Before 1745 To October 10, 1774

From:  http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=cchouk&id=I02750

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From:  www.freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~friends1995/ptpleasant/Crowley_Samuel

Family Group Record
of

Samuel and Elizabeth (Strong) Crowley

HUSBAND: Samuel CROWLEY
BORN: Abt. 1744 - Spotsylvania County, Virginia
MARRIAGE: 1760
MILITARY SERVICE: Served in the Point Pleasant Battle
DIED: 10 Oct 1774 - Point Pleasant Battle in Virginia
FATHER'S NAME: Jeffrey CROWLEY
MOTHER'S NAME: Effie EARLY/NEARNE

WIFE: Elizabeth STRONG
BORN: 21 Jul 1744 - Hanover County, Virginia
DIED: Oct 1815 - Greene County, Tennessee
FATHER'S NAME: William STRONG
MOTHER'S NAME: Frances JOHNSON

CHILDREN: List each child in order of birth

CHILD No. 1: Benjamin CROWLEY
SEX: Male
BORN: 1758 - Henry County, Virginia
MARRIAGE: Alice Anne WILEY
DIED: 1842 - Crowley's Ridge, Arkansas

CHILD No. 2: Effaniah (Effie) CROWLEY
SEX: Female
BORN: 1761
MARRIAGE: Jeremiah BURNETT
DIED:

CHILD No. 3: James CROWLEY
SEX: Male
BORN: 30 May 1763 - Henry County, Virginia
MARRIAGE: Mary McCLAIN
DIED: 15 Nov. 1847 - Clay County, Missouri

CHILD No. 4: Mary CROWLEY
SEX: Female
BORN: Abt. 1760/1765
MARRIAGE: James KIMSEY
DIED:

CHILD No. 5: John CROWLEY
SEX: Male
BORN: 1767 - Henry County, Virginia
MARRIAGE: Elizabeth M. McCLAIN
DIED: 15 Nov 1847 - Clay County, Missouri

CHILD No. 6: Anges CROWLEY
SEX: Female
BORN: 1771 - Virginia
MARRIAGE: Thomas PERRY
DIED:

CHILD No. 7: Greenberry CROWLEY
SEX: Male
BORN: 1772 - Virginia
MARRIAGE:
DIED: 04 Jun 1816 - Campbell County, Tennessee

CHILD No. 8: William CROWLEY
SEX: Male
BORN: 1774 - Virginia
MARRIAGE: Abigail KIMSEY
DIED: 1846 - Bates County, Missouri

NOTE:

Samuel Crowley was a long hunter, Indian fighter and scout. He volunteered at Pittsylvania County, VA for an expedition organized by The Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore. This expedition became known as "Lord Dunmore's War." The Shawnee Chief, Cornstalk, and his allies were raiding the settlements in Virginia and Kentucky and retreating across the Ohio River. General Andrew Lewis of Botetourt County, VA with 1100 Virginia Volunteers marched to Point Pleasant, Virginia on the south bank of the Ohio River. Early on the morning of October 10, 1774 two Virginia scouts set out to hunt for deer. They had traveled about two miles when they discovered an Indian war party who had crossed the Ohio River the night before and were preparing for battle.

The Indians killed one of the hunters but the other escaped to spread the alarm in the camp. Chief Cornstalk's Shawnees were thoroughly defeated in the ensuing "Battle of Point Pleasant." Several researchers have speculated that Samuel Crowley was the hunter who was killed. If this speculation can be proved, then Samuel Crowley would be the first person killed in the Battle of Point Pleasant on 10 October 1774. Some historians claim that the Battle of Point Pleasant was the first battle of the Revolutionary War. If this fact is accepted, then Samuel Crowley would be the first patriot killed in the Revolutionary War.

Samuel Crowley was killed by an Indian force lead by the Shawnee Chieftain Cornstalk, very early morning, at the confluence of the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers in the day-long Battle of Point Pleasant. That day, Colonel Andrew Lewis' 1,100 Virginia militiamen decisively defeated a like number of Indians and this action broke down the power of the Indians in the Ohio Valley and quelled a general Indian war on the frontier. The battle also prevented an Indian alliance with the British, one of which could have caused the Revolution to have a different outcome as well as having altered the entire history of the United States. In 1908, Congress rewrote history by recognizing the claim the Point Pleasant was the first battle of the American Revolution. It also passed a bill to aid in the erection of the monument at Point Pleasant. Samuel Crowley's name is inscribed on this monument and has been proved by historians to be the first man to die in the Revolutionary War. He is also the man from whom Mary Crowley Kimsey named her first son.

In 1768 Samuel honed his skills as an expert Indian Scout and woodsman when he left his family at home and went on a "Long Hunt". The proceeds of the hunting bought 213 acres in Henry County from Palatin Shelton.

That 1768 "Long Hunt" is described in Wilderness Calling, The Hardeman Family in American Westward Movement, 1750-1900, by Nicholas Perkins Hardeman, The University of Tennessee Press, 1977, p. 7:

In 1768, the year of Creek, Hard Labor, and Fort Stanwix Indian Treaties, eighteen year old Thomas Hardeman joined a group of "Long Hunters" and trappers in an expedition deep into the forbidden zone beyond the Proclamation Line. The cluster of woodsmen, which included Ben and Samuel Crowley, crossed the mountains into the valleys of the Holston and Powell rivers.  These prototypes of the legendary mountain men, called long hunters because they stayed in the back country for months and even years at a time, went as far west as the Cumberland Basin and the sight of present Nashville...

In Elizabeth Strong Crowley 1780 Petition No. 745 to the House of Delegates in which she was granted additional pension money for her husband's death, Samuel's widow describes him as being 'one of the Spies in the Expedition in the year 1774-- undertaken by General Lewis at the Point against the Indians, and that her husband was then killed...'

Other Notes:

Samuel Crowley was the first to die in the Revolution, 10 Oct 1774, at Point Pleasant, West Virginia. (58th Congress 2nd Session, Report No. 457) Congressional Record Vol. XLII, 1908 (His name there on the document there.) Journals of the house of Burgesses of Virgina, 1773-1776, Pg. 211, Ref: A petition of Elizabeth Crowley ...(further on Pg. 263, last 3 Pars. (and 1st. of Pg. 264 and last Par. of Pg. 274.

Samuel Crowley's estate was appraised by Richard Joshua Reynolds who served with James Crowley at the Battle of Guilford in 1781. Reynolds went into the snuff and cigar business, his company was called the, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.

SUBMITTED BY: Robert Dean Wood - Great-grandson of Samuel Crowley #7
DATE: 20 November 2002
E-MAIL ADDRESS: rwoodean@attbi.com