George Croghan, King of Traders, Sent on
Mission to Logstown May 7, 1751
George Croghan and Andrew Montour were sent, May 7, 1751, to Logstown to carry a Provincial present to the Indians. While there the wily Irishman met Joncaire, the French Indian agent, but succeeded in outwitting him in diplomacy; and the chiefs ordered the French from their lands and reasserted their friendship for the English. At this time the Indians requested Croghan to ask Governor Hamilton to build a strong house on the Ohio River for the protection of their wives and children in event they should be obliged to engage in war.
George Croghan, next to Sir William Johnson, was the most prominent figure among British-Indian agents during the period of the later French wars and the conspiracy of Pontiac, from 1746 until the Revolutionary War, when he unfortunately cast his lot with the British.
He was born in Ireland and educated at Dublin, and emigrated to America in 1741. He settled in Pennsylvania near John Harris’ Ferry, now Harrisburg. He became an Indian trader in 1744, and was made a Councilor of the Six Nations at Onondaga in 1746.
Croghan first appears in the official correspondence of Pennsylvania as writing to Secretary Richard Peters, May 26, 1747, that he had just returned from the woods, bringing a letter, a French scalp, and some wampum, for the Governor from a party of the Six Nations Indians having their dwelling on the borders of Lake Erie, who had formerly been in the French interest; and who now, thanks to Croghan’s diplomacy, had declared against the French.
Croghan went to Logstown in April, 1748, with a message and present from Pennsylvania Council to the Ohio Indians. Conrad Weiser carried a larger present to these same Indians, and on his trip lodged in Croghan’s storehouse in Logstown.
In 1750, Croghan accompanied Secretary Peters and other officials on a trip among the settlers in Path, Tuscarora, Juniata and Aughwick Valleys warning them off, burning their cabins and confining some of the intruders in prison.
At the great Shawnee Council at Logstown, he, Andrew Montour and Christopher Gist were present and Croghan boldly announced to the Indians that the French had offered a large sum of money to any one who would bring them the bodies or scalps of Croghan or Montour. So the mission to Logstown, May 7, 1751, when the French-Indian Agent was present, was a most unusual moment to the intrepid Croghan, and his almost equally celebrated companion, Andrew Montour.
Croghan succeeded in making a treaty between the Indians and Virginia Commissioners. He was again at Logstown, May 7, 1753, in company with William Trent, Robert Callender and other traders, when a messenger arrived with the news that the French were on Lake Erie in large force, with brass cannon, on their way to the Ohio. Croghan held a conference with Scarouady, the Half King, on May 12; and then attended an important council between Pennsylvania Commissioners and chiefs of the Six Nations, Shawnee, Delaware, Wyandot and Twightwee at Carlisle in October, 1753. About this time he was compelled, by impending bankruptcy and fear of being imprisoned for debt, to remove to the Indian country, and he built a house at Aughwick Old Town, near the Juniata.
Croghan accompanied George Washington and his little army on the march from Fort Necessity to Redstone. When he returned to Aughwick he kept Governor Morris informed of the movements of the French and their Indian allies.
Croghan attended the important Indian conferences at Easton, Harris’ Ferry, Lancaster, Onondaga, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and other places, and always faithfully represented the English cause. He and Weiser were the most active agents at Easton, June, 1762, when King Tedyuskung retracted his charges of fraud and forgery in land transactions made against the Proprietaries by him at Easton six years before.
He was commissioned captain and served with Braddock, when he commanded a company of Indians. He resigned his commission in spring of 1756 and joined his fortunes with those of Sir William Johnson in the Mohawk Valley. He was appointed a deputy in the Indian service, with the rank of colonel.
December 1, 1763, he sailed for England to confer with the ministry about some boundary lines, but he was shipwrecked off the coast of France and did not reach his destination[destination] until February, 1764.
Croghan made an affidavit while in London which relates much of his early movements. He also presented to the Lords of Trade an interesting Memorial on Indian Affairs in America.
He returned to Pennsylvania in October, 1764, and was induced to continue as Deputy Indian Agent in the Western Department.
Croghan was sent by General Gage to Illinois for the purpose of making peace with the Indians. He embarked from Fort Pitt, May 15, 1765, and experienced a hazardous trip during which his party was attacked by hostile Indians. He being severely wounded and taken prisoner, was carried to what is now Lafayette, Indiana, where he was recognized by some chiefs with whom he had previous dealings, and in spite of the fact that the French demanded his execution, Croghan was liberated, July 18. He set off that day for the Illinois country. On the way he met Pontiac and other chiefs, and effected the treaty he had been sent to make.
Colonel Croghan kept journals of all his trips and these are both interesting and valuable. They reveal many exciting adventures and some very harrowing experiences.
Croghan mortgaged his Otsego tract of land to William Franklin, son of Benjamin, and lost it under foreclosure in 1773. This became the home of James Fennimore Cooper, now Cooperstown, N. Y.
In the controversy between Pennsylvania and Virginia for the territory which lies west of the Laurel Hills, Croghan was a partisan of Virginia, and one of those who stirred up the most trouble.
At the beginning of the Revolution Colonel Croghan embarked in the patriot cause, being elected chairman of the Committee of Safety of Augusta County, May 16, 1775. He later became an object of suspicion.
June 15, 1778, he was declared by Pennsylvania a public enemy, and his office of Indian Agent was conferred upon Colonel George Morgan. He continued, however, to reside in Pennsylvania, and died at Passyunk, in the summer of 1782. His will is dated June 12, 1782.
Colonel Croghan married a Mohawk Indian, and their daughter, Catherine, became the third wife of Joseph Brant, the celebrated Mohawk chieftain of the Revolutionary period.
Pennsylvania Navy Meets British in Action,
May 8, 1776
The Committee of Safety, which organized July 3, 1775, early in the following year, had a survey made of the Delaware River, with a view to its more extensive fortification. Leave was obtained from New Jersey to construct works on that side of the river; a permanent fort was determined upon at Billingsport; the fort at Fort Island was hurried to completion; it was decided to fortify Liberty Island, and additions were made to the chevaux-de-frise. To the naval flotilla were added the floating battery Arnold, the ship-of-war Montgomery, the fireship Aetna and some guardboats for Philadelphia harbor. This naval force soon had a chance to show its mettle.
On May 6 news came to Philadelphia by express from Fort Penn that two warships, a schooner and three tenders were coming up the river. The Committee of Safety ordered the gunboat flotilla and the Montgomery and Aetna, under command of Commodore Andrew Caldwell and Captain James Reed, to attack the enemy. His vessels were the Roebuck, forty-eight guns, under command of Captain Hammond, and the sloop-of-war Liverpool, twenty-eight guns, under command of Captain Bellew, and their tenders.
Captain Proctor, in command of the fort at Fort Island, volunteered for the fight with 100 of his men and served on board the Hornet. The Montgomery, the Continental ship Reprisal, under command of Captain Wickes, and the battery Arnold, under Captain Samuel Davidson, remained near the chevaux-de-frise, in a line with the forts. The other boats went down the river to the mouth of Christiana Creek, coming up with the enemy on the afternoon of May 8.
Fire was immediately opened on both sides and was maintained with much spirit until dark. The Roebuck ran ashore and careened; the Liverpool came to anchor to protect her and the provincial boats withdrew to obtain more ammunition.
During this engagement, the Continental schooner Wasp, with Captain Alexander, which had been previously chased into Wilmington, came out and captured an English brig belonging to the squadron. The fireship was not brought into use, and before morning the Roebuck was again afloat.
The attack was renewed at 5 o’clock in the morning when the British ships retired, being closely pursued as far as New Castle by the Philadelphia navy.
The officers of the flotilla complained grievously of the supplies furnished them by the Committee of Safety as being defective in quality and deficient in quantity; the powder was so bad that the men had to cut up their clothes and equipments to make the cartridges serviceable. There were also other defects, so that the officers threw the whole blame of their failure to destroy or capture the enemy vessels upon the committee. The Assembly investigated, however, and exonerated the committee.
The American loss was one killed and two wounded. The British lost one killed and five wounded. So it was quite probable this engagement was fought at long range. Members of the Provincial Navy, however, brought up some splinters from the enemy’s ships to exhibit at the Coffee House as trophies of the fight. The Roebuck and the Liverpool returned to their stations at Cape May, depending upon New Jersey, instead of Pennsylvania, for poultry and fresh provisions[provisions].
This engagement served a valuable purpose. Congress and the Provincial Assembly were certainly admonished to increase their navies. The Committee of Safety added to the galleys and other vessels, sloops, schooners, guard boats and also firerafts. This added force was composed of 743 men. Samuel Davidson was appointed to succeed Commodore Caldwell, as commander of the flotilla, soon after the fight, but on account of much opposition from other officers, never took up the command.
The Committee of Safety organized a system of privateers and letters of marque at this time, with the sanction of Congress. They created a Court of Admiralty, of which George Ross, of Lancaster, was judge; Matthew Clarkson, marshal, and Andrew Robinson, register.
Before July there had also been commissioned the brigs Hancock and Congress, and the sloop Chance, under Captains Wingate Newman, John Kaye, and James Robertson. As early as May the Congress and Chance had taken three valuable ships from Jamaica bound for London, with large cargoes of rum, sugar and molasses, 22,420 “pieces of eight,” 187 ounces of plate and a fine turtle, intended as a present to Lord North. The President of the Continental Congress received and enjoyed this turtle.
It is also of interest to our Province to note that the activities of the young navy resulted in other important prizes. The privateer Congress captured the schooner Thistle; the privateer Franklin, of Philadelphia, took a British storeship with seventy-five tons of gunpowder and 1000 stands of arms; the ship Lexington, under Captain John Barry, of Philadelphia, captured the Edward; the Wasp took the schooner Betsy. In the meantime the British Roebuck and Liverpool, with their tenders, made many captures of vessels about the Delaware Capes, chasing others ashore. But the record of the young American Navy was glorious and certainly a fine beginning for the brilliant successes which were to follow.
Thus we find that the Committee of Safety constructed the Pennsylvania State Navy three months before Congress proposed a Continental navy.
By August, 1776, the fleet numbered twenty-seven vessels, with Captain Thomas Reed as commodore, the first officer of that title in America. Another distinguished officer was Nicholas Biddle.
Three months after the State Navy was begun the Continental Congress took action for the construction of a Continental navy, which was also fitted out in Philadelphia. When the Congress of the United States established the Navy Department in 1798, the first navy yard was located in Philadelphia, where ship building had been an established enterprise since 1683. The city is today famous for the quality and quantity of ships built for this and other nations of the world.
Bishop John Heyl Vincent, Founder of
Chautauqua, Died May 9, 1920
General Grant once introduced Bishop J. H. Vincent to President Lincoln and said: “Dr. Vincent was my pastor at Galena (Illinois), and I do not think I missed one of his sermons while I lived there.”
This same Bishop Vincent, of good old Pennsylvania stock and many years a resident of Pennsylvania, was the founder of the Chautauqua Assembly, next only to the public-school system in bringing to the masses of the people some share of their inheritance in the world’s great creations in art and literature. This is the work of a man—a great teacher and educator and university preacher—who did not himself have a college education.
In 1772 the Vincent family, consisting of John Vincent and wife, their sons, Cornelius and Peter; their sons-in-law, Timothy Williams and Samuel Gould, removed from Essex County, N. J., and settled in Northumberland County, Pa., near the present town of Milton.
When the Indians became hostile during the Revolutionary War the early settlers along the West branch of the Susquehanna erected stockade forts at central points, into which the women and children of the neighborhood were gathered for protection at the approach of danger. In one of these forts, known as Fort Freeland, situated on Warrior Run, were gathered the Vincents, the Himrods, the Miles, the McKnights, the Boyds, the Kings, the Littles and others.
June 21, 1779, a party of Indians approached stealthily and fired upon six men hoeing corn in a field near the fort. They killed Isaac Vincent and James Miles and took Michael Freeland and Benjamin Vincent prisoners.
July 28, 1779, 200 British under Captain John McDonald and 300 Seneca Indians, under Chief Hiokatoo attacked the fort and compelled it to capitulate, the conditions of surrender being that all the men over seventeen should become prisoners of war, and the women and children and the aged should be set at liberty. Under this capitulation, Cornelius Vincent and his sons, Daniel and Bethuel, with their neighbors, were marched across the country to the Lakes, then to Quebec, where they remained prisoners till the close of the war.
The aged John Vincent and wife, with the wife and younger children of Cornelius, wended their way back on foot to New Jersey and were scattered among their friends until the return of the captives.
Soon after their return from captivity Cornelius Vincent and his wife and their sons, Daniel and Bethuel, returned to the West Branch Valley and resumed the settlement they had been obliged to abandon. Daniel built and owned a large mill on Warrior Run. Bethuel built a large hotel in Milton, and became its most prominent citizen. Bethuel Vincent was postmaster at Milton, June 29, 1803 to February 22, 1822, and again July 13, 1822 to June 23, 1829.
Cornelius Vincent died in Milton, July 16, 1812. Daniel Vincent died near his mills, January 26, 1826, and Bethuel[Bethuel] died at his home in Milton, April 30, 1837.
Bethuel[Bethuel] Vincent, born June 3, 1762, married Martha Himrod, January 1, 1788. They were the parents of nine children, of whom John Himrod, born April 20, 1798, was the youngest of the four sons.
John Himrod married Mary Raser, a native of Philadelphia, who died at Chillisquaque, Pa., February 16, 1852. They were old-fashioned Methodists, and parents of Bishop Vincent.
During a short residence in Tuscaloosa, Ala., John Heyl Vincent, the subject of this sketch, was born February 23, 1832. The parents soon moved back to their Pennsylvania home, where John H. attended the schools at Milton and Lewisburg. He began to preach at eighteen years and studied for awhile at Wesleyan Institute, Newark, N. J.
Reverend John Heyl Vincent joined the New Jersey Conference in 1853. Was ordained deacon, 1855; elder, in 1857. Transferred to Rock River, Ill. Conference, he became pastor at Galena in 1857, and General U. S. Grant was one of his parishioners. He then preached elsewhere and in Chicago.
A trip to the old world in 1862, contributed an important part to his intellectual training. He visited Egypt, Palestine, Greece, Italy and other countries.
In 1866 he was elected general agent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School Union and in 1868, corresponding secretary of the Sunday School Union and Tract Society, with residence in New York City. A complete series of his books forms an encyclopedia of modern Sunday School literature.
This work culminated in 1874, in the Chautauqua Sunday School Assembly, from which he founded, in 1878, the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle and was its Chancellor until his death.
He was made resident bishop at Zurich, Switzerland, 1900, and placed in charge of European work of the Methodist Church.
Bishop Vincent became preacher to Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Wellesley and other universities and colleges, and was the recipient of many honorary degrees.
In speaking of his great work at Chautauqua he remarked: “I do not expect to make a second Harvard and Yale out of Chautauqua, but I do want to give the people of this generation such a taste of what it is to be intelligent that they will see to it that their children have the best education the country can give.”
Bishop Vincent died in Chicago, May 9, 1920, aged 88 years.
Bishop Vincent’s son, Hon. George Edgar Vincent, a distinguished educator and powerful orator, is president of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Pennsylvania may well be proud to claim the ancestors of Bishop Vincent, the founder of Chautauqua, as their own.
Long Standing Boundary Line Dispute Between
Maryland and Pennsylvania Proprietaries
Signed May 10, 1732
In the boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland Lord Baltimore had observations taken of the latitude of New Castle, Delaware, which showed that town to be 39° 39′ 30″, which would place the end of the fortieth degree many miles to the north, and its beginning far beyond the reach of the radius of twelve miles as called for by Lord Chief Justice North, of England.
A degree of latitude is a band about sixty-nine and a half miles wide, extending around the earth parallel to the equator.
Lord North, William Penn, Lord Baltimore, and others, in the absence of better knowledge, simply assumed that the degrees on the maps were all too far south, which was only a guess, but in fact they were nearly correct.
Penn obtained his charter and sent William Markham, his cousin and deputy, to the Delaware to take an observation of the latitude, and he was to meet Lord Baltimore, or his agents, and settle the boundaries.
This meeting was held in Upland, now Chester, in latter part of the year 1681. The observation was taken, and it became manifest that an absurd mistake in latitude was revealed, and that the fortieth degree, the southern boundary of Pennsylvania was twelve miles farther to the North. Lord Baltimore already knew that the end of the fortieth degree was many miles north of its position on Captain John Smith’s map, and he renewed his old claim that his province of Maryland extended to the fortieth degree complete. Thus began the controversy which lasted twenty years.
This claim carried the northern boundary of Maryland far into Penn’s province, just north of Philadelphia, and if successfully defended would have cut from the southern part of our State all the territory south of a line running through Philadelphia, Dowingtown, just south of Lancaster, and north of York, Bedford, Somerset, Connellsville, Brownsville, and the village of West Finley in Washington County.
But Penn had a strong case to defend his territorial limits, his charter expressly defined the southern limit of Pennsylvania, as on the beginning of the fortieth degree, which would make its southern limit reach nearly to the City of Washington, and would have cut off from Lord Baltimore’s province much more territory than he was trying to cut from Penn’s. Penn also possessed the later grant from the Crown, and in such a dispute, where the limits overlapped, it would be taken to have annulled the older.
Penn was willing to yield his stronger position and compromise, all he demanded was that the line be placed where it was supposed to be when his charter was granted. The mistake in latitude made Penn’s boundary on the Delaware ridiculous, for the circle of twelve miles from New Castle could not possibly touch the beginning of the fortieth degree, which was forty miles to the south of it.
It would have been unfortunate to obstruct the settlement of this country by putting claims in which both seemed to be justified, but Penn did even more than expected. He offered to purchase from Baltimore sufficient land to give Pennsylvania a harbor at the head of the Chesapeake. At another personal interview with Baltimore at West River he suggested a compromise even more favorable to Maryland, by suggesting that additional territory should be given Baltimore to make up the loss of the increased length of a degree, which was recently ascertained to be 69½ instead of 60 miles. This would have placed the northern line of Maryland about seven miles north of the head of the Chesapeake.
Lord Baltimore refused all compromises offered by William Penn. He fancied he could obtain great acquisitions of territory, and was determined his province should consist of the present Maryland, Delaware and the southern strip of Pennsylvania above described.
The controversy was thrown in the privy council. The case was argued for two years, the council finally deciding that Baltimore’s charter did not give him a title to Delaware, because at the time of granting the charter that region had been in possession of the Dutch, and they ordered Baltimore and Penn to divide Delaware equally between them by a north and south line, midway between the Chesapeake and the Delaware. The decision of the council was confined to the controversy between Delaware and Maryland, and nothing was said about the disputed boundary of the 40° between Maryland and Pennsylvania and it remained unsettled.
This condition proved a great hardship, the inhabitants on the border, uncertain of their position, refused to pay taxes to either government, and the sheriffs of adjoining counties carried on a warfare of petty annoyance. This gave the rougher and lawless men an excuse for fighting. One of the most notable of these was Thomas Cresap. He caused so much trouble in the southern counties that when he was arrested and carried to Philadelphia, which he called a pretty Maryland town, his exploits were known as the Cresap War.
William Penn died July 30, 1718, leaving the question as unsettled as it was in 1682. Charles Calvert, the fifth Lord Baltimore, was now the proprietor of Maryland, and the first of the family to show much cleverness.
He went to Penn’s widow and admitted he had no just claim to the title of Delaware, and suggested that no more land should be granted near either of the disputed borders by either government for eighteen months, within which time they could settle all difficulties. This agreement was signed in February, 1723, and long after the eighteen months had passed into history, the agreement was faithfully observed by Hannah Penn, and after her death by her children. Baltimore also observed it.
William Penn’s widow died in 1726, and her young sons did not immediately mark the boundary, and Baltimore now assumed the role of an injured person, and in 1731 petitioned the Crown to compel the Proprietors of Pennsylvania to join with him in settling the boundaries. He applied to John and Thomas Penn to meet with him and sign an agreement of settlement[settlement], which they agreed to do, and they also accepted the terms proposed in it by Baltimore and the articles were signed May 10, 1732.
The southern boundary of Pennsylvania was fixed about seven miles north of the head of Chesapeake, and the same as William Penn had offered Baltimore in their interview at West River. By this agreement Lord Baltimore received more than had ever belonged to him.
A map was prepared, and attached to the agreement, on which the boundaries were plainly marked. This map was prepared by Baltimore, and the Penns accepted it as correct.
Captain Stephen Chambers Fatally Wounded
in Duel with Dr. Rieger May 11, 1789
In May, 1789, there was a brilliant banquet given at the public house of Colonel Mathias Slough, on the southeast corner of Penn Square and South Queen Street, Lancaster. This social function was attended by a large number of officers and soldiers who had fought in the Revolutionary War, among whom were Captain Stephen Chambers and Surgeon Jacob Rieger.
Captain Chambers was neatly dressed in his military uniform, and in personal appearance was one of the finest-looking officers of that period. Dr. Rieger was quite the opposite, rather diminutive in stature, unshaven and otherwise very untidy.
During the progress of the banquet Captain Chambers made some disparaging remark about Dr. Rieger, which the latter overheard and deemed insulting. The result was a challenge to a duel, which was as promptly accepted.
The parties immediately named their seconds, who fixed the following Monday evening, May 11, as the time. The parties met according to arrangement on the outskirts of Lancaster, and after the necessary details were concluded the antagonists faced each other, and at the command of fire neither shot took effect. The seconds, at this point, made an earnest effort to reconcile the principals, Captain Chambers and his seconds being in a mood to offer such terms as they believed to be proper and satisfactory, but Dr. Rieger would not consent to any terms of reconciliation.
They took their places and on the command of fire Captain Chambers snapped his pistol without discharging, but Dr. Rieger sent a ball crashing through both legs of Captain Chambers. His wounds bled freely, and for two days it was thought they were not dangerous; mortification, however, set in and he died in great agony on Saturday morning following, May 16.
Thus perished one of the noblest patriots and most brilliant legal minds of the bar, an event which agitated the public mind for years afterward as an unwarranted and cold-blooded murder.
Judge John Joseph Henry married Chambers’ sister, Jane, and was the attorney for his executors.
Captain Chambers was a native of Ireland, being born there in 1750. He came to Pennsylvania prior to the Revolution, and settled at Lancaster. He studied law and as soon as he was admitted to practice in 1773, he removed to Sunbury, where he became the first resident attorney of Northumberland County. Fithian, in his journal under date July 20, 1775, met him at Sunbury, “a lawyer, serious, civil and social.”
At the outset of the Revolution he entered the service. He was appointed first lieutenant of the Twelfth Regiment of the Continental Line, October 16, 1776, and promoted to captain in 1777.
He was chosen to the General Assembly from Northumberland County, October 2, 1778, and while in attendance thereon was admitted to the Philadelphia bar, March 6, 1779. In 1779 he was a member of the Republican Society of Philadelphia, whose object was the revision of the Constitution of 1776.
In the fall of 1780 he returned to his former home in Lancaster and soon attained a large and lucrative practice, owned several farms and also became interested in the iron business. He represented Lancaster County in the Council of Censors, 1783 and 1784. He also was one of the original members of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati.
He was a delegate to the convention November 29, 1787, which ratified, on the part of Pennsylvania, the Federal Constitution. In the debate he took a most aggressive part, frequently becoming very personal in his attack upon members of the opposite side, especially toward William Findlay. Captain Chambers voted with his comrades in arms, and on the side of the adoption of the Federal Constitution.
It is a matter of interest that Captain Chambers was among the distinguished patriots who were in the house of James Wilson, in Philadelphia, when the mob made a disgraceful attack against it, October 4, 1779. Captain Chambers appeared with James Wilson, and others, before Supreme Executive Council, October 19, 1779, and was bound over to appear at the next term of court, in the sum of £5000. George Clymer and Samuel Caldwell becoming his sureties[sureties] in the sum of £2,500 each.
The evening of the day of the riot at “Fort Wilson,” Captain Chambers attended the Quarterly Communication of the Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons and was installed Worshipful Master of Lodge No. 22, which was constituted at Northumberland the following month.
At the constitution of Lodge No. 22, about the middle of November, 1779, Chambers became its first Worshipful Master, and the warrant for that body was produced and presented by him at “his own proper cost and charges.”
In July, 1785, he became the warrant Worshipful Master of Lodge No. 43, at Lancaster, and both of these ancient lodges are still at labor, the former, Lodge No. 22, now at Sunbury.
Dr. Joseph Rieger was the surgeon of the Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment, commanded by Colonel Samuel Hiles. He was commissioned March 22, 1776. He was a highly respected physician of Lancaster. He died there in 1795.
War of 1812 Began in Pennsylvania with
Message of Governor Snyder
May 12, 1812
The inhabitants of the infant Nation believed that Great Britain had wantonly trampled on their rights, and on May 12, 1812, Governor Simon Snyder expressed the feelings of the people in his call for Pennsylvania’s quota of 14,000 militia, when he stated that for thirty years we had lived at peace with all the nations of the earth, while the storm of war had been desolating many countries of the civilized world, and that all means which wisdom and patience could devise had been in vain resorted to in the hope of preserving peace.
“The cup of patience, of humiliation and long suffering,” declared the Governor, “had been filled to overflowing; and the indignant arm of an injured people must be raised to dash it to the earth and grasp the avenging sword. If ever a nation had justifiable cause for war, that nation is the United States. If ever a people had motives to fight, we are that people. It would give the Governor inexpressible satisfaction if Pennsylvania would volunteer her quota.”
Such was the enthusiasm of the hour that in response to the Governor’s call three times as many troops tendered their services as were required. The disappointment of some was so great that money was freely offered to secure a place among those accepted by the authorities.
General William Reed, the Adjutant General of the State, speedily organized this force, which was formed into two divisions, four brigades and twenty-two regiments. The first, or Philadelphia division, was commanded by Major General Isaac Morrell and the second, from Pittsburgh and vicinity, by Major General Adamson Tannehill.
The differences which had so long existed between the United States and Great Britain finally resulted in war, which was declared by Congress June 18, 1812. Every Representative, but two from Pennsylvania and both the Senators, voted in favor of a declaration and the people at home proved in demonstrative terms that they approved their vote.
In July a general alarm prevailed in Erie and vicinity, in consequence of the appearance of a British-Indian force on the opposite side of the lake.
On July 15 the sixteenth division of Pennsylvania militia was organized under General Kelso. Four thousand men called for by the President rendezvoused at Meadville and Pittsburgh looking to a movement on Canada.
Soon the 2000 men at Meadville were ordered to Western New York, where they participated in the battles along the Canadian border. After the unsuccessful efforts of General Dearborn and Wilkinson, the rank of major general was conferred upon Jacob Brown, of Bucks County, and he was given the command of the Northern Department.
General Brown at Ogdensburg, October 4, 1812, defeated the British, and won a signal victory, May 29, when he took Sackett’s Harbor, which he retained until the close of the war. General Brown also won a brilliant victory at Fort Erie, which is on the Canadian shore, opposite Buffalo, N. Y., on July 3, 1814.
Winfield Scott, later the successful commander in the war with Mexico, was an officer under General Brown. He won the brilliant and important engagement at Chippewa, under directions of General Brown. Captain Thomas Biddle, of Philadelphia, commanded one of the three batteries of artillery engaged.
General Brown then won the severe battle of Lundy’s Lane, July 25, in which 2600 Americans defeated 7000 British, and captured one of their batteries. In this engagement General Brown was twice wounded, Major Daniel McFarland was killed, Captain Biddle and Colonel Hugh Brady, of Northumberland County, afterward a distinguished general of the United States Army, were severely wounded.
General Brown defended Fort Erie against two attacks and at the close of the campaign was honored by the State of New York with a gift of gold and a decorated sword, “in testimony of the high sense they entertained of his valor and skill in defeating the British forces, superior in number.” Congress gave him the thanks of the Nation and a gold medal, and he was made Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the United States. He died February 24, 1828, from the effects of wounds received at Lundy’s Lane.
Other Pennsylvanians who were heroes in this war included General Thomas Bodley and Colonel William Carroll, a native of Pittsburgh, who afterward served as Governor of Tennessee from 1821 to 1827, and again from 1830 to 1835.
The defense of Philadelphia was chiefly maintained by volunteers from Pennsylvania. One camp was established at Shell Pot, north of Wilmington, where the “Philadelphia Blues” under Captain Lewis Rush formed a part of the command. He was promoted and Lieutenant Henry Myers succeeded him as captain of the Blues, or “Bucktails,” as they were more generally called.
In the summer of 1814, Governor Snyder ordered out troops to serve for the defense of Delaware and the Elk River. A camp was established near Wilmington, called Camp Dupont, and was under the command of General Thomas Cadwalader, of Philadelphia. The infantry regiment was commanded by Colonel Clement C. Biddle, and a battalion of artillery was there under command of Colonel Prevost. Another camp was formed near Marcus Hook, called Camp Gaines. General Snyder commanded this brigade. In this camp were Colonel William Duane and others. The First or old “City Troop,” commanded then by Captain Charles Ross, was in Camp Gaines.
Another camp of 5000 troops was established at York under Major General Nathaniel Watson. When General Ross attempted the capture of Baltimore these Pennsylvanians marched there and aided in repelling the enemy.
An important event of this war was the blockade of the Delaware River in March, 1813, by the British fleet under Commodore Sir John P. Beresford.
The closing scenes of the war were enacted in the regions north and south of Pennsylvania, and the State was not seriously threatened with invasion.
On August 24, 1814, Washington fell into the enemy’s hands, the city pillaged and the Capitol burned.
Just as Robert Morris was the financier of the Revolution, so Stephen Girard also of Philadelphia, was the financier of the War of 1812. The Government needed $5,000,000 and offered high interest, but only $200,000 was subscribed, when Girard stepped into the scene and subscribed the balance. He staked his whole fortune in his trust of his adopted country, which none other would do, and saved the Nation from a humiliating defeat. He also took Treasury bills at their face value, and his example shamed other creditors, who then accepted the money of the Government.
Lieutenant Colonel Antes, Soldier and Frontiersman,
Died May 13, 1820
Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Antes died at his stockaded home, long known as Antes’ Fort, May 13, 1820, aged eighty-three years.
This pioneer statesman and soldier was an early settler on the frontier of Pennsylvania, a member of a distinguished family in the Province, an officer of the Revolution, Sheriff of Northumberland County during the stirring days of the Wyoming controversy, and an ardent patriot whose influence, both in civic and military affairs, was most potent a century and a quarter since.
The ancestral home of Colonel Antes was in the beautiful and fertile valley, called Falkner’s Swamp, in what is now Montgomery County, about six miles from Pottstown.
Philip Frederick Antes, grandfather of Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Antes, of the noble family of Von Blume, of Rhenish Bavaria, Germany, owing to religious persecutions, came from Friensheim, Germany, sometime between 1716 and 1723, and settled for a short time in Germantown.
On February 29, 1722–23, he bought 154 acres in the Van Bebber tract in what has since been called Falkner’s Swamp. This was a tract of 500 acres in the original patent made by William Penn, October 25, 1701, to the Frankford Land Company, and comprised 22,337 acres of the most fertile land in the State.
On December 16, 1708, the tract was sold by the agent, Daniel Falkner, to John Henry Sprogel for £500, current money of Pennsylvania and was paid for in “Silver Coyne.” This was known as the German tract and also by other names.
In 1726 Henry Antes, the only son, married Christina, the daughter of William Dewees, who built the second paper mill in America, in 1710, in that part of Germantown known as Crefeld, near the line of the present Montgomery County. A flour mill was added to the Crefeld paper mill and here Henry Antes worked for three years. This was the birthplace of three of their children, Frederick, William and Elizabeth. Henry Antes served for more than ten years as one of the Justices of the Province.
September 2, 1735, Henry Antes purchased more than 200 acres about two miles away, just across the line from the German tract, in what is now Frederick Township, Montgomery County, and built a grist mill and a stone mansion, in which the rest of his distinguished family was born, and which was destined to become one of the valued historic buildings of the State.
It was in this home that Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Antes was born, October 5, 1736. Here Reverend George Whitefield, the great evangelist, preached from the porch, April 23, 1740, to a multitude estimated at 3000 persons.
In 1745 Pious Henry Antes gave up his home to the needs of the Moravian Society, and his house became the school for boys. He and his wife removed to Bethlehem. Henry Antes’ home thus became the first boarding school for boys in America.
It was in this mansion, then owned by Colonel Frederic Antes, that General Washington made his headquarters, September 18 to 24, 1777, during his stay at Camp Pottsgrove, the most westerly point ever reached by the Continental Army.
When still quite a young man John Henry Antes, being of a romantic disposition, went to the Susquehanna region, being induced to do so by Conrad Weiser, who was a great friend of the family, and who had made frequent trips to the West Branch in the interest of the Provincial Government. He settled on a farm situated on Shamokin Creek, near the present Sunbury, and soon became one of the prominent men of that region.
On July 29, 1775, he was appointed a Justice of Quarter Sessions. On January 24, 1776, he was commissioned a captain in the Second Battalion, under Colonel James Potter, and on March 13, following was assigned to the command of Colonel William Plunket, when he made his expedition against the Connecticut settlers; then Captain Antes was assigned to the Second Battalion of Associators.
On May 21, 1777, he was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Fourth Battalion, of Northumberland County Militia, and in this service endeared himself to the frontier inhabitants by his active work in protecting the settlements from the frequent incursions of the Indians.
He established his headquarters in the Nippenose Valley. Here he built the stockade, called Antes’ Fort, which was the most exposed place on the frontier. This stockade and the cabin home of Colonel Antes were destroyed by the Tories and Indians at the time of the “Great Runaway,” July, 1778.
Towards the close of the Revolution, Colonel Antes was elected Sheriff of Northumberland County, October 18, 1782, and re-elected. At this time his jurisdiction extended over what is now thirty counties of Pennsylvania.
At the close of his political and military career, he removed from his farm to a tract of land on Nippenose Creek, which he had purchased September 29, 1773. This site was near the mouth of that creek opposite the mouth of Pine Creek, near the present Jersey Shore, and here he built a mill, known as Antes’ Fort. His log mansion built at the same time, 1785, which he stockaded, and which was later occupied by his son, Henry, until 1830, is still in use. The grist mill, now in operation, is the fourth one erected on the original site.
A gap in the mountains, a small town, and other places have taken their name from this sturdy pioneer.
The Antes Burying Ground is not far distant from the home and mill site, and in it is the grave of Colonel John Henry Antes.
The numerous descendants of Colonel Antes meet in annual reunion and recount his many exploits and services so unselfishly rendered in time of need.
Provincial Council Hears of Border Trouble
May 14, 1734
Thomas and John Penn, the Proprietaries, arrived in the Province, the former in 1732, and his elder brother, John, two years later. They were cordially and affectionately received by the colonists as the sons of the most illustrious founder.
John Penn remained only one year, as he hurried back to England to oppose the pretensions[pretensions] of Lord Baltimore, but Thomas Penn remained for some years in the Province, spending his time generally after the manner of an English country gentleman. He was cold and distant in his intercourse with society and consequently unpopular. He returned to England in 1741.
In the year 1733 the Provincial Government for the first time became apprehensive of the designs of the French in the Western country, where they began to establish trading posts along the headwaters of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers and claimed all the land on those waters by virtue of some treaty of which the Provincial Government was not apprised.
With a view to frustrate their designs, which obviously tended to alienate the Indians from the English, James Logan proposed that a treaty should be made with the Shawnee and other tribes, and that they should be invited to remove nearer the English settlements. In accord with this suggestion, a treaty was held with the Six Nations at Philadelphia, when the savages confirmed the fears of the English by advising them of the French designs, and they promised perpetual friendship with the English.
Then trouble began on the Maryland border. At a meeting of Council held in Philadelphia May 14, 1734, Thomas Penn informed the board of some very unneighborly proceedings of the Province of Maryland in not only harassing some of the inhabitants of this Province who lived along the border, but that they extended their claims much farther than they had ever before pretended they had a right. They went so far as to carry off several persons, whom they imprisoned, among them being John Hendricks and Joshua Minshall, who lived on the Susquehanna in what is now York County. At the time of this report they were still confined in prison at Annapolis.
Penn advised Council he had engaged Andrew Hamilton, Esq., to appear for them when they should be brought to trial at the ensuing Provincial Court of Maryland. Penn said this action of the Marylanders made settlements along the border insecure and he proposed that the Council decide on measures for maintaining the peace between his Majesty’s subjects in both Provinces.
Mr. Hamilton, accompanied by Mr. Georges, private secretary to Governor Thomas Penn, went to Annapolis on their mission. They were also acting in capacity of commissioners for the Proprietaries, with the approval of the Assembly, to execute articles of agreement, and to run, mark and lay out the lines, limits and boundaries between the two Provinces. They did not meet with much success, in consequence of which, the Governor, under date of August 19, 1734, wrote to the Justices of the Counties of Chester, Lancaster on the Susquehanna, and New Castle, Kent and Sussex on the Delaware as follows:
“You are not, I believe, insensible how much the whole country has been disappointed in the just hopes which had been entertained of seeing a final period put to those long pending disputes between this Government and that of Maryland, touching their respective boundaries, by the execution of the solemn agreement concluded between the Proprietaries of each. It is, however, no small satisfaction to me that I can now acquaint you that this agreement, with the proceedings of the commissioners thereon, having been laid before his Majesty’s attorney and solicitor general, we have had the pleasure of lately receiving the opinion, that the agreement still remains valid and binding, on both Proprietaries, although their commissioners, by reason of difference in sentiments, have not carried into execution.
“Now, as the northern bounds, formerly set by Lord Baltimore to himself, differ not much from those lately agreed upon, I know not how we can judge better or with more certainty of any bounds by which we limit our present jurisdiction than near the place where it is known they will fall when the lines shall be actually run.
“In the meantime, that a stop may be put to any further insults on the people of this Government, and encroachments on lands within the bounds of the same, I am again to renew to you those pressing instances I have repeatedly made, that agreeable to the duty of your stations, you exert your utmost endeavors for preserving peace throughout your county, and protecting all the inhabitants in the just and right possessions, in legal and necessary defense of which every person ought to be encouraged to appear with boldness, and to be assured of receiving all the countenance that lawful authority can give.
“And as the late disturbances have been in a great measure owing to the unjust attempts of those who, pretending right to, or claiming disputed lands, under that pretense, have come many miles into this Province, and with force possessed themselves of lands for which they can have no lawful grant from any other persons but our Honorable Proprietaries only, and have likewise committed very great violences upon sundry of our inhabitants, you are to give strict orders for apprehending and securing all such who have been principals or accessories therein, as well as those who hereafter shall presume to offer an injury to the persons or professions of his Majesty’s peaceable subjects or encroach on any lands within the known and reputed limits of your county, that they may be brought to condign punishment.
“But as in the year 1724, it was agreed ‘that for avoiding all manner of contention or difference between the inhabitants of the two Provinces, no person or persons should be disturbed or molested in their possessions they then held on either side,’ you are desired still to have a particular regard to those entitled to the benefit of that agreement, while they behave themselves peaceably.”
The letters then gave implicit instructions to the sheriffs, directing them to frequently visit the borders, particularly where the disturbances happened, and give all assistance possible to the injured and apprehend those who caused the trouble and seize and secure them.
It was particularly fortunate that the Indians continued to live amicably with the settlers at this period.
Dr. Nicholas More, First Chief Justice,
Impeached May 15, 1685
William Penn appointed his cousin, Captain William Markham, Deputy Governor, and he arrived in the Province in October, 1681. He then appointed commissioners to lay out the proposed great city, who came over toward the end of that year. The commissioners, as originally appointed were William Crispin, Nathaniel Allen and John Bezar.
These commissioners sailed in the ship John and Sarah, taking the southern passage and stopping at Barbadoes, where Crispin died. Crispin was head of the commission, a man of mature years and Penn’s own kinsman, like Markham.
It appears by a letter from Penn to Markham, dated London, October 18, 1681, that Penn intended Crispin to hold high office in the new province. He says:
“I have sent my cosen, William Crispen, to be thy assistant, as my commission will appear. His Skill, experience, Industry and Integrity are well known to me, and particularly in Court keeping &c., so yt is my will and pleasure that he be as Chief Justice to keep ye Seal, ye Courts and Sessions, & he shall be accountable to me for it.”
The honor, therefore, of discharging the highest judicial office in Pennsylvania is to be attributed to the man appointed by the proprietary in pursuance of the act of 1684—that man was Dr. Nicholas More.
It is difficult to understand the abilities and character of More. He was educated in medicine, but drifted away, in his mature years, from the practice of his profession, and in 1681 became the president of the Society of Free Traders, and a large purchaser of land in the new Province of Pennsylvania.
Nicholas More arrived in the province with Penn in 1682, and though not a member of the Society of Friends, he so far won their confidence that he was returned a member of the first Assembly at Chester, and probably was the speaker of that body. He continued a member for three years, and in 1684 was again elected its speaker.
In August, 1684, he was commissioned Chief Justice by the Proprietary and at once entered upon the discharge of the functions of that high office.
In spite of the estimable qualities which entitled him to these honors, his character was stained with faults, and his haughty demeanor, harsh and ungoverned temper, incensed those with whom he was brought in contact.
In 1683 a Council and Assembly attempted to function with less members than required by the Frame of Government. More reminded them they had broken the Charter and their acts would amount to nothing. He further said: “Hundreds in England will curse you * * * and their children after them, and you may be impeached for treason for what you do.”
He denounced them when they passed laws which he opposed, and used language which was not in common usage among the pious Quakers.
These practices and his overbearing and haughty spirit made More many enemies in all classes. It is therefore with but little surprise that the Assembly formally impeached him early in his judicial career.
On the morning of May 15, 1685, a member of the House presented a formal complaint. More, who was sitting as a delegate, was ordered to withdraw. The articles of accusation were read and approved, and a committee named to conduct the impeachment. But the Council received the accusers with grave civility and gave the Judge until 7 o’clock the following morning to answer the charges.
More was not inclined to gracefully submit himself to the judgment of the Council and bitterly accused Abraham Mann as “a person of a seditious spirit.” He did not appear before Council and also refused to attend when warned by a committee.
The Assembly prudently resolved to collect the testimony necessary to make good their charges. They required the records of the Provincial Court, which were in possession of Patrick Robinson, clerk of the Court, who happened to be present in the House. He was little in sympathy with the impeachment and refused to produce the desired records. He even alleged that the records were “written in Latin where one word stood for a sentence and in unintelligible characters which no person could read but himself; no, not an angel from Heaven.”
The clerk held firm and then withdrew from the House. A warrant was issued by the Speaker and he was placed in the custody of the sheriff.
More all this time, secretly supported by the Governor and his friends in the Council, took no notice of the proceedings against him. He told John Briggs, a member of the House, “Either I myself or some of you will be hanged and I advise you to enter your protest against it.”
On the morning of May 18 the Assembly met after a long conference with the Council. They once more endeavored to extort the records from Robinson, who was brought into the House in the custody of the Sheriff, but in vain. Robinson threw himself on the floor and refused to arise or answer any questions put to him. The House, therefore, hastened to make an end of the business. They expelled More, resolved to ask that Robinson should be removed from office, hastily gathered together their evidence, and presented themselves before the Council.
More again absented himself, but the evidence against him was sufficiently serious. He was proved to have acted in a summary and unlawful way in summoning juries; to have perverted the sense of the testimony; to have unduly harassed a jury into finding an unjust verdict, etc., and finally of having used “several contemptuous and derogatory expressions ... of the Provincial Council and of the present state of Government by calling the members thereof fooles and loggerheads,” and by saying “it was well if all the laws had dropt and that it never would be good times as long as ye Quakers had ye administration.”
The speaker requested that both More and Robinson be dismissed from office, and the Assembly withdrew.
The Governor and Council were puzzled how to act. Robinson was retained until he became so insolent that he was dismissed. But More had incurred the displeasure of public opinion, yet they could not proceed against him. The further prosecution of his case was postponed month by month by trivial excuses, till more important matters took its place in the public mind.
It is reasonable to conclude that Judge More must have been possessed of some sterling qualities and considerable natural parts to warrant Penn in his appointment. His dismissal from office ended his career as a public man.
Dr. More was the founder of the Manor of Moreland. He died after a languishing illness in 1689.
Massacre at French Jacob Groshong’s in
Union County, May 16, 1780
In the spring of 1780 occurred an Indian massacre at what was then known as French Jacob’s Mill. The site of this fatal attack is on a farm long in the possession of the Wohlheiter family, situated about one-half a mile southeast of the Forest House, at the end of Brush Valley Narrows, in what is now Union County.
Here in 1776 Jacob Groshong, or French Jacob, as he was called by his neighbors, built a log mill, which was patronized by the settlers for many miles around.
On May 16, 1780, a patrol of Continental soldiers on duty as a garrison at the mill, was attacked by a party of Indians, and four of the defenders were killed and several wounded. Those killed were John Foster, James Chambers, George Etzweiler and Samuel McLaughlin.
The soldiers were outside the mill at the time of the attack washing themselves. They had just returned from patroling that neighborhood and were confident the immediate country was free of redskins.
Christian Shively heard the firing as he was threshing grain in a field. He immediately concealed his wife and two small children near the creek, then rolled some logs into the stream and tied them into a raft, put his wife and children on, and floated down stream to safety. Henry Pontius, a neighbor, also heard the shots, secured his gun, hurriedly mounted a horse and made a circuit through the woods, and came to the mill just in time to see the Indians fleeing with their plunder.
An appeal for assistance was sent to the seat of Government, and the following day messengers set off for Philadelphia. A detail started for New Berlin, bearing the bodies of the murdered soldiers, but when John Clark’s farm was reached the party was divided. Those carrying the bodies of John Foster and James Chambers were compelled to make burial in the Lewis graveyard, as the weather was too excessively hot. The other party, bearing the body of George Etzweiler, buried it on the farm of John Brook, where his grave was suitably marked. The body of Samuel McLaughlin was carried to New Berlin and buried in the Dry Run Cemetery.
Colonel Matthew Smith sent a letter to General Joseph Reed, president of the State, dated Northumberland, May 18, 1780, in which he complained bitterly of the defenseless frontiers, and begged for immediate assistance. He said:
“Sir, unless some support can be instantly afforded, the State must shortly count one county less than formerly—which God forbid. I refer you, Dear Sir, to the bearer, General Potter, for further information, as he waits on horseback, whilst I write this imperfect, distressed account. Provisions none; cash none, nor can it be had in this place. General Potter’s account from this place to the Honorable Assembly, which I doubt not you will see, will fully satisfy you of the state of this place.”
This mill, where the Indian fight occurred, was a favorite place for visitors as long as it stood.
Some time between 1776 and 1779 Jacob Groshong built a little log mill on a site long afterward known as Solomon Heberling’s. He thought he had a clear title to the location, but he was defeated in a law suit for possession.
Groshong later moved up into the Nittany Mountain, in now Center County, and then went West. His name, or rather his nickname, is still preserved in connection with a rather large spring a little above the tavern, on the Bush Valley road. He is the hero of many of the wild tales of Indian troubles in that part of the valley.
On July 14, following this attack at French Jacob’s, the Indians attacked the family of Allens living at the mouth of Buffalo Creek, now Lewisburg. The woman succeeded in making her escape across the creek, but the husband and three children were killed.
The same day Baltzer Klinesmith was killed and his two daughters, Elizabeth and Catherine, were carried off. This was in the vicinity of the present Dreisbach Church, Union County.
The Indians and their prisoners arrived at a spring north of New Berlin, where they left the girls in charge of an old Indian and went down Dry Valley. It soon began to rain and the Indian made the girls gather brush to cover a bag of flour they had stolen. He laid down under a tree with his tomahawk under his head. The girls, passing with brush, gradually worked it from under him as he slept. Elizabeth secured it and motioned to her sister to run. She then sank it into the old Indian’s head and made her escape.
The Indians returned about this time and pursued the girls, reaching them when they neared the house. A rifle ball passed through Catherine’s shoulder, which maimed her for life, but the girls succeeded in reaching their home and the men, already alarmed and prepared, gave chase to the savages.
Two days after these attacks Colonel John Kelly enrolled a company of Northumberland County militia, with James Thompson as captain; Joseph Poak, lieutenant, and Alexander Ewing, ensign.
Indian War Known as Pontiac Conspiracy
Opened May 17, 1763
General John Forbes and his invincible army invested the ruins of Fort Duquesne, November 24, 1758. There was no attempt made to restore the old fortification, but about one year later work was begun on a new fort, under the personal direction of General John Stanwix, who succeeded General Forbes, which has since been known as Fort Pitt.
It was built near the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela unite their waters, but a little farther inland than the site of Fort Duquesne. The exact date of its completion is not known, but on March 21, 1760, Major General Stanwix, having finished his work, set out on his return journey to Philadelphia.
The effect of this stronghold was soon apparent in the return of about 4000 settlers to their lands on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, from which they had been driven by their savage enemies, and the brisk trade which at once began to be carried on with the now, to all appearance, friendly Indians. However, this security was not of long duration. The definite treaty of peace between England, Spain and France was signed February 10, 1763, but before that time, Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawas, was planning his conspiracy, which carried death and desolation throughout the frontier.
The French had always tried to ingratiate themselves with the Indians. When their warriors came to the French forts they were hospitably welcomed and liberally supplied with guns, ammunition and clothing. The English, on the contrary, either gave reluctantly or did not give at all.
In a spirit of revenge and hatred a powerful confederacy was formed which included all the Western tribes, under the command of Pontiac, alike renowned for his warlike spirit, his wisdom and his bravery, and whose name was a terror to the entire region of the lakes. The blow was to be struck the middle of May, 1763. The tribes were to rise simultaneously and attack the English garrisons. Thus a sudden attack was made May 17, on all Western posts.
Detroit was saved after a long and close siege. Forts Pitt and Niagara narrowly escaped, while Le Boeuff, Venango, Presque Isle, Miami, St. Joseph, Ouachtown, Sandusky, and Michillimackimac all fell into the hands of the savages. Their garrisons were either butchered on the spot, or carried off to be tortured for the amusement of their cruel captors.
The Indians swept over the surrounding country, carrying death and destruction wherever they went. Hundreds of traders were slaughtered without mercy, while their wives and children, if not murdered, were carried off captives. The property destroyed or stolen amounted, it is said, to five hundred thousand pounds.
Attacks were made at Forts Bedford and Ligonier, but without success. Fort Ligonier was under siege for two months. The preservation of this post was of the utmost importance, and Lieutenant Blaine, by his courage and good conduct, managed to hold out until August 2, 1763, when Colonel Henry Bouquet arrived with his little army to relieve him.
In the meantime, every preparation was made at Fort Pitt for an attack. The garrison at that post numbered 330, commanded by Captain Simeon Ecuyer, a brave Swiss. The fortifications were repaired, barracks were made shot-proof and a rude fire-engine was constructed to extinguish any flames kindled by the fire arrows of the Indians. All the houses and cabins outside the walls were leveled to the ground. The fort was crowded with the families of the settlers.
Several weeks elapsed before there was any determined attack from the enemy. Only July 26 some chiefs asked for a parley with Captain Ecuyer, which was granted. They demanded that he and all in the fort should leave it immediately or it and they would all be destroyed.
On the night succeeding this parley the Indians approached in great numbers, crawling under the banks of the two rivers, in which they were completely sheltered from the fire of the fort. On the one side the entire bank was lined with the burrows, from which they shot volleys of bullets, arrows and fire-arrows into the fort. The yelling was terrific, and the women and children in the crowded barracks clung to each other in abject terror. This attack lasted for five days. On August 1, the Indians heard the rumor that Colonel Bouquet was approaching with a large force of troops, which caused them to give up the attack and move off, thus relieving the garrison.
When the news of this sudden Indian uprising reached General Amherst he ordered Colonel Bouquet to march with a detachment of 500 men to the relief of the besieged forts. This force was composed of regulars and six companies of Provincial Rangers.
Bouquet established his rendezvous in Carlisle, where he arrived the latter part of June, 1763. Here he found every building, every house, every barn, every hovel crowded with terrified refugees. He wrote to General Amherst, July 13, as follows:
“The list of people known to be killed increases every day. The desolation of so many families, reduced to the last extremity of want and misery; the despair of those who have lost their parents, relations and friends, with the cries of distracted women and children who fill the streets, form a scene painful to humanity and impossible to describe.”
Strange as it may seem, the Province of Pennsylvania would do nothing to aid the troops who gathered for its defense. Colonel Bouquet, in another letter to General Amherst, said: “I hope we shall be able to save that infatuated people from destruction, notwithstanding[notwithstanding] all their endeavors to defeat your vigorous measures.”
While Bouquet, harassed and exasperated, labored on at his difficult task, the terror of the frontier people increased, until at last, finding they could hope for but little aid from the Government, they bestirred themselves with admirable spirit in their own defense. They raised small bodies of riflemen, who scoured the woods in front of the settlements, and succeeded in driving the enemy back. In many instances the men dressed themselves in Indian fashion, painted their faces red and black, and adopted the savage mode of warfare.
Forts Pitt, Niagara and Detroit were saved. Colonel Bouquet relieved Fort Pitt; Niagara was not attacked, and Detroit, after a long siege by Pontiac in person, was relieved by Colonel Bradstreet in 1764.
The Indians were speedily subdued, but Pontiac remained hostile until his death in 1769.
Meschianza, Stupendous Entertainment for
Sir Wm. Howe, May 18, 1778
The British spent the winter of 1777–78 in Philadelphia, and while the Americans were suffering at Valley Forge, Sir William Howe’s army enjoyed one long round of pleasure in the capital city. The officers entertained themselves with fetes, dances and theatre parties, and they played cricket and had cock-fights. As Franklin said: “Howe did not take Philadelphia—Philadelphia took Howe.”
Howe was criticized at home, where he was regarded as indolent in command and he resigned. Sir Henry Clinton superseded him.
On May 18, 1778, before Howe’s departure, a fete at the home of Thomas Wharton, at Walnut Grove, was arranged for him by Major John Andre, a talented man, attractive to the ladies, who was later hanged as a spy. It was called the Meschianza, and comprised a regatta, tournament, feast and ball. It was a splendid folly in itself, and is notorious in American history.
After all, the performance must have been crude and some of the features of it in bad taste and incongruous. The elements of the medley would not mix. Major Andre says the cost of the entertainment was defrayed by twenty-two officers of Howe’s staff.
The Meschianza began with a regatta, which was in fact a military procession along the waterfront; boats, barges and galleys, filled with guests and officers, including Lord Howe, General Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, Lord Rawdon and General Knyphausen, moving in three divisions down the river, the surrounding vessels decked with flags and the wharves teaming with spectators.
As the company disembarked at the Wharton mansion they marched through files of grenadiers and light horse. On the lawn the bands in massed formation played favorite airs. Triumphal arches were erected on the lawn near the mansion, under which the ladies were received as at a royal court.
Here were seated seven of the principal belles dressed in Turkish habits and wearing in their turbans the favors with which they meant to reward the several knights who were to contend in their honor. At a blast of the trumpets, a band of knights, dressed in ancient habits and mounted on gray horses, with rich trappings, dashed into the court. Each knight was accompanied by an esquire on foot. There were heralds and others, all in robes of ceremony.
Lord Cathcart, superbly mounted, appeared as the chief of the White Knights. His lady was Miss Auchmuty. Then came Captain Cathcart, the first knight, in honor of Miss N. White; Lieutenant Bygrove and Miss Jane Craig; Captain Andre and Miss Peggy Chew; Captain Horneck and Miss Nancy Redman; Captain Matthews and Miss Wilhelmina Bond, Lieutenant Sloper and Miss Mary Shippen.
A herald then proclaimed a challenge for “The Knights of the Blended Rose,” which was accepted by “The Knights of the Burning Mountain,” led by Captain Watson, of the Black Knights, whose particular lady was Miss Rebecca Franks. These knights and their ladies were Lieutenant Underwood and Miss Sarah Shippen, Lieutenant Winyard and Miss Peggy Shippen, Lieutenant Delaval and Miss Becky Bond, Monsier Montluissant and Miss Rebecca Redman, Lieutenant Hobart and Miss Sophia Chew and Major Tarleton and Miss Wilhelmina Smith.
These ladies wore costumes uniformly similar to that adopted by their knights. The ladies of the Blended Rose each wore white silk, pink sash and spangled shoes and stockings. The ladies of the Burning Mountain wore white silk gowns trimmed with black and white sashes edged with black.
The Black Knights threw down the gauntlet to the White Knights. It was picked up. Then the knights fixed their lances and shields and, galloping at full speed, encountered several times. The third such charge was ended by the firing of pistols, then the sword of combat, and at last the two chiefs engaged in single combat, till the marshal, Major Gwynne, rushed between them and declared that the fair damsels of the Blended Rose and the Burning Mountain were satisfied with the feats of valor of their respective knights, and favors were then distributed, and the knights rode off the field.
They then reappeared riding through the triumphal arch and presented themselves to Lord Howe, which was followed by a grand procession. The entertainment then continued in the mansion, which had been transformed for the occasion into an Egyptian palace. The ballroom contained eighty-five large mirrors, and was lighted with thirty-four branches of wax-lights.
The four drawing rooms where the refreshments were served were decorated and lighted in the same style and taste as the ballroom.
The ball by the knights and their ladies, and the dancing continued until 10 o’clock when the windows were thrown open and a magnificent bouquet of rockets began the fireworks.
This part of the elaborate entertainment was designed by Captain Montressor, the chief engineer, and consisted of twenty different exhibitions, displayed under his direction and to the delight and satisfaction of all present. The conclusion was the illumination of the triumphal arch, with a display of all the trophies.
At midnight supper was announced, and large folding-doors, suddenly thrown open, disclosed a magnificent salon 210 feet by 40. Here again many mirrors, artificial flowers and clusters of lights were made to produce a wonderful effect. Covers were laid for 430 guests.
Toward the end of the supper the herald of the Blended Rose attended, entered the saloon and proclaimed the King’s health, the Queen, royal family, army, navy, their commanders, the knights and their ladies and the ladies in general, each of these toasts being accompanied by a flourish of music. Dancing was then continued until 4 o’clock.
While this revelry was at its height the sound of cannon was heard in the North. The English officers explained to their frightened partners in the dance that it was part of the ceremony. But it was not. Captain McLane, a dashing officer, hearing of the Meschianza, at the head of 100 infantry and Clow’s dragoons, reached the line of redoubts between the Delaware and Schuylkill, painted everything within reach with tar and, at a given signal, set it on fire. The sudden blaze took the British by surprise, the long roll was beaten, every cannon in the redoubts was fired. The British cavalry dashed out into the night, but the daring Americans were nowhere to be found.
Colonel Pluck Parades His Celebrated
“Bloody Eighty-Fourth” Regiment,
May 19, 1825
An amusing sensation started in 1824 continued to attract attention in Philadelphia during the following year.
There had been more or less laxity in the various militia organizations in the election of their officers and this was much more evident in Philadelphia than elsewhere in the State.
John Pluck, an ignorant hostler, was elected colonel of the Eighty-fourth Regiment as a joke and to ridicule the militia system, which at that moment was very unpopular with the members.
This election had been resisted by many who were disinclined to treat so serious a matter jocularly, and the board of officers set aside the election as illegal, and ordered a new election.
At the next election John Pluck received 447 votes; Benjamin Harter, 64; and John Ferdey, commonly called “Whistling Johnny,” 15.
The successful candidate treated the matter seriously and issued an order for a parade of the First Battalion on May 1, on Callowhill Street, the right resting on Sixth Street; and the Second Battalion was ordered to parade at the same place on May 19.
The order further directed that Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Norbury was to command the training of the First Battalion. The colonel himself was to take charge of the Second Battalion.
The papers of that day do not notice the parade of the First Battalion, which was scheduled for May 1, but they have much to say about the big parade of May 19.
It seems that by this time most of the militiamen in the regiment fully sensed the ridiculous position they were in with such an ignorant commander, and on the occasion of this much heralded parade the members appeared in fantastic costumes.
Many of the militiamen were armed with ponderous imitations of weapons, and a large number of the populace turned out in the parade, dressed in every imaginable sort of costume, such as would even cause a ripple of laughter at Hallowe’en; these were armed with brooms, rakes, hoes and every conception of weapon.
Philadelphia had never before witnessed such a “military” parade, and was quite unaccustomed to such a display, and this regimental review of “horribles” attracted much attention.
Colonel Pluck was mounted on a fine steed, and Adjutant Roberts, also well mounted, were the moving spirits of the parade and did not seem to fully realize the burlesque features of it.
The regiment marched out to Bush Hill, followed by thousands of people on foot and hundreds on horseback.
The press was either silent or expressed dissatisfaction. It could not have done otherwise.
A few days following the parade Colonel Pluck issued new orders. He said: “Well, I am an honest man, anyhow. And I ain’t afraid to fight, and that’s more than most of them can say.”
The United States Gazette said, “Pluck is the head groom at the corner of Third and Callowhill Streets. Some months ago he was chosen commander-in-chief of the ‘bloody Eighty-fourth;’ but the powers that be refused to commission him. * * * The Militia system is a farce. Demagogues[Demagogues] have been using commissions in the militia as stepping-stones to offices of profit and honor. A cure must be found for the evil, which is to make fun of it.”
The “Pluck Parade” rendered one other good service to Philadelphia. When the regiment paraded to Bush Hill and wound up the day in disorderly frivolities, the grand jury in June declared Bush Hill a public nuisance. This was a large open field on the north side of Callowhill Street, between Schuylkill Fourth and Schuylkill Fifth.
The presentment of the grand jury states that men and women resorted there on various days, as well as on the Sabbath, “drinking, tippling, cursing, swearing, etc.” The grand jury further said that it had “particular reference to the days on which regiments and battalions of militia parade, when numerous booths, tents, and gaming tables are there erected.”
It would be supposed that such a fantastic exhibition, directed against the militia system, would soon cause a change in the existing law, but it did no such thing.
The act of Assembly of April 2, 1822, had reorganized the militia of Pennsylvania, and divided the State into sixteen military divisions.
But the act did not work to the advantage of the militia system. It developed a lot of merely dress parade organizations, which were usually equipped with costly and gaudy uniforms, while discipline and military regulations became at once of secondary importance.
From 1808 to 1844, the laws were principally for designating independent companies with high-sounding names. Such militiamen were exempted from drilling with regular militia, and occasionally the Legislature made appropriations to certain favored companies.
The music on days of general muster was not only made a special feature of the occasion but its cost was borne by the State.
So it is little wonder that the “Bloody Eighty-fourth,” elected “Colonel Pluck,” or that the populace and papers of that day demanded a change in the militia system of the State.
Lafayette Executes Skillful Retreat at Matson’s
Ford, May 20, 1778
As an appropriate closing to the round of dissipation in which the British Army had indulged during its occupation of Philadelphia, the officers gave a magnificent entertainment, called the Meschianza, in honor of Sir William Howe, as commander-in-chief of the British Army in America. This stupendous folly was given May 18, 1778, at the Wharton mansion.
Shortly after the close of the entertainment, on the following day, the British commander was informed that General Lafayette with 2400 men and five cannon had crossed the Schuylkill and was then at Barren Hill, about eleven miles from Philadelphia.
In the hope of capturing this force, and thus signalizing his retirement from the command by a brilliant stroke, General Howe, on the night of the 19th, sent General Grant, with Sir William Erskine and General Grey, at the head of 5300 chosen men, to gain the rear of Lafayette’s position by a circuitous route. General Howe, accompanied by Sir Henry Clinton, General Knyphausen and Admiral Howe, set out with 5700 troops on the following morning, May 20, expecting to intercept the American Army in retreat at Chestnut Hill.
Lafayette’s position was skillfully chosen. His troops were encamped on a commanding eminence west of the Wissahickon, flanked by the Schuylkill and rocky precipices on the right and by woods and several strong stone houses on the left. His cannon were in front. A few hundred yards in advance of his left wing, on the Ridge road, were Captain Allen McLane’s company of about fifty Indians and a company of Morgan’s Riflemen, under Captain Parr. Videttes and pickets were stationed on the roads leading to Philadelphia and those toward Whitemarsh he had ordered to be watched by 600 Pennsylvania militia.
The British plan of surprise was well conceived. Grant, with the grenadiers and light infantry, undertook to get in Lafayette’s rear by the Whitemarsh road. Grey, with the Hessians, was to cross the river and post his men at the fords in order to prevent the Americans from making their escape.
Early in the morning of the 20th, while Lafayette was conversing with a girl who was preparing to go into Philadelphia for intelligence under the pretense of visiting her relations, news came that a body of cavalry had been seen at Whitemarsh, dressed in red. As Lafayette was expecting a detachment of dragoons to join him in that direction, he at first supposed they were his own men and felt no concern.
Lafayette, however, sent out an officer to reconnoiter, who soon returned with the report that a column of the enemy was in full march along the road from Whitemarsh to Swede’s Ford, a little more than a mile from his encampment, and that the front of the column had actually gained the road which led from Barren Hill to Valley Forge.
This was Grant’s division and as another was approaching on the Philadelphia road, the situation of Lafayette’s force was alarming and critical, being nearly surrounded by the enemy.
No time was to be lost. In a few minutes retreat would have been cut off and the army would have fallen an easy prey to the British. Lafayette immediately sent forward small bodies of troops with the view of deceiving Grant into the belief that they were the heads of a large attacking force.
This ruse succeeded. Grant halted and prepared for action to prevent his line from being attacked on its flank, and during the interval thus gained Lafayette and General Poor, with the main body, conducted a skillful retreat over the country between the Ridge road and the Schuylkill, which he crossed at Matson’s Ford.
Grey, with his intercepting force, had cut off the direct retreat to Valley Forge, but had failed to cover Matson’s Ford. The detachments which Lafayette had thrown forward as a “blind” retreated in good order, and when the two columns of the British Army united near Barren Hill Church, General Howe discovered that his intended prize had outwitted and escaped him.
While the artillery was crossing the river, there was a skirmish at Matson’s Ford, in which nine Americans were killed or captured and two British troopers killed and several wounded.
Lafayette drew up his force in strong position on the west bank of the river, and, having planted his cannon, awaited the enemy’s approach. But the British generals made no further movement in that direction, and the army was forced to return to Philadelphia, after a long and fatiguing march, without having accomplished anything. Seldom has a military maneuvre been executed with more success.
Howe and the British officers were intensely mortified at this failure. So sure were they of success that it is said that before the troops left for Barren Hill the General invited some ladies to sup with Lafayette upon his return, while his brother, the admiral, prepared a frigate to send the distinguished prisoner immediately to England.
Fortune had favored the British in so far that Lafayette would not have been surprised, but for the negligence of the Pennsylvania militia, who in disobedience of orders, had removed from their station at Whitemarsh without the General’s knowledge.
An amusing adventure occurred during the retreat. A body of British light horse came suddenly upon the Indians, who were posted in a wood at a considerable distance from the main army. The Indians fired their muskets and set up a hideous yell, according to their custom in battle. Both parties ran off, equally frightened at the unexpected and terrific appearance of their antagonists.
Stephen Girard, Resident of Philadelphia by
Accident, Born May 21, 1750
Stephen Girard was born near Bordeaux, France, May 21, 1750, the son of a sea captain. At the age of eight a little playmate threw an oyster shell into the open fire, it cracked, a piece struck Stephen and put out his right eye. The other boys of the neighborhood made fun of the one-eyed lad, which, with the sternness of his parents soured Stephen’s disposition, and he became sullen and gloomy.
His mother died, and Stephen could no longer bear to live at home. Although but fourteen he sailed as cabin boy on the ship Pelerin for St. Domingo, and then for nine years sailed between Bordeaux and the French West Indies, during which time he studied navigation, until October 4, 1773, a license was issued “to Stephen Girard, of Bordeaux, full authority to act as captain, master and patron of a merchant vessel.”
His attention now turned to commercial affairs in connection with the pursuit of the sea. His journal contains records of invoices and sales of goods suited to a West Indian market. These goods, amounting in value to $3000 Federal money, were disposed of in St. Domingo, February, 1774.
From the West Indies he sailed to New York, arrived there July, 1774. Here his business tact and shrewdness in trade attracted the notice of Thomas Randall, a prosperous merchant, and for more than two years Girard traded with New York, New Orleans and Port au Prince, on his own account and jointly with Mr. Randall.
One night in May, 1776, Stephen Girard’s vessel was overtaken by a storm and the ship was driven before the gale, until Captain Girard could hear the waves upon the shore. He cast anchor and waited for the morning. When daylight dawned the fog was too heavy for him to locate his position.
Girard fired a cannon as a signal of distress, which was soon answered by the approach of a pilot. “Where are we?” asked Captain Girard. “You are in Delaware Bay,” answered the pilot. “I wish to go to New York,” said Girard. “It can’t be done,” was the reply, “the British ships are swarming outside. You escaped them because of the fog but as soon as it disappears they will see and capture you. You must sail up to Philadelphia.”
Captain Stephen Girard saw that the advice was good, went to Philadelphia, sold his vessel and cargo, and made the city his home.
He set up a small store on Water Street, a short distance from the spot where he afterward located. He had no friends, and could speak English but poorly, but his business ability was so pronounced that he succeeded from the very beginning.
In July, 1777, he married Mary Lumm, of Philadelphia, the daughter of a shipbuilder, but the union was unhappy. Mr. Girard applied for a divorce, but his wife died of insanity in a hospital.
The approach of the British troops to Philadelphia drove Mr. Girard to Mount Holly, N. J., where he enjoyed a profitable trade with the American sailors, until the evacuation of Philadelphia, when he returned and for a few years was associated in business with his brother, John. This connection was dissolved in 1780, by which time Stephen had gained a fortune of $30,000.
During the next ten years he acquired a number of vessels, and had secured the lease on a range of stores at a time when rents were low, which he underlet at a large profit. He began to build a splendid fleet of ships, and soon every ocean saw Girard’s vessels.
Once when the United States was again troubled by the British, a ship owned by Girard, carrying a rich cargo from the East, almost in sight of Delaware Bay, was captured. Girard drove a bargain with the British captain and bought back his vessel for $180,000. Then he brought her to Philadelphia and sold the cargo for $500,000. It was difficult to beat Stephen Girard.
He was very frugal in private life, but generous in public affairs. During the yellow fever epidemic in 1793, Girard personally devoted several hours each day serving in the hospital. Of all his benefactions for the poor of his adopted country, this was really his noblest work.
His mercantile business had grown so profitable and his fortune had increased so rapidly that in June, 1812, he determined to devote his attention to banking. To this end he purchased the bank-house of the Bank of the United States and opened “The Bank of Stephen Girard,” with a capital of $1,200,000, which was increased afterward to $4,000,000.
Just as Robert Morris was the financier of the Revolution, so Stephen Girard was the financier of the War of 1812. In 1814 it looked as though the American cause must fail for lack of funds, and the heads of the national Government were in despair. A loan was offered in the money market, but so low was the credit of the Nation that only $200,000 was subscribed. Thereupon Stephen Girard took the whole issue of bonds, amounting to $5,000,000, and saved us from defeat and a disgraceful peace with England.
Girard contributed liberally to public improvements, and adorned Philadelphia with many handsome buildings.
At the age of eighty Girard was the richest man in America. The same year he was knocked down by a carriage and badly injured. “Go on, doctor, I am an old sailor; I can bear a great deal,” he said to his physician. He lived two years afterward.
When he died, December 26, 1831, his estate was valued at $9,000,000. Besides large bequests to public institutions, he gave $500,000 to improve the water front of Philadelphia. He gave $2,000,000 and a plot of ground for the erection and support of a college for orphans, which was opened January 1, 1848.
At his death he was buried in the vault of the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, but on the completion of Girard College his remains were reinterred in a sarcophagus beneath the statue of the donor in the vestibule of the main building of the college.
Girard College is the most richly endowed educational institution in the world, and its founder was one of the most remarkable men who ever lived, and his accidental residence in Philadelphia was one of the most fortunate incidents in the history of Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia Paid Homage to Lady
Washington, May 22, 1789
The completion of the Federal Constitution and its adoption by ten of the United States was celebrated on July 4, 1788, by a great procession in the City of Philadelphia. And it was truly a great affair, far surpassing in extent and magnificence anything of the kind the young Nation had yet known.
Immediately after the close of the constitutional convention which this pageant celebrated, General Washington, who had presided over the convention as its president, left Philadelphia for his home at Mount Vernon, again hoping that he might enjoy the freedom of life on his extensive lands on the banks of the Potomac. But this could not be so in his case.
The first election for President of the United States was held January 7, 1789, and the country called Washington to be its first President under the Constitution which he had helped to formulate. President-elect Washington set out from Mount Vernon for New York, where Congress was in session, in April, after having been officially notified of his election.
His many friends in Philadelphia were reluctant to see him go to New York, but made elaborate preparations for his reception in Philadelphia when he should pass through that city on the way to assume the high office. He was met by the Hon. Thomas Mifflin, president of the State; distinguished officers, the First City Troop of Horse and citizens. The imposing parade passed through arches formed of laurel, and along streets crowded with people and buildings decorated with flags. A banquet was spread, toasts were drunk and addresses delivered by the high officials of the State.
The next day President Washington set out for Trenton in his carriage.
Less than a month later Mrs. Washington, or Lady Washington, as many persisted in calling her, followed the general to New York and like her distinguished husband, she was delightfully entertained by her many friends and admirers in Philadelphia.
On Friday, May 22, the two troops of Light Horse, commanded by Captain Miles and Bingham, accompanied by General Mifflin, president of the State; Richard Peters, Speaker of the Assembly, and many ladies and gentlemen prominent in Philadelphia and the State, went to a point near Darby to meet her. Mrs. Robert Morris with a company of ladies in carriages joined the escort there.
When Mrs. Washington arrived all went to Grays Ferry where a fine collation was served at Gray’s Garden. In the party besides the president of the State and Speaker of the Assembly, were Temple Franklin, Benjamin Crew, Jr., Robert Morris, Jr., William Morris, Richard Bache, John Ross, Robert Hare, George Harrison, Samuel Meredith, also the gentlemen troopers, a large number of Continental officers, citizens and about twenty ladies.
There is a record of this luncheon and bill of expenses which reveal that the company consumed ten bottles of Madeira wine, one bottle of champagne, two bottles of claret, forty-five bowls of punch, ten bottles of American porter, one bottle of ale, and two bottles of cider.
The honored visitor was then escorted by the troopers to the residence of Robert Morris, on High Street, amid the ringing of bells, the discharge of salvos of artillery, and the shouts of great crowds of people.
Mrs. Washington remained in Philadelphia over the week-end. There were entertainments given in her honor during these two days.
On Monday she was similarly complimented upon her departure for New York, and accompanied by Mrs. Robert Morris, she was escorted upon her way for a considerable distance.
In New York, on May 29, at the opening levee, Mrs. Morris occupied the first place on the right of the hostess. This position of honor was accorded her whenever she was present at a similar function, either in New York or Philadelphia.
The glad news was soon received in Philadelphia that the capital was to be removed from New York to the city which had been the capital of the thirteen colonies during the Revolution and where the Constitution of the United States was born.
President and Mrs. Washington soon became comfortably settled in the fine home of Robert Morris, the same house which Sir William Howe occupied while the British were in possession of Philadelphia and General Washington was suffering with the Colonial troops at Valley Forge. The Morris house was built of brick, three stories high. The stable could accommodate twelve horses. This property was purchased by Mr. Morris in August, 1785, and at once he rebuilt the house, which had been destroyed by fire in 1780. Mr. and Mrs. Morris moved into the house which had been confiscated from Joseph Galloway during the Revolution. It adjoined the other residence.
The President and Mrs. Washington reached Philadelphia November 27, 1790. At the first levee given Mr. and Mrs. Morris were, as usual, honored guests.
The home of the Washingtons became noted for its generous hospitality. The younger people of the President’s household, as well as their elders, were fond of going to the theatre.
The family of the President and his wife included Miss Custis, a granddaughter of Mrs. Washington, aged about sixteen, and George Washington Custis, her brother, about eighteen years old.
Their dinners were elegant and in good taste. President Washington had a stud of twelve or fourteen horses and occasionally rode out to take the air with six horses to the coach, and always two footmen behind his carriage.
When the news reached Philadelphia that Washington had died,[died,] bells were muffled for three days, a funeral procession was held and Major General Henry Lee delivered an oration.
With Washington gone, the removal of the capital to the new Federal City did not bring such a wrench to the people of Philadelphia, who dearly loved the great and good man and his estimable wife.
Moravian Mission at Wyalusing Established
May 23, 1763
During the month of May, 1760, Christian Frederic Post, the renowned Moravian, on his way with a message from James Hamilton, Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, to the Great Indian Council at Onondaga, the seat of government of the Six Nations, stopped overnight at Wyalusing in now Bradford County. At the request of Papunhank, the chief of the Munsee, and the other Indians, he preached a sermon. Among those in the crowd on that occasion were Job Chilloway, the friendly Delaware Indian interpreter, and Tom Curtis, another Indian of much consequence.
Papunhank was losing his influence among his people on account of his own dissolute life, and a movement was started to bring in white teachers. In their councils, however, they were divided in opinion, one party favoring the Quakers and the other the Moravians, and so equal was the strength of the two parties that neither was willing to yield to the other. Their differences were compromised by agreeing to accept the first teacher who came.
John Woolman, the prominent Quaker evangelist, having made the acquaintance of some of the Wyalusing Indians at Philadelphia, probably of Papunhank himself, after much deliberation, set out in company with Benjamin Parvin, to visit the town, in May, 1763, purposing, if he should be well received, to remain with them and teach them the gospel.
In the meantime, news of the awakened interest in religion at Wyalusing reached the ears of Reverend David Zeisberger, the celebrated Moravian apostle to the Indians, and he left Bethlehem May 18, 1763, meeting Woolman on the mountain below Wilkes-Barre, where they dined together. Zeisberger proceeded on his way and reached Wyalusing on May 23, two days before Woolman arrived there.
When Zeisberger had arrived a short distance above the Lackawanna, he was met by Job Chilloway who informed him of the conclusion of the council at Onondaga, and accompanied him to Papunhank’s town. Here Zeisberger was received as the divinely sent messenger, and though wearied by his long journey, at once set about preaching the gospel to his waiting and anxious hearers.
Woolman, on his arrival two days later, was received kindly, but was informed that, according to the decisions of their council, Zeisberger must be regarded as their accepted teacher. After remaining five days to assist in inaugurating the good work, he departed, with many prayers for the abundant success of the mission. The opportune arrival of Zeisberger was the occasion of founding one of the most important and successful missions ever established among the North American Indians.
Zeisberger was appointed resident missionary at Wyalusing soon as it was learned that he had been so well received. He prosecuted his labors there and at Tawandaemenk, a village at the mouth of Towanda Creek, with great success.
Scarcely had a month elapsed from the time Zeisberger’s first visit to Wyalusing, before the Pontiac War broke out, and the messengers of that celebrated chieftain were sent to every village on the Susquehanna, to urge the Indians to again take up the hatchet which they had so recently buried. These emissaries arrived at Wyalusing and Zeisberger was soon commanded to leave the town. All was now excitement and commotion. The intrepid missionary was compelled to suspend the work so auspiciously begun, but not before he had baptised Papunhank, who received the name of John, and another Indian who was called Peter.
The Moravian Christian Indians, for their greater security during the Pontiac War, in which they refused to take any part, were removed first to a settlement near Bethlehem, and then to Province Island, in the Delaware River, a little below Philadelphia, where they were sheltered in Government barracks. Thither Papunhank and twenty of his followers hastened. Here they lived for seventeen months, and at the first dawn of peace, emerged from their prison-like home and again sought homes in the forest. Papunhank invited the whole company to settle in his town on the Susquehanna. They accepted and marched to that place, led by their beloved teachers, Reverend Zeisberger and Reverend John Jacob Schmick.
This company, consisting of eighty adults and ninety children, set out from Bethlehem and after a tedious march of thirty-six days, arrived at Wyalusing May 9, 1765. They immediately set about building their town, and during the season thirty bark-covered huts, four log cabins, a mission house and church were erected.
The town was built on the east side of the river, about two miles south of the present borough of Wyalusing, and near the Sugar Run Station on the P. and N. Y. Railroad. The church was built of logs and had a belfry in which hung a bell. The town was surrounded by a post and rail fence. The streets were regularly cleaned by the Indian women. Adjoining the town were 250 acres of plantations. They also maintained sugar camps on Sugar Run.
The mission in 1766 received the name of Friedenshutten, meaning “Huts of Peace.” A schoolhouse was built next to the church, where adults and children were taught to read in both Delaware and German. Traders were not allowed to bring spirituous liquors into the town.
In 1767 the mission entertained Tuscarora and Nanticoke Indians on their migration northward.
Another mission was started at Sheshequanink, the present Ulster, soon after the close of the Pontiac War, but did not prosper as much as the older one. At the treaty of Fort Stanwix, November 5, 1768, the Six Nations sold this land away from the Delaware, and the Moravians were unable to induce Governor Penn to give them the land.
In September, 1766, Zeisberger left Friedenhutten[Friedenhutten], and went to the Delaware Indians on the Ohio River, where he established a mission. He soon induced the Indians at Wyalusing to follow him, and on June 11, 1772, the Indians at Wyalusing assembled in the church for the last time and then they marched in two companies for the Big Beaver, in now Lawrence County. They were led by the Reverend John Ettwein on this journey.
Peaceful Family of Chief Logan Slain by
Whites, May 24, 1774
In the spring of the year 1774, at a time when the Indians seemed to be quiet and tranquil, a party of Virginians attacked the Mingo settlement, on the Ohio River, and slaughtered the entire population, even the women with their children in their arms, and members of the great Chief Logan’s family were among the slain.
This tragic event occurred on May 24, 1774, and according to the common belief at the time was perpetrated by Captain Michael Cresap, and a party who deliberately set out to kill every Indian they met, without regard to age or sex.
The first person to state that Logan’s family was murdered by Cresap was no other than Thomas Jefferson, in his “Notes in Virginia.”
The main authority for the vindication of Michael Cresap’s memory, is the extremely rare little volume, Jacob’s “Life of Cresap,” published in 1826. Jacob sets up an alibi for Cresap, but the present writer accepts the popular story that the wanton murder was perpetrated under the direction of Cresap.
Tahgahjute was the second son of Shikellamy, the great vicegerent of the Six Nations. He was born at Shamokin, about 1725, and was given his Christian name Logan in honor of James Logan, Secretary of the Province, who was a devoted friend of the great Shikellamy.
But little is known of the early life of Logan, but he worked his way West by degrees. He was for a time on the Juniata, where several places still bear his name, but his final home was near the mouth of the Yellow Creek, thirty miles above Wheeling.
Reverend John Heckewelder, the noted Moravian missionary among the Indians, while passing down the Ohio, in April, 1773, stopped at Logan’s settlement and in his interesting journal notes that “I received every civility I could expect from such of the family as were at home.”
Cresap was on the Ohio, below Wheeling, engaged in making a settlement. Some pioneers resolved to attack an Indian town near the mouth of the Sciota, and solicited Cresap to command the expedition. They attacked two canoes filled with Indians, chased them fifteen miles down the river, where a skirmish ensued, and the Indians who were not killed were taken. On the return of this party they planned an expedition against the settlement of Logan.
Cresap and his party proceeded to a point near the settlement and encamped on the bank, when some Indians passed them peaceably and encamped at the mouth of Grave Creek, a little below. Cresap attacked and killed the party. One of Cresap’s men fell in this action. Among the slain of the Indians were some of Logan’s family. Smith, one of the murderers, boasted of this fact in the presence of Logan’s friends.
This party then proceeded to Baker’s Bottom, opposite the mouth of Yellow Creek, when Greathouse, a spy, crossed over and approached the Indian camp as a friend and counted them. He reported their number too large to attack and was then warned by an Indian woman to leave, as the Indians had learned of Cresap’s murder of their relatives at Grave Creek and were angry and that they were drinking.
He returned to Baker’s, collected a large enough force, all got drunk, and then in that condition they fell upon and massacred the whole Indian camp except a girl, whom they kept as a prisoner. Among the slain was the woman who had warned him of his danger. A sister of Logan was inhumanly and indecently butchered in this attack.
This commenced the war, of which Logan’s war club was the chief factor. The first family murdered by him was the warning of what might be expected. Logan left a note in the house of the murdered family, and, true to his threat, great numbers of innocent men, women and children fell victims to the tomahawk and scalping knife until the decisive battle at Point Pleasant October 10, 1774.
When Lord Dunmore finally conquered the Indians and the treaty was held, Cornstalk was the principal speaker. He laid much stress for the cause of the war on the murder of Logan’s family. Logan disdained to meet with the white men in council and sat sullenly in his cabin while the treaty was in progress. Dunmore sent Captain (afterward Major General) John Gibson to invite him to the council. General Gibson later became one of the Associate Judges of Allegheny County.
The old Mingo chief took Gibson into the woods and, sitting down upon a mossy root, told him the story of the wrongs done to him and, as Gibson related, shedding many bitter tears. He refused to go to the council, but, unwilling to disturb the deliberations by seeming opposition, he sent a speech by the hand of Gibson to Governor Dunmore, which has been preserved and greatly admired for its pathetic eloquence. The speech was as follows:
“I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan’s cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the white, that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said, ‘Logan is the friend of the white man.’ I had ever thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man, Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many; I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one.”
Lossing, in his “Field-Book of the Revolution,” says: “Logan, whose majestic person and mental accomplishments were the theme of favorable remark, became a victim of intemperance. Earlier than the time when Dunmore called him to council, he was addicted to the habit. The last three years of his life were very melancholy. Notwithstanding the miseries he had suffered at the hands of the white men, his benevolences made him the prisoner’s friend, until intemperance blunted his sensibilities, and in 1780 we find him among the marauders at Ruddell’s Station.”
The manner of his death is differently related. The patient researches of Mr. Mayer lead the writer to adopt his as the correct one, as it was from the lips of an aged Mohawk whom he saw at Caghnawaga, twelve miles from Montreal, in the summer of 1848. His mother was a Shawnee woman, and when he was a boy he often saw Logan. Mayer says:
“In a drunken frenzy near Detroit, in 1780, Logan struck his wife to the ground. Believing her dead, he fled to the wilderness. Between Detroit and Sandusky, he was overtaken by a troop of Indian men, women and children. Not yet sober, he imagined that the penalty of his crime was about to be inflicted by a relative. Being well armed, he declared that the whole party should be destroyed. In defense, his nephew, Todkahdohs, killed him on the spot, by a shot from his gun. His wife recovered from his blow.” Chief Logan died November 28, 1780.
Hamilton Pleads with Governor of Maryland
for Release of Pennsylvanians,
May 25, 1734
Thomas Penn informed the Council, May 14, 1734, that the business then to be considered by them related to some very unneighborly proceedings in the province of Maryland, in not only harassing some of the inhabitants of this province who live on the border, but likewise extending their claims much farther than has heretofore been pretended to be Maryland, and carrying off several persons and imprisoning them.
Governor Penn then advised the Council that Marylanders had entered the settlements of John Hendricks and Joshua Minshall, on the Susquehanna, in what is now York County, and carried them off to Annapolis and confined them in jail.
The Governor arranged with Andrew Hamilton, Esq., to appear for the prisoners. He was accompanied by John Georges, his secretary.
They made their visit and on their return made a full report to Governor Penn.
Hamilton related that they were denied an interview with the prisoners, but this was allowed them the following day, when the prisoners gave an account of their arrest. They did not know what charges were lodged against them.
The lawyer then appealed to Governor Ogle who advised them that the charges against the prisoners were serious. Hamilton suggested that even if this be true the men were taken into custody by Maryland officials on Pennsylvania soil, and should be punished in that province.
Governor Ogle then ennumerated the many abuses the inhabitants of Maryland had suffered from those of Pennsylvania. This interview ended by appointment for a meeting before council on the following morning. At this meeting, which was pretty much bluff and bluster, but little was accomplished.
It was, however, agreed that each party should reduce their claims to writing and then present them to the King for settlement.
Hamilton prepared his instrument and ably defended the part of Pennsylvania, and recited the agreements of 1724 and 1732, which were intended to quiet all disputes on the border, until actual surveys should be concluded.
He stated that notwithstanding these agreements, “two of his Majesty’s subjects, John Hendricks and Joshua Minshall, inhabitants of Lancaster County, settled upon lands legally surveyed and patented to them under the proprietors of Pennsylvania, on the west side of the river Susquehanna, had been taken from their homes, which were at least eight miles to the northward of Philadelphia, and about twenty-three miles to the northward of the line agreed upon by the aforesaid articles to be the northern bounds of Maryland, which line runs near the mouth of Octoraroe Creek, to the northward of which Maryland has never exercised any jurisdiction, except over thirteen families, that is known to Pennsylvania, till within two or three years, about the time when an absolute boundary was agreed upon by the proprietors, though Pennsylvania has maintained its government as far southward as the mouth of the said creek for above these thirty years.”
The jail was too filthy to hold further conversation with the four Pennsylvanians and permission was obtained for the sheriff to take them to his home, where the interview was had.
They insisted they had never done or said anything against Lord Baltimore, and that if such was charged against them Thomas Cresap is the only man wicked enough to bring such false charges.
Hamilton could not get his clients into court as they were under prosecution in Provincial Court, and Governor Ogle would not interfere.
Several interviews were held with the Governor, even in his own home, but at each the executive insisted on reviewing a long list of transgressions along the border and would not agree to anything Hamilton had to propose.
On May 25 the most important session was had and Governor Ogle refused even to concur in the proposal made by Hamilton that they agree upon bounds which should be judged reasonable, upon which lands no persons should plant new settlements under severe penalties.
Hamilton and Georges then said, in their report, that they saw from the first that the Governor was resolved to avoid doing anything that might prevent further differences upon the boundaries. The Governor finally ceased to further discuss the question.
When the four prisoners were tried in Provincial Court they were denied their liberty, lest it should be understood as giving up his Lordship’s right to the lands in question.
Hamilton then drew up a memorial, citing the unreasonable proceedings of Maryland and the absolute necessity Pennsylvania would be under for its own protection. It was a strong argument, but of no avail. They returned to Philadelphia in disgust.
The border troubles grew in intensity and especially when Cresap and his followers were the most active.
Hendricks and Minshall were released at the end of their sentence and many of the stirring scenes along the border occurred in the vicinity of their settlements and with them as provincial actors in the drama.
The arrest of Cresap put a stop to the local warfare but the survey of the Mason and Dixon Line fixed for all time the actual boundary between the States.
General Sullivan Arrives at Easton to Subdue
Six Nations, May 26, 1779
In the summer of 1778 Colonel Thomas Hartley made a successful expedition against the Six Nations Indians, marching from Fort Muncy, in present Lycoming County, to Tioga, covering 300 miles in two weeks. His army destroyed every Indian town, defeated the Indians in each encounter and brought off much food and Indian goods.
The settlers, who had taken flight, now ventured back and harvested their crops, but by spring the Indians had become bolder and more treacherous than ever before. The attention of Congress was drawn to this distress along the frontier and General Washington was directed to relieve the situation.
The Commander-in-chief selected Major General John Sullivan, and in April, 1779, directed him to prepare for an expedition into the heart of the Six Nations’ country. General Washington made no mistake in the selection of General Sullivan. He proved equal to the stupendous undertaking.
General Sullivan immediately began his preparations, but the real start of this expedition may properly be considered as of May 26, 1779, when he arrived at Easton with his command. General Washington gave him his directions in a long and interesting letter of instructions. He told him that the expedition he was to command against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations was to discourage predatory marauds on our frontier settlements and to retaliate for the horrible massacres at Wyoming and Cherry Valley, and, “if opportunity favored, for the capture of Niagara and an invasion into Canada.”
But Washington advised him that “the immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. So soon as your preparations are in sufficient forwardness you will assemble your main body at Wyoming and proceed thence to Tioga, taking from that place the most direct and practicable route into the heart of the Indian settlements.”
General Sullivan established a rendezvous at Easton, May 26, 1779, and then marched to Wyoming, where he experienced a long and tedious wait, caused by the failure of both Continental and State authorities to properly clothe and provision the army, and the further embarrassment that promised re-enforcements were not furnished.
In spite of these discouragements, General Sullivan determined to march, and July 31, 1779, at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, the army left Wyoming on its march up the Susquehanna, accompanied by 120 boats.
The army was composed of the following: General Edward Hand’s brigade, which consisted of the light corps, made up of the German Regiment and that commanded by Colonel Adam Hubley and the Independent regiments of Colonels Shott and Spalding; and General Maxwell’s brigade, consisting of four regiments under Colonels Dayton, Shreeve, Ogden, and Spencer; and General Poor’s brigade, with four regiments under Colonels Cilley, Reed, Scammel and Courland. The second line, or reserves were the commands of Colonels Livingston, Dubois, Gainsworth and Olden. Colonel Thomas Proctor’s artillery was also a most important part of this army.
The several encampments were made at Lackawanna, then at Quiltimunk, Tunkhannock, Vanderlip’s farm, and Wyalusing, which was reached August 6, when a heavy rain kept the army in camp two days.
On Sunday, August 8, the army reached Standing Stone, a place which derives its name from a large stone standing erect in the river. It is twenty feet in height, fourteen feet wide and three feet in thickness.
The army was forced to go into camp at Standing Stone on account of the indisposition of General Sullivan and inability to bring up the boats.
Their next encampment was at Sheshecununk, and on the following day, August 11, had extreme difficulty fording the river before reaching Tioga Flats, where Queen Esther’s Town stood, until destroyed by Colonel Hartley the previous year.
Indians were discovered at Chemung, twelve miles distant, and an expedition was set in motion to destroy their village. The main army marched through the night and arrived at daylight, but the Indians, aware of the advancing army, had evacuated the village, but made a determined stand at Newtown.
General Sullivan pushed on with great vigor and formed a junction with General Clinton’s army August 19. On August 29, 1500 Indians, under Joe Brant and Captain John MacDonald, and the British and Tories, under Colonel John Butler and the two Johnstons, attacked the Americans near the scene of the Newtown battle.
The enemy was well entrenched, thinking to destroy our army at a narrow defile in front of their breastworks. This situation was discovered by Captain Parr when Colonel Proctor opened a cannon fire on the enemy, who retreated to a much stronger position, but too closely pursued by Poor’s troops.
The Americans charged up the hill with bayonets and poured deadly fire into their ranks, driving them from the field. Nine Indians were killed and left on the ground to be scalped by the troops.
Every Indian village was burned and the savages were made to understand that the Americans were their masters.
The return march was made to Wyoming, where the army arrived October 8. A great feast on venison and wild turkey was had in honor of their effective service.
The army reached Easton October 15, and Congress set apart October 26, as a day for a general thanksgiving.
General Sullivan had shattered his constitution by years of constant exposure in the field and suffered much from an accident received in this campaign, and he was given a leave “as long as he shall judge it expedient for the recovery of his health.” He was thanked by Congress for his services. During the whole campaign his conduct was distinguished by courage, energy and skill.
General Sullivan could not recover his full vigor and resigned from the army at the close of 1779, but was convalescing when elected to Congress. He went to that body with much reluctance, but his services there were as conspicuous and patriotic as they had been on many a bloody battlefield. He died January 23, 1795.
Patriotic Women Feed Soldiers at Cooper
Shop and Union Saloons,
May 27, 1861
During the Civil War Philadelphia lay in the channel of the great stream of volunteers from New England, New York, New Jersey and part of Pennsylvania, that commenced flowing early in May, 1861. Working in grand harmony the national and more extended organizations for the relief of the soldiers, were houses of refreshment and temporary hospital accommodations[accommodations] furnished by the citizens of Philadelphia.
The soldiers crossing New Jersey, and the Delaware River at Camden, were landed at the foot of Washington Avenue, where, weary and hungry, they often sought in vain for sufficient refreshments in the bakeries and groceries in the neighborhood before entering the cars for Washington or other points of rendezvous.
One morning the wife of a mechanic living near, commiserating[commiserating] the situation of some soldiers who had just arrived, went out with her coffee-pot and a cup, and distributed its contents among them. That generous hint was the germ of a wonderful system of relief for the passing soldiers, which was immediately developed in this patriotic and historic city.
Soon other benevolent women, living in the vicinity of the landing-place of the volunteers, imitated their patriotic sister, and a few of them formed themselves into a committee for the regular distribution of coffee on the arrival of soldiers. Soon the men in the neighborhood interested themselves in procuring other supplies.
The women who formed this original committee were Mrs. William M. Cooper, Mrs. Grace Nickles, Mrs. Sarah Ewing, Mrs. Elizabeth Vansdale, Mrs. Catherine Vansdale, Mrs. Jane Coward, Mrs. Susan Turner, Mrs. Sarah Mellen, Mrs. Catherine Alexander, Mrs. Mary Plant, and Mrs. Captain Watson.
For a few days the refreshments were dispensed under the shade of trees in front of the cooper shop owned by William M. Cooper and Henry W. Pearce, on Otsego Street near Washington Avenue. Then this shop was generously offered for the purpose by the proprietors, and immediately it was equipped with tables and such kitchen arrangements as were necessary to prepare such foods as was supplied by the voluntary contributions raised among the citizens of Philadelphia. The young women, wives and daughters of those resident in the neighborhood waited upon the soldiers.
The first body of troops fed at the saloon was the Eighth New York Regiment, called the German Rifles, under Colonel Blenker. There were 780 men who partook of a coffee breakfast there on the morning of May 27, 1861.
The cooper shop was not spacious enough to accommodate the daily increasing number of soldiers, and another place of refreshment was opened on the corner of Washington Avenue and Swanson Street, in a building formerly used as a boathouse and rigger’s loft. Two Volunteer Refreshment Saloon Committees were formed and known respectively as the “Cooper Shop” and the “Union.”
Both were in effective working order on May 27. The following were the principal officers of the two associations, respectively: The Cooper Shop: President, William M. Cooper; vice president, C. V. Fort; treasurer, Adam M. Simpson; secretaries, William M. Maull and E. S. Hall. The Union: Chairman, Arad Barrows; secretary, J. B. Wade; treasurer, B. S. Brown; steward, J. T. Williams.
These two organizations worked in harmony and generous rivalry all through the period of the war and rendered wonderful service. Both saloons were enlarged as necessity required and both had temporary hospitals attached to them. These were used for such soldiers who were sick or wounded and who were unable to leave Philadelphia and who required rest or nursing and medical attendance to restore them to health and duty.
Cooper Hospital was under the charge of Dr. Andrew Nebinger, assisted by his brother, Dr. George Nebinger, and Miss Anna M. Ross. After the death of Miss Ross, Mrs. Abigail Horner became the lady principal of the “Cooper Shop Hospital.”
Dr. Eliab Ward had charge of the “Union Hospital.” He gave his services throughout the war free of charge. Nearly 11,000 sick and wounded soldiers were nursed and received medical attention at this hospital, and nearly twice that number had their wounds dressed, and more than 40,000 had a night’s lodging.
An accurate record was kept of all the operations of the “Union Saloon,” which show that 800,000 soldiers were received and 1,025,000 meals were furnished, and the total amount of money expended being $98,204.34, and for materials used there was expended $30,000, a grand total of $128,204.34, all of which was received by voluntary contributions.
The women who devoted themselves to the service of preparing the meals and waiting upon this vast host deserve the choicest blessings of their country.
At all hours of the day and night these self-sacrificing heroines, when a little signal gun employed for the purpose announced the approach of a train bearing soldiers, would repair to their saloons and cheerfully dispense their generous bounties.
The little cannon used as a signal had a notable history. It was part of the ordnance in the army of General Taylor on the Rio Grande in 1846, where it was captured, only to be recaptured by a United States cruiser.
The last regiment of soldiers fed in either of these saloons was the 104th Pennsylvania, Colonel Kephart, numbering 748 men, on August 28, 1865.
Colonel William Clapham and Family Murdered
by Indians, May 28, 1763
Colonel William Clapham was an English officer who rendered conspicuous service on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and who, like many others, paid the price with his scalp in the uneven warfare waged by the Indians and their French allies.
William Clapham was born in England July 5, 1722, and after graduating from college, entered the army as an ensign. He was sent to America during the French and Indian War. He subsequently resigned his commission and took up his residence in Philadelphia, where he was living at the time of Braddock’s defeat.
This disaster to the English arms caused Captain Clapham to again offer his services, this time to the Province of Pennsylvania. He was commissioned a captain and sent by Governor Morris into Bucks County to recruit troops and to muster into the Provincial service the company recruited by Captain Insley, who were ordered to join the regular troops then posted at Reading and Easton.
While Captain Clapham was on this tour of duty he journeyed to Fort Allen to make a visit with some friends. The Assembly at this moment was pressing Colonel Benjamin Franklin to return to his seat in that body. The three forts being completed, and the inhabitants willing to remain on their plantations with soldiers in these garrisons, Colonel Franklin placed Captain Clapham in full command and departed.
This was only a temporary command, but Governor Morris, March 29, 1756, commissioned him lieutenant-colonel, and assigned him to the Third Battalion. He also ordered the Colonel to assemble his troops as soon as possible at Hunter’s Mill, preparatory to marching to Shamokin (now Sunbury), where he was to build a substantial fort.
Colonel Clapham recruited 400 men for that purpose. He assembled his force at Fort Hunter, where he began training them. Before they marched from this encampment Governor Morris paid them an official visit, the incidents of which are quite entertaining and very interesting.
Colonel Clapham marched his command to Armstrongs, built Fort Halifax, stationed a garrison there, and finally proceeded up the river to Shamokin, where he arrived July 1, and immediately set about building Fort Augusta. This formidable fortress was finished in October.
From the very beginning of this frontier service Colonel Clapham experienced no end of trouble with his officers. He seems to have been overbearing and a hard taskmaster. He bore many insults, as he termed them, from the Assembly. These frequent disputes and misunderstandings with his officers wore out his patience and he resigned in November, 1756, being succeeded by Major James Burd of Lancaster.
Notwithstanding the confusion and ill-feeling which prevailed among the officers and men during the building of Fort Augusta, it seems that a secret directing power had prevented everything from falling into chaos and much good was accomplished. Had it not been for this unseen power, the fort would have been captured by the French and Indians and the whole North and West Branch Valleys would have been overrun and held by the enemy at this most critical period in the history of the Province.
He was a most conspicuous figure on the early frontiers. Even Colonel Clapham’s enemies, or those who thought he was not an acceptable officer, must have been moved to deep and sincere sympathy when they learned the sad fate which so soon afterward befell him and his family on the western frontier of Pennsylvania.
He did not long remain out of the service when his resignation as commander of the garrison at Fort Augusta was accepted. In 1763 he was an active officer in the expedition of Colonel Henry Bouquet on the western frontier of the Province.
He was in command of a formidable scouting party when he was murdered on Sewickley Creek, near where the town of West Newton now stands.
This tragedy occurred on the afternoon of May 28, 1763, and was committed by The Wolf, Kektuscung and two other Indians, one of whom was called Butler.
Colonel Clapham had taken his family to this frontier, and was very near his own home when these Indians shot him from ambush, rushed into his house, killed and scalped his wife and three children and a woman. The two women were treated with brutal indecency. They left evidences of the fact that they were paying an old score with Colonel Clapham, and the scene was horrible to behold.
At the time of the murder of the Claphams, three men who were working at some distance from the Clapham house escaped through the woods and carried the terrible news to the garrison in Fort Pitt.
Two soldiers, who were in Colonel Clapham’s detail, and stationed at a sawmill near the fort, were killed and scalped by these same Indians.
It seems that there were others slain in this massacre for Colonel Burd entered in his journal, June 5, 1763, that “John Harris gave me an account of Colonel Clapham and twelve men being killed near Pittsburgh, and two Royal Americans being killed at the saw mill.”
Colonel Bouquet in a letter to General Amherst, dated Fort Pitt, May 31, 1763, says: “We have most melancholy reports here * * * the Indians have broke out in several places, and murdered Colonel Clapham and his family.”
Judge Jasper Yeates made a visit to Braddock’s battlefield in August, 1776, and then to the site of Fort Pitt. He remarked about seeing the grave of Colonel Clapham.
It is probable that the family became extinct after the Indians perpetrated their dastardly crime, and the ashes of the famous commander and builder of Fort Augusta have long since mingled with the soil.
Free Society of Traders Organized with Aid
of Penn, May 29, 1682
Soon as William Penn received the grant of land in America which is now Pennsylvania, he immediately issued advertisements in which certain concessions were offered to settlers. Among those who made application for large quantities of land were companies organized for colonization purposes.
One such company was “The Free Society of Traders,” whose plans Penn favored and whose constitution and charter he helped to draw.
The first general court of this society was held in London May 29, 1682, at which time the “Articles, Settlement and Offices” of the society were adopted and the actual operations begun.
The charter to the Pennsylvania Company, the Free Society of Traders, bears date March 24, 1862. The incorporators named in Penn’s deed to them were “Nicholas More, of London, medical doctor; James Claypoole, merchant; Philip Ford (Penn’s unworthy steward); William Sherloe, of London, merchant; Edward Pierce, of London, leather seller; John Symcock and Thomas Brassey, of Cheshire, yeoman; Thomas Barker, of London, wine cooper, and Edward Brookes, of London, grocer.”
The deed recites Penn’s authority under his patent, mentions the conveyance to the company of 20,000 acres in Philadelphia, erects this tract into the manor of Frank, “in free and common Socage, by such rents, customs and services, as to them and their successors shall seem meet, so as to be consistent with said tenure.” It allowed them two justices’ courts a year and other legal privileges.
In addition to the first 20,000 acres, their appurtenant city lots “was an entire street, and one side of a street from river to river,” comprising 100 acres, exclusive of an additional 400 acres owned in the Liberties. The location of the property was the tract between Spruce and Pine streets, from the Delaware to the Schuylkill River, 366 feet in width. Their lands were given the name Society Hill.
The society was empowered to appoint and remove its officers and servants, to levy taxes, etc. An important privilege was the authority given to be represented in the Provincial Council by three representatives of the society.
This society was given title to three-fifths of the products of all mines and minerals found, free privilege to fish in all waters of the Province, and to establish fairs, markets, etc., and the books of the society were to be exempted from all inspection.
May 29, 1682, the general court prepared and published an address, and mapped out an ambitious program of operations.
The address, which is ingenuous, points to the fact that while it proposes to employ the principles of the association in order to conduct a large business, it is no monopoly, but an absolutely free society in a free country. “It is,” says the prospectus, “an enduring estate, and a lasting as well as certain credit; a portion and inheritance that is clear and growing, free from the mischief of frauds and false securities, supported by the concurrent strength and care of a great and prudent body, a kind of perpetual trustees, the friends of the widow and orphan, for it takes no advantages of minority or simplicity.”
In the society votes were to be on a basis of amount of stock held, up to three votes, which was the limit. No one in England was allowed more than a single vote, and proxies could be voted. The officers were president, deputy, treasurer, secretary and twelve committeemen. Five, with president or deputy a quorum. The officers were to live on the society’s property.
All the society’s servants were bound to secrecy, and the books were kept in the society’s house, under three locks, the keys in charge of the president, treasurer and oldest committeeman, and not to be entrusted to any persons longer than to transcribe any part in daytime and in the house, before seven persons appointed by the committee.
The society was to send 200 servants to Pennsylvania the first year, “to build two or more general factories in Pennsylvania, one upon Chesapeake Bay, and the other upon Delaware River, or where else the committee shall see necessary for the more speedy conveyance of goods in the country and Maryland, but that the government of the whole be in the Capital City of Pennsylvania.”
The society was to aid Indians in building houses, etc., and to hold Negroes for fourteen years’ service, when they were to go free “on giving to the society two-thirds of what they can produce on land allotted to them by the society, with a stock and tools; if they agree not to this, to be servants till they do.”
The leading object of the society at the outset seems to have been an extensive free trade with the Indians, agriculture, establishment of manufactories, for carrying on the lumber trade and whale fishing. An agent in London was to sell the goods.
Nicholas More, president of the society and one of Penn’s Judges, was the first purchaser of land in the province who had a manor granted to him.
