The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1909-09-03
A BAD MAN IN HISTORY
A Decendent of Simon Girty.
the Renegade, Dies in
This County.
THE DECEASED A GOOD CITIZEN
And No Reflection Intended Upon
an Old, Worthy and Re-
spected Resident.

Last Thursday morning word was
received here that George Girty, an
old and widely known miner and resi-
dent OF this upper country, was sick at
his cabin on the Similkameen river,
between Oroville and Nighthawk. DR..
Schwabland at once answered the sum-
mons, but before he reached the bed
side the unfortunate man was dead,
word of the fatal termination of the
illness reaching this Office as the forms
were going to press. The funeral took
place Friday.
George Girty was a pioneer of the
Pacific coast, and although resident
of this county off and on for many years
little is known of his early life. 1t cer-
tainly was an active one, and undoubt
edly intensely interesting if the story
could be told. He followed mining for
years, having worked on the great
Comstock lode, at Virginia City, New,
when those mines were the wonder of
the world, and piled up fortunes that
made men famous in financial circles.
He came to Okanogan county in early
days, and was one of the original loca-
tors of the Wyndotte and Lone Pine
properties. He left here and was in
Alaska for some time. Upon his re-
turn he followed placer mining on the
Similkameen river, above the falls,
living the life of recluse. He was
some 10 years of age at the time of his
death, and so far4as known leaves PC,
relatives.
George Girty was grandson of that
infamous and execrated white rene
gade. Simon Girty. whose heartless
cruelties during the border Indian war
fare of the early history of the United
States still lives in fact and fiction.
Deserving his race he joined the In
dians and made common cause against
the white settler. He was even more
cruel and brutal to prisoners falling
into his hands than his savage associ-
ates. No name connected with the in
human butcherieS that accompanied
the settlement and reclamation of the
wilderness is so detested as that of ST.
mon Girty. The deceased rarely ever
acknowledged the relationship, fearing
it might reflect upon himself. But
the blood of George Ginty was not po-
luted by that of his notorious ancestor.
He was quiet, gentle, inoffensive,
generous man. and his entire life, so
far as known, was that of model citi
zen. Among the few effects left by
the dead man is a very Old-fashioned,
wel-worn, horn-bowed pair of specta-
cles, made upon plan that denotes
their antiquity, that he claimed were
the property of Simon Girty, and were
worn by that hardened wretch up to
the time of his death.
The New Americanized Encyclopa-
dia Britannica gives the following brief
sketch of Simon Girty, who roamed
with torch and hatchet the Ohio valley
during the latte part of the last CEN
tury:
Sin on Girty, an American adven-
turer: born in what is now Dauphin
county. Penn, in l74l. He Joined the
Virginia militia and became an Indian
Interpreter, but in 1776 deserted, and
ioined the English forces serving un-
der Lord Dunmore. He acted as In
dian interpreter and spy for the Brit
ish army, and was declared traitor
by the Pennsylvania legislature. He
finally commanded large body of In
dans and was guilty of many atrocities
against the whites. He died in Cana
da in 1878.