The Tracy Family History
the Proctor Line 2
CHAPTER 23
The Tracy Family History
the Proctor Line 2
Monument to Capt. James Estill erected by his grandchildren in 1870, at considerable expense.
Historic Richmond Cemetery, KY.
Nicholas Proctor, Sr.
Born 1724 Surry Co, VA, died about 1790 KY. Married Nannie Smith about 1754. (Another source says married 1764 Rowan Co, NC. She was born before 1745 in Rowan Co.) She may not have been the mother of all of the 9 or 10 children. He and his five eldest sons came to Boonesborough with Capt. John Holder’s Company in March 1778.
Mother, Priscilla. Father, Nicholas Proctor.
Benjamin (F) Proctor
A granddaughter tells us that all the Proctor brothers were about six feet tall and "active." This is at a time when the average man was 5' 6" in height. So the Proctor brothers would have stood out in a crowd.
He was the son of Nicholas Proctor, Sr. Benjamin was born in Rowan Co, N.C. in 1760(?). At an early age he was maimed in both arms. The injury was serious enough to exempt him from military service. Being patriotic he volunteered at Fort Boonesborough. He would have been 18 years old at the time.
The famed frontier military leader, George Rodgers Clark, asked that two men from each station act as scouts and spies to find out the movements and intentions of the Indians. Benjamin, as well as some of his other brothers excelled at this job. (A station was a small farming community centered around a small fort.) He would serve as a spy and scout throughout the Revolutionary War. It should be noted that even though our Proctors were frontiersmen and never wore a military uniform, they were just as much Revolutionary soldiers as any of George Washington's soldiers. Much of our information comes from their pension applications in their older years.
Benjamin married Susannah (Susan, Suzie) Shirley at Estill's Station on 8 March 1787. She was born somewhere between 1759-63 (One source says 1769.) in Virginia. Susannah was the daughter of Michael Shirley and Kate France. Her parents, my 5th great grandparents, were living at Estill's station at the time of the marriage.
In 1808, Benjamin moved his family to Missouri, probably in company with his brother Little Page and his family.
Benjamin, and some of his brothers, were Methodist ministers with Benjamin being a circuit minister for the church. His name shows up as "Minister of the Gospel" on early Cole Co marriage records.
The 1830 census shows Benjamin in Cole Co, with four of his children living at home. By 1840 the family had moved to Benton Co. He applied for a pension for his Revolutionary War service in 1833, and received $80 per year from the government until he died on 4 July 1850, in Benton Co, at the age of 90.
His wife, Susannah, died in May 1859, at the age of 91. It is remarkable how many of our frontier people lived to be very very old. There are different years given for her birth. But if she died in 1859 at the age of 91 then simple math would have her being born around 1768. However, the records can get somewhat confusing. The 1850 census also shows her to be 91 years of age at that time???
Benjamin and Susannah had ten known children: (One report, 11 in all.)
Elizabeth b. 1788 m. David Stockstill
Nicholas b. 1791 m. Eliza Bradshaw
Joseph b.1793 d. before 1853
Nancy b. 1795 m. Simpkin Harryman
John b. 1797 m. (1) Lydia Westbrook
(2) Sarah Smith
Francis b. 1799 m. Sina Perkins
Katherine b. 1807 ? d. before 1853
Lusany b. 1805 m. Thomas Moon (This was my 3rd great grandmother)
Jabez b. 1802 m. (1) Elizabeth Collett
(2) Nancy O'Dell
Mary b. 1811 m. Wily Jones
Susannah b. 1813 m. Joseph Proctor (Some confusion as to just who she is)
Their son Nicholas was very generous. When his children got married he gave each one a slave.
According to the custom of the time, Susannah was to live with her daughter Nancy and her husband Simpkin Harryman until she died. At that time Nancy and Simpkin would inherit her 40-acre farm which was next door.
Susannah had a slave girl named Mariah. Susannah, Nancy and Simpkin were entitled to her services until Susannah died, at which time Mariah was to be given her freedom. However, Mariah was not to receive her freedom before the age of 30.
In his will Benjamin gave Nancy his little bay mare named Pickeune (after a small Spanish coin). He also gave my 3rd great grandmother, Lusany, one dollar.
