Thomas Cresap

Colonel Thomas Cresap (1702–1790) was a pioneer settler in the state of Maryland.

Early years

Cresap was born in Skipton, Yorkshire, England, and came to Maryland when fifteen years of age. In 1732 he gave his occupation as that of a carpenter. He settled at the mouth of the Susquehanna River, where he engaged in boat-building. In 1725 he married Hannah Johnson, whose father, Thomas Johnson, on March 24, 1725 had surveyed to himself Mount Johnson Island, at Peach Bottom Ferry. Cresap went to Virginia, but he was not there long before a dozen or more persons attempted to drive him away when he was engaged in hewing timber for his dwelling. He defended himself, and cleft one of his assailants with a broad-ax. He then returned to Maryland, and took out a patent for a ferry over the Susquehanna at the head of tide-water, which must have been at or near the terminus of the voyage of Capt. John Smith up the river in 1608. While living there he visited the rich valleys thirty miles farther up the right bank of the river, now in Hellam and Lower Windsor Townships. He reported the conditions to Lord Baltimore, who as early as 1721 had contemplated extending the northern boundary of Maryland on the west side of the Susquehanna to the northern limits of the fortieth degree of latitude.

Land disputes

Gradually a few settlers from Maryland moved to the Conojohela Valley. They were aggressive to the Pennsylvanias who settled near them. It was not Lord Baltimore's practice to purchase lands from the Indians; instead the Marylanders drove them away by force. The settlers treated the Indians on the west side of the river with cruelty; however, they had no one capable of holding the ground they had taken from the Indians or from the Pennsylvanians, who were determined to prevent Baltimore from gaining a foothold on this disputed land. Cresap came to Conojohela Valley in March, 1730, and built a block-house on the banks of the river three and one half miles below today's Wrightsville, near the site of Leber's Mill. That same year, he took out a Maryland patent for several hundred acres near the river for "Blue Rock Ferry" at same place. In 1731 Cresap was commissioned a justice of the peace for Baltimore County. After many attempts to capture him, he was finally taken on 25 November 1736, by Sheriff Samuel Smith and twenty-four armed men. His wife stood by him and fought at his side.

At this time he had at least two and perhaps three of his children with him, the eldest being about nine years of age. During his imprisonment, his wife and children lived with his cousin Daniel Lowe, who drove one of the German settlers from his home in Grist Valley (Kreutz Creek), near Codorus. Cresap's education was limited, but he became a land surveyor, and was of great service to Lord Baltimore in extending the western boundary of Maryland from the source of the south branch of the Potomac due north, which added at least one third more territory to Maryland. In 1735 he took out a Maryland patent for a group of islands at Blue Rock Ferry, called the "Isles of Promise." About 1730 Cresap again moved beyond the frontier and took up about 2,000 acres of land in Maryland along Antietam Creek, where he established a store and Indian trading post. He accumulated a large quantity of furs and pelts and shipped them to England. The vessel was captured by the French and he lost everything. Cresap moved farther west to within two miles of present day Cumberland, Maryland, where he again embarked in the Indian trade until the beginning of the French and Indian War, when he raised a company of Rangers.

French and Indian War

Cresap fought a number of skirmishes with the Indians and stood his ground, assisted by his sons. He was elected a representative from Washington County, Maryland to the Maryland legislature. When the French and their allies attempted to seize the territory west of the Alleghany Mountains from the English, Cresap and his sons at their own expense raised two companies of volunteer soldiers.

Later years

Cresap was a large landholder. He became totally blind a few years before his death. He married a second time, it is said, when he was eighty years of age. He died in 1790, at his home in Allegheny County, Maryland, aged eighty-eight.

His first wife Hannah Johnson, during "Cresap's war," frequently mounted a horse and rode with the mounted militia with a sword by her side. When Cresap's stronghold was surrounded by militia from Donegal, Hannah knew how to handle a musket. She superintended the construction of a house and the building of some flatboats, in the absence of her husband, at John Hendricks', now the upper end of Wrightsville, where forcible possession had been taken of Hendricks' plantation by Cresap. While there she saw a flatboat filled with armed men crossing the river. She mounted her horse, sounded a bugle, and rode rapidly to Cresap's fort, three miles and a half down the river. She returned at the head of the militia.

Family

Thomas and Hannah Cresap had five children, three sons and two daughters.

The oldest son, Daniel Cresap, remained in Washington County, Maryland, and became a large landholder and a celebrated hunter as well as a farmer. He was about fourteen when the family left York County. By his first wife he had a son, Michael, who commanded a company in Lord Dunmore's War in 1774, and was afterwards colonel of militia. By a second wife he had seven sons and three daughters: Daniel, Joseph, Van, Robert, James, Thomas, Elizabeth, Mary and Sarah. Daniel marched in his uncle's company to Boston in 1775. James was for a number of years in the Maryland legislature.

Thomas, the second son of Col. Cresap, was killed by an Indian — whom he killed at the same instant. He left a widow and one child.

Michael, the youngest son of Col. Cresap was born in Frederick County, Maryland, June 29 1742. He was the successor to his father in the Indian trade, and owned a large trading store at "Old Town," a few miles west of Cumberland. He was an Indian fighter from his youth. In 1774 he employed several men and descended the Ohio River and was engaged in the business of erecting houses and clearing lands for the settlers, and while thus engaged he received a letter from Dr. Connolly the commandant at Fort Pitt, that there was danger of an Indian war. The settlers were alarmed. Michael and his party hastened up Fort Wheeling, and anticipating an attack upon them by the Indians, struck first them. Some of his men killed several Indians near Wheeling, and afterward they went up the river and killed the family of the celebrated Indian Chief Logan and several others. Capt. Cresap, it has since been proven, was not with either of these parties at this time. It turned out afterward that Connolly was entirely mistaken about the Indians being on the war path, and he was the primary cause of the murder of Logan's family. Chief Logan reacted swiftly. The border settlers suffered fearfully along Cheat River, Dunkard Creek and the Monongahela River. This was followed by "Dunmore's war." The Virginians fought a great battle at Point Pleasant on the Ohio, which brought about a treaty of peace. Connolly attempted to shift the blame of inciting the border settlers to attack the Indians to Capt. Michael Cresap.

Michael Cresap was held in very high esteem by his neighbors. He was the first person in Maryland to raise a company of volunteer riflemen. He marched at their head to Boston in 1775, where he fought with great bravery. He took sick and was compelled to return to New York, where he died. Michael Cresap left five children, two sons and three daughters.

References

• History of York County, Pennsylvania. John Gibson, historical editor. Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886 (Copyright Expired), Page 602-604.