Capt. Simon Cool - The Grave Along The Lycoming Bike Trail

 

Along the Lycoming County Bike Trail in Williamsport, near Heshbon road, is a memorial marker for Captain Simon Cool, a Revolutionary War Captain who was killed by Indians near this spot.

Note that both this marker and the one at Catawissa are Cenotaphs - Memorial Markers.  They are not technically gravestones, as their is no body buried at either location.

Marker Located at: N 41° 16.114 W 077° 03.040

According to the history written by Meginnes in 1892, "Simon Cool first settled near the mouth of Larry's creek and made an improvement, very likely on the spot where the cabin of Larry Burt, the Indian trader, stood. He was an ensign in the Eighth Company of Associators, Capt. Henry Antes, January 24, 1776, and captain of the Sixth Company, Third Battalion, commanded by Colonel Plunkett, March 13, 1776. Excepting his tragic death, nothing further is known of his personal history." 

 Captain Cool was killed by Indians, near where the marker, placed by the DAR in 1910, today stands along the rail trail.

The story of Capt Cool's death has run in various historical columns of local newspapers over the year, all appearing to have run the story recounted by Meginness in his history of Lycoming County:

AN ILL FATED HUNTING PARTY (Meginness 1892)

Late in the fall of 1780, William King, Simon Cool, and James Sweeny came up from Northumberland to hunt deer. They stopped at an abandoned cabin near the mouth of Dry run, a short distance west of Lycoming creek. A light snow was on the ground and they soon discovered Indian moccasin tracks. This gave them no alarm. 

The next day they went up Dougherty's run, intending to descend Bottle run to Lycoming creek. One traveled on each side of the stream, while the third walked down the bottom. After traveling some distance King, who was in the rear, heard Sweeny call Cool three times, and soon after he heard the report of a gun. He proceeded cautiously for some distance but failing to find his companions he became alarmed and returned to the cabin, where he remained all night alone, As they did not return the next day he concluded that the Indians had either captured or killed them, and fearing to remain alone, he got aboard their canoe and paddled back to Northumberland and reported the strange circumstance.

Nothing was heard of the missing men for seven years. One day while King was standing in the door of a tavern at Northumberland, who should suddenly appear, like one risen from the dead, but Sweeny. After a warm and friendly greeting, he related his experience, beginning with the day of his disappearance seven years before Sweeny said that after they had separated to travel down Bottle run on the lookout for game, he suddenly discovered from his position on the hillside three Indians stealthily following Cool. He called to him and warned him of what was behind, whereupon Cool ran for his life and he did the same. 

When they came to Bottle run Sweeny sprang clear across, but Cool, who was a large man, fell short and landed in the water. When he clambered on the bank he found, on account of his wet clothes, that he could not run, and they took to trees and prepared to defend themselves, Cool had a dog noted for hunting Indians, and scenting their pursuers he barked furiously and tried to break away. In trying to quiet the dog Cool exposed his body, when an Indian shot him through the breast. Rising up he called to Sweeny that he was badly hurt when he fell over dead. 

Seeing that it was useless to resist Sweeny surrendered. The Indians stripped Cool, and taking his gun, threw an old one down in its place when they hurried away with their prisoner. After a long march, during which Sweeny suffered much from cold and wet, they reached Canada. There he remained until he obtained his release, and after much delay and suffering finally worked his way back to Northumberland.

 When Cool was killed they scalped him and left his body lying on the ground. Years afterwards the rusty irons of the old gun left by the Indians were plowed up by a farmer.

Simon Cool first settled near the mouth of Larry's creek and made an improvement, very likely on the spot where the cabin of Larry Burt, the Indian trader, stood. He was an ensign in the Eighth Company of Associators, Capt. Henry Antes, January 24, 1776, and captain of the Sixth Company, Third Battalion, commanded by Colonel Plunkett, March 13, 1776. Excepting his tragic death, nothing further is known of his personal history.

In September of 1910, The Lycoming Chapter DAR erected a stone at the spot, along Lycoming Creek, where Captain Cool was killed by Indians in 1778 or 1779.

"The marker is placed along the north bank of the stream, near No. 2 bridge of the North Central Railroad."  The location was reported to have a "very fitting setting, neath the sheltering branches of an old chestnut tree, in view of the state road and the railroad."

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In 1929, Joseph Summers published a serialized novel in the Lewisburg Journal.  In his story of the West Branch & The Great Runaway, he mentions Simon Cool:

"That night the men, women and children were clustered about a huge camp fire to listen to the harangue of Captain Cool, tall, rawboned, bow-legged, clad in homespun trousers that reached only to the tops of his shoes and was held in place by suspenders made of strips of deer hide. 

His voice, pleading, cajoling, and threatening, came from the depths of powerful lungs. His natural eloquence accompanied by frequent gestures, gripped his hearers with something akin to awe. The situation was dramatic, not only in its settling but also because of its potentialities. 

There was the natural amphitheater, the mountains looming as a dark, perpendicular mass beyond the river and the foothills rising on the other side of the valley; the star-studded sky above with the moon a pale and slender crescent in the east; the camp fire, casting a mellow glow in the darkness, revealed a circle of tense faces the awkward figure of the speaker.

The scene was being watched by the furtive eyes of several Senecas concealed in the thickets on the other side of the creek. "Yonder is the land of the Senecas," shouted Cool, extending an arm toward the west. "Settle on those lands and the war cry will echo through the valley. Settle on those lands and your women and children will be tomahawked and scalped. The Senecas, once on the warpath, will not stop at Pine Creek but will invade our lands to tomahawk and scalp our women and children.

Instead of peace in this rich valley, we shall know strife and bloodshed. The government will not follow you that side of Pine Creek. You will be outlaws and I| warn you that if the war cry of the Senecas is heard west of Pine Creek, we who live east of Pine Creek will not come to your relief." 

[Summer's story is fiction - although it is based on real people and real events, I do not know what his source material is, or how close he stayed to the real events.]

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This old photo shows the No 2 Railroad Bridge, in the back.  The bike path today crosses where  that bridge stood. The front bridge was for cars.

Helen Russell, in her column in the Lock Haven Express, 1959

Lists the children of Simon Cool as William and Elizabeth who became Elizabeth Egbert.

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MILITARY RECORDS

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A Second Captain Simon Cool? 

Interestingly, when searching for information on Captain Cool, I found a find a grave entry showing this stone, with the date of 1755-1820.  At first glance,  I'd naturally have assumed this was the same man, one being the location of his grave, the other being a memorial to him. But on closer inspection, well, it's an interesting puzzle.  Not only is the date of death not the same, but its not overly common to find revolutionary war soldiers buried in Quaker cemeteries. 

An article in a 1937 edition of the Mount Caramel Item explains the location of the grave. 

There is no record of a Samuel Cool being buried there. "the monument and marker had been sent from Washington to be placed in a cemetery in they valley, and not being able to locate the grave of the Revolutionary soldier they decided that was as good a place as any to erect them."

It's very likely that  this is the same Captain Cool, and the date of death is simply incorrect on the stone located in Numidia, Columbia County Pa.

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Lest We Forget
An Index Of Stories & Photos Of Those Who Didn't Make It Home
And A Closer Look At Some Of The Memorials Erected For them.
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2021/05/memorial-day-in-valley-through-decades.html

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READ MORE

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1951

Lewisburg Journal 1903

1910