This Day in Goodlove History, October 17
Surnames associated with the name Goodlove have been spelled the following different ways; Cutliff, Cutloaf, Cutlofe, Cutloff, Cutlove, Cutlow, Godlib, Godlof, Godlop, Godlove, Goodfriend, Goodlove, Gotleb, Gotlib, Gotlibowicz, Gotlibs, Gotlieb, Gotlob, Gotlobe, Gotloeb, Gotthilf, Gottlieb, Gottliebova, Gottlob, Gottlober, Gottlow, Gutfrajnd, Gutleben, Gutlove
The Chronology of the Goodlove, Godlove, Gottlob, Gottlober, Gottlieb (Germany, Russia, Czech etc.), and Allied Families of Battaile, (France), Crawford (Scotland), Harrison (England), Jackson (Ireland), LeClere (France), Lefevre (France), McKinnon (Scotland), Plantagenets (England), Smith (England), Stephenson (England?), Vance (Ireland from Normandy), and Winch (England, traditionally Wales), including correspondence with George Rogers Clarke, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,and ancestors Andrew Jackson, and William Henry Harrison.
The Goodlove Family History Website:
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/g/o/o/Jeffery-Goodlove/index.html
Jeff Goodlove email address: Jefferygoodlove@aol.com
Birthdays: Covert L. Goodlove, John A. Goodlove
Anniversaries: Kirsten Pedersen and Karl D. Trieber
This Day…
October 17, 1732: William Crawford, son of Valentine Crawford, an emigrant from the North of Ireland, was born October 17, 1732, in Orange county, Virginia. Young Crawford was brought up as a surveyor. His education seems to have been more or less limited, but his knowledge of men and affairs took a wide range. It was while acting in this capacity, as a surveyor, that he became acquainted with George Washington. As an ensign in the Virginia forces which accompanied Braddock, he was specially distinguished for gallantry, and subsequently promoted to a lieu-tenancy. He accompanied the Virginia troops under Forbes, and after the Bouquet expedition took up the tract of land in Pennsylvania already referred to, near New Haven.
Mrs. Crawford was no less widely known for that generous hospitality so dearly appreciated by pioneers in search of homes in the wilderness, and so, of all the women on the frontiers of Western Pennsylvania, none were more highly respected and lovingly remembered. During the years when her brave husband was serving his country faithfully as an officer in the struggle for independence, Mrs. Crawford kept faithful watch and ward over the younger members of her family, and to her they were largely indebted for their education, and what measure of life they entered upon. The war drawing to a close, Captain Crawford being declared a supernumerary officer, gladly accepted the opportunity of returning to his home. Having, as he verily believed, done his whole duty to his country, he now thought only of spending the remainder of his days in quietude and peace. This was, unfortunately for him, to be ordered otherwise. The depredations of the Ohio Indians on the frontiers of Pennsylvania called loudly for redress. No one could remain an indifferent spectator of the terrible scenes then enacting in the exposed settlements, and much less Captain Crawford. When therefore the project of attacking the savages in their stronghold at Sandusky, all eyes were turned to that gallant officer who had served with such conspicuous daring on many a battle-field of the Revomuon. Of the events which followed—of the disastrous ending of what should have been a brilliant campaign— of the inhuman death by torture of the lamented Craw-
ford, it is not our province in this place to dwell. As long, however, as our country endures and the heroic deeds of the soldiers of the Revolution shall be cherished by their descendants, so long will the sad, sad story of Crawford and his men live in kindly memory.
Colonel Crawford perished at the stake on the afternoon of June 11, 1782. Washington, upon hearing of the terrible ending of his friend’s life, said: “It is with the greatest sorrow and concern that I have learned the melancholy tidings of his death. He was known to me as an officer of great prudence, brave, experienced and active.” In a letter to General Irvine he says: “I am particularly affected with the disastrous death of Colonel Crawford.”
Of the fate of the expedition, intelligence was long in coming. However, of all those who suffered from hope deferred until the heart grew sick, indeed, and then when the facts were known, from a recital of them, none was more to be commiserated than the wife of the unfortunate commander. Hannah Vance Crawford had parted from her husband with a heavy heart. As the volunteers one after another returned to her neighborhood, with what anxiety did she make inquiries of them concerning her companion. But no one could give the disconsolate wife a word of information concerning him. Her lonely cabin by the Youghiogheny was a house of mourning now.
After three weeks of dreadful suspense, she learned the sad news of her husband’s death in the wilderness, from her daughter. The widow was left in embarrassment as to property. Colonel Crawford’s private affairs had come to be in a very unsettled condition on account of his military and other duties having called him so frequently from home. The result was that his estate was swept away, itiost of it by a flood of claims, some having no just foundation. For losses sustained upon the expedition, the State of Penitsylvania afterwards reimbursed his estate. Mrs. Crawford drew a pension from the State on account of the military services of her husband; but Congress seems to have turned a deaf ear to her application for relief, deeming, no doubt, the Pennsylvania pittance ample. It is related by a grandson that when he was a little boy his grandmother took him behind her on horseback, rode across the Youghiogheny, turned to the left into the woods when they both alighted by an old moss-covered white oak log. “Here,” said the good old lady, as she sat down upon the log and cried as though her heart would break, “here I parted with your grandfather!” Mrs. Crawford lived at her old home where she had resided nearly fifty years, until her death in 1817. The mournful fate of her husband saddened her declining years, for like one of old she would not be comforted, because he was not. [1]
October 1739: War of Jenkins' Ear
The Convention met with a very unfavourable reception when it was presented in London. Many of the merchant captains were extremely unhappy that the British compensation claim had been more than halved, while the South Sea Company were concerned by the agreement allowing the Spanish limited rights to search British ships. Within months the situation had turned sharply towards war, and the Convention grew increasingly fragile. By the end of 1739 both Britain and Spain had violated the Convention, and in October 1739 formal war was declared beginning the War of Jenkins' Ear. The war later become submerged into the wider War of the Austrian Succession. The issues that had started the war were largely ignored during the Congress of Breda and the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle that ended it in 1748 as they were no longer priorities for the two sides.
