Greathouse of Augusta County, VA

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1796, Oct 29 - The Journal of Andrew Ellicott: Andrew Ellicott implicated Harman Greathouse in the Yellow Creek Massacre

Excerpt: The Journal of Andrew Ellicott [1], Summary of his travels from Philadelphia through Baltimore to Mingo Bottom, Ohio County, VA, where in his journal, he implicated a Harman Greathouse in the murders of the Mingo Indians, who resided at Mingo Bottom [Yellow Creek Massacre].

1796, Sep 16 - I took leave of my family [at Philadelphia] about ten o'clock in the morning, and proceeded to Chester and dined; then rode to Wilmington and staid all night.

Sep 18 - Left Havre de Grace at five in the morning, breakfasted at Hartford, dined at Baltimore, and lodged at my mother's on Potapsco. [2]

Sep 19 - Remained at my mother's.

Sep 20 - About 11 o'clock in the forenoon took leave of my mother, brothers and sisters, and rode to Reister's town and got some refreshment, then proceeded about seven miles further and stayed all night.

Oct 29 - Encamped in the evening opposite to the Mingo bottom which is rendered memorable for the inhuman murder of the Indians of that name, who resided on it [3], either by, or at the instigation of Capt. Cresup, Harman Greathouse, and a few others [4]. This outrage was followed by a war of retaliation, which continued for many years with a cruelty scarcely to be equalled in the annals of history.

Footnotes:

1) Excerpt from Andrew Ellicott: His Life and Letters:

President Washington, in a commission bearing date May 4, 1796, appointed Andrew Ellicott Commissioner to survey and mark the boundary line between the American and Spanish possessions, to run, as provided for in the treaty, along the thirty-first parallel from the Mississippi eastward to the Appalachicola (Chattahoochee) River, and as an argument which he might use in case of need, a detachment of United States troops was to accompany him. His instructions was from Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State, dated Sept. 14, 1796, impressed upon him the importance of the exactitude of the work which was before him, and the great desirability of preserving peace and harmony in his dealings with both the Indians and the Spaniards with whom he would be brought in contact, and adds that according to the terms of the treaty, he should be at Natchez, "before the 25th of October next ensuing," -- an impossibility under the conditions of travelling at that time. Major Ellicott set out upon this important errand on the 16th of September, 1796, and his journal, faithfully kept from the day of his departure from Philadelphia until his return thereto May 18, 1800, is a picture of the country and the period of which he wrote, absorbing in its interest.

2) Major Ellicott's mother resided at Ellicott City, Baltimore County, MD, along Patapsco Creek, about 30 miles south of St. Benjamin's Lutheran Church at Westminster, MD, where Herman & Mary Magdalena Greathouse, residents near present-day Marriottsville, MD, were named as taking communion from 1788 through 1793.

3) Major Ellicott alludes to that massacre of the Indians by the whites in 1774, in which, among others, the entire family of Logan, the celebrated Cayuga Chief, were wiped out. It has been stated in Captain Michael Cresap's defence that he was elsewhere at the time, though he was probably aware of the intended massacre.

4) The Harman Greathouse implicated in the murders of Logan's family at Baker's Bottom by Major Ellicott, was probably the Harman Greathouse Sr., husband of Mary Stull, who had settled on Harmon's Creek, along the Ohio River, near present-day Weirton, WV, in 1773.

5) Daniel Greathouse, son of Harman Greathouse Sr., was implicated in the murders of Logan's family, which occurred on 30 Apr 1774, by William Crawford in a letter he wrote to George Washington on 8 May 1774. "Daniel Greathouse and some others fell on some at the mouth of Yellow creek and killed and scalped ten, and took one child about two months old, which is now at my house."

Sources:

Andrew Ellicott, The journal of Andrew Ellicott,: late commissioner on behalf of the United States during part of the year 1796, the years 1797, 1798, 1799, and part of the year 1800: for determining the boundary between the United States and the possessions of His Catholic Majesty in America, containing ... Western Americana, frontier history of the trans-Mississippi West, 1550-1900. Publisher Printed by Budd & Bartram, for Thomas Dobson, 1803. Original from Oxford University, Digitized Dec 6, 2006. Harman Greathouse implicated in Yellow Creek Massacre by Andrew Ellicott on 29 Oct 1796. View @ Google Books

Catharine Van Cortlandt Mathews, Andrew Ellicott: his life and letters, The Grafton Press, 1908. Original from the University of Michigan, Digitized Nov 29, 2006. Excerpt from Andrew Ellicott: His Life and Letters. Page 136: Harman Greathouse implicated in the "Yellow Creek Massacre" by Major Andrew Ellicott, in his journal entry on 29 Sep 1796. View @ Google Books

Greathouse Point, Greathouse County, Baltimore County, MD, Greathouse of Baltimore County, MD.

Greathouse Point, Greathouse County, Yohogania County, VA, 1780 - Greathouse Land Entries.

Greathouse Point, Greathouse County, Augusta County, VA, 1774, May 8 - Letter: William Crawford to Washington.