Peter A. Rhodes of Enfield, Ct.:Information about WILLIAM CRAWFORD

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COL. WILLIAM CRAWFORD (b. 02 Aug 1722, d. 11 Jun 1782)

WILLIAM CRAWFORD (son of WILLIAM VALENTINE CRAWFORD and HONORA GRIMES) was born 02 Aug 1722 in ORANGE CO., VA., and died 11 Jun 1782 in SANDUSKY, WYANDOTTE CO., OH.. He married HANNAH VANCE on 05 Jan 1743/44 in BERKELEY CO. VA., daughter of JOHN VANCE, SR. and ELIZABETH COLVILLE OR GLASS.

Notes for WILLIAM CRAWFORD:
Killed by Indians, when he was burned at the stake in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Killed by the Sandusky Indians.

Biography: Colonel William Crawford Indian Trader, Pioneer and Solider on the Frontier, Connellsville Area Historical Soc., Inc., Connellsville, Pa. 1976:

"William Crawford, the Scotch-Irish Indian trader, pioneer and frontier soldier, was born in Orange Co., Va in the year 1722, son of Honora and William Crawford. When he was four years old his father died. His mother soon married Richard Stephenson.
William Crawford and his brother, Valentine Crawford, and their half-brothers, John, Hugh, Richard, James and Marquis Stephenson, raised in the Shenandoah Valley near Winchester in what is now Frederick Co., Va., naturally looked towards the west for their future. Most of them were frontiersmen, prominent in the Colonial and Rev. Wars. "When George Washington became a surveyor, his work led him to the Shenandoah Valley, where he was employed in surveying the lands of Lord Fairfax. There, he, for a time, made his home with Richard Stephenson, and became well acquainted with the Crawfords and Stephenson. By the time William Crawford had passed his twenty-sixth year he had traveled across the Allegheny mountains as a Captain in the Army of General Forbes, when that General found Fort Duquesne abandoned by the French and Indians in the year 1758. "In the Va. State Papers, preserved in the Capital at Richmond, Va., a deposition was made by William Crawford before Commissioners James wood and Charles Ormsby in Pittsburgh as follows:
Colonel Crawford deposeth and saith, that his first acquaintance with the Country on the Ohio was in the year 1758, he then being an officer in the Va. Service, that between that time and the year 1765 a number of settlements were made on the Public roads in that Country by permission of the several commanding officers at Fort Pitt. That in the fall of the year 1765 he made some improvements on the west side of the Allegheny Mountains. In the year following he settled and has continued to live out here since. That before that he thinks near three hundred, without permission of any commanding officer. From that time to the present, the people continued to emigrate to this county very fast. The deponenet, being asked if he knows the names of those who settled in the year 1766, and on what waters, answers that Zachel Morgan, James Chew, and Jacob Prickett up the Monongahela river. That he has since seen Zachel Morgan's plantation, which is on the south side of the line run by Mason and Dixon. "The year after William Crawford settled in what is now Fayette Co., Pa., he began to act as agent for George Washington his acquisition of valuable lands in this section, as appears in a letter written by Washington, 21 Sep 1767, to Captain William Crawford of Stewart's Crossing (now Connellsville). George Washington wrote before the land had been opened to settlement, as the Penns did not complete the 'New Purchase' and allow legal settlement until 3 Apr 1769. Only one tract of land, called 'Meadows', was warranted to George Washington at that time. The warrant dated 3 Apr 1769, provided for a tract containing 369 acres of land, but he actually came into possession of 1641 acres, as is shown in the recital of deeds made by his executors in the year 1802. "There lands were selected by Capt. Crawford as agent for Washington. In 1770 Col. Washington made a trip to this county in order to look after his property...Under date of 13 Oct he says: "Crawford's is very fine land, lying on the Ypughiogheny at a place commonly called Stewart's Crossing. 14th at Captain Crawfords all day...' "Upon the erection of Bedford Co., in 1771, Capt Wm. Crawford was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and this office was renewed on the erection of Westmoreland County in 1773. As a Justice at that time, his official powers and duties, both in civil and criminal cases, covered all the work later delegated to the Judge and Oyer and Terminer, and Court of Common Pleas.
"Col. Wm. Crawford, when the news came in May 1775, of the battle of Lexington, attended a meeting of citizens of Augusta Co., Va. and was appointed one of the committee for defense of the Colonies. He immediately took the initiative and organizes his neighbors so that the first considerable body of soldiers to be enlisted in the Monongahela County for the Rev. Army was raised in the Autumn of 1775, mainly through his efforts at his recruiting office in his home at Stewart's Crossing.

Washington, upon hearing of the terrible ending of his friend's life, said: It is with the greatest sorrow and concern that I have learned the melancholy tidings of his death. He was known to me as an officer of great prudence, brave, experienced and active.

