Andrew McFarlane Captured by Indians at
Kittanning February 25, 1777
The Indian depredations along the Ohio River in the fall of 1776 began along its eastern shore, when small parties of the Mingo tribe made incursions among the settlements, inflicting only slight damage. But in the spring of 1777, the outrages became general and more destructive. The first outrage was on the frontier of Westmoreland County when Andrew McFarlane was captured at an outpost of Kittanning.
McFarlane soon after the close of the French and Indian War, made his way west to Fort Pitt, where he engaged in the Indian trade with his brother James. When the territorial dispute with Virginia became acute, in January, 1774, Andrew McFarlane was appointed a justice of the peace by Governor Penn and he vigorously upheld the Pennsylvania authority.
Captain John Connolly, at the head of his Virginia militia, interrupted the sessions of the Pennsylvania court at Hannastown, April, 1774, and arrested three Pennsylvania justices, who resided in Pittsburgh; Andrew McFarlane, Devereux Smith and Captain Aeneas Mackay. They were taken as prisoners to Staunton, Va., and there detained four weeks, until released by order of Governor Dunmore.
On the evening of his arrest in Pittsburgh, McFarlane managed to send a letter to Governor Penn, in which he said: “I am taken at a great inconvenience, as my business is suffering much on account of my absence, but I am willing to suffer a great deal more rather than bring a disgrace upon the commission which I bear under your honor.” One result of his arrest indicates that McFarlane did not really suffer much during his captivity at Staunton for there he met and married Margaret Lynn Lewis, daughter of William Lewis, famed in the military history of Virginia.
Andrew and James McFarlane, to escape exactions and persecutions of Virginia military authority, removed their store, in the autumn of 1774, to Kittanning, at that time the extreme limit of white settlements toward the North. Here they prospered.
When the Iroquois tribe began to give concern to the settlers on the western frontier, after the Revolution opened, the Continental Congress in July 1776, ordered the raising of a regiment consisting of seven companies from Westmoreland and one from Bedford, to build and garrison forts at Kittanning, Le Boeuf and Erie and protect that region from British and Iroquois.
These troops were promptly raised under command of Colonel Aeneas Mackay, with George Wilson, lieutenant colonel, and Richard Butler, as major. This regiment rendezvoused at Kittanning preparatory to an advance up the Allegheny, to build two other forts.
A call was received for the regiment to march eastward, across the State, and join the hard-pressed army of General Washington, then near the Delaware. This regiment obeyed the call, in spite of a storm of protest on the frontier, and became known as the Eighth Pennsylvania. The long march began early in January, 1777.
Many settlers believed the western frontier was not in imminent danger but Andrew McFarlane was not one of these. As soon as Mackay’s regiment departed Justice McFarlane begged of the Westmoreland Commissioners that a company of militia be sent to Kittanning. He could hardly restrain his neighbors from running away, and during the late winter many did flee, leaving McFarlane and two clerks the only men at the place.
There were many stores left at Kittanning by Colonel Mackay but no soldiers could be spared to guard them. In this emergency Samuel Moorhead, who lived at Black Lick Creek, undertook the formation of a company of volunteer rangers. He chose McFarlane as his lieutenant, and these two spent much time trying to recruit a small company from the scattered settlers.
The story of the capture of Andrew McFarlane is preserved in two forms: One is gathered from letters written at the time, while the other is a tradition handed down in the Lewis family of Virginia. The Lewis story is now preserved in a history of Lynchburg, Va., and is in part as follows:
“When Margaret Lynn Lewis married Mr. McFarlane, of Pittsburgh, and left the parental roof, she traveled through a wilderness infested with hostile Indians till she reached that place. Once, when they least apprehended danger, a war whoop was heard, her husband taken prisoner, the tomahawk raised and she averted her eyes to avoid witnessing the fatal stroke.
The river was between them and she, with her infant and maid servant, of course endeavored to fly, knowing the inevitable consequences of delay. After starting, the servant reminded Mrs. McFarlane of her husband’s money and valuable papers, but she desired the girl not to mention anything of that sort at such a moment; but, regardless of the commands of her mistress, the servant returned to the dwelling, bringing with her all of the money and as many of the papers as she could hold in her apron, overtaking, in a short time, her mistress, as the snow was three feet deep. On looking back she saw the house in flames, and pursuing their journey with incredible fatigue, reached the house of Colonel Crawford, a distance of fourteen miles.
The contemporary account of this event is found in letters from the frontier, written to the officers of the Pennsylvania Government at Philadelphia and made public in later years. “Two British subalterns, two Chippewa and two Iroquois Indians were sent by the commandant of Fort Niagara, to descend to Allegheny.
“On February 25, 1777, they arrived opposite the little settlement of Kittanning. Standing on the shore, they shouted toward the far shore, calling for a canoe. Thinking the Indians had come to trade or to bring important news McFarlane decided to venture across. The instant he stepped from his boat he was seized by the savages and told he was their prisoner. His capture was witnessed by his wife and some men at the settlement.”
At the time Andrew McFarlane was captured, his brother James was a lieutenant in the First Pennsylvania of the Continental Line. It was through his personal efforts that Andrew was exchanged, in the fall of 1780. The released man immediately rejoined his wife and child at Staunton, and they soon afterward returned to the vicinity of Pittsburgh. Kittanning being deserted and exposed, Andrew McFarlane opened a store on Chartier’s Creek, where he lived for many years.
His eldest son, Andrew, doubtless the infant whom Mrs. McFarlane carried in her arms when she fled from Kittanning, became one of the pioneer settlers on the Shenango, near the present New Castle, Pa., and his descendants are numerous in Lawrence County.