F 184 
 .C85 
 Copy 1 
 
 THE CRESAP 
 SOCIETY 
 
 Meeting at Ciunberland, Md. 
 June 24th. 1919 
 
 Exercises Attending 
 
 the Unveiling of the 
 
 Memorial at 
 
 Riverside Park 
 
THE CRESAP SOCIETY 
 
 Meeting at Cumberland, Md. 
 
 June 24th, 1919 
 
 Exercises Attending the Unveiling 
 
 OF the Memorial at 
 
 Riverside Park 
 
 Oration by 
 HON. JAMES WALTER THOMAS 
 
 Memorial Sermon by 
 
 REV. AMBROSE H. BEAVIN 
 
 COMPLIMENTS OF 
 
 THE CRESAP SOCIETY 
 
 Columbus, Ohio: 
 
 The F. J. Heer Pri.nting Co. 
 
 1919 
 
t..^v 
 
 
 
FOREWORD. 
 
 By Chas. II. Lewis. 
 
 Unquestioned loyalty to country determines the life of every 
 nation. War demands loyalty publicly demonstrated. Peace re- 
 quires, just as surely, a steadfast, dependable citizenry. 
 
 Based on steadfast loyalty, America has grown to great- 
 ness, and throughout the history of that growth appear the 
 names of many families whose generations, in their turn, con- 
 secrated themselves to lofty Americanism. 
 
 One such family is that of Cresap. In lasting stone and 
 archives, suitable memorials have now been placed by descend- 
 ants of Colonel Thomas Cresap, Maryland pathfinder, pioneer, 
 patriot. 
 
 (3) 
 
Facing Fort Cumberland Hill. 
 The Potomac in the background. 
 
WORLD WAR SERVICE MEN. 
 
 L(m;an Cresap. 
 James McDowall Cresap, 
 Edward Rawlings Cresap, 
 Elbert Sawyer Towt, 
 Alvan Br.\see Tallmadge, 
 Warren Cresap Cole, 
 Garland Wheeler Powell, 
 David William Sloan, 
 Alexander Maxwell Sloan, 
 Alexander Caldwell Good, 
 Louis Frederick Good, 
 Karl Robinson Ricketts, 
 Theodore Jeffries, 
 Frank Jeffries, 
 Walter F. Jeffries, 
 Otho Jeffries, 
 Charles Beatty Jeffries, 
 Wilbur Cresap, 
 Thomas Cresap McCoy, 
 ^^'ILFRED Cresap, 
 Earl Spencer, 
 Donald Strong, 
 
 Hkf.ciier Cresap, 
 Robert Worth Ricketts, 
 Julian Fairfax Scott, 
 Ralph Edward Ord, 
 F Egerton Powell, 
 ^L\JOR Edward Ord, 
 Richard Gerstell, Jr., 
 Robert Gerstell, 
 Arnold Sinclair, 
 James M. Wilson, 
 Robert E. Wilson, 
 Ralph S. Wilson, 
 Brent Le Mert, 
 George Henderson, 
 French McCarty Emmons, 
 Arnold Frederick Gerstell, 
 William Randolph Baird, 
 Ralph Baird, 
 Robert Bibb Hopwood, 
 Charles Lovett Herring, 
 Lewis Mirtimer Herring, 
 Chas. E. Poston. 
 
 THE UNVEILING. 
 
 L'nder the trees in the park overlooking the Potomac, after 
 selections from the City Band, members and friends were called 
 to order by Chairman Friend Cresap Cox, and he called upon 
 the Reverend Ambrose H. Beavin of the Emmanuel Episcopal 
 Church, who offered the following: 
 
 Almighty God, whose children we are, and whose people we 
 be. Thou who in the days of old didst lead Thy chosen people 
 through the wilderness to the I^romised Land ; look down, we 
 beseech Thee, ujxjn us who are gathered here in Thy Name and 
 Presence. Accept our thanks for Thy goodness to our fore- 
 fathers and to us. As Thou didst lead them in safety amidst 
 (5) 
 
the perils of the trackless waste and gave them their heart's 
 desire, so guide and protect us amidst the perils and dangers 
 of this life, and bring us at last to "the Haven where we would 
 be." 
 
 Accept at our hands this monument which we dedicate no 
 less to Thy honor and glory than to the memory of those whom 
 we love and revere. Keep us ever beneath Thy sheltering wing. 
 Let Thy love lead us all the days of our life, and bring us at 
 last to Thyself, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. 
 
 After which Mr. Edward Cresap, the eldest descendant 
 present, with his grandchild in his arms, assisted the child in 
 pulling the rope which released the flag as a covering, and ex- 
 posed the memorial stone. All then stood while the band played 
 "The Star Spangled Banner." 
 
 Mr. Charles H. Lewis in presentation to the city spoke as 
 follows : 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 On behalf of The Cresap Society, I have the honor and 
 authority to present to the Cit>' of Cumberland, this Cresap 
 Memorial, and with it, the full appreciation of the Cresap family 
 for the high courtesy here shown in public official acceptance of 
 the Memorial by the mayor, the Honorable Mr. Koon, mayor 
 of the City of Cumberland. 
 
 Mayor Koon accepted for the city in perpetuity, congratu- 
 lating the donors for the spirit which prompted the movement, 
 welcomed the members to the city on this occasion, and extend- 
 ing an invitation to the Society to make Cumberland its per- 
 manent meeting place. The Mayor then referred eloquently of 
 the valor of Colonel Thomas Cresap, his influence in the up- 
 building of Western Maryland and the country beyond. He 
 was the most prominent and foremost citizen of this province 
 and state for a long time. The Mayor closed with a quotation 
 from Historian Wroth, "He was a fighter, he fed the hungry 
 •^he knew not the fear of man or beast or forest, he stood fast 
 where he planted his feet, and he helped to make this nation 
 English instead of French, andi finally to make it American 
 wholly and for all time." 
 
 The chairman then introduced the Honorable James Walter 
 Thomas as orajor of the day, who spoke as follows : 
 
.Mr. President, Members of the Cresap Society, Ladies and 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 Every nation has its beginning, and every beginning has its 
 leaders — leaders in thought, leaders in action. Men of strong 
 moral courage and physical stamina; men of unfaltering deter- 
 mination and boundless energ)- become the natural leaders of the 
 community in which they live, leaders in every emergency calling 
 for such characteristic leadership. 
 
 Such a leader was Colonel Thomas Cresap. Resolute, brave, 
 daring, resourceful and strong in body and mind. Upon such 
 leaders the development and prosperity of the community depend, 
 and there is no doubt that the presence of Colonel Thomas 
 Cresap greatly accelerated the settlement and growth of every 
 section of Maryland in which he lived and in which he became 
 an exponent of its industrial, economic and commercial activities. 
 
 Colonel Thomas Cresap. founder of the large and eminently 
 respectable family of Cresaps in this countr}-, was born at Skip- 
 ton-ln-Craven, Yorkshire, England, in 1694. He came to Mary- 
 land when only 15 years of age. but his early life here is veiled 
 in obscurity and the first public notice of him was in 1724, when 
 at the age of 30, he married Miss Hannah Johnson. It is not 
 known where he was educated, and yet his literary attainments 
 \vere not meager. It is true a clear vision and a sound judg- 
 ment were the dominant features of his mind, but it is certain 
 that he was educated in mathematics as far as practical survey- 
 ing, and in that to a point which enabled him to attain high 
 rank as a civil engineer. It is also known that he had a fine 
 physique and an affability of manner that drew men to him. 
 
