Charles Clifford

• General Notes
  • 
    Charles Clifford's will was written 18 July 1815, recorded 2 February 1816. Charles mentioned the following (in order of first mentioned):
    
    Jane [as Jenny] Menoher: bedding, kitchen furniture, and "the remainder of money arising from the sale as aforesaid." [That is, the money from the sale was to be equally divided amongst Jane, Sarah, Joseph and Thomas Clifford.]
    
    Sarah Reed: bedding, kitchen furniture, and "the remainder of money arising from sale as of aforesaid."
    
    Mary Clifford, "daughter-in-law" [she was the wife of James]: 1 dollar.
    
    Edward Clifford: 100 dollars.
    
    Charles Clifford: 50 dollars.
    
    Charles Clifford, "grandson, son of Joseph": residue from personal estate.
    
    Charles Menoher, "grandson" [he was a son of Jane Clifford Menoher]: residue from personal estate.
    
    Charles Reed, "grandson" [he was a son of Sarah Clifford Reed]: residue from personal estate.
    
    Charles Clifford, "grandson (son of Thomas)": residue from personal estate. [Note that Charles specifically mentioned the fathers of the two grandsons named Charles Clifford.] (Were these particular grandsons named because of their first names.)
    
    "Children of my daughter Mary Whitesides, deceased": 400 dollars.
    
    Sarah Clifford, "grand-daughter, daughter of my son James": 100 dollars.
    
    Joseph Clifford: "the remainder of money arising from the sale as aforesaid."
    
    Thomas Clifford: "the remainder of money arising from the sale as aforesaid."
    
    Charles appointed his son Joseph as executor. Witnesses were Thomas Pollock and John Pollock.
    [Will information from Hugh Clifford]
    
    "Both Charles and Jane died in Fairfield Township (present-day Ligonier Township), Westmoreland County, and, along with some of their children and other descendants, are buried in old Fort Palmer Cemetery, Fairfield Township, Westmoreland County. Most of their stones as of early 2002 were still readable. The cemetery is located about 8 miles north of Ligonier Borough and is across the road from the present-day United Presbyterian Church.
    
    "The first church at this site, a log structure, was started in 1780. The church was on the site of Old Fort Palmer, which served as protection for settlers at the time of Indian raids in the 1700's. It serviced a Presbyterian congregation, undoubtedly including our ancestors.
    
    "In 8 April 1755, Charles's name and that of two James Cliffords (presumably his father and brother), George Clifford, and Edward Clifford appeared on a Hunterdon County, New Jersey, subscribers list petitioning John Maxwell (he was probably the father of the John Maxwell who married Mary Clifford) and Henry Cotton to act on their behalf in settling Connecticut land claims in western New Jersey.
    
    "Charles probably married Jane Gordon in 1757, probably in New Jersey. The following year, 1758, when his son James was born, Charles apparently was with Forbes in the Ligonier Valley. Charles's family could not have stayed permanently in the Ligonier Valley from 1759, since his son Joseph was born in New Jersey in 1764 and his daughter Jane was born in New Jersey in 1772. Probably all children except Sarah were born in New Jersey.
    
    "In 1765, an ear mark for Charles Clifford was recorded in Bethlehem Township (Town meeting Records), Hunterdon County, New Jersey; and in 1767-1768, Charles Clifford was appointed Overseer of Roads in Bethlehem Township.
    
    "Charles Clifford and his son Robert Clifford were taxed in 1785 in Tyrone Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Robert and Edward Clifford and a George Clifford, but no Charles, were also taxed in 1786."
    Hugh Clifford
    
    The story of the capture of Charles Clifford by Senecas in 1779
    In April 1779, Charles Clifford was captured by Senecas near Fort Ligonier, Pennsylvania. He was taken to Quebec where he was a prisoner of the British for about 2 years. Almost 3 years elapsed from the time Charles was captured until he returned to his family in Pennsylvania. Most of the early books on the history of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, give an account of Charles's capture. This interesting event has been verified by United States National Archives Records and a letter from the Public Archivist, Ottawa, Canada.
    
    To backtrack, when Forbes's army in 1758 reached the fort that was to become Fort Ligonier, enter the picture two colonial soldiers of this campaign: one Charles Clifford and one James Clifford. Charles and James Clifford are mentioned in at least two early accounts of that time.
    
