Bethlen Naptár, 1949 (Ligonier)
To our second generation
68 BETHLEN NAPTÁR allied with the French and sent a small army accustomed to backwoods warfare to defeat the haughty and unfortunate English General Edward Braddock at the site or the present Braddock* Pa. This taught the English that fortifications and reenforcements, as well as improved technique in wilderness fighting would be necessary to defeat the French. Many excursions and defeats followed. By October 12, 1758, about 1200 French and a few hundred Indians were drawn up in battle array about the camp at Fort Ligonier. The battle ended in favor of the English with the French retreating. George Washington’s own words in Scribner's Monthly Magazine, May, 1893, described the battle at Ligonier as the most perilous of all his military career. It is significant that Fort Ligonier was never surrendered to an enemy, and the Battle of Ligonier decided the Anglo-Saxon supremacy over the French in the Middlewest and subsequently the whole continent of North America. The history of the wThole world, no doubt, turned on the decision won by the English in the Battle of Fort Ligonier. When General Forbes reached Fort Duquesne, the great French stronghold, on November 25, 1758, the French had already fled, having burned the fort and about thirty nearby houses. The English banner was then raised over the ruined fortress to claim the territory of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers. At the close of Forbes’ campaign, settlement and homebuilding began in earnest. In 1817, John Ramsey, who owned the ground around Fort Ligonier, had a sale of lots and named the town first Ramseytown. Later it took the name Ligonier after the fort. The fort was named after Lord Ligonier, the British commander of all the land armies of Great Britain, at that time. Today, Ligonier, a borough of 2000 population, is one of the well-known vacation spots of Pennsylvania. There are excellent public schools in Ligonier. Five Protestant churches and one Roman Catholic church care for the spiritual needs of Ligonier while outside the borough are many smaller churches of all denominations, including the Hungarian Reformed at the Aged People’s Bethlen Home. The usual number of clubs and lodges, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, fill up the social calendar in Ligonier. The Ligonier Valley Library, the Fort Ligonier Poetry Society and the Ligonier Choral Club have all been formed during the past three years. Mrs. James C. Stormont.