“That he (Benjamin) entered the service of the United States at Boonsborough where he was partly raised in the years 1776 as near as he can now recollect, under the command of Colo Daniel Boon and Colo Richard Callaway, where he remained fighting the Indians at Boonsborough and in skouting and spy parties as necessity required at least one year as near as he can now recollect; that he was thence moved to Estol’s Station, where he was put under the command of Capt. James Estol, where he remained fighting the Indians a the station, and on skouting parties as necessity required at least four years longer, that he afterwards went on a campaign against the Shawnee Indians (the time he has entirely forgotten) on the waters of the Miami River under the command of Capt. Christopher Irvine and Colo Thomas Canaday and General Benjamin Logan; that they (moved?) to and drove the Indians from theirtowns and pursed and killed many o f them and took other prisoners... he served as volunteer in very place and in the capacity of a private soldier...
Where and in what year were you born?
I was born in Rowan County, North Carolina in the year, as near as I can recollect, 1760.(As for the Great Siege): ..siege the fort nine days and left us...”
Joseph Proctor
He was five years older than his brother Benjamin. Joseph's reputation would be made at the famous battle known as Estill's Defeat, or the Battle of Little Mountain.
Joseph along with his brother Reuben, also Benjamin, were living at Estill's Station which was three, miles below present day Richmond, KY, and 15 miles from Fort Boonesboro. Estill's Station was considered a large fort.
A roving band of 25 Wyandottes Indians were looking for battle. The Wyandottes were the most feared by the white settlers. Although semi-Christianized they were vicious fighters and willing to take casualties in battle. These particular 25 Indians were hand-picked. They were all equally as good fighters as the white men they would face.
Captain James Estill and his brother, Samuel, led a party of men, including Joseph and Reuben Proctor, to go looking for the Indians. This left the station virtually unmanned of fighters.
While Captain Estill's party was looking for the Wyandottes, the Indians were looking for James Estill, vowing to kill the "great man." They were also looking to kill his brother Samuel, "big man." Samuel had once accomplished the impossible by killing two Indians with one shot.
Looking to kill the two Estill brothers, the Indians made their way to Estill's Station. There they captured a negro slave, Monk, outside the fort. The slave was loyal… and a great liar. He informed the Indians that the fort was heavily manned. In truth, there was only one man inside the fort at the time and he was seriously disabled from previous wounds.
As I told you before, the Indians did not like to fight against a well-manned fort. They preferred fighting in the field. They decided to look for an easier battle. But before leaving they captured a 13-year-old girl outside the fort, torturing, killing and scalping her. This was on 20th of March 1782.
This marker is at the corner of N. Maysville St. and Hinkston Pike, Sterling, KY.
Runners were immediately sent to find Captain Estill. They reached him the next day. Estill and his men immediately pursued the Indians.
(Benjamin, in his pension application, states that he was in the pursing party. It is not clear, but there is no evidence he was in the following battle. I further assume that he was living at the station.)
Captain Estill knew the Indians well. He knew they did not like to attack forts because they had no patience for a siege. When they did attack forts it was because they were under British officers, or the forts were so undermanned that they would fall quickly. They didn't like to pit a large Indian army against a large white army, preferring instead small actions where they could gather scalps. They would hit small settlements and isolated cabins. Estill knew the Wyandottes were going to attack soon. But where and exactly when he did not know. He wanted to attack them before they had a chance to select their target.
Their trail was surprisingly easy to follow as there was snow on the ground, and the Indians appeared to be leaving signs of their whereabouts. This was unusual as Indians always concealed their movements from the enemy.
Estill and his men followed the Indians for a day and then made camp near Little Mountain (The present site of Mt. Sterling.) The Indians also made camp only a half mile distance without either side being aware of the presence of the other.
The next day, March 22, both sides faced one another. They were evenly matched, 25 white men against 25 Indians. Ensign David Cook was in the advance. Seeing an Indian, he took aim and just as he fired another Indian stepped in the line of fire. Thus Ensign David Cook repeated the feat accomplished by Samuel Estill of killing two Indians with one shot! To the white fighters this was a great way to start a battle.
Hinkston Creek
The battleground was confined to a circle around Hinkston Creek of no more than 200 yards in diameter. It was vicious hand-to-hand fighting with neither side willing to give an inch of ground. It was typical Indian fighting with Captain Estill ordering "Every man to his man and every man to his tree." Years later the large trees would still be carrying the bullets from the battle.
The Indians were looking for revenge. In an earlier battle Samuel Estill had killed two of their warriors and they were always after James Estill for all the casualties he had inflicted on them in previous encounters.