The Free Society of Traders obtained land on the river front south of Dock Creek. The society built a sawmill and a glasshouse, both in the same year, 1683. They also established a tannery, which was well supplied with bark and hides. Leather was in general use for articles of clothing, such as are now made of other goods. Penn himself wore leather stockings.
In 1695 the exportation of dressed and undressed deerskins was prohibited in order to promote their utilization at home.
But as the people arrived and settled they probably found they could do better by themselves than in a company and its schemes were not carried out. So the Free Society of Traders, from which much had been expected and which actually yielded so little, came to an end March 2, 1723, when an act of Assembly placed its property into the hands of trustees for sale to pay its debts.
The trustees appointed were Charles Reed, Job Goodson, Evan Owen, George Fitzwater and Joseph Pigeon, merchants of Philadelphia. These soon disposed of the property.
Davy, the Lame Indian, Surrenders at Fort
Pitt, May 30, 1783
During the morning of May 30, 1783, an Indian was discovered sitting on a porch in Pittsburgh, holding in his hand a light pole.
When a girl of the household responded to his alarm he asked her in broken English for milk. She told members of the family that the Indian was a mere skeleton and they appeared on the porch and found him so thin and emaciated that they could scarcely detect any flesh upon his bones. One of his limbs had been wounded, and the pole had been used as a sort of crutch.
On being questioned, he appeared too weak to give much of an account of himself, but drank of the milk. Word was immediately sent to General William Irvine, commandant of the garrison of Fort Pitt, who sent a guard and had him taken to the fort.
When questioned, he said that he had been trapping along Beaver River, and had a difference with a Mingo Indian who shot him in the leg, because he had said he wished to come to the white people. This story was not believed, especially by some who thought they recognized him as an Indian known as Davy. He was told to tell the truth, he would fare better, and he gave an account of the attack on the Walthour settlement, April 24, in which the following facts were related:
Five or six men were working in Christopher Walthour’s field, about eight miles west of the present Greensburg. Among the workers was a son-in-law, named Willard, whose daughter, sixteen years old, was carrying water to the men.
The workers were surprised by the appearance of a band of Delaware who captured the girl. The men reached their guns, which were a short distance away, and made a running fight as they retired toward the fort. Old man Walthour and Willard were killed, the latter falling not far from the stockade. An Indian rushed out of the bushes to scalp Willard, and was just in the act of twisting his fingers in the white man’s long hair, when a well-directed rifle shot, fired from the fort, struck the savage in the leg, who gave a horrid yell and made off toward the woods, leaving his gun beside his victim.
As soon as a band of frontiersmen could be collected they pursued the Indians, following their trail as far as the Allegheny River.
Almost two months after the attack the badly decomposed body of the Willard girl was found in the woods not far from Negley’s Run. Her head had been crushed in with a tomahawk and her scalp was gone.
The lame Indian after relating many horrid details told that he lay three days without moving from the first place he threw himself in the bushes fearing pursuit; then he crawled on hands and one foot until he found the pole in a marsh, which he used to assist him, and in the meantime lived on berries and roots. He lay all day on a hill overlooking a garrison of militiamen, thinking of giving himself up, but as they were not regulars he did not venture. Driven to desperation by hunger, he decided to make his way to Fort Pitt, and give himself up to regular soldiers.
Davy was confined in the guard house in the fort, but the news of his capture and his identity reached the settlement of Brush Creek and caused considerable excitement there.
Kindred and friends of the victims were hot for revenge and the chance presented itself. Mrs. Mary Willard, the widow of the man Davy killed and mother of the girl killed and scalped by his companions, accompanied by a deputation of her neighbors, arrived at Fort Pitt and asked General Irvine to deliver up the prisoner.
At first the request was refused, but when the body of the Willard girl was afterward found, a mass-meeting was held and a committee chosen to go to Fort Pitt and renew negotiations with General Irvine for the surrender of Davy.
After much deliberation, General Irvine yielded to the pleadings of the committee and surrendered the prisoner. The order of General Irvine to the frontiersmen was as follows: “You are hereby enjoined and required to take the Indian delivered into your charge by my order and carry him safe into the settlement of Brush Creek. You will afterward warn two justices of the peace and request their attendance at such times as they shall think proper to appoint, with several other reputable inhabitants. Until this is done and their advise and direction had in the matter you are, at your peril, not to hurt him, nor suffer any person to do it. Given under my hand at Fort Pitt, July 21, 1782.
“WILLIAM IRVINE.”
The general also sent a note to Mrs. Willard, in which he urged her to do nothing rash in retaliating her vengeance on the prisoner, and not to permit him to be put to death until after “some form of trial.”
The intention of the frontiersmen was to summon a jury of their neighbors and try him, at least to comply with the General’s orders. But the fact he was an Indian would be sufficient evidence to condemn him, even if the wounded leg was not added evidence. In event of conviction he was to suffer death in regular Indian fashion, by torture and burning.
On arrival at Walthour’s, Davy was confined in a log blockhouse for two days and three nights, while the neighbors and magistrates could assemble for the trial and execution.
While a few were guarding the prisoner, some were in quest of the neighbors and others collected wood and materials for the burning, which it was already determined should be at the identical spot where he had received his wound while in the act of scalping Willard.
On the night preceding the great day the guard was somewhat careless and, realizing their prisoner was a bad cripple, they joined rather enthusiastically in the preparations for the execution.
On arising in the morning the blockhouse was empty. The guards were aroused and an investigation revealed the guardhouse door securely locked. No human being could get through the loopholes. It was found the only possible way of escape was through the narrow space between the overjutting roof and the top of the wall, and through this he must have escaped.
Bitter was their disappointment, when they learned their prey had escaped. In every direction eager searching parties ranged the country, but no trace of the wounded Delaware. The hunt continued for two days, but Davy had made good his escape and saved himself from the warm reception which awaited him later in the day.
Thousands of Lives Lost in Johnstown
Flood, May 31, 1889
When an avalanche of water swept down the Conemaugh Valley destroying everything in its descent, including the thriving city of Johnstown, containing thirty thousand souls, many great industrial establishments were nearly wiped from the earth, many thousands were drowned or burned to death, and property worth many millions was destroyed. This disaster was so far beyond all experience that it is difficult for the mind to grasp it.
Johnstown was a community of seven or eight towns with a combined population of quite thirty thousand souls. It is situated in a deep valley where the Little Conemaugh River and Stony Creek unite to form the Conemaugh River.
Early on Friday, May 31, 1889, a freshet in Stony Creek broke away the boom above the town and swept down the mass of logs against the inundated houses.
This was followed in the afternoon by a far worse disaster, when the dam of the South Fork Lake broke and the mass of water swept down the valley, carrying everything before it. The logs and wreckage piled against the bridge, forming a partial dam, that raised the water level still higher, and in a short time the whole town was submerged.
Hundreds were drowned in their houses, others were swept along by the torrent and perished either by water or by fire among the debris. Nothing in the history of the United States in time of peace ever approached this appalling catastrophe.
Conemaugh Lake was a body of water about three and a half miles long, one and a quarter miles in width, and in some places one hundred feet in depth. It was located on the mountain some three or four hundred feet above the level of Johnstown and was, of course, a menace to that city. It was believed to hold more water than any reservoir in America. This lake was the property of some wealthy sportsmen of Pittsburgh and elsewhere, members of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club.
Every known precaution had been taken to insure the safety of the reservoir. An inspection was made monthly by competent engineers, and it was believed nothing less than some extraordinary freak of nature could destroy the barrier that held this large body of water in check. These waters were held in bounds by a dam nearly one thousand feet wide, more than one hundred feet high and ninety feet in thickness at the base.
The streams were already unusually swollen, when a heavy downpour of rain fell steadily for forty-eight hours which increased the volume of water in all the mountain streams. In fact, the entire State suffered from floods. The regions along the West Branch of the Susquehanna, the Lehigh, the Juniata and the Conemaugh Rivers were the principal scenes of desolation.
The water in the South Fork Lake rose slowly until it poured over the top of the big dam, and then some of the old leakages became larger, then the breast broke, and sixteen million tons of water rushed forth like a demon.
John Baker, the Paul Revere of the occasion, rode a race with it for a while and saved many people, but the death-dealing torrent laden with trees, houses, wreckage and human beings, defied even steam whistles and telegraph instruments.
The water plowed through South Fork, Mineral Point, Franklin, East Conemaugh, Woodvale, Conemaugh, Johnstown, Kernville, Millville and Cambria.
It was late in the afternoon and the night that followed was one of unutterable agony. Darkness added to the terror of the situation.
The wreckage could not pass through the big stone bridge. That caused the water to back up and flood the city, but soon a channel was made which cut through the heart of Johnstown. This caused the terrible destruction of life and property that was incurred at Cambria Iron Works.
Then came the flames to make the calamity more appalling. Hundreds of houses had been piled up against the stone bridge, the inmates of but a few being able to escape; these took fire and many hundreds of souls perished in them. Men, women and children, held down by timbers, watched with indescribable agony the flames creep surely toward them, and they were slowly roasted to death.
There were many instances of personal heroism and self-sacrifice in which many persons were saved from drowning or being burned to death. There were many cases of most remarkable escapes, and not a few instances of heroic rescue, which a moment later were rendered useless by another catastrophe in which both hero and victim lost their lives. Edward C. Will is credited with saving twenty-two lives.
Governor Beaver issued a proclamation, calling upon the people for their benefactions. Adjutant General Hastings was promptly on the scene and personally directed the patrol, composed of the Fourteenth Regiment and one company of the Fifth Regiment of the National Guard.
Governor Beaver appointed a Flood Relief Commission to distribute a fund which had been raised from every section of the State and all over the country. The fund exceeded $3,000,000.
The State Board of Health was early on the ground to enforce the sanitary laws. The debris was removed as promptly as possible, and healthful conditions were soon restored.
To pay the State’s expenses, generous men of means advanced the money till the Legislature would reimburse them. There never was a more beautiful example of public and private charity in all history.
The loss of lives was 2,235, or more, and the property loss exceeded $10,000,000 in value.
The people of Johnstown, although prostrated by their misfortune, soon recovered, rebuilt their city and re-established their industrial plants, making it a more beautiful and more modern place than ever before.
General John Bull, Officer of Province and
the Continental Army, Born
June 1, 1731
General John Bull was one of the distinguished patriots of the Province and State and a veteran of the French and Indian War, a trusted agent of the Proprietaries to the Indians, an early adherent of the colonists, a member of the first Constitutional Convention, an officer of troops and builder of forts, a member of the Board of War and of the General Assembly, a prominent citizen in every particular, yet one of whose life little is known.
John Bull was born in Providence Township, now Montgomery County, June 1, 1731, and spent his early life in that immediate neighborhood.
His active military life began May 12, 1758, when he was commissioned captain in the Provincial service, and with his command was on duty at Fort Allen, now Weissport, Carbon County.
Later in that year he commanded a company in the expedition led by General John Forbes, for the reduction of Fort DuQuesne, and during this tour of duty he rendered most conspicuous service in negotiations with the Indians.
This treaty was attended by Governor Bernard of New Jersey, who had come principally to demand of the Munsee that they keep a treaty promise by which they were to deliver captives taken from his province.
The treaty ended at Easton, October 24, when mutual releases were executed; Pisquitomen and Thomas Hickman, an Ohio Indian, were sent back to the Ohio to bear assurance of pardon, and invitations to those western Indians to come to Philadelphia. Captain John Bull and William Hayes and Isaac Still, the interpreter, and two Indians of the Six Nations, one of whom was John Shikellamy, accompanied them. The mission was wholly successful.
In 1771 Captain Bull owned the Norris plantation and mill, and resided there on the site of the present Norristown, then called Norriton.
He was a delegate to the Provincial Conference of January 23, 1775, and of June 18, 1775.
On July 8, 1776, the day of the reading of the Declaration of Independence, an election was held at the State House for members of the Convention to form a Constitution for the State. Those elected from Philadelphia County were Frederic Antes, Henry Hill, Robert Loller, Joseph Blewer, John Bull, Thomas Potts, Edward Bartholomew, and William Coats.
Captain Bull was elected a member of the Board of War, March 14, 1777.
Congress asked in October, 1775, that a battalion from Pennsylvania be raised to take part in the expedition against Canada. John Bull was appointed its colonel, but resigned January 20, 1776, owing to a threat of about half the officers to do so if he continued in command, so John Philip DeHaas, of Lebanon, was appointed.
Colonel Bull was one of the commissioners at the Indian Treaty held at Easton January 30, 1777.
At the election held February 14, 1777, Colonel Bull was one of four elected to the Assembly.
After the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British, Colonel Bull was sent to Mud Island, with workmen and laborers, to repair the banks and sluices and complete barracks sufficient for the garrison.
On May 2, 1777, he was appointed colonel of the First State Regiment of Foot, and on July 16 was commissioned Adjutant-General of Pennsylvania.
In October of this year his barns, barracks, grain, and hay were burned by the British, and his wagons, horses, cattle, sheep and Negroes carried off, although General Howe had given his word to Mrs. Bull that they would not be disturbed.
In December, when General James Irvine was captured, General Bull succeeded to the command of the Second Brigade of Pennsylvania militia, under General John Armstrong.
While the British were in possession of Philadelphia a brigade of Continental troops under Colonel John Bull on the evening of December 24, 1777, made an excursion into Fourth Street in Philadelphia, with two thousand militia, and three pieces of cannon, and alarmed the city by firing off the heavy guns, whereby some of the balls fell about old Christ Church. Colonel Bull then made a good retreat back to his station, without the loss of a man.
During 1778 and 1779 he was engaged in erecting defenses for Philadelphia and in latter year he put down the chevaux de frize in the Delaware to obstruct the approach of British ships. In 1780 he served as Commissary of Purchase at Philadelphia, and appears to have been one of the busiest and most indefatigable of workers.
In the year 1785 he removed to Northumberland, being attracted there by the location of the town and the belief that it would become a large place.
In 1802 he was a candidate for the Legislature but was defeated by Simon Snyder, afterwards Governor of the State. In 1805 General Bull was elected to the General Assembly, but in 1808 he was defeated for Congress when he ran as the Federalist candidate.
Mrs. Mary Bull, his wife, died February 23, 1811, aged eighty years. The Northumberland Argus says, “She was buried in the Quaker graveyard, and General Bull, though much reduced by sickness and old age, previous to the grave being closed, addressed the people as follows: 'The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord; may we who are soon to follow be as well prepared as she was.'”
General Bull died August 9, 1824, in the 94th year of his age.
This distinguished patriot and citizen lies buried beside his wife in the Riverside Cemetery, Northumberland, where a monument should be erected in memory of this distinguished, yet eccentric, officer of the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars.
Liberty Bell Hung in Old State House on
June 2, 1753
Though not the largest nor yet the oldest, but to all Americans by far the most celebrated bell is the grand old “Liberty Bell,” whose tones on July 4, 1776, proclaimed the birthday of our Nation.
This historic bell was originally cast in London, in 1752, for the State House in Philadelphia. There it hung in the belfry of Independence Hall until July 8, 1835, when it cracked while tolling the news of the death of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States.
In the Centennial year, 1876, a new bell, modeled after the original Liberty Bell, was made by an American bell founder for the tower of the old State House, or Independence Hall.
It weighs 13,000 pounds to represent the thirteen original States, and carries in addition to the decoration of the old Liberty Bell, a border of stars and the additional inscription: “Glory to God and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
The story of the original bell begins in the year 1749, when the tower was erected on the south side of the main building of the State House. The superintendents were ordered to proceed as soon as they conveniently might, and the tower was to contain “the staircase with a suitable place therein for hanging a bell.”
A year later the House adopted a resolution directing “that the superintendents provide a bell of such weight and dimensions as they shall think suitable.” Isaac Norris, Thomas Leech and Edward Warner accordingly prepared a letter, which is interesting as it is the commencement of proceedings which resulted in the casting of what was afterward known as the “Liberty Bell.” The letter follows:
“To Robert Charles, of London, Nov. 1, 1751. Respected Friend.—The Assembly having ordered us (the superintendents of the State House) to procure a bell from England, to be purchased for their use, we take the liberty to apply ourselves to thee to get us a good bell of about two thousand weight, the cost of which we presume may amount to about one hundred pounds sterling, or perhaps more with the charges, etc.
“We hope and rely on thy care and assistance in this affair, and that thou will procure and forward it by the first opportunity, as our workmen inform us it will be less trouble to hang the bell before their scaffolds are struck from the building where we intend to place it, which will not be done until the end of next summer or beginning of the fall. Let the bell be cast by the best workmen, and examine it carefully before it is shipped with the following words, well shaped, in long letters around it, viz.:
“‘By order of the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, for the State House in the city of Philadelphia, 1752.’
“and underneath.—'Proclaim Liberty through all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.—Levit. xxv. 10.'”
The bell was brought over in the ship Matilda, Captain Budden, and was unloaded on the wharf in Philadelphia about the end of August, 1752.
It was hung in position and when given its trial for sound “it was cracked by a stroke of the clapper, without any other violence.” Needless to state, the superintendents were disappointed and they determined to ship the bell back to England to be recast. But Captain Budden had already too heavy a cargo to carry the bell.
In this emergency two Philadelphians, Pass and Stow, undertook to recast it, using the material in the original bell. The mold was opened March 10, 1753. The work had been well done, even the letters being better than those on the first bell.
Pass and Stow first cast several small bells to test the quality of the material, and its sound, and found that there was too much copper in the mixture. It was their third mixture which was finally used.
A newspaper of June 7, 1753, carried this notice: “Last week was raised and fixed in the State House steeple the new great bell cast here by Pass and Stow, weighing 2080 pounds with this motto: ‘Proclaim Liberty to all the land and all the inhabitants thereof.’.” It was tested June 2 and proved satisfactory.
On July 8, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read in the State House yard. At the same time the King’s Arms were taken from the court room and publicly burned, while merry chimes from the church steeples and peals from the State House bell “proclaimed liberty throughout the land.”
This was an event which made the inscription on the bell prophetic. John Adams, in writing to Samuel Chase on July 9, said, “The bells rang all day and almost all night.”
The British success on the Brandywine caused great consternation in Philadelphia. On September 15, 1777, the Supreme Executive Council ordered “the bells of Christ Church and St. Peter’s as well as the State House to be taken down and removed to a place of safety.” The church bells were sunk in the river or carried away, but the Liberty Bell, with ten others, was loaded on wagons and hauled via Bethlehem to Allentown. In Bethlehem the wagon bearing the State House bell broke down, and it had to be reloaded and, when Allentown was reached, the bell was hidden under the floor of Zion Reformed Church.
After the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British Army these bells were brought back, and the State House bell was placed in its old position in the latter part of 1778.
The “Liberty Bell” became a venerated object, and it was tacitly determined that it should only be rung on special occasions of rejoicing, or to commemorate some event of public importance. It was tolled in 1828 upon the news of the emancipation of the Catholics by act of the British Parliament. It celebrated the centennial anniversary of the birthday of Washington, February 22, 1832.
But an end was put to its usefulness for sound early in the morning of July 8, 1835. The break was at first only about eight inches in length, but when rung February 22, 1843, it was increased so much that it henceforth became a silent memento of the historic past.
The Liberty Bell has made several trips to great national expositions, notably the World’s Fair at Chicago, and the great San Francisco exposition, where it always was the most popular historic relic and viewed by millions of our citizens, but the danger incident to such exposure caused public disapproval of the bell again leaving the State House, and it will rest in this historic spot and continue to be the most popular relic in Pennsylvania.
Transit of Venus Observed in Yard of
State House June 3, 1769
The year 1769 was memorable in the annals of astronomy, owing to the transit of Venus over the sun’s disc, which occurred June 3. Astronomers throughout the entire world were anxious to make an observation of this celestial phenomenon, which would not occur again until 1874.
The great interest centered in this observation arose from the fact that by means of it the distance between the heavenly bodies could be more accurately calculated. It was the belief that the transits of Venus afforded the best method of measuring the distance of the sun from the earth.
This was a period of intense interest, and many expeditions were fitted out to observe the transit at different places in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
Mason and Dixon, the English astronomers, who gained undying fame as the surveyors of the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, started on a ship of war for their station on the southern hemisphere, but they were attacked by a French frigate and were compelled to return to port after a severe battle. Other expeditions became celebrated through the adventures to which they gave rise.
The transit of 1769 was visible in the Atlantic States and observations upon it were made under the auspices of the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia. The most celebrated of all these observers was David Rittenhouse.
Benjamin Franklin had organized the society and in 1769 became the society’s first president. He was annually elected to that position for twenty-two years, being succeeded in 1791 by another Pennsylvanian, David Rittenhouse.
In 1768 the American Philosophical Society petitioned the Assembly of Pennsylvania for assistance to observe the transit of Venus, and the proposition was treated with liberality.
One hundred pounds was granted to enable the society to procure a reflecting telescope of two and a half or three feet focus and a micrometer of Dolland’s make, which had to be procured from England. They were purchased there by Dr. Franklin.
The society erected a wooden building as an observatory in the State House yard. This was of circular shape, and about twenty feet high, twelve to fifteen feet square and placed about sixty feet south of the State House.
On the morning of June 3 the sky was cloudless. The transit was observed from this building in the State House yard by Dr. John Ewing, Joseph Shippen, Dr. Hugh Williamson, Thomas Prior, Charles Thomson and James Pearson.
While they were thus engaged, David Rittenhouse, Dr. William Smith, John Sellers and John Lukens noticed the phenomena at Norriton, the home of the celebrated astronomer. Owen Biddle made an observation at Henlopen lighthouse.
Rittenhouse was already a member of the American Philosophical Society and made his observations for that society. He used a telescope and other instruments made by his own hands.
When he observed the contact, and the planet had fairly entered the sun’s disk, his emotions so overpowered him that he sank fainting to the ground, unable to bear the intense feelings of delight which attended the consummation of the long hoped for event. Rising from his exhaustion, he proceeded to measure the distance between the centers of the two bodies at stated intervals during the transit.
The observations of Rittenhouse were received with interest by scientific men everywhere. Subsequently they were found to be nearly accurate and his computations placed him among the greatest of astronomers. The royal astronomer of England bore testimony to their value and another high authority said:
“The first approximately accurate results in the measurements of the spheres were given to the world, not by schooled and salaried astronomers who watched from the magnificent royal observatories of Europe, but by unpaid amateurs and devotees to science in the youthful province of Pennsylvania.”
On November 9 of the same year David Rittenhouse made an observation of the transit of Mercury, which was the fourth ever witnessed. About this time he also determined the difference of the meridians of Norriton and Philadelphia.
David Rittenhouse was without doubt the first inventor of a practical planetarium, erroneously called the “orrery,” an instrument so constructed as to exhibit the movements of the planets around the sun. In theory the idea was not new. Such an instrument had been made for the Earl of Orrery in 1715, but this was a mere toy and gave the movements of only two heavenly bodies.
Rittenhouse determined that he would make an elaborate instrument, based on scientific principles and on the astronomical calculations which he had prepared. After three years of labor, in 1779, the “Rittenhouse orrery” was completed.
This orrery was purchased by Princeton University for £300. The trustees of the College of Philadelphia were offended, but Rittenhouse immediately set to work and constructed a duplicate, which was purchased for the college by the proceeds of a series of lectures on astronomy by Dr. William Smith, provost of the college.
The second orrery was much larger than the original, but was constructed on the same model. This was sold for £400.
David Rittenhouse was elected one of the secretaries of the American Philosophical Society in 1771. He delivered a most elaborate address before the society February 23, 1775, entitled “An Oration on Astronomy.” This address was inscribed and dedicated to the delegates assembled in the Continental Congress. In 1790 he became one of its vice presidents.
On the death of Dr. Franklin he succeeded to the office of president, January, 1791, which office he held until his death, when he was succeeded by Thomas Jefferson.
Indians Succeed in Destroying Presqu' Isle,
June 4, 1763
In 1763 Pontiac’s grand scheme of destroying all the English forts was completed, and it was determined the attack should be made simultaneously on June 4. Henry L. Harvey, in the Erie Observer, gives the following account of the attack on Fort Presqu' Isle.
“The troops had retired to their quarters to procure their morning repast; some had already finished, and were sauntering about the fortress or the shores of the lake. All were joyous, in holiday attire and dreaming of nought but the pleasures of the occasion. A knocking was heard at the gate, and three Indians were announced, in hunting garb, desiring an interview with the commander. Their tale was soon told; they said they belonged to a hunting party which had started to Niagara with a lot of furs; that their canoes were bad, and they would prefer disposing of them here, if they could do so to advantage, and return rather than go farther; that their party was encamped by a small stream west of the fort, about a mile, where they had landed the previous night, and where they wished the commander to go and examine their peltries, as it was difficult to bring them as they wished to embark from where they were if they did not trade.
“The commander, accompanied by a clerk, left the fort with the Indians, charging his lieutenant that none should leave the fort, and none but its inmates be admitted until his return. Well would it probably have been had this order been obeyed. After the lapse of sufficient time for the captain to have visited the encampment of the Indians and return, a party of the latter—variously estimated, but probably about one hundred and fifty—advanced toward the fort, bearing upon their backs what appeared to be large packs of furs, which they informed the lieutenant the captain had purchased and ordered deposited in the fort.
“The stratagem succeeded, and when the party were all within the fort, the work of an instant threw off the packs and the short cloaks which covered their weapons—the whole being fastened by one loop and button at the neck. Resistance at this time was useless or ineffectual, and the work of death was as rapid as savage strength and weapons could make it. The shortened rifles, which had been sawed off for the purpose of concealing them under their cloaks and in the packs of furs, were once discharged, and of what remained the tomahawk and knife were made to do the execution.
“The history of savage war presents not a scene of more heartless or blood-thirsty vengeance than was exhibited on this occasion, and few its equal in horror. The few who were taken prisoners in the fort were doomed to the various tortures devised by savage ingenuity, until, save two individuals, all who awoke to celebrate that day at the fort had passed away to the eternal world.
“Of these two, one was a soldier who had gone into the woods near the fort, and on his return, observing a body of Indians dragging away some prisoners, he escaped and immediately proceeded to Niagara. The other was a female who had taken shelter in a small building below the hill, near the mouth of the creek. Here she remained undiscovered until near night of the fatal day, when she was drawn forth, but her life, for some reason, was spared, and she was made prisoner, and ultimately ransomed and restored to civilized life. She was subsequently married and settled in Canada. From her statement, and the information she obtained during her captivity, corroborated by other sources, this account of the massacre is gathered.
“Others have varied it so far as relates to the result, particularly Thatcher, who, in his Life of Pontiac, says: ‘The officer who commanded at Presqu’ Isle defended himself two days during which time the savages are said to have fired his blockhouse about fifty times, but the soldiers extinguished the flames as often. It was then undermined, and a train laid for an explosion, when a capitulation was proposed and agreed upon, under which a part of the garrison was carried captive to the Northwest. The officer was afterward given up at Detroit.' He does not, however, give any authority for his statements, while most writers concur that all were destroyed.
“The number who escaped from Le Boeuf is variously estimated from three to seven. Their escape was effected through a secret or underground passage, having its outlet in the direction of the swamp adjoining Le Boeuf Lake. Tradition, however, says that of these only one survived to reach a civilized settlement.”
So adroitly was the whole campaign managed that nine of the garrisons received no notice of the design in time to guard against it, and fell an easy conquest to the assailants.
Niagara, Pittsburgh, Ligonier and Bedford were strongly invested, but withstood the attacks until relief arrived from the Eastern settlements. The scattered settlers in their vicinity were generally murdered or forced to flee to the fort. Depredations were committed as far east as Carlisle and Reading, and the whole country was alarmed.
Colonel Bradstreet and Colonel Bouquet attacked the savages everywhere. General Gage directed the movements against the Indians. Bradstreet failed to comprehend the Indian character, but Bouquet conquered the savages everywhere on his route, and so completely defeated them that he was able to dictate terms of peace, and received a large number of persons who had been carried into captivity from Pennsylvania and Virginia. He was hailed as a deliverer by the people and received the thanks of the Governments of Pennsylvania and Virginia.
James Pollock Nominated by Know Nothing
Party, June 5, 1854
Governor William Bigler’s administration was universally acceptable to his party, and even his most earnest political opponents found little ground for criticism, but when he came up for re-election two entirely new and unexpected factors confronted him and doomed him to defeat on issues which had no relation to the administration of State affairs. First of these was the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and second, the advent of the secret American, or Know Nothing Party.
The American, or Know Nothing, organization that became such an important political power in 1854, was the culmination of various spasmodic native American organizations beginning in New York, as early as 1835, and extending to Philadelphia and Boston. The original Native American organization of New York was directed wholly against foreigners who held positions on the police force and in other city departments. It came into its greatest power in 1844, when it controlled the entire city government.
The Native Americans carried the fall elections in Philadelphia, in 1844, with material aid from the Whigs, and remained an important element in both City and State politics in Pennsylvania for a number of years.
The name Know Nothing was applied to this organization because the members were ordered to reply to any question in regard to the party or its purposes, “I don’t know.” In the same way “Sam” was nicknamed for that party. This was applied frequently to persons suspected of being members of which it was said they had “seen Sam.”
Chief Justice Black said of the Know Nothings: “They’re like the bee, biggest when it’s born; it will perish as quickly as it rose to power.” Truly a prophecy.
In 1854 the Whig candidate for the office of Mayor, Robert T. Conrad, was supported by the Know Nothings and defeated Richard Vaux by more than 8000 votes. After this the Know Nothing Party declined in strength, and finally what was left of it and the remnant of the Whig organization were absorbed in the Republican Party. After 1856 the Know Nothing party practically disappeared as a general political factor.
The Whigs and Democrats held their regular State conventions early in the year of 1854. Governor Bigler was renominated by the Democrats, and James Pollock was nominated by the Whigs.
Pollock indicated Andrew G. Curtin as the man to take charge of his campaign, and Curtin was made chairman of the Whig State Committee. He entered upon his new duties with the ardor that was always manifested in his public efforts, and everything seemed to be going along smoothly, until he learned that there was a secret organization in the State that embraced a clear majority of the Whig voters and not a few of the Democratic voters.
There were three men of low cunning who had managed to obtain possession of the machinery of the Know Nothing organization and they availed themselves of the peculiar facilities offered by a secret organization to assume autocratic authority.
These three leaders sought out Curtin, and, proving to him that they had it in their power to compute the returns of the Know Nothing lodges and declare for or against any candidate for office, declared their purpose to defeat the Whig candidate for Governor if their wishes were not acceded to. Each of the three men required of Curtin a pledge that three of the most lucrative offices in the gift of the Governor, the inspectorships of Philadelphia, should be given them.
They did not conceal the fact that it made no difference how the Know Nothing lodges voted, they would declare the nomination in favor of or against Pollock, depending upon Curtin’s agreement to their proposition. Curtin deliberated long and had several conferences before he finally acceded to their demands to the extent that he would recommend the appointments they demanded, but that he would not give an unqualified pledge as to the action of the Governor, and that Pollock was to have no knowledge nor was he to be advised of it during the contest.
The entire program was then arranged that the State Council on June 5 should announce as the nominees of the Know Nothing Party James Pollock, Whig, for Governor; Henry S. Mott, Democrat, for Canal Commissioner, and Thomas Bair, Know Nothing Party, for Supreme Judge.
Neither Pollock nor Mott were members of the Know Nothing Party, and both were placed in nomination without their personal knowledge of being candidates of that organization.
Pollock was elected by 37,007 over Bigler; Mott was elected over Darsie by 190,743; and Jeremiah S. Black was elected by 45,535 over Bair, Know Nothing[Nothing], and Smyser, Whig.
As soon as the election was over and Mott realized that he had been given this large majority by the Know Nothing vote, he openly denounced the organization as deliberately guilty of a fraud in making him its candidate, and from that day was the most vindictive opponent of Know Nothingism the State could furnish.
The alleged nomination of Pollock and Mott by the Know Nothing organization was a deliberate fraud upon the Know Nothing people, as was evidenced by the fact that their names were submitted to the various lodges by the State Council as candidates and as members of the order, when, in fact, neither of them was a member, but it mattered little whether the lodges voted for or against Pollock and Mott, there was no power to revise the returns, and they were accepted as candidates without a question and their election assured.
Few knew of the Know Nothing organization. Even Curtin had no conception of its strength and never dreamed of the political revolution that it was about to work out.
The three Know Nothing traders decided that they would accept the position of flour inspector, leather inspector and bark inspector. Curtin literally fulfilled his pledge, stating to the Governor all that had transpired and left the Governor to solve the problem.
The Governor was first determined to appoint none of them, but reconsidered and gave one of them a minor inspectorship of the city. The disappointed Know Nothing leaders had to accept defeat as they had no other way of visiting vengeance upon any one, and their party went to pieces within a year.
John Penn Found First Wife Dying After
Second Marriage, June 6, 1766
A sad incident in the life of John Penn has been told in the story of Tulliallan.[[2]] While Richard and Thomas Penn, sons of the founder, were selecting plate they intended to present to the English battleship Admiral Penn, John, the seventeen-year-old son of Richard, accompanied them to the establishment of James Cox, the silversmith.
[2]. The first of a delightful collection of folk lore and legends collected and published as “Allegheny Episodes,” by Colonel Henry W. Shoemaker, 1922.
During this errand John Penn met for the first time Marie Cox, the silversmith’s only daughter, and they fell desperately in love with each other. Many visits were made to the fine Quaker home of James Cox, which annoyed the elder Penn, and remonstrate as he did it proved of no avail. A trip to Gretna Green was made, and John Penn, aged nineteen, and Marie Cox, aged seventeen, were duly made husband and wife.
When Richard Penn, the father, and his brother Thomas were apprised by young John of what he had done, he was locked in his room, and after dark he was taken to the waterfront and placed aboard a ship sailing for the coast of France. He was carried to Paris, and there carefully watched, but supplied with all the money he required.
Temporarily John Penn forgot about his wife, Marie, as he plunged into the gayeties of the French capital. The pace was rapid and he soon became seriously ill, but he grew better and was taken to Geneva to convalesce. There he was followed by agents of his creditors, who threatened him with imprisonment for debt. John wrote his father in London, who turned a deaf ear to the prodigal; not so Uncle Thomas.
Thomas Penn wrote to his nephew that he would save him from a debtor’s cell provided he would divorce his wife and go to Pennsylvania for an indefinite period. John was in an attitude to promise anything, and soon his bills were settled. While awaiting his ship to take him to Philadelphia, the young man went to London for a day to say good-by to his relations.
The ship was delayed several days by a severe storm and as John was strolling up the streets in Cheapside, to his surprise he met his bride, the deserted Marie Cox Penn. He was much in love with her and she was ready to forgive. They spent the balance of that day together and during dinner in a restaurant it was arranged that Marie should follow her husband to America; meanwhile he would provide a home for her under an assumed name, until he became of age, when he would defy his family to again tear them apart.
John Penn arrived in Philadelphia in November, 1752. He evinced but little interest in provincial affairs, except to make a trip into the interior. He was accompanied by a bodyguard, among whom was Peter Allen. Penn took a fancy to the sturdy frontiersman, “a poor relation” of Chief Justice William Allen.
Allen had built a stone house twelve miles west of Harris’ Ferry, which he called “Tulliallan.” This was the outpost of civilization. John Penn selected this place for his bride, and as Peter Allen had three young daughters, Penn soon arranged that Marie should be their teacher.
John Penn dispatched his valet to London to escort Marie to America. She arrived and her husband took her to Peter Allen’s, where she became a great favorite and found the new life agreeable. She assumed the name Maria Warren. That was in 1754.
All went well until the Penns in London learned that Marie Cox Penn had gone to America, and they traced her to “Tulliallan.”
Maria Warren mysteriously disappeared. At the same time went two friendly Indians from that neighborhood.
Early the following summer, John Penn set out for Peter Allen’s, and when he arrived he learned that his wife was gone a fortnight, they knew not how or where.
Accompanied by servants and settlers, Penn hunted the mountains, far and wide, and inquired of all with whom he came in contact, red or white, but no trace of his wife could be found. He never gave up the search until he suffered a nervous collapse, and was sent to his home in England.
In 1763, he returned as Lieutenant Governor, and arrived in Philadelphia October 30. On June 6, 1766, he married Anne, daughter of William Allen, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania.
A few years later he took a trip through the interior. He stopped at Peter Allen’s and there learned that the Indians had carried his beloved Marie a captive to Canada. It was not long after returning that he again started on another expedition up the Susquehanna River.
A stop was made at Fisher’s Stone House, at what is now known as Fisher’s Ferry, below Sunbury. He was given a noisy welcome and he enjoyed these plain frontier people. While seated by the fireplace he heard coughing in an inner room, and inquired of Peter Fisher who it was who was ill.
“It’s an English woman, your Honor,” replied Fisher. “Tell me about her,” said the Governor. Then Fisher related the strange story, telling Penn that it is said he once loved this woman, that she was kidnapped and carried to Canada, that the Indians were paid for keeping her, that she made her escape and walked all the way back, but became ill and could not reach Peter Allen’s, and was now on her deathbed.
Penn insisted on seeing her, and he went into the room. There lay his wife. They were soon in fond embrace and others left them alone in the room. Ten minutes later Penn ran to the door and called, “Come quick, I fear she is going.” The household assembled but in a few minutes Marie Cox Penn was dead. It is said she lies buried there on a hill which overlooks the Susquehanna.
John Penn returned to Philadelphia and took no more trips through the interior of Pennsylvania. He died childless, February 9, 1795. His wife, nee Allen, survived him until 1813.
Colonel William Clapham Began Erection
of Fort Halifax, June 7, 1756
Early in the year of 1756 Governor Morris commissioned Lieutenant Colonel William Clapham to recruit the “Augusta Regiment” and build Fort Augusta, at Shamokin, now Sunbury. Clapham rendezvoused his troops at Hunter’s Mills, also known as Fort Hunter and then started his march up the river toward Shamokin.
The first camp was established at Armstrong’s, where on June 7 the commander wrote to Governor Morris saying this was the “most convenient place on the river between Harris’ and Shamokin for a magazine on account of its good natural situation above the Juniata Falls, the vast plenty of pine timber at hand, its nearness to Shamokin and a saw within a quarter of a mile.”
The saw was at Armstrong’s place, at the mouth of Armstrong’s Creek. The soldiers cut and squared two hundred logs, each thirty feet in length, and erected the fortification.
During the progress of this work an important Indian conference between Colonel Clapham and the Iroquois was held. The speaker for the Indians was Oghaghradisha, the noted chieftain of that nation. At this conference, held June 10, 1756, the Indians agreed to the building of a fort at Shamokin, but also wanted another fort built three days’ journey in a canoe farther up the North Branch in their branch, called Adjouquay, the mouth of present Lackawanna Creek. The Indians agreed to help build this fort.
Colonel Clapham wrote to Governor Morris from the “Camp at Armstrong’s” on June 20, 1756:
“The progress already made in this fort renders it impracticable for me to comply with the commissioner’s desire to contract it, at which I am more surprised, as I expected every day orders to enlarge it, it being as yet, in my opinion, too small. I shall leave an officer and thirty men, with orders to finish it, when I march from hence, which will be with all possible expedition after the arrival of the blankets, the rum and the money for the payment of the battoe-men, for want of which I am obliged to detain them here in idleness, not thinking it prudent to trust them on another trip for fear of their desertion, which may totally impede the service. I could wish the commissioners would invent some expedient to pay these men without money, or at least without the danger of trusting me with their money, the charge of which I am not ambitious of, or the much envied honor and trouble of expending it. This far is certain, that without such expedient or money we cannot stir.
“I have pursuant to your Honor’s command sent down two Indian Sachems, properly escorted and committed particularly in the care of Mr. Shippen (Edward, of Lancaster), and hope their coming will fully answer the ends proposed by your Honor and your Council. I have found Captain McKee extremely useful, and have sent him also at the Sachem’s particular request.
“The carpenters are still employed in building Battoes and carriages for the canoes, and everybody seems disposed cheerfully to contribute their services toward the public good; if there ever was any prospect or assurance of being paid for it.
“I assure myself, your Honor, will omit no opportunity of extricating me from embarrassments arising from the want of money, both for the Battoe-men and the soldiers; twenty-six of whom being Dutch (German) are now in confinement for mutiny on that very account. I am with all respect your Honor’s obedient servant.
”William Clapham.
“P. S.—The Fort at this place is without a name till your Honor is pleased to confer one.”
On the 25th of the month the Governor wrote from Philadelphia to Colonel Clapham. “The Fort at Armstrong’s I would have it called Fort Halifax.” This was in honor of the Earl of Halifax.
The exact location of this fort is discernible today, if one will drive along the concrete highway above the present borough of Halifax and turn off toward the river, after crossing the bridge which spans Armstrong’s Run. The covered bridge, near the mouth of the creek is the site of the old Armstrong sawmill to which Colonel Clapham referred. A short distance below are the remains of the foundation of the Armstrong home which was built prior to 1755, and a few hundreds yards below will be seen a small rise in the ground which is also marked with a small square monument. It was on this slight eminence that Fort Halifax was built.
Colonel Clapham, July 1, thanked the Governor for £100, which he distributed to the bateau men, but complained that the sum sent was insufficient. He commented upon the difficulties of conducting so “amphibious” an expedition.
When Colonel Clapham departed from Fort Halifax he left a detail of thirty men, under command of Captain Nathaniel Miles, to whom he gave most explicit instructions, even down to the detail of mounting guard and where the sentries should be stationed about the post, and in event of a surprise attack, just how each one should demean himself.
During the long period in which the provincial soldiers were building the most important Fort Augusta at Shamokin, there was much activity at Fort Halifax.
Ammunition, clothing, food and supplies were all stored there and carried farther up stream in bateaux when conditions permitted such transportation. The garrison usually consisted of thirty to fifty soldiers, under command of a captain. Escorts were furnished from this post in either direction as the urgency of the mission required.
Colonel Clapham was convinced that the garrison at Fort Halifax should never be less than 100 men, so that proper communication between the inhabitants and Fort Augusta could be maintained.
There are no positive records of an attack upon Fort Halifax. U. J. Jones, in his “Story of Simon Girty, the Outlaw,” writes of an Indian attack, led by this notorious Tory, which was successfully repulsed, with heavy loss among the besiegers. However, this is more a story of fiction than history.
In July, 1757, after the completion of Fort Augusta, a petition was presented to the Governor, praying the removal of the garrison from Fort Halifax to Hunter’s, the defense of the former being considered of little importance to the inhabitants south of the mountains. This removal was soon thereafter effected, and Fort Halifax passed into history.
Earliest Court Removed from Upland to
Kingsesse June 8, 1680
At a court held at Upland, now Chester, “on ye 2d Tuesday, being ye 8th day of ye month of June in ye 32 yeare of his Majesty’s Raigne Anno Dom. 1680,” with Otto Ernest Cock, Israel Helm, Henry Jones and Laurens Cock, as justices, there was a busy session and much business of importance transacted.
James Sandelands sued Hanna Salter for the account due him of two hundred and seven gilders, and the Court ordered judgment to be entered with costs, with stay of execution until the defendant could get in her wheat.
Gunla Andries brought suit against Jonas Nielsen for unlawful possession of some land at Kingsesse. “The debates of both parties being heard, & ye Pattent & former orders of Court examined: The Court Doe confirme the former orders of this Court in that Case made and doe order the Sheriffe to Put the Plt. in Possession of ye Land according to Pattent & ye sd former orders of this Court.”
The Court granted William Clark liberty to take up two hundred acres in Nieshambenies Creek; Peter Cock, Neeles Jonassen, Thomas Fairman, and Henry Jacobs, were granted each a like amount of land.
Moens Staecket, who had been in trouble, was bound over so that in future he would behave himself.
The Court took into consideration the raising of their own salaries, when they ordered each person should “pay yearly one Scipple of wheat or 5 gilders.” According to a former order, they also decreed that those in arrears should be brought before Justice Otto Ernest at Tinicum Island, and those who failed to report there should “be fetched by ye Constable by way of restraynt.”
Richard Noble, the surveyor for Upland County, made a return of surveys having been made for Andrew Boen, William Clayton, Christian Claess, Andrew Homman, William Woodmancy, Peter Nealson and William Orian. Which surveys were approved by the Court and returned to the office in New York, for confirmation by the Governor.
Then came the most important event of the day’s business. It seems that there was complaint about the location of Upland, as it was “att ye Lower End of ye County. The Court therefore for ye most ease of ye people have thought fitt for ye future to sit & meet att ye Town of Kingsesse in ye Schuylkills.”
The site of Kingsesse was probably in the immediate vicinity of the Swedish mill erected by Governor Printz, near the Blue Bell tavern on the Darby road.
Then followed the last action brought before the Court at Upland, it was the case of Gunla Andries and her husband, in a land dispute with the heirs of Peter Andries and Jonas Neelson.
The Court then moved to Kingsesse and its next session was held October 13. The same justices with the addition of George Browne, who qualified at the opening of the court.
Slander suits were the order of the day. That between Claes Cram and Hans Peters is interesting. Cram claimed Peters called him a thief, and two witnesses swore that they heard Peters say that Cram had stolen aboard a ship and in the same manner stole all his riches. The verdict was that since the defendant was not able to prove “what he hath said or any part thereof the Court ordered that ye defendant openly shall declare himself a liar and that he shall further declare ye plaintiff to be an honest man and pay twenty gilders to ye plaintiff for his loss of time, together with the cost of ye suite.”
Hans Jurian declared that Moens Staecket, during September, assaulted and beat him at his own door, followed him into his house, calling him a rogue and a dog and a thousand more names, and moreover threatened to kill Jurian whenever he met him.
One witness swore that he saw the defendant all bloody and he told him Jurian did it, that Staecket later appeared “on horseback and called for his sword, his gun, powder and shot and then rode before Hans Jurian’s door and, calling him, saying you dog, you rogue, come out, I will shoot you a bullet through your head.”
The Court bound both over to keep the peace for one year and six weeks, under penalty of £40 of lawful money of England, to be paid by him that shall first break ye peace. Staecket was also fined 200 gilders; the costs of the case were divided between the litigants.
Later in the same day the same Staecket was defendant in another action brought by the presiding justice, Otto Ernest Cock, complaining that Staecket maliciously defamed and slandered him by calling him a hog thief. The defendant protested that he never knew, heard or saw the plaintiff steal a hog, and that he to his knowledge never said any such thing but that he hath said it, as the witness doth affirm, that it must have been, when he was in his drink, and he humbly desired forgiveness, since he finds himself in a great fault. Staecket was ordered to openly declare that Justice Cock was not a hog thief, and he was fined 1000 gilders.
There were eleven cases tried this day, one, at least, before a jury. Nine petitions were disposed of and the Court issued a written direction for the overseers of the highways. Certainly a busy day in court.
The Court adjourned until second Tuesday of ye month of March next ensuing.
Last Purchase from Indians Caused by
Boundary Dispute, June 9, 1769
One important feature of the last treaty made with the Indians at Fort Stanwix, October, 1784, was the settlement of the difficulties which had existed for sixteen years among the white settlers over the disputed boundary line embraced by Tiadaghton.
It was contended by some that Lycoming Creek was this line, and by others that it was Pine Creek. The territory between these streams is that which lies between the present City of Williamsport and Jersey Shore, and includes nearly half of the present Lycoming County and all of Tioga.
Previous to the purchase of November 5, 1768, this part of the West Branch Valley was occupied by tribes of Shawnee and Munsee, and the way for its settlement by whites was not opened until the “New Purchase” was made at Fort Stanwix.
On June 9, 1769, a serious difference arose between the Provincial Government and the settlers whether the stream called Tiadaghton, mentioned in the treaty was Lycoming or Pine Creek when translated into English. This question remained in dispute until the last treaty, October, 1784.
This early settlement is made clear by the reference to Smith’s Laws, where is the following:
“There existed a great number of locations on the 3d of April, 1769, for the choicest lands on the West Branch of Susquehanna, between the mouths of Lycoming and Pine Creeks; but the Proprietaries from extreme caution, the result of that experience which had also produced the very penal laws of 1768 and 1769, and the proclamation already stated, had prohibited any surveys being made beyond the Lycoming. In the meantime, in violation of all laws, a set of hardy adventurers had from time to time seated themselves on this doubtful territory. They made improvements, and formed a very considerable population.
“It is true, so far as regarded the rights to real property, they were not under the protection of the laws of the country, and were we to adopt the visionary theories of some philosophers, who have drawn their arguments from a supposed state of nature, we might be led to believe that the state of these people would have been a state of continual warfare; and that in contests for property the weakest must give way to the strongest.
“To prevent the consequences, real or supposed, of this state of things, they formed a mutual compact among themselves. They annually elected a tribunal, in rotation, of three of their settlers, whom they called fair-play men, who were to decide all controversies, and settle disputed boundaries. From their decision there was no appeal. There could be no resistance. The decree was enforced by the whole body, who started up in mass, at the mandate of the court, and execution and eviction were as sudden and irresistible as the judgment. Every new comer was obliged to apply to this powerful tribunal, and upon his solemn engagement to submit in all respects to the law of the land he was permitted to take possession of some vacant spot. Their decrees were, however, just; and when their settlements were recognized by law, and fair play had ceased, their decisions were received in evidence, and confirmed by judgment of courts.”
In those early days, as later, the white man was pushing the Indian back, in spite of the proclamation of Governor Penn, which warned all persons not to settle on lands not purchased of the Indians and unsurveyed, and advised those that had settled to make haste and leave. But they did not vacate, and in the enforcement of their “fair-play” code, it became necessary to adopt rigid measures. Any person resisting the decrees was placed in a canoe, rowed to the mouth of Lycoming Creek, and there sent adrift. Subsequently a law was passed, allowing the settlers from Lycoming and Pine Creeks a preemption right to not over three hundred acres of land each, upon satisfactory proof being presented that they were actual settlers previous to 1780.
For seven years after the purchase of 1768, the pioneers swung the axe, felled the giant trees, builded their cabins, and tilled their fields unmolested; but just when they began to enjoy the comforts of their cabin homes, and reap the rewards of their industry, the cry of the Revolution was heard, and the hardy backwoodsmen trained to the vicissitudes of war during the frontier campaigns of 1755 to 1763, with true patriotism, seized their rifles and went forth to battle for liberty, leaving their families scantily provided for and exposed to the raids of the Indians.
All along the West Branch, wherever there was a white settlement, stockade forts were built, garrisoned by settlers or Provincial troops.
At the treaty of October 23, 1784, the Pennsylvania Commissioners were specially instructed to inquire of the Indians which stream was really Tiadaghton, and, also the Indian name of Burnetts’ Hills, left blank in deed of 1768. The Indians informed them Tiadaghton was what the whites call Pine Creek, being the largest stream flowing into the Otzinachson, or West Branch. They did not know the name of the hills. The authorities apprehended difficulty in settling disputes among the actual settlers.
The Commissioners at this treaty secured title from the Indians for the residue of the lands within the limits of Pennsylvania. This purchase was confirmed by the Wyandotte and Delaware nations at Fort McIntosh, January 21, 1785.
Thus in a period of 102 years was the whole right of the Indians to the soil of Pennsylvania extinguished.
The land office was opened for the new purchase in 1785 and settlers rapidly flocked to the West Branch Valley.
Massacre at Lycoming Creek, Present
Williamsport, June 10, 1778
As early as 1773 settlers had made improvements at the mouth of Lycoming Creek, where the city of Williamsport now stands. For the next three or four years there was no protection for settlers between there and Antes Fort, about thirteen miles west.
Some brave spirits, among whom were William King, Robert Covenhoven, and James Armstrong, built a stockade inclosure at the mouth of the Lycoming. This was located near what is now Fourth and Cemetery Streets, Williamsport.
The rumors of a descent by the Tories and Indians on the North Branch had reached the settlement at Northumberland, where William King, wife and two daughters lived. They thought the new stockade on the Lycoming would be safe and a hurried trip was made up the West Branch.
The driver of the team remarked, as they approached Loyalsock Creek: “Here is the last stream we will cross before reaching the fort, and we will stop for water.” The horses had no sooner halted than rifles cracked and the utmost confusion at once ensued.
A description of the terrible massacre that followed is given in a long letter by Colonel Hosterman to Colonel Winter from Fort Muncy, under date June 10, 1778.
Colonel Hosterman began his letter with the statement that nothing material had happened since he was stationed at Fort Muncy until that day. He was in command of a party, consisting of Captain Reynolds and thirteen men which set out for Antes Fort, carrying a supply of ammunition for the garrisons stationed there and at the Big Island.
The same day, remarks the Colonel, Peter Smith and his wife and six children; William King’s wife and two daughters, Ruth and Sarah; Michael Smith, Michael Campbell and David Chambers, the latter a member of Captain Reynolds’ company, and two men named Snodgrass and Hammond, a total of six men, two women and eight children, were going in wagons to Lycoming. When they arrived at Loyalsock Creek, John Harris (son of Samuel Harris) met them and told them that he had heard firing up the creek and advised that they return to Fort Muncy, that to advance farther was dangerous.
Peter Smith said that firing would not stop him. Harris proceeded to Fort Muncy, and the other party continued up the river. Soon as Harris reached the fort and told his story, a detail of fifteen soldiers started from the fort in the direction of where the firing had been heard.
When Smith and his party arrived within a half mile of Lycoming Creek, the Indians, lying in ambush, fired upon them, and at the first fire Snodgrass fell dead with a bullet through his forehead. The Indians gave a halloo and rushed toward the wagon. The men hurried toward trees and with these as a shelter returned the fire. A small lad and a girl escaped into the woods.
The Indians closed in on the party in an endeavor to surround them. This movement was discovered by the men, who fled as rapidly as possible, leaving only Campbell, who was fighting at too close quarters to join his companions in their flight. He was killed and scalped on the spot.
Before the men were out of sight of the wagon they saw the Indians attacking the women and children with their tomahawks. Chambers stated that he believed there were about twenty Indians in the party.
This bloody affair occurred just before sundown. The lad who escaped pushed on to the stockade on Lycoming Creek and informed the men there what had happened. They started immediately, but mistaking the intelligence the boy gave, hastened to the river to the place where they lived, thinking it was the canoe that was attacked instead of a wagon.
In the meantime Captain William Hepburn, with the detail which started from Fort Muncy, arrived at the scene of the massacre, and found the bodies of Snodgrass and Campbell. It was too dark to pursue the savages, but they pressed on toward Lycoming and met the party going out from there. They waited until the next day.
On the morning of June 11 they returned to the scene and found the bodies of Peter Smith’s wife shot through, stabbed, scalped and a knife by her side.
A little girl and a boy were killed and scalped. Snodgrass was found shot through the head and scalped, and a knife left sticking in his body. The rifles had been taken by the Indians, but nothing of value was removed from the wagon.
The lad who made his escape insisted that Mrs. King must be somewhere in the thicket, as he heard her scream and say she would not go along with the Indians when they were dragging her away. They made another search and found her near the stream where she had dragged herself and rested with her hand under her bleeding head. She had been tomahawked and scalped, but not dead. She was sitting up and greeted her husband when he approached her, but she expired almost instantly. She did not live long enough to speak of the affair.
William King was the picture of despair. He soon returned to Northumberland, and later moved up to Vincents Island. Many years later he learned that his daughter was still alive, and he started on foot with knapsack on his back, accompanied by an old Indian, for Niagara. He soon found Sarah, but had to travel far and suffered severe hardships before he succeeded in finding Ruth.
They reached their home on the island at Milton. They afterward lived at Jaysburg, the present Williamsport. Descendants of the sturdy people are now residents of that city.
Among those taken captive were Peter Wyckoff and son, Cornelius; Thomas Covenhoven and a Negro. The latter was burned in the presence of the other prisoners. Peter Wyckoff was fifty-four years old, and lived with the Indians two years before he and his son were given their freedom.
This affair occurred in the present city of Williamsport, where West Fourth Street crosses the stream which flows down Cemetery Street. There is a boulder erected near the spot which bears a bronze tablet telling of the event.
At the time this was a natural thicket of wild plum trees, which yielded fruit of remarkable size and flavor for nearly a century after the massacre. The road leading to this spot was the old Indian trail and formed a safe place for the concealment of lurking savages.
Colonel William Crawford Captured by
Indians June 11, 1782
During the spring of 1782 the Indians, who had removed the seat of their depredations and war to the western frontiers of Pennsylvania, and Eastern Ohio, assembled in large numbers at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, which they used as place of general rendezvous and from which they went out to the places they decided in council should be attacked and destroyed.
The principal places to which they made incursions were along the Ohio River, especially in Western Pennsylvania. So serious was the situation along the frontier, and so bold had the savages become that Congress directed a regiment of volunteers to be raised to subdue them.
General Washington commissioned Colonel William Crawford, of Westmoreland County, Pa., to command the regiment and David Williamson, Lieutenant Colonel. These men were seasoned soldiers and unusually well qualified to lead troops against the Indians.
In May, 1782, the command marched from Fort Pitt, well armed and provided with sufficient quantity of provisions. The command consisted of 462 officers and men. Each volunteer furnished his own horse, gun and a month’s provision. They were to be exempt from two tours of military duty, and in the event they captured any Indian towns, such plunder as fell into their hands should be returned to its former owner, if he could identify and prove his property, and all horses lost during the expedition by unavoidable accident were to be replaced by horses taken from the Indians.
After a fatiguing march of eleven days through the wilderness the command reached the site of Sandusky, but the inhabitants had moved eighteen miles farther down the stream. The officers decided there were no Indian towns nearer than forty miles, and while refreshing their horses the scouts advanced to search for Indian settlements. They had not gone far when the savages were discovered in great numbers and advancing toward them.
Colonel Crawford and his brave band advanced to meet the attack June 11, 1782, and when they had reached a point only a short distance from the town they were met by a white man bearing a flag of truce from the Indians, who proposed to Colonel Crawford that if he would surrender himself and his men to the Indians, who were of overwhelming force, their lives would be spared, but if they persisted further in their expedition and attacked the town they should all be massacred to the last man.
Crawford, while listening to the proposition, thought he recognized the bearer of it as one whose features were those of a former schoolmate and companion, one he knew by the name of Simon Girty, and with whom he had only recently served in the same regiment in the Continental Army.
Crawford sternly inquired of the traitor if his name was not Simon Girty. Answered in the affirmative, the colonel informed him that he despised the offer he had made; that he would not surrender his army unless he was compelled to do so by a superior force.
Girty returned and Colonel Crawford immediately commenced an engagement which lasted till darkness, without advantage to either side, when firing ceased. The troops encamped in the woods a half mile from the town. After refreshments they slept on their arms, so that they should not be caught unprepared in a surprise attack.
The sentinels reported during the night that they were surrounded by Indians upon every side, except a narrow space between them and the town. The officers consulted upon the best way of escape, for they realized to fight was useless and to surrender meant death.
Colonel Crawford proposed to retreat through the ranks of the enemy in an opposite direction from the town. Lieutenant Colonel Williamson thought the better plan would be to march directly through the town, where there appeared to be no Indians. It was no time for debate.
Colonel Crawford with sixty followers retreated on the route he had proposed by attempting to rush the enemy, but every man was killed or captured, the colonel and his surgeon, Dr. Knight, being among the prisoners. Lieutenant Colonel Williamson, with the remainder of the command and the wounded of the day’s battle, set out the same moment Colonel Crawford did, went through the town without losing a man, and by the aid of experienced guides arrived at their homes in safety.
The next day the Indians paraded their prisoners and disposed of all of them among the different tribes except Colonel Crawford and Surgeon Knight, who were reserved for a more cruel fate.
At the Indian council they were brought forward and seated in the center of the circle. The chiefs questioned Crawford on subjects relative to war. They inquired who conducted the operations of the American Army on the Ohio and Susquehanna Rivers the previous year; also who had led that army against them with so much skill and such uniform success.
Crawford very honestly and without suspecting any harm from his reply promptly stated that he was the man. Upon learning this, Chief Pipe, who had lost a son in battle where Colonel Crawford commanded, left his station in the council ring, stepped up to Crawford, blackened his face and at the same time told him he should be burned the next day.
Death of Colonel Crawford and Escape of
Dr. Knight June 12, 1782
The terrible disaster which occurred to the Pennsylvania militiamen under command of Colonel William Crawford, June 10, 1782, was one of the most unfortunate which is recorded in annals of border warfare.
The Indians under Captain Pipe and Chief Wyngenim, Delaware chieftains, and that white savage Simon Girty, the renegade, had surrounded the militiamen and captured or killed the entire command, except a small detachment under Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson, which made a miraculous escape through the Indian town during the progress of the battle.
The following day Colonel Crawford, his son, Captain John Crawford; son-in-law, Major Harrison; nephews, Major Rose and William Crawford, Dr. Knight and many other militiamen, who had been recruited in Westmoreland County, were being marched to the Indian towns, where they were tortured according to Indian savagery.
Dr. Knight was informed he would be sent to the Shawnee town, but he and the Colonel were to march to the place where the former was to be executed. During the march they saw five of their comrades in custody of the Indians. They were all required to sit down, when a number of squaws and boys tomahawked the five prisoners. An elderly soldier among the five, named John McKinley, from the Thirteenth Virginia, was killed, his head cut off and kicked about upon the ground. The scalps of the other four were slapped into the faces of Colonel Crawford and Surgeon Knight.
At this point Simon Girty came upon the scene in company with several Indians on horseback. Colonel Crawford engaged him in conversation and made every possible offer for relief from his perilous situation, offering Girty any price to deliver him from the savages and their torments. Girty heard his prayers with indifference.
Colonel Crawford was led to a post to which he was fastened. A pile of wood lay a few feet distant. The colonel was stripped naked and ordered to sit down on the fire which had been kindled, when the Indians began to beat him with sticks and their fists. They then bound the Colonel’s hands behind his back and fastened the rope with which he was tied to this ligature.
Girty stood and composedly looked on the preparations that were to be the death of one of his former playmates; a hero by whose side he had fought. Crawford again pleaded with Girty to save him, but he refused to procure him a moment’s respite or afford him the most trifling assistance. Crawford retorted that he would take it all patiently.
The rope was now pulled over the cross arm on the post so that the Colonel’s arms were extended above his head, with his feet just standing upon the ground. The wood was placed in a circle around him at a distance of a few feet, in order that his misery might be protracted and the fire then applied to the wood at several places in the circle.
As the flames rose and the scorching heat became unbearable he again prayed to Girty in all the anguish of his torment to rescue him from the fire, or shoot him dead. Girty, with a demoniac smile, calmly replied that he had no pity for his sufferings. Squaws took broad boards, heaped with burning embers and threw them on him, so that he had nothing but coals of fire to walk upon.
Dr. Knight who witnessed all of this horrible execution, related that Colonel Crawford at this stage of his sufferings, prayed to the Almighty to have mercy on his soul. He bore his torments with the most manly fortitude. He suffered these extremities of pain nearly two hours, when, exhausted, he fell over. They then scalped him and repeatedly slapped the bleeding scalp in the doctor’s face, remarking, “That was your great captain.” An old squaw laid a pile of coals upon his back and head where his scalp had been removed, the Colonel raised himself upon his feet and began to walk around the post, but he soon expired. His body was entirely consumed.
Colonel Crawford was about fifty years old, was a patriot and hero. He had been an intimate of General Washington and shared to an unusual degree the confidence of that great man and soldier.
Soon as brave Colonel Crawford had expired Girty went to Dr. Knight and bade him prepare for death. He told him he was to be burned in the Shawnee town. He was led away during that night.
The Indian who had Dr. Knight in custody rode on horseback and drove his captive before him. During the march the doctor pleaded ignorance of the fate which was to befall him and assumed a cheerful countenance and asked him if it was true they were to live together as brothers in one house. This pleased the Indian, who replied yes. They traveled about twenty-five miles that day.
At daybreak, June 12, the Indian untied Knight and began to make a fire. Knight took the heaviest dogwood stick he could find and in an unguarded moment struck the Indian a terrible blow on the head, which so stunned him that he fell forward into the fire. Knight seized his gun, blanket, powder horn, bullet bag and made off through the woods. He had a fatiguing tramp, many days without food or shelter. He reached the Ohio River, five miles below Fort McIntosh, twenty-one days after his escape, and at 7 o’clock in the morning of July 4, arrived safely at the fort.
He lived many years afterward and gave a thrilling narrative of the defeat and cruel death of Colonel Crawford and his own miraculous escape.
Conrad Weiser and Family Arrive in
America June 13, 1710
During the early days of the eighteenth century many Germans, or “Palatines” as they were called, came to America. Many of them settled near Albany, New York.
Among these Germans were John Conrad Weiser and his son Conrad, who arrived in New York June 13, 1710, and settled on Livingston Manor, in Columbia County, N. Y. Conrad was then a lad of fourteen, being born November 2, 1696, near Wurtemberg, Germany.
The company of which the Weisers were members did not prosper in their new home; many of them starved. So in 1714 the Weisers removed to Schoharie, in the Mohawk Valley.
The removal made matters worse. The family had almost nothing to eat. The friendly Mohawk chief, Quagnant, offered to take Conrad into his wigwam for the winter, and his father consented. The lad learned the Mohawk language, but often wished himself back in his own poor home. “I endured a great deal of cold,” he said, “but by spring my hunger much surpassed the cold.” Conrad did not then foresee how valuable his knowledge of Indian language and customs would become.
Conrad did not long remain at home after his return from the Mohawk camp, but acted as an interpreter between the Dutch traders and the Indians.
The son may have been headstrong and the sire harsh, at any rate the youth left home and built himself a cabin in the neighborhood, earned a good income by selling furs, and spent the greater part of the next fifteen years among the Indians. Evidently, however, he retained a respect for the teachings of his ancestors, for he says: “I married my Anna Eve, and was given in marriage by Rev. John L. Haeger, Reformed clergyman, on 22d of November (1720), in my father’s house at Schoharie.” Weiser, the elder, was at that time in Europe.
When Governor Keith, of Pennsylvania, heard of the plight of the Germans at Schoharie, he invited them to come to his colony, and promised them good land. John Weiser, a leader of the colony, set out at the head of a company and cut a road through the woods to the Susquehanna. In rough boats they floated down stream to the mouth of Swatara Creek, which they followed up to the beautiful Lebanon Valley, where they settled along Tulpehocken Creek.
Conrad Weiser and his young wife followed the elder Weisers, and settled near Womelsdorf, where he continued to reside until a few years before his death, when he removed to Reading.
It is said of Weiser that while on a hunting trip he met the great Shikellamy, and that the vicegerent was well pleased with him, and particularly so when he learned that Weiser could speak Mohawk. They became great friends.
In 1732 by special request of certain deputies of the Six Nations, Weiser was appointed by Lieutenant Governor Patrick Gordon, of Pennsylvania, interpreter for the Iroquois Confederacy. His Indian name was “Tharachiawakon.” From this time until his death he was identified with the history of the Province in all its relations with the Indians. His popularity and influence never waned, for he was honest in all his dealings.
In 1734 he was appointed a justice of the peace by the Pennsylvania Government and in the old French War was commissioned colonel and appointed to the command of all the forces that were raised west of the Susquehanna.
When Shikellamy complained to the Governor of Pennsylvania that the trade in liquor was causing the ruin of the Delaware and Shawnee, the Governor asked him to come to Philadelphia to discuss the matter. Shikellamy took with him Weiser, as interpreter, who he called “an adopted son of the Mohawk nation.”
James Logan saw the value an honest man like Weiser could render the Province, and he was made an agent for Pennsylvania in dealing with the Six Nations. Weiser thus represented both the Indians and the whites. The Iroquois declared that “Conrad Weiser is a good, true man, who will speak our words and not his own.”
Weiser entered also into the Indian affairs of Virginia and Maryland, and prevented those colonies from becoming involved in an Indian war. This was done at a great Indian council at Lancaster, in 1744.
Weiser was able, through his Indian friends to be kept informed of the French movements in the Ohio Valley. He early realized the importance of the English country “at the forks of the Ohio.” He made a journey to the western tribes and concluded a most important treaty at Logstown in 1748.
Squatters encroached upon lands in the Juniata Valley, which incensed the Indians so much that Conrad Weiser was sent to order them off the Indian lands. He succeeded in moving them off and then burned their cabins.
Following Braddock’s defeat, Conrad Weiser led many delegations of Indians to Philadelphia, and they always were entertained at his home en route. This hospitality was misunderstood by his neighbors, but his well-known integrity saved him in the hour of his greatest peril.
When the Indians committed so many murders in Penns Valley, at Mahanoy Creek and elsewhere, Weiser warned his neighbors at Tulpehocken, and when they gathered at his house for defense Weiser was made their commander.
An ungrateful Pennsylvania Assembly failed to pay Weiser’s bills, and for three years his accounts were unsettled. He refused to do further service until his bills were paid, and as Weiser was in demand his expense accounts were satisfied.
At the great Indian treaties at Easton Weiser was a prominent personage, and the final peace was due principally to his influence.
Weiser was now past sixty years of age. His work was almost done. While visiting near Womelsdorf he died July 13, 1760.
When he died one of his associates remarked: “He has left no one to fill his place.” An Iroquois orator declared: “We are at a great loss and sit in darkness.”
If all white men had been as just and friendly to the Indians as was this Pennsylvania German, the history of our westward advance might have been spared some bloody chapters.
It is said that President Washington, standing at the grave of Weiser, in 1794, remarked that the services of the latter to the Government had been of great importance and had been rendered in a difficult period and posterity would not forget him.
United States Flag Adopted by Act of
Congress June 14, 1777
On June 14, 1777, Continental Congress resolved “that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white, in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
The flag was a modification of the so-called “Great Union Flag,” used since January 2, 1776, when it was raised in the camp on Prospect Hill. Before that time different flags had been used under authority of the several provinces.
In autumn, 1775, Philadelphia floating batteries used a white flag, tree in the field, motto “An Appeal to Heaven.” The “Great Union” flag had the thirteen alternate stripes of red and white, with the union of the British Union Jack. The Philadelphia Light Horse, which escorted Washington on his way out of the city on the morning of June 21, 1775, to his command of the American forces at Cambridge, carried a flag of alternate stripes.
The popular idea was a flag of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, emblematic of the thirteen original colonies. The field of blue with the King’s colors acknowledged fealty to the King, but though the Americans were in arms against the mother country, they still hoped that the English Parliament would repeal the obnoxious laws and restore to the colonists those English rights that were theirs by inheritance and by royal colonial charters.
Up to January 1, 1776, the Americans had no red, white and blue flag. This popular design of a flag was called “Washington’s Grand Union” flag, and it was first unfurled by Washington over the camps at Cambridge, Mass., January 2, 1776, when it was saluted with thirteen guns and thirteen cheers.
When the committee appointed by Congress to prepare a design for a new flag, consisting of General George Washington, Robert Morris and Colonel George Ross, called upon Mrs. Elizabeth (Betsy) Ross, at her home, 239 Arch street, Philadelphia, there was not much change in the popular ensign, only the displacement of the British union by thirteen white stars.
As the act of Congress did not specify the number of points of the stars or their arrangement, Mrs. Ross suggested that a star of five points would be more distinct, pleasing and appropriate than the six-pointed star which the committee had designed. Folding a piece of paper, she cut, with a single clip of her scissors, a five-pointed star, and, placing it on a blue field, delighted the committee with her taste, ingenuity and judgment. The committee decided the thirteen stars should be arranged in a circle, typifying eternity.
Betsy Ross had been making colonial flags for the army and navy, and was skilled in needlework. The committee was well pleased with the flag which she made, and authorized her, in the name of Congress, to make United States flags. She continued in that occupation for many years.
The first display of the “Stars and Stripes” as the flag soon became known, was August 3, 1777, over Fort Stanwix, now Rome, N. Y.
The first time the American flag was baptized in blood was at the Battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, which was only eight days after it was officially adopted by Congress, September 3, 1777.
The first appearance on a foreign stronghold was at Nassau, Bahama Islands, January 22, 1778, when the Americans captured Fort Nassau from the British.
On April 24, 1778, John Paul Jones achieved the honor of being the first officer of the American navy to compel a British man-of-war to strike her colors to the new flag.
John Singleton Copley, the American-born artist, in London, claimed to be the first to display the Stars and Stripes in Great Britain. On the day when George III acknowledged the independence of the United States, December 5, 1782, he painted the flag of the United States in the background of a portrait which he was painting in his London studio.
January 13, 1794, the flag was changed by act of Congress owing to the new States of Vermont and Kentucky being admitted to the Union. The flag now had two stars and two stripes added to it. The act went into effect May 1, 1795. This was the “Star Spangled Banner,” and under this flag our country fought and won three wars to maintain her existence; the so-called naval war with France, in 1798; that with the Barbary States in 1801–05, and that with England in 1812–15.
On April 4, 1818, Congress by act, decreed a return to the original thirteen stripes, and a star for every State in the Union to be added to the flag on July 4, following a State’s admission to the Union. This is the present law.
The arrangement of the stars on the flag is regulated by law and executive order. An executive order, issued October 26, 1912, provided for forty-eight stars to be arranged in six horizontal rows of eight stars each.
Starting in the upper left hand corner and reading each row from left to right gives the stars of each State’s ratification of the Constitution and admission to the Union, as follows:
First row—Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina.
Second row—New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee.
Third row—Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, Missouri.
Fourth row—Arkansas, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota.
Fifth row—Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota.
Sixth row—Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona.
Today the flags float over nearly every school house in the land. The custom of having a flag displayed on all public buildings in the United States was inaugurated by President Benjamin Harrison.
June 14 is now generally observed as Flag Day wherever floats the Stars and Stripes.
French Plant Leaden Plates to Prove
Possession on June 15, 1749
The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which was concluded October 1, 1748, secured peace between Great Britain and France, and should have put an end to all hostile encounters between their representatives on the American continent.
This treaty was supposed to have settled all difficulties between the two courts, but the French were determined to occupy the whole territory drained by the Mississippi, which they claimed by priority of discovery by La Salle. The British complained to the French Government about encroachments being made by the French upon English soil in America.
The French deemed it necessary, in order to establish legal claim to the country which they believed to be theirs, to take formal possession of it. Accordingly, the Marquis de la Galissoniere, who was at that time Governor General of Canada, dispatched Captain Bienville de Celeron with a party of two hundred and fifteen French and fifty-five Indians to publicly proclaim possession and bury at prominent points plates of lead, bearing inscriptions declaring occupation in the name of the French King.
Celeron started on June 15, 1749, following the southern shore of Lakes Ontario and Erie, until he reached a point opposite Lake Chautauqua, when the boats were drawn up and carried over the dividing ridge, a distance of ten miles. They followed down the lake and the Conewago Creek, where they arrived at what is now Warren, near the confluence of the creek with the Allegheny River. Here the first plate was buried.
These plates were eleven inches long, seven and a half wide, and one-eighth of an inch thick. The inscription was in French, and in the following terms, as fairly translated into English:
“In the year, 1749, of the reign of Louis[Louis] XIV, King of France, We Celeron, commander of a detachment sent by Monsieur the Marquis de la Galissoniere, Governor General of New France, to re-establish tranquillity in some Indian villages of these cantons, have buried this plate of lead at the confluence of the Ohio with the Chautauqua this 29th day of July, near the River Ohio, otherwise Belle Riviere, as a monument of the renewal of the possession we have taken of the said River Ohio, and of all those which empty into it, and of all the lands on both sides as far as the sources of the said river, as enjoyed or ought to have been enjoyed by the King of France preceding, and as they have there maintained themselves by arms and by treaties, especially those of Ryswick, Utrecht and Aix-la-Chapelle.”
The burying of this plate was attended with much form and ceremony. All the men were drawn up in battle array, when the commander, Celeron, proclaimed in a loud voice, “Vive le Roi!” and declared that possession of the country was now taken in the name of the King. A plate on which was inscribed the arms of France was affixed to the nearest tree.
The same formality was observed in planting each of the other plates, the second at the rock known as “Indian God,” on which are ancient inscriptions, a few miles below the present Franklin; a third, at the mouth of the Wheeling Creek; a fourth at the mouth of the Muskingum; the fifth and sixth, at the mouths of the Great Kanawha and the Great Miami.
At the last point, the party burned their canoes, and obtained ponies for the return trip to the portage, when they returned to Fort Frontenac, arriving on November 6.
The Indians through whose territory this expedition passed viewed this planting with great suspicion. By some means they got possession of one of the plates, generally supposed to have been planted at the very commencement of their journey near the mouth of the Chautauqua Creek. An account of this stolen plate, taken from the original manuscript journal of Celeron and the diary of Father Bonnecamps in Paris secured by Mr. O. H. Marshall, is interesting:
“The first of the leaden plates was brought to the attention of the public by Governor George Clinton to the Lords of Trade in London dated New York, December 19, 1750, in which he states that he would send to their Lordships in two or three weeks a plate of lead full of writing, which some of the upper nations of Indians stole from Jean Coeur, the French interpreter at Niagara, on his way to the Ohio River, which river, and all the lands thereabouts, the French claim, as will appear by said writing. He further states that the lead plates gave the Indians so much uneasiness that they immediately dispatched some of the Cayuga chiefs to him with it, saying that their only reliance was on him, and earnestly begged he would communicate the contents to them, which he had done, much to their satisfaction and the interests of the English. The Governor concludes by saying that ‘the contents of the plate may be of great importance in clearing up the encroachment which the French have made on the British Empire in America.’ The plate was delivered to Colonel, afterwards Sir William Johnson, on December 4, 1750, at his residence on the Mohawk, by a Cayuga sachem who accompanied it by the following speech:
“‘Brother Corlear and War-ragh-i-ya-ghey: I am sent here by the Five Nations with a piece of writing which the Seneca, our brethren, got by some artifice from Jean Coeur, earnestly beseeching you will let us know what it means and as we put all confidence in you, we hope you will explain it ingeniously to us.’
“Colonel Johnson replied to the sachem and through him to the Five Nations, returning a belt of wampum, and explaining the inscription on the plate. He told them that, ‘it was a matter of the greatest consequence, involving the possession of their lands and hunting grounds and that Jean Coeur and the French ought immediately to be expelled from the Ohio and Niagara.’ In reply, the sachem said that ‘he heard with great attention and surprise the substance of the devilish writing he had brought, and that Colonel Johnson’s remarks were fully approved.’ He promised that belts from each of the Five Nations should be sent from the Seneca’s castle to the Indians at the Ohio, to warn and strengthen them against the French encroachments in that direction.”
On January 29, 1751, Governor Clinton sent a copy of this inscription to Governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania.
The French followed up this formal act of possession by laying out a line of military posts, on substantially the same line as that pursued by the Celeron expedition, but instead of crossing over to Lake Chautauqua, they kept on down to Presqu’ Isle, now Erie, where there was a good harbor, with a fort established, and then up to Le Boeuf, now Waterford, where another post was placed; thence down the Venango River, now called French Creek, to its mouth at Franklin, establishing Fort Venango there; thence by the Allegheny to Pittsburgh, where Fort Duquesne was seated, and so on down the Ohio.
Penns Secure First Manor West of Susquehanna
June 16, 1722
Governor Sir William Keith’s visit to the Indians at Conestoga in June, 1721, produced a strong impression upon the minds of the aborigines whom he met. The chiefs of the Six Nations who had been present at this conference, told of its success to their people.
The Conestoga and other tribes of Indians along the Susquehanna River seemed to look upon Lieutenant-Governor Keith with almost the same favor and regard which they entertained for William Penn.
Keith determined to secure a right and title to the lands in Pennsylvania upon which Maryland settlers had encroached. He laid his plan for this purpose before he went to attend the conference at Albany, N. Y. where he was to meet Cayuga chiefs, who had offered some objection to the conclusion of the conference he had held with the Indians at Conestoga in 1721.
The trouble along the border line between Maryland and Pennsylvania had begun in Chester County, soon after the earliest settlements. The boundary continued to be a bone of contention until a temporary line was run in 1739, and even this did not fully settle the difficulty, for there was dispute until Mason and Dixon’s line was run 1767–8.
Governor Keith had frequent controversies with Governor Ogle, of Maryland, concerning encroachments in the southern part of Lancaster County.
The Marylanders were attempting to make settlements west of the Susquehanna, in the present York County.
Governor Keith conceived the idea of obtaining permission of the Indians along the Susquehanna to lay off a large manor, as the proprietor’s[proprietor’s] one-tenth, and he proceeded to Conestoga, early in June, 1722, for this purpose.
Here he called together the Conestoga, Shawnee, who lived farther up the river, and the Ganawese, afterwards known as the Canoy, who lived at the present site of Columbia.
Keith had authority from the heirs of William Penn to lay off a manor west of the river for the benefit of Springett Penn, the favorite grandson of the founder of Pennsylvania and son of Richard Penn.
This conference was first assembled June 15. Here Governor Keith, with persuasive eloquence, commended the Indians for their virtues, praised them for what they had already done for William Penn and his heirs, and obtained their consent to cross the river and make a survey of 70,000 acres.
Governor Keith spoke at great length and earnestness. He began by saying:
“Friends and Brothers: You say you love me because I come from your father, William Penn. You call me William Penn, and I am very proud of the name you give me; but if we have a true love for the memory of William Penn, we must show it to his family and his children that are grown to be men in England, and will soon come over to represent him here.”
He then referred to the previous treaty where they showed him the parchment received from William Penn, and he then told the Indians of the encroachments of the Marylanders.
Keith then said he came to consult with them how they could prevent such settlements and suggested the plan to take up a large tract of land on the other side of the Susquehanna River for Springett Penn.
He told the Indians that Penn’s grandson was now a man as tall as he; that the land should be marked with Springett’s name upon the trees, so that the Marylanders would then keep off and it would also warn every other person from settling near enough to the Indians to disturb them. He added that the grandson bore the same kind of a heart as his grandfather did, and he would be glad to give the Indians part of the land for their use and convenience. With these and similar phrases Keith won his point.
At a council held June 16, 1722, with Governor Keith, Colonel John French, Francis Worley, Esq., the chief of several tribes, and Smith and Le Tort, as interpreters, present, the Indians made reply through Chief Tawena, and agreed to give up the land, but suggested that the Governor take up the matter further with the Cayuga when he attended a treaty at Albany.
The Indians requested that the surveyor begin his work immediately and not wait until the Governor was absent at Albany.
The warrant was made out, and the surveyors, John French, Francis Worley and James Mitchell made a report of their survey, June 21.
This tract contained 75,500 acres and began opposite the mouth of Conestoga Creek, at Lockport Run and ran south by west ten miles, thence northwest twelve miles to a point north of the present city of York. Thence northeast eight miles to the Susquehanna River again, and from thence along the river to the place of beginning.
The exact positions and boundary lines of the original Springettsbury Manor were never thoroughly understood, and there resulted much controversy about the survey.
The warrant and survey were not returned into the land office, but the entire transaction appeared to have been done under the private seal of Governor Keith, and no actual purchase was ever made from the Indians, June 15 or 16.
The origin of the Penn Manors began with the charter to William Penn, which contained several powers to erect manors.
On July 11, 1681, Penn agreed with the purchasers in England, who were interested in his grant on certain conditions and concessions. The ninth of these was, that “in every one hundred thousand acres, the Governor and Proprietary, by lot, reserveth ten to himself which shall lie but in one place.” The name of “Manor” was given to these portions of reserved land in its genuine legal sense.
There were eighty-two Proprietary manors set apart, fourteen in Northumberland, twelve in Northampton, nine in Chester, seven each in Philadelphia, Bucks, Lancaster, and Bedford, six in Westmoreland, four in Cumberland, and three each in York and Berks Counties. Three of the manors were not located.
The largest in territory was Springettsbury, with Manor of Maske, in York (now Adams) County, next in size with 43,500 acres. Fagg Manor in Chester County, contained 39,250 acres. The smallest was Lake Paupunauming Manor, in Northampton County, which contained only 215 acres.
When the Revolution changed the form of government for Pennsylvania all the confiscations by which lesser men were punished are cast into the shade by the great Divesting Act. The Proprietary family were deprived of their lordship of the soil of Pennsylvania, their unlocated and unappropriated lands and the quit rents which had been reserved outside of their manors. This was the destruction of the greatest private estate in the world, but it was necessary.
There were saved to the Penns all manors which had been surveyed for them prior to July 4, 1776.
British and Tory Refugees Evacuate
Philadelphia June 17, 1778
Sir William Howe had found the occupation of Philadelphia a barren conquest, and the evacuation of the city was felt by General Washington to be so certain only a question of time that as early as March, 1778, he began to collect wagons and organize teams for the transportation service of his army, when it should be required to march after the enemy.
Howe’s proper point for operations was New York, and Washington felt sure he would return thither. Instead of that, however, Howe yielded to the complaints at his supineness in England and, being desirous to return home, resigned.
Sir Henry Clinton, successor to General Howe, arrived in Philadelphia May 8, and took formal command of the British Army May 11. Before Howe’s departure a fete was arranged May 18 in his honor called the Meschianza, and it comprised a regatta, tournament, feast and ball.
Lord Howe embarked for England May 24, and the same day Clinton held a council of war. They were fearful that the French fleet would cut off their communication with England, also the knowledge that the American capital was not of much importance to them after all, the fact that Congress had fled on wheels, and that Pennsylvania had remained loyal, they resolved to evacuate Philadelphia.
Not the least fear was for Washington’s army, now thoroughly drilled by Baron Steuben, a Prussian officer, who had come to Valley Forge in February. This army now became a source of real danger to the British.
But the movement of the British troops was delayed, as on June 6 three commissioners to effect peace, the Earl of Carlisle, William Eden and George Johnston, arrived in Philadelphia. They were willing to gratify every wish that America had expressed. But it was too late. Franklin and his associates had secured an alliance with France and the American Congress refused to entertain such propositions.
It is said that Joseph Reed, one of Pennsylvania’s delegates in Congress, was offered £10,000 and the best office in the colonies if he would promote the plans for peace; but he promptly replied: “I am not worth purchasing; but such as I am, the King of Great Britain is not rich enough to do it.”
Clinton’s army, accompanied by Tory refugees, evacuated Philadelphia June 17, crossed the Delaware at Camden and Gloucester in great haste, while the fleet floated slowly down the bay.
Washington learned of the retreat of the enemy and moved his army out of Valley Forge, followed Clinton, and on Sunday, June 28, fought the Battle of Monmouth, which resulted in the precipitate flight of Clinton, with the wreck of his army, to New York. About 800 of Clinton’s men deserted, of whom seventy came to Philadelphia in one day.
An incident occurred following the Battle of Monmouth which exerted a greater effect upon the American Army than many a skirmish between brigades, for it ended the unfortunate “Conway’s Cabal.” Certain remarks upon General Conway’s behavior at the Battle of Germantown brought a challenge from General Conway to General Cadwallader, who of all the American high officers remained the most loyal friend, supporter and admirer of General Washington.
A duel was fought, in which Conway was severely wounded, and, believing himself to be dying, repented and expressed to General Washington his grief, adding, “My career will soon be over, therefore justice and truth prompt me to declare my last sentiments—May you long enjoy the love, veneration and esteem of these States whose liberties you have asserted by your virtues.”
Upon the re-occupation of Philadelphia by the Continental Army, Major General Benedict Arnold was ordered by General Washington to take command of the city and “prevent the disorders which were expected upon the evacuation of the place and the return of the Whigs, after being so long kept out of their property.”
Arnold occupied, during part of his stay, a handsome country estate, which is now in Fairmount Park, lived most extravagantly and married Margaret, popularly known as “Peggy” Shippen, daughter of one of Governor Penn’s councillors, afterward Chief Justice of the State.
On June 25 the Supreme Executive Council took into consideration the case of John Gilfray, boatswain of the ship Montgomery, found guilty of deserting to the enemy and under sentence of death. It being the first conviction of an offense of this kind in the State fleet, he was pardoned, and Commodore Hazelwood was authorized to offer full pardon to all deserters who returned before September 1.
Beginning of this month, however, Lieutenant Lyon, of the “Dickinson,” and Lieutenant Ford, of the “Effingham,” who deserted during the attack upon Fort Mifflin, were executed on board of one of the guard boats on the Delaware. Lieutenant Wilson, of the Rangers, and John Lawrence, one of the gunners of the fleet, who deserted at the same time and were under sentence of death, were reprieved.
Active measures were taken for the speedy trial of all persons accused of high treason, and the conviction of quite a number excited an intense sensation and much alarm among the Tories and Quakers. Several were executed, notwithstanding every exertion to save them. The Whigs had suffered too severely at the hands of the disaffected, and some victims were necessary to mollify the animosities.
Congress closed its business at York and went back to Philadelphia, June 25, and the State government left Lancaster the following day and again resumed their duties at Philadelphia.
President Wharton died suddenly at Lancaster, May 23, and George Bryan was made President of the Supreme Executive Council.
The Whigs now began to punish the Tories. The Assembly passed an “act for the attainder of divers traitors,” among whom were Joseph Galloway, Reverend Jacob Duché and the Allens. The Quakers and the German sects were special objects of suspicion, because they thought it wrong to take up arms.
Provincial Conference Meets at Carpenters’
Hall June 18, 1776
In April, 1776, the Assembly renewed its instructions to the Pennsylvania delegates in Congress not to give their consent to a separation or a change of the Proprietary Government. But Congress, May 15, recommended State governments in the colonies, and declared that all authority under the Crown should be totally suppressed.
On June 8, the day after Richard Henry Lee, in Congress, had proposed the independence of the colonies, the Pennsylvania Assembly gave instructions which neither advised nor forbade a declaration of independence, but left the question to the “ability, prudence and integrity” of the delegates. This doubtful action proved the end of the Proprietary Assembly. Only once did it again have a quorum of its members.
Instead of allowing the State Government, as suggested by Congress, to be formed by members of the Assembly sworn to support the King, the people of Pennsylvania took the matter in their own hands and issued a call for a provincial convention for that purpose.
This was the death blow to Proprietary authority. A public meeting held in Philadelphia sent a protest against the Assembly of the Province undertaking to frame a new government, as it derived its power from a royal charter, and did not truly represent the people. The meeting called for a convention. Opposed to this was a remonstrance against amending the constitution except by the authority provided in the charter itself.
The Declaration of Independence had given the old State Government a mortal blow, and it soon expired without a sigh—thus ending forever the Proprietary and royal authority in Pennsylvania.
In the meantime, the Committee of Correspondence for Philadelphia issued a circular to all the county committees for a conference in that city on Tuesday, June 18.
On the day appointed there was a meeting of the deputies at Carpenters’ Hall, which organized by electing Colonel Thomas McKean, president; Colonel Joseph Hart, of Bucks County, vice president, and Jonathan B. Smith and Samuel C. Morris, both of Philadelphia, secretaries.
The conference was composed of twenty-five delegates from the city of Philadelphia; eleven from the county of Philadelphia; five from Bucks; thirteen from Chester; nine from Lancaster; ten from Berks; five from Northampton; nine from York; ten from Cumberland; three from Bedford; five from Northumberland, and two from Westmoreland; a total of 107 of the most representative and patriotic citizens to be found in the Province.
The conference at once unanimously resolved: “That the present government of this Province is not competent to the exigencies of our affairs, and
“That it is necessary that a Provincial Convention be called by this Conference for the purpose of forming a new government in the Province on the authority of the people only.”
Preparations were taken immediately to secure a proper representation in the convention. The qualifications of an elector were defined. Every voter was obliged to take an oath of renunciation of the authority of George the Third, and one of allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania, and a religious test as prescribed for the members of the convention.
The following declaration was signed by all the deputies on June 24, and presented to Congress:
“We, the deputies of the people of Pennsylvania, assembled in full Provincial Conference, for forming a plan for executing the resolve of Congress of the 15th day of May last, for suppressing all authority in this Province derived from the Crown of Great Britain, and for establishing a Government upon the authority of the people only, now in this public manner, in behalf of ourselves, and with the approbation, consent and authority of our constituents, unanimously declare our willingness to concur in a vote of the Congress, declaring the United Colonies free and independent States:
“Provided, The forming the government and the regulation of internal police of this Colony be always reserved to the people of the said Colony; and we further call upon the nations of Europe, and appeal to the Great Arbiter and Governor of the empires of the world, to witness for us, that this declaration did not originate in ambition or in an impatience of lawful authority, but that we were driven to it in obedience to the first principle of nature by the oppressions and cruelties of the aforesaid King and Parliament of Great Britain, as the only possible measure that was left us to preserve and establish our liberties, and to transmit them inviolate to posterity.”
The Conference prepared an address to the Associators of Pennsylvania, which was adopted unanimously. This address issued particular instructions to associators to exercise great care in the election of delegates, charging them to select only the best men and to eschew all such as were in the proprietary interest.
It is obvious that the adoption of the Declaration of Independence was assumed as a fixed fact, for they expressed much greater anxiety in regard to the complexion of the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, which was to meet in Philadelphia July 15.
After the adjournment of the Conference, on June 25, a dinner was given to the members at the Indian Queen Tavern, on Fourth Street. The toasts were drunk to “The Congress,” “The Free and Independent States of America,” “Washington,” “The Army and Navy,” “A Wise and Patriotic Convention to Pennsylvania on the 15th of July,” “Lasting dependence to the enemies of independence,” etc.
Pennsylvania was truly on the brink of a crisis, and Congress was face to face with the question of independence and the expediency of an immediate declaration of it and the instant severing of all ties binding the united colonies to the mother country.
Massacre at Indian Town of Standing Stone
on June 19, 1777
As an Indian post of ancient date, few are better known than Standing Stone, the present site of the beautiful borough of Huntingdon, on the Juniata. It was here where two of the great Indian paths crossed, one leading on to Kittanning and the west, the other to Bedford and the Potomac. The earliest maps of which we have any record indicate that an important Indian village was situated at this point.
Standing Stone was known to the Indians by the name of Achsinnink, meaning original stone. The word alludes to a large rock, standing separate and where there is no other rock.
Conrad Weiser has left us the oldest record of Standing Stone, August 18, 1748, then seemingly already a well-known name of the place.
John Harris, in 1753, wrote of Standing Stone as “about fourteen feet high and six inches square.” It stood on the right bank of Stone Creek, near its mouth, and in such a position as to enable persons to see it at considerable distance, either up or down the river.
The Reverend Philip Fithian, in 1755, says it was “a tall stone column or pillar nearly square and seven feet above the ground.”
There have been conflicting opinions whether any of this original Standing Stone still exists or not, some holding to the belief that it was used not only as a finger board at the crossing of the great Indian paths, but also contained the official record of the tribe.
There is no doubt that the stone was carved with names and Indian characters, which depicted important epochs in the tribe’s history, its wars, mighty deeds, its prowess in battle, and, perhaps, its skill in the chase. It also is quite possible that the stone was a sacred tablet to the memory of one or more noble chiefs who fell in battle. The stone contained many hieroglyphics[hieroglyphics] and each may have told a story in the Indian language.
This stone was once the cause of a war, when the Tuscarora tribe, living about thirty or forty miles below on the river, declared war on the tribe at Standing Stone for some real or fancied insult, and for this purpose sent them repeated messages which the Standing Stone Indians failed to heed. The Tuscarora awaited a time when their enemy warriors were on a hunt, when they fell on the village with a great force, driving away those who were at home, and carried the stone away. Upon the return of the hunters the entire war force was immediately sent after their enemy, who were soon overtaken, when a bloody conflict ensued, and the stone was recaptured and carried back in triumph.
It seems to be an undisputed fact that the original stone was removed by the Indians and carried away by them about 1755, at the time the Indians in that valley joined the French.
A few white settlers seated themselves at Standing Stone in 1762 and began the erection of a stockade fort, but in the following spring were forced to abandon it, as well as their houses and other improvements, and fly to Carlisle for protection from the Indians.
Standing Stone was laid out as a town in 1767 by the Reverend William Smith, D. D., the proprietor at that time and for many years afterward provost of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Smith called the town Huntingdon, in honor of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, in England, a lady of remarkable liberality and piety, who, at the solicitation of Dr. Smith, had made a handsome donation to the funds of the University.
The old name Standing Stone, however, clung to the place for many years. Nearly all the traders and military officers of the eighteenth century used the old name, and it is marked Standing Stone on the Lewis Evans map of 1755 and 1770; it is “Standing Stone, Huntingdon,” on the Powell map of 1776.
On the second stone erected at this place were found the names of John and Charles Lukens, Thomas Smith and a number of others, with dates varying from 1768 to 1770, cut or chiseled in the stone. This stone seems to have been erected by one or other of the men whose names it bore, on the same spot where the original stone stood. This stone was subsequently removed to a spot near the present court house in Huntingdon and forms the most valuable and interesting historic relic in the Juniata county seat.
The only massacre to take place at Standing Stone occurred June 19, 1777, at what was known as Big Spring, several miles west of the fort. The Indians had infested the plantations and the inhabitants fled to the fort. Felix Donnelly and his son, Francis, and Bartholomew Maguire and his daughter, residing near the mouth of Shaver’s Creek, placed their effects upon horses and, with a cow, started for the fort.
Jane Maguire was driving the cow ahead of the party, the Donnellys and Maguire bringing up the rear on the horses. When nearly opposite the Big Spring, an Indian fired from ambuscade and killed young Donnelly. His father, who was close to him, caught him as he was falling from his horse. Maguire rode to his side and the two men held the dead body of Francis upon the horse.
The Indians rushed from their hiding place with terrific yells, and fired a volley at the party, one bullet struck Felix Donnelly, and another grazed Maguire’s ear. Donnelly fell to the ground as did the body of his dead son. The Indians rushed forward, scalped Francis and followed Jane, who succeeded in escaping, but not until she lost her dress when an Indian attempted to make her captive.
Some men on the opposite bank of the stream, hearing the Indian yells and shooting, rushed to the scene. The Indians, not knowing their strength, disappeared in the woods. Maguire and his daughter reached the fort and alarmed the garrison, which started in hot pursuit of the savages but did not overtake them. The dead body of Francis Donnelly was buried in a vacant spot which now is a garden in the heart of the borough of Huntingdon.
Among those who figured in the thrilling drama about Standing Stone were the Bradys, who later moved to the West Branch of the Susquehanna; Colonel Fee, who gained renown in Captain Blair’s expedition against the Tories, and the Cryder family, consisting of father, mother and seven sons, every one a hero.
At the organization of the new county in 1787, it took the name of Huntingdon, and Standing Stone became even more only a historic memory.
Moravians Dedicate First Church West of
Alleghenies June 20, 1771
The first church building dedicated to the worship of God west of the Allegheny Mountains was the chapel built by Reverend David Zeisberger, at Friedenstadt, on the Big Beaver, in now Beaver County, Pennsylvania.
In 1743 Zeisberger was at Shamokin laboring as a Moravian missionary among the Indians, with the approbation and support of the great Shikellamy. This mission was broken up in 1756, and for several years Zeisberger assisted in ministering to the Christian Indians, for whom the Provincial Government had provided a refuge in the barracks at Philadelphia.
Peace having been concluded at the end of the Pontiac War, Zeisberger led the remnant of these Indians to Wyalusing, on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River, in Bradford County. Here Zeisberger established the mission of Friedenschuetten, “tents of peace.” This mission prospered greatly, and much good was done among the Indians.
In October, 1767, he traversed the solitude of the forest and reached the Munsee Indians, who were then living in what is now Forest County. This pious missionary remained with these savages but seven days. They were good listeners to his sermons, but every day he was in danger of being murdered. Of these Indians he wrote:
“I have never found such heathenism in any other part of the Indian country. Here Satan has a stronghold. Here he sits upon his throne. Here he is worshipped by true savages, and carries on his work in the hearts of the children of darkness.”
He returned to Friedenschuetten and labored there until the Six Nations sold the land in that part of the State, November 5, 1768.
The Six Nations had by this treaty sold the land from “under the feet” of the Wyalusing converts and the Reverend Zeisberger was compelled to take measures for the removal of these Christian Indians, with their horses and cattle, to some other field.
This company penetrated through the wilderness to the Allegheny River, and established a church at a Delaware town of three villages called Goschgoschunk, near the mouth of Tionesta Creek in which is now Venango County. Here they built a log chapel, planted corn and commenced the work of evangelization.
They were soon rewarded by gaining a number of converts, among whom was the blind old chief Allemewi, who was baptized with the name of Solomon.
As usual, however, their success excited opposition and their lives were threatened by the hostile Indians, who called the converts “Sunday Indians” or “Swannocks,” a name of great opprobrium.
Wangomen, an Indian prophet, declared that he had a vision in which he was shown by the Great Spirit that the white man had displeased him by coming among the Indians; and the old squaws went about complaining that since their arrival the corn was devoured by worms, that the game was leaving the country, and that neither chestnuts nor bilberries ripened any more.
Some said, “The white men ought to be killed,” and, others agreeing, said, “Yes, and all the baptized Indians with them and their bodies thrown into the river.”
The name of the town, Goschgoschunk, meant “the place of the hogs,” and the missionaries believed it was well named.
In 1769 they removed their converts to Lawunakhanna, on the opposite side of the river about three miles above Goschgoschunk. A strange thing occurred here in the friendly attitude of their old enemy, Wangomen. He carried news of their success to Kuskuskee, a celebrated Delaware town on the Beaver, in the present Lawrence County. From this place Chief Pakanke sent Glikhickan, a celebrated Delaware warrior and orator, to refute the teachings of the missionaries.
Glikhickan listened to the preaching of Zeisberger, and received private instructions in the Gospel, and was completely won by them.
On his return to Kuskuskee Glikhickan made a favorable report to Pakanke, who invited the missionaries and their converts to remove to Beaver, where a tract of land was promised them for their exclusive use.
Zeisberger asked and received the consent of the Mission Board at Bethlehem to accept the invitation, and he promptly prepared to remove thither.
April 17, 1770, the congregation at Lawunakhanna, set out in sixteen canoes, passed down the river to Fort Pitt, and on to the mouth of the Big Beaver, where they arrived in the forenoon of April 23 and paddled up the stream to the falls. At this point a portage was necessary and it took four days to carry their baggage and canoes around the rapids. Here they were met by Glikhickan and others with horses, who assisted them in this labor.
Five days later Zeisberger tarried at New Kuskuskee to visit with Pakanke, who received him with a genuine welcome.
The site of their new encampment was reached May 7. Corn was planted, a large hut for meetings of the congregation and smaller ones of bark for dwellings were put up and all were happy in their new home. This town was called Friedenstadt, or “town of peace.”
Glikhickan became a devoted friend of the Christians, and when he removed to Friedenstadt old Pakanke attacked him publicly. Colonel George Croghan used his influence to appease Pakanke and secure a fair hearing for the missionaries, and the labors of the brethren began to bear fruit.
On June 12 the wife of the blind chief Solomon was baptized. Six months later Glikhickan and Genaskund were baptized. Glikhickan took the name of Isaac and became an assistant in the work of the Gospel.
On July 14 Zeisberger was adopted into the Munsee tribe and Pakanke was present at the ceremony.
July 23, Zeisberger laid out a new and larger town on the west side of the Beaver, near the present Moravia. This was a more permanent settlement. The houses were built of logs, with stone foundations and chimneys and the church was much larger. Here, too, they built a blacksmith shop and stockades.
Other missionaries came from Bethlehem. On the one hand, they enjoyed success in their work, and, on the other, they were subjected to much disagreeable treatment by those still unfavorable to them, their lives being more than once seriously imperiled by visits of hostile and drunken savages. But they continued their labors undaunted by trials and persecutions.
May 27, 1771, the foundation stone of the chapel was laid, and June 20 the house was dedicated with great rejoicings. In all probability this was the first church building dedicated to the worship of God west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Revolutionary Forces Threaten Executive
Council June 21, 1783
A change in the British Ministry had encouraged Dr. Benjamin Franklin to renew his efforts for a peaceful adjustment, and after working with the utmost industry and skill throughout the summer and most of the autumn of 1782, he had the satisfaction of seeing his labors crowned with success.
A preliminary treaty of peace between the Colonies and Great Britain was signed at Paris, November 30, 1782, but the news did not reach this country until March 12, 1783, when the packet George Washington, Captain Joshua Barney, arrived at Philadelphia with the joyful intelligence that a treaty had been concluded, acknowledging the independence of the United States. This was the initial step necessary in the negotiations for peace between all belligerents.
On March 23 the French cutter Triumph arrived at Philadelphia from Cadiz, bringing the news that a preliminary treaty of peace had been signed January 20, 1783.
M. de Luzerne, the French Minister, at once issued an official notification of the fact, directing French cruisers to cease hostilities. Intelligence of the state of affairs was also communicated to Sir Guy Carleton, who had succeeded Sir Henry Clinton as the British commander-in-chief at New York.
On April 11, the British officers received official notice from home that peace had been concluded, and the same day Congress issued a proclamation enjoining a cessation of hostilities.
On April 16 the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania made public announcement of the happy event at the Court House, where the official document was read by the Sheriff in the presence of an immense concourse of people. The State flag was hoisted as usual on such occasions, at Market Street wharf; church bells were rung amid general demonstrations of joy at the termination of the war. In the evening Charles Wilson Peale exhibited the patriotic transparencies which had done good service on previous occasions, and one week later Thomas Paine published the last number of the Crisis, in which he declared that “the times that tried men’s souls were over.”
The definite treaty of peace was signed at Versailles, September 3, 1783, in which the United States was formally acknowledged to be sovereign, free and independent.
One of the first measures made necessary by the cessation of the war was the exchange of prisoners. The soldiers of Burgoyne’s army were principally at Lancaster, and they were put in motion before the proclamation, and arrived in Philadelphia on their way to New York a day or two previous to the official announcement. The obstructions that had been placed in the Delaware River were removed and commerce resumed.
In June, 1783, a number of the non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line wearied, and exasperated by the delay in the settlement of their claims, resolved to demand a redress of their grievances and a prompt settlement of their accounts.
A body of them accordingly marched from Lancaster toward the city of Philadelphia, and although the Supreme Executive Council and Congress were informed of their coming, no measures were taken to check the advance of the malcontents.
A committee of Congress requested the Executive Council to call out the militia in order to prevent the progress of the rioters, but the State authorities took no action, in the belief apparently that the troops could be conciliated.
Orders were issued from the War Office that the soldiers be received into the barracks and supplied with rations. On reaching the city they marched to those quarters in good order and without creating any disturbance.
Congress and the Executive Council both held their sessions in the State House at this time.
On Saturday, June 21, Congress not being in session, having adjourned from Friday until Monday, about thirty of the soldiers marched from the barracks to the State House, where the Executive Council was in regular meeting.
They sent to that body a memorial in writing stating that as their general officers had left them, they should have authority to appoint commissioned officers to command them and redress their grievances. With this demand went a threatening message that in case they refused, the soldiers would be let in upon the Council, who must then abide by the consequences. Only twenty minutes were given for the deliberation, but so insolent were the terms that the Council at once unanimously rejected the proposition.
This action created a widespread alarm. Other bodies of soldiers joined the mutineers, who now numbered 300. The president of Congress assembled that body in special session and demanded that the militia of the State should be immediately called forth in sufficient force to reduce the soldiers to obedience, disarm them and put them in the power of Congress. Prior to the assembling of Congress at Carpenters’ Hall the soldiers were at their barracks and all was quiet.
A session of the Supreme Executive Council was held the following day, Sunday, at the house of President Dickinson. That body did not agree on the extreme measures of Congress. The result was that the latter, dissatisfied[dissatisfied] with the indisposition of the Council, adjourned to meet at Princeton, N. J. This action of Congress was neither necessary nor prudent. It was prompted by pride and a disposition to construe an undesigned affront into the wanton insult, or it was in consequence of fear that was unjustifiable by the succession of events.
The promoters of this meeting escaped, but several of the ringleaders were arrested and court-martialed. Two of the sergeants of the Third Pennsylvania were sentenced to be shot, while several others were to receive corporal punishment, but all were subsequently pardoned by Congress.
Congress remained during the summer at Princeton. The Assembly of Pennsylvania, the Council, and prominent citizens of the State invited it to return to Philadelphia, and although Congress seemed pleased and satisfied at the measures taken, yet they were ashamed to go back to a city they had deserted so precipitately and carelessly, and they adjourned at Princeton to meet at Annapolis, Md.