 At the time of his marriage he located on the Susquehanna 
 River near Haver De Grace. The sons of William Penn were 
 now making serious encroachments upon Maryland territory, 
 and Colonel Cresap's special fitness and aptitude for frontier 
 work being recognized by the Maryland authorities, he was in- 
 duced to move higher up the river and he located at Wright's 
 Ferrj'. a point about opposite the present town of Columbia, 
 where he built himself a stone house in the nature of an arsenal, 
 which was supplied with arms and ammunition by the Maryland 
 government. His estate was called the Governor's Grant and 
 contained 500 acres. He was appointed Civil Magistrate and 
 Colonel of Militia, as well as General Supervisor, Tax Collector 
 and Surveyor for that region, and for five years a border war- 
 fare was waged, known as the Conajacular war. He espoused 
 the cause of Lord Baltimore with zeal and ardor, but after a 
 battle known as the Battle of Peach Bottom in which he was 
 victorious, the Penns ordered his arrest and the Sheriff of Lan- 
 caster County, with a large posse, proceeded to his arsenal to 
 execute the warrant. Finding this impossible, they waited until 
 
night, when they were able to set fire to the roof of his house, 
 and the flames spread so rapidly, fanned by a heavy wind, that 
 the house had to be abandoned. As no terms of capitulation 
 were ofTered, the doughty Colonel threw open the doors and 
 made for his boat, firing as he went and unintentionally wound- 
 ing two of the sentinels, but before he could get his boat loosened 
 from its moorings, he was surrounded and captured. They tied 
 his hands behind him, and heavily guarded, they started across 
 the river, but such was his herculean strength, that though bound, 
 he elbowed one of the guardsmen into the river. At Lancaster 
 they had him handcufifed, but no sooner had the blacksmith com- 
 pleted the job, than with both hands the young hero felled him 
 to the ground. As they were passing through Philadelphia, en- 
 route to the jail, he taunted the crowd of curious spectators who 
 were jeering him, by exclaiming, "W'hy, this is the finest city in 
 the province of Maryland." and he meant it. for he knew that 
 under the Maryland charter its northern boundary extended to 
 the 40 degree of north latitude, and which was above Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 As soon as the news of his arrest reached Maryland, Ed- 
 ward Jennings, Secretary of State and Daniel Dulaney, Attorney 
 General of Maryland, repaired to Philadelphia to demand his 
 release. This could have been easily obtained, for the prisoner 
 had been a troublesome guest and the authorities had grown 
 weary of him, but he flatly refused to go until the Penns had 
 been ordered to release him by the King of England, which 
 order in due time came. While in prison his wife and family 
 Were cared for by friendly Indians. 
 
 About this time, 1732, the boundary disputes between Penn- 
 sylvania and Maryland were settled by a compromise, greatly to 
 the loss and prejudice of Maryland, and while there was much 
 delay in putting the agreement into execution, it had the effect 
 of allaying the border wajerfare. 
 
 Soon after this Colonel Cresap moved to Antietam, now in 
 Washington County, Maryland, on a farm known as Long 
 Meadows, and on which he built a stone huose over a spring. 
 This beiaeng on the Indian frontier, and in advance of any white 
 population i nthat vicinity, it served not only as a residence, but 
 as a fort, as well as a trading post ; his purpose now being to 
 engage extensively in the fur trade in which that section of the 
 country so abounded both in quantity and in richness. To that 
 end he borrowed from his friend, the great Maryland jurist, 
 Daniel Dulaney, Five Hundred Pounds sterling, invested it in 
 furs and shipped them to England, but the vessel was captured 
 by the French and the whole cargo was lost. To make good 
 his indebtedness to Mr. Dulaney, he tumed over to him the 
 Long Meaaedows estate, and moved to a point in Maryland near 
 the juncture of the north and south branches of the Potomac. 
 
This move, it is believed, he was induced to make by the Mary- 
 land authorities, to protect Maryland from invasion on the south, 
 as he had done from encroachments on the north. The south 
 Branch \'alley had already been taken by Lord Fairfax, and 
 the first crude settlements on the present site of the city of 
 Cumberland were then claimed to be within the bounds of the 
 old dominion. 
 
 He called his new home Skijjton, after the place of his nativ- 
 ity, and it remained his ashome durinjj the rest of his long and 
 active life. On a High and commanding bluff in 1742 he built 
 a block house of stone which served as a fort for his family, as 
 well as for other families, which from time to time, settled in 
 that locality. It continued to be called Skipton for many years, 
 and as late as 1816 the legislature of Maryland made special 
 reference to it by that name. It was on the site of what had 
 been known as Shawnee Oldtown, and had been the home of 
 Opessa, Chief of the Shawnee Indians, but from Mays map, 
 made in 1736, and now in the Congressional Library in Washing- 
 ton, it is marked ".\bandoned Shawnee Oldtown." It is now 
 known simply as Oldtown. 
 
 Skipton enjoyed the unique distinction of having been iden- 
 tified with the history of four counties of Maryland. It was in 
 Prince George's County until 1748, when Frederick County was 
 erected, and it was in that county until 1776, when Washington 
 County was carved out of Frederick, where it remained until 
 1789. when Allegany County was erected. It is further noted 
 as having been one of the calls on the boundary line extending 
 from the Potomac to the Susquehanna, agreed upon by the 
 Indian Treaty of 1744, between the six nations and the com- 
 missioners of Maryland. While it was still in Prince George's 
 County, then embracing all of western Maryland, he became the 
 county surveyor for Prince George's County, and in 1745, sur- 
 veyed for Governor Thomas Bladen, Walnut Bottom, on which, 
 40 years later, was laid out the City of Cumberland, and while 
 it was still within the bounds of Frederick, he represented that 
 county for 10 years in the General Assembly of Mar\land. 
 
 Colonel Cresap was a pioneer among frontiersmen in the 
 broadest sense, and his position was one that demanded the high- 
 est degree of courage. He was in the very heart of a hostile 
 country, in the face of a savage foe, and exposed to constant 
 danger of Indian attacks day and night. He was the earliest 
 settler in that part of Western Maryland, and it was under these 
 conditions that he sallied forth with the pride and confidence 
 of a monarch to make good the sovereignty of his possessions 
 and of his own manhood. He became the guardian genius of 
 that frontier settlement, and proved himself to be one of the 
 most remarkable men oi his time. He was more actively and 
 prominently identified with the development and growth of that 
 
part of western Maryland than any other man of his day and 
 generation and it was his reputation as a noted Indian fighter, 
 and the fact that he was intrepid, resourceful and a natural 
 leader, and the assurance of protection which these aii'orded, that 
 induced others to also settle in that section of the state. 
 
