Mary Polly Gibson

GEDCOM Note

HISTORICAL FRAGMENTS. 149 Of these fragments, the first was an incidental contribution made by Mr. Wm. Darlington, whose early years were connected with the First Church**, arid whose notes on its earliest history, as given in the Memorial (Centenary) Volume of Western Presbyterianism, are of such value. Alluding to a certain ·charge concerning the first pastor's*** irregular administration of baptism, which was prominent in the trial before Presbytery,' Mr. Darlington says: "General Gibson's child, referred to therein, I believe was his Indian child-Polly Gibson, well known in Pittsburgh. Her father had her well taken care of and respectably reared. The late General William Robinson told me that he 'knew her very well. It is interesting to remember the fact that this child was,the only survivor of the infamous massacre of the celebrated Chief Logan's family, in April, 1774, on the Ohio, near Yellow Creek, (below Wellsville.) Gibson's Indian wife was Logan's sister, who was shot through the head by a white savage, at a few feet's distance. The child at her bosom fell, and was the only one rescued in the canoe. This murder was the main cause of the bloody Indian war, known .as Dunmore's or Cresap's war. The celebrated speech of Logan, about which there has been so much controversy as to its genuineness, ·was delivered to this same General John Gibson. He had lived for many years among the Indians, as a trader, was Colonel of a regiment during the Revolution, after its close resided in Pittsburgh, was an' Associate Judge of the Courts of this county, and died at the house of his son-in-law, Geo. Wallace, at Braddock's Fields, in 1824 .. He was uncle to the late Chief Justice Gibson.

• *First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh
  • *Rev.Samuel Barr came in 1784

GEDCOM Note