Jane CARROLL

  General Notes:

Photo: Inscriptions for Alexander Burns, 1739-1826, and his wife, Jane (Carroll) Burns, 1760-1838, mark their gravesites in West Alexander Cemetery, Washington, Washington County, Pennsylvania. The inscriptions are as follows:

"Alexander Burns who died Jan. 12th 1826 in the 87th year of his age"

"In memory of Jane Burns consort of Alexander Burns who departed this life September 22d AD 1838 in the 78th year of her age"


From Marilyn Lloyd Lundquist



Marilyn Lloyd Lundquist:

"The remains of Alexander and Jane were moved in 1946 from the Old Seceder Church in West Alexander to the West Alexander Cemetery."



BOOK: COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, and of Many of the Early Settled Families, Volume II, J. H. Beers & Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1893, pages 1447-1448:


MRS. JANE CARROLL

Among the brave pioneers of Washington county, and they are many, none have surpassed, in bravery, intelligence and perseverance, the members of the Carroll Family.

Robert Carroll and wife, accompanied by his two brothers, John and Hamilton, and a sister Jane, emigrated in 1760 from Ireland to America, locating in a place called Mingo, western Pennsylvania, thence moving in a few years to East Finley township, Washington county, where they settled on one of the headwaters of Wheeling Creek, near the present postoffice of Gale, and began cutting down the forest trees until a space was cleared for the log cabin (perhaps the first in that district) which they soon erected. Like all the pioneer settlers, they were in hourly danger from the hostile savages, and endured the inevitable hardships of backwoods life. In 1781 work began in earnest, and Washington county was founded. In the summer of that year, John and Hamilton Carroll, who resided with their brother Robert Carroll, went out one morning, and when but a short distance from the cabin both men were shot down by the Indians. Robert's wife (who with her two children was in the cabin) heard the report, and knowing the boys had no firearms with them, immediately grasped the situation; she snatched the infant from his couch and with him in her arms, and her little son of four years clinging to her side, ran to a cornfield near by, where she waited till the Indians reached the cabin. The faithful dog remained on guard at the door, and barked vigorously at the murderers, who were obliged to kill him before they could enter the house. The heroic mother knew when the barking of the dog ceased that the Indians were busy ransacking the house, and immediately taking advantage of the opportunity, ran for her life to the nearest fort, which was five miles distant (now at Prosperity), though she had to travel much farther; but she reached it safely at last, the infant in her arms and little James running by her side. While these terrible scenes were in progress, the husband and father was absent, having left home a day or two before, and gone to a mill on the Monongahela river. On returning home, he was horrified to find the floor stained with blood, and other evidences of the presence of the marrauding savages. Almost heart-broken, the poor man hurried to the fort, and was overjoyed to find his wife and children safe within, but heard with anguish of the terrible fate of his brothers. A few days later a party of men left the fort, and finding the dead bodies of John and Hamilton ( whose scalps the Indians had taken as trophies), buried then in what has since been known as the Carroll graveyard; these two victims of Indian fury being the first who were there interred. The burying ground is but a short distance from where the cabin stood. After all traces of the Indians had disappeared, Robert and his wife returned home, and were not again molested. The infant Robert, who was saved from the Indians by his mother, grew to manhood and married Margaret Craig, who bore him one daughter, and James, whose little feet proved of such good service on that memorable day, was united in marriage with Margaret Marshall, and to their union the following children were born: William, Robert, John, Hamilton, James, Hugh, Joseph, Thomas, Mary and Jane.

This sketch continues with information about Hamilton Carroll...




CONTRIBUTOR to this page:

Marilyn Lloyd Lundquist

Jane married Alexander BURNS in 1785 in Washington County, Pennsylvania. (Alexander BURNS was born on September 25, 1739 in Ayreshire, Scotland, died on January 12, 1826 in Washington County, Pennsylvania and was buried in Reed Family Plot, West Alexander Cemetery, West Alexander, Washington County, Pennsylvania.)