 The Indians who inhabited this region were Shawnees. 
 While standing rather higher in the scale of civilization than 
 many, other tribes, they were nevertheless cruel, pitiless and 
 treacherous in their warfare, and so general were their depreda- 
 tions and murders about the time of the close of tlie French 
 and English war that, according to an official report, there was 
 not a faniil) li\-ing between Fort Cumberland and Winchester, 
 Virginia, and the settlements on Town Creek were nearly all 
 wiped out. But Colonel Cresap and his indomitable band held 
 their own, and their valor is referred to in the Paris Treaty 
 documents of the French and English war. But the hostility 
 of the savages became so unrelenting that even Colonel Cresap 
 deemed it wiser to move his family about 50 miles further east, 
 the few settlers that were left following him. Then forming a 
 company of volunteers he opened up a campaign of his own, with 
 headquarters at Fort Skipton and Fort Cumberland, as circum- 
 stances suggested, and drove the warring tribes out of the region 
 and as far west as great Savage Mountain. 
 
 In 1749 the Ohio Company, of which Colonel George Wash- 
 ington was president, was formed for the purpose of engaging on 
 a large scale in the rich fur trade of the Ohio Valley, and 
 Colonel Cresap was one of its charter members and its most 
 active agent. In order to reach the country bordering on the 
 Ohio, then an unbroken mountain wilderness he employed the 
 noted Indian chief, Nemacolin, to assist him in laying out a 
 road from Fort Cumberland, which was to be the headquarters 
 of that company, to the Monongehela, now Pittsburg. This was 
 the first outlet from the east to the west over which any white 
 man had ever travelled. It was the route over which the business 
 of the Ohio Company was tranported ; the one that was prac- 
 tically adopted by General Edward Braddock in 1755 in his 
 historic march upon Fort Duquesne, and it is today largely the 
 roadbed of the National Highway from Cumberland to Pittsburg. 
 
 He was a great believer in public roads and while Skipton 
 was still in Frederick County, he urged the passage of the act 
 of the General Assembly in 1758, of which he was a member, 
 for the building of a road from Fort Frederick to Fort Cumber- 
 land, on the Maryland side of the Potomac and thus avoid twice 
 crossing the river, and reducing the distance from 80 miles as 
 by the old route, to 40 miles by the new one. He was made 
 chairman of the commission for its construction, and it proved 
 to be o fthe greatest service in settling the western part of 
 Maryland. 
 
Under Colonel Cresap's leadership was organized in 1765 
 "The Sons of Liberty," through the influence of which the stamp 
 act was repudiated in Maryland, and at the Frederick County 
 Convention of 1774 he took an active part, and was later sent 
 as a delegate to the General Convention at Annapolis. When in- 
 formed that year that Congress desired two rifle companies to 
 be raised in Maryland to join Washington at Boston, he promptly 
 pledged one from his section of the state. It was at once re- 
 cruited with men brought up on warfare and noted riflemen and 
 sent forward under his son, that invincible Indian fighter, Cap- 
 tain Michael Cresap, and two of his grandsons, Daniel and 
 Joseph Cresap, and that company had the distinction of being the 
 first troops from the south to reach the plains of Boston. 
 
 It was not in evidence that Colonel Cresap went out with 
 the Braddock expedition, but it is in evidence that he, with 
 Colonel Lawrence Washington, Colonel Ebenezer Zane and Col- 
 onel John Caldwell, of John Caldwell Calhoun fame, with volun- 
 teers, went to the Ohio after the defeat of Braddock to guard 
 that frontier against the French and Indians. 
 
 Colonel Cresap was a man of extraordinary strength and 
 vigor, and when seventy years of age, made a voyage to England 
 alone. Twelve years later he journeyed alone from Skipton to 
 Nova Scotia, ^\'hile in London he was commissioned by Lord 
 Baltimore to make a survey of the western boundary of Mary- 
 land and to ascertain whether it was the north or the south 
 branch of the Potomac that was its boundary under the Mary- 
 land charter, by determining which was the true fountain head 
 or source of that river. The surv^ey was made and an autograph 
 map of the work was neatly drawn by Colonel Cresap and sent 
 to Governor Horatio Sharpe of Maryland. It is now in the 
 possession of the Maryland Historical Society, and is the first 
 map ever made showing the course and fountain head of the 
 two branches of the Potomac River, the one made in 1754 not 
 disclosing those details. 
 
 He was the master spirit of the community in which he lived 
 and always aetook command when the signal of danger was 
 sounded, and many were the fierce combats and deeds of heroism 
 of this early pioneer. It is a matter of reccord that such was 
 his skill and courage that he never asked for protection for him- 
 self or for those who were within the reach of his strong arm, 
 but his sympathies went forth to the other frontier settlers of 
 western Maryland and though 40 miles nearer civilization than 
 himself, for them he urgently invoked the protecting aid of the 
 state. There was apparently a hopeless deadlock between the 
 Upper and Lower Houses of the General Assembly of Mary- 
 land over an appropriation for that purpose. The need for 
 action was too imperative to admit delay, and he called together 
 his riflemen for a march upon the state capitol. The news of 
 
INC. Potomac River. 
 The small stones at the base taken from foundation of Col. Cresap's Fort. 
 
this reached Annapolif. and when he and his comrades got as 
 far as Frederick City on their long journey, the deadlock had 
 been broken and provision made for the erection of Fort Fred- 
 erick in the western part of what is now Washington County, 
 as a place of security for the people of that section of the 
 country. This was in 1756, and so securely was Fort Frederick 
 built that the massive stone walls of this historic old structure 
 still stand, as an enduring monument to the spirit of the times 
 and in part to the ardor and heroism of Colonel Thomas Cresap. 
 
 Colonel Cresap has come down into history as an exceed- 
 ingly hospitable and benevolent man. A ferocious Indian fighter, 
 and yet, to the Indian of good behavior he was kind and gener- 
 ous. His home was immediately on the Indian trail, between the 
 north and the south, and to those who travelled it in peace, his 
 larder was an open house. Colonel George Washington, in his 
 diary of 1748. records that while on a visit to the Colonel that 
 year, he entertained about -thirty Indians for several days, and 
 says that "he always kept the kettle suspended near a spring 
 and ready for their use, and for his open-handed hospitality he 
 was known to the Indian as Big Spoon." 
 
 There being no public houses at that early day in the then 
 sparsely settled frontier region of the state, his house was the 
 stopping place of all respectable wayfarers who had the temerity 
 to traverse its lonely pathways, all of whom it is recorded were 
 received with cordiality, and to whom a hearty welcome was 
 extended. He numbered among his personal friends General 
 \\'ashington, George Mason, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and 
 Daniel Dulaney, and for the latter his oldest son was named. 
 
 Colonel Cresap died at his home in January, 1790, at the 
 advanced age of ninety-six years. He left a very large landed 
 estate, and still owned at the time of his death the original tract 
 of five hundred acres at Wright's Ferry on the ."^usquehanna. 
 called the Governor's Grant. He had five children, Daniel 
 Cresap, Thomas Cresap, who lost his life in battle on Savage 
 Mountain, Elizabeth Cresap, Sarah Cresap and Captain Michael 
 Cresap of Revolutionary fame. 
 
