Reminiscences&Ruminations

[GMccul2744@aol.com]

Yesterday i had the pleasure of making the trek to Ligonier , Pa. as i,d been 
promising myself to do for some time. I had the good fortune to arrive just 
minutes before a schoolbus load of grade school children on a field trip. I 
had hoped for a little quiet browsing of the museum but rather enjoyed 
listening to the curator giving a detailed explanation of all the artifacts & 
a brief history of the area . Unfortunately she began by asking that no flash 
cameras be used inside the museum to ensure the continued preservation of 
paintings & other artifacts . Initially i thought well maybe i could just 
sneak a few but after pangs of guilt i asked permission to take some of 
General St Clair,s living room housed there but was denied . Hopefully the 
lights in the display cases will have been adequate as there were so many 
nice things on display some of which included Arthur,s sword, rings, his wife 
Phoebe,s slippers, much correspondence & some absolutely beautiful silver 
plates & gifts of sterling silver presented to him by people like John Paul 
Jones & Lord Ligonier among many others. Attached to the side of the museum 
is the fort where after having gone through a doorway you were shown the 
housing & cabins for the officers & soldiers along with commisary stores & 
gunpowder ammunition storage area dug out of the hillside. The entire fort is 
surrounded by pointed logs impossible to scale , i believe they were called 
(friez ) but can,t remember the spelling. Looking out over the valley is just 
a magnificent view virtually unchanged after all this time & if you close 
your eyes you can just imagine seeing it the way it was where just yrds from 
the fort the colonists were ambushed & killed or kidnapped by the indians on 
a regular basis .
Before leaving the site i got directions to the Presbyterian graveyard in 
town & located Louisa StClair,s final resting spot & found not far from her 
grave the graves of four St Clairs with readable tombstones-William J. 
b.6-12-1806 - d.7-9-1874,Nancy his wife b.4-16-1804-d.11-13-1881. Also  
Isabella,d.2-10-1867 aged 26yrs. & Andrew S.C. d. 12-29-1852 aged 23yrs. 
Relatives anyone? 
     Glenn McCullough