Only a few of the grandchildren of Francis still live, one being Hon. Wm. M. Byerly of Anamosa, a prominent Democratic politician and former member of the Iowa Legislature.

A. E. (Earl) Byerly and his sister (Eva) were born at Anamosa, grandchildren of Andrew J., and received their college education in Des Moines. The descendants of these pioneers now number four hundred or more in the State of Iowa, and there are no doubt many others in the state who are descended from their common ancestor, Andrew Byerly, the friend of Geo. Washington and the founder of the Byerly family in this country. Andrew Byerly was the grandfather of Francis Byerly and the great grandfather of the three nephews who settled at New Port, Iowa in l846.

In 1883, Dr. Cyrus Cort, preacher, historian and poet, in the early days a missionary in Iowa, wrote Colonel Henry Bouquet and His Campaigns. Colonel Bouquet was a brave Swiss commander and a friend of Washington. In the year 1883, 25,000 people gathered at the Bushy Run battlefield in Pennsylvania and celebrated the 120th anniversary of one of his great victories. This valuable book has now almost disappeared. Just before Dr. Cort died in 1920 at the age of 86, he presented A.E. Byerly with one of his last copies of the book. Many of these pages are given over to a history of Andrew Byerly, the ancestor of so many Iowans, and his connection with the early life of George Washington.

Angered, the Indian made a wager of thirty shillings that there was no white man among the men in his army who could outrun one of their braves who had considerable renown as a runner. Colonel Washington was in those days quite a sportsman. He believed that his friend Andrew Byerly could outrun the Indian. Byerly, who had come to this country in 1738 at the age of 23, had long been popular in the colonial army and was induced to come from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by Benjamin Franklin to bake for Braddock's army. To him Washington went, and Byerly raced the boastful Indian and won the wager for Washington, much to the surprise of the Indian and even General Braddock.

It was at Byerly Station that Colonel Bouquet in 1763 won the famous battle of Bushy Run, which forever destroyed the power of Indians in America. (!) It was Andrew Byerly who led that advance guard in this battle, twelve out of every eighteen being killed in the first fire, and it was he who carried water to the wounded from springs on his farm during the night at great risk to his life. This spring still flows, and near it a monument to cost many thousands of dollars will be raised this coming summer (no date) by the state of Pennsylvania,to commemorate the battlefield of Bushy Run when a few brave settlers and Scotch Highlanders defeated many times their number. Bouquet had come to save Fort Pitt, and it was fitting that Andrew Byerly should be one of those who fought bravely for two days to save the fort that his friend George Washington had built a few years before.