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Simon Girty's descendants soak up ancestor's history
Sunday, June 25, 2000 By Marylynne Pitz, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Simon Girty Jr., a renegade of the American Revolution, was a man of divided loyalties.
Captured in Pennsylvania by the western Senecas at age 15 and later returned to Colonial society, Girty spoke 11 Indian dialects, served as a scout to the British at Fort Pitt and deserted the Colonial army to fight with the British in the American Revolution.
Many of his descendants, who came from all over the country to North Park yesterday, believe historians spent far too much time vilifying Girty and exaggerating his reputation for cruelty.
"If Benedict Arnold offended the egos of American aristocracy, Simon Girty terrified her people," said Phillip Hoffman, a television screenwriter from California who has spent 11 years researching a book about Girty.
Ken Girty, a Butler County resident who organized the daylong event that drew 170 people, believes his ancestor was a principled man who was misunderstood.
After 10 years of research, Ken Girty believes his ancestor sided with the British partly because he was sickened by the Colonials' plans to eradicate the Indians from the frontier.
Early descendants of Girty, frontiersman Simon Kenton and Col. William Crawford represent various faces of the American frontier.
Girty renounced the American Revolution while Kenton sided with the Colonials in their fight to win independence.
Crawford, a farmer, surveyor and military leader for whom Crawford County is named, fought with George Washington in the American Revolution.
After being captured by Delaware Indians, Crawford was burned at the stake in 1782.
Some historians say Girty laughed at Crawford while his friend was being scalped and burned but other accounts maintain that Girty offered the Indians his horse, gun and liquor in a vain attempt to save Crawford's life.
Yesterday's assembly looked like any other family reunion: The setting was North Park; the fare was hot dogs, baked beans, potato salad and cake.
But descendants of Girty, Kenton and Crawford did not gather to discuss Aunt Sally's heart surgery or cousin Bill's trip to Alaska.
Instead, they soaked up history and sunshine, learned a simple dance step from Shawnee Indians, traced their lineage on a giant genealogical chart and watched a scene from a play about Girty's life called "The White Savage."
Written by Joe Bonamico of New Philadelphia, Ohio, the play includes a scene in which Simon Girty Jr. and Simon Kenton swore to maintain a lifelong friendship.
The bond between the two men was forged after Girty persuaded Indians not to burn Kenton at the stake.
The scene in which Girty and Kenton vow to be as close as brothers is recounted in Edna Kenton's book, "Simon Kenton, His Life and Times."
"Girty and I, two lonely men on the banks of the Ohio River, pledged ourselves, one to the other, hand in hand for life and death when there was nobody in the wilderness but God and us."
Bonamico and Tim Braden of New York acted out that scene yesterday.
In the audience was Barbara White, of Meadville, Crawford County. She is the fourth great-granddaughter of Simon Kenton.
White said her ancestor saved the life of frontiersman Daniel Boone during a skirmish with Indians in the 1780s.
As an Indian prepared to scalp the wounded Boone, Kenton shot the warrior and carried Boone back to safety in Boonesboro, Ky.
The stories fascinated Jim Hamilton, a retired teacher from Barrie, Ontario, Canada, who became intrigued by the legend of Simon Girty Jr.
Girty, who died at age 77 in 1818, spent his last days on a farm outside Amhertsburg in Canada. Girty fled to Canada because Colonials had put a price on his head.
"From the Canadian perspective, he wasn't a traitor, he was a loyalist," Hamilton said.
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