Dr. William Holmes McGuffey was born September 28, 1800, on the southern
border of Washington county, Pa. The family descended from William
and Anna (McKittrick) McGuffey who came from Scotland, and landed at
Philadelphia. They made a home in the southern part of York county,
at which, during the Revolution, General Washington often stopped to
refresh himself. In 1789 this family removed to Washington county, Pa.

[The Indian Scouts]

Alexander McGuffey, the father of Dr. McGuffey, was six years old when
the family came to America in August, 1774. In 1790, when he was
twenty-two years of age, he and his friend, Duncan McArthur, afterward a
governor of Ohio, were selected from five young men who volunteered to
act as scouts against the Indians in Ohio who were then threatening the
frontier settlements in the western part of Virginia and Pennsylvania.
These two young men were selected after tests by Samuel Brady to find
which could run the fastest, shoot most accurately, and were least
afraid of Indians. Alexander McGuffey served in the army three years,
venturing his life with small bodies of scouts in the Indian country.
He took part in several fights with the Indians. When General St. Clair
in 1792 marched north from Cincinnati to meet the Indians, this body of
scouts was one day concealed in a swamp near the spring of Castalia,
Ohio. There they saw great numbers of Indians passing to meet General
St. Clair, and three of the scouts hastened through the Indian country
to inform the general. They traveled only at night and hid during the
day. One night they marched forty miles. They told General St. Clair
what they had seen and again went out to watch the collecting Indians.
Three days later St. Clair was defeated. These scouts were then twelve
miles away but the retreating soldiers soon overtook them and then the
"woods were alive with Indians." The scouts turned eastward and in due