I am researching Mary Bird, who married Stephen Ruddell. Her sister was Elizabeth Bird, who married John Jones. John and Elizabeth (Bird) Jones had a son, Andrew Bird Jones that is burried on the border of Adams/Pike County, Ohio near Piketon. This near where my John Peters and Rachel Pownall are buried. Here is some interesting info on Simon Girty: Simon Girty’s Incidents with & Atrocities of Allied Families ~ 1750 Richard Peters Removal of Squatters~ Secretary Richard Peters of Pennsylvania removed many squatters from the Juanita Valley of the Susquehanna, including Andrew Lyken and Simon Girty (this the father of the subject of this article). This is the same location where we speculate James Peters and Mary Bird lived when James Peters drowned in the Susquehanna River in 1750/2 timeframe. See Dauphin County Genealogy Resource Center’s webpage at: _http://maley.net/dauphin/OnlineData/geographic/lykens.htm_ (http://maley.net/dauphin/OnlineData/geographic/lykens.htm) ~ 1780 Massacre at Fort Ruddle, KY~ British officer, Captain Henry Bird, of the Eighth Regiment of his Majesty's forces, led the destruction of Ruddle's and Martin's Forts. This Fort Ruddle, Kentucky was built by Isaac Ruddle and is not to be confused with Fort Ruddell, Lost River, West Virginia, built by Isaac’s brother Stephen Ruddell (wife: Mary Bird). “The whole Indian force under the influence of the British were collected with Simon Girty and McKee.” See “Destruction Of Ruddle's And Martin’s Forts In The Revolutionary War By Maude Ward Lafferty” at: _http://www.shawhan.com/Ruddles_Fort.html_ (http://www.shawhan.com/Ruddles_Fort.html) ~ 1782 Col. William Crawford tortured at stake~ William Crawford was tortured, scalped, and killed by Native Ammeicans in a notorious incident near the end of the American Revolution. Simon Girty was present at the torture. William Crawford may be a sister to Nancy Crawford, whom married James Boone Tallman (See Tallman Newsletters). Remember their daughter, Rebecca Tallman married Reuben Slavens. See Tallman Newsletters at: _http://www.picosearch.com/cgi-bin/ts.pl_ (http://www.picosearch.com/cgi-bin/ts.pl) See: Wikipedia at: _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crawford_(soldier_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crawford_(soldier) ) ~ 1792 Slaying of two Morris Girls by Indians~ The Morris Massacre Henry Morris was the first settler on Peter’s Creek, which is now in Nicholas County. In the fall of 1791, a man came to his house and introduced himself as Mr. Allen and asked if he could stay with him all winter and hunt. There was a lot of bear, deer, elk, buffalo and small game in the area at that time. Mr. Allen said he had been with the Indians and had learned to hunter from them. Mr. Allen moved in with Henry and his family and they hunted together that winter and killed a lot of game. Henry had a good bear dog at that time which he called Watch. Together they had caught several bears that winter. Henry had his dog with him when he was scouting for Indians, while in the Kanawha Valley, and the dog had learned to distinguish the scent of an Indian from any other scent. When he smelled the scent of an Indian, Watch would run around Henry, with his hair raised as if he were afraid. During the last of March or first part of April 1792, Henry Morris traveled to the Kanawha Valley on business. While he was there he stopped to visit friends and relatives. He was talking with a group of friends and telling them about the man who had stayed with him and his family all winter. He told them Mr. Allen had learned to hunt from the Indians and was a very good hunter. A man who was listening asked Henry what Mr. Allen looked like and Henry described him. The man then said the description matched Simon Girty, who had murdered numerous women and children. He told Henry that he had been acquainted with Girty before he deserted the white people. Henry didn’t believe it. The man then continued to describe Simon Girty. Henry said he couldn’t have described Mr. Allen any better if he had been looking at him. He said Girty had a scar on his head at his hairline. He told Henry which side of his head the scar was on and advised him to look when he got home. It was late that evening when Henry got home. When he saw Mr. Allen, he knew he was in fact Simon Girty. When confronted he denied it. Henry then pushed the man’s hair up and there was the scar as the man had described it. Henry told him he was going to kill him. Girty still denied his identity and began to plead for his life promising he would leave in the morning. Henry was still determined to kill him but Henry’s wife, Mary, asked him not to kill him because he might not be Girty and he had promised to leave the next morning. Henry relented but sat guard all night with his gun on his lap. The next morning Girty left. When leaving, Girty tried to take the Morris’s dog, Watch, with him. Two of Henry’s daughters, Margaret "Peggy", 14 and Betsy, 12, called the dog back. Girty got angry, cursed the girls and said he’ d get even with them. About two or three weeks after the incident with Girty, Henry was returning home one evening, and at the head of Line Creek, which adjoined Peter’s Creek, Watch began to growl and circle around Henry, behaving as he did when Indians were close. Henry continued home without seeing the Indians, but by the actions of the dog he knew they followed him closely. They were afraid to attack Henry for he was very good with a gun and he could load his rifle as he ran. When Henry got to his house, John Young was there. He asked his wife where the girls were. Mary said she had sent them to the other side of the farm to get the calves. Henry told her Indians had followed him home. Henry asked John if his gun was loaded and he said it was. Henry said he would reload his gun and they would go after the girls. As he stepped into the yard he heard the girls scream. He ran in the direction of the scream and yelled for John to follow. Henry beat John to the first girl, Peggy. She had outrun the Indian for fifty or sixty rods and would have gotten away, but she tripped. She had been tomahawked, scalped and her back was broken but she was alive and able to talk. Henry asked her who did this to her and she said a red man and the man that stayed at their house last winter killed Betsy. Henry asked her which way the Indian went. She told him and he started after the Indian but Peggy begged him not to leave her. When she finally agreed to let him go after the Indian he ran the way Peggy said the Indian had gone and finally saw him. He was setting sight on him and was about to pull the trigger when the Indian jumped over the bank of the creek behind some laurel. If he had been a few seconds earlier he would have gotten him. He went back to where Peggy was and he and John Young looked and found Betsy. She was dead, murdered by Girty. She was scalped and stabbed four times with a large butcher knife. The knife had gone entirely through her body three times making seven places. Henry and John carried the two girls to the house. Peggy died before morning. The next day the neighbors gathered and buried the two girls in the same grave. The coffin was made of puncheons, a heavy, broad piece of roughly dressed timber with one side hewed flat. One was laid in the grave and the bodies of the two girls were placed side by side on it. Smaller pieces were cut and placed at each end and another puncheon placed over them. The day after the girls were buried, Henry, his family and the other settlers went back to the Kanawha Valley. This was the second or third time Henry had to leave Peter’s Creek because of the Indians. See Morris Massacre at: _http://www.wvdar.org/WilliamMorris/Morris%20Massacre.htm_ (http://www.wvdar.org/WilliamMorris/Morris%20Massacre.htm) John’s Note: Henry Morris married Mary Bird (daughter of John Bird and Margaret Dean). This John Bird is said to be son of Thomas Bird and Catherine Covert. One of Henry Morris’s daughter’s marired William Bird of Bath county, VA (son of John Bird and Margaret Wintrow). John Bird lived in Monterey, Highland County, VA (Slavens lived here also). John Bird is son of Andrew Bird and Magdelene Bird and is also brother to our Mary Bird that married James Peters. Andrew and Magdelene Bird are also the parents of Elizabeth Bird (wife of John Jones).