History of The Revolutionary War is full of patriotic families. Perhaps no family sacrificed more than the family of my ggg grandmother Nancy HARRISON married to my ggg grandfather Daniel MCKINNON. Research shows her Father Captain William HARRISON, her grandfather Colonel William Crawford, her great uncle Colonel Valentine Crawford, a cousin William CRAWFORD and an uncle Lieutenant Battaille HARRISON all died in the cause of the Revolution. In addition two uncles, Benjamin HARRISON and John Vance CRAWFORD served in the war. Nancy was ten years old when her father, grandfather and cousin were killed. For the most part, history has been generous in giving accounts of their deaths.

The first account involves the deaths of the first three individuals:
(i) Colonel William CRAWFORD (Killed)
(2) Captain William HARRISON (Killed)
(3) William CRAWFORD (nephew of Colonel William CRAWFORD) (Killed)
(4) John Vance CRAWFORD (son of Colonel William Crawford) accompanied the expedition but survived

William Crawford Biographical Sketch
William Crawford (2 Sep 1732 ? 11 June 1782) was an American soldier and surveyor who worked as a western land agent for George Washington. Crawford fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. He was tortured and burnt at the stake by American Indians (Native Americans) in retaliation for the Gnadenhutten massacre, a notorious incident near the end of the American Revolution.

Early Career

Crawford was born in Orange County, Virginia, at a location which is now in Berkeley County, West Virginia. He was a son of William Valentine Crawford and his wife Honora Grimes, who were Scots-Irish farmers. After his father's death in 1736, his mother married Richard Stephenson. Crawford had a younger brother, Valentine Crawford, plus five half-brothers and one half-sister from his mother's second marriage. In 1749, Crawford became acquainted with George Washington, then a young surveyor the same age as Crawford. He accompanied Washington on surveying trips and learned the trade. In 1755, Crawford served in the Braddock expedition with the rank of ensign. Like Washington, he survived the disastrous Battle of the Monongahela. During the French and Indian War, he served in Washington's Virginia Regiment, guarding the Virginia frontier against Native American raiding parties. In 1758, Crawford was a member of General John Forbes's army which captured Fort Duquesne, where Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania now stands. He continued to serve in the military, taking part in Pontiac's War in 1763.In 1765 Crawford built a cabin on the Braddock Road along the Youghiogheny River in what is now Connellsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. His wife and three children joined him there the following year. Crawford supported himself as a farmer and fur trader. When the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix with the Iroquois opened up additional land for settlement, Crawford worked again as a surveyor, locating lands for settlers and speculators. Governor Robert Dinwiddie had promised bounty land to the men of the Washington's Virginia Regiment for their service in the French and Indian War. In 1770 Crawford and Washington travelled down the Ohio River to choose the land to be given to the regiment's veterans. The area selected was near what is now Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Crawford also made a western scouting trip in 1773 with Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia. Washington could not accompany them because of the sudden death of his stepdaughter. At the outbreak of Dunmore's War in 1774, Crawford received a major's commission from Lord Dunmore. He built Fort Fincastle at present Wheeling, West Virginia. He also led an expedition which destroyed two Mingo villages (near present Steubenville, Ohio) in retaliation for Chief Logan's raids into Virginia. During the expedition, Crawford's men rescued two captives held by American Indians, killing six and capturing 14 Indians. Crawford's service to Virginia in Dumore's War was controversial in Pennsylvania, since the colonies were engaged in a bitter dispute over their borders near Fort Pitt. Crawford had been a justice of the peace in Pennsylvania since 1771, first for Bedford County, then for Westmoreland County when it was established in 1773. Arthur St. Clair, another Pennsylvania official, called for Crawford to be removed from his office, which was done in January 1775. Beginning in 1776, Crawford served as a surveyor and justice for Virginia's short-lived Yohogania County.

American Revolution

When the American Revolutionary War began, Crawford recruited a regiment for the Virginia Line of the Continental Army. On 11 October 1776, the Continental Congress appointed him colonel of the 7th Virginia Regiment. Crawford led his regiment in the Battle of Long Island and the retreat across New Jersey. He crossed the Delaware with Washington and fought at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. During the Philadelphia campaign, he commanded a scouting detachment for Washington's army. After the war on the western frontier intensified in 1777, Crawford was transferred to the Western Department of the Continental Army. He served at Fort Pitt under Generals Edward Hand and Lachlan McIntosh. Crawford was present at the Treaty of Fort Pitt in 1778, and helped to build Fort Laurens and Fort McIntosh that year. Resources were scarce on the frontier, however, and Fort Laurens was abandoned in 1779. In 1780, Crawford visited Congress to appeal for more funds for the western frontier. In 1781, he retired from military service.

