James McCabe and [Unk] Hughes

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Husband James McCabe ¹

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 1795 2
         Buried: 

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         Father: Owen McCabe (Abt 1720-      ) 1 2
         Mother: Catherine Sears (      -      ) 1 2

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       Marriage: 

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Wife [Unk] Hughes ¹

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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         Father: Nicholas Hughes (      -      ) 2
         Mother: 

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Children

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1 M Richard Butler McCabe ²

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           Born: 5 Aug 1792 - Cumberland (later Perry) Co, PA 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 10 Jan 1860 - ? Blairsville, Indiana Co, PA 3
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Sarah A. Vinacke (      -Aft 1880) 2
           Marr: 1820 2

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General Notes: Husband - James McCabe

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Before Forbes approached Fort Duquesne, or Armstrong burnt Kittanning, a company was formed at or near Carlisle, the first that ever, in Pennsylvania, pursued the Indians as far as the Allegheny mountains. James McCabe was a lieutenant in that company.
The Indians had been down in Sherman's valley plundering, capturing and destroying. The company pursued them as far as the head of Black lick, in cambria, (or, according to other authorities, into the valley of the Black lick, in Indiana County). Here they halted, being without guides, and not knowing how many foes they might have to encounter, and turning back started for the Muncey towns on the Susquehanna. When they arrived at the Muncey towns the surprise was complete, but it was the surprise of women and children only; the warriors were all absent. All the corn was cut down and wigwims burned, to avenge the foray into Cumberland County by the Indians from Kittanning.
But even in war with savages difference of character will be manifest. In a wigwam which Lieut. McCabe entered he found a squaw so old that she was unable to walk. Having with his father been one of the two first white men who settled in Sherman's valley, he could, to some extent, make himself understood in their language. He succeeded in allaying her alarm, believing no man in the company would injure a poor decrepid, old woman. She gave him to know that she was dying of thirst and hunger, and directed him where to find a spring of water and a calabash or gourd. He brought her the water and gave out of his own "store" the heel of a loaf, the last bread in his knapsack. The poor old woman's heart was solaced, and she blessed him, in the Indian tongue.
The company was marching in detachments, one of which was not at the time present. A person in the last detachment, after Lieut. McCabe left, murdered and scalped the old woman, and exultingly displayed, before they reached Carlisle, her scalp with its hoary hair all dabbled in blood.
The kind and noble hearted lieutenant, accompanied General Arnold on his famous expedition up the Kenebec, and across into Canada, and being by the heroic Montgomery when he fell at Quebec, was the first to raise him from the ground. He fought gallantly in many battles, and after the revolution returned home, broken in health, by the terrible exposure to which he had been subjected.
At one time he acted as commissary of purchases, frequently giving his own paper for supplies. A perfidious deserter conceiving an enmity against the commissary, for he had reported him, purchased his paper, and he being unable to satisfy the claims, having nothing for his services but Continental money, then worthless, was sold out, even to the cradle of the infant Richard; but a substitute was found in the bark of the forest tree. In this the gentle and loving mother rocked her child, soothing his slumbers with the glorious songs of the Harper King.

1 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 1575.

2 —, History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania (Newark, OH: J. A. Caldwell, 1880), Pg 361.

3 —, History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania (Newark, OH: J. A. Caldwell, 1880), Pg 362.