Enoch Brown Park

Address presented by

Glen L. Cump, Secretary

Enoch Brown Park Association

This address was presented on August 1, 1992 at the Enoch Brown Park on the opening day of Old Home Week.

360 Degree Virtual Tour

The park was the local landmark commemorated on the badges.

August  4, 1885 was indeed a red letter day for Mother Antrim. The long wish  for rain came down in torrents the two previous days. It was feared the  weather would be unfavorable for the festivity planned, but there never  dawned a lovelier day. Nearly five thousand people assembled on this  hallowed ground to show respect and share in the dedication ceremony and  unveiling of the monument to honor the memory of School Master Enoch  Brown and eleven scholars: Ruth Hale, Eben Taylor, George Dustan, Archie  McCullough and six others whose names were not known at that time, who  were maimed and massacred in this grove on July 26, 1764.

After a few preliminary remarks, the red, white,  and blue mantel covering the monument fell to the ground as four little  girls and nine boys pulled the cords.

The morning and afternoon program was rendered by  the Reformed Church Choir, five local bands, and six speakers who were  as follows: Peter Witmer, Esq., Superintendent of Public Schools,  Washington County, Maryland; Rev. I. M. Woods - whose wife was a  granddaughter of Elenore Cochran, one of the students who was absent  from school that fateful day; Dr. William Engle, Pennsylvania State  Historian; Rev. John R. Agnew, a grandson of Mary Ramsey, another  student who was absent; Rev. Cyrus C. Cort who made the presentation  speech; and George W. Ziegler.

Before discussing the massacre that occurred here  in 1764, it would be well to review prior incidents that provoked the  Indians to act as they did. Between the years of 1664 to 1764, several  hundred thousand emigrants came to America. Many of those sturdy German  and Irish pioneers settled here in the Cumberland Valley. A statement  dated August 14, 1763 indicates 750 families had abandoned their homes  in this county which, at that time, included the Juniata Valley.

The year of 1763 was the official end of the  Seven Year War, the conflict that was known as the French and Indian War  here in America. The war left deep scars in this country especially in  the wooded areas here in Pennsylvania. The Treaty of Paris, by which  France gave up her American Colonies, was signed on February 18, 1763;  this news became known three months later to us in America. To our  ancestors, it was not so much a formal end of an old war; but the  undeclared beginning of a new war.

The school used drinking water from the nearby spring.  The day before the Enoch Brown massacre, Susan  King Cunningham was brutally murdered near her home in the Marks area.  Her daughter was the second wife of John McCullough, previously  mentioned. 

The first published news of the Indian warfare  perpetrated here on July 26, 1764 was featured in the Pennsylvania  Gazette published by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia in August of that  year.  It was on the morning of July 26, 1764 when the  foul murder of a teacher and his ten students occurred. Mr. Brown, a  native of Virginia, was a man of liberal culture; he was noted and  respected for his thoughtfulness, integrity, and Christian character.

Tradition says that on this morning the children  were loath to go to school. Only eleven responded to the roll call, two  girls and nine boys representing ten families. Archie McCullough, the  youngest student, was the only survivor. After the Indians left, he  crawled down hill to the spring where he was found. He lived to be quite  old; but he was demented, a result of the scalping.  

A passerby discovered the bodies a few hours  after the murder. The children's bodies were removed to their respective  homes; and a few days later their bodies, along with that of their  teacher, were buried in one grave. Due to the fact that the grave was not marked and  that some of the families moved from the area, the incident was  forgotten to a degree, some contending the story was a legend. There  was, however, one who knew the facts and repeated the story to others  which prompted an investigation. 

Mrs. Betty Hopkins lived in a log cabin half a  mile from the school house. Because her windows were boarded up, the Indians who stopped by that day were led to believe that there was no  one home and passed on. General David Detrich learned to know Mrs. Hopkins when he was a little boy; and after an intimate acquaintance of  twenty years, he buried Mrs. Hopkins who died at the age of 104 years.  His father who lived one mile north of this site often heard her repeat  the story about the "terrible tragedy".  

Seventy-nine  years after the massacre, a committee headed by A. B. Rankin and twenty other responsible citizens of the area conducted a dig in this wooded  area hoping to prove that there was indeed a burial here. The first  excavation revealed the remains of one adult and ten children interred  in a common grave.  It is hard to believe, but another forty years passed before any further action was taken to mark or memorialize the  grave. 

On April 4, 1883, Rev. Cyrus Cort, David Detrich, and Col.  Benjamin Winger visited this site and came to the conclusion that this  ground should be purchased and an enduring memorial erected. Shortly  afterwards, at a meeting in Greencastle, the issue was presented.  A  committee was named to take steps to purchase the land on which the  grave was located. For various reasons, nothing was done.  

