8. | Captain Matthew Arbuckle was born on 15 Jul 1740 in Botetourt County, Virginia, USA (son of James Arbuckle, Sr and Margaret Thompson); died on 27 Jul 1781 in Jackson River, Bath County, Virginia, USA; was buried in Old Stone Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Lewisburg, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, USA. Other Events:
- Occupation: Military Officer, Frontiersman
- Probate: 20 Nov 1781, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, USA; "An appraisement of the goods and chattels of Capt. Matthew Arbuckle."
Notes:
Matthew Arbuckle was a renowned frontiersman in western Virginia (now West Virginia) and the Ohio territory in the 1760, and is considered to be the first European to travel on his own (i.e. not in captivity) across the mountains of Virginia to the Ohio River. He was an officer in the Virginia miltia as early as 1767, and was a "gentleman justice" in Botetourt County Virginia from 1769 to 1773. In 1773 or 4, he was the guide and chief scout for British General Andrew Lewis in his campaign in the upper Ohio River Valley. In October, 1774, he led a Virginia militia company in the Battle of Point Pleasant, which is historically because it was the first battle in which Colonial and British armies were (effectively) on opposite sides. General Lewis was expected to join the Virginia Militia in defense of frontier settlements that were under attack by a Native American force led by the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk. but General signed a peace agreement with a Shawnee conferation. His failure to assist the militia at the time of the Battle of Point Point Pleasant contributed to the miltia's sound defeat.
In 1777, Captain Arbuckle was in command of Fort Randolph at Point Pleasant, when he "detained" Cornstalk while Cornstalk was on a peace mission. When Cornstalk's son Elinipsico visited him at the fort, a Native American who was presumed to be part of Elinipsico's contingent killed a militiaman, whereupon a gang of militiamen raced into the fort and murdered Cornstalk, Elinipsico, and two companions. The murder was widely publicised and roundly crticized, but the militiamen were acquitted at trial because their fellow soldiers refused to testify againt them.
In 1789, Captain Arbuckle participated in Gen. George Rogers Clark's successful military expedition into the Northwest Territories (Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, etc.). Then, in 1790, he was the first settler of the new town of Lewisburg, (now West) Virginia, on the western slopes of the Allegheny Mountains. In 1781, while returning from a trip to the Virginia state capital at Williamsburg, he was killed by a falling tree during a storm.
Capt Arbuckle's son, Gen. Matthew Arbuckle, was instrumental in establishing peaceful relations between American and Native Americans in western Arkanas and eastern Oklahoma. The Arbuble Mountains of Oklahoma are named for Gen. Matthew Arbuckle.
See Captain Matthew Arbuckle'ss Wikipedia article☍
Buried:
GRid=19481302; lengthy obit of military career and life thereafter. Grave metal sign and Gravestone with curved top, both with inscriptions.
Died:
Killed by falling tree in a storm while returning to Greenbrier County from Jamestown
Matthew married Jane Lockhart in 1768 in Virginia, USA. Jane was born in 1746 in Augusta County, Virginia, USA; died in 1781 in Augusta County, Virginia, USA; was buried in Old Stone Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Lewisburg, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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