At the start of the battle, one of their chiefs was mortally wounded. The Indians had prepared for this battle by having two, maybe three, leaders in the event that the head chief would fall.
Captain Estill divided his command into three divisions of eight men each. He knew Indian tactics well and time after time correctly guessed their movements.
Lieutenant William Miller, with his division was ordered to cross the creek and protect the horses, which Estill anticipated the Indians would try to capture. He failed to carry out his assignment and returned with his men saying that he had lost his flint. Captain Estill offered him a new flint, which Miller refused. Miller then took his six men out of the battle without any of them firing a shot. They "ingloriously fled." These wholesale desertions left the whites heavily outgunned.
Neither side would give ground even though they were taking heavy casualties. Captain Estill fought until most of his men were killed or wounded and he himself taken a third wound. Near the end of the fight Joseph Proctor had an Indian come towards him with a raised tomahawk. Joseph raised the butt of his gun to club the Indian, but then, the Indian just turned and walked away. Joseph was so exhausted he could not purse his attacker.
The Indians could leave the field of battle and retreat to their home village at any time. But, they chose to stay. The whites could not retreat. To leave the field of battle would lay the land open to the marauding Indians, to attack, torture, and scalp their neighbors. These were not just neighbors. They were intermarried since Colonial days. These were their relatives, our people.
Our people (for the Estills and Proctors also intermarried), had to stand for the last bullet, the last wound, and as long as their legs could hold them before the enemy.
In this battle (or maybe it was another battle, as all Kentucky Indian battles looked the same.) A friend was running towards Joseph being pursued by an Indian. Joseph waved the friend to the side. The man stepped sideways and Joseph shot the Indian dead.
At this point Captain Estill decided to give up the field. But retreating was difficult for him, as he had lost a lot of blood. An Indian pursued him and Estill could no longer put up a fight.
He grappled with the Indian but his right arm, shattered by a bullet in a previous fight, refused to respond and the Indian stabbed him in the heart. Joseph Proctor could not shoot the Indian without hitting Estill. So he turned his attention to another Indian pursuing his brother Reuben, shooting and killing that Indian. Reloading, he then fired and shot the Indian who was about to scalp Captain Estill. Estill was the last casualty. Only five whites remained alive, included were Joseph and Reuben Proctor. (No account shows Benjamin at the battle.)
Joseph Proctor is said to have fought with matchless courage. His '"coolness, and bravery…were unsurpassed." One of the whites, a man named Irving was seriously wounded but still alive. Such was Joseph's incredible strength that he literally carried Irving almost all the way back to Estill's Station, a distance of 40 miles!
Where Capt. James Estill fell. Hinkston Creek is to the left of the trees.
“He accordingly buckled a leather sursingle around him strapping across his breast and under his thighs on which Irving sat while he was carried in this sling by Proctor 40 miles...”
Three days later a large party from Estill's Station returned to the battlefield to bury the dead. They had no tools to dig graves so they placed the bodies next to logs and covered them with brush.
In Joseph Proctor's words:
"took out of Capt. Estill's pocket a small line and plumb and a pair of silver knee buckles out of Adam Carpenter's breeches, and took them to their wives."
Some say the battle lasted one hour and three-quarters. Others say forty-five minutes to four hours. As at the battle of Fort Boonesborough, the "Great Siege," the participants differ as to the time. Calculating time during an Indian battle is not the same as at a picnic.
Joseph Proctor was born in 1744 in Brunswick Co, Va., and died in Estill Co, KY. Originally, he did not volunteer to fight the Indians but was drafted in 1777. That same year he married Polly Horn. She was born before 1765. Her parents were Aaron and Elizabeth Horn.
Reverend James Haw, at Fort Estill, converted Joseph to the Methodist church in 1786. Francis Asbury ordained him a minister in 1809. He would preach the gospel for nearly fifty years.
Irving (the man Joseph carried off the battlefield), somewhere along the line became wealthy, and he provided Joseph with a horse and all other things necessary for fulfilling his duties as a Methodist minister. This generosity would last until the day Irving died.
Joseph also would receive an $80 a year pension. He established Proctors Chapel, later called Providence Chapel, near Foxtown in Madison Co. The village of Proctor in Lee Co, KY. was named for him. (“Proctor, MO. was named for a pioneer settler Ben Proctor, who lived in Morgan Co. Mo Proctor Creek on which the village was located.”)
