While specific dates vary depending on the exact branch of the family tree, a woman named Leah navigating these name changes in Pennsylvania would have witnessed a state in transformation.
Imagine the world she inhabited:
History buffs can trace Leah’s world by visiting:
Leah and her children were marched hundreds of miles west to the Ohio Country, likely to a Delaware village near present-day Kittanning, Pennsylvania. Accounts vary, but evidence suggests that Leah’s children were separated from her and adopted into different families—a common practice meant to replenish tribal populations lost to war and disease. Leah Malloy Weaver McClure- Pennsylvania
Leah herself was adopted into a Delaware family. In captivity, she learned to tan hides, plant corn, and cook over open fires. She was given a new name, though it is not recorded. For three years, she adapted to survive, never abandoning the hope of returning to Pennsylvania.
Leah Malloy married Samuel Weaver in the early 1800s. Samuel Weaver was a man of considerable standing, having served as a private in the Cumberland County Militia during the American Revolutionary War. By the time of their marriage, Samuel had relocated to Westmoreland County.
3.1 Life and Tragedy The marriage of Leah and Samuel Weaver produced several children, though the exact number varies by record, typically estimated between five and seven. Life as a soldier’s wife was demanding. Samuel was significantly older than Leah, a common occurrence in second marriages or frontier pairings, which suggests he had been previously married or was a well-established widower. While specific dates vary depending on the exact
The family settled in the area surrounding Rostraver Township or nearby regions. However, tragedy struck on June 16, 1817, when Samuel Weaver died. His will, probated in Westmoreland County, provides crucial evidence of Leah’s standing. He bequeathed to her the "plantation" and personal goods, signifying his trust in her ability to manage the estate. This inheritance made Leah a landowner in her own right—a status that afforded her a degree of autonomy rare for women of the era.
3.2 Children of the Weaver Union Notable children from this marriage included:
Bellefonte, PA – In the quilted hills of Centre County, where limestone springs run cold and the shadow of Mount Nittany falls like a benediction at dusk, there are two kinds of people: those who leave Pennsylvania to find themselves, and those who stay to become the ground beneath everyone else’s feet. Leah Malloy Weaver McClure is the latter—a woman whose five names read like a census of the commonwealth’s soul. Leah herself was adopted into a Delaware family
Born on a raw March morning in 1954, in the back room of a gristmill turned farmhouse along Penns Creek, Leah has spent seventy years weaving together the frayed threads of rural Pennsylvania life. She is a Malloy by blood (Irish coal miners who tunneled under Schuylkill County), a Weaver by marriage (Swiss-German dairymen who settled Lancaster before pushing west to the ridge-and-valley), and a McClure by a late, great second act—a love story that began at a Grange pancake breakfast when she was sixty-two.
To know Leah is to understand that Pennsylvania is not just a state. It is a palimpsest. And she is its scribe.