Colonel Turbutt Francis Marches Provincial
Troops to Wyoming June 22, 1769
The Connecticut people had gained complete possession of the Wyoming Valley at the conclusion of the so-called first Pennanite-Yankee War, in 1769.
These Yankees entered with enthusiasm upon their agricultural pursuit, while their surveyors were employed in running out the five townships which had been allotted to the actual settlers by the Connecticut authorities. But no one supposed that peace and security were finally yielded them by their alert and powerful Pennsylvania opponents.
Captain Amos Ogden with the civil magistrate, Sheriff John Jennings, of Northampton County, of which county the Wyoming Valley was then a part, appeared at the head of an armed party in the plains May 20. They found the Yankees too strongly entrenched and returned to Easton.
Sheriff Jennings informed Governor John Penn that the intruders mustered three hundred able bodied men, and it was not in his power to collect sufficient force in Northampton County to dislodge them.
At the same time that the Governor sent Sheriff Jennings to Wyoming, he sent instructions to Colonel Turbutt Francis, who was then commandant of the garrison at Fort Augusta, to extend such aid as was necessary to secure the Proprietary settlements at Wyoming, and to hold his troops in readiness for any emergency or call that he might make for them.
The records of Fort Augusta, or those published in the Archives do not give much detailed information of the instructions which Colonel Francis received, but in a long report of the committee of the Susquehanna Company, written from Windham, Connecticut, and signed by four members, is this paragraph:
“June 22nd, 1769, Colonel Francis, with sixty armed men in a hostile manner demanded a surrender of our houses and possessions. He embodied his forces within thirty or forty rods of their dwellings, threatened to fire their houses and kill our people, unless they surrendered and quitted their possessions, which they refused to do, and after many terrible threatenings by him, he withdrew. Our people went on peaceably with their business.”
Miner, in his History of Wyoming, says of this event: “Col. Turbutt Francis, commanding a fine company from the city, in full military array, with colors streaming, and martial music, descended into the plain, and sat down before Fort Durkee about the 20th of June; but finding the Yankees too strongly fortified, returned to await reinforcements below the mountains.”
On June 15 Major Durkee, and others of the New England adherents went to Easton to attend the Northampton County Court, but the case against the Yankees was continued to the September term, and the defendants returned with Major Durkee to Wyoming.
It was during Major Durkee’s absence that the exciting events took place.
Colonel Francis was a native of Philadelphia and a distinguished officer of the French and Indian War, since which service he had spent the greater part of his life in and about Fort Augusta. He was in command of the garrison at that fortress when Governor Penn sent him to Wyoming, and his troops were in the provincial service.
A Yankee report of this event says: “The 22d of June our spies gave fresh information, that the mob was on their way, and they judged their number consisted of between 60 and 70, and in the evening they came and strung along the opposite side of the River for more than a mile, judging by their whooping, yelling and hideous noise and firing of guns.
“The 23d, in the morning, one Captain Ogden, with two more, came to know if our committee could be spoke with by Colonel Francis, which was consented to. About 8 in the morning the Colonel came, seemingly in an angry frame by his looks and behavior. He told us he had orders from the Governor of Pennsylvania to remove us off (which he in a short time contradicted), and demanded entrance into our town, which was refused; and continued he—'You have lost your case at Easton, and I have 300 men here with me, and 100 more coming, and my men are so unruly and ungoverned that it is hardly in my power to keep them from you; and they will kill your cattle and horses, and destroy your corn, and block up the way so as to cut you off from all communication for provisions, and your Government will not own you.'
“We told him that we had a good right to the land by Charter from the Crown, and Deed from the Indians, and that we could not, consistent with the votes of the Susquehanna Company, give it up, and should not. He then made proposals of agreement that we should possess the land on the East Branch, except that what Ogden and some others of them improved, and they enjoy the West Branch, till decided by law; and he would give us an hour to consider, and give him an answer. We sent him word that we would not comply with his terms, for it was not in our power.
“Finally he concluded to move off with his mob to Shamokin (which is about 60 miles) and wait there about ten days for the committee to send our proposals, which, if he liked, it was well; if not, he could come again. And further, he desired our men might be kept in the Fort till his men should be gone, lest they should hurt us. Towards night they moved off, seemingly well pleased with their Conquest. As near as we could learn their number did not exceed 50 men, and a considerable part of them in our favor.”
Colonel Francis was called to Philadelphia in July and gave a full verbal report of his expedition to the Governor and Council.
In September thirteen of the Connecticut settlers in three canoes loaded with flour were halted at Fort Augusta. They were on their[their] way up the river with the cargo which they had purchased at Harris’ Ferry for the Wyoming settlement.
The Yankees were detained by armed troops for three hours, but their cargoes were confiscated, even in spite of the fact they agreed to pay for the food.
Thus the trouble between the Connecticut and Pennsylvania claimants continued for many years.
Pennsylvanian Makes First Report in Congress
for Railway to Pacific
June 23, 1848
James Pollock had exhibited unusual personal and political strength in carrying at three consecutive elections his Democratic congressional district. He was first chosen to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of Congressman General Henry Frick, then again in 1844 and 1846 he won his re-election. He was one of the younger members, but during his nearly six sessions of service he exhibited not only great efficiency, but he was in advance of most of his older associates in heartily sustaining all progressive movements.
Pollock was one of the few members of Congress who took kindly to Professor S. B. Morse, when he went to Washington and was shunned by nearly every Government official as a crank or lunatic because he proposed to utilize the lightning for the transmission of messages.
Pollock also was one of the earliest public men to accept Benton’s idea of the great destiny of the West after the extension of our territory to the Pacific by Mexican annexation. He served on the Committees of Claims, Territories, and in the Thirtieth Congress he was on the important Committee of Ways and Means.
On June 23, 1848, Pollock offered a resolution for the appointment of a special committee to inquire into the necessity and practicability of constructing a railroad to the Pacific Coast. As chairman of that committee he made a report to the House in favor of the construction of such a road which was the first favorable official act on the subject on the part of the Congress of the United States.
The report discussed the question in its international and domestic aspects, its feasibility and probable results. The opening paragraph is in these words:
“The proposition at first view is a startling one. The magnitude of the work itself, and the still greater and more magnificent results promised by its accomplishment[accomplishment]—that of revolutionizing morally and commercially, if not politically, a greater part of the habitable globe, and making the vast commerce of the world tributary to us—almost overwhelm the mind. But your committee, on examination, finds it a subject as simple as it is vast and magnificent, and sees no insurmountable difficulties in the way of its successful accomplishment.”
A bill accompanied the report, and was referred to the Committee of the Whole, but no further action was taken on it at that time, and Pollock soon after left Congress. In the fall of 1848, however, he delivered a lecture on the Pacific Railroad, by invitation to a crowded house at Lewisburg, Union County, closing with the following remark:
“At the risk of being insane, I will venture the prediction, that in less than twenty-five years from this evening a railroad will be completed and in operation between New York and San Francisco, Calif.; that a line of steamships will be established between San Francisco, Japan and China; and there are now in my audience, ladies who will, before the expiration of the period named, drink tea brought from China and Japan by this route, to their own doors.”
That prophetic announcement was received by the audience with a smile of good-natured incredulity, but some of those very ladies, during the year 1869, were able to sip their favorite beverage in exact accordance with the terms of the speaker’s prediction. On May 10, 1869, the last rail was laid, the last spike driven, and the great Pacific Railway, so long in embryo, became an accomplished fact.
Pollock gave special interest during his Congressional service to the annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, the acquisition of California, the repeal of the Tariff Act of 1842, and the “Wilmot Proviso,” in its application to the newly acquired territories of the United States. In all the discussions on those exciting topics he was the leading factor. His speeches and votes demonstrated the consistency of his views, and the breadth and soundness of his understanding.
In 1850 he became President-Judge of the eighth judicial district, then composed of the counties of Northumberland, Montour, Columbia, Sullivan and Lycoming.
In 1854 he was nominated and elected by a large majority Governor of Pennsylvania.
It was during his administration, May 16, 1857, that the main line of the public works of the State was directed to be sold. On July 25 following Governor Pollock caused the same to be done, and on July 31 the whole line of the public works between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was transferred to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, at the price of $7,500,000.
In the summer of 1857 a serious financial revulsion occurred, resulting in the suspension of specie payments by the banks of Pennsylvania and other States of the Union, followed by the failure of many long-established commercial houses, leading to the destruction of confidence and to the general depression of trade, and threatening to affect disastrously the credit of the Commonwealth and the great industrial interests of the people.
In order to release the banks from the penalties incurred by a suspension of specie payments, Governor Pollock convened the Legislature in “extraordinary session” October 6.
On October 13 an act was passed “providing for the resumption of specie payments by the banks and for the relief of debtors,” to go into immediate effect. The law had the desired result, the different branches of industry revived and the community saved from bankruptcy and ruin. He declined a renomination for a second term.
While serving in Congress, Pollock became intimately acquainted with Abraham Lincoln, who was then also a member, and they boarded at the same house.
This friendship was renewed after Lincoln became President, when he called Pollock to Washington to consult with him upon the grave questions confronting the country and to consult with him regarding certain men he was considering for his Cabinet. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed his Director of the Mint at Philadelphia, and it was through his efforts, while so serving, that the motto, “In God We Trust,” was placed upon our coins.
Governor Pollock died at Lock Haven April 19, 1890, and his body was interred in the cemetery at Milton.
John Binns, English Politician and Editor,
Died June 24, 1860
Editor John Binns died in Philadelphia June 24, 1860, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years, each one of which was one of prominence, either in England or America.
In 1854 he wrote the “Recollections of the Life of John Binns; Twenty-nine Years in Europe and Fifty-three in the United States.” In the introduction he says:
“Soon after my arrival in the United States, which was on the first day of September, 1801, I was urged by the late Dr. Joseph Priestley, his son Joseph, and Thomas Cooper, Esq., to write my life. They were among my earliest American acquaintances, and continued my zealous and faithful friends to their death. Some few American gentlemen who have subsequently, in Philadelphia, read the account of my arrest and examination before the Privy Council in London, and my trials for sedition and high treason in 1797 and 1798, have also urged me to publish my Recollections. Let these facts be received as an apology for this publication.”
John Binns was born in Dublin, Ireland, son of John and Mary Pemberton Binns. His father’s family were Moravians; his mother’s Episcopalians. His father was drowned at sea when John was two years old. He left a comfortable estate, and John and his brother and sister received a liberal education. His mother married again when John was yet in school.
When fourteen years old John Binns was apprenticed to a soap boiler, but on the death of his grandfather he purchased his apprentice fee and took a deep interest in politics. He left Dublin April, 1794, and went to London. Then his troubles began.
John Binns was first arrested March 11, 1796, at Birmingham, and confined in the dungeon, but his trial was postponed until August. In the interim he returned to Dublin, but returned for his trial, when he was acquitted.
He was soon again arrested together with two celebrated politicians at Margate and imprisoned at London. He was discharged and again rearrested on a charge of high treason, then sent to the Tower of London, from which he was removed to Maidstone Jail. He was again tried and acquitted, following a serious riot in court, May 24, 1798. He was next arrested and imprisoned in Gloucester, where he was frequently visited by many persons of distinction.
During this imprisonment Binns determined he would go to the United States as soon as liberated. July 1, 1801, he embarked for Baltimore, arriving there September 1 after a stormy and perilous voyage.
Upon his arrival he loaded his goods on three wagons and set out on foot for Northumberland, Pa., where he purposed to reside. At Harrisburg he hired a boat to take his goods and himself as a passenger up the river to Northumberland.
Binns was given a hearty welcome by Dr. Priestley and Judge Cooper, and soon became a most prominent resident. He was invited to deliver the oration on July 4, 1802, and his effort stamped him as a most learned and eloquent speaker.
Binns established the Republican Argus at Northumberland, and his success exceeded his fondest expectations. It soon became one of the prominent papers of the State. He was a bold and determined man and wielded a severe pen.
December 14, 1805, Binns fought a duel with Samuel Stewart, of Williamsport, a member of the Legislature.
In January, 1807, friends in Philadelphia urged him to remove to that city and establish a Democratic newspaper. He sounded members of the Quid Party and found them willing to support Snyder, but they would not do so under the leadership of William Duane, editor of the Aurora.
Binns removed to Philadelphia and established the Democratic Press, March 27, 1807. This was the first paper which used the word “Democratic” in its title.
May 15 Binns delivered the “Long Talk” before the Tammany Society, which caused him in September to be dismissed from the society. Then the fight between the Aurora and Democratic Press opened in all its fury, and the battle for the leadership between Duane and Dr. Leib on one side and John Binns on the other was commenced.
Binns came out against Dr. Leib for Assembly and Duane for the Senate. The former was elected, but Duane was badly beaten. This was the Aurora’s first defeat and it groaned aloud.
Binns was powerful in the election of Snyder in 1808. He had brought back the Constitutional Republicans into the fold and was able to control the party against both Duane and Leib.
Dr. Leib was elected to the United States Senate early in 1809, but Governor Snyder’s course was by no means pleasing to Duane. The Press defended him, while the Aurora criticized everything he did. The Aurora threatened to impeach the Governor, and Binns called the Aurora and its supporters “The Philadelphia Junto.”
Binns and his party favored war with England, and here again he came into opposition with “Leib, Duane & Co.,” as the Press called them.
Duane and Leib lost all control of the Legislature. In 1811 the Federalists were successful, and Snyder was overwhelmingly re-elected. The Aurora published nothing about the impending war, the Press supported every movement which forwarded its progress, and this was the popular side. Governor Snyder appointed his friend Binns as aide-de-camp, and he was active throughout the war.
Leib was appointed Postmaster at Philadelphia in February, 1814, but Binns succeeded in having Postmaster General Granger removed, and his successor immediately removed Leib, who then disappeared from the political field.
Duane soon followed Leib into political obscurity and Binns was in the zenith of his power. Had Binns not quarreled with Findlay soon as his election he would have held his power for many more years. It was particularly unfortunate that he opposed the election of Andrew Jackson in 1824 and afterward.
He was appointed an alderman by Governor Hiester in 1822, a position he held for many years.
The Democratic Press was issued for the last time on November 14, 1829, it having been absorbed by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
In 1840 Binns published “A Digest of the Laws and Judicial Decisions of Pennsylvania Touching of Authority of Justices of the Peace,” which was revised and republished under the title “Magistrate’s Manual,” a book popularly known as “Binns’ Justice.”
Binns held a number of positions of honor and trust, among which was directorship of the Pennsylvania Bank.
First Deed for Chester County Conveyed to
William Penn, June 25, 1683
The territory now included in Chester County was honorably purchased of the Indians by William Penn and conveyed in several distinct deeds. The first, bearing date June 25, 1683, and signed by an Indian called Wingebone, conveys to William Penn all his lands on the west side of the Schuylkill, beginning at the first falls and extending along and back from that river, in the language of the instrument, “so far as my right goeth.”
By another deed of July 14, 1683, two chiefs granted to the Proprietary the land lying between the Chester and Schuylkill Rivers. From Kekelappan and Machaloa, the Conestoga chiefs, he purchased half the land between the Susquehanna and the Delaware in September, and from Malchaloa all the lands from the Delaware to Chesapeake Bay up to the falls of the Susquehanna in October.
These were all the land transactions Penn had with the Indians in 1683 of which the conveyances have been recorded.
By a deed of July 30, 1684, Shakhoppoh, Secane and Malibor conveyed the land between the Chester and Pennypack Creeks. Another conveyance was made on October 2, 1685, for the greater portion of the lands constituting the present county of Chester. This last instrument is a quaint piece of conveyancing and shows the value attached by the natives to their lands.
“This indenture witnesseth that we, Packenah, Jackham, Sikals, Portquesott, Jervis, Essepenaick, Felkstrug, Porvey, Indian kings, sachemmakers, right owners of all lands from Quing Quingus, called Duck cr., unto Upland, called Chester cr., all along said west side of Delaware River, and so between the said creeks backwards as far as man can ride in two days with a horse, for in consideration of these following goods to us in hand paid, and secured to be paid by William Penn, Proprietary of Pennsylvania and the territories thereof, viz.; 20 guns, 20 fathoms match coat, 20 fathoms stroud water, 20 blankets, 20 kettles, 20 pounds of powder, 100 bars of lead, 40 tomahawks, 100 knives, 40 pairs of stockings, 1 barrel of beer, 20 pounds of red lead, 100 fathoms of wampum, 30 glass bottles, 30 pewter spoons, 100 awl blades, 300 tobacco pipes, 100 hands tobacco, 20 tobacco tongs, 20 steels, 300 flints, 30 pair of scissors, 30 combs, 60 looking glasses, 200 needles, 1 skipple of salt, 30 pounds of sugar, 5 gallons of molasses, 20 tobacco boxes, 100 jews harps, 20 hoes, 30 gimlets, 30 wooden screw boxes, 103 strings of beads—do hereby acknowledge, &c., &c. Given under our hands and seals, at New Castle, 2d of the 8th month, 1685.”
The Quing Quingus Creek referred to Duck Creek, in present Delaware County, or to Appoquinimink Creek, which runs some distance north of Duck Creek.
In June, 1692, Kings Tamment, Tangorus, Swampes and Hickoqueon gave a confirmatory deed of their former conveyances of land lying between Neshaminey and Poquessing Creeks, “upon the Delaware, and extending backwards to the utmost bounds of the Province.” Taminy, his brother, and his three sons executed a second deed in confirmation of his former ones, July 5, 1697, for lands between Neshaminy and Pennypack, extending backward from the Delaware “so far as a horse can travel in two summer days.”
In this last deed the grantors are described as: “Taminy, sachem, and Weheelam, my brother, and Weheequeckhon (alias Andrew), who is to be king after my death; Yaqueekhon (alias Nicholas), and Quenameckquid (alias Charles), my sons.” Weheequekhon was none other than the celebrated Sassoonan, or Allummapees, head chief of the Delaware from 1715 to 1747.
The title of the particular Indian chiefs to the lands claimed by them was not always very clear, but it was the policy of the Proprietary Government to quiet all claims which might be made by purchasing them. Accordingly, purchases were made from time to time of claims made by chiefs which they alleged had not been extinguished by purchase.
The Indians, after the sale of their lands, continued to occupy them until needed by the settlers, and gradually abandoned them as the whites advanced and took possession.
They were an amiable race, and when they left the burial places of their fathers, in search of new homes, it was without a stain on their honor. Considerable numbers, however, remained in Chester County, inhabiting the woods and unoccupied places, until the breaking out of the French and Indian War in 1755; about which time they generally removed beyond the limits of the county and took up their abode in the valley of Wyoming, at the Forks of the Susquehanna, and at Wyalusing in the North Branch of the Susquehanna.
At the making of the treaty of St. Mary’s, in 1720, there were present some chiefs of the Nanticoke, one of whom had withstood the storms of ninety winters, who told the commissioners that he and his people had once roamed through their own domains along the Brandywine.
At the close of the Revolutionary War, the number of Indians resident in the county was reduced to four who dwelt in wigwams in Marlborough Township. After the death of three of them, the remaining one known as Indian Hannah, took up her abode in a wigwam near the Brandywine, or as she considered it, her own lands. During the summer she traveled through different parts of the county, selling willow baskets of her own production and visiting those who would receive her kindly.
As she grew old she quitted her wigwam and dwelt in friendly families. Though a long time domesticated with the whites, she retained her Indian character to the last. She had a proud haughty spirit, hated the blacks and did not even deign to associate with the lower order of the whites.
Without a companion of her race—without kindred—she felt her situation desolate, and often spoke of the wrongs and misfortunes of her people. She died in the year 1803, at the age of nearly one hundred years—the last of the Lenni Lenape resident in Chester County.
Colonel Timothy Pickering Abducted by
Yankees at Wyoming June 26, 1787
The County of Luzerne was erected from parts of Northumberland County by act of September 26, 1786.
The act of December 27, 1786, provided, “That Timothy Pickering, Zebulon Butler and John Franklin notify the electors that an election would be holden to choose a Counsellor, member of the Assembly, Sheriff, Coroner, and Commissioners on the first day of February.”
Colonel Pickering was one of the eminent men in the Union. He had the confidence of Washington and Congress, having executed with fidelity the office of Quartermaster General of the Continental Army. A native of Massachusetts, after the peace he settled in Philadelphia, becoming a citizen of Pennsylvania. He was selected, in addition to his great abilities and weight of character, for the reason that he was a New England man, to organize the new county and introduce the laws of the State among the Wyoming people.
Colonel Zebulon Butler was a hero of the French and Indian War, a colonel in the Revolution and an honored and respected citizen among the Connecticut people in the Wyoming Valley. He was now old and desired peace.
Colonel John Franklin, except in education and polish, was in no respect the inferior of Pickering. It was a wise stroke of policy to endeavor to conciliate the great Yankee leader by naming him as one of the deputies.
When Colonel Pickering arrived at Wyoming, January, 1787, he assured the Connecticut settlers that he had strong reasons to believe the Legislature would pass a law to quiet them in their possessions. Major John Jenkins, a leader of the Yankees, replied they had too often experienced the bad faith of Pennsylvania. Colonel Franklin at that moment was consulting with the Susquehanna Company on means of defeating the pacific measures of Pennsylvania.
Colonel Pickering was soon brought into collision with Franklin and Jenkins and their followers. Franklin became so aggressive in opposing the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania that Chief Justice McKean ordered his arrest by four resolute men. A scuffle ensued, in which Colonel Pickering interfered and advised them to place Colonel Franklin on a horse, with his legs tied together, and in this condition he was carried to Philadelphia. This act, of course, exposed Colonel Pickering to the vengeful resentment of Franklin’s adherents.
Colonel Pickering had taken up his abode in the Wyoming Valley, near Wilkes-Barre, to show the confidence he had that quiet would soon be restored. On June 26, 1788, at the dead of night, a party of armed men, with their faces blackened, broke into his bedroom, where he and his wife were asleep. His arms were secured with cords, and he was led off up the Susquehanna River.
Immediately on the abduction of Colonel Pickering being known, vigorous measures were adopted for his rescue. Four companies of militia were ordered out, and a thorough search for him was pursued.
It was evident from many circumstances that their object was merely to make reprisals for Colonel Franklin’s imprisonment and to endeavor to procure his release. No attempt was made upon Colonel Pickering’s life; even certain instances of respect were shown for his person and rank in society.
The party crossed Lackawannock Creek and camped in the wild glens. The Colonel endured much suffering, incident to a march through a wilderness and on account of heavy rains.
The fifth day of his captivity Colonel Pickering discovered that two of his captors were Gideon and Joseph Dudley, near neighbors of his; also two Earle brothers, two more by the name of Kilborn, and one Cady, all neighbors.
The next day they formed an iron band, with a chain attached to it, round the Colonel’s ankle and fastened the chain to a tree. They told him their “great men” said that is the way Colonel Franklin is held in Philadelphia. At night the chain was fastened to one of the party, so the Colonel could not escape without awakening him.
Colonel Pickering had no thought of escape, for he expected them to weary of their enterprise, as well as to come to an understanding of the seriousness of their crime. He also realized they could easily capture him at any time they determined.
During breakfast one of the party, who had gone for provisions, returned in great haste and told his comrades that their militia had met in battle and Captain William Ross had been seriously wounded. This battle occurred near Black Walnut Bottom, about sixteen miles above Tunkhannock.
The next day they crossed the river and went to the home of the Kilborn boys, where they kept Colonel Pickering overnight. Then they pushed back into the woods about four miles from the river. Here the party wearied of their enterprise and began to make overtures to the Colonel, suggesting they would liberate him if he would intercede with the Supreme Executive Council for the discharge of Colonel Franklin. The Colonel would make no promises, which enraged them, and once he feared they might tomahawk him.
Colonel Pickering agreed to endeavor to obtain their pardon, if they would name their “great men,” who had deceived them in planning his abduction. This they would not do.
After an imprisonment of nineteen days, during ten of which he had worn the chain, and sleeping night after night in the woods, with stones for pillows, living on scanty rations of salt pork, venison, corn bread and wintergreen tea, and without change of clothing, the Colonel was released on his own terms—which were merely that he would write a petition for them to the Executive Council, take it in person to Wilkes-Barre, and send it to Philadelphia.
In 1787 Colonel Pickering represented Luzerne County in the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the Federal constitution, but did not sign the ratification. At that period he was prothonotary, for that county, and was subsequently a member of the convention called to revise the Constitution of 1776.
President Washington appointed him Postmaster General November 7, 1791, which he held until January 2, 1795, when on the resignation of General Knox he was appointed Secretary of War. December 10, 1795, Washington made him Secretary of State, which position he held until May 12, 1800.
He was poor on leaving office, and, building a log house for his family upon some wild land that he owned in Pennsylvania, he commenced clearing it for cultivation, until discovered by some friends who enabled him to return to Salem, Mass., in 1801. He became Judge in 1802, and United States Senator from 1803 to 1811, when he was made a member of the Council. During the War of 1812 he was a member of Board of War, and then served as a member of Congress from 1815 to 1817. He died at Salem, Mass., January 29, 1829.
Ewell’s Force of Rebels Made Raid on
Carlisle June 27, 1863
General A. G. Jenkins, of the Southern Confederacy, with nearly 1000 cavalry, entered Chambersburg June 16, 1863. On June 23 his advance force re-entered the town when the Union troops fell back. On June 27 this advance force moved eastward toward Carlisle.
General Knipe, commanding the Union troops, abandoned Carlisle on the approach of the enemy, considering it a folly to offer resistance to so formidable an invader. Accordingly, the rebels were met by Colonel W. M. Penrose and Robert Allison, assistant burgess, and informed that the town was without troops and that no resistance would be made. The cavalrymen entered the town from the west about 10 o’clock Saturday morning, June 27, and rode their horses at a walk, but with their carbines in position to be used at a moment’s warning.
This force consisted of nearly 500 mounted cavalry. They passed down Main Street to the junction of the Trindle Spring and Dillsburg roads, where some of them proceeded to the garrison and the rest rode back and halted in the public square. The hotels were soon filled with officers and the streets with soldiers.
General Jenkins made a requisition on the borough authorities for 1500 rations, to be furnished in one hour and to be deposited in the market house. The demand was complied with, but not within the specified time. Soon as the troops were refreshed and their horses fed and watered the troopers remounted and rode through the streets of the town, visiting the garrison and other places of interest.
At 2 o’clock in the afternoon General Ewell’s corps marched into Carlisle, Early’s division having crossed the mountains via Fayetteville to York. The soldiers moved along shouting and laughing. The Confederate army was at this time in high spirits. The bands played “Dixie” as they swung through the town to the garrison. The condition of the troops was pitiable. The men were miserably clad, many without shoes or hats, many really ragged and dirty.
A brigade encamped upon the grounds of Dickinson College, and others at the United States garrison; guards were immediately posted and strict orders issued that no violence or outrage would be permitted. Most of the troops behaved like gentlemen, and so well did they obey their commander that but little trace of occupation by a hostile force was visible after their departure.
General Ewell and his staff, numbering thirty officers, established headquarters at the barracks. The General then dispatched one of his aides to town, with an extravagant demand on the authorities of the borough for supplies. The general wanted 1500 barrels of flour, large supplies of medicines and several cases of amputating instruments. Especially urgent was his demand for a large quantity of quinine and chloroform. The authorities could not have complied with the demand, because the articles were not to be had in Carlisle.
Strict orders were issued against the selling of intoxicating drinks to soldiers and the pillaging of private property by them.
All communication with the outside world was cut off Sunday. Services were conducted in the churches as usual and the army chaplains of the rebel regiments encamped on the campus and at the garrison conducted services for their troops. All conversations with Southern officers and soldiers led the people to believe that their movement was directed toward Harrisburg and Philadelphia.
On Monday, however, the railroad bridge was destroyed. A sigh of relief was had toward evening when rumors spread that the troops had orders to leave.
Early Tuesday morning, June 30, the trains of Rode’s division began to move, then brigade after brigade passed until the main army had disappeared by 9 o’clock, leaving less than 200 cavalrymen on provost duty in the town. These left toward evening.
Rebel pickets thronged the turnpike and the Trindle Spring road, some being very near Carlisle. Two o’clock in the afternoon about 400 cavalrymen under Colonel Cochran, entered the town from the Dillsburg road, and were soon dashing wildly through the streets, shouting, screaming and acting like madmen. During the night the entire Confederate force left Carlisle and the town was clear of rebels.
At sunrise on Wednesday Captain Boyd’s efficient command of Union troops entered Carlisle, and after a hearty meal he started in pursuit of the departing enemy. During all of this day regiment after regiment arrived and took position along the streets and in the public square. A battery of artillery arrived toward evening.
After 6 o’clock General Smith arrived, bringing three regiments of infantry and about one hundred cavalry. The General posted his artillery for action. This had hardly been done, when, at 7 o’clock, a body of rebel cavalry under command of General Fitzhugh Lee, made its appearance at the junction of the Trindle Spring and Dillsburg roads. These troops at first were supposed to be a portion of our own forces. Their boldness was well calculated to produce such an impression.
The call to arms brought the infantry into position. Members of the local militia companies, commanded by Captains Low, Kuhn, Black and Smiley, each on his own account, hurried to the eastern section of the town and, selecting secure positions, opened a very effective fire on the invading cavalry, which compelled them to fall back.
Soon the shelling of the town commenced, which was kept up nearly an hour. This was followed by raking Main Street with grape and canister until nearly dark, when a rebel officer came in with a flag of truce to General Smith’s headquarters, demanding an unconditional surrender of the town. General Smith refused and the officer, bearing the flag of truce, returned to his command.
Then began a second shelling of the town, more terrific than the first. To add to the general consternation the rebels applied the torch; the gas works, barracks, dwellings, stores, etc., were fired. Again an officer interviewed General Smith and again he refused to surrender.
A third bombardment commenced, which, however, did not last long. By 3 o’clock Thursday morning the rebel command left by way of Boiling Spring road, thence across South Mountain for Gettysburg, to join General Robert E. Lee’s forces in the great battle which had opened there the previous day.
During the bombardment of Carlisle not one citizen was killed, neither was a Union soldier, but fifteen of the latter were wounded.
British Flag Captured by Pennsylvanians in
Battle of Monmouth June 28, 1778
Just before dawn June 18, 1778, the British began their evacuation of Philadelphia. They crossed the Delaware, and that evening encamped around Haddonfield, N. J.
The news of this evacuation reached Washington, at Valley Forge, before morning. He immediately sent General Maxwell, with his brigade, to co-operate with the New Jersey militia, under General Dickinson, in retarding the march of the British.
They were 17,000 strong, marching in two divisions, one under Cornwallis and the other led by Knyphausen.
General Arnold, whose wounds kept him from the field, entered Philadelphia with a detachment before the rear guard of the British had left it. The remainder of the army, under the immediate command of Washington, crossed the Delaware above Trenton and pursued.
General Clinton had intended to march to New Brunswick and embark his army for New York, but, finding Washington’s army in his path, he turned toward Monmouth Court House. Washington followed him in a parallel line, prepared to strike him whenever an opportunity should offer. But Clinton wished to avoid a battle, for he was encumbered with baggage, wagons and a host of camp followers, which made his line twelve miles in length. He encamped in Freehold on the night of June 27, and there Washington resolved to strike him if he should move the next morning.
General Lee was in command of the advanced corps. Washington ordered him to form a plan of attack, but he failed to do so, or to forward any orders to Generals Wayne, Lafayette or Maxwell, who called upon him.
On the morning of June 28, a hot Sabbath, Washington was told Clinton was about to move, and he ordered Lee to fall upon the British rear, but he was so tardy that the enemy had ample time to prepare for battle. When Lee did move he had no plan for battle, and his orders so perplexed his generals that they requested Washington to appear on the field with the main army immediately.
Wayne attacked with vigor, with a sure prospect of victory, Lee ordered him only to make a feint. Clinton, at that moment changed front, and sent a large force against Wayne; Lafayette sensed the situation and asked Lee for permission to gain the rear of the British. At first he refused, then ordered him to attack Clinton’s left. At the same time he weakened Wayne’s detachment by taking three regiments from it to support the right. While Wayne was in a desperate struggle Lee’s courage weakened and he withdrew, saying that the temerity of Wayne had brought against him the whole flower of the British army.
Washington was pressing forward to the support of Lee, when he learned that his division was in full retreat. Washington, angered at the actions of Lee, ordered Wayne with three Pennsylvania regiments and two others from Virginia and Maryland to stop the British pursuit.
The British, about 7000 strong, attempted to turn the American left flank, but were repulsed and disappointed. A severe battle ensued, in which the Americans did great execution. For a while the result seemed doubtful, when General Wayne came up with his troops and gave victory to the Americans.
Colonel Henry Monckton tried to drive Wayne from his position, leading his troops in a bayonet charge. So terrible was Wayne’s storm of bullets that almost every British officer was slain, Colonel Monckton being among the killed.
The battle ended at twilight, when both armies rested on their weapons, prepared for another conflict at dawn. But Clinton withdrew his army so silently, that he was far away when the American sentinels discovered his flight in the morning. Washington did not pursue.
The British lost 1000 by desertion while crossing New Jersey, and they left 245 on the field. The Americans lost 228 killed, wounded and missing.
It was during part of this action that Molly McKolly, wife of an artilleryman in Proctor’s regiment, carried water for the thirsty soldiers, and when her husband was wounded, an officer ordered the piece to be withdrawn.
Molly dropped her pitcher, seized the rammer and, displaying great courage and presence of mind, kept the gun in action. She performed the duty with a skill and daring that attracted the attention of all who saw her. On the following morning, covered with dirt and blood, General Greene presented her to Washington, who, admiring her bravery, conferred upon her the commission of sergeant.
She was called Captain Molly, and became a heroine, always afterward known as “Molly Pitcher.” A monument on the battlefield at Monmouth attests to her act, and her grave in the Carlisle, Pa., cemetery is marked by a stone and cannon.
John Blair Linn, in his Annals of Buffalo Valley, says that the flag of the Royal Grenadiers and the sword of Colonel Monckton were captured on the field of Monmouth by Captain William Wilson, of Northumberland County.
The flag is five feet four inches by four feet eight, lemon color ground, heavy corded silk; the device at upper right corner is twenty inches square, British Union, consisting of the cross of St. George and St. Andrew’s Cross. The field of the device is blue, the central stripes red, the marginal ones white.
When Monckton waved his sword and ordered his grenadiers to charge and Wayne met them with a deadly fire, the colors were in advance, to the right, with the colonel, and they went down with him. Captain Wilson and his company, who were on the right of the First Pennsylvania, made a rush for the colors and the body of the brave colonel.
Captain Wilson gave Monckton’s sword to General Wayne, who presented it to General Lafayette, who took it with him to Europe. When he returned to the United States in 1824, he brought the sword with him, intending to restore it in person to Captain Wilson.
Captain Wilson having died in 1813, General Lafayette handed the sword to Colonel Samuel Hunter, who turned it over to Judge A. S. Wilson, a son of Captain William Wilson.
The flag has frequently been brought into requisition in patriotic demonstrations in subsequent years. It is still in the possession of descendants[descendants] of Captain Wilson, now residents of Bellefonte.
Duke of York Receives New Patent for His
Grant, June 29, 1674
The English claimed the right to the country upon the South, or Delaware River, because of the fact that John Cabot sailed up and down the Atlantic coast.
Captain Thomas Young and his nephew, Robert Evelin, under a commission from King Charles “to go forth and discover lands in America,” arrived in the South River July 24, 1634. They remained at the mouth of the Schuylkill five days, and made two attempts to pass beyond the falls near Trenton. They built a fort at a place called Eriwoneck, probably the site of Philadelphia.
In 1635 the governor of Virginia sent fifteen armed men, under command of Captain George Holmes, to the South River, and they took possession of Fort Nassau and the contiguous country. The Dutch governor of New Netherland promptly sent a force which recaptured the fort and made prisoners of Holmes and his invaders.
In 1641 New Haven merchants and planters sent George Lamberton and Nathaniel Turner to make land purchases on the South River. They bought from the Indians and built a block house, to which place about sixty persons from Connecticut settled. The venture proved profitable, and soon other colonists arrived, and many houses were built near the mouth of the Schuylkill.
The Swedes and Dutch both protested and in May, 1642, two sloops arrived from Manhattan with instructions to expel the English quietly, if possible, but by force, if necessary. The Dutch were compelled to use force, sent the English prisoners to Manhattan and burned their improvements.
Charles II having been restored to the throne of Great Britain, he granted to his brother, James, Duke of York, later King of England, the lands lying between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers. The duke fitted out an expedition, sailed to the mouth of the Hudson, and demanded the surrender, which was made August 27, 1664.
This expedition then proceeded to the Delaware and November 3 forced the surrender of that colony. Colonel Robert Carr was appointed Deputy Governor.
This conquest caused a war between Great Britain and Holland, which ended in favor of the former. The City of New Amsterdam became City of New York; Fort Orange became Albany; the South River became Delaware River, and New Amstel became New Castle.
Colonel Richard Nicholls governed the territory with justice and good sense until August, 1668, when he was succeeded by Colonel Francis Lovelace.
The first rebellion in the country was stirred up about this time, 1669, when Konigsmark, known as the “Long Finn,” with another Finn, named Henry Coleman, who understood the Indian language, went about preaching sedition and creating disturbances among settlers and Indians.
Madame Papegoja, daughter of former Governor Printz, and Carolus Lock, the Swedish preacher, were said to have been adherents. Konigsmark was finally captured, put in irons, publicly whipped, branded with the letter “R” (for Rebellion), and sold into slavery in Barbados.
George Fox, the founder of the sect of Quakers, arrived from England and rode through New Jersey, crossed the Delaware where is now Burlington by swimming his horse. He then rode thirty miles that day and slept on some straw in the house of a Swede. This was in 1672, and the coming of this visitor had great significance for the future of Pennsylvania.
The Maryland Government sent a surveyor in April, 1672, to survey lands in the Delaware Colony for Lord Baltimore. In a few months a more warlike demonstration was made, when a detail of thirty, commanded by one Jones, rode into the Horekill and “bound the magistrates and inhabitants, despitefully treated them, rifled and plundered them of their goods,” and when it was demanded “by what authority were these proceedings,” it was answered with a “cock’t pistol to the breast of the impudent questioner.” Jones seized all the Indian goods and skins, drove a spike into the touch-hole of the great gun, and seized all the small arms and mill stones.
War again broke out between Great Britain and Holland in March, 1672, and had its consequent effect on the affairs along the Delaware.
In August Governor Lovelace declared that the war included those in America. The blow fell suddenly at New York, and Lovelace was taken while on a visit in Connecticut.
A Dutch fleet appeared before New York, July 30, 1673, of such superior strength that effective resistance was impossible. The fort capitulated and New York again became a Dutch city.
The Delaware colony made no resistance; the English were too few in numbers, the Dutch too willing, and the Swedes too indifferent. Peter Alricks again became the commander of the Delaware River.
The renewed Dutch Government lasted only a year, when, by the treaty of Westminster, February 19, 1674, New Netherland was finally ceded to Great Britain.
On June 29, 1674, King Charles gave a new grant to the Duke of York, who appointed Major Edmund Andros governor.
Andros set up a court at Upland in which were settled the controversies of the settlers. He reinstated in office those who had been magistrates at the time of the Dutch conquest, Peter Alricks[Alricks] excepted.
The administration of Andros continued quite seven years, during which the only courts in what is now Pennsylvania were held at Upland. Nearly always the justices were Swedes.
The settlers above Christina Creek formed what later became the Pennsylvania Community. The settlers above the creek attended court at Upland, those below obtained justice at New Castle. This marked division was made November 12, 1678, and from that date the designation “county” became commonly employed.
Swedes’ Mill on Cobb’s Creek set up by Printz, in 1643, continued in use, but another was now built below New Castle. Others were built afterward.
At this time there were no roads, simply paths for man or horse, and cartways where merchandise was to be transported. Such were indicated by blazed trees. November, 1678, the court ordered “that every person should within the space of two months, as far as his land reaches, make good and passable ways from neighbor to neighbor, with bridges where needed, to the end that neighbors on occasion may come together.”
The time now approached when the lands along the shores of the Delaware became a place of refuge for all the sect of Quakers, and March 4, 1681, William Penn received a patent for the lands in America, to which the King gave the name Pennsylvania.
Provincial Government and Indians Open
Conference June 30, 1742
In September, 1737, occurred the so-called “Walking Purchase,” by which there passed from the lands of the Delaware Indians into those of the Proprietaries, the upper portion of Bucks County, a large slice of Carbon County, and one-fourth each of Monroe and Pike counties, an area of 1200 square miles. The “walk” upon which the purchase was made was a deception and as a consequence caused trouble for the Proprietaries for many years.
The lands at the “Forks” of the Delaware were still in the occupancy of the Delaware in 1741, although the Six Nations had ordered the Delaware to remove to the Susquehanna.
In October, 1741, a Cayuga deputation returned to their county from Philadelphia bearing with them to the “Long House” of the Six Nations a message from the Lieutenant Governor urging the Six Nations “to come down and force the Delaware to quit the 'Forks’.”
In response to this appeal 230 Indians from the Six Nations, including the principal chiefs and sachems, arrived at Philadelphia June 30, 1742, and found awaiting them a number of Pennsylvania Indians, including Shikellamy, the vicegerent of the Six Nations; Allummapees, King of the Delaware, also from Shamokin, and a large delegation from the Forks of the Susquehanna, representing the different clans. All the tribes of the Six Nations were represented except the Mohawk.
In a message to the Provincial Assembly, Governor Thomas stated the coming of the Six Nations at this time “was not necessary for the present peace of the province, but for the province’s future security, likewise, in case of a rupture with the French, who will leave no methods unessayed to corrupt the Six Nations’ fidelity and to persuade them to turn their arms against us.” At this time declaration of war between England and France was daily expected.
The conference between the Governor and the Council on the one side and the Six Nations on the other lasted until July 12, during which time eight sessions were held. The Council opened in the house of James Logan, then met at “the Great Meeting House,” where the last meeting was held in the presence of “a great number of the inhabitants of Philadelphia.” Conrad Weiser was present as interpreter for the Government and the Six Nations and Cornelius Spring and Nicholas Scull appeared for the Delaware.
In opening the conference the Governor referred to the fact that the Six Nations, at the time they had released their claim to all the lands on both sides of the Susquehanna as far north as the Kittatinny Mountains, had declined to take their pay for the lands on the west side of the river, preferring to receive the same at some future time. He then announced that the goods to be given in payment for those lands were ready for delivery to the Indians.
In reply to the Governor, Canassatego, chief of the Onondaga and principal speaker of the Indians at the conference, said, among other things: “The Six Nations have obligated themselves to sell none of the land that falls within the province of Pennsylvania to any but our Brother Onas, and that to sell lands to any other is an high breach of the league of friendship.”
The Governor replied that they were correct in their position.
On the seventh day the Governor referred to the trouble with the “Forks” Indians, to which Canassatego replied that the deputies would take the matter into consideration and give an answer in a few days. Three days later Canassatego arose and said:
“The other day you informed us of the misbehavior of our Cousins the Delawares, with respect to their continuing to claim and refusing to remove from some land on the Delaware notwithstanding their ancestors had sold it by deed upwards of fifty years ago, and notwithstanding they themselves had about five years ago ratified that deed and given a fresh one. We have concluded to remove them and oblige them to go over the river Delaware and to quit all claim to any lands on this side for the future, since they have received pay for them and it has gone through their guts long ago.”
Then turning toward the Delaware and holding a belt of wampum in his hand, Canassatego continued: “Cousins—Let this belt of wampum serve to chastise you. You ought to be taken by the hair of the head and shaked severely till you recover your senses and become sober. You don’t know what ground you stand on, nor what you are doing. Our Brother Onas’ case is very just and plain * * * on the other hand your cause is bad.
“But how came you to take upon you to sell land at all? We conquered you! We made women of you! You know you are women and can no more sell land than women. Nor is it fit you should have the power of selling lands, since you would abuse it.” The old chief concluded his cutting arraignment as follows:
“We don’t give you the liberty to think about it. You are women. Take the advice of a wise man and remove immediately. We therefore assign you two places to go—either to Wyoming or Shamokin. You may go to either of these places and then we shall have you more under our eye and shall see how you behave. Don’t deliberate, but remove away and take this belt of wampum.”
The old chief handed them the wampum and told the Delaware that, as there was other business to transact, they should depart from the council. There was no diplomatic mincing of words in the speech of the Onondaga chief. He spoke with the air of one having authority. This speech scattered seed which in time caused more bloodshed in peaceful Pennsylvania than the “Walking Purchase” ever did.
In 1815, John Watson, of Bucks County, wrote of this speech: “When this terrible sentence was ended, it is said that the unfeeling political philosopher (Canassatego) walked forward, and, taking strong hold of the long hair of King Nutimus, of the Delaware, led him to the door and forcibly sent him out of the room, and stood there while all the trembling inferiors followed him. He then walked back to his place like another Cato, and calmly proceeded to another subject as if nothing had happened. The poor fellows (Nutimus and his company), in great and silent grief, went directly home, collected their families and goods, and, burning their cabins to signify they were never to return, marched reluctantly to their new homes.”
Leaving their wigwams on the banks of their favorite Delaware, the once powerful Lenni Lenape commenced their march westward. A portion went to Shamokin, a few settled on the Juniata, near Lewistown, but the greater part of them, under their chief Tadame, went to Wyoming.
Decisive Battle of Gettysburg Opened
Wednesday, July 1, 1863
The Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 2 and 3, 1863, marked the high tide of the Civil War. Here General Robert E. Lee hoped to win a victory which would compel the withdrawal of Union troops from other parts of the country, secure recognition of the Confederacy by foreign Governments, carry panic into the North and furnish supplies for his hungry troops.
Fresh from his brilliant victory at Chancellorsville, he moved north until his van was within sight of Harrisburg, and there, learning that General George G. Meade was in close pursuit, Lee turned his army to meet him, and Gettysburg became the scene of the decisive battle.
The battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest of the Civil War and the most terrible battle in the world’s history previous to the World’s War, and probably greater than any single action in that gigantic conflict.
The Union losses in the three days’ battle were 23,000, and the Confederate losses were probably as high in killed, wounded, captured and missing, as 29,000.
At Gettysburg was concentrated Lee’s magnificent and confident army of Confederate troops, which had invaded Pennsylvania through the Cumberland Valley, and was then on its way to Philadelphia, and then to Baltimore and Washington. The advance of Ewell’s corps marched as far as Wrightsville, seventy-five miles from Philadelphia, or only four days’ march and had watered their horses in the Susquehanna River. There the mile-long Columbia-Wrightsville bridge was burned to prevent the rebels from crossing the river.
The concentration of his forces at Gettysburg was forced upon General Lee by the rapid movement of General Hooker with the Federal army, who hurried northward, as soon as Washington was uncovered, to intercept the invading host, and so to loosen the grip it had upon the fair valleys, rich with ripe grain and teeming with money, horses, cattle, clothing, shoes and provisions. Curiously, the Southern army came into Gettysburg from the North and the Northern army came in from the South.
Lee’s army was in fine condition and Hooker’s was recently reorganized into a great machine. The two armies were well matched. Each had approximately 80,000 men, including 10,000 cavalry to each; the Union had 327 pieces of artillery, and the Southern army only forty less pieces. The main difference was in commanders, for the Federal army had at Gettysburg, a new and untried commander, General Meade, who only three days before the battle had superseded General Hooker, and had with him two new corps commanders, Sykes and Newton, while the Confederate army under Lee had their able and accomplished Longstreet as well as the competent A. P. Hill and renowned Ewell in command of their three corps.
Excluding the ground of the great cavalry fight between Gregg and Stuart on the afternoon of July 3, on the Rommel farm three miles east of Gettysburg, where for hours these skillful generals fought for possession of the field in the immediate rear of the Union army, the area of the battlefield was about twenty square miles.
Lee’s intention had been to have Stuart’s cavalry strike the Union army from the rear the same moment Pickett was carrying the line in the front. The first skirmish in the great battle occurred June 27, when part of Early’s command, on their way to the Susquehanna, drove the Twenty-fifth Pennsylvania Emergency Regiment out of the borough.
On June 30, Buford’s cavalrymen, reconnoitering out on the Cashtown road, one of the seven prominent roads which converge at Gettysburg, ran into some of Pettigrew’s infantry and in the evening of that day, Colonel Gamble stationed his pickets along Marsh Creek.
Early in the following morning, July 1, Pettigrew’s Division advanced toward the town, and at Willoughby Run, with his whole brigade dismounted, Gamble held back the Confederates for two hours. Buford had advised General John F. Reynolds of this expected encounter; he placed the first division of his First Army Corps upon the road, and he then hurried forward the few miles to meet General Buford.
The two rode out the Cashtown Pike, where a conference was held at 9 o’clock. Reynolds then hurried back to his advancing troops to spur them forward and as he was leading the foremost regiment into the woods he was struck in the head and instantly killed. So passed away the greatest soldier in the Army of the Potomac.
An hour later Archer’s Brigade was captured by the Federals near Willoughby Run. Then followed two hours’ lull, during which the Confederates were preparing their lines to sweep the Union troops off Seminary Ridge. General Doubleday skillfully met this attack by throwing his two Pennsylvania brigades (of the Third Division, First Corps) into the front line, Biddle’s on the north of the woods and Stone’s on the south, both in open ground; the Second Division to the woods on the road toward Carlisle.
For three hours these fresh troops received the assaults of the enemy ten times their number, and when night came it was learned that Doubleday’s Corps had been reduced from 9403 officers and men to 2400, the 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers out of 380 men and seventeen officers brought back eighty men and only one officer not wounded. The 121st, 142d, 143d, 149th and 151st Pennsylvania all lost quite as heavily.
While the First Corps was thus engaged, General Howard with the Eleventh Corps came down the Emmetsburg road onto the field. Three divisions were started for Oak Hill, that they might hold it against Ewell’s Corps, coming back from near Harrisburg. Unfortunately the enemy had already seized the hill and Howard was forced into the open, but his two divisions were skillfully placed, and for two hours he sustained an unequal and hopeless fight, being forced back to Cemetery Hill, just as Doubleday had been, and at about the same time.
Among the incidents of the first day’s fight was the appearance on the field of John Burns, citizen, who came out from town dressed in a swallow tail coat with brass buttons on it, wearing a tall hat and his pockets full of powder and balls and a musket which he had used in the Mexican War. He approached the firing line, where Major Thomas Chamberlin, of the 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers was standing, and begged to be allowed to fight with that regiment. While discussing the matter, he was advised to go into the woods and fight from behind a tree, which the old man did, receiving three wounds, for which Pennsylvania has erected to his memory a handsome statue, located on the ground where the 150th fought.
One civilian killed was Jennie Wade, eighteen years old, who was struck by a stray shot as she was baking bread in her home.
Sickles’ Corps Holds Confederates Off Both
Round Tops at Gettysburg July 2, 1863
During the night of July 1 the two army commanders hurried up their troops to Gettysburg, but it was on the night of July 2 before the last of Sedgwick’s Sixth Corps and the last of Longstreet’s First Corps came into position. Meantime, at Hanover Junction, twelve miles east of Gettysburg, Kilpatrick was fighting Stuart, and, having whipped him and forced the enemy cavalry around to the left and rear of the Confederate Army, he took his position on the west of the Emmetsburg road, a mile and a half from Peach Orchard, on the left flank of the Union Army.
On July 2 General Daniel E. Sickles, with his Third Corps, came up. He was assigned to a position on the “left of Hancock,” and occupied the Emmetsburg road as far as the Peach Orchard, throwing his left toward Round Top. He was hardly in position before Longstreet enveloped the Union line, where, for five hours, from 3 until 8 o’clock, the battle raged furiously, the scene changing from the Peach Orchard to the Wheatfield and from there to the valley between Round Top and back again to the Devil’s Den and again back to the Wheatfield.
The interposition of Sickles’ corps between the Confederate Army and Round Top was what Longstreet least desired, for he intended to make a vigorous attack upon that strategic position, but the Union forces obtained the eminence just as the enemy was ascending the western slope.
In the desperate struggle for Little Round Top four Union generals were killed. On the Wheatfield two colonels were killed, and near the Peach Orchard General Sickles lost his leg.
In the second day’s fight Hood was wounded, but, minus a leg and an arm, he commanded the Western Confederate Army and fought Sherman near Atlanta.
The Confederate forces had pushed the Federal line back half a mile, but had failed to seize either Big or Little Round Top, and each side had suffered frightfully in killed and wounded.
When Longstreet opened his battle behind Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill it was expected that Ewell would attack the Union lines in front. He did not hear Longstreet’s guns and failed to attack until 7 o’clock in the evening, when, supported by numerous guns in a hot artillery fire, the Louisiana Tigers and North Carolina brigade of Early’s division stormed East Cemetery Hill, carrying everything before them, even to clubbing Wiedrich’s artillerymen in their hastily thrown up intrenchments. But Carroll’s brigade of infantrymen was back of the guns across the Baltimore pike, and this brigade Hancock personally led against the foe, with the result that the Union guns and positions were saved and the Louisiana Tigers as an organization went out of existence.
Ewell, failing to win East Cemetery Hill, at 7 o’clock pushed Johnson’s troops against the enemy on the east side of Culp’s Hill, and, after an hour’s fighting, gained a lodgment in part of the works of the Twelfth Corps, which had been vacated by troops called to aid in defending the line on the extreme left against the attack of Longstreet.
Johnson’s troops pushed their advance by 9 o’clock as far as the Baltimore road; but on account of darkness and fearful of being led into a trap, did not go farther. In this contest the Confederates secured Spangler’s Spring, but all through the long night boys of both sides filled their canteens at the gurgling fountain.
At daybreak on the morning of July 3 General Slocum, of the Twelfth Corps, made a successful attempt to drive the Confederates from the Union breastworks they had gained the previous night, and for six hours the woods howled with shot and shell, as this was one of the most desperate battles. Slowly, but surely, foot by foot, the Union troops advanced until the breastworks were wrested from the enemy, who was forced back across Rock Creek. This ended the Battle of Gettysburg, so far as Ewell’s and Slocum’s corps of the two sides were considered.
From 10 until 1 there was an ominous silence over the whole field in both armies. Then came the shot and shell from 150 Confederate guns posted along Seminary Ridge, directed upon the center of the Union line, and immediately 150 guns on the Union side responded, and for nearly two hours the earth trembled.
General Hunt ordered the Federal pieces to cease firing to cool off, while he replaced disabled guns with fresh ones and replenished his supply of ammunition for the assault which was sure to come.
Lee thought the Union guns were silenced from exhaustion and promptly gave orders for 15,000 of Longstreet’s and A. P. Hill’s choicest troops to force the Federal line. Pickett was in front with his 5500 men, and bravely they marched on and on when the charge commenced. From there it was a rush, until on and beyond the stone wall, at the Angle, both sides mingled in wildest disorder, shooting and clubbing each other in a hand-to-hand struggle that seemed to have no end. One by one the Confederates threw down their arms and sought retreat.
Of Pickett’s 5500 men, 224 had been killed, 1140 wounded and 1499 surrendered. Out of fifteen Confederate flags, twelve were left with the Federals, only three with the few brave troops making their way back to the Southland.
On this third day of the battle General Hancock was carried off the field badly wounded.
While Pickett was making his charge, Stuart, with the Rebel cavalry, endeavored to break the Union line in the center of the rear, but there he met General David McMurtrie Gregg, of Berks county, in command of the Union cavalry, and was defeated in the most important cavalry battle of the war.
All night long after the battle, Lee pushed his trains to the river through Fairfield Gap, and on July 4 he commenced to move his army; by the 14th he had carried it safely across the Potomac into Virginia.
Gettysburg was a drawn battle, yet, strange to state, was the decisive battle of the war and was treated by both sides and by the world as a great Union victory. The Gettysburg campaign was the last of several incursions upon Northern soil. Lee was afterward on the defensive.
While all the Northern states contributed their courage and manhood, Gettysburg, in its location, its leadership, and its incidents, was essentially a Pennsylvania battle.
British and Indians Massacre Hundreds
at Wyoming July 3, 1778
The year 1778 brought great distress and fear to the frontier generally, but particularly to Wyoming. The defeat and surrender of Burgoyne, at Saratoga, in October, 1777, had left the British without sufficient available force in America to carry on a regular campaign for this year, and as the war was to be continued, the only resource left to the British commanders was to employ the Indians and Tories almost exclusively in carrying on a war of desolation on the frontier.
Late in June Colonel John Butler, with his own Tory rangers, a detachment of Sir John Johnson’s Royal Greens, and a large body of Indians, chiefly Seneca, descended the Susquehanna. This force numbered about 400 British and Tories, and 700 Indians.
At Fort Jenkins, the uppermost in the valley, were gathered the families of John Jenkins, Hardings, Gardners and others. This fort capitulated July 2, to a force under Captain Caldwell. Four defenders were killed and three taken prisoners.
Wintermoot’s Fort was one mile below Fort Jenkins, with a view, as afterward appeared, to aiding the Tories. Soon as the enemy appeared Wintermoot’s Fort at once threw open its gates, and here the British and Tories assembled.
There were several stockades at Wyoming, but no other means of defense than small arms. No one of the forts was able to hold out an hour against such a force as the enemy mustered. Some of the old men formed themselves into companies to garrison these forts and yield such protection as they could.
Colonel Zebulon Butler happened to be home from the Continental Army, and assumed command of the settlers. History does not record an instance of more courage displayed or more gallant devotion. There was no alternative but to fight and conquer, or die, for to retreat with their families was impossible.
On July 3 they marched out to meet the enemy. Colonel Butler commanded the right wing, aided by Major Garrett. Colonel Dennison commanded the left, assisted by Lieutenant Colonel George Dorrance. The field of fight was a plain only partly cleared. Opposed to Colonel Zebulon Butler, of Wyoming, was Colonel John Butler, with his Tory rangers, in their green uniforms.
It was between 4 and 5 o’clock when the engagement began, but the enemy outnumbered the defenders nearly three to one, and they were soon able to outflank them, especially on the left, where was a swamp exactly suited for savage warfare.
The Wyoming men fell rapidly, and it became impossible to maintain the position. Colonel Dennison gave an order to fall back, so as to present a better front to the enemy, but the command was mistaken as a signal for retreat.
The fiendish enemy sprang forward, raised horrid yells, rushed in with tomahawk and spear, and slaughtered the Americans.
There are related many instances of personal and heroic bravery on part of both officers and men. They deserved a better fate, but the battle was lost.
Then followed the most dreadful massacre in the annals of Pennsylvania—the most heart-rending tortures. The brave soldiers were slaughtered without mercy, principally in the flight, and after surrendering themselves prisoners of war.
Prisoners taken under solemn promise of quarter were gathered together, and placed in circles. Sixteen men were arranged around one large stone, since known as the bloody rock. Surrounded by a body of powerful Indians, Queen Esther Montour, a fury in the form of a woman, assumed the office of executioner, and with the death maul or tomahawk, she passed round the circle and dashed out the brains of each prisoner.
Three strong men named Hammond, Lebbens and Joseph Elliott escaped by a desperate effort. In another similar ring nine persons were slain in the same manner. Many were shot swimming the river and hunted out and killed in their hiding places. Only sixty of those who went into the battle survived. The forts were filled with widows and orphans. It is said that 150 widows and six orphans were the result of the battle.[[3]]
[3]. It is believed that the Indians secured 227 scalps in this battle. The poet, Campbell, has told this dread tale in his “Gertrude of Wyoming.”
About two-thirds of those who went out fell. Naked, panting and bloody, a few who had escaped, rushed into Wilkes-Barre Fort where they told the dreadful news that all was lost. Mr. Hollenback, who swam the river amid the shots of the enemy, was the first to spread the appalling news. They fled to the mountains and down the river. Their sufferings were terrible, and they were almost famished for want of bread. In one party of nearly a hundred there was but a single man.
In Forty Fort they heard the firing distinctly, and their spirits were high, until they learned the dreadful news. The first fugitives reached the fort in the evening, and then a few others arrived during the night. Colonel Dennison also came in, and rallied the little band for defense. He succeeded the next day in entering into a capitulation for the settlement with Colonel John Butler, by which doubtless many lives were saved.
The enemy marched in, six abreast, the British and Tories at the northern gate, the Indians at the southern. On paper the terms of capitulation were fair, but the Indians immediately began to rob and burn, plunder and destroy. Even when appealed to, Tory Butler did not put a stop to it. But the Indians did not take life within the fort, only confined themselves to wanton plunder and insult.
When night fell the blaze of twenty dwellings lighted up the valley. In almost every house and field the murderous work was performed.
When the moon rose, the terrified survivors of the massacre fled to the Poconos and beyond to Stroudsburg. In the morasses of the dreadful wilderness many women and children perished, these places are still called “Shades of Death.”
In a few days Colonel Butler led the chief part of his army away, but the Indians continued in the valley burning and plundering, until nearly every building was consumed and it was clearly shown that the articles of capitulation afforded no security.
Soon after the battle Captain Spalding, with a company from Stroudsburg, took possession of the desolate valley, and rebuilt the fort at Wilkes-Barre. Colonel Thomas Hartley marched from Fort Muncy, on the West Branch, along the Sheshequin trail up into what is now Bradford County, and burned the Indian villages at Wyalusing, Sheshequin and Tioga, and cut off a part of the enemy who were taking a boat-load of plunder from Wyoming.
Declaration of Independence Adopted
by Congress July 4, 1776
Continental Congress was confronted with a serious situation when it convened in the early winter of 1775.
John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, continued to be one of the most important members. He was placed on the committee to correspond with foreign Powers and was intrusted with the framing of the Articles of Confederation.
The majority of Congress were now determined to destroy the authority of the British King, and, although Dickinson held the Pennsylvania delegation, with the exception of Benjamin Franklin, to his own views, the progress of events changed the public sentiment in the province. Many were to be found who, while they regretted the cruel necessity, were now ready to give up the name Englishmen. The Assembly sensed this growing feeling and at length released the delegates from former instruction and left the matter to their own judgment.
A committee with John Dickinson, the author of the Farmer’s Letters, at its head, reported:
“The happiness of these Colonies has during the whole course of this fatal controversy been our first wish; their reconciliation with Great Britain our next. Ardently have we prayed for the accomplishment of both. But if we must renounce the one or the other we humbly trust in the mercies of the Supreme Governor of the universe that we shall not stand condemned before His throne if our choice is determined by the overruling law of self-preservation which His divine wisdom has thought proper to implant in the hearts of His creatures.”
Congress now resolved itself into a committee of the whole on the question of independence. Many of the illustrious members of Congress advocated it with great warmth, principally John Adams, of Massachusetts; R. R. Livingstone, of New York, and Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, while James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, joined with John Dickinson in opposing it.
Wilson avowed, that notwithstanding the recall of the instructions against independence by the Assembly, his own sentiments remained the same. Dickinson declared that America could be wisely governed by the King and Parliament, not as independent, but as subject States. He believed the restraining power of the King and Parliament was indispensable to protect the Colonies from disunion and civil war. The debate was adjourned until July 1, and when Congress again took up the question James Wilson had turned for independence.
Adams led the debate in favor, and Dickinson on the side opposing it. The time had not come for independence; he feared disunion among the Colonies. He pointed out that foreign aid would not be obtained without success in battle. He believed the Colonies ought at least have agreed upon the terms of their own confederation, as had been begun, and it would have been well to have fixed the bounds of each colony. Dickinson’s argument was sound and proved he had a correct grasp on public affairs, for even after the long war for independence the Colonies were divided.
Pennsylvania had been maintaining a border war with Virginia for the possession of the lands west of the Allegheny Mountains, and another and more serious war with Connecticut because of the conflicting or misunderstood boundaries.
New York had a similar dispute with Connecticut and New Hampshire, the latter contesting the region which has since become the State of Vermont. Further trouble was also to be expected as population pushed toward the West, the older colonies claiming under their original charters as far as the Pacific Ocean.
In committee, when Richard Henry Lee’s resolution declaring independence was up for vote, Dickinson, Morris, Willing and Humphreys voted against it, making a majority of the delegation from Pennsylvania, but every other colony, excepting Delaware, voted in favor of the resolution. Franklin, Wilson and Morton voted in favor of independence.
As far-seeing a man as John Dickinson was, he could not fully comprehend the idea of a separate existence of the Colonies from the mother country, and yet no purer patriot breathed the air of freedom. A zealous advocate of liberty, it was his words that startled the Colonies and struck the keynote which aroused the energies of the provincialists and made them contend for independence. Notwithstanding[Notwithstanding] his overcautiousness, the declaration having been determined on, Dickinson entered heartily into its support and took an active part in all the affairs transpiring in the Colonies—even wielding his sword in the cause.
On July 2, 1776, the resolution being reported by the Committee of the Whole, came before the House. Dickinson and Morris made no further opposition, but by absenting themselves allowed the Keystone State, which Pennsylvania’s population and geographical position made her, to be put into the national arch then being erected.
John Morton is credited with casting the decisive vote. He felt the great responsibility and with it odium which he incurred in the locality which he lived. His health broke and he died the following year. From his deathbed he sent this protest to the friends who had turned from him: “Tell them they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge my signing of the Declaration of Independence to have been the most glorious service that I ever rendered my country.”
Pending the consideration of this important question of independence, a committee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and R. R. Livingstone, was appointed to prepare a Declaration of Independence. Jefferson and Adams were named a subcommittee, and the original draft of this eloquent manifesto was made by Jefferson. It was adopted by the committee without amendment and reported to Congress on June 28.
On July 4, having received some alterations, it was sanctioned by the vote of every Colony. Of the Pennsylvania delegation, Dickinson and Morris were absent when the vote was taken; Franklin, Wilson and Morton voted for, and Willing and Humphreys voted against it.
Massacre at Wyoming Followed by “The
Great Runaway” on July 5, 1778
The great massacre at Wyoming occurred on July 3, 1778, and as the news passed down the North Branch of the Susquehanna and spread over the hills and valleys leading to the West Branch Valley it caused a general stampede, a wild, precipitate flight of the settlers from the upper region which has ever since been known as the “Great Runaway.”
The history of Pennsylvania has failed to record any flight of its inhabitants, either in numbers or the harrowing details of its movement, comparable with this catastrophe.
Within two days following the massacre the news had penetrated the entire North Branch Valley and had reached as far up the West Branch Valley as Fort Antes, now Jersey Shore.
On July 9 Colonel Samuel Hunter, the county lieutenant and commandant of the garrison at Fort Augusta (Sunbury), wrote to the Governor:
“Nothing but a firm reliance upon Divine Providence and the virtue of our neighbors induces the few to stand that remain; and if they are not speedily re-enforced they must give way; but will have this consolation, that they have stood in defense of their liberty and country as long as they could. In justice to this county (Northumberland) I must bear testimony that the States never applied to it for men in vain.
“I am sure the State must know that we have reduced ourselves to our present feeble condition by our readiness to turn out upon all occasions when called for in defense of the common cause. Should we now fall for want of assistance, let the neighboring counties reconcile themselves, if they can, the breach of brotherly love, charity and every other virtue which adorns and advances the human species above the brute creation. I will not attempt to point out the particular cruelties or barbarities that have been practiced on our unhappy inhabitants, but assure you that for the number history affords no instance of more heathenish cruelty or savage barbarity than has been exhibited in this county.”
Colonel Matthew Smith wrote from Paxtang July 12 that he “had just arrived at Harris’ Ferry and beheld the greatest scenes of distress I ever saw. It was crowded with people who had come down the river, leaving everything.”
If the distress was the worst this old patriot ever beheld, it was truly a sad scene, for Colonel Smith had suffered in both the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars. He was in command of a company in the Arnold expedition to Quebec, when the troops for long months experienced nothing but suffering and distress.
On the same day Peter DeHaven wrote from Hummelstown: “This day there were twenty or thirty passed through this town from Buffalo Valley (Union County) and Sunbury, and the people inform me that there are 200 wagons on the road coming down.”
Another letter, written by William Maclay, later the first United States Senator from Pennsylvania, dated Paxtang, July 12: “I left Sunbury and almost my whole property on Wednesday last. I will not trouble you with a recital of the inconveniences I suffered while I brought my family by water to this place. I never in my life saw such scenes of distress. The river and roads leading down it were covered with men, women and children flying for their lives. In short, Northumberland County is broken up.
“Colonel Hunter only remained, using his utmost endeavors to rally the inhabitants to make a stand. I left him with a few—I cannot speak confidently as to numbers—but he had not 100 men on whom he could depend. Mrs. Hunter came down with me. As he is now disencumbered of his family, I am convinced he will do everything that can be expected from a brave and determined man. Something in the way of charity ought to be done for the miserable objects that crowd the banks of this river, especially those who fled from Wyoming. You know I did not use to love them, but I now sincerely pity their distress.”
Colonel Hunter the same day sent a most pathetic appeal to the president of the Supreme Executive Council, dated Fort Augusta, July 12:
“The calamities so long dreaded and of which you have been more than once informed must fall upon this country, if not assisted by Continental troops or the militia of the neighboring counties. At this date the towns of Sunbury and Northumberland are the frontiers where a few virtuous inhabitants and fugitives seem determined to stand, though doubtful whether tomorrow’s sun shall rise on them free men, captives or in eternity.”
Robert Covenhoven wrote: “I took my own family safely to Sunbury, and came back in a keel-boat to secure my furniture. Just as I rounded a point above Derrstown (now Lewisburg) I met the whole convoy from all the forts above. Such a sight I never saw in all my life. Boats, canoes, hogtroughs, rafts, hastily made of dry sticks, every sort of floating article had been put in requisition, and was crowded with women, children and plunder. There were several hundred people in all.
“Whenever an obstruction occurred at any shoal or ripple, the women would leap out into the water and put their shoulders to the boat or raft, and launch it again into deep water. The men of the settlement came down in single file, on each side of the river to guard the women and children. The whole convoy arrived safely at Sunbury, leaving the entire range of farms along the West Branch to the ravages of the Indians.”
Several persons are known to have been killed by the Indians during the “Great Runaway,” but it remains a most remarkable fact that almost the entire population moved from the settlements and for several days were in the open along the river and yet but few were killed.
In answer to the appeal from Colonel Hunter and those who really knew the situation, Colonel Daniel Brodhead with his Eighth Regiment, then on a march to Fort Pitt, was suddenly ordered to the West Branch. He arrived at Fort Muncy, July 24.
Colonel Thomas Hartley, with a small regiment, was ordered to the Susquehanna and arrived at Fort Augusta August 1, and marched to the relief of Colonel Brodhead at Fort Muncy, reaching there a week later.
Colonel Hartley was the master of the situation and using the good advice of General Potter, Colonel John Kelly, Colonel Samuel Hunter and others, who knew how to fight Indians, led a successful expedition against them, which allowed the more venturesome of the settlers to return to their fields and reap their harvests.
John Conrad Beissel, Founder of Ephrata
Society, Died There July 6, 1768
The founder of the German religious society of Seventh Day Baptists at Ephrata was Reverend John Conrad Beissel, who died there July 6, 1768.
Beissel was born in Eberbach, Germany, in 1690, learned the trade of a baker, and came to America in 1720. He embraced the religious views of Alexander Mock, lived as a recluse for several years and at different points, and finally located on the banks of the Cocalico Creek in Lancaster County, February 4, 1732. Here he continued to live as a hermit and advocated the doctrine of celibacy and the seventh day of the week as the proper day of rest and religious worship.
He was well versed in New Testament theology; possessed a commanding appearance, a fluent talker, and in most respects was well calculated to gather around him a large class of both sexes.
He was soon joined in his new home by Martin Brener, Samuel Eckerline, and another whose religious name was “Brother Jethro.” These were soon followed by Anna and Maria Eicher, from the Conestoga Church, two of Beissel’s former converts, who could not endure the pangs of separation from their spiritual teacher.
This nucleus of a church was joined in 1733 by Israel and Gabriel Eckerline, and in the following year by a large number from Oley and Coventry, in Chester County, as well as a large congregation of Germans who came from Schoharie County, N. Y., and placed themselves under the spiritual guidance of Beissel. Soon the congregation at Falkner Swamp joined them and Beissel had suddenly become the teacher of a large settlement named Lager, meaning an encampment, but the name of which was subsequently changed to Ephrata, by which the place is still known.
Peter Miller came to America in 1730, and soon became pastor of a small Reformed congregation at Tulpehocken. He was a classical scholar and a good theologian, and after an interview with Beissel, he became one of his apostles, casting his lot with the Brotherhood of Ephrata.
Within five years the people of this religious community had accumulated a large area of landed property which was held as common stock.
Soon after the founding of this society the monastic system was inaugurated, and Beissel invested with the title of father, and assumed the name of “Friedsam,” to which was added the suffix “Gottrecht,” together meaning Peaceable, God-right.
The first building erected under the monastic system, in 1735, was on “Mount Zion,” and named Kedar. It contained one principal room for religious worship, love-feasts, and the ceremony of feet-washing. Besides this there were other rooms, very small, for the use of the brethren and sisters, those of the latter being in the upper story. Another building larger in dimensions, and called “Zion,” was built on the same hill in 1738. These, as well as several buildings of a later erection, were covered with shingles on the roof and outside walls, and remain thus covered to the present time.
In the year 1740 there were in the Ephrata cloisters thirty-six single brethren and thirty-five sisters; and at one time in later years, when the society was at the height of its prosperity, the whole congregation, including those living outside the principal buildings, but in the immediate neighborhood, numbered about three hundred.
The buildings in this cloister afforded but rude and poor accommodations to the inmates. With ceilings barely seven feet in height, passages so narrow that two persons could not pass each other in them, with very low and narrow doors, swinging on wooden hinges and fastened by wooden latches, with cells hardly large enough to hold a cot, and each having only the light and ventilation afforded by a single window, eighteen by twenty-four inches in size, and containing only the most indispensable articles of furniture, and that of the rudest description, these houses were certainly anything else than abodes of luxury for those who inhabited them.
It is stated that the brethren slept on wooden benches, with wooden blocks for pillows. Probably the dormitories of the sisters were a little better furnished in that particular.
In each cell was an hour-glass, and the walls were covered with German text passages of scripture, and verses of original poetry by Beissel.
These people wore a cowl and gown of white—linen in summer, woolen in winter. The cowl of the sisters differed but little from that of the brethren. The difference between monk and nun could scarcely be discovered at a little distance. Both sexes went barefooted, except in extreme weather. They lived on food of the plainest kind, consisting almost entirely of bread, vegetables, and mush. No animal food was on their tables, and even butter, cheese, and milk were discountenanced.
All their vessels for communion and ordinary drinking purposes, also their trays, plates and other articles for table service, and even their candle-sticks, were of wood, and manufactured by the brethren.
In the beginning of Ephrata the plow was drawn by the brethren, ranged in a long line on each side of a rope, and even the sisters often assisted in this labor. But in a short time oxen and horses were procured to perform this work.
A paper mill was built and paper manufactured for use on their own printing presses, which had been introduced as early as 1742, the first book being printed for Israel Eckerline in 1744. Many very fine publications came from these presses.
A saw mill, a flour mill, a fulling mill, and a mill for making oil from flaxseed were put in operation. All these served the outside community and the workmen were renowned for scrupulous honesty.
Singing schools were begun in 1742 and a Sabbath school was started as early as 1740. This was the first Sabbath School in America. The building for the latter was used in the fall of 1777 as a hospital for the wounded from the Battle of Brandywine.
After more than forty years of spiritual leadership Beissel died in 1768, and Peter Miller succeeded him, but the society steadily declined, until the year 1875, when disputes divided them into two factions, and consequently into legal entanglements and the effect of the community as a religious enterprise became inconsequential.
Riots in Philadelphia Brought to an
End on July 7, 1844
Between the years 1843 and 1844 a spirit of turbulence, riot and disorder seemed prevalent throughout the United States. Philadelphia felt the influence, which first manifested itself in 1834.
On August 12, 1834, a riot took place which was much more serious than any occurrence of that character previously known. A meeting house, near the Wharton Market, was torn down and many colored people assaulted and badly beaten and their houses ransacked.
In October following occurred the Robb’s Row riot, in the Moyamensing district. A row of houses on Christian Street, west of Ninth, was burned by the mob and many persons injured. This disturbance was created by heated political antagonism, and was fought between rival partisans.
Another riot in which the blacks suffered, and many of their houses burned, occurred in July, 1835.
On May 17, 1838, occurred the Pennsylvania Hall riot, during which a large and elegant building dedicated three days before, to the purpose of public discussion by the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, was broken into, set on fire and totally destroyed.
The Kensington railroad riots took place in 1840, and were a manifestation of opposition to an attempt by the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad Company to lay their tracks on Front Street, in the business and builtup section of the city. In this disturbance the rails were torn up, houses burned and many persons injured.
Another riot in which Negroes were the victims, took place on August 1, 1842, during which Smith’s Beneficial Hall was destroyed by fire. This building was erected by Stephen Smith, a prominent colored man, to be used for the meetings of the literary and beneficial societies of colored people.
The Negro riots ceased at midnight, but on the next day the Irish laborers in the coal yards on the Schuylkill got mixed up with a band of colored laborers and the ensuing riot required militia to quell it.
Then came the weavers’ riots in Kensington, early in 1843. This was in consequence of disputes in regard to wages.
But the most terrible riots known in the history of Philadelphia took place in 1844, and resulted from political and sectarian prejudices which were aroused into activity by the formation of the Native American Party.
The movement for the organization of this party took place early in 1844. On May 6 a meeting was called, which was intended to be held on an open lot at the southeast corner of Second and Master Streets. Before the proceedings were concluded some difficulty arose between the persons holding the meeting and outsiders, who had gathered on the edge of the crowd, and assumed a rather menacing attitude.
Soon there was an attack made upon those in meeting and with such force that the participants were dispersed. They soon rallied their numbers and proceeded to a market house nearby, on Washington Street above Master. The meeting was reorganized, but the disturbances were as promptly renewed, and at this time firearms were brought into play by the assailants.
This unfortunate affair took place in a locality where the majority of the inhabitants were of the Roman Catholic faith, and although there was nothing to show that the latter were combined for purposes of breaking up the meeting, the feelings of the persons assailed led them to a bitter extremity. They soon obtained firearms and an attack was made on the buildings in the neighborhood. Seven persons were killed. The Native Americans being victors set fire to the houses attacked.
Other outrages were perpetrated and other buildings burned, including a female seminary under charge of the sisters of a religious order.
Troops were called out and quelled the rioting.
The Native Americans celebrated July 4 with a large and showy procession and ended the day’s program of festivities with a grand display of fireworks. All dispersed in good order.
On the evening of July 6 persons were discovered carrying muskets into the church of St. Philip de Neri, on Queen Street. Crowds soon assembled, but a Sheriff’s posse promptly appeared upon the scene.
An unfortunate arrest of a member of the posse, who was kept under military guard in the church through the night, caused a mob on the morning of July 7 to assemble determined to release the prisoner. A cannon loaded with slugs was fired against the rear of the church. Then it was brought to the front, but further trouble was prevented by the citizens and the prisoner was released.
Those in the church marched out and were chased and dispersed. The city was thoroughly excited with these proceedings and the people gathered in great crowds, many intent on destroying the church.
A committee, many of whom were Native Americans, organized to protect the church property and it seemed as if the trouble was at an end. But at this moment the military marched upon the scene, followed by a crowd of Sunday idlers. The soldiers attempted to clear the streets with fixed bayonets, when some one hurled a brick, striking a soldier. The captain gave orders to fire, and two volleys were sent into the crowd of men, women and children. Several were killed and many wounded.
The crowd now procured artillery and small arms and the most sanguinary street battle ensued, which continued through the night of the 7th and the morning of July 8. Two soldiers were killed and many wounded. Seven citizens were killed and several wounded.
The militia were withdrawn, the trouble subsided, and the most serious riot in the history of Philadelphia brought to an end.
Widow Smith’s Mill Destroyed by Indians
on July 8, 1779
During the year 1774 Catherine Smith, widow of Peter Smith, commenced building a large grist mill near the mouth of White Deer Creek, in the present Union County, which she completed the following year.
When Peter Smith died in the fall of 1773, he left his widow and ten children with no estate to support his family, except a location for three hundred acres of land, including the mouth of White Deer Creek, whereon was an excellent mill seat. His widow was of the type who did not sit idly by and let her neighbors help support her family, but realizing that a grist and saw mill were both much wanted in that new country at that time, and being urged to erect these mills, she set about the task.
The widow Smith was able to borrow some money and by June, 1775, she had both mills in operation. They served the inhabitants in the White Deer Valley and for many miles on the east side of the West Branch of the Susquehanna.
During the summer of 1776, there was an urgent demand for rifles for the Continental Army and for the use of the old men and boys who remained at home to protect the women and children from the sudden attacks of the Indians, while they were doing the work about the farm and the fireside. So Catherine Smith installed a boring mill, and the records show that a great number of gun barrels were bored in this mill. She also added a hemp mill.
Her eldest son went to the army and this made her work the heavier, as he was her best help. He was killed in the service.
The Indians became active following the great Wyoming massacre, July 3, 1778, and after Colonel Thomas Hartley had chastised them during his successful expedition in the late autumn of 1778, they again became bolder when the soldiers were withdrawn and the year 1779 was one of the most terrible along the frontier of the Susquehanna Valleys.
Nearly all the inhabitants had left during the “Great Runaway,” in July, 1778, and only the most venturesome had returned. The militia were recruited locally and were under the command of Colonel John Kelly.
In May a band of nearly a score of Indians killed John Sample and wife in White Deer. Christian Van Gundy and Henry Vandyke with four others learned of the murder and went to the scene to bring away any who survived the massacre. Six more men were to follow the next day.
When Van Gundy arrived at Sample’s he had slabs put up against the door and water carried up in the loft. After dark an Indian approached the house, barking like a dog, and rubbing against the door, but no attention was paid to him. The party inside lay down and slept until three o’clock, when Van Gundy got up to light a fire. The Indians surrounded the house, and mounting a log on their shoulders, tried to beat in the door. Those inside fired, wounding two, whom the Indians carried off, but not before they set fire to the house.
Van Gundy mounted the roof, and knocked off enough boards to reach the fire, which he extinguished. An Indian shot him in the leg and one of the others was shot in the face.
At daybreak they voted whether to remain and fight or attempt escape.
Two voted to stay, four to go. On opening the door they discovered the Indian chief lying dead in front of it. Van Grundy secured his rifle and Vandyke his powder horn.
The Indians came from ambush and the men separated. Van Grundy, with his two guns, took into a ravine, and tried to get the others to follow him. They refused. The Indians killed the old people, who were scalped.
Colonel Kelly pursued these Indians and came upon five of them sitting on a log. He placed his men and at a signal four of the Indians were killed at one volley, the fifth escaped.
The Widow Smith’s mills were now the frontier and the only place of refuge, except a small stockade, named Fort Meninger, which was built about eighty rods from the river, on the north bank of White Deer Creek, covering Widow Smith’s mills. The fort was situated west of the mills forming an apex of an irregular triangle of which the mills formed one base, and a small stone house, the home of Widow Smith, the other. This stone house, with a modern addition, is still standing.
The fort and mills were abandoned at the time of the Great Runaway, July, 1778, and the fort and mills were burned by the Indians, July 8, 1779. One man was killed in the attack.
Widow Smith returned to the ruins in 1783, and was urged to rebuild the grist and saw mills, which she accomplished with much difficulty. Ejectments were brought against her by Messrs. Claypoole and Morris, and she did not have the means to support actions at law and lost her improvements.
She petitioned the Legislature, which, of course, could grant no relief under the circumstances and her petition was dismissed. The facts set forth in her petition were certified to by William Blythe, Charles Gillespie, Colonel John Kelly, General James Potter and many prominent citizens of Northumberland County.
She is said to have walked to Philadelphia and back thirteen times in this business.[[4]]
[4]. The distance she traveled was no less than 160 miles each way.
How long the litigation continued is not a matter of record, but in 1801, Seth Iredell took possession of the premises as tenant of Claypoole[Claypoole] & Morris.
She died there and is buried in the old settlers’ graveyard. Her bones were disturbed when a barn was erected many years later, being identified by a venerable neighbor, by her peculiar protruding teeth.
A few years after this incident a man came to the place, having traveled from Ohio to see the old mill site. He said he was a son of Catherine Smith, and that if justice had been done her, they would still own the place.
A part of the foundation of the second mill, built by Widow Smith, serves the same purpose in a fine modern mill of today.
When soldiers were sent into that vicinity they used the Widow Smith’s stone house. General James Potter, under date of September 18, 1780, says: “I marched the remainder, consisting of 170 men up the West Branch to Fort Swartz. I then went to Colonel Kelly, who lay at the mouth of White Deer Creek, with eighty men.” This was the Widow Smith’s Mill.
General Braddock Defeated by French
and Indians July 9, 1755
General Edward Braddock arrived in March, 1755, at Alexandria, Virginia, and at the head of two Irish regiments, under Colonels Dunbar and Halket, marched to Fredericksburg, Maryland.
This distinguished officer was sent to command an expedition against the French at Fort Duquesne. He commenced his march from Wills Creek, now called Cumberland, Md., June 10, 1755, with 2000 men, regulars and provincials.
Braddock was haughty and egotistical and entertained no doubt of his success. He advised the Governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, that soon as he captured Fort Duquesne he would leave there the guns, ammunition and stores he captured in it, but if the enemy first destroyed the fort, he would build another.
By forced marches he reached Little Meadows June 18, when 1200 men were chosen to continue the expedition, the balance remained in camp under command of Colonel Dunbar. A halt of two days was made twenty-five miles from their objective, to await reports of the Indian scouts. That was fatal.
On the morning of July 9 the little army forded the Monongahela River and advanced in solid platoons along the southern shore of that stream. Colonel Washington saw the perilous arrangement of the troops after the fashion of European tactics, and he ventured to advise Braddock to disperse his men in open order and employ the Indian mode of fighting in the forests.
The haughty General angrily replied: “What! a provincial colonel teach a British General how to fight!”
The army moved forward, recrossing the river. Meantime the French commander Contrecœur had decided to withdraw, but Captain Beaujeu gained his permission to resist Braddock’s passage at the second ford. Beaujeu’s[Beaujeu’s] command was reinforced by several hundred savages.
When Captain Beaujeu came in sight of the English they had already crossed the river, and had advanced so that both flanks would be exposed about two hundred yards to an enemy occupying the deep ravines, thick with tangled forest growth and vines.
Braddock marched directly into the worst ambuscade known in American history. Into these ravines the Indians glided while their white comrades blocked the English path in front and the head of the marching column went down under a storm of lead. Shaken for a moment, the vanguard moved against the concentric ring and, after another terrible discharge, returned the fire with such deadly effect that every enemy in sight was swept before it. Beaujeu and dozens of others fell victims.
The Indians turned to flee, but rallied by other French officers, they returned to cover and under their unerring fire the English advance broke and retreated. Mixing with the rear in the narrow path, both became mingled in a mob which Braddock could not restore to order. Huddled in a twelve-foot roadway, shut in by a forest alive with yells and filled with invisible fire, they lost all sense or perception, and twice shot down bodies of their own men who had gained slight vantage points, mistaking their smoke for that of the enemy. Fifty Virginians were thus slain at one blow.
The regulars refused to charge, though Braddock, with four horses successively shot from under him, and other officers strove to hearten them to invade the woods. The Provincials fought Indian fashion from behind trees and fallen logs, but Braddock with furious threats and blows drove them back again into the ranks, where they fell in scores. Washington and Halket both pleaded to have them allowed to leave the ranks and fight the Indians in their own way, but Braddock still refused.
At[At] this point the supply of ammunition failed; the baggage train was attacked; all Braddock’s aides excepting Washington were shot down; three-fourths of the officers and three-fifths of the entire army were killed or wounded, and only then would the ill-judging but heroic Braddock give the signal for retreat. Shortly afterward Braddock received a ball through his lungs, and not one English soldier remained to carry him off the field. He was picked up by one English and two American officers and carried to a spot across the river a half mile distant.
The dying commander tried to rally his troops, by establishing a camp to care for the wounded. Here he waited for Washington to return from Dunbar’s camp, where he had been sent by Braddock. The French and Indians did not follow Braddock across the river, yet the hundred or more English soldiers he had induced to halt there, stole away and fled.
On the 10th the officers who remained with General Braddock marched with him until 10 o’clock at night, when they halted and met the convoy sent by Dunbar. Braddock never ceased to give calm, skillful and humane orders. He reached Dunbar’s camp on the 11th, where the news of his rout had already reached the soldiers under Dunbar, and they were fleeing in wild panic.
Braddock by this time realized that any further attempt to pursue the expedition was futile, and he must have known his wounds were fatal, for he ordered the stores destroyed lest they fall into the enemy’s hands, saving only sufficient for a flying march. He then proceeded with the remnant of his army toward Great Meadows, where he died and was buried in the center of the road. The entire army marched over the spot in order that the remains of the unfortunate general might not be desecrated by the savages. In 1802, his body was reinterred at the foot of a large white oak tree.
After the retreat of Braddock’s army, the savages, unwilling to follow the French in pursuit, fell upon the field and preyed on the rich plunder which lay before them. Three years later (1758) by direction of General Forbes, the remains of many of the slain in Braddock’s army were gathered up and buried.
Of 1460 men in the battle, 456 were killed and 421 wounded; 63 of the 89 commissioned officers, and every field officer, were killed or wounded. The enemy’s casualties were only about sixty.
The entire borders were left defenseless and this defeat was not only a fatal termination of a campaign which had been expected would inflict a decisive blow upon the French and their Indian allies, but it gave the signal to the disaffected Indians to make the frontiers of the Province the scene of a predatory warfare in which every section was severely scourged.
“Sawdust War” in Williamsport Lumber
Regions Began July 10, 1872
In the decade from 1870 to 1880, Williamsport was the largest lumbering center in the United States. Everywhere Williamsport was known as “The Lumber City.”
It was customary to send gangs into the woods in winter to cut down the trees, saw them into logs and pile them on the banks of small streams and afterward, when the water was at flood height in the spring, to roll them into the streams whence they floated down the river to Williamsport, where they were caught in the big boom and rafted to the various mills to be sawed and manufactured into lumber.
After the men were through their work in the woods it was customary to bring them to Williamsport and place them in the mills to help saw up the logs. As the season was short and it was important to clean up the work of sawing before the next winter, the mills operated twelve hours a day.
The “sawdust war,” as it was called, was a strike on the part of the workmen in the mills for a ten-hour day instead of twelve. There was no question of wages involved, and the principal advocates for the change were men who were not employed in the lumber industry, but were simply labor agitators.
The move for the ten-hour day began in June, 1872, and was characterized by frequent public meetings at which the speakers urged the men to go on strike. This finally culminated in a large number of men walking out, July 1, 1872, and adopting as their slogan, “ten-hour day or no sawdust.”
The strike reached to Lock Haven, where the men followed the lead of their Williamsport fellow-workmen.
Many of the mills were compelled to shut down on account of a depleted force until July 10, when an attempt was made to start up the mills, but without success. This precipitated the “Sawdust War.”
Parades and marches were held every day, the strikers going to the several mills and endeavoring to induce the workers still on the job to quit. Meetings were held every night. Thomas H. Greevy, by reason of being secretary of the local union and secretary of the State Labor Organization, was a prominent figure and always addressed these meetings.
After the strike had been in progress for a few weeks some of the men were induced to go back to work, but others, who were not willing to return, interfered, when a number of breaches of the peace took place.
The marches to the mills finally resulted in assaults being made upon the loyal workmen, and several attacks were made on mill owners on the streets of the city. These assaults finally became so frequent and so serious that Mayor S. W. Starkweather and Samuel Van Buskirk, sheriff of the county, called upon Governor John W. Geary for militia to be sent to Williamsport.
This request was complied with, and on July 22 troops were ordered to the city. They arrived the next day, July 23, and consisted of the following units: City Grays, Harrisburg, Captain Thomas Maloney; City Zouaves, Harrisburg, Captain Robert V. Vaughn; Middletown Zouaves, Middletown, Captain James Stanley; Washington Zouaves, Lebanon, Captain B. Y. Hean; Coleman Guards, Lebanon, Captain J. P. S. Gobin; City Grays, Williamsport, Captain A. H. Stead; Taylor Guards, Williamsport, Captain John H. White.
Williamsport was placed under martial law. On the same day, July 23, Thomas H. Greevy, James M. Birmingham, A. J. Whitten, Thomas F. Blake, Henry Crook and Alem Tate were arrested on charge of inciting to riot and at a hearing on July 25, before the City Recorder, were held in $10,000 bail for their appearance at the September term of court. Bail was promptly furnished, but an hour later Greevy was rearrested and $15,000 additional bail demanded. As other charges were pending, the men were taken to jail to await trial. On July 27 motion was made for a writ of habeas corpus and reduction of the amount of bail, which, on July 29, was refused by the court.
Subsequent arrests were made on the same charge and all held for the next term of court, but those above mentioned were the principals. On July 31 all defendants were released on bail.
On July 25 the troops on duty in the city went into camp at Herdic Park under command of Brigadier General Jesse Merrill, of Lock Haven. On July 27 the troops were reinforced by the Packer Guards, Sunbury; Sanderson Guards, Mill Hall; Langlon Fencibles, Shamokin. On July 30 five companies on duty were relieved and sent home. The others were relieved a few days later.
At the September term of court for Lycoming County, on September 7, all the twenty-nine defendants were brought to trial before Judge James Gamble. James M. Birmingham, Thomas H. Greevy, A. J. Whitten, Thomas H. Blake, Patrick Conlin, Jacob Wolf, Timothy Shannon, Jr., Henry Crook, Patrick Dugan, Louis Plant, Michael Eustice, John Benway, William Iam, Daniel McMullen, David Deauchamp, Thomas Hackett, Joseph Ludget, James Spulong, James Sladen, John Bezel and Joseph Shear were found guilty and sentenced to jail for periods of thirty, sixty and ninety days, pay a fine of one dollar and the costs of prosecution, except James M. Birmingham, A. J. Whitten, Thomas H. Greevy and Thomas F. Blake, who, because they were outsiders and in no way connected with the lumber industry, were sentenced to one year in the penitentiary and costs of the prosecution.
They were sentenced on September 14; and on September 16 Peter Herdic who was then one of the leading and most influential men in the State, went to Harrisburg and induced Governor Geary to pardon them all.
The parties soon after left Williamsport, and except for two of them, all other records are lost. James M. Birmingham became a prominent citizen of Kansas City, Mo., as did his son. Thomas H. Greevy removed to Altoona, and became a prominent citizen of the State.
Greevy was engaged in journalism and edited the Labor Reform Journal of Williamsport. He also held important offices in the local and State organizations.
The first labor convention in Pennsylvania was held at Danville, in 1871, and Greevy was elected secretary, a position he held at the time of the Sawdust War. John Siney, of Schuylkill County, was State president.
After taking up his residence in Altoona, Mr. Greevy studied law, was admitted to the bar and since has become one of the leading attorneys of the State. He is a prominent adviser of the Democratic State Committee, and was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor. In every walk of life he is one of the leading citizens of the country.
Moravians Visit Indian Town of Great
Island, July 11, 1748
Great Island, situated on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, a short distance east of Lock Haven and opposite the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek, was a favorite camping place and council grounds for the Indians. An Indian village was situated on this island, which is frequently mentioned in the early records of the Province.
In the year 1745 David Brainerd, a missionary stationed at Shamokin, tells in his journal of a journey which he took up the West Branch. In this he speaks of extending his journey to Great Island and of the sufferings he endured.
In the summer of 1748 David Zeisberger and John Martin Mack made a missionary trip up the West Branch for the purpose of visiting the Indians, who were undergoing terrible hardships as a result of a famine. On July 11, 1748, two days after their start from Shamokin, we find the following entry in Mack’s journal:
“July 11. Toward evening reached Great Island and found Indians at home residing on this side of the island. They asked us whence we came and whether we had ought to sell. When told that we were not traders, but had only come to visit them, it was incomprehensible to them. But a few old squaws were living on the island; the men had been driven away by famine. We consequently remained on this side of the island and asked an Indian whether we could lodge in his hut. He took us in cordially and spread a bear skin for us to sleep on, but he had nothing for us to eat. Ascertained that he was a Five Nation Indian and his wife a Shawnese. Whereupon Brother Zeisberger conversed with him. His father, who is upward of seventy years, was dying of smallpox and was a most pitiful object. His care and that of the Indians here enlisted our sympathies and silent prayers.
“In the evening we were visited by a number of Indians—Shawnese and Cayugas. Here dwell in three houses Shawnese, Maquas and Delaware; among the latter an Indian from Albany, who spoke Low Dutch. In all three houses were cases of smallpox. In one hut hung a kettle in which grass was being stewed, which they ate with avidity.
“July 12. Brother Zeisberger learned from our host that many Indians passed and repassed his hut. Today he brought out some dried venison and gave us some, and we in turn gave his child some of our bread, for which they were very thankful.
“In the afternoon told our host we desired to visit the island to see the Indians there, and he, unasked, went with us, and led us to all the huts.
“We found some clever people here who had just returned from the woods and who shared with us grapes, green and hard, which they ate with avidity. We prayed silently to the Lord to have mercy on this people.
“Returned to our lodgings, and our host again asked us why we had come so far and had we not come in search of land? He said there was fine land in the neighborhood. We explained that was not our object.
“July 13. We found an opportunity to speak to our host of the Saviour. He had heard somewhat of God, and said he believed what we had told him was good and true. He then gave us some dried venison and we in turn some needles and thread to his wife.
“Set out on our return down the Susquehanna. At night camped on a large flat by a creek, ate some mouldy bread, the last of our stock and built four fires to keep off the vermin.”
In the year 1758 Christian Frederic Post, another Moravian missionary, was sent by the Government of Pennsylvania to the Delaware, Shawnee and Mingo Indians settled on the Ohio. In his journal under the date of July 29 we find the following entry:
“29th. We crossed the Susquehanna over the Big Island. My companions were now very fearful and this night went a great way out of the road, to sleep without fire, but could not sleep on account of the mosquitoes and vermin.”
On his return from his mission under the date of September 18, he records:
“Came to the Big Island, where having nothing to live on, we were obliged to stay and hunt.
“19th. We met twenty warriors, who were returning from the habitations with five prisoners and one scalp; six of them were Delaware and the rest Mingo. We sat down all in one ring together. I informed them where I had been and what was done; they asked me to go back a little and so I did, and slept all night with them. I informed them of the particulars of the peace proposed; they said if they had known so much before they would not have gone to war. They killed two deer and gave us one.”
Post’s mission had been undertaken with the object of making peace with the Indians, for, following Braddock’s disastrous campaign against Fort Duquesne, the Indians had attacked the settlements, and the entire West Branch Valley as far down as Sunbury was in complete control of the French and their Indian allies.
In 1755 Andrew Montour, who had been employed on various occasions as interpreter for the province, and who at this time was captain of a company of Indians in the English service, following an attack upon settlers on Penn’s Creek, in which a number of the settlers were killed, was summoned to the Great Island by the friendly Delaware living there. Here he was informed that the French had made overtures to the Indians to go on the war path against the English settlers in Pennsylvania.
In November these Indians also sent word that two messengers had come from Ohio to Great Island; and seeing an Englishman who happened to be there at the time, said “Kill him.” “No,” said the Indians of the Great Island, “we will not kill him nor suffer him to be killed. We have lived in peace many years with the English; if you are so bloodthirsty go somewhere else for blood. We will have no blood spilt here.”
At this period as well as at the time of Post’s mission, three years later, Great Island was being visited by both French and English in their desires to secure the Indians as their allies. It was at this period also that the Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania issued a proclamation which encouraged the whites to scalp the Indians by the offer of a bounty for every Indian scalp brought in.
Riots in Philadelphia Caused by Boy
Assaulting Master, July 12, 1835
Feelings of animosity against people of color had been manifested in Philadelphia for several years, and were again brought forth conspicuously through a most unfortunate circumstance July 12, 1835.
Robert E. Stewart, a prominent citizen of Philadelphia, who had been United States Consul to Trinidad, resided on the east side of Sixth Street, between Prune and Walnut.
He had in his service an African boy, called Juan, who was a native of the Eboe nation, the representatives of which bore the character of being vindictive, revengeful and easily moved to anger. Juan had been brought to the United States from the West Indies by Mr. Stewart.
For some reason not known Juan determined to take the life of his master. The attack was made upon Mr. Stewart while he was sleeping in the afternoon in his chamber. The butt end of a hatchet was used in a shocking manner upon his head. He was frightfully mutilated and injured, and it was supposed that he could never recover. He died several years afterward.
The brutal attack upon Stewart was made July 12. A statement of the circumstances in the newspapers of the next day created intense excitement, and soon as the story was read crowds began to assemble, and by evening a large crowd had gathered in the neighborhood of Sixth and Locust Streets.
By this time the city authorities had learned something from the events of former years, when the racial hatred had caused many fatal clashes, and a large body of watchmen and police were dispatched to that section of the city.
Crowds began to join those already in that neighborhood, and they were made up of men and half-grown boys, usually in an angry mood. The citizens soon dispersed about the neighborhood, talking together, in small groups.
The presence of the police rendered any outburst impossible so they carried their destructive propensities into an adjoining district, and there commenced an attack upon houses occupied by colored people in Small Street between Sixth and Seventh. The inmates were beaten and put to flight, and their furniture destroyed.
From that place their ravages were resumed upon the colored residents in Seventh and Shippen Streets. Thence the destruction was transferred to “Red Row”—a block of eight houses on Eighth Street below Shippen.
The mob here made a discrimination. All the young colored men who could be found were brutally assaulted, because the colored youth were generally saucy and impudent, but the old men and women of color were not molested or in any manner injured.
During the proceedings “Red Row” was set on fire and all the houses destroyed. The mob had now become so infuriated that they were unrestrained even by the presence of police, and from the burning homes in “Red Row” they proceeded to Christian and Ninth Streets, where several brick and frame houses occupied by colored people were attacked.
Several of those houses were defended by the owners, and others who had sought refuge in them. Several shots were fired from behind doors and windows, and two persons in the mob were wounded. By the time the houses were finally entered the residents had escaped.
The houses in flames in “Red Row” had brought the firemen to the scene, but when they set up their apparatus, they were opposed by the mob. The hose was cut and no water could be brought into play. The firemen, however, fought their way and succeeded in saving from total destruction all the houses, except the one in which the fire was started. The mob became even more determined and attacked houses which had been passed by at the beginning of the attack.
By these occurrences the colored people in the lower part of the city were frightened to a degree of terror which had not affected them in previous years.
On the day after this riot hundreds of families moved out of the neighborhood, or, locking up their houses, sought refuge where they could find it. Numbers of men, women and children bivouacked in the woods and fields, and not a few fugitives were given shelter in barns and outbuildings.
On Tuesday evening, July 14, crowds again began to assemble in the vicinity of Sixth and South Streets, on the rumor that a house on St. Mary Street was garrisoned by armed Negroes.
The mob proceeded to this house and upon their arrival found that the statement was true. Fifty or sixty colored men were in the building, armed with knives, razors, bludgeons and pistols, besides a great stock of bricks and paving stones, which were stored on the third floor, where they could be hurled with effect upon an attacking party. These men were desperate and were rendered savage by the occurrences of the two previous days.
The city police force was promptly upon the scene and prepared to prevent the assault intended to be made by the whites upon the house. The police, at the same time, had the difficult task of getting the colored men away from the building in safety. This they were able to do.
With this attack frustrated, the trouble was finally quieted and there were no further racial disturbances.
Hannastown, Seat of Justice for Westmoreland
County, Burned by Indians
July 13, 1782
The county of Westmoreland was established by the Provincial Assembly, February 26, 1773, and the courts directed to be held at Hannastown. This was the first place west of the Allegheny Mountains where justice was dispensed according to the legal forms by the white man.
Hannastown contained about thirty habitations and a few crude cabins. Most of the former were two stories high and built of hewn logs. There was also a wooden court house, a jail and a stockade, both built of logs.
Robert Hanna, the first presiding Judge, was a member of the family from whom the town derived its name. Arthur St. Clair, afterward the distinguished general in the Continental Army, was the first prothonotary and clerk of the courts.
On the morning of July 13, 1782, a party of townsfolk went to O'Connor’s fields, about a mile north of the village, to cut wheat. The reapers had completed one field when one of their number reported that he had seen a number of Indians approaching. Every one rushed for town, each intent upon his own safety, each seeking his own wife and children, to hurry them into the stockade.
After a period of frightful suspense, it was agreed that some one should reconnoiter and relieve the balance from uncertainty. David Shaw, James Brison and two other young men, armed with rifles, started on foot through the highlands between the fort and Crabtree Creek, pursuing a direct course toward O'Conner’s fields.
An officer who had been on duty in the town pursued a more circuitous route on horseback, and no sooner arrived at the fields than he beheld the whole force of the savages there assembled. He turned his horse to escape, but was followed. He met the four others who were on foot and warned them to fly for their lives.
The four young men were hotly pursued by the Indians, who did not fire upon them, for they expected to take the inhabitants by a surprise attack. Shaw rushed into the town to learn if his kindred had gone into the fort. As he reached his father’s threshold he saw all within desolate and, as he turned, discovered the savages rushing toward him with their brandished tomahawks, and yelling the fearful warwhoop. He counted upon making one give the death halloo, and raising his rifle, the bullet sped true, for the savage at whom he aimed bounded in the air and fell dead. Shaw then darted for the fort, which he reached in safety.
The Indians were exasperated when they found the village deserted, pillaged the houses and then set them on fire.
An Indian who had donned a military coat of one of the inhabitants and paraded himself in the open was shot down. Except this one and the Indian killed by Shaw, it is not believed any others were killed.
Only fourteen or fifteen rifles were in the fort, and but few of the men of military experience, as a company had been recruited there but a short time before and marched away with Lochry’s ill-fated campaign, leaving not more than a score of men in the village. A maiden, Janet Shaw, and a child were killed in the fort.
Soon after the Indians had set fire to the buildings of the village some of them were observed to break away from the main body and go towards Miller’s Station.
Unfortunately there had been a wedding at that place the day before and many guests were still at the scene of the festivities. Among them was John Brownlee, known along the frontier for his courage in scouting against the savage marauder. The bridal party was in the midst of their happy games, when, like a lightning flash, came the dreaded warwhoop.
Those in the cabins and the men in the fields made their escape. In the house, where all was merriment, the scene was instantly changed by the cries of women and children mingled with the yell of the savage. Few escaped.
Among those who got away are two incidents of intense interest. A man was carrying his child and assisting his aged mother in the flight, the savages were gaining on them, the son and father put down and abandoned the child, the better to assist his mother. The next morning the father returned to his cabin and found his little innocent curled up in his bed, sound asleep, the only human thing left amidst the desolation.
The other incident occurred when a powerful young man grasped a child, who stood near him and made his escape, reaching a rye field and taking advantage of some large bushes, he mounted a fence and leaped far into the tall rye, where he lay down with the child. He heard the quick tread of the savages as they rushed by and their slower steps as they returned, voicing their disappointment.
The wedding party were made prisoners, including the bride and groom, and several of the Miller family.
When the Indians were all assembled and the prisoners secured, the latter were loaded with plunder and the march commenced. They had proceeded less than a mile when one of the Indians recognized Brownlee and communicated it to the others. As he stooped to readjust the child on his back, who he carried in addition to the luggage they had put on him, an Indian buried a tomahawk in his head. When he fell the child was killed by the same Indian.
One woman screamed at the sight of this butchery and the same tomahawk ended her agony. These bodies were found next day and decently buried.
At nightfall thirty men assembled and determined to give succor to those in the fort. They armed themselves and hastened with great caution, knowing that if the Indians intended to attack the fort at dawn that they had retired to the low land at Crabtree Creek.