Joseph Proctor was the last survivor of this famous battle. He lived to the ripe old age of 90, dying on 2 December 1844. In his old age he often recited the stories of the great battle which made him famous. He was buried with full military honors with more than 1000 people marching in procession to his graveside. The location of his gravesite has been lost to history. His wife Polly proceeded him in death by six months. (I went to the web site Google, and found a site for a photo of Joseph Proctor grave. Unfortunately, I was unable to open the site and find the photo of the grave.)
Lt. William Miller, who deserted at the famous battle, would go on to live to be 95, a lot of years to carry the brand of a “coward.”
“He (Joseph Proctor) was a large man, six feet high, weighing about 180 pounds. He was a local Methodist preacher, having been ordained by Francis Asbury (the first Methodist Bishop ever in America, who was born in England August 20, 1745, came to America in 1771...) He was buried with full military honors at Irvine. A company of fifty militia fired their guns as his body was lowered into the grave. He was buried in an old, dilapidated and unused cemetery, which has not been used for that purpose since, and there is not now a stone to mark his last resting place. ..Who was a very poor man, and had no property whatever...Capt. James Estill, who was a very small man came into contact with the largest Indian who belonged to the company, who would weigh over 200 mounds...Mr. Proctor never did admit in my presence that he killed the Indian...’I never heard of that big Indian killing anybody afterward, nor commiting any depredations.’..I am perhaps the only man now living that was personally acquainted with a soldier that participated in that bloody conflict, which occurred 134 years ago.”
OATH
That in 1770 he went out under Captain Logan. General George Rogers Clark commanded. He crossed the Ohio River where Cincinnati now stands. He went to old Chillicothe and to Piqua town and destroyed them. In 1780, he entered the campaign across the Ohio against the Indians under Captain Vincent. General Clark commanded. That in 1780, he was a soldier an indian spy under Captain James Estill...
Being a scout and spy was not always as sophisticated as you might think. It might have been mostly walking into the enemy camp, listening to their plans, then leaving.
Notes
During the "Great Siege" at Fort Boonesborough, Joseph Proctor had a pair of scissors that were used for cutting cloth, etc. He used them to cut wadding for the rifles. These scissors have passed down through the family. I do not know who in the family has possession today.
As to the Indian casualties of the Battle of Estill's Defeat: A white settler who escaped the Wyandottes' village said that only 5 Indians returned from the battle. Tradition says that only one Indian returned.
Benjamin tells us: “...they fought till but four of the whites survived, and three Indians two (of) whom died before they got to their towns as we were afterwards informed by the Indians. I was absent and (got) this information on my return.”
I would like to thank Anne Crabb of Richmond, KY., for the information in her book about the "Great Siege" at Fort Boonesborough. She has provided information about Nicholas Proctor, Sr., the father of our Proctor brothers. She has him being born in 1724 in Surry Co, VA., and died in 1790 in KY. He married Nannie Smith about 1754, with a note that she may not be the mother to all of his 9 or 10 children
I would also like to thank our cousin Shirley Ross of Jefferson, IA., for allowing me to copy material from her book, Proctor Connection.
We are indebted to James W. Browning of Mt. Sterling, KY. He was kind enough to go out to the battlefield and take the photos in this chapter. While on a trip to Richmond to have his new car serviced, he went out to the cemetery and took photos of the monument. Because of all of his help, I propose that we adopt him into the Proctor Family.
Below is an e-mail letter I received from him dated 8/27/01. It is self-explanatory.
Dear Mr. Tracy, Helen Perkins has just handed me your letter of the 20th inst. concerning The Battle of Estill' Defeat. I am happy to respond to your inquiry-I am very familiar with this part of our county's history having grown up with the stories. I am assuming that you already know most of the details, so I wont go into them. The event took place about one and one half miles NNE of Mt. Sterling on Hinkston or Little Mountain Creek. There is an historical marker in town concerning that conflict-I went out many years ago and replaced the bronze plaque that was supposed to be the very spot that Capt. Estill fell. Some vandals had pried it off and the DAR had me to put it back on its pedestal. I 64 is now over that very spot and I dont know what happened to the marker. I can take you within 2 or 3 hundred feet of the spot where the battle was fought. It is about 1 1/2 miles out the Hinkston Pike. The best thing to do if anyone comes and wants to go out there is to contact me and I will be happy to take them out. As to the pictures, as luck would have it I just took a roll of film to be developed the other day so it may be a while before I can get them. I will get a shot of the marker and a stretch of the road and creek that I can assure you will encompass the battleground too. The local historical society has had printed a copy of a large[3x4]map of Mterling and Montgomery County that has the battle site marked in a general way. They are $20 including shipping and handling. I hope that this has been of help to you.