 Such was the life of Colonel Thomas Cresap — a life that 
 eminently deserves to be perpetuated by the memorial of stone 
 and brass which is today unveiled to his memory by his descend- 
 ants. It is singularly fitting, too, that this shaft should stand 
 where it does, in full view of the majestic Potomac on whose 
 rock-ribbed and shades shores he spent more than the half of 
 his long and eventful life; and within the shadow of the spot 
 where stood historic Fort Cumberland, with which he was so 
 closely identified. Its site he first selected as a site for the block- 
 house of the Ohio Company in connection with its extensive fur 
 trade, and which was erected under his supervision. It was he 
 who extended the hospitality of this then far-distant western; 
 
14 
 
 frontier improvement to Colonel George Washington in 1753, 
 when on his memorable mission to the French, and again the 
 following year when he was here with his little Virginia army 
 for his march to Fort Necessity, and where he fired the first 
 gun in the interest of English North American supremacy — that 
 gun, the echoes of which vibrated and resounded around the 
 entire civilized world. In 1755 his judgment, as to its strategic 
 position for a fortification, was confirmed by the British authori- 
 ties, when they ordered Fort Cumberland to be erected for the 
 accomodation of the British and American armies in the French 
 and English war, then about to form its lines of battle. He, 
 therefore, not only knew Fort Cumberland in its infancy, but in 
 the zenith of its usefulness and glory, and he had the distinction 
 of being its first Maryland Quarter-Master General. He had 
 seen it, too, stripped of its prestige and lose its importance as a 
 military station, and yet he knew for what it had stood, and he 
 knew that as long as civilization shall endure upon the earth, Fort 
 Cumberland will be memorable in the history of its development. 
 The philosopher and the statesman, when tracing the progress of 
 the political systems of men from the loftiest heights they shall 
 ever reach, must always pause upon the site of Fort Cumberland 
 to contemplate one of the grandest epochs in history. It was at 
 St. Mary's City, the first capitol of Maryland, that freedom of 
 conscience, in all of its breadth and fulness, was first proclaimed 
 to men as their inherent and inviolable right, in tones which 
 sounding above the tempest of bigotry and persecution, were to 
 continue forever, from age to age, to gladen the world with the 
 assurance of practical Christian charity, and utimately to find 
 expression in the political system of every state in the American 
 union. 
 
 But while it was at St. Mary's, on an arm of the lower Poto- 
 mac, that first broke and brightened into effulgent daylight the 
 early dawn of our religious freedom, it was at Fort Cumberland, 
 on the Upper Potomac, that first arose the radient morning sun 
 which was to illuminate and light the way to that enduring 
 foundation upon which stands today the collosal statue of Amer- 
 ican civil and constitutional liberty. By no doubtful chain of 
 cause and effffect, the French and English war, so largely directed 
 from Fort Cumberland, brought on the American Revolution, and 
 which not only gave us American independence, but gave also to 
 the new confederation of states that vast and fertile domain 
 known as the Western Reserve, extending from the Allegheny 
 Mountains on the east to the Mississippi on the west, and from 
 the Great Lakes on the north to the Gulf on the south. It was 
 a grand park of majestic forests, rich plains and countless 
 streams, and which then stretched in almost unbroken solitude 
 towards the setting sun. It was the first territory ever owned by 
 the new confederation of states. It was the first territory over 
 
which the United States ever exercised the right of sovereignty 
 in tlie form of eminent domain. It was indeed the first subject 
 matter it ever had the right to exercise it upon, for it had no 
 such power over the confederate states, and the Western Reserve 
 was the only domain it owned. This made necessary for it a 
 staple government, and the adoption of plans to establish domestic 
 tranquility and commercial relations between the old states of the 
 east and the new territory of the west. It was in furtherance 
 of this end that Washington suggested the historic Mt. Vernon 
 meeting of 1785, which resulted in the Annapolis convention of 
 1786, and in that other convention — that powerful assembly of 
 constructive statesmanship, the Federal Convention of 1787, from 
 which eminated, as has been aptly said, "The most wonderful 
 work ever struck off in a given time by the brain and purpose of 
 man," — the Amerrican Constitution. 
 
 And thus it was that the historic \\'estern Reserve, with the 
 first nationalization of which Fort Cumberland was so closely 
 associated, led directly to the formation of the Federal Union, 
 furnished the foundation and the reasons for a constitutional 
 government and became the -keystone in the great archway of the 
 American Republic. 
 
 Of Colonel Thomas Cresap, of him who crossed the Blue 
 Ridge Mountains, not as a knight of the golden horse shoe, but 
 as a pioneer hero, and planted hs outposts on the easterly base 
 of the Appalachian system of mountains to which Allegany 
 County pertains, let it be said, that he who thus placed himself 
 so far beyond the remotest outskirts of civilization, in a mountain 
 wilderness and a hostile country, away from all friendly aid and 
 material comforts, and in the face of the merciless tomahawks of 
 a relentless foe, and w-ho made that supreme sacrifice and perilous 
 venture in the interests of American expansion and industrial 
 growth ; he who thus blazed the way to western Maryland and 
 who devoted the best years of his life to its development and 
 prosperity ; he who in many other ways was actively identified 
 with so much of that which gave grandeur and glory to the 
 colonial and revolutionary history of Marjdand, as well as inspira- 
 tion and pride to the later annals of the state, should stand out 
 in bold relief, and as a distinct unit in the drama of American 
 history, and his loyalty to American ideals, his courage and his 
 fortitude, his heroism and his valor are worthy of record down 
 to the remotest time, in the archives of the state and nation 
 wherein are recorded those manly deeds and manly achievements 
 which gave bearing direction and momentum to the onward 
 march of humanity, civilization and freedom. 
 
 Rev. Beavin in closing the exercises, offered the blessing as 
 follows : 
 
i6 
 
 Unto God's most gracious mercy and protection we commit 
 you. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord 
 make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you. 
 May the Lord lift up His face to shine upon you, and be gracious 
 unto you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and 
 give you peace, both now and evermore. Amen. 
 
 The members then repaired to the yard of the Emmanuel 
 •church on the site of Fort Cumberland, where, after the taking 
 ■of a group picture, all entered the church. Here the choir as- 
 sisted in the services, rendering patriotic hymns, after which 
 the following memorial sermon by the Rector, Mr. Beavin : 
 
 "What Me.\n Ye By These Stones?" 
 
 A Sermon 
 
 Preached In 
 
 Emniaiiuel Church, Cumberland, Md. 
 
 On The Occasion Of 
 
 The Dedication Of The Cresap Memorial 
 
 June 24^1, U)I9. 
 
 JOSHUA IV, 6-7. 
 
 "What mean yc by these stones' These stones shall be for 
 a memorial." 
 
 ' While we live IN the present and FOR the future we con- 
 tinually build UPON the past. How much we owe to genera- 
 tions of long ago, and how greatly we are indebted to hearts 
 which long ago ceased to beat, and to brains which long since 
 ceased to throb with thought a moment's reflection will tell. 
 Our language, our learning, our civilization, our religion — have 
 all come to us as a priceless heritage from those who lived and 
 died long ago. 
 
 A wise man of old has taught us that there is nothing new 
 under the sun. This, is a bold thought, but a true one. All the 
 powers that man is now. for the first time bending to his will 
 and harnessing to do his work have been hidden and waiting to 
 do his bidding ever since the creation. Every emotion which 
 passes through his heart, every pain and every joy that he knows 
 has been felt by countless milHcwis throughout the ages. Truly 
 there is nothing new under the su|^ 
 
17 
 
 In this House of God, on this historic occasion, my heart 
 goes back first of all to a very similar occurrence, but to a far 
 distant scene which took place many years ago and many leagues 
 away. It was the climax of an adventure, which more than 
 any other single occasion, was destined to influence the world 
 and the course of events, more than any other prior to the In- 
 carnation. 
 
