Lost in the history books again....

The battle of Oriskany Aug 6 1777.    You may wonder why I am interested in this battle of the Revolutionary War.   Many years ago when I was a girl and would ask my Dad about the history of his Smith family the conversation usually ended in Dad being frustrated by his lack of knowledge on the subject and he would tell me, "There is no use looking for the original Smith because the original Smith was a baby adopted out of an Indian camp after a Massacree" He could not tell me what Indian camp or what Massacree.  I put aside this piece of folklore and tried to follow the paper trail up the Smith line step by step but ran into a brickwall at Emory Smith and after years of digging am still stuck there.  So several years ago Cleone and I asked Dad if he would be willing to do a dna test to see if that might lead to a break through on this brickwall.  Dad was willing. We sent off a sample to Family Tree DNA and waited... for the longest time there were no matches for Dad and then matches started turning up but they were not Smiths ....they were Spencers, about 50 matches all to a group of Spencers who descend from 4 brothers who landed in Massachusetts in 1634 coming from Stotfold Bedfordshire England.  Instantly the possibility that our original Smith was adopted seemed like a very real possibility.  It seemed that adopted child must have been a Spencer child. So I started looking for Massacrees in New England in the generations beyond our Emory Smith and one day stumbled on the battle on Oriska Creek.  After studying this event for a time I realized in many ways there might be one of the missing pieces of our puzzle here.  Thomas Spencer the "half breed Oneida" was killed in this battle and he left a wife and probably a couple of children. What became of them? Was our ancestor one of his children ? His father the Reverend Elihu Spencer was a Missionary to the Oneida in 1748. Elihu descends from one of the 4 brothers mentioned above.  Elihu was trained in his missionary endeavors by his Brainard relatives who were also missionaries and one of whom left a journal acknowledging that he (Brainard) had an Indian concubine. Though the Spencer family does not acknowledge Thomas Spencer the halfbreed as part of their family in print ...the Oneida community is quite open about who his father was.  Colonel Elias Dayton's journal says Thomas Spencer was to be paid one ration for his services and 3 when his wife joins him.  Since children recieved half rations this likely indicates two children and perhaps 3 if there was one still breast feeding or expected.  Which Smith adopted the Spencer baby? During a battle near Cherry Valley Joseph Smith of Massachusetts was taken prisoner by the Seneca.  He was a captive along with Horatio Jones and the two became friends and partners. For more about this era read the Memoirs of Mary Jemison White Woman of the Genesee. Afte the Revolutionary War ended Joseph Smith and Horatio Jones were given 3000 acres of land each by the Seneca tribe. Most published accounts say this land grant was in payment for services as interpreters at the time of several treaties.   Horatio Jones and Joseph Smith became Indian Traders on the shores of Seneca Lake and I believe they likely were related by marriage to the tribe. Was Thomas Spencer's wife a Seneca Indian and did she return to her people after his death? Did Joseph Smith marry her and her children then became known as Smith? The Oneida paid a high price for their loyalty to the American cause during the Revolution and it may have been politically easier to live in the community afterwards as Smiths rather than Spencers. Joseph Smith died "at an early day" in Leicester New York after being injured in a game of ball with the Indians... lacrosse a passion with these natives was likely the game they were playing. Possibly supporting my theory is a piece of dna evidence in that Dad has a Ydna match to Kenneth Brace Smith who traces his ancestry to a Joshua Smith that lived at Hector New York on Seneca Lake in 1820.  While my theory is very difficult to prove it has  not been disproven either....  yet.   Dad and I also have a 3rd and 4th cousin match to Melba Rosine Smith she lived in Norfolk Co on the north shore of Lake Erie in Ontario and descends from a Darius Smith born in 1794 somewhere in the USA maybe Darius is a missing link between our Emory Smith and Joshua. So far Kenneth Brace Smith and Melba Rosine Smith are the only two Smith dna matches to Dad, besides cousin Curt Smith who is the only perfect match to Dad at Family Tree DNA.   Here is a link to Mary Jemison's story http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6960/pg6960.html  Dad would sometimes elaborate on the family history by saying there was a "Tee Pee creeping Preacher" in the family  which would make my mother snort. He also thought there was a Scottish Doctor somewhere in the mix... I have not come across a candidate for that person ...yet.  He had an assortment of bits and pieces of folklore that did not appear to add up at the time as they were not given in any context. "Someone in the family married a Younger" turned out to be true Grandpa Ralph Smith's cousin Alta Susie Harris married James Henry Younger. Alta Susie was the daughter of Eliza Missouri Sharp and Ruben Clark Harris.  Eliza Missouri was Eve Ann Sharp's sister. He also speculated on a connection to the James and Younger gangs which seems reasonable given the times and though I have found no connection to the outlaws  Daniel Sharp's brother Anderson Sharp married Barbara James she was Grandpa Ralph's great Aunt through marriage.  The closest to an outlaw in the family I have come to is Milton Anthony Sharp he was born in Nodaway County and was infamous as a robber of Wells Fargo Stages in Nevada. He was the son of Levi Sharp and Elizabeth Graves and distantly related to Eve Ann through her Tennesee Sharp and Graves cousins. Much of what Dad told us was true but not in the way that we imagined.    Jasper Parish was given land by the Seneca a property referred to as Squaw Island.  It is interesting  that when he sold his property to Robert Morris the Seneca protested saying it was given to him because he had married Sally a Seneca and had two daughters with her named Mary and Chloe. Jasper Parrish's name appears along with Joseph Smith and Horatio Jones on several treaties. Dad did tell me once about a Treaty made under a Big Tree somewhere and he was upset because I could not recognize where and when this treaty took place. He was also very interested in Joseph Smith the Mormon leader because he said Joseph Smith the Mormon had come from the same area and era as our Smiths. Dad also told me the Smiths travelled on the Ohio on a flat boat. PS Joseph Smith was an interpreter at the Treaty of Canandaigua in 1794.   Another footnote to this story is that Joseph Smith had a daughter Mary born at Geneva New York she married Justin Dutton their daughter Mary Ann married  Dr Daniel Perez Bissell.   PPS there is a Darcus Smith in the 1820 census of Hector New York...that is one letter off of Darius Smith I'm wondering if this is Melba Rosine Smith's ancestor??