Faye, that was wonderful! I don't have a direct RW ancestor, though there are some cousins who served. The story I have to relate is found in the pages of the booklet, "Reminiscences of George LaBar, the Centenarian of Monroe Co., PA, who is still living in his 107th year" by A.B. Burrell, 1870. George LaBar was my 4xgreat-grandfather.
Here is the excerpt in relation to the RW:
One day, George was with his father, not far from the house, splitting rails. A stranger, in citizen's dress, came to him, and told him he was a spy from the British army, and asked to stay with him all night. His father said he never turned anybody off who wanted a night's lodging. It was near night, and they went to the house. Soon after entering, the pretended British spy, looking out a crack of the door, said the Yankees were after him, and asked where he should go. The father said he could go upstairs. George's mother said, "No! get out the door and be off!". A moment more, and a half-a-dozen Yankee soldiers, in uniform, came in; the spy had played his game, and LaBar was pronounced a Tory. He was at once arrested, leg (he had previously broken a leg and now considered to have a "game leg", thus preventing him from duty) and all, and taken, that night, to Easton.
George's mother was greatly troubled that night, and he, to comfort her, told her he would follow him in the morning, and offer himself to take his father's place. But she knew his generous offer would not be accepted, nor would such a substitute afford her the desired relief.
Early the next morning, Mrs. LaBar set out, on horseback, for Easton, whither she supposed her husband had been taken. Arriving there, she found he had been bailed by Squire Levis and Abraham LaBar, a cousin, who soon after was a colonel in the Revolutionary army. She succeeded in proving the leg unfit for military duty, and the man was permitted to take it home again, to the joy of the woman and the satisfaction of the children, who had been left alone at home.
A short time after this, his horses were seized by an officer, and taken to Squire Depui's at Shawnee. He got his horses by swearing allegiance to the Government of the United States. Another horse was captured by one John Herring, who seems to have assumed his own authority for so doing. This horse was never returned, and never paid for. Free speech and a high-tempered disposition, with an inclination to retaliate, had the same effect now upon those who were heart and soul in sympathy with the rebel cause, to create enemies, just as the Indians were made so before. The senior George LaBar was called a Tory for these reasons.
Fire-arms were scarce in the Revolution, and a requisition was made, early in the war, for all such arms to be brought forward for the emergency. LaBar could spare one or two old shot-guns, but his own tried musket he kept for a long time, hid in a hollow tree in the woods. Was he to blame for this, when much of his meat had to be brought out of the woods?"
In Mr. Burrell's preface, he writes, " This little volume has been drawn together by frequent conversations with the aged pilgrim with whom those talks were had. His mind operates slowly, and in it's operation it often slides out of the channel upon which it first sets out, upon thoughts or topics suggested as he goes along." Mr. Burrell also states, "The historic part of this volume is, of course, fragmentary, touching here and there the early settlement of the Pennsylvania side of the river valley reaching from Easton to Bushkill."
The elder George was too old and crippled for the RW and the younger George was too young for the RW and too old for the War of 1812.
It's a wonderful little booklet that was sent to me by a cousin. Mr. Burrell did a wonderful job of telling the stories my 4xgreat-grandfather related to him (from memory at 107 y/o) and of the history of the settlement of the Delaware Gap area of PA. I just wanted to share that with you. Oh, and there is a statue in East Stroudsburg, PA, in his honor. He died in 1874 at the age of 111.
