STILLWAGON, Peter

Name of Patriot : Peter Stillwagon NSSAR Patriot #P-298129
Submitted by: John A. Regar Jr.

Mr. Peter Stillwaggen/Stillwagon was born in Germany, and came to America about the year 1765. In 1775 he was married to Miss Elizabeth Poole in the German Lutheran church of Philadelphia, Pa. In July of the following year, he enlisted in the patriot army as Sergeant of a company commanded by Captain Homes. He was also a member of the Fifth Pennsylvania Regiment. He took part in the battles of Colts Neck, Brandywine, Germantown, Trenton, Monmouth and Eatontown. While out on an expedition near Eatontown he was captured by the British and confined in al old sugar house in New York for nearly two years. During his absence, his home was plundered by the British troops, and his wife so mistreated that she applied to General Firman for relief, who gave her a home with the wife of Captain Huddy. Just before the battle of Trenton, a company of Tories, commanded by Captain David Smith, again visited the Stillwaggen home, plundering it of all its remaining valuables and burning it to the ground. Mrs. Stillwaggen, hearing of their coming, hid with her two little children in an adjoining field, and watched in anguish while the work of destruction was carried on. She then once more sought refuge in the camp with her husband. The commanding officer treated her kindly and allowed her to stay. She made herself useful by washing and baking for the soldiers and caring for the sick and wounded. At the battle of Monmouth she distinguished herself by her courage, and carried ammunition for the artillery. By some she is believed to be the Molly Pitcher of historic fame. At the close of the war, Peter Stillwaggen received an honorable discharge and settled with his family at Deckertown, N.J. He was the father of thirteen children; Daniel, Hannah, William, Sarah Ann, Mary, Catherine, Andrew, Peter Jr., Susannah, Josiah Decker, Andrew Poole, Henry and John. In 1802 he came to Connellsville, and established a home in the neighborhood of Peach and Water streets. The children at this time numbered nine, four of them having died. By a mere chance of fortune, Captain David Smith, their old Tory enemy, also came to Connellsville after the war, living with his son Asher Smith, on the corner of Cottage avenue and East Main street, and it is said upon good authority that some of the plunder of the Stillwaggen home was afterward discovered there in an old chest. His original burial was in the Connell Cemetery, Connellsville, Fayette Co., Pa but in 1900 the cemetery was moved for a new library to Hill Grove Cemetery and the headstone was lost in transition.