Crawford Expedition

In 1782, General William Irvine persuaded Crawford to come out of retirement and lead an expedition against enemy Indian villages along the Sandusky River. Before leaving, on 16 May he made out his will and testament. His son John Crawford, his son-in-law William Harrison, and his nephew and namesake William Crawford also joined the expedition. After his election as commander of the expedition, Crawford led about 500 volunteers deep into American Indian territory with the hope of surprising them. However, the Indians and their British allies at Detroit had learned about the expedition in advance, and brought about 440 men to the Sandusky to oppose the Americans. After a day of indecisive fighting, the Americans found themselves surrounded. During a confused retreat, Crawford and dozens of his men were captured.

Execution of Crawford

The Indians executed many of them in retaliation for the Gnadenh?tten massacre earlier in the year, in which about 100 peaceful Christian Indian men, women, and children had been murdered by Pennsylvania militiamen. Crawford's execution was brutal; he was tortured for at least two hours before he was burned at the stake. His nephew and son-in-law were also captured and executed. The war ended shortly thereafter, but Crawford's horrific execution was widely publicized in the United States, worsening the already strained relationship between Native Americans and European Americans.

Reaction of George Washington to Crawford?s Death

"It is with the greatest sorrow and concern that I have learned the melancholy tidings of Colonel Crawford?s death. He was known to me as an officer of much care and prudence; brave, experienced and active. The manner of his death was shocking to me; and I have this day communicated to the honorable, the Congress, such papers as I have regarding it?. In a letter to Irvine , at Fort Pitt, written on the 6th of August, Washington further stated: ?I lament the failure of the expedition against Sandusky, and am particularly affected with the disastrous death of Colonel Crawford.?
Legacy

In 1982, the site of Colonel Crawford's execution was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1994, the Wyandot County (Ohio) Patriotic Citizens erected an 8.5 ft (2.6 m) Berea sandstone monument at the site. The Ohio Historical Society also has an historical marker nearby. Crawford County, Ohio, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, and Crawford County, Indiana are named for William Crawford. So too is Colonel Crawford High School in North Robinson, Ohio.

The second account is the death of Colonel Valentine CRAWFORD

Col. Valentine Crawford--Bio
[The following biolgraphy comes from the Obanion Family tree at: http://www.dave-francis.com/genealogy/obanionfamily/pafn15.htm#431 ]

"BIOGRAPHY: Valentine died at age 52, Intestate (without a will). He fell through theice (the ice) while returning home, in Washington Co., PA. Colonel William Crawford took the body to Bullskin Creek, Shepherdstown, WVA, and buried it beside his mother, Honora Crawford Stephenson, born Honora Grimes. His body was interred Jan. 9, 1777 in West Virginia, Bullskin Church Cemetary, WV. He married three times. His first wife was Catherine ??, then Sarah Morgan ( or Ann Connell), then Rachel ??. Valentine Crawford Jr., and his brother William Crawford, enlisted in the British Army in 1754 at Winchester , VA. Both took oath to the King of England. Valentine was commissioned Colonel in the Virginia Militia in December of 1776 and served as Wagon Master General. Valentine acted as a secretary or an assistant to George Washington. He is reported to have been elected to the Virginia House of Burgess and voted in that body in 1758. Valentine was a private in the Augusta Co.,VA militia in 1775, stationed at Fort Finecastle. On October 1, 1776, he was stationed at Fort Henry (now Wheeling, WV). He was a Colonel in the Virginia State Militia Troops from 1776 to 1777. He was a resident of Tyrone Township, Fayette Co.,PA in 1772-1775. Valentine Crawford Jr. applied for 100 acres of land in Frederick Co.,VA in 1748, about the time of his marriage and purchased (paid for) the land on 6-21-1754.
(Evelyn Pope)"