Fifty rifles were too few to attack 300 Indians and sixty white savages, so they put in action strategy which won. They mounted all the horses they had and trotted back and forth across a bridge of plank, near the stockade, two drums and a fife completed the deception that re-enforcements were arriving in great numbers. The ruse had the desired effect. The cowardly Indians, fearing the retribution they deserved, stealthily fled during the night.
The prisoners were surrendered by the Indians to the British and taken to Canada. After the peace eighty-three prisoners who survived were freed and returned to their homes.
George Ross, Lawyer, Iron Manufacturer,
Soldier, Statesman, Patriot, Signer of
Declaration of Independence,
Died July 14, 1779
The Philadelphia Packet, July 15, 1779, contained this item:
“Yesterday died at his seat near this city, the Honorable George Ross, Judge of Admiralty of this State.” He was interred in the churchyard of Christ’s Church, Philadelphia, the day following his death. The Supreme Executive Council attended the obsequies in a body.
George Ross, the son of Reverend George Ross, minister of the Established Church, and Catherine Van Gezel Ross, was born in New Castle, Lower Counties, May 10, 1730. He was of excellent Scotch stock, his family traced their descent from the Earls of Ross.
George received an excellent education, with special instruction in the classics; studied law in Philadelphia, with his half brother, John, and was admitted to the bar at Lancaster in 1750. He rose rapidly in his profession, and was interested in the manufacture of iron, which he continued to the time of his death.
Soon after settling at Lancaster, in 1751, he married Miss Anne Lawlor.
He was made prosecutor for the Crown and took a deep interest in the welfare of the growing town of Lancaster, which was soon recognized by his neighbors and he was elected to the Assembly of Pennsylvania in 1768. From this time on his short life of forty-nine years was crowded with civic and patriotic duties; while the State and Federal Governments honored him with many positions of trust.
He immediately became a leader in the Assembly where he was a most pronounced Whig. By successive elections he was continued in that body until 1774, when he was a member of the Provincial Conference and then a member of the first Continental Congress.
George Ross was one of a committee to whom was referred the patriotic communication of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, recommending a Congress of the colonies for the purpose of resisting British arbitrary enactments, and in Congress he consistently furthered those measures which finally led to American Independence.
In 1775, Governor John Penn having written a message disapproving any protective measures on the part of the colonies, Mr. Ross drew up a strong and convincing reply.
He was a true friend of the Indians, and served as one of the Commissioners to Fort Pitt in 1776.
Mr. Ross was made a member of the Committee of Safety for Pennsylvania; vice president of the Constitutional Convention of 1776; colonel of the First Battalion of Associators for Lancaster County; and as a fitting climax, he signed the Declaration of Independence.
During his service as a member of the Continental Congress he was named on the committee with General George Washington and Robert Morris to prepare a design for a new flag. It was through his suggestion that the committee called on his niece, Betsy Ross, and with her help the beautiful flag of the United States was designed and adopted.
Ill health forced Colonel Ross to resign from Congress and on leaving office the citizens of Lancaster voted him a piece of silver to cost £150, which he declined to receive.
After varied and valuable labors in the service of the colonies and of Pennsylvania he was appointed a judge of the Court of Admiralty, as a minute of the Supreme Executive Council for March 1, 1779, records the following:
“Resolved, That the Honorable George Ross, Esquire, be commissioned Judge of the Admiralty of this State, under the Act of Assembly; that this Board highly approve the firmness and ability he has hitherto shown in the discharge of his said office.”
During his incumbency, which lasted but a brief period, he was regarded as learned and prompt, a happy combination.
Judge Ross probably knew the standing of every merchant in Philadelphia.
His house in Lancaster stood on the site of the present Court House, and his country home was a farm in what was then a suburb of Lancaster, now a part of the city, called in his honor, Rossmere.
He was interested in several iron furnaces, the most important of which was the Mary Ann furnace of York County. This was the first blast furnace west of the Susquehanna. His partners were George Stephenson, one of the first lawyers in York County, and William Thompson, the latter’s brother-in-law, later distinguished as a general in the Revolution. George Ross also owned Spring Forge III, also in York County, and he was a partner with George Taylor, of Easton, another signer of the Declaration of Independence, in a furnace in New Jersey called Bloomsbury Forge.
His half brother John Ross, was also much interested in the iron business, and seems to have been a rather picturesque character. He was an officer of the King, and Graydon says of him: “Mr. John Ross, who loved ease and Madeira much better than liberty and strife, declared for neutrality, saying, that let who would be king, he well knew that he would be a subject.”
His health seems to have been poor for some time before his death as a letter from Edward Burd to Jasper Yeates, July 16, 1779, says:
“Poor Mr. Ross is gone at last. I was one of his Carriers. He said he was going to a cooler climate, and behaved in the same cheerful way at his exit as he did all thro the different trying scenes of life.”
He was a Churchman by inheritance, and was vestryman and warden of St. James’ Church, Lancaster, contributing liberally to its varied interests. Genial, kind and considerate, his sense of humor evidently lightened the cares of his strenuous life.
A memorial pillar was erected in 1897, on the site of his house in Lancaster.
Provincial Convention Ends Proprietary
Government July 15, 1776
During the debate in the Continental Congress upon the Declaration of Independence, the old Provincial Government of Pennsylvania received such a mortal blow, that it soon expired without a sigh, ending forever the proprietary and royal authority in Pennsylvania.
In the meantime the Committee of Correspondence for Philadelphia issued a circular to all the county committees calling for a conference in that city on June 18, 1776. This conference unanimously resolved “that the present Government of this Province is not competent to the exigencies of our affairs, and that it is necessary that a Provincial Convention be called by this Conference for the express purpose of forming a new Government in this Province on the authority of the people only.”
The delegates to this convention to frame a constitution for the proposed new Government consisted of the representative men of the Province. It is only natural that in time of excitement the men chosen for such important duty should be those most active in the military organizations, or local committeemen, men whose ability, patriotism and personal popularity was unquestioned. It was to be expected that the old statesmen would be crowded out unless they were leaders in the revolutionary movement.
As such they met in Philadelphia, July 15, each taking without hesitancy the prescribed test oath and then organized by the selection of Benjamin Franklin, president; George Ross, of Lancaster, vice president, and John Morris and Jacob Garrigues, secretaries.
On July 18, Owen Biddle, Colonel John Bull, the Reverend William Vanhorn, John Jacobs, Colonel George Ross, Colonel James Smith, Jonathan Hoge, Colonel Jacob Morgan, Colonel Jacob Stroud, Colonel Thomas Smith and Robert Martin were appointed members of a committee to “make an essay for a declaration of rights for this State.”
On July 24 the same persons were directed to draw up an essay for a frame or system of Government, and John Lesher was appointed in place of Colonel Morgan, who was absent with leave.
The same day the convention established a Council of Safety to exercise authority of the Government until the new Constitution went into effect. At the head of the Council was Thomas Wharton, Jr.
During the convention the delegates not only discussed and perfected the measures for the adoption of a Constitution, but assumed the supreme authority of the State, and legislated upon matters foreign to the object for which it was convened. Not only did it form the Council of Safety, but it approved of the Declaration of Independence, recently adopted by the Continental Congress, and also it appointed justices of the peace, who were required, before assuming their functions, to each take an oath of renunciation from the authority of King George III, and one of allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania.
July 25, Colonel Timothy Matlack, James Cannon, Colonel James Potter, David Rittenhouse, Robert Whitehall and Colonel Bertram Galbraith were added to the Committee on the Frame of Government.
The convention completed its labors on September 28, by adopting the first State Constitution, which went into immediate effect, without a vote of the people.
The Constitution as finally adopted vested all legislative power in the General Assembly of the Representatives of the freemen to be composed for three years of six persons annually chosen from the City of Philadelphia and six from each county of the State including Philadelphia, outside the city, afterwards the representation to be apportioned every seven years to the number of taxable inhabitants.
Laws, except in sudden necessity, were not to be passed until the next session after proposal. The executive power was vested in a Supreme Executive Council of twelve elected members, one from the City of Philadelphia, and one from each of the counties, including Philadelphia, so chosen that one-third would retire each year and no member, after serving three years, should be eligible within four years.
A president and vice president were to be annually chosen from this body, by the joint ballot of the Councillors and Assemblymen. New counties were each to have a councillor. The president and the Council, five of whom constituted a quorum, were to appoint all Judges, the Attorney General, etc.
The right to vote was given to all freemen over twenty-one years of age who had resided within the State a year before the election and paid taxes, but the sons, twenty-one years old, of Freeholders were not required to pay taxes. The freemen and their sons should be trained and armed for defense of the State under regulations and with exceptions according to law, but with the right to choose their own colonels and officers under that rank.
A debtor, except for fraud, should not be kept in prison, after giving up his real and personal estate for the benefit of his creditors. A foreigner having taken the oath of allegiance could purchase and transfer real estate and after a year’s residence have all the rights of a natural-born subject, but be ineligible as a member of Assembly until after two years’ residence.
A Council of Censors of two members chosen from each city and county every seven years beginning with 1783 should inquire into the violation of the Constitution and whether the legislative and executive branches of the Government had exercised greater powers than they were entitled to, and could impeach or, by a two-thirds vote of those elected, call a convention to amend the Constitution.
Articles to be amended were to be published six months before election, in order that the people might have opportunity of instructing their delegates concerning them.
Gibson’s Lambs Start on Expedition for
Powder, July 16, 1776
Powder has always been an essential product in every epoch of the stirring history of our country. The situation was always serious, but on the western side of the Allegheny Mountains there were many times when the settlers were in desperate situation on account of little or no powder.
In times of peace the powder used in these western counties was purchased with furs, and every farmer had a quantity in his home for both hunting and defense, but when the Revolution broke out the demand was greater than the supply, and the Indian hostilities stopped the fur trade.
Companies of rangers were organized and a patrol maintained along the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, so that the Indian marauders could be detected and pursued. The work of the frontiersmen was of no use without gunpowder, and in their desperation these hardy pioneers planned an exploit to New Orleans, where they could purchase a quantity from the Spanish Government.
The band of volunteers was under the leadership of Captain George Gibson and Lieutenant William Linn. The former, the son of a Lancaster tavern keeper, was a trapper and had gone to Pittsburgh with his brother John, where they engaged in the fur trade. In his youth he had made several voyages at sea and nearly all his life had traveled through the Indian country. William Linn was from Maryland, a farmer and skilled hunter. He had fought under Braddock and had been used as a scout along the Monongahela River.
Captain Gibson selected fifteen of the hardiest and bravest of his command. These came to be known as Gibson’s Lambs, on account of their fearlessness. Flatboats were built in Pittsburgh and the expedition started from that place Tuesday, July 16, 1776. A trip down the Ohio was extremely dangerous, as all along the river and especially the lower part, the Indians kept a constant watch.
The “Lambs” left behind them every evidence that they were soldiers. They retained rifles, tomahawks and knives, but were clad in coarse clothes resembling boatmen or traders. So clever was their disguise that even when in Pittsburgh their errand remained a secret. The impression was that they were venturing on a trading trip. The expedition successfully passed the British posts at Natchez and reached New Orleans in safety after five weeks on the water.
Louisiana was then a Spanish province, under the governorship of Don Luis de Ungaza, to whom Captain Gibson bore letters of commendation and credit, as well as to Oliver Pollock and other American merchants, then resident in New Orleans. Pollock was a wealthy Philadelphian and exercised great influence with the Spanish authorities. He assisted in negotiating for the powder. Spain was at peace with Great Britain, but willing to give secret aid to the Americans.
The British agents in New Orleans soon learned of the arrival of the Gibson party and, sensing their mission, made complaint to the Spanish authorities that rebels against the British Government were in the city.
Captain Gibson was arrested and lodged in a Spanish prison, where he was treated with the greatest consideration. While he was confined, Oliver Pollock obtained the powder and secreted it in his warehouse. The purchase amounted to 12,000 pounds and cost $1800.
The powder was divided into two portions. Three thousand pounds of it was packed in boxes, falsely marked as merchandise of various kinds, and quietly conveyed to a sailing vessel bound for Philadelphia by way of the gulf and ocean.
There was a coincidence in the fact that on the very night the ship sailed Captain Gibson “escaped” from prison, got on board the vessel and accompanied the precious powder to its destination.
The balance of the powder was turned over to Lieutenant Linn, as this was to be used on the Western frontier. This was in half casks, each containing about sixty pounds. These were smuggled during the night to the barges which were tied up in a secluded place above the city.
Lieutenant Linn hired a score of extra boatmen, mostly Americans, and on September 22, 1776, the little flotilla made a fine getaway without discovery and began its long journey up the Mississippi. The work was hard and the trip took seven months.
At the falls of the Ohio it was necessary to unload the cargoes and carry the heavy casks to the head of the rapids, when the barges were dragged over the shallow stream and reladen. Several times the expedition was forced to tie up by ice and many hardships were experienced before the return of the spring weather.
May 2, 1777, the expedition reached the little settlement of Wheeling, where Fort Henry had been erected. There Lieutenant Linn turned over his precious cargo to David Shepherd, county lieutenant of the newly erected Ohio County, Virginia.
Linn’s responsibility ended at Wheeling. County Lieutenant Shepherd sent the powder to Fort Pitt, under heavy guard, where it was turned over to Colonel William Crawford and safely stored in the brick magazine of the fort. The safe arrival of this powder was the cause of great rejoicing and nothing was too good for Lieutenant Linn and the fearless “Lambs.”
Virginia paid for the powder, but it was turned over for “the use of the continent.” Portions were distributed to the frontier rangers and to the two regiments then being mustered in Southern Pennsylvania for continental service. It was from this powder that Colonel George Rogers Clark drew his supply, in the spring of 1778, for his famous and successful expedition to the Illinois country.
George Gibson was promoted to rank of lieutenant colonel in the Virginia service and Lieutenant Linn was made a captain and placed in command of the “Lambs.” To each of these officers the Virginia Legislature made a grant of money in addition to their regular pay.
Both these brave men performed other acts of heroism during the Revolution and both were killed by the Indians. Linn made a settlement ten miles from Louisville. While riding alone, March 5, 1781, on his way to attend court, he was surprised by a small party of Indians in the forest. Next morning his mutilated body was found, with his horse standing guard over it. Colonel Gibson was mortally wounded at St. Clair’s defeat in Northwestern Ohio, November 4, 1791.
Virginia Sends Captain John Neville to Command
Fort Pitt, July 17, 1775
By the original charter of Virginia the northern boundary of that colony was supposed to be at the end of the fortieth degree, which was as far north as Philadelphia. This charter was dissolved in 1624, and instead of narrowing the limits of Virginia it apparently increased them.
Virginia became a royal province without any definite boundaries, and she considered herself as a keeper or trustee for the King of England of all contiguous territory not lawfully granted to another colony.
The Maryland grant to Lord Baltimore was taken out of the domain of Virginia, and she acquiesced in it. But west of Maryland she insisted that her ownership extended for an indefinite distance northward and westward, and she had made it good by occupation as far north as Pittsburgh.
This was certainly a broad claim of title, and the only remnant of it now is that curious narrow strip of land, called the Pan-Handle, which extends northward between Pennsylvania and Ohio for some distance above the fortieth degree.
The Indian trade at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela had always been an object of Virginia’s desire. In 1752 Virginia determined to erect a fort there, and Pennsylvania was willing because the fort would stop the advance of the French, their common enemy, but she reminded Virginia that the land belonged to the Penns.
The French, in 1754, had seated themselves at Logstown, and the Governor of Virginia began to construct a fort on the site of Pittsburgh, but the French surprised the little garrison, captured the works, finished it, and named it Fort Duquesne.
The French held the fort until English forces, under General John Forbes, invested it November 25, 1758. It was abandoned in 1771.
Some time prior to 1756 Virginia erected the District of West Augusta, covering the territory of Pennsylvania west of the Laurel Hills and south of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers, and in that year divided it into three counties, viz: Monongalia, Yohogania and Ohio.
Pennsylvania also erected upon this disputed territory Bedford County, in 1771, and Westmoreland County, in 1773 Penn’s Manor of Pittsburgh, too, was surveyed for the proprietaries early in 1769, and in the beginning of 1771 magistrates were appointed by Pennsylvania and for some time discharged the duties of their offices without having their authority questioned.
The new Governor of Virginia was John, Earl of Dunmore, or Lord Dunmore, of whom Bancroft says: “No royal governor ever showed more rapacity in the use of royal power.” He at once determined on seizing control of the “Forks of the Ohio,” for Virginia and for himself. He appointed Dr. John Connolly, a man of much energy and talent, but without principle, to be “captain commandant of Pittsburgh and its dependencies.”
Connolly arrived in Pittsburgh late in December, 1773, and early in January, 1774, took possession of the dismantled fort, which he renamed, calling it “Fort Dunmore,” required and commanded the people to assemble themselves there as a militia.
He mustered the militia under Virginia law, intimidated the Pennsylvania magistrates, marched some of them off to prison and established the authority of Virginia throughout all the region between the Monongahela and the Ohio.
While a large part of the inhabitants of that region were Virginians by birth and predilection, there were some fearless and loyal Pennsylvania adherents who did all in their power to resist Connolly’s high-handed proceedings.
One of these, Arthur St. Clair (afterward General St. Clair), then prothonotary of the new county of Westmoreland, issued a warrant against Connolly and had him committed to jail at Hannastown, from which he was soon released on giving bail for court appearance there.
Connolly returned to Virginia, was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace for Augusta County, and when court met at Hannastown, he appeared with his militia, armed and with colors flying, and refused to admit the Pennsylvania magistrates. He arrested three of the magistrates and sent them to Staunton, where they were confined in jail.
Subsequently, Simon Girty led a mob to Hannastown, stormed the jail and released such prisoners as were Virginia partisans.
The Tory conduct of Connolly at Pittsburgh became so bold and obnoxious that in June, 1775, he was seized by twenty men, under orders of Captain St. Clair, and carried to Ligonier, with the intention of delivering him to the Continental Government at Philadelphia. He was released, however, and fled from Pittsburgh by night and made his way to Portsmouth, Virginia, where he joined Lord Dunmore on a man-of-war, taking refuge in Canada.
Virginia had revolted from Dunmore’s tyranny at home, but showed no disposition to repudiate his aggressions in Pennsylvania nor the machinations of Connolly.
The boundary dispute was maintained, although, in view of the troubles with the mother country fast approaching, the Virginia and Pennsylvania delegates in Congress, including such men as Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin, had united in a circular urging the people in the disturbed region to mutual forbearance.
This action of Congress and the constant fear of an Indian uprising persuaded the Virginia Provincial Convention, in session at Williamsburg, July 17, 1775, to pass a resolution which sent Captain John Neville with one hundred men from the Shenandoah Valley to take possession of Fort Pitt.
The following year the Virginia counties in the disputed territory were organized with their loyal and administrative machinery, but the rancor of the contest had, however, somewhat diminished and there were no such acts of violence committed as during the regime of Connolly and his master.
Captain John Neville continued to command until the Continental Congress determined to take Fort Pitt under its care and provide a garrison at the continental expense. The offer was accepted by Virginia and General Washington selected Brigadier General Edward Hand to relieve Captain Neville of his command.
Susquehanna Company Organized in
Connecticut, July 18, 1753
Early charters granted to Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia and the Carolinas made the Pacific Ocean the nominal western boundary of those colonies. Prior occupancy by the Dutch and the settlement of the boundaries had created an exception in favor of New York and New Jersey, but all the country west of the Delaware River within the same parallel of latitude with Connecticut was still claimed by that colony as part of her domain.
The southern boundary was to be a straight line beginning at the mouth of Narragansett Bay. The line extended west would have entered Pennsylvania near Stroudsburg and crossed the North Branch of the Susquehanna at Bloomsburg, the West Branch at Milton, and passing through Clearfield and Newcastle would cut the State nearly through the middle. Penn’s charter fixed the northern boundary of his province at the forty-second degree of latitude. A large strip of territory was thus granted to both Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
On July 18, 1753, about 250 men, mostly from Connecticut, met at Windham, that State, and organized “The Susquehanna Company.” Then, with the consent of the Connecticut Assembly, application was made to the Crown for leave to plant a new colony west of the Delaware. It was granted, and the company sent agents to the Indian treaty at Albany, June, 1754, who succeeded in obtaining from representatives of the Six Nations the cession of a tract of land on the northern branch of the Susquehanna River, where eleven years before King Tedyuskung and his tribe had built the town of Wyoming.
The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania protested against this purchase, and claimed that this land was within the limits of their charter. They also claimed that the purchase had not been made in open council, but had been effected after making the Indians drunk.
As this council at Albany had been called to form a union of the Colonies with the Six Nations as their allies against the French, the purchase was not then seriously opposed. Besides, Pennsylvania bought a large tract of land from the Six Nations at the same treaty, and in a way not satisfactory to the Indians.
The French and Indian War prevented any attempt at settlement of the Wyoming Valley until 1762, when about 200 colonists and their families entered the valley and commenced building and planting near the site of the present Wilkes-Barre. Before winter set in, extensive fields of wheat had been sown upon lands covered with forest trees in August. But owing to the scantiness of provisions, the settlers returned to Connecticut for the winter.
About the same time another Connecticut association, called the “Delaware Company,” had begun a settlement on the Delaware River. Proclamations were issued and writs of ejectment were placed in the hands of the Sheriff of Northampton County.
Early in the month of May, 1763, the settlers returned, accompanied by many others. Notwithstanding the remonstrances of Northampton County, to which the Wyoming Valley then belonged, settlements were made at Wilkes-Barre, Kingston, Plymouth and Hanover.
Several hundred acres were improved with corn and other grain, and a large quantity of hay cut and gathered, and everything was moving forward in a prosperous and happy manner when, without the least warning, on October 15, the settlers were attacked while dispersed and engaged in their work, and about twenty of them slain.
Men, women and children fled to the mountains, from which they saw their homes plundered and burned and their cattle taken away. They abandoned their settlement and made their way back to Connecticut or to Orange County, New York. This is known in the history of Pennsylvania as the first massacre of Wyoming. It was the work of the Delaware Indians, led by Captain Bull, son of King Tedyuskung.
Some believe the Iroquois convinced the Delaware that the white settlers had murdered Tedyuskung and that this massacre was committed in retribution.
For six years after this assault no settlement was attempted. The Indians, anticipating revenge for the massacre, left the valley.
Meanwhile the Penn family made every effort to prove that the title given to the Susquehanna Company was not complete and that their charter was valid. Finally some chiefs, assisted by Sir William Johnson, openly disclaimed the sale to the Susquehanna Company. Then the Six Nations assembled in council at Fort Stanwix and on November 5, 1768, gave a deed of the disputed lands to the Penns.
Meanwhile Pennsylvanians took possession of the Wyoming Valley and built a fortified trading house there. They laid out two manors, one on each side of the river, and extending over the farms abandoned by the New Englanders.
In February, 1769, the Susquehanna Company sent forty men into the valley, to be followed shortly by 200 more. They were given land and 200 pounds Connecticut currency to provide themselves with farming tools and weapons, on condition that they would stay in the valley and defend it against Pennsylvania. They built a blockhouse called, from their numbers, Forty Fort. Their leader was Colonel Zebulon Butler, a hero of the French and Indian War, a brave partisan commander.
A civil war prevailed for some years known as the “Pennamite and Yankee War.” Forts were constructed and many sieges and skirmishes followed. Both parties led men to prison, drove women and children away and committed other outrages.
The Connecticut men were generally successful in this strife. They organized a separate State, but could not maintain it. So in 1774 they attached themselves to Connecticut, as the town of Westmoreland, in the County of Litchfield.
During the Revolution there was a lull in the strife in Wyoming. However, as soon as the war ended the old feud broke out in all its former fury.
Pennsylvania having, in 1779, succeeded the heirs of William Penn, now appealed to Congress to settle the dispute. A commission met at Trenton in 1782 and, after five weeks of deliberation, decided that Connecticut had no right to the land, and that the jurisdiction of the same belonged to Pennsylvania.
Tom Quick, the Indian Killer and Picturesque
Character, Born July 19, 1734
Early in the year 1733 a Hollander, named Thomas Quick, came to the colony of New York, a few months later located on the Delaware River, on what afterward became known as Upper Smithfield, near where Milford, Pike County, now stands. He appears to have been the pioneer settler on the Pennsylvania side; here he cleared lands, erected a log cabin and barns, and raised wheat and maize. A son was born July 19, 1734, named Thomas, and he was familiarly known in after years as Tom Quick, the Indian killer.
He was the pet of the household, and even the Indians who roamed over that region frequently visited Quick’s place and much admired the fine looking, stout lad, and often made him presents of plumes, feathers, skins and other articles.
Tom grew up among these Indians, learned their language, and was taught by them how to hunt wild animals, and fish after the manner of the Indians. He grew fond of the Indian life, and became such an expert hunter, trapper and fisherman, that his father could never induce him to follow any other occupation. He even refused to attend school with his sisters, and in fact became almost an Indian by nature.
In the meantime Thomas Quick, Sr., had become the prosperous owner of a grist and saw mill on a small stream entering the Delaware near Milford, called the Vandemark. But Tom, Jr., never became an employe, but did learn much of the beautiful Minisink Valley, with its high cliffs on the Pennsylvania side and receding hills on the New Jersey side, as it extends from Port Jervis to the Delaware Water Gap. The romantic water falls and rocky glens were his hunting and fishing grounds. This knowledge afterward served his purpose in waylaying and murdering Indians.
The Delaware Indians viewed with alarm the steady encroachments of the whites, and many had already taken up arms against the English. The Quick family, however, had always lived on friendly terms with them, but the Indians were not unmindful of the fact that this sturdy Hollander had been the very first to push that far into their favorite hunting grounds.
The prospect of plundering an opulent man like Quick overcame any feelings of gratitude that might linger in the savage breast.
When the French and Indian War commenced, the Quicks were uneasy and their alarm increased as the Indians grew less sociable, and finally withdrew altogether from the Delaware River.
Quiet reigned until the Quicks became careless and one day the father crossed the river to grind grist, accompanied by Tom and his brother-in-law, all unarmed. As they rounded a point near the river they were fired upon from ambush, and the old man fell mortally wounded.
The young men endeavored to carry him across the frozen river but as they stepped on the ice they were fired on and Tom was hit in the foot. They soon got out of danger, but not before they saw the savages take Tom Quick’s scalp.
Young Tom was frantic with rage and grief, and that moment swore that he would never make peace with the Indians as long as one remained upon the banks of the river.
From this time forth the demon of unrelenting savage hatred entered Tom’s heart and he became more like the savages he pursued than like a civilized man. He never entered the army but took Indians at all times, whether in peace or war, and without regard to age or sex.
He seems to have operated about the close of the Indian War, at a time when they began to again visit their former haunts, supposing they would be well received.
Among the Indians who returned was a drunken vagabond named Muskwink, one who had assisted in murdering Tom’s father.
Tom met Muskwink at Decker’s Tavern, on the Neversink, where he had become very bold and abusive, claiming Tom’s acquaintance and desiring him to drink with him. Tom refused and cursed him, which caused a heated exchange of words, during which Muskwink boasted of the part he played in the murder of Tom Quick, Sr. He bragged that he scalped him with his own hands, and at the same time mimicked the grimaces of the dying man, to corroborate his assertion, exhibited the sleeve buttons worn by his victim at the time.
Tom seized a musket, which was hanging in the bar room, and ordered Muskwink to leave the place. He arose slowly and departed, pursued by Tom until they had gone about a mile, when Tom overtook the savage and shot him dead. Tom returned to the tavern, gave up the musket, drank a glass of rum, and left the neighborhood.
His next exploit was when he espied an Indian family in a canoe near Butler’s Rift. Tom concealed himself in the tall grass and as the canoe glided nearer he recognized the Indian as one who had committed many outrages on the frontier.
Only a few words were exchanged when Quick shot the man and tomahawked the woman and three children. He sank the bodies and destroyed the canoe, and did not tell of this crime for years, when he was asked why he killed the children. He replied, “Nits make lice.”
There are many stories told of Tom Quick, which have been preserved by tradition and which are firmly believed by descendants of the older families of Pike County.
One story is told in which several Indians caught him splitting rails and told him to go along with them. Tom asked them to assist him split open the last log and as they put their fingers in the crack to help pull it apart Tom knocked out the wedge and caught them all. He then killed each one at his leisure.
He went on a hunting trip with an Indian and they killed seven deer. He took the meat but gave the Indian the skins. He threw them across his shoulder, Tom fell behind and shot the Indian and took the skins as well as the meat, saying he had shot a buck with seven skins.
He was hunting with another Indian and pushed him off of the high rocks.
Tradition says that on his death bed he claimed to have killed ninety-nine Indians, and that he begged them to bring an old Indian, who lived near, in order that he might bring his record to an even hundred.
In his old age he was regarded as a hero by the pioneer hunters and trappers. He died at James Rosencrantz’s in 1795, and was buried on his farm.
The time has long since passed when such a revengeful murderer can be exalted to the rank of a hero, yet Tom Quick, the Indian slayer, weather-beaten, and with wornout accoutrements and costume in keeping, presented a picturesque and Rip Van Winkle-like appearance that would have formed no bad subject for an artist’s pencil.
William Maclay, First United States Senator,
Born in Chester, July 20, 1737
William Maclay, son of Charles and Eleanor Query Maclay, was born July 20, 1737, in New Garden Township, Chester County, Pa. He attended the classical school of the Reverend John Blair, in Chester County. He studied law and was admitted to practice at the York County bar in 1760. During the French and Indian War he served as a lieutenant in Colonel Hugh Mercer’s battalion, and distinguished himself during General Forbes expedition in 1758. In 1763 he participated at the Battle of Bushy Run, and during the subsequent progress of Colonel Bouquet’s campaign was stationed in command of a company at one of the stockades on the route of the expedition.
On account of this service he never practiced his profession. Much of his time was taken up in surveying lands allotted to officers, but at a later period Governor John Penn was instrumental in having him admitted to the Cumberland County bar, and for a short time he acted as Prothonotary.
At the close of the French and Indian War he visited England and had an interview with Thomas Penn, one of the Proprietaries, relative to surveys in parts of the Province, and on his return became an assistant of Surveyor General Lukens on the frontier.
In April, 1769, he married Mary McClure Harris, daughter of John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg.
On the organization of Northumberland County March 21, 1772, he was appointed Prothonotary and Clerk of the Courts.
In July, 1772, he laid out the town of Sunbury and erected for himself a fine stone house, which, with modern improvements, is still standing.[[5]]
[5]. For many years the residence of Hon. Simon P. Wolverton, and now that of his widow.
At the outset of the Revolution, although an officer of the Proprietary Government, William Maclay took a prominent and active part in favor of independence, not only assisting in equipping and forwarding troops to the Continental Army, but marched with the associators which participated in the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. He held the position of assistant commissary of purchases.
During the “Great Runaway,” following the Wyoming massacre, July 3, 1778, William Maclay fled with his family from Sunbury to Harris’ Ferry, and in a letter to the president of the Executive Council he gave a very graphic picture of the distress. Again after the attack and destruction of Fort Freeland by the British, Tories and Indians, July 28, 1779, Maclay again wrote to the seat of government in which he described the forlorn situation of the frontiers. In a later letter he deplored the removal of soldiers from the West Branch Valley, where the Indians had committed such terrible depredations.
In 1781 he was elected to the Assembly, and from that time forward he filled the various offices of member of the Supreme Executive Council, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, deputy surveyor, etc. After the Revolution he made a visit to England in the interest of the Penn family.
In January, 1789, he was elected to the United States Senate, taking his seat there as the first Senator from Pennsylvania. He drew the short term, and his position terminated March 3, 1791, his colleague, Robert Morris, securing the long term.
Maclay’s election to this body raised him upon a higher plane of political activity, but contact with the Federal chiefs of the young Republic only strengthened his political convictions, which, formed by long intercourse with the people of Central Pennsylvania, were intensely democratic.
Maclay differed with the opinions of President Washington; he did not approve of the state and ceremony attendant upon the intercourse of the President with Congress, he flatly objected to the presence of the President in the Senate while business was being transacted, and in that chamber boldly spoke against his policy in the immediate presence of President Washington.
Maclay was the original promoter and later the actual founder of the Democratic Party. Long before Thomas Jefferson’s return from Europe, William Maclay assumed an independent position, and in his short career of only two years in the Senate propounded ideas and gathered about him elements to form the opposition which developed with the meeting of Congress at Philadelphia, October 24, 1791, in a division of the people into two great parties, the Federalists and Democrats, when, for the first time, appeared an open and organized opposition to the Administration.
The funding of the public debt and chartering the United States Bank were opposed by Maclay, even at a sacrifice of personal popularity, for he was succeeded in the Senate by James Ross, a pronounced Federalist.
While in the Senate Maclay preserved notes of his discussions, both in open and executive sessions, with observations upon the social customs of the statesmen of the Republic, which have since been published.
On his retirement from the Senate William Maclay resided on his farm adjoining Harrisburg, where he erected a fine stone mansion, afterward, for many years, occupied by the Harrisburg Academy.
In 1795 he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and was again elected in 1803. He was a presidential candidate in 1796, and from 1801 to 1803 was one of the Associate Judges of Dauphin County.
William Maclay’s brother, Samuel, was almost as distinguished a citizen as his older brother. He, too, was a soldier in the Continental Army, a surveyor and statesman. He served as Associate Judge, was in the Fourth Congress, State Senate and Speaker of that body, and December 14, 1802, he was elected to the United States Senate. William and Samuel Maclay are the only brothers to sit in that body.
William Maclay was the father of nine children. He died at his home at Harrisburg April 16, 1804, and was interred in the old Paxton Presbyterian Church graveyard at Paxtang. An elegant stone marks the final resting place of this distinguished Pennsylvanian.
Colonel James Cameron, First Pennsylvania
Officer Killed in Civil War July 21, 1861
It may not be generally known that the first officer of his rank to be killed in the Civil War was none other than Colonel James Cameron, who commanded the Seventy-ninth New York Highlanders, yet was a native of Lancaster County, Pa., a resident of this State, and a brother of the distinguished General Simon Cameron.
The Cameron family in America is of fighting stock, descendants of the Camerons of Scotland, who shared their fortunes with the disastrous Charles Edward, whose star of hope went down on the bloody field of Culloden. Donald Cameron, their great-grandfather, was a participant in that memorable battle, and having escaped the carnage made his way to America, arriving here about 1746. He afterward fought under the gallant Wolfe upon the heights of Abraham at Quebec.
On his mother’s side, Colonel James Cameron was descended from Conrad Pfoutz, one of those sturdy German Protestants, whose faith no terrors could conquer. An exile from his native land for conscience sake, he sought the western wilds, and was for a time the companion of that famous Indian fighter, Captain Samuel Brady, the history of whose life is more captivating than romance.
James Cameron was born at Maytown, Lancaster County, March 1, 1801, and spent his boyhood there. He was apprenticed to his older brother, Simon, in the printing trade, and as early as 1827 he became associated with John Brandon in the publication of the “Lycoming Gazette,” at Williamsport, but only for a short time, as the business was not successful, and in December of that year the paper was sold to William F. Packer, who later became Governor of Pennsylvania.
James Cameron returned to Lancaster County and in 1829 obtained control of “The Political Sentinel,” which he published for a few years only. In 1839 he was appointed superintendent of motive power on the Columbia Railroad, succeeding Andrew Mehaffy. In 1843 he was appointed Deputy Attorney General of the Mayor’s Court, at Lancaster, succeeding S. Humes Porter.
Thus we find he worked his way through various steps from an orphan in poverty to a position of distinction in business and society.
When the Northern Central Railroad was constructed he held an official position under the management with headquarters at Sunbury. It was about this time that he purchased a magnificent farm along the beautiful Susquehanna River, just below the borough of Milton.
James Cameron was also stung with the political bee which seemed to hunt Cameron victims for many years in Pennsylvania. In 1856 he sought a seat in Congress, but was defeated for the Democratic nomination.
When the Civil War broke out he was called to the command of the Seventy-ninth New York Regiment of Volunteers, known as the “Highlanders,” and he marched at the head of his command on the ever-memorable advance on Bull Run.
He repeatedly rallied his men, who seemed paralyzed at the reverse, and none of his men felt this more than the brave colonel. He dropped his sword from his hand as he stared at the retreating mass of troops. Some of his command were still firing, when one of his lieutenants rushed forward to receive orders about the wounded soldiers. The colonel turned suddenly towards him, when at that instant a minnie bullet pierced his heart and he fell without uttering a word.
After the death of Colonel Cameron the rout became complete and the army fell back in great confusion on Washington.
Colonel Cameron’s body with hundreds of others, was left on the field and afterwards buried in a trench. Through the efforts of his brother, General Simon Cameron, then Secretary of War in President Lincoln’s Cabinet, his grave was located and his body identified by the peculiar buckskin shirt he wore, and was removed from the place of its rude burial. The remains were taken to Lewisburg and reinterred with the military honors due such a hero. Colonel Cameron left a wife, but no issue.
Colonel Cameron was the first soldier from Northumberland County to lose his life in the war. He was the first officer of his rank in the Union Army and the first officer from Pennsylvania to fall in battle in the Civil War.
The Northumberland County Soldiers’ Monument Memorial Association was organized May 25, 1872, and incorporated August 5, following.
On July 4, 1872, a site at the eastern end of Market square in Sunbury, was marked out by Judge Alexander Jordan and General Simon Cameron, and from that time plans were perfected for the erection of a memorial which should do justice to the boys from “Old Mother Northumberland” who had made the supreme sacrifice in that greatest of all civil wars in the world’s history.
The cornerstone was laid May 30, 1874, with a great Masonic ceremony. Robert L. Muench, of Harrisburg, district deputy grand master, acting for the grand master, was in charge of the exercises, assisted by Maclay C. Gearhart, Henry Y. Fryling, James M. McDevitt, Jacob R. Cressinger and William Hoover, the elective officers of Lodge No. 22, Free and Accepted Masons, of Sunbury.
There were many distinguished members of the order in attendance, hundreds of veterans of the Civil War, including a large delegation of the Seventy-ninth New York Cameronian Volunteers and thousands of citizens from Sunbury and the nearby towns.
The monument itself is an imposing shaft, resting upon a pedestal elevated upon a mound. At the outer edge are mounted four cannon used in the Civil War.
This shaft is surmounted by a lifesize statue in granite, of the gallant Colonel Cameron. It represents him clad in his military uniform and standing “at ease.” A tablet in one of the panels bears this inscription:
“James Cameron, of Northumberland County, Colonel of the Seventy-ninth New York Cameronian Volunteers. Fell at the head of his regiment at the Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, aged sixty-one years.
Battle of Minisink Fought Opposite
Lackawaxen July 22, 1779
On July 22, 1779, near what is now the little town of Lackawaxen, Pike County, Pa., was fought one of the fiercest Indian battles on record. This massacre actually took place in the State of New York at Minisink, where the town of Port Jervis, Orange County, now is. Only the Delaware River separated the battleground from Pike County, in this State.
The Shawnee at Minisink are said to have built a town on the east side of the Delaware, three miles south of the mouth of Flat Brook, which was called Pechoquealin. They also had a town on the Pennsylvania side of the river which had the same name, and probably stood near the site of the present town of Shawnee, at the mouth of Shawnee Run, in what is now Lower Smithfield Township, Monroe County.
Secretary James Logan stated in a letter to Governor Clark, of New York, dated August 4, 1737, that when the Shawnee came from the South in 1692 one party of them “was placed at Pechoquealin, near Durham, to take care of the iron mines.” Their village was probably on the high ground back of the lower end of Rieglesville, and near the furnace, where traces of an Indian town still are to be seen.
The territory known as the Minisinks was often the scene of strife with the red men, and almost every dell, in what is now Pike County, Pa., and Orange County, N. Y., has its local tradition.
Count Pulaski and his legion of cavalry were stationed at Minisink, during part of the winter of 1778–79. In February he was ordered to South Carolina to join the army under Lincoln. The settlement was thus left wholly unprotected, which being perceived by Joseph Brant, the accomplished Indian warrior, he resolved to make a descent upon it.
Early in July, Joseph Brant, the daring and treacherous Mohawk chief, left the Susquehanna with some 400 warriors. The settlers had received timely warning and threw out scouts to watch the approach of the invaders.
On the night of July 19 the Indians, with Tories disguised as savages, stole upon the little town of Minisink, where Port Jervis now stands, and before the people were aroused from their slumbers several dwellings were set on fire. Without means of defense, the inhabitants sought safety in flight to the mountains. Their small stockade fort, a mill and twelve houses and barns were burned, several persons killed, some taken prisoners, cattle driven away and the booty carried to Grassy Brook, where Brant had left the main body of his warriors.
While these events were being enacted a call for volunteers was responded to and 150 men met the following morning, determined to pursue the savages.
Colonel Tusten, who knew the craftiness of Brant, opposed pursuit, but was overruled. Major Meeker, mounting his horse, shouted, “Let the brave men follow me; the cowards may stay behind.” The line of march was formed, and they traveled seventeen miles, then encamped for the night.
The march was resumed the morning of July 22, and at Half-Way Brook came upon the Indian encampment of the previous night. The number of smoldering fires indicated a large savage force, and the two colonels, with the more prudent, advocated a return rather than further pursuit. The majority determined to pursue.
A scouting party was sent forward, but was discovered and the captain slain. The volunteers pressed onward, and at 9 o’clock the enemy could be seen marching in the direction of the fording place. Brant had already deposited a large part of his plunder in Pike County. The commander of the volunteers determined to intercept them at the ford, but Brant had been watching the movements of his pursuers and, comprehending their designs, he wheeled his column and by a strategic[strategic] movement brought his whole force in the rear of the Americans. Here he formed an ambuscade and deliberately selected his battleground.
The volunteers were surprised and disappointed at not finding the enemy where they expected him to be, and were marching back when they discovered some of the Indians. One of them, mounted on a horse stolen at Minisink, was shot. This was a signal for action, and the firing soon became general. It was a long and bloody conflict.
The Indians greatly outnumbered the whites, and as the ammunition of the latter was limited, they were careful not to fire at random, but to make every shot count. The fight began at 11 o’clock and at twilight was yet undecided. The ammunition of the militia was expended and the enemy attacked and broke through their line.
The survivors attempted to retreat. Behind a ledge of rocks, Doctor Tusten was dressing the wounds of seventeen who were injured. The Indians fell upon them furiously, and all, including the doctor, were slain.
Some attempted escape by swimming the river; the Indians killed many, but a few reached the wilds of Pike County. A few more escaped under the cover of darkness. Of the whole number that went forth, only thirty returned to relate the dreadful scenes of that day.
This massacre of the wounded is one of the darkest stains upon the memory of Brant, whose honor and humanity were often more conspicuous than that of his Tory allies.
He made a weak defense of his conduct by asserting he had offered good treatment if they would surrender and that his humane proposition was answered by a bullet from an American musket, which pierced his belt.
In the year 1822, the bones of friend and foe were picked up, put in boxes, taken to Goshen, in Orange County, and given a decent burial, and a beautiful monument marks the spot where the mortal remains of the heroes lay who fought what is known as the battle of Minisink.
General Howe Sails From New York to
Capture Philadelphia, July 23, 1777
General Howe, commander of the British forces in America, sailed with his army from New York, July 23, 1777, to make a mighty effort to end the Revolution by capturing Philadelphia, the seat of government of the Continental Congress. His intentions were to approach the city by the Delaware.
Soon as this became known every effort was made for the defense of the river. Howe experienced much difficulty, therefore, in navigating his immense naval armament and meeting these obstructions in the Delaware Bay, he decided to make his approach by way of the Chesapeake, where he anchored at the head of the bay, in Elk River, August 25.
Howe disembarked with 18,000 troops, well equipped, except for horses. The movement was delayed by heavy rains, but when they reached Elkton the Philadelphia Light Horse, under Colonel Patterson retired, but annoyed the enemy by skirmishing.
On September 3, the militia and light horse with 720 Continentals, under General Maxwell, kept up an attack which checked somewhat the progress towards Philadelphia of two divisions of British, under Cornwallis and Knyphausen.
Washington marched his army through Philadelphia to encourage the partisans of independence and overawe the disaffected, and took up a position between Chester and Wilmington.
On hearing of the actual invasion of Pennsylvania the Supreme Executive Council issued a proclamation entreating all persons to march instantly to the assistance of General Washington, to enable him to demolish the only British army that remained formidable in America or in the world.
Those addressed were asked to consider the wanton ravages, the rapes, the butcheries perpetrated in New Jersey, and on the frontier of New York, and the prospect of Americans being “like the wretched inhabitants of India, stripped of their freedom, robbed of their property, degraded beneath brutes, and left to starve amid plenty at the will of their lordly masters.”
Washington had moved from White Clay Creek, leaving only the riflemen in camp, and with the main body of his army retired behind the Red Clay Creek, occupying with his right wing the town of Newport, upon the great road to Philadelphia; his left was at Hockhesson.
When Howe brought the army to attack the right flank on September 9, the Americans had slipped away and crossed the Brandywine at Chadd’s Ford in Chester County, where they awaited the enemy. General Sullivan commanded the right, General Armstrong the left. The riflemen of Maxwell scoured the right bank of the Brandywine, in order to harass and retard the enemy. Stephen’s and Lord Sterling’s divisions were under General Sullivan.
The British reached Kennett Square September 10. The next morning half the British army, led by Howe and Cornwallis, moved up the valley road to cross at the forks of the creek. At 10 o’clock Knyphausen began a cannonade at Chadd’s Ford.
Sullivan crossed the creek above, while Washington with Greene’s division was to attack Knyphausen, but Sullivan was too late and had not made the crossing when the attack began, for Cornwallis had made the crossing as intended and came down upon the Americans. Sterling and Stephen faced his attack southwest of the Birmingham meeting house. Sullivan should have taken his division to their right, and when he started to change his position, he was put to flight and lost his artillery.
The story of the Battle of the Brandywine will not be repeated, except to state that after a terrible day’s battle the Americans retreated at nightfall, having lost 1000 killed and wounded, Lafayette among the latter. Howe’s army did not pursue in the darkness, and Washington reached Chester. Thence it went to Germantown and collected provisions and ammunition. Battalions of militia joined the main body at the Falls of the Schuylkill and at Darby.
The public money of Pennsylvania was sent to Easton, the Liberty Bell and church bells at Philadelphia were sent to Bethlehem and Allentown, the Market Street bridge was removed and the boats at the ferries of the Schuylkill brought to the city side.
Washington advanced to the Lancaster road, and Howe and Cornwallis left the vicinity of Chester and marched toward the road through what is now West Chester and by Goshen Meeting, and the Sign of the Boot Inn, which General Howe occupied and made his headquarters.
The two armies on September 16, were drawn in battle array near the White Horse Inn on the Lancaster Road, where a fight occurred between Count Donop and his Hessians and “Mad Anthony” Wayne without much result. A violent and incessant rain storm prevented any general action.
During this storm the American army suffered a heavy loss in ammunition, which got wet; so it turned aside until a new supply could be obtained. The enemy moved toward Philadelphia.
The day after the battle of Brandywine, toward evening, the British dispatched a detachment of light troops to Wilmington. There they took prisoner the Governor of the State of Delaware, and seized a considerable quantity of coined money, as well as other property, both public and private, and some papers of importance.
General Mifflin was too ill to take command of the defense of Philadelphia, and all was confusion, when at 1 o’clock in the morning of September 19, the alarm was given that the British had crossed the Schuylkill.
Lord Cornwallis entered Philadelphia September 26, at the head of British and Hessian grenadiers. The rest of the army remained in camp at Germantown.
Captain John Smith Sails From Jamestown,
July 24, 1608, to Explore Chesapeake
Bay
Two Indian messengers hurried to the Susquehannock Indian town situated on the banks of the Susquehanna River, in what is now Lancaster County, in midsummer, 1608, and brought the tidings that there were strangers arrived in the great bay who wished to see them. The Susquehanna Indians, or Susquehannocks, as they are usually called, went to meet these white men, whom they believed to be gods worthy of worship.
The strangers were thirteen in number, and under the leadership of Captain John Smith, who had effected a settlement at Jamestown, Va., the preceding year. They had sailed away from Jamestown, July 24, on a voyage of discovery in an open boat of less than three tons burden.
The party had a tedious voyage. The vessel entered Chesapeake Bay, and the party spent seven weeks exploring its shores, returning to Jamestown September 7.
It was after Smith reached the head of the bay, on the Tockwogh (Sassafras) River, that he first met Indians. Here he found “many hatchets, knives and peeces of yron and brasse, which they reported to have from the Sasquesahanockes, a mighty people, and mortal enemies with the Massawomeckes.”
Smith approached these Indians warily, for he had already heard of them as a ferocious tribe. Smith “prevailed with the Interpreter to take with him another interpreter, to perswade the Sasquesahoncks to come to visit us, for their language are different.”
Smith made a visit to the tribe on the east side of the Chesapeake the following morning, and they received him in friendship.
He navigated his boats as far up the Susquehanna as was possible on account of the rocks, and there awaited the return of the two Indian messengers. In four days they arrived, and with them came the Indians. Captain Smith’s own story says:
“Sixty Susquehannocks came to us, with skins, bows, arrowes, targets, beeds, swords & tobacco pipes for presents. Such great and well proportioned men are seldom seen, for they seemed like giants to the English, yea, and to the neighbors, yet seemed of an honest and simple disposition. They were with much adoe restrained from adoring us as gods.
“These are the strangest people of all these countries, both in language and attire; for their language may well become their proportions; sounding from them as a voyce in the vault. Their attire is the skinnes of bears, and wolves, some have cossacks made of beares heads and skinnes, that a man’s head goes through the skinnes neck, and the eares of the beare fastened to his shoulders, the nose and teeth hanging down his breast, another beares face split behind him, and at the end of the nose hung a paw, the half sleeves coming to the elbowes were the necks of the beares, and the arms through the mouth with the pawes hanging at their noses. One had the head of a wolfe hanging in a chain for a jewell, his tobacco-pipe three-quarters of a yard long, prettily carved with a bird, a deare, or some such devise at the great end, sufficient to beat out ones braines; with bowes, arrowes, and clubs, sutable to their greatness. Five of their chiefe warriors came aboord us and crossed the bay in the barge. The picture of the greatest of them is signified in the mappe.
“The calf of whose leg was three quarters of a yard about, and all the rest of his limbs so answerable to that proportion that he seemed the goodliest man we ever beheld. His hayre, the one side was long, the other shore close with a ridge over his crowne like a cocks combe. His arrowes were five quarters long, headed with the splinters of a white christall-like stone, in form of a heart, an inch broad, an inch and a halfe or more long. These he wore in a woolves skinne at his backe for his quiver, his bow in the one hand and his clubbe in the other, as is described.
“They can make neere 600 able and mighty men, and are pallisadoed in their townes to defend them from the Massawomekes, their mortal enemies * * * They are seated (on the Susquehanna River) 2 daies higher than was passage for the discoverer’s barge.”
Smith further describes the Susquehannocks, and very much exaggerates their strength of numbers and other qualifications, but there can be no doubt that the great adventurer was thoroughly impressed with this powerful tribe. This was the first contact of white men with the native people of Pennsylvania. Smith almost reached Pennsylvania on this voyage.
His map of Virginia made in 1612 also shows a number of Indian villages in the interior of Pennsylvania. Besides the town of Sasquesahanough, he locates on the east bank of the Susquehanna, near its head, Tesinigh, and about midway between these two, Quadroque, which is also on the east bank. Near the heads of two tributaries of the same river he locates Attaock, and some distance north, Utchowig. Mr. A. L. Guss places Attaock as on the Juniata; Quadroque at or near the forks of the North and West Branches; Tesinigh on the North Branch, towards Wyoming; and Utchowig, Mr. Guss suggests might have been a town of the Erie, or Cat Nation.
During another voyage in December, 1607, Captain Smith was taken prisoner by the Indians, but afterwards released on promise to furnish a ransom of two great guns and a grindstone. Tradition says that he was saved from death during this captivity by Pocahontas.
Smith made maps of his exploration and, in 1614, explored the New England coast and made a map of that shore from the Penobscot to Cape Cod.
Captain Smith served as president of the colony of Jamestown, but he was too strict a disciplinarian. When his successor was elected, September 29, 1609, Smith sailed for England and never returned to Jamestown.
He had achieved much for Virginia, he was a good example of Elizabethian versatility, “bookman, penman, swordsman, diplomat, sailor, courtier, orator, explorer.” His works have been published.
Colonel Thompson’s Battalion of Riflemen
Among First to Reach Boston,
July 25, 1775
Colonel Thompson’s Battalion of Riflemen, so styled in General Washington’s general orders, was one of the Pennsylvania regiments in the Revolutionary War of which every citizen has pardonable right to be proud.
This command was enlisted in the latter part of June, and in the beginning of July, 1775, in pursuance of a resolution of Congress, dated June 14, for raising six companies of expert riflemen in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia, which, as soon as completed, were to join the army near Boston.
By a resolution adopted June 22, the “Colony of Pennsylvania” was directed to raise two more companies, which with the six, were to be formed into a battalion, and be commanded by such officers as the Assembly or Convention should recommend.
This resolution having been communicated to the Assembly of Pennsylvania, it resolved, June 24, “that the members of Congress deputed by this Assembly be a committee to consider of, and recommend proper officers of the said battalion.”
This committee performed the duty thus delegated them and William Thompson, of Carlisle, was commissioned colonel; Edward Hand, of Lancaster, lieutenant colonel; Robert Magaw, of Carlisle, major; and William Magaw, Carlisle, surgeon.
Each company in this battalion consisted of one captain, three lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and sixty-eight privates.
On July 11 Congress was informed that two companies had been raised in Lancaster instead of one, and it resolved that both companies be taken into the Continental service. The battalion, therefore, consisted of nine companies, enlisted as follows:
James Chambers and William Hendricks in Cumberland County; Michael Doudel in York County; James Ross and Matthew Smith in Lancaster County; John Lowden in Northumberland County; Robert Cluggage in Bedford County; George Nagel in Berks County; and Abraham Miller in Northampton County.
The pay of the officers and privates was as follows: Captain, twenty dollars per month; a lieutenant, thirteen and one-third dollars; sergeant, eight; corporal, seven and one-third; drummer, the same; privates, six and two-thirds, and to find their own arms and clothes.
The patriotism of Pennsylvania was still further evinced in the haste with which these companies of Colonel Thompson’s battalion were filled to overflowing and the promptitude with which they took up their march.
Eight of the companies arrived at Boston by July 25, which may properly be the date the activities of these riflemen actually began.
A large number of gentlemen went along as independent volunteers. Their names were not entered on the rolls, and they claimed the privilege of paying their own expenses and returning at their pleasure. Among them were Edward Burd, afterwards prothonotary of the Supreme Court, Jesse Lukens and Matthew Duncan.
The command got into action almost upon its arrival at Cambridge.
The Military Journal of the Revolution described this battalion as “remarkably stout and hardy men; many of them exceeding six feet in height. They are dressed in white frocks or rifle shirts and round hats. These men are remarkable for the accuracy of their aim; striking a mark with great certainty at 200 yards distance. At a review, a company of them, while on a quick advance, fired their balls into objects of seven inches diameter, at a distance of 250 yards. They are now stationed in our lines, and their shot have frequently proved fatal to British officers and soldiers who expose themselves to view, even at more than double the distance of common musket shot.”
The battalion became the Second regiment (after January 1, 1776, the First regiment) of the army of the United Colonies.
This regiment formed the picket guard of the 2,000 provincials, who, on the evening of August 26, took possession of and threw up intrenchments on Ploughed Hill, and on the following morning met with its first loss, Private William Simpson, of Paxtang, a member of Captain Matthew Smith’s company, who was wounded in the leg in front of Boston. A cannon ball shattered his leg, which was amputated but the lad died three days later.
The first soldier to make the supreme sacrifice was a brother of Lieutenant, afterward General Michael Simpson, and of John Simpson, for years recorder of Northumberland County.
On September 5 the companies of Captain Matthew Smith and Captain William Hendricks were ordered to join the expedition against Quebec, commanded by General Benedict Arnold.
An interesting account of the hardships and sufferings of these two companies was written by Judge John Joseph Henry, of Lancaster, a private in Smith’s company. At the attack on Quebec, December 31, Captain Hendricks was killed, and those who did not fall were taken prisoners, and held until paroled August 7, 1776.
The balance of Colonel Thompson’s command earned the public thanks of General Washington for services rendered at Lechmere’s Point, November 9, 1775. In this action the men waded through the tide up to their armpits and drove the British from their cover and into their boats. Colonel Thompson lost only one killed and three wounded. British loss was seventeen killed and one wounded.
January 1, 1776, the new army organization was commenced and this battalion became the First Regiment of the Continental Army. Colonel Thompson was promoted to brigadier general, March 1, 1776, and Edward Hand became colonel. He was later promoted to brigadier. The First Pennsylvania participated with General Sullivan in New York and Long Island.
Washington wrote to Congress, on April 22, 1776:
“The time for which the riflemen enlisted will expire on the 1st of July next, and as the loss of such a valuable and brave body of men will be of great injury to the service, I would submit it to the consideration of Congress whether it would not be best to adopt some method to induce them to continue. They are, indeed, a very useful corps; but I need not mention this, as their importance is already well known to the Congress.”
On July 1 the battalion entered upon another term of service.
Indians Massacre Inhabitants in the Conococheague
Valley on July 26, 1756
July 26 is a date which recalls to the minds of many inhabitants of the present Franklin County two atrocities committed by Indians, either of which is horrible in its every detail.
On July 26, 1756, the Indians killed Joseph Martin, and took captive two brothers, named John and James McCullough, all residents of the Conococheague settlement. This was followed, August 27, with a great slaughter, wherein the Indians killed thirty-nine persons, near the mouth of the Conococheague Creek.
Early in November following, the Indians discovered some soldiers of the garrison at Fort McDowell, a few miles distant, ambushed them and killed and scalped Privates James McDonald, William McDonald, Bartholemew McCafferty, and Anthony McQuoid; and carried off Captain James Corken and Private William Cornwall. The following inhabitants were killed: John Culbertson, Samuel Perry, Hugh Kerrel, John Woods and his mother-in-law, and Elizabeth Archer; and carried off four children belonging to John Archer; and two lads named Samuel Neily and James McQuoid.
To return to the first atrocity. James McCullough had but a few years before removed from Delaware to what is now Montgomery Township, Franklin County, where he immediately began to clear the land and till the soil.
The McCullough family had been temporarily living in a cabin three miles distant from their home, and the parents and their daughter, Mary, went home to pull flax. A neighbor, John Allen, who had business at Fort Loudon accompanied them, and promised to come that way in the evening and go along back to the cabin.
Allen had proceeded about two miles when he learned that the Indians had that morning killed a man, a short distance from the McCullough home. Allen failed to keep his promise and returned by a circuitous route.
When he reached the McCulloughs he told the lads to hide, that Indians were near at hand, and added, at the same time, that he supposed they had killed their parents.
John McCullough was eight years old and James but five. They alarmed their neighbors, but all hurried to make preparations to go to the fort, a mile distant. None would volunteer to warn Mr. and Mrs. McCullough of their danger, so the lads determined to do it themselves. They left their little sister, Elizabeth, aged two years sleeping in bed.
The brave lads reached a point where they could see their house and began to halloo. They were happy to reach their parents in safety. When about sixty yards from the house, five Indians and one Frenchman came rushing out of the thicket and took the lads captive. The Indians missed capturing the parents by the mere accident that the father had heard the lads and left his work to meet them and thus the Indians missed him, and failed to notice the mother and daughter in a field at work.
The lads were taken to the forks of the Ohio, whence James, the younger, was carried into Canada and all trace of him lost. John remained with the Indians for nine years, when he and hundreds of other captives were released. They eventually were able to find their way back to their homes in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.
John lived in the community from which he had been taken for nearly sixty years and left a written record of what he suffered during this long captivity.
The other Indian massacres, which inhabitants of the Conococheague Valley will ever relate, began with the appearance of savages on Sunday, July 22, 1764, when several were discovered near Fort Loudon.
On Wednesday Susan King Cunningham left her home and started through the woods to call on a neighbor. As she did not return when expected a search was made, and soon her body was found lying near her home. The fiends had not been content to murder and scalp this good woman, but had performed a Caesarian operation and had placed her child on the ground beside her.
The next day, July 26, occurred the murder of Enoch Brown, schoolmaster, and ten of his pupils. A tragedy unique in the long story of Indian atrocities.
This terrible massacre occurred about three miles north of Greencastle, Franklin County. Brown and each of the ten small children were killed and scalped, and a lad, Archibald McCullough, was scalped and left for dead among the other victims, but he recovered and lived for many years.
With few exceptions the scholars were much averse to going to school that morning. And the account afterward given by McCullough is that two of the scholars informed Mr. Brown that on their way to school they had seen Indians. The master paid no attention to what had been told him, and ordered them to their books.
Soon after school had opened three Indians rushed up to the door. The schoolmaster, seeing them, prayed the Indians only to take his life and spare the children, but they refused. The Indians stood at the door, whilst the third entered the school room, and with a piece of wood in the shape of a maul, killed the master and the scholars, after which all of them were scalped.
Young McCollough, left for dead, dragged himself to a spring a short distance from the school house where he slaked his burning thirst and washed his wound.
This Archie was a cousin of John and James McCullough, taken by the Indians in that same place exactly eight years before. John was at that time a captive and living with the Indians. In his interesting narrative he says that he knew the three Indians who murdered Brown and the children, and that he was present when they returned to their chief.
They were young Indians, not over twenty years of age. Old Night Walker, the chief, called them cowards for having so many children’s scalps.
Thus it is a singular coincidence that these two crimes should be committed on July 26, that McCulloughs should figure in them both, and that the only accurate details of each massacre are given by the only two survivors, John and Archie McCullough, yet they occurred eight years apart.
Ruffians Mob Pastor and Cause Organization
of First Moravian Church July 27, 1742
An affair occurred in Philadelphia July 27, 1742, which, disgraceful as were the proceedings, was the means of establishing a separate Moravian Church in that city.
Count Nicholas Ludwig Zinzindorf arrived in Philadelphia, December 10, 1741. He came with the hope of uniting all Protestant Christians into a confederacy or league.
Almost immediately upon his arrival Henry Antes, a pious wheel-wright and farmer in Falkner’s Swamp, now Frederick Township, Montgomery County, invited Zinzindorf to attend a synod or conference at Germantown, which had for its object a movement similar to that of the distinguished[distinguished] visitor.
Zinzindorf accepted the invitation and attended the Synod, January 12, 1742. Indeed he went there before that date, and preached in the German Reformed Church, January 1, his first sermon in America. He got acquainted with the people and earnestly began his great work.
This Synod was the first of seven. It was held in the house of Theobold Endt, a Germantown clockmaker. Zinzindorf was made moderator.
The delegates of the different sects met and discussed the best way of bringing about a more perfect union of all Protestant denominations. There were a number of Moravians present, but not as delegates, for no settled congregation of that sect as yet existed.
No definite results were reached though Zinzindorf’s ideas impressed the assemblies.
During the earlier months of 1742 Zinzindorf preached at Oley, Falkner’s Swamp, Germantown, and other places, and gathered the nuclei of subsequent Moravian congregations.
A house was rented in Germantown for Count Zinzindorf and his assistants, which was opened as a school May 4, of that year. The Countess Benigna assisted as a teacher, as did also Anna Nitschmann, who subsequently became the second wife of Zinzindorf. The school opened with twenty-five girls as pupils.
In Philadelphia Zinzindorf began ministrations in a barn on Arch Street below Fifth, then fitted up with seats and used in partnership by the German Reformed and the Lutherans.
His Lutheran tendencies and training fitted him to take charge of a Lutheran Church, and May 30, 1742, this congregation called him to take its charge. Indeed, it is said that he claimed to be inspector-general of the Lutherans, and had for some months supplied a Lutheran Church in Germantown.
Zinzindorf accepted the call of the Philadelphia Lutherans, but wishing to do a certain amount of missionary work elsewhere, associated John Christopher Pyrlaeus, a Saxony Presbyter, with him as assistant, and left matters much in his charge.
Reverend Henry Jacobson, in his “History of the Moravian Church in Philadelphia,” proceeds to tell what the consequence was.
Pyrlaeus, though evidently a hard worker, gave offense to a strong faction, and on July 27, 1742, while in the pulpit and officiating, a gang of his opponents dragged him down from his place, trampled upon him, and roughly[roughly] handled him, as they ejected him from the building.
The only accounts left do not enable us to identify the cowardly assailants, except that there seems to have been serious trouble between the growing Moravian faction and the conservative Lutheran element.
The affair was the prime cause of the establishment of a separate Moravian Church as soon as Count Zinzindorf returned from his preaching tour. Without this event to crystallize the tendencies of things, separation might have been long delayed.
Another view of this movement is that Zinzindorf built the church for the Lutheran congregation over which he claimed authority, upon his first arrival in the country, but that the arrival of Henry Melchior[Melchior] Muhlenberg, with direct authority from the University at Halle, in the latter part of 1742, changed the tactics of Zinzindorf, and so he made arrangements to transfer the church to the Moravians.
The congregation organized by Zinzindorf consisted of thirty-four persons. They took up a lot on the east side of Bread Street and south of Sassafras (now Race) Street, which on August 20, 1742, was transferred by William Allen and wife to Samuel Powell, Joseph Powell, Edward Evans, William Rice, John Okley, and Owen Rice, for another lot on Sassafras Street.
The parties named were not all Moravians, but the deed was made to them in trust for “a certain congregation of Christian people, as well German as English, residing in the City of Philadelphia, belonging to the church of the Evangelical Brethren, who have caused to be erected thereon a new building for and to their use and service as a church and school house to S. Lewis Zinzindorf, David Nitschmann, Joseph Spangenberg, Henry Antes, John Bloomfield, and Charles Brockden.”
Additional real estate was acquired and the church building was commenced immediately. The corner stone was laid September 10, 1742, by Count Zinzindorf, and the work proceeded so rapidly that it was dedicated by him on November 25, following.
This building was set back from Sassafras Street thirty-five feet. It had a front of forty-five feet on Bread Street, afterward called Moravian Alley.
The edifice was two stories high, the first story being used as the church proper. This room was twenty feet in height from the floor, wainscoted about five feet, and whitewashed above to the ceiling. The roof was of the hip-roof design. There were large windows in each side. The congregation used this church for more than fifty years without a stove in winter.
The first Moravian congregation in Philadelphia contained those who had left the Lutherans when the Pyrlaeus affair occurred, and a number of Moravians who had been awhile at Nazareth and Bethlehem.
On the evening of his departure from America Count Zinzindorf organized these members into the First Moravian Church.
British and Seneca Indian Allies Destroy
Fort Freeland, July 28, 1779
Many Pennsylvanians may not know that a definite, well-planned battle of the Revolution was fought far up in old Northumberland County. This is a fact and until now this battle has only been known of as an ordinary Indian incursion. Such was not the case.
True there were Indians in the battle of Fort Freeland, July 28, 1779, and they were the ferocious Seneca, 300 of them under the command of Hiokatoo, the most bloodthirsty and cruel Indian of whom we have any direct evidence.
After Colonel Thomas Hartley led his successful expedition against the Indians in 1778, the savages did not long remain subdued, but the year following again became so vicious that the settlers, who had returned after the Great Runaway, lived in such constant fear of attack that General Washington ordered General John Sullivan to rendezvous his troops at Wyoming and wipe out every Indian town from that point to Elmira in New York State.
The troops were supplied with rations and stores from Fort Augusta. This fort was defended by a line of forts, or blockhouses extending in an almost straight line from Fort Jenkins near Berwick, on the North Branch, to Fort Wheeler, at Fishing Creek, to Fort Bostley, at Washingtonville, to Fort Montgomery, to Fort Freeland, two miles above McEwensville, to Fort Muncy, where the line of defense touched the West Branch.
No sooner had General Sullivan started his march from Easton toward Wyoming than the Indians learned of his plans and put into operation a series of movements which were intended to defeat the design of the Continental troops.
Captain John MacDonald, of the British Army, a Tory of New York State, was in command of a large detachment of British who had employed 300 Seneca Indians as allies. They made a forced march from the vicinity of Wyalusing, and arrived near Fort Muncy on the morning of July 28, 1779, and immediately started down, over what is now the Susquehanna Trail, toward Fort Augusta. The Continental troops had unfortunately been withdrawn from Fort Muncy.
Less than six miles march brought the British and their Indian allies in contact with the garrison at Fort Freeland, where, in addition to the troops, all the inhabitants of the valley below Muncy Hill and as far south as Chillisquaque Creek, had fled for protection.
When the battle for possession of the fort began, the firing could be heard at Fort Boone, about four miles south, a mile above the present site of Milton. Captain Hawkins Boone, cousin of Daniel Boone, and himself one of the bravest soldiers in the Continental army, with a detail, consisting of thirty-two as brave men as ever fired a gun, rushed to the relief of the unfortunate defenders of Fort Freeland.
But in a few terrible hours the most advanced haven of refuge for the frontier settlers in the West Branch Valley was a mass of ruins; its defenders either victims of the tomahawk or prisoners of war; and the women and children objects of charity.
The defenders of Fort Freeland did their utmost in this trying hour. Their resistance was so stubborn that the articles of capitulation were not accepted until the third proposal, and not then until all their ammunition was expended. The women even melted the pewter into bullets, while the men fired them at the besiegers. No further relief was believed possible.
After Captain MacDonald had sent the third demand for surrender, the defenders, under a flag of truce, agreed with the victors upon the terms which were as follows:
“Articles of Capitulation Entd into Between Captain John McDonald on his Majesties part & John Little on that of the Continental Congress.
“Article 1st. The Men in Garrison to March out & Ground their Arms in the Green, in Front of the Fort which is to be taken in possession of Immediately by his Majesty’s Troops. Agreed to.
“2ndly. All Men Bearing Arms are to Surrender themselves Prisoners of War & to be Sent to Niagara. Agd. to.
“3d. The Women and Children not to be Stript of their Clothing nor Molested by the Indians and to be at Liberty to move down the Country where they please. Agd. to.
John Mac Donald
Capt. of Rangers.
John Little.”
As soon as the fort capitulated, the Indians took possession of it, and their squaws became mischievous and destructive. Having completed the pillage of the fort, both Indians and British gathered together all the provisions they could find and proceeded to the creek, where they made preparations for a feast, but did not long enjoy it.
Captain Boone’s party soon arrived on opposite bank of creek, within less than one hundred yards of the feast. Not knowing the fort had been surrendered, they fired upon the British and Indians. We are advised thirty fell dead at the first volley. It was but a brief triumph, however, for the others rallied and surrounded the handful of Continentals, killing thirteen men, among the slain being Captain Boone himself.
When this party found itself caught in an ambuscade, word was quickly passed for each man to save himself, thus enabling a few to escape.
Every male in the fort had been taken prisoner and started toward Niagara where the few who survived the hardship of the forced march and the privations of the long imprisonment, remained until after the close of the war, when they rejoined the surviving members of their families.
In and about Fort Freeland, as a result of the attack 108 settlers were killed or led away as prisoners of war, not by Indians, but by the organized militia of Great Britain.
Fifty-two women and children, and four old men, were permitted to depart for Fort Augusta. Among the latter was John Vincent, who was permitted to care for his crippled wife. But Bethuel, Cornelius and Daniel Vincent were taken prisoners. Among others taken to Canada, who also lived to return to their families, were Captain John Little, James Daugherty, Moses Kirk, James Durham, Samuel Gould and two of the Freelands.
The enemy ravaged the country in the vicinity of the fort and burned and destroyed everything they could find. They advanced as far as Milton, where they burned Marcus Huling’s blacksmith shop, mill and dwelling house. The country presented a scene of desolation, and it remained in this condition for several years, the settlers being afraid to return.
This heavy toll of human life, to which should also be added the killed and wounded among the British and their Indian allies, numbering possibly as many more, marks a definite battle of the Revolution; with the magazines and stores at Fort Augusta and the cutting off of the rear of General Sullivan’s army, as the object of the attack.
First Newspaper West of the Allegheny
Mountains, the Gazette, of Pittsburgh,
Established July 29, 1786
The first newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains was the Pittsburgh Gazette which made its initial bow to the public, July 29, 1786, and today, one hundred and thirty-eight years later, it is the largest paper published in the world’s greatest industrial district.
When the United States were yet very young, in fact, before the Federal Constitution was even proposed, before Washington was elected president, when the small cluster of log huts, protected by a stockade called Fort Pitt, was all that constituted Pittsburgh, is the time this old newspaper began its long and honorable career.
Early in the year 1786, John Scull and Joseph Hall rode into that western frontier post on the backs of heavy pack horses, over a long and rough trail, all the way from Philadelphia. They brought with them a small printing press, some type and a small supply of paper.
The pioneer printers established a printing office in a log cabin, along the bank of the Monongahela River, at the end of Chancery Lane. This primitive office soon attracted the attention of the more progressive citizens, among whom was Hugh H. Brackenridge, a lawyer, and an acknowledged leader of the Federal party in that section of Pennsylvania. Through his earnest solicitation and promise of patronage, Scull and Hall determined to establish a weekly newspaper. Brackenridge had agreed to edit the publication; and the first issue of the Pittsburgh Gazette appeared July 29.
The original subscription price was seventeen shillings and six pence per year. Advertising was paid for at the rate of four shillings a square. In lieu of cash, the publishers made known the fact that they would accept furs and skins and various kinds of country produce.
There was no postoffice in Pittsburgh at this time, nor for twenty years after the Gazette was established. The paper found its way east by means of the weekly mail service between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. When Pittsburgh was considered a place of sufficient importance to have a postoffice, John Scull, one of the publishers of the Gazette, was appointed Postmaster.
It is rather fortunate that the duties of the government position were not too exacting, for Postmaster Scull was the practical printer and performed the principal part of the actual publication. He even acted as carrier and tramped about town each week with the paper.
The story is told of Scull that when the pack trains from Philadelphia failed to arrive on time, or no white paper came when expected, that he used his close friendship for the commandant at Fort Pitt to his advantage by borrowing sufficient quantity of cartridge paper on which to print that week’s issue of the Gazette.
On November 10, 1786, the Gazette, in three lines announced the death of Joseph Hall, aged 22 years. Hall’s interest was acquired by John Boyd, but Scull as before, continued to be the real spirit behind the enterprise.
In June, 1789, a paper mill was built on Redstone Creek, in what is now Fayette County, by Jackson and Sharpless. This mill supplied the Gazette with cheaper paper, which enabled the owners to increase its size and reduce the subscription price to $2 a year.
Lawyer Brackenridge[Brackenridge], in 1799, left the Federal party and threw all his influence with the Antifederalists, but Scull refused to go along with his editor, and Morgan Neville became the editorial writer.
Brackenridge[Brackenridge] and some of his adherents set up an opposition paper called the “Tree of Life[Life].” Soon both papers were busy with libel suits, assaults and challenges to fight duels.
When the conflict of 1812 was precipitated the Gazette, like the other Federal organs, was adverse to war and urged a pacific settlement of difficulties with England. But when the war broke the Gazette supported the Federal Government with all its power. Its extra editions, containing the news brought in two days from Washington, were then looked upon as “prodigious feats of journalism.”
After full thirty years as the guiding spirit of the Gazette, August 1, 1816, John Scull transferred his interest in the paper to his son, John I. Scull. The editor, Morgan Neville, also became a partner.
Even with two other papers in Pittsburgh, the “Commonwealth” and the “Mercury,” the Gazette retained its leadership and now appeared semi-weekly.
In March, 1820, Eichbaum and Johnson purchased the Gazette and changed its name to “The Gazette and Manufacturer and Mercantile Advertiser.” Two years later David M. MacLean purchased the property and re-established the original title. In September, 1829, Neville B. Craig, became the owner and four years later the Gazette appeared as a daily. It strongly supported the Anti-Masonic party. In September, 1856, Russell Errett, and D. L. Eaton became joint owners of the Gazette and under their editorial management the paper made unusual progress.
Errett was one of the organizers of the Republican party and the Gazette became one of the first organs of that party in the country.
There were several other changes in ownership until June 1, 1900, when the late United States Senator George T. Oliver purchased the plant. May 1, 1906, the Pittsburgh Times was absorbed and the title changed to The Pittsburgh Gazette-Times.
On February 7, 1915, the Gazette-Times moved into the eight-story publication building on Gazette Square, where the paper is now published.
Since December 4, 1917, George S. Oliver has served as president and Charles W. Danziger, secretary and managing editor.
Even as Pittsburgh has grown from a village of log houses when the Gazette was established there, to one of the world’s most important cities, so the Gazette has evolved into one of the greatest newspapers published in America.
Chambersburg Sacked and Burned by McCausland’s
Rebel Force July 30, 1864
Three times during the Civil War the rebel horde rode into Pennsylvania, but two occasions stand out as conspicuous. First when Lee, with nearly 90,000 troops, in personal command, marched to his Waterloo at Gettysburg, the other was when three thousand Confederates were sent by General Early into Pennsylvania to burn Chambersburg in retaliation for General Hunter’s disgraceful and disastrous raid into Virginia.
General Darius N. Couch was in command of the Union forces at Chambersburg. Although a department he had but one hundred and fourteen men under his command and they were scattered over the country as scouts.
The startling news came to General Couch’s headquarters on the evening of July 29, 1864, that a Confederate force had entered Mercersburg and was marching toward Chambersburg. This was untimely news for less than twenty-four hours earlier a sufficient number of troops had passed through Chambersburg on their way to join General Hunter, to have repelled this rebel invasion.
The rebels reached the outskirts of Chambersburg before daylight, and employed their time in planting two batteries in commanding positions, and getting up the whole column, fully three thousand strong.
At 6 o’clock Saturday morning they opened with their batteries and fired six shots into the town. Immediately thereafter their skirmishers entered by almost every street and alley, and finding the way clear, their cavalry, to the number of 831, came in under the immediate command of General McCausland. General Bradley Johnson and the notorious Major Harry Gilmore were also with him.
McCausland and Gilmore demanded of the citizens, who were on the street, that they collect some of the prominent inhabitants with a view of entering into negotiations; the court house bell was rung, but only a few responded. To the few citizens who did come together, Captain Fitzhugh, of McCausland’s staff, produced and read a written order, signed by General Jubal Early, directing the command to proceed to Chambersburg, to demand a tribute of $100,000 in gold or $500,000 in greenbacks, and on failure to secure the sum, to proceed to burn the town in retaliation of the burning of six or eight houses specified as having been burned in certain counties in Virginia, by General Hunter. He was promptly answered that Chambersburg could not and would not pay the ransom.
Infuriated at the determination of the people to do nothing, Major Gilmore rode up to a group of citizens, consisting of Thomas B. Kennedy, William McLellan, J. McDowell Sharpe, Dr. J. C. Richards, William H. McDowell, W. S. Everett, Edward G. Etter and M. A. Faltz, and ordered them under arrest. He said that they would be held for the payment of the money, and if not paid he would take them to Richmond as hostages and also burn every house in the town.
While the officer was endeavoring to force them into an effort to raise the money, his men commenced the work of firing, and they were liberated when it was found that intimidation would effect nothing.
The main part of the town was enveloped in flames in ten minutes. No time was given to remove women or children, the aged and infirm, or sick, or even the dead. They divided into squads, beat down the doors, smashed furniture, rifled drawers, appropriated money, jewelry, watches and valuables, then threw kerosene upon the combustible articles and plied the match. They invariably demanded ransom, before burning, but even when it was paid the property was burned. The people escaped with only the clothes on their backs, and some even then with difficulty.
The work of demolition continued two hours, more than half the town on fire at once. Three million dollars worth of property was destroyed, three thousand rendered homeless and many penniless, and not one of the innocent victims had violated any accepted rule of civilized warfare.
There were many incidents of the burning but only a few can be related. The house of James Watson, an old and feeble man past eighty, was entered, and because his wife remonstrated, they fired the room, hurled her into it and locked the door on the outside. Her daughters rescued her by bursting in the door before her clothing took fire. The widow of a Union soldier, pleading on her knees, was robbed of her last ten dollars and her little home fired. An aged invalid, unable to be out of his bed, pleaded to be spared a horrible death in the flames, but they laughed at him as they fired his home. Father McCullom, the Catholic priest, was robbed of his watch.
Colonel Stumbaugh was arrested near his home early in the morning, and with a pistol presented to his head ordered to procure some whiskey. He refused, for he had none, and was released. But afterwards was rearrested by another squad, the officer of which referred to him by name, when he was insulted in every possible way. He informed the officer that he had been in the service, and that if General Battles was present, they would not dare to insult him. When asked why, he answered: “I captured him at Shiloh, and treated him like a soldier.” A rebel major present, who had been under Battles, upon inquiry, was satisfied that Colonel Stumbaugh’s statement was correct, ordered his release and withdrew the entire rebel force from that part of Second Street, and no buildings were burned.
Soon after the work of destruction had commenced, a squad was detailed to burn “Norland,” the beautiful residence of Colonel Alexander K. McClure afterwards for many years the editor of the Philadelphia “Times.” “Norland” was a mile from the center of the town, and no other building was fired within a half mile of it, although fifty houses intervened. They would not allow Mrs. McClure or any servant to save anything belonging to the Colonel.
Several of the rebel thieves perpetrated their last pillage. Major Bowen, of the 8th Virginia Cavalry, got too far ahead of the firing in his greed for plunder and he was captured by several citizens and, slightly wounded, he took refuge in a burning cellar, where the intense heat blistered him. He begged to be spared, but he burned to death. Another demon, caught in an atrocious act of vandalism, was shot dead. A Captain Cochran, quartermaster of 11th Virginia Cavalry, was caught by Thomas H. Doyle, of Loudon, and at the point of his pistol was given just fifteen minutes to live. Cochran begged piteously for his life, but Doyle, on the very second, shot the thief dead, and found on his person $815 in greenbacks, all stolen from citizens, and $1750 of rebel currency.
Scores of McCausland’s command were killed on the retreat by General Averill’s forces. Many of them were intoxicated and so demoralized by their plunder they became an easy prey to the Federal troops who passed through Chambersburg in pursuit of the barbarians.
Carlisle Indian School Established by
Congress, July 31, 1882
The first non-reservation school established by the Government was at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and was only recently discontinued.
This school had its inception in the untiring efforts of General R. H. Pratt, U. S. A., when a lieutenant in charge of Indian prisoners of war at old Fort San Marco, St. Augustine, Florida, from May 11, 1875, to April 14, 1878.
When the release of these prisoners was ordered twenty-two of the young men were led to ask for further education, agreeing to remain in the east three years longer if they could attend school. These were sent to Hampton, Virginia, and several other places where they could attend a government school.
On September 6, 1879, an order was issued transferring the Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, comprising 27 acres, from the War Department to the Department of the Interior for Indian school purposes, pending action by Congress on a bill to establish such an institution. This bill became a law July 31, 1882.
Lieutenant Pratt was, on September 6, 1879, ordered to report to the Secretary of the Interior, and by him was directed to proceed to Carlisle and there establish an Indian school. He was ordered to then proceed to Dakota and Indian territory for the purpose of obtaining pupils for the new school. So successful was the young officer that by the end of October, he had gathered together one hundred and thirty-six Indians from the Rosebud, Pine Ridge, and other agencies, and with eleven of the former Florida prisoners, then at school at Hampton, the new institution was opened at Carlisle Barracks, November 1, 1879, with an enrollment of one hundred and fifty-seven original Americans.
The school steadily progressed until more than a thousand pupils were enrolled and during its existence nearly every tribe in the United States had representatives on its rolls and at one period one hundred Alaskan Indians were in attendance.
The aim of the school was to teach English and give a primary education; and a knowledge of some common and practical industry, and means of self-support among civilized people.
To this end regular shops and farms were provided, the principal mechanical arts and farming were taught the boys, and the girls, cooking, sewing, laundry and housework. The instruction was made interesting so that the young Indians would not desire to return to reservation life, but would prefer to make for themselves a place among the people of the East.
During the summer vacation months, the young Indians would be placed in the homes of prosperous citizens, where they could do certain work and at the same time learn by direct example and association the ways of higher civilization. This was known as the “outing system,” and was a distinct feature not only of the Carlisle school, but of the Indian school service generally.
The literary curriculum of Carlisle stopped at that point where the student might enter the higher grades of the public schools. The pupil was left to his own resources for any further development of his intellectual faculties.
Many of the graduates of the Carlisle school are today filling responsible positions in the business world, and especially in the Indian service, in which they are employed as teachers, clerks and all the way to laborers.
Many of the Indians are musical and the school band was one of the features. The late Joel B. Ettinger, of Seattle, Wash., but formerly of Chester, Pa., where he conducted the famous old Sixth Regiment Band, organized the first band from among the various tribes represented in the school and soon developed a band which won the acclaim of the people wherever it played. Dennison and James Wheelock, Oneida Indians, became great leaders and succeeded Ettinger as instructors. The former was a successful composer of band music.
The Carlisle school produced the first paper printed by Indian boys. The printery was early established and became a potent factor in the industrial development of the students. The Indian Helper, a small leaflet, was first produced, and afterwards a larger magazine, The Red Man, was published, these being merged into Red Man and Helper, and creditably reflected the life and policies of the school.
Many prominent writers and educators frequently contributed to this magazine, thus helping the deserving wards of our government to make their effort a representative publication. Among those who sent valuable contributions to this paper was Reverend George P. Donehoo, then secretary of the Pennsylvania State Historical Society, late State Librarian, and one of the most eminent authorities on Indian history in the United States. The doctor is the proud possessor of a complete file of this valuable and interesting publication, which has become a very rare possession.
The physical training, both indoors and out, was a most important part of the life of the school. Indians take naturally to many of our popular sports, and many athletes of national and even international reputation have been developed at the school. Most conspicuous of these is Jim Thorpe, the world’s champion all-around athlete, winner of the pentathlon event in the Olympic games; Chief Charles A. Bender, the celebrated pitcher, a close second to Thorpe, while mention may also be made of Hudson, the Pierce brothers, Johnson, Metoxen and many others who have excelled above the average.
General Pratt remained in charge of the school from its organization until his retirement from the superintendency, June 30, 1904, when he was succeeded by Major (then Captain) William A. Mercer, U. S. A.
French and Indians Attack and Burn Fort
Granville, August 1,1756
Fort Granville was about one mile west of the present town of Lewistown, immediately on the north bank of the Juniata River and westward of the mouth of the Kishcoquillas Creek about one mile. There was a spring in the enclosure of the fort which was destroyed when the canal was dug at that place. No other evidences of this fort are seen today.
This was one of a chain of forts erected on the west side of the Susquehanna. Fort Shirley, at Aughwick, was fifteen miles southwest, and Fort Patterson, at Mexico, was fifteen miles northeast.
The site commanded a narrow pass where the Juniata falls through the mountains; where a few men could hold it against a stronger enemy, as the rocks were high on each bank and extended six miles, so that the enemy could be easily detected advancing from either direction.
When the stockade was completed it was garrisoned by a company of enlisted men, under regularly commissioned officers. George Croghan, the Indian trader, was directed to build the fort as is shown by a letter written by Captain Elisha Salter, dated Carlisle, April 4, 1756.
The attack was made upon Fort Granville during the harvest of 1756. The garrison at that time was commanded by Lieutenant Edward Armstrong, brother of General John Armstrong, who destroyed Kittanning. The Indians had been lurking about the stockade some time and knowing that the garrison was not strong, sixty of them appeared before the fort, July 22, and challenged the garrison to fight, which was declined by the commander on account of the weakness of his force. The Indians fired at one of the soldiers who was outside the stockade, but he succeeded in getting safely inside.
The Indians divided their force into smaller parties, one attacked the Baskins plantation, near the Juniata, where they murdered Baskins, burned his house, and carried off his wife and children; another party made Hugh Cornell and his family prisoners.
On the morning of July 30, Captain Edward Ward marched from Fort Granville, with a detachment destined for Tuscarora Valley, where they were needed to protect the settlers while harvesting their grain. The few remaining in defense of the post were commanded by Lieutenant Armstrong.
Soon after the departure of Captain Ward’s detail, the fort was suddenly surrounded by a hostile force of fifty French and a hundred Indians, who immediately began a fierce attack, which they continued in their skulking Indian manner through the afternoon and night, but without inflicting much damage. About midnight the enemy got below the bank of the river, and by a deep ravine reached to within twelve or fifteen yards of the fort, and from that secure position were able to set fire to the logs of the fort, burning out a large hole, through which the Indians fired on the defenders as they fought the flames. Lieutenant Armstrong and one private soldier were killed and three wounded.
The French commander ordered a suspension of hostilities, and demanded the surrender of the fort and garrison, promising to spare their lives if the demands was accepted. Upon promise of quarter, a man named John Turner, previously a resident of Buffalo Valley, opened the gates and the besiegers at once entered and took possession. There was no commissioned officer to assume command and Turner acted on his own initiative, as was afterwards explained by a prisoner who survived.
The French and Indians captured twenty-two men, three women and a number of children. The fort was then burned by Chief Jacobs, on the order of the French officer in command. The prisoners were lined up and driven by the Indians, each soldier carrying a heavy portion of the plunder secured in the fort, and in the several raids made on the settlers’ homes.
The march to Kittanning was most terrible, the prisoners were horribly whipped and punished when fatigue caused any to lag behind. When the party arrived at Kittanning, all the prisoners were cruelly treated, and Turner, the man who opened the gates of the fort to the savages, suffered the torture of being burned to death at the stake. He endured the most horrible torment for more than three hours, during which time red hot gun barrels were forced through parts of his body, his scalp was torn from his head and burning splinters of pine were stuck in his flesh until at last an Indian boy, who was held up for the purpose, sunk a tomahawk into his brain and released him from his misery.
General Armstrong in a letter sent to Governor Morris, dated at Carlisle, August 20, 1756, said: “Captains Armstrong and Ward, whom I ordered on the march to Fort Shirley to examine everything at Fort Granville and send me a list of what remained among the ruins, assure me that they found some parts of eight of the enemy burnt in two different places, and part of their shirts through which there were bullet holes. To secrete these from the prisoners was doubtless the reason why the French officer marched our people some distance from the fort before he gave orders to burn the barracks, &c.
“Walker says that some of the Germans flagged very much on the second day, and that the lieutenant (Armstrong) behaved with the greatest bravery to the last, despising all the terrors and threats of the enemy whereby they often urged him to surrender. Though he had been near two days without water, but little ammunition, the fort on fire, and the enemy situated within twelve or fourteen yards of the fort under the natural bank, he was as far from yielding as when first attacked.
“A Frenchman, in our service, fearful of being burned up, asked leave of the lieutenant to treat with his countrymen in the French language. The Lieutenant answered, 'The first word of French you speak in this engagement, I'll blow your brains out,' telling his men to hold out bravely, for the flame was falling and would soon have it extinguished, but he soon after received the fatal ball.”
The destruction of Fort Granville spread terror among the settlers west of the Susquehanna and they abandoned their settlements and fled in great haste to Fort Augusta and Carlisle. This attack on Fort Granville resulted in the successful expedition of Col. John Armstrong against the Indians at Kittanning, where the English not only gained a signal victory, but the savages were taught a lesson which they ever remembered.
Colonel Lochry Musters Westmoreland
County Troops August 2, 1781
In 1781, General George Rogers Clark, of Virginia, raised an expedition, ostensibly to destroy the Indian towns of the Shawnee, Delaware, and Wyandot, which were situated on the Scioto, Muskingum and Sandusky Rivers, in what is now the State of Ohio, but his real and earnest purpose was the reduction of the British post at Detroit, and the winning by conquest of another empire for the Dominion of Virginia.
At this time Virginia claimed ownership to that part of Pennsylvania, which laid west of the Laurel Hill range including what is now Fayette, Westmoreland, Green, Washington, Allegheny and part of Beaver Counties. In spite of the fact that the boundary line had been settled in 1779, many of the inhabitants and officials still acknowledged allegiance to the Old Dominion.
A force of volunteers to the number of one hundred was raised in Westmoreland County and placed under the command of that intrepid soldier, Colonel Archibald Lochry.
Colonel Lochry’s command was composed of a company raised and commanded by Captain Thomas Stokely, another under Captain Samuel Shannon; a small company of riflemen under Captain Robert Orr, was raised in Hannastown, now Greensburg; and Captain William Campbell commanded a squad of horsemen.
The men recruited for this service remained on their settlements until harvest was finished in July, and on August 1, rendezvoused at Carnaghan’s blockhouse, eleven miles northwest of Hannastown. Here they mustered August 2, and on the following day Colonel Lochry began his march to join General Clark at Wheeling.
The determined little band crossed the Youghiogheny at the site of West Newton, then crossed the Monongahela at Devore’s Ferry, where Monongahela City now stands; went overland by the settlements on the headwaters of Chartiers and Raccoon Creeks, and reached Fort Henry in the evening of Wednesday, August 8.
Here was a disappointment. General Clark had left by boats early that morning, and he left a message that he would wait for Colonel Lochry at the mouth of Little Kanawha. But no boats were provided for Lochry’s command, and he waited at Wheeling four days, while seven boats were being built, but these four days were fatal.
On August 13, Colonel Lochry embarked in the seven boats, the horses following along the shores of the river. At this time the Ohio was the dividing line between the white man’s country and that of the Indians. The boats kept near the southern shore and all encampments were made on the left bank. Although Colonel Lochry did not know it, his men and their movements were watched by Indian spies who followed them through the forests and thickets on the opposite shore of the Ohio.
Colonel Lochry met seventeen men at Fishing Creek, who had deserted from Clark, who were making their way back to Fort Pitt. These he forced to join his party. At the Three Islands, Lochry found Major Charles Crascraft and six men who had been left by Clark in charge of a large house boat, intended for Lochry’s horses, which were put aboard, and this enabled the force to move with increased speed.
On the following day, August 16, Colonel Lochry sent Captain Shannon and seven men in a small boat to endeavor to overtake Clark and beg him to leave some provisions for his command. Lochry’s flour was about exhausted, and food could only be secured by sending out hunters, whose excursions delayed progress. On August 17, the two men sent out for food failed to return, and were never heard from again.
Three days later two of Captain Shannon’s men, half starved, were picked up from the southern shore. They told the story of the first disaster to Lochry’s command. This little detail had landed on the Kentucky shore to prepare a meal and the two survivors, with a sergeant, had gone off to hunt. When they had gone a half mile into the woods, they heard the firing of guns in the direction of their camp. Fearing Indians had attacked the rest of Captain Shannon’s little party, these three were afraid to return to investigate and started to join Lochry. In scrambling through the thick underbrush the sergeant’s knife fell from its sheath, and, sticking point upward, the sergeant trod upon it, the blade passing through his foot, and the young man died in great agony in a few hours.
The expedition suffered not only the death of Captain Shannon and his men but the Indians captured the letter from Colonel Lochry to General Clark, revealing the distressed condition of his men, through which information their doom was sealed.
Lochry now realized that his movement down the stream was being watched by the savages from both shores, and for two days and nights no landing or halt was made. The little flotilla glided swiftly down the stream, until necessity compelled landing, to graze the horses and seek meat for the men.
The boats approached the mouth of a small creek, in the forenoon of August 24. This creek has since been called Lochry’s Run. A buffalo was drinking at the river’s edge and a soldier brought it down, when Colonel Lochry ordered a landing, for here was meat and fine grass for the horses.
No sooner had a landing been made than a hundred rifles cracked from the wooded bank, many white men were killed and many wounded.
The men made for the boats and shoved off for the opposite shore. Painted savages then appeared, shrieking and firing, and a fleet of canoes filled with other savages shot out from the Kentucky shore, completely cutting off the escape of Lochry’s men. The volunteers returned the fire for a few moments, but were entrapped, and Colonel Lochry offered to surrender. The fight ceased, the boats poled back to shore and the force again landed.
The Westmorelanders found themselves the prisoners of Joseph Brant, the most famous Mohawk Chief, who commanded a large force of Iroquois, Shawnee and Wyandot. George Girty, brother of the notorious Simon, also commanded an Indian force. The Shawnee could not be controlled and killed the prisoners they claimed as their share. While Colonel Lochry was sitting on a log a Shawnee warrior slipped up behind him and sank a tomahawk into his skull, tearing off his scalp before life was extinct. It was with great difficulty Brant was able to prevent the massacre of the men assigned to the Mohawk and Wyandot.
In this massacre forty Westmoreland volunteers were slain, and sixty-four taken captives. Among those who escaped death were Captains Stokely and Orr, the latter being severely wounded. The dead were left unburied and the prisoners hurried away to Detroit, where most of them were turned over to the British, and afterward transferred to Montreal. Only nineteen of the men ever returned to Westmoreland County.
Civil Government in Pennsylvania Established
at Meeting of Council
August 3, 1681
When William Penn was granted the charter for Pennsylvania, he and his heirs were constituted the true and absolute Proprietary of the country. Penn was empowered to establish laws, appoint officers, and to do other acts and things necessary to govern the country, including the right to erect manors.
The first act of William Penn was to write a letter to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, dated April 8, 1681. Two days later he appointed his cousin Captain William Markham deputy governor and commander-in-chief of the province, whom he clothed with full powers to put the machinery of the new government into motion.
At what time Captain Markham sailed for America is not known, but we find him in New York, with the King’s letter in June, which, with his commission, he laid before the council and commander in the absence of Governor Andros.
On June 21, the authorities at New York addressed a letter to the justice and other magistrates on the Delaware notifying them of the change of government.
Markham departed from New York a few days later and repaired to Pennsylvania to enter upon his duties, bearing with him Penn’s letter to the inhabitants, which assured them that they should be governed by laws of their own making, and would receive the most ample protection to person and property.
Markham was authorized to call a council of nine, which met and organized August 3, from which time we may date the establishment of a civil government in Pennsylvania.
There was very little interference in the established order of things, and the people found a mild ruler in the deputy governor.
The seat of government was fixed at Upland, the present Chester. The old court closed its session September 13, and the new court opened the next day.
Among the business transacted at the opening of the new court was the appointment of William Biles and Robert Lucas, who lived at the falls, justices of the peace. Pounds, shillings, and pence were declared to be the currency of the country. But it was difficult to get rid of the guilders after they had been so long in circulation.
Markham was instructed by William Penn to select a site, and build for him a dwelling, and he chose the spot whereon Pennsbury house was erected, in Falls Township, Bucks County.
On September 30, William Penn appointed William Crispin, John Bezar, and Christopher Allen, commissioners, to go to Pennsylvania with power to purchase land of the Indians and to select site for, and lay out a great city. About this same time he appointed James Harrison his “lawful agent,” to sell for him any parcel of land in Pennsylvania of not less than 250 acres.
Silas Crispen was appointed surveyor-general, and sailed with this commission but, dying on the voyage, Captain Thomas Holme was appointed in his place and commissioned April 18, 1682.
Among the earliest acts of Markham and the commissioners was the selection of a site for a great city, which resulted in the founding of Philadelphia. Soundings along the west side of the Delaware River were made to ascertain “where most ships may best ride of deepest draft of water.”
The growth of the new “city” was remarkable from its very inception. Within a few months Philadelphia contained eighty houses, and more than 300 farms were laid out and partly cleared.
In the summer of 1684 the city contained 357 houses, many of them large and well-built, with cellars. A year later the number of houses had increased to 600. There were nearly 3000 souls in the city at this time.
William Penn sailed for Pennsylvania in the ship Welcome, of 300 tons burden, Captain Robert Greenway, September 1, 1682, accompanied by 100 emigrants, mostly Friends.
He first landed at New Castle October 27, and then at Upland on the 29th. On November 9, Penn visited Philadelphia.
Penn was very favorably impressed with virgin Pennsylvania. Pastorius writes that Penn found the air so perfumed that it seemed to him like an orchard in full bloom; that the trees and shrubs were everywhere covered with leaves, and filled with birds, which, by their beautiful colors and delightful notes proclaimed the praise of their Creator.
Penn’s policy from the beginning of his province was to extinguish the Indian title to his grant of Pennsylvania by purchase. This he did in fact, and the several treaty purchases made by him were executed fairly and honorably.
At the first provincial assembly held at Philadelphia, in March, 1683, a number of acts were passed necessary to put Penn’s government in operation. The country was divided into three counties, Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks, and their boundaries fixed. A house of correction was ordered for each county, 24 x 16 feet, in size.
The poor, who received relief from the county, with their families, were obliged to wear the letter P made of red or blue cloth, with the first letter of the name of the place they inhabited, in a conspicuous place upon the shoulder of the right sleeve.
The county court was authorized to fix a price on linen and woolen cloth, justices were to regulate wages of servants and women; a meal of victuals was fixed at seven pence half-penny, and beer at a penny a quart.
The products of the farms were to be received in payment of debts. Each settler of three years was to sow a bushel of barley, and persons were to be punished who put water in rum.
The civil government as established August 3, 1681, was soon functioning.
Saturday Evening Post Launched from
Gazette, August 4, 1821
In his excellent and interesting “A Man from Maine,” Edward W. Bok devotes a chapter to the story of the purchase and development of The Saturday Evening Post by Cyrus H. K. Curtis. This chapter is styled “The Story of the 'Singed Cat.'”
Mr. Curtis was born in Portland, Maine, June 18, 1850. He went to Philadelphia in 1876, and seven years later started The Ladies’ Home Journal.
Mr. Curtis first developed the Ladies Home Journal and then turned his energy and wonderful organization to a magazine for men.
Somehow he fixed his mind upon The Saturday Evening Post as the medium through which he was to realize his pet dream. Mr. Bok is authority for the statement that Mr. Curtis himself does not remember how he came to fix up this old paper, but says that the publication had always attracted him as he met it each week in his exchanges as a legacy left to Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin, who, in 1728, founded the paper under the title of The Pennsylvania Gazette.
Franklin edited and published this paper for a number of years, and then sold it to his grandson. Meanwhile six other papers of all sorts had been born in Philadelphia, all having as part of their title the word Gazette. So in 1821, to avoid a constant confusion of names, the name was changed to The Saturday Evening Post, August 4, 1821.
The spirit of enterprise of that early day must have been put into the venture, for in 1839, it had a circulation of thirty-five thousand copies, the largest circulation of that day of any weekly in the United States. The most famous statesmen and writers of the time were among its contributors, and it ranked as the most important publication of the time.
The Saturday Evening Post, like other old newspapers, frequently passed into various ownerships, nearly all of whom were Philadelphians, but a resident of Brooklyn, N. Y., owned it for a time, although the place of publication remained at Philadelphia, and finally it passed into the possession of Albert Smyth, of Philadelphia, whose publication it was when Mr. Curtis went to Philadelphia in 1876, to begin the career which has made him the most successful and most beloved of all publishers in all the world.
During the time that Philadelphia was in possession of the British, under Lord Howe, the publication was suspended, but after the last British “Tommy” marched away, the paper was revived and from that time to this day it has never missed an issue. With this record of over a century Mr. Smyth was justly proud and its ownership was a matter of pride, as well as the distinguished record of long service. He was fond of its history and tradition, and as he and Mr. Curtis were friends, it is not improbable that the latter’s interest in this old paper was fostered during these chats, and he began a little search on his own account for the intimate history of the paper, and before long, Mr. Curtis knew quite as much about it as did its proud owner.
Yet the paper was losing out, the circulation was steadily and surely diminishing, no one seemed to care. The editorship was entrusted to a reporter of the Philadelphia Times, who devoted his odd moments upon The Saturday Evening Post, at the elegant salary of ten dollars a week, and the articles published were just what a ten dollar editor would be expected to use.
A man with the vision and patriotism of Mr. Curtis could not help feeling regret that a paper with such traditions was allowed to run down, and he began to bargain with Mr. Smyth.
True it was only a name, but it had a long history and valuable heritage. Best of all, Benjamin Franklin had founded it, and that was an asset upon which Mr. Curtis could build.
Mr. Smyth went to Chicago, where he was interested in a gas project, and left The Saturday Evening Post in charge of a friend named Brady, but in 1897 Smyth died, leaving a sister as his only heir. She could not or would not finance the publication, and Brady turned to Mr. Curtis for the money to get out that week’s issue.
To Brady’s surprise Mr. Curtis told him that the name of the paper was not protected with a copyright, and that if the sister did not put up the money and an issue was missed anyone could take up the name.
Brady’s lawyer confirmed the statement. Mr. Curtis said he would not do anything like that, but told Brady he had nothing to sell. “However, I'll give you one thousand dollars for the paper, type and all.”
Mr. Curtis became the owner of the paper, and sent a young man in his establishment with a wagon to the printing office to bring away the battered type, and as soon as it arrived, that week’s issue was printed, so as to save the right to the title by continuous publication.
At this time the subscription list was about two thousand and soon as Mr. Curtis improved the paper these few subscribers cancelled their subscriptions, when it was learned that the new owner had in fact purchased only the title and name of Benjamin Franklin.
The outlook for the future for this new venture was so gloomy that men in his employ called it “the singed cat.”
Mr. Curtis selected George Horace Lorimer, of Boston, as the editor and he got behind him, even in the face of the most discouraging criticism, but neither Mr. Curtis nor Mr. Lorimer ever for a single moment doubted that the project would make good. A half million dollars were spent upon advertising the periodical, and at one time the loss totalled nearly a million dollars, but during all this period there was being developed just the kind of a paper that Mr. Curtis wanted The Saturday Evening Post to be.
Then the circulation grew and when it reached five hundred thousand copies the advertisers began to use its pages, and Mr. Curtis had now put into the paper a million and a quarter dollars. Then the paper appeared with a “circulation of one million copies” printed on the cover, and the fight was won.
The circulation is now in excess of two million, and is, without a doubt, the greatest publication in the history of journalism.
The Curtis Publishing Company publish The Ladies Home Journal, The Saturday Evening Post, The Country Gentleman, The Public Ledger and The Evening Public Ledger and the output of this plant is six hundred and fifty thousand complete magazines, each working day, and all this in addition to seventy-three million newspapers each year.
More than one hundred railroad cars each month are required to circulate the magazines, as the Ladies Home Journal goes to one out of every ten women in the United States and The Saturday Evening Post goes into more than one out of every ten homes in this country. Such is the story of not only Pennsylvania’s oldest and best magazine, but the largest and most successful in the world.
Patrick Gordon, Administrator of Penn’s
Will, Died August 5, 1736
William Penn was financially involved when stricken and during the six years he suffered until relieved by death, July 30, 1718, did not place his affairs in more favorable condition.
The Province of Pennsylvania was encumbered by Proprietary’s mortgage given in 1708, and by his contract with the Crown for the sale of the government. His will, which was drawn in 1712, was in contemplation of this contract.
To his only surviving son, William, by his first marriage, he bequeathed all his estates in England and Ireland, which, producing fifteen hundred pounds sterling per annum, were estimated of greater value than his American possessions.
By his first wife, Gulielma Maria Springett, he had issue of three sons, William, Springett and William, and four daughters, Gulielma, Margaret, Gulielma and Letitia. From his American possession he made provision for the payment of his debts, and for his widow, Hannah Callowhill and four sons, John, Thomas, Richard and Dennis. To his wife, Hannah, whom he made the sole executrix of his estate, he gave for the equal benefit of herself and her children, all his personal estate in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, after paying all debts, and allotting[allotting] ten thousand acres of land in the Province to his daughter Letitia, by his first marriage, and each of the three children of his son William, and to convey the remainder at the discretion of his widow, to her children, subject to an annuity to herself of £300 sterling per annum.
Doubts having arisen as to the force of the provisions of this will, it was finally determined to institute a suit in chancery for its determination. Before a decision was reached in March, 1720, William Penn, Jr., died, and while it was still pending, his son, Springett, died.
During the more than nine years of litigation, Hannah Penn, as executrix of the will, assumed the Proprietary power, issued instructions to her Lieutenant-Governor, heard complaints and settled differences with the skill and assurance of a veteran diplomat. In 1727 a decision was reached that, upon the death of William Penn, Jr., and his son Springett, the proprietary rights in Pennsylvania descended to the three surviving sons, John, Thomas and Richard, issue by the second marriage.