Some issues were eventually resolved in the 1750 Treaty of Madrid, although illegal British trade with the Spanish colonies continued to flourish.[2]
1739-40; Jews expelled from LittleRussia.[3]
Abt. 1740
William HARRISON b: ABT 1740 in Orange, Va.
William worked for and lived with John Vance as a surveyor apprentice.[4]
The presumption, suggestive of William Crawford participating in King George’s War, becomes more a reality when a study is made of four years prior to 1744. The Spanish War of 1740 developed between England and Spain, due to the Spanish pressure in Florida, including other troubles. The English colonies furnished about four thousand men for an expedition against the Spanish West Indies; the soldiers suffering from desease, starvation and brutality, only a few lived to return home. This will justify the idea, that the English colonies had abruptly, suffered a loss of man power.[5]
1740….
Maria Theresa of Austria
CREDIT: Public domain
Maria Theresa, enlightened despot
Like Catherine de Medici, Maria Theresa of Austria did not have an auspicious upbringing.
"She's basically raised without much training," Pavlac said. "She gets married to her cousin, and they don't expect anything from her."
Nonetheless, she was destined to inherit the Austrian throne. When the kingdom fell to her in 1740, it was broke and under attack from other European sovereigns. Pregnant (as she would be almost constantly over the next 20 years -- she had 16 children), Maria Theresa fought back. She held on to the Austrian Empire and during her 40-year reign would institute reforms in medicine, education and criminal justice.[6]
October 1747
The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in October of 1747 ended King George
S War, and even though it did not resolve the overlapping territorial disputes on the frontier, the tensions eased somewhat. Attacks by the Indians against the traders, even the more unscrupulous ones, diminished, but the ill feelings remained. Competition remained keen between English and French traders but now with a small degree of mutual tolerance. [7]
1749-1750
. The Bullskin Creek offered attractions for the following named persons, who were settling in that section, and the Washingtonn surveys, embraced them. Henry Bradshaw, Lawrence Washington, Marquis Calmes, the Justice; Richard Stephenson, Wm. Davis; G. W. Fairfax; Joshua Haynes, George Johnston (in another tract he is mentioned as Capt. George Johnston) Thos. Lofton, & Dr. James McCormick are mentioned as “abutting owners” to…
The settlers received land grants from Lord Fairfax and the Commonwealth of Virginia and were bought or leased lands from distant holders of grants. Lord Fairfax hired George Washington and others to survey his land. [8]
1750: Ste. Genevieve was established on the west side of the Mississippi River by settlers from Kaskaskia and Cahokia.[9]
1750
The Isle of Skye, home of the McKinnon’s as photographed in 2000 by Kelly Goodlove.
The Isle of Skye[10], off the coast of Scotland produces men who place duty before personal inclinations.
Such a man was Lord Michael McKinnon, native of the island. He trained his children to adhere to their ideas and sacrifice everything to duty. Early in (1770?) two of his sons, Daniel and Joseph, came to America. Daniel, a high Episcopal preacher to George IV of England, was sent by the crown to the church at Philadelphia.
He was a man of decided opinions and did not fit in well with the growing tendency in the colonies to question the crown's authority. He was a staunch royalist and preached his convictions from the pulpit. His belief, however, did not prevent his marriage to Miss Polly Dawson, a lovely colonial girl, who was a member of an ardent Whig family.[11]
1750
Another, seemingly more believable report is that Daniel and Ruth came to Maryland from Scotland about 1750. [12]
1750-1753
The Reverend Daniel McKinnon was licensed to preach by the Bishop of London in 1768. He is known to have acted as a missionary as early as 1750-1753. A letter was sent by the compiler to the present Lord Bishop of London, asking for an explanation of this fact. His reply stated that whereas it was not customary to send young men to America prior to being ordained, there has been exceptions. Without quoting from the records in the case of Daniel McKinnon, "which are difficult to locate at this date," there was an example given on the well-known Rev. Charles Inglis, D.D., who, in 1787, became the English Colonial Bishop. He was in America as a young man, acted as a lay catechist and teacher. In 1758, he returned to England and received ordination.[13]
1750
Richard Challoner’s first revision of Rheims Bible.[14]
1750
By 1750, out of 2,500 Jews in the American Colonies, the majority was Ashkenazi. They were Yiddish-speaking Jews from Holland, Germany, Poland and England. The first Jews were merchants and traders. Since then, Ashkenazi Jews have built up communities throughout the United States.[15] In the 1750s, Jews settled in Easton, Shaefferstown, and the area around Fort Duquesne, soon renamed Pittsburgh. Most immigrants to colonial America were young unmarried men, and the same held true for Jews. Some Jews from central Europe could converse with Germans who settled in the middle and western part of the state. [16]
1750
Conrad Guetleib born 1750. Birthplace Pennsylvania.[17]
1750: The first Kentucky rifles were manufactured on the American frontier.[18]
1750: The Ohio Company was granted the right to a vast quantity of land along the Ohio if they could settle it. They built a storehouse at the mouth of Wills Creek circa 1750[19] as a base of operations.[20]
