Joseph Swope ^{1 2}

  General Notes:

Per the Library of Virginia records, a Joseph Swoope from Botetourt County, VA fought in Captain James Henderson's Company during the Dunmore's War. County: Botetourt Company commander: Capt. James Henderson. Recorded on: p. 180. Listed in index: p. xiv. Other Format Available on microfilm (Miscellaneous Reel 78, last item).

From the Library of Virginia:

"Dunmore' War was a conflict between the Colony of Virginia and the Native Americans of the Ohio Valley. Following increased raids and attacks on frontiersmen in this region, the Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, organized a large force of militia and marched to Fort Pitt arriving at the end of August 1774. Dunmore also ordered Colonel Andrew Lewis, commander of the southwestern Virginia militia, to raise an army in the south and meet Dunmore's force along the Ohio River. Lewis formed militia companies from Augusta, Bedford, Botetourt, Culpeper, Dunmore, Fincastle, and Kentucky counties. After Colonel Lewis' victory at the Battle of Point Pleasant, Dunmore successfully negotiated a peace treaty with the Delaware, Mingo, and Shawnee chiefs that prevented them from settling or hunting south of the Ohio River.

"Part of the index to the names of Virginia citizens or soldiers from the counties of Augusta, Bedford, Botetourt, Culpeper, and Fincastle who were compensated in 1775 for supplies and service during Dunmore's Expedition in 1774. This index covers individuals from the counties of Augusta, Bedford, Botetourt, and Fincastle only. These records are now part of the Virginia Colonial Government records group (RG#1) and are housed in the Archives at the Library of Virginia".

Joseph's life and family are accounted in The History of Monroe County West Virginia, by Oren F. Morton, B. Lit., Originally Published: Staunton, Virginia, 1916, Reprinted, Regional Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1988, pgs. 494-506

"Joseph was stolen by the Shawnee Indians in 1756, at the age of five years, and kept a prisoner with them near Chillicothe, Ohio, for nine years. Joseph, who was taken to the Indian village, was adopted by the queen of the tribe, who was said to have been Cornstalk's mother. He was treated with royalty and saved from death and many hardships. An Indian boy one day located a skunk near the camp, and induced his white comrade into making an investigation for game, the result being that he was thoroughly fumigated. Bent on revenge, and not large enough to whip the Indian, he waited his opportunity, and when the Indian boy started to kindle a fire with steel and flint, Swope placed some powder where the fire would ignite it, and when he got down to blow the smoke into a blaze, the powder ignited and blew out both eyes of the Indian. The Indian tribe took up the matter, and Swope was sentenced to death, and it was here the good offices of the old queen came in. She was a silent spectator to his sentence of death; then she quietly exercised her authority, took charge of her adopted boy, and told the Indians they had taught him nothing but revenge, and that this boy had a right to resent the treatment of the Indian; so saying, he led him to her wigwam, and the sentence was set aside and his life saved. The boy was returned to his parents by reason of the treaty following the battle of Point Pleasant.

"This boy took to civilized life after his return, learned to write, and became a prosperous man. On April 3, 1774, he married Catharine Sullivan, a full-blooded Irish woman. She was a woman of strong character, and led an eventful life, many of the details of which would be interesting to her descendants. She was a fearless pioneer, capable of defensive as well as offensive warfare for the protection of her family against the wild beasts as well as the savage men. On one occasion six Indians came into her house without saying a word, and sat down at the table and ate all she had prepared. With a grunt of thanks they walked over to the woods in the direction of her people. In a few moments she heard the crack of a rifle, and directly the Indians returned, and one was carrying a large buck which they had killed, and delivered it to her. They laid it down by the door, and indicated by signs and grunts that it was to pay for the dinner. On one occasion she decided to go hunting at night. So getting the trusty old flintlock rifle and calling her dogs she went entirely by herself. She had not gone far when the dogs "treed" and as it was too dark to see she staid with her dogs until daylight when she found four panthers up the tree. She shot and killed three and the fourth got away. She was the doctor for miles around and many tales used to be told of her success in physics and surgery.

"This Joseph, Sr., and his wife, Catharine, raised a family of nine children. George, the oldest, was born August 15, 1776; Margaret, October 20, 1777; Ruth, December, 1778; Joseph, June 20, 1781; Jonathan, January 5, 1783; Catharine, February 12, 1785; Eleanor, January 3,1788; Adam, April 23, 1791; and Mary, March 17, 1793. He settled in the Wolf Creek Valley and secured a patent to 600 acres of land where his father entered his tomahawk right, and there raised his family in the house built by his father. Of this large family of early settlers and their descendents, but few remain in the country of their nativity.

"The old house built by the original settler on Wolf Creek still stands, well preserved. The site on which the hollow poplar tree stood in which Joseph Swope hid from the Indians is still marked and preserved. A large tombstone stands on a flat top circular knoll near the Board Run Baptist church, where Joseph Swope, Sr., laid out a cemetery or graveyard over a hundred years ago, and there lie side by side his body and that of his wife, and on his tombstone is the following inscription:" Joseph Swope departed this life March 2, 1819, in his sixty-eighth year. He was one of the first settlers of this country, after having been nine years a prisoner with the Shawnee Indians.a prisoner with the Shawnee Indians."

  Burial Notes:

Inscription: "He was one of the first settlers of this country, after having been for nine years a prisoner with the Shawnee Nation."

  Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation: Trapper.

Joseph married Catherine Sullivan, daughter of Timothy Sullivan and Katherine Rainey. (Catherine Sullivan was born on 9 Feb 1756 in Ireland, died on 12 Mar 1820 and was buried in Broad Run Cemetery, Wolf Creek, Monroe Co, WV.)