In a message dated 4/26/05 8:25:31 PM Central Daylight Time, Swbenson@aol.com writes: the right places. I I know the name Spurgeon, too. Where does Kathleen Spurgeon live? Somehow I think a Spurgeon my mother mentioned was a lawyer in Fayette County. I'm not certain. All the Best, Susannah Benson Re. Spurgeon John Spurgeon was awarded 400 acres in the "Glades" area east of Bruceton Mills WV for his service in the Revolutionary War. He was a friend of George Washington, and "Washington slept here" in John's house, along with his nephew Bushrod Washington, when they were on an exploring expedition between the end of the war and the establishment of the U.S. as a country, with Washington as president. Bushrod writes about that stay in his diary, and mentions crossing Sandy creek at Bruceton on a ferry operated by Spurgeon. Spurgeon's Glades farm was about 5 miles, as the crow flies, from Fort Necessity which is in Fayette Co. PA. At that time, before the Mason-Dixon survey, that was all the same territory. Washington had constructed Fort Necessity years earlier, in his only military defeat, when he was in command of Braddock's British troups that had attacked Fort Duquesne and were defeated by the French & Indians. Many of the people in that area can trace their lineage back to John Spurgeon & wives Mary Green and Mary Farmer. Your name "Benson" intrigues me. I grew up with many Bensons. What is your Q&D lineage list? Cuz Gary