Portrait of United States patriot and diplomat John Armstrong Jr. by Rembrandt Peale. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Independence National Historical Park, National Park Service.
22nd July 1829
Lower Red Hook
Dear Sir,
I sincerely regret that I am so little able to give you information with regard to that part of your father’s life, which from being least known to yourself, becomes most the object of your enquiries. Tho’ nearly of the same age, and going to the same school, and living in great intimacy when boys, it was not our destiny to be much together when men. In 1772, I was sent to Mr. Smith’s Academy in Pequea, and thence to Princeton College, and from that period forward making only short and unfrequent [sic] visits to Carlisle, we rarely met. So during the war of the Revolution, my military service after ‘76 was in the north and south while his was confined to the middle states. These facts, added to the allowances to be made for the impaired recollections of a septuagenarian will sufficiently account for the little I am able to communicate, and even the uncertainty particularly to dates which mingles itself with that little. Without other or further apology however, I hasten to give you the best answers I can
Your father was born in York Town, Penna. in the year 1759 or 60. In 1758 or 9 your grandfather removed to Carlisle and placed his son at a grammar school established there under the direction of an Irish Clergyman, Mr. Henry McKinly. There he remained, if I do not mistake, until the chool in ’76 was broken up by the war. The teachers and several of his pupils accepting commissions in the Army, of this number your father was one, being appointed a first Lieutenant in Chambers Regt. of the 1st Penna. Line. In Sept. ’77 I found him acting in this capacity with that corps at the Battle of Brandywine, and highly esteemed for merits, both professional and personal. Some family circumstances forbidding a longer continuance in the army he in ’78 resigned his commission and returned to Carlisle where he began the study of physic under the direction of the late Dr. S. McCoskry of that place. Of his motives for going to the West, or the time or occasion of his going thither, I know nothing.
Wishing you cordially a great deal of success in the work you meditate. I am dear sir, your friend and servant John Armstrong
Verso: Envelope addressed Collins Stephenson, Esq. New Castle, Delaware 18…
From Red Hook N.Y. July 24th
Being the wife of a tavernkeeper meant that Elizabeth helped with the running of the tavern as well as taking care of her family. Washing, cleaning, cooking in a hot kitchen over a fire for hours as well as helping in the barroom was hard work.