The third acount is the death of Battaille HARRISON

[TRANSCRIPTION OF DOCUMENT IMAGE: STATEMENT OF MAJOR
HENRY BEDINGER]
To whom it may Concern,
I Henry Bedinger of the County of Berkeley & State of Virginia declare that Col'o Hugh
Stephenson of said County was Commissioned a Colonel of a Rifle Regiment on the 8th
day of July 1776; that Abraham Shepherd was also Commissioned a Captain, Samuel
Finley 1st Lieutenant, William Kelly, second Lieutenant, & my self, third Lieutenant in
said Company on the 9th day of July 1776, in and for said Regiment, that our instructions
were to inlist men for three years, that Captain William Brady of the same County was
appoint a Captain, William Pile first Lieutenant, Christopher Brady second Lieutenant and
Battail Harrison third Lieutenant to raise a Company of men for the same Regiment and
enlist the men for the same time, that the said Captains Abraham Shepherd & William
Brady did raise their Companies, & immediately marched them including the Officers to
Camp at Bergen Opposite to New York where Lieutenant Col'o Moses Rawlings had
assumed the Command of said Reg't (Col'o Hugh Stephenson having died in August) that
soon thereafter this Reg't was ordered to the defense of Fort Washington on York Island
including the abovenamed Officers, that Lieuten't Christopher Brady died in Camp or its
vicinity about the 12th of November 1776 while in Service, that the said Regiment was on
the 16th November 1776 in the Battle and .......... of Fort Washington mainly destroyed
and Captured by the enemy, that Lieutenant Battail Harrison was killed in that Action,
that Lieutenant Pile of Bradys Company was with most of the officers of said Regiment
made prison... of War, and not exchanged until the first day of November 1780, that said
William Pile did not Continue in Service or resume his Command after he was exchanged.
Captain William Brady was Captured, and as I was also detained a prisoner nearly four
years [say?] to 1st November 1780, I am unable say if Captain Brady did Serve his full
three years - but this I know that the Heirs of Col'o High Stephenson did receive the
bounty land promised by the State of Virginia as did his Widow the Public allowance
promised to the widows of Officers who died in the Service, and I also know that
Lieutenant William Pile and the Heirs of Lieutenant Ballail Harrison did receive the
bounty lands promised by Virginia, and therefore presumed that the heirs of Captain
William Brady & Lieutenant Christopher Brady are entitled to Virginia bounty lands,
neither Captain William Brady or Lieutenant Christopher Brady had any Child or
Children the latter of these Officers died in that County not many years after the
Revolutionary War
Given, under my hand this 24th day of December 1830
Henry Bedinger, Captain
in the 5th Virginia Regt
Revolutionary Army

Genealogy of Nancy Harrison's Revolutionary War patriots

Generation 1:
Valentine CRAWFORD
Birth 1692 in , , Delaware, USA
Death 1726 in Berkeley, James, Virginia, USA
Married to: Honora GRIMES
Birth About 1700 in Norfolk Cty Virginia United States
Death 1777 in Stephardstown, Berkley Virginia USA
Issue of Valentine and Honora:
Mary Crawford
1716 ?
Elizabeth Crawford
1718 ?
Martha Crawford
1720 ? 1734
William Crawford Colonel (Killed in Revolutionary War)
1722 ? 1782
Valentine "Colonel" Crawford (Killed in Revolutionary War)
1724 ? 1777
Elizabeth Crawford
1728 ?

Generation 2:
William CRAWFORD Colonel (Killed in Revolutionary War)
Birth 2 Sep 1722 in Berkeley County, Virginia, USA
Married to:Hannah VANCE
Birth 11 Apr 1732 in Valley of the Shenendoah Virginia USA
Death 1817 in New Haven, Fayette, Pennsylvania, United States
Issue of William and Hannah
Ann Crawford
1743 ? 1783
John Vance Crawford
1744 ? 1816
Sarah Sally Crawford
1748 ? 1838
Orphelia Effie Crawford
1751 ? 1821
Nancy Crawford
1767 ? 1842

Generation 3:
Sarah Sally CRAWFORD
Birth About 1748 in Fayette Co. Pa. USA
Death Nov 10 1838 in Fayette Co Pennsylvania
Married to:William HARRISON Captain (Killed in Revolutionary War)
Birth About 1740 in Orange Virginia USA
Death Jan 11 1782 in Sandusky Erie Ohio USA
Issue of Sally and William
Sally Harrison
1766 ?
Nancy Harrison (My gggg grandmother)
1772 ? 1856
Harriet Harrison
1772 ?
Battle Harrison
1776 ?
John Harrison
1778 ? 1850
Mary Polly Harrison
1780 ?

Generation 2.1:
Lawrence HARRISON
Birth 1720 in Monroe, Amherst, Virginia, United States
Death Jan 1772 in Tyrone, Fayette, Pennsylvania, United States
Married to:
Catherine Marmaduke
Birth Abt 1721 in Orange, Virginia, United States
Death Feb 2 1836 in Harrison County Kentucky
Issue of Lawrence and Catherine:
Battaile Harrison (Killed in Revolutionary War)
1740 ? 1776
William Harrison Captain (Killed in Revolutionary War)
1740 ? 1782
Catherine Harrison
1744 ? 1824
Benjamin Harrison (Served in Revolutionary War)
1750 ? 1808
Lawrence Harrison
1753 ? 1833
Elizabeth Harrison
1756 ? 1841
John Harrison
1760 ?
Robert Harrison
1760 ?
Mary Harrison
1761 ? 1836