On June 10, 1782 Colonel william Crawford was capured with several of jis command by hostile Indians and marched to a large village about eight miles above the Sandusky River. Soon the prisoners, all except Crawford and army surgeon Dr. Edward Knight, were murdered and scalped. Dr Knight was held captive but Colonel Crawford was taken by the Indians, stripped of all clothing and led to a thick post projecting fifteen feet from the gound. Bound at the wrists he was tethered with a rawhide cord to the post. In this way he was able to walk around the pole, stand, sit, even lie down, but was unable to move more than four feet in any direction from the pole. Soon a crowd of Indians rushed up with sticks and switches and beat Crawford unmercifully, withdrawing only when his body was badly welted and bloodstained and he appeared on the verge of unconsciousness. The Indians then raced over to where Dr. Knight was tied and subjected him to the same punishment. Colonel Crawford was then informed that his captors planned to burn him. A foot-high circle of kindling was placed all the way around Crawford's stake, at a distance of about five yards. About a hundred dry hickory poles, each an inch or so thick and upwards of twenty feet in length, were placed so that they lay with one end atop the kindling and the other stetching outward, away from the circle. Crawford was surrounded by a milling mass of Indian warriors and squaws, all of whom carried flintlock rifles. Into the barrels they poured extra-large quantities of gunpowder but no balls, and shot at Colonel Crawford pointblank. The grains of powder and saltpeter stillburning peppered his body; and imbedded just beneath his skin. Crawford screamed until he was hoarse and whimpering. More than seventy powder charges had stuck him everywhere from feet to neck, but the greater majority had been aimed at his groin, and when, they were finished the end of his-----ws black and shredded and still smoking. As Dr. Knight watchedin horror one of the Indian leaders stepped up to Colonel Crawford and sliced off his ears. From where he sat watching Dr. Knight could see blood flowing down both sides of Crawford's head, bathing his shoulders, back and chest. Now came the squaws with burning brands and they lighted the kindling all the way around the circle, igniting the material every foot or so until the entire circle was ablaze. The poles quickly caught fire on their tips and the heat became intense, causing the closest spectators to fall back. Crawford made a peculiar cry and ran around the post in a frenzy trying to escape the flames, finally falling to the ground and wrapping his body aound the stake. After the better part of an hour the fire died down, leaving behind a fanned-out ring of long poles, each with one end a glowing spike. Crawford's back, buttocks and the skin on the back of his thighs had blisered and burst and then curled up into little charred crisps. The sounds he made were fainter. The torture continued as Indians selected poles and jabbed the glowing ends onto Colonel Crawford's skin where they thought it would give most pain. Dr. Knight thought Crawford near death by this time, but was amazed to see the colonel scramble to his feet and begin stumbling about the stake, attempting to avoid the glowing ends, that hissed and smoked whenever they touched him. One of the glowing points was thrust at his face and as he jerked to avoid it he ran into another which contacted his open eye, causing him to shriek loudly. When the poles had been used and tossed on a pile to one side, some of the squaws came up with wooden boards and scooped up piles of glowing embers to throw at him until soon he had nothing to walk upon but coals of fire and hot ashes. As Colonel Crawford circled the stake he began to plead coherently for someone to shoot him, to kill him. Most of the Indians did not understand what Crawford was saying, but the beseeching tone of the colonel's voice pleased them and they clapped their hands and shouted alod in triumph at having forced the white chief into this outburst. When there was no answer to his pleads; Crawford began a shuffling walk round and round the stake as if in a trance, scarcely flinching as he stepped on the hot coals. Finally he stopped and slowly raised his head and loudly and clearly prayed for God to end his suffering. Once more he began the same shuffling walk until at last, two full hours after having been prodded with glowing poles, he fell oh his stomach and lay silent. At once an Indian chief stepped over the ring of ashes and cut a deep circle on the top of Colonel Crawford's head with his knife, wrapped the long dark hair around his hand and yanked hard. The pop as the scalp pulled off was clearly audible to Dr. Knight. The chief now stepped clear of the circle and advanced on the captive doctor. He held the dripping scalp in front of Dr. Knight's eyes and taunted him. With rapid stokes he whipped the fleshy portion of the scalp back and forth across Knight's face, stopping only when there came a deep murmur from the crowd behind him.
A squaw had entered the circle of ashes with a board heaped full of glowing coals, and these she scattered on Crawford's back and held them with the board against the officer's bare skull. The murmur that had arisen was occasioned by what seemed wholly unbelievable; Colonel Crawford groaned faintly and rolled over and then slowly drew up his knees and raised himself to a kneeling position. For perhaps two minutes he stayed like this and then he placed one foot on the ground and stood erect again, beginning anew a shuffling walk around the stake. A few squaws touched burning sticks to him but he seemed insensitive to them, no longer even attempting to pull away. it was the most appalling sight Dr. Knight had ever witnessed and, unable to control himself any longer, he suddenly vomited and then screamed at his captors, cursing them and calling them murderers and fiends and devils. Squaws now heaped armloads of fresh kindling in the pile near the stake and lighted it. When the fire reached its peak, two warriors cut the rawhide cord that bound the still shuffling Crawford and, one on each side let him shuffle toward the fire. When the heat became too intense for them to advance closer, they thrust him from them and he sprawled into the blaze. His legs jerked a few times and one arm flailed out but then, as skin and flesh blackend, living motion stopped and all that remained was a gradual drawing of arms and legs close to the body in the pugilistic posture charactistic in persons burned to death. So ended the life of Colonel William Crawford. Dr. Knight, who had witnessed Crawford's sufferings was later turned over by the Delaware to the Shawnees, from whom he later escaped. Dr. Knigt eventually reached safety in a white settlement and gave a report of the events.
later he published his famous narrative, which described the sad end of Colonel Crawford.

6th Great Grand father to Pete

More About WILLIAM CRAWFORD:
Occupation: Indian Trader, Pioneer and Soldier.

More About WILLIAM CRAWFORD and HANNAH VANCE:
Marriage: 05 Jan 1743/44, BERKELEY CO. VA..

Children of WILLIAM CRAWFORD and HANNAH VANCE are:

+OPHELIA "EFFIE" CRAWFORD, b. 02 Sep 1751, VA., d. 1825, FAYETTE COUNTY, PA..