Week 2: Family Legend: Did David Shotts Participate in the Whiskey Rebellion with George Washington?

This is my fourth year working on this year-long 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

When one reads these old county histories that were very popular around the time of the centennial of our country, elaborate biographies were written by the families who paid to have them printed. My children’s 4x-great-grandfather, David Shotts has one of these bios, published in several different books. He died in 1825, so these books written after 1876 are going to be stories passed down in the family and not told by people who were there. From two of such books, we find stories about David:

“David Shots was a Revolutionary hero, who came to Huntington township in 1809. He was also in service during the suppression of the Whiskey insurrection.”[1]

“David Shotts entered Huntington in 1809. He was a native of Virginia, and was in the Revolutionary war. He also assisted General Washington in the suppression of the whiskey rebellion.”[2]

Whiskey Rebellion
The whiskey rebellion occurred in the 1790s after Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton proposed an excise tax on distilled spirits to help pay down debts created from the war against England for independence. However, residents on the frontier, specifically Western Pennsylvania, were not happy about it.

According to an article, George Washington personally led the U.S. militia westward to stop the rebels.[3] By 1794, the protests had become violent. Whiskey rebels had set fire to the home of the regional tax collector, John Neville. Washington’s force was of 12,950 men and they were led toward Pittsburgh. By the time they arrived, the rebels had dispersed.

George Washington leading PA militia[4]

Now, the task is to find documentation for David Shotts’ participation. Ancestry has a database called “American Militia in the Frontier Wars, 1790-1796.” The dates of the database fit the time period. The original data came from Murtie June Clark’s book American Militia in the Frontier Wars, 1790-1796. The database goes on the explain that “this book is a compilation of the records of the state militia organizations which were authorized and paid by the federal government to fight in the Indian Wars from 1790 until 1796, shortly after Anthony Wayne’s legendary victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.”

There is an index, as well as digital images of the pages from the book, broken down by location. In searching for Shotts, I got no return. I decided to check the Pennsylvania militia lists, as perhaps his name was misspelled. I also struck out there as well. 

These militia groups were created to fight the various Indian wars, not take up arms against a whiskey rebellion. If Washington did collect some twelve thousand men, there may be no records. 

Archival Material
The Pennsylvania Archives do have two record sets which pertain to militias and the Whiskey Rebellion. Record Group 13, “Militia Officers Index Cards (#13.36)” and Record Group 4 “Western Expedition (Whiskey Rebellion) Accounts (#4.71).” 

The Record Group 4 looks promising. Most of the documents pertain to officers but there may be rosters for individual counties. The material is in two boxes and on two rolls of microfilm. Record Group 13 is a collection of militia officers index cards. These, too, are in two boxes. There is a link to digital images but I got a 404 error. Research in both record groups would have to wait until the pandemic has passed.

Conclusion
At this point, we don’t know for sure that David Shotts participated with George Washington in the Whiskey Rebellion. We know for sure, that the story was passed down as a family legend until it became part of his biography told by his descendants.

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[1] Henry Holcomb Bennett, ed., The County of Ross, (Madison, Wisc: Selwyn A. Brant 1902), p. 341

[2] History of Ross and Highland Counties Ohio, with illustrations and Biographical Sketches, (Cleveland, Ohio: Williams Bros, 1880), p. 288.

[3] “Whiskey Rebellion,” George Washington’s Mount Vernon (https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/whiskey-rebellion/).

[4] “The Whiskey Rebellion,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, circa 1795.

Copyright © 2021 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.