Simon

Simon Girty

Simon Girty (1741-1818) was born in Pennsylvania to Irish immigrant parents. His father was Indian Trader, and was killed in a duel when Simon was nine. In 1756, in the early years of the French and Indian War, Simon and his family were taken hostage by Indians who captured Fort Granville. His step father was executed, and the family was split up and sent to various tribes. Simon was taken by western Senecas to a village near Lake Erie’s east shore, where he was adopted and trained as an interpreter.
In 1764, Girty returned from life among the Seneca, now fluent in eleven native languages. The famed Seneca Chief Guyasuta
brought him to the attention of Alexander McKee
, who hired him on behalf of The British Indian Department, headquartered at Fort Pitt
, to serve as an interpreter and official intermediary to The Six Nations
. Girty became an avid supporter of the Virginia faction in Pittsburgh, as their interest coincided with the interest of the Seneca.
During Lord Dunmore's War
against the Shawnee, Girty served as a spy, scout, and intermediary. It was Girty who found and calmed Chief Logan
at the close of that war, and Girty who received and delivered Logan’s famous lament. During Dunmore’s War, he also made the acquaintance of George Rogers Clark
, and became fast friends with Simon Kenton
. At its conclusion, Girty was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Virginia militia.
In 1776, after the Virginia militia at Pittsburgh was disbanded, Simon was hired by George Morgan, Patriot Commissioner of Indian Affairs Middle District, to serve as an interpreter and intermediary to the Six Nations. Morgan sent him to the Grand Council of the Iroquois League at Onondaga, New York, where Girty represented the fledgling United American States. He addressed the council, requesting a treaty of neutrality for the duration of the revolution. As an adopted Seneca, was in essencially addressing his own people. Though the Mohawks were already on the warpath, fighting as allies of the King, Girty won a commitment from the Iroquois and returned to Pittsburgh with a diplomatic triumph. Despite this, he was fired just a month later because of a conflict with Commissioner Morgan.
Girty next became a recruiter for the Continental Army and was promised a captaincy if he could raise 150 men. He succeeded in reaching his quota but he received only a lieutenant’s commission. Shortly thereafter, the 8th Virginia regiment shipped out to fight at Charleston and Girty was left behind at Fort Pitt. Disgusted, he resigned his commission. After determining that it was the intention of the rebel leaders to cross the Ohio River to settle the hunting grounds of the Indians who then resided there, Girty defected in March of 1778. Together with Alexander McKee and Matthew Elliot, he made his way to Detroit and rejoined the British Indian Department. Soon, Girty was assigned to serve as military liaison and advisor to Wyandots, Mingos and Shawnees of the Ohio Valley who were now fighting for the British Cause.
Girty’s old friend Simon Kenton was captured by hostile Shawnees in the summer of 1778, and after being dragged from one Indian town to another, where he was beaten and made to run gauntlets, the Kentuckian was taken to the Shawnee town of Wapatomica where he was condemned to be burned to death. Girty was returning from raids into western Pennsylvania by Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots and Mingos and stopping briefly to rest at Wapatomica, he discovered his old friend was the doomed captive. Simon argued for Kenton’s life and saved him from a terrible death.
Later in the war, Col. William Crawford
, leading an American expedition aimed at destroying Indians in the Sandusky area (whether they were hostiles or not) was captured during the battle of Sandusky, condemned by Delaware and Wyandot Indians, and burned to death. Girty argued for Crawford’s life, but was finally warned to say no more or he could take Crawford’s place at the stake. A report by an escaped Rebel captive condemned Girty, saying he did nothing to help Crawford and suggested that he enjoyed the spectacle of Crawford’s misery. Other witnesses who were there agreed that Girty did all he could to save Crawford and that he left before Crawford’s death.
Girty went on many raids against American outposts on the frontier. In 1782, he participated in the attack on Bryant's station, and helped the British and their allied Indian forces to overwhelm Kentucky militia at the Battle of Blue Licks
. (Some say that he was also at the siege of Fort Henry, though this fact is disputed.) He was active in the expulsion of the Moravian missionaries
(who he had reason to believe were acting as spies for the Americans) to Detroit as well.
When the war ended, Girty remained as an agent of the British Indian Department, serving the Indians of the Ohio Valley and aiding them in their struggle to retain their homelands in the face of ever increasing white invasion. These struggles are known as the “Indian Wars” of the 1790s, or the Northwest Indian War
. He was present at General Arthur St. Clair's Defeat
in 1791 (the largest U.S. defeat ever against the Indians). Finally, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers
in 1794 the confederation of western tribes was defeated by General Wayne’s forces. Simon Girty retired to his farm at Malden, just across the river from Detroit.
He continued to serve the Indian Department as an interpreter, and he and his wife raised two boys and two girls. Early in the 1800s, Girty and his wife separated. Simon remained at the farm and his health began to deteriorate. He was crippled by a broken ankle that never healed correctly, and he began to lose his sight. In one of the early battles of the War of 1812, Girty’s eldest son Thomas contracted a fever while carrying a wounded British officer from the battleground and soon died. Simon buried his son beside his home at Malden.
In 1813, Simon was evacuated from Malden as American troops invaded the area. With a price on his head, and by now the most notorious villain of the frontier, the 72-year-old man was taken to a Mohawk village at Burlington on the Grand River, where he remained until 1815. When he returned to his home at Malden, Girty was totally blind. His wife came home to take care of him and he passed away from natural causes in February, 1818. There is no evidence that he had ever willingly participated in an atrocity committed against American captives of the Indians, in fact, there is very strong evidence that he saved and helped repatriate more than two dozen hostages, including men, women and children. Simon Girty’s notorious legend was based on racism, and there are many now who regard him as a frontier hero.
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