Colonel Thomas Cresap (c1702–c1790) was a pioneer settler in the state of Maryland.
Cresap was born in Skipton, Yorkshire, England, and came to Maryland when fifteen years of age. In 1723 he gave his occupation as that of a carpenter. He settled at the mouth of the Susquehanna River, where he engaged in boat-building. In 1725 he married Hannah Johnson, whose father, Thomas Johnson, on March 24, 1725 had surveyed to himself Mount Johnson Island, at Peach Bottom Ferry. Cresap went to Virginia, but he was not there long before a dozen or more persons attempted to drive him away when he was engaged in hewing timber for his dwelling. He defended himself, and cleft one of his assailants with a broad-ax. He then returned to Maryland.
About 1730 Cresap again moved beyond the frontier and took up about 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) of land in Maryland along Antietam Creek, where he established a store and Indian trading post. He accumulated a large quantity of furs and pelts and shipped them to England. The vessel was captured by the French and he lost everything. In 1739, he was granted 400 acres (1.6 km2) which he named Long Meadows. Cresap is said to have erected a stone and log fort over a spring near the March Run.[1] Cresap moved farther west to within two miles (3 km) of present day Cumberland, Maryland, at Oldtown, where he again embarked in the Indian trade until the beginning of the French and Indian War, when he raised a company of Rangers.
Cresap fought a number of skirmishes with the Indians and stood his ground, assisted by his sons. He was elected a representative from Frederick County, Maryland to the Maryland legislature. When the French and their allies attempted to seize the territory west of the Alleghany Mountains from the English, Cresap and his sons at their own expense raised two companies of volunteer soldiers.
Nicknamed "Big Spoon" by Indians because of his generosity.
Large house.
Trading post famous for its hospitality.
Member of the Ohio Company one of the few Marylanders and only frontiersman to be a member of the Company.