Generation 2.1:
Valentine "Colonel" CRAWFORD (KILLED in Revolutionary War)
Birth 1724 in Berkeley Co, VA
Death 17 January 1777 in Jacobs Creek, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, USA
Married to:Sarah MORGAN
Birth 1736 in Virginia, USA
Death 15 Feb 1774 in Frederick, Virginia, USA
Issue of Valentine and Sarah:
John Crawford
1753 ? 1796
William Crawford (Killed in Revolutionary War)
1753 ? 1782
George Washington Crawford
1760 ? 1819

Generation 4:
Nancy HARRISON (My gggg grandmother)
Birth Dec 30 1772 in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, United States
Death 6 Dec 1856 in Moore Twp.Logan, Ohio, United States
Married to:Daniel MCKINNON
Birth Apr 9 1767 in Fayette City, Fayette, Pennsylvania, United States
Death 25 Aug 1837 in Moorefield, Clark, Ohio, United States
Issue of Nancy and Daniel:
William Harrison "Judge" McKinnon
1789 ? 1861
Daniel McKinnon
1791 ? 1864
Theophelus McKinnon
1795 ?
John Benjamin McKinnon
1796 ? 1850
Catherine "Katie" McKinnon
1797 ? 1849
Uriah McKinnon
1797 ? 1849
Josiah McKinnon
1804 ? 1837
Sarah McKinnon
1806 ? 1894
Thomas Dillow McKinnon
1809 ? 1882

Generation 5:
Thomas Dillow MCKINNON
Birth 1809 in Boone County Kentucky, USA
Death 28 Oct 1882 in Lowell,Iowa
Married to:Elizabeth SMITH
Birth Feb 5 1814 in ,Washington,Virginia,USA
Death May 1880 in Lee, Virginia
Issue of Thomas and Elizabeth:
Mary McKinnon
Theophalis Addison McKinnon
1834 ? 1907
Thomas Jefferson McKinnon
1835 ? 1904
Robert Jackson. McKinnon Sr.
1837 ? 1920
Josephine McKinnon
1838 ? 1918
Daniel S McKinnon
1840 ? 1914
James Monroe McKinnon
1844 ? 1925
Isabella McKinnon
1846 ? 1937
Ann Eliza McKinnon
1849 ? 1918
John Quincy McKinnon
1850 ? 1931
Lillian Sarah McKinnon
1852 ?
William A McKinnon
1855 ?
Baby Girl McKinnon
1856 ?
Stephen Samuel McKinnon
1859 ? 1905
Turtullus McKinnon
1859 ?

Generation 6:
Robert Jackson MCKINNON Sr.
Birth Jan 22 1837 in Indiana, United States
Death 13 Apr 1920 in Burns, Harney, Oregon, United States
Married to:Emily Harriet LONG
Birth 24 Mar 1843 in Indiana, United States
Death 18 Jul 1911 in Burns Harney Oregon USA
Issue of Robert and Emily:
John E McKinnon
1859 ?
Ida May McKinnon
1861 ? 1950
Robert Jackson Jr, McKinnon
1863 ? 1932
Andrew Johnson McKinnon
1866 ? 1903
Lucy Jane McKinnon
1868 ? 1957
Belle Dora McKinnon
1870 ?
Harriet E McKinnon
1871 ? 1871
Thomas Daniel McKinnon
1872 ? 1948
Emma Alice McKinnon
1875 ?
Elsie Ollie McKinnon
1876 ?
William E McKinnon
1883 ? 1898
Essie Geneva McKinnon
1897 ?

Generation 7:
Robert Jackson Jr, MCKINNON
Birth 12 Sep 1863 in Iowa
Death 3 Nov 1932 in Burns, Harney, Oregon, United States
Married to:Laura Ann GALLOWAY
Birth Mar 15 1868 in Elk City Benton Oregon USA
Death Jun 21 1915 in Burns Harney Oregon USA
Issue of Robert and Laura:
Clarence Roy McKinnon
1889 ? 1959
Eula Lea McKinnon
1891 ? 1973
Ralph Earl McKinnon
1898 ? 1961
Gladys Delta McKinnon
1900 ?
Otho Walter McKinnon
1903 ? 1975
Cleo Addison McKinnon
1909 ?
Leo Addis McKinnon
1909 ?

Generation 8:
Clarence Roy MCKINNON
Birth Jul 30 1889 in Coffee Pot, Oregon, USA
Death Nov 25 1959 in Carlton Yamhill Oregon USA
Married to:Mamie Veda PRILL
Birth Jan 26 1901 in Belle Plaine, Iowa, USA
Death Jun 12 1998 in Corvallis, Oregon, USA
Issue of Clarence and Mamie:
Mava Lurhea McKinnon
1922 ?
Felice Grace McKinnon
1923 ? 2002
Robert Prill McKinnon
1928 ? 1999
Dale Lynn McKinnon
1932 ?