Capt. Joseph Longstreth purchased the Gilbert farm in 1783, and at that time Robert McDaniel came to the valley with him.

He was born Aug. 24, 1756, in a small lumbering village near the Penobscot Falls, Maine. He was apprenticed by his father to Capt. Joseph Longstreth, of Philadelphia, to learn the trade of a tanner and currier, and lived in that city some years. After a residence of a year or two at the mill with Capt. Longstreth in the valley, he bought a tract of land not far from the Gilbert mill, now partly owned by Samuel Moser, and married Elizabeth Hicks. She was born in 1766, and is said to have been a native of Lizard Creek Valley, and when very young was placed in charge of William Thomas, who lived near where the Benn Salem Church stands. No other knowledge of the Hicks family is obtained. They settled upon the farm, and lived many years. They died there, and were buried in the Benn Salem churchyard.