October 1758: Virginia’s colonial officials were much more aggressive in sponsoring western settlements than were Pennsylvania’s. Governor Dunmore of Virginia was offering outright grants of western land and was selling lands cheaper than PA was. Also, the Harrisons and Moores would have known that Pennsylvania, in October 1758, had achieved peace with some Ohio Country Indian’s by renouncing Pennsylvania’s claims to lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. They would have known that this agreement, the Treaty of Easton, had been made because Pennsylvania, with its Quaker and pacifist traditions, alsoays had been slow to raise and pay for local militia to protect European settlers in the western reaches of the coloney. The proprietary colonty of William Penn, with its political establishment divided between Quaker pacifists, PhilaDELPHIA MERCHANTS, AND IMPATIENT, LAND HUNGRY settlers, was indecisive. Pennsylvania’s political paralysis on western land issues could be worked to the advantage of Virginia, or so concluded manyt long established families in Virginia and Maryland, whose sons, like George Washington, were unable or unwilling to carve up and share the family’s traditional lands in the established colonies and were anxsious to get onto huge tracts of frontier acreage. [21] [22]
October 1765: The first major American opposition to British policy came in 1765 after Parliament passed the Stamp Act, a taxation measure to raise revenues for a standing British army in America. Under the banner of "no taxation without representation," colonists convened the Stamp Act Congress in October 1765 to vocalize their opposition to the tax. With its enactment on November 1, 1765, most colonists called for a boycott of British goods and some organized attacks on the customhouses and homes of tax collectors. After months of protest, Parliament voted to repeal the Stamp Act in March 1765. .[23]
October 17, 1770 Arrivd at Fort[24]—dining at one Widow Miers[25] at Turtle Creek.[26]
October 17th.---Dr. Craik and myself, with Capt. Crawford and others, arrived at Fort Pitt, distance from the crossing, forty-three and a half measured miles. In riding this distance we passed over a great deal of measured miles. In riding this distance we passed over a great deal of exceedingly fine land, chiefly white oak, especially from Sewickly creek to Turtle creek, but the whole broken; resembling, as I think all the lands in this country do, the Loudon lands. We lodged in what is called the town, distant about three hundred yards from the fort, at one Semplie’s, who keeps a very good house of public entertainment.
The houses which are built of logs, and ranged in streets, are on the Monongahela, and I suppose may be about twenty in number, and inhabited by Indian traders. The fort is built on the point near the rivers Allegheny and Monongahela, but not so near the pitch of it as Fort Du Quesne stood. It is five sided and regular, two of which near the land are of brick; the other stockade. A moat encompasses it. The garrison consists of two companies of Royal Irish, commanded by Capt. Edmondson
October 17, 1770; Dr. Craik, myself, Capt. Crawford and others arrived at Ft. Pitt, distant from the crossing 43 miles. In riding this distance we passed over a great deal of exceeding fine land especially from Sweisly Creek to Turtle Creek but the whole broken. The Fort (Fort Pitt) built in the point between the river Allegany and Monongahelia but not so far near the pitch of which after Ft. Duquesne[27] stood. It is 5 sided, and regular 2 of it (next the land) are of brick, the others stockade. A mote incompasses it. The garrison consists of 2 companiesw, of Royal Irish Commanded by one Capt. Edmonson. We walked through the town about 300 yards from the fort. These houses are built of logs and ranged into the streets there on the Monongahelia. I suppose there is about 20 in number, inhabited by Indian traders.[28]
October 17, 1771
Colonel Washington acquired a measure of title to the Fort Necessity plantinat Great Meadows on October 17, when he purchased the interest of William Brooks in a survey dated February 14, 1771, based on an earlier application to the land Office of Pennsylvania, June 13, 1769. He did not perfect this title until after the Revolution, when on February 28, 1782 he secured a patent for tract called “Mt Washington, situate on the east side of Laurel Hill where Braddock’s Road crosses the Great Meadows, formerly Bedford County, now in the county of Westmoreland, containing 234 ½ acres.” This patent is recorded in Fayette
Countyl Pennsylvania, in “Deed book 507,” page 458 and shows a consideration of ₤33 15s. 6d. He purchased the right fo William Athel on February 12, 1782, in an application filed by Athel on April 3, 1769, and had this title perfected by a patent from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, February 8, 1782. For a consideration of ₤48 3s. 5d., Pennsylvania granted to him called “Spring Run.” On the south side of Youghiogheny, on the waters of said river, formerly in Cumberland, now in Westmoreland County, containing three hundred thirty-one acres, one hundred forty-seven perches, and bounded bye lands of Thomas Jones John Patty, John Pearsall, and Washington’s other lands. These other lands were those which Washinton had personally applied for on April 3, 1769, when the land office was opened, and which the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania granted to him February 8, 1782, for a consideration of ₤48 7d., and described as the “Meadow,” situate on the south side of “Youghogeni” on the waters of said river, formerly in Cumberland County, now in Westmorelamnd County, bounded by John Darsall’s (Pearsall’s, William Athel’s, John Patty’s and John Bishop’s. The deeds for these two tracts are recorded in Fayette County in “Deed Book 180,” pages 294, 296, respectively.
