by fortroberdeau | Feb 27, 2020 | Cluggage's Rangers - Black's Company, Historic Figures, Pensioner, Rangers, Soldiers
The Coleman brothers have many tales that surround them. It was said that they came to the area after the death of their younger brother in an attack by Native Americans while making Syrup in the mountains.
Thomas Served as an Ensign in the Rifle Regiment and acted as a guide and spy. In his pension application he states that in November of 1777 while scouting he discovered tracks of a parcel of Indians pursuing the path from Kittanning toward Frankstown; that he followed until he found them in the act of making their fires; that he immediately warned the inhabitants of the settlement of their danger who made their escape. In 1778 he was chosen to go to Kittanning to see if the Tories had joined forces with the Native Americans who lived there. In 1778 he served at Fort Roberdeau, along with John Moore, who would later be his commander.
In 1780 he received a commission from the Supreme Executive
Council to serve as an Ensign under Captain John Moore. He also served under
Colonel Jack, Captain Black, Colonel Piper and many others. They ranged to
Hannastown and at times as far as Fort Pitt.
He mentions eating jerked beef in his pension, and running
out during the scout to Kittaning.
Served at the Battle of Frankstown.
Born in Cumberland County in 1748. He spent most of his life in Logan Township. He died in 1837 and is buried at Grandview Cemetery in Altoona. Phebe was his wife’s name.
“Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 23,579, Thomas Coleman, Penn.” Archives.gov, 2025, catalog.archives.gov/id/54267602. Accessed 1 July 2025.
“Thomas Coleman (1748-1837) – Find a Grave…” Findagrave.com, 2024, www.findagrave.com/memorial/12790713/thomas-coleman. Accessed 1 July 2025.
by fortroberdeau | Feb 27, 2020 | Cluggage's Rangers - Black's Company, Historic Figures, Rangers, Soldiers
In 1778 William Moore worked as a Ranger under Captain Black in Cluggage’s Rangers.
The Moore’s were a well known family in the region. Many were killed in 1778 during an attack on their homestead. We do not know how this William Moore is this related to William Moore, the patriarch, who died in 1778 during that ill fated attack.
The Moore family were the first to run flat boats from Frankstown to Middletown. They were early settlers in the Ebensburg region.
They were known to cling to the old ways and dress of the Scots. They brought 20-30 Scotsmen to the area after the war. Maguire records in his memoirs seeing the Crawfords, Fraziers, Stewards and Macphersons in bonnets and kilts speaking Gaelic with Samuel Moore upon their arrival to the region.
The above information comes from The History of the Juniata Valley by U.J. Jones.
by fortroberdeau | Feb 27, 2020 | Cluggage's Rangers - Black's Company, Historic Figures, Rangers, Soldiers
1751-1808
In 1778 he served in Cluggage’s Rangers. Like Captain Black, his commander, William had ties to Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, as mentioned in his father’s will (Frankstown, Pa in 1777).
William later became a Militia commander. He was Lt. William Deveny of 5th Company. He continued to serve Frankstown and up the Kittaning Path.
He married Mary Robinson.
William’s sisters were Mary and Jean. He had a brother named Andrew, who owned a mill in Frankstown. After the war they moved to what is now Indiana County near the Blacklick to a place aferwards known as Devinny’s Hollow.
(Historical Southern Families. Volume XX,
William Devinny of Huntington and Indiana Counties Pa.)
by fortroberdeau | Feb 27, 2020 | Cluggage's Rangers - Black's Company, Historic Figures, Rangers, Soldiers
John Long lived in the area of Air, Pennsylvania from at least 1773- 1810. He served under Captain Black’s company, a member of Cluggage’s Rangers.
by fortroberdeau | Feb 27, 2020 | Cluggage's Rangers - Black's Company, Historic Figures, Rangers, Soldiers
1752-1833
Henry Black was born in December 1752 in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He had moved to Bedford before the war.
November 1777, he began as a militia man but was commissioned by General Edward Hand of Ft Pitt and later put in charge of one of the units helping to guard the region surrounding Fort Roberdeau.
Serving under Major Cluggage as a ranger, he was to raise 28 men to serve as Rangers. Their duty was to guard the frontier from Bald Eagle to Bedford. He was stationed out of Frankstown along the old trading route to Kittanning. His unit built a fortification along the Kittanning Trade Path. He was discharged after serving 13 months and some days.
After his service he moved to Mount Joy, Pa. He was married to a woman named Mary Weems.
In 1780, he reenlisted and served 2 months as a private under Captain Thomas Orbison’s Pennsylvania Company.
In 1798 on the tax lists, it notes that he is a miller. He lived the rest of his life in York County, now known as Adams. He died on April 18, 1836. He is buried in Marsh Creek Presbyterian Cemetery in Gettysburg.
The Adam’s Sentinel ran an obituary on April 25, 1836 which gives an insight to what a special man this Captain of the rangers was.
“Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 2081, Henry Black, Penn.” Archives.gov, 2025, catalog.archives.gov/id/53977798. Accessed 1 July 2025.
“Capt Henry Black (1752-1836) – Find a Grave…” Findagrave.com, 2015, www.findagrave.com/memorial/150769726/capt_henry-black. Accessed 1 July 2025.
Notice of Captain Henry Black’s Death, 1836″
“Another Soldier of th Revolution Gone”
“Died. – on Tuesday, April 18th, Captain Henry Black, of Cumberlnd Township, in the 84th year of his age. Â
The death of the old creates no surprise. But those who have long occupied a place among us when they are called away, leave a wider chasm than is occasioned by the death of those who have sojourned with us but a little while. But when we are separated by death from one who has been constant in the exercise of his duty to society, and who in a world of deceit and fraud has preserved his honesty and integrity, the chasm is rendered wider and harder to fill. Such an one was Henry Black who had fulfilled more than the years allotted to man, and who through the whole course of a long life never lost sight of the great principle, truth which is the foundation of all the moral virtues.
Mr. Black was an officer in the American Revolution and in command of a company of Rangers to defend the frontier from the depredation of the Indians, displayed a degree of courage and firmness that has secured for many a one a name deemed worthy of being transmitted from age to age. But he was modest and retiring, as he was honest and upright, and the knowledge of his heroic conduct, on more than one occasion would have gone with him into silence if it had not been rescued by those who were his associates in danger.
At some future time we may, if the material can be collected, give the public a sketch of his life. May he rest in peace; and he will if there be repose for the good and upright. Â
“Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.” (Psalms 37:37)”
The Adam’s Sentinel, April 25, 1836
by fortroberdeau | Feb 27, 2020 | Historic Figures, Rangers, Soldiers
1750-1831
Commander of the battalion stationed at Fort Roberdeau. Thomas served under his brother, Robert Cluggage.
Thomas Clugage was born in 1750 at Fort Shirley, now Shirleysburg, Pennsylvania, to Robert Sr., and Janett. He was the fourth son. A Total of 5 sons and a daughter would be born to Janett and Robert Sr.
Thomas is often overshadowed by his elder brother Major Robert Cluggage. Although under his brother’s command, Thomas would have commanded his unit at Fort Roberdeau his brother ran the operations of the Ranger units, and oversaw and directed much of the activity at the fort. Although in some letters it becomes apparent that when his brother was away Thomas was left in charge of those duties as well.
He married Jean Curlette in 1779.
He died on December 29, 1831, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, having lived a long life of 81 years, and was buried in Orbisonia, Pennsylvania at Gilliland Cemetary.
