The Coolidge examiner., 1935-07-19

erty and for repellnE any hostile invasion
thereof would consist % nine companies They
we're 20 be commanded by Col William Thomp-
son % Carlisle with Edward Hand OF Lancaster
as lieutenant colonel and Robcr, Magaw as
major all ~men whose courage we have the
highest opinion Of"
Zach company consisted OF one captain. three
lsufenants. four sergcants. four eorporals q
drummer or trumpeter. and IS privnies. The cap.
tain received So a month. The lieuicnanis Sl3h,
the sergeants s. the corpornls nud the drummer
or trumpcier sTH. and the priyntes SCI,
These rlremen were n miscellaneous lot. The
majority of them were Irish German or Welsh.
the second generation Of some of the thousands
OF immigrants who. In the early years of the
Eighteenth century had settled IN William
Penn's colony Then. too. there were many De.
scendants Of the Scots who had been driven by
religious persecution from their native high
lands In the Seventeenth century. They had
sought temporary refuge In the province of
Ulster. Ireland. whence between the years i72O
and iT4o. thousands OF them migrated 10 Amer.
lea and peopled the hills Of Pcnnsylynnas from.
tier with a sturdy, rugged race that WIS destined
90 play an important part Ia the formation Of
our national character" Besides these. there
we're others Of pure English stock and to make
the cosmopolitan nature Of the battalion more
complete. the rolls OF Captain Lowdon's com.
pany carried the name OF John shawnee a
SEawanese Indian warrior
on these same rolls were three other names
which should have made Lowdon's company Tor.
ever famous one of them was German. Peter
Bentz. Pennsylvania would later hail him. under
the name of Peter Pence. as one OF her great.
est Indian lighters Another was seventeen.
year-old boy a red beaded Irish lad named sam
uei Brady The future would see him making the
name Of Capt sam Brady. Chief of Rangers
a household word along the Pennsylvania Ohio
rorder. II would know him as the hero of
"Bradys Leap" across the chasm OF the Cuya-
hoga river in northern Ohio. But this would be
only one OF many OF his halrbreadth escapes
from the red men
The third was another Irshman. a rolcklng.
dark-eyed Celt named Timothy Murphy Two
years later the sharp crack OF his long rifle
would sound the doom OF British army as his
bullet punctuated the death sentence OF Gen.
Simon Fraser at Saratoga. Another year. would
add TO his fame as "ihe most redoubtedly notorl-
Gus marksman in North America and. the
Scout of the Schoharie" he would become the
terror Of his Iroquois and Tory enemies In New
York
No less notable than the eagerness OF such
men as these to enlist In the fight for liberty
was their speed In reaching the theater OF war.
Between the 2Sth. OF July and the I'd. instant,
the rife men under the command OF Captains
Smith. Lowdon, Doudel Chambers Nagel, Miller
and Hendricks passed through New Windsor Ga
few miles north OF West PolnD In the New
York government on their way TO Boston" said
a New York item In the Philadelphia Evening
Post OF August IL, 1875. But II was evidently
Incorrect. so far two OF the companies
Nagers and Doudels-were concerned. A letter.
dated from Cambridge July "A. 1915 says: THE
Reading company OF rifles got into camp last
Tuesday uSth) the rest hourly expected
a't much wanted" Thus the men from Berks
county had the honor OF being the first Penn
sylvania company to appear on the scene of
action.
BY July % they had been Joined by their
sharpshooting brethren from York county under
Captain DoudeL Captain Chambers company ar
rived on August and Captain Hendricks on
August S On the same day Tim Murphy, Sam
Brady, Peter BentZ and their mates in Captain
Lowry's company shufled their welIworn moe
casins through the grass on the campus of Har-
ward college and shook the dust of the weary
miles from their green-thrummed hunting shirts
Ten days later Captain Ross and his company
swung into camp, TO be met with much good
natured banter at his tardy arrival. because his
Lancaster county Dutchmen were so slow" Al