28 October 2014

Simon Girty




Girty... (1955)

Simon Girty was born in 1744 in the then little backwoods settlement of Paxton (near present-day Harrisburg, Pennsylvania).  His father, "old Girty of Paxtang," as he was irreverently called a lawless, intemperate, Irishman immigrated to the colony about the year 1740, adopted the congenial pursuit of pack horse driver in the Indian trade, married one Mary Newton, and made his home for a number of years at Paxtang.

 [Old Girty]...was killed by an Indian named The Fish...  .  The widow of the murdered man was left to battle with poverty and privations and her four little sons Simon, James, George, and Thomas looked helplessly out upon an unfriendly world... . 

Source
The family was captured; Thomas and George Girty were assigned to the Delawares and Simon Girty to the Senecas.  James Girty, Mary (Newton) Girty Turner and her infant son, John Turner, were "delivered over to the Shawanese."


More about the Girtys here, here, here and here.  




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