Show Notes
Have you ever been sorry you asked something? Don’t be! PLSJ’s Reference Librarian J.L. finds the answers to questions you thought might not even have an answer.
View Full Transcript
Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:09 Welcome to PPLs J'S podcast, where the public library of Steubenville and Jefferson County shares with you. Our favorite quirky questions finds out what leaders in our community are reading interviews, local authors, and so much more. This podcast is part of the Ask Us series where the reference librarian shares answers to some of our favorite questions from the past and provides information on topics you've pondered but didn't know who to ask. Now you do.
Speaker 2 00:00:41 Hi, this is JL your friendly neighborhood reference librarian. Today we can talk about a frontiersman who was operating in this area around the time of the revolution and before, and a very divisive figure to some he was the worst of villains to others. He was a bit of a hero talking about Simon Gerdy. Uh, throughout this podcast, I will no doubt switch between Native American and Indian. This is because many of the sources use the term Indian when I read them, rather than the more current term Native American. Uh, please take this as a trigger warning that occasionally my language may vary from what is completely proper. You may have heard of Simon Gerdy. He figures into a few prominent stories. Some of the stories of the 1782 Battle of Fort Henry mentioned Simon Gerdy, even though he wasn't there. As we will talk about later, uh, there's Gertie's point near West Liberty named after him.
Speaker 2 00:01:48 There are historical markers up in Squirrel Hill with his name on them and some prominent books such as a dark and bloody river. Mentioned in, he was born in 1741 near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He had three brothers to James and George. His father, Simons Sr. Was a traitor, but he traded especially with the Native Americans. In fact, he was on friendly enough terms with the Native Americans that Simon Sr. And his wife and his family became known as engine lovers, which was not something that was considered a compliment in those days. Simon Sr was eventually killed in a fight. There are different versions of who the fight was with. Some people blame the fight on Samuel Sanders, others on a Native American known only as the fish, as there were no formal records of it. We're not sure exactly who, but we do know he came out on the wrong end of his fight.
Speaker 2 00:03:00 And Mary, his wife, lived single for a while, but eventually married a man named John Turner. And they had yet another son who was known as John Jr. During the French and Indian War, they had to flee to Fort Granville, which was located at about the middle of Pennsylvania. However, it was eventually overrun by the French and Indians. Turner was killed, was indeed taken capture and tortured by the Native Americans, but his family was sent to various native tribes. Each of the sons seems to have been sent to a different place after being taken to kiting. Simon was then taken to live with the Seneca Tribe under Gata. He spent eight years among the Seneca, and these were apparently very happy years for Simon. He learned their language quickly and indeed found that he had a facility for languages. So he learned not only the Seneca language, but the language of many of the neighboring tribes, something that would serve him well later in life.
Speaker 2 00:04:10 However, after eight years as treaties happened, Gaia Suta was forced to sign a treaty that meant that all white captives, even those like Simon, who had been considered adopted members of the tribe had to be returned. And so Simon found himself in the area known as Fort Pitt, Pittsburgh, where his mother had set up a farm in what is now known as Squirrel Hill, and where a historic marker talking about Simon can be found one by one. The brothers trickled back in and lived with their mother for a while, and Simon particularly found himself much in demand as a translator because he not only knew the Indian language, he was very familiar with their customs and was on friendly terms with them. And while some versions of the story say that he was always in fights and very hard to get along with other versions of the story, say that one of the reasons is that he did get along.
Speaker 2 00:05:15 There are very prominent individuals of that time in polluting Simon Kenton. And yes, even Daniel Boone at that time were known to be on friendly terms with Simon Gerdy. So perhaps he may not have been as hard to get along with. As they mentioned, he also worked as a scout and translator during Lord Dun Moore's war. But Lord Dun Moore's war ended at the Battle of Point Pleasant, down in point, pleasant West Virginia and Native Forces were led by John Logan, and for those who have heard it after the war, Gerdy was sent to bring Logan back. Logan wouldn't come back, but he had a speech prepared. This speech is known as Logan's Lament and it can be looked up online. Logan's Lament, who mourns for Logan, uh, is a fairly famous speech, and it was Gertie who that speech was told and who memorized it and brought it back.
Speaker 2 00:06:19 And so it is Gerdy who is responsible for us having that speech to this day. Then came the American Revolution. Now the American Revolution was what cemented Gertie's reputation as the bad guy. For one, he was already on good terms with the Natives, which if you were a settler, was not necessarily something you wanted to hear about somebody. And he started out working for the Patriot side, but eventually decided that the Patriots weren't as much interested in freedom for themselves, but freedom to take native lands. And so with that perspective in mind, he found himself working for the British side. He was fairly active on the British side. He is known to have taken part in the Battle of Blue Licks where Daniel Boone was on the Patriot side and his son Israel was killed. Gertie was prominently on the British and native side. However, if he was was there at Blue Licks, it was far enough away that he couldn't have been also in 1782 at the Battle of Fort Henry in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Speaker 2 00:07:36 But he got blamed for it. There are actually accounts that mention the natives being Gertie's Indians, but not only would he have not been in a command position, the British were commanded by Butler's rangers Caldwell's company. But because Gerdy was the bad guy, he was going to be blamed for any bad thing that happened. Another thing that kind of cemented his reputation as a bad guy was the torture and death of Colonel William Crawford, another prominent frontiersman. This was again in 1782, but what Crawford was taken prisoner by the natives. He was blamed for an earlier massacre that had happened in Adeen Hutton. This was a massacre of peaceful Christian natives by settlers who had blamed the Indians in Grenade Hutton for another massacre. And so when Crawford was taken, he was said to have been in charge of the person of the force that had perpetrated the grenade and hot massacre.
Speaker 2 00:08:45 This was not true, but the natives felt that somebody had to pay. So Crawford was tortured and burned at the stake. Gertie was there. Some survivors said that he did nothing. But the simple truth is he couldn't have done anything. The natives wouldn't have let him. And if he had tried to stop them, and he was documented on other occasions of being able to stop people from being tortured to death. But had he tried to stop them from killing Crawford, he would've self have been killed. The war ended and Gertie's reputation stayed on the side of, well, on the side of the Natives and the British, and therefore, if you were a patriot and on the American side, a bad guy, he kind of became a boogeyman. If something bad happened, say the siege at Fort Henry, obviously Gertie had to be involved. Mothers would pretty much scare their children into eating their vegetables by saying that Simon Gerdy would come out of the woods and get them.
Speaker 2 00:09:50 Yeah, he got names such as Dirty Gertie, the White Savage, and other things like that. He probably, as anybody else in those days, was not what we would call a peaceful man, but it all has to be looked on the side of history as written by the winners. And if you're reading the history of the perspective of the settlers, you're not going to have a particularly good view of gerdy. However, if you're reading in history on the side of the natives, you are after the Battle of Fallen Timbers. In 1794, gurney moved to Canada. He married a woman named Catherine Mallet, had four children in Ontario, and that is where he died. It's interesting to say that if you look at the historical markers in the area where he spent his final time, he is yes, considered a hero by the Natives and by the Canadians. So it's a matter of perspective.
Speaker 1 00:10:59 Thanks for listening to PS J'S podcast. Have a question you want the answer to? Visit the library's [email protected] or email the reference department at [email protected].
