Hugh McGary

Hugh McGary (1744 – 1806) was an Irish-born American military officer and landowner who was the founder of McGary Station in present-day Oregon, Kentucky.

Early life Hugh McGary was born in 1744 to John McGary and his wife Sarah in Ireland. The McGary family came to the British colonies in present-day America as indentured servants in 1750.

McGary pioneers into Kentucky

In 1772, Hugh McGary, Samuel Tate, Benjamin Cutbeard, Daniel Boone, and two North Carolinians scout out land in Kentucky.

In August 1775, Hugh McGary, along with his new wife, the widow Mary Buntin Ray, and her sons William, James, and John Ray Jr., move to Kentucky with the twenty or thirty families that came with Daniel Boone on his second expedition to Boonesborough through the Cumberland Gap. Mary Buntin brought the first Bible into Kentucky. Hugh McGary was known for his fierce temper, which was an asset in battle, but being "void of humane and gentle qualities", McGary was "a quarrelsome and unpleasant man in civil life". Mary Buntin, however, was an equally strong-minded woman who "could manage McGary where a whole army couldn't."

Hugh McGary finally settles himself and his new family permanently around Fort Harrod in September 1775.

After William Ray was killed, Mary Buntin-Ray-McGary retired to her bed until she died in the spring of 1780. Mary was 39 years old. Mary was buried at the cemetery on the hill above Shawnee Springs in Mercer County, Kentucky.

Hugh McGary Jr. is born In 1778, Mary Buntin births him a son, whom they named Hugh McGary Jr. at McGary Station. Hugh McGary Jr. would eventually found Evansville, Indiana.

In 1780, after Mary Buntin dies, Hugh McGary remarries Catharine "Caty" Yocum, the daughter of Matthias Yocum. McGary yelled and fought with his new wife and with her brother.

McGary acquires 1,280 acres of land

On January 13, 1783, Hugh McGary obtained 1,280 acres on Station Camp Creek. The large spring on that land was named McGary's Spring.

McGary assassinates Moluntha

Moluntha had become the grand sachem of the Shawnee after Chief Cornstalk had been assassinated at Fort Randolph in 1777.

On October 6, 1786, Benjamin Logan and his 700 Kentucky militiamen arrived at Wakatomica. When the Kentucky militia arrived, old man Moluntha had the 13-striped American flag raised above his house, and he came out greeting Logan and his men while wearing a tri-corner "patriot hat" and holding the Treaty of Fort Finney in his hand. An earlier Shawnee runner had warned Moluntha of the invading army, and many in the village fled prior to Logan's army arriving, but since the signing of the Treaty of Fort Finney, Moluntha was not worried. Moluntha had been working with the Americans for months, which is why Benjamin Logan ordered his men not to lay a hand on Moluntha. At first, the Kentucky militiamen, which included Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone, were awed by the supreme confidence of Moluntha. As Hugh McGary walked towards Moluntha, Benjamin Logan ordered him to not "molest any of the prisoners". As McGary walked up to Moluntha and his wife, he asked, "Were you at the battle of Blue Licks?" Moluntha was nonchalantly cutting up a tobacco leaf in the palm of his hand, preparing to smoke a peace pipe with the Kentucky invaders, and he merely repeated the word, "Blue Licks!"

Moluntha's answer infuriated Hugh McGary, and McGary shouted, "I'll show you squaw play!", and swung a small "squaw hatchet" at Moluntha. In spite of General William Lytle attempting to stop Hugh McGary, the squaw hatchet buried into Moluntha's forehead, right between his eyes, with the first swing, dropping and killing Moluntha instantly.

General Lytle drew a knife in order to stab McGary, when Lytle was arrested by his men. Simon Kenton also had to be restrained to keep him from killing McGary too.

Hugh McGary was fired from his military command, court martialed, found guilty of murdering Moluntha, and was suspended for a year of "conduct unbecoming to the character of an officer and a gentlemen"

Tecumseh listed the assassination of Moluntha as one of the many broken promises by the United States.

Hugh and Andrew Jackson Hugh McGary gave testimony that he observed Andrew Jackson "bedding together" with Rachel Donelson-Robards in July 1790. Rachel had married Captain Lewis Robards of Harrodsburg, Kentucky without divorcing him. Jackson and Donelson would marry each other in 1794. Andrew Jackson's marriage to Donelson became a campaign issue in the presidential election of 1828.

Also in 1790, as a court record from Sumner County, Tennessee shows, a bill of sale was exchanged from Hugh McGary to Kasper Mansker for an African-American male slave.

Later life In 1797, Hugh McGary and his son Hugh McGary Jr. operate an inn, tannery, and a tavern together. In 1801, Hugh McGary gives Hugh McGary Jr. 222 acres of land in Hopkins County, Kentucky.