The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-03-02
Yours most respectfully, I

& For the account OF Mary Moore's captivity
see Foose,s Sketches of RirginiG. This very
interesting letter from her son Ienclosed to
The Hon. Lyman G. Draper, LII. D., secre-
tary OF the Wisconsin Historical Society and
a leading authority on all matters pertaining
TO Our early border history. La his reply to
my letter OF inquiry DR.. Draper says that the
tradition OF Mr.. Brown Is certainly without
foundation 50 far as Simon Girty or brothers
are concerned. He says -" ] have been at
Simon Girfy' = grave, near Maiden, Canada;
have seen oncdaughter and several grand
children d his. and several in Canada who
lived his .neig hbors, and oil agree that he
died, near Maiden, a Natural death. An
older brother, whose SON /. saw, lived and
died near p pittsburgh; another brother died
i'm Canada not very far from Simon's; and
still another In the Manner. feel conf
dent none Of the sGirtys everjresided in
Tyghart's Valley. DR.. Draper has given
much time and gresearch to- this matter, and
has In hand considerable material concern
ing the origin and history OF the Girtys.
/ In q subsequent letter Rev. Mr.. Brown
accepts the testimony OF DR.. Draper us per-
fect!y satisfactory, and adds: .stI now give
it up. 1t could not nave been Simon Girty
who was burned in Pocahontas county,
Va; but j have not the least doubt that
some one was put to death as described,
under the belief that it was Girty, and that
it was some one who had been in league
with the hostile Indians. But the real
name will, in all probability, remain mys-
terry" 80 5.
II not one Of the Girtys, who was he |?
It is possible that under the influence Of
liquor the person who was thus burned
alive, having no conception OF the result
which would follow, and hoping to gain
cheap Rotoriety thereby, passed himself off
as Simon Girty; and while in. drunken
stupor, unable to prove his identity, or to
llisproye his assumed character, the terrible
death above described was visited upon
him. No record of any such event occurs
in Doddridge, Withers, or any other writer
of border history. In that early day on the
frontier such an event would not necessari-
ly be extensively known. And If 1t had
been known beyond the region in which
it occurred, so severely had the early set
tiers suffered from Indian cruelty, and
especially from the Girtys, that public
opinion would have unanimously sustained
the citizens Of Pocahontas in their action.
Doubtless those engaged in the burning
realized, after the excitement OF revenge
had subsidized, the enormity of the crime
they had committed (which equalled any act
OF cruelty attributed to the Girtys), and de-
termined to keep the matter secret until the
perpetrators had mostly passed away.
Public opinion largely sustained the
Paxon men in their murder OF the Cones
toga Indians at Lancaster, as it did Colonel
David Williamson's command in that most
heartless. cold-blooded murder of the Chris
tian Moravian Indians at Guadehhutter in
1882, when SO Indian men, women. and
children, unarmed, were knocked in the
head with mallet in the hands of white
men. It may be right that not even the
names OF those who engaged in this iend-
ish massacre arc known. The Christian
people of Washington county, Penn. from
which locality the company was largely
gathered, made the rising generation be-
lieye it to be an unholy anti Christian war
fare, hence they avoided the subject, and
with the passing away OF three genera
tons no trace Of the actors remains. But
who was the person thus entombed in fire
and consumed by slow torture at the clog
rolling" in Pocahontas! The worthy cler-
gymau who gives the narrative is the brother
OF the Rev. DR.. Brown, OF the Central
Presbyterian. published in Richmond. and
is man in every way entitled to the fullest
confidence.