The Province now entered upon a period of great prosperity. The almost unbounded confidence of the Province in Governor Keith enabled him, in 1720, to establish two measures hitherto repugnant to the Assembly, and equity court, dependent on the Governor’s will, of which he was chancellor, and a militia organized by like authority.
The great influx of foreigners alarmed the Assembly, who feared their settlement on the frontier. Attempts to naturalize them were treated with coldness. Even the Governor, whose industry and utility were proverbial, could not remove the jealousy.
Many Palatines, long resident in the Province, applied for naturalization in 1721, but not until 1724 was leave granted to bring in a bill, and then conditioned upon the proviso that they should individually obtain from the justice of the peace a certificate of the value of their property, and nature of their religious faith. A bill to that effect reached the Governor the following year, but he returned it on the ground that in a country where English liberty and law prevailed, a scrutiny into the private conversation and faith of the citizens, and particularly into their estates, was unjust and dangerous in precedent. The House yielded, but it was not for some time that the privilege of subjects were granted to the Palatines.
Following the death of Springett Penn and Mrs. Hannah Penn, the Assembly conceived that the authority of Governor Patrick Gordon was determined, and accordingly refused to act upon a message which he had sent them, and adjourned themselves to the last day of their term.
A new commission, signed by John, Thomas and Richard Penn, in whom the government was now vested, was received by Governor Gordon in October. When the King gave his approbation to this new commission he reserved as the right of the Crown, the government of the Lower Counties on the Delaware.
Patrick Gordon who served as Deputy Governor from July 26, 1726, to his death had been a soldier in the regular army, serving from his youth to near the close of Queen Anne’s reign, with a high reputation. He was appointed successor of Governor Keith by the family, and formally proposed to the Crown by Springett Penn, their heir-at-law.
He arrived in the Province with his family in the summer of 1726, and met the Assembly during the first week of August. In his first address he alluded to the fact of his having been a soldier, that he consequently knew nothing of the crooked ways of professed politicians and must rely upon a blunt, straightforward course in his communications with them in his administration of the government. His whole public career seems to have been characterized by this same frankness and integrity.
Governor Gordon took prompt measures to apprehend and punish worthless drunken Indians who committed outrages. He concluded several very important treaties with the Six Nations, and attended these in person. He published “Two Indians Treaties at Conestogoe,” in 1728.
Governor Gordon died August 5, 1736. His administration was in all respects a happy one. The unanimity of the Assembly, the Council and the Governor, gave an uninterrupted course to the prosperity of the Province. The wisdom which guided her counsels was strongly portrayed in her internal peace, increased population, improved morals and thriving commerce. The death of Governor Gordon was equally lamented by the Proprietaries and the people.
Upon the death of Governor Gordon, the administration of the government again devolved on the Council, of which James Logan was president. He so governed until August, 1738, when Sir George Thomas, a wealthy planter, of the island of Antigua, was appointed by the Proprietaries. Governor Thomas immediately devoted his energies toward the settlement of the boundary dispute, by which it was mutually agreed, that matters should rest along the border, until final settlement of the boundary lines.
The famous “Indian Walk” was performed by Edward Marshall, and others on September 19, 1737. This walk, according to Charles Thomson, was the cause of jealousies and heart burnings among the Indians, which eventually broke out in loud complaints of injustice and atrocious acts of savage vengeance. The very first murder committed by them after this deception was on the very land from which they believed themselves cheated.
Colonel Bouquet Defeats Indians by Stratagem
at Bushy Run, August 6, 1763
In 1763 the savages, angered by the losses of the French and by finding the English settlers pressing upon them, organized what has been called a conspiracy under Pontiac. It nearly succeeded and many English forts were captured.
In Pennsylvania there were many murders and burnings all around Forts Pitt, Le Boeuf, Presque Isle and Ligonier; many were killed at Bedford and Carlisle, and even Fort Augusta, on the Susquehanna at Sunbury, was seriously threatened.
Colonel Henry Bouquet, an energetic and capable officer, took a battalion of the Royal American Regiment and two companies of Highlanders and English and started from Philadelphia for Fort Pitt.
Upon his arrival he found Carlisle crowded with fugitives, and learned that Presque Isle, Le Boeuf and Venango, now English forts, had fallen. Homes were burning all through the neighboring valleys.
With five hundred men Bouquet pushed over the mountain to Bedford and Fort Ligonier, which he relieved from a siege just in time. At Bedford thirty hunters with rifles joined him. He heard from Fort Pitt that the commander and nine others had been wounded.
Bouquet resolved to leave behind the oxen and wagons, which formed the most cumbersome part of the convoy. Thus relieved, the army resumed its march August 4, taking with them 350 pack horses and a few cattle, and at nightfall encamped at no great distance from Ligonier.
Within less than a day’s march lay the dangerous defiles of Turtle Creek. Fearing that the enemy would lay in ambuscade at this place, Bouquet determined to march on the following day as far as a small stream called Bushy Run, to rest there until night and then, by a forced march, to cross Turtle Creek under cover of the darkness.
On the morning of August 5, the tents were struck at an early hour, and the troops began their march through a rough country, everywhere covered with a tall, dense forest.
By noon they had advanced to within less than a mile of Bushy Run. Suddenly the report of rifles from the front sent a thrill along the ranks. The firing became terrific, while the shouts and whoops showed that the advance guard was hotly engaged. The two foremost companies were sent to support it, but far from abating, the fire grew so furious that it revealed the presence of an enemy at once numerous and resolute.
The convoy was halted, the troops formed into line, and a general charge ordered. Bearing down through the forest with fixed bayonets, they drove the yelping savages before them, and swept the ground clear.
At this very moment of success, a fresh burst of whoops and firing was heard from either flank, while noise from the rear showed that the convoy was attacked. The column fell back for its support, drove off the assailants, and formed in a circle around the terrified horses. No man lost his composure, but each displayed implicit confidence in their commander.
Now ensued a combat most discouraging. Again and again, now one side and now on the other, a crowd of Indians rushed up, pouring in a heavy fire, in their effort to break into the circle. A well directed volley met them, followed by a charge of the bayonet. The Indians fled behind trees, few of them were hurt, while the English suffered severely.
Thus the fight went on without intermission for seven hours, until approaching night, when the Indian fire slackened, and the exhausted soldiers found time to rest.
It was impossible to change their ground in the enemy’s presence, and the troops were obliged to encamp where the combat had taken place, though not a drop of water was to be found there.
Bouquet, doubtful of surviving the battle of the morrow, wrote to Sir Jeffrey Amherst, in a few, clear, concise words, an account of the day’s events.
The condition of the troops was deplorable. About sixty soldiers, besides several officers, had been killed or disabled. A space in the center of the camp was prepared for the care of the wounded, and surrounded by a wall built of bags of flour. Here they lay upon the ground, enduring agonies of thirst, as well as of pain.
The situation of those who hitherto escaped was not an enviable one. In event of defeat, a fate inexpressibly horrible waited them, while even victory did not assure their safety, since so many wounded comrades made it difficult to transport them. On the other side the enemy were exulting in the fullest confidence of success.
With the earliest dawn of day there broke out a general burst of those horrid yells which form the prelude of an Indian battle. Instantly from every side the fire poured in with deadly aim.
At each furious rush the savages were repulsed. The English, maddened more by the torments of thirst than the fire of the enemy, fought furiously. But the enemy saw their distress and pressed them closer and more desperately.
The center of the camp was all confusion. The horses broke away a dozen at a time and stampeded through the wounded troops. At ten o’clock the circle was yet unbroken, but there had been many killed. If the day was to be saved, the effort must be made at once and Bouquet was equal to the emergency.
In the midst of the confusion he conceived a masterly stratagem. Could the Indians be brought together in a body and made to stand their ground, there could be little doubt of the result. Bouquet instructed the men who were in the most exposed place to give way. The Indians mistook this movement for a retreat. Confident that their victory was sure, they leaped up on all sides and rushed headlong towards the spot.
Here they found themselves between two deadly fires and with the reserve troops blocking their retreat they were utterly routed. The Highlanders, with yells as wild as their own, fell on them with bayonet. The shock was irresistible and they fled before the charging ranks, not a living Indian remained near the spot. Among the dead were found several prominent chiefs.
The battle of Bushy Run was the best contested battle ever fought between white men and Indians. It was the most serious defeat ever inflicted upon the savages down to that time.
With the loss of eight officers and 115 men, Bouquet reached Fort Pitt August 10. It was a joyous moment both to the troops and the garrison, which had been surrounded and hotly pressed by the Indians since July 28.
The next year Bouquet led an expedition beyond the Ohio, but the Indians sued for peace and he compelled them to bring all their captives to Fort Pitt, where their friends could identify them.
Indian Council Between Governor Denny
and Tedyuskung Ended at Easton
August 7, 1757
The fact that the great Delaware King Tedyuskung was not present at the important council at Lancaster in April, 1757, caused much more concern in the Provincial Government than is usually the case when one person of importance fails to attend. The Delaware Indians were still chafing under the rebuke they received at the hands of Canassetoga[Canassetoga], the great Onondaga Chief Sachem, and the Six Nations, who ordered them from the lands at the Forks of the Delaware River to the Wyoming and Shamokin Valleys.
Soon as the Lancaster council was concluded, messengers were dispatched to Tedyuskung and to the Seneca and Shawnee, inviting them to hold a treaty with the English.
On June 16, Sir Wm. Johnson held a general conference with the Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca, of the Six Nations, at his estate “Fort Johnson,” in which he strongly urged these tribes to come to the support of the English in their warfare against the French. He severely censured Tedyuskung and the Seneca for their conduct.
The Indian messengers, Nathanial and Zacharias, failed to find Tedyuskung at Wyoming, and journeyed to the Seneca villages in New York where they found the King and delivered the Governor’s message. Tedyuskung and the messengers immediately set out for Pennsylvania, and on their way met Joe Peepy, Shikellamy’s son, and Tapescawen, the two messengers sent out by the Lancaster Council in quest of Tedyuskung. Nathanial and Zacharias hastened on to advise the Governor that Tedyuskung and his followers would set out from Tioga for Easton the middle of June.
Tedyuskung and his retinue arrived at Fort Allen July 3, 200 strong and waited there for the arrival of 100 Seneca. On July 8, 155 men, women and children followed Tedyuskung out of Fort Allen toward Easton, and a few days later 117 Seneca and other Six Nations’ Indians arrived at Easton, via Wyoming; among the Seneca delegation were old King Nutimus and “French Margaret.”
Governor Denny, accompanied by members of the Council, Board of Indian Commissioners and a large number of citizens, including many Quakers, arrived at Easton, July 20, and the next day the conference with the Indians was formally begun. Colonel Conrad Weiser and Colonel George Croghan were in attendance as interpreters and agents; there were more than 300 Indians representing ten nations, and Tedyuskung claimed authority over them all.
Tedyuskung demanded a clerk and refused to participate until furnished one, when a long debate ensued, but the old king won his point and chose Charles Thomson. Thomson exercised great influence over Tedyuskung and was his counsel as well as clerk.
The conference proceeded in peace. Tedyuskung declared it was time to declare mutual friendship and gave the Governor a belt of wampum. The Governor rejoiced in this expression of alliance and gave the Delaware a fine belt of wampum. This was a large belt with the figures of three men worked in the wampum, representing King George, taking hold of the King of the Five Nations with one hand, and Tedyuskung with the other, and marked “G. R., 5 N and D. K.,” for King George, Five Nations and Delaware King.
On Saturday, August 6, Paxinosa, with Abraham, the Mohegan Chief, arrived at Easton, with about sixty of their people. The Governor personally welcomed the newcomers to the council.
The most important matter broached by Tedyuskung touched on the future home of the Delaware. He then asked that persons be sent to instruct them to build permanent houses of a better class, and that other persons be sent “to instruct us in Christian religion, and instruct our children in reading and writing.”
Tedyuskung then expressed a desire that the Governor would send people to Wyoming during the coming fall or nearly next Spring, that a little fort might be built. The Indians would then move down from Tioga, about the beginning of May.
The conference came to an end on Sunday, August 7. The Governor and his attendants left for Bethlehem, enroute to Philadelphia. The following day many Indians were escorted by Conrad Weiser and a detachment of Provincials under Captain Jacob Arndt, towards Bethlehem.
The “Memorials of the Moravian Church” says, “Some of these unwelcome visitors halted for a few days and some proceeded as far as Fort Allen and then returned, undecided as to where to go and what to do. During the month full 200 were counted—men, women and children—among them lawless crowds who annoyed the Brethren by depredations, molested the Indians at Manakasy, and wrangled with each other over their cup at “The Crown.”
Tedyuskung, Abraham and Paxinosa set out from Fort Allen for Tioga, August 17, the former with a new saddle and bridle, and a supply of snuff, gingerbread, soap and other luxuries—in addition to the gifts he had received at the treaty.
When near Tunkhannock, this company was met by three Indian messengers, with a Peace Belt and four-fold string of wampum, for Tedyuskung from the two principal chiefs in the Ohio region. The King gave the Peace Belt he had received at Easton into the hands of one of his sons and messengers, directing them to carry it with a message which he dictated to the Ohio chiefs. Then he left his companions and started back to Bethlehem, where he arrived August 25. Five days later he arrived in Philadelphia and delivered the message from the Ohio Indians to the Governor and Council.
Tedyuskung urged the prompt assistance of the government in helping them locate at Wyoming, and a week later the Governor and Council decided to send proper persons to build a fort and houses for the Delaware. After much discussion it was decided to send John Hughes, one of the Indian Commissioners, Edward Shippen, prothonotary of the Lancaster County courts, and James Galbraith, also of Lancaster, and a prominent citizen to undertake the journey to Wyoming. On October 5, 1757, they set out and satisfactorily fulfilled the mission on which they were sent.
Indians Surprise Reapers and Mortally
Wound James Brady August 8, 1778
During the first several years of the Revolution no section of Pennsylvania suffered more from the incursions of the hostile Indians than along both branches of the Susquehanna River, where nearly every man capable of bearing arms responded to the call and left his home and fireside in the care of aged men or young men of his family.
The Indians had taken a heavy toll along the West Branch, so small numbers of local militia and a few provincials garrisoned the several stockades erected as places of refuge for the inhabitants, when the Indians were reported by the scouts to be approaching.
August 8, 1778, a party of Indians fell upon a number of reapers and cruelly murdered young James Brady. The circumstances of the tragic affair, and the prominence of the victim and his illustrious family make the story one of value.
Colonel Thomas Hartley had been sent by General Washington to guard the West Branch Valley, and after arriving at Fort Augusta with his command, it was determined he should proceed to Muncy, erect a stockade, and from that place distribute his soldiers to points where they were most needed.
On the fatal day a corporal and three militiamen were ordered to go to Loyalsock and protect fourteen reapers and cradlers who were assisting Peter Smith, the unfortunate man who lost his wife and four children in the massacre, at what is now Williamsport, June 10. Smith’s farm was on Bull Run, nearly three miles east of Williamsport, and on the north side of the river.
It was the custom in those days of unusual peril, when no commissioned officer was present, for the company to select a leader, who was called “Captain,” and to obey him accordingly. Young James Brady, on account of his shrewdness, dash and well known bravery, was selected to take command of the party.
“Captain” Brady stationed a few sentinels and the rest proceeded to the work at hand on Friday, August 7. At sundown four of the party left and returned to Fort Muncy. The balance of the detail commenced work early the next day; the morning was foggy.
Not an hour had passed before the workers were surprised by the stealthy approach of a large band of Indians, who were able to draw near under the cover of the fog before being discovered.
The sentinels discharged their rifles at the savages and ran towards the reapers. A panic ensued and they all fled with the exception of young Brady, who ran for his rifle, closely pursued by three Indians. When almost within reach of his gun, an Indian shot at Brady, who was probably saved by his timely fall over a sheaf of wheat. When he grasped for his rifle he was shot in the arm, but succeeded in killing the Indian who fired at him.
Brady grabbed a second rifle and as quickly dispatched another Indian, but the savages now closed in on him, and he fought bravely until a warrior struck him with his tomahawk and another pierced him with a spear, which felled him to the ground. Brady had no sooner fallen than his scalp was torn from his head, and a young Indian was called upon to strike him with his tomahawk. The Indians then fled in great haste.
Brady recovered consciousness, and succeeded by walking and creeping, in reaching the cabin of an old man, named Jerome Vanness, near the bank of the river, who had been employed to cook for Brady and his companions while on this tour of duty.
Vanness heard the firing and had concealed himself, but on seeing Brady approach, rushed to his assistance. Brady urged the aged man to fly for his own safety, but he refused to leave his “captain,” and dressed his terrible wounds as best he could.
Brady requested to be assisted down to the river, where he drank much water, and lay until Vanness went back for his gun.
When the terrified reapers and militiamen reached Fort Muncy, Captain Andrew Walker hurried a detail to Smith’s farm. On approaching the spot where the gallant Brady lay weltering in his blood, he heard the relief party, and supposing them to be Indians, immediately jumped to his feet, cocked his rifle, and prepared to defend himself.
When Brady found the party to be friends, he requested to be taken to his mother, who was visiting among relatives at Sunbury.
He was tenderly cared for, placed in a canoe, and taken rapidly down the river. During the trip of nearly thirty miles he became delirious.
When the party arrived at Sunbury, although it was nearly midnight, his mother met the canoe at the landing and assisted to convey her wounded son to the house.
Brady presented a frightful appearance and the grief of his mother was pitiable. He lived five days, dying in the arms of his devoted mother, August 13, 1778.
On the day of his death his reason returned and he related with much detail the bloody scene through which he had passed.
Some writers have stated that Chief Bald Eagle scalped him, and that his brother, Captain Samuel Brady, afterwards avenged his death by shooting Bald Eagle through the heart.
The unfortunate young hero was buried near Fort Augusta. He was mourned by all who knew him.
James Brady was the second son of Captain John and Mary Brady, and a younger brother of Captain Samuel Brady, the famous scout and Indian killer. He was born in 1758, while his parents lived at Shippensburg, Cumberland County, and was in his twenty-first year at the time of his tragic death.
Many anecdotes of the Brady family have been handed down, and one relating to James is interesting. The men of that time wore their hair long, plaited and cued behind the head. James had a remarkably fine head of fiery red hair. A neighbor remarked that she feared the Indians would get this red scalp. James replied: “If they do, it will make them a bright light of a dark night.” In less than a week the noble youth fell beneath the cruel tomahawk and the savages had his red scalp.
His father, Captain John Brady, was murdered near Muncy by the Indians, April 11, 1779, while home on a leave of absence from the Continental Army.
General John Bull, Distinguished Officer of
Revolutionary War, Died August 9, 1824
Among the early patriots of the Revolution was Colonel John Bull, and he was quite as much a distinguished citizen and statesman. John Bull was born in 1730, in Providence Township, now Montgomery County. He was appointed captain in the Provincial service, May 12, 1758, and the following month was in command of the garrison at Fort Allen.
In October the same year he accompanied General John Forbes’ expedition for the reduction of Fort Duquesne, and rendered important service in the negotiations with the Indians. The instructions to Captain Bull were dated Easton, October 21, 1758, and are most specific. He and William Hayes had volunteered[volunteered] to carry important messages to the Indians on the Ohio.
Pesquetomen and Thomas Hickman, two Delaware Indians from the Ohio, accompanied the provincial messengers, who set out in October, going by way of Reading and Fort Henry to Fort Augusta, where they were equipped and supplied with such articles as they needed. They carried belts of wampum and even the outlines of the speeches they were to make to the western Indians when in council. This mission was performed to the entire satisfaction of the Provincial Government and John Bull became at once a trusted official on important occasions.
In 1771 Captain Bull owned the Norris plantation and mill, and was residing there at the opening of the Revolution. This is on the present site of Norristown. He was a delegate to the Provincial Conferences of January 23, 1775, and of June 18, 1775, and a member of the Provincial Convention of July 15, 1776.
The First Pennsylvania Battalion was raised in pursuance of a resolution of Congress, October 12, 1775. The field officers were elected by Congress, November 25, and John Bull was commissioned a colonel.
On January 20, 1776, the Colonel resigned in a communication to Congress setting forth that he was ill-treated by many of the officers and that nearly one-half of them threatened to resign if he continued in command. He also stated that this circumstance would not alter his conduct or abate his zeal, and whenever called upon again to serve his country, he would, with the greatest pleasure, obey the summons. Colonel Bull was succeeded by Colonel John Philip DeHaas, of Lebanon, who was commissioned two days later.
Colonel Bull served as one of the Commissioners at the important Indian treaty held at Easton, January 30, 1777; in February he was in command of the works at Billingsport.
The Supreme Executive Council created the Board of War, March 13, 1777, and named Colonel John Bull as one of the original members. They organized the following day.
On May 2, he was commissioned colonel of the State Regiment of Foot, which was organized with the residue of the battalions of Colonels Samuel Miles and Samuel J. Atlee, as a nucleus. June 2 this regiment was stationed at Fort Mercer, under command of Colonel Bull, its strength being four hundred and sixty-three.
As Colonel Bull was not an officer of either battalion, the other officers claimed his appointment ruined their rank, and as the regiment was put in the Continental service, June 10, 1777, the Supreme Executive Council appointed Colonel Bull adjutant general of the militia of Pennsylvania, and appointed Walter Stewart to the command of the regiment, which participated at Brandywine and Germantown.
He was also colonel of the Sixth Battalion of Associators, of Philadelphia, during 1777. During October of this year, Colonel Bull’s barns, barracks, grain and hay were burned by the British, and his wagons, horses, sheep and Negroes carried off, although General Howe had given his word to Mrs. Bull that they would not be disturbed.
In December, Brigadier General James Irvine was wounded and captured in the attempted surprise by the British at Whitemarsh, and Colonel Bull succeeded to the command of the Second Brigade Pennsylvania Militia, under command of General John Armstrong.
During Christmas week, 1777, the British crossed the Delaware and made a raid into New Jersey, another detachment at the same time crossed at Gray’s Ferry and took the road to Chester and Darby, with three hundred wagons. Howe and Erskine were with them; they made a demonstration towards Chester. Several pickets and detachments skirmished on their front and flank, under Captain Potterfield.
Colonel John Bull, with his brigade marched to force the foragers to retire by demonstrating against the enemy’s lines. His forces were distributed on the Frankford, Germantown and Ridge Roads, and caused the enemy to sound a general alarm. Bull planted his cannon, on Christmas Day, and fired several shots at the heart of the city, then withdrew to Frankford.
Marshall says: “Col. Bull, on the twenty-fifth instant, made an excursion into Fourth Street, Philadelphia, with two thousand militia, and alarmed the city by firing some pieces of cannon into the air, whereby some of the ball fell about Christ Church. He then made a good retreat back to his station, without the loss of a man.” The enemy, however, made no more raids.
In 1778 and 1779 he was engaged in erecting the defenses for Philadelphia; in 1779 he put down the chevaux de frize in the Delaware, and in 1780 he was Commissary of Purchases at Philadelphia, and appears to have been one of the busiest and most indefatigable of workers.
After the Revolution General Bull located at Northumberland, this was about 1785. In 1802 he was a candidate for the Legislature, but was defeated by Simon Snyder; in 1803, 1804 and 1805 he was elected to the Legislature, and three years later was defeated for Congress on the Federalist ticket.
General Bull died August 9, 1824, at the extreme age of ninety-four years. His wife, Mary Phillips Bull, died February 23, 1811, aged eighty years. The Northumberland Argus says “she was buried in the Quaker graveyard and General Bull, though much reduced by sickness and old age, previous to the grave being closed addressed the people as follows:
“'The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord; may we who are soon to follow be as well prepared as she was.'”
Truly a soldier to the very end of his eventful life.
Colonel Bouquet Relieved Garrison at Fort
Pitt August 10, 1763
Colonel Henry Bouquet established his rendezvous in Carlisle during the latter part of June, 1763, where he had assembled five hundred troops, selected from his British forces and several companies of Provincial Rangers. He was preparing to rush to the succor of Fort Pitt and other places which were being attacked by Indians under the inspiring leadership of Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawa, who had formed a confederation of the Indians against the English.
Everywhere along the frontier of Pennsylvania was desolation, the settlers had fled in terror and the interior settlements were crowded with refugees. Especially is this true of Carlisle, where the brave Swiss, Colonel Bouquet, was receiving first hand intelligence of the sufferings and devastation caused by the savages.
On July 3, 1763, a courier from Fort Bedford rode into Carlisle, and as he stopped to water his horse, he was surrounded by an anxious crowd, to whom he told a sad tale of woe, and as he hurriedly mounted his horse to ride to Colonel Bouquet’s tent, he shouted, “The Indians will soon be here.”
Terror and excitement spread everywhere, messengers were dispatched in every direction to give the alarm, and the reports, harrowing as they had been, were confirmed by the fugitives who were met on every road and by-path hurrying to Carlisle for refuge.
A party armed themselves and went out to warn the living and bury the dead. They found death and destruction everywhere, and sickened with horror at seeing groups of hogs tearing and devouring the bodies of the dead.
After a delay of eighteen days, Bouquet secured enough wagons, horses and oxen, and began his perilous march towards Fort Pitt. His force was much smaller than General Braddock’s and he had to encounter a foe much more formidable. But Bouquet, the man of iron will and iron hand, had served seven years in American forests and, unlike the unfortunate Braddock, understood his work.
On July 25 Bouquet reached Fort Bedford, where he was fortunate in securing thirty backwoodsmen to accompany him. This little army toiled through the blazing heat of July over the Allegheny Mountains, and reached Fort Ligonier August 2.
The Indians who had besieged that fort for two months disappeared at the approach of the troops. Here Bouquet left his oxen and wagons and resumed his march two days later. At noon on the 5th he encountered the enemy at Bushy Run. A terrible battle raged for two days when the Indians were put to rout. The loss of the British was one hundred and fifteen men and eight officers. The little army was then twenty-five miles distant from Fort Pitt, which place was reached August 10.
The enemy had abandoned the siege[siege] on this fort and marched their forces to unite with those engaged in combat with Colonel Bouquet at Bushy Run, so when they were compelled to retreat after that battle, they had not sufficient time, or lacked the courage to attack Fort Pitt with Colonel Bouquet in hot pursuit.
It was at this time that Colonel Bouquet built the little redoubt which is at the present all that remains of Fort Pitt, in fact is the only existing monument of British occupancy in the vicinity of Pittsburgh.
The Indians abandoned all their former settlements, and retreated to the Muskingum; here they formed new settlements, and in the spring of 1764 again began to ravage the frontier. To put an end to these depredations, General Gage planned a campaign into the western wilderness from two points. General Bradstreet was ordered to advance by way of the lakes, and Colonel Bouquet was to go forward from Fort Pitt.
After the usual delays and disappointments in securing troops from Pennsylvania and Virginia to aid in this expedition Colonel Bouquet again arrived at Fort Pitt, September 17, where he was detained until October 3. He led his troops from Fort Pitt following the north bank of the Ohio until he reached the Beaver, where he turned towards central Ohio.
Bouquet refused to listen to either threats or promises from the Indians, and declined to treat with them at all until they should deliver up their prisoners. Although not a single blow was struck the Indians were vanquished.
Bouquet continued his march down the valley of the Muskingum[Muskingum] until he reached a spot where some broad meadows offered a suitable place for encampment. Here he received a deputation of principal chiefs, listened to their offers of peace, and demanded the delivery of all the prisoners. Soon band after band of captives arrived, until more than three hundred were brought into the encampment.
The scenes which followed the restoration of these prisoners to their families and friends beggar all description; wives recovering their husbands, husbands their wives, parents regaining children whom they could scarcely recognize, brothers and sisters meeting after long separation and sometimes hardly able to converse in the same language.
The story is told of a woman whose daughter had been carried off nine years before. The mother recognized her child among the prisoners, but the girl, who had almost forgotten her mother tongue, showed no sign of recognition. The mother complained to Colonel Bouquet that the daughter she had so often sung to sleep on her knee had forgotten her. “Sing the song to her that you used to sing when she was a child,” said Colonel Bouquet. She did so, and with a passionate flood of tears the long lost daughter flung herself into her mother’s arms.
Everything being settled the army broke camp November 18, and arrived again at Fort Pitt on the 28th.
Early in January Colonel Bouquet returned to Philadelphia, receiving wherever he went every possible mark of gratitude and esteem from the people. The Assembly of Pennsylvania and the House of Burgesses of Virginia each unanimously voted him addresses of thanks, and on the arrival in England of the first account of this expedition the King promoted him to the rank of Brigadier General, to command the Southern District of North America.
Colonel Brodhead Wins Thanks of Congress
for Raid Started August 11, 1779
Raids on the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier in 1778 were made by the Indians of the Ohio country; those of 1779 by the Seneca and Munsee of the North, from the upper tributaries of the Susquehanna and Allegheny Rivers.
The Seneca tribe of Western New York was the largest of the Six Nations, and its warriors second only to the Mohawk in courage and military prowess. Under Cornplanter, Guyasuta and other war captains they distressed a wide extent of territory in New York and Pennsylvania and decorated their huts with the scalps of hundreds of white persons.
Early in the summer of 1779, Washington directed that General John Sullivan lead a large force against the Iroquois country from the east, and in July Colonel Brodhead received permission to undertake a movement of cooperation up the Allegheny Valley.
The expedition consisting of 615 men under Colonel Brodhead left Pittsburgh August 11, 1779. Small garrisons were left to guard Forts Pitt, McIntosh, Crawford and Armstrong. A small band of Delaware accompanied the expedition, and acted as scouting parties under Captain Samuel Brady and Lieutenant Hardin.
The provisions were conveyed up the river by boats as far as the mouth of the Big Mahoning, where the supplies were taken from the boats, loaded on the horses, and the expedition proceeded under the most unfavorable conditions. The expedition here left the river and followed an Indian trail almost due north, through what is now Clarion county.
A few miles below Brokenstraw Creek occurred a fight with savages, near where Thompson is now situated. Lieutenant Hardin was leading the advance, with fifteen white scouts and eight Delaware, when they discovered more than thirty Seneca warriors coming down the river in seven canoes, under the famous Chief Guyasuta. Each party discovered the other at about the same time. The Seneca paddled for shore, threw off their shirts and prepared for battle, little aware of the number of their opponents.
Both sides took to trees and rocks and began a sharp fusillade, until a few minutes another party of scouts appeared, took the Seneca on the flank and poured a hot fire upon them. At the sound of this firing Colonel Brodhead formed his column so as to protect his pack train and then hurried forward with reinforcements. He arrived just in time to witness the retreat of the Seneca, who now realized the strength of the white force. Five Indians were killed and several wounded. Eight guns and seven canoes containing their blankets, shirts and provisions were prizes. Only three of Brodhead’s men were slightly wounded.
The army went into camp near the scene of the conflict and on the following morning moved to Brokenstraw Creek. Here Colonel Brodhead decided to leave his stores and baggage and march light to Conewago. A rude breastwork was constructed of fallen trees and bundles of faggots, on a high bluff which commanded an extensive view up and down the river. This post was garrisoned by an officer and forty men, while the expedition pushed on for Conewago. Upon arrival the Colonel was disappointed to find the Iroquois town deserted and their huts falling into decay.
After a hard march of twenty miles the army came again within sight of the Allegheny River, and from a hilltop they discovered a number of Indian villages, surrounded by great fields of splendid corn and patches of beans, squashes and melons. This Iroquois settlement extended for eight miles along the fertile bottom land of the Allegheny River, where the great Cornplanter reservation was afterwards established.
The Indian spies had discovered the approach of the American forces, and the warriors had fled so hastily with their women and children that they left behind many deer skins and other articles of value.
The Iroquois had long before this learned to build substantial log houses, even squaring the timbers as was the custom of the white pioneer settlers. In this village there were about 130 houses, some of them large enough to accommodate three or four families.
Colonel Brodhead sent a report to General Washington, saying: “The troops remained on the ground three whole days, destroying the towns and corn fields. I never saw finer corn, although it was planted much thicker than is common with our farmers. The quantity of corn and vegetables destroyed at the several towns, from the best accounts I can collect from the officers employed to destroy it, must certainly exceed 500 acres, which is the lowest estimate and the plunder taken is estimated at $3,000. From the great quantity of corn in the ground and the number of new houses built and building, it appears that the whole Seneca and Muncy nations intended to collect in this settlement.”
On the return march the supplies were picked up at Buckaloons and the troops marched across country to French Creek. At Oil Creek the soldiers rubbed themselves freely with oil which they found floating on the water, and received great relief from their rheumatic pains and stiffness. For many years this petroleum was called Seneca oil, and was supposed to be valuable only for its medicinal qualities.
The army soon reached French Creek, at the mouth of the Conneaut Creek, where the Munsee town of Maghingue-chahocking was found to be deserted. It consisted of 35 large huts, which were burned. The Munsee formed a branch of the Wolf clan of the Delaware, and they enjoyed an unenviable reputation as thieves, murderers and general desperadoes.
The army descended French Creek almost to its mouth and thence returned to Fort Pitt by what is known as the Venango path almost due north and south through the heart of Butler County.
The expedition arrived at Fort Pitt on September 14 without the loss of a man or a horse. Brodhead wrote: “I have a happy presage that the counties of Westmoreland, Bedford and Northumberland, if not the whole western frontier, will experience the good effect of it. Too much praise cannot be given to both officers and soldiers of every corps during the whole expedition. Their perseverance and zeal can scarcely be equaled in history.”
The thanks of Congress were voted to Colonel Brodhead, and in a general order, issued October 18, General Washington said: “The activity, perseverance, and firmness of all the officers and men of every description in this expedition, do them great honor, and their services entitle them to the thanks and to this testimonial of the General’s acknowledgement.”
Era of Indian Traders to Death of Allummapees,
August 12, 1731
At what date and by whom the North and West Branch Valleys of the Susquehanna and the Juniata Valley were first traversed, and the Alleghenies first crossed by Europeans in a journey to the Ohio, is unrecorded, and must forever remain unknown.
The first white men who ventured into the unexplored forests among these mountains were not given to keeping journals of their travels for future historians. No one seems to have thought of immortalizing himself by bequeathing to us a good description giving minute details of the country and its tribes.
At first the natives brought their peltry hundreds of miles to the Delaware River; but, in course of time, these skins and furs became so valuable in Europe that many of the worst class of men were stimulated to penetrate the depths of the forest in order to hasten and monopolize the trade. In this way the entire Juniata and West Branch regions were traversed many years before there was a settlement established in those fertile valleys.
From the days of William Penn’s advent up to 1722 the Indian expenses to the Province were inconsiderable, being limited by law to £50 per annum. In that year the Assembly paid Governor Keith’s expenses for a trip to Albany, where an important council with the Six Nations was held, but in 1727 they refused to pay more than half the amount of an account of Conrad Weiser, who was sent on a similar mission. In 1728, under an alarm, they agreed to pay without limitation the expenses of an Indian conference. After this they sometimes paid half, and sometimes all.
The appetite for presents which the Indians acquired was not easily appeased. Constant disturbances, frequently caused by rum, called for expensive treaties, and the donations allured the Indians and made them more insolent and exacting. The expenses soon rose above £8,000, and the question whether these treaties were more for the benefit of the Proprietaries in buying lands than for the safety of the inhabitants gave rise to heated controversy. The result was that Indian affairs began to take a wider and more public range, and the records of those days begin to throw more light upon the uninhabited interior of the Province.
As early as 1722 we read that “William Wilkins was 150 miles up the Sasquehannah trading for his master.” His master was John Cartlidge, an Indian trader living at Conestoga, and 150 miles farther up the Susquehanna was a venturesome trip at that date. There are also records of several Frenchmen engaged in the trade living among the Indians east of the mountains, extending their travels up the Susquehanna and its branches.
A great council was held in Philadelphia, July 3, 1727, with the chiefs of the Six Nations, but most of those in attendance were Cayuga, Conestoga and Ganawese. Madame Montour, the celebrated interpreter, was present at this conference and exerted her great influence toward an amicable treaty.
In an address made by one of the chiefs to the Governor, he said: “They desire that there may be no settlements made up the Sasquhannah higher than Pextan (Harrisburg), and that none of the settlers thereabouts be suffered to sell or keep any rum there, for that being the road by which their people go out to war, they are apprehensive of mischief if they meet with liquor in these parts. They desire also, for the same reasons, that none of the traders be allowed to carry any rum to the remoter parts where James Le Tort trades,—that is, Allegany[Allegany] on the branch of Ohio. And this they desire may be taken notice of, as the mind of the chiefs of all the Five Nations, for it is all those nations that now speak by them to all our people.”
The following day the Governor made this reply: “We have not hitherto allowed any settlements to be made above Pextan, but, as the young people grow up, they will spread, of course, yet it will not be very speedily. The Governor, however, will give orders to them all to be civil to those of the Five Nations as they pass that way, though it would be better if they would pass the Susquehannah[Susquehannah] above the mountains. And the sale of rum shall be prohibited both there and at Alegany; but the woods are so thick and dark we cannot see what is done in them. The Indians may stave any rum they find in the Woods, but, as has been said, they must not drink or carry any away.”
The interesting fact ascertained from these two addresses is that James Le Tort, who had settled near Carlisle, as early as 1720, and was a well known trader, had already passed over the Allegheny Mountains and established his trading post on the Ohio River. As he was also known to have lived and traded as early as 1701 on the island at the Forks of the Susquehanna, long known as Packer’s Island, between Sunbury and Northumberland, it may be fairly inferred that Le Tort found his way to the West through the West Branch Valley and thence by the Indian path leading from Great Island through what is now Clearfield and Kittaning to the west.
This is interesting also because it was at this time that the Shawnee began to pass over the mountains, followed by some Delaware, especially those of Conestoga descent, and began to settle on the Ohio. The Shawnee had established a large village at the mouth of Chillisquaque Creek, where it empties into the West Branch, a mile below Lewisburg on the east side of the stream.
The second inference is that at the date of the above conference there were white people already seated on the Juniata and Susquehanna, farther west than Paxtang, or there were already such decided symptoms of danger in that direction that the Iroquois deputies considered it necessary to forbid that anyone should presume to settle beyond the Kittatinny Mountains. A violation of this precautionary restriction led to a series of complaints about intruders into these valleys for the next thirty years.
During the first quarter of the eighteenth century the history of Indian affairs on the Susquehanna and Juniata, and especially the West Branch of the former river, is nearly all connected closely with the Iroquois agency on the northern border of the Province.
The principal representatives of this great Nation were Allummapees, also called Sassoonan, the great Delaware King, and Shikellamy, the great Oneida vicegerent[vicegerent].
Allummapees resided at Paxtang, as early as 1709. He removed from Paxtang to Shamokin about 1718, and there resided among the Munsee, the most belligerent of the Lenape clans. He ruled as king from 1718 till his death. He was a good-hearted chieftain, true to the English and an advocate of peace. When he died he was supposed to be one hundred years of age. His death occurred August 12, 1731, when in a state of helpless intoxication he was stabbed to the heart by his nephew, Shockatawlin, of whom Allummapees was jealous.
Indians Massacre Major John Lee and
Family, August 13, 1782
On the evening of August 13, 1782, John Lee and his family with one or two neighbors were seated at the supper table in their comfortable log home in what is now Winfield, Union County. Without a moment’s warning a band of Indians, supposed to be sixty or seventy in number, rushed in on them, and killed Lee and his family. The events of this crime rank among the most cruel and revolting of those along the frontier.
A young woman, named Katy Stoner, hurried upstairs and concealed herself behind the chimney, where she remained undiscovered and escaped. She related the details of this horrible tragedy.
Lee was tomahawked and scalped, and an old man named John Walker shared the same fate. Mrs. Claudius Boatman and daughter, who were guests of the Lees, were killed and scalped; Mrs. Lee, with her small child, and a larger boy, named Thomas, were led away captives.
The savages fled from the scene along the Great Path, leading up that side of the West Branch Valley, over the White Deer Mountains, and then crossed to the eastern side of the river below Muncy.
One of Lee’s sons, Robert, happened to be absent and thus escaped the fate of his parents. He was returning, however, and came in sight of the house just as the Indians were leaving it, but they did not observe him. He fled to Northumberland and gave the alarm.
A party of about twenty volunteers was organized by Colonel Samuel Hunter, at Fort Augusta, and hastened in pursuit. On arriving at Lee’s house they beheld some of the victims yet alive and writhing in agony. Lee was not dead, and Mrs. Boatman’s daughter also survived. Litters were hastily constructed, and they were carried to Fort Augusta. Lee expired in great agony soon after arrival at the fort. Miss Boatman was nursed back to health and lived many years afterwards.
Colonel Hunter and his party, without delaying to bury the dead, pushed on after the savages as rapidly as possible with a view of overtaking them, and releasing the captives. They came in sight of them above Lycoming Creek.
In crossing White Deer Mountains Mrs. Lee was accidentally bitten on her ankle by a rattlesnake, and her leg became so swollen and pained her so severely, that she traveled with great difficulty. The Indians, finding themselves pursued, urged her along as fast as possible, but she weakened rapidly. When near the mouth of Pine Creek, about four miles below the present Jersey Shore, Mrs. Lee’s strength failed her and she seated herself on the ground.
The whites were rapidly approaching and the Indians were afraid she would fall into their hands. A warrior stealthily slipped up behind her, placed the muzzle of his rifle close to her head and fired. The entire upper portion of her head was blown off. One of the Indians then snatched up her young child and holding it by the feet, dashed it against a tree.
The Indians then fled with renewed speed, crossing the river at Smith’s fording, at Level Corner, and hurried up through Nippenose Valley.
When Colonel Hunter and his men came up to where Mrs. Lee was murdered her body was yet warm. The sight was horrible. The child was but little injured, but was found moaning piteously.
The pursuit was now so hot that near Antes’ Gap, the Indians separated, and ran up both sides of the mountains. Colonel Hunter concluded that further pursuit was imprudent, and the chase was abandoned.
The detail returned, buried the body of Mrs. Lee, and brought back the child. At Lee’s house they halted and buried the dead there.
Young Thomas Lee who was taken prisoner, was not recovered for many years afterwards. The son, Robert, made arrangements with the Indians to bring his brother to Tioga Point, where he was delivered to his friends. Such was the love of Indian life, however, that he was so reluctant to return, they were obliged to bind him and place him in a canoe. When near Wilkes Barre they untied him, but as soon as the canoe touched shore he darted off like a deer. It was several hours before he was retaken. On arriving at Northumberland he evinced all the sullenness of a captive. Indian boys and girls, near his own age were made to play about him for days before he showed any disposition to join with them. At last he began to inquire the names of things, and by degrees he became civilized, obtained a good education, and lived a useful life.
Thomas lived on the home farm for many years, as is proved by a deed which he and his wife, Eliza, executed April 1, 1797, to William Beard and Sarah, his wife. Robert Lee and his descendants lived on part of the property as late as the beginning of the 19th century.
The massacre at Lee’s home resulted in the death of seven persons, and only four of the six taken captive were returned to their kin. The others were two sisters and a brother, liberated in 1785.
Since the beginning of spring in the year 1782, there had been sixty-two inhabitants butchered by the Indians.
Judge John Joseph Henry, in a letter to Secretary of War, says that when his father was returning home from Congress, then sitting in New York (1784–85), he found Rebecca Lee on the road desolate and moneyless. He took her to his own home in Lancaster, and, a few months later, restored her to their brother, Robert, at Northumberland. The sister was recovered at Albany a year later, and Thomas was turned over to his brother in 1788.
Lee was the assessor in the township in which he lived. The Indians hated him because they believed he had cheated them in a trade and they sought an opportunity for revenge.
Lee was a prominent citizen, a major in the Northumberland militia, February 7, 1776, and December 26, following, when a company volunteered for the main army, Lee was chosen captain. The company was attached to Colonel James Potter’s Second Battalion and saw much active service.
Claudius Boatman was a Frenchman and after the massacre of his wife, he took the remainder of his family, in 1786, and settled far up Pine Creek. He had several daughters, one of whom married John English. Claudius died in 1802, and was buried in the village of Waterville.
Mollie Maguires Commit Murders on
Bloody Saturday, August 14, 1875
Such a great number of outrages were committed in the anthracite coal regions by the Mollie Maguires on August 14, 1875, that the day came to be known as “Bloody Saturday.”
Early in the month symptoms of smouldering disorder began to increase in severity and numbers. The situation became so alarming that Superintendent Franklin, of the Philadelphia and Reading Company arranged to hold a meeting with the two great Pinkerton detectives, James McParlan and Captain Linden, who had been working for some time among the members of this outrageous organization of criminals.
This meeting was held at Glen Onoko, in the environs of Mauch Chunk. Here the three men cleverly managed to get together, and in the quiet shadows of the great hills, in that Switzerland of America, they fully discussed the situation and the work being performed.
It so happened that while they were returning from this meeting McParlan, otherwise James McKenna, as he was known to the Mollies, encountered some of the ringleaders of that organization: Alexander Campbell, Hugh McGehan, and others, all under suspicion for murder.
McParlan found himself in the position where it was necessary to accompany the Mollies to their homes, but he never was in their company very many minutes before he learned much of value to his chief, Allan Pinkerton. Captain Linden remained in Mauch Chunk, and Superintendent Franklin returned to Philadelphia.
B. F. Yost, a policeman of Tamaqua, had been cruelly murdered, July 6, and word had reached the detective that John P. Jones, of near Lansford, Carbon County, was marked as the next victim of the Mollies. He was murdered by James Kerrigan, Mike Doyle and Edward Kelly, September 3, following.
The Mollies sat together in the smoking car bound for the Summit. McParlan was under suspicion by the Mollies, and Linden had slipped into the car unobserved, ready at any moment to take the part of his brother detective, should he find himself in trouble. Nothing occurred to require his services and Captain Linden feigned to sleep the time away, until the drunken crowd left the car. Linden continued his journey to Tamaqua, and there awaited McParlan’s arrival.
Reaching Summit, Campbell pressed the detective to remain all night at his house, and he thought it best not to refuse and did so.
Campbell believed McParlan or McKenna as he knew him, had been in Mauch Chunk that day to obtain a new stock of counterfeit money, which he was supposed to be passing. McKenna had exchanged some money for crisp bills, but they were genuine. Campbell arranged with the detective for a supply of the “spurious” bills, to be delivered in the near future.
This tended to restore Campbell’s confidence in McKenna, and they were soon discussing Mollie topics with their former freedom of speech. Campbell was a candidate for the office of body master and McKenna was strongly for his election.
Campbell then told him the plans for killing Jones, and after McKenna sang “Widow Machree” for Mrs. Campbell, he retired to his apartment.
Then came the Bloody Saturday events, which proved a horrible experience for the people of Mahanoy Valley. The crimes for that day were two dastardly assassinations and one case of manslaughter, besides several cases of lesser crimes.
The most heinous crime was the murder of Thomas Gwyther, Justice of the Peace, of Girardville. He was an inoffensive man, of mild disposition and a reputable, public spirited citizen.
The miners of the Mahanoy Valley had this day received the first pay of any consequence since the long strike began and the result was that Girardville, in the evening, was crowded with drunken men.
Gangs of ruffians flourished revolvers, looking for some one to shoot. A fight ensued and an arrest resulted. Application was made of Squire Gwyther for a warrant and as he was in the act of preparing it a man stepped up to him and shot him dead. The assassin fled and escaped.
At Shenandoah, Gomer James, a young Welsh miner, who had defended his friend, Tom Jones, when assaulted by Mollies, August 11, 1873, and had since been marked by them, was killed at a picnic in Hecksher’s Grove, while he was inside a bar, waiting upon his patrons. The assassin escaped in the darkness.
Many disturbances occurred in Mahanoy City, and an innocent citizen lost his life, when a disturbance arose between William M. Thomas and James Dugan. Both drew revolvers and fired at each other. Thomas was shot in the face, but Christian Zimmerman, who was standing across the street, waiting for his wife to complete her shopping, received a bullet through his lungs and died the following afternoon. Thomas was arrested for assault on Dugan, but no one was arrested for killing Zimmerman. Another man was shot through the leg during this wild duel, and a rioter was stabbed during the excitement.
McKenna hurried to Mahanoy City where he found the country in a blaze of excitement, and as the people believed him the worst Mollie Maguire in the regions, he remained but a short time, when he took a train for Shenandoah. He was in Shenandoah four hours when he learned who had fired the shot which killed Gomer James, and Tom Hurley became a refugee from justice.
The result of this unexpected success, was that all the Mollies in Shenandoah engaged in grand bacchanal, and to get rid of them McKenna left the place and went to Girardville. Here Jack Kehoe, one of the notorious Mollie leaders told him in a moment of confidence, that the murder of Squire Gwyther was the result of a drunken spree, and that Thomas Love, he was glad to say, had made his escape.
This was truly Bloody Saturday, but by no means was it the end of the reign of the Mollie Maguires in the coal regions of Pennsylvania.
Yankees Drive Pennamites from Wyoming
Valley in Battle Which Began
August 15, 1771
Following the first massacre at Wyoming, October 15, 1763, it was more than five years before the first forty settlers arrived from Connecticut to reclaim their improvements. On their arrival they found Amos Ogden and a few other persons in possession of the lands, occupying them by authority of the Proprietary Government of Pennsylvania.
Now commenced a bitter civil war, which lasted with alternate success of the different parties for upwards of six years. The settlements of both parties were alternately broken up—the men led off to prison, the women and children driven away, and other outrages committed. Blood was often shed in this strange and civil strife.
Ogden and his little band were defeated, April 29, 1770, and the Yankees became the masters of the situation.
The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania raised a force in September, 1770, under Captain Ogden, to recover Wyoming. Governor Penn issued a proclamation, June 28, 1770, directing all intruders to depart from Wyoming.
Ogden planned a surprise attack and marching by way of Fort Allen, traveled the Warrior’s Path, then but little used. The stratagem succeeded, for the Yankees watched for them only along the regular path. Ogden again proved his shrewdness by outwitting the Yankees, and defeated them, capturing Major John Durkee, and others.
Ogden also captured Fort Durkee through a deception, and marched his prisoners off to Easton, where they were confined in jail. Major John Durkee, Major Simeon Draper and Captain Zebulon Butler, were put in irons and sent to Philadelphia.
Fort Durkee remained in possession of the Pennamites until December 18, 1770, when Captain Lazerus Stewart, and the “Paxtang Boys” surprised the garrison, and captured the fort.
The Pennsylvania authorities determined on the arrest of Captain Stewart, and a warrant was placed in the hands of Captain Ogden. He called upon Sheriff Peter Kechlin, of Northampton County, and a posse reached Wyoming, January 18, 1771. Stewart refused to submit to arrest and in the short fight, Nathan Ogden, brother of the Captain, was killed and three others wounded.
During the night Captain Stewart and forty of his men stole out of the fort and fled to the woods; the twelve remaining surrendered themselves to the sheriff. The death of his brother caused Captain Amos Ogden much distress. The coroner’s inquest found that Nathan Ogden had been horridly and wilfully murdered by Lazerus Stewart.
Fort Durkee was garrisoned by thirty Pennamites, when the sheriff, Captain Ogden, Justice Charles Stewart, with their associates, January 23, set out for Easton. Five of the ten prisoners taken at the capture of the fort were sent to Philadelphia and committed to jail, where Major Durkee and Captain Butler were still languishing. Those who escaped with Captain Lazerus Stewart scattered and returned to their homes. Thus was consummated the fifth expulsion of the Yankees from Wyoming.
The Pennamites in the two forts at Wilkes-Barre were reinforced by other Pennsylvanians and Captain Amos Ogden and Charles Stewart, Esq. Fort Wyoming was enlarged and strengthened and all the Pennamite settlers dwelt therein. Fort Durkee was abandoned and dismantled.
During the next four months peace reigned supreme, and the Proprietaries had much land surveyed in the Manors of Stoke and Sunbury, and laid out to various persons, under warrants of the Provincial Land Office.
In the mid-summer seventy men of Connecticut, formerly owners of land at Wyoming, were enlisted under Captain Zebulon Butler to go forward to the much-coveted valley. While preparations were going on in Connecticut for the Wyoming expedition Lazerus Stewart was gathering together a few of the “Paxtang Boys,” who hastened to join Captain Butler on the march to Wyoming.
Colonel Asher Clayton was the chief man among the Pennamites, who now seemed secure and thrifty. On July 6, news reached him that armed forces of Yankees were approaching, and scouts brought him intelligence that the Yankees were determined to secure possession of this country. Clayton went forward and met Butler, but they could not come to terms, and Clayton returned to the fort. Captain Butler and his men invested the block house at Mill Creek and awaited developments.
Captain Amos Ogden again arrived at Wyoming and almost as soon as the Yankees. He found the situation so serious that he determined to be his own messenger to Philadelphia, where he arrived July 16, in three days’ travel. He appeared before Provincial Council and related the story. They agreed to raise 100 men and immediately set about to recruit them, but met with unexpected difficulty.
Captain Butler did not wait for these reinforcements to reach the Pennamites, but, Sunday, July 21, believed the time had come for the offensive. That night he silently marched them to the vicinity of Fort Wyoming, where, before daylight he had entrenched. By Monday these intrenchments were occupied by Yankees and the battle for Fort Wyoming was begun. Other redoubts were erected by which all communication with the outside was cut off from Fort Wyoming, but the Pennamites possessed means of defense so long as their provisions and ammunition would hold out.
Reinforcements under Captains John Dick and Joseph Morris left their rendezvous in the Blue Mountains, Sunday, July 28, and arrived before daybreak on the 30th. Within 200 yards of the block house they were attacked by the Yankees and lost two loads of flour and nine men. The Yankees continued a constant fire, day and night, until August 10, the defenders returning the fire.
Efforts to send volunteers to the relief of the Pennamites were unavailing, until Ogden, Van Campen and others, who had extensive land claims there, induced 62 men to march under command of Dr. Andrew Leslie from Reemeys, they arrived August 15, at “Ten-Mile Run,” where they bivouacked, after sending a messenger to the inmates of the fort.
But before the arrival of this detail and the supplies which they brought, the garrison was nearly starved and on the 15th Colonel Clayton sent out a flag of truce, and after several consultations accepted the best terms he could obtain. By the Articles of Capitulation 23 men were to march out armed, the remainder unarmed, and all to return to their homes unmolested; men who had families could remain two weeks to collect their effects; and the sick and wounded could be cared for until able to leave. The Indian messenger from the relief party arrived just as the fort was surrendered.
Thus Wyoming was again in the possession of the settlers of the Susquehanna Company and Captain Zebulon Butler the hero of the hour.
Great Land Purchase Made at Indian Council
in Philadelphia, August 16, 1749
Early in April, 1749, the Six Nations held a Grand Council at Onondaga Castle, when it was decided to send deputies from each of the nations to Philadelphia, to shake hands with Governor James Hamilton, who had assumed the office in the previous November; to answer a proposal for peace with the Catawba, which had been made by the former Governor of Pennsylvania, and to consider other matters. It was agreed that all the deputies should meet together at Wyoming, and proceed thence in a body to Philadelphia.
About the middle of May the four deputies of the Seneca accompanied by other members of their nation, arrived at Wyoming, where they waited a month for the arrival of the deputies of the other nations, who, however, failed to appear. The Seneca thereupon continued their journey via the North Branch to Shamokin, then the main river, and arrived at Philadelphia, June 26, accompanied by some Tutelo, Nanticoke and Conoy. These Indians were received by the Governor and Council on July 1, when Ogashtash, the Seneca speaker, stated that the Grand Council at Onondaga had heard that the white people had begun to settle on the Indians’ side of the Blue Mountains, in the present Juniata Valley.
Ogashtash further said that during their stay at Wyoming they had heard things which made them believe this was true. They wanted to know if this was done wickedly by bad people or if the new Governor had brought some instructions from the King, or Proprietaries, which the Grand Council did not yet know, but would cause much hurt.
Governor Hamilton informed the Seneca that the settling of the white squatters along the Juniata was contrary to the terms of the treaties made by the Government with the Indians, and that a proclamation would be issued commanding all the white people who had settled north of the Blue Mountains to remove by November 1, 1749.
Presents to the value of £100 were distributed on July 4 to the Indians, and a day or two later Conrad Weiser conducted them out of the city and journeyed with them as far as his house in Heidelberg Township. Here the Indians concluded to remain for a few days to visit with their old friend and brother, and without invitation they camped out near his house and made themselves very much at home. The Tutelo injured and destroyed a large amount of Weiser’s movable property and damaged his plantation generally. Weiser tried in vain to influence them to proceed on their journey. Finally, after an unpleasant experience of a week or ten days with these unruly visitors, Weiser induced the Seneca to take their departure, and they forced the Tutelo to go along.
The Tutelo were from villages on the West Branch of the Susquehanna. Zeisberger speaks of this tribe as a “degenerate remnant of thieves and drunkards”; he says that their village near Shamokin was “the only town on the continent inhabited by Tutelos.”
These Indians loafed and loitered along the way to the Susquehanna, taking along anything which struck their fancy, and when that stream was reached they paddled their canoes up the river, stopped awhile at Shamokin, then at Nescopeck, then at Wyoming, where they arrived August 1.
Two days after these Indians arrived at Wyoming, a large fleet of canoes came unexpectedly down the North Branch bearing the belated deputies of the Onondaga, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga and Tuscarora nations together with many other representatives—chiefs, warriors, squaws and children of these several nations, and many Indians of other tribes.
This large company remained at Wyoming for a day, and then proceeded down the river, accompanied by the Seneca deputies, and their party, who had just returned from Philadelphia, also by Chief Paxinosa and a large number of his Shawnee from their new home in what is now Plymouth, Luzerne County, and by a number of Delaware, Nanticoke and Mohican from the different villages along their route. At Nescopeck they were joined by King Nutimus and a number of his people, and then, without further delay, they floated down the river to Shamokin.
Arriving at this old Indian town at the Forks of the Susquehanna, now Sunbury, a messenger was sent in haste over the mountains to Conrad Weiser to announce the coming of the deputies. Soon as Weiser received this intelligence he dispatched an express to Governor Hamilton, who immediately directed the messenger to hurry back to Weiser, who was instructed by the Governor and Council “to try all ways to divert the Indians from coming to Philadelphia.” This the good old interpreter tried to do, but his efforts were resented by the Indians with so much spirit that he was obliged “to turn his protestations into invitations and make the best of circumstances.”
When this small army of deputies reached Tulpehocken, Conrad Weiser joined them and was the leader of the party from there to Philadelphia, where they arrived August 14, and according to the official records they numbered 280 in all. Governor Hamilton paid a ceremonious visit to the Indians, and appointed August 16 as the date for the conference with them.
Several days time of this conference was consumed in discussing the matters which had brought the Indians to Philadelphia. As a result of the conference the Proprietaries obtained for £500 a deed dated August 22, 1749, for a strip of land northwest and contiguous to the Blue Mountains, and extending from the Susquehanna to the Delaware River, the northwest boundary of this strip being a straight line running in a northeasterly direction from the north side of the mouth of the “Cantagny or Maghonoy Creek,” and now known as Mahanoy Creek, a mile below the present city of Sunbury, “to the north side of the south of the creek called Lechawachsein,” now Lackawaxon, which flows into the Delaware near the northern limit of Pike County; the southern boundary was the mountain range, beginning near Dauphin and running in a northeasterly direction until it falls into the Delaware River at the present Delaware Water Gap.
This new purchase included all or parts of the present counties of Dauphin, Northumberland, Lebanon, Schuylkill, Columbia, Carbon, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike and Wayne.
Robert Fulton, Native of Lancaster County,
Operates First Steamboat, August 17, 1807.
Robert Fulton demonstrated the first successful commercial steam vessel August 17, 1807, when he opened the throttle and the Clermont slowly, but surely, moved against the swift current of the Hudson River.
Robert Fulton was born on a farm in Little Britain Township, Lancaster County, in 1765. His father was a native of Kilkenny, Ireland, and emigrated to Lancaster County in 1735, where he soon became one of the foremost citizens, but did not make a success of farming. A year after Robert’s birth he mortgaged the farm and moved to Lancaster, where he died in 1768.
Mrs. Fulton was left with three daughters and two sons, and but little money and less time to spare to help meet the mortgage. She managed well with her family but the farm was lost.
The boyhood of Robert was filled with a desire to express his feelings through the dual medium of painting and mechanics. He seemed to love both with equal ardor.
His first great thrill came through the acquisition of some discarded paints and brushes brought to school one day by a companion. Fulton accomplished great things with them, and quite forgot he was in school to study.
When Robert was thirteen, the citizens of Lancaster wished to light up the town on the evening of July 4. It was in the midst of the Revolution and candles were as scarce as money. The demonstration was given up until Robert thought out a plan for skyrockets and the lad made possible the celebration.
In Lancaster lived a clever man named William Henry, who had made some experiments with a steamboat. Robert often visited the Henry home, and there saw some pictures painted by Benjamin West, a former Chester County boy, who had gained great fame as an artist. Here was a man who appealed to young Fulton.
Robert placed a paddle wheel on his rowboat after the Henry plan, but propelled it by hand. It is quite possible that he dreamed of the greater speed if steam power could be applied.
When Robert was seventeen his mother apprenticed him to a Philadelphia silversmith. This was a mistake. He showed his character by quitting and establishing himself as a miniature painter—work that he loved. His plain studio was at the corner of Second and Walnut Streets. Here he supported himself for four years. He sketched and painted portraits and landscapes, and made drawings of machinery. So well did he work that at twenty-one he returned to Lancaster with enough money to buy a small farm for his mother.
Following the advice of some friends in 1786, he went to England, where he devoted several years to his profession, under the tuition of Benjamin West, who received him into his own home. Here he became acquainted with the Duke of Bridgewater, the founder of the great canal system of Great Britain, who induced Fulton to abandon art, and take up the study of mechanical science.
Fulton soon invented a double-inclined plane for raising or lowering boats from one level to another. In 1794 he devised a mill for sawing marble. In 1796 he evolved the idea of cast iron aqueducts, and a structure of this kind was built over the River Dee. He designed several bridges; he invented machinery for spinning flax; another for making ropes; one for digging ditches, and a dispatch boat.
In 1796 he published a “Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation,” copies of which were sent to President Washington, and other public officials, accompanied by letters telling of the advantages to be derived by canal navigation in America.
From 1797 to 1804 he resided in Paris with Joel Barlow, the American representative at the French court. During this period Fulton invented a submarine or plunging boat, called a “torpedo” designed to be used in naval warfare. Bonaparte appointed a commission to examine it. Fulton could easily descend to any depth, or rise to the surface. On one occasion he remained below the surface for four hours.
The French Government declined to patronize the project, and Fulton accepted the invitation from the English ministry, but would not agree to sell them a secret which the United States might need.
In 1806, after an absence of nineteen years, Fulton returned to the United States, and devoted his thought to the perfection of a steamboat, a project which he had in his mind for many years.
When in France Fulton met Robert R. Livingston, a rich man from New York, who was much interested in steamboats. Livingston had already built one, which proved a failure. The two men now joined forces. This made a fine association for Fulton’s knowledge of machinery was far greater than Livingston’s, but the latter had the wealth and influence which could bring an invention to the public.
Livingston obtained the sole right for them to navigate the waters of New York State for twenty years, if they could produce a steam vessel capable of a speed of four miles an hour against the current of the Hudson River.
Fulton finished his first steamboat in the Spring of 1807. He called it the Clermont, which was the name of Livingston’s estate near Albany. The first trip from New York to Albany was made on Monday, August 17, 1807—a day that will never be forgotten.
Crowds assembled at the wharf to see the Clermont start. Few believed it would move; most called it “Fulton’s Folly.” The trip was even more successful than Fulton had anticipated; it excited great admiration, and steamboats were rapidly multiplied on American waters. The Clermont made regular trips between New York and Albany, at the rate of five miles per hour, but this speed was soon increased by improvements in the machinery.
The success of the Clermont caused Fulton to construct other and larger boats and ferry boats. He also built the world’s first steam propelled warship, in the War of 1812.
In 1806 he married Harriet, daughter of Walter Livingston, by whom he had four children. He possessed great personal dignity and agreeable manners, and many noble qualities of heart.
In the midst of his triumph and in the height of his prosperity he died.
During the winter of 1814–15 he was building a floating steam battery and visited the works at Paulus Hook, now Jersey City. He stood three hours in the cold, and then tramped through pools of water. He became ill from this exposure, but again visited the construction, and died February 24, 1815. The New York Legislature wore mourning six weeks. His funeral was the largest ever held in New York City up to that time. The body of this distinguished Pennsylvanian rests in Trinity churchyard on Broadway, at the head of Wall Street.
Anti-Masonic Outbreak in Pennsylvania
First Felt at New Berlin,
August 18, 1829
From 1826 to 1838 may be termed the Anti-Masonic period, for during those eventful years bigotry ran wild, while superstition and fanaticism, like the demons of old, took possession of the many. They were the halcyon days for broken-down politicians to ride into power and place.
Seizing the opportunity, these demagogues originated a political party, whose platform denounced all secret societies, particularly the Freemasons, as destructive of every principle of religion, justice and good government.
During the years 1823 to 1826 there resided in Western New York one William Morgan, a native of Virginia, by trade a stone mason.
It has been represented that he was a veteran of the War of 1812, but he earned his title of Captain as the owner of a fishing smack, with piratical tendencies, which plied along the gulf coast.
In 1825 “Captain” Morgan was residing in Batavia, N. Y., where a poor printer, named Wilbur, concocted with Morgan to publish a book containing the revelations of Freemasonry, which was in fact the copy of a volume formerly published in England in 1750, under the title “Jachin and Boaz.”
As would be expected, the announcement of the publication of the book in question wrought up members of the Masonic fraternity to fever heat. Efforts to suppress the work were freely discussed, and some even proposed doing so by force if it could not be done otherwise.
The respectable part of the fraternity, supposing that no book of that kind would really be published, and, like a nine days’ wonder, if it was, would soon vanish and wholly disappear, took little or no interest in the matter. While they were folding their arms, an inconsiderate scheme was developed by individuals for suppressing by force the contemplated work.
But at this time Morgan was arrested for debt, September 12, 1826, and placed in a carriage and driven to Rochester. That was the last ever seen of him.
Morgan’s sudden disappearance caused great excitement, and gossips gave out the statement that Freemasons had conveyed him to Fort Niagara, while others claimed they had drowned him in Lake Ontario.
Public meetings were held and finally a reprobate named Edward Giddings spread the sensational story that Freemasons had abducted and foully put Morgan to death.
At this time the body of a man was washed ashore on Lake Ontario, and a week after interment the body was exhumed and a second inquest determined that “William Morgan had come to his death by drowning.” The corpse did not, in any particular, resemble Morgan, but the crowd determined that “it was a good enough Morgan until after election.” This body was identified as that of Timothy Monroe, who had drowned September 26. The remains were buried by his widow.
This should have ended the Morgan excitement but it did no such thing. “A lie well stuck to is more convincing than the truth.” So a most infamous deception was practiced upon the people.
Prosecutions were instituted against those who were supposed to have anything to do with the abduction of Morgan. Many trials resulted, but no murder was ever established.
What had become of Morgan? Was he drowned or murdered?
As early as September 26, 1826, the “Intelligencer,” of Harrisburg, as well as other newspapers, cautioned the Masonic fraternity against “a man calling himself Captain Morgan, as he is a swindler and a dangerous man.”
It has been authentically settled that after the night of the so-called abduction, being threatened with numerous suits for debt and other misdemeanors, Morgan left the country of his own free will, going directly to Australia, the passage money being furnished him. Arriving in that far distant clime, he established a newspaper, but died ten years later. A son, who accompanied him, continued the business, and was living just prior to our Civil War.
The Freemasons of New York State, as a body and individually, disclaimed all knowledge of any abduction of “Captain” Morgan.
By 1828 the Anti-Masonic movement had gained such impetus in New York that a candidate for governor was placed on their ticket. Anti-Masonic tickets were named in Massachusetts, Vermont and Ohio.
In 1829 the storm broke out in Pennsylvania, and was first felt in the little town of New Berlin, Union County, where Lafayette Lodge No. 194 was holding a public procession August 18. The speakers for the occasion were Hon. Jesse Merrill, General Henry Frick, Henry C. Eyer, Reverend Just Henry Fries, Reverend John Kessler and Reverend Henry Piggott. Henry W. and George A. Snyder, distinguished sons of former Governor Simon Snyder, were officers of the lodge and had arranged the program.
The meeting was broken up by the hostile action of a mob. It was these same people who sent Ner Middlesworth, that great exponent of Anti-Masonry to the General Assembly; it was also in New Berlin where the first Anti-Masonic newspapers were established.
Joseph Ritner was placed in nomination for the office of Governor by the Anti-Masonic convention, which met in Harrisburg in 1829, and he received 51,000 votes, only 30,000 less than his successful opponent, George Wolf.
A national convention was held in Baltimore September, 1831, which placed a complete ticket in the field. In 1832 the Anti-Masons of Pennsylvania again placed Joseph Ritner in nomination, but he was again defeated by Governor Wolf, but two years later the Anti-Masons gained control of the Legislature, and under the capable leadership of Thaddeus Stevens, made political history in the Keystone State.
In the election of October, 1835, Joseph Ritner was elected, and with both branches of the General Assembly, the Anti-Masons were determined to carry out their various unlawful measures with a high hand.
The Stevens Legislative investigation held December, 1835, proved to be a fiasco, as the inquisition failed to disclose a single unlawful act upon the part of any member of the order of Freemasons or Odd Fellows.
By 1838 the clouds of ignorant oppression had cleared away, and the people, who cared to do so, could unite with either secret organization without fear of social ostracism or political suicide.
York County and Its Part in the Revolution,
Erected August 19, 1749
York County, erected August 19, 1749, from part of Lancaster County, played a conspicuous part and contributed its full share of troops during the period of the early troubles of our Republic. Indeed York County seems to have been in the struggle from the earliest moment to the end of the conflict and in addition furnished men who assumed a leading role in that stirring drama.
Colonel Thomas Hartley, himself one of the greatest patriots of the Revolutionary times, in a letter to President Reed, of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, says:
“They knew they had been as patriotic as any, that the York district had armed the first in Pennsylvania, and had furnished more men in it than any other district on the continent of the same number of inhabitants.”
As early as December, 1774, James Smith, who was a Provincial statesman and sensed the impending struggle with the Mother Country, employed himself in raising and drilling a volunteer company, of which he was elected captain. This is said to be the very first body of volunteer soldiers organized in Pennsylvania, with a view to oppose the armies of Great Britain. The officers were James Smith, captain; Thomas Hartley, first lieutenant; David Grier, second lieutenant, and Henry Miller, ensign. Each of these officers, thus early attached to the cause of liberty, became distinguished in the subsequent history of the country.
A company of riflemen was recruited in York County under the Resolution of Congress, June 14, 1775, which was attached to Thompson’s Riflemen, the first command to receive commissions after General Washington. This company reached Cambridge, Mass., July 25, 1775, and was the first company to arrive there from any point south of Long Island or west of the Hudson River. It got into action July 29, before all the regiment had arrived.
Another rifle company was recruited in York County for fifteen months’ service, which marched from York early in May, 1776, and at Philadelphia became a part of Colonel Samuel Miles’ rifle regiment. In July five battalions of militia marched from York County to New Jersey. Of these five battalions two were formed and attached to the Flying Corps; Colonel Michael Swope commanded the first battalion, and Colonel Richard McAllister the second. Colonel Swope’s battalion suffered severe losses in battles of Long Island and Fort Washington. One company in this battalion lost all but eighteen men at Long Island. Colonel Swope and fourteen of his officers were taken prisoners when Fort Washington fell into the hands of the enemy November 16, 1776. Ensign Jacob Barnitz, of York, was wounded in this battle and lay fifteen months in prison.
Toward the close of 1777, events occurred which brought York into prominence and made it for a time the capital of the now independent States of America. The Continental Congress sat there for nine months, and at a time when its proceedings were of the greatest importance.
The disastrous Battle of Brandywine, fought September 11, 1777, decided the fate of Philadelphia. On the approach of the British towards the Schuylkill, Congress adjourned to meet in Lancaster on September 27, and on the same day adjourned to York. The Susquehanna was regarded as a safe barrier between them and the enemy, and they began their sessions there September 30, where they continued until the British evacuated Philadelphia. The Congress left York June 27, 1778.
October 17, 1777, Congress passed a Resolve, to procure a printing press so that the intelligence which Congress would receive from time to time could be given to the public. The press of Hall and Sellers, of Philadelphia, was set up in York, and even Continental money printed there. This was the first printing press erected in Pennsylvania west of the Susquehanna.
On November 15, Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation; on November 27, a new Board of War was organized. On December 1, Baron Steuben landed at Portsmouth, N. H., and started for York, where he arrived February 5, 1778, and remained two weeks. He was received by Congress with every mark of distinction, and was appointed Inspector General of the Army.
The treaty with France was ratified by Congress May 4, 1778, which was the occasion for a general celebration.
General Gates resided in York during part of the time Congress met there and when Lafayette called upon him, he was surrounded by friends, seated about the table and it was at this dinner the conspiracy was revealed to supplant Washington and make Gates the Commander in Chief of the Army. It was in York that General Gates and Colonel Wilkinson planned to fight a duel to settle their differences, but before the meeting, their troubles were adjusted.
General Wayne arrived in York February 27, 1781, on his way to assume command of part of the Pennsylvania Line which was to reinforce General Greene, then in the south. On May 20, Wayne’s corps, smaller in number than he anticipated, and by no means well equipped, but reduced to discipline and harmony, marched southward from York.
On April 17, 1777, Congress changed the name of the “Committee of Secret Correspondence,” to “Committee of Foreign Affairs,” and appointed Thomas Paine, secretary of the committee. His “American Crisis,” Number V., addressed to General Sir William Howe, commenced in the house of Hon. William Henry of Lancaster, was finished and printed at York.
Major John André, afterwards executed as a spy, was in York for a short time after he was taken prisoner at St. John’s, September, 1775, and was from there transferred to Carlisle.
General Washington visited York in 1791, when he journeyed from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia. He arrived in York from Hanover at 2 o’clock in the afternoon of Saturday, July 2, 1791, and took lodging at the tavern of Baltzer Spangler. He was met with the Independent Light Infantry, commanded by Captain George Hay, which fired a salute of fifteen rounds. He had dinner with Colonel Thomas Hartley, and walked through the principal streets, and drank tea with his distinguished host.
At night there were illuminations and every other demonstration of joy. The next morning his excellency was waited upon by the Chief Burgess and principal inhabitants, and was given an address, to which the President replied. General Washington attended divine service and then proceeded on his journey, being accompanied as far as Wright’s Ferry by a number of the principal inhabitants, among the latter being his close friend Colonel Thomas Hartley.
Greatest Victory Over Indians Gained by
General Wayne at Fallen Timbers,
August 20, 1794
After the close of the Revolution the country west of the Ohio was still occupied with Indian tribes ever ready to bring devastation, destruction, and desolation to the homes of the border settlers, and ever incited and aided by the British, who held a number of posts along the lakes. The Indians had determined the Ohio River should be the permanent boundary between them and the United States.
President Washington sent Generals Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair in succession to command troops selected to overawe them, and each in turn experienced bitter defeat by the savages. Washington then sent for General Anthony Wayne and in April, 1782, placed him in command of the Army of the United States.
Wayne understood his mission. He organized his “Legion” in Pittsburgh, June, 1792, consisting of only 2,631 troops recruited from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey. Pennsylvania furnished all but 232 of the command.
Wayne inaugurated strict discipline. Two soldiers were shot down for sleeping on their posts. Whiskey was forbidden in the camp and drunkenness severely punished. He insisted upon cleanliness and regularity of diet. He taught the use of the bayonet and the sword. He dined with his officers, and carefully planned every detail of his expedition with their full knowledge.
Wayne had Chief Cornplanter, ninety Choctaw and twenty-five Chicasaw Indians with him, whom he used to sow dissension among the hostile Indians.
The war lasted more than two years during which time there were periods of four and five months that he was without communication with the seat of government. The Government viewed this Indian war with alarm, and not without cause, as two previous defeats made the outcome doubtful.
While the hostile Indians were perfecting their combinations the Government sent commissioners to Fort Erie to sue for peace. The result was that the Indians gained the time they needed, then refused to treat at all, and the burden fell upon Wayne to see that the commissioners reached their homes with their scalps on their heads, for which they formally gave him thanks.
On October 13 he had marched to a point on the Miami River, eighty miles north of Cincinnati, where he found a camp which he fortified and called Greenville and remained there through the winter. From this camp he sent out scouts and spies to secure intelligence and scalps. He also sent a force to the field where St. Clair had been defeated to bury the bones of the dead and erect a stockade called Fort Recovery.
In May a lieutenant with a convoy gallantly charged and repulsed an assault. About seventeen hundred of the enemy made a desperate attempt June 13, to capture an escort under the walls of Fort Recovery and to carry the Fort by storm, keeping up a heavy fire and making repeated efforts for two days, but were finally repulsed. Twenty-one soldiers were killed and twenty-nine wounded.
A few days later, after receiving reinforcements of mounted men from Kentucky, General Wayne marched seventy miles in the heart of the Indian country, built Fort Defiance, and then within sight of a British fort on the Miami River made his preparations for the battle which was inevitable.
He had marched nearly four hundred miles through the country of an enemy, both watchful and vindictive; had cut a road through the woods the entire way, upon a route longer, more remote and more surrounded with dangers than that of Braddock; had overcome almost insuperable difficulties in securing supplies; had built three forts, and now had reached a position where the issue must be decided by arms.
On the morning of August 20, 1794, the army advanced five miles, with the Miami on the right, a brigade of mounted volunteers on the left, a light brigade in their rear, and a selected battalion of horsemen in the lead. They came to a place where a tornado had swept through the forest, and thrown down the trees, since called Fallen Timbers, and where the twisted trunks and uprooted trees lay in such profusion as to impede the movements of the cavalry.
Here the Indians, two thousand in number, encouraged by the proximity of the British fort, determined to make a stand. Hidden in the woods and the high grass, they opened fire upon the mounted men in front and succeeded in driving them back to the main army. The enemy were formed in three lines in supporting distance of each other, extending two miles at right angles to the river and were protected and covered by the woods.
Wayne formed his force in two lines. He saw the enemy was strong in numbers and intended to turn his flank, and met this situation by ordering up the rear line to support the first, by sending a force by a circuitous route to turn the right of the enemy; by sending another force at the same time along the river to turn their left, and by a direct charge in the front to drive the Indians from their covert with the bayonet.
The Indians could not stand this attack, broke in confusion, and were driven two miles in the course of an hour through the woods with great loss. Their dead bodies and the British muskets lay scattered in all directions. All of the village, corn fields and houses, including that of Alexander McKee, the British Indian agent, within a scope of one hundred miles were burned and destroyed.
American annals disclose no such other victory over the savage tribes. It secured for civilization the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. It made possible the development of such states as Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
When the news reached London, the British Government, recognizing that the cause of the Indians was hopeless, ordered the evacuation of the posts at Detroit, Oswego and Niagara.
Two weeks later General Wayne was crushed to earth by a falling tree, so much bruised as to cause great pain and hemorrhages, and only the fortunate location of a stump, on which the tree finally rested, saved his life.
After the treaty of cession and peace had been executed, and after an absence in the wilderness for three years, he returned home in 1795, everywhere hailed with loud acclaim as the hero of the time and received in Philadelphia by the City Troop and with salvos from cannon, ringing of bells and fireworks.
His last battle had been fought. His work was done. “Both body and mind were fatigued by the contest,” were his pathetic words. Soon afterwards the President sent him as a commissioner to Detroit and on his return he died at Presque Isle, now Erie, December 15, 1796.
Chief Tedyuskung Annoys Moravian Brethren;
Arrives at Bethlehem
August 21, 1756
Tedyuskung, the great king of the Delaware tribe and one of the most powerful of the Indian sachems in Pennsylvania, much enjoyed the prominence he gained by frequent councils and conferences with the Governor and other Provincial dignitaries, even at the expense of causing a great jealousy among Indian chiefs of other nations. He was a skilled diplomat, a good speaker and a friend of the English, yet he was rather crafty in his dealings with both the whites and his own race, and was given over to excessive intemperance.
At the conclusion of the great treaty held at Easton, July 24–31, 1756, the Governor and others in authority doubted the sincerity of Tedyuskung, but he satisfied them on that score, and during August remained almost constantly in or about Fort Allen on a drunken debauch. Finally on August 21, he removed with his retinue to Bethlehem, where his wife, Elizabeth, and her three young children determined to remain, while the King went on an expedition to the Minisinks to put a stop to some Indian depredations.
Tedyuskung went from there to Wyoming and sent word to Major Parsons, at Easton, that he wanted his wife and children sent to him. Major Parsons went immediately to Bethlehem and made known the King’s desire to his wife, but she decided to remain where she was. This then was the cause of frequent visits to Bethlehem, where Tedyuskung much annoyed the Moravian Brethren, who were not in position to control his actions when he was their unwelcome visitor.
July, 1757, he was for some time in and about Fort Allen and then in attendance at the second great conference at Easton, during which time his wife and children were with him. Two days after this conference closed Tedyuskung, his family and others went to Bethlehem. Reichel, in his “Memorials of the Moravian Church,” says:
“Some of these unwelcome visitors halted for a few days, and some proceeded as far as Fort Allen and then returned, undecided as to where to go and what to do. During the month full 200 were counted—men, women and children—among them lawless crowds who annoyed the Brethren by depredations, molested the Indians at the Manakasy, and wrangled with each other over their cups at ‘The Crown’.”
Tedyuskung tarried in Bethlehem several days when he set out on a mission to Tioga, but on the way he was met by messengers from the Ohio Indians, who bore such glad tidings that the King determined he should go to Philadelphia and appraise the Governor and Council of the good news.
At Bethlehem Tedyuskung spent a few days with his wife and family, meantime holding a conference with Bishop Spangenberg, Reverend Mack and other Moravian Brethren—Augustus, the christianized Delaware chief serving as interpreter. Tedyuskung inquired of the Moravians why the converted Indians could not move to Wyoming. Bishop Spangenberg told him they would require a town of their own, where a school and church could be built. The king said these should be built there.
He then surprised the Brethren by telling them that reports had been circulated among the Indians that the Moravians had decapitated the Indians among them, placed their heads in bags and sent them to Philadelphia. These charges had so exasperated the Indians that they conspired to attack the Brethren’s settlements and cut off the inhabitants without regard to age or sex. He and Paxinoso had on one occasion persuaded 200 warriors, who had banded together for this purpose, to desist from their design.
After his interview with the Governor and Council in Philadelphia, Tedyuskung returned to Bethlehem, where he remained with his wife and children until October 7 when he again went to Philadelphia.
During all her sojourn in Bethlehem the King’s wife was maintained by the Moravian Brethren at the expense of the Province. Tedyuskung was back in Bethlehem in about ten days and remained until the 27th, when they set out for Wyoming, where the Commissioners were daily expected to build a fort and some houses for the Delaware.
Having previously signified to the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem his desire to spend the winter at Bethlehem, permission for him and his family to do so was reluctantly granted. Thereupon, upon his return from New Jersey, a lodge was built for him near “The Crown” inn. There he held court and gave audience to the wild embassies that would come from the Indian country.
In addition to Tedyuskung and his family nearly one hundred Indians spent the winter of 1757–58 in the neighborhood of “The Crown.” Reichel says: “Government was imposing an additional burden upon the Brethren when it committed this lawless crowd to their keeping * * * We are at a loss how to act. Furthermore, we are told that some of our neighbors are growing uneasy at our receiving such murdering Indians, as they style them. I fear we shall be obliged to set watches to keep such of them off as are disposed to quarrel with, or may attempt to hurt any of them.”
Tedyuskung attended a long conference in Philadelphia in the early part of 1758, and made trips to and from Bethlehem for this purpose.
He was back in Bethlehem in April, and on the 17th sent a number of the Delaware, who had wintered in the Moravian town, to Fort Allen, there to join Captain Jacob Arndt’s soldiers in ranging the frontiers. He also sent his sons, Captains John Jacob and Amos and three other Delaware over the Allegheny to the Indians towns of the Delaware and Shawnee.
Tedyuskung remained in Bethlehem, and Justice Horsfield wrote on April 18: “I never before was so much convinced of Tedyuskung’s zeal for the English cause.” Five days later, however, a soldier came to Bethlehem from Fort Allen with a letter from Captain Arndt in which he stated that he was having trouble with the Indians sent to the fort by Tedyuskung—the messengers, who were still there, as well as those who were to range being continually drunk, having brought with them some casks of rum from Easton.
Tedyuskung made another trip to Philadelphia in May to urge the Governor to again send the Commissioners to finish the fort and the houses. He returned to Bethlehem about May 8.
Reichel says: “When the swelling of the maple buds and the whitening of the shad-bush on the river’s bank betokened the advent of Spring, there were busy preparations going on in Tedyuskung’s company over the matter of their long-expected removal to the Indian Eldorado on the flats of the Winding River. It was the 16th of cornplanting month (May), the month called Tauwinipen, when the Delaware King, his Queen, his counsellors and his warriors led by the Commissioners, took up the line of march for Fort Allen, beyond there to strike the Indian trail that led over the mountains to Wyoming Valley—and on the going out of these spirits ‘The Crown’ was swept and garnished and Ephriam Colver, the publican, had rest.”
Gilbert Family in Indian Captivity Twenty-nine
Months Released August 22,1782
Benjamin Gilbert and family, living on Mahoning Creek, about five miles from Fort Allen, now Weissport, Carbon County, were carried into a bitterly painful captivity by a party of Indians, who took them to Canada, and there separated them. At the time of this occurrence, April 25, 1780, the event caused intense excitement throughout the State, and from an interesting narrative published shortly after their release from captivity, August 22, 1782, the following facts are ascertained.
Benjamin Gilbert was a Quaker from Byberry, near Philadelphia, and in 1775 removed with his family to a farm on Mahoning Creek, near Fort Allen. They lived comfortably in a good log dwelling house, with barn and saw and grist mill. For five years all was peace and industry.
On the eventful day, about sunrise they were surprised by a party of Indians who took the following prisoners: Benjamin Gilbert, aged 69; Elizabeth, his wife, 55 years; sons, Joseph, aged 41; Jesse, 19; Abner, 14; and daughters, Rebecca, 16; and Elizabeth, 12; and Sarah, wife of Jesse; Thomas Peart, son of Benjamin Gilbert’s wife; Benjamin Gilbert, a nephew of the elder Gilbert; Andrew Harrigar, a German servant and Abigail Dodson, a neighbor’s daughter, the whole number taken being twelve. The Indians then proceeded about half a mile to Benjamin Peart’s and there captured himself and his wife and their nine months’ old child.
The last look the poor captives had of their once comfortable homes was to view the buildings in flames as they were led over Summer Hill, on their way over Mauch Chunk and Broad Mountains into the Nescopeck Path, and then across Quakake Creek to Mahanoy Mountain, where they passed the first night, fastened between notched saplings, with straps around their necks and fastened to a tree.
Their march was resumed soon after dawn and day after day they tramped over the wild and rugged region between the Lehigh and the Chemunk branch of the Susquehanna. Often ready to faint by the way, the cruel threat of instant death urged them again to march. The old man, Benjamin Gilbert, had begun to fail, and was already painted black, the fatal omen among the Indians; but when they were to kill him, the pitiful pleadings of his wife saved him. Subsequently in Canada, Gilbert told the chief he could say what none of the other Indians could, “that he had brought in the oldest man and the youngest child.”
On the fifty-fourth day of their captivity, the Gilbert family had to experience the fearful ordeal of running the gauntlet.
“The prisoners,” says the narrative, “were released from the heavy loads they had heretofore been compelled to carry, and were it not for the treatment they expected on approaching the Indian towns, and the hardship of separation, their situation would have been tolerable; but the horror of their minds, arising from the dreadful yells of the Indians as they approached the hamlets, is easier conceived than described—for they were no strangers to the customary cruelty exercised upon the captives on entering their towns. The Indians, men, women and children, collect together, bringing clubs and stones in order to beat them, which they usually do with great severity. The blows must be borne without complaint. The prisoners are beaten until the Indians weary with the cruel sport.
“Two of the women who were on horseback were much bruised by falling from their horses, which were frightened by the Indians. Elizabeth, the mother, took shelter by the side of a warrior, who sent her away, she then received several violent blows, so that she was almost disabled. The blood trickled from their heads in a stream. Their hair being cropped close and the clothes they had on in rags, made their situation truly piteous. Whilst the Indians were inflicting this revenge upon the captives, the chief came and put a stop to any further cruelty.”
Soon after this torture, a severer trial awaited them, when they were separated. Some were given over to other Indians to be adopted, others were hired out as servants, and the remainder were sent down the lake to Montreal. Among the latter was old Benjamin Gilbert, by this time broken in body and mind, and he there succumbed. His remains were interred near old Fort Coeur du Lac, below Ogdensburg.
Some of the family met with kind treatment from the hands of British officers, who were interested in their story, and exerted themselves to release them from captivity. Sarah Gilbert, wife of Jesse, became a mother, and Elizabeth Gilbert was allowed to give her daughter every necessary attendance. One day while Elizabeth was ironing for the family of Adam Scott, a little girl told her some one wanted to see her and upon entering another room, she found six of her own children. A messenger was sent to inform Jesse and his wife, so that Joseph Gilbert, Benjamin Peart and Elizabeth, his wife, and their young child, and Abner and Elizabeth Gilbert the younger, were with their mother on this occasion.
Elizabeth Gilbert, the younger, only twelve years of age, had been adopted by an Indian family, but was permitted to live with a white family named Secord, by whom she was treated with endearing attention.
A year later Mr. Secord took Betsy on a trip to Niagara, and there she saw six of her relatives, most of whom had been released and were preparing to leave for Montreal, perhaps never again to see the others. The sight of their beloved little sister roused every energy to effect her release, which desire was generously seconded by John Secord and the Tory leader, Colonel John Butler, who, soon after her visit to Niagara sent for the Indian who claimed Elizabeth as his child and made overtures for her ransom. At first he declared that he “would not sell his own flesh and blood,” but, attacked through his interest, or in other words, his necessities, the negotiation succeeded and her youngest child was among the treasures first restored to the mother at Montreal.
Eventually they were all released and collected at Montreal and on August 22, 1782, they took leave of their friends there and returned to Byberry, after a captivity of two years and five months.
The premises where stood the dwelling and improvements of the Gilbert family were on the north side of Mahoning Creek, on an elevated bank about forty perches from the main road leading from Lehighton and Weissport to Tamaqua, and about four miles from the former. Benjamin Peart lived about a mile farther up the creek, and about a quarter of a mile from it on the south side.
Alexander Wilson, the Great American
Ornithologist, Died at Philadelphia,
August 23, 1813
Alexander Wilson, the great American ornithologist, was born in Paisley, Scotland, July 6, 1766, and died in Philadelphia, August 23, 1813. He was the son of a distiller, but at the age of thirteen was apprenticed to a weaver, and after seven years abandoned the loom and adopted the life of a peddler.
Three years were thus spent and in 1789, having prepared a volume of poems for publication, he offered his muslins and solicited subscriptions for this work. It was published in 1790, but had little success; and he again returned to the loom.
In 1792 he published “Watty and Meg,” which having appeared anonymously, was ascribed to Robert Burns though the style is very different. It is said to have had a sale of 100,000 copies in a few weeks. He wrote a severe satire upon a person in Paisley and was thrown into prison, and was afterwards compelled to burn the libel with his own hand at Paisley Cross. Upon his release, he resolved to emigrate, and arrived at New Castle, Delaware, July 14, 1794, with only a few borrowed shillings, without an acquaintance, and with no decided purpose.
After working at various trades, sometimes as a copperplate printer under Alexander Lawson, in which he showed both ambition and talent, he went through New Jersey as a peddler and during this journey seems to have first paid minute attention to the habits and appearance of birds.
He afterward taught school at various places in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, finally settling in 1802 at Kingsessing on the Schuylkill.
One of the schools he taught was situated on the Darby Road, a short distance west of the intersection with Gray’s Ferry Road. His home was near the celebrated botanical garden of William Bartram, and he became acquainted with the famous naturalist, who, by his own love of birds, deeply interested young Wilson in that branch of nature. It was at this time that Alexander Wilson resolved to form a collection of all the birds of America.
His first excursion, October, 1804, was to Niagara Falls. He walked from Philadelphia through the unopened wilderness of western New York, and wrote a metrical description of his journey in the “Port Folio” under the title of “The Foresters, a Poem.”
Elsewhere Wilson wrote:
“Sweet flows the Schuylkill’s winding tide,
By Bartram’s green emblossomed bowers,
Where nature sports in all her pride,
Of choicest plants and fruits and flowers.”
Wilson learned drawing, coloring, and etching from Alexander Lawson, the celebrated engraver, whose tastes and instructions stimulated his own talents.
He persuaded Bradford, a Philadelphia publisher, who had employed him in 1806, in editing the American edition of Rees’s Cyclopedia, to furnish funds for an American ornithology on an adequate scale. The first volume of this work appeared in September, 1808, but it was too expensive to be very successful. The seventh volume appeared in 1813.
The interval had been passed in exploring different parts of the country for the purpose of extending his observations, collecting specimens and watching the habits of birds in their native haunts.
In January, 1810, the second volume appeared, but before the next was prepared Wilson sailed down the Ohio River in a small boat as far as Louisville, he set out on horseback from Nashville for New Orleans in May, 1811, and arrived June 6. Sailing from there he arrived back in Philadelphia in August, and began the third volume.
In September, 1812, he started on another tour of the eastern States. He completed the publication of seven volumes.
In 1813 the literary materials for the eighth volume of the “Ornithology” were ready, but its progress was greatly retarded for want of proper assistants to color the plates. Wilson was therefore obliged to undertake the whole of this department himself in addition to his other duties. He employed himself so unceasingly in the preparation of his work that he impaired his already weakened condition and hastened death. It is said that in his eagerness to obtain a rare bird, he swam across a river and caught cold from which he never recovered.
All the plates for the remainder of his work having been completed under Wilson’s own eye the letter press work on the ninth volume was supplied by his friend, George Ord, his companion in several of his expeditions, who also wrote a memoir of Wilson to accompany the last volume, and edited the eighth. Four supplementary volumes were afterwards added by Charles Lincoln Bonaparte.
An edition of Alexander Wilson’s poems was published at Paisley in 1816, and another at Belfast in 1857. A statue of him was erected at Paisley in October, 1874.
Wilson was followed by another Pennsylvanian, John James Audubon, who lived for many years on the Perkiomen near its mouth. He published an immense work upon the “Birds of America,” which brought him lasting fame. Thus the two greatest ornithologists of America are claimed as residents of our state.
In the quiet retreat of the churchyard of the old Swedes Church, or “Gloria Dei,” at Weccacoe, where he delighted to worship, repose the remains of Alexander Wilson. The distinguished ornithologist requested to be laid to rest there, as it was “a silent, shady place where the birds would be apt to come and sing over his grave.”
Governor Snyder Calls on Pennsylvania
When British Burn National Capitol
August 24, 1814
During the summer of 1813 the shores of the Chesapeake and its tributary rivers were made a general scene of ruin and distress. The British forces assumed the character of the incendiary in retaliation for the burning of the town of York, in Upper Canada, which had been taken by the American army under General Dearborn in April of that year. The burning of York was accidental, but its destruction served as a pretext for the general pillage and conflagration which followed the marching of the British army.
The enemy took possession of Washington August 24, 1814, and the commanders of the invading force, General Ross and Admiral Blackburn, proceeded in person to direct and superintend the business of burning the Capitol and city.
On August 26, Governor Simon Snyder issued a strong appeal for a call to arms: “The landing upon our shores, by the enemy, of hordes of marauders, for the purpose avowedly to create by plunder, burning and general devastation, all possible individual and public distress, gives scope for action to the militia of Pennsylvania by repelling that foe, and with just indignation seek to avenge the unprovoked wrongs heaped on our unoffending country.
“The militia generally within the counties of Dauphin, Lebannon, Berks, Schuylkill, York, Adams and Lancaster, and that part of Chester County which constitutes the Second Brigade of the Third Division, and those corps particularly, who, when danger first threatened, patriotically tendered their services in the field, are earnestly invited to rise (as on many occasions Pennsylvania has heretofore done) superior to local feeling and evasives that might possibly be drawn from an imperfect military system, and to repair with that alacrity which duty commands, and it is fondly hoped inclination will prompt, to the several places of brigade or regimental rendezvous that shall respectively be designated by the proper officer, and thence to march to the place of general rendezvous.
“Pennsylvanians, whose hearts must be gladdened at the recital of the deeds of heroism achieved by their fellow citizens, soldiers now in arms on the Lake frontier, and within the enemy’s country, now the occasion has occurred, will with order seek and punish that same implacable foe, now marauding on the Atlantic shore of two of our sister States.”
Camps were established at Marcus Hook, on the Delaware, and at York. At the latter place 5,000 men were soon under the command of Major General Nathaniel Watson, and Brigadier Generals John Forster and John Adams.
When General Ross attempted the capture of Baltimore, these Pennsylvania militia marched thither and had the high honor to aid in repelling the enemy. In the same year other of the State’s military forces rendered excellent services at Chippewa and Bridgewater, and thereby won the gratitude of the people of the entire country.
During the entire war the soil of Pennsylvania had never been trodden by a hostile foot, yet it had at one time a greater number of militia and volunteers in the service of the United States than were at any time in the field from any other state in the Union, and as she furnished more men, so did she furnish more money to carry on the war.
The treaty of Ghent was concluded December 24, 1814, but the closing acts in the tragedy of the war were the battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815, and the gallant capture of the British warships “Cyane” and “Levant,” by Captain Charles Stewart’s grand old frigate, “Constitution,” February 20, 1815.
On February 17, 1815, the treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain was ratified by the Senate.
Pennsylvania’s finances were in such sound condition that only one small temporary loan was required to pay all expenditures incurred during the war. Business did not suffer, yet during the war period a cloud was gathering which soon was to have a serious effect on the financial situation in the State. The United States Bank, after twenty years of honorable and useful life, came to an end in 1811, and at a time when its services were needed by the government and the people.
The State banks were envious of the power of the larger institution, and in the failure to renew its charter their officers saw the opportunity to advance their personal ends.
The Legislature chartered State banks over the Governor’s veto, and again the State was flooded with paper money, as it had been during the Revolution, but the terrible consequences of that deluge had long since been forgotten. The excess of issue and lack of faith in them was soon reflected by rising prices. The banks had little or no specie for redeeming their notes. Soon many banks were without funds, hence were compelled to close their doors, and both the promoters and their victims were led into financial ruin.
Governor Snyder’s great friend, Editor John Binns, had the courage to maintain that, although individuals were thus made bankrupt, the State was benefited by the results of the banking acts, for, says he: “The titles to lands became more clear, settled and certain; strangers were induced to purchase and come to Pennsylvania and settle.” Quite a costly way to clear titles.
The downfall of the banking system was followed by general depression, and many men and business institutions were forced into involuntary bankruptcy. This was an unfortunate period in Pennsylvania history, and was not a condition single to this State alone.
Normal conditions were eventually restored and then followed an era of progress which was not marred for many years.
Throughout all this trying period Governor Snyder exhibited many splendid traits of character, and met every emergency with determined courage. He was not always able to control the Legislature, and his conduct in trying to stay the deluge of paper money was one of the most noteworthy of his three successful administrations.
British Destroy Moravian Indian Town on
Order of De Peyster, August 25,1781
Colonel Daniel Brodhead had been sent with his Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment to the Western frontier, and as most of the soldiers in this renowned command had been recruited in that part of the State this assignment was gladly received. The men could do double duty by serving their country and at the same time assist in protecting their own homes.
But all did not go well for Brodhead. He was a great soldier and knew how to fight Indians, but was remiss in other matters and soon got into trouble with the Supreme Executive Council, on account of becoming involved in quarrels with officers and civilians.
Congress selected Brigadier General William Irvine, of Carlisle, to succeed Colonel Brodhead in the command of the Western Department, September 24, 1781, and he repaired to that post of duty.
Colonel J. W. de Peyster, the British commandant at Detroit, who believed the presence of the Moravian missionaries along the Tuscarawas River had seriously interfered with prosecution of the war, ordered their removal to the Sandusky Valley, where they were planted amid the villages of the hostile Wyandot and Shawnee.
On August 25, 1781, he sent Captain Matthew Elliott, the Tory officer, with a small party of Tories and French-Canadians, and 250 savages, including Wyandot under Dunquat, Delaware under Captain Pipe, and a few Shawnee to carry his order into effect. Elliott performed his errand with unnecessary brutality.
The missionaries and their converts claimed a strict neutrality, but did not observe it. Bishop Zeisberger and Reverend Heckewelder were secretly the friends of the Americans and conducted a regular clandestine correspondence with the officers at Fort Pitt, giving valuable information of the movements of the British and hostile savages. This was suspected by Colonel de Peyster and he ordered the Moravians to move nearer Detroit. The hostile Indians threatened the converts with destruction because they would not join in the war, while many borderers believed these Indians did occasionally participate in raids upon the settlements. The settlers did not take much stock in the Christianity of the Moravian Indians.
To save the Moravians from dangers on both sides, Colonel Brodhead advised them to take up their residence near Fort Pitt, but they refused to heed his warning. These converts remained between the two fires, but Zeisberger and Heckewelder were blind to their imminent peril.
The Moravian Indians numbered about one hundred families in their three villages of Schoenbrun, Gnadenhuetten, and Salem. Their homes were log cabins, with vegetable gardens and cultivated fields, and fine herds of cattle, hogs and many horses.
Elliott seized and confined the missionaries and their families and gathered them and all the converted Indians at Gnadenhuetten. They were marched from there September 11, leaving behind their great stock of corn and many effects. The sad procession descended the Tuscarawas to its junction with the Walhonding and passed up the latter stream to its source, thence over the dividing ridge to the Sandusky.
By the time the Moravians had reached the Sandusky they had been robbed of their best blankets and cooking vessels and their food was about exhausted. On the east side of the stream, about two miles above the site of Upper Sandusky, they settled down in poverty and privation, built rude shelters of logs and bark and spent the winter in great distress.
In March the missionaries were again taken to Detroit and closely examined by de Peyster, and nothing detrimental could be proved against them, yet de Peyster would not allow them to return to the Sandusky, and they made a new settlement on the Huron River.
During the forcible removal of the Moravians seven Wyandot warriors left the party and went on a raid across the Ohio River. Among the seven were three sons of Dunquat, the half-king; the eldest son, Scotosh, was the leader of the party. They visited the farm of Philip Jackson, on Harman’s Creek, and captured Jackson, who was a carpenter about 60 years of age. This capture was witnessed by Jackson’s son, who ran nine miles to Fort Cherry, on Little Raccoon Creek, and gave the alarm, but a heavy rain that night prevented immediate pursuit.
Bright and early next morning seventeen stout young men, all mounted, gathered at Jackson’s farm, and John Jack, a professional scout, declared he knew where the Indians had hidden their canoes. But only six would follow him, John Cherry, Andrew Poe, Adam Poe, William Castleman, William Rankin and James Whitacre, and they started on a gallop for the mouth of Tomlinson’s Run. Jack’s surmise was a shrewd one, based on a thorough knowledge of the Ohio River and the habits of the Indians.
After dismounting the borderers descended cautiously, and at the mouth of the run were five Indians, with their prisoner, ready to shove off. John Cherry fired and killed an Indian and was himself killed by the return fire. Four of the five Indians were killed, and Philip Jackson rescued unharmed, and Scotosh escaped up the river with a wound in his arm.
Andrew Poe in a hand to hand scuffle with two sons of the half-king, succeeded in killing one of them, who had first wounded him. The other Indian escaped and was in the act of firing at Poe when he was shot and killed. Andrew Poe fell into the stream and was mistaken for an Indian and shot in the shoulder by mistake.
The triumphant return of the party to Fort Cherry was saddened by the death of John Cherry, a great and popular leader. Scotosh was the only Indian who escaped, and he made his way back to the Upper Sandusky, with a sad message for his father and the tribe.
Volunteers Fight Two Battles in Hills Along
West Branch August 26, 1763
For boldness of attempt and depth of design the Pontiac War was perhaps unsurpassed in the annals of border warfare.
Soon as the English had been able to push past the French line of forts, which reached from Presqu’ Isle to the Monongahela, and had gained such a strong foothold in Canada, the Indians planned to destroy them at one stroke.
The renowned chiefs, Kiyasuta, of the Seneca, and Pontiac, of the Ottawa, conceived the gigantic plan of uniting all the northwestern tribes in a simultaneous attack upon the whole frontier. Utter extermination was their object.
The forts were to be taken by stratagem by separate parties, all on the same day. The border settlements were to be attacked during harvest and men, women, children, crops, cattle and cabins, were to be destroyed.
The English traders among the Indians were the first victims; out of a total of 120, only a few escaped. The frontier settlements among or near the mountains were overrun with scalping parties, marking their pathway with blood and fire.
The forts in Pennsylvania at Presqu’ Isle, Le Boeuf and Venango were taken with great slaughter. Those at Fort Pitt, Bedford and Ligonier were preserved with great difficulty. Carlisle and Fort Augusta were threatened.
General Amherst promptly dispatched Colonel Henry Bouquet to the relief of Fort Pitt, and he defeated the Indians and saved the garrison.
It was during this distressing period that the Indians planned to attack the interior settlements of Pennsylvania as far as Tulpehocken, and their great object was the capture of Fort Augusta, which had been built at the suggestion of the Indians themselves.
Alarming intelligence was everywhere received of the contemplated attacks; friendly Indians gave timely warning of each approaching danger. Especially was the situation critical in the vicinity of Paxtang where the treachery of the so-called friendly Indians was several times discovered.
Preparations were carefully made and the utmost vigilance exercised and every available resistance planned by the sturdy frontiersmen. The garrison at Fort Augusta was reinforced by additional troops recruited in the countries nearer the seat of government.
With reports constantly reaching Carlisle and other places that the Indians would attack Fort Augusta in great numbers, and believing that the Moravian Indian converts were treacherously giving information to the enemy, it was determined to check them.
Colonel John Armstrong, with about three hundred volunteers from Cumberland and Bedford Counties marched from Carlisle on an expedition to destroy the Indian town at Great Island, now Lock Haven, Pennsylvania.
When Armstrong’s party arrived at Great Island the Indians had already deserted their village a few days previous. But on his march he fell upon another village near the Big Island, now Jersey Shore. So sudden was his advance that the Indians were scarcely able to escape; they left the food hot upon their bark tables, which was prepared for dinner. The army destroyed Great Island village and a large quantity of grain and provisions.
A part of this little army was returning down the West Branch, Friday, August 26, when they encountered the enemy at Muncy Creek hill, present Lycoming County, and, in a hot skirmish which ensued, four of the volunteers were killed and four wounded. There were quite as many casualties among the savages, but they were able to bear away their dead and wounded.
Captains William Patterson, Sharp, Bedford, Laughlin and Crawford with seventy-six of their commands, arrived at Fort Augusta, Saturday, August 27, 1763. Other stragglers reached the fort during that and the following day.
These soldiers reported details of the sanguinary battle and confirmed the fears of the inhabitants about the treachery of the Moravian Indians. They reported that after the battle a party of Indians returning to Great Island from a mission to Bethlehem, were attacked by them on a hill north of the present borough of Northumberland, in which action the troops believed they had killed all of the Indian party of twelve.
There can be no doubt that these two attacks were made for there are several references to them from different sources, also J. F. Meginness in his “Otzinachson,” says:
“It is to be regretted that so little was left on record concerning the operations of this great expedition. It was the largest that had invaded the West Branch Valley up to that time, but instead of wiping out the savages and rendering them powerless, it only tended to still further enrage and cause them to commit greater deeds of blood as was proved by subsequent events.”
