Ohio County, West Virginia  Biography of William Boggs.

************************************************************************
USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced
in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal represen-
ative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with
proof of this consent.
************************************************************************

WILLIAM BOGGS

William Boggs, Sr., was also an original pioneer, and one of the 
earliest in the Panhandle.  He was of Irish descent, and took up, by 
tomahawk right, the body of land immediately north of Boggs' run, 
(from whom the run derives its name,) afterwards obtaining a patent 
therefor.  His house was located at the foot of a ravine, about half 
a mile north of the run.  Having been himself married twice, and 
marrying a widow Barr, the second wife, who had children of her own, 
he became the head of a large familyt, consisting of three sets of 
children.  One of these, by the first wife, was Lydia, who became the 
wife of Colonel Moses Shepherd, and afterwards of Colonel Daniel 
Cruger.  Lydia proved to be a most remarkable woman, whose name has 
become historic, and whose reputation is almost national.  Another 
daughter, who was by the second wife, was Nancy.  She became the wife 
of Benjamin McMechen, and the mother of fourteen children, all of 
whom grew up to maturity. She died several years before her husband.

Captain Wm. Boggs shared in all the perils of the times.  At the time 
of Girty's attack on Fort Henry, he was keeper of the public stores 
in the fort, being temporarily absent, however hunting up recruits.  
His daughter, Lydia, was also in the fort at the same time, being 
then seventeen years of age, and claims, justly as it is thought, to 
have taken an active part in the powder exploit.

During the border war on the Ohio, William Boggs, jr., a son of 
Captain Boggs, was taken prisoner by the Indians and remained with 
them for four years, being at the end of that time retored to his 
family by treaty;  but having become accustomed to the Indian mode of 
life, he longed to return to them, or perhaps did so.  But if so, he 
could not have remained with them for a long time, as he subsequently 
married and raised a large family in the western states, one of his 
descendants being the late William McPherson, a wealthy lawyer of St. 
Louis, Missouri.

After peace with the Indians had been restored, Captain Boggs, 
desirous of obtaining a larger quantity of land, sold his property on 
the Ohio river, and moved to the Scioto river, acquiring a large 
tract of land, a mile or two south of Pickaway plains.  Numerous 
representativs of the Boggs family may be found n the Scioto river, 
between Chillicothe and Columbus, one of whom, John Boggs, a grandson 
of the Captain, and son of John Boggs, sr., is immensely wealthy.  
Other representatives of the same stock may be found in most of the 
western states.
 
It was after the removal of Captain Boggs to the Scioto that Benjmin 
McMechen married his daughter Nancy -- who was an one and only full 
sister of Elizabeth Boggs, and subsequently Elizabeth Crouse, wife of 
David Crouse, of the Scioto valley -- and half sister of Lydia Boggs, 
afterwards Mrs. Shepherd and Mrs. Cruger. 


From HISTORY OF THE PAN-HANDLE, West Virginia, 1879, by J. H. Newton, 
G. G. Nichols, and A. G. Sprankle.  

Contributed by Linda Cunningham Fluharty.