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    Of the capture of Charles Clifford we have a very good account both by tradition and by various writings which confirm it. He resided on Mill Creek, a tributary of Loyalhanna, two and one-half miles northwest of Fort Ligonier. In winter time he and his family stayed in or near the fort, and in the early spring they resumed their work on their clearings. On April 27, 1779, he and two sons went to their land to do some work preparatory to planting their spring crops.
    
    When they reached the place of their work they could not find their horses which they had left there the day before to graze over-night. The boys set to clearing up the land and the father went to look for the horses. He first went up to some newly deadened timber tracts near the present town of Waterford, for there he had found them once before when they strayed away.
    
    Not finding them there he continued the search, and finally reached the Forbes road leading to the fort, perhaps between Waterford and the present town of Laughlinstown [present day Highway 30 generally follows the old Forbes Road in that area].
    
    Still he could not find his horses, and so concluded to abandon the search and return to the fort by the road. He had gone down the road but a short distance until he was fired on by five Indians who were concealed behind a log lying by the wayside.
    
    None of the balls wounded him severely, though one of them splintered his gunstock and thus cut his face, which bled profusely, though it was only a flesh wound. The Indians ran up to him, wiped the blood from his face, and seemed very glad he was not injured. They told him he would make a good man for them, and that they would take him to Niagara.
    
    They took from him his hat, coat, vest, and shirt, allowing him to retain his trousers and shoes. One of the Indians cut away the brim from his hat and amused his fellows very much by wearing the crown. Another wore his shirt and another his vest. They gave him his coat to put on, but to this he objected unless they gave him his shirt also, saying he could not wear a coat without a shirt under it. But they did not take his suggestion kindly, and he was forced to submit, and told to hurry up as they must hasten on their journey.
    
    On the long march they treated him much more kindly than one might expect. The whole race was superstitious, and when five of them shot at him at once and failed to kill him, they concluded that he had some power to ward off dangers and might be very useful to them. They did not tie his arms, as was their universal custom even with half-grown boys.
    
    At night he slept between two Indians, with a leather strap across his breast, the ends held firmly by two Indians lying on them. As soon as they lay down they slept, but Clifford had too many things to think of to sleep so readily. Gently he drew the one end of the strap from under the Indians by his side and sat up. The moon was shining bright, but there was an Indian on a log, whose turn it was to watch the camp and keep up the fire. The watch sat silent and motionless as a statue, but the prisoner knew he was awake and would probably make short work of him if he attempted to escape.
    
    They had journeyed nearly north from where they captured him. At a point where now the village of Fairfield is located, they were joined by fifty-two other Indians, whose general trend was northward. The chief, Clifford said, had his head and arms covered with silver trinkets.
    
    They tore down fences to roast meat, but warily marched a mile or so away from the smoke to eat and prepare a place to rest over night. Clifford had great desire to see the other prisoners and to learn if his sons were among them. They had only one other prisoner, whose name was Peter Maharg [Mehargs]. [His name also appears on the list of Rebel Prisoner Returns.] When Clifford found him he was sitting on a log much dejected, too much so to reply to Clifford's salutation, and sat his head down in perfect silence.
    
    As it was learned afterwards he had been taken the same day and while hunting his horses. He had seen the Indians before they saw him, and was making his escape, but his dog running ahead of him, came running back to his master as soon as he saw the Indians. To the Indian this was all that was necessary. Maharg was taken at once.
    
    They further scoured the northern part of the valley for prisoners or booty, but finding nothing that was not guarded they left on the third day for their home, which was near the boundary between Pennsylvania and New York, near the headwaters of the Allegheny River.
    
    They had thus journeyed about two hundred miles and killed but two people and secured but two prisoners. On their long march homeward they marched by daylight, but always camped an hour or so before sunset. Eight or ten of them guarded the prisoners while the others hunted through the woods. At the camp they generally all met about the same time, and the hunters generally brought in venison, turkey or smaller birds. After the evening meal they lay down after the manner of the first night.
    
    After they crossed the Allegheny river the game became scarce, even a squirrel. All the party from then on suffered greatly from hunger. At one time for three days they had nothing to eat at all except the tender bark of young chestnut trees. This they cut with their tomahawks and offered it to their prisoners. Each of them refused, and received the consolation of 'you fool; you die.'
    
    They now sent out two swift Indians, who went ahead and in three days returned with some other Indians, among them some squaws, and who had beans, dried corn, and dried venison. They gave the prisoners a fair share of these provisions. The Indians then divided into two parties, and one of them took the dejected Maharg, while the other took Clifford.
    