 Something like six hundred years before, a man already 
 old as we cotmt age in these days had followed a beckoning hand 
 which none other could see, had followed a voice which none 
 other could hear, and he had believed a promise which seemed 
 inipossil)le of fulfillment. He had lived through years of dis- 
 appointment as did his descendants for many generations. But 
 faith never dies, and hope springs eternal in the human breast. 
 Building upon the foundations which others had laid, and 
 trusting in the sure promises of Almighty God, the people had 
 steadily gone forward. They had lived through the many years 
 of their captivity in Egj'pt. They had safely crossed the Red 
 Sea. They had weathered the summer heat? and the winter 
 storms for forty years in the wilderness. They had been tem- 
 pered and trained by the severe discipline of the march. They 
 had entered the Promised Land. It was the season of the Pass- 
 over, a time dear to every Jewish heart, for it spoke to them 
 with no uncertain voice of the loving kindness of their God. 
 It was the tenth day of April in the year 145 1 B. C. They stood 
 upon the bank of the Jordan. The water was deep and the cur- 
 rent was swift, for this was the time at which it overflowed its 
 banks. In the early morning the procession was formed, and 
 the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant advanced with 
 unfaltering steps. Their feet were no sooner dipped in the 
 water than the river was divided, and the waters that came down 
 from above being heaped up as a wall, and the lower portion 
 flowing down toward the Dead Sea, a dry channel was provided 
 for the passage. Twelve chosen men, one from each tribe, took 
 twelve stones from the river bed. The host encamped that 
 night at Gilgal, in the plains of Jericho, and there Joshua set 
 up the twelve stones for a memorial, saying, "When your chil- 
 dren ask their fathers in time to come, saying. What mean ye 
 by these stones? Then shall }e answer them, that the waters 
 of Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the 
 
Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were 
 cut off, and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the chil- 
 dren of Israel forever". 
 
 Men and nations alike have ever loved to erect memorials 
 in honor of events and peoiile who have made their mark for 
 god upon the history of the world. When Jacob awoke from 
 his vision of the ladder reaching from himself to God, he was 
 not content with saying, "This is none other but the house of 
 God, and this is the gate of heaven", but he took the stone that 
 he had had for pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil 
 upon the top of it, so consecrating it forever. When the first 
 Temple arose in all its majesty and glory, it did not represent 
 the wish, the whim, the desire of one man, but all the noblest 
 aspirations of every man, who from the days of old had loved 
 and reverenced God. 
 
 Go where we will all over the civilized world we find 
 monuments erected in memory of noble men and women and 
 noble deeds. Much of the history of the ancient world is read 
 only through the monuments which survive not only people who 
 have died, but of nations that have perished. One stands almost 
 dazed as he reads of how^ the painstaking efforts of exploration 
 societies, having only a few sun-dried bricks, covered with 
 seemingly meaningless hieroglyphics, and a few rudely carved 
 stones have uncovered the daily lives and national histories of 
 the ancient world, all of which would have been lost forever 
 had it not been for those rude memorials. Syria, Assyria, 
 Babylon, and many other countries, once the centers of influence 
 and power, are now yielding their treasures as we find their 
 monuments, and from them reconstruct their lives. 
 
 The most perfect architectural treasure of India, the Taj 
 Mahal, is a monument to a good and pure woman. It is also 
 an inspiration to countless thousands of women of her own na- 
 tion to live the higher and better life. The Triumphal arch in 
 Paris, the Marble arch in London, the beautiful monuments on 
 the battlefields of Gettysburg and Antietam, all teach their les- 
 sons as well as please the eye. A beautiful building, a noble 
 shaft piercing the sky, the statute of one who has done his work 
 well, or a tablet in his memory, all have their influence upon 
 those who gaze iritelligently upon them. They take one out of 
 
one's self, lift one away from the earth. They make him a 
 partner of those in whose honor they have been erected. 
 
 Today is a notable one in the history of your Society. You 
 are gathered together to do honor to one to whom not only your- 
 selves, but also this community, this country owes much. 
 
 It is not my intention to give a historical review of either 
 his life, his times, his influence, his work. That has already 
 had a more fitting place in the exercises at the dedication of the 
 monument, and I know that it found its proper place and pro- 
 portion in the historical address which Mr. Thomas delivered. 
 To duplicate it in any measure would simply be a work of super- 
 erogation. 
 
 But there is quite sufficient to work on without that. First 
 I note that you have wisely chosen a stone taken from the scenes 
 of the early labors of the man whom you honor. It is well that 
 you have done so instead of going far afield for some other. By 
 this means you bring together the past and the present in a beau- 
 tiful way. It may be that in those far olif days when he was 
 here, he made use of it himself — a shade from the noontide 
 heat, a shelter from the storm, a defence against some enemy 
 he was fighting. Who can tell ? 
 
 The titles you have given him were chosen with no ordinary 
 care. Pathfinder — Pioneer — Patriot. \Miat better could you 
 say of any man? 
 
 Pathfinder. We, living in a later day perhaps seldom, 
 if ever, realize what we owe to those who "blazed the trail". 
 Our roads are so many and so perfectly made, and we are so 
 used to going rapidly and directly from one place to another, 
 that we are very apt to rebel if on even a long journey a piece 
 of rough road compels us to make a detour of a few miles. In 
 the olden days it was not so. Men like Colonel Thomas Cresap 
 had no other person's lead to follow. A trackless country, filled 
 with crafty and often treacherous enemies were often all that 
 they found. Added to the hardships of an uncharted country 
 was the danger of unseen and unknown foes. It required men 
 of rare courage and skill to face and conquer the unknown. 
 Well chosen was the word "Pathfinder". It is such men who 
 have made the world what it is todav. So we honor Columbus 
 
who found the path across the Atlantic, F"ranklyn who found the 
 Northwest Passage, Livingstone who first forged his way far 
 into the heart of the Black Continent, and Cresap who found 
 the path to the West from here. 
 
 Pioneer. It is a word more often used than understood. 
 It is originally a military term, and it denotes a soldier who goes 
 before an army to clear obstructions and throw up entrenchments. 
 It is akin to our word "pawn" as applied to the first row of men 
 in the game of chess. They are always moved ahead first to 
 form a line of protection for the others who come after. They 
 are always sacrificed for the sake of the others. Not their's 
 the glory of being on the field when the victory is won — only 
 that they have given themselves that others might reap the fruits 
 of their sacrifice. So with Pioneers as we use the word today. 
 Theirs the hardship, theirs the struggle, theirs the sacrifice of 
 home, of comforts, often of life itself, that we might enter into 
 the fruits of their labors. Surely it is meet to honor and re- 
 member such a one, as we do this day. 
 
