A 1782 Native American attack on a settler family near Garards Fort, Pennsylvania, that killed a mother and three children while two daughters survived scalping.
Key Facts
- Date of massacre
- May 10, 1782 (Sunday morning)
- Location
- ~1 mile north of Garards Fort, southwest Pennsylvania
- Killed
- Mrs. Corbly and three children
- Survivors scalped
- Delilah and Elizabeth Corbly
- Unharmed survivor
- John Corbly Jr.
- Commemorating church built
- 1862 (renamed in Corbly's honor in 1907)
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
In 1782, frontier tensions between Native Americans and settler communities in southwest Pennsylvania were acute. A party of Native Americans positioned themselves on a nearby elevation called Indian Point (Lookout Point), west of the Corbly cabin, observed the family's movements, and descended to intercept them. Rev. John Corbly had separated from his family briefly to retrieve a forgotten Bible, leaving his wife and children unaccompanied on the path to worship.
On the morning of May 10, 1782, the Corbly family was ambushed by Native Americans approximately 49 rods north of what is now the John Corbly Memorial Baptist Church, near Garards Fort, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Corbly and three of the children were killed. Two daughters, Delilah and Elizabeth, survived after being scalped, and John Jr. escaped unharmed. Men from Garards Fort heard the screams and rode out quickly, but arrived too late to prevent the killings.
The massacre became a notable episode of frontier violence in the American Revolutionary period. Delilah Corbly survived to age 65 and raised ten children; Elizabeth died at age 21, shortly before her planned marriage. A memorial Baptist church was established at the site, and descendants of John Corbly have gathered there annually ever since. The Daughters of the American Revolution erected a commemorative plaque at the site in 1923.