History & local legend
The Captain Phillips’ Rangers Memorial outside Saxton commemorates ten men killed after a frontier battle on July 16, 1780. Captain William Phillips and his rangers had sheltered in an abandoned cabin during heavy rain. The next morning, an attacking war party surrounded the building. The defenders held out until fire took hold of the roof and forced their surrender.
Phillips and his son Elijah survived captivity, but ten companions died. A stone obelisk was erected in their memory in 1926, when the grave’s precise location was still uncertain. Remains discovered in 1933 were reburied beside the monument.
Local ghost lore places the rangers back on the wooded hillside each July 16, when their final fight is said to repeat in phantom form. A separate account describes a solitary dark figure standing watch over the grave at other times of the year.
Sources
- Ron Ieraci, Phillip’s Rangers, anniversary reenactment and solitary figure beside the grave
- Huntingdon County History and Heritage Roundtable, Captain Phillip Ranger’s Memorial, cabin defense, captivity, 1926 monument and 1933 reburial
- Larry D. Smith, Depredations, historical sources, construction of the monument and accounts of modern investigation at the memorial, pp. 93–98Unavailable ·
- Historical Marker Database, field survey, inscriptions and coordinates for the two grave-site plaques
- American Legion, Captain Phillips’ Rangers Memorial, dedication and location off Route 26
- Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, Cycle 2 photography of the obelisk