 Patriot. The dictionary tells us that a patriot is one who 
 loves his country. \\'ell, what is it to love one's country? Is 
 it to carry a banner in prcession? Is it to shout as the flag is 
 carried by? Is it to fling bunting from the tops of the building? 
 Is it to send sky-rockets off in the evening. Vastly deeper than 
 that is the love of one's country — deeper than any soldier's 
 uniform. To love one's country is to love that for which i', 
 stands. "I love thy rocks and rills." A man may sing that with 
 all his heart, and still be nothing more than a geoligist. "Thy 
 woods and templed hills." He may sing that too, and still be 
 only a naturalist or a botanist. "Land of the NOBLE FREE 
 thy name I love." The man who loves the nobility, the freedom 
 for which his country stands, that man is the true patriot. He 
 loves the ideal enthroned in his country's history, the principle 
 which runs all through the story of his country's past like a 
 spinal column, the ideals which were set before his fathers, the 
 institutions for which those fathers lived and suffered. The 
 man who loves that for which his country stands — he, and he 
 alone is the man who loves his country. He and he alone is 
 the man who is a patriot. 
 
22 
 
 It is such a man that you are gathered together today to 
 do honor to. It was a happy thought too that your exercises 
 should inchide a visit to, and a service in this House of God. 
 Would that more such gatherings were so. It was so in the 
 olden time. So it should be now. 
 
 The Cresap family has had a long connection with this 
 Church and Parish. Consulting the ancient records I find that 
 on the second day of May 1803, when the books were first opened 
 for registration of membership in the newly formed congrega- 
 tion, the names of Thomas Cresap and Edward O. Cresap were 
 inscribed. Here too in February 1838 Elizabeth Cresap was 
 united in the bonds of holy matrimony to James D. Parsons. 
 Here too on November 14, 1845, Mary Cresap was laid to rest 
 "In the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection to 
 eternal life in our Lord Jesus Christ." Here too in later days 
 William Lynn Cresap, Maria Louise Cresap, and Ada Rawlings 
 Cresap, children of Van Sprigg and Louisa Cresap were bap- 
 tized "In the name of The Father, and of the Son and of the 
 Holy Ghost" and so were made "Members of Christ, children 
 of God,, and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven." 
 
 And so I welcome you, one and all on your return to the 
 city and the Church with which your family has been so long 
 and so honorably connected. So too, I congratulate you upon 
 the completion of your project to erect a memorial to men so 
 worthy of such a remembrance. And I trust that this will be 
 only a beginning of other similar movements in both church 
 and city, each so rich in historic memories, but so poor in historic 
 memorials. And I pray our Heavenly Father that His richest 
 blessing, both temporal and eternal may rest upon you, and 
 bring you at length to the haven where you would be. 
 
23 
 
 SUBSCRIBERS TO MEMORIAL. 
 
 For Colonel Thomas Cresap, Sons and Grandsons. 
 Balance Captain Michael Cresap Memorial, $26.00. 
 
 Ch.-\rles H. Lewis, 
 
 Josephine Sinclair, 
 
 George S. McCarty, 
 
 Friend C. Cox, 
 
 Mary Louise Stevenson, 
 
 Ada R. Cresap, 
 
 B. Worth Ricketts, 
 
 Frank Tallmadge, 
 
 JozETTE Cresap Woodborne, 
 
 Mrs. R. B. Longstreth, 
 
 Mrs. E. C. Means, 
 
 Mrs. Wm. Gulland, 
 
 J. Frank Cox, 
 
 Mrs. J. Frank Cox, 
 
 T. H. Ricketts, 
 
 Mrs. Floyd Statler, 
 
 E. O. Cresap, 
 
 John M. Cresap, 
 
 CLAR.A V. Cresap, 
 
 Charles Poston, 
 
 Belle Poston, 
 
 Minerva Cole, 
 
 Sanford p. Cresap, 
 
 Helen Pervail Kase, 
 
 E. E. Cresap, 
 
 Arthur Cresap Cowan, 
 
 Anna Cresap Dorsey, 
 
 Mrs. Celia Yost, 
 
 Mrs. Ophelia Pollock, 
 
 Mrs. Ellen B. Towt, 
 
 Edward R. Cresap, 
 
 Howard Cresap Lemert, 
 
 Stuart Lamar Rawlings, 
 
 Dr. E. C. Beam, 
 Jane E. Brent, 
 Logan Cresap, U. S. N., 
 Corinne Lee Scott, 
 Julian Fairfax Scott, 
 Anna Cresap Bibb, 
 Virginia Cresap Lovett, 
 Webster Bruce, 
 Frances Shriver Bruce, 
 John W. Polk, 
 Harriet Emmons, 
 Margaret Caldwell, 
 Mrs. Hugh Brady, 
 David W. Sloan, Jr., 
 Alex Maxwell Sloan, 
 Katherine Wolverton, 
 Louisa P. Henderson, 
 J. A. Emmons, 
 Robert Gerstell, Jr., 
 Benj. O. Cresap, 
 Benj. O. Cresap, Jr., 
 Wm. Simpson Cresap, 
 Mary Celia Cresap, 
 Richard George Cresap, 
 Edwin M. Cresap, 
 Robert J. Cresap, 
 Ada Sprigg Griffith, 
 E. Boyd Cresap, 
 Mark W. Cresap, 
 Chas. Hugh Cresap, 
 GusTAvus J. Cresap, 
 J. R. Poland. 
 
NOTES FROM HISTORIAN M. LOUISE CRESAP 
 STEVENSON. 
 
 The first knowledge we have of our Cresap ancestry goes 
 back to the sturdy, Saxon patriot who, in the day of Edward III 
 of England, followed the flag of the Black Prince to France with 
 his thirty thousand men and conquered Philip of Valois with an 
 hundred thousand in the renowned battle of Cressy. For his 
 great bravery ni action the name of this ancestor was changed by 
 the Black j^rince himself to Cressy. In the lapse of the 
 centuries the soft, liquid French Cressy was anglicized to Cresap. 
 Loyalty to his country's flag and bravery in following it were this 
 ancestor's characteristics, and have so continued through his 
 descendants to this Year of Grace 1919. 
 
 The coat-of-arms was a mailed head and uplifted right arm. 
 
 October 21st, 1916, a notoble event occurred in Logan Elm 
 Park near Circleville, Ohio. On the spot where the Dunmore 
 Peace Treaty took place in October, 1774, two bronze tablets 
 were then and there unveiled, affixed to the opposite sides of the 
 boulder, one containing twenty names of those who signed the 
 Treaty, and of this number four were Cresaps, as follows : 
 
 Captain Michael Cresap, 
 Lieut. Michael Cresap, Jr., 
 Lieut. Joseph Cresap, 
 Lieut. Daniel Cresap, Jr. 
 
 On the reverse side a bronze tablet was presented by Mrs. 
 Anna Cresap Bipp, granddaughter of Lieut. Joseph Cresap as a 
 memorial of Captain Michael. This inscription was prepared by 
 M. Louise Cresap Stevetnson, a great granddaughter of Lieut. 
 Michael Cresap, Jr., and of Lieut. Daniel Cresap, Jr., as well. 
 
 The above mentioned Cresaps became officers in the 
 Revolutionary War. Captain Michael became Colonel and 
 took the first Company from the South to join General Washing- 
 ton at Cambridge. He died the following year in the service 
 and sleeps in Trinity Churchyard, New York City. 
 