    Maharg was treated most cruelly, most likely because he remained so morose and dejected, for this from the first disgusted them with him. They made him run the gauntlet, and pounded him so severely that he fell before he had passed the line. The beating that he received did not stop when he fell. He never recovered from it, but bore marks from it on his body when he was laid down many years afterwards in his last sleep. Running the gauntlet consisted in passing between two lines of Indians stationed about six feet apart, and the lines the same distance apart. The Indians were provided with clubs, and each had a right to hit the prisoner as he passed. If the prisoner was strong he could sometimes escaped pretty well, but it was at best a most painful and dangerous ordeal.
    
    Clifford had been from the first under an Indian who claimed him as his servant. After he had become somewhat accustomed to traveling without a shirt, his Indian gave him a shirt and hat. The shirt was covered with blood and had two bullet holes in it, and was probably taken from one of the men whom they had killed.
    
    Before he was taken prisoner, Clifford while working among the bushes had badly snagged his foot, and this without care became very painful, and the long marches had brought about inflammation and swelling. On showing it to his particular Indian guardian, he examined it very carefully and then went to a wild cherry tree with his tomahawk and procured some of the inner bark. This he boiled in a small pot and made syrup with which he bathed the foot, and after laying the boiled bark on the wound bound it up with pieces of a shirt. It very rapidly reduced the swelling and allayed the pain.
    
    They kept Clifford six weeks and then delivered him to the British at Montreal. He learned much about their customs and curious manners, and never failed to interest his hearers by a narration of his experiences and observations among them. He saw four prisoners running the gauntlet, one of whom was killed. At another time, when a horse had kicked a boy, the animal was at once shot by the father of the lad, and the Indians ate the meat, which they thought delicious.
    
    At Montreal [actually at Fort Chambly, which at that time was about 20 miles east of Montreal, Quebec, on the Richelieu River, a tributary of the St. Lawrence River] he grew in favor with the officers of the garrison and fared much better than most prisoners. He procured from one officer a pocket compass which he gave to a prisoner named James Flock, who escaped, and by the aid of the compass, made his way back to Westmoreland county through an almost endless wilderness, finally arriving at his home long after his friends had given him up for dead. Clifford was in Montreal two years and a half when he was exchanged. He then made his way back to Ligonier valley, having been gone three years.
    
    Charles lived to be an old man and was respected by all who knew him. He is buried in the old Fort Palmer cemetery, one of the oldest graveyards in the county. He died in 1816. He was a soldier of the Revolution.
    
    The year before Charles was captured, his son James [born 1758, died circa 1801] left Fort Ligonier to hunt game, having with him a very sagacious and well-trained dog. The dog all at once showed signs of scenting an enemy and came to his master whining and snarling as though something was wrong.
    
    He continued to advance along the path in the forest, but with a very watchful eye. In front of him stood a large tree with thick bushes growing about its stem. Behind these he saw an Indian crouching stealthily and waiting for him to come nearer. He saw instantly that to turn back or to stop would be to draw the Indian's fire, and perhaps with a fatal result. So he walked on, whistling in an unconcerned way, but slowly fetching his rifle down by his side and cocking it. When this was done he fired quickly at the Indian, though almost completely concealed by the bushes, then turned and ran for the fort, where he found his father and Captain Shannon talking about the noise of the firing.
    
    The captain immediately started out with a party of fifteen or twenty men to try to get the Indian, either dead or alive. They found that he had not been killed, but they tracked him by the blood on the ground, and found that he was twisting leaves and forcing them into the wound to stop the flow of blood. It was evident from the loss of blood that he could not survive long, but from his not being found it was surmised that he had not been alone, but had been carried off by others who were with him.
    
    Not long after this Robert Knox, Sr., one of the first settlers of the valley, had a conversation with a renegade who asked Knox who it was who killed the Indian, mentioning the circumstances. Knox told him it was one of his neighbor's boys. This shooting happened near Bunger's spring, at Ligonier. The Cliffords are the, ancestors of the well known Clifford family in Westmoreland county.
    
    Charles and Jane (Gordon) Clifford's stones in Fort Palmer Cemetery: The inscriptions on stones, from left: "Jane Gorden, wife of Charles Clifford, 1738-1802" and "C. Clifford, 1730-1816" (with flag).