My direct ancestor, Nathaniel Couch, lived in a tumultuous time and place—and it looks like he didn’t miss much of the action. Born in 1725 in Winchester, Virginia when this was a frontier town, he fought in the French and Indian War with George Washington and under the same man during the Revolutionary War; and he hid men who challenged Washington and defied his orders during the Whiskey Rebellion.
More specially about the third event, on July 15, 1794, a federal marshal named David Lenox and the federal tax inspector, General John Neville, tried to summon a local Pennsylvania farmer and distiller, Oliver Miller, to court in Philadelphia. When several warning shots were fired from the Miller farm, thirty militiamen protested the federal government’s actions, surrounding the mansion of Neville in protest. A shot was fired from the mansion, killing Miller.
The protestors retreated, resting up at Fort Couch as they gathered reinforcements. A group of men, rebelling against a distilled spirits tax they felt was unfair, left the fort the next day and attacked Bower Hill. The rebellion didn’t ultimately succeed.
Nathaniel lived until 1802. Buried in Bethel Cemetery adjacent to the Bethel Presbyterian Church, his tombstone no longer exists, lost to time.
Reports conflict, but some say that Nathaniel Couch donated land for the church. Earlier this month, my sons and I stopped by the church and graveyard.
As for his home, Fort Couch, the road—east of South Hills Village—is now named Fort Couch Road in its honor. When the fort was torn down, the Fort Couch Inn was built on its foundations. Later renamed Pioneer Inn, it was also eventually torn down. Today, this is the site of a McDonald’s restaurant and a marker showing that Fort Couch once stood there.