Sincerely James W. Browning
607 Ehnwood Drive
Mount Sterling,Ky.40353
(If you wish to contact, suggest you enclose a SASE.)
Reuben Proctor
It is believed that Reuben was the oldest of the brothers. He served in John Holder's militia company in 1779. He was one of the few survivors of the Battle of Estill's Defeat.
Somewhere along the line, he left Boonesborough to explore the south side of Kentucky with intentions of settling. That "south side" was probably Mississippi, or maybe Tennessee.
Anne Crabb tells us that he was born in 1754 Brunswick Co, VA. He married Katurah_______, last name unknown.
He died around 1808, in Mississippi. Only 3 children lived beyond the year of 1824.
“Reuben Proctor was probably married to Keturah Buchanan - one of their descendants says that their son James B. had a middle name of Buchanan, and Reuben was witness to the will of James Buchanan in Miss. in 1788.” -- Shirley Ross, Proctor Historian
Nicholas Proctor Jr.
There is a document signed at Fort Boonesborough by Nicholas Proctor Sr. and Nicholas Proctor Jr., father and son. Nicholas was one of those men who marched to the defense of Fort Boonesborough and took part in the "Great Siege."
He was born in Brunswick Co, VA. in 1756, at age 5-6 moved to Rowan Co, VA. , “to 19 years of age,” and died 26 July 1835 in Hamilton Co, Illinois.
He married Rachel (Wright) Estill, the widow of Captain James Estill. The marriage probably took place shortly after Captain Estill's death, as widows did not stay widows long on the Kentucky Frontier. It is believed she was about the same age, or a little older, than Nicholas Jr.
Nicholas married a second time to Catherine Leonard on 27 January 1820 in Logan Co, KY. She was born about 1785, in Pennsylvania, and is also believed to have been a widow. (Born 1756 Brunswick Co, PA. d 1835 Hamilton Co., Illinois.)
Nicholas tells us what life was like when he first marched to the defense of Fort Boonesborough:
"We were employed guarding the garrison (Boonesboro) day and night and ranging thro the country to spy out the enemy when they came into the country."
Nicholas volunteered and was not drafted. He was placed on the pension rolls at $80 a year on 3 May 1834 at the age of 78. After his death his widow applied for his pension and land bounty.
Apparently, Nicholas Proctor was the only soldier in the entire Revolutionary War who carried that name.
Little Page Proctor
For 20 years I could only wonder at the origin of his name. My best guess was that his mother wrote his birth in a book with a little page. However, in my recent research of our colonial Virginia heritage, I find that Little Page was a distinguished old Virginia family. Mystery solved.
The information I have is contradictory, yet it all seems to come from reliable sources.
It took him some time to figure out the year he was born. His best guess was in 1760, at Granville Co, NC, and died 15 November 1852 at Hamilton Co, Illinois. He was married twice, first to Sarah Jane Woodruff; second time to Sarah Bates on 1 July 1815 (1816?) in Gallatin Co, Illinois. He married his first wife sometime between 1780-85. Between the two wives, they would produce 20 children.
He also marched to the defense of Fort Boonesborough and served at various stations as a spy and scout throughout the Revolutionary War. He said in his pension application that he served as the need arose, until General "Mad" Anthony Wayne's final victory over the Indian Confederation in Ohio at the famous Battle of Fallen Timbers in August, 1794. Like his brothers, he would receive an $80 a year pension starting 9 January 1834.
Around 1808, he and his family moved to Missouri probably with his brother Benjamin. Between 1810-12, he and his family moved to Illinois where he would remain for the rest of his life.
Historian Like his brothers, he would also be a Methodist minister and many of his descendants still belong to the church. He was...
"an honored Christian gentleman, who as opportunity afforded, preached to his neighbors, and in all possible ways aided in promoting morality and Christianity among those with whom he was thrown in contact.”
