By Matthew Cumberledge, GCHS Executive Director
Times were tough, it wasn’t like today when our problems are more a matter of inconvenience, then, problems were a matter of survival. Even a simple Sunday Service came with risks that in at least one instance ended in death.
“On the second Sunday of May in the year 1782, being about to keep my appointment at one of the meeting houses, about a mile from my dwelling, I set out with my dear wife and five children for public worship. Not suspecting any danger, I walked behind with my Bible in hand, meditating. As I was thus employed, all of a sudden, I was greatly alarmed with the frightful shrieks of my dear wife before me. I immediately ran with all the speed I could, vainly hunting a club as I ran, till I got within forty rods of them; my poor wife seeing me, cried to me to make my escape; an Indian ran up to shoot me. Seeing the odds too great against me, I fled, and by doing so outran him. My wife had a sucking child in her arms; the little infant they killed and scalped. Then they struck my wife several times, but not getting her down, the Indian who aimed to shoot me ran to her. My little boy, an only son, about six years old, they sank a hatchet into his brain and thus dispatched him. A daughter besides the infant they killed and scalped. My oldest daughter who is yet alive was hid in a tree about twenty yards from where the rest were killed, and saw the whole proceedings. She seeing all the Indians go off, as she thought, got up and deliberately came out from the hollow tree; but one of them spying her, ran hastily up, knocked her down and scalped her; also her only surviving sister, one on whose head they did not leave more than an inch round, either flesh or skin, besides taking a piece of her skull. She and the before-mentioned one are miraculously preserved; though as you must think, I have had and still have a good deal of trouble besides anxiety about them; insomuch as I am, as to worldly circumstances, almost ruined. I am yet in hopes of seeing them cured; they still, blessed by God, retain their senses, notwithstanding the painful operations they have already had, and yet must pass through.”
This is the Reverend John Corbly’s account of that fateful incident 237 years ago, as he related it to a friend in a letter a few years later.
Corbly was born February 25th 1733 on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in the small but mighty English Nation. Little is known of his early life, but he must have been born of very humble origins as it is recorded that at the age of 14 he indentured himself into voluntary servitude to pay for his transport to the colonies in the Americas. He faithfully served out his time in Pennsylvania, and at around age 18 moved to Winchester Virginia. Not long after he arrived in Virginia he became acquainted with a young lady by the name of Miss Abigail Bull. She soon became his first wife. John and Abigail would settle in Berkley County, Virginia and that is where he would find the second and perhaps most important love of his life, the Gospel of Christ. The Elder John Garrard, a minister of the Baptist faith was a prominent and zealous preacher of the Gospel in that area. When Garrard came to know the young John Corbly, the state of his soul and salvation became an important topic. The Elder Garrard must have had an unforgettable effect on Corbly, as at once he converted to Christianity and his life was consecrated to bringing others to the Baptist faith.
The now Reverend John Corbly took the commands of the scripture seriously, and began preaching the Gospel with such zeal that other denominations and religious would persecute him in his efforts. He suffered many trials and tribulations, assaults, beatings and was arrested and placed in the Culpepper Jail sometime around 1768. But Corbly’s faith was strong and preached even during his confinement.
This time in prison however, along with the recent death of his wife Abigail, may have led to Corbly’s desire to find a new home where he could freely preach the Word as he saw fit. In 1769 or 1770, Corbly, like so many others in the Colony of Virginia, would make the hard trek to the lands near the Monongahela River and find a tract of land near the head waters of Whitely Creek where many of his friends and acquaintances were soon to settle. Among that early group of settlers were many members of the Garrard Family, no doubt relations of Corbly’s old friend Elder John Garrard. There, Corbly would marry his second wife Elizabeth. She was the wife that was killed in the attack in 1782.
Not long after, in the 1774, Garrards Fort was erected very near to the Corbly and Garrard farms. It served as a beacon of safety to those early settlers. By 1776, Corbly had established the first congregation that would service the early settlers of what is now Greene County, known then as the Goshen Baptist Church. Though the meetings in those early days were held in the homes of the congregants, a log church was later built, and in the mid 19th century a brick structure was erected. The Congregation is still in existence today, and the church is now known as the John Corbly Memorial Baptist Church. It was to this congregation that Corbly was walking to from his home nearby on that fateful day in 1782, when so many members of his family would lose their lives. But it would take more than that to take the Reverend John Corbly down.
He continued to preach at that small rural church for many years, as well as other churches in the area, and married his third wife, Nancy. Corbly remained a public figure, and stayed active in local politics and was no doubt one of the most respected and well known citizens of the region.
In the early 1790s, when the Federal Government placed a tax on whiskey production, one of the few ways local settlers had of making money from their crops, Corbly would again find himself at risk of jail. Corbly was a man who was thought by the federal government and military at the time to have been meeting with conspirators and taking a strong role in the regional rebellion against the excise tax on whiskey. We now know this era of history as the Whiskey Rebellion. At a mass public gathering at Parkinsons Ferry, Corbly spoke out against the tax. Because of his remarks, he was among the 20 ringleaders of the rebellion arrested and imprisoned in November 1794. He was later pardoned by President George Washington. Once the rebellion was over, Corbly returned home and continued preaching until his death in 1803.
Corbly’s legacy is still strong, he founded nearly 30 churches in Greene County and the surrounding areas, and his descendants still meet every year at the Corbly Memorial Baptist Church to celebrate the life and times of one of Greene Counties most significant historical figures.