The first great massacre at Wyoming soon followed. A party of Six Nations stealthily murdered Tedyuskung, the Delaware King, by burning him to death in his cabin during a drunken bout. They convinced the Delaware that the crime was perpetrated by whites, who October 15, 1763, suddenly turned on the settlers while at work in the fields, brutally murdered ten of them, and left their scalped bodies in the fields, while they burned their homes, destroyed their crops and drove away the cattle. None escaped but those who fled in time to reach the mountains. This massacre was led by Captain Bull, a son of Tedyuskung.
Only the brilliant success of Colonel Henry Bouquet at Bushy Run checked the Indians, and with this repulse they became disheartened and soon after sued for peace.
Europeans Explore Waters of Pennsylvania,
Delaware Bay So Named
August 27, 1610
Quite different from all other colonies was Pennsylvania in the fact that many settlements were made within its borders and many races contributed to her people.
In 1608, the famous Captain John Smith, of Virginia, sailed up the Chesapeake Bay to its head, where he was stopped by the rocks.
At this same time the Dutch of Holland, during a lull in their war with Spain, were sending maritime expeditions over the world. They sent Henry Hudson to America. He sailed up the coast, on August 28, 1609, in his ship the “Half Moon,” entered the bay now called Delaware Bay, and cast anchor. Hudson was an Englishman, but in the service now of the Dutch.
The republic of the Netherlands, after a struggle never surpassed for heroism and constancy, had won a truce with King Philip of Spain, and the Dutch merchants had sent the English captain out upon the old quest, a short route to China.
Hudson’s appearance in Delaware Bay was before his discovery of the Hudson River, and, therefore, New Netherlands had its origin on the Delaware, called by the Dutch the Zuyd Revier, or South River.
Hudson navigated his little ship into the bay with great caution. He spent the day in making soundings, and learned that “he who would thoroughly discover this great bay must have a small pinnace to send before him, that must draw but four or five feet to sound before him.”
Hudson then sailed up the New Jersey coast, on the third day of September, anchored his ship within Sandy Hook, and the 12th he entered New York Bay through the Narrows, and discovered the great river that since has borne his name.
So far as the history of Pennsylvania is concerned there is much import in the exploration of Hudson in Delaware Bay. He made known to his employers, the Dutch East India Company, and to the seafaring nations of western Europe, the existence of this wide bay, into which, as he perceived, a great river must discharge. His discovery laid the ground for the claim by the Dutch to the country on the Delaware. Exploration followed, then trade, then occupancy, then a new State, in which the present Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York were united under one government, called New Netherlands.
On August 27, 1610, Captain Samuel Argall, from Jamestown, Va., sailed into the Delaware Bay, and, remaining a few hours, gave it the name of Delaware, in honor of Lord Delaware, then Governor of Virginia. Thus we notice that neither Captain John Smith nor Henry Hudson entered Pennsylvania, they approached the very doorway, but did not come inside.
The first actual visit of a white man seems to have been six years later, when Etienne Brulé, a Frenchman, and a follower of Champlain, the first Governor of New France, came into Pennsylvania via the headwaters of the Susquehanna River and explored its entire length.
Hudson’s report of a land rich in furs attracted the attention of the Dutch, and before 1614, five vessels came to Manhattan on the North River. One of them, the “Fortune,” commanded by Captain Cornelius Jacobson Mey, sailed in the Zuyd River, and he named the cape at the east entrance of the bay Cape Mey, and the cape on the west Cape Cornelius.
One of these vessels, the “Tiger,” was burned and her captain, Adrian Block, built a yacht forty-four and a half feet long, eleven and a half feet wide, of sixteen tons burden, to take her place. This boat, the “Onrust,” was the first built within the limits of the United States, and she was destined to fame. Cornelius Hendrickson brought the “Onrust” to the Delaware in 1616, and made the first exploration of the Delaware River, and discovered the mouth of the Schuylkill and first saw the site of Philadelphia. Here he ransomed from the Indians a Dutchman named Kleynties and two companions, who had come down from the North River by land, and who may have been the first Europeans in Pennsylvania.
On June 3, 1621, the Dutch West India Company was formed. The charter by the Dutch Government gave it the exclusive right to trade on the coast of America between Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan. This company, by virtue of its charter, took possession of the country, and dispatched the ship “New Netherland,” with a number of people, under command of Captain Mey, to the Delaware, where, on the eastern bank, fifteen leagues from its mouth, Captain Mey erected Fort Nassau.
The site of this fort was about five miles above Wilmington, and here four married couples and eight seamen lived. This was, probably, the first settlement on the Delaware River. Fort Nassau was a log structure, capable of defense against bows and arrows, sufficient for a depot of furs, but badly situated to command the commerce of the river. It stood for nearly thirty years, until 1651, and in that time was the center on this continent of Dutch authority and trade. It was to this fort that the Indians of Pennsylvania brought their peltries to exchange for articles that served their use or pleased their fancy, or for rum that made them drunk.
Another settlement was made farther north, on the same side of the river, which consisted of three or four families.
The administration of the affairs of New Netherlands was confided by the Dutch West Indian Company to Peter Minuit, who arrived at Manhattan, May 4, 1626. He came from Wesel, and was commissioned as director-general. It was he who soon after his arrival “purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians for sixty guilders, or the sum of twenty-five dollars in real money.”
In spite of the fact that the Dutch West Indian Company in 1629 granted special privileges to all persons who should plant any colony in New Netherland, up until 1631 no white man had made a settlement on the west bank of the Delaware.
On December 30, 1630, David Pieterzoon De Vries, with thirty-two people and a large stock of cattle, sailed from the Texel, in the ship “Walrus,” and arrived at the southern cape, Cornelius, now Henlopen, and made a settlement near the present town of Lewes, and called it Swanendael, or the Valley of the Swans. De Vries is the finest figure among the early pioneer history of the settlement of this part of our country. He was intelligent, energetic and humane.
World Struggle for Oil Began at Titusville,
August 28, 1859
The gigantic struggle for oil began in Titusville, Pennsylvania, August 28, 1859, when Colonel Edwin L. Drake struck oil in the world’s first well.
This small hole drilled through the rock so peacefully opened the way to wealth hitherto unknown. It yielded about forty barrels per day, but the precious fuel was now produced in commercial quantities. It opened also the most important natural production of Pennsylvania, after iron and coal.
This first well was in Cherry Tree Township, on the Watson Flats, on the bank of Oil Creek, about two miles below the thrifty borough of Titusville.
Venango County seems to have been the native home for petroleum for although it has been found in large quantities in neighboring counties, it was first gathered there and its presence was known from the advent of man in that vast region.
The Indians gathered oil from a stream called Oil Creek, in this vicinity, which they used for medicinal purposes. It became well known all over the country as “Seneca Oil,” “British Oil” and other names. It was collected by digging out the place where it oozed out of the ground, and when oil and water had accumulated, blankets were thrown in, taking up the oil, when it was wrung out, and the process repeated.
A century since the product of Oil Creek Valley amounted to a dozen barrels a year. The first shipment in bulk was made by a man named Cary, who filled two five-gallon kegs and lashed them on either side of the horse he rode to the market at Pittsburgh. This supply stocked the market.
By the year 1865 Venango County shipped 13,000 barrels per day about the only oil produced in this country.
Petroleum was desired as an illuminator, but the small quantity obtainable made it too expensive.
According to the production records more than one billion barrels of oil were produced in 1923 for a world’s record in oil production—and yet the supply is far short of the world demand.
Fish oil is the earliest known illuminant and lubricant. “Coal oil,” however, still used erroneously as the name for kerosene, was discovered less than eighty years ago by Dr. Abraham Gesner, who, in 1846, obtained oil from coal. That was enough to ruin the fish oil industry, and soon more than fifty coal oil works were put in operation, distilling oil from bituminous, or soft coal.
A man named Kier, at Tarentum, Pennsylvania, in 1847, bored for salt water and pumped up oil. He put it in barrels and sold it. A professor at Dartmouth College, using some of the oil, told George H. Bissell that in his opinion it could be used for illuminating purposes. Bissell investigated these claims and organized the Petroleum Oil Company—which was the first of its kind in the United States, and sent a quantity to Benjamin Silliman, Professor of Chemistry in Yale College, who reported that nearly the whole of the raw product could be treated so as to be used for illuminating and other purposes without any waste.
In December, 1857, Colonel Edwin L. Drake, one of the stockholders of this company, rode into Titusville on a mail coach from Erie. He carried with him $1,000 with which to begin boring for oil. He started immediately to his work, but met with many discouragements.
Well drillers were unknown and well drilling machinery almost unheard of in 1858. He built his “pump house” and derrick, and with the assistance of “Uncle Billy” Smith, began drilling.
The beginning was made in quicksand and clay, and as soon as the hole was made it filled up with water and caved in. Drake then hit upon the scheme of driving an iron pipe through to bedrock, and its success made the use of this method the standard practice of today in the oil fields everywhere.
After rock was reached they bored but three feet per day, but by Saturday, August 27, 1859, the well had reached the depth of sixty-nine feet and the drill was working in coarse sand. Smith and his sons, who were helping him, had finished for the week. As they were quitting the drill dropped six inches, apparently into a crevice, as was common in salt wells. No attention was paid to this circumstance, the tools were drawn out and all hands adjourned to Titusville.
Sunday morning Uncle Billy strolled out to the drill, and to his astonishment found the well filled within a few feet of the surface with a dark fluid. It was oil. The news soon spread to the village, and when Colonel-Drake appeared he found Uncle Billy guarding three barrels of petroleum. The pumping apparatus was adjusted, and by noon the well was producing at the rate of twenty barrels per day. The problem of the ages had been solved. The world’s first oil well was in production.
Then began what has been called the “oil fever.” People from all parts of the country flocked to western Pennsylvania. Oil companies were everywhere organized, whose stock was sold on the market. Land which for generations had been regarded as almost barren sold for fabulous prices.
“Coal Oil Johnnie,” an ignorant young man whose paternal acres had long brought only poverty and were now found to be located with wealth, appeared in Philadelphia, scattering ten dollar bills in all directions, and buying teams of horses on one day, only to give them to his coachman on the next. He built an opera house in Cincinnati and ended his career as its doorkeeper.
In 1860, near Rouseville, the oil flowed out of a well without the use of a pump, and other flowing wells in adjacent localities were soon found.
Oil was first transported in wagons and boats. The railroads were laid out to Oil City in 1865. In 1864 Samuel Van Syckel had constructed a pipe line four miles in length, and the result was a change in the entire method of transportation. A refinery was built at Corry in 1862.
The Pennsylvania grade of crude oil is the best lubricant that man has ever found. And since refineries can add nothing to an oil that was not present in its crude state, Pennsylvania grade of crude oil is still supreme.
In recent years the Standard Oil Company has controlled to a great extent the oil production of the country.
The largest individual fortune the world has ever seen is the outcome of the development of the business of securing and distributing coal oil.
Joseph Galloway, Loyalist Politician, and
Member Continental Congress,
Died August 29, 1803
Joseph Galloway, the Loyalist Politician, was born in the town of West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, in the year 1731. His great-grandfather, Richard Galloway, of London, England, acquired considerable land in Lord Baltimore’s province in 1662, thus indicating that he was a man of good fortune and respectability.
Peter Galloway, father of Joseph, removed with his family in 1740 to Kent, not far from Philadelphia, where he died while Joseph was yet a mere boy. Being possessed of large landed property Joseph chose the study of law, and was admitted to the bar and allowed to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania as early as 1749. In the meantime he had obtained a good social standing, and as early as 1748 had been made a member of the Schuylkill Fishing Company, a club composed of the most prominent and aristocratic men of Philadelphia.
Mr. Galloway still further enhanced his prospects by his marriage in 1753 with Grace Growden, daughter of Lawrence Growden, an influential character and a former Speaker of the Assembly. The Growdens were the owners of the famous iron works at Durham, Pennsylvania, and possessed large means.
Mr. Galloway rapidly acquired a large practice and became one of the eminent lawyers in the province. He and John Dickinson succeeded Andrew Hamilton in the leadership of the Philadelphia bar prior to the Revolution.
Galloway became a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1756, and his legal talents proved of especial service in that body. In recognition of his unusual attainments as a lawyer and public man, Mr. Galloway was given the degree LL.D., by Princeton College in 1769.
Mr. Galloway several times served as an Indian Commissioner and attended important conferences at Easton and on missions to the Indian country.
He became an opponent of the Proprietaries and fought a successful battle with the Governor over the question of preserving to the Assembly the disposal of the money and forbidding the Governor to assist in its expenditure.
When the effort was made to abolish the Proprietorship and make Pennsylvania a royal province, the Assembly passed resolutions rehearsing the tyranny of the Proprietary and a bitter factional struggle ensued among the people. In October, 1764, the Assembly passed the resolution for a change of government by a vote of 27 to 3. Rather than sign the document Isaac Norris resigned as speaker.
In the final debate, Joseph Galloway and John Dickinson made the leading speeches for and against, respectively. Galloway favored the abolition of the Proprietary government, while Dickinson believed its continuance would better serve the province. Benjamin Franklin and Galloway were so closely associated that their leadership was hard to beat.
Galloway was at the head of the committee which considered and reported upon the grievances of the Province in the “Paxtang Riot” affair following the murder of the Conestoga Indians, December, 1763.
The conduct of Galloway during the excitement attending the passage of the Stamp Act was conspicuously loyal. He feared the tyranny of mob rule more than the tyranny of Parliament.
Mr. Galloway gave expression to his views in an article signed “Americanus,” printed in the Pennsylvania Journal, in which he warned his countrymen of the evils to which their seditious conduct would lead. This article aroused great indignation against him. He was called a Tory and went by the name of “Americanus” for some time.
Mr. Galloway had an extreme aversion to the Presbyterians. He associated them with rioters, and in their support of the “Paxtang Boys” he was convinced they were dangerous characters.
Although he had taken a rather unpopular stand in the Stamp Act controversy, he was returned to the Assembly in 1766, and elected its Speaker.
Mr. Galloway approved the proposal for a Continental Congress and was one of the eight Pennsylvanians who composed the First Continental Congress. Although Dickinson was the leader, Galloway played a conspicuous but not very honorable part. According to Bancroft, he “acted as a volunteer spy for the British Government.”
It is a fact that he was a conservative in his views, and that his line of argument in his first debates tended towards political independence. He proposed a plan of colonial government, which was rejected. This plan contemplated a government with a president-general appointed by the king, and a Grand Council, chosen every three years by the colonial assemblies, who were to be authorized to act jointly with Parliament in the regulation of affairs of the colonies.
The following year Galloway was permitted to resign and thus be relieved from serving on account of the radical acts against England. He abandoned the Whigs soon as the question of independence had begun to be agitated, and thence forward he was regarded as a zealous Tory.
When the Howes issued their proclamation in 1776, granting amnesty to such Americans as would forsake the Revolutionary cause, Galloway’s courage failed him and he accepted the offer.
“Galloway has fled and joined the venal Howe;
To prove his baseness, see him cringe and bow,
A traitor to his country and its laws,
A friend to tyrants and their cursed cause,” etc.
Galloway accompanied Howe’s expedition against Philadelphia. When the British assumed control he was appointed Superintendent of the Police of the City and Suburbs, of the Port and of the Prohibited Articles. Thus he was for about five months the head of the civil government.
He raised and disciplined troops; and gathered a company of Bucks County refugees, and with these two bodies he carried on military enterprises against Americans.
The Pennsylvania Assembly, March 6, 1778, passed an “act for the attainder of divers traitors,” among whom was Joseph Galloway. His estate was confiscated, and according to his testimony before Parliament, was worth at least £40,000 sterling. His house was appropriated by the State of Pennsylvania as a residence for the President of the Supreme Executive Council, but was afterwards sold to Robert Morris.
Forbidden the privilege of returning to Pennsylvania, Mr. Galloway devoted his leisure time to religious studies. He died at Watford, Herts, England, August 29, 1803.
Etymology of Pennsylvania Counties Erected
Since Penn Set Sail August 30, 1682
William Penn sailed from England in the ship “Welcome,” August 30, 1682.
Upon his arrival the organization of his province was pushed with dispatch, and today that vast territory is divided into sixty-seven counties, each one of which possesses history worth the telling.
The genealogy of the counties of Pennsylvania is both interesting and historical, and presents some valuable data. The three original counties were Philadelphia, Chester and Bucks, so named by William Penn in the latter part of the year 1682.
It is a singular coincidence that Philadelphia County should be surrounded with counties somewhat similar to those which surround London in England; Buckingham, or Bucks, Chester and Lancashire.
The name Philadelphia means “brotherly love,” the other three were given their names in honor of their English importance. In fact all the counties formed and named prior to the Revolution were named identically and relatively after the counties in England in this chronological order in the Province—Philadelphia, Chester, Bucks, Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Berks, Northampton, Bedford, Northumberland and Westmoreland.
Following the independence of the colonies only three of the counties of Pennsylvania were afterwards given names of English Counties. They were Huntingdon, Somerset and Cambria.
In an interesting paper prepared by the late Dr. Hugh Hamilton, of Harrisburg and read before the Federation of Historical Societies of Pennsylvania, of which he was then president, the sixty-seven counties were grouped etymologically as follows:
“Sentimental—Philadelphia, Columbia, Lebanon and Union.
“Familiar—Bedford, Berks, Bucks, Cambria, Chester, Cumberland, Huntingdon, Lancaster, Northampton, Northumberland, Somerset, York and Westmoreland.
“Gratitude—Armstrong, Bradford, Butler, Clinton, Crawford, Dauphin, Luzerne, Mercer, Mifflin, Montgomery, Fayette, Fulton, Greene, Lawrence, Montour, Perry, Pike, Sullivan, Warren, Washington and Wayne.
“Political—Adams, Blair, Cameron, Franklin, Jefferson, McKean, Monroe and Snyder.
“Aboriginal—Allegheny, Delaware, Erie, Indiana, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Lycoming, Susquehanna, Tioga, Venango and Wyoming.
“Topographical—Center and Clarion.
“Faunal—Beaver, Carbon, Clearfield, Elk, Forest, Schuylkill.”
It would seem as if Schuylkill should be placed with the aboriginal group and a new one placed in the list called possibly natural characteristics, when Carbon, Clearfield and Forest would be placed and taken from the faunal group. However, the grouping is of much interest and value.
Many of these counties were formed and received their names at times of some event in history or when a distinguished person seemed entitled to be thus honored.
Washington County was named in honor of the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1781, before he was even thought of as the first president of the United States. And it is an interesting fact that Washington County was the first one erected after the Declaration of Independence. Thus Washington became first in Pennsylvania, as well as in war, peace and the hearts of his countrymen. And it is equally interesting that the very next county to be formed in the patriotic State of Pennsylvania should be named after General La Fayette, who rendered such conspicuous service to the colonies and was so close to Washington during the trying days of the great war for liberty. Fayette was organized September 26, 1783.
Then the statesmen paid a great tribute to Franklin, who was the great American patriot and statesman. Armstrong was named in honor of Colonel John Armstrong of Carlisle, who led the successful expedition against the Indian town at Kittanning and who afterwards became a general and rendered distinguished service in the Revolution.
The counties of Butler, Crawford, Mifflin, Pike, Potter and Wayne were named in honor of distinguished Pennsylvania officers of the Revolution; while Greene and Mercer were names suggested by General Washington, both as a tribute to distinguished generals of the Revolution, who were much in Pennsylvania; Sullivan and Perry were named for generals whose great triumphs were enacted here, and Warren County was named in honor of the general who made the supreme sacrifice at Bunker Hill.
Bradford County was originally Ontario in the bill creating it, but the name was changed in honor of former Attorney General William Bradford, of Pennsylvania. Lawrence was so named in honor of the flagship of Commodore Oliver H. Perry; Fulton in honor of Lancaster County’s native son, Robert Fulton, who first successfully ran a steamboat. Clinton was intended to be called Eagle County, but the name was changed to Clinton. Montour was so named in honor of Madame Montour and her two distinguished sons, Henry and Andrew, Indians who were ever loyal to the Provincial Government of Pennsylvania.
Dauphin and Luzerne were so named in thankfulness to France, the former in honor of the eldest son of Louis XVI, and the latter in tribute to the Minister of France then in the United States.
It is rather to be regretted that more of our counties, cities, boroughs and villages do not still retain their original aboriginal names such as have been retained in Allegheny, Delaware, Erie, Indiana, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Lycoming, Susquehanna, Tioga, Venango, Wyoming and Schuylkill Counties.
Penn Obtains Deed to Province, Then
Obtains Lower Counties
August 31, 1682
Two motives operated in the early colonization of the American Continent; one was the desire of amassing sudden wealth without working for it; this tempted the adventurous to seek gold here, to trade valueless trinkets to the Indians for valuable furs and skins; the other was the desire to escape unjust restrictions of government and the hated ban of society against the worship of God according to the dictates of one’s own conscience, which incited devotees of Christianity to forego the comforts of home in the midst of civilization, and to make for themselves a habitation on the shores of the new world.
William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, had felt the heavy hand of persecution for religious opinion’s sake. As a gentleman commoner at Oxford, he had been fined and finally expelled for nonconformity to the established church; at home he was whipped and turned out of doors by his father; he was sent to prison by the Mayor of Cork, where for seven months he languished in the Tower of London, and, finally, to complete his disgrace, he was cast into Newgate with common felons.
Upon the accession of James II to the throne of England, more than fourteen hundred persons of Quaker faith were immured in prisons for a conscientious adherence to their religious convictions. To escape this persecution Penn and his followers were moved to emigrate to the New World, as they called it.
In 1680 Penn made application to Charles II for a grant of land in America. He based his claim upon moneys due to his father because of losses in the public service, where he was a distinguished officer of the British navy.
The Duke of York gave his consent and the king issued a patent to William Penn, March 4, 1681.
Penn was not prepared to visit his new province during the first year, but he dispatched three shiploads of settlers, and with them sent his cousin, Captain William Markham, to take formal possession of the country and act as deputy governor.
Markham arrived at New York, June 21, 1681, and exhibited his commission, bearing date April 10, 1681. He also presented the king’s charter and proclamation.
Armed with these credentials Markham proceeded to the Delaware, where he was kindly received. He met Lord Baltimore, who happened to be in the province, and the Maryland proprietor discovered by observation that Upland was at least twelve miles south of the fortieth degree of latitude, and believed his province, therefore, extended to the Schuylkill.
This claim by Baltimore induced Penn to obtain additional grants, as without them he feared the loss of his whole peninsula.
Markham was accompanied to Pennsylvania by four commissioners appointed by Penn, who, in conjunction with the Governor, had two chief duties assigned them; the first was to meet and preserve friendly relations with the Indians, and acquire lands by actual purchase, and the second was to select the site of a great city and to make the necessary surveys.
In the beginning of the year following, Penn published his frame of government, and certain laws, agreed on in England by himself and the purchasers under him, entitled: “The frame of the government of the Province of Pennsylvania, in America; together with certain laws, agreed upon in England by the Governor and Divers of the Free-Men of the aforesaid Province. To be further Explained and Confirmed there, by the first Provincial Council and General Assembly that shall be held, if they see meet.”
Lest any trouble might arise in the future from claims founded on the grant of land in America to the Duke of York, of “Long Island and adjacent territories occupied by the Dutch,” the prudent forethought of William Penn prompted him to obtain a deed from the Duke, which he succeeded in doing August 31, 1682.
The deed included the land in Pennsylvania, substantially in the terms cited in the original Royal Charter.
But Penn, even with the new deed, was not quite satisfied. He was cut off from the ocean by the uncertain navigation of some narrow stream. He, therefore, obtained an additional deed from the Duke of York which was for the grant of New Castle and district twelve miles in radius around it, and also a further grant from the Duke of a tract extending to Cape Henlopen, embracing the two counties of Kent and Sussex.
This new grant to Penn was thereafter termed “the territories,” or “the three lower counties,” and for many years remained a part of Pennsylvania, until finally separated, since which time it has formed the State of Delaware.
William Penn was now satisfied with the limits of his province and drew up such a description of the country from his limited knowledge as he was able to give.
This description was published in an attractive booklet, together with the Royal Charter and proclamation; terms of settlement, and other matters pertaining thereto, and broadcast throughout the Kingdom. He took particular pains to have these books fall into the hands of Friends.
The terms of sale of lands were forty shillings for one hundred acres and one shilling per acre annual rental.
The question had been raised regarding the annual rental, but the terms of the grant by the Royal Charter to Penn were made absolute on the “payment therefore to us, our heirs and successors, two beaver skins, to be delivered at our castle on Windsor, on the first day of January in every year, and the contingent payment of one-fifth part of all gold and silver which, from time to time, happened to be found, clear of all charges.” William Penn, therefore, held his title only by the payments of quit-rents. He could in consequence give a valid title only by exacting the quit-rents.
These deeds for the “lower counties” were duly recorded in New York, and, by proclamation of the commander there, November 21, 1682, to the magistrates on the west side of the Delaware, the rights of Penn under them were publicly recognized and allegiance was cheerfully transferred to Penn’s new government.
Penn then completed his arrangements for his voyage to his Province, where he arrived October, 1682.
Dr. John Cochran, Native of Pennsylvania,
Director-General Hospitals, Born
September 1, 1730
A century and a half has almost elapsed since the American Revolution, and in the interim much has been written and published concerning it. But comparatively little has ever been accessible to the public concerning the medical department of the army of patriots.
To Pennsylvanians particularly this feature of the war should prove of interest, for the only Directors General of Military Hospitals were none other than Dr. William Shippen and Dr. John Cochran, both of Pennsylvania.
In the year 1570 John Cochran, of kin to the Earl of Dundonald, emigrated from Paisley in Scotland, to the North of Ireland. James, his descendant in the sixth generation, crossed the sea to America, and in the early part of the eighteenth century settled in Pennsylvania. His third son, born at Sadsbury, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1730, was Doctor John Cochran, of the Revolution, who was educated for a surgeon by Dr. Robert Thompson of Lancaster.
Having qualified as a physician at the time of the outbreak of the French and Indian War, he entered the English service as surgeon’s mate, and remained on active duty until the close of hostilities. In the campaigns of this war he acquired the medical proficiency and surgical expertness for which he was afterward celebrated.
On December 4, 1760, he married Gertrude Schuyler, only sister of General Philip Schuyler, of New York.
Dr. Cochran afterward removed to Brunswick, N. J., where he practiced his profession, until the British burned his house in the early part of the Revolutionary War.
At the close of 1776 he volunteered his services in the Continental army and General Washington, remembering his experience and usefulness in the French war, was prompt in recommending his name to the Continental Congress.
Dr. Cochran and Dr. William Shippen had prepared a report on hospitals upon plans modeled after those of the British army, and submitted their efforts to Congress, after they were approved by General Washington. On April 7, 1777, Congress adopted this report, which remained in effect until remodeled by Congress, September 30, 1780.
On April 11, 1777, in pursuance of General Washington’s recommendation, Doctor John Cochran received the appointment of Chief Physician and Surgeon-General of the Army.
After nearly four years of exacting service in this position, he was, on January 17, 1781, on the resignation of Dr. William Shippen, promoted to be Director of the Military Hospitals of the United States, in which capacity he continued until the end of the war.
Fortunately a letter book kept by Doctor Cochran has been preserved. The entries, memorandums and letters partake of the authority of an official record. They also disclose the many distressing difficulties of the situation.
The Medical Department, as re-arranged October 6, 1780, consisted of a Director, stationed at general headquarters, a Chief Physician and Surgeon, stationed with the army, three chief physicians and surgeons of the hospitals stationed variously at the principal hospitals, and other assistants, mates, orderlies, matrons and nurses, as occasion required.
When Doctor Cochran was promoted to be Director, Dr. James Craik was given the place of Chief Physician and Surgeon of the Army, and Dr. William Burnet was made first of the three chief physicians, with Dr. Malichi Treat and Dr. Charles McKnight as the other two chiefs. Dr. Thomas Bond was made purveyor and Dr. Andrew Cragie, the apothecary.
Some estimate may be had of Doctor Cochran’s real worth, when it is known that Dr. Craik was the life-long friend and personal physician of General Washington, yet was his subordinate.
Previous to this time there had been several very important hospitals in Pennsylvania, the base hospital twice being at Bethlehem; first on December 3, 1776, until March 27, 1777, when the hospital was removed to Philadelphia; then after the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, Bethlehem again became the base hospital. The wounded from the battle of Germantown were also treated there. On August 28, 1778, the remaining patients were removed to Lancaster and Yellow Springs. Other hospitals in Pennsylvania were at Ephrata, Lititz and Reading.
The position of Director was always most exacting; not only were his duties the alleviation of the suffering, in the rigors of a Valley Forge, or stimulating its convalescence in the camp at Norristown, but often the finances were expended and the medical stores entirely exhausted. At no time did the army abound in medical stores.
At times hundreds were sick and lame when there were no supplies to relieve them, Untended wounds or languishing disease filled hospitals destitute of medicines. Scarcely was convalescence a boon, when lack of subsistence faced the soldier in the hospital and often compelled him to beg in the streets for the very necessaries of life.
In this appalling crisis Doctor Cochran seemed to be the right man in the right place. He remained almost constantly in the field and purchased supplies as they moved from place to place, and made such strong and insistent appeals to Congress that some better support was given him, but not before his staff had been reduced to eight hospital physicians out of the fifteen established by Congress, and only five of these on actual duty.
Early in 1782 a quantity of medicine was received from France and it arrived none too soon.
But the lack of medicine was not the only hardship of those in the Medical Department. A letter from Dr. Cochran to Abram Clark, President of Congress, dated February 28, 1781, says: “I hope some pay is ordered to be advanced to the officers of the department, without which it cannot much longer exist. Many of us have not received a shilling in near two years, nor can we procure public clothing.”
Many hospital physicians resigned owing to their inability to subsist themselves longer. When Congress at length issued warrants they were as worthless as the credit of Congress, and they afforded no relief.
Dr. Cochran was of stately presence and most genial. He won his high place by real merit and experience.
He pawned his personal credit for the cause; the last sheets from his bed were used on the wounded. He quieted dissensions in the department, composed the difficulties of individuals, presented petitions for his subordinate officers, and performed routine work which should have been done by others. All this various labor was performed with cheerfulness in adversity, and courage amid danger.
He was on terms of intimacy with Washington, Lafayette, Wayne, Paul Jones and many more. Washington presented him with his camp furniture, Lafayette gave him his watch, Wayne gave him his sword, the silver hilt of which was melted into goblets.
Dr. Cochran was a charter member of the Society of the Cincinnati. He died at his country-seat at Palatine, Montgomery County, N. Y., April 6, 1807. His widow survived him until March, 1813.
Constitution of 1790, the First for the State,
Adopted September 2, 1790
The convention to frame a Constitution for the government of Pennsylvania as a State completed its labors September 2, 1790.
On that day the members signed the instrument, after which they went in procession from the State House to the court-house, where the new Constitution was proclaimed.
Provision had been made for the continuance in office, until the new government went into operation, of the Supreme Executive Council and other State officers, but not of the Legislature, and the latter body believing its authority had ceased, did not proceed to the transaction of business on the following day.
At the election held in October, Thomas Mifflin, of Philadelphia, who had been president of the Supreme Executive Council since November 5, 1788, was elected governor over General Arthur St. Clair.
The new Legislature met in the State House December 7, and on December 21 the change of government was formally effected.
A procession was formed at the chamber of the Supreme Executive Council, which moved to the old court-house at Second and Market Streets, where the old government yielded up its powers, and the new government was proclaimed. Governor Mifflin was inaugurated “with much ceremony.”
On January 1, 1791, the City Councils, Mayor, Recorder and a great number of citizens waited on Governor Mifflin and tendered him their congratulations.
The first constitutional convention, whose most conspicuous members were Benjamin Franklin, David Rittenhouse, George Ross and James Smith, met at Philadelphia July 15, 1776, each one taking, without hesitancy, the prescribed test oath, and organized by the selection of Benjamin Franklin, president.
The labors of this convention were completed September 28, when the Constitution was adopted, and went into immediate effect without a vote of the people.
This Constitution vested executive authority in a Council of Safety, presided over by Thomas Wharton, Jr., composed of twelve members, one from Philadelphia and one from each of the counties. The legislative power was vested in a General Assembly of one house elected annually, and consisting of six members from Philadelphia and six from each county. The supreme executive power was vested in a President, chosen annually by the Assembly and Council.
A Council of Censors, consisting of two persons from Philadelphia and two from each county, was to be elected in 1783, and in each seventh year thereafter, whose duty was to supervise the Constitution and the branches of government, with a power to impeach.
The Constitution of 1776 also provided that, “all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities.” This was the first time in America that higher education was made a part of the fundamental law.
Following the successful termination of the Revolution the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 proved inadequate for the requirements of a useful and effective State Government, and its revision was demanded.
On March 24, 1789, the Assembly adopted resolutions recommending the election of delegates to form a new Constitution. The Supreme Executive Council refused to promulgate this action of the Assembly, but acquiesced in September. An election was held in October, when delegates were chosen.
The convention met November 24, 1789, and in it were the first talents that Pennsylvania could boast. Thomas McKean, Thomas Mifflin, Albert Gallatin, William Findlay, James Wilson, William Lewis, James Ross, Alexander Addison, Edward Hand, Samuel Sitgreaves, Joseph Hiester and Thomas Pickering were among the members. Thomas Mifflin was elected President.
After a long session the members adjourned in the ensuing year to meet again, when the subject of the Constitution was again taken up and concluded, and the new instrument adopted September 2, 1790.
The most radical changes were made in the executive and legislative branches of government.
The Supreme Executive Council was abolished, and a single executive called a governor was created. The Assembly ceased to have the sole right to make laws, as the legislative body was divided into two branches, a Senate and a House.
The former judicial system was continued, excepting that a Supreme Court was provided, the judges of which were to be appointed during good behavior, instead of for seven years.
The Bill of Rights re-enacted the old Provincial provision copied into the first Constitution, respecting freedom of worship, rights of conscience, and exemptions from compulsory contributions for the support of any ministry. The recognition of God, and of a future state of rewards and punishments, was still demanded of all holding office, but a belief in the divine inspiration of the Old and New Testaments was not included.
The Council of Censors ceased to have authority, and the veto power was given to the Governor.
This body, with Frederick A. Muhlenberg as president, had met but once, in 1783. It then got itself into such a snarl with the Assembly that it became very unpopular.
Pennsylvania conformed in all important matters to the system upon which the New Federal Government was to be administered.
General Mifflin continued to discharge the duties of the chief executive with great ability, and was re-elected twice, serving in all three terms, the limit allowed by the Constitution.
Governor Mifflin was elected to the Legislature at the end of his service as Governor, and died at Lancaster, January 21, 1800, while serving in that body.
General Edward Hand, Distinguished
Officer of Revolution, Died
September 3, 1802
General Edward Hand, M.D., a native of Clyduff, Kings County, Province of Leinster, Ireland, born December 31, 1744, became a resident of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and one of the first distinguished officers of the Revolution. He died at his fine farm “Rockford,” near Lancaster, September 3, 1802.
In 1767 he was appointed by King George III surgeon of the Eighteenth Royal Irish Regiment of Foot, and sailed with the regiment from Cork, May 20 of the same year, arriving at Philadelphia July 11.
Dr. Hand was appointed ensign in the same regiment in 1772, and accompanied the command to Fort Pitt, returning to Philadelphia in 1774, when he resigned his commission and was regularly discharged from the service.
In the same year he went to Lancaster, with recommendations, in order to practice his profession in that place.
The following year he married Catherine, daughter of Captain John Ewing and Sarah Yeates, a sister of Hon. Jasper Yeates.
At the beginning of the American Revolution Dr. Hand gave his allegiance to the colonies, and was commissioned, June 25, 1775, lieutenant-colonel in Colonel William Thompson’s Battalion of Riflemen.
This battalion consisted of nine companies of troops enlisted in the counties of Cumberland, York, Lancaster, Northumberland, Bedford, Berks and Northampton. After January 1, 1776, it became known as the First Regiment of the Army of the United Colonies.
Lieutenant-Colonel Hand accompanied Colonel Thompson and the battalion to Boston, where they arrived August 17, 1775. He was on Prospect Hill, August 20, when the battalion distinguished itself, and participated in the siege of Boston during the following autumn and winter.
The officers and men of the battalion were publicly thanked by General Washington in general orders the day following the skirmish at Lechmere’s Point, November 9, when each man demeaned himself with unusual skill and daring. The British had landed under cover of a fire from their batteries on Bunker, Breed’s and Copp’s Hills, as well as from a frigate which lay three hundred yards off the point, which at high tide was an island. The regiment marched instantly, and, though the day was stormy, regarded not the tide, nor waited for boats, but took to the water, although up to their armpits, for a quarter of a mile and, notwithstanding the regulars’ fire, reached the island and drove the enemy from behind their cover into their boats.
March 7, 1776, Hand was appointed colonel of the regiment he had commanded since February 2, and, with his command, left Cambridge March 15 to join General John Sullivan in New York.
During May and June this regiment was on Long Island. It picketed the shores until August.
Colonel Hand took part, with his regiment, in the battle of Long Island, and assisted to successfully protect the retreat of the American army. This was a skillful maneuver which effected the retreat of twelve thousand men, within sight of a strong enemy, possessed of a mighty fleet, without any loss of troops and saving all the baggage.
Colonel Hand took part in the battles of White Plains, Trenton and Princeton. At the last of these conflicts, says General Wilkinson, “at the time General Mercer engaged the 17th Regiment, Colonel Hand endeavored, by a rapid movement, to turn the enemy’s left flank, and had nearly succeeded when they fled in disorder ... the riflemen were therefore the first in the pursuit, and in fact took the greatest part of the prisoners; they were accompanied by General Washington in person with a squad of the Philadelphia Troop.”
Colonel Hand continued in command of his regiment until April 1, 1777, when he was promoted to be brigadier-general, and was soon thereafter sent to Fort Pitt in command of the western frontiers of Pennsylvania.
A new fort was erected in Westmoreland County, named Fort Hand.
General Hand did not meet with the expected success in fighting Indians and asked to be relieved of his command, which Congress, May 2, 1778, resolved to do. But before leaving Fort Pitt, General Hand conducted a successful treaty with the Indians June 17, 1778.
In October following he succeeded General Stark in command at Albany, and the next spring General Hand was ordered to take part in General Sullivan’s campaign against the Six Nations. Although the youngest of the generals engaged, Hand held the most important position after that of General Sullivan. His experience in fighting Indians gained on the western frontier was of great value in the expedition.
General Hand afterward joined General Washington and encamped at Morristown, N. J., during the winter.
On the formation of the light infantry corps of the army, August, 1780, General Hand was given command of one of the two brigades.
He was a member of the tribunal that tried and convicted Major André.
General Hand was appointed Adjutant-General of the Army of the United States January 8, 1781. He was present at the siege of Yorktown and returned with the troops to Philadelphia.
September 30, 1783, he was commissioned Major-General of the Pennsylvania Line.
Upon the close of the war he resumed his practice of medicine at Lancaster.
He was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1784 and 1785, and a member of the General Assembly 1785, and an Elector for the first election of a President and Vice President of the United States in 1789.
General Hand helped frame the Constitution of Pennsylvania of 1790, and held other positions of honor and trust.
He was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and served as President in 1799. He was the lover of fine horses and was himself an excellent horseman.
As a citizen he was highly esteemed, and as a physician greatly sought after and much beloved. He was a great Pennsylvanian.
First Permanent Settlement and Earliest
Church, Dedicated September 4, 1646
The first European settlement in what is now Pennsylvania was made on Tinicum Island, now Essington, not far distant from the mouth of Darby Creek on the Delaware River. The beautiful buildings of the Corinthian Yacht Club are now located on this historic spot.
A monument was unveiled June 14, 1923, to mark the place where the first permanent settlement in what is now Pennsylvania was made. This shaft was erected by the Swedish Colonial Society and was unveiled by Miss Nancy J. Paxson, tenth in descent from one of the original founders of the colony.
Here it was that Colonel John Printz, a Swedish military officer of note, who had recently been knighted by the Swedish Government for the conspicuous role he enacted in the Thirty Years’ War, accompanied by a few adventurers of the same nationality, located in 1643, erected a fort of green logs and named the settlement he founded New Gottenberg. The fort was mounted with four cannon. Provisions were made for the planting of corn and tobacco.
A short time thereafter Printz built a pretentious mansion on Tinicum Island, “very splendid,” with an orchard and pleasure house, and it bore the name of Printz Hof or Printz Hall. This mansion house was two stories high and built of hewn logs, while two or more fireplaces and ovens were made of bricks imported from Sweden for that purpose. There were even glass windows. The utensils were of copper and tin. Their light was candle. Printz Hall also contained a fine library and every convenience known at that period. This great house stood 160 years, when it was accidentally destroyed by fire.
Printz planted orchards, cleared fields and firmly established himself on the place he determined should be the seat of government for the Swedish colony on the South River, as the Delaware was then known.
Printz sent Maus Kling, the engineer for the colony, to make a settlement on the Schuylkill. Log houses were built there, and Kling built on the east bank of the Schuylkill, near its mouth, probably on what was afterward called Providence Island, a small fort which was called New Korsholm.
These operations of Kling, the plantation and the fort, form the first authenticated occupancy by Europeans of the site of the City of Philadelphia.
On April 17, 1640, the Swedish ship Kalmer Nyckel sailed into the Christiana Creek. Among the immigrants was the Reverend Reorus Torkillus, a clergyman of the Swedish Lutheran Church, who thus became the first minister of the gospel on the Delaware River. Soon after this preacher’s arrival in the colony a meeting house was built, in which the services of the Lutheran Church were conducted.
Governor Printz built a church on Tinicum Island, which had a bell and belfry. It was succeeded by a more imposing and commodious edifice in 1646, built of logs, with a roof of clapboards and an altar with a silver cloth. This church was dedicated by the Reverend John Campanius on September 4, 1646.
Printz reported to his home Government he had the church finished and dedicated, “adorning and decorating it according to our Swedish fashion, so far as our limited means and resources would allow.”
There was a graveyard located adjacent to the church, in which was interred the corpse of Andrew Hanson’s daughter Catherine, who was buried October 28, 1646. This was the first burial of any European in Pennsylvania, certainly the first in any regularly established cemetery.
The marriage of Governor Printz’s daughter, Armegot, to Johan Papegoja, the commandant at Fort Christina, was solemnized in this old church at Tinicum, in 1644, and it is believed to have been the first instance in which a matrimonial ceremony was performed between Europeans within the limits of the present State of Pennsylvania.
The Old Swedes’ Church called the worshippers together with the sound of the first “church-going bell” on the American Continent. But in May, 1673, Armegot Papegoja was in such dire distress for funds that she sold the bell to the congregation of the adherents of the Augsburg Confession, at Laus Deo.
The worshippers believed this bell should be nowhere but in their own Swedes’ Church and they determined to repurchase it, when the members of the congregation gave their labor for two years at harvest time as the consideration. The bell was brought back to Tinicum, but the facts relating to its subsequent history are lacking.[[6]]
[6]. Colonel Henry D. Paxon says this original bell was recast, with some additional metal, and now hangs in “Gloria Dei,” Old Swedes’ Church, Philadelphia.
It is quite probable that this Old Swedes’ Church remained the active center for worship long after the Swedes were swept from power on the Delaware.
Peter Stuyvesant, at the head of a large fleet and formidable expedition, September, 1654, captured Fort Cassimer, or Trinity, as the Swedes called it, then after a siege of fourteen days compelled the surrender of Fort Christina, which was defended by Governor Johan Claesson Rysingh.
In the articles of capitulation, which were formally drawn up and signed September 25 by the two commanders on the “parade ground” outside the fort, it was agreed that the Swedish soldiers were to march out with the honors of war.
The “guns, ammunition, implements, victuals and other effects belonging to the Crown of Sweden and to the South Company,” in the fort or its vicinity, were to remain their property. The Swedish settlers might stay or go, as they chose, and for a year and six weeks, if they stayed, need not take the Dutch oath of allegiance. Swedes who remained should enjoy the Lutheran faith, the “liberty of the Augsburg Confession,” and have a minister to instruct them.
When the English came to the South River in the fall of 1664, the Swedes at Tinicum still were worshiping in their Lutheran Church.
After the departure of Governor Rysingh, in 1653, there was only one minister among the Swedes on the river, the man who was variously called Laers, Laurentius Carolus, Lock, Lokenius, etc., was a poor fellow whose missteps and mischances, moral lapses and legal misdemeanors are repeatedly mentioned in the scanty chronicles of the time. He preached in the Swedes’ Church at Tinicum and at Crane Hook, between Christina and New Castle, where a log church was built about 1667. Lock died in 1688.
When Governor Andros visited the Delaware, in 1675, the New Castle Court decreed, when designating places of meeting for worship, “that the church at Tinicum Island do serve for Upland and parts adjacent.”
Great Tinicum Island stands with Jamestown and Plymouth as one of the birthplaces of America.
Lewis, in the history of Chester County, says that the Swedes came from New Castle and places along the Delaware, both above and below, to worship in that building.
About this time the settlement at Upland, now Chester, began to thrive, and it was not long before it became a more important place than Tinicum.
First Continental Congress Meets in
Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia,
September 5, 1774
The Assembly of Pennsylvania promptly responded to the “Instructions” of the great meeting of the Provincial deputies held in the State House July 15, 1774, and appointed Joseph Galloway, speaker, Samuel Rhoads, Thomas Mifflin, John Morton, Charles Humphreys, George Ross, Edward Biddle, and, subsequently, John Dickinson as delegates to the Congress to be held in Philadelphia in September.
This body assembled September 5 in Carpenters’ Hall and chose Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, president, and Charles Thomson, of Pennsylvania, secretary, of what proved to be the first Continental Congress.
The Declaration of Rights was agreed upon. This claimed, first, as natural rights, the enjoyment of life, liberty and fortune; secondly, they claimed, as British subjects, to be bound by no law to which they had not consented by their chosen representatives. They denied to Parliament all power of taxation and vested the right of legislation in their own Assemblies.
The common law of England they declared to be their birthright, including the rights of trial by jury of the vicinage, of public meetings and petition. They protested against the maintenance in the Colonies of standing armies without their full consent, and against all legislation by councils depending on the Crown.
Having thus proclaimed their rights, they calmly enumerated the various acts which had been passed in derogation of them. There were eleven in number, passed in as many years—the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, those which provided for the quartering of troops, for the supersedure of the New York Legislature, for the trial in Great Britain of offenses committed in America, for the regulation of the government of Massachusetts, for the closing of the port of Boston, and the last straw, known as the Quebec bill.
On October 18, articles of confederation were adopted, the signing of which, two days afterward, should be regarded as the commencement of the American Union, based upon freedom and equality.
On October 26, an address to the people of Great Britain was adopted, also a memorial to the inhabitants of British America, and a loyal address to His Majesty. The Congress then adjourned to meet in Philadelphia on the 10th of May following.
Dickinson was a powerful member of this first Congress, his master hand being first employed in the “Address to the inhabitants of Quebec,” forwarded under date of October 26. This address set forth the reasons why the people of that province should join with those of the Colonies in their political interests.
Over the Pennsylvania delegation Galloway, with his wealth, education and political prestige, and with some claim on their gratitude as their advocate against the Proprietaries, was both presiding officer and presiding genius. His influence was clearly seen in the selection of delegates, for both Dickinson and Wilson were omitted in the original list. The failure to name Mr. Dickinson was a grave error, but was corrected when Mayor Rhoads could not serve.
As Congress assembled Galloway did the honors, but his conduct soon revealed him acting as a volunteer spy for the British Government, and he did everything in his power to exert a control over the first Congress.
He even went so far as to hold secret meetings with the Governor of New Jersey and the Lieutenant Governor of New York, when he proposed in Congress a government for America to consist of a President General appointed by the King, and holding office during his pleasure, and a Grand Council chosen once in three years by the assemblies of the various colonies, the members thereof to be apportioned according to population.
His celebrated scheme was not popular, but in presenting it to Congress, said: “I am as much a friend to liberty as exists, and no man shall go further in point of fortune or in point of blood than the man who now addresses you.”
The plan was favored by New York and South Carolina and on final vote was rejected by the close vote of six colonies against five. “With this defeat,” says Bancroft, “Galloway lost his mischievous importance.”
At the October election Galloway was re-elected to the Assembly, but the many changes in the membership foretold the decided advancement of the Whigs. Edward Biddle was elected Speaker. Galloway did not attend until after the report of the preceding Congress had been made.
The Assembly of Pennsylvania, which met on December 8, 1774, was the first Provincial Legislature to which report of the congressional proceedings was made. The Assembly unanimously approved them December 15, and recommended them to the inviolable observance of the people. This body then appointed Messrs. Biddle, Dickinson, Mifflin, Galloway, Humphreys, Morton and Ross as delegates to the new Congress. Mr. Samuel Rhoads, who was then the Mayor of Philadelphia, was too occupied with those duties and was omitted from this delegation.
Upon the return of Benjamin Franklin from London, he was immediately added to the congressional delegation, together with Messrs. James Wilson and Thomas Willing. Mr. Galloway, who had repeatedly requested to be excused from serving, was permitted to withdraw. Galloway had become too much alarmed at the length to which the opposition to the mother country was carried.
Hitherto Governor John Penn had looked upon the proceedings of the Assembly without attempting to direct or control them. He was supposed to favor the efforts made in support of American principles; but now a semblance of regard to the instructions of the Crown induced him to remonstrate in mild terms against the continental system of petition and remonstrance.
In England the proceedings of the Americans were viewed with great indignation by the King and his ministry, and the petition of Congress, although declared by the Secretary of State, after a day’s perusal, “to be decent and proper and received graciously by His Majesty, did not receive much favor at the hands of the ministry, which resolved to compel the obedience of the Americans.”
The remonstrances of three millions of people were therefore treated, perhaps believed, as the clamors of an unruly multitude.
Both houses of Parliament joined in an address to the King, declaring “that they find a rebellion actually exists in the Province of Massachusetts.” That was followed by an act for restraining the trade and commerce of the New England Provinces and prohibiting them from carrying on the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, which was subsequently extended to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and the Lower Counties on the Delaware.
Conciliatory measures were introduced in Parliament, which provided a relief from tax or duties for those colonies which would yield strict obedience to the laws of the mother country. This proposition was opposed as an admission of the correctness of the American views. Upon Pennsylvania’s reply to the resolutions of Parliament much depended, and the Assembly acted promptly and with unanimity.
By reason of Edward Biddle’s illness, John Morton was elected Speaker, March 15, 1775.
Fort Montgomery Withstands Attack of
British and Indians, September 6, 1780
In the early days of the Revolution the settlers on the frontiers suffered much at the hands of the Indians, and this was particularly true in the region of the Susquehanna valleys. A chain of forts or blockhouses was established from Fort Jenkins on the North Branch of the Susquehanna, about midway between the present towns of Berwick and Bloomsburg, to Fort Reid, in the present borough of Lock Haven.
Each of these forts was garrisoned by troops from large Fort Augusta at the forks of the Susquehanna, and each in its turn was attacked by Indians or by British and Indians, during the period of the Revolution, and all but one or two of them were destroyed.
The most important attack on any of the above forts occurred July 28, 1779, when the British under Captain John MacDonald and Seneca Indians, under Chief Hiakatoo, defeated the garrison at Fort Freeland, took all the men and boys prisoners and destroyed the fort. This story is told on July 28.
In 1769, William Patterson patented 700 acres of land in what is now Lewis Township, Northumberland County, which he named Paradise. Two years later he sold his Paradise farm to John Montgomery, of Paxtang, and removed to White Deer Creek, to reside with his daughter, Mrs. Hunter. John Montgomery established his family at Paradise, and his descendants still reside in that beautiful valley.
At the time of the battle at Fort Freeland, John Montgomery heard the firing, mounted two of his young sons on horses and sent them to the top of a hill to learn the cause of the shooting. They soon discovered the fort on fire and a fight raging in the timber below them. They hurriedly returned and reported what they had seen, when their father loaded his family in a wagon, with what provisions and clothing they could carry, and rapidly drove across the country to the cabin of Philip Davis, on Chillisquaque Creek, near the present village of Pottsgrove. Davis gathered up his family and together they hurriedly journeyed to Fort Augusta, then down the river to Paxtang, where they remained until after the war was closed.
The precaution of Montgomery was intuitive, for the victorious British and Indians soon reached Paradise and burned his home and buildings.
With Fort Freeland destroyed and Montgomery’s home in ruins, it was necessary that one of these places be immediately rebuilt and fortified.
A detachment of the German Regiment, then in that vicinity, was sent to Paradise under command of Captain John Rice, and in the winter of 1779–80 they built a stockade around a fine spring of water, which forms the headwaters of Muddy Run. This was built permanently out of limestone found in that locality and today is in an excellent state of preservation and used by the tenant of the farm.
After completing this real fort they ably defended it, as an attack took place there early in September, 1780, which is told in a letter written by Colonel Samuel Hunter, county lieutenant, dated Fort Augusta, September 21, 1780, as follows:
“We were alarmed by a large party of the enemy making their appearance in our county on the 6th inst. They came first to a small fort that Colonel Weltner’s troops had erected on the headwaters of the Chillisquaque, calling it Fort Rice, about thirteen miles from Sunbury. (Three errors: Headwaters of Muddy Run; should be Fort Montgomery, the owner and original builder, and not Fort Rice, just because such a soldier was in charge of the detail, and the distance is seventeen miles from Sunbury, or about four from Milton).
“When the German Regiment marched off the enemy attacked the fort about sundown, and fired very smartly. The garrison returned the fire with spirit, which made them withdraw a little off, and in the night they began to set fire to a number of houses and stacks of grain which they consumed.
“In the meantime our militia had collected to the number of one hundred men under command of Colonel John Kelly, who marched to the relief of the garrison, and arrived there next day. The people of the garrison acquainted Colonel Kelly that there must be two hundred and fifty or three Hundred of the Enimy, which he did not think prudent to engage without being Reinforced. The confusion this put the inhabitants in, it was not easy to collect a party equal to fight the savages.
“I immediately sent off an express to Col. Purdy on Juniata whom I heard was marching to the Frontiers of Cumberland County with the militia, he came as quick as possible to our assistance with one Hundred and ten of the militia and about Eighty Volunteers, which was no small Reinforcement to us.
“Genl. Potter just coming home from camp at this critical time came up to Sunbury and took command of the party that went in Quest of the Enimy. But previous to his marching, discharged the Volunteers as he concluded by the information he had received from spyes we had out that the enemy did not exceed one Hundred and fifty and that they had withdrawn from the inhabitants to some Remote place.
“General Potter, However, marched on to Muncy Hills, but was a little baffled by the information to their route and did not come on their track till the 13th and followed on about 50 miles up Fishing Creek, the road the enemy took, but finding they had got too far ahead returned here the 17th inst. The enemy got but one scalp and one prisoner. (Colonel Hunter did not know of the Sugar Loaf Massacre when he wrote.)
“We all concluded the enimy had got off, but on the 18th there was a small party made their appearance on the West Branch about fourteen miles above this place, they killed one man and wounded another, and killed their horses they had in the plow, which plainly shows they have scattered into small parties to Harass the inhabitants, which I am afraid will prevent the people from getting crops put in the ground this fall.
“When the German Regiment marched off from here I gave orders for the Frontier’s Companys to embody and keep one-fourth of the men Constantly Reconnoitering.
“After garrisoning Fort Jenkins, Fort Rice and Fort Swartz with twenty men in each of them, this was the only method I could think of encouraging the people as we were left to our own exertions. Only about thirty of Capt. McCoy’s company of Volunteers from Cumberland County, until the 10 inst., that two companies of militia came here from the same county in the whole about eighty men.
“When I received the intelligence of a large party of savages and tories coming against Fort Rice, I gave orders to evacuate Fort Jenkins as I did not look upon it to be tenable, which is since burned by the Enimy, and would have shared the same had the men staid there on act. of the Buildings, that were adjoining it, etc.”
John Montgomery and his family returned after peace was declared. Finding the buildings of his farm destroyed and a good, strong stone house supplying its place, he at once occupied the fort, which, with additions, made him a comfortable home for years.
Colonel Hartley Leads Expedition Against
Six Nation Indians—Born
September 7, 1746
Colonel Thomas Hartley, who was one of the most prominent Pennsylvanians during the period of the Revolution, was born in Colebrookdale Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, September 7, 1746.
He was the son of George Hartley, a well-to-do farmer, who was able to give his son a good classical education at Reading. At the age of eighteen he began to read law in the office of Samuel Johnson, at York, a prominent lawyer and relative of his mother. He was admitted to practice in the courts of York County July 25, 1769, and in the courts of Philadelphia a month later. He rose rapidly in his profession, and was enjoying a lucrative practice when the War for Independence opened.
He served on the Committee of Observation for York County in 1774–75; he represented York County as a deputy in the Provincial Conference held at Philadelphia July 15, 1774, and in the Provincial Convention, January 23, 1775.
In December, 1774, he was chosen first lieutenant of Captain James Smith’s company of Associators and a year later lieutenant colonel of the First Battalion of York County. He was elected by Committee of Safety January 10, 1776, to be lieutenant colonel of the Sixth Battalion, commanded by Colonel William Irvine, of Carlisle, and served with distinction in the Canadian campaign.
In December, 1776, Congress authorized General Washington to raise sixteen battalions of infantry additional to those in service, and the command of one of these was given to Colonel Hartley.
In the campaign for the defense of Philadelphia Hartley’s regiment bore a conspicuous part. At the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown it was attached to the First Philadelphia Brigade, of General Wayne’s division, Colonel Hartley commanding the brigade, and was also at Paoli.
To repel the inroads of the Tories and Indians from New York and for the protection of the frontiers following the “Great Runaway,” Colonel Hartley and his regiment, July 14, 1778, were ordered to Sunbury. The order continues:
“A detachment of Colonel Hartley’s Regiment to march from New Jersey to Easton, there to join Colonel Kowatz, who has under his command a small number of horse. The remainder of Colonel Hartley’s Reg’t, now in Philad’a, to march immediately to Sunbury and join the Two Companies lately raised at Wioming. Col. Brodhead’s Regiment, now on their march to Pittsburgh, to be ordered to the Standing Stone. But it is necessary to add to these Continental troops a considerable body of Militia. Council have therefore determined to order to Sunbury three hundred Militia from the County of Northumberland, four hundred from the County of Lancaster & one hundred and fifty from the County of Berks.”
The troops at Standing Stone and Easton were also to be re-enforced by militia.
This arrangement for the frontier defense was intended to rendezvous at Sunbury 1050 troops, as follows: Part of Hartley’s Regiment at Philadelphia, 100; two companies recruited at Wyoming, 100; militia from Lancaster County, 400; from Berks, 150, and Northumberland, 300.
On July 16 the Board of War advised Council that they learned by letters that General McIntosh, who was at Carlisle, hearing of the Indian incursions, ordered Colonel Brodhead, then on his way to Fort Pitt, to hurry his Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment to the Susquehanna, “to stop the progress of the enemy & encourage the militia to stand in their own defence.”
Then General J. P. DeHaas, who was stationed at Lebanon, sent an express to Colonel Samuel Hunter, at Fort Augusta, to learn the exact situation, when he offered his services to the Board of War.
Colonel Brodhead and the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment arrived at Fort Augusta and soon as the colonel learned he could not be of assistance there, he took up his march and arrived at Fort Muncy July 23, and immediately sent out scouting parties in every direction.
When Colonel Hartley and 300 of his command arrived at Fort Augusta, General John P. DeHaas was already there and had assumed command.
General James Potter wrote from Fort Augusta August 1, 1778: “I came here last week to station the militia. I found General DeHaas here, who said he commanded all the troops. The next day Colonel Hartley came and showed me his orders to command the troops, and politely requested me to take the command, which I declined, as I never was very fond of command, and this is a disagreeable one.”
Colonel Hartley wrote to Council from Fort Augusta August 1, advising the conditions when he arrived, and that General DeHaas, who was in command, had given the command to him. Hartley gave a very correct statement of the distressed situation following the great Wyoming Massacre of July 3.
Soon as Colonel Hartley arrived at Fort Muncy, Colonel Brodhead led his troops off toward Fort Pitt, via Carlisle, and Colonel Hartley settled down to the difficult task of handling the unfortunate conditions on that harassed frontier.
Colonel Hartley’s men built Fort Muncy. It was about a half a mile above the present Hall’s Station, on the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, in Lycoming County, a few hundred yards directly in front of the famous Hall’s Stone House, built in 1769. It was intended to be the most important stronghold, next to Fort Augusta, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna.
Colonel Hartley immediately planned an expedition against the Indians, as he believed the way to successfully combat the savage foe was to carry the war into his own country.
He marched from Fort Muncy, September 18, with two hundred troops and twelve days’ rations. In his report to Congress, the Colonel says: “In our route we met with great rains and prodigious swamps, mountains, defiles and rocks which impeded our march, we had to open and clear the way as we passed.
“We waded or swam the River Lycoming upward of twenty times. In lonely woods and groves we found where the Indians had dressed and dried scalps of the frontier victims. On the morning of the 26th, the advance party met nineteen Indians in a skirmish. An important Indian chief was killed and scalped.” They burnt Tioga, Queen Esther’s Town and other settlements.
Colonel Hartley performed the marvelous feat of marching his small army 300 miles and fighting several severe battles with Indians and Tories in two weeks; bringing in fifty head of cattle, twenty-eight canoes and much plunder and above all else rendered such signal service to the frontiers that the settlers could return to their habitations and harvest their crops in safety.
Both the Provincial Council and the Continental Congress, Nov. 14, 1778, adopted resolutions of commendation to Colonel Hartley for the success of his expedition.
Colonel John Armstrong Destroyed Indian
Town of Kittanning September 8, 1756
Before Governor Robert Morris was superseded by William Denny he concerted with Colonel John Armstrong an expedition against the Indian town of Kittanning, on the Allegheny, the stronghold of Captains Jacobs and Shingas, the most active Indian chiefs, and from which place they distributed their war parties along the frontier.
When Governor Denny assumed the office of Governor his predecessor communicated to him his plans for this expedition, which were favorably received by the Governor and his Council.
The details of this enterprise had been perfected in great secrecy. It is quite likely that Colonel Armstrong was selected for this purpose, not only on account of his well-known military prowess, but for the further fact that his beloved brother, Lieutenant Edward Armstrong, had been killed in the attack and destruction of Fort Granville, and for the many other depredations which the Indians had committed in the Juniata Valley.
Colonel Armstrong collected his forces at Fort Shirley, at Aughwick, now Huntingdon County, consisting of 300 troops, divided into seven companies. Among the captains were James Hamilton, Hugh Mercer, Edward Nord and James Potter, all afterward distinguished officers of the Revolution and leading citizens of the State.
On September 2, 1756, he came up with the advanced party at “Beaver Dams,” a few miles south of Frankstown, on the north branch of the Juniata. Here the little army struck the celebrated Kittanning path, well trodden by Indians in their travels to the westward.
On the 7th, the evening, within six miles of Kittanning, the scouts discovered a fire in the road, and four Indians about it, but these could not be attacked, as one or more might escape and alarm the town. Lieutenant Hogg and twelve men were left to watch them, with orders to fall upon them at daybreak. The main body then made a circuit and proceeded to the village.
Guided by the whooping of the Indians at a dance, the army approached the place by the river, about 100 perches below the town. They arrived at 3 o’clock on the morning of the 8th near a cornfield in which some of the enemy were lodged, sleeping in the open on account of the excessive heat of the weather.
As soon as the dawn of the new day made the town visible the troops attacked it through the cornfield, killing several of the enemy. The men were wearied by a forced march of thirty miles and had been aroused from sound sleep to make the attack, but they fought with great eagerness.
When the firing began Captain Jacobs immediately sounded the war whoop, and with a number of Indians, as the English prisoners afterward told Colonel Armstrong, cried: “The white men are at last come, we will soon have scalps enough,” but at the same time ordered their squaws and children to flee to the woods.
Captain Jacobs defended his house bravely and through loopholes in the logs a deadly fire was poured into the provincial troops.
The Indians refused quarter, saying they were men and would not be prisoners. At this point Colonel Armstrong turned his attention to the houses from which the Indians were making such a stand. He received a bad wound in his shoulder, but continued to direct the attack. He found the houses must be destroyed, and ordered the contiguous buildings set on fire, which was performed by his officers and soldiers with much dispatch.
The Indians fired at every moving object and as their aim was deadly many soldiers were killed or wounded.
Soon as the buildings were set on fire the Indians were given another opportunity to surrender themselves prisoners, but again they refused. One Indian declared he did not care for death; he could kill four or five more before he died, and some began to sing as the flames burned near them. The few who burst from the burning buildings and ran for the river were shot down by the soldiers.
Captain Jacobs was shot as he attempted to get out of an upper window. Armstrong’s soldiers identified the powder horn and pouch he wore as one he had lately received from a French officer in exchange for Lieutenant Edward Armstrong’s boots, which he carried from Fort Granville, where the lieutenant was killed.
The soldiers got the scalp of the great Indian chief, as they also did of his squaw and a young Indian, called the “King’s Son.”
Before this time Captain Hugh Mercer had been severely wounded in the arm and was carried to the top of the hill above the town, where a number of the wounded men gathered. These soon discovered from their elevated position that Indians were passing the river and taking to the hills, they thought with the intention of surrounding and cutting off the troops from any possible retreat. Colonel Armstrong would not believe this their design, but sent men in every direction to keep him posted upon the enemy’s movements. The Indians in their hasty retreat left behind a number of English scalps and not a few white prisoners.
Instead of cutting down the cornfield, the colonel immediately assembled the wounded and loaded them upon the few Indian horses which they had collected.
The return march was slow and tedious, made so by the many wounded and the constant watch necessary to prevent a surprise attack from ambush. Captain Mercer was carried by some of his men over a different road and Colonel Armstrong was alarmed for his safety.
Colonel Armstrong in his report of the action at Kittanning said he could not estimate the loss of the enemy, as many were burned in the buildings, but he could account for thirty or forty killed. They brought back a dozen scalps and eleven English prisoners.
The loss sustained by the provincial forces was seventeen killed, thirteen wounded and nineteen missing. All the wounded recovered and all but two of the missing reached their homes.
In speaking of the horrible Indian massacres which followed Braddock’s defeat, Drake in his Indian history, says:
“Shingas and Captain Jacobs were supposed to have been the principal instigators of them, and a reward of $700 was offered for their heads.“
King Shingas was the greatest Delaware warrior at that time. Heckwelder, who knew him personally, says:
“Were his war exploits all on record they would form an interesting document, though a shocking one.”
King Shingas happened to be at Fort Duquesne when Colonel Armstrong destroyed Kittanning.
The Corporation of Philadelphia, on the occasion of Colonel Armstrong’s victory, addressed a complimentary letter to him, January 5 following, thanking him and his officers for their gallant conduct and presented him with a piece of plate.
Many descendants of the gallant Colonel Armstrong are living today and well may they be proud of such a distinguished ancestor.
Franklin County Erected from Part
of Cumberland County
September 9, 1784
On January 27, 1759, Lancaster County was divided by act of Assembly, and the southern division thereof erected into a new county, to which the name of “Cumberland” was given, with the town of Carlisle as the seat of justice.
For a quarter of a century the county of Cumberland thus constituted, remained intact, when the wants of the southwestern part, known as the Conocheague settlement, led them to petition the General Assembly of 1784 that their territory might be set apart as a new county, with concomitant privileges setting forth in glowing terms the hardships they were compelled to endure traveling the long distance from their homes to the seat of justice at Carlisle, etc.
The General Assembly complied therewith and September 9, 1784, erected the new county to be named “Franklin,” in honor of the great Pennsylvanian, Benjamin Franklin.
By 1790 some doubts arose as to the correct boundary, and March 29, in that year, a re-adjustment of the lines was made by running a new line so as to leave the entire tract of land owned by Edward Shippen, of Lancaster, and upon which Shippensburg now stands, in Cumberland County.
On March 29, 1798, a portion of the then county of Bedford, known as the “Little Cove” was detached from that county and annexed to Franklin, and the county thus erected is the Franklin County of today.
By the terms of the act establishing the county of Franklin, James Maxwell, James McCalmont, Josiah Crawford, David Stoner, and John Johnson were appointed trustees on behalf of the county, and were directed to procure two lots of ground in the town of Chambersburg or Chamberstown, for seats of a court house and of a county gaol.
The original court house was a brick building of two stories, surmounted by a tall conical cupola and a spire. In the belfry was suspended a bell of Spanish make, which had rendered service in an old convent.
The first court in Franklin County was held September 15, 1784. As the court house was not yet completed this first session was convened in the stone house on the corner of the “square,” which was built by John Jack in 1770. This historic building stood until July 30, 1864, when the rebel horde burned the town during the Civil War.
The first court was held before Judges Humphrey Fullerton Thomas Johnston and James Findley. Edward Crawford, Jr., was prothonotary. Jeremiah Talbot was commissioned sheriff October 20, 1784.
The following named persons sat as the first grand jury: James Poe, Henry Pawling, William Allison, William McDowell, Robert Wilkins, John McConnell, John McCarny, John Ray, John Jack, Jr., John Dickson, D. McClintock, Joseph Chambers, and Joseph Long.
As late as 1748 there were many Indians within the present limits of Franklin County. The first settlers of Franklin County were Scotch-Irish, many of whose descendants yet remain, but the larger proportion migrated west or south, giving way before the German element coming from the eastern counties of the state.
It is believed that Joseph and Benjamin Chambers located at the Falling Spring earlier than 1730. They had previously built at Fort Hunter, above Harrisburg, on the Susquehanna, but an accidental fire consumed their mill on the Fishing Creek, and they wandered westward, finally located at Falling Spring, where they erected a log house, and eventually a saw and grist mill.
Benjamin Chambers maintained a friendly intercourse with the Indians in his vicinity. They became attached to him; with them he traded, and had so much of their confidence and respect that they did not injure him or offer to molest him.
After Braddock’s defeat July, 1755, the Western Indians became so troublesome, and made so many incursions east of the mountains, that Colonel Chambers, for the security of his family and his neighbors, erected a large stone dwelling house, where Chambersburg now is. This house was surrounded by water from Falling Spring, and, to prevent the Indians from setting it on fire, the roof was made of lead. The dwelling, buildings and mill were surrounded with a stockade.
This fort was provided with a blunderbluss and swivel, and the garrison had an ample supply of smaller firearms. The Indians seldom assaulted this fort and none of its defenders was killed or carried off.
Benjamin Chambers reported the terrible massacre at Great Cove, Sunday morning, November 2, 1755. He wrote: “If you intend to go to the assistance of your neighbors, you need wait no longer for the certainty of the news. The Great Cove is destroyed.”
The Great Cove was burned by the Indians and fifty-seven persons out of ninety-three settlers were killed or taken captive.
A record of the persons killed or taken captive by the Indians during this period until the close of the Revolution reveals a long list of savage cruelty.
In the war of 1812–14, Franklin County played an important part. Eight companies were mustered in the county; Chambersburg furnished four, Greencastle, Mercersburg, Waynesboro and Path Valley, each one.
During the Civil War Franklin County suffered as did no other border county of Pennsylvania.
First came the great Confederate raid in October, 1862, led by Generals J. E. B. Stuart and Wade Hampton; then during General Lee’s invasion, June, 1863; and finally General McCausland’s invasion when the town of Chambersburg was sacked and burned July 30, 1864. The scenes presented on the latter terrible occasion beggar description.
Wilson College is situated in Chambersburg, and Mercersburg Academy is in the borough of Mercersburg, which was also the home of Marshall College, now a part of Franklin and Marshall College, of Lancaster. The Soldiers’ Orphans’ Industrial School of the state is located at Scotland, and the Pennsylvania State Sanitarium for Tuberculosis, No. 1, is beautifully located at Mont Alto.
Green Castle and Waynesboro are the other towns of importance in old Franklin County. James Buchanan, President of the United States, and William Findlay, Governor of Pennsylvania, were both born in Mercersburg.
Commodore Perry Defeats British Squadron
on Lake Erie, September 10, 1813
Foreign nations, who still smiled incredulously at the pretensions of the United States in carrying on an ocean warfare with the proud “Mistress of the Seas,” as England was everywhere acknowledged to be, were not prepared to receive, in addition to the splendid victory of the United States frigate Constitution over the Guerriere, fresh and decisive proof of the naval supremacy of the youthful Republic, in the magnificent triumph achieved by Commodore Oliver H. Perry on the waters of Lake Erie September 10, 1813.
It was here for the first time in the history of the Western World the flag of a British squadron was struck, humiliatingly, to the Americans. Great Britain had already been signally defeated in single naval combats during the War of 1812; she was now beaten in squadron; every one of her ships striking their colors to the Stars and Stripes.
The unexpected and disgraceful surrender of the Northern Army under General Hull to the British rendered a superior force on Lake Erie necessary for the defense of the American territory bordering on the lake, as well as for offensive operations in Canada.
Under those circumstances, Oliver H. Perry, a brave and capable young officer, was designated to the command on Lake Erie. But at this time the United States possessed no naval force on the lake; the only vessels belonging to the Government had been captured at Detroit.
Commodore Perry was directed to locate at Presque Isle, where a peninsula extended a considerable distance into the lake, encircling a harbor, on the borders of which was the port of Erie. He was to build ships, and the only materials at hand were the vast forests—shipbuilders, sailors, naval stores, guns and ammunition were all transported overland by wagons over 400 miles of bad roads from Albany, Buffalo and Philadelphia via Pittsburgh.
In spite of those embarrassments, by August 1, 1813, Perry had provided a flotilla, consisting of the ships Lawrence and Niagara, of twenty guns each, and seven smaller vessels, to wit: One of four guns, one of three, two of two and three of one.
The enemy appeared off the harbor while this navy was being built, but the shallowness of the water prevented their approach where the construction work could be destroyed.
After Perry succeeded in getting his navy into the deep waters of the lake, he proceeded to Put-in Bay, near where the British fleet lay under the guns of the fort. Here he watched the movements of the enemy and awaited a chance to offer battle.
On the morning of September 10, 1813, the enemy was discovered bearing down upon the American force, which immediately prepared to meet them. Perry had nine vessels with fifty-three guns and two swivels. The British fleet consisted of six vessels, carrying sixty-three guns, four howitzers and two swivels.
Perry advised his officers he proposed to bring the enemy to close quarters. As soon, therefore, as the approach of the enemy warranted the display of the signal, every vessel was under sail beating out against the wind with the boats ahead towing the others.
Perry endeavored to beat to the windward of the islands, which interposed between them and the two approaching squadrons, hoping thus to be able to bear down upon the enemy with the wind, but that proved to be too light and baffling, and so much time was lost by tacking that Perry suddenly changed his plans and ordered his ships to run to the leeward of the islands, when his sailing master replied: “Then we’ll have to engage the enemy from the leeward.” “I don’t care,” replied Perry; “to windward or leeward, they will fight today.”
Perry formed his line of battle and the two squadrons slowly approached each other. Realizing they would be in battle by the noon hour, grog and bread were served in advance, and in a moment every man was at quarters. Perry made a round of the deck, from gun to gun, carefully examining each and exchanging cheering words with the men.
At fifteen minutes after 11 a bugle was sounded on board the enemy’s flagship, the Detroit. Loud cheers burst from all their crews, and a tremendous fire opened upon the Lawrence from the British long guns, which on account of the range of the guns on the Lawrence the fire could not be returned for nearly forty minutes.
The Lawrence kept her course in gallant and determined style, but was badly cut up by the big guns of the Detroit. The enemy’s fire was clearly directed toward the Lawrence. She was hit in every direction and narrowly escaped several explosions.
Perry realized the seriousness of his situation and made full sail, directing the other vessels to follow, for the purpose of closing with the enemy. The terrible fire, however, to which he was exposed soon cut away every brace and bowline of the Lawrence, and the boat became unmanageable. The other vessels could not close up, and in this disastrous situation the Lawrence continued to sustain the main force of the enemy’s fire.
Throughout the ordeal order prevailed. There was no sign of fear, and as rapidly as the men at the guns were wounded they were quietly carried below, and others bravely stepped to their places. The dead remained where they fell until after the action.
At this juncture the enemy believed the battle won. The Lawrence was reduced to a mere wreck; her deck was streaming with blood and covered with mangled limbs and bodies of the slain; nearly the whole crew were either killed or wounded; her guns, too, were dismounted, Commodore Perry and his officers working the very last one capable of firing a shot.
At 2 o’clock Captain Elliott was enabled to bring the Niagara into closer action; and Commodore Perry, finding he could get no further use from the Lawrence, suddenly shifted his flag to the Niagara and boarded her, leaving the gallant Lieutenant Yarnell in command of the Lawrence.
The transfer of Perry was made in the face of a terrible fire from the enemy ships, with the commodore standing erect in the small boat and directing his oarsmen.
The entire squadron was soon in action and Perry alongside the British Commodore Barclay, in the Lady Prevost. Approaching within half pistol shot, Perry’s fire was so deadly that the enemy’s men were compelled to run below.
The Caledonia opened a destructive fire upon the British, and she was closely followed by the other American vessels, and the enemy was soon enclosed between the Niagara and the American fleet, and in that position the British ships suffered a terrible fire on both quarters.
Thus, after a contest of three hours, a naval victory was achieved by the Americans, in which every vessel of the enemy fleet was captured. If anything could enhance its brilliancy it was the modest and laconic manner in which it was announced by the gallant victor—“We have met the enemy and they are ours!”
Lord Cornwallis Defeats American Forces
on the Brandywine, September 11, 1777
The objective of the British forces, early in the Revolution, was to occupy Philadelphia, which was then the largest city in the revolting provinces. It was the seat of the Continental Congress, and the center of the colonies. Although commanding easy access to the sea, it was capable of being readily protected from the approach of a hostile fleet, and it lay in the heart of an open, extended country, rich, populous and so far but little disturbed by war.
Philadelphia was, in a sense, regarded as the capital of the new-born Nation, and the moral influence resulting from its occupation by Congress was great, so that it was deemed an important point would be gained by its conquest. There was much criticism hurled at an army which could not penetrate to the headquarters of the infant Nation.
Sir William Howe directed the campaign of 1777, and disposed the troops under his command to that purpose. The British fleet under Lord Howe, bearing a land force of 18,000, left New York in July, 1777, with the intention of approaching Philadelphia by way of the Delaware River.
When about to enter it, however, the British commander was informed that the Americans had placed obstructions in the channel, and he, therefore, proceeded to the Chesapeake, and on August 25, landed his forces at Turkey Point.
When the departure of the British fleet from New York was made known to General Washington, he was uncertain as to its objects, but directed the concentration of his army in Bucks County, so as to meet the enemy should he attempt to approach Philadelphia.
Washington soon learned that the fleet was off the Capes of the Chesapeake, and turned his attention in that direction. The very day the British landed the Americans marched to Wilmington with a force of about eleven thousand men.
Washington made immediate preparations to oppose the enemy. A severe though brief encounter occurred September 3 at Iron Hill, Delaware.
On the 8th the American Army took its position behind the Red Clay Creek, where a battle was anticipated. Washington saw that the object was to turn his right, cross the Brandywine, and cut off his communication with Philadelphia.
After reconnoitering the enemy, Washington withdrew to Chadd’s Ford, on the Brandywine, where he arrived on the 9th of September, and entrenched himself.
Maxwell’s Light Infantry occupied the advance posts, and during the night of the 10th threw up defenses on the west side at the approaches to the ford. Here Washington determined to take his stand.
On the evening of the 9th the British Army entered Chester County in two divisions, one of which, under General Knyphausen, encamped at New Garden and Kennet Square, and the other, under Lord Cornwallis, a short distance below Hockesson Meeting House.
Early on the morning of the 10th they united at Kennet Square, whence in the evening the forces under Knyphausen advanced toward Welsh’s Tavern, later known as the Anvil, and those under Cornwallis remained encamped on the hills north and west of Kennet Square.
Early on the morning of the 11th the army divided into two columns—one division, under Knyphausen, marched to Chadd’s Ford, by the Philadelphia road; the other, under Cornwallis and accompanied by Sir William Howe, took a circuitous route and crossed the west branch of the Brandywine at Trimble’s Ford, and approached the Birmingham Meeting House. The object of these movements was to hem in the Americans between the two British forces and thus make them easy prey.
Both British columns had moved early and through a dense fog which did not lift until a later hour. The column under Knyphausen skirmished with the advance parties of the American Army sent forward to harass their march.
Maxwell’s corps, which occupied the hills west of the Brandywine, was driven across the stream after a severe engagement, and joined the main body of the American Army, which was already ranged in battle order, awaiting the attack of the enemy.
Several detachments of the Continental troops subsequently recrossed the creek and assailed the British, who were busy throwing up intrenchments and planting batteries. A footing having thus been gained on the western bank, General Maxwell returned in force, and a hot conflict ensued, the Americans driving the enemy from the ground.
The spirit of this action soon drew upon them overwhelming numbers, and the Americans were again repulsed.
Lord Cornwallis, with a larger division, under cover of the hills and forests and aided by the fog, proceeded in a circuitous route a considerable distance unobserved, and reached the hills south of Trimble’s Ford about the time Knyphausen moved from his position east of Kennet Square.
General John Sullivan, who commanded the right wing of the American Army, had received instructions to guard the fords as far up the stream as Buffingtons.
About 9 o’clock intelligence was brought that the British left wing was about crossing the Brandywine above its forks. Colonel Bland sent word to General Washington that a large force of the enemy was seen advancing up the road toward Trimble’s Ford.
That was confirmed by a note from Colonel Ross, who was in their rear, and who advised their strength was 5000. Those reports were in contradiction to one that Squire Thomas Cheney gave when he rode up to General Sullivan and advised him that the main body of the British had crossed the Brandywine and was already near at hand, approaching from the north.
The squire was not believed, and demanded to be led to General Washington, who doubted his information, but was at length convinced of its truth and immediately disposed of his troops to meet the emergency.
General Sullivan attacked the Hessians, who were the advance guard, who returned the fire, and soon the action became general. The artillery of both sides opened with terrible effect, and while the Americans held their position, the carnage was great.
The right wing of the American army under General Debarre gave way first, and the left under General Sullivan, soon followed. The latter tried to rally his troops, but fled over the fields toward the main army at Chadd’s Ford.
Sterling’s division in the center remained firm. General Sullivan attached himself to this division, and with Lafayette he engaged personally in the hottest of the battle. Cornwallis used his artillery with telling effect. Two of Sullivan’s aides were killed and Lafayette fell with a wounded leg. The troops fled into the woods, but were again rallied and after a sharp conflict again retreated.
When Washington learned of the approach of the British, he pushed forward with Green’s division of Pennsylvanians and Virginians to the support of Sullivan, leaving Wayne at Chadd’s Ford to oppose Knyphausen. Green, by a skillful movement, opened his ranks and received the fleeing troops and closed them again.
Wayne was on the alert, and the moment Knyphausen moved forward he opened a heavy artillery fire upon him. Soon as he learned of Sullivan’s defeat he retreated.
The approach of night ended the bloody conflict, but not soon enough to prevent the American army from a defeat which was most distressing to the American cause at this critical period.
Mob Storms Mifflin County Courthouse
September 12, 1791
September, 1791, an incident occurred during a term of court in Mifflin County, which has since been known as the Lewistown Riot.
The cause of the disturbance centered in the act of Samuel Bryson, then a resident of what is now the borough of Mifflintown, who for several years had served as county lieutenant, and while acting in that capacity refused to commission two colonels who had been elected by their regiments, which so incensed the members and their friends that when Mr. Bryson subsequently received the appointment of Associate Justice they were indignant and determined he should not act in that capacity.
On Monday, September 12, 1791, the Hon. William Brown, Samuel Bryson and James Armstrong, Esqs., met in the forenoon in order to open the Court and proceed to business, but Thomas Beale, Esq., one of the Associate Judges, not having arrived, the others did not attempt to convene the Court until he appeared, which was 3 o’clock, when he was requested to proceed with them to the court house. Mr. Beale declined to go, but the others went into the court room, where the commissions of the Judges were read, the Court duly opened, the officers sworn in, and Court adjourned until 10 o’clock next morning.
The following morning, John Clarke, Deputy State’s Attorney, received the intelligence that a large body of men was assembled below the Long Narrows, at David Jordan’s tavern, on the Juniata River shore.
They were armed with guns, swords and pistols, with an avowed intention to proceed to Lewistown and seize Judge Bryson on the bench and drag him from his seat, and march him off before them, and otherwise ill-treat him.
That information was immediately communicated to the Judges, who, acting upon the suggestion of Mr. Clarke, named Samuel Edminston, Esq., the Prothonotary; Judge Thomas Beale, Mr. Stewart, William Bell, Esq., and the Sheriff of Mifflin County, a committee to proceed to the place where the mob had assembled and meet with the rioters.
The Sheriff was commanded to inquire of them their object and intention, and if hostile, to order them to disperse and tell them the Court was alarmed at their proceedings.
Two hours after this the Court opened. A fife was heard playing, some guns were discharged and almost immediately the mob appeared, marching toward the court house. Three men on horseback were leading the column. The gentlemen who had been sent to counsel with them were being marched under a guard in the rear. When the column reached Lewistown all the committee were permitted to go at large except George Wilson, the Sheriff, who was held by an armed guard of four men.
The Court ordered Mr. Clarke to go and meet the rioters and remonstrate against their proceedings and warn them of their danger, which order was obeyed, but his endeavors were in vain.
The mob cried out, “March on! March on! Draw your sword on him! Ride over him!”
Mr. Clarke grabbed the reins of the leader’s horse, who refused to be held, and threatened to proceed to the bench and drag Judge Bryson off, take him down the Narrows to his own farm and there compel him to sign a written paper that he would never again sit there as a Judge.
This leader was a brother of Sheriff George Wilson. The mob cried out, “March on!” He drew his sword and ordered Clarke to let go the reins. The crowd pressed on him and one of them, a nephew of Judge Beale, pressed a pistol to his breast, when Clarke let go of the horse, and the mob reached the stairs on the outside of the court house. Clarke rushed ahead, and as he mounted the stairs he was met by Judge Armstrong, who said: “Since nothing else will do, let us defend the stairs.”
At that point several of the attorneys and citizens, who had been in the court, reached the stairs, where they were met by the rioters, now ably led by William Wilson, Colonel Walker and Colonel Holt. They cried:
“March on, damn you; proceed and take him!”
Judge Armstrong replied, “You damned rascals, come on! We will defend the Court ourselves, and before you shall take Judge Bryson you shall kill me and many others, which seems to be your intention, and which you may do.”
At this moment Colonel Holt seized Judge Armstrong by the arm with the intention of dragging him down the stairs, but he freed himself. Holt’s brother rushed to him with a sword and urged him to run it through the Judge. The other leaders drew swords and pistols.
Clarke suggested that they name three of their most respectable persons to meet with him to settle the dispute. Wilson, the leader, agreed to that, but it was with difficulty he was able to get the mob to move from the court house.
Mr. Hamilton went with Mr. Clarke to Alexander’s tavern, and soon after their arrival Messrs. Wilson, Walker and Sterritt, of the rioters, came in. Sterritt acted as their chief counselor.
Proposals were made that they should return home, offer no insult to Judge Bryson or the Court and send to the Governor a decent petition, stating their grievances, so that they might be laid before the Legislature, and that in the meantime Judge Bryson should sit on the bench of the court.
They seemed to be agreed, when mutual honor was pledged, but Sterritt stated that too great a delay was evident, that injuries had been received which required immediate redress and even objected to the power of the Governor as to the points proposed.
At that juncture Colonel Holt and young Beale rushed in, the latter heavily armed, and insisted on Wilson joining them, which broke up the conference. Clarke followed them to the field where the mob was assembled. Clarke asked Wilson:
“Your object is that Judge Bryson leave the bench and not sit on it this Court?”
He and Walker replied, “Yes.”
“Will you promise to disperse and go home and offer him no insult?”
They replied, “Yes.”
Their mutual honor was pledged for the performance of the agreement.
Mr. Hamilton then entered the Court, told Judge Bryson the agreement, when he left his seat and retired.
Hardly had Messrs. Hamilton and Clarke reached the court house when the mob again appeared in martial attitude at the foot of the stairs. Clarke reminded Wilson of his broken pledge; he acknowledged it, but said the mob would not have it that way. Clarke told him Judge Bryson had left the bench and departed.
The next day Colonel McFarland, of the local militia, marched his command to the court house.
The Court adjourned until 2 o’clock, and at that hour directed the Sheriff to invite Judge Bryson to march in and sit with them.
The Sheriff returned and advised them Judge Beale would not walk in or sit with Bryson. The Sheriff and Judge Bryson got into an argument, when the Sheriff struck and kicked the Judge.
Judge Armstrong seized the Sheriff, and took his rod from him, the Sheriff was brought before the Court, when he was committed to jail.
That night the mob again assembled with the object of rescuing the Sheriff, but before a sufficient number could be raised the Sheriff apologized to the Court and was released on his own recognizance.
The mob to the number of 300 assembled at the Narrows the following day, but when they learned the Sheriff was no longer in jail and had been forgiven by the Court they dispersed and went to their homes. The Court then adjourned.
Inhuman Murder of Lieutenant Thomas Boyd
by Tory Butler, September 13, 1779
During the expedition of Major General John Sullivan against the Six Nations, in August and September, 1779, there occurred one of the most horrible Indian massacres recorded in the frontier history of Pennsylvania.
On September 12, Lieutenant Thomas Boyd, of the Rifle Corps, a resident of Northumberland and older brother of the illustrious Captain John Boyd and brother of Lieutenant William Boyd, who lost his life in the Battle of Brandywine, was sent with about twenty-four soldiers to reconnoiter the town of Genesee. They were guided by a friendly Oneida Indian named Hanjost, a chief of that tribe.
This number was too few if a battle was intended and too many for a secretive expedition. When the party reached Little Castle, on September 13, they surprised, killed and scalped two Indians.
They mistook this place for Genesee, and Lieutenant Boyd intended to await there for the advance of the main army, and sent four men to report his intentions. This party was fired on, a corporal was killed and the others fled until the main army was reached.
Boyd dispatched two more men to learn what had detained the army, when they discovered the dead corporal and at the same time the presence of Indians. They informed Lieutenant Boyd, who immediately assembled his party and gave chase, following the British and Tories to within less than three miles from the main army.
There they encountered a body of four or five hundred which lay in ambush, probably awaiting to surprise the main army, who immediately surrounded Boyd’s small party. Their defense against overwhelming odds was not less gallant than it was hopeless.
In their extremity they posted themselves in a small grove, with a considerable open space around it, and there they continued to fight. Some of the enemy were so near that the powder from their muskets burned the clothing and persons of the Americans, who fought bravely until the overwhelming superiority of the enemy obliged them to attempt a retreat, which they did, covering their movement with a deadly fire.
This small army of British and Indians was under the command of Colonel John Butler and the notorious Indian chieftain, Joseph Brant.
The Indians killed and in a most inhuman manner tomahawked and scalped six of Boyd’s soldiers, whose bodies were found the next day.
Nine of Boyd’s party escaped and reported the battle as soon as they had reached the main army.
As Lieutenant Boyd, the Indian guide, Chief Hanjost, Timothy Murphy and six others had not arrived safe in camp, there was much anxiety for their safety.
Timothy Murphy was from Northumberland, a personal friend of the Boyd brothers and one of the most famous marksmen in the service. It was his unerring aim which killed General Frazer, the British commander at the second battle of Stillwater, October 7, 1777.
Colonel Adam Hubley, in the journal which he kept during the Sullivan expedition, writes of him:
“This Murphy is a noted marksman and a great soldier, he having killed and scalped that morning in the Town they were at an Indian, which makes the three & thirtieth man of the Enemy he has killed (as is well known to his officers) in this War.”
It is also interesting to note that Murphy made his escape and was the one to report that Lieutenant Boyd and Chief Hanjost were taken prisoners, and he told in detail of the brave resistance they made.
The army made a quick march with the hope of releasing Lieutenant Boyd, but on arriving at Genesee Castle, or “Little Beard’s Town,” the capital settlement of the Seneca country, Colonel Hubley writes:
“At this place we found the body of the brave but unfortunate Lieutenant Boyd and one Rifleman massacred in the most cruel and barbarous manner that the human mind can possibly conceive. The savages having put them to the most excruciating torments possible by first plucking their nails from hands and feet, then spearing, cutting and whipping them and mangling their bodys, then cutting off the flesh from their shoulders, tomahawking & severing their heads from their bodys and leaving them a prey to their dogs.
“This evening the remains of Lieutenant Boyd and the Rifleman were interred with military honors. Mr. Boyd’s former good character as a brave soldier and an honest man, and his behaviour in the skirmish of yesterday (several of the Indians being found dead & some seen carried off)[off)] must indear him to all friends of mankind. May his fate await those who have been the cause of his. O! Britain—Behold—and blush!”
Miner in his “History of Wyoming” says their tongues were pulled out and flaming pine knots thrust into their flesh and that they were slowly burned to death in addition to the tortures mentioned by Colonel Hubley.
Miner says that Lieutenant Boyd was taken before Colonel Butler, the detestable Tory, who examined him, while Boyd was held by two savages, with a third standing at his back, with a tomahawk raised.
Butler demanded: “How many men has Sullivan?”
Boyd replied: “I cannot tell you, sir.”
Butler then asked: “How is the army divided and disposed?”
Boyd replied: “I cannot give you any information, sir.”
Butler then taunted him: “Boyd, life is sweet, you had better answer me.”
The brave lieutenant replied: “Duty forbids, and I would not if life depended on the word—but Colonel Butler, I know the issue, my doom is fixed.”
That a prisoner should be taken before Colonel John Butler for examination is quite probable.
Sergeant Michael Parker was the rifleman who was murdered with Lieutenant Boyd.
The remains of Lieutenant Boyd and Sergeant Parker were found on the outskirts of the town and were interred with the honors of war. In August, 1842, the remains of these two soldiers were exhumed and removed to Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, N. Y., where they were re-interred.
The unfortunate Lieutenant Boyd had shared all the hardships of the ill-fated expedition to Quebec under General Arnold, and had experienced many campaigns prior to the one in which he made the supreme sacrifice.
Major Grant Meets Defeat at Fort
Duquesne, September 14, 1758
The destruction of the Indian town at Kittanning September 8, 1755, was a severe blow to the Indians. The English had never before that time assailed them in their own towns, and they were led to believe they would not venture to approach them. While they desired to retaliate the blow, they feared another such attack upon their home, when they were absent on war parties. Such of them as had belonged to Kittanning and made their escape, refused to settle again east of Fort Duquesne.
Nothing was done to annoy the French or check the Indians, until a change occurred in the English Ministry, and the master mind of William Pitt assumed the control of the mother country. He seemed to fully realize the situation of the English subjects in the colonies and immediately determined to send troops in sufficient strength to maintain her power.
Pennsylvania, as usual, led the way and equipped 2700 men. The other colonies contributed large quotas.
Three expeditions were determined upon, and the most active measures taken to bring them to the field. The one in which Pennsylvanians are more properly interested was known as the Western expedition. It was placed under the command of Major General John Forbes, an officer of great skill, energy and resolution. His army consisted of nearly 9000 men, embracing British regulars and provincials from Pennsylvania, and the Lower Counties, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.
The troops from the other Governments rendezvoused at Winchester, while the Pennsylvanians, under Colonel Henry Bouquet, assembled at Raystown, now Bedford.
General Forbes, with his regulars, marched from Philadelphia to effect a junction with the provincials at Raystown, but the serious illness of the general compelled him to stop at Carlisle, where he remained until the middle of September, when he reached Bedford and the provincial troops under Colonel George Washington.
At the suggestion of Colonel Bouquet and the Pennsylvania officers, a new road was cut direct from Raystown to Loyalhanna, a distance of forty-five miles, where Colonel Bouquet erected Fort Ligonier.
Before the arrival of General Forbes at Loyalhanna, Colonel Bouquet had dispatched Major William Grant, of the Highland Regiment, with thirty-seven officers and 800 troops, to reconnoitre the fort and adjacent country. His instructions were to approach not too near the fort, and in no event to take the risk of an attack.
Grant camped the first day on the banks of the Nine Mile Run, ten miles west of the camp on the Loyalhanna. The second day he proceeded farther, and on the third reached to within about twelve miles of Fort Duquesne.
Although the French and Indians were constantly watching the movements of the army, yet Grant succeeded in coming within sight of the fort, after marching fifty miles without being discovered.
The detachment halted here until 3 o’clock in the afternoon, when the troops quietly marched to about two miles from the fort, where they left their baggage under charge of Captain Bullitt, two subalterns and fifty men. It was already dark, and later in the night Major Grant appeared with his troops at the brow of the fatal hill, which still bears his name, between the two rivers, about a quarter of a mile from the fort.
From the apparent stillness of the enemy’s camp and not having met with either French or Indians on the march, Major Grant supposed that the forces in the fort must be comparatively small, and at once determined to make an attack.
Two officers and fifty men were dispatched to approach the fort and fall upon the French and Indians that might be lying out, if not in too great number. They saw none, nor were they challenged by the sentinels, and as they returned they set fire to a large store house, but the fire was discovered and extinguished.
At break of day, Major Lewis was sent with 200 men, principally American regulars and Virginia volunteers, to take post about half a mile back, and lie in ambush in the road on which they had left their baggage, under the pretension[pretension] of fears that the enemy would make a bold attempt to capture it.
But Major Grant, who was jealous of Major Lewis, wished to have the glory of capturing the enemy who had so signally repulsed General Braddock with his army.
Four hundred men were posted along the hill facing the fort, to cover the retreat of Captain McDonald’s company, who marched with drums beating toward the enemy, in order to draw a party out of the fort, as Major Grant believed there were not more than 200 men, including Indians, in the fortress.
The garrison was aroused from its slumber by the music of the invaders, and French and Indians sallied out in great numbers to the attack. Their whole force was divided into three divisions. The first two were sent directly under cover of the banks of the river to surround the main body under Major Grant. The remaining division was delayed while the others maneuvred, and then displayed themselves before the fort, as if exhibiting their whole strength.
The attack then commenced, and Captain McDonald was immediately obliged to fall back upon the main body and was a moment later killed.
Major Grant received and returned a most destructive fire. At this moment he suddenly found himself flanked on all sides by the detachments from the banks of the river. The struggle became desperate.
The provincials put up a good defense while concealing themselves behind trees, but the Highlanders who stood exposed to the enemy’s fire without cover, fell in great numbers, and at last gave way and fled. Soon the provincials, having lost all their support, and being overpowered by numbers, were compelled to follow.
Major Grant retreated to the baggage where Captain Bullitt was posted, where he again endeavored to rally his flying soldiers. His earnest appeals for support were unavailing, as the French and Indians were too close at their heels.
As soon as the enemy came up Captain Bullitt attacked them with great fury for awhile, but not being supported, and most of his men having been killed, he was obliged to give way.
The resistance shown by Captain Bullitt’s detail afforded many of the retreating and a few of the wounded to escape. Major Grant and Captain Bullitt were the last to leave the field, but when they separated Major Grant was taken prisoner.
In this conflict, which took place September 14, 1758, 270 men were killed, forty-two wounded and several taken prisoners.
“It was,” says Colonel Washington, in a letter to the Governor of Virginia, “a very ill-concerted, or a very ill-executed plan, perhaps both; but it seems to be generally acknowledged that Major Grant exceeded his orders and that no disposition was made for engaging.”
Madame Montour Resents Murder of Her
Brother, September 15, 1711
In the provincial history of Pennsylvania the name of the Montours stands out among the many Indians of note, and the intimate story of this large family presents many interesting and contradictory characteristics.
The first one of this family, which has given us its name for a county, town, river, creek and mountain range, was the celebrated Madame Montour.
There has always been a question of doubt as to her birth. She claimed to be a half-breed French-Indian, her father being a Governor of Canada. Whether this is true or not, about 1665 a French nobleman named Montour settled in Canada, where by an Indian woman, probably a Huron, he became the father of a son and two daughters. This son of Montour grew up among those Indians, who were at that time in alliance with the French.
In 1685, while in the French service, he was wounded in a fight with two Mohawk warriors on Lake Champlain. Subsequently he deserted the French cause and again lived among the Indians. In 1709 he was killed while inducing twelve of the Western tribes to support the English.
One of his sisters became a noted interpreter and friend of the English, and was known as Madame Montour; the other sister married a Miami Indian and her history is lost.
Madame Montour was born previous to the year 1684. When about ten years old she was captured by some Iroquois warriors and adopted, probably by the Seneca tribe, for at maturity she married a Seneca named Roland Montour, by whom she had five children: Andrew, Henry, Robert, Lewis and Margaret.
After the death of Roland, Madame Montour married the noted Oneida chief, Carondowanen, or “Big Tree,” who later took the name Robert Hunter in honor of the royal governor of the province of New York.
About 1729 Robert Hunter was killed in battle with the Catawba, against whom he was waging war.
Madame Montour first appeared as an official interpreter at the conference at Albany, September 15, 1711. At this conference the wanton murder of her brother, Andrew, by Vaudreuil, was bitterly resented by Madame Montour, and she employed her great influence with telling effect against the French, who tried to induce her to remove to Canada, but she remained loyal to the English and was put in a position of great power with lucrative return.
Madame Montour was the interpreter in Philadelphia in 1727 at a conference between Deputy Governor Patrick Gordon and the Provincial Council on the one hand and the Six Nations, Conestoga, Ganawese and Susquehanna Indians on the other.
It is claimed that Madame Montour was a lady in manner and education, was very attractive in mind and body, and that she was entertained by ladies of the best society on her trips to Philadelphia; but as her sister married an Indian and she was twice wedded to an Indian warrior, it is probable her education and refinement were not so marked as is claimed.
Nevertheless, from the testimony of those who saw and knew her, but contrary to the statement of Lord Cornbury, who knew her brother, it seems almost certain that she was a French-Canadian without any admixture of Indian blood, and that for some unaccountable reason she preferred the life and dress of her adopted people.
Madame Montour was always uniformly friendly toward the proprietary Government, and such was the loyalty of her family that at least two of her sons, Henry and Andrew, received large grants of “donation land” from the Government. That of Henry lay upon the Chillisquaque Creek, in Northumberland County, and that of Andrew, on the Loyalsock, where Montoursville, in Lycoming County, is now situated.
Madame Montour resided at the village of Ostonwackin[[7]] in 1734. This was some times known as Frenchtown. When Conrad Weiser visited there in 1737, on his way to Onondaga, he wrote of Madame Montour, as “a French woman by birth, of a good family, but now in mode of life a complete Indian.”
[7]. Village at mouth of Loyalsock Creek, present site of Montoursville, Lycoming County, Pa.
When she attended the great treaty at Lancaster in 1744 she was accompanied by two of her daughters, and at that time related to Witham Marshe the story of her life. He represented her as genteel and of polite address and as having been attractive in her prime.
When Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian missionary, visited Shamokin (now Sunbury) in 1742, he was welcomed by Madame Montour and her son Andrew. She had moved to that place from Ostonwackin.
Upon learning that the Count came to preach the gospel, the truths of which she had almost forgotten, she burst into tears. It was learned that she believed that Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, was situated in France, and that it was the English who crucified him—a silly perversion of the truth that originated with French religious teachers.
It is thought she died at the home of her son, Andrew, in 1752.
Of the children of Madame Montour, Andrew became the most prominent and indeed he was one of the strong men during a long period of stirring times in the province. His Indian name was Sattelihu, he was a son by her first husband.
Andrew became an interpreter at an early age and served the Proprietary Government faithfully and well; he also was loved by his Indian brethren, for he zealously guarded their interests.
In 1745 he accompanied Conrad Weiser and Shikellamy, the vicegerent of the Six Nations on the Susquehanna, on a mission to Onondaga, the Federal capital of the confederation.
He was sent on important missions to Maryland and other places and in 1753 the French authorities set a price of $500 on his head. In 1755 he was living ten miles northwest from Carlisle, on land which had been granted to him for his services.
During the French and Indian War he was captain of a company of Indians in the English service, and later rose to the rank of major.
In 1762 he was King’s interpreter to the United Nations, and he served as interpreter for the Delaware Indians at Fort Augusta, at the time Conrad Weiser held a conference for the purpose of bringing about peace between the Southern Confederation and the Six Nations.
October 29, 1768, the Proprietary Government surveyed and granted to Andrew Montour 880 acres of land at the mouth of the Loyalsock, where the borough of Montoursville now is. With this and other grants he was considered a man of great wealth.
Matthew Carey, Editor and Influential
Writer of Philadelphia, Died There
September 16, 1839
Matthew Carey came to Philadelphia in November 1784, and spent the remainder of his eventful life there, dying September 16, 1839. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, January 28, 1760, where he spent his early life.
He learned the business of printer and bookseller, and at the age of seventeen he wrote and published a pamphlet on duelling. This was soon followed by an address to Roman Catholics in Ireland on their oppression by the penal code. This was so seditious and inflammatory that he was compelled to fly to Paris, but returned in the course of a year, and was soon after prosecuted for printing a libel.
In 1783, he edited the Freeman’s Journal and established the Volunteer’s Journal.
In 1784, he printed a libel on the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and was imprisoned during the session of Parliament. He escaped on board a ship in woman’s dress, and arrived in Philadelphia, November 15, 1784.
General Lafayette, then on a visit to the United States, heard his story, and not only procured influence for him, but advanced $400 to Carey, who immediately started the Pennsylvania Herald, the first number of which publication appeared January 25, 1785.
The young printer, publisher, and editor attracted immediate attention and patronage by giving the best reports of the Assembly yet published. The Herald was in fact the first newspaper in America which gave full and accurate reports of legislative proceedings.
Matthew Carey was most aggressive with his pen, and burning with hate to England, he at once became one of the most notable of the foreign-born editors in America.
But the spirited temper of the enterprising young Irishman aroused collisions, one of which with Colonel Oswald, had serious result. Eleazer Oswald had been a colonel in the Continental army during the war, in which he appears to have served with credit; he was a kinsman of Elizabeth Holt, wife of John Holt, and aided her in conducting the Journal after the death of her husband, in 1785 and 1786. They sold the Journal in 1787 to Thomas Greenleaf.
Oswald had an “unpleasantness” with Francis Child, of the New York Advertiser, and then succeeded in getting himself into a political dispute with Matthew Carey.
This latter quarrel terminated in a duel, in which Carey was shot above the knee, a wound that confined him to the house for nearly sixteen months.
During the interval, Carey seems to have been able to continue his editorial labors, and, in 1786, with several partners, he started the Columbian Magazine, but withdrew from this enterprise the following December, and founded the American Museum, a monthly eclectic magazine, which he edited with marked ability for six years.
After abandoning the Museum Carey entered into business as a bookseller and publisher, and among other works issued a quarto edition of the Bible, called the standing edition—as it was kept in type.
He took an active part in charitable enterprises, and every fortnight dispensed food and other necessaries of life to hundreds of poor widows. He was particularly active in works of benevolence during the prevalence of yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1793, and wrote and published a history of that epidemic.
In 1793 Carey founded the Hibernian Society and undertook with Hugh Gaine a system of annual book fairs, resembling the present trade sales.
He was an associate of Bishop William White and others in the formation of the first American Sunday School Society.
While the War of 1812–14 was kindling he wrote much on political subjects, and in 1814 the Olive Branch appeared, in which he attempted to harmonize the contending parties in the United States. It passed through ten editions.
In 1818 he published “Vindicia Hibernicæ,” which was a refutation of charges made against the Catholics of Ireland of butchering Protestants in the insurrection of 1640.
In 1820 he published “The New Olive Branch,” which was in favor of protection to American industry; and two years later his “Essays on Political Economy,” were also published in favor of protection. These publications were widely circulated.
In 1830, under the title of “Miscellaneous Essays,” Carey republished selections from his writings. There are fifty-eight papers, essays, and longer compositions, and two hundred pieces collected under the heading of “Light Reading.”
Carey also advocated the system of internal improvements which led to the construction of the great canal system in Pennsylvania.