“Little Page was married three times, we believe - possibly two times to Woodruff girls. There is a will in Madison Co, KY., by John Woodruff (180?) that names a daughter Susan Proctor. "My grandfather wrote a letter to his cousin in the 1920's, that stated that L.P. was married 3 times, & had children by all 3 wives.”
--Shirley Ross, Proctor Historian
Pension application, condensed:
Little Page Proctor, a resident of said county, and state, aged 71 years, or thereabouts (having no record of his age). That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served asherein stated: - He resided upon Holston river in the state of Virginia in the year 1777, and in the last of that year or the first part of the year 1778, he volunteered under a Capt. Cornelius Riddle, who said he was authorized to recruit men to go to the relief of the inhabitants in the Virginia Territory; now called Kentucky who were greatly exposed - He was immediately marched from, the town Houde (?) upon Holston and rendezvoused at Powell's Valley. About the 10th of March 1778, He marched under Lieut. Hargrave (he thinks Benjamin) through the wilderness to Kentucky river, where there was a fort called Boonsboro - On his arrival at this place, he found the inhabitants in great distress - some thirty odd of them having been taken prisoner by the Indians and carried to Detroit in the February before. Capt. Hargrave ordered into immediate service. He had no commander except Lieut. Hargrave, and the principal service was guarding the fort against the Indians night and day. Shortly afterwards he was attached (with all Lt. Hargrave's company) to Capt. Ben. Logan's., who was at Logan's Station, and while with him his service was ranging, scouting and spying round the fort, mostly getting back to the fort at nights, but sometimes laying out. During the summer of 1778, Capt. John Holder came out from N. Carolina,, he was dressed in uniform, and said he was authorized to take command of the men who had come out under Lt. Hargrave - He then enlisted under him and remained under him for about five years. He was marched from place to place wherever the enemy was the most troublesome, and was in numerous engagements and skirmishes with the Indians - at one time surrounded and besieged by them in Boonsboro for 9 or 10 days and nights In the fall of the 3rd year after he came to Kentucky. Gen. Geo. Rogers Clark came on with a considerable body of troops., and called to his aid Capt. Holder's Company and the militia of the neighborhood and marched immediately across the Ohio river against the Shawnees, Wyandots and Sanduskies, and came upon one of their towns on the Little Miami, which we surrounded and in the course of the ensuing night the Indians attacked us, and the battle was kept up till the break of day, when (missing line of narrative) a considerable loss in killed and wounded. We took in this affair between 30 and 40 prisoners, and returned with them to Boonesboro and kept them until an exchange took place for our prisoners who had been taken to Detroit - The next fall this applicant marched again under Gen. Clark, in the same company, on another expedition against the Indians (more particularly against the Sanduskies) upon the Scioto, took two or three of their towns, and had one pretty severe battle at Sandusky Town, in which the Indians were again defeated with considerable loss of killed and wounded. He then returned to Kentucky under Capt. Holder, who sent him soon after to Stroud's Station, which was commanded by Capt. John Constant,, with whom he remained about two years, guarding that and other stations, wherever the danger was most imminent, until peace was given to the frontiers by the victory of Gen. Wayne in 1794. Every garrison or station had its own Captain, and whenever he moved he was placed under the Capt. of the fort - His first Captain was Riddle above named who did not come out to Kentucky till the fall after he marched from Holston and who never took command of Hargrave's men. His next was Logan - His 3 rd was Holder His 4th Gaul'. James Estill, afterwards killed in a battle. His 5th Capt. James Dooling His 6th Capt. Johnson under whom he served a tour of 3 months., in scouting His 7th Capt. Constant - At the tire of Wayne's victory, these officers were all dead or gone off, and this applicant never received one cent of pay, whether from the fact that he did not belong to the Continental line, or from what other cause he does not know. His officers being all dead or absent might not have made the proper returns, or if made, made to the Virginia State authorities, and not there attended to - So it was, this applicant seeing that Continental money had depreciated and become valueless, made no inquiry or demand of pay, and let the whole matter drop. He states that he was constantly in service from 1777 or 8 as above stated till the defeat of the Indians by Gen. Wayne in Aug. 1794, employed as above stated - He served with no continental regiments, unless Genl. Clark's was one
John Proctor
John was born, probably in Rowan Co, NC, about 1765-84 (Anne Crabb says about 1768.) He married Elizabeth Hubbard on 12 January 1791, Madison Co, KY., and had a second wife, Mrs. Sarah (Green) Evans, also in Madison Co. Total of 12 children. His first wife died in 1825.