George Washington owned the Great Meadows tract at the time of his death on December 14, 1799, and under the authority containede in his will, William A. Washington, George S. Washington, Samuel Washington, and George W. P. Custis, his executors, by Bushrod Washington and Lawrence Lewis, their attorneys, conveyed the Great Meadows to Andrew Parks of the town of Baltimore. By later conveyances this historic shrine has come under the control of the Pennsyvania Department of Forests and Waters, with the actual fort site deeded to the United States of America.[1] [1] [29]
October 1773: John Vance, 1754. (or 1746 according to his pension application). He was married in October 1773, by his uncle Col. Wm. Crawford in southwestern PA, to Nancy ?. John served in the Rev. war as a sargeant major and was wounded at Germantown. Both John and his wife recieved pensions for his REV war service (W. 6338). [30]John died February 8, 1827. The place of his death is uncertain from the pension file. Nancy filed for her widow's pension from Pendelton Co, not WVA. She died February 8, 1845. [31]
October 17, 1774 Rid to the Ferry Plantn. & Mill after Breakfast. Captn. Crawford went to Doctr. Craiks after dinner.[32]
October 17th, 1774
We cros’d the Ohio the 17, After leaving all our Indisposed, lame, & those Judged unfit for Duty at the point, and their wounds some time after the engagement
Lieut Vance
51 privates[33]
October 1777: Founded in 1777 by the Virginia General Assembly, on land donated by Conrad Moore was placed near the center of the valley, at the confluence of the south fork and the south branch of the Potomac river. ½ acre lots were sold and new owners were required to build an 18 foot structure with a chimney of stone or brick within two years of purchasing the lot. Nestled in the Potomac highlands, surrounded by historic valleys and rich pastuer land you will find one of West Virginia’s best kept secrets. Historic Moorefield West Virginia. The first inhabitants of the south branch valley were indian tribes who hunted and cleared fields where they raised crops. The Seneca trail ran through the valley.[34]
October 1777
…they formed the left end of the Hessian line at the attack on Fort Mercer in New Jersey, the Battle of Red Bank. Afterward went into barracks in Philadelphia. [35]
Oct 1777— June 1778
(Franz Gotlop)stationed in Philadelphia[36]
The following two sources list the engagements of the von Mirbach regiment. More analysis of the engagements is needed. JG.
Hessian Brass Fusilier’s Cap from the American War. Armed Forces History Collection, Smithsonian Institution.[37]
REGIMENT VON MIRBACH
(MIR plus company number)
The Regiment V. Mirbach departed on 1 March 1776 from Melsungen. It embarked from Breznerlehe on May 12, 1776 and reached New York on 14 August 1776. The regiment was part of the Hessian First Division and took part in the following major engagements:
-- Long Island (NY, August 27, 1776)
-- Fort Washington (upper Manhattan, NY, November 16,1776)
-- Brandywine (PA, 11 September 11,1777)
-- Redbank (Gloucester County, NJ, also known as Fort Mercer, October 22-November 21,1777)
The regiment departed from New York on 21 November
1783 and arrived at Breznerlehe on April 20, 1784.
They returned to their quarters in Melsungen on 30
May 1784.
Musketeer Regiment von Mirbach, to 1780: Musketeer Regiment Jung von Lossburg, 1780 to war’s end (Hesse Cassel) Arrived at New York August 1776 Sent on the 1777 Philadelphia campaign fighting at Brandywine and Red Bank, N.J. Returned to New York, December, 1777, and stationed there until returned to Germany, 1783. Uniform: Red facings trimmed with plain white lace, white small clothes, red stocks; officers’ lace, silver.
CHIEF: Major General W. von Mirbach, to 1780
Major General W. von Lossburg, 1780 to war’s end
COMMANDER: Colonel J.A. von Loos, to 1777 Colonel von Block, 1777-1779
Colonel C.C. von Romrod, 1777 to war’s end
FIELD COMMANDER: Lieutenant Colonel von Schieck, to October, 1777
Lieutenant Colonel H. von Borck, October, 1777 to war’s end.[38]
October 1777: In 1776, the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee to a diplomatic commission to secure a formal alliance with France. Covert French aid began filtering into the colonies soon after the outbreak of hostilities in 1775, but it was not until the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777 that the French became convinced that the Americans were worth backing in a formal treaty.
On February 6, 1778, the treaties of Amity and Commerce and Alliance were signed, and in May 1778 the Continental Congress ratified them. One month later, war between Britain and France formally began when a British squadron fired on two French ships. During the American Revolution, French naval fleets proved critical in the defeat of the British, which culminated in the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781.[39]
October 17, 1777: On October 17, 1777, a frustrated Burgoyne retreated 10 miles and surrendered his remaining 6,000 British forces to the Patriots at Saratoga. Upon hearing of the Patriot victory, France agreed to recognize the independence of the United States. It was, of course, France's eventual support that enabled the Patriots' ultimate victory.
The defeat at Saratoga led to General Burgoyne's downfall. He returned to England, where he faced severe criticism and soon retired from active service.[40]
October 17, 1777
The Hession Prisoners
In the preparation of the foregoing chapters, the author had occasion to mention the Hessian Prisoners. It may be well to condense scraps of their history for future reference.
At the battle of Saratoga, Genl. (Baron) Riedesel surrendered to the American Army the remnant of his command, about 8,ooo men of every class and grade. All were the Hesse-Darmstadt contingent of the British Army. From the battlefield, these Hessian prisoners marched to Boston. Efforts were made at once by Genl. Washington to have them exchanged. A convention was held, composed of officers from both armies, to consider the terms. An agreement was effected; the prisoners were allowed to return to their native country, on conditions that they should not be rehired to fight against the Americans. Pending these negotiations, an alliance was formed between France and the United States. France protested against their return, giving the reason that these prisoners would be employed against France on the coatinent Congress annulled the cartel, and disregarded protests of Genl. Washington and officers. At the suggestion of Mr. Jefferson, Governor of Virginia, the entire Hessian Army and was sent to Williamsburg, Virginia On their march, the inhabitants were greatly disturbed but no serious trouble occurred. At this time every American patriot detested the Hessians. When Williamsburg was reached, they found ample provision had been made by the Governor for their safe and comfortable stay. Stockades had been made for the rank and file; and quarters secured for the genera1 soldiers?. Many of the men desired separate residence in that section, and were allowed to under certain conditions. From Williamsburg, the main body marched in three groups. One to Charlottesville, one to Winchester and one to Fredrick. The first arrived in Winchester, numbered 710; and were quartered in the town temporarily; arid, as cithers arrived, swelling the number to nearly two thousand, they were gradually transferred from: tents to cabins, on the farm West of Winchester the property of Mr. Glaize, as already stated.
