| Home | Name Index | Spouse Index | The Groups | Military Data |
1823
Youghiogheny Blues
Samuel Keepers, Connellsville, Pennsylvania
War and minor conflicts involving the United States were almost continuous after the Revolutionary War, with most of them far from western Pennsylvania. A notable exception was the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 caused by a tax on whiskey production, passed by Congress in 1791, and designed to pay off the national debt. The independent-minded farmers of western Pennsylvania were at the center of the protests against the tax, and, eventually, troops were sent to put down the violence. The whiskey tax was repealed in 1803, mainly because it was unenforceable in places like Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, and very little money was raised in Pennsylvania. Smuggling whiskey had become a quite profitable venture.
The second amendment to the Constitution of the United States says, “A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” The emphasis in the early days of the republic was on the introductory clause in the amendment.
Before militia companies were formed, men in western Pennsylvania were required “to attend …’musters’ under penalty of a militia tax. In early days, the men attended the ‘musters’ without uniform or arms, going through the manual of arms with wooden guns, sticks and even cornstalks. Hence, they were commonly styled ‘the Cornstalk Militia.’”[1]
The first Connellsville company, the Youghiogheny Blues, was organized August 27, 1832. Samuel Keepers was a musician in the company. “The Blues always celebrated their anniversary by a parade on the 17th of August. They ‘turned out’ on every important occasion, including the 4th of July. …. A still greater day, in the history of the Blues, was Thursday, May 26, 1825. It was the day of Lafayette’s visit to Uniontown, when making his second tour of America.”[2]
Samuel was born about 1802 and died September 26, 1829. His only child, John, was mentioned in Samuel’s will.[3] John V. Keepers, born in 1822 in Connellsville, would become a Captain of Battery B, West Virginia Light Artillery, during the Civil War.[4]
[TOP] | Home | Name Index | Spouse Index | The Groups | Military Data |