At  the Franklin County Centennial Convention meeting in Chambersburg on  April 22, 1884, Col. George Wiestling suggested the committee take the  matter in hand. A committee consisting of Cyrus Cort, William Davidson,  Col. Wiestling, Dr. A. H. Strickler, and Benjamin Chambers was named to  devise plans for raising funds to erect a monument.  

At this same meeting  the Enoch Brown Park and Monument Committee came into being. Those  appointed were: Cyrus Cort, President; Robert J. Boyd, Secretary; Dr. A.  H. Strickler, Treasurer; and Col. W. D. Dixon, Col. B. F. Winger, and  George W. Ziegler, advisors.Unfortunately, all did not go well between the  Park Commission and the Centennial Committee. In response to the Park's  invitation to the D Band of Chambersburg to play at the forthcoming  dedication ceremony, Rev. Cort referred to the impudent reply he  received from one who identified himself as Mr. LeGlass, Secretary of  the band. The writer was neither; his name was Bert LeFlinder. A sharp  exchange of words occurred at the time of Rev. Cort's letter to  Secretary Boyd dated July 20, 1885. The Chambersburg Band was not one of  the five bands previously mentioned.  Another controversial issue, one that lasted for  three years, was the Railroad Rebate, all of which was supposed to be  give to the Park Commission. After a two-year hassle to get the $135  still due, Rev. Cort wrote a letter to Benjamin Chambers, Chairman of  the Centennial Committee, reminding him that his grandmother was one of  those Enoch Brown students not in school on July 26, 1764. Through the  effort of the Honorable Judge Stewart, the request was granted; and  after more delay, $130 of the $135 due was transferred to the Park  Commission.

The Franklin County Superintendent of Schools,  Harry Disert, staged a rival attraction by scheduling an all day  teachers' meeting which required all teachers to be in attendance the  same day the dedicatory service was scheduled. His absence at the park,  that day, was very conspicuous. His attitude towards the Park  Commission's endeavor was indifferent, if not, hostile. A record book, in possession of the Park  Commission, lists the names of 5,257 babies, children, and adults who  contributed to the fund to erect this memorial. Those people represented  schools, Sunday schools, churches, and small groups located in Franklin  county. Some school teachers did not submit the names of those whose  donations were received; worse yet, some school teachers refused to  cooperate in the fund raising. In spite of all the discouragements, all went  well; the bills were paid and a small balance remained in the treasury.  

Within a few years, the Enoch Brown Park Commission sponsored and  contributed $250 each to erect the memorials at Forts McCord, Loudon,  Steel, and McDowell. Their endeavor to erect monuments in the old  Brown's Mill Cemetery to honor General James Potter and Major James Poe  as well as at the Renfrew Farm, near Waynesboro, did not materialize  because of the lack of interest and effort on the part of the people of  those areas.  

I previously mentioned that John McCullough, age  8, and brother, James, age 5, were captured by the Indians from their  farm land near here eight years to the date before this incident. James  was turned over to the French, thus no more information regarding. John  was living as an adopted son among the Delawares at the time some of  their tribes struck here. John witnessed the return of the three young  Indians with the scalps of those attacked here. They were called cowards  for killing the children. This was recorded in John's diary which is in a private collection at this time.

Permit me to share with you some of the recorded  information relative to those children who were absent from school in  this wooded area on July 26, 1764 and their teacher.  Sarah "Sally" Brown, daughter of George who  built the mill at Brown's Mill, was one of those absent from school. She  stayed home to assist the family in pulling flax. She wed Benjamin  Chambers, son of the founder of Chambersburg, Pa., who was a Lieutenant  in the Revolutionary War. Their grandson was the Chairman of the  Franklin County Centennial Committee previously referred to. 

The second of those four girls not in school was  Elenore Cochran, a Waynesboro lass, who made her home with the George  Brown family so that she could attend school along with Sally. She  became the wife of Captain Joseph Junkins, a hero in the Revolution. Of  that union there were fourteen children. Their son George was President  of Washington College at Lexington, Virginia at the outbreak of the  Civil War. When the Confederate flag was flown over the college, he  returned to Pennsylvania leaving behind two sons, both ministers, who  married into southern families and two daughters: Margaretta, who  married Colonel Preston, was nationally known as a gifted poetess; and  Elenore was the first wife of Stonewall Jackson.Rev. Cort, in his address here in 1885 stated:  "About thirty of the sons, sons-in-law, and other descendents of Elenore  and Joseph Junkins were in the ministry and still a larger number were  ruling elders in the Presbyterian Church."Elenore Pawling, daughter of the operator of the  Pawling Tavern, was providentially detained at home on the day of the  massacre. She became the wife of Dr. Robert Johnston, the distinguished  surgeon of the Revolutionary War.