During his imprisonment in Virginia the Hessian General seems to have enjoyed many liberties under his parole; for Mr. Jefferson’s well preserved papers through a correspondence between the Governor and the General: while the latter with his wife sojourned at Berkeley Springs.
The writer is well aware that some historians state with authority that no Hessian prisoners were allowed to remain in America, when the command was released by articles of peace. He, however, could name quite a number who remained in the Shenandoah Valley. Several families in Winchester and Frederick County of today have been traced to certain Hessians with odd names.
The Governor of the State was regarded as the Commissioner General of the Convention Prisoners. We have shown elsewhere who several of his deputy corn missioners-generals were.[41]
The main body of the Braunschwieg contingent of troops was captured at the battles of Saratoga (first and second Stillwater, also called Freeman’s Farm and Bemis Heights) These prisoners, forming part of the so—called Convention Army, were eventually moved from near Boston southward to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and on to Winchester (Albemarle Barracks) in Virginia. There were numerous opportunities to escape, both in New England and Virginia, and many prisoners were hired out to farmers in Pennsylvania (see the Lancaster prisoner of war lists herein). [42]
Carl Emilius Ulrich von Donop, a portrait by the younger Tischbein. This Hessian aristocrat was the personal adjutant to the Landgraf, and was given command of the Jager Corps in America. [43]
October 1781: George Washington Reportedly visited Lodge No. 9 at Yorktown, VA with General Lafayette after defeat of British General Cornwallis.[44]
October 1781: In October of 1781 Crawford retired from the service and returned to his farm, hoping to spend the remainder of his days with his family. At the age of 59 he had given nearly twenty-five years of his life to the service of his country.[45]
October 1781: Weedon was an innkeeper in Fredericksburg, Virginia, at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, but had previously served as a lieutenant under George Washington in western Virginia during the French and Indian War. As the revolution began, Weedon was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Third Virginia Regiment under Hugh Mercer in 1775. On August 13, 1776, he acceded to Mercer's command as colonel of the 3rd Virginia Regiment. In the fall and winter of 1776, Weedon marched with his troops of the Virginia Regiment alongside General George Washington and the Continental Army in campaigns against the British in New York and New Jersey, including the Battles of Trenton, Brandywine and Germantown. He also commanded Pennsylvania and Virginia regiments in Nathanael Greene's division at Valley Forge.
Weedon resigned the post he was given on this day in history one year later when, at Valley Forge, Congress promoted a rival Virginian and French and Indian War veteran, William Woodford, to a position outranking him. Although he never returned to full duty in the Virginia regiment, Weedon continued his service to his country by leading a brigade of Virginia militia during the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781. Woodford was captured during the siege of Charleston and died in captivity in 1780. Weedon lived to see the new nation established; he died in 1793.
Weedon's orderly book--his record of orders and battle plans--from Valley Forge remains in the holdings of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.[46]
September and October 1783
The men of the Waldeck Regiment arrived in Korbach and many were released. Others, who remained with the regiment under a new designation, the 5th Battalion, were to serve later in the Dutch army and even saw service in South Africa where they fought against the English.[47]
October 1784: Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784)
Map showing Pennsylvania and the territory involved in the two purchases of 1768 and 1784.
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was a treaty signed in October 1784 at Fort Stanwix, located in present-day Rome, New York, between the United States and Native Americans. It was one of several treaties between Native Americans and the United States after the American victory in the Revolutionary War.
The treaty served as a peace treaty between the Iroquois and the Americans, since the Indians had been ignored in the Treaty of Paris. Joseph Brant was the leading Indian at the start of negotiations. He said "But we must observe to you, that we are sent in order to make peace, and that we are not authorized, to stipulate any particular cession of lands."[1] Brant had to leave early for a planned trip to England. The leading Indian representatives who signed the treaty were Cornplanter and Captain Aaron Hill. In this treaty the Iroquois Confederacy ceded all claims to the Ohio territory, a strip of land along the Niagara river, and all land west of mouth of Buffalo creek. In Pennsylvania the land acquired in this treaty is known as the "Last Purchase".
The Six Nations council at Buffalo Creek refused to ratify the treaty, denying that their delegates had the power to give away such large tracts of land. They asked the Americans for return of the deeds and promised to indemnify them for any presents they had given. The general Indian confederacy also disavowed the treaty because most of the Six Nations did not live in the Ohio territory. The Ohio Country natives, including the Shawnee Indians, the Mingo Indians, the Delaware Indians, and several other tribes rejected the treaty. A series of treaties and land sales with these tribes soon followed:
•1785 Treaty of Fort McIntosh with Wyandotte, Delaware, Chippewa and Ottawa leaders for lands in Ohio
•1786 Treaty of Fort Finney with Shawnee leaders for portions of Ohio
•1788 Phelps and Gorham Purchase with the Iroquois for lands in New York State east of the Genesee River
•1789 Treaty of Fort Harmar reiterating claims in Ohio
•1794 Treaty of Canandaigua establishing peace with the Iroquois and affirming lands rights in New York State east of the Genesee River
1797 Treaty of Big Tree with the Iroquois for lands in New York State west of the Genesee River[48][49]
October 1786: PENNSYLVANIA SUPREME COURT Justice Thomas McKean, riding circuit in the western part of the state, presided over the trial in Washington, Pa., in October 1786. Because the record of the trial is extremely sparse, it is impossible to know if anyone involved asked for a change of venue to a community that had not been named after the plaintiff.
