Swago Bill

 

William Ewing, widely known in Appalachian history as "Swago Bill," was a celebrated pioneer, marksman, and Revolutionary War veteran who helped carve out some of the earliest settlements in Pocahontas County.

 

The Ewing Family Roots

William was the son of James Ewing, a Scotch-Irish immigrant who arrived in Western Virginia around 1736. William and his siblings were born on his father's Jackson River farm before the family crossed the mountain divide shortly after 1760 to settle along a stream initially called Ewings Creek (later renamed Knapps Creek) in honor of his father.

 

Around 1770, James Ewing sold their Knapps Creek holdings to the pioneer Moses Moore and relocated his family to the Swago Creek farm lands (on what later became known as the McClintic farm), establishing one of the first permanent homesteads in the Swago valley.

 

Carving out the Swago Homestead

 

By the year 1786, Swago Bill was living on Swago Creek. To secure his homestead in the dense wilderness, he blazed a line of trees around the boundary of his selected land and subsequently had the tract officially patented. In addition to his Swago homestead, tradition states that he owned lands along the Williams River. (Decades later in 1810, when he prepared to move to Ohio, he reportedly sold these Williams River holdings in exchange for a single rifle gun and a specific sum of "cut money").

 

The First Indian Alarm

 

Living on the frontier was highly dangerous, and the threat of conflict was a constant reality. One afternoon while Swago Bill was out plowing his fields, an alarm swept through the valley warning that an Indian war party was preparing to attack the settlement. Acting quickly, Ewing hid his heavy plow in the safety of the woods and hurried with his family and neighbors to the nearest fortified stockade, Millpoint (then known to the pioneers as Fort Day).

 

The Damp Powder Escape

A few days after the alarm subsided, Swago Bill ventured back into the forest to retrieve his hidden plow. As he was carrying it back through the dense woods, he was suddenly startled by a sharp snapping sound. Turning to one side, he found himself staring directly at three Indians crouching behind a log with their rifles aimed straight at him.

 

The warriors pulled their triggers, but because their gunpowder was damp, their rifles missed fire.

Instantly dropping his plow, Swago Bill bolted toward the fort at breakneck speed, with the three pursuing warriors hot on his heels. Knowing they would eventually close the gap on the open trail, he ran over a rise of ground and dipped into a small, secluded hollow. In a brilliant tactical maneuver, Ewing abruptly veered off the main trail, ran a short distance up the hollow, and hid in the brush. From his hiding spot, he watched as the pursuing warriors rushed straight past the hollow along the regular trail, completely losing his track. Once the coast was clear, Swago Bill quietly slipped out of the hollow and made his way back to the fort in safety.

 

This thrilling escape took place in 1786, around the exact same time as the historic Drennan raid when James Baker and the Bridger boys were killed.