My Genealogy Hound

ANCESTRY OF MRS. CAPT. EDWARD W. H. SCHENLEY nee CROGHAN. Mrs. Edward W. H. Schenley, possessed of large estates in Allegheny county, was born near Louisville, Ky., in 1827. Her ancestors were identified with the patriot cause from colonial times. She was the granddaughter of Maj. William Croghan and of Gen. James O’Hara; the grandniece of Gen. George Rogers Clarke and of Gen. William Clarke, and the niece of Gen. George Croghan.

Maj. William Croghan was a native of Ireland, born about 1750. He came to Virginia when quite young. When the revolutionary war broke out, and the clash of arms was heard on the fields of Lexington and Concord, Virginia sprang to the contest. Among Virginia’s soldiers was young William Croghan. In 1776 he was a captain in the 4th regiment of the Virginia line, under Col. John Seville. The lieutenant-colonel of the regiment was Presley Neville, the son of John Neville. William Croghan was promoted to be major of the regiment. These soldiers fought under the eye of Washington, being intimate friends of his. Amid the snows of Trenton and Princeton, and under the burning heat of Monmouth, their fought and were victorious. At Brandywine and Germantown they fought also, and, though defeated, retired in grim defiance with Washington to Valley Forge, to watch through that dismal winter the British army under Howe at Philadelphia, and to drive that army the following summer across the Delaware, through New Jersey to Sandy Hook, and across the bay to New York. In 1780 the regiment was ordered south to join the army under Gen. Lincoln. During the most of this year the military operations were confined to the Carolinas. A powerful British fleet transported Sir Henry Clinton and the bulk of his forces from New York, and anchored in Charleston harbor. After a month’s siege, the most of the fortifications having been beaten down, Gen. Lincoln found himself obliged to surrender his troops, including Neville’s regiment of Virginians; among them Cols. John and Presley Neville and Maj. William Croghan. Col. Presley Neville was fortunate enough to be exchanged, but Col. John Neville and Maj. Croghan, with the rest of the officers, were released only on their parole of honor. Before Maj. Croghan was exchanged, he was present at the siege of Yorktown and surrender of Cornwallis, but could only participate in the stirring scenes by his presence. Maj. Croghan came to Fort Pitt with Col. John Neville, and was here on the 6th of July, 1782. Under that date he wrote to the Virginia secretary of war, giving an account of the murdering of the Moravian Indians by a party of white men from Washington county, Pa. On the 24th of July, 1783, he was ordered by the secretary of war to discharge the men of the Virginia line at fort Pitt enlisted for the war, and give them three months’ pay. He was one of the original members of the Society of the Cincinnati, the officers of the Virginia line having joined at a meeting held at Fredericksburg in the beginning of October, 1783.

It is remarkable what a number of soldiers of the revolutionary army became residents of Pittsburgh and vicinity after the war. Among them were Col. John Neville, Col. Presley Neville, Col. Richard Butler, who became major-general, and was killed at St. Clair’s defeat, in 1791; Col. William Butler, Col. Stephen Bayard, Maj. Isaac Craig, Maj. Ebenezer Denny, Maj. Abraham Kirkpatrick, Col. James O’Hara, Gen. John Wilkins, Jr., Maj. James Gordon Herron, James Foster and many others.

In 1784 Maj. William Croghan visited Kentucky, and was so pleased with the country that he concluded to make it his home, and accordingly removed there, finally settling in Jefferson county, where he passed the remainder of his life at his beautiful place, Locust Grove, not far from Louisville, where he died in September, 1822. After his removal to Kentucky he married the sister of Gen. George Rogers Clarke, who conquered the Northwest territory from the British during the revolutionary war.