A flamboyant Pittsburgher represented the Seceders: Hugh Henry Brackenridge, the leading literary figure west of the mountains, a title for which, admittedly, there were few rival claimants. Brackenridge started the first newspaper in the West, having contrived, with a partner, to haul a printing press over the Alleghenies. He also wrote plays, pamphlets and a novel titled Modern Chivalry. He would someday be a savvy advocate of restraint during the Whiskey Rebellion, which would incite the wrath of then-President Washington. But that was in the future: There was no such thing yet as a U.S. president. For now, Brackenridge was a local lawyer taking on a case against a retired war hero.
Washington said he wanted to travel to western Pennsylvania for the trial, but he pleaded illness. Possibly he couldn't stomach another encounter with the western rabble.
Smith, Washington's attorney, took the case to trial with great anxiety. He'd never been more agitated, he later told Washington. He was a successful man, elected to public offices, but to represent such a client was clearly the pinnacle of his career. It could not have been a palliative to his nerves to be reminded with each letter from Mount Vernon precisely how much the client cared about the suit. Failure was not an option.
The jury learned about the complex history of the land, the shifting jurisdictions, the missing paperwork, etc. Smith won an important ruling from the judge, who barred any evidence about improvements to the land. The trial began the afternoon of October 24, 1786, and lasted through the next day and until 11 in the morning of the 26th. There is no record of how long the jury deliberated, but Smith perceived that the jury wanted badly to give verdicts in favor of James Scott. "We had very strong prejudices artfully fomented to encounter," he told Washington. Yet even as Smith steeled himself for defeat, the jury came back with a verdict in favor of the general.
It is not entirely clear why a jury with natural sympathies for settlers sided with an absentee landlord, even one as famous as Washington. There were limited means in America for turning anyone into what would later be called a celebrity, and Washington himself hadn't appeared; the jury had to render a verdict in favor of someone far away and against James Scott, who was right there in the courtroom. Perhaps Smith, a lawyer of considerable talents, destined to be on the state Supreme Court, had managed to show beyond any doubt that the general had legitimate title to the land and had been unable to pay more attention to it because of his service to the country. Or perhaps the verdict was just another example of the Washington magic. Bullets couldn't hit him, and squatters couldn't defy him.
Smith persuaded Justice McKean to consolidate the other 12 cases, and that trial was quickly and efficiently concluded with yet another verdict in Washington's favor.
"You have now thirteen plantations -- some of them well improved," Smith informed the general, and then delicately raised the possibility that now would be a good time to back off and show these frontier families some mercy. "[They] are now reduced to Indigence; they have put in crops this season which are now in the ground they wish to be permitted to take the grain away. To give this hint may be Improper in me -- to say more would be presumptuous."
Smith advised Washington to employ an agent to take possession of the land immediately, because the squatters were likely to burn down all the houses and barns and even the fences. Washington turned to John Cannon, a major landowner, and asked him if he would handle the matter, ideally by demanding rent from the Seceders. Washington, softening a bit, indicated that he didn't want back rent from the past 12 years.
But the Seceders wanted nothing to do with Washington. They would not be his tenants. They would own their own land. The Mount Pleasant Township Warrantee Map, compiled from early plats, shows a kind of splatter effect from the explosive visit of Washington in 1784. Several of the Seceders obtained warrants for land adjacent to or near Washington's land. They pulled out their axes once again, hacked down trees, burned the stumps, broke the ground. For years, settlers had been pulling up stakes and moving toward deeper wilderness to start anew, and perhaps, as they scouted nearby land to settle, they could pretend they were another band of restless Americans. But just as surely a few of them thought of George Washington as they swung their axes at the oaks and pines and hemlocks of the Pennsylvania forest. [50]
October 1785: Hardy County was authorized by the Virginia General Assembly on December 10, 1785 and organized in February 1786 from parts of Hampshire County. It was named in honor of Samuel Hardy (1758-1785). He was born in Isle, Wight County Virginia in 1758 and graduated from William and Mary College in 1781. An attorney, he served in the Virginia General Assembly in 1777 and in 1781, represented Virginia in the Continental Congress in 1783 and 1785, served briefly as Virginia's lieutenant governor and was a signer of the Deed of Cession that transferred the Northwest territory to the American government. He died in New York in October 1785. [51]
October 1786: Australia, once known as New South Wales, was originally planned as a penal colony. In October 1786, the British government appointed Arthur Phillip captain of the HMS Sirius, and commissioned him to establish an agricultural work camp there for British convicts. With little idea of what he could expect from the mysterious and distant land, Phillip had great difficulty assembling the fleet that was to make the journey. His requests for more experienced farmers to assist the penal colony were repeatedly denied, and he was both poorly funded and outfitted. Nonetheless, accompanied by a small contingent of Marines and other officers, Phillip led his 1,000-strong party, of whom more than 700 were convicts, around Africa to the eastern side of Australia. In all, the voyage lasted eight months, claiming the deaths of some 30 men.
The first years of settlement were nearly disastrous. Cursed with poor soil, an unfamiliar climate and workers who were ignorant of farming, Phillip had great difficulty keeping the men alive. The colony was on the verge of outright starvation for several years, and the marines sent to keep order were not up to the task. Phillip, who proved to be a tough but fair-minded leader, persevered by appointing convicts to positions of responsibility and oversight. Floggings and hangings were commonplace, but so was egalitarianism. As Phillip said before leaving England: "In a new country there will be no slavery and hence no slaves."
