upon which we marched to his relief and escorted him and his effects to Delaware, with what cattle and effects we could find in the night. We continued thereabouts four days, and all the while heard nothing but outcries and alarms, and our sentries were fired upon by some Indians hovering around DuPui's home, which may be deemed a sure prognostic of its destruction.---".

Appended to this letter was a list of 89 dead and 40 who had lost their homes. The list of dead included Lambert Brink; Cornelius Van Aken and Garret Van Campen with fifteen of their families; Brewer Decker and family. The list of the houses burnt included those of (276i[2])Dennis Raser and Jacob Raser. SRC: Hillman, Ralf, OLD DANSBURY AND THE MORAVIAN MISSION (Buffalo, NY 1934), pp.87-88.

--Ralf Ridgeway Hillman, OLD DANSBURY and the MORAVIAN MISSION, p.9,12,14,81,83,88,passim. See also YESTERYEARS, 7-28,p.207-218; Rev. John C. Clyde, GENEALOGIES, NECROLOGY, AND REMINISCENCES OF THE IRISH SETTLEMENT AT THE FORKS OF THE DELAWARE (1879), p. 240-252.

"A chain of forts had been constructed along the Blue Mountains from the Delaware River to the Susquehanna River, and thence continuing to the Maryland line." It was at these forts that the settlers under siege sought refuge. "For some time, settlers from the frontier on their way to Easton had been passing the LeFevre Tavern. Christmas day was no exception. The refugees were penniless, their clothes were in rags and many had too few to cover their nakedness. Many a terror-stricken pioneer, retreating before the fury of the savages, stopped at the tavern to rest. --- Many of the fleeing inhabitants turned off the Easton road and found refuge with the Moravians at Friedensthal, where Capt Sol Jennings of "Walking Purchase" fame was stationed with a company of eighteen Ulster-Scots. -- On December 13 the first refugees arrived at Friedensthal; and by Jan 13, 1756, there was a total of Seventy-five. Of this number, 13 were women and 49 were children." - A.D. Chidsey.

A Pert Amboy story of 19 August 1756, reported "from the northern frontier that Abraham VanAuken, Esq., who lived on the present Port Jervis Country Club property, was shot and wounded by an Indian while driving his team with a load of grain. Riding on the load was Van Auken's daughter. The father yelled for her to run for her life and as she fell off the wagon the Indian caught up and was attacking her when the old man rushed at him with a pitchfork and drove him away. Three men --- Geradrus Swartwout, Samuel Finch and Peter Westphaln, were found murdered, stripped and scalped.

Then Major Swartwout was slain. On 29 March 1757, the Westfall barn had been burned with 24 cows, 9 horses and 400 bushels of grain." On 2 May, Jacob Van Camp and Peter Brink were slain. On 9 November John Doty and Otho Mahurin were killed. The next day, Gideon Westbrook was killed near Brink Fort. The following day, John Presser. On 15 May 1758, Nicholas Cole's four children and three Germans were slain by the Indians. Cornelius Westbrook and Abraham Westbrook were killed 8 June 1758. On 12 June, Bastian Cortright and Mary Kirkendall; and on 13 June, eight men at Urian Westfall's. These were but a few of the deaths reported during the Indian Wars of 1755-1763. ******* YESTERYEARS, v.7, pp.211-212, v.18, pp.56-57. 1756It is probable that the family of (277i[2]) Dennis Reeser (Dennis De Coursey) escaped the Indian massacres of 1755-1756 by rafting down the Susquehanna River to Maryland, where they had son, William DeCoursey, born, 24 May 1756. (277i) Rachel (Van Gordon) De Coursey would have been about 3 or 4 months pregnant at the time of the Indian Raid at Dansbury. It seems reasonable that Dennis would send his wife and family to a place of comparative safety. They could have traveled down river to near Baltimore, Maryland where William De Coursey, b.1756 says in his pension papers he "was told he was born." Most likely, Rachel went with with her Decker, Hover, and Van Etten cousins to present Harford County, Maryland or to the protection of Fort Cumberland near Baltimore or she may have stayed at one of the Moravian Missions that housed refugees from the Indian raids. Clyde Powell in his research on the Racer family places Dennis DeCoursey in Maryland in the 1750's. Rachel (Van Gordon) De Coursey had Hover, Du Puis, and Decker cousins and relatives living in Harford Co., Maryland. Clyde Powell states that the wife of Dennis DeCoursey died in Maryland (probably in 1760's). William DeCoursey, born 1756, in his pension application of 1832 names James Gordon and Moses Doo Pay (relatives of Rachel Van Gordon) as character witnesses. Natl. Archives Pension File #W8665-1/2.

Source: http://www.eaglenet.com/fteachou/../du/decoursey1750.html