How the nation’s first president was nearly shot in Butler County long before Trump was wounded in attempted assassination
Following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, some Butler County residents were asking why it had to happen here. Butler County has strongly favored Trump and his candidacy: he won 66% of the vote in Butler County in 2016 and 2020.
Trump isn’t the first person to hold the highest office in the country who was a target of a shooting in the area.
It wasn’t far from the spot where the shooter attempted to kill Trump that the nation’s first president — George Washington — narrowly escaped death. A state historical marker identifies the spot on a trail where a Native American shot at Washington from just 15 paces away.
Martin O’Brien, Washington’s Trail 1753 chairman, said the historical marker denoting where Washington survived the attack is on Route 68 in Forward Township, roughly 5 miles southwest of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s assassination attempt occurred.
“It’s a little ironic that those two assassination attempts were so close to each other in Butler County, which turned out to be two fantastic historic events,” O’Brien said.
The attempt on Washington’s life happened during the mission Virginia Gov. Robert Dinwiddie sent him on to deliver a message to the French occupiers at Franklin and Fort LeBoeuf. It was a diplomatic mission for the British to claim parts of the territory the French had already claimed and believed was theirs to control.
Accompanying Washington on his trip was explorer and surveyor Christopher Gist. Washington and Gist were looking for the Allegheny River on the return trip to Virginia when they decided to rely on a Native American guide to help them. For some unknown reason, O’Brien said, Washington allowed the native guide to carry his gun.
The two men began to suspect something was wrong when they realized the native had them heading north toward what is now Harmony borough. “After about 2 miles, somewhere in Forward Township, the native turned and fired his gun at Washington and Gist,” said O’Brien. “Fortunately for the United States and the world, he missed.”
Rodney Gasch, former president of the Historic Harmony society and member of Washington’s Trail 1753, said Gist wanted to kill the Native American for what he had done, but Washington convinced him not to as a sign of goodwill. “Washington saw the value in sparing him to build rapport and goodwill with the natives,” Gasch said.
While Washington was just 21 years old at the time and wouldn’t become the nation’s first president until 36 years later, his death in that attempt would have significantly altered the course of U.S. history, O’Brien said.
“Think about it,” he said. “If Washington had been killed at that point, he would not have been the leader in the constitutional Convention or fight for the Declaration of Independence or become a leader in the Revolutionary War or become the first president.”
Gasch agreed. “If (the guide) had succeeded, it would have taken another year or two to send another envoy and by then, the French would have had a stronger foothold in the region, and we might all be speaking French right now.”
While Washington was a major figure in the establishment of the United States, Bill Bergmann, associate professor of history and chairman of the history department at Slippery Rock University, cautioned against certain comparisons between the attempt on Washington’s life and that of Trump’s.
“Former President Trump is the only president or former president to experience an assassination attempt in Butler County,” he said, noting that Washington’s incident occurred more than a decade before the Declaration of Independence during the Seven Years War when he was fighting for the British.
During that conflict, Washington had several encounters where he narrowly escaped death. “If we are to claim that these were assassination attempts, then many of the presidents who served in uniform before achieving that office would be able to make the same claim,” Bergmann said. “It would entirely diminish the significance of what an assassination attempt actually is.”
