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Captain Alexander Culbertson

Page history last edited by pamrw@... 13 years, 4 months ago

Captain Alexander Culbertson

 

A Forgotten Pennsylvanian/American Hero

 

 

Monument Honoring those Killed and Wounded at Sideling Hill 

 

Alexander Culbertson was born in 1714 in the parish of Ballymoney, County Antrim, Ireland.  This is located approximately 50 miles northwest of Belfast and about 5 miles from the northern coast of Northern Ireland. (3)

 

The Culbertson's were Scotch-Irish or Scots-Irish as were many of the settlers in Western Pennsylvania.  The majority of these immigrants were descended from Scottish families who had been transplanted to Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 1600s.  An estimated 200,000 immigrants of Scotch-Irish decent came to America during the 18th century.

 

Alexander immigrated to America in 1730 with two brothers.  He settled about nine miles from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.  His brothers and eventually their offspring acquired adjacent properties in this area which became known as Culbertson's Row.  He was a member of the Rocky Spring Church.

 

He married Margaret Duncan and they had 7 children.  The oldest was Samuel who as a teenager was a member of the Forbes Expedition, and later became a Colonel in the Pennsylvania Militia during the Revolution.

 

In 1755 Alexander was commissioned Captain in Col. Burd's regiment of the Pennsylvania Provincial Troops in the French and Indian War.  It was in this position that he led a party of Militia and other citizens in an attempt to rescue the neighbors and friends that were captured by the Delawares at McCord's Fort on April 1, 1756.

 

His party came upon the Indians a few miles north of Fort Littleton and Captain Culbertson was killed in the ensuing Battle of Sideling Hill.

 

A history of Cumberland County says of him, "The killing of Captain Alexander Culbertson is much to be lamented.  He was a brave and worthy man, and was ever ready to sacrifice his own interests, as well as his own convenience, to promote the welfare of our people.  Other men could have been more easily spared" (15)

 

Below is an extract from a biography of General John Rea that contains a brief summary of the Culbertson family.  Of special note is the comment, ". . . Captain Alexander Culbertson, of Culbertson Row, one of the most prominent families in the annals of central and western Pennsylvania, and one that probably furnished more officers to the Revolutionary army than any other family in Pennsylvania."  (emphasis added)

 

(Fairly extensive research could not verify that Alexander participated in Braddock's defeat.)

 

Eschenmann's "The Forbes Expedition" contains a map of Forbes route which passes through three of the Culbertson properties. (5)  Rowe Run Road also passed through these same properties.  That road exists today.  There is a kink in the road as it passes through Joseph Culbertson's property which is also still there today.  By matching said kink it is possible to obtain an aerial map of Culbertson's Row as it appears today.  An examination of the fields, woods, and streams shows a remarkable resemblance of the property boundaries today more than 250 years later.

 

 

The middle of the three Culbertson properties shown above

is that of Alexander.  To the right is Joseph's property where

Culbertson's Fort was located.  Towards the lower left of the

Forbes map is a second property acquired by Samuel in 1785.

 

 

Culbertson's Fort

 

Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania: The Indian forts of the Blue Mountains. By H.M. Richards. 

 

The same writer also furnishes the following information, that there was an old fort at the head of Row springs, in Greene township, is known as Culbertson's Row. This old fort, he states, was erected in 1752, shortly before the time of Braddock's defeat at Fort Duquesne.  This old fort stood about one hundred yards from where D. C. Witherspoon, the informant, lives, at the head of Row springs. He further states that information that was furnished him by his wife's great grandfather, Joseph Culbertson, one of four brothers, who emigrated from Ireland, and that he helped to erect this old fort. The old fort has been pulled down long ago, and some of the logs that were used in the construction of it are in a house owned by Adam Killinger, about one mile from this place—Culbertson's. These places were merely blockhouses.

 

 

 

Southern Pennsylvania II

All's Fort | W. Allison's Fort | Post at Armstrong's (1) | Aughwick Fort | Aull's Fort | Fort Bedford

Camp Biddle | Carlisle Barracks | Camp at Carlisle | Carlisle Fort | Fort at Carlisle | Carnaham's Fort

Chambers' Fort | Fort Chambers | Camp Colt | Fort Conococheague | Coombs' Fort | G. Croghan's Fort (1)

G. Croghan's Fort (2) | Cross' Fort | Culbertson's Fort | Cuthbertson's Fort | D. Davis' Fort

 

Capt. Alexander Culbertson's Fort 

(1755 - 1758 ?), Culbertson

A settlers' fort. Culbertson was killed by Indians in 1756. Referenced in Indian raids during 1757 and 1758. Also spelled Cuthbertson in one source.

 

 

Frontier diplomats: Alexander Culbertson and Natoyist-Siksina' among the Blackfeet by Lesley Wischmann

 

The government authorized a militia and series of provincial forts; Joseph Culbertson built a large log fort in front of his home, with spring water and space to shelter the Culbertson Clan and some neighbors.  7 Conrad, p.175

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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