Most everyone knew of Tim Murphy, local Revolutionary War hero

SCHOHARIE — The weatherman said there would be a short snow squall sweeping through at the exact time, 6:30 to 7 a.m. on Jan. 28, that the OMOTM would be driving to the Your Way Café in Schoharie. The weatherman was right, and the OMOTM were on their way. A little snow squall doesn’t even slow us down!

Our Scribe Emeritus, John Williams, was slowed down this past week and it was reported he spent a short amount of time in the hospital getting checked out. I think he spent about as much time in the hospital as it took that quickie snow squall to blow through.

He was heard to say something to the effect of, “All I did was sleep, and when I got home I was exhausted!”

That sounds about like our Scribe.

I have a whole bunch of good topics to write about this week. They range from jury duty stories, to a new electric-car purchase, to finally cutting the cable, to heated winter gloves, to one OF who just bought a nice pair of winter gloves and promptly lost one of them the first day he had them. I think one OF knew all about the lost glove but was waiting to see if a reward was being offered.

However, the star topic of the morning was all about a man called Timothy Murphy, a man from way back in the days of the Revolutionary War.

I was reading about something totally unrelated to Mr. Murphy when I had reason to check something out, so naturally, I googled it. In the process of that, I ran across Mr. Timothy Murphy.

The headline about him started off with, “Revolutionary War Hero.” Turns out, good ol’ Tim was an “expert marksman,” which is defined as being “able to hit a seven inch target at 250 yards.”

When the Revolutionary War started, Tim and his brother enlisted with the Northumberland County Riflemen and they saw action in the Siege of Boston, the Battle of Long Island, and “skirmishing in Winchester,” Pennsylvania.

Tim was promoted to sergeant in the Continental Army’s 12th Pennsylvania Regiment and fought at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Because of his skill as an expert rifleman, Tim joined the newly formed Morgan’s Riflemen.

Subsequently, he was one of 500 hand-picked men to go with General Daniel Morgan to upstate New York to help stop General John Burgoyne at the battles around Saratoga.

Benedict Arnold, well before he became a traitor, is said to have pointed out English Brigadier-General Simon Fraser to General Morgan and said that he, Fraser, was worth a regiment. At that point, General Morgan called on Murphy to do his job and take Fraser out, whereupon Murphy climbed a tree, and at the extreme distance of 300 yards, shot and killed Brigadier-General Fraser while he was on his horse. Murphy took out Fraser's chief aide-de-camp as well.

Timothy Murphy was a major player in the lesser known, but important to the OMOTM, Battle of Middle Fort in the Schoharie Valley in 1780 (now called the Old Stone Fort in Middletown). On Oct 17th, British, Tory, and Indian forces led by Sir John Johnson and Chief Joseph Brant attacked the fort with Murphy being credited with being essential to the defense of the fort.

Allow me to quote from Wikipedia about a local hero that virtually all of the OMOTM knew about except me. But I do now!

“Having already been admired as a hero of the Battle of Saratoga, he was able to largely partake in repelling attackers and leaving the residents unharmed. As the story goes, Murphy fired upon British forces that were coming to discuss the rebel surrender of the fort.

“Refusing to be taken prisoner, Murphy continued firing upon them, disregarding orders of a superior. This action led to the decision of the British command to back off of the fort and continue onward. Much of the folklore surrounding Murphy comes from his ability as a rifleman, and his dedication as a patriot.”

This is just another true story about the fabulous history of our wonderful country that surrounds all of us that live, work, and play in the mountains and Hilltowns of the Hudson River Valley. Without the Timothy Murphys of our land, there would be no George Washington or Abraham Lincoln for us to honor.

I have previously mentioned that there are many surnames of current Hilltown residents on many of those headstones that date to the Revolutionary times. These markers may be found in the many family plots and cemeteries throughout the Hilltowns, and some of those families are currently represented among the OMOTM who get together each week for breakfast.

Some OMOTM roots run very deep and travel a long way back in time.

Speaking of breakfast, the following OMOTM made it through the snow squall to the Your Way Café where everyone except me and maybe one or two others already knew all about Mr. Timothy Murphy. They are: Mr. Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Hon Albert E. Raymond, Frank A. Fuss, Roland Tozer, George Washburn, Wm Lichliter, Joe Rack, Roger Shafer, Mark Traver, Russ Pokorny, Jim Gardner, Glen Patterson, Lou Schenck, John Jaz, Jack Norray, Gerry Cross, Herb Bahrmann, John Dab, Paul Guiton, Elwood Vanderbilt, Bob Donnelly, Dave Hodgetts, Jamey Darrah, and me.