Tribute eyed for Revolutionary War hero
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, 1-15-05
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Two Middleburgh area men want to raise awareness of the role their part of Schoharie County played in the American Revolution.
Schoharie Valley farms were major suppliers of wheat to the Continental Army. In October 1780, Colonel John Johnson led a British raiding party to take the valley’s three forts and destroy crops and livestock.
“The British failed to take the Middle Fort (near Middleburgh) and Lower Fort (Old Stone Fort in Schoharie), largely because of the resilience of Timothy Murphy,” said former Middleburgh mayor Gary Hayes. “Murphy, a member of the local militia positioned at Middle Fort, refused orders from the fort's commander to surrender.”
Hayes, a physical education and health teacher at Middleburgh Central School, said it’s hoped to reconstruct the Middle Fort, which was located north of Middleburgh.
“This site would have a wonderful local story that can be told through the use of interpretive signs and replicas,” Hayes said. “It may be possible to link the Middle Fort with the Lower Fort (Old Stone Fort) in Schoharie, reinforcing both resources. The Middle Fort site can be developed with interpretive exhibits, a visitor center, gift shop, and historic reenactments.”
Jay Lawyer, a direct descendant of Timothy Murphy, said he too is eager to restore the Middle Fort: “We have sent letters to most of the Schoharie County Supervisors and some of the other organizations in the county.”
According to the website of the New York State Department of Military and Naval Affairs, Murphy was born in 1751 to parents who were immigrants from Ireland. An expert marksman, he is credited with firing the shots that killed two British officers at the Battle of Bemis Heights in 1777.
In 1778, General George Washington ordered Murphy and other riflemen to defend the three Schoharie Valley forts, the Upper, Middle and Lower Forts. Murphy fell in love while in Schoharie. He eloped to Duanesburg to marry Margaret Feeck, daughter of a prosperous Dutch farmer. The farmer eventually was reconciled to his daughter’s marriage.
When Colonel John Johnson raided the area in 1780, Margaret or Peggy Murphy joined her husband at the Middle Fort, molding bullets and loading muskets.
Johnson was commanding a force of 750 to 1000 British troops, Indians and mercenaries, outnumbering the fort’s defenders. Johnson sent a delegation to demand the fort surrender. Major Woolsey, the fort’s commander, was willing to give up but Murphy, who knew the horrors that often befell prisoners, fired a rifle ball over the truce party, who retreated. The party approached two more times, each time scared off by a shot from Murphy. Woolsey threatened to shoot Murphy but finally gave in to Murphy’s intransigence. Woolsey relinquished his command to a local militia officer.
Johnson abandoned his siege of the Middle Fort, proceeded to the Lower Fort where he also was repulsed and continued on to the Mohawk Valley and back to Canada. Johnson’s forces did great damage to what James Madison called “that fine wheat country” in the Schoharie Valley, reducing cropland to ashes. However, the forts held and the population began rebuilding their lives.
Murphy continued fighting and was present at the final battle of Yorktown, returning to Fultonham in the Schoharie Valley at the end of the war. He and Peggy had nine children before she died in 1807. Murphy married Mary Robertson, relocated to Charlottesville and had four more sons. He never learned to read or write but acquired farms and a gristmill and became a local political figure. He returned to Fultonham, where he died in 1818. There are monuments to Murphy at the Middleburgh Cemetery, where he is buried, and the Saratoga Battlefied.
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