The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-03-28
Old Simon Girty

/
WAS NOT BURNED ON A LOG PILE IN PGCAH0N-
TAS COUNTY, BUT DIED A NATURAL DEATH IN
| GANADA-DR. DRAPER, MR.. HAYDEN, AND
CAPTAIN MoFFETT GIVE INTERESTING HIS
ToRICAL "REMINISCENCES OF FRONTIER LIFE.
| Correspondence of the Wheeling Register.l
CLovEELICK, w. VA, March 18th.
In one OF my letters from White Sulphur
Springs, in the early part OF last summer,
gave an account OF the cremation OF a man
in q log hut by the people OF the Little .Le-
yels OF Pocahontas county during the early
settlement OF the county. The statement
was made on the authority Of Rev. Samuel
Brown, a venerable Presbyterian clergyman
Of Rockbridge county, who believed that
the man who was burned was the veritable
Simon Girty, Of border notoriety. This let
ter having fallen under the eye OF Rev.
Horace e. Hayden, that gentleman wrote to
Mr.. Brown for history Of the occurrence.
Mr.. Brown promptly replied, giving his
authority for the statements and reasons for
believing that the notorious Girty had thus
met death. Hayden has quite celebrity
as an antiquarian, and, anxious to ascertain
the correct fate OF the renegade, in con-
nection with DR.. Draper, Of Wisconsin,
has worked up the history Of the Girty
family, and has recently laid before the His
torical Society Of Virginia valuable paper
on this subject. | enclose for publication
in the Register copy OF DR.; Hayden's ar
ticIe as it was recently published in the
Richmond Dispatch, which will doubtless
prove Of interest to the people OF West
Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. 1t
will be seen that Mr.. Hayden clearly eStab-
fishes the fact that it could not have been
Simon Girty who was burned in Pocahontas
county. Yet he asks, elf it was not one
Of the Girtys, who was he?" l think can
answer his inquiry. 1t was nobody.
7 have taken some pains recently to eX-
anime into this matter, and find that no
one living in this county (Pocahontas) has
any knowledge OF any person ever being
burned in the manner described by Mr..
Brown. The oldest citizens have no recol-
lection OF any such occurrence, and none
of them have had any such tradition handed
down from their ancestors. know that 1t
would have been fit termination OF the
bloody career Of the cruel Glrty, and am
sorry that the stern truth OF history is COM
PEELED TO upset the BroWn-Wood theory OF
his death. But history is history, and facts
are facts. So am convinced that the Gre
dibiity Of the two good old men has been
imposed on, and / think can give the ori-
gin OF the story.
Some forty years ago q singular indi-
yiduai made his appearance in Pocahontas
county. Whence he came no one knew.
He was quite old, had a hard visaSe, sharp
features, and a general blood-thirsty look
about him. He may have been the founder
of the society Of tramps; at any rate, he
had all the eccentricitics OF the members OF
that order. He squatted for short while
in the settlement on Sage creek. and from
the general bad character and dlssolute
habits of the aged yagrant, and the num-
berless stories told OF his connection with
The Indian troubles on the frontier, the
belief gained ground with the people that
this man was no other than Simon Glrty
the renegade. Everybody knows how
story Of this kind, repeated from mouth
to mouth and passing from household
to household, will gain proportions rs 1t
goes and never lose anything. Coming
lust in this way to the ears Of old Jimmy
Wood and Joe Hannah, two simple
minded, credulous old men, they drank in
every word OF it as trae. and, doubtless
with all the earnestness OF full confidence
in its truthfulness, in after years related
it TO Mr.. Brown. The old vagabond,
who had been staying at the house OF 4
man uamed Burgess, living on the head
waters of Williams river, branch OF
Gauley, suddenly disappeared, and was
seen no more. The exaggerated stories
were put into circulation about his mysteri-
GUS disappearance. Some people held that
he was a miser, and that Burgess had MUIR
dered him for his money. Another story
gained crcdence, and the one which Wood
| and Hannah held to, that he confessed 10
being Simon Girty, and that at certain log
rolling at Sago, where he put in his appear
apce, the men, under the belief that. he was
| l>oI ,i,,,i int
pile OF logs and that be perished iE the flames.
| But there was 30 foundation for either OF
these stories. The truth, as near as | can
ascertain it, is that the vagabond started
from BURGESS house Oh his WandcripSs,
and that in passing through the wilderness
of the Yew mountains on his way to BraX-
ton he perishcd. doubt not that at some
future day, when the settler is clearing out
the vast forests OF the Yew mountains, there
will be found beneath some moss-bank the
bones OF the vagrant who has been the cause
Of so much historical investigation. And
nerbaDs the fossilated remains will be
patbered uD to decorate some sclen-
| tifc museum, and form the basis OF
an argument Of some future Darwin or
science to disprove the Mosaic account OF
creation. Or, as is not altogether improba-
BILE, the four winds will be called upon, as
in the vision OF Ezekiel, "to breathe upon
these bones that they may live" to teach
the rising generation the moral obligation
OF paying the Shylocks Of the world accord
inc to "the penalty and forfeit OF the
| bond"
MIR, HAYDEN and DR.. Draper having shown
that Simon Girty died natural death IN
Canada, and it being equally true that no
] person was ever cremated on log pile IN
Pocahontas, the story of the tragic death OF
the scourgc OF the frontiers is fully eX-
ploded. H. IL. W.
a long time ago Ratazzi wrote to friend,
in letter Just published: 'FIf any one has
q prospect of attaining the Papal throne,
especially il Antonelli dies, it is Cardinal
Pccci, Archbishop OF Perugia. | am pre-
pared for such an eventuality. My only
hope is that Plus TX. will outliye Antonelli,
and Pecci will not so soon have chance OF
being raised to the Pontificate. Still, II he
were, Idon't think the Status quo will there.
Efore be much changed. Pecci IS man OF
incontestable worth. He has much energy,
and unites pleasant social qualities with
especially strong administrative faculties"
A London newspaper Of recent date