Born 1741 Chambers' Mill, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Died February 18, 1818
Malden, near Amherstburg, Ontario

Frontiersman, interpreter of Indian languages, scout, raider

"You will die, some time, but we will make your life so awful that you will beg a thousand time[s] to die… I must think up some new way of burning a man to death by little inches, dear Tom, just for your own special case."
Words attributed to Simon Girty by Tom Johnson, taken captive by Girty and a band of Indians.
Illustration: Simon Girty.
Reproduced courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Simon Girty, roughneck son of the American wilderness, spent nearly his entire life involved in warfare. He was first caught up as a child in Indian-white struggles over land on the frontier. At fifteen he was captured by Indians and lived among them, learning their language, their ways, and their deep distrust of...