1/11/1749 – 8/12/1852
From the records of James Tillotson:
Jim Tillotson’s Research Notes on the McCallum Family (large file).
Jim Tillotson’s Index to References
62-John GUTHRIE
Son of Robert and Bridget (DOUGHERTY} GUTHRIE
b.11 January 1749 [RoGF, AGAF] in Lancaster PA [RoGF, AGAF]
m. 1775 [RoGF] Sarah Davis
d. several years bef. 1832 [AGAF] {this should be 1852}
Buried. 12 August 1852 [RoGF]/1832 [AGAF] in Pittsburgh, [RoGF], bur. With military honors at the Presbyterian Church.
Children:
m Robert, b. 15 February 1776 [RoGF, AGAF] in Carlisle PA [RoGF, AGAF], married, Mary Gillespie [ROGF],
ch.
m. Thomas [RoGF];
m. James [RoGF];
m. William [ROGF] (see [RoGF] pp 115-116 , [AGAF] pp 315-317 for details)
m James Verner, b. 27 June 1778 [RoGF, AGAF]in Carlisle PA [RoGF, AGAF], m. Martha Brandon [RoGF] (see [RoGF] pp 117-157, [AGAF] pp 317- for details)
f Margaret, b. 16 November 1781 [RoGF, AGAF] in Carlisle PA [RoGF, AGAF], m1. Samuel MILLER [RoGF, AGAF], m2. ? LINDERMAN {RoGF, AGAF}
f Prudentialis, b. 4 May 1789 [RoGF, AGAF] in Annapolis[RoGF]/Anapolis, MD [AGAF], m. Samuel GILLESPIE [RoGF], ch. 2 sons [RoGF, AGAF]
f Sarah, b. 4 April 1792 [RoGF, AGAF] in Unity Township,Westmorland Co, PA [RoGF, AGAF], m1. ? FOWLER {RoGF, AGAF}, m2. ? GRAVES [RoGFAGAF], chm1. 4 sons [RoGF, AGAF], chm2. 4 dau. [RoGF, AGAF]
f Eleanor, b. 27 August 1797 [RoGF, AGAF] in Meadville, Crawford Co, PA [RoGF, AGAF]
f* Helen m John, b. 3 November 1800 [RoGF, AGAF] near [RoGF]/in [AGAF] Meadville PA, m. in Philadelphia [RoGF], ch. 4 dau [RoGF]:
f, m. ? BELT [RoGF]; f, m. Dr. Ingraham [RoGF]; f, m. ? ROSE [RoGH]; f (see [AGAF] pp 333- for more details)
NOTE John Guthrie
[RoGF] Lieutenant in Colonel Broadhead’s Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line. He was buried with military honors. After the war he served in the Border Troubles for two years, and was appointed by Washington, a Captain of the Army for his distinguished service, but he declined the appointment. John Brandon was a Lieutenant in the New Jersey line, and was wounded at the Battle of Monmouth.
[RoGF] Letter in possession of George W. Guthrie of Pittsburgh: Captain John Guthrie was with Colonel Broadhead’s expedition against the Six Nations. He was in Morgan’s Rifle Command, and with Massey Harbison in the Border Troubles. An account of his Company of rangers is given by Massey Harbison in his “Narrative of Sufferings from Indian Barbarity.” In Pennsylvania Archives can be found a list of the officers of the Westmorland Company, who were with him. In Pennsylvania Archives also N.S. Vol. iv, P. 64, is a Muster and Inspection Roll of Captain John Guthrie’s Company in the War of 1812, inspected July 12, 1812. He was appointed and cofirmed a Captain in the regular army by Washington, but declined it. On the Regular Army list of appointments is the name of John Guthrie, Ensign, 1775-6 (Hammersley’s List).
[RoGF] Obituary Pittsburgh Gazette of Friday Aug. 17, 1852: Died on Sunday last at 5 o’clock a.m., John Guthrie of this city a soldier in Revolutionary War. He was born in Lancaster, Pa., Jan. 17, 1749; volunteered as a soldier under General Armstrong, from Carlisle in 1774, and again under General Lacey in 1776, and continued battling against his county’s foes until 1779, when his wounds compelled him to leave the service. He invariably sustained the character of a brave soldier and honest man. On Sunday evening his remains were followed to the grave by a large concourse of citizens, and attended by upward of 150 members of the volunteer corps of the city.
[AGAF] John Guthrie took neither to his father’s carpenter shop, nor to books, but to the forests and streams of his native land. He was a frontirersman, expert with the rifle, an Indian fighter, a soldier, and an officer in the Revolutionary war. He volunteered as a soldier under General Armstrong, from Carlisle in 1774, and again under General Lacey in 1776. A family tradition states-that he served as a commissioned officer in one of the Pennsylvania Regiments in Lord Stirlingh’s Brigade, of Sullivan’s Division at the battle of Long Island where he was wounded and captured, and that he served as a commissioned officer in a Pennsylvania Regiment at the battle of Trenton ………………………………Rifle Command 1777-1778. This famous brigade was made up of 500 picked men from all the regiments in the Continental service, selected under the personal supervision of George Washington. Pennsylvania furnished most of the men; the 8th Regiment more than any other one organization. After the Saratoga campaign, Morgan’s Command returned and was disbanded. John Guthrie passed the winter at Valley Forge. March, 1778, finds him marching with the 8th Regimen under command of General Daniel Broadhead for Fort Pitt. He was on the expedition the following July up the West Branch of the Susquehanna, returned to Fort Pitt and from there went in the Eighth to Fort McIntosh where he was appointed an Ensign. He continued in Broadhead’s Command until Aug. 1, 1780.
Afterwards he appears to have been in the Cumberland county militia in 1781 and 1782. He was with Massey Harbison in the Border Troubles for two years. As a frontiersman John Guthrie was well acquainted with and in the western
settlements and during the Revolution was absent on long campaigns, but Carlisle remained his official home for many years. He is found a taxable of that place in 1779 and subsequently. On the list of 1782 he is styled “butcher,” but this seems to have been a temporary employment. He was prominent politically and was a member of a commission connected with the boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland. This accounts for the presence of the family in Annapolis, where one of his children was born. He was living in Carlisle in 1790, but soon afterwards sold his property there and removed to Unity Township, Westmorland County. Though not wealthy, he seems to have prospered in Westmorland and to have been fairly well-to-do.
Prior to 1797 he removed with his family to Meadville, Pa. or its vicinity, where he lived a number of years. During the last years of his life he lived with one of his children at Lexington, Ky. And one at Pittsburgh, Pa.