Though Phillip returned to England in 1792, the colony became prosperous by the turn of the 19th century. Feeling a new sense of patriotism, the men began to rally around January 26 as their founding day. Historian Manning Clarke noted that in 1808 the men observed the "anniversary of the foundation of the colony" with "drinking and merriment."
Finally, in 1818, January 26 became an official holiday, marking the 30th anniversary of British settlement in Australia. And, as Australia became a sovereign nation, it became the national holiday known as Australia Day. Today, Australia Day serves both as a day of celebration for the founding of the white British settlement, and as a day of mourning for the Aborigines who were slowly dispossessed of their land as white colonization spread across the continent.[52] One DNA match indicates his earliest known ancestor is from Australia.
January 26, 1788: The first 736 convicts banished from England to Australia land in Botany Bay. Over the next 60 years, approximately 50,000 criminals were transported from Great Britain to the "land down under," in one of the strangest episodes in criminal-justice history.
The accepted wisdom of the upper and ruling classes in 18th century England was that criminals were inherently defective. Thus, they could not be rehabilitated and simply required separation from the genetically pure and law-abiding citizens. Accordingly, lawbreakers had to be either killed or exiled, since prisons were too expensive. With the American victory in the Revolutionary War, transgressors could no longer be shipped off across the Atlantic, and the English looked for a colony in the other direction.
Captain Arthur Phillip, a tough but fair career naval officer, was charged with setting up the first penal colony in Australia. The convicts were chained beneath the deck during the entire hellish six-month voyage. The first voyage claimed the lives of nearly 10 percent of the prisoners, which remarkably proved to be a rather good rate. On later trips, up to a third of the unwilling passengers died on the way. These were not hardened criminals by any measure; only a small minority were transported for violent offenses. Among the first group was a 70-year-old woman who had stolen cheese to eat.
Although not confined behind bars, most convicts in Australia had an extremely tough life. The guards who volunteered for duty in Australia seemed to be driven by exceptional sadism. Even small violations of the rules could result in a punishment of 100 lashes by the cat o'nine tails. It was said that blood was usually drawn after five lashes and convicts ended up walking home in boots filled with their own blood--that is, if they were able to walk at all.
Convicts who attempted to escape were sent to tiny Norfolk Island, 600 miles east of Australia, where the conditions were even more inhumane. The only hope of escape from the horror of Norfolk Island was a "game" in which groups of three prisoners drew straws. The short straw was killed as painlessly as possible and a judge was then shipped in to put the other two on trial, one playing the role of killer, the other as witness.[53] A DNA match indicate his earliest known ancestor is from Australia.
October 1792: William Vance (James 2, Andrew 1, born 1735. He apparently became a Captain. He married Mary ? and died in 1792. DAR patriot index and Nat. No. 512607 have a William Vance, born 1740-42 in VA, died October 1792. This William married three times: 1. Nancy Gilkerson, 2. Mary Colville, daughter of Samuel Colville, and 3. Ann Glass. William served as an Ensign, recommended in Frederick Co VA August 4, 1779.[54]
Mon. October 17, 1864
In camp all quiet[55]
October 17, 1895
Oscar Goodlove has sold his farm a few miles southwest of town and has rented …. located on the George Birk’s property, recently vacated by J. C. Sarchett. He and his family will move into town in the near future.[56]
October 17, 1933
Scientist Albert Einstein arrives in the United States seeking refuge from the anti-semitism of Hitler’s Germany.[57]
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[1] (Pennsylvania Women in the American Revolution by William Henry Egle pgs. 58-61.)
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_El_Pardo_(1739)
[3] http://christianparty.net/jewsexpelled.htm
[4] The Brothers Crawford, Allen W. Scholl, 1995
[5] The River Clyde to Tymochtee and Col. William Crawford by Grace U. Emahiser, 1969 p.38.
[6] http://www.livescience.com/14055-top-12-warrior-moms-history.html
[7] That Dark and Bloody River, by Allan W. Eckert, xxxii
[8] Road Trip to History, 9/8/2006
[9] http://exhibits.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/athome/1700/timeline/index.html
[10] Skye suffered famine and clearances over the latter part of the 18th century, leading to its badly depleted population of less than 10,000 at the 1991 Census. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_MacKinnon
[11] Tragedy of Love Led to Ohioville's Founding, by Lucille T. Cox, Milestones Vol 9 No 4--Fall 1984.
[12] (JoAnn Naugle's letter of 1985 summarizing her research.)
(http://washburnhill.freehomepage.com/custom3.html)
[13] Ancestors of Forrest Roger Garnett, pp. 224.5-224.6
[14] Trial by Fire, by Harold Rawlings, page 304.
[15] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Ashkenazim.html
[16] Jewish Life in Pennsylvania by Danne Ashton, 1998. pg. 3.
[17](Ancestry.com) American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) Volume 68, page number 503.
Godfrey Memorial Library, comp., American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:The Generations Network, Inc., 1999.
Ten “Series” of “Pennsylvanina Archives” have been so far published in from 5 to 31v. Ea. Philadelphia and Harrisburg. 1852-(Ancestry.com has indexed Series 2, v. 2 and v.8 (early Pa. marriage recds.) And all the v. of Series V. Which contain nearly complete P. Rev. War. Recds.) Ser. 5
:4:653.
[18] http://www.talonsite.com/tlineframe.htm
[19] Page 68 of William Darlington‘s 1893 book ―Christopher Gist’s journals: with historical, geographical and ethnological notes‖.
