Simon Girty, Outlaw and Renegade,
Born January 16, 1744
Much of the ride along the Susquehanna trail on the western side of the Susquehanna River is at the base of majestic hills along the old Pennsylvania Canal bed, and more beautiful scenery it is not possible to find anywhere. Especially is this true as the motorist nears the quaint town of Liverpool. A few miles before reaching this place there is a gap in the mountains long known as Girty’s Gap, named in memory of one of the most despised outlaws in the provincial history of Pennsylvania.
The rocks on the face of the precipitous hills at this point have formed an almost perfect Indian head; indeed, it seems to be smiling down upon the thousands who pause to view this wonderful natural likeness of the primitive American race.
So important is this rock-face that when the new State highway was being built at this point summer of 1922, the engineers intended that the rocks should be blasted out and the road straightened at this bend, but on account of the sentiment connected with this really wonderful image the roadway was finally laid around the rocks and so the Indian face at Girty’s Notch is still to be seen.
Simon Girty, Senior, was a licensed Indian trader on the frontiers of Pennsylvania as early as 1740, and about that period he located on Sherman’s Creek, in what is now Perry County. Here his son, Simon, who figures so conspicuously in the annals of border life, was born January 16, 1744. There were three other sons, Thomas, George and James.
In 1750, the father and sundry other “squatters” on Sherman’s Creek, were dispossessed of their settlements by the Sheriff of Cumberland County and his posses, under orders of the Provincial authorities.
Girty removed his family to the east side of the Susquehanna River, near where the town of Halifax is now situated. Afterward he moved to the Conococheague settlement, where it is related he was killed in a drunken brawl. In 1756, his widow was killed by the savages, and Simon, George and James were taken captives by the Indians. Thomas, the eldest brother, being absent at his uncle’s at Antietam, was the only one who escaped.
Simon Girty was adopted by the Seneca and given the Indian name of Katepacomen. He became an expert hunter, and in dress, language and habits became a thorough Indian. The author of “Crawford’s Campaign” says that “it must be passed to his credit that his early training as a savage was compulsory, not voluntary as has generally been supposed.”
George Girty was adopted by the Delaware and became a fierce and ferocious savage, while James, who was adopted into the Shawnee nation, became no less infamous as a cruel and bloodthirsty raider of the Kentucky border, “sparing not even women and children from horrid tortures.”