 Boatman, a Frenchman by birth, formerly lived in the Buffalo Valley area of Union county, Pennsylvania, first near Winfield, then in Mahoning township, before moving further up the West Branch Susquehanna River to Pine Creek.Boatman, at that time married to his second wife, Esther, had a rather large family.A daughter, Rebecca, married and lived a long life despite being partially scalped when she was 15 in 1782; her mother, Boatman's first wife was killed in the same incident.