I'm having one of those times where it feels like everything is happening all at once. I've been granted a new role at my beloved Zenkaikon (meaning that I'll be doing more than just babbling about history next year), I'm trying to start stockpiling markers for the winter blog posts, and I've still got a lot of work to do on books. I've also got something really exciting coming up next week, but I'm waiting to announce it until the time is right. Here's a hint, though - see that link I added to the masthead for "MQ in Other Media"? It's going to make a huge addition to the list on that page. I'm trying not to think about it too much so I don't make myself nervous, honestly.
To that end, let's head back in time to the colonial era and talk about an often-forgotten figure. This gentleman started out well, but the American Revolution led to him being caught between the opposing sides, and his reputation took a blow from which it could never fully recover.
 |
| The marker stands at 401 Skyport Road. |
If he wasn't born in Dublin, he had moved there by 1741, because that was the year in which he voyaged from Dublin to the New World and settled in Pennsylvania. A few of his relatives came with him, including his mother and stepfather, though his grandfather and most other connections remained in Ireland. The men who accompanied him worked for George, who rapidly became a successful fur trader. Like a number of other colonial settlers, he purchased furs from Native Americans and resold them to the European market. To make himself more palatable to the Natives, George learned to speak the Delaware and Seneca languages, which were the two primary Native tongues in the area. He also adopted some of the Native customs, like presenting new acquaintances with gifts, to further gain their trust.
All right, so George's time in what would eventually be the United States was lengthy and lasted through multiple wars. First came what was known as King George's War, from 1744 to 1748. This was #3 out of the four French and Indian Wars, and while it mainly took place north of Pennsylvania, it did affect George's trading business. He left his original trading post, where the historical marker stands, and headed west into Ohio and toward Michigan. This was territory controlled by the French at the time, and his good relationships with Natives was a threat to their influence (or at least they thought it was) so they encouraged their Native allies to attack him. He survived, though, and set up new trading posts. Allegedly he fueled some uprisings to steal trading partners from the French, but this has never been proven. He did, however, definitely have a hand in the Miami Natives signing a peace treaty with Great Britain, which was signed in Lancaster in July 1748. There were two other interpreters present for this event; one was the great Conrad Weiser, whose name appears in so many stories and who was the official British agent to the Natives in Pennsylvania. The other was Andrew Montour, from the family for whom Montour County would later be named, who became one of George's best friends and remained so for the rest of his life.
George next went, at the behest of James Hamilton, to investigate a situation in the Ohio Valley. He was able to purchase a large tract of land on which a British fort was constructed. He and his pal Andrew spent part of 1750 helping the Commonwealth of Virginia by taking a Virginia scout, Christopher Gist, on a tour of Native settlements in Ohio. A few years later came the fourth and final French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years' War (guess how long it lasted), during which George and Andrew both served as captains under Col. George Washington. This went badly. There was a conference in which Washington and the Natives didn't get along, and the future Father of His Country blamed George Croghan for the loss of Fort Necessity. How justified that blame was, I don't know; it's a little unclear. George was definitely not to blame for the blundering of General Jeffery Amherst, however, who ignored George's attempts to educate him on Native customs. Amherst's poor treatment of the Natives led them to join the mess known as Pontiac's War in order to drive the British out.
Things managed to get even worse in 1777, when he went to Virginia on business and was sent back with messages for General Edward Hand concerning frontier defenses. Hand wasn't overly thrilled to see him, because his agents had uncovered what was believed to be a Loyalist conspiracy. George was, as far as anyone could determine, not involved in this; but all the same, Hand sent him to report to Philadelphia. He reached the city just two weeks before it was captured by the British forces, and he was too sick to escape. The British took him prisoner, but left him behind when they evacuated in June of the following year. He was tried by the returning Pennsylvania officials, still suspected of treason, but acquitted.
Despite the acquittal, he was not allowed to return to his home in the western half of the state, Croghan Hall, and he spent a couple of years in Lancaster, living on the kindness of friends. He mortgaged Croghan Hall to Joseph Simon as part of his ongoing effort to pay off his debts. His health continued to fail, and he was pretty much bedridden for the last two years of his life. He was able to acquire a home in Philadelphia, where he died on August 31, 1782. By that point, he had fallen so far into obscurity that the newspapers didn't even bother to report his death. He was buried at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in the city, and given a flimsy grave marker that was soon destroyed. His grave was then unmarked for more than a century until it was given a new tombstone in 2008 by the Sons of the American Revolution.
Meanwhile, George's original trading post still stands on the outskirts of modern-day Mechanicsburg. It's a private residence these days, not open for tours, but the historical marker stands out front to let passersby know just how old the house is and what kind of history it represents.
Sources and Further Reading:
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I would love to hear from you!