Thereafter the family moved to the Juniata Valley, Hopewell, now Penn Township in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania.
John and his brother James escaped death because they had been in the wilds hunting for a lost horse, but each was given to other families to be raised.
The family who took John moved almost at once to the part of Virginia which became Washington, D.C., and it was not until 1839, that an overheard conversation resulted in the two brothers being reunited after 60 years' time.
A sermon he preached in the House chambers in mid-summer 1814 accurately predicted that the British would reach and burn the federal buildings in the new capital city.
He went on to serve as pastor to the Bladensburg (MD) Presbyterian Church for more than 40 years, and supervised the creation of the Rockville Academy.