 The unveiling duties were performed by two little boys, 
 direct descendants of Captain Michael, namely Willis Cresap and 
 Ben O. Cresap, Jr. Hon. H. J. Booth of Columbus was the 
 orator of the day, delivering an address upon the life of Captain 
 Michael Cresap. Mr. Charles H. Lewis, a descendant of Captain 
 Michael Cresap, spoke especially for his descendants, many of 
 whom were present in appreciation. That evening the Cresap 
 descendants, twenty-one in number, assembled at the Chittenden 
 Hotel, Columbus, and organized the Cresap Society. For two 
 successive years this Society met at the Logan Elm Park, after 
 which the officials received an urgent invitation from Cumberland 
 
with the offer of a site for a memorial. It was decided to meet 
 there, in other words to go home, which they did June 24th, 1919, 
 the clan gathering at the Ft. Cumberland Hotel to the number of 
 seventy-five or more, all being Cresaps by descent from Colonel 
 Thomas Cresap, who was noted in Maryland history as being the 
 guardian genius of the western frontier. He was employed by 
 the first Ohio company as a surveyor to map out a road from 
 Ft. Cumberland, Maryland, to Ft. Pitt, Pennsylvania. This road 
 was followed by Braddock and Washington and is about the same 
 as now know as the National Road. Many of the Cresaps 
 sentimentally motored to this meeting by this road, as it was 
 surveyed by their ancestor when it was a forest filled with 
 savages. Colonel Thomas Cresap also surveyed for Lord Balti- 
 more the boundary between Maryland and Virginia and that 
 survey still obtains. 
 
 A feature of the unveiling exercises in Riverside Park was 
 the reading of the names of Cresaps who were soldiers in the 
 World War, these names being called for by the Chairman. 
 
 I hope the Cresap Society will grow and grow until every 
 descendant will be enrolled because of what the Society stands 
 for ; the loyalty, faithfulness, righteousness of our ancestors, 
 their ideals for God and country, now and forever as it was 
 nearly six hundred years ago. 
 
 HOW THE MOUNTAINS RECEIVED THEIR NAMES: 
 
 It appears the mountains are connected with the Cresap 
 family, as names given them were derived from incidents which 
 testify to the braver\' and patriotism of the clan. 
 
 Dan's Mountain. 
 
 Nemacolin, the Indian guide, whom Colonel Thomas Cresap 
 hired to go with him when he surveyed what is now the National 
 Road from Cumberland through the wilderness to Pittsburgh for 
 the first Ohio Company, was often in the Cresap family. One 
 day Daniel, oldest son of Colonel Thomas, and Nemacolin ar- 
 ranged a bear hunt. They agreed upon a place of meeting at 
 noon and separated. Daniel went to the very top of a lofty 
 mountain on the trail of some cubs he desired in order to train 
 his dogs to fight bears. The cubs hard pressed climbed a tree, 
 so did Dan. Higher and higher went the cubs, Dan following. 
 Finally the limbs broke and down tumbled cubs and Daniel on 
 the stones below. The fall from so great a heighth nearly took 
 his life. He lay unconscious on that lonely mountain. Nemaco- 
 lin not finding him at the time and place agreed upon searched 
 diligently and when found Dan was still unconscious, with so 
 many wounds and broken bones he could not move. Nemacolin 
 went for help to his own cabin, brought his wife, horse and a 
 
litter and they took Daniel and cared for him until he recovered. 
 Ever since this has been Dan's Mountain. 
 
 Savage Mountain. 
 
 Time 1757, the Indians on the war path, Governor Sharpe 
 of the Province of Maryland sent Colonel Thomas Cresap out 
 with a company of riflemen to subdue them. With him were his 
 three sons, Daniel, Thomas, Jr., and Michael. They came upon 
 the Indians on the old Cresap-Nemacolin trail, which is still 
 plainly visible. A battle ensued. Thomas Jr. fired at an Indian 
 and the Indian fired simeltaneously, each kkilling the other. 
 Thomas said to those near him "the Indians are running, go, 
 pursue the enemy, I am a dead man, leave me." Oh, how I 
 admire him. They stayed by him, though the Company went 
 after the Indians. They buried him secretly and then covered 
 his grave with fallen timber lest the Indians return for his scalp. 
 He sleeps there today, not far from the summit on the side 
 opposite Frostburg, on the old trail, and ever since this mountain 
 has been called Savage Mountain. It is a memorial to Thomas 
 Cresap, Jr. He lives in his descendants, some of them the 
 founders of the Cresap Society. 
 
 Negro Mountain. 
 
 Again the Indians began burning homes and scalping the 
 border settlers. Again Colonel Thomas Cresap was sent out 
 with another company of volunteer riflemen, his two remaining 
 sons, Daniel and Michael among them. Colonel Thomas owned 
 a negro of giant stature called Nemesis. In mustering his com- 
 pany the Colonel said "Nemesis, wont you go with us this time, 
 you are a good shot, and help us conquer these Indians who are 
 murdering and scalping women and children and burning their 
 cabins." Nemesis considered for a few minutes and then said 
 "Yes, Massa. I go, but I wont come back." "Why, Nemesis, why 
 say that,- you are a sure shot and fearless." "Massa Tommie 
 sure shot and afraid of nothing and he not come back. I say 
 I go but I not come back." His premonition, second sight, was 
 correct. Among the first to fall was the brave slave, and now 
 and forever the mountain where he died is called Negro 
 Mountain. 
 
 When old Nemacolin joined the Indians in their migration 
 south he left his young son, George Washington, to Colonel 
 Thomas Cresap, to bring up and educate and there he lived and 
 died. My grandmother often told of Indian George and how 
 the Indians gave the old Colonel the name of Big Spoon. She 
 stated it was because he cooked for them a kettle of soup when 
 they passed his cabin. 
 
General George Washington, when a boy of fifteen years, 
 made a journey into Cresap's country for the purpose of survey- 
 ing Lord Fairfax's western lands. He kept a diary. We copy 
 from it. 
 
 "Monday, March 21st, 1747. We went over in a Canoe & 
 Travell'd up Maryland side all y. Day in a Continued Rain to 
 Collo. Cresaps right against y. Mouth of Y. South Branch 
 abour 40 Miles from Polks I believe y. worst Road that ever 
 was trod by Man or Beast." 
 
 High water kept the youthful surveyor at Cresap's for the 
 next five days and on Wednesday he writes : — 
 
 "Rain'd till about two oClock & Clear'd when we were 
 agreeable surpris'd at y. sight of thirty odd Indians coming 
 from War with only one Scalp. We had some liquor with us 
 of which we gave them part it elevating there Spirits put them 
 in y. Humor of Dauncing of whom we had a War Daunce there 
 manner of Dauncing is as follows Viz, They clear a Large 
 Circle & make a Great Fire in y. middle then seats themselves 
 around it y. Speaker makes a grand Speech telling them in 
 what Manner they are to Daunce after he has finished y. best 
 Dauncer Jumps up as one awaked out of a Sleep & Runs and 
 Jumps about y. Ring in a most Comicle Manner he is followed 
 by y. Rest then begins there Musicians to Play ye Musick is 
 a Pot half of Water with a Deerskin Stretched over it as tight 
 as it can & a goard with some Shott in it to Rattle & a piece 
 of an horses Tail tied to it to make it look fine y. one keeps 
 Rattling and y. other Drumming all y. while y. others is Daunc- 
 ing-" 
 
 From all of which it is evident Colonel Cresap sustained 
 most friendly relations with the Red men, until Braddock and 
 Washington battled with the French and the Indians for posses- 
 sion of the soil. 
 
