My Crawford Ancestors - Part 1

It has been a while since my last post. It has been busy and I have been focusing on my courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies during my free time.

I wanted to share some of the information and stories about my Crawford line as gathered by my grandmother (Helen Crawford) and my grandfather (Timothy Marsh).

They spent many years researching and exploring their ancestors and it has been handed down and is now in my possession. Our Crawford's in America trace back to ancient times in the south of Scotland near the village of Crawford-John, on the Clyde, dating back to the eleven hundreds.  The walls of the ancient castle, are still standing.

Ruins at the Crawford Castle

The ancestor of the American branch migrated from Ayrshire to the north of Ireland in the early 1600s, settling first in Donegal.  By the 1730s, the branch that came to America were living in Tyrone county, sailing to America, landing in Philadelphia by 1740 and settling in south Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Alexander and a brother Patrick with other siblings may have emigrated from Ireland at the same time, however Patrick does not name Alexander when he signed his declaration of importation in 1840 to Orange County, Virginia.

Alexander and Mary McPheeters Crawford settled first on Octororo Creek in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania near the Delaware border southwest of greater Philadelphia and about twenty miles northwest of Wilmington, Delaware in about 1740, having landed at Pennsylvania from North Ireland, probably Ulster. 

The first to come to Augusta County from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania were Alexander and Mary McPheeters Crawford, settling around 1744 near the base of Little North Mountain on Dry Branch situated between Churchville and Buffalo Gap, including a small part of Little North Mountain, on a two thousand acre grant.  Alexander and Mary built their cabin near the base of the mountain looking out over the plains.  The cabin was log with the chimney of native stone.  Their first son, William was born 1 Jun 1744 in the county and baptized at the North Mountain House (Presbyterian) by the Rev. Craig June 1746. Alexander was said to be a smith and silversmith as was his son William.

Brother Patrick married Sally Wilson and settled at Fort Defiance near Stone Church.

In the summer of 1764, Indian troubles were prevalent throughout this area of Augusta County, forcing the inhabitants to seek protection in an old house call Old Stone Fort or sometimes called the Keller House, it stood in the bend of Middle River near the mouth of Buffalo Branch.  In October of 1968, this house was about gone.

After the Trimbles were killed and some of the family captured, Thomas Gardiner and his mother Ann (formerly Ann Crawford, sister of Alexander Crawford), Alexander and Mary became alarmed, and hurried to the fort. After a short stay, Alexander and Mary left the small children at the fort and decided to return to their cabin along with their older sons John and William to check their holdings and care for the horse and cattle. While John and William were at the side of Little North Mountain searching for their horses from the cabin below, when they returned to the site of the cabin they found the remains of their father Alexander in the ashes and stubble and the body of their mother Mary in the yard where she attempted to escape.  This massacre occurred in September 1764. Will McPheeters qualified as administrator of Alexander Crawford. The remains of the murdered Crawford's were carried to Old North Meeting House Graveyard for burial.

In October of 1968 when Tim and Helen Marsh visited the old Alexander and Mary McPheeters Crawford's homestead "Mountain View," located near Churchville in Augusta County, Virginia on Dry Branch at the base of Little North Mountain, they visited the site where this pioneer couple met their dreadful fate at the hands of hostile Indians in the late summer of 1764. They found and photographed the remains of the ancient rock chimney, then a large pile of native stones, that had remained in a pile from 1764 undisturbed until their visit.  The old cabin that was burned during the massacre had stood beside the rubble of the chimney about a hundred years to the rear of the stately colonial house that William, the son of Alexander and Mary, had built in 1769, according to an old iron plaque that the Sorrells, the owners of the house, pointed out to us.  The visit and tour of the house was an exhilarating yet sad experience. As they stood on that very spot, their minds eye could visualize that terrible day in the past.