In 1777 Irish-Americans began to appear on the scene, with the invasion of Gen. George Rogers Clark, the Virginian. What Clark’s ancestry was remains in some doubt. His biographer, English, thinks his ancestors came from Albion, but is able to give no particulars. At any rate, he conquered that portion of British territory that had formerly belonged to the French, and from which five sovereign states of the Union have been carved. His army was composed of Virginians and Pennsylvanians, many of whom were Irish either by birth or by blood. He was materially assisted by the French settlers, under the leadership of Father Gibault, the republican priest of Kaskaskia. To the latter and one Col. Francis Vigo, a native of Sardinia, who was married to an Irish lady (a Miss Shannon), was the success of the Virginian invasion mostly due, and the annexation of the prairie country to American territory. Clark affiliated very closely with the Irish. It is due to him to say that he was a brave and generous man, whose services to his young country can never be forgotten. His invasion of this wilderness and its conquest, it must be remembered, was under the direction of Gov. Patrick Henry of Virginia, and to him alone he was responsible. The first of his Irish relatives to deserve notice was William Croghan, a nephew of Maj. George Croghan, the British officer already alluded to. He cherished no love in his heart for Great Britain or her monarch. He had resigned the British for the American service. He left Ireland for America when quite young, and was long in the employ of the British as an Indian agent, like his uncle. He joined the American forces at Pittsburg and witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. He married Lucy Clark Rogers, sister of the famous general. When he joined the American forces he was assigned to Colonel Werder’s Virginia regiment, shortly after the battle of Long Island, and continued in active service for years. He was promoted to the rank of major in 1778, and was assigned to Col. John Neville’s Fourth Virginia regiment and participated in the battle of Monmouth. He marched with the Virginia troops to Charleston, S. C., where the whole American army at that place was compelled to surrender to the enemy. In 1781 he was paroled and went to Virginia with his friend, Col. Jonathan Clark, brother of the general, and for a time was the guest of Colonel Clark’s father in Caroline county. It was there he met the woman who was destined to be his wife. He was afterwards a delegate to the Kentucky convention of 1789–’90, and was one of the commissioners to divide the land allotted to the soldiers engaged in the conquest of the Northwest. He left six sons and two daughters.