Hi folks, a History of Armstrong County, PA is on line with immense details. It includes a blow-by-blow of the Kittanning raid by Cumberland men in the French and Indian War including the names of many dead, wounded, captive, rescued, etc: http://www.pa-roots.com/~armstrong/smithproject/toc.html Horrible story of the SHARP family who lived near Crooked Creek and were attacked by Indians in 1794 as they attempted to relocate to Kentucky: http://www.pa-roots.com/~armstrong/smithproject/history/chap1b.html "Among the pioneers in the Plum Creek region was Capt. Andrew Sharp, who had been an officer in the revolutionary service under Washington. He, with his wife and infant child, emigrated to this region in 1784, and purchased, settled upon and improved the tract of land, consisting of several hundred acres, on which are Shelocta and the United Presbyterian church, near the county line, on a part of which John Anthony and the Wiggins now live, being then in Westmoreland county. The writer mentions his case in the general sketch of this county because he has reliable information concerning it, because many of his descendants now live in the county, and because it is illustrative of dangers and hardships, varying in kind, encountered and endured by the inhabitants of this region in those times. Capt. Sharp, after residing about ten years on his farm, revisited his kindred in Cumberland county, procured a supply of school-books and Bibles for his children, and returned to his home in the wilderness. Determined that his children should have facilities for education which did not exist there, he traded his farm there for one in Kentucky. In the spring of 1794 he removed with his family to Black Lick Creek, where he either built or purchased a flatboat, in which he, his wife and six children, a Mr. Connor, wife and five children, a Mr. Taylor, wife and one child, and Messrs. McCoy and Connor, single men, twenty in all, with their baggage and household effects, embarked on the proposed passage down the Kiskiminetas and Allegheny rivers to Pittsburgh, and thence on to Kentucky. Low water in the Black Lick rendered their descent down it difficult. They glided down the Conemaugh and Kiskiminetas to a point two miles below the falls of the latter, at the mouth of Two Mile r! un, below the present site of Apollo. Capt. Sharp tied the boat there, and went back for the canoe which had been detached while crossing the falls. When he returned the children were gathering berries and playing on the bank; the women were preparing supper, and the men who led the horses had arrived. It was about an hour and a half before sunset. A man then came along and reported that the Indians were near. The women and children were called into the boat, and the men having charge of the horses tied them on shore. It was then thought best that the party should go to the house of David Hall, who was the father of David Hall, of North Buffalo township, this county, and the grandfather of Rev. David Hall, D. D., the present pastor of the Presbyterian church at Indiana, Pennsylvania, to spend the night. While the men were tying the horses, seven Indians, concealed behind a large fallen tree, on the other side of which the children had been playing half-an-hour before, fired! on the party in the boat. Capt. Sharp's right eyebrow was shot off by the first firing. Taylor is said to have mounted one of his horses and fled to the woods, leaving his wife and child to the care and protection of others. While Capt. Sharp was cutting one end of the boat loose, he received a bullet-wound in his left side, and, while cutting the other end loose, received another wound in his right side. Nevertheless, he succeeded in removing the boat from its fastenings before the Indians could enter it, and, discovering an Indian in the woods, and calling for his gun, which his wife handed him, shot and killed the Indian. While the boat was in the whirlpool, it whirled around for two and a half hours, when the open side of the boat, that is the side on which the baggage was not piled up for a breastwork, was toward the land, the Indians fired into it. They followed it twelve miles down the river, and bade those in it to disembark, else they would fire into them again. Mrs. Connor and her eldest son ? a young man ? wished to land. The latte! r requested the Indians to come to the boat, informing them that all the men had been shot. Capt. Sharp ordered him to desist, saying that he would shoot him if he did not. Just then young Connor was shot by one of the Indians, and fell dead across Mrs. Sharp's feet. McCoy was killed. All the women and children escaped injury. Mr. Connor was severely wounded. After the Indians ceased following, Capt. Sharp became so much exhausted by his exertions and loss of blood, that his wife was obliged to manage the boat all night. At daylight the next morning they were within nine miles of Pittsburgh. Some men on shore, having been signaled, came to their assistance. One of them preceded the party in a canoe, so that when they reached Pittsburgh, a physician was ready to attend upon them. Other preparations had been made for their comfort and hospitable reception by the good people of that place. Capt. Sharp, having suffered severely from his wounds, died July 8, 1794, forty days after he was wounded, with the roar of cannon, so to speak, reverberating in his ears, which he had heard celebrating the eighteenth anniversary of our national independence, which he, under Washington, had helped achieve. Two of his daughters were the only members of his family that could follow his remains to the grave. He was buried with the honors of war, in the presence of a large concourse of people. His youngest child was then only eleven days old. As soon as his widow had sufficiently recovered, she was conducted by her eldest daughter, Hannah, to his grave. Major Eben Denny makes this mention in his military journal, June 1, 1794: Two days ago, the Indians, disappointed in that attack" ? on men in a canoe on the Allegheny river, elsewhere mentioned ? "crossed to the Kiskiminetas and unfortunately fell in with a Kentucky boat full of women and children, with but four men, lying to, feeding their cattle. The men, who were ashore, received a fire without much damage, got into a boat, all but one, who fled to a house not far distant. The Indians fired into the boat, killed two men and wounded the third. The boat had been set afloat, and drifted down in that helpless condition, twenty-four women and children on board." Bios including General John Armstrong: "Col., afterward Gen., John Armstrong was born in the north of Ireland in the year 1720. About 1746 he came to Pennsylvania, and settled in what was then called the Kittatinny, now Cumberland valley, on the southeast side of the Kittatinny or Blue mountains...." and "Captain, afterward General, James Potter,21 .... was born "on the bank of the river Foyle, Tyrone, Ireland, in" 1729, and was about twelve years of age when his father, John Potter, landed at New Castle, Delaware." http://www.pa-roots.com/~armstrong/smithproject/history/chap1f.html Linda Merle ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net