The Senator Walter Lowrie House is home to the Butler County Historical Society, but between 1839 and 1986 it was home to four generations of Sullivans, direct descendants of a Revolutionary War soldier who was at Valley Forge with George Washington.

Eleven years after Sen. Walter Lowrie built his brick mansion in 1828, the house was sold to Charles C. Sullivan, an up-and-coming young lawyer whose parents met in 1777 while his father, Craven, was bivouacked at Valley Forge with the 1st Virginia Regiment.

Virginia originally raised the 1st regiment during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The regiment had the distinction of becoming the first colonial militia incorporated into the regular British Line.

Before the war ended, the Virginians saw action at Jumonville, Fort Necessity, and with the Braddock and Forbes expeditions.

Virginia commissioned the 1st regiment again in July 1775, this time in response to escalating political tensions with England. The following February, the regiment became part of the Continental Line. By August 1776, the men of the 1st were traveling north to join Washington’s army near New York City. In their ranks marched a third-generation Virginian, 16-year-old Craven Sullivan.

Craven saw action with the 1st at Harlem Heights and White Plains, took part in Washington’s Dec. 26 attack on Hessian troops at Trenton. He then fought at Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown before Washington bivouacked his men at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777 to 78. While he was there, battle-hardened veteran Craven Sullivan turned 18.

Every American has heard about the frightful conditions at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777 and 1778. The stories of suffering are woven into our national consciousness.

But sometimes we need to stop and really consider what it was like to be there. Christmas 2022 here in Butler was brutally cold. Wind chills plunged below 0 and many of us had to postpone our holiday celebrations; we felt quite inconvenienced!

Now imagine being stranded outside in similar conditions without benefit of shoes or socks, insulated coats, gloves, hats or scarves.

“The unfortunate soldiers were in want of everything; they had neither coats nor hats, nor shirts, nor shoes. Their feet and their legs froze until they were black, and it was often necessary to amputate them,” wrote The Marquis de Lafayette in 1778.

Imagine there’s no indoor space to get warm, and you have nothing to eat but cakes of flour and water. That’s what young Craven and his fellow soldiers experienced when they first arrived in winter quarters on Dec. 19, 1777.

“We had nothing to eat for two or three days previous except what the trees of the forests and fields afforded us, but we must now have what Congress said, a sumptuous Thanksgiving to close the year of high living ... it gave each man half a gill (about half a cup) of rice and a tablespoon of vinegar!” said Joseph Plum Martin, from an 1830 narrative of some of the adventures, dangers, and sufferings of a Revolutionary soldier.

Washington immediately ordered his men to construct crude shelters by felling trees and stacking logs. His orders were specific: each structure was to measure 16 feet long by 14 feet wide with log walls stacked to a height of 6 feet 6 inches, topped by a wooden roof, equipped with a fireplace, and closed by a cloth over the door. Each one-room hut was to house 12 men.

“Our prospect was indeed dreary. In our miserable condition, to go into the wild woods and build us habitations to stay (not to live) in, in such a weak, starved and naked condition, was appalling in the highest degree,” wrote Joseph Plum Martin, from a (1830) narrative of some of the adventures, dangers, and sufferings of a Revolutionary soldier.

The severely crowded conditions might have helped the soldiers stay warm, but close quarters and unsanitary conditions also fostered the rapid spread of dysentery and typhus.

Craven became ill that winter and spent time at Yellow Springs, America's first purpose-built military hospital. His stay there might have helped Sullivan survive while many of his comrades perished for lack of proper care in makeshift infirmaries. The exact death toll will never be known but at Valley Forge, where no battle was fought, at least 2,000 soldiers lost their lives.

Craven enjoyed another stroke of good fortune at Valley Forge. We don’t know how or where, perhaps while he was convalescing, but Craven met his future wife that winter.

Susannah Johnston, the daughter of Chester County residents Thomas and Margaret Johnston, was 14 years old when she and Craven met. They must have harbored real feelings for one another; their relationship survived through the War for Independence and two years beyond.

Charles Craven Sullivan and Susannah Johnston finally became man and wife at a Methodist church in Chester County in 1785, seven long years after they had met during the winter of the Valley Forge encampment.

After Valley Forge, the 1st marched south with other Virginia regiments to fight in the Carolinas.

Most of the regiment mustered out in 1783. Many, including Craven, took up lands given to veterans in southwest Pennsylvania.

Craven and Susannah settled at the head of Sawmill Run, about five miles south of Pittsburgh in 1786, then began a family. Their first five children were born in Allegheny County, but the family had relocated to Butler by the time daughter Jemima arrived in 1800.

Susannah had another four babies who were born on “Partnership Farm,” the family’s home in Franklin Township. One of those four, Charles Craven Sullivan, grew to be the young lawyer who purchased the Lowrie House in 1839.

His children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren — all descended from a young couple who met at Valley Forge — owned Lowrie House until 1986, when it passed to the Butler County Historical Society.

Jennifer Ford, PhD, is the executive director of the Butler County Historical Society.