"My John Proctor is said was a Bro. Of Noted Indian Fighters of early days at Boonesboro, Rev. Joseph, Thomas, Nicklos, and Reuben who were seemingly into everything that looked like a fight."
John and his family may have moved to Missouri with Benjamin and Little Page. He died 1847 MO.
William Proctor
It is believed that he is the youngest of the brothers. According to Anne Crabb he was born about 1773, lived in Kentucky with his brothers, and moved to Missouri with some of his brothers.
Shirley Ross tells us that Edwin Thornton in KS did much research on William Proctor’s family, and the 2nd edition of The Proctor Connection has about 18 pages on William’s family. “Yes,” he went to MO about the same time as Little Page, Benjamin, & John. He died in 1834 MO.
Elizabeth Proctor
How one family can have so many brothers and only one sister I can't understand. Born between 1767-70 (?) in NC. (Anne Crabb says about 1768.) She was married 10 September 1787 in Madison Co, KY., to Thomas Bennett. He was born prior to 1765. There were 6 known children.
And that is the story of our Proctor heritage. Our people would start fighting Indians in 1777, and didn't finish until the last battle in 1794, a period of 17 years. It would appear that during this time the Proctor brothers never received any serious wounds. But our people came from the west of the Carolinas and Virginia on the edge of the Indian Territory. They did not come from Boston. They were taught from birth to think like an Indian and that is what undoubtedly kept them alive. What I have told you is probably not even a thousand of their stories.
Michael Shirley (I have not researched this line so there might be a lot more out there.)
You will remember that my 4th great grandfather was Benjamin Proctor, whose wife was Susannah Shirley. Susannah's father was Michael Shirley born about 1740, married in 1760. Her mother was Catherine Kitty Franz, b 1759-63 VA [Can’t be right if they were married in1760.] (Another year of her birth is about 1743, in Paris, France. This sounds more accurate.) and died May 1859 MO. (That would make her 116 years old. Hardly likely.) These were my 5th great grandparents. She does show up on the 1800 census.
ANOTHER SOURCE: Catherine “Katy" Franz, parents emigrated from France. Her mother died and her father returned to France. (The name Shirley was a derivation of the old ancestor name “Shawnee.”) He was from Spain and Katie Franz, or Frants, or France, was from Paris, France.
On 1 December 1771 Michael Shirley joined Capt. William Bentley’s Co., 3rd Virginia Regiment commanded by Colonel John Neville, previously called Captain Reubin Bisco’s Company, also Charles West’s Company, commander Colonel William Heth. He was discharged November 1779.
When a young soldier he was stationed at Fort Washington in New York (Manhattan Island?). Michael and Katie saw one another “whilst he was marching; fell in love and were married at Washington City, when it was a fort.” (Michael obviously was wearing a splendid uniform “whilst” marching.) He would gain the officers rank of Lieutenant.
Apparently he was with General “Mad” Anthony Wayne’s army at the time of his defeat. Michael was sent for supplies and escaped capture. I guess this was when General Wayne was defeated by the British at Paoli, PA., Sept. 1777. Mad Anthony did not win all of his battles!
After his army career ended, the couple returned to Pennsylvania and from there to Augusta Co, VA, where he took up the profession of surveyor. Then it was onto Kentucky around 1780.
Note: This "Another Source" of information was taken from the web site Google. I was unable to determine the source or make contact with the provider. If any of you can determine who wrote this then they might have more stories.
What stories Michael Shirley might have been able to tell! But, alas, his story is summed up in one sentence, "Killed by the Indians near Boone's Fort" (23 July 1784, while surveying). Our people didn't always win the fights.
Our people probably knew the Boone’s in North Carolina before rejoining them in Kentucky. The families were obviously close during the many years on the Kentucky frontier. Then they all immigrate to Missouri, where their descendants live today.
Mildred Bailey tells us, “Ira Estill lived 4 miles from me. He died in the 1970's.”
Yet, Mildred tells us, there were never any marriages between the Boone’s and our people.
Note: The story of this Proctor family starts on the previous chapter 22. If you have not already viewed chapter 22 then go to my home page and scroll down to chapter 22.
My family history web site has 79 chapters. If you would like to know more about the other chapters then go to my
Home Page www.thetracyfamilyhistory.net
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