The fourth girl was Mary Ramsey who did not  attend school that day because she had a premonition that some evil was  going to happen. She lived to be the ancestress of the Agnews, well  known in the medical profession. A niece of Mary Ramsey Agnew, Mary, married  Archibald Irvin of Irvinton's Mill. One of their daughters, Jane,  married a son of President William Henry Harrison. In 1841, then a  widow, she was mistress of the White House during the brief  administration of her father-in-law.Another daughter, Elizabeth, married John Scott  Harrison, also a son of the president. They were the parents of Benjamin  Harrison who in 1889 became the twenty-third president of the United  States. 

James Poe was absent from school by virtue of  the fact he played hookey.  Mrs. Betty Hopkins observed James climb a  tree to watch a local farmer mow hay. Returning home at the regular  hour, he was asked where he had been. He replied he had been in school.  For that little lie, his father gave him a licking.  When the Revolutionary War began, James Poe  enlisted in John Allison's Battalion and served as a Lieutenant. He was  later promoted to the rank of Captain. This illustrious son of a pioneer  family was a man of importance, not only in the community in which he  lived, but in the affairs of the county and state. He served on the  first grand jury in Franklin County. He also served on the first Board  of County Commissioners from 1784 to 1787 and later from 1790 to 1793.  Captain Poe was a member of the House of Representatives for two terms  as well as representing this area in the State Senate for two terms. Poe  married Elizabeth, daughter of Captain James Potter. Potter, with a  small detail of men, tried to overtake the Indians after their cowardly  act became known.  

Potter and Poe are the two men previously mentioned relative to a planned memorial at the Brown's Mill Cemetery.  As for the teacher, records reveal that he was  married. Rev. Cort referred to his own acquaintance with a Captain C. F.  Bonner who was a great-grandson of the massacred teacher.  Andrew N. Rankin, Esq., one of the three young  men who accompanied their fathers to this place in 1843 to search for  the grave, states that his grandmother's maiden name was Brown and that  her father was a cousin to the murdered schoolmaster. She explained the  reason why he was named Enoch. He was born in Ireland, where thirteen is  considered unlucky. Being the thirteenth child in his father's family,  his parents sought to ward off bad luck by naming the child Enoch, after  the first man "who was translated without tasting death" - Genesis  5:24.

I would be remiss not to speak of the one man  largely responsible for this park, Cyrus C. Cort. He was born in  Greensburg, Pennsylvania and graduated from the Theological Seminary of  the German Reformed Church, Mercersburg, Pa. in 1862. In the spring of  1881, he came to Greencastle and pastored the Reformed church here and  in State Line where he labored twelve years and added 340 new members to  the two congregations. As Chairman of the Enoch Brown Park and Monument  Association for nineteen years, his leadership is attested to by the  results of that association's endeavors.

In closing, I would like to share some recent  events relative to this park. In March, 1989, our Association President,  Harold M. Zimmerman, submitted a letter to the Antrim Township  Supervisors requesting additional assistance in the care and maintenance  of this park. John Gondek, Township Manager, reported by mid-June, that  he submitted an application to the State Funding Authority for  financial aid.After one and a half years of negotiations, the Township Authority took over control of this park.

I have referred to grandmothers several times.  Our grandfathers, too, can be credited with sharing the Enoch Brown  story with the youth of their time. On the occasion when several Park  Board members and their attorney attended a hearing in the Court of  Common Pleas to show why the transfer of this real estate should not be  approved, Judge Walker, when reading the docket, remarked, "Enoch Brown -  I well remember my grandfather telling me the story when I was small.

"My interest in Enoch Brown was aroused when my  grandfather gave me the original essay that his son, Irvin Rankin Cump,  wrote. Uncle Irvin heard the story from his grandfather, William Rankin.  It is reasonable to assume that the story was told in that family since  the time A. B. Rankin headed the delegation who unearthed the grave.Last year's endeavors of the township's crew  resulted in a thorough clean up, the removal of the fence along the  driveway, and the erection of this pavilion and the rest rooms.

During the past year, litter and vandalism has been on the decline.  The Township Supervisors and workers are to be complimented.

Several years ago, in regards to controlling the  park activities, Mr. William P. Conrad advised, "We will have to start  with educating our children in their formative years to know the history  of and show respect for places such as the Enoch Brown Park."  I am happy to report that our elementary schools  are encouraging our youth to learn about historical places and  incidents. In conjunction with our Antrim Township Bicentennial  Celebration last year, 705 of our elementary students visited this park  and were told the facts. The story is being told in the classrooms of  our local school district as well as in other area school districts.