| Notes |
- MHR note: Parents are Robert Armstrong and Mary Russell.
LKH note: I have not yet found documentation for Robert and Mary (Russell) Armstrong).
[2]
- MHR note: Letter from Ida Cronkhite dated 17 May 1951.
Family legend: Mary Russell. A young Irishman named Russell, married a young widow with a small daughter. After Russell had fathered three sons and a daughter, he decided to go to America. his step-daughter would receive a small inheritance at 18. There were still some months to go. So he went on, with the three sons, and the wife and the two daughters would follow. This was the days of sailing ships, three months to cross, three months for a letter to come back. The letter came from Chillicothe, Ohio.
The inheritance was duly paid in gold. Then Mrs. Russell and her two daughters started to join her husband. This would perhaps bring the time to three years, and don't ask any more details, for that is all I have. On board, the oldest died at sea ad was buried at sea. And when Mrs. Russell and her daughter, Mary got to Chillicothe, Ohio she was told her husband was long dead and the three sons "bound out". Two had been taken farther into the wild west (Indiana?) but she found the youngest and tried to buy him back. His guardian refused to let him go. So she stole him and left gold to pay for his time and the all three went away from there.
Mary Russell was one of the girls who helped go to the spring till they filled all available vessels in case the Indians attacked. And Rebecca (Anderson) Maxwell Crawford helped. Mary Russell married Isaac Armstrong. When Mary (Armstrong) Cassity met Elizabeth (Crawford) Vawter at the home of P. T. Hedges in Fleming County, Kentucky to view their great-grandson, T.A. [Thaddeus A. Hedges], they told what each had heard of that time, from their mothers. Zane Grey used it in a novel. I don't know where the fort was.
The family ghost story. Isaac Armstrong's (it could have been Robert Isaac Armstrong, probably Robert Armstrong) were making up the maple syrup. There was much work, and it called for many hands. There was no beet or cane sugar in those days. Elder berry bushes furnished spouts to carry the sap, after they were cut in suitable lengths and the pith pushed out. They had a pot, many buckets, so they chopped logs about two feet long, split in half and with hatchet and fire they made a trough to set under the spout. Every morn they collected the sap from the trees and carried it to the kettle (or the kettles, if they had more than one) and boiled till it was "just right" for syrup or sugar. This lasted a week or ten days, till the leaf buds swelled, to spoil the flavor. So all hands helped. Mary Armstrong and her brothers (Robert Armstrong and James Armstrong) and cousins, Isabell and George Steele, from 20 miles away, and those who lived near. Today was the last day, and the boys said tonight would be rainy, dark of the moon, and they hadn't had a coon hunt yet. The sap was all in, and plenty of wood, and Polly and Ibby could finish the boiling for they were going hunting, for tomorrow they would all go home. When the syrup was finally done, it was dark, and half a mile from the house through the woods. Indians didn't trouble much any more, and bears and panthers not often. Polly picked up a stout stick and assured Ibby there was nothing to fear. Presently they heard a groan and saw a white "something" beside the path. Ibby said, "let's go" . Polly said it might be a sick horse. Ibby fled toward the house, but Polly drew near. Again the strange groan and a flounder. Polly said "Be you devil or what you may, I'll give you one lick" and struck with all her strength and fled. Next morn the boys were cross, and did not seem to have anything to report from the coon hunt and scattered home. A year later they again assemble. "Bob" (either a cousin or brother) asked Polly to cut his hair. She asked "how come that scar on your head?" "If you won't get mad, I'll tell you". He had been the ghost. "And you almost killed me".
This was my great-grandmother Polly [Mary] Armstrong (b.10 Feb 1779, Virginia; d.29 Sept. 1860, Rowan County, Kentucky) married Peter Thompson Cassity (b. 19 June 1775, Virginia; d.12 May 1862, Rowan County, Kentucky. Her brothers were James Armstrong (b.1758, d.1830) and Robert Armstrong.
[2]
- MHR note:
James Armstrong was the brother of Polly who married Peter Thompson Cassity who is our ancestor. He is buried in 3 Lick Cemetery, on a hill near the old log house of William Ribelin Hedges, and I saw his stone when there the first time but he had died so much earlier than Polly that I didn't recognize the possibility of his being her brother, and didn't copy the inscription, and when I went back the next time, the stone had disappeared, but the people next door denied all knowledge of having anything to do with its removal, tho I think they had removed it to plant tobacco there.
[2]
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1779 - 1860 (81 years)
[1, 2, 3] 
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