Author: Lt Col Gary Owen Green

Pvt 2nd Co. 3 Bn. Pa. Militia Revolutionary War

Native of Dauphin County, Penn. German Extraction. Settled in Northumberland Co. in 1786, then removed to 1st Cumberland and finally in Nov. 1791, to Pine Creek, now Slate Run.
[History of Lycoming Co., John F. Meginnes, 1892.]

Of German extraction, perhaps Hugenots, who migrated from the Palatinate in the 1740's and located in York twp., York County, Pennsylvania. Jacob TOMB, Sr. brought his family to W. Lycoming County along with son Jacob, Jr. He owned a large tract of land extending from Cammal to Cedar Run, erected a grist-mill and saw-mill, both of which he operated. It is recorded that he was a great friend of the Indians and that when other whites were obliged to flee to Antes Fort, he was allowed to remain at home unmolested (Antes Fort was burned in 1778; the TOMB 's came later in 1791). He combined a peacable, good-natured disposition and great physical strenght, being able to lift a barrel of cider and drink out of the bung-hole. He could also take two barrels, one under each arm, and walk off with them. He was a celebrated musician and had in his possession a violin made by one of the Italian masters in the art, bearing the dte 1721. It is a rare and costly instrument of exquisite tone and is now owned by his grandson, Stephen TOMB. It is noteworthy that all his children, with one exception, were musicians. 
[Penn Pine Creek Valley & Pioneer Families, Spencer L. Kraybill, Gateway Press, Baltimore, 1991.]

1777 Revolutionary War. Capt. John Barrey's 2nd Company, 3rd Battalion, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Info provided by H. A. NEECE, genealogist, Wmsport on 2 Jun 1955.
[Penn. Veteran Burial Card]

The Tomb family's presence in Pine Creek Valley began with Jacob Tomb Sr., born in 1758, another Revolutionary War veteran who was also "pensioned" land in the Slate Run area. He was actually the first to settle there, arriving in 1791, according to an essay by local historian Helen H. Russell in Spencer Kraybill's monumental work, "Pennsylvania's Pine Creek Valley and Pioneer Families."
After building his home at the mouth of Slate Run (where the Hotel Manor is now located), Jacob erected grist and saw mills in the area. His one son, Philip, is known for his 1854 book, "Pioneer Life or 30 Years a Hunter."
Neither Jacob nor Philip is buried in Utceter, but Jacob's one great-grandson, also named Philip, is.
Kraybill recorded, "Philip was drowned in a flood trying to save his brother John." Philip's gravestone has his death on "Feb. 19, 1863, aged 39" etched onto it.
This Philip had a brother named Jacob, who married a Jane (nee Cooper), and three of their children are also buried in Utceter. Laura J. Tomb died Feb. 16, 1861, at age 2; John William on July 25, 1865, at age 1; and Jacob Emanuel on May 11, 1868, also only 1 year old.
Benjamin Tomb, a grandson of Jacob Sr., married Harriet (nee Callahan), and three of their children also died very young: one stone records a "Wm. D. C.," who died Aug. 10, 1854, "aged 10 months"; another a son named "Trevette M.," at 9 years; the third a daughter "Maria H.," on Nov. 17, 1854, at age 15.
The final legible Tomb headstone records yet another young death, that of one-year-old "Willard B.," son of Stephen R. and Hannah (nee Hilborn) Tomb, on Aug. 15, 1866. Willard's father, Stephen, was well known on Pine Creek as "The Fiddler"; Kraybill notes that his violin was "made in Italy in 1721 and someone got possession of it and sold it for $300."
As so tragically evidenced in Utceter Cemetery by all these early deaths of Tomb families' children, pioneer lives in the 19th century often ended all too soon.
http://www.pinecreekvalley.com/PineCreekValleyLocalArticles/AnOldCemeteryFilledWithTheYoung-PCV.asp

Marriage to Regina FLINCHBAUGH, dau. of Melchoir FLINCHBAUGH, who in his will named "my daughter Regina, deceased, lately intermarried with Jacob TOMB" and leaving her share to the two children she had left, Jacob, Jr. and John. This record is to be seen in the files of York Co., PA.
[Penn. Pine Creek Valley and Pioneer Families.] 

Jacob's second wife was Christine SNYDER, of the Lancaster Co. Snyders. Just when they were married we have not yet learned, but on 18 Jun 1784, Jacob TOMB "and wife Christina of Hestertown, Paxton Twp., Lancaster Co" bought a piece of land in Augusta Twp., Northumberland Co., near where his brother John was living since 1788. (Just before that he was taxed, only once, in Lancaster Co.) When brother John died ca. 1789-90 may have caused his decision to come to Pine Creek. This he did in the fall of 1791.
[ditto]

1800 U.S. Cenus: Mifflin Twp, Lycoming, PA
Jacob Tomb age 49
John Tomb age 23
Son Jacob does not yet appear as head of household since he was not married until October and the census was taken during the summer.

1801 In June, Jacob Tome, Sr. moved 26 miles down the Pine Creek and built another house. (This later became a U.S. post office called Tomb. The stream that is close by is called Tomb's Run, then in Mifflin Twp.) Son Jacob stayed on the upper place at the mouth of Slate Run. Sons John and Phillip lumbered together on upper Pine Creek headwaters. They later lumbered in New York state. In due time Philip returned to Warren Co. to settle but nothing more is heard of John.
Jacob Tomb, Sr. erected a distillery at this new home site and died there sometime prior to Oct 1814 when the following accounting of his final estate appears in Lycoming Co. files (OC Bk B, p.27):
Jacob and George TOMB, administrators of all and singular, the goods, chattles, rights and credits which were of Jacob TOMB, deceased, late of Mifflin Twp., in county of Lycoming, was presented at Orphan's Court, holden at Williamsport on 17th Oct 1814 ...
The accountants charge themselves with $510.14
And pays a credit for 260.17
Balance due the estate 249.97
The clerk, after due consideration and timely notice, did on said day, confirm the account aforesaid as above stated. By the court, signed L.B. Ilk

1813 one report handed down says he died 9 Jun 1813

* * *

1956 The Tiadaghton Chapter SAR erected a stone for "Jacob TOMB, Revolutionary Soldier" in Cedar Run Baptist Cemetery next to that of his second wife, Jane.
[ditto all notes]

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