Note 21 — JOURNAL.

Cresap, Col. Thomas, the founder of the family in America, was born in Skipton, Yorkshire, England, and at the age of about fifteen came to America. Some five years later he resided at Havre-de-Grace, Md., where he married a Miss Johnson. Removing thence to Wright's Ferry, opposite the town of Columbia, where he obtained a Maryland title to a 500 acre tract of land called "Peach Bottom," and built himself a small stone house. The land, however, was on disputed territory, and claimants under the laws of Pennsylvania finally dispossessed him. His next move was to a locality in what is now Washington county, Md., where he located and settled upon a tract of 1,400 acres on the Antietam creek, called "Long Meadows," and began trading with the Indians. After collecting a large lot of furs and skins he shipped them to England but was financially ruined through the capture of the vessel by the French. Unable to repay money he had borrowed from Mr. Dulany, of Maryland, he gave up to him his land, and moved farther west, built a cabin a few miles above the junction of the north and south branches of the Potomac, on the Maryland side, at a place which became known as "Old Town," but which he called Skipton, the name of his Yorkshire birthplace. This frontier spot became his permanent residence, where he eventually owned a large body of land on both sides of the Potomac. From his familiarity with the Indians and their habits and character, he was enabled to carry on with great advantage his trade with them and in time became the most important frontiersman of his day in Maryland. He took part with the Washingtons, Lee, Mason and others in the formation and early operations of "The Ohio Company," and in all matters of dealing with the Indians and prospecting for wild lands was the Company's chief dependence. With the aid of Namacolin, a noted Indian hunter, he laid out the first road over the Alleghany mountains to the head-waters of the Ohio. Gen. Braddock's expedition, and later the National road, followed nearly the same route. The attention attracted to the Ohio region through this Company's explorations, made it increasingly important to both England and France to possess and control the lands beyond the Ohio. This vigilance precipitated the war that drove out the French and secured to England and America the vast dominion known as the Northwest.

Col. Cresap's literary acquirements were small, but he had a vigorous mind, strong common sense, and was not deficient in practical self-education. He was one of the surveyors of Prince George's county which, at that period, embraced all the western part of Maryland. January 1, 1745, he surveyed for Gov. Thomas Bladen "Walnut Bottom" just below the mouth of Wills creek. He frequently represented his county in the Legislature and being noted for his clear understanding, sound judgment, firmness and courage, was esteemed one of the best legislators his county ever had. He was of medium stature, firmly set, of sound constitution, and lived to the uncommon age of 105 or 106. He was twice married, the second time at the age of 80; by his first wife he had five children; three sons, Daniel, Thomas and Michael, and two daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth. Captain Michael Cresap was the person upon whom Thomas Jefferson fixed the stigma of the murder of the relatives of Logan. Jefferson having transmitted the pathetic speech of the Indian chief to the Abbe Raynal as an evidence of the original power of oratory of the aboriginal American, it is claimed more in a spirit of literary conceit than of conviction; however he failed during his life to correct the injustice done Cresap, although he was repeatedly furnished with the evidence exculpating Cresap and fixing the barbarous act on one Great-house. At his home, Col. Cresap dispensed, for his time and means, a generous hospitality to all callers, in a region where, as yet, no public houses were to be found. He kept a big kettle ready suspended to place a fire under, near a spring for the use of the Indians who often passed his place, and for this reason they designated him the "Big Spoon." Lord Baltimore employed him to run a survey of the western line of Maryland, and to ascertain which of the two branches of the Potomac was the largest. His autograph map of this survey is still preserved in the archives of the state of Maryland.