He was active in promoting education, and in forming associations for the relief of those unable to help themselves.
As Matthew Carey advanced in years, he acquired a fair amount of wealth, and in consequence of ease and comfortable environment, he became a prolific writer, but always on subjects which were solid. He gave no time to the elegancies of literature or fiction.
In this field of literature he was succeeded by his son Henry Charles Carey, who became well known for his robust works on political economy.
In 1833–34 Matthew Carey contributed his autobiography to the New England Magazine.
He acquired an enviable social position as well as one of wealth. He died much lamented at his home in Philadelphia, September 16, 1839.
First Constitution of United States Adopted
in Philadelphia September 17, 1787
The Constitution of the United States, as is well known, was framed during the summer of 1787, by a convention of Delegates from twelve States. The convention sat in the old State House at Philadelphia, and after a stormy session of four months ended its labors on September 17, 1787.
In the preliminary movement to form a nation, only five of the thirteen colonies were represented. Delegates from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia, met at Annapolis, Md., September 11, 1786, and after much discussion and consideration, they recommended that a convention be[be] called to meet in Philadelphia on the second Monday of May, 1787.
When that day arrived the only delegates to appear at the State House were those of Pennsylvania and Virginia. At the end of two weeks no others had arrived except those from Delaware and New Jersey. This fact indicates how little they appreciated the importance of the event.
Finally, twelve States were represented; the largest delegation was from Pennsylvania, and consisted of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson and Gouverneur Morris. General George Washington was elected president, and William Jackson, secretary. The convention sat with closed doors.
Former Governor Pennypacker, in his excellent “Pennsylvania—The Keystone,” says “Washington presided and the aged Franklin participated, but the most learned lawyer among them was James Wilson, and, perhaps, more than any other member, he affected the results reached.”
On the afternoon of the day that the convention finished its labors, the Constitution was duly signed by thirty-nine of the members. Some resolutions and a letter from Washington were ordered to be sent to Congress and to be by it transmitted to the States.
The Constitution was adopted September 17, 1787, and by this action of the convention a new Nation was born in Philadelphia.
While these things were taking place in a lower room of the State House, the Legislature of Pennsylvania was in session in a room above, and the Constitution was read to it on the morning of September 18.
Copies were then given to the press, and the next day the people of Philadelphia were reading the new plan in the “Packet,” the “Journal” and the “Gazetteer.” For a few days nothing but praise was heard, but before a week was gone, it was attacked.
The principal supporters of the plan of the Federal Convention were former officers of the Revolution, many of whom had served throughout the entire struggle for independence, while not one prominent soldier of that war was included among the twenty-three Anti-Federalists who consistently voted against ratification.
All was not satisfactory, and there was much trouble about the adoption of the Constitution, which did not go into effect until ratified by nine States.
Patrick Henry, of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, opposed it violently. It also had many opponents in Pennsylvania. Particularly was this true among the partisans of the State Government.
A draft of the instrument was reported to the Assembly, when a motion was made to authorize the calling of a State convention to deliberate upon its adoption.
This body met November 21, and was organized by the choice of Frederick A. Muhlenberg as president, and James Campbell, as secretary. On December 12, following, the final adoption of the draft of the Constitution was carried by a vote of 46 to 23 against it.
The following day the members of the convention and of the Supreme Executive Council, with officers of the State and the City of Philadelphia and others, went in procession from the State House to the old court house, where the ratification of the instrument was solemnly proclaimed. Twelve cannon were fired and the bells were rung.
The convention returned to the State House, where two copies of the ratification of the Constitution were signed. According to Hamilton, a motion was made that all members should sign it as an acquiescence to the principle that the majority should govern, which was strenuously objected to by the opponents of this instrument.
Delaware ratified the Constitution December 7, 1787, making Pennsylvania the second State to ratify. That is the reason that today in all national processions these States are given the lead.
State after State approved the Constitution, and in several of them processions had taken place to celebrate, but in Pennsylvania there had been no celebration of this kind; but it was decided, however, that as soon as the ninth State acceded to it, measures should be taken for public rejoicing.
Following Delaware and Pennsylvania came New Jersey, which adopted the Constitution December 18; Georgia, January 2, 1788; Connecticut, January 9; Massachusetts, February 6; Maryland, April 28; South Carolina, May 23.
On June 21, when New Hampshire, the ninth State, ratified it, it was determined by the citizens of Philadelphia to celebrate the formation of the new Union on the evening of the Fourth of July. By that time Virginia had also ratified the Constitution by vote of June 26.
This pageant was as imposing as it was possible for the authorities and the people of Pennsylvania in their enthusiasm to make it, and not only in the metropolis but in every town in the State was the occasion one of patriotism and splendor.
New York ratified the Constitution July 26, 1788; North Carolina, November 21, 1789, and the last one of the thirteen original States to ratify was Rhode Island, which did not accomplish it until May 29, 1790.
The adoption of the Constitution rendered the institution of measures necessary for the election of members of Congress and electors of President and Vice President of the United States.
The Anti-Federalists immediately got busy and endeavored to effect a plan to revise the new Constitution, but were defeated in their purposes. The actions of this body in Pennsylvania in their convention in Harrisburg, September, 1788, were denounced by the people.
A new convention was called to meet in Lancaster, which selected candidates for Congress and electors for President.
The election of members of Congress took place in November, and in the State six of the nominees of the Federal ticket were elected, and two, David Muhlenberg, of Montgomery, and Daniel Hiester, of Berks, who, although Federalists, had, with two others of the same politics, been placed as a matter of policy with the opposition ticket.
The centennial of the adoption of the Federal Constitution was fittingly celebrated in Philadelphia.
On September 15, 1887, there was a large civic and industrial procession, a military display on the 16th, and fine Memorial Day ceremonies in Independence Square on the 17th.
The occasion was celebrated with great credit to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Nation, as it illustrated the dignity and grandeur of the Republic.
Labor Riots Follow Civil War; Jay Cooke
Company Failed September 18, 1873
Following the suggestion of Governor John White Geary, the Legislature on June 2, 1871, adopted a resolution to submit the question of calling a convention to amend the Constitution to a vote of the people. The delegates were elected October, 1872, and assembled in the Capitol November 12, 1872.
Hon. William M. Meredith was elected president and served until his death, August 17, 1873, when Hon. John H. Walker, of Erie County, was chosen to fill the vacancy. The convention adjourned November 27 to meet in Philadelphia on January 7, 1873.
A new Constitution was drafted and adopted, after which it was submitted to the people on December 16, 1873, and approved by a vote of 263,560 to 109,198.
This new Constitution contained several important changes: An increase in the number of Senators and Representatives in the General Assembly; biennial sessions of the Legislature; the election by the people of sundry officers heretofore appointed; minority representation; modification of the pardoning power; the term of the Governor made for four years, and not eligible to the office for the succeeding term; the office of Lieutenant-Governor created; changes in tenure and mode of electing Judges of the courts. The new Constitution became effective January 1, 1874.
The good times which followed the Civil War were in a few years followed by a financial depression that extended over the whole country and reduced innumerable financial establishments to ruin.
These financial troubles began in Philadelphia with the failure of the banking house of Jay Cooke & Co., September 18, 1873. Mr. Cooke’s bank had given such help to the United States Government during the period of the war that he was frequently called the “Financier of the Rebellion.”
When this banking institution collapsed there followed a run on other banks, the effects of which soon spread throughout the United States.
The excellent “Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal,” by Howard M. Jenkins, says: “The condition of the times was rendered more deplorable by a series of labor difficulties, extending from 1874–1877. In 1874, there was a conflict in Westmoreland County between Italian and resident miners, in which four of the Italians were killed. The same year there was a railroad strike at Susquehanna on the New York and Erie Railroad. A number of trains were seized by the mob, and order was not restored until after the Governor had sent the State militia into that region. In January, 1875, the miners of the Lehigh and Schuylkill regions began a strike, which lasted six months. There was but little violence; yet the Governor found it necessary to order the militia to the scene of the disturbance.”
In 1877, the spirit of lawlessness increased, culminating in a series of destructive riots in different parts of the State. The cause of all this trouble was the railroad strike, which began on July 16, and soon became general throughout the United States.
In the beginning of July, a circular was issued from the offices of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, announcing a reduction of 10 per cent from the wages which the men were then receiving. A new schedule of wages was announced, to take effect on July 16. At all points along the railroad, there were demonstrations against this reduction. A strike was ordered, and before midnight of the 16th the immense property of the Baltimore and Ohio was in the hands of the rioters.
On July 19 the employes of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburgh inaugurated a strike, and stopped the passage of all freight trains east and west. By the evening of the 20th, a large number of freight trains were tied up in the city. The striking workmen resisted all efforts of the railroad officials to remove these trains, and threatened acts of violence. At this time Governor John F. Hartranft was on a trip across the continent, but upon the call of the Sheriff the Adjutant General ordered the Sixteenth Division of the National Guard to assist in restoring order.
Adjutant General James W. Latta arrived at Pittsburgh on July 21, to take personal charge of all the troops ordered out. The First Division of the National Guard was also called into service, and on the forenoon of the 21st, the troops took position upon the hill overlooking the tracks at Twenty-eighth Street.
At 2 o’clock in the afternoon the troops from Philadelphia arrived, and they at once proceeded to open the road. As they approached Twenty-eighth Street, the crowds pressed in upon them and stones were thrown by the mob.
There was considerable firing on both sides, and in the melee twenty soldiers were wounded. In the evening the soldiers withdrew to the roundhouse and adjacent buildings. At midnight the rioters determined to drive them out by burning the freight cars in the vicinity. The result was a great conflagration, in which vast quantities of freight were consumed and all the rolling stock and buildings of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburgh were destroyed.
Hastening from his trip, Governor Hartranft reached Pittsburgh on July 24. After a consultation with the leading citizens he went to Philadelphia to confer with Generals Hancock and Schofield, of the United States Army.
Arrangements were made to forward a detachment of the regular army to Pittsburgh, there to join the State troops which the Governor collected on the way.
A large force was soon gathered at the scene of the disturbance, and, with Governor Hartranft in personal command, order was restored in a few days and railroad communications were opened with all parts of the country. In the meantime there were serious riots in other parts of the State.
The lawless spirit in Philadelphia and Harrisburg was quelled by the prompt action of the officials, but in Reading the work of destruction was almost equal to that in Pittsburgh. The railroad bridge over the Schuylkill was burned, and the mob virtually controlled the city.
As the authorities of Berks County were unable to suppress the riot, General Reeder was sent there with a division of the National Guard. On the evening of July 23 there was a severe street fight between the mob and the soldiers, in which some of the latter were wounded, while eleven of the crowd were killed. The next day a detachment of the United States troops arrived and the railroad was opened to traffic.
The contagion of lawlessness affected the miners of Luzerne County, and on July 25 they began a general strike. All railroad traffic was suspended in that region, and at Scranton the rioters attempted to drive the workmen from the shops. The Sheriff with a number of aides dispersed the crowd, but he was seriously wounded and three of the mob were killed.
As the conditions became more threatening, it was necessary to forward a division of the National Guard to the coal regions. Early in August all disorder was suppressed, and in a few weeks all the railroads in the State were running on schedule time.
Indians Defrauded by Deceptive Walking
Land Measure, September 19, 1737
From the time of William Penn’s arrival, in 1682, while he was a lowly Christian himself, he had followers who did not have the same fear of God in their hearts, and who did not hesitate to excite the cupidity of the unsophisticated children of the forest, and by any and all means take advantage of them.
William Penn formed many treaties with the Indians and concluded many purchases, no one of which was well and accurately defined as to its actual boundary.
Penn and his agents were ignorant of the topography of the wilderness in the interior of “Penn’s Woods,” and in their earlier purchases had been in the habit of defining the boundaries of land by well-known streams or highlands, or well-known natural objects.
They often indicated their extension into the unknown region by such vague terms as: “To run two days’ journey with a horse up into the country as the river doth go,” or “Northeasterly back into the woods to make up two full days’ journey,” or “far as a man can go in two days from said station,” etc.
The first purchase of land from the Indians above the Neshaminy, in Bucks County, made by William Markham, the agent of William Penn, was in 1682. This purchase was to be bounded by the River Delaware on the northeast, and the Neshaminy on the northwest, and was to extend as far back as a man could walk in three days.
It is stated that Penn and the Indians began to walk out this land, commencing at the mouth of the Neshaminy, and walking up the Delaware; in one day and a half they got to a spruce tree, near Baker’s Creek, when Penn concluded this would be as much land as he would want at present. A line was drawn and marked from the spruce tree to the Neshaminy.
This was the only boundary which was ever settled by Penn in person, and Penn wrote of this trip, saying that they frequently halted to converse, smoke and eat.
Lines measured in that manner would often have extended far beyond the expectations of the contracting parties, so more definite terms were soon employed to define limits of land grants. But about 1718 the settlers, maintaining the authority of the original lines, pushed their improvements beyond the designated lines, much to the dissatisfaction of the Indians.
That act nearly precipitated war, had not wiser counsels prevailed, but encroachments continued until a general meeting of the Iroquois was held and their chiefs determined to put an end to the bickerings, and sent their chief sachems to Philadelphia. There they renewed old treaties, by the signatures of twenty-three of their chiefs, and deed to Penn’s heirs “all the said river Susquehanna, with lands lying on both sides thereof, to extend eastward as far as the heads of the branch or springs which run into the said Susquehanna, and all lands lying on the west side of the said river, northward, up the same to the hills or mountains.”
That did not even stop the unscrupulous land seeker and much additional land was taken from the natives, which in consequence provoked trouble.
After the death of William Penn a copy of one of those walk-deeds was found by Thomas and John Penn, who, at a council in 1733, fifty years after it had been executed, presented it to the Indians and received from them an acknowledgment of its validity, and under that an arrangement was made for a walk of one day and a half to settle the boundaries.
The Penns, although strict Quakers, did not shrink from using means about the honesty of which there could be some question, and they advertised far and wide for the fastest walkers, offering five hundred acres of land and five pounds in money to the man who would walk the greatest distance in the allotted time.
Every facility was furnished them, a direct line was run, underbrush was cleared away, refreshments were placed at convenient distances, all arranged so that there might be little or no delay. Indeed, the preparations for a modern marathon race could hardly be more carefully made.
The persons selected by the Governor were Edward Marshall, James Yeates and Solomon Jennings. One of the Indians was called Combush, another Neepaheilomon, also known as Joe Tuneam, and his brother-in-law, Tom.
The time appointed for the walk was the morning of September 19, 1737, when the days and nights were equal. The walk was to commence at a chestnut tree just above the present site of Wrightstown Meeting House, under the supervision of Timothy Smith, sheriff of Bucks County, and Benjamin Eastburn, surveyor general.
Marshall was a noted hunter, chain carrier, etc.; Yeates was a tall, slim fellow, very agile and fleet of foot; Jennings was remarkable for his strength, but was of very stout build.
A great crowd of spectators gathered at the starting point. The walkers were accompanied by a number of persons who carried refreshments and otherwise encouraged the walkers to greater efforts.
They walked moderately at first, but soon quickened their pace, so that the Indians frequently called to them to walk and not to run. Those remonstrances produced no effect, and most of the Indians left them in anger, saying they were being cheated. A number of persons had collected about twenty miles from the starting point to see them pass.
First came Yeates, stepping as lightly as a feather. After him, but yet out of sight came Jennings, with a strong steady step, then far behind him came Marshall, apparently careless, swinging a hatchet and eating a biscuit. Bets ran in favor of Yeates.
In two and a half hours they arrived at Red Hill, in Bedminister, but the pace by this time was too hot for Jennings and two of the Indians and they gave up the contest. The other Indian, Combush, continued with Marshall and Yeates, and when they arrived at the fork of the road, near what is now Bethlehem, Combush laid down to rest a moment, but on attempting to rise was unable to proceed farther.
Marshall and Yeates continued alone and by sunset arrived on the north of Blue Mountain. At sunrise the next morning they started again, but when crossing a stream at the foot of the mountain near Lehigh Water Gap, Yeates became faint and fell. Marshall turned back and supported him until some of the attendants came up, and then continued to walk on by himself. At noon, the hour when the walk was to terminate, he had reached a spur on the Second or Broad Mountain, estimated to be eighty-six miles from the starting point.
Having thus reached the fartherest possible point to the northwestward, a line was drawn from the end of the “walk” to the Delaware River.
Not being described in the deed of purchase, the agent of the Proprietaries, instead of running by the nearest course to the river, ran northeastward across the country about sixty-six miles, so as to strike the Delaware near the mouth of the Lackawaxen, thus extending far up the river, taking in all the Minisink territory, and many thousand acres more than they should have included had the line been run by the direct course to the Delaware.
This walk gained for the Penn’s territory which now constitutes the northern part of Bucks, virtually the whole of Northampton and a portion of Pike, Carbon and Monroe counties.
British Surprise and Slaughter Americans
at Paoli, September 20, 1777
Following the defeat of the Continental Army at Brandywine, a detachment of the British Army under Major General Grant marched to Concord Meeting House, where it was joined by Lord Cornwallis and moved to near Chester.
The Americans retreated toward Chester. On the arrival of Washington, about midnight, he sent an account of the disaster to Congress. The next day the army marched by way of Darby to Philadelphia. The main body was encamped near Germantown for two or three days to rest.
Washington deemed it so important to save Philadelphia from falling into the hands of the enemy that he resolved to risk another engagement.
On September 15 he crossed the Schuykill and marched up the Lancaster road, with the intention of meeting the enemy. The British commander learned of Washington’s plan to attack him, and disposed his troops to meet the attack.
On the morning of the 16th Washington received information that the enemy was approaching by way of the Goshen Meeting House, and was already in that vicinity. The two armies prepared for action. Washington dispatched an advance guard to keep the enemy in check until his army was properly arrayed.
General Anthony Wayne in command of the advance, was to open the battle. Skirmishing began, but suddenly a rain storm of great violence stopped its progress. A hurried consultation was had as to whether the British should be fought on ground so soft there was danger of losing the artillery in case[case] of defeat.
Washington gave the order to reform east of the White Horse and north of the Lancaster road.
The Americans discovered their ammunition was damaged by the rain and continued to Warwick Furnace. The storm continued for some time.
On the evening of the 18th, Cornwallis advanced to the Lancaster road, and the following day the entire army joined at the White Horse, and moved down the Lancaster and Swedes’ Ford road, where they encamped near the present village of Howellville.
On the 17th General Wayne’s division was sent to French Creek to annoy the enemy and endeavor to cut off the baggage train, and by this means arrest his march toward the Schuylkill until the Americans could cross the river higher up and pass down on the east side and intercept the passage of the river by the British.
General Wayne proceeded to the duty assigned him, and on the eighteenth encamped in the rear of the enemy, securely concealed from the knowledge of General Howe. Wayne’s home being in the neighborhood, he was acquainted with the locality.
On the nineteenth General Wayne watched the enemy with a view of attacking him should he move. On the twentieth, he believed the British Commander intended to take up the march, and it was his intention to advance upon the enemy’s rear and attack while in the operation of moving.
General Wayne had carefully guarded himself against surprise, planted pickets and sentinels, and threw forward patrols upon the roads leading to the enemy’s camp.
During the night a neighbor visited his quarters and advised him that the British intended to attack him during the night. Wayne took additional precautions, and awaited General Smallwood’s arrival with re-enforcements to enable him to take the offensive.
Although the British commander did not know where the forces of General Wayne lay, there were Tories residing in the neighborhood who did, and by these he was advised of the precise locality and of the nature of the approaches to it.
Howe sent General Grey to surprise and cut him off, and moved Colonel Musgrave with the Fortieth and Fifty-fifth Regiments up the Lancaster road, near to the Paoli Tavern, to intercept any attempt to retreat over that route. The watchword of the Americans for that night, through some treachery was communicated to the enemy.
General Grey, guided by his Tory aides, marched up the Swedes’ Ford road, and massed his troops as near Wayne’s camp as possible. General Grey cautiously moved through the woods up the ravine, and near the present Malvern station of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
General Wayne received intelligence of the enemy’s advances, immediately ordered the troops under arms, many were awakened by the cry, “Up, men, the British are on you!”
The night was dark, and the surrounding woodland made it uncertain as to the point of attack. General Wayne ascertained, however, that the enemy was advancing upon his right, where the artillery was placed, and ordered Colonel Humpton to wheel the division by sub-platoon to the right, and march off by the left, and thus gain the road leading to the summit of the hill.
The artillery moved off, but owing to a misapprehension the troops failed to move, although in a position to do so. In addition to this blunder, part of the force took the wrong road, which brought the men within the light of their fires, and thus gave the enemy an advantage which should have been avoided.
General Wayne took the light infantry and First regiment and formed them on the right, to receive the enemy and cover the retreat of the artillery.
General Grey had gained Wayne’s left about 1 o’clock in the morning. The troops under Wayne met the enemy with spirit, gave them several well-directed fires, which did considerable execution. They were, however, soon compelled to give way before superior numbers.
General Wayne with the Fourth regiment received the shock of the enemy’s charge, and covered the retreat of the rest of his line. He rallied such of Colonel Humpton’s troops as had taken the proper course in their retreat, where they were again formed to renew the conflict.
Both parties, however drew off without further contest, and General Wayne retreated to the White Horse, carrying with him his artillery and ammunition.
The British attack was made by twice the number of the troops commanded by Wayne. The enemy advanced with only bayonets and light horseman’s swords in a most ferocious and merciless spirit. General Grey ordered his men to remove the flints from their guns, that not a single shot should be fired.
The British dashed into the woods, guided by the straggling fire of the picket, and rushed into the camp yelling.
The Americans were completely surprised, some with arms, others without, running in all directions in the greatest confusion.
The light infantry bayoneted every man they met. The camp was soon in flames, and this with the cries of the wounded formed a scene terrible to behold.
In the slaughter even the sick and wounded were not spared. This conduct of the British commander has stigmatized it as “British barbarity” and has given to the action the title of the Paoli Massacre.
The loss of the Americans was about 150 killed and wounded. The British reported their loss as eight killed, but this is probably an inaccurate record.
The next morning the people in the neighborhood visited the scene and decently buried fifty-three mangled dead whose bodies were found upon the field.
Unholy Alliance with Delaware Indians
Concluded at Fort Pitt,
September 21, 1778
When General Lachlan McIntosh was sent to relieve General Edward Hand at Fort Pitt it was expected that the frontiers would be made safe, as General Washington ordered the Eighth Pennsylvania and the Thirteenth Virginia detached from Valley Forge and marched to the Western post.
The plan of General McIntosh was to attack Detroit, which involved a march of 300 miles through a wilderness inhabited by savages, most of whom were hostile to the American cause. This army must be carried far from its base of supplies, and Fort Pitt was never strong. This was a stupendous enterprise.
The Delaware tribe, who had removed from the central part of Pennsylvania, were now living on the Tuscarawas and the Muskingum, and were the only Indians who had maintained neutrality between the Colonists and the British.
White Eyes, the head sachem and the greatest chieftain ever produced by this remarkable Indian nation, was devoted to the American cause. He revealed a spirit of intelligent sympathy with the struggle for liberty and even hoped that a Delaware Indian State might form a fourteenth star in the American Union.
Preparations were made for a formal treaty of alliance, and June, 1778, Congress ordered it to be held at Fort Pitt July 23 following, and requested Virginia to name two Commissioners and Pennsylvania one.
On account of the Continental troops being too far distant the treaty was postponed until September.
Colonel Brodhead and the Eighth Pennsylvania, which had been recruited in Western Pennsylvania, reached Fort Pitt September 10, 1778. Already the Delaware Indians were encamped near the shore of the river a short distance above the fort. Two days later the conference began.
This was probably the most remarkable treaty ever made in the interest of the United States.
By this treaty, the United States entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with a tribe of savage Indians, recognizing them as an independent nation, guaranteeing its integrity and territory. Each party bound itself to assist the other against enemies.
The treaty even contained a provision for the admission of an Indian State into the American Union. The Commissioners certainly knew this was impossible, yet they deliberately provided for it in solemn treaty, taking care, however, to subject the scheme to the approval of Congress.
In present day parlance it was a “gold brick,” the white men handed to their red brethren.
On the other hand, it was a most courageous act upon the part of the Delaware tribe to form this alliance with the Americans, as all the other Indian tribes of the West were in league with the British, and had for months been trying to persuade the Delaware to join them.
In that alliance White Eyes exposed his people to absolute destruction by the British and their red allies. He fully realized his danger, yet he had the courage to do what he believed to be the right thing, and he fell a martyr to his convictions.
The Shawnee were invited into the alliance, but made no response. At the treaty the Delaware deputies were White Eyes, the chief sachem; Killbuck, a famous medicine man and war chief, and Pipe, the chief warrior of the Wolf clan. All were attired in holiday regalia, paint, feathers and beads.
On the part of the Americans were General McIntosh and his colonels and staff officers. The interpreter was Job Chilloway, the noted Delaware Indian, who resided on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and who was ever the true friend of the whites. Soldiers patrolled the parade ground or stood about watching the unusual scene.
General Andrew Lewis, one of the Virginia Commissioners, opened the conference on Saturday morning by presenting a belt of white wampum, and praising the Delaware tribesmen because they alone remained faithful to their treaties. He then presented a broad belt which had the wampum so arranged that it depicted a red man and a white man connected by a black line, denoting a road or path. He then proposed a formal alliance, giving a third belt, showing a white man and an Indian clasping hands.
General Lewis stated the intention of sending an army against Detroit and asked permission of the Delaware Indians for passage through their country.
Chief White Eyes gave thanks for the offer of friendship and alliance. He told them it was to form such an alliance that he and his comrades had come to the council. He promised a prompt consultation and an answer in the afternoon. He was the only Indian who spoke at the conference.
The arrival of another delegation of Indians consumed much time. The new arrivals were led by Wingenund, the Delaware wise man, and Nimwha, chief of the small band of the Shawnee, who lived with the Delaware at Coshocton.
The conference was resumed in the morning, when White Eyes announced the readiness of the Indians to accept the alliance. The Commissioners announced they would submit copy of the treaty in writing.
White Eyes then said: “Brothers, we are become one people. The enemy Indians, as soon as they hear it, will strike us. We desire that our brethren would build some place for our old men, women and children to remain in safety whilst our warriors go with you.”
On Monday the articles of confederation between a civilized and a savage nation were interpreted and explained to the Indians. On Wednesday White Eyes accepted the treaty on behalf of the Delaware and the Shawnee.
On the following day the articles of confederation were signed in triplicate, one copy for Congress, one for the Delaware, and one for General McIntosh. There were six articles:
First, all offenses were to be mutually forgiven; second, a perpetual peace was pledged; third, the Delaware assented to passages through their country for American Army and agreed to sell corn, meat and horses to the army and to furnish guides, while the Americans agreed to erect a garrison, within the Delaware country, a fort for the protection of the old men, women and children; fourth, related to punishment for offenses only by trial by judges of both parties, etc.; fifth, the United States pledged the establishment of a fair trade under the control of an honest agent.
The sixth article was the most remarkable of all. It guaranteed the integrity of the Delaware territory so long as the nation should keep peace with the United States, promised the Delaware nation should have a representative in Congress, etc. All these articles were contingent upon the proviso that “it meets with the approval of Congress.”
On the succeeding day, September 21, presents were given to the Delaware on behalf of Congress and the Indians then departed for Coshocton, to make preparations for joining the expedition against Detroit.
Chief White Eyes was treacherously killed; the soldiers spent the winter in the wilderness, where many hardships were endured, and the expedition proved a failure.
Franklin Attends Conference of Indians in
Carlisle, September 22, 1753
During the summer of 1753 the Six Nations, Shawnee, Delaware and Twightwee held a great treaty in Virginia, where they were called by Governor Dinwiddie, but who much offended them by his failure to attend the conference in person.
On their return the Indians sent word to Governor James Hamilton, at Philadelphia, that they desired to negotiate a new treaty at Carlisle. The Governor learned that Dinwiddie had not met them in Virginia and he thought Carlisle too far distant to travel on such a mission, so Isaac Norris, Speaker of the Provincial Assembly, Richard Peters, the secretary, and Dr. Benjamin Franklin were commissioned September 22, 1753, to meet and treat with the Indians.
Those who today wander through the streets of historic old Carlisle cannot realize that Franklin and his companions found little more than a frontier fort. John O'Neal, in a letter to Governor Hamilton, dated May 27, 1753, says there were only five houses in the town and but twelve men in the garrison.
Fort Lowther, on High street, near the Public Square, was a harbor of refuge for pioneer families so frequently exposed to Indian attack. Court was held in a log building on the northeast corner of Center Square.
Franklin never forgot his experience at Carlisle and referred to it frequently. His visit to help make a new treaty with the Ohio Indians was a mission of much importance. Through daring wiles of the French, England’s position in the New World was being imperiled more and more.
What attitude the Indians would take in a contest between English and French was of vital importance, not only to the King, but more especially to Pennsylvania settlers, who well knew the terror of Indian massacres and wars.
The Indians attending the Carlisle pow-wow wanted fire water as soon as the commissioners arrived, but Franklin and the other members were shrewd enough to promise rum only when the conference had been completed.
Scarouady, an Oneida chief, sometimes called Half King, who was a person of great weight in their councils, went into caucus with the commissioners before formal sessions began.
He regretfully advised that deliberations could not proceed until belts, strings and goods sent by the Pennsylvania Assembly as condolences arrived “to cover the graves of braves killed by the French and their Indians, and were spread out on the ground” before the assembled red men.
The commissioners wanted to begin work at once and offered to furnish a list and inventory of the delayed presents. It was then agreed to confer with the chiefs of the “Shawnee and Delaware on the state of affairs in Ohio,” pending arrival of the condolences.
Conrad Weiser and Andrew Montour acted as interpreters between the commissioners and Indians, while several magistrates and freeholders attended the conference, which was formally opened on the morning of October 1, after the gifts costing £800, which had arrived that morning, had been laid out on the ground.
During the three days following, when Indians and commissioners were not passing presents to one another, speeches were delivered according to the customary procedure of such gatherings.
At the closing of the first day, as is briefly mentioned in the report, “the goods allotted for each nation as a present of condolence were taken away by each.”
The forms of the condolences depended entirely on Indian custom and were settled in conference with Scarouady and Cayanguileguoa, a sensible Indian of the Mohawk Nation, and accordingly the proper belts and strings were made ready.
But the commissioners had been compelled to await until the condolences had arrived before they were able to assuage the Indian grief.
After the Oneida chieftain had offered the suggestion, “We dig a grave for your warriors killed in your country and we bury their bones, decently wrapping them in these blankets, and with these presents we cover their graves,” the Indians aired their complaints and protestations of loyalty to the English.
In return for all the delicate niceties of Indian procedure, which the wise Franklin had been careful to observe the red men covered graves of the English with a beaver skin blanket and offered as occasion required a string or two of wampum, belts and bundles of skins.
A shell, painted green on the concave side, with a string of wampum attached, was given the commissioners as evidence that the assembled Indians had but a single heart and that “green and good and sound.”
The calumet, a pipe decorated with fine feathers, was offered in proof that the Indians cherished no resentment against the English because of French inroads.
They made Andrew Montour a counselor for the Six Nations, presented him with a belt in token of their confidence and gave notice in a speech that a horn had been set upon his head as evidence of Indian respect for one of their number who served the English.
Franklin thus speaks of this treaty in his autobiography: “Being commissioned, we went to Carlisle and met the Indians accordingly. As these people are extremely apt to get drunk, and when so are very quarrelsome and disorderly, we strictly forbade the selling of any liquor to them; and when they complained of this restriction, we told them, if they would continue sober during the treaty, we would give them plenty of rum when the business was over. They promised this, and they kept their promise, because they could get no rum, and the treaty was conducted very orderly and concluded to mutual satisfaction. They then claimed and received the rum; this was in the afternoon.
“They were near one hundred men, women and children, some were lodged in temporary cabins, built in the form of a square, just without the town. In the evening, hearing a great noise among them, the commissioners walked out to see what was the matter.
“We found they had made a great bonfire in the middle of the square; they were all drunk, men and women quarreling and fighting. Their dark-colored bodies, seen only by the gloomy light of the bonfire, running after and beating one another with firebrands, accompanied by their horrid yellings, formed a scene the most resembling our ideas of an inferno that could be well imagined.
“There was no appeasing the tumult, and we retired to our lodgings. At midnight a number of them came thundering at our door, demanding more rum, of which we took no notice. The next day, sensible they had misbehaved themselves in giving us that disturbance, they sent three of their old counselors to make their apology.”
He concludes: “That if it be the design of Providence to extirpate these savages in order to make room for the cultivators of the earth, it seems not impossible that rum may be the appointed means. It has already annihilated all the tribes who formerly inhabited the seacoast.”
Boundary Dispute with Virginia Ended
When Assembly Ratified Agreement,
September 23, 1780
Besides the Connecticut claims, which took in almost the entire half of the Province of Pennsylvania, Virginia laid claim to a large portion of the western part. The origin of this claim dates very far back in the history of the country.
The charter of 1607 granted to the London Company all the territory in America lying between the 34th and 38th degrees of north latitude.
In 1609 the charter was amended and enlarged, so that it comprised a region stretching two hundred miles north and the same distance south of Point Comfort, and extending “up into the land throughout, from sea to sea, west and northwest.”
In 1623 the London Company was dissolved, and their territory, except where grants had been made to private individuals, reverted to the Crown.
The Virginians never fully accepted this decision. Penn’s grant was respected; but any other territory within the limits of their charter they continued to claim, notwithstanding the action of the King’s Bench.
To explore and occupy his vast domain was one of the most fascinating objects of the early Virginians.
It was to vindicate their claim to the region about the forks of the Ohio that the youthful Major George Washington was sent to the French posts in 1753.
The authorities of Pennsylvania, however, now began to contend that the claims of Virginia overlapped the charter granted to William Penn, and some correspondence took place between Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, and Governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, in the years 1752 and 1753.
Early in 1753 the Virginians undertook to secure possession of the country about the Forks of the Ohio against the common enemy, the French, by building a fort, where Pittsburgh now stands. The French, under Contrecœur descended the Allegheny, drove the Virginians away, and themselves built a stronghold at the same place, which they called Fort Duquesne.
This disputed territory remained in the hands of the French until General Forbes invested Fort Duquesne, November 24, 1758. The fort was rebuilt and named Fort Pitt.
No revival of the dispute took place until January, 1774, when one Dr. John Conolly, a native of Lancaster, and one whom Bancroft describes as “a physician, land-jobber and subservient political intriguer,” appeared with authority from Lord Dunmore, the governor of Virginia, and took possession of Fort Pitt, and renamed it Fort Dunmore.
Conolly issued a call to the public to assemble as a militia, and for this conduct he was apprehended by Arthur (afterwards General) St. Clair, a magistrate of Westmoreland County, and thrown into jail at Hannastown.
He was released on bail and returned to Virginia. Here he was appointed a justice of Augusta County, which the Virginians contended embraced the territory in debate, and shortly returned to Pittsburgh with a strong force.
He captured the court at Hannastown, and at Pittsburgh, April 9, 1774, he arrested Justices Mackey, Smith, and McFarlane, and sent them prisoners to Staunton, Virginia.
Conolly’s high-handed proceedings called for action by Governor John Penn, who wrote to Governor Dunmore, complaining of Conolly’s actions, and describing the boundaries of Pennsylvania.
Governor Penn gave a careful delineation of the several surveys and closed his letter by suggesting a temporary line of jurisdiction until the affair could be settled by King George III in Council.
Lord Dunmore replied March 3, 1774, in which he contravened the opinions of Governor Penn and refused to comply with his suggestions. He furthermore resented the arrest of Conolly and demanded the dismissal of St. Clair.
Governor Penn replied, March 31, when he recapitulated the history of the claim, and declined to dismiss St. Clair from his office.
On May 7, James Tilghman and Andrew Allen were appointed commissioners on the part of Pennsylvania to settle the question in dispute. They reached Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, May 19.
Governor Dunmore demanded their proposition in writing, and they gave it to him on the 23rd.
The substance of the paper was that the Mason and Dixon’s line should be continued to the end of the five degrees from the Delaware River, and from the end of that line a line should be run corresponding in direction to the courses of the Delaware, and drawn at every point at the distance of five degrees of longitude from that river. This proposition would have the western boundary of Pennsylvania of the same form as the eastern.
Lord Dunmore replied that he did not believe the Crown intended such an irregular western boundary. He then proceeded to explain the boundary as he understood it.
It is a fact worthy of remark that Governor Penn’s proposition gave to Virginia nearly all that she claimed, while Dunmore’s gave to Pennsylvania far more than she demanded; the boundary lines as he defined them being almost identical with those at present established.
No agreement was reached and Lord Dunmore refused to relinquish his authority over Fort Pitt.
Meanwhile Conolly’s conduct was outrageous. He not only oppressed the people, but stirred up a war with the Indians, who committed great barbarities.
Governor Penn could not save the situation, nor could the law furnish any protection.
The war with the mother country developed and Dunmore and Conolly took sides against the colonists.
On the night of June 7, 1775, Dunmore was compelled to seek safety on board the “Fowney,” an English man-of-war, at York, Va., and Conolly soon joined Dunmore in his place of refuge.
In December, 1776, the legislature of Virginia proposed a line of demarcation, which was slightly different from those already suggested, but Pennsylvania could not accept it.
In the meantime matters remained in a chaotic condition, especially as to Westmoreland inhabitants. But the time came when it was necessary to do something.
Finally George Bryan, John Ewing, and David Rittenhouse, on the part of Pennsylvania, and Dr. James Madison and Robert Andrews, on the part of Virginia, met as commissioners at Baltimore, August 31, 1779, and after thorough consideration of the subject agreed as follows:
“To extend Mason and Dixon’s line due west five degrees of longitude, to be computed from the river Delaware, for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and that a meridian, drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern limit of said state, be the western boundary of said state forever.”
This agreement was ratified and confirmed by the legislature of Virginia, June 23, 1780, and by that of Pennsylvania, September 23, 1780.
In 1782 commissioners appointed by the two states ran the lines, but these were only temporary. In 1783, David Rittenhouse, John Lukens, John Ewing, and Captain Hutchins, on the part of Pennsylvania, and Dr. James Madison, Andrew Ellicott, Robert Andrews, and T. Page, on the part of Virginia, again ran the lines, and set up stone pillars at regular intervals.
This work was accomplished in 1784, and ended further dispute in the matter.
Two Brothers of Doan Family of Outlaw
Sons Hanged September 24, 1788
During the Revolutionary War a number of young men either to escape from serving in army or paying fines, or for the reason that they may have sympathized with the element which opposed the independence of the young colonies, and did not choose to enlist openly with the enemy, found a more profitable employment in secret acts of treachery and piracy among their neighbors.
For that service they were amply compensated by the British, especially during their occupancy of Philadelphia and New York City.
There were not a few such outlaws, and they did not reside in any one quarter of the State, but the most notorious of them all were several brothers by the name of Doan.
The Doans lived in Plumstead Township, near Doylestown, Bucks County. The father, Israel Doan, was a worthy man, but his six sons as they grew to manhood abandoned all the noble principles of the religious sect with which they had been reared, and retaining only so much of the outward forms as suited their nefarious schemes, they became a gang of most desperate outlaws.
The sons were professedly Tories and pursued for a time a very profitable trade in stealing the horses and cattle of their Whig neighbors, and disposing of them to the British Army, then in Philadelphia.
The brothers lived in the highways and hedges and waged a predatory and retaliatory war upon their persecutors. They were men of fine figures and addresses, elegant horsemen, great runners and excellent at stratagems and escapes.
The Doans were distinguished from their youth for great muscular activity. They could run and jump beyond all competitors, and it is said one of them could jump over a Conestoga wagon.
They delighted to injure public property, but did no injury to the weak, the poor, or the peaceful.
One of the brothers, Joseph, was a school teacher in Plumstead Township. Two of the brothers had joined the British in Philadelphia, and through them the stolen horses were disposed of and the proceeds shared.
The Doans at school were often displaying their pockets full of guineas, which at first were believed to be counterfeit; but subsequent events proved their genuineness, and disclosed the source from which they had procured so considerable an amount of gold.
Suspicion had long fastened upon the family; they were closely watched and eventually, about the year 1782, the stealing of a horse belonging to John Shaw, of Plumstead, was positively traced to them. This brought upon Mr. Shaw and a few others, who were active in their detection, the combined malignity of the whole banditti and it was not long before they obtained their revenge.
The Doans added to their band another villain of kindred spirit by the name of Robert Steele. Under the leadership of Moses Doan and Joseph, the schoolmaster, the seven outlaws fell upon Mr. Shaw in the dead of the night, in his own house, bruised and lacerated him most cruelly, and decamped with all his horses and everything of value they could take from the house.
A son of Mr. Shaw was dispatched to the nearest neighbors for assistance and to raise the hue and cry after the robbers. But these neighbors being Mennonites, conscientiously opposed to bearing arms and having besides an instinctive dread of personal danger, declined interfering in the matter. Such was the timidity and cautiousness manifested in those times between the nearest neighbors, when of different religions and political sentiments.
Young Shaw, however, soon raised a number of the inhabitants, part of whom responded to his father’s call for assistance, and part of whom armed themselves and went in pursuit of the robbers.
When the Doans finished with Mr. Shaw, they proceeded to the house of Joseph Grier, and robbed him, and then went to a tavern kept by Colonel Robert Robinson, a very corpulent man, whom they dragged out of bed, bound him in a most excruciating position, and placed him naked in the midst of them; then they whipped him until their ferocity was satisfied.
They robbed and abused several other persons the same night, and then fled into Montgomery County. Here they were overtaken, somewhere on Skippack, and so hotly pursued that they were glad to abandon the five horses on which they rode, and seek safer refuge in the thicket. Joseph was shot through the cheeks, and captured when he fell from his horse. The others escaped.
The prisoner was confined in jail at Newtown, then the county town of Bucks, but while awaiting trial effected his escape. He fled into New Jersey, where he taught school, under an assumed name, for nearly a year.
The Federal Government offered a reward of $800 for him or his brothers, dead or alive. While Joseph was in a saloon one evening a man was heard to say that he would shoot any one of the Doans on sight for the sake of the reward. Joseph took the hint and made his way into Canada.
Moses, the captain of the gang, with two of his brothers, had taken refuge in a cabin occupied by a drunken man, near the mouth of Tohickon Creek. Mr. Shaw learned of the place of their concealment, rallied a party with Colonel Hart as leader, and surrounded them.
Instead of shooting them down at once, Colonel Hart opened the door, and cried out, “Ah! You’re here, are you?”
The Doans seized their guns and shot down Mr. Kennedy, one of the party. Two of the outlaws crawled through a window unseen, and escaped in the woods. Moses, the most respectable of all the brothers, surrendered. Immediately after he gave himself up he was shot down by one of the attacking party. It was discovered that the man who killed Moses was a former member of his outlaw band and killed him to close his mouth forever.
Two others of the Doan brothers, Abraham and Levi, were later captured in Chester County, and afterward hanged on September 24, 1788, in Philadelphia. Their bodies were taken back to Plumstead Township for burial.
Their valor and generosity made them respected above ordinary robbers, and many temperate people in the county expressed or felt great commiseration for them.
The Doans made a desperate fight to obtain pardons and their case caused intense excitement throughout the entire State, but they paid the price their lawlessness deserved.
Many years after the Shaw robbery, young Shaw became a magistrate in Doylestown. One day Joseph Doan, the robber and schoolmaster, now a refugee from prison, entered his office. The Squire gave him a cool reception but inquired of his errand.
The old scoundrel had returned from Canada to bring suit against a Quaker for a small legacy of $40. He had the impudence to require Squire Shaw’s services, although he had robbed and nearly killed his father. Squire Shaw performed his professional duties, but treated his unwelcome client with cool disdain and hatred.
Dutch Gain Control of the Delaware River
September 25, 1655
After the arrival of John Claudius Rysingh, as the successor of John Printz, Governor of New Sweden, May 20, 1654, he became a very aggressive officer. He began his administration by capturing the Dutch Fort Casimer, thus destroying the authority of the Dutch on the Delaware River.
On June 17, he held a great convocation of Indians at Printz Hall, on Tinicum Island, now Essington, on the Delaware River near Chester, at which a new treaty was successfully consummated.
The triumph of Rysingh was regarded as a reconquest of usurped territory and no other means to reclaim it by the Dutch were apprehended. That was a fatal delusion, for at the close of 1654, while estimates were being made in Sweden for the support of their colony during the ensuing year, on a peace basis, an armament was being fitted out in Holland not only sufficient “to replace matters on the Delaware in their former position,” but “to drive out the Swedes from every side of the river.”
In the spring of 1655 five armed vessels, well equipped and with 600 men, were forwarded by Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch Governor at Manhattan. This expedition was commanded by Stuyvesant in person and arrived in Delaware Bay Monday afternoon, September 5, 1655.
By Friday the fleet reached Fort Casimer, now in control of the Swedes, and renamed Fort Trinity. The garrison was in command of Sven Schute, while Governor Rysingh, in person, had charge of Christina, in what is now Wilmington, Del.
To prevent a communication of the two forts Stuyvesant had landed fifty men. The demand made by the Dutch was a “direct restitution of their own property,” to which Commander Schute, after having had an interview with Stuyvesant, reluctantly yielded on the following day upon very favorable terms of capitulation.
The nine guns of the fort were to be reserved for the Swedish “crown” and removed when convenient. The Swedes were to march out, twelve fully equipped, the rest with their side-arms. Stuyvesant proclaimed that Swedes who would take the oath of allegiance to him might remain unmolested, and twenty did so.
The surrender of Schute was unknown to Governor Rysingh, and his position was virtually untenable. He had placed some of his best men in the captured fort, and an additional party, sent the very day of the surrender. He prepared for resistance, collected all the people for the defense of Fort Christina, and strengthened the ramparts.
On September 12, the Dutch appeared on the opposite side of Christina Creek, and the siege began, which was continued uninterruptedly for fourteen days.
On the 16th, Stuyvesant sent a letter “claiming the whole river.” Rysingh replied asserting the rights of the Swedes on the Delaware and protesting against the Dutch invasion. Stuyvesant renewed his demand, and Rysingh next urged that the boundaries between the Swedish and Dutch colonies be settled by the Governments at home, or by commissioners to be agreed upon.
Only delay resulted. Stuyvesant was cocksure of his ability to capture the fort, and was satisfied to wait. It would have been folly in Rysingh, with his thirty men to have begun to fight. During the long siege no one was killed or wounded. September 25, Rysingh surrendered. A formal capitulation was drawn up and signed by the two commanders on the parade-ground outside the fort.
The soldiers were to march out with the honors of war. The guns and everything to remain the property of the Swedes. The Swedish settlers might stay or go, as they chose, and for a year and six weeks, if they stayed, need not take the Dutch oath of allegiance.
Swedes who remained should enjoy the Lutheran faith, and have a minister to instruct them. Rysingh and the commissary, Elswick, were to be taken to Manhattan, and thence provided with passage to Europe. Thus ended the short but exciting career of Governor Rysingh, and with him fell the whole Swedish Colony.
Soon thereafter, Rysingh with other Swedish officials, proceeded to Manhattan. Rysingh, Lindstrom, the engineer; Elswick, the commissary, and the two clergymen, Hjort and Nertunius, sailed on a Dutch merchant vessel early in November, and were landed in Plymouth, England, where a report of the Dutch conquest was made to Lyderberg, the Swedish Ambassador to England.
Had not internal troubles arisen in Sweden at this time, their claim might have been pressed with effect, but in 1664 the whole of New Netherlands was seized by the English, and both Sweden and Holland had lost their colonies. Neither was likely to obtain much satisfaction from the other, and the controversy faded away.
Many improvements had been made by the Swedes, from Henlopen to the Falls of Alumingh. They laid the foundation of Upland, the present Chester; Korsholm Fort was built at Passyunk; Manayunk Fort was placed at the mouth of the Schuylkill; they marked the sites of Nya Wasa and Gripsholm, somewhere near the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill, Straus Mijk, Nieu Causeland, the present New Castle; and forts were erected at Kingsessing, Wicacoa, Finland and other places.
The Swedes lived at peace with the Indians. The Government of the Dutch was established by the appointment of John Paul Jacquet[Jacquet] as vice director and commander-in-chief, and Andreas Hudde as secretary and surveyor, keeper of the keys of the fort, etc.
The overthrow of the Swedish authority on the Delaware was complete and final, and for a period of nine years the white settlements on the river, on both sides, remained wholly under control of the Dutch. The Swedes lived together, mostly north of Christina, and the Dutch gathered about Fort Casimer, where a little hamlet sprang up, which became known as New Amstel, the New Castle of the English and of the present.
The authority centered at New Amstel. Christina was eclipsed, and Tinicum ceased to have importance except as the residence of Madam Popegoja and the location of a church. The log forts at both places rotted down and were not rebuilt.
In April, 1657, Jacob Alricks assumed the governorship of the colony for the Dutch, when Hudde was appointed to command at Fort Christina, the name of which was changed to Altona.
Stuyvesant again visited the Delaware in May, 1658. At Tinicum he conferred with Sheriff Van Dyck, Magistrate Olaf Stille, Mathys Hansson, Peter Rambo and Peter Cock. These and Sven Schute and others took the oath of allegiance to the Dutch authority and were granted a number of requests.
In July, 1658, William Beekman was appointed by Stuyvesant to represent the Dutch West India Company on the Delaware.
But Pennsylvania was soon to be wrested from the Dutch and England gained possession October 1, 1664.
British Under General Howe Invest City of
Philadelphia, September 26, 1777
After the defeat of the American Army in the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, the British did not pursue Washington’s Army, which marched to Chester and then to Germantown. Here provisions and ammunition, both much needed, were obtained.
The British advanced toward Philadelphia, which was unprepared to make an adequate defense, and General Mifflin, who was to take command, was too ill to do so.
When the news reached the city, early on the morning of September 19, that the British had crossed the Schuylkill, all was in confusion.
Congress and the Supreme Executive Council of the State, which had remained in Philadelphia during the exciting events transpiring before the city, now adjourned to meet elsewhere, the former, on the 18th, to meet in Lancaster. After a flight to Bethlehem and then via Reading it reached Lancaster, where it convened on the 27th, but three days later removed to York, which became the capital of the United States.
The State Government remained until the 24th, when it also went to Lancaster, the archives, etc., having previously been removed to Easton. The first meeting of Wharton and his councilors was held in Lancaster September 29.
On the 19th Washington passed the Schuylkill at Parkers Ford, leaving Wayne with 2000 men on the west side to fall upon any detachment of the enemy or destroy his baggage. That night occurred the Paoli massacre.
The British crossed the Schuylkill at Fatland Ford on the 22d. General Howe established headquarters at Norristown on the 23d and 24th.
Washington had marched his army in the direction of Reading. On the 25th the British began an encampment at Germantown, Howe making Stenton his headquarters.
Lord Cornwallis entered Philadelphia on September 26 at the head of a detachment of British and Hessian grenadiers.
An American flotilla held the channel of the Delaware River below the city, but the British immediately constructed batteries which repulsed an attack the following day.
The main army of the enemy remained in camp at Germantown. Thus the richest and most populous capital of the whole confederation fell into the enemy’s hands, after a sanguinary battle, and a series of maneuvers no less masterly than painful to the two armies.
Washington, descending along the left bank of the Schuylkill, approached to within sixteen miles of Germantown, where he encamped at Skippack Creek.
General Howe, having occupied Philadelphia, at once took measures to secure the unobstructed passage of his fleet up the Delaware. Colonel Sterling was sent with a detachment to attack the American fort at Billingsport, on the Jersey side of the Delaware River, as its capture would place it in their power to make a passage through the obstructions in the channel and enable their vessels to approach within striking distance of Fort Mifflin.
Colonel Sterling’s attack was successful October 2, as no resistance was offered by the small garrison under Colonel Bradford. They had taken off all the ammunition and some of the cannon, spiking those that remained and burned the barracks.
While this action was in progress, General Washington regarded it as a favorable opportunity for making an attack on the British force encamped at Germantown, and with between eight and nine thousand Continentals, besides some militia marched toward that place on the night of October 3.
When Washington gave the order to retire the Americans executed their retreat in good order, followed by the British for about nine miles.
The American Army gathered at the back of Perkiomen Creek with a post formed on the hillside of the road near White Marsh Church, and Washington at Pennypacker’s mill.
The Congress expressed its approbation, both of the plan of enterprise and the courage with which it was executed, for which votes of thanks were given to General Washington and the army.
On October 13 the Assembly at Lancaster established a Council of Safety consisting of the members of the Supreme Executive Council and John Bayard, Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, Jonathan B. Smith, David Rittenhouse, Joseph Gardner, Robert Whitehill, Christopher Marshall, James Smith, of York; Jacob Arndt, Curtis Grubb, James Cannon and William Henry with power to punish even capitally in a summary manner, and to take at their appraisement any necessaries for the army.
A rule also was made against profiteers, and any person who should buy up more bar-iron, leather, salt, wheat, cattle or other merchandise, or victuals, than proper for his own need and supply should be punished severely.
During the British occupation there were as many as 20,000 troops in and about Philadelphia. General Howe lived for a time in Stenton, the home built by James Logan, and later in the Samuel Morris house; he also lived for a time in the Perot mansion, which in 1793, was the residence of General Washington, while President of the United States. During the time he stayed in Philadelphia[Philadelphia] he seized and kept for his own use Mary Pemberton’s coach and horses, with which he rode about town.
General Knyphausen lived in General Cadwallader’s mansion, on Second Street; Lord Cornwallis dwelt in David Lewis’ house, Second, above Spruce Street; Major André dwelt in Benjamin Franklin’s mansion. Other officers occupied fine residences and it was a season of much social gayety.
On October 19 the main body of the British Army left Germantown and encamped behind the line of redoubts in the Northern Liberties.
Philadelphia was now walled in from river to river by lines of British troops, but yet the British men-of-war commanded by General Howe’s brother, Lord Howe, could not freely pass the obstructions in the Delaware River.
The artillery were quartered in Chestnut Street, between Third and Sixth Streets, the State House yard being used as a park. The Forty-second Highlanders occupied Chestnut Street below Third, and the Fifteenth Regiment was quartered in Market Street, in and about Fifth Street.
Later in October General Washington sent General McDougall to attack 1500 British at Gray’s Ferry. Generals Sullivan and Greene were to make a feint along the Germantown road. Greene got as far as Three Mile Run, where he united with Sullivan and waited for the signal that McDougall had begun the attack. The enemy had called in his troops at Gray’s Ferry and the Americans were obliged to return.
The English forced the evacuation of Fort Mifflin, November 15, and Fort Mercer was abandoned the 20th, but, in spite of this handicap, the American fleet successfully passed Philadelphia and took refuge above Bristol.
British Open Hostilities in Long Siege on
Fort Mifflin, September 27, 1777
The British Army was in possession of Philadelphia, but the communication was not open with their fleet, and General Washington in evacuating the city had placed a garrison in Fort Mifflin, not as strong as the importance and exigencies of the place required, but such as the situation of his army could afford.
Fort Mifflin was nothing more than a wooden fort with an inclosure of palisades. It was situated on Mud Island, on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River. The small Pennsylvania fleet was in command of Commodore John Hazlewood.
The British were not unacquainted with the miserable situation of the fort and knew its weaknesses and the best means to reduce it.
On September 27 the enemy on Providence Island opened two mortars and three heavy guns against the southeast blockhouse. That left these batteries unsupported, which gave an opportunity for Colonel Smith to order a sally above and below.
Two parties supported by the galleys under Commodore Hazlewood landed on the beach of Providence Island and stormed the battery, which was defended by two officers and sixty British, who surrendered themselves. They were carried into the fort before the enemy’s guards could attack the Americans, but not before the guns were spiked.
From October 10 to the 21st a severe fire was kept up; the two west blockhouses were ruined and the north one blown up by the fall of several shells.
The enemy, seeing the breaches made to the palisades, hoped to gain possession of the fort, and as it was very important for their remaining in Philadelphia that the communication be open, they determined a general storm on Mud Island October 22.
Previous to it, in the evening of the 21st, the Hessian brigade crossed at Cooper’s Ferry to storm Fort Mercer, on the Jersey shore about 1500 yards northeast of Fort Mifflin and up the river. The attack was so rash that even success could not justify its temerity.
Before the storm of the fort was attempted Colonel Donop sent a flag to Colonel Christopher Green, who commanded the fort, threatening to put the garrison to the sword if he did not surrender it immediately. Colonel Green answered with disdain, saying he would defend it till the last drop of his blood. About an hour before night the attack was begun on the north and south side.
Both the British attacks were expected. The artillery and musketry of the fort and the heavy guns of the galleys poured grapeshot and cannon balls upon them and made great slaughter. They advanced as far as the abattis, and being repulsed with great loss, they left their commanding officer dying and retreated with hurry and confusion. They rallied in the woods, and leaving their wounded and dead, about 300, in the hands of the victors, retired to Philadelphia the same night.
Colonel Green and the officers who had displayed so much courage in repulsing the enemy, treated the wounded with much humanity. Colonel Donop was attended with the greatest care, but he died a few days after the action, and was buried with the honors of war.
The morning after the attack on Fort Mercer it became Fort Mifflin’s turn. On the 22d, about 9 o’clock, the ships Eagle, Somerset, Isis, Augusta, Pearl, Liverpool and several frigates, with a galley, came up to the chevaux de frise, 500 yards from the fort. At the same time the land batteries, the fort batteries and the American galleys and the British squadron engaged.
The firing continued until noon with relentless fury; the fort frequently fired red-hot balls, one of which struck the Augusta, a sixty-four-gun ship, she took fire, and in a moment was ablaze, and soon after blew up with a thundering noise, before the enemy could take out all their hands.
A moment after, the Merlin, a twenty-two-gun frigate, ran ashore below the Augusta, and as she could not be removed before the explosion, took fire and also blew up.
The other ships, frightened by the fate of these two, retired below Hog Island; and the land batteries, which had hoisted the bloody flag, to warn the garrison that they were not to expect any quarter, continued their fighting until evening.
The weakened garrison had been re-inforced by Pennsylvania and Virginia troops, but Colonel Smith found the garrison in great danger from fatigue and salt provisions, the water they had to wade through, the cold nights and constant firing by the enemy turned many men to the hospital.
The enemy suffered also from the inclemency of the weather, and the overflowing of the island. The water was two feet deep in their fort.
The British, believing they must evacuate Philadelphia or take the fort, made new batteries, and on November 8 kept up an incessant fire.
All the palisades were broken down and the block houses ruined. The ditch filled up with mud. Captain Treat and his lieutenant were killed. Colonel Smith was wounded and the garrison nearly exhausted.
Major Thayer with some New England troops relieved the garrison. Major Fleury would not be relieved and remained with the garrison.
On November 15 the enemy made a furious attack by the river and land and floating batteries on the fort.
The ships came as near the fort as possible in the main channel, and the Vigilant, carrying 24-pounders, came up under the protection of the land batteries, behind Hog Island, and anchored forty yards from the angle of the battery.
Fort Mifflin had been so much exposed on that side that on it did not remain a single gun. Major Thayer ordered the 32-pounder to be carried there. Before the Vigilant began to fire that single gun put fourteen shots in her board. But as soon as she was at anchor and began to play all resistance became impossible.
In three or four broadsides not only the parapet and the carriages but even the irons of the guns themselves were broken, and in half an hour not a gun in the fort was able to fire.
Another sloop of war joined the Vigilant and played against the fort all the afternoon.
The garrison was buried in ruins, unable to retreat during the day and unwilling to do it as long as they could expect re-enforcements, had not any expectation but to sell their lives dearly as they could.
It was impossible to defend the fort with so small a force, and Major Thayer called for re-enforcements from Fort Mercer or he must evacuate the fort. At that moment Major Fleury and Major Talbot were wounded and another officer of artillery killed.
At 10 o’clock at night, as no re-enforcements had arrived from New Jersey, it was impossible to defend the fort any longer.
Major Thayer evacuated the fort with a degree of firmness equal to the bravery of his defense. He set fire to the remains, and with less than 200 men, having carried off all the wounded, he arrived at Fort Mercer about 1 o’clock in the morning, being the last man to march out of the fort.
The British took possession of Fort Mifflin half an hour after the Americans left it.
Colonel William Plunket Defeats Yankees
in Pennamite War, September 28, 1775
There had been four years of tranquil enjoyment among the Yankee settlers at Wyoming following the conclusion, in 1771, of the first Pennamite War. The Proprietaries had been defeated and driven out, and for four years they made no attempt to retake their property.
With the defeat of Dick and Ogden, August, 1771, the Penns were actually driven out of Wyoming and the Yankee settlers poured into the valley in such numbers that it was considered advisable to erect five new townships, each five miles square, along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, on the lands of the Susquehanna Company.
Accordingly, in 1771 the township of Charlestown was erected at the mouth of Muncy Creek, now Lycoming County; the township of Judea was erected above the mouth of Limestone Run, which is in the center of the present borough of Milton.
In May, 1773, the township of Westminster was erected above the mouth of Buffalo Creek, in what is now Union County.
It was intended that another township, to be called New Simsburg, should be erected on the south side of the West Branch, opposite the mouth of Pine Creek. This survey was never made, but the site selected was opposite the present borough of Jersey Shore, and included the beautiful island at that place.
The fifth town, called Salem, was erected on the North Branch, May, 1773, below the mouth of Shickshinny Creek.
Northumberland County was erected March 21, 1772, and its territory, which embraced 462 square miles, included the entire Wyoming Valley, which was placed in the seventh and last township, called Wyoming.
During that summer a number of settlers arrived in Turbot Township from the State of New Jersey, among whom were John, Cornelius and Peter Vincent and their families. John and Peter were brothers and Cornelius was the son of John. They settled on a plantation one mile below the mouth of Warrior Run, which is two miles north of the present borough of Milton.
John immediately became the leader of this pioneer settlement and dominant factor and partisan of the Connecticut interest. In May, 1775, the Governor of Connecticut appointed him a justice of the peace for Litchfield County. Accompanied by his son and several others, he went to Wyoming in August and requested a number of people to go to the West Branch and make settlements.
Major William Judd, Joseph Sluman, Esq., and about eighty others arrived at Vincent’s September 23, and two days later Judd and Sluman wrote a jointly signed letter to Judge William Plunket, in which they acknowledged they had come with a view of settling, and stated that as this might be a “matter of much conversation among the inhabitants, we are willing to acquaint you with the principles on which we are come. In the first place, we intend no hostilities; we will not disturb, molest or endeavor to dispossess any person of his property, or in any ways abuse his person by threats or any action that shall tend thereto. And, as we are commissioners of the peace from the Colony of Connecticut, we mean to be governed by the laws of that colony, and shall not refuse the exercise of the law to those of the inhabitants that are now dwellers here on their request, as the Colony of Connecticut extended last May their jurisdiction over the land. Finally, as we are determined to govern ourselves as above mentioned, we expect that those who think the title of this land is not in this colony will give us no uneasiness or disturbance in our proposed settlement.”
If Major Judd and his party really supposed that their movements would meet with no opposition, they were egregiously mistaken. It is also quite evident they prepared for defense.
According to the deposition of Peter Smith, one detachment was on guard at a schoolhouse at Freeland’s Mills, three miles above the mouth of Warrior Run, and another at John Vincent’s house.
The report reached the county seat at Sunbury that the settlers had brought along entrenching tools, also swivels to be used in the entrenchments.
A petition was immediately prepared and sent to Governor John Penn, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, which was signed by William Cooke, Sheriff; James Murray, Coroner; William Plunket, President Judge; Samuel Hunter, County Lieutenant and Justice; Benjamin Alison, Robert Moodie, Michael Troy, Ellis Hughes and William Maclay, Associate Justices.
The petitioners set forth that their utmost efforts had failed to halt the “ambitious designs and enterprises of the intruders from the Colony of Connecticut. That they had been re-enforced with fresh numbers: Officers, civil and military. Swarms of emissaries are seducing the ignorant, frightening the timorous, and denouncing the utmost vengeance against any who may be hardy enough to oppose them—In fine, to such a situation we are already reduced as to be under the hard necessity of keeping constant guards, not only to prevent the destruction of our jail, but for the security of our houses and persons, all of which are violently threatened.”
Without waiting for action on the above petition the militia of Northumberland County was called out, and September 25 a company of fifty men left Fort Augusta to join companies from other points, to demand the reason for “this intrusion and hostile appearance.”
On September 28 the Yankees at their encampment at John Vincent’s were attacked by the Provincial forces under Colonel Plunket. Just how much resistance was offered is not a matter of record, but that there was a battle fought is evidenced by the fact that one Yankee was killed and eight wounded.
Plunket’s militiamen collected all the movable property, which was then and there divided among the victors. The torch was applied and all the buildings burned. They then marched the men, as prisoners, to Sunbury, where they were confined in jail. The women and children had been sent back to their friends and relatives at Wyoming.
At the hearing of the prisoners, Major Judd and Joseph Sluman, the leaders, were sent to Philadelphia, where they were confined in gaol, until December 20, when they were released by resolution of Congress. Three others were detained ten days in the gaol at Sunbury, and the remainder were dismissed.
This action of the county authorities and militia was approved by the Provincial Assembly in a resolution which was passed October 27, 1775:
“Resolved, That the inhabitants of the County of Northumberland, settled under the jurisdiction of this Province, were justifiable and did their duty in repelling the said intruders and preventing the further extension of the settlements.”
No doubt this expedition resulted in breaking up the Connecticut settlements on the West Branch, and the Pennsylvania claimants remained undisturbed in full possession of the territory.
Captain John Smith Who First Meets Native
Pennsylvanians Sailed for England,
September 29, 1609
There seems to be no doubt but that the first European to meet the Indians who resided in what is now Pennsylvania was Captain John Smith.
This adventurer explored the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries in 1608, and made a map of his observations, which with the one he made at a later date, of his explorations along the New England coast, were for many years recognized as the authority for this hemisphere.
The Dutch who first came to these shores formed an acquaintance with the Indians in 1615, and the Swedes first met them in 1638.
It seems, therefore, that a story about this intrepid navigator, statesman, soldier, and writer is timely.
Captain John Smith, founder of the Virginia Colony, was an English soldier, a native of Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, where he was born January, 1579; he died in London, June 21, 1631.
From early youth he was a soldier, enlisting in 1596, in the French Army to fight against Spain, but after the peace of 1598, he transferred his services to the insurgents in the Netherlands, and there remained until about 1600.
Returning home he almost immediately started on a career of marvelous adventure.
He sailed from France to Italy, where he was thrown overboard because it was learned he was a Protestant, but he was rescued by a pirate and landed on Italian soil.
He traveled through Italy and Dalmatia to Styria and fought with the Austrian Army against the Turks, distinguished himself in Hungary and Transylvania, for which service he was ennobled and pensioned.
Taken prisoner by the Turks, Smith was sent a slave to Constantinople, where he won the affections of his young mistress. He was sent by her to her brother in the Crimea, with a letter avowing her attachment. The indignant Turk cruelly maltreated Smith, when the latter one day slew his taskmaster, put on the Ottoman’s clothes, mounted a horse and escaped to a Russian port.
On his return to England, in 1605, Bartholomew Gosnold persuaded Smith to engage in founding a colony in Virginia, and at the age of twenty-seven years, already greatly renowned, he sailed from Blackwell for America, December 16, 1606, with Captain C. Newport, who commanded three vessels that bore one hundred and five emigrants.
Smith was accompanied by men of property, and the voyage being by the southern route was long and tedious. They landed, May 13, 1607, about fifty miles from the mouth of the river they called the James, where they built Jamestown, and chose that for the seat of the new empire.
Captain Smith, with Newport and twenty men, explored the James River as far as the falls, the site of Richmond, and made the acquaintance of Powhatan, emperor of thirty Indian tribes.
On the voyage to Virginia, Smith had become boastful and arrogant, causing him to be much disliked by Wingfield, of the London Company.
On his return from the first exploration trip Smith found Wingfield had set himself up as president, and that he was under arrest, but was acquitted at the trial and took his seat in the council, when that body demanded that the president should pay Smith £200 for false imprisonment.
All of Wingfield’s property was seized to pay it, when Smith generously placed it in the public store for the use of the colony.
Sickness prostrated the colony before the close of the summer.
Smith was soon made the leader of the colony, and brought order out of chaos, made the Indians bring in stores of corn, and had the colony well supplied with food for the ensuing winter.
After erecting fortifications Smith began a series of excursions into the surrounding region. He proved an excellent leader and became in fact the principal head of the colony.
He went up the Chickahominy in an open boat. Leaving the craft, he with two others and two Indian guides penetrated the forest, when Smith was seized by savages under Opechancanough, King of Pumunky, an elder brother of Powhatan, and conducted to the presence of the emperor.
At a great council presided over by Powhatan, Smith was doomed to die. Matoa, or Pocahontas, a daughter of Powhatan, begged her father to spare the prisoner’s life, but in vain.
Smith’s head was laid upon two stones, and two warriors had raised heavy clubs to crush it, when Pocahontas sprang from her father’s side, clasped Smith’s head with her arms, and laid her own on his.
The emperor yielded, and Smith was released and returned to Jamestown, where only forty persons were left, the little church burned to the ground, and the inhabitants on the point of abandoning the settlement.
On September 10, 1608, Smith was elected president of the colony; and, upon assuming this office, he enforced discipline, strove to convert their unthrifty methods, had them rebuild the church, strengthen the defenses, and make provision for agriculture and fishery.
Smith made two voyages, covering hundreds of miles, about the coast of the Chesapeake and its tributaries.
When his successor was elected Smith refused to surrender the government and served until September 29, 1609, when he sailed for England, and never again returned to Jamestown.
This was unfortunate for the colony, as his better leadership was necessary at that time to save it from frequent and serious disturbance.
In 1614 he made a voyage of exploration to New England and prepared a map of the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod.
When Captain Smith sailed his barge up the Chesapeake, entered the Susquehanna River and pushed as far up that stream as was possible, he made the first exploration of that great river from its mouth for several miles, and if he did not actually enter Pennsylvania, he was very close and certainly did meet some of the Susquehanna Indians, who resided in what is now called Lancaster County.
Washington Started March Through Pennsylvania
During Whisky Rebellion,
September 30, 1794
Virginia claims George Washington as her native son, but most of the deeds which made Washington famous and the greater part of both his military and official life were passed in this State.
While Philadelphia and the counties of the East have stories, legends and traditions innumerable of the great Father of His Country, while Western Pennsylvania was the scene of his early military training, Central Pennsylvania, and the Cumberland Valley especially, have also their Washington traditions.
A Lancaster County almanac, published in the latter part of 1778, is credited by many with first having called Washington “Father of His Country,” while Lebanon, Hummelstown, Harrisburg, New Cumberland, Carlisle, Shippensburg, Chambersburg and many other valley towns and places have Washington traditions as part of their historic past, because of Washington’s trip to Bedford during the “Whisky Insurrection” of 1794.
A force of 12,900 men was to be raised against the rebellion, and Carlisle was the rendezvous for the Pennsylvania contingent of 5200. Cumberland County furnished 363 men, including officers. These, with similar quotas from York, Lancaster and Franklin Counties, were under command of Brigadier General James Chambers, of Franklin County.
The President set out from his home on Market Street, Philadelphia, September 30, 1794, accompanied by Secretary Hamilton, his own private secretary and a colored servant.
Accounts of the trip say that Washington was much interested in the canals and locks between Myerstown and Lebanon; that he lodged at Lebanon for the night, breakfasted at Hummelstown, the next morning and reached Harrisburg in time for dinner October 3.
Washington’s diary mentions the First Regiment of New Jersey, about 560 strong, which he found drawn up to receive him.
He spent the rest of that day in Harrisburg, received an address delivered to him by the burgesses[[8]] in behalf of the citizens, and departed the morning of October 4 for Carlisle, fording the Susquehanna in his carriage, which he drove himself.
[8]. Conrad Bombaugh and Alexander Berryhill.
Washington’s diary says: “On the Cumberland side I found a detachment of the Philadelphia Light Horse, ready to receive and escort me to Carlisle, seventeen miles distant, where I arrived about 11 o’clock.”[o’clock.”]
The President remained seven days in Carlisle, the guest of Colonel Ephraim Blaine. With him, according to one account, were “the members of his Cabinet and Governor Mifflin, many Senators and Representatives from Pennsylvania, and those, together with the New Jersey troops, formed a brilliant and numerous assemblage.”
The day after his arrival General Washington attended public worship. Before his departure a number of the principal inhabitants presented him with an address.
Sunday morning, October 12, Washington set out from Carlisle on the Walnut Bottom road. Near what is now Jacksonville stood the residence of Colonel Arthur Buchanan, relative of the later President James Buchanan, a large land owner and proprietor of Pine Grove furnace.
Verification of Washington having accepted Buchanan’s hospitality, for a short time at least, is said to have been founded on the story of “Polly” Buchanan, a daughter of the host. She died in Shippensburg in 1884 at the age of 104.
As Washington and his party came down Shippensburg’s one long street the citizens were at their doors. One account says:
“He was treated with great courtesy and respect by a majority of those who came to see him. Yet there were those who sympathized with the insurgents and did not join in the general rejoicing. This class, in order to manifest their disapproval of the employment of the military force for suppression of the rebellion, collected secretively a few nights after the visit of Washington and erected a liberty pole on the corner upon which the council house now stands. This was the cause of much ill feeling and many a black eye and bloody nose. The pole was cut down at night.”
After dining at Shippensburg the party set out for Chambersburg, entering that town by the Harper’s Ferry road the same evening. Many of the citizens paid their respects to him and the night was spent at Colonel William Morrow’s stone tavern.
At daylight on Monday morning, October 13, Washington left Chambersburg. The people were at their doors and the President acknowledged their salutations as he rode through the streets on horseback, followed by his black servant carrying a large portmanteau.
After ten miles’ travel they reached Greencastle. While Washington was breakfasting at Robert McCullough’s tavern, Tom McCullough, the landlord’s ten-year-old son, who later represented the district in Congress and became the first president of the Cumberland Valley Railroad, was discovered under the table. Washington intervened as the tavern keeper was about to send his son from the room for punishment, and patted the young fellow on the head.
Leaving Greencastle, General Washington and his party went on to Bedford, from which place the return journey was started on October 21.
The journey of thirty-seven miles to Burnt Cabins is said to have been the longest of the entire trip. Leaving there the morning of October 22, Washington crossed Tuscarora Mountain, passing through Fannetsburg, where earlier a liberty pole had been erected.
The feeling of opposition had largely passed away by the time Washington reached the town. After a hearty welcome, he proceeded to Strasburg and then through Pleasant Hill.
On the west side of Herron’s Branch Washington and his party halted at a tavern called the Black Horse. Here Washington inquired if dinner could be served the retinue. “We have nothing but an old-fashioned potpie ready, to which you are welcome,” replied the maid. The great general partook and thus rescued one more hostelry from oblivion.
Four miles farther he reached Shippensburg again, coming back into the town he had left ten days before.
After spending the night at Captain William Ripley’s Black Horse tavern in Shippensburg, where much entertainment was provided, the President set out early the next morning and by evening had reached New Cumberland, then called Simpson’s Ferry, in honor of Gen. Michael Simpson, who as a boy of fifteen had marched with Colonel Bouquet’s forces.
Washington spent the night of October 23 with his friend, General Simpson, and the next day journeyed to York. The next afternoon, it is said, he rode through the rain from York to Wright’s Ferry, now Columbia, where he remained over night.
On Sunday, October 26, he proceeded to Lancaster, and on Tuesday October 28, it was noted in Philadelphia that the “President of the United States with his suite arrived in Philadelphia from Bedford and resumed his duties at the seat of government.”
Commenting on his trip, Washington wrote to Alexander Hamilton from Wright’s Ferry on Sunday, October 26:
“Thus far I have proceeded without accident to man, horse or carriage, although the latter has had wherewith to try its goodness, especially in ascending the North Mountain from Skinners by a wrong road, that is, by the old road, which never was good, and is rendered next to impassable by neglect.”
Sailors Cause of Bloody Election in
Philadelphia October 1, 1742
One of the early Mayors of Philadelphia was the distinguished Quaker, Isaac Norris, who had been a member of the Provincial Assembly and the President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He had also served as a member of the Governor’s Council for more than thirty years, and was named by William Penn in his will as one of the trustees of the Province. He died June 4, 1735, and was succeeded by his son of the same name, known in the history of Pennsylvania as “The Speaker.”
Isaac Norris, “The Speaker,” married one of the daughters of James Logan, and soon retired from commercial life. He was a member of the Assembly for thirty years and for the latter half of that time its Speaker.
Notwithstanding his connection with Logan, and the further fact that he was a grandson of Hon. Thomas Lloyd, one of the Commissioners of the Province from December, 1686, to December, 1688, and Deputy Governor from March, 1691, to April 26, 1693, he was a leader of the strict Friends in the Assembly who differed in politics from Logan, “who represented the Proprietary, or Governor’s party,” on all questions relating to the Province.
So persistently did Speaker Norris oppose the Proprietaries in the various disputes between the Governor and the Quakers, or “Norris Party,” that there resulted such bitter contests for office as would be fashionable in modern times.
The re-election of Norris to the Assembly in 1741 could not be prevented, and the Quakers gained much ground with Norris in that body, and with his brother-in-law, Griffiths, and uncle, Preston, who were aldermen of the city of Philadelphia.
The corporation was too important a political factor to submit to his influence and the Proprietary Party succeeded in electing four new aldermen and five new members of the City Council who would further the Governor’s plans, but it was no easy matter to defeat Norris at a popular election.
In 1742 a most important session of the Assembly had been held, the Speaker was the head of every committee, and he worked indefatigably in superintending the completion of portions of the State House and in purchasing a site and devising plans for a public pest house or municipal hospital, and in these activities gave some reason to believe he could be defeated. The wealthy Recorder of the City, William Allen, contended for his seat in the Assembly.
Then ensued what is since known as “The Bloody Election,” but Norris proved himself an astute politician and won the support of the German settlers, who constituted a large part of the electorate.
The Germans had invariably voted with the Quakers, and it was charged that the “Norris party” would take possession of the polls, crowd out their opponents, and thus elect their candidate with the aid of unnaturalized voters.
The Governor’s friends cried “fraud” but they were not in possession of any evidence of it.
On October 1, 1742, the day of the “Bloody Election,” a party of sailors, coopers, and others, strong enough in numbers to make havoc in the little city, marched uptown from the wharves, armed with clubs, and, when they arrived at the Court House, a fight took place in which several were wounded, and the disciples of peace and order were driven from the historic building.
The affair made a great stir, and is well perpetuated in the caricatures made at the time which were drawn with the intention to traduce and stigmatize the political leaders in those days.
In the appendix to the “Votes of the Assembly” is published the interesting testimony relating to this “Bloody Election.”
The witnesses were “examined in a solemn manner,” and it appeared that some fifty to seventy sailors, armed with clubs, made their appearance at the Court House, at Second and High Streets, in support of the Proprietary Party.
William Till, Mayor of the city, was called upon to interfere against the sailors, but he declined to do so, saying, as was testified: “They had as much right at the election as the Dutchmen.”
It appears by the statement of the time, that a wagonload of hop-poles, easy to cut into clubs, made its appearance at a point so convenient that the other party availed itself of the boon.
Among the witnesses, Robert Hopkins testified that, “when the sailors were moving off, and came by William Allen one among them being a squat full-faced, pock-fretten man, with a light wig and red breeches, as he supposes, said, 'Let’s give Mr. Allen a whorrah! And said Allen reply’d: 'Ye villians begone: I'll have nothing to do with you'.”
After this we are not surprised at that staunch Friend, Israel Pemberton, the last witness examined, being able to testify that upward of fifty sailors were arrested and secured in prison, “and then,” he goes on to say, “the Freeholders proceeded to the choice of the Representatives to serve in the Assembly, and the other officers, which was carried on very peaceably the remainder of the day.”
A petition was read in the Provincial Council, November 5, 1742, which was addressed to Lieutenant Governor George Thomas, and among other statements the petitioners stated that the rioters attacked the constables and broke their staves and beat them up and grievously wounded divers citizens, among whom was one of the Aldermen.
They claimed many were knocked down with stones without regard to age or station. Sure enough a bloody election; especially must it have seemed so to the staid Quakers of the City of Brotherly Love.
In September, 1759, Speaker Isaac Norris resolved to relinquish his public duties and declined a re-election which was sure to be in his favor. He made his announcement in the House, and among other things said:
“You were pleased to make choice of me to succeed my father in the Assembly at the election of the year, 1735. I never sought emolument for myself or family, and I remained at disadvantage to my private interest only to oppose the measures of unreasonable men. No man shall ever stamp his foot on my grave and say, Curse him! or Here lies he who so basely betrayed the liberties of his country.”
A true patriot in motive surely.
He was succeeded as speaker by Benjamin Franklin.
Massacre in Vicinity of Patterson’s
Fort, October 2, 1755
On October 2, 1755, the savages suddenly appeared in Tuscarora Valley, in the vicinity of Patterson’s Fort, on the north side of the Mahantango Creek, in Snyder County, and killed and captured forty persons.
This fort was situated immediately beyond the dividing line of Juniata and Snyder Counties, and in the vicinity of Pomfret Castle, which seems to be often mistaken for Fort Patterson.
There were two Fort Pattersons and two Captain Pattersons, which has also caused much confusion. The two captains were father and son, and their places near each other, and both stockaded, although Captain William Patterson’s fort was not built until 1763.
Benjamin Franklin gave the following directions to George Croghan in a letter dated December 17, 1755: “You are desired to proceed to Cumberland County and fix on proper places for erecting three stockades; namely, one back of Patterson’s—each of them fifty feet square, with a blockhouse on two of the corners and a barracks within, capable of lodging fifty men.”
The one “back of Patterson’s” was to be on the Mahantango Creek, where Richfield, Snyder County, now is situated, and was to be built by Colonel James Burd and Captain James Patterson.
Captain James Patterson commanded a company of rangers in Braddock’s campaign, under Colonel James Burd, and assisted in cutting the way through the forests.
In the year 1751 James Patterson, with five or six other settlers, settled in the Juniata Valley at the present town of Mexico.
Patterson cleared his land, engaged in farming and erected a large and strong log house, which afterward became known as Fort Patterson. It became the haven of refuge and defense for the settlers in the attack made upon them by the Indians.
Patterson was a man of daring and considered by the Indians to be a crack marksman. Whenever Indians appeared at his plantation he delighted to shoot at a mark, when his unerring aim impressed his visitors that he would be a dangerous foe.
His son, William, was called to Fort Augusta for the purpose of getting instructions to settle difficulties on the path through the valley. While on this mission he fell in with some Indians at Middle Creek, one of whom was killed and scalped and the rest put to flight.
One of Captain Patterson’s men was wounded. He advised the commander of Fort Augusta that the woods were full of Indians; that they found many houses burned, some still burning, and that he feared all the grain would be destroyed by the savages, who are known to be Delaware.
Fort Patterson was attacked at this time and one Hugh Mitcheltree carried off.
October 5, 1755, the savages made an incursion near Fort Patterson. Jennie McClain, a young girl, mounted a horse and hurriedly fled toward the fort, when, but a short distance from it, an Indian shot the horse through the body, when Jennie fell off the horse and was captured. The Indians surrounded the fort, but the Pattersons defended it so bravely that the savages were driven off.
In the summer of 1756 Captain Patterson marched to Shamokin (now Sunbury) with Colonel Clapham’s “Augusta Regiment” and assisted in building and defending that fort.
In 1757 Captain Patterson was detailed and placed in command of Fort Hunter, above Harrisburg, and at this post he was constantly occupied in sending out ranging parties, and had charge of the bateau men who transported provisions from Harris’ Ferry to Fort Augusta.
In July, 1758, Captain Patterson left Fort Augusta on the march to Raystown (Fort Bedford), where he joined in the Forbes expedition against Fort Duquesne. After the Indians were finally subdued Captain Patterson returned to his plantation and followed farming.
When the Indians again became violent in Pontiac’s War in 1763, Captain Patterson and his son, William, then a lieutenant, were again on guard.
Captain James Patterson died at his fort and is buried near it.
William, son of Captain James, was born in Donegal Township, Lancaster County, in 1737, and went with his father to the Juniata in 1751. Like his brave father, William was a keen marksman and a most daring and valuable aid to his father. He was with his father’s company, which was part of Braddock’s army. Later he was an ensign at Fort Augusta.
For many months he and his father, with details of privates, ranged the mountains and streams in search of Indians.
William Patterson not only displayed great capacity as a partisan soldier, but was equally conspicuous in civil life. He marched in advance of General Forbes’ army to Fort Duquesne in 1758. He also served under Colonel Burd in conveying livestock and subsistence from Fort Cumberland to Fort Burd and Fort Pitt in 1759.
After his return from the army Captain Patterson seems to have devoted his time to land surveying. His fine presence and dashing character won the admiration and esteem of the pioneer settlers, especially of the young men, who followed the chase and provided game for the large and growing settlements in Tuscarora Valley and around Patterson’s Fort.
Following the Pontiac War, as late as 1767, when fort after fort were destroyed and the feeble garrison put to the hatchet, Captain William Patterson called his young hunters and defied the Indians.
Pontiac had boasted that no wooden fort or stockade could escape destruction if he desired to destroy them.
When they could induce the garrison by cunning and lying to surrender, they would load a wagon with straw and hay and set it on fire and back it against the timbers and let the demon fire to do the work.
Although Patterson’s Fort was surrounded by savages repeatedly, they were driven away and kept at a safe distance by the expert riflemen under the command of Captain Patterson.
William Patterson, in 1768, arrested and safely lodged in the jail at Carlisle Frederick Stump and his accomplice John Ironcutter for committing an unprovoked massacre, the victims being Indians. This action required the greatest heroism.
The Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania at that period was so highly pleased with the prompt action of Captain Patterson that he gave him a commission as Judge of the Common Pleas Court of Cumberland County. He also was appointed a Commissioner to lay out Northumberland County in March, 1772.
Captain William Patterson is described in the Shippen papers as “a gentleman of limited education, a very good soldier and does his duty well.” He is often mentioned in Colonel Burd’s journal.
A fine bronze tablet mounted on a large boulder recently has been unveiled at the site of Fort Patterson, which will mark for this and future generations the spot made famous by the progenitors of this great Patterson family in Pennsylvania.
Washington Joins Troops in Whisky
Insurrection October 3, 1794
The year 1794 is distinguished in American history by a remarkable revolt among a portion of the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, known as the Whisky Insurrection.
In 1791 Congress enacted a law laying excise duties upon spirits distilled within the United States. This tax excited general opposition, but nowhere else was such violence exhibited in resisting the execution of the law as in the western counties of Pennsylvania, where the crops of grain were so over-abundant that, in the absence of adequate market for its sale, an immense quantity of the cereals was distilled into whisky, the far-famed “Monongahela,” called from the name of the principal river in that region.
The inhabitants insisted that an article, produced almost exclusively by an isolated people as their sole and necessary support, ought not to be taxed for the support of the Federal Government, and to this opinion they adhered with a tenacity worthy of a better cause.
Public meetings were held in all the chief towns, at which the action of Congress was loudly denounced as oppression to be battled against to the very last extremity; declaring, too, that any person who had accepted[accepted] or might accept an office under the Government in order to carry the law into effect should be regarded as an enemy of his country, to be treated with contempt and officially and personally shunned.
The Federal Government was scoffed at, its coercive authority ridiculed, and with the motto, “Liberty and No Excise!” the ball of the rebellion rolled on.
One day preceding the assembling of an important meeting of malcontents in Pittsburgh, the tax collector for the counties of Allegheny and Washington made his appearance. Aware of his business, a party of men, armed and disguised, waylaid him at a place on Pigeon Creek, in Washington County, seized, tarred and feathered him, cut off his hair and deprived him of his horse, obliging him to decamp on foot in that painful condition.
In attempting to serve legal processes upon the perpetrators of this outrage, the marshal’s deputy was also seized, whipped, tarred and feathered; and, after having his money taken from him, he was blindfolded and led into the depths of the forest, where he was tied to a sapling and left to his fate. He was fortunately discovered and rescued by friends.
Another man was similarly handled who remarked that they could not reasonably expect protection from a Government whose laws they so strenuously opposed. Two witnesses of this assault were seized by an armed banditti and carried off so they could not give testimony against the perpetrators of the assault.
President Washington feared such open defiance of the laws, and issued a proclamation condemning the lawless acts and warned all to return at once to their allegiance. Bills of indictment were found against the leaders of some of the outrages, and, at the same time, process was also issued against a great number of noncomplying distillers.
The proclamation and warning did not produce the desired effect. Washington then ordered the seizure of the spirits distilled in the counties opposing the law.
Contractors for the army were forbidden to purchase spirits on which duties had not been paid. The distillers were caught between two millstones. They feared the wrath of the infuriated populace if they paid the excise tax or lost their best customers.
The factionists were encouraged by the leniency of the Executive. By violent threats they kept the marshal from serving precepts, committed numerous outrages upon the friends of the Government and perfected their organization into military bands, to resist any force that might be sent to subject them to the laws. They styled their acts, “mending the still.”
It is not to be doubted that this inflamed state of the public mind was greatly aggravated by the ambitious designs and intemperate speeches of a few leading men. Conspicuous among the malcontents were David Bradford, Colonel John Marshall, Robert Smiley, Hugh Brackenridge, William Findley and Albert Gallatin. The first named was the chief agitator.
Hostilities broke out early in 1794, when those who paid the excise tax were punished as well as those who attempted to collect the tax. Even the Government officials were attacked by armed men.
General John Neville, inspector for the county, was compelled to defend his home by force of arms, and Major Abraham Kirkpatrick, with a detail of eleven soldiers, was compelled to surrender to a mob, under the leadership of a desperado named John Holcroft.
After brisk fighting continued for nearly an hour, the insurgents set fire to eight buildings, which finally compelled brave Kirkpatrick to yield.
David Bradford assembled meetings to ascertain their secret enemies as well as to learn their own strength. Mail was searched and the Government stores attacked. There was even a plan developed which had the capture of Fort Pitt and the United States Arsenal at Pittsburgh as its objectives.
The greatest popular demonstration was at Parkinson’s Ferry, where 16,000 men were pledged to follow the leadership of Bradford.
President Washington called a cabinet meeting and had General Thomas Mifflin, Governor of Pennsylvania, in attendance. Commissioners were sent to apprise the insurgents of their grave danger.
A proclamation was broadcast August 7, which warned of the impending war, if all did not quietly return to their home by September 1.
The same day of the proclamation a requisition was made on the Governor of New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania for their several quotas of militia.
During the recruiting of this force Judge Jasper Yeates, James Ross and William Bradford were sent as commissioners to the western counties to extinguish the insurrection.
David Bradford laughed at the proclamations of the President and Governors of New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania for the Committee of Safety was held at Parkinson’s Ferry and appointed commissioners to wait upon his Excellency and assure him that submission and order could be restored without the aid of military force.
In the meantime, the troops responded to the call, and, in response to a second proclamation of President Washington, they rendezvoued at Bedford, Pa., and Cumberland, Md. The command of the entire army was given to General Henry Lee, of Virginia. Governor Mifflin took command of the Pennsylvania troops in person.
The President departed for the front in a drenching rain. He arrived at Harrisburg Friday, October 3. The same day a meeting of the Committee of Safety was held at Parkinson’s Ferry and appointed commissioners to wait upon his Excellency and assure him that submission and order could be restored without the aid of military force.
The insurgents by this time had come to their senses, and intimidated by the greatness of the force, fled in every direction. Those arrested were pardoned. Bradford escaped to Spanish territory. The Whisky Insurrection came to an end. As Washington said, “the contest decided that a small portion of the United States could not dictate to the whole Union.”
Americans Defeated in Battle of Germantown,
October 4, 1777
The Battle of Germantown was one of the most spirited actions of the Revolution. It was a contest for the possession of a widely extended and strongly posted line, between the two armies, and at a time when the British had but a week earlier invested Philadelphia, driving the Continental Congress to Lancaster.
Howe’s army had crossed the Schuylkill, and was encamped near Germantown.
Washington was at Pennypacker’s Mill, between the Perkiomen and the Skippack Creeks, thirty miles from the city, where he awaited re-enforcements from the Northern Department. His army, which was mainly composed of Continental troops from Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey, had suffered severe punishment at Brandywine and Paoli. It was poorly equipped and poorly fed.
Washington learned, through two intercepted letters, that General Howe had detached a part of his force to reduce Billingsport and the forts on the Delaware.
He believed that a favorable opportunity was offered to make an attack upon the troops which were encamped at Germantown, and fixed the attack for the morning of October 4, 1777.
General Howe’s army was encamped upon the general line of School and Church lanes.
On the 2d General Washington advanced his army to Worcester Township. The British did not expect an attack as General Howe fully understood the drubbing the Americans had recently received, but he did not know the fighting temper of the Colonists.
Washington was well informed of the enemy’s position and prepared his order of battle with great care. The divisions of Sullivan and Wayne, flanked by Conway’s Brigade, were to enter the town by way of Chestnut Hill.
General Armstrong, with the Pennsylvania Militia, was to go down Manatawny road and get in the enemy’s left and rear. The divisions of Greene and Stephen, flanked by McDougall’s Brigade, were to enter by a circuitous route at the Market House, and attack the right wing, and the militia of Maryland and New Jersey, under Generals Smallwood and Forman, were to march by the Old York road and fall upon the rear of their right. Lord Stirling, and Nash’s and Maxwell’s brigades were to form the reserve.
General McDougall was to attack the right wing of the enemy in front and rear; General Conway to attack the enemy’s left flank, and General Armstrong to attack their left wing in flank and rear.
Each column was to move into position, two miles from the enemy’s pickets by 2 o’clock, then halt until 4, and advance and attack the pickets precisely at 5 o’clock, “with charge bayonets and without firing, and the column to move to the attack as soon as possible.”
On the evening of October 3 the army left its encampment on Metuchen Hills. It was a hard march through the darkness, over rough roads and in a dense fog.
When the action opened the Americans soon gained much ground and General Howe, who had hurried to the front, met his troop retreating. He quickly galloped back to camp and prepared for the attack. Sullivan and Wayne pressed forward, and Washington followed with the reserve.
While the advance was in progress, General Greene had made the circuit of the Limekiln road, and engaged the enemy’s right. The incompetent General Stephens became entangled with Wayne’s troops, which confusion ended the efforts of General Sullivan’s columns upon the east side of the town.
General Greene continued to advance, maintaining a line of battle as long as practicable. McDougall was marching over ground so nearly impassable that he was quite out of the action and failed to assist Greene, leaving his flank exposed.
The morning was well advanced when the two wings of the army had approached the central objective point, the Market House. But the lines were broken and disordered, by the innumerable obstacles and by the impenetrable fog, that the British had opportunity to reform their own shattered line. Howe sent strong forces to oppose each attack.
When Sullivan’s division had pushed forward nearly to School Lane, while Greene was entering the town on the east, these generals found themselves unsupported by other troops, their cartridges expended, the force of the enemy on the right collecting to oppose them, and seeing many of the American troops flying in retreat, they retired with all possible haste.
When General Grey came from his camp at School Lane and advanced to the attack, the few Americans there could not resist him, and were soon repulsed. Grey advanced across lots and pushed on toward the Chew house.
General Agnew, following in the rear of Grey, ascended the hill and received a sudden volley from a party of citizens who were concealed behind the Mennonite meeting house and he fell mortally wounded.
Wayne’s division on the east of the town had already withdrawn when General Grant moved up his Forty-ninth British regiment.
General Washington, who had remained at the head of the hill above Chew’s house, saw the failure of his well-laid plans, and issued orders for the retreat.
The American army had gone forward to gain full possession of the enemy’s camp, which was on fire in many places. Dead and wounded were strewn about everywhere. The troops were in much disorder. Those in front had been driven back by the enemy and fell upon those in the rear, which increased the confusion and rendered it impossible to again form and oppose an advancing foe.
A general retreat was inevitably necessary to save the American army from a general rout.
Lord Cornwallis, who was in Philadelphia, learned of the attack and put in motion two battalions of British and one Hessian grenadiers, with a squadron of dragoons, to Howe’s support.
They arrived at Germantown just as the Americans were being forced from the village. Cornwallis joined with General Grey, and, placing himself in command, took up pursuit.
General Greene effected the withdrawal of his forces with considerable difficulty and no slight loss, as Colonel Matthew’s gallant regiment, or what remained of it, fell into the enemy’s hands, its heroic commander and many of his officers being severely wounded by the enemy’s bayonets.
General Greene also had much trouble in saving his cannon, when Count Pulaski’s cavalry being hard-driven by the pursuing British, rode into and scattered Greene’s division.
For two hours and forty minutes the battle waged at the very doors of the inhabitants of Germantown, in their gardens, orchards and fields.
The entire loss sustained by two armies was never accurately determined.
The British did not gain much satisfaction in their victory for they soon abandoned their well-earned fields, and moved within the entrenchments directly north of Philadelphia.
Riotous Mob Attacks “Fort Wilson” in
Philadelphia, October 5, 1779
In the year 1779 the lives of Mr. James Wilson, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the foremost practitioners of that day, and many of his friends, were put in extreme hazard by a band of frenzied partisans, under the pretext of his holding sentiments inimical to popular institutions.
At that time party spirit in Pennsylvania had taken definite shape, and the politicians were divided into Constitutionalists and Republicans. The former rallied around the Constitution of 1776, recently formed, which was reprobated by the Republicans, who believed it tended toward rash, precipitate and oppressive proceedings.
The term Republicans was embraced, as recognizing the principles of the Revolution.
Mr. Wilson was among the leading men of the Republican Party who had agreed that they would not accept of any office or appointment under the Constitution, which, in that case, they would be bound by oath, to support.
This circumstance offended and inflamed the Constitutional Party, and as Mr. Wilson had become counsel for the defense of some suspected traitors, and had succeeded in winning their acquittal, it angered the militiamen of Philadelphia and led to a most serious outrage.
The consequences of a rapidly depreciating currency were distressing to many who were incapable of tracing them to their causes. For example, every tradesman who had engaged in a piece of work felt, when paid for it, that he did not receive, except in name, the amount he had contracted to receive.
Artful and designing incendiaries persuaded many of the sufferers that the evil was owing to the merchants, who monopolized the goods, and to certain lawyers who rescued the tories from punishment, by pleading for them in Court.
Mr. Wilson had become particularly obnoxious. He was in fact a most decided friend of the popular government. He was a native of Scotland, and a Presbyterian, which should certainly stamp him as a friend of those opposed to the British authority.
The affair of “Fort Wilson,” as his house was thereafter known, flowed from this mistaken opinion, of which those who concocted the disgraceful transaction took advantage for party purposes.
September 13, 1779, a committee appointed at a town meeting, regulated the prices of rum, salt, sugar, coffee, flour, etc., a measure which was strongly opposed by the importers.
Robert Morris, Blair McClenochan and John Willcocks and a number of stanch Whigs had a quantity of these articles in their stores which they refused to dispose of at the regulated prices.
About the last of the month, a great number of the lower class collected and marched through the streets, threatening to break open the stores, distribute the goods and punish those who refused to open their warehouses.
On the morning of October 4, placards were posted menacing Robert Morris, Blair McClenochan and many other merchants.
Mr. Wilson was proscribed by the mob for having exercised his professional duty as a lawyer, and the punishment decreed for his crime was banishment to the enemy, yet in New York. But this was not the real cause which produced so lamentable an instance of popular delusion. That was to be found in the superior talents and respectability of the Republican Party.
The gentlemen threatened determined to defend themselves, and with a great number of their friends, to the amount of thirty or forty, took post at the southwest corner of Walnut and Third streets, in a house belonging to and occupied by James Wilson. It was a large old-fashioned brick building, with extensive gardens.
In the house were James Wilson, Robert Morris, Edward Burd, George Clymer, John T. Mifflin, Allen McLane, Sharp Delaney, George Campbell, Paul Beck, Thomas Lawrence, Andrew Robinson, John Potts, Samuel C. Morris, Captain Robert Campbell, General Thomas Mifflin, General Nichols and General Thompson. They were provided with arms but their supply of ammunition was very limited.
While the mob was marching down town, General Nichols and Daniel Clymer proceeded hastily to the arsenal at Carpenters’ Hall and filled their pockets with cartridges, this constituting their entire supply.
In the meantime the mob and militia assembled on the commons, while a meeting of the principal citizens took place at the coffee house. A deputation was sent to prevail on them to disperse, but without effect.
The First Troop of City Cavalry being apprised of what was going forward and anxious for the safety of their fellow citizens, quickly assembled at their stables, a fixed place of rendezvous.
For a time a deceitful calm prevailed; at the hour of noon the members of the troop retired to their respective homes for dinner, and the rebels seized the opportunity to march into the city.
The armed men in the mob amounted to 200, and were commanded by Captain Mills, a North Carolinian; one Falkner, a shipjoiner; Pickering, a tailor, and John Bonham. They marched to the home of Mr. Wilson, with drums beating, and two pieces of cannon. They immediately commenced firing on the house, which was warmly returned by the garrison.
Finding they could make no impression, the mob procured crowbars, sledges and bars, and with them proceeded to force the door. At the critical moment when the door yielded to their efforts, the First City Troop appeared and saved the lives of those in the house.
Many of the mob were arrested and committed to prison, and as the troopers used the sword very freely, many were severely wounded. One man and one boy were killed in the streets. In “Fort Wilson,” Captain Campbell was killed, and General Mifflin and Mr. Samuel C. Morris were wounded.
The Troop patrolled the streets the greater part of the night. The citizens turned out in great numbers and formed a volunteer guard at the powder magazine and the arsenal.
It was some days before order was restored and the First Troop, on account of the active part they had taken in the affair, found it necessary to keep together in small groups, and be on the alert to support each other.
The gentlemen who had comprised the garrison were advised to leave the city where their lives were endangered.
General Mifflin, and about thirty others, accordingly met at Mr. Gray’s home about five miles below Gray’s Ferry, where a council was called, and it was resolved to return to town without any appearance of intimidation.
But it was deemed expedient that Mr. Wilson should absent himself for a time. The others continued to walk as usual in public and attended the funeral of the unfortunate Captain Campbell. For some time each of them, however, was in danger of his life from the sympathizers with the killed and wounded assailants.
Thus ended the disgraceful affair known as the “Mob of 1779” and the “Attack on Fort Wilson.”
Had it not been for the spirited conduct of the First Troop, the lives of many valuable citizens, and genuine Whigs, would have been sacrificed, and an indelible disgrace entailed upon the City of Philadelphia.
First German Immigrants Settle Germantown
October 6, 1683
The Germans have played a most important part in the history of Pennsylvania, much more conspicuous than has been accorded them. They are the progressive farmers, and leaders in politics, literature and science.
The first great teacher was Pastorius; the first paper mill was established in 1690, on a branch of Wissahickon Creek, by William Rittinghuysen; the Bible was first printed in German, by Christopher Saur, thirty-nine years before it appeared in English; the same enterprising Germans, in 1735, established the first type foundry in America in Germantown and so on, but it is of the establishment of German Town or Germantown which this story is to relate.
The first German emigration was from Crefeld, a city of the lower Rhine. William Penn conveyed 5000 acres in Pennsylvania to each of three merchants of that city, March 10, 1682, one of whom, Jacob Telner, had made a trip to America in 1678–81.
Francis Daniel Pastorius first heard of the Pennsylvania plan in 1682, and became a purchaser of land while in London between the 8th of May and 6th of June, 1683.
Eight original purchasers, November 12, 1686, formed themselves into a company which was called the Frankford Company. Up to June 8, 1683, these persons had purchased 15,000 acres, and they mostly lived in Frankfort, but Pastorius was the only one of the original company who ever came to Pennsylvania.
Thirteen families, comprising thirty-three persons, set out for London, from which city, after many delays, they embarked, July 24, 1683, aboard the Concord.
Of the original purchasers three were Mennonites, and many of the remainder of the party belonged to that sect, so it must be stated that this emigration was also the beginning of that great church in America.
The pioneers had a pleasant voyage and reached Philadelphia October 6. On the 10th of the same month a warrant was issued to Pastorius for 6000 acres “on behalf of the German and Dutch purchasers.” On the 24th, Thomas Fairman measured off fourteen divisions of land, and the next day, meeting together in the cave of Pastorius they drew lots for choice of location.
Under a warrant, 5350 acres were laid out, May 2, 1684, for Pastorius, as trustee for them and future purchasers; in addition 200 acres were laid out for Pastorius in his own right, and 150 acres to Jurian Hartsfelder, a stray Dutchman, who had been a deputy sheriff under Andros in 1676 and who now cast in his lot with the settlers at Germantown.
Immediately after the division in the cave of Pastorius they began to dig cellars and build the huts in which, not without much hardship, they spent the following winter. Thus commenced the settlement of Germantown.
Other emigrants began to appear in the little town, and soon we catch a glimpse of the home life of the early dwellers of Germantown.
Pastorius had no glass, so he made windows of oiled paper.
Bom wrote to Rotterdam October 12, 1684: “I have here a shop of many kinds of goods and edibles. Sometimes I ride out with merchandise, and sometimes, bring something back, mostly from Indians, and deal with them in many things. I have no regular servants except one Negro, whom I bought. I have no rent or tax or excise to pay. I have a cow which gives plenty of milk, a horse to ride around, my pigs increase rapidly, so that in the summer I had seventeen when at first I had only two. I have many chickens and geese, and a garden, and shall next year have an orchard if I remain well, so that my wife and I are in good spirits.”
Bom died before 1689, and his daughter, Agnes, married Anthony Morris, the ancestor of the distinguished family of that name.
The first person to die in the new settlement was Jan Seimens. The first time that fire caused a loss in the village was in 1686. A small church was built that year. It is strange but true, that this was a Quaker meeting house, and also that before 1692 all the original thirteen, except Jan Lensen, had in one way or another been associated with the Quakers.
An event of importance was the arrival of William Rittinghuysen, a Mennonite minister, who with his two sons, Gerhard and Claus, and a daughter, came from Holland. In 1690 he built the first paper mill in America on a branch of the Wissahickon Creek.
On April 18, 1688, Gerhard Hendricks, Dirck Opden Graeff, Francis Daniel Pastorius and Abraham Opden Graeff sent to the Friends’ Meeting the first public protest ever made on this continent against the holding of slaves. There was then started something which became the greatest question of all time in America.
On January 14, 1690, 2950 acres, north of Germantown, were divided into three districts, called Krishelm, Sommerhausen and Crefeld.
The village had now become populous enough to warrant a separate existence, and on May 31, 1691, a charter of incorporation was issued to Francis Daniel Pastorius, bailiff, and four burgesses and six committeemen, with power to hold a court and a market, to admit citizens, to impose fines, and to make ordinances.
It was ordered that “on the 19th of one month in each year the people shall be called together and the laws and ordinances read aloud to them.”
The seal was devised by Pastorius and he honored the weavers by selecting a clover, on one of the leaves being a vine, on another a stalk of flax, and on the third a weaver’s spool.
The corporation continued until January 11, 1707. Newcomers were required to pay £1 for the right of citizenship.
On June 28, 1701, a tax was laid for the building of a prison, erection of a market, and other objects for the public good. The prison preceded the school house, but the interval was not long.
December 30, following, “it was found good to start a school here in Germantown.”[Germantown.”] Pastorius was the first pedagogue.
As early as January 25, 1694, stocks were erected for the punishment of evildoers.
February 10, 1702, three square perches of land were given to the Mennonites for a church, which edifice was built 1708.
Little did the industrious German of that day think, as he tilled the soil, or worked at his trade, that in after years the countrymen of Penn would be fighting the Quakers and others in that very town, that the streets of Germantown would be reddened by English blood, as it was on that eventful day, October 4, 1777.
The government of Germantown lasted fifteen years. Today this old town is one of the most delightful sections of the old city of Philadelphia.