 Letter sent by Col. Cresap to Gov. Sharpe by express which 
 is still in existence, preserved by the Historical Society of Mary- 
 land, and we herewith produce a certified copy: 
 
 Old Town July 15th 1763. 
 May it Please your Excellency 
 
 I take this opportunity in the hight of Confusion to acquaint 
 you with our unhappy & most wretched Situation at this time 
 being in Hourly Expectation of being Massicread by our Barber- 
 ous & Inhuman Enemy the Indians we having been three days 
 Successively Attacked by them viz. the 13, 14 & this Instant on 
 
29 
 
 the 13th as 6 men were shocking some wheat in the field 5 In- 
 dians fired on them & Killed one but was prevented Scalping him 
 by one of the other men firing on them as they Came to do it & 
 others Running to their assistance. On the 14 5 Indians Crep up 
 to & fired on about 16 men who were Sitting & walking under a 
 Tree at the Entrance of my Lane about 100 yards from My 
 House but on being fired at by the white men who much wounded 
 Some of them they Immediately Runn ot¥ & were followed by 
 the white men about a Mile all which way was great Quantitys 
 of Blood on the Ground the white men got 3 of their Bundles 
 Containing Sundry Indian Implements & Goods about 3 Hours 
 after several gunns were fired in the woods on which a Party 
 went in Quest of them & found 3 Reaves Killed by them, the In- 
 dians wounded one man at their first fire tho but slightly. On 
 this Instant as Mr. Saml. Wilder was going to a house of his 
 about 300 yards Distant from mine with 6 men and Several 
 women the Indians Rushed on them from a Rising Ground but 
 they Perceiving them Coming. Run towards my House hollowing 
 which being heard by those at my house they Run to their As- 
 sistance & met them & the Indians at the Entrance of my lane 
 on which the Indians Immediately fired on them to the Amount 
 of 18 or Twenty & Killed Mr. Wilder, the Party of white men 
 Returned their fire & Killed one of them dead on the spot & 
 wounded Severall of the Others as appeared by Considerable 
 Quantitys of Blood Strewed on the Ground as they Run off 
 which they Immediately did & by their leaving behind them 3 
 Gunns one Pistol & Sundry other Emplements of warr &c &c. 
 
 I have Inclosed a List of the Disolate men women & Chil- 
 dren who have fled to my House which is Inclosed by a Small 
 Stockade for Safety by which youl See what a number of Poor 
 Soals destitute of Every Necessary of Life are here penned up 
 & likely to be Butchered without Immediate Relief & Assistance 
 & Can Expct none unless from the Province to Which they Be- 
 long. I shall Submit to your wiser Judgment the Best & most 
 Effectual method for Such Relief & shall Conclude with hoping 
 we shall have it in time. 
 
 I am Honnourable Sir 
 Your most Obedt. Servt. 
 
 Thos. Cresap. 
 
 P. S. those Indians who Attacked us this day are part of 
 that Body which went to the Southward by this way In Spring 
 which is Known by one of the Gunns we now got from them. 
 
30 
 
 Extra copies of this pamphlet can be secured by request, 
 twenty-five cents the copy. 
 
 Address the compiler. Frank Tallmadge, Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 All other correspondence address, Ellen B. Towt, Sccy- 
 Treas., Lancaster, Ohio. 
 
 The society medal is sold to members only for one dollar by 
 Walter Powell Sons Co., Cumberland, Md. 
 
 Annual meeting, Tuesday evening. Fort Cumberland Hotel. 
 Officers elected : 
 
 Pres., Chas. H. Lewis, Harpster, O. 
 
 Vice Pres.. Friend Cresap Cox, Wheeling, W. Va. 
 
 2nd Vice Pres., Mrs. Louisa P. Henderson, Cumberland, Md. 
 
 3rd Vice Pres., Webster Bruce. Lynn, Mass. 
 
 Sec.-Treas., Mrs. Ellen Brasee Towt, Lancaster, Ohio. 
 
 Historian, M. Louise Cresap Stevenson, Dresden, Ohio. 
 
 Executive Committee, Mrs. Anna Cresap Bibb, Kansas City, 
 Mo., B. Worth Ricketts, Coshocton. Ohio, Frank Tallmadge, 
 Columbus, Ohio, and officers. 
 
 Constitution and By-laws adopted. 
 
 Pamphlet covering proceeding of dedication, meeting, etc., 
 to be printed. 
 
 The treasurer was unable to make complete report at the 
 annual meeting. He remained in Cumberland and paid all ex- 
 penses of the memorial and now reports a balance of $135.00, 
 which he was ordered to place to the credit of the publication 
 fund. 
 
 Resolution of thanks to the ladies of the Cresap Chapter 
 D. A. R., at Cumberland, for assistance in the day's exercises 
 was oflfered and passed unanimously. 
 
 Vote of thanks extended also to Hon. James Walter 
 Thomas and Rev. Ambrose H. Beavin, and to the Fort Cumber- 
 land Hotel management. 
 
 Mr. Thomas was elected to honorary membership in the 
 Society. 
 
CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS 
 
 The undersigned descendants of Col. Thos. Cresap, a pioneer settler 
 •of Maryland, have associated themselves together as a society. 
 
 1st. The name of the Society shall be — The Cresap Society. 
 
 2nd. The Society is not organized for profit. 
 
 3rd. Active members .shall be lineal descendants of Col. Thos. 
 Cresap who came to America about the year 1716 and later settled in 
 Western Maryland. 
 
 4th. Tliis society is formed that we may gain a more complete 
 history of the hardships and heroism, the trials and triumphs of those 
 pioneer settlers who won for themselves, their descendants and future 
 generations this broad and beautiful land. Particularly the active and 
 heroic part taken by Col. Thos. Cresap and his family in colonial and 
 revolutionary altairs. 
 
 5th. That we may more completely vindicate the memory of one 
 of his soldier sons, Capt. Michael Cresap, who was unjustly charged, 
 years after his death, in the famous "Logan Speech," with the foul mur- 
 der of Indian women. 
 
 0th. Whh the further object of cultivating a family feeling and a 
 more intimate friendship among his man\- descendants. 
 
 By-Laws. 
 
 1st. The members shall be known as active and honorary. 
 
 ■2nd. Active members shall pay a fee of one dollar annually, and 
 are the only ones entitled to vote in any of the meetings of the Society. 
 
 3rd. The officers shall be: President, Vice-Preisdent, Historian, 
 Secretary, Treasurer and Board of Management. They shall serve for 
 one year or until others are appointed or elected. 
 
 4th. The Board, consisting of not less than tliree members, may 
 fill any vacancies that may occur between meetings. 
 
 5th. Future meetings — both time and place may be decided by 
 vote of the members at each meeting. 
 
 (Jth. There shall be no debts contracted by this Society. 
 
 7th. Amendments may be adopted by a majority vote at any meet- 
 ing, excepting when there are six or more dissenting votes. Then such 
 proposed amendment or amendments must be deferred for settlement till 
 th next following meeting. 
 
014