15 Braddock arrogantly refused
[20] IN Search of the Turkey Foot Road, page 7.
[21] John Moreland book 265
[22] John Moreland book pages 262-263.
[23] http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/patrick-henry-voices-american-opposition-to-british-policy
[24] GW had arrived at Fort Pitt.
[25] The Widow Myers’s tavern was probably at Sycamore and Sixth streets within the boundaries of present-day Pittsburgh. It frequently served as a rallying point for frontier militia and was still operating in the17??s. GW spent 3S. gd. at the tavern.
[26] Turtle Creek enters the Monongahela above the site of Fort Pitt.
[27] This was, no doubt, the first George Washington looked upon this locality, since the fall of Fort Duquesne, when he and his V8irginia Regulars, piercing through the southwestern Pennsylvania wilderness, fell upon the ruins of Fort Duquesne; after the retreating French. Here we have a picture through the eyes of George Washington, concerning the changes taking place, from the first time he saw it in the autumn of 1753 until the autumn of 1770. This was, in all probability, the third time he visitged this place. 1st, the bearer of letters from Gov. Dinwiddie to the French Commandant; 2nd, the conquering hero of Fort Duquesne; 3rd, in this year of 1770, he entered the Youghiogheny Valley again with plans, to satisfy several great demands of the future. Plans for himself as well as the American generations to follow.
(From River Clyde to Tymochtee and Col. William Crawford, by Grace U. Emahiser, 1969, page 111.)
[28] Washington’s Journal, From River Clyde to Tymochtee and Col. William Crawford, by Grace U. Emahiser, 1969, page 109.
[29] Diaries of George Washington, University Press of Virginia, 1978
[30] Rev. War Pension File for John and Nancy Vance, W 6338
John Vance, served from VA W 6338. File received May 1980 from National Archives.
PETITION OF JOHN VANCE;To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislature of the State of Virginia,
Gentlemen, Your petitioner humbly sheweth that in the year seventy-six I turned out a Volunteer under Captain Stevenson as sargeant and Clerk to the Company and marched to Williamsburg, and then joined the eighth Virginia regiment commanded by Colonel Peter Milinsky and marched from there to Charles Town in South Carolina, and the Company I belonged to, with two more companys, was sent to assist at the Battle of Sulivans Island, from thence we marched to Sunsberry in Georgia under General Lee and remained there untill our time of service was out. I then returned to Fort Pit and then joined the 13th Virginia regiment commanded by Colonel Crawford in Captain Robert Bell's Company, and acted as Sargeant Major to the said regiment, and part of the said regiment was sent down to join the main army at Philadelphia under General Washington where I then acted as Agetant for said regiment for three months, was at the battle of Brandywine, and at the Battle of Germantown, wounded through the cheek with a bayonet, and sometime after the Battle General Milinsbuy gave me a very honorable discharge, which I took good care uf until my house was burned down by accident, and so lost it, and the wound I received in my leg still continues to run and so disables me to walk that I am not able to labour for my support, being now sixty-seven years of age, and as I served in our Revolutionary War for Liberty, I hope and trust that your honorable body will take my poor and distressed situation under your serious consideration, and grant me as a poor old soldier such relief as may support me in my old age. And you Petitioner as in duty bouned shall ever pray,
John Vance
[31] Ancestors of Forrest Roger Garnett p. 910.3
[32] George Washington Diary
[33] Documentary History of Dunmore’s War, 1774 by Thwaites and Kellogg, 1905 289.
[34] Road Trip to Hisory, 9/8/2006.
[35] This summary of the activities of the Hessian grenadier battalions is drawn principally from Baurmeister. JF
[36] JF
[37] Washington’s Crossing, by David Hackett Fischer pg. 58
[38] Encylopedia of British, Provincial, and German Army Units 1775-1783 by Philip R. N. Katcher
[39] http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/franco-american-alliances-signed
[40] http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/british-plan-to-isolate-new-england
[41] Shenandoah Valley Pioneer and Their Descendants, A History of Frederick County, Virginia, by T.K. Cartmell pgs. 518-519
[42] Muster Rolls and Prisoner-of-War lists in American Archival Collections Pertaining to the German Mercenary Troops who served with the British Forces during the American Revolution by Clifford Neal Smith
[43] Westfalisches Landesmuseum fur Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Munster.
Washington’s Crossing, by David Hackett Fischer
[44] http://www.gwmemorial.org/washington.php
[45] Dan Reinart
[46] http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/george-weedon-is-promoted-to-brigadier-general
[47] Waldeck Soldiers of the American Revolutionary War, by Bruce E. Burgoyne, pg xxviii
[48]Footnotes
1. ^ Kelsay pg. 359
References
•Laurence M. Hauptman, Conspiracy of Interests: Iroquois Dispossession and the Rise of New York State (2001).
•Kelsay, Isabel, Joseph Brant 1743-1807 Man of Two Worlds, 1984, ISBN 0-8156-0182-4
•Manley, Henry S., The Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1784, 1932, ISBN 1590910168
[49] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Fort_Stanwix_(1784)
[50] Joel Achenbach is a Post staff writer. This article is adapted from his new book, The Grand Idea: George Washington's Potomac and the Race to the West (Simon & Schuster).
[51] http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/wv/Hardy/harhistory.html
[52] http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
[53] http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-australian-penal-colony-established
[54] Ancestors of Forrest Roger Garnett p. 1820.12
[55] William Harrison Goodlove Civil War Diary, Annotated by Jeff Goodlove
[56] Winton Goodlove papers.
[57]On This Day in America by John Wagman.
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