Colonel Richard McAllister, Soldier, Statesman
and Citizen of York County,
Died October 7, 1795
Colonel Richard McAllister, a hero of the Revolution, died at his home in Hanover, York County, October 7, 1795.
During that great struggle for the independence of the colonies York County gave many of her loyal sons, and none rendered more signal service or has been held in fonder patriotic reverence than Colonel McAllister.
He was the son of Archibald McAllister, who came to this country from Scotland in 1732. Richard was born in Scotland in 1724.
About 1745 Richard moved from Cumberland County to the present site of Hanover, where he purchased a large tract of land, and made a settlement.
On February 23, 1748, he married Mary Dill, daughter of Colonel Matthew Dill, who commanded a regiment in the French and Indian War, and whose son, Matthew, founded Dillsburg.
In 1750 Richard McAllister was a candidate for sheriff of York County against Colonel Hance Hamilton, who resided near the present site of Gettysburg. The result of the vote was so close that the election was contested and the Provincial Assembly decided in favor of Hamilton.
In 1763 Richard McAllister founded the town of Hanover and soon became one of the leading citizens of York County.
At the outbreak of the Revolution he was elected a member of the Committee of Safety for York County, and in June of the same year, 1775, he served as a delegate in the Provincial Conference, which met in Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia. He again served as a member of the same body in January, 1776.
When the Fourth Battalion of York County militia was organized, 1775, Richard McAllister was commissioned colonel. And during the fall of the same year, he was made colonel of a battalion of Minute Men, formed out of the militia of York County.
In July, 1776, when Congress called for ten thousand troops, Colonel McAllister marched his battalion through Lancaster and Philadelphia to Perth Amboy, N. J.
General Hugh Mercer organized the Flying Camp, and selected Colonel McAllister to command the Second Pennsylvania Regiment.
This command was soon engaged in and about New York City and Staten Island. A short time later Colonel McAllister led the regiment in the defense of Fort Washington, where a large number of them were taken prisoners, among them being two of his captains.
In the campaign of 1776 Colonel McAllister was present with his regiment, under General James Ewing, when Washington captured the Hessians in Trenton on Christmas night.
After the expiration of his term of service in the Flying Camp, in 1777, Colonel McAllister returned to his home at Hanover, and in March of this year he was elected by the General Assembly, county lieutenant.
In the discharge of this commission he recruited six different battalions of militia in York County, which then included the present Adams County.
He drilled and disciplined the troops and made them ready for the service in the field when they were required to defend the State against the invasion of the British foe.
On August 28, 1777, Colonel McAllister wrote to President Wharton that there were dissensions among the Associators in the German townships near Hanover. Two hundred freemen had assembled at one place for the purpose of opposing the draft of the militia for service in the field.
He continued by saying that he had lived in peace among these people for twenty years or more, and knew well their customs and habits, but it was very difficult to induce them to take up arms against the country to which they had sworn allegiance.
He said that notwithstanding the difficulties he had encountered in the prosecution of his duties as lieutenant of York County, he had marched five companies to the front fully armed and equipped, and would soon have three more ready to take up the march for the main army.
Nearly every man recruited was a substitute, which had obtained by Colonel McAllister.
During the years 1783 to 1786, Colonel McAllister was a member of the Supreme Executive Council, and also served as a member of the Council of Censors. In the latter position he was engaged in the disposition of the confiscated estates of Pennsylvania Tories.
Like such a great number of the soldiers of the Revolution, Colonel McAllister also took a deep interest in legal affairs. He served as a justice of the peace, and then as justice of the court of common pleas in March, 1771.
He was a member of the First Constitutional Convention, in 1776, and on February 17, 1784, he became the presiding justice of the York County Courts.
When General Washington passed through Hanover, June 30, 1791, on his way to Philadelphia, he spent several hours the guest of Colonel McAllister.
He died at his home in Hanover, October 7, 1795.
His remains were first buried in the graveyard belonging to Emanuel’s Reformed Church of Hanover, of which he was a member and one of the leading supporters.
About 1870 the remains of this distinguished patriot were removed to Mount Olivet Cemetery, in the suburbs of Hanover, where they now repose.
On every succeeding Memorial Day commemoration services are held at the tomb of this hero and patriot, by the veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic and allied organizations.
Colonel McAllister had eleven children. His eldest son, Abdiel, commanded a company in Arnold’s expedition to Quebec; another son, Archibald, commanded a company in the battles of Germantown and Monmouth.
A younger son, Matthew, became first United States district attorney of Georgia, judge of the Superior Court of that State, and was Mayor of Savannah during War of 1812.
A son of Matthew, named Julian McAllister, commanded a regiment in the Union Army during the Civil War.
King Tedyuskung Questioned at Great
Indian Conference in Easton,
October 8, 1758
Governor Denny informed the Assembly September 12, 1758, that a general meeting of Indians has been agreed upon, to take place in Easton.
Tedyuskung and some of his retinue arrived early in Easton, and started on a debauch while awaiting the important event. Whereupon Reverend Richard Peters, the Provincial secretary, was requested to go to Easton immediately to keep the Indians in order.
This conference was opened Sunday, October 8, 1758, with 500 Indians in attendance. Governor Denny, members of Council and the Assembly, Commissioners for Indian Affairs in New Jersey, Conrad Weiser, George Croghan and a large number of Quakers from Philadelphia made up the attendance of the whites.
Governor Bernard, of New Jersey, joined the conference when it had been in session three days, and promptly demanded that the Munsee deliver up captives taken from that Province.
All the tribes of the Six Nations took part in the treaty; but the Mohawk had only one deputy, Nikes Carigiatatie, in attendance, and the Cayuga were represented by a single chief, Kandt, alias “Last Night.”
Unlike the several previous conferences, Tedyuskung was not the principal speaker at this treaty, but that proud position was assumed by Takeghsatu, a Seneca. He early addressed the Governor and others in these words:
“Brethren—I now speak at the request of Tedyuskung and our cousins the Delawares, living at Wyoming and on the waters of the River Susquehanna. We now remove the hatchet out of your heads that was struck into them by our cousins, the Delawares. It was a French hatchet that they unfortunately made use of, by the instigation of the French. We take it out of your heads and bury it under the ground, where it shall always rest and never be taken up again. Our cousins, the Delawares, have assured us they will never think of war against their brethren, the English, any more, but will employ their thoughts about peace and cultivating friendship with them, and never suffer enmity against them to enter their minds again.”
Two days later, Nikes, the Mohawk, stood up and, addressing himself to Governors Denny and Bernard, said:
“We thought proper to meet you here to have some discourse about our nephew, Tedyuskung. You all know that he gives out that he is a great man and chief of ten nations. This is his constant discourse. Now I, on behalf of the Mohawks, say that we do not know he is such a great man, if he is such a great man, we desire to know who made him so. Perhaps you have; and if this be the case, tell us so. It may be the French have made him so. We want to inquire and know whence the greatness arose.”
Takeghsatu, on behalf of the Seneca, said his nation “say the same as Nikes has done.”
Then Assarandongnas spoke on behalf of the Onondaga and said: “I am here to represent the Onondagas, and I say for them that I never heard before now that Tedyuskung was such a great man, and much less can I tell who made him so. No such thing was ever said in our town as that Tedyuskung was such a great man.”
Then followed, in the same strain, Thomas King, chief of Oneida, in behalf of the Oneida, Cayuga, Tuscarora, Nanticoke, Conoy and Tutelo.
Under this concerted attack upon his kingly pretensions Tedyuskung sat like a stoic and never said a word in reply; but Governor Denny arose and denied that he had made Tedyuskung “a great man,” but said in explanation that he had represented the Delaware at appointed places and had acted for the other Six Nations only as a messenger, who were his uncles and superiors. The Governor of New Jersey indorsed Governor Denny’s speech.
Five days after this discussion Tedyuskung arose in the public conference and addressing himself to the deputies of the Six Nations, said:
“Uncles, you may remember that you have placed us at Wyoming and Shamokin—places where Indians have lived before. Now I hear that you have since sold that land to our brethren, the English. Let the matter now be cleared up in the presence of our brethren the English. I sit here as a bird on a bough. I look about and do not know where to go. Let me, therefore, come down upon the ground and make that my own by a good deed, and I shall have a home forever. For if you, my uncles, or I, die, our brethren, the English, will say they have bought it from you, and so wrong my posterity out of it.”
Thomas King, speaking for the Six Nations the following day, addressed himself to the Delaware in these words:
“By this belt Tedyuskung desired us to make you, the Delawares, the owners of the lands at Wyoming, Shamokin and other places on the Susquehanna River. In answer to which, we, who are present, say that we have no power to convey lands to any one; but we will take your request to the Great Council fire for their sentiments, as we never sell or convey lands before it is agreed upon in the Great Council of the Six Nations. In the meantime, you may make use of those lands in conjunction with our people.”
Later in the open conference Thomas King presented Tedyuskung with a string of wampum and said: “This serves to put Tedyuskung in mind of his promises to return prisoners. You ought to have performed it before. It is a shame for one who calls himself a great man to tell lies.”
Last Night and Nikes, in behalf of the Six Nations, promised to satisfy the English as to the return of captives, adding: “If any of them are gone down our throats, we will heave them up again.”
Then Takeghsatu told Tedyuskung, the Six Nations having promised to return all captives, the Delaware and Munsee must do likewise.
Thus King Tedyuskung was humiliated in the conference, but never to the point where he ceased to be a most potent factor on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, and in the eyes of the English he was the king he professed himself to be.
One of the most important matters disposed of at this treaty related to the lands purchased by the Pennsylvania Proprietaries at Albany, July 6, 1754.
During the progress of this conference one of the Seneca chiefs in attendance died. He was interred with public ceremony; all the Indians and many of the inhabitants attended the obsequies.
On October 26, the business of the treaty having been finished after eighteen days of speech-making, “some wine and punch were ordered, and the conferences were concluded, with great joy and mutual satisfaction.”
The Indians were supplied with hats, caps, knives, jewsharps, powder, lead paints and walking-sticks (the term by which the Indians referred to rum). In addition, Tedyuskung and other chiefs each received a military hat trimmed with gold lace, a regimental coat and a ruffled shirt.
Governor William Denny Removed and
Superseded by James Hamilton, Native
of Pennsylvania, October 9, 1759
Following the destruction of the Indian town at Kittanning, September 8, 1756, by Lieutenant Colonel John Armstrong, and the Indian incursions which reached to every section of the frontier, a chain of forts was built the following year which extended from the Delaware River to the Maryland line. These were garrisoned by troops in the pay of the Province.
This defense was made possible only when the Assembly finally awakened to the serious danger and distress, concerted to pass a bill for raising by tax £100,000, with the exemption of the proprietary estates. They also sent Dr. Benjamin Franklin, as provincial agent, to London, to lay their grievance before the King.
Despite the wartime attitude of England, nothing was done to annoy the French or to check the depredations of the savages, until Dr. Franklin’s presence in London, and the fortunate change in the ministry, which brought the master mind of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, to assume control of the government.
Pitt was endowed with a high order of intellect, eloquent, profound and patriotic. He seemed to possess in an eminent degree the full confidence of the nation and the command of its resources.
Franklin’s exertions resulted in gaining the influence of Pitt’s comprehensive mind, and soon his attention was directed to America, when the affairs in the colonies assumed an entirely different aspect.
Pitt’s plans of operation were grand, his policy bold, liberal and enlightened, all of which seemed greatly to animate the colonists and inspire them with new hopes.
The colonists resolved to make every effort and sacrifice which the occasion might require. A circular from Pitt assured the Colonial governments that he was determined to repair past losses, and would immediately send to America a force sufficiently large to accomplish the purpose. He called upon the different Governments to raise as many men as possible, promising to send over all the necessary munitions of war, and pledging himself to pay liberally all soldiers who enlisted.
Pennsylvania equipped two thousand seven hundred men, while the neighboring provinces contributed large quotas. Three expeditions were determined upon, and most active measures taken to bring them to the field of action.
General James Abercrombie was appointed commander-in-chief and General Jeffrey Amherst second in command, aided by Brigadier Generals Wolfe and Forbes.
The French were vigorously attacked on the northern frontiers of New York. General Forbes was charged with an expedition against Fort Duquesne, to be aided by the provincial troops of Pennsylvania and Virginia, under Colonel Henry Bouquet and Colonel George Washington. These troops rendezvoused at Raystown, now Bedford.
General Forbes, with regulars, marched from Philadelphia to effect a junction with the force at Raystown, but in consequence of severe indisposition he did not get farther than Carlisle, when he was compelled to stop. He marched to Bedford about the middle of September (1758), where he met the provincial troops under Washington.
The march and investment of Fort Duquesne are told in another story and the details will not be repeated here, except to state that Washington strongly urged that General Forbes should use the road cut by General Braddock three years earlier, as it was the most favorable route. But the Pennsylvanians were bent upon the policy of securing a new road exclusively through their province, and they succeeded.
Many weeks were consumed in cutting this road; but at length the army, consisting of 7859 men, penetrated the thick forest, and on reaching the Ohio River found Fort Duquesne abandoned by the French after they had blown up a large magazine and burned the buildings.
The French had retreated down the river, relinquishing forever their dominion in Pennsylvania. The fort was rebuilt, and received the immortal name of Pitt.
The posts on French Creek still remained in French possession, but it was deemed unnecessary to proceed against them, as the character of the war in the north left very little doubt that the contest would soon cease by complete overthrow of the French.
In 1759 Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Niagara and Quebec yielded to British arms and on September 8, 1760, Montreal, Detroit and all of Canada were surrendered by the French. The treaty of Fontainbleau, in November, 1762, put an end to the war.
But in our own province, our troubles were not as easily solved as were England’s under the great Sir William Pitt. A second great Indian conference was convened at Easton in October, 1758.
Tedyuskung, the great Delaware King, at this treaty received one of those insulting taunts from the Six Nations by which they, too often, exhibited their national superiority; taunts, however, that were deeply revenged upon the whites in after years, when the Delaware had thrown off the galling yoke.
Tedyuskung again supported his station with dignity and firmness, and refused to succumb and the different Indian tribes at length became reconciled to each other.
October 9, 1759, Governor William Denny was superseded by James Hamilton. Governor Denny was removed by the Proprietary on account of having yielded to the demands of the Assembly in giving his approval to their money bill.
Governor Hamilton, son of Andrew Hamilton, was the first native of Pennsylvania to serve as Lieutenant Governor. At the death of his father, in 1741, he was left in possession of a handsome fortune, and in the appointment of Prothonotary, then the most lucrative office in the province.
He was first appointed Lieutenant Governor in 1748, serving until October, 1754, then again called to this executive position, which he filled until 1763. He held several other offices of distinction in the province, and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the people, but his loyal feelings to the Crown caused him to be unfriendly to the Revolution.
The continued victories of the English put new inspiration into the people, who now returned in great number to the plantations from which they had been driven by the French and their Indian allies.
First of Three Confederate Raids into
Pennsylvania Began October 10, 1862
The part of our great Commonwealth which lies between the South and Blue Mountains, in the fertile and beautiful Cumberland Valley, since March 11, 1809, known as Franklin County, was from the very earliest recorded history of Pennsylvania the scene of many stirring events.
Being on the southern border of the State, it shared in the land and animated border fight between the proprietary Governments of Maryland and Pennsylvania.
It was in a valley loved as the home of the Indians and on the great pathway through the Tuscarora Mountains and was the scene of many terrible Indian incursions both before and after the French and Indian War.
As the County of Franklin was not erected at the time of the Revolutionary War its activities were not written into the martial story of Pennsylvania as a division of the great State.
In the War of 1812 the county played an active role and sent to the front eight companies organized within its limits.
But it is of a latter period that this county suffered at the hands of an invading host and on three occasions had its homes raided, stores plundered and part of Chambersburg, the county seat, destroyed by firebrand.
The Civil War was hardly begun when it became potent to every one that the Cumberland Valley would be the objective of any Confederate raid into Pennsylvania.
Easy of access from the Potomac and with the fertile fields as fresh foraging grounds for guerilla cavalry, the people realized that they were uncomfortably situated. This fear was well grounded from the fact that our southern border was virtually unprotected.
The first Confederate raid into Pennsylvania was planned and successfully executed October 10, 1862, by Generals J. E. B. Stuart and Wade Hampton with about two thousand troops.
This force crossed the Potomac River and by hurried marches pushed into Pennsylvania, reaching Chambersburg on the evening of that day. With the fall of night came a drizzling rain, in the midst of which the sound of fife and drum was heard, heralding the approach of a squad of officers and men under a flag of truce, who rode to the public square and there demanded the surrender of the town in the name of the Confederate States of America.
There was no military authority in the town to treat with the invaders, so the civil authorities, represented by the Chief Burgess, formally delivered up the town into their custody, and in a few moments the streets of the borough were filled with gray-uniformed soldiers, the tramp of horses, the rattling of sabers and spurs, and the dull thud of axes busied in demolishing store doors and in felling telegraph poles, which made sad music for the frightened inhabitants.
Chambersburg could hardly have been in worse condition for a raid. No soldiers were stationed there, and an enormous quantity of military stores was within its confines.
During the night the business houses were ransacked and the office and shops of the Cumberland Valley Railroad and the office of the Western Union Telegraph Company demolished.
The next morning their attention was turned to the attack on the military stores in the large brick warehouse of Messrs. Wunderlich & Nead, in the northern section of the town. These stores consisted of ammunition, shells, signal rockets and small arms, which only a short time previous had been captured from General Longstreet, and sufficient new equipment added for two full companies of cavalry, then being mustered in Franklin County.
Soon as every article of value to an army had been removed, the torch was applied to the building, and when the flames reached the powder an explosion took place which completed the entire destruction of the property. The rebels then beat a hasty retreat toward the Southland, leaving the inhabitants of Chambersburg in a terrified condition.
The following summer found the star of secession at its greatest height. Lee’s army was never in better spirits and every soldier looked with covetous eyes on the rich fields of Pennsylvania.
Lee succumbed to the temptation, and in the face of his better judgment, planned his northern campaign, and by a military movement, seldom equaled, marched his entire army across the border line of Pennsylvania, only to meet his Waterloo at Gettysburg. The approach of this great invading horde caused a mighty panic which shook with fear the very capital city of the old Keystone State, and every town and hamlet felt the alarm.
The fight at Winchester on June 13, 1863, forced the retreat of General Milroy, who stood alone as a barrier to Lee’s advance. On the following day General Couch removed his headquarters from Chambersburg to Carlisle.
About 9 o’clock on the morning of the 15th the advance of Milroy’s retreating wagon train dashed into Chambersburg, closely pursued by the rebels.
At the same moment General Jenkins with 1800 mounted rebel infantry rode into Greencastle. After a reconnoissance the town was occupied by the rebel horde and divested of everything movable, contraband and otherwise.
The rebels then pushed on toward Chambersburg, where they reached the outskirts about 11 o’clock that night.
Again the streets of Chambersburg resounded with the clatter of cavalry, and a second time the town fell their easy prey.
This visit continued three days during which time everything of value, especially horses, were taken without pretense of compensation.
General Jenkins on the 18th fell back to Greencastle, and then proceeded to Mercersburg, whence a detachment crossed Cove Mountain to McConnellsburg and down the valley. The main part of the invading force remained in the vicinity of Greencastle and Waynesboro, where plundering parties scoured that entire section.
The third terrible visitation of the Confederates in Chambersburg was the deliberate sacking and burning of the town by Generals McCausland and Johnson, on July 30, 1864.
Colonel Matthew Smith, War Veteran,
Elected Vice President October
11, 1779
On October 11, 1779, Vice President George Bryan resigned his office, whereupon Colonel Matthew Smith, a veteran officer of the French and Indian War, and one who commanded a company in Arnold’s expedition to Quebec, then a citizen of Milton, Northumberland County, was chosen to fill the vacancy, which he, too, resigned on the 29th of the month. William Moore was elected to the position, November 12.
On November 27, the Assembly after careful consideration, adopted a resolution annulling the Royal Charter, and granting the Penns, as a compensation for the rights of which they were deprived, £300,000.
They retained their manors, however, and were still the largest landed proprietors in Pennsylvania. They subsequently received from the British Government an annuity of £4000 for their losses by the Revolution.
The act for the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania was passed March 1, 1780. It provided for the registration of every Negro or mulatto slave, or servant for life, before November 1, following, and also provided, “No man or woman of any nation or color, except the Negroes or mulattoes who shall be registered as aforesaid, shall at any time hereafter be deemed, adjudged, or holden within the territory of this Commonwealth, as slaves or servants for life, but as free men and free women.”
During the year 1780, every effort was made to keep the State up to par by passing several measures which brought but temporary relief.
An agent was sent to France and Holland to borrow £200,000, with the faith and honor of the State pledged for its repayment, but the mission was unfruitful.
The army was without clothing and short of provisions. Subscriptions were solicited by the ladies to relieve this distress. The “Bank of Pennsylvania” was established and still the Continental money continued to sink in value.
Virginia was induced to accede to Pennsylvania’s proposition to appoint commissioners to adjust the boundary. Pennsylvania appointed George Bryan, the Rev. Dr. John Ewing and David Rittenhouse; Virginia sent James Madison, afterward President of the United States, and Robert Andrews.
These commissioners met August 31, 1779, and agreed that Mason and Dixon’s line should be extended due west five degrees of longitude from the Delaware River for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and that a meridian line drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern limit of the State should be the western boundary.
The Assembly of Pennsylvania ratified this on November 19, but Virginia proceeded to Fort Burd and occupied it. In March, 1780, the Assembly resolved to eject intruders under claims from other States, and authorized Council to raise troops for internal defense of the frontier; but Virginia afterward ratified the agreement and the southern line was run in 1784 and the western afterward.
Toward the close of September, 1780, the Supreme Executive Council received the startling intelligence of the treason of General Benedict Arnold, who had been in command of the American post at West Point. Among the people the news of the infamy of this officer excited the greatest indignation.
In Philadelphia a parade was held, three days after the arrival of the news, to give expression to the popular feeling.
During this demonstration an effigy of Arnold was carried through the streets and finally hung upon a gallows. The Council at once confiscated Arnold’s estate, and his wife was ordered deported from the State within fourteen days.
The arrest, trial and execution of Major André, and the escape of Arnold, his reward and price of dishonor, the sufferings and disgrace of his unfortunate wife Peggy are not within the scope of these stories.
If the proceedings against Tories in Pennsylvania had been fierce previous to this time, the feeling aroused by the defection of Arnold produced the bitterest animosity and hatred against all who were not in full sympathy with the American Colonies.
Many arrests were made, a number were tried and condemned, and one, a Quaker, of Chester County, executed for high treason. The property of prominent Tories was forfeited and sold, and, in fact, the most energetic measures taken to crush out whatever might be inimical to the cause of independence.
The situation among the soldiers from Pennsylvania in the Continental Army at this period was deplorable. About December 1, the division of General Wayne went into winter quarters in the environs of Norristown. The soldiers were wearied out with privations, and indignant at their officers, whom they accused of not properly representing their situation to Congress.
On New Year’s Day, 1781, there broke out such a mutiny in the Pennsylvania Line that it required the best efforts of Congress, the Government of Pennsylvania, and the officers of the army to subdue.
The Pennsylvania Line comprised 2500, one-third to two-thirds of the army, the soldiers from the other colonies having, in the main, gone home. Their terms of service had long since expired. They had not been paid for a year, and they were almost without clothes.
Then under the leadership of a brave sergeant, named William Bowser, they arose in arms and proceeded to settle matters for themselves. Two emissaries from General Clinton seeking to corrupt them they handed over to Washington to be hanged.
The terms of service of 1250 men had expired. They were discharged and the matter of indebtedness to them was arranged. The most of them re-enlisted.
However unjustifiable the conduct of the Pennsylvania Line was and should be deemed in the first instance, it must be acknowledged that they conducted themselves in the business, culpable as it was, with unexpected order and regularity.
Their refusing to accept the large offer made by the enemy, in delivering up the spies, and in refusing the hundred guineas they had so justly merited, exhibits an instance of true patriotism not to be found among mercenary troops who bear arms for pay and subsistence only, uninspired by their country’s rights, or the justice of the cause which they have engaged to support.
Attempted Slaughter of Indians at Wichetunk,
Monroe County, October 12, 1763
The expedition of Colonel Henry Bouquet, during the Pontiac Conspiracy, to Fort Pitt, in a great measure served to check the depredations of the Indians for a short time and the frontiers of Pennsylvania were quiet, and under the protection and assistance of 700 Provincial recruits the settlers gathered their harvests.
Had the Provincial Assembly acted promptly in the matter an effective defense could have been provided. The Government was deaf to all entreaties, and General Jeffreys Amherst, commander of the British forces in America, did not hesitate to vent his feelings in emphatic expression:
“The conduct of the Pennsylvania Assembly is altogether so infatuated and stupidly obstinate that I want words to express my indignation thereat. They tamely look on while their brethren are butchered by the savages.”
The Assembly finally authorized the raising of 800 troops and voted £24,000 to keep that force until December 1, but declared it was both unjust and impracticable for the province to defend a frontier of nearly 300 miles, which covered a greater extent than that of New Jersey and Maryland, without assistance from other provinces.
In September and October outrages were committed as far east as the neighborhoods of Reading and Bethlehem, and it was believed that not only Fort Pitt but even Fort Augusta was destined for attack.
The road to Fort Pitt was interrupted. A supply of provisions, under a convoy of sixty men, was forwarded from Fort Bedford to Fort Pitt, but on gaining the foot of the Allegheny Mountains was compelled to return. The officers learned that the passages were occupied by the savages.
Some fragments of the Delaware and Six Nations remained at their settlements in the interior, refusing to join their brethren in arms, professing affection for the Colonists and avowing a determination to continue neutral. But the neutrality of a part, at least, of these Indians was very doubtful.
The situation of the frontiers became truly deplorable, and the Quakers, who were in control, suffered the censure of the people. Captain Lazerus Stewart, of Paxtang, expressed the views of those on the frontiers, when he said: “The Quakers are more solicitous for the welfare of the blood-thirsty Indians than for the lives of the frontiersmen.”
Colonel John Armstrong led 300 men of Cumberland County to Great Island, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, the present site of the borough of Lock Haven, where certain of the marauders had their headquarters. On their arrival they found the place evacuated, horses, cattle and other spoils gathered in their forays being left behind.
With the main body of his men, Armstrong proceeded to another Indian village near Jersey Shore, where he found the late occupants had left in haste while eating a meal. So the expedition resulted in destroying their houses and corn fields.
Major Asher Clayton led a party from Harris’ Ferry to remove the Connecticut settlers from Wyoming and destroy their provisions, which were likely to be seized by the red men. When the party arrived at Wyoming, it found that the savages had been there before them and had burned the town and killed more than twenty persons in horrible torture.
A number of those Indians who had been converted by the Moravian missionaries around Bethlehem were murdered, as they were found asleep in a barn, by a party of Rangers, and the surprise and slaughter in turn of the latter increased the suspicion of the frontiersmen, who were neither Moravians nor Quakers, against the entire body of Christian red men, who professed a desire to live at peace and friendship with the English.
The Provincial Commissioners, indeed, reported their belief that those at Nain and Wichetunk (in what is now Polk Township, Monroe County) were secretly supplied by the Moravian brethren with arms and ammunition, which, in free intercourse with the hostile savages, were traded off to the latter.
About October 12 a number of armed men marched toward Wichetunk, but, waiting to surprise it by night, were frustrated by a violent storm just before nightfall, which wet their powder.
The missionary, the Rev. Bernard Adam Grube, then led the Indians to Nazareth, but the Governor suggested that to watch their behavior it would be better to disarm them and bring them to the interior parts of the province. The Assembly, actuated more by a desire to save them, agreed to the proposal.
Governor John Penn received the refugees from Nain and Wichetunk, but their arrival in the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia excited the lower classes nearly to a riot, and the soldiers refused to allow them any part of the barracks as a sheltering place, so that different arrangements were necessary.
For five hours these Indians were in great peril, but escorted by Quakers, they were finally taken to Province Island.
The conduct of the Assembly, in which there were twenty-one Quakers, failed to satisfy not only the royal and proprietary officers but also the Presbyterians, who were ready to take up arms, and particularly the Scotch-Irish on the frontier, who saw large sums of money lavished in the presents to Indians, while they themselves lay destitute from the ravages of an Indian war.
As every now and then some of their kinsmen or neighbors fell by the tomahawk, they became exasperated, coupling their vengeance against the guilty savages with jealousy of the Assembly’s partiality, and also suspicion against those Indians who were treated as friends.
A cry like the Covenanters came from their descendants in Pennsylvania; loud exhortations were heard on the frontier to carry out against the heathen red men the decrees of heaven against the Canaanites.
Molly Pitcher, Heroine of the Battle of Monmouth,
Born October 13, 1754
There have been many stories of “Molly Pitcher,” and they have not always agreed even on the main facts. But on the occasion of the ceremonies incident to unveiling the cannon erected over her grave in the “Old Graveyard,” in Carlisle, by the Patriotic Orders Sons of America, on June 28, 1905, an excellent short biography of the “Heroine of the Battle of Monmouth” was prepared by John B. Landis, Esq., from which the following story is taken.
The heroine’s name was not “Pitcher,” but Ludwig, and at the time she earned her well-known sobriquet she was the wife of an artilleryman. Her father, John George Ludwig, came to this country from the Palatinate, and settled near Trenton, in Mercer County, New Jersey, where he engaged in the occupation of dairyman. It was here his daughter Mary was born, on October 13, 1754, and here among the surroundings of her father’s home were spent the youthful days of the future “Molly Pitcher.”
The wife of Dr. William Irvine, of Carlisle, afterward General William Irvine, and one of the greatest patriots of the Revolution, was visiting friends in Trenton when she saw the youthful Mary Ludwig, and, being pleased with her and in need of a domestic, took the young girl with her on returning to Carlisle.
Mary had hardly become accustomed to her surroundings in the fine home of Dr. and Mrs. Irvine until she met John Casper Hays, a barber, whose shop was near the Irvine residence. Their courtship was of short duration, for a marriage was solemnized on July 24, 1769.
A few years of quiet wedded life, disturbed only by the warlike preparations centered about the patriotic town of Carlisle, and John Casper Hays became a soldier. He enlisted December 1, 1775, in Colonel Thomas Proctor’s First Pennsylvania Artillery, in which he served as a gunner. His term of enlistment expired December, 1776, but he re-enlisted January, 1777, in the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment, of the Continental Line, in the company commanded by Captain John Alexander, of Carlisle.
Dr. Irvine also was one of the first patriots to respond to the cause of the colonists, and January 9, 1776, was commissioned Colonel of the Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment. He became Brigadier General May 2, 1779. Previous to that time, however, on June 6, 1776, he was captured at Three Rivers, and remained a prisoner on parole until his exchange, April 21, 1778, when he assumed command of the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment, in which John Casper Hays was a private soldier.
After young Hays left Carlisle with his regiment, his wife remained employed at Colonel Irvine’s. Some time thereafter her parents, who still resided in New Jersey, sent a message with courier for her to visit them, and the same horseman carried a letter from her husband, begging her to go, as he might then get an opportunity to see her, as his regiment was then nearby. With Mrs. Irvine’s consent Mary set out on her long journey, traveling on horseback. At the time Molly Hays was a young woman of twenty-five years.
To prevent the movement of the British on New York, General Washington marched his troops again into New Jersey, and the Battle of Monmouth was fought June 28, 1778.
The battle continued from 11 o’clock in the morning until dark, and the day was one of the hottest of the year. Fifty soldiers are said to have died of thirst, and the tongues of many said to have been so greatly swollen as to protrude from the mouth.
While the battle was in progress Molly carried water for the thirsting soldiers from a neighboring spring, which is still pointed out on the historic battlefield. Back and forth she went under shelter or under fire, supplying the much-needed water. Possibly, as is stated by some, it was carried in the cannoneer’s bucket. In whatever way it was carried the sight of Molly with her “pitcher” was a welcome sight to the weary and thirsty Continentals.
Molly’s husband, having served a year in Proctor’s Artillery, and though now an infantryman, had been detailed as a gunner in a battery that was engaged. Doubtless Molly was never out of sight of that battery. As she approached with water she saw a soldier lying at the gun, whom she thought to be her husband, and hurrying on she found her husband wounded, but the dead man was one of his comrades. Her husband recovered, but lived only a few years after the close of the war.
It is stated that the cannon was ordered to the rear and would have been taken off the field had not Molly bravely sprung to her husband’s place, and so kept the gun in action.
For her wonderful patriotism and self-sacrificing devotion to the soldiers she was dubbed “Sergeant” and by some called “Major Molly.”
“Moll Pitcher she stood by her gun,
And rammed the charges home, sir.
And thus on Monmouth’s bloody field
A sergeant did become, sir.”
How long Molly stood by her gun, through the smoke and din of battle, on that hot and terrible day, is not a matter of record, but the water she carried to those soldiers and the service she rendered with the battery has been testified to by many whom she helped.
Molly was no imaginary heroine, but a real buxom lass, a strong, sturdy, courageous woman. Her name belongs on the roll of the world’s heroines, and some years ago the State of New Jersey honored “Molly Pitcher” by commemorating her heroic act on one of the five tablets surrounding the base of the beautiful monument erected at Freehold on the historic field.
Some years after the death of her first husband, Sergeant John Casper Hays, she married George McKolly, another soldier and a comrade of Hays, and she then became known as Molly McKolly. This name was also written “McAuley,” and “McCauley” while on her tombstone it was inscribed “McCauly.”
At the entrance to the grounds where until recently was the Carlisle Indian School, formerly for many years United States barracks, still stands the old stone guard house, which was built by the Hessian prisoners taken at the Battle of Trenton, and which escaped the fire when the barracks were burned by the Confederates in 1863.
At that post Molly lived for many years after the Revolutionary War, cooking and washing for the soldiers. Subsequently she kept a small store in the town proper, but the latter years of her life were lived in a stone house, where she died on Sunday, January 22, 1832. She attended the Lutheran Church and was respected by her neighbors.
On July 4, 1876, a marble headstone was unveiled over her grave, which had been erected by Peter Spohr, who knew her well and was present at her funeral. On this occasion an eloquent and interesting address was delivered by Captain Joseph G. Vale, a veteran officer of the Civil War.
William Penn, Born October 14, 1644—His
Youth and Early Struggles for Religious
Belief
William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania and one of the most distinguished members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, a preacher and writer, was born in London, October 14, 1644.
His father was Admiral Sir William Penn, of the English Royal Navy, and his mother was Margaret Jasper, a remarkable Dutch lady, of Rotterdam.
While the Admiral was off on the seas, his wife and little son resided on one of his estates at Wanstead in Essex.
William Penn went to school at Chigwell, near by, where he was apparently under influences largely Puritan. At the age of eleven strong religious conviction came suddenly upon him.
His boyhood days were lived during the Protectorate. The Admiral, after receiving honors and riches from Cromwell, had so timed his change of loyalty as to gather in a good share of the rewards distributed at the time of the Restoration.
He was in a condition to send his son to the most aristocratic of Oxford Colleges, and at the age of fifteen, William Penn became a “Gentleman Commoner of Christ Church.”
Through the preaching of Thomas Loe he became a convert to the doctrine of the Quakers. The results were not exactly Quakerly, however, for in company with a friend, he forcibly tore from the backs of fellow students the “popish rags,” as surplices were called by the zealous Puritans of the day.
For this he left college, whether by the action of the authorities or not does not clearly appear.
He went to his home and announced himself a Quaker. His father intended him for a high career in the state, and no news could have been more unwelcome than this. His father turned him out of the house. The mother reconciled them, and the youth was sent to France, with a hope that gay society in Paris might redeem him from his almost morbid soberness.
Penn entered partially into the circle of fashion; thence he went to Naumur, the Protestant college, where he laid the foundation of that extensive knowledge of patristic literature so much in evidence in his future writings; thence to Italy, where he received a letter from his father calling him home.
On his return, in 1664, in compliance with the wishes of his father, he became a student of law.
The great fire in London, in 1665, drove him from the city and deepened his serious convictions.
He was sent by his father to manage his large Irish estates. He joined the expedition to put down an insurrection in Carrickfergus, and procured for himself a suit of armor, in which he seems to have been painted. His martial ardor was of short duration.
Thomas Loe again crossed his path in Cork and Penn became a Quaker never more to falter. He was soon imprisoned with his fellows, and this was the beginning of many and severe confinements which lasted at intervals through his life.
His father again drove him from his house. In time they were reconciled and the Admiral on his deathbed endorsed the course of his son.
Penn began immediately to preach and to enter into the theological controversy of his time. He was soon arrested and confined in the Tower nine months, during which he wrote his principal work, entitled “No Cross, No Crown.”
Penn was again arrested for preaching in the streets of London, and at his trial the jury declared him not guilty, but the court determined to convict him, ordered the jury to bring in a verdict of guilty. They refused and were fined and sent to Newgate Prison.
On his release from prison Penn made a trip to Holland and Germany, preaching the gospel.
He took advantage of a little surcease from jails to marry, in his 28th year, Gulielma Maria Springett, daughter of Sir William Springett, a woman of great beauty and sweetness.
A declaration of indulgence for dissenters issued by Charles II, in 1672, now made his life easier, and with an ample estate, he settled at Rickmansworth, in Hertfordshire. He was active for a few years in preaching and wrote much.
In 1675 his thoughts were first seriously turned to America. Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, who had received from the Duke of York the promise of New Jersey, sold the western half to two Quakers, John Fenwick and Edward Byllinge.
The new purchasers had some difficulty between themselves in the settlement of their respective claims and asked William Penn to arbitrate the matter. Penn decided in favor of Byllinge, who soon afterwards became embarrassed and transferred to Penn and two others his interest for the benefit of his creditors.
West New Jersey was opened for sale and the persecuted Quakers found there a haven of rest.
Penn wrote to Richard Hartshorne, a settler whom he appointed his agent, “We lay a foundation for after ages to understand their liberty as men and Christians, that they may not be brought in bondage but by their own consent; for we put the power in the people.”
The colony prospered greatly under the management of Penn and his friends.
In company with George Fox, Robert Barclay and others, in 1677, Penn paid a religious visit to Holland and Germany. Here he made a convert of the Princess Elizabeth Palatine, granddaughter of James I, a woman of great intelligence, learning and spirituality, who became a devoted adherent and correspondent.
More important, historically, however, he began that acquaintance with the Rhine Valley which resulted in a great emigration of its inhabitants to his future province of Pennsylvania, in the following century.
His journal of this trip is among his printed works.
When he returned he found persecution breaking out anew, many of his friends in jail and their estates confiscated.
Penn published a plea for liberty, even for Papists—a sentiment which, in that day, required no small courage—and gave rise to a report, from which he afterward suffered greatly, that he was a Jesuit in disguise.
He enjoyed great favor at court, and his influence was exerted for the aid of his suffering brethren, and his advocacy of his favorite doctrine of universal toleration.
The rest of William Penn’s life belongs largely to the history of Pennsylvania.
First Massacre in Wyoming Launched During
Pontiac’s War by Captain Bull,
October 15, 1763
The conspiracy fomented by Pontiac, the Ottawa chieftain, was unmasked at Detroit on May 6, 1763, and then began the war which continued until late in the summer of 1764.
Fort Sandusky was captured by the Indians May 16, 1763; Fort Ouatanon (now Lafayette, Ind.), May 31; Fort Presqu’ Isle (now Erie County, Pa.), June 17; Fort Le Boeuf (in Erie County), June 18; Fort Venango (in Venango County, Pa.), June 18 and the military posts at Carlisle and Bedford, Pa., on the same day.
On June 22 a large body of Indians surrounded Fort Pitt and opened fire on all sides, but were easily repulsed. The Seneca were the only Indians of the Six Nations in alliance with Pontiac.
The report which reached Philadelphia the second week in July, 1763, revealed a most alarming situation on the frontier.
Through the efforts of the Reverend John Elder the able-bodied men of the Paxtang region in Lancaster County were soon organized into a mounted military battalion of several companies, under the name of the “Paxtang Rangers” or “Paxtang Boys,” with Elder as colonel in command.
“Swift on foot, excellent horsemen, good shots, skillful in pursuit or escape, dexterous as scouts and expert in maneuvering,” the “Paxtang Boys” became the terror of the Indians. And yet, during the summer and early autumn of that year numerous depredations and murders were committed by Indians in the counties of Lancaster and Northampton.
On Sunday, August 7, Captain Andrew Montour arrived at Fort Augusta from up the West Branch and informed Colonel James Burd that Forts Pitt and Ligonier had been captured by the Indians. Later this news was learned to be false, but the loss of Presqu’ Isle, Le Boeuf and Venango was a fact.
Colonel John Elder wrote Governor Hamilton, requesting that his command be allowed “to destroy the immense quantity of corn left by the New England men at Wyoming which, if not consumed, will be a considerable magazine to the enemy and enable them with more ease to distress the inhabitants, etc.” The Governor in his reply stated that he had no objection to their scouting as far as Wyoming.
On October 13 Major Asher Clayton, with a force of eighty soldiers from Lancaster County, arrived at Fort Augusta, en route to Wyoming. There he was joined by Lieutenant Samuel Hunter and twenty-four men of the garrison, and the combined force departed Saturday the 15th for Wyoming.
Two companies of the Reverend Elder’s command set out from Fort Hunter on the 11th destined for the same place, and “to intercept the murdering party on their return to Northampton.”
This “murdering party” referred to by Colonel Elder was a band of hostile Delaware led by Tedyuskung’s son, Captain Bull, and concerning whose depredations Governor Hamilton sent a message to the Provincial Assembly on October 15, in these words:
“Within a few days past I have received well-attested accounts of many barbarous and shocking murders and other depredations having been committed by Indians on inhabitants of Northampton County, in consequence whereof great numbers of those who escaped the rage of the enemy have already deserted, and are daily deserting their habitations; so that, unless some effectual aid can be speedily granted them, to induce them to stand their ground, it is difficult to say where these desertions will stop, or to how small a distance from the capital our frontier may be reduced.”
Captain Bull, who headed this war party of Western Delaware in these incursions, had spent ten years among these Indians west of the Ohio River. He was thoroughly familiar with their sentiments toward the English.
The first intimation of the presence of hostile Indians was on October 8, 1763, when before daybreak, Captain Bull attacked the house of John Stenton, on the road from Bethlehem to Fort Allen, where Captain Wetherhold and a squad of soldiers were lodging for the night. Wetherhold and several others of the whites were wounded and three were killed.
A day or two later Yost’s mill, about eleven miles from Bethlehem, was destroyed, and the people there cut off. Altogether twenty-three persons were killed and many wounded, and these depredations committed within a few miles of Captain Bull’s ancestral home.
On Saturday, October 15, the self-same day that Major Clayton’s expedition set out from Fort Augusta for Wyoming, the settlers of Mill Creek, in Wyoming Valley, were busily engaged in their various occupations at different places unaware of danger and unprepared for disaster.
Captain Bull and his warriors to the number of 135 swooped down on the settlers and death, desperation and destruction quickly followed. Eighteen or more were killed, including many persons of importance. The scene was terrible.
The settlers who heard the gun shots and war whoops of the Indians fled in great haste to the mountains. At night time the torch was applied and soon the homes of the settlers were masses of ruins.
The settlers who escaped death tramped back to Connecticut, and Wyoming was, in very truth, deserted and forsaken.
Major Clayton arrived soon after this massacre, but did not remain, and returned to Fort Augusta. An extract from a letter written by a soldier says:
“Our party under Major Asher Clayton is returned from Wyoming, where we met with no Indians, but found the New Englanders who had been killed and scalped a day or two before we got there. We buried the dead—nine men and a woman—who had been most cruelly butchered.
“The woman was roasted, and had two hinges in her hands—supposed to be put in red hot—and several of the men had awls thrust in their eyes, and spears, arrows, pitchforks, etc., sticking in their bodies.
“They (Clayton’s troops) burnt what houses the Indians had left, and destroyed a quantity of Indian corn. The enemy’s tracks were up the river toward Wyalusing.”
Many writers have expressed different opinions about this massacre. Some thought it to have been done by the Delaware who believed the Connecticut settlers killed their king Tedyuskung; some believe it to have been done by Six Nations, who thought the whites had assassinated the Delaware king; but others believe there is not sufficient ground for supposing it to have been done by friends of Tedyuskung, even though the hostile party was led by his son, Captain Bull.
Whoever was to blame, or whoever committed the bloodthirsty deed, matters not, but the fact remains that the Delaware Indians were treacherous and none of them more so than King Tedyuskung and his sons, especially Captain Bull, the perpetrator of this horrible massacre.
First Terrible Massacre of Settlers at Penn’s
Creek, October 16, 1755
The year 1755 was anything but one of promise for the English[English] colonies in America. The French were aggressively pushing their domain from Canada southward toward the Mississippi Valley, and what was more alarming to the English was the effort of the French to gain a foothold in the region of the Allegheny Mountains, in what is now Western Pennsylvania.
Three great rivers virtually determined the strategic situation of the territory involved between these two great nations. The Hudson River Valley was held by the English, the Susquehanna River Valley by the Six Nations of the great Indian Confederation and the Allegheny River Valley by French, along the banks of which a chain of French forts had been erected. Fort Duquesne, at the forks of the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers, where Pittsburgh now stands, was the principal defense of that valley.
In the spring of 1755 the expedition was fitted out which made the ill-fated march against Fort Duquesne and resulted in the defeat of General Edward Braddock, July 9.
This defeat was a terrible disaster and left the frontiers of Pennsylvania threatened with ruin by victorious French and their savage allies, who pressed through the passes of the Blue Mountains on the heels of the fleeing British regulars.
The main body of the French encamped on the Susquehanna River near where the borough of Liverpool now stands, thirty miles above Harris’ Ferry, where they extended themselves on both sides of the main river.
Braddock’s defeat was not only a fatal termination of a campaign which had been expected would inflict a decisive blow upon the French, but it gave the signal to the disaffected Indians to make the frontiers of the province the scene of predatory warfare in which many sections of the Susquehanna Valley were severely scourged.
The Provincial Government did not act with the energy and promptness which the emergency demanded. No means were adopted for the protection of frontier settlements and the entire wilderness from the Juniata River to Shamokin, now Sunbury, was filled with parties of hostile Indians, murdering, scalping and burning. Every post brought to the Provincial Council at Philadelphia heart-rending appeals for help.
The Assembly and the Governor were deadlocked, no money bills could be passed. Troops of frontiersmen rode through the city threateningly brandishing their weapons. A party of Germans laid the corpses of the countrymen, scalped within sixty-five miles of the capital, at the door of the State House. The Quaker peace policy was denounced in unmeasured terms from the backwoods pulpits.
The Indians had driven off the Moravian missions at Shamokin and burned their own town at that important place.
Two of Colonel Weiser’s sons, Frederick and Peter, had been at Shamokin several days previously, then stopped at the house of George Gabriel, at the mouth of Penn’s Creek about the head of the Isle of Que, near the present town of Selinsgrove. While there a messenger arrived from Logan, one of Shikellamy’s sons and Lapacpicton, a friendly Delaware, who brought the alarming news that a large body of French and Indians was approaching by way of the West Branch.
The Provincial Government had been warned that a band of Indians had left the West on an expedition to the forks of the Susquehanna, but paid no heed until too late.
These Indians crossed the Allegheny Mountains, through the headwaters of the Otzinachson, now called West Branch, near Clearfield, thence through the “Great Plains,” now known as Penn’s Valley, Center County, through the gaps of Penn’s Creek, in Paddy Mountains, where they struck the white settlements along the creek, commencing at the present town of New Berlin and down the stream for about a mile in what is now Snyder County.
October 16, 1755, occurred the terrible massacre at Penn’s Creek, when fifteen persons were cruelly murdered and their bodies terribly mangled and ten others were carried away as Indian prisoners.
Of the twenty-five victims, one man, who was wounded, was able to reach Gabriel’s with the news of the massacre.
When the party went out to bury the dead they found thirteen bodies of men and elderly women, and one child, two weeks old.
The house of Jacob Le Roy, where the massacre was ended, was burned and his body lying just by it. He lay on his back, barbarously burnt and two tomahawks sticking in his forehead.
The conditions in the immediate neighborhood of Penn’s Creek beggared description. Conrad Weiser wrote to Governor Morris, upon the arrival of his sons, advising of the massacre, and gave him the news of the intended invasion. But John Harris rushed to the rescue of those in distress, and, with a company of forty-six men from Paxtang, arrived at the mouth of Penn’s Creek. He found the dead had been buried, and proceeded to Shamokin to learn the attitude of the Indians there.
In the Pennsylvania archives is to be found the examination of Barbara Leininger and Mary Le Roy, taken after their return from captivity. They testified that the others carried away captives at Penn’s Creek were Jacob Le Roy, Rachel Leininger, brother and sister of the testators; Marian Wheeler; Hannah, wife of Jacob Breylinger and two of their children, one of whom died of starvation, while they were being held at Kittanning; Peter Lick and two sons, John and William.
They named the principal Indians and gave a detailed narrative of their journey and captivity.
They were carried to Kittanning, where they were held prisoners until Colonel John Armstrong destroyed the town, September 8, 1756, when the Indians who had these prisoners in charge made their escape.
They were carried to Fort Duquesne and were then led twenty-five miles lower down the river to the mouth of Big Beaver Creek. In the spring of 1757 they were taken to Kuskusky, twenty-five miles up Big Beaver Creek, where they remained until the Indians learned that the English were marching against Fort Duquesne, when the Indians evacuated Kuskusky and hurried their prisoners on a forced march to the Muskingum, in the present State of Ohio.
March 16, 1759, the testators made their escape and were able to reach Fort Pitt fifteen days later. They reached their relatives subsequently, and were in Philadelphia, May 6, 1759, when they gave their testimony.
Ann M. LeRoy was residing in Lancaster in 1764, when she again made an affidavit in regards to the details of her capture and the visits of the supposed friendly Conestoga Indians at Kittanning.
A beautiful boulder with bronze tablet was unveiled at the site of this massacre, October, 1915. This can be seen above the bridge over Penn’s Creek, on the Susquehanna Trail, leading from Selinsgrove to Sunbury. It marks the scene of one of the most horrible of the Indian massacres in Pennsylvania.
Railroad from Williamsport to Lake Erie
Completed October 17, 1864
During the administration of Governor James Pollock the Main Line of public works had been sold by virtue of the act of Assembly of May 16, 1857. Governor Pollock had very strongly urged the sale of the public works, as they had become a running sore of corruption, including political debauchery and the systematic plunder of the treasury.
On June 25 following the Governor closed the transaction by which the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, July 31, assumed ownership of the whole line of public works between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the consideration being $7,500,000.
Following that sale measures were taken for the disposal of the remainder of the public improvement. They had failed to be a source of revenue to the State, and the application of the proceeds to the payment of the debt of the Commonwealth soon led to the removal of taxation by the State.
With the disposal of the Main Line of public works, there were left not a few local canals, such as the North Branch, West Branch and others, to be managed by the Board of Canal Commissioners. This was a sore point, and there was a very general desire that these should also be disposed of and the State entirely divested of its interests in transportation lines.
The Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company was chartered April 3, 1837. The road was opened between Williamsport and Milton, December 18, 1854, and between Milton and Northumberland, September 24, 1855.
The railroad bridges over the North Branch at Northumberland were completed for traffic January 7, 1856, which opened the road from Williamsport to Sunbury. From this time it became a long struggle to complete the line from Williamsport to Erie, which was to be the western terminus.
Borough councils and prominent citizens subscribed for stock, and various attempts were made to construct the road, but each new organization only repeated the story of failure.
A number of very able and experienced railway men and the directors conceived the idea of virtually borrowing the credit of the State, without imposing any liability upon the Commonwealth, to aid in the construction of this road.
Their proposition was that the various canals remaining in the ownership of the State should be sold to the Sunbury and Erie Railway Company for $3,000,000, giving the railway company the right to sell or mortgage the several canals as might be deemed best, the proceeds to be applied to the construction of the Erie line, and the State to accept a mortgage upon the line for the $3,000,000 to be paid for the canals. It was believed this would provide sufficient funds to complete the line, and when this was accomplished the mortgage held by the State would be abundant security against loss to the Commonwealth.
A bill to enable this sale of the canals was read in place in both House and Senate and an earnest battle ensued as the members of the canal board were not willing to be shorn of their immense powers, which would result if the State sold the canals.
The Republicans in the House supported the bill; the personnel of the canal board was entirely Democratic. No community in the State would benefit more by the completion of the link from Williamsport to Erie than would Philadelphia, and the great interests of that city soon brought a solid support in both House and Senate in favor of the bill.
Many Democrats whose districts were traversed by the proposed road also fell into line, so that in spite of desperate opposition, the bill finally passed the House by a decided majority, and gained the narrow margin of one vote in the Senate.
Governor William F. Packer was a resident of Williamsport, and, of course, was intensely interested in the measure.
The bill reached the Governor only three days before final adjournment, and when he examined it, the Governor discovered a vital error in phraseology which had been overlooked, but which would result in serious embarrassment in executing its provisions. He could not return it with his objections, as it could not be passed over the veto; there was not time for the passage of a new bill, and the bill could be amended in the hands of the Governor only by the adoption of a joint resolution instructing such change.
A joint resolution was required to lay over a day under the rules and it required two-thirds vote to suspend the rule, while the delay of a day would be fatal.
The matter was submitted to Speaker Longnecker, who presided with ability and dignity over the body, and he informed those who were conferring with him that a joint resolution could not be read and finally passed on the same day.
Among the prominent Democratic members was George Nelson Smith, of Cambria County, a thorough parliamentarian and one of the most popular members of the House.
It was suggested to the Speaker that he call Smith to the chair. The Speaker consented, Smith took the gavel and the resolution to amend the bill was changed from the usual form of a joint resolution by saying, “Resolved, If the Senate concurs, etc.,” giving the appearance of a House resolution requiring simply the concurrence of the Senate.
As soon as it was read the point was raised that it was a joint resolution and must lie over for a day, but Smith faced the emergency with magnificent boldness, deciding that it was not a joint resolution and directing the final vote to be called.
It was evident that a majority of the House meant to save the bill; tactics for delay would be defeated by previous question and by the aggressive action of Acting Speaker Smith the House was suddenly brought to a call of the yeas and nays and the bill was saved. The Senate had ample time for concurrence and it was given.
Even after giving the Sunbury and Erie Railway Company the benefit of the loan of $3,000,000 the work was pushed forward under many embarrassments. It was on the verge of collapse in the general prostrations of 1860, but the Legislature came to its relief by an extension of credit.
The Civil War came with its quickening of business and large increase of circulating medium, and the great enterprise of building a railroad through an almost continued wilderness from Williamsport to Lake Erie, a distance of nearly 250 miles, was completed October 17, 1864, and the State gained not only by the sale of its canals and the abolishment of the Canal Board, but the $3,000,000 was abundantly secured to it.
The new railroad brought multiplied wealth to the State and the people that could never have been realized excepting by the construction of a great railway through the boundless riches of that great region.
The name Sunbury and Erie was changed to the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad Company by Act of Assembly March 7, 1861.
On January 1, 1862, it was leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for 999 years.
None Escaped in Massacre at Mahanoy
Creek, October 18, 1755
Following the defeat of General Edward Braddock, July 9, 1755, the savages roamed at will through the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania. They now realized the English were no longer invincible and became bolder and more terrible in their predatory warfare.
The first outbreak was at Penn’s Creek, in the present Snyder County, where on October 16, they swooped down upon the industrious German settlers of that neighborhood and cruelly massacred fifteen and carried away ten others into captivity.
The news of the massacre struck terror in the hearts of the settlers and all, excepting a very few, fled down the river to the older settlements.
Only two days after the Penn’s Creek massacre another occurred only a short distance to the eastward, at the mouth of Mahanoy Creek, about five miles south of the present city of Sunbury.
On this eventful day, October 18, 1755, twenty-five of the inhabitants were killed or carried away into captivity, often worse than death. Every building of the little settlement was burned, and all the improvements destroyed.
The difference in the two massacres lies in the fact that one escaped from the murderous savages at Penn’s Creek, who was able to make his way to George Gabriel’s at the mouth of the creek, where he told the awful story in detail. It also happened that two sons of Conrad Weiser were there at the time, and they hastened to their home in Berks County.
Soon the old provincial interpreter had messengers on the way to inform Governor Morris of the massacre and the threatened invasion of the Forks of the Susquehanna by the French and their Indian allies, who were approaching in great force.
Immediately the news of the massacre at Penn’s Creek reached Harris’ Ferry, and without waiting for advice from the provincial authorities, John Harris, with forty-six inhabitants of the neighborhood, hastened to the scene of the disaster, where they found and buried a number of the mangled bodies of the victims. From this place they proceeded to Shamokin to see the Indians and prevail upon them, if possible, to remain neutral.
Their reception at the Indian village was civil but not cordial, and they remained there only till the next morning.
During the night they heard the Indians talking about the English in unfavorable terms, and soon after they sang a war song and four Indians went away in the darkness in two canoes. They were well armed. One canoe went down stream, the other across the river.
In the morning they made a few presents to the Indians. Before their departure they were privately warned by Andrew Montour not to take a certain road on the western side of the river, but to continue down the eastern side.
They, however, disregarded his warning, either relying on the good faith of the Indians, or suspecting that Montour intended to lead them into an ambuscade, and they crossed the river and started to march along the flats on the western shore.
Hardly had they got started on their march until they were fired upon by some Indians who lay in ambush, and four were killed, four drowned and the rest put to flight.
John Harris, under date of “Paxtang, ye 28th October, 1755,” wrote to the Governor an account of the foregoing expedition, and how near they all came to suffer through Indian treachery. Among other things, he said:
“This is to acquaint you, that on the 24th of October, I arrived at Shamokin, in order to protect our frontiers up that way till they might make their escape from their cruel enemies, and learn the best intelligence I could.
“The Indians on the West Branch certainly killed our inhabitants on Penn’s Creek, and there are a hatchet and two English scalps sent them up to North Branch, to desire them to strike with them if they are men.”
He then described the situation and warned the Governor that the Indians entertained serious designs upon the settlers in and about the Forks of the Susquehanna. He then wrote:
“Montour knew many days ago of the enemy being on their march against us before he informed, for which I said as much to him as I thought prudent, considering the place I was in.
“On the 25th inst., on my return with about forty men, we were attacked by about twenty or thirty Indians, received their fire, and about fifteen of our men and myself took to the trees, attacked the villains, killed four of them on the spot and lost but three more, retreating about half a mile through the woods, and crossing the Susquehanna, one of whom was shot off a horse riding behind myself, through the river. My horse was wounded, and falling into the river, I was obliged to quit him and swim part of the way.
“Four or five of our men were drowned crossing the river. I hope our journey, though with fatigue and loss of our substance and some of our lives, will be of service to our country by discovering our enemy, who will be our ruin, if not timely prevented.
“I just now received information that there was a French officer, supposed captain, with a party of Shawnee, Delaware, etc., within six miles of Shamokin, ten days ago, and no doubt intends to take possession of it which will be a dreadful consequence to us, if suffered.”
Harris then told of his knowledge of the Indians who had made the attack on Penn’s Creek; of an intended attack on Shamokin and other places. He concluded his long and informative letter: “I expect Montour and Monacatootha down here this week, with the determination of their Shamokin council. The inhabitants are abandoning their plantations and we are in a dreadful situation.”
The postscript to his interesting letter was as follows: “The night ensuing our attack the Indians burned all George Gabriel’s houses; danced around them.”
The person who was shot off the horse, while riding behind John Harris in crossing the river, was a physician of Paxtang, who had accompanied the party in his professional capacity.
On the following day John Harris wrote a letter to Edward Shippen, at Lancaster, in which he expressed fear that the Indians would attack them any day. He wrote: “I have this day cut loopholes in my house, and am determined to hold out to the last extremity, if I can get some men to stand by me. But few can be had at present, as every one is in fear of his own family being cut off every hour.”
Harris advised the immediate building of a fort at the Forks of the Susquehanna. The situation in the Province even as close to Philadelphia as Harrisburg was truly desperate.
General Edward Hand Starts on Expedition
from Fort Pitt to Wheeling, October
19,1777
During the winter of 1776 and the following spring the agents of Great Britain had been very active in organizing Indian uprisings along the frontiers as a part of the general campaign for the subjugation of the rebellious colonists.
Continental Congress decided to take charge of the defense of the colonists, especially those in the western part of the State, where the Indians had been more active and where the settlers had been afforded less protection from the State and Colonial governments.
The first move by Congress was a decision to take Fort Pitt under its care and provide an adequate garrison at the Continental expense. The offer was accepted by Virginia, which colony then claimed the western part of Pennsylvania as its territory, and Captain John Neville was directed to transfer the fort to the United States officer appointed to its command.
General Washington selected Brigadier General Edward Hand, of Lancaster, for this important service. The brave and efficient work of this distinguished officer led the commander-in-chief to believe that he would be an able defender of the border, but fighting British and Hessians along the seaboard and Indians in the woods are two quite different propositions, as General Hand soon discovered.
General Hand was no stranger at Fort Pitt, but during his former service there he had no experience in fighting Indians.
He was a native of Ireland and educated to be a physician. At the age of twenty-three years he was commissioned as assistant surgeon in the Eighteenth Regiment of Foot, known as the Royal Irish, and in the spring of 1767 he accompanied the command to America.
He was stationed for a time in the Illinois country and afterward at Fort Pitt. In 1774 he resigned his commission and took up the practice of medicine in Lancaster, Pa.
Soon after the news of Lexington and Concord he interested himself in raising troops for the cause of the colonists and was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of Thompson’s celebrated regiment of Pennsylvania riflemen, afterward the First Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line.
In March, 1776, Hand succeeded as colonel and under his command the regiment did gallant work in the battles of Long Island, Trenton and Princeton.
On April 1, 1777, Hand was rewarded for his really exceptional services by promotion to the rank of brigadier general and soon thereafter General Washington further evinced his appreciation and confidence by assigning General Hand, then only thirty-three years old, to the defense of the western frontier.
General Hand arrived at Fort Pitt Sunday, June 1, 1777, and took over the property from Captain Neville. He led no forces across the mountains, being accompanied by only a few officers.
The garrison consisted of but two companies of the Thirteenth Virginia, recruited in and about Pittsburgh, and they were shy of discipline. The larger part of these soldiers had been with Washington in New Jersey.
General Hand, in the East, had engaged in warfare where it was never difficult to locate the enemy, in large bodies, ready to stand up and fight. In that warfare the colonists did most of the dodging and were the hardest to find.
On the frontier the conditions were reversed, the enemy could not be found yet was ever present. The savages, in small bands, entered the settlements and struck quick but terrible blows, then fled by night into the dense forests.
The only evidence of the presence of these savages were the dead bodies of the victims and ashes of their former cabins, but they left no trail that a white man could discover. The problem was perplexing to General Hand.
Many murders had been committed before General Hand’s arrival, but they became more numerous.
The British commandant, Colonel Henry Hamilton, at Detroit, began about June 1 to equip and send out war parties to attack the settlements of Kentucky, Virginia and Pennsylvania, which parties consisted mostly of Indians of the Wyandotte and Miami tribes of Northern Ohio and Shawnee of Southern Ohio and a few British officers.
At the same time parties of Seneca invaded the Pennsylvania settlements from Western New York.
Beside the bodies of many victims of the raids were found copies of the proclamation by Hamilton, offering protection and reward to all settlers who would make their way to any of the British posts and join the cause of the King.
General Hand soon determined that the one way to fight Indians was to invade their own country and destroy their towns and provisions. The Ohio tribes had permanent villages and grew great crops of corn, beans and pumpkins, which they stored in earth silos. If the Indians lost their crops they would be driven to hunt in the winter and could have no time for the warpath.
General Hand decided to descend the Ohio with a large force of militiamen to the mouth of the Big Kanawha and to march thence overland against the Shawnee towns.
Hand appealed to all the militia commanders of Westmoreland and Bedford Counties in Pennsylvania, and of all the frontier counties of Virginia, to muster men for the expedition.
He also appealed to the governments of both States and they directed their officers to respond to the calls. The project was even indorsed by Congress; yet in spite of all these efforts the expedition was a failure.
General Hand expected 500 men from the two Pennsylvania counties and 1500 men from Virginia. His expectations were unreasonable in that he did not take into consideration the drained and distressed condition of the border. Already the hardiest and most useful men had gone to fight the British. Most of those who remained on the plantations believed they were needed at home to protect their families from the raids of the savages.
No men responded from Bedford County and only 100 from Westmoreland, under command of Colonel Lochry, reached Fort Pitt.
On October 19, 1777, General Hand left Fort Pitt and went down the river to Wheeling, where he expected to meet the recruits from Virginia. After a week of waiting only a few poorly equipped squads reported to him. Hand gave up in disgust and returned to Fort Pitt.
The following spring he requested to be recalled from the frontier service, and General Washington called him to his army May 26, 1778.
Great Meeting in the Interest of Inland
Waterways Held at Harrisburg,
October 20, 1789
During the latter part of the year 1789, the President and members of the Supreme Executive Council appointed a commission to view the Delaware, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Rivers, in pursuance of an act of Assembly passed September 28, 1789, with the object of ascertaining data whether or not these waters could be rendered navigable.
This commission, composed of Timothy Matlack, Reading Howell, William Dean, John Adlum and Benjamin Rittenhouse, attended to the important duty assigned them and in their report strongly recommended that a commission of experienced surveyors be named for “the purpose of ascertaining the most convenient and practicable place for connecting the waters of the three rivers, with those of the Allegheny, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. And in cases where portage by land will be necessary, to examine the face of the country and report the most suitable places for landings and roads.”
A great meeting was held at Paxtang, October 20, 1789, which was attended by citizens of eight counties, when an organization was affected with James Ewing, of York County, as chairman. Committees were named for each county to solicit subscriptions for the furtherance of these surveys, and a commission was appointed, consisting of Frederic Antes, of Northumberland County; John Brattan, of Huntingdon; Andrew Galbraith, of Cumberland, and Sebastian[Sebastian] Graff and John Haldeman, of Lancaster, to superintend the work of removing obstructions in the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers.
A resolution was adopted which authorized the appointment of three surveyors, to begin at the mouth of the Juniata and proceed up the Susquehanna to Sunbury, thence up the West Branch to Sinnemahoning Creek, thence to Canoe Place, or such place “as will connect most easily with any practicable branch of the Allegheny, the Consua, Toby’s Creek, or any other which may discharge itself into the Allegheny nearest to the mouth of French Creek, and thence examine French Creek up to Le Boeuf and the portage to Presqu’ Isle.”
Timothy Matlack, John Adlum, Samuel Maclay, Reading Howell, Frederick Antes, and William Dean were appointed April 6, and commissioned and qualified April 9, 1790.
The three first mentioned set out on the work along the Susquehanna and the others took up the work on the lower Susquehanna and Schuylkill.
Samuel Maclay kept an interesting journal of the experiences of the commission, from which the following is taken.
Messrs. Matlack and Adlum set out from Philadelphia May 6, and met Maclay at Lebanon. They remained there nearly a week, and began their work when they set out from the Swatara, having taken James McLaughlin, Edward Sweeney, and Matthew Gray into the pay of the State.
The party reached Herold’s, below Selinsgrove, by May 17, then proceeded to Northumberland. Here Maclay went to visit his family at now Lewisburg. John Adlum visited with his friend Colonel Frederic Antes, and Timothy Matlack was the guest of Colonel William Wilson, of Northumberland.
The party was organized during this stay at Northumberland and proceeded up the West Branch to the mouth of the Loyalsock. They next encamped on the Great Island, then reached the Sinnemahoning, where they built several canoes.
The actual survey began at Canoe Place, where Adlum ran a line to the Allegheny. He writes in his journal of catching beaver, and of the large numbers of “wolves which frequently crossed their track, in a very indifferent manner.”
June 14, they surveyed the West Branch of the Sinnemahoning as far as Boyd’s quarry, the following day reached Bennett’s.
On July 2, the party reached the Ohio River, and went down it, being guided by an Indian, named Doctor Thomas.
When the western boundary of the State was reached, Conne Shangom, the chief, had gone to Venango, but another chief, Captain John, made the commissioners a speech of welcome. At this place they came across a Dutchman, who had been taken prisoner by the Indians in the last war, but who chose to continue to live with them.
On July 7, the commissioners had an interesting interview with the celebrated Indian Chieftain, Cornplanter, at Jenoshawdego.
Maclay records that the Indians were very jealous of them until they were made to fully understand their mission. Cornplanter then welcomed them with a speech. Maclay says, “we were addressed by an orator, on behalf of the women.” This speech of Cornplanter’s was responded to by Colonel Matlack.
The Commissioners then went to Cornplanter’s town and “had the honor of his company for supper.”
July 14, they struck the old French road to Erie. Maclay records that “the cart ruts are quite plain yet.” He further records, “Lake Erie is a fresh water sea. You can see the horizon and water meet.”
The party was here caught in a terrible storm and thoroughly drenched.
The party pushed down the Allegheny a distance of eighty miles, and Sunday morning, July 18, they met Mr. Adlum and his party. Adlum finished a survey the next day, and the entire party was again united at Buckaloon, or Brokenstraw, about five miles from the present town of Warren.
On the 20th the party arrived at Fort Franklin, where the commanding officer, Lieutenant Jeffries, was very polite to them.
Two days later Maclay records, “we paired off and discharged an old Indian chief and a white savage.” The commissioners left Fort Franklin this day, and reached David Meads, at present Meadville. They then went to Le Boeuf, and from there back to Fort Franklin, where they arrived August 1.
Maclay writes about using some oil, collected from a small oil spring along French Creek, on his lame back. The effect was beneficial.
The survey of the Allegheny River began at this point, and they also explored the tributary streams all the way down that river to the Conemaugh, then to Frankstown, on the Juniata River, where they arrived September 8.
The commissioners proceeded down the Juniata to the Susquehanna. Samuel Maclay notes that he arrived at his home Friday, September 17, and found his family all well and at dinner.
The report was made as three different surveys, and the cost £561, 27s.
Bicentennial Opened in Chester and Philadelphia,
October 21, 1882
At the close of Governor John F. Hartranft’s second term the Republicans nominated General Henry Martyn Hoyt, of Wilkes-Barre, while the Democrats had as their standard-bearer Honorable Andrew H. Dill, of Lewisburg.
The campaign was conducted along the line of national issues, the leading discussion being the resumption of specie payments. This became the keynote of the campaign and Hoyt was elected by a large majority.
An interesting historical event occurred before the end of Hartranft’s administration, on December 19, 1878, when Bayard Taylor died in the city of Berlin, Germany, while serving at his post as Minister to Germany. He was a native of Chester County and through his literary works had done much to increase the fame of Pennsylvania.
After Governor Hartranft retired from the office of Governor he removed to Philadelphia, where he served as Postmaster of the city, and afterward as Collector of the Port.
His love for the National Guard continued and he was the commanding general from 1879 until his death on October 17, 1889. His memory as a soldier is perpetuated by an equestrian statue on the plaza of the Capitol at Harrisburg and by a beautiful monument in the cemetery at Norristown.
Governor Hoyt was inaugurated on January 21, 1879, being the first such ceremony held under the provisions of the new Constitution of 1874, and on January 7, following, the Legislature met in biennial session for the first time, as provided in the new Constitution.
On May 16, 1881, the Legislature adopted a joint resolution, which had for its purpose the reinterment of William Penn in the City of Philadelphia.
George L. Harrison, Esq., of Philadelphia, at his own expense, carried the Governor’s request to the legal representatives of William Penn, and trustees of Jordan’s Meeting House, England, but after some deliberation they refused to grant the request.
Had this been granted the body of the founder and former Proprietor of Pennsylvania would have been resting in Pennsylvania soil at the time the bicentennial of Penn’s arrival in the Province was observed with fitting ceremonies in October, 1882.
This great celebration was held in Chester and Philadelphia, beginning with appropriate religious services on Sunday, October 21. “Landing Day” was observed at Chester on Monday, the following day was known as “Landing Day” in Philadelphia, when the “Welcome” arrived at the foot of Dock Street, where the landing scenes of the previous day were again re-enacted, with Quakers, Swedes and Indians in the large cast.
The parade up Dock Street passed a stand, where Governor Hoyt, Alexander P. Colesberry, president Bi-Centennial Association Committee, and other members of the committee and distinguished guests reviewed the pageant. Here the character of William Penn made a speech, to which Tamanend, sachem of the Delaware Nation, made reply.
The great celebration ended on Friday with a grand military parade under command of General John F. Hartranft. This was a fitting and impressive observance in which the 200 years of history were recalled in tableaux, story, music, pageantry and parade.
The Republican Party received its first setback in a State campaign in 1882, when Robert E. Pattison, of Philadelphia, defeated General James A. Beaver, of Bellefonte, in a spirited contest.
The campaign disclosed the fact that there were too many members of the Republican Party dissatisfied with the conditions in their organization. The disaffected united in an independent movement and nominated John Stewart, of Chambersburg, afterward a Justice of the Supreme Court, as their candidate for Governor.
The Greenback-Labor Party also placed a candidate in the field in the person of Thomas A. Armstrong. The Prohibition candidate was Alfred C. Petit. Mr. Pattison easily overcame the normal Republican majority on account of the divided vote and was elected by more than 40,000 plurality.
Governor Pattison was inaugurated January 16, 1883, at the age of thirty-two years. He was of the opinion that the State should be redistricted in congressional, senatorial and representative districts, as required by the Constitution, and when the Legislature adjourned without passing the necessary legislation, the Governor issued a proclamation on the day fixed for final adjournment, June 6, 1883, and called an extra session to convene the following day.
The Legislature continued in session until December 6, and reapportioned the State into judicial districts, but the efforts in behalf of new districts for Congress and the Legislature proved unavailing.
The act creating the annual observance of Arbor Day was enacted on March 17, 1885, and Governor Pattison appointed April 16 of that year as the first Arbor Day in Pennsylvania, a custom which has been followed to the present time.
In 1886 four candidates were placed in the field for the office of Governor. The Republicans again nominated General James A. Beaver and the Democrats named Chauncey F. Black, of York. The Prohibitionists selected Charles S. Wolf, of Lewisburg, and the Greenback Party named Robert J. Houston.
The Republicans presented a solid front this time and easily elected General Beaver, who was inaugurated January 18, 1887.
In the first session of the General Assembly the State was divided into twenty-eight congressional districts and 204 legislative districts.
An amendment to the Constitution, proposing to “prohibit the manufacture, sale or keeping for sale of any intoxicating liquor to be used as a beverage” was defeated by the vote of the people almost two to one. This amendment was strongly urged by Governor Beaver.
An important movement was put into action by the Governor, himself a gallant veteran of the Civil War, when by the act of the Legislature memorial tablets were erected on the battlefield of Gettysburg. These tablets were dedicated on Pennsylvania Day, September 11–12, 1889.
An interesting historical event was the centennial anniversary of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, which was observed in Philadelphia September 15, 16 and 17, 1887. The Constitutional Centennial Commission arranged a civic and industrial procession, military parade and memorial ceremonies in a manner reflecting great honor and credit to all concerned.
Daniel Boone, Pioneer Kentucky Frontiersman,
Born in Berks County October
22, 1733
One of the earliest of American romances is written about the character and thrilling experiences of Daniel Boone, who forsook the quiet and uneventful life of a Quaker, turned his back on the civilization of his native State, deserted his farm in North Carolina and went in search of adventure in the wilderness of Kentucky.
George Boone, III, sailed from England with his wife and three of their nine children, August 17, 1717, and landed in Philadelphia, October 10. This family resided for a short time at Abington, then for two years at North Wales. They belonged to the sect of Quakers and were members of the Gwynedd Meeting.
George Boone, next settled at Oley, then in Philadelphia County, but later, a part of Exeter Township, Berks County; named Exeter when Berks County was erected in honor of the Boone home in England. Here George Boone built a log house, in 1720, situated seven miles east of Reading. It is still standing, and is one of the priceless relics of old Berks County.
The third son of George and Mary Maugridge Boone was Squire Boone, the father of Daniel Boone, who was born on another farm in the same neighborhood, on October 22, 1733.
Daniel left Berks County with his parents for North Carolina in 1750, at the age of seventeen years. They seated themselves in Yadkin River Valley, and young Boone soon became the most expert woodsman and hunter in that section of the State. In 1755 Daniel married Rebecca Bryan, the prettiest girl in the neighborhood, and they were happy in their new log house.
The settlers became too numerous and soon the hunting was more difficult and longer trips necessary. Daniel grew restless, and about that time he was attracted by the tales of John Finley, an experienced Indian trader and adventurer, about the country beyond the mountains, known as Kentucky.
Boone then gathered together five companions and set out on a hunting and exploration trip. After a long, weary march they reached the heights overlooking the plains of Central Kentucky, and observed the huge herds of buffalo and deer, and felt amply rewarded for the hardships endured in getting there.
They erected a cabin and passed a happy and busy summer hunting and exploring. A few days before Christmas the camp was broken up through the capture of Boone and a companion while out hunting. They were suddenly surprised by fifteen Indians and taken prisoners.
Boone and his companion made their captors believe they were happy in their experience and promptly accepted the Indian manner of doing things.
In the middle of the night Boone awakened his companion, grabbed their rifles and escaped.
When they arrived at their cabin it was deserted. The two men realized they were the only white men west of the mountains, but they remained and resumed their hunting.
Some days later Squire Boone, a brother of Daniel, and a friend, arrived at Daniel’s camp. The neighbor who accompanied Squire soon grew homesick and returned to North Carolina. Boone’s other companion was killed by the Indians, and only the brothers were left alone in that wilderness of Kentucky.
They hunted all winter, and in the spring Squire tramped back home for a supply of powder leaving Daniel alone. Three months later Squire returned with powder, lead, horses and the happy tidings that all was well at home.
The following spring Daniel and his brother made a trip home. A year later he sold his farm and planned to make his home in Kentucky. Several neighbors decided to join him, and soon five families, forty in all, with cattle and household goods, were tramping toward the western country.
Suddenly the men driving the cattle were fired at from ambush and six of them killed, one of whom was Daniel Boone’s eldest son. This so saddened the emigrants that Daniel Boone led them back to the Clinch River, where they remained until 1774.
Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, employed Boone to rescue a party of surveyors, and he made a round trip of 800 miles, to the Falls of the Ohio and back to Virginia in sixty-two days, bringing the men back without a mishap.
On April 1, 1775, he began the erection of his famous fort on the Kentucky River. It was finished in June and named Boonesborough.
Boone then returned home, gathered up his family and took them to the new home he had prepared. Here they were happy until the Indians began to make trouble.
The day before Christmas one of his men was killed and another wounded. The following June, Boone’s young daughter and two girls foolishly crossed the river in a boat and were carried away by the Indians.
Boone and eight companions started in pursuit, and forty miles distant came upon them at dinner. The Indians were taken by surprise and fled without their rifles, two being killed on the jump. The girls were rescued unharmed.
During the winter of 1778 Boone was captured at a salt springs, with about thirty of his men. The Indians led them toward Canada, reaching Detroit in March.
The English bought the prisoners, offering a large sum for Boone, but the Indians refused it, saying they liked him and wanted to make him one of their tribe. Boone returned with them, always conducting himself in a cheerful manner. He was adopted in the tribe as a son of Chief Blackfish.
One evening he learned the Indians planned an attack on Boonesborough. He hid food in his shirt and at daybreak started on a hunting trip. Covering his trail, he set out for home, walking day and night, eating few meals during the 160 miles through the woods.
When he arrived he found his wife, believing him dead, had returned to her father’s home. He assembled his sixty men and prepared for the attack of 400 Indians.
The attack was made, British and Canadians being among the savages under Chief Blackfish. A parley of two days was agreed to, but Boone used the time to better protect the fort.
After a fierce fight lasting nine days the Indians gave up and started home, leaving behind thirty-seven dead and many wounded. Boone lost two men and had four wounded.
In 1780 Squire Boone was killed and Daniel had a narrow escape from capture.
In 1782 Boone was commissioned a lieutenant colonel. One of his sons was killed and the other wounded.
Kentucky was admitted as a State February 4, 1791. Boone’s restless spirit then moved him westward and in 1795 he settled in Missouri. He died September 26, 1820, and his body was buried beside his wife, who had died seven years before.
In 1845 Boone’s remains were re-interred near Frankfort, Ky.
General Sir Guy Carleton Puts End to
Indian War October 23, 1782
After the murder of Colonel William Crawford, which occurred June, 1782, about five miles west of Upper Sandusky, the Scots and other frontiersmen were saddened but far from being discouraged.
The fugitives of the ill-fated expedition to the Sandusky had hardly returned to their homes along the western frontier of Pennsylvania when they began preparations for another expedition.
The borderers possessed a fierce determination to crush out the “red vipers” and one more trip into the Indian country soon as harvest was gathered was but an incident in their exciting life.
General William Irvine, the commandant at Fort Pitt, was urged to command, and principal men of that vicinity agreed to furnish the provisions, not only for the volunteers but for the regular troops.
The General determined to lead the expedition if he should be satisfied with its size and equipment. Men who were too aged for service agreed to furnish the horses and provisions.
It was intended to start early in August, but the summer had been so dry that the mills could not grind until the water was sufficient, so a postponement was announced until September 20.
General Irvine kept the State Government advised of the preparations on the frontier and at the same time intimated that State and Congress would materially assist in the enterprise.
After a conference between members of Congress and the Supreme Executive Council a recommendation was made, September 1, 1782, to General Washington that the General Government should aid in this campaign against the savages. It was an opportune moment as operations in the East were quiet and peace was soon expected with Great Britain.
General Washington agreed that three expeditions should penetrate the Indian country, each to be composed of regulars, militia and volunteers, and Congress voted to bear the expenses of the regular troops.
Brigadier General Irvine was to command in person the expedition which would move from Fort Pitt against the Wyandot and Delaware on the Sandusky River; Major General James Potter, of Northumberland County, was to advance from Sunbury into the Seneca land, in the Genesee Valley of New York State, and a third expedition was to be sent by the State of New York against the Eastern Iroquois in the vicinity of Oswego.
Two companies of militia, one from York and the other from Cumberland County, were sent to Westmoreland to guard its settlements while its own men were absent in the Indian country.
Detachments of Colonel Moses Hazen’s “Canadian Regiment” stationed at Lancaster and Carlisle were ordered to march to Fort Pitt and there join General Irvine, who had at that post two companies of the Eighth Pennsylvania regiment, commanded by Captains Samuel Brady and John Clark.
General Lincoln, Secretary of War, proposed that General Irvine’s force should aggregate 1200 men and set October 8 as the date to begin the campaign, and assured General Irvine that the additional troops would be there by that time.
While preparations were being made the Indians struck a blow against the border. Early in September, Captain Andrew Bradt and forty Canadian Rangers and 238 Indians, Wyandot, Delaware and Shawnee, set out from Upper Sandusky to attack Wheeling.
Fort Henry, at that place, was defended by twenty-seven men, only eighteen of whom were fit for duty. One swivel gun, which had been discarded by the French and thrown into the river when Fort Duquesne was evacuated in 1758, had been recovered by the pioneers and again set up.
All the inhabitants of that neighborhood flocked to the stockade on the news of the approach of the enemy. Colonel Ebenezer Zane was in command of the garrison.
Captain Bradt’s force crossed the Ohio and paraded in front of Fort Henry in the evening of Wednesday, September 11. The captain displayed the British flag and demanded a surrender, which was promptly rejected, and soon firing was opened on the fort from long range.
At midnight the savages attempted to carry the fort by storm, but were repulsed. The French swivel gun proved to be more than a relic and rendered a good account of itself, and especially as the Indians were much afraid of any sort of cannon.
Two more attempts to gain by storm were made before daybreak, and both proved futile. The enemy, however, kept up a steady fire during the day. Captain Bradt sent a Negro to the fort with a second demand for surrender, and during Thursday night a fourth desperate attempt to take the fort by storm was made.
Again the brave riflemen repulsed the savage horde and broke their spirit, and they retired and recrossed the Ohio. Only one defender was wounded in the foot.
After the failure to invest Wheeling, seventy of the Indians who cut loose from the main force and went for scalps and plunder, attacked the blockhouse of Abraham Rice, on Buffalo Creek, within the present Donegal Township, Washington County.
Six men in that blockhouse successfully defended it from 2 o’clock in the afternoon of September 13 until 2 o’clock the following morning. They killed four Indians and lost one of their own number, George Felebaum, who was shot in the brain while looking through a loophole.
The savages killed many cattle and burned the barn. On their return toward the Ohio they met and killed two settlers who were going to the relief of Rice’s blockhouse. This was the last invasion of Western Pennsylvania by a large body of Indians.
While General Irvine was impatient that Hazen’s regulars did not arrive, on October 23, he received word from Philadelphia that the Indian war was at an end and that his expedition was countermanded.
To the credit of General Sir Guy Carleton is due the cessation of the Indian depredations. Soon after his appointment he was shocked by the cruel burning of Colonel William Crawford and other American prisoners, and he immediately put an end to the six years of terrible savage butchery.
General Washington learned of General Carleton’s action September 23, when he directed the authorities in Philadelphia to stop General Potter at Sunbury from marching to Fort Pitt.
On September 27 General Lincoln ordered Generals Hazen and Irvine to call off the expedition. The former immediately returned with his command to Lancaster. The letter to General Irvine was not promptly delivered and Captain Samuel Brady found the bearer at a wayside inn, and he hurried the intelligence to General Irvine too late.
But in the autumn of 1782, the sorely harried frontiersmen were encouraged to believe their distresses were at an end, and with much joy they were able to participate in the first general Thanksgiving Day celebrated in the United States on the last Thursday of November.
Susquehanna River First Explored by
Etienne Brulé in October, 1615
Two great waters south of Pennsylvania admit ships from Europe, and by them white men came. Their first approach was up the Chesapeake.
Captain John Smith sailed from the colony of Jamestown, Va., July 24, 1608, on an exploring expedition, and his little craft, bearing thirteen souls, was propelled with sail and oar.[oar.] Even with such a vessel he experienced some danger and suffered privations, before he pushed as far up the “northwest branch” as he could. This, of course, was the Susquehanna River.
Captain Smith first saw the Susquehanna Indians, and he is the one explorer who has given us a fine account of the country he visited and the people he met.
Twelve months after Captain Smith’s visit to the head of the Chesapeake, Henry Hudson, in the “Half Moon,” sailed along the Atlantic Coast and discovered the existence of the Delaware Bay, on August 28, 1609.
But neither Captain John Smith nor Henry Hudson entered Pennsylvania. They approached or reached the open doorway, but it is not certain either came inside. The first actual visit of a white man was not made until six years after Hudson’s call at the Capes.
The first exploration of the Susquehanna River for its entire length was made in the fall, winter and spring of 1615–16 by Etienne (Stephen) Brulé, a Frenchman in the employ of Samuel Champlain, the first Governor of New France. He entered Pennsylvania via the North Branch the latter part of October, 1615.
A narrative of Brulé's explorations is given by John G. Shea and is to the effect that Brulé crossed from Lake Ontario to the headwaters of the Susquehanna, descended the North Branch, and furnished the Jesuit Fathers with the earliest information we have of the aborigines of that section.
The glowing description which Brulé gave of these Neuters led Father de la Roche Daillon to visit them. Brulé must have been among these Indians as early as 1610, and perhaps earlier. He was one of the first Europeans ever to visit the Huron country and acquire a knowledge of their language.
Brulé was a dauntless woodsman, interpreter and guide and seems to have possessed the requisite quantity of genuine bravado to have done the things with which he is credited.
September 8, 1615, when Champlain was preparing to join the Huron in their expedition against their ancient enemies, the Iroquois, Brulé set out with a party of twelve Huron from Upper Canada for the town of Carantouan on the Susquehanna, to obtain their co-operation against the common enemy. The Indians formed part of the confederacy known later as the Andastes.
Brulé, with his little band of Huron, crossed from Lake Ontario to the Susquehanna, defeated on the way a war-party of Iroquois and entered Carantouan in triumph.
This was that tribe’s principal town and was palisaded. From this town they could send out 800 warriors, which would indicate a total population of 4000 souls. Brulé obtained here a force of 500 Carantouan, and they set out to join Champlain and the Huron; but as they proceeded slowly, they reached the Iroquoian town only to find that Champlain had attacked it with his force, had failed, had himself been wounded, and had returned to Canada.
Brulé and his allies returned to Carantouan, and here Brulé remained the rest of the autumn and winter, “for lack of company and escort home.”
While thus waiting Brulé explored the country and visited tribes adjacent to that region. He explored along the river “that debouches in the direction of Florida,” and left the neighborhood of Oneida, N. Y., in the fall of 1615, and descended the Susquehanna River to at least the present Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary. This is evidenced by the fact that in the report of his journey he refers to meeting with tribes who complained of the harshness of the Dutch.
Certainly these early settlers had not gone far from the mouth of the great rivers at this early date, even to explore the country. He reported many warlike nations carrying on wars against each other; the climate as very temperate, and great numbers of animals and an abundance of small game.
He continued his course “along the river as far as the sea, and to islands and lands near them, which are inhabited by various tribes and large numbers of savages, who are well disposed and love the French above all nations. But those who know the Dutch complain severely of them, since they treat them roughly.”
When he attempted to rejoin his countrymen, his party was attacked and scattered by the Iroquois and Brulé, losing his way, entered an Iroquois village. He tried to convince them that he was not of the same nation of whites who had just been attacking them, but the savages fell upon him, tore out his nails and beard and began to burn him in different parts of the body.
He was far from being an exemplary character, but wore an Agnus Dei, and when the Indians went to tear this from his neck he threatened them with the vengeance of heaven. Just then a terrible thunderstorm came up, his tormentors fled in all directions and the chief of the tribe released Brulé.
After this he spent some time with them. They escorted him on a four days’ journey to visit the Huron tribe on Lake Huron.
He found Champlain in 1618, and made his report to him. It was apparently on this return trip that he passed through the territory of the Neuters, as it would be his safest course.
It may be well to record here the ultimate fate of this intrepid adventurer. In 1623 he was in Quebec, where he was sent to meet and bring down the Huron coming to trade. He returned with them, leading a very dissolute life among the Indians.
Sagard, in his “History of Canada,” says when Kirk took Quebec Brulé deserted the French and went over to the English. He was sent up to the Huron, in 1629, in the interest of the English, notwithstanding the bitter reproaches of his old commander, Champlain. Sagard further states that the traitorous conduct of Brulé provoked the Huron, who put him to death and devoured him.
The Jesuits do not mention this fate, but intimate that he met his death at the town of Toanchain, about one mile from Thunder Bay.
Such was the fate of the man who was the first to cross from Lake Ontario to the Susquehanna and pass from the villages of the Iroquois through neutral country to the shores of Lake Huron. Certainly he was the first European to discover the picturesque beauty of the great Susquehanna River.
John Harris, Who Laid Out Harrisburg,
Had Narrow Escape, October 25, 1755
John Harris, Sr., built his log house on the bank of the Susquehanna River where the City of Harrisburg now stands in the year of 1705. This building was subsequently stockaded and became known as Fort Harris.
Harris was especially an Indian trader, but engaged largely in agriculture. It is said of him that he was the first person to use a plow on the Susquehanna, and moreover, that “he was as honest a man as ever broke bread.”
The elder Harris was born in the County of Yorkshire, England, of Welsh parents, in the year 1673, and was brought up in the trade of his father, that of a brewer. He was of middle age when he emigrated to America and located in Philadelphia, where he became a contractor for cleaning and grading the streets of the city. He married Esther Say, an English lady, who possessed a remarkable personality and was noted for her extraordinary energy and learning.
In January, 1705, John Harris was given a license to “seat himself on the Susquehanna, and to erect such buildings as are necessary for his trade, and to enclose and improve such quantities of land as he shall think fit.”
He tarried at Conewago awhile, but soon learned of the beauty and superior advantages of Paxtang, and that the best fording-place on the Susquehanna was near there, so he removed and, immediately upon his arrival, commenced the erection of a home and storehouse, which were subsequently to figure so conspicuously in the pioneer history of the young Province.
In connection with his farming he established a ferry which became known throughout the entire Eastern section of the United States.
Miss Wharton, in her delightful story, “In Old Pennsylvania Towns,” refers to the elder Harris as follows:
“John Harris is said to have lived on fairly good terms with the surrounding Indians, but one thrilling experience of his is among the cherished traditions of Harrisburg.
“It seems that a band of roving Indians from the Carolinas halted at his trading post to exchange their goods probably for rum, of which the savages already had too much. They became riotous in their drunken revelry and, demanding more rum, were refused by Mr. Harris, who began to fear harm from his visitors.
“Not to be denied they again demanded ‘Lum’ and, seizing him, they took him to a mulberry tree near by and bound him to it, intending to burn him after they had helped themselves to his stores.
“Before the savages were able to carry out their evil designs, some friendly Indians arrived on the scene, having been warned of the danger of his master by Hercules, a faithful colored servant of Mr. Harris. It is said that these friendly Indians had come to the rescue of Mr. Harris in consequence of some act of kindness which they had received from him.
“The grave of Mr. Harris may be seen in the river bank opposite the Cameron house and is now inclosed by a railing. He is buried under the mulberry tree to which he had once been bound, and at his feet rest the remains of the faithful Hercules, who had saved his master’s life.
“There are men living in Harrisburg who remember the stump of the historic mulberry tree which residents of Harrisburg preserved for years by applying cement and plaster and later a shoot from the original tree flourished and bore fruit to which children strolling along the river bank would stop and help themselves.”
He died in 1748, and was succeeded by his son, who was born in the original Harris home, or Fort Harris, in 1727.
He was the first white child born in Pennsylvania west of the Conewago hills. He was carried to Philadelphia by his mother for the purpose of being baptized, and according to the parish register of Christ Church, in Philadelphia, this event was duly solemnized September 22, 1728, his age at that time being eleven months.
When only a young man, John Harris, Jr., was occasionally employed by the Province of Pennsylvania to transact important business with the Indians at critical periods.
His house was frequently visited by the aborigines, and several very important conferences were held there between the several tribes of Indians on the Susquehanna, Ohio, etc., and the Provincial Government of Pennsylvania.
Under the will of his father he became possessed of 700 acres of land, on a part of which he later laid out the city of Harrisburg.
John Harris, Jr., was an energetic and an extensive farmer and an Indian trader, who enjoyed the confidence of the Indians to an unusual degree. His ferry became the most prominent place along the frontier.
Prior to 1754, he had been sent on an Indian mission to Ohio, and at the same time to notice the practical route from his ferry to Logstown. He performed his errand satisfactorily.
Having accepted an Indian agency he was faithful to his charge, both to the Indians and the Provincial Government. The latter was kept constantly advised of happenings among the frontier settlements, for at this time many of the Ohio Indians had already taken up the hatchet against the English.
He frequently visited the Indians at Shamokin (now Sunbury), and when the French and Indians had committed atrocious murders upon the frontier inhabitants he, aided by others, rushed to their rescue and often buried the bodies of the slain.
These missions were frequently carried out under great hardship and danger. The most serious experience in the life of John Harris occurred October 25, 1755, when the party he was leading from Shamokin was attacked near Mahanoy Creek by Indians lying in ambush and four of his party were killed and four drowned. The person riding on the same horse with Harris was shot and killed, and a moment later the horse was killed and Harris compelled to flee for safety by swimming the river.
John Harris was a sincere patriot. When the independence of the colonies was being agitated he thought it premature, fearing that the colonies were unequal to the task of combating with Great Britain, but when independence was declared, he advanced £3000 to carry on the contest.
He was a man of keen foresight. He understood the natural advantages of Harris’ Ferry, and twenty years before he laid out the town, he observed that it would be a place of business and the seat of the government of Pennsylvania.
When he laid out Harrisburg in 1785, he conveyed, with other property, four acres on Capitol Hill, east of the present State buildings, for public use.
After a life of usefulness, he closed his eventful career, July 29, 1791, and his remains rest in the old Paxton Presbyterian Church graveyard alongside of the illustrious fellow-patriot, William Maclay, whose daughter was his loving and devoted wife.
Fail to End Warfare Through Treaty at
Albany, October 26, 1745
During the minority of Richard and Thomas Penn the Proprietary Land Office had been closed from 1718 to 1732, and many immigrants seated themselves without title on such vacant lands as suited their convenience.
The number of such immigrants entitled them to great consideration. Their rights accruing by priority of settlement were recognized by the public and passed, together with their improvements, through many hands, in confidence that they would receive proprietary sanction.
Much agitation was produced when the Provincial proclamation required all who had not obtained and paid for warrants to pay to the Receiver General, within four months, the sums due for their lands, under penalty of ejectment. As a consequence many and great difficulties arose. The Assembly sought to compromise the matter by postponement of payment of the purchase money for several years.
Great Britain and Spain declared war October 23, 1739, and the old troubles between the Governor and Assembly again appeared to disturb the peace of the Government. The Assembly refused to support England with money or troops and Governor Thomas was compelled to raise Pennsylvania’s quota of 400 men by his own exertion. This he accomplished in three months, but many of his recruits were bond-servants willing to exchange their service and freedom dues for nominal liberty and soldier’s pay.
In March, 1744, hostilities were openly declared between Great Britain and France. The peaceful era in the Province was now at an end, and the dark cloud of the cruel savage warfare began to gather on the western frontier.
The lands acquired by the infamous “Indian Walk,” and those of the Shawnee, which were purchased without their consent, were now to be paid for by the blood of the settlers.
The Delaware Indians refused to leave the forks of the Delaware, even though the “walk” had determined these lands belonged to the Proprietary. The Six Nations were called upon to order off the Delaware, which they did in an overbearing manner. The Delaware retired to Wyoming Valley and the forks of the Susquehanna, at Shamokin, with this additional wrong done them rankling in their breasts.
Franklin published his “Plain Truth” in an endeavor to conciliate the Assembly and the Governor and awaken them both to the importance of military preparations. Franklin was appointed a Colonel, but declined. He preferred to wield the pen, with which he could be of far greater influence to the province. James Logan justified defensive war and assisted with his means.
Defenses were erected below the City of Philadelphia from funds raised for the purpose by means of a public lottery, in which many Quakers sowed a seed, trusting it would bring forth an hundredfold.
These military preparations were necessary for two purposes: to intimidate a foreign enemy and to curb the hostile disposition of the Indians.
The alienation of the Indians was greatly to be dreaded, and Governor Thomas called Conrad Weiser, the provincial interpreter, to the service and dispatched him on a mission to Shikellamy the great vicegerent at Shamokin (now Sunbury), to renew the assurances of friendship and to propose his mediation between the Indians and the Government of Virginia, occasioned by an unpleasant encounter between some Onondaga and Oneida with the English while on an expedition against the Tallapoosa, resident of that colony.
Weiser was happily successful and a treaty was held the ensuing summer. The Indians refrained from hostility in the meantime.
The treaty was convened at Lancaster, June 22, 1744, and ended July 4 following. It was attended by Governor Thomas in person, and by commissioners of Maryland and Virginia.
All matters of dispute were satisfactorily settled, and the Iroquois engaged to prevent the French and their Indian allies from marching through their country to attack the English settlements.
This conference did not, however, remove causes for future disquiet, occasioned by the encroachments of the settlers and the unfair conduct of the Indian traders.
The Shawnee, on the Ohio, allied to the French interest, now assumed a hostile attitude. A great convention was held at Albany, October 26, 1745, to which commissioners from New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania were sent.
The Six Nations were urged to take up the hatchet against the French and become parties in the war, but the Indians showed no disposition to enter the contest, and the result of the conference was far from being satisfactory.
In May, 1746, Governor Thomas was directed by the Crown to raise forces for a conquest of Canada. After much delay, the Assembly voted £5000, and Governor Thomas raised four companies of over one hundred men each, commanded by Captain William Trent, John Shannon, Samuel Perry and John Deimer, who marched at once to Albany.
The attempt on Canada was postponed, but the troops were retained nearly eighteen months along the Hudson to intimidate the Indians.
John Penn died, and at a meeting of the Assembly held May 5, 1747, Governor Thomas communicated the news of his death, and at the same time, on account of his own ill-health, he resigned his office.
On the departure of Governor Thomas, the executive administration devolved upon the Council, of which Anthony Palmer was president, until the arrival of James Hamilton, son of Andrew Hamilton, former Speaker of the Assembly, as Lieutenant Governor, November 23, 1749.
The crops were abundant in 1751 and 1752, but these years of plenty were followed by a season of want, covering the years 1753–1755, and on the heels of it came Indian hostilities.
The progress of the white population toward the west irritated the Indians. Especially was this true of the Scotch-Irish, who seated themselves on the west of the Susquehanna, on the Juniata, and in the Great and Little Coves formed by the Kittatinny and the Tuscarora hills, and at the Big and Little Connolloways.
The French applied themselves to seduce the Indians from their allegiance to the English. The Shawnee had already joined them, the Delaware awaited an opportunity to avenge their wrongs, and of the Six Nations, the Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca were wavering.
To keep the Indians in favor of the Province required much cunning diplomacy and expensive presents. A chain of forts and the maintenance of a military force, drew heavily on the Provincial purse, and it is but little wonder that the Assembly and the Proprietaries early divided on questions involving taxes and expenditures. The French and Indian War soon broke in all its fierceness.
William Wilson Sent on Important Mission
to Ohio Indians After Fort Pitt Treaty,
October 27, 1775
Early in the Revolution the Continental Congress opened negotiations for peace with the Indians. The frontier was divided into three Indian departments, of which the middle department included the tribes west of Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Congress named a committee, consisting of Benjamin Franklin and James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, and Patrick Henry, of Virginia, to hold a treaty with the Indians at Fort Pitt.
This treaty was assembled October 27, 1775, with the Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee and Wyandot tribes, represented by their leading chiefs. Guyasuta, the principal Seneca, also represented the Iroquois, and he presumed to speak also for the Western tribes, which so aroused the ire of White Eyes, the Delaware orator, that his tribe declared their absolute independence.
The council was neither harmonious nor entirely successful, and the English soon bribed the Indians to take up the hatchet against the Colonists. This they were easily able to accomplish, as they made tempting offers and made a greater display of military prowess.
During the treaty at Fort Pitt the commission selected John Gibson as Indian agent for the Ohio tribes, but he was soon succeeded by Richard Butler.
Early in 1776 Congress assumed direct control of the Indian agencies and placed George Morgan in charge of the most important post at Fort Pitt.
Morgan was a man of education, high family connections and considerable wealth. His home was in Princeton, N. J., but he owned a mercantile establishment in Philadelphia, and as agent of his own trading house he had traveled extensively in the Indian country, from the Allegheny to Illinois.
He arrived at Pittsburgh May 1, 1776, and immediately opened negotiations for a better treaty with the Indians. He sent agents with pacific messages among the tribes, employing in this service William Wilson, Peter Long, Simon Girty and Joseph Nicholson.
The mission upon which he sent Wilson was the most important. He was an Indian trader and acquainted with the tribes between the Ohio River and Detroit. It was his duty to invite the Delaware, Shawnee and Wyandot chiefs to a council at Fort Pitt.
Early in June he departed, accompanied by Nicholson. They traveled on horseback to the Delaware towns on the Muskingum River. There the chiefs accepted his invitation. He then journeyed to the seats of the Shawnee on the Scioto, where he found many of the warriors to be in a very doubtful humor.
The chief sachem, Hardman, and the brave war chief, Cornstalk, were inclined to peace, but advised that they had received an invitation to take part in a great council with the British Governor at Detroit, and must go there first.
While Wilson was yet at the Shawnee towns, Morgan himself arrived there, and endeavored to arrange a definite date for the treaty.
Before Morgan departed for Fort Pitt, he handed to Wilson a large peace belt of wampum and a written message to deliver to the Wyandot chief. When Wilson and Nicholson departed, they were accompanied by Cornstalk, but they advanced only as far as Pluggystown, on the Upper Scioto. This place was inhabited by renegade Indians.
The chief, Pluggy, was a Mohawk, and his followers, called Mingo, were horse thieves and murderers. Pluggy’s warriors formed a plot to seize Wilson and Nicholson and carry them to the British fort at Detroit, where a handsome reward would be theirs.
This plan was revealed to Cornstalk, who advised the white men to flee to the Delaware town of Coshocton. They were barely able to escape by night and arriving at Coshocton, they placed themselves under the protection of old King Newcomer.
That venerable sachem, believing it would not now be safe for Wilson to proceed to Sandusky, lest the Mingo should waylay the trail, sent Killbuck, a noted Delaware war captain, to bear the American message to the Wyandot chiefs. Killbuck returned eleven days later with the message the Wyandots wished to see Wilson in person as an evidence of his good intentions, but that they could not give a definite answer until they had consulted their great council beyond the lake. The seat of the nation was in Canada, near Detroit.
Wilson determined to go to Sandusky, and the Delaware Council appointed White Eyes and two young warriors to accompany him. Nicholson had been sent back to Fort Pitt with a message to Morgan. Wilson was joined later by John Montour, a grandson of the famous Madam Montour, and he served Wilson faithfully.
Before reaching Sandusky Wilson learned that the Wyandot chief had gone to the Detroit Council, and he therefore made up his mind to venture into the immediate neighborhood of the British post, so that he might deliver his message to the Wyandot chief.
It was the decision of a brave and bold man. He was received with apparent friendliness by a majority of the chiefs and on September 2 he addressed them in council, presenting his peace belt and message from Morgan. He invited them to attend the council at Fort Pitt twenty-five days from that time.
The next morning the Wyandot betrayed Wilson’s presence to the British commander, Colonel Henry Hamilton. They returned the belt to Wilson and advised him to explain his errand to the British official.
Wilson, White Eyes and John Montour were compelled to go with the Wyandots to the great Council House in Detroit. Wilson frankly announced his purpose to the Lieutenant Governor, again presented the peace belt and the written message to the Wyandot chief and handed the articles to Colonel Hamilton.
The British commander addressed the Indians, saying those who bore this message were enemies to his King, and before he would take any of them by the hand he would suffer his right hand to be cut off.
Hamilton thereupon tore up the speech, cut the belt in pieces and scattered the fragments about the Council House. He then spoke to the Wyandot Indians in French, which Wilson did not understand. Hamilton abused Montour for aiding the colonists and denounced White Eyes, whom he ordered to leave Detroit in twenty-four hours if he valued his life.
Hamilton, notwithstanding his anger, respected Wilson’s character as an ambassador and gave him safe conduct through the Indian country. The trader returned to Fort Pitt much discouraged by the outlook and reported to Morgan that the Wyandot would go on the warpath. The Mingo were already in the British service.
In spite of Hamilton’s opposition, Indians of four tribes attended the council with the “rebels” at Fort Pitt, in the latter part of October. The Delaware sent their ruling chiefs; the Wyandot sent Half King; the Shawnee, the great Cornstalk, and the distant Ottawa sent one sachem. Costly presents were given them by the commissioners, and effusive peace speeches were made by the savages, but only the Delaware were sincere.
James Logan, Penn’s Secretary and Trusted
Friend and Agent, Born October
28, 1674
The lives of men like James Logan ennoble the pages of history and make its study an elevating pursuit and a reinforcement to the resources of public morality. This man was worthy the compliment which the great vicegerent Shikellamy paid him, when he named his son in his honor; he was worthy to have been the trusted friend of William Penn, and to have had Benjamin Franklin for his printer.
The world has not produced many men, who, after forty years spent in the whirl and muddy currents of active business and intense political strife, can, with clean hands and unsullied reputation, calmly step aside out of the turmoil and retire to the company of his books, to endow a library and make a translation of Cicero’s “De Senectute,” printing it, as the writer himself pleasantly says, “in a large and fair character so that old men may not be vexed by the defective eyesight in reading what was so appropriate to their years.”
James Logan was born in Lurgan, Ireland, October 28, 1674. His father, Patrick Logan, grandson of Sir Robert Logan of Restairig, Scotland, sprang from that stock of proud Scottish lairds