Patriot Legacies: Pennsylvanian Joseph McConnell

Joseph McConnell was born in Pennsylvania about 1745. He served in the Cumberland County, Pennsylvania militia. Under a 1777 Pennsylvania law, most Pennsylvania male adults were required to serve. It is difficult to know what Joseph McConnel did in the Revolutionary War because of the rotational nature of militia duty in Pennsylvania.

He died without filing for a pension, so he left no record of his service. We do know that he paid taxes which, based on when and where paid, were used to finance the Continental Army. Some incredibly important activities to the Continental War effort took place in Cumberland County that had to impact Joseph and everyone who lived and served there.

Cumberland County’s seat is Carlisle, home to our nation’s second oldest active military base. At the time, under the name “Washingtonburg”, it was, along with West Point, New York, the two most vital military installations of the Continental Army. Although Cumberland County had been mostly agricultural before the Revolution, Carlisle’s proximity to sizable quantities of iron ore resulted in the establishment of iron works and foundries.

At that time, colonials shipped raw materials to Great Britain to be used in manufacturing. When the colonists wanted independence, they had to create the infrastructure to do their own manufacturing. Carlisle was a key piece of that needed infrastructure. Carlisle produced cannon and large caliber ammunition, and also repaired artillery gear. The locals were definitely impacted by the Continental Army’s production in their midst, and their militia duties would have no doubt included guarding and protecting this critical capability. Additional duties for the militia might have included helping to erect numerous substantial brick buildings for military stores and worker housing for those coming to Cumberland County to support the war effort.

Hessian prisoners of war, who were captured after Washington’s surprise river crossing at Trenton, New Jersey on Christmas night 1776, were sent to Carlisle and employed in the building of the original magazine. This structure, with its four-foot-thick walls is, not surprisingly, still standing. Further, a story has been passed down that fields went unplowed, and planting and harvesting were disrupted in Cumberland County for the duration of the Revolution.

Joseph married Susanna Milligan in Pennsylvania in the late 1760s. The tax ledger for their township in Cumberland County in 1779 noted Joseph’s name next to fellow taxpayer ‘Widow Milligan’. It’s likely that Joseph and Susanna were neighbors since the two had to live somewhere close to each other to meet and court.

Their first son, James, married Ann McKee in Blount County in 1800. Ann was likely related to John McKee. McKee was a Lt. Col. in the Blount County militia in 1795 and was probably the same man who received a court clerk’s commission from Territorial Gov. William Blount.

James and Ann McKee McConnell had a son, also named James, who married Phebe McClung, daughter of Bakers Creek Elder and Patriot William McClung. Daughter Isabella McConnell married Josiah Hutton, son of Blount County patriot William Hutton. Isabella and Josiah moved to Missouri.

Daughter Jane “Jennie” McConnell married William Hanna who is said to have drowned at a relatively early age. William was the son of patriot John Hanna, and the brother-in-law of patriots George Tedford and John Pickens. A John and William Hanna were named in a memoir as being among the elders of Maryville’s New Providence Church.

Son John and his wife Ann Stewart McConnell are buried at Big Spring in Friendsville. Son Samuel and his wife Mary McGill may have moved south of Blount and are buried at a small family cemetery in Polk County. Samuel appears to have been a veteran of the War of 1812.

Patriot Joseph McConnell died the 24th of May 1823, presumably at his home in western Blount County at age 78. His name is on a memorial marker at Baker’s Creek Cemetery. Susanna Milligan McConnell (1745-1839) passed at the age of 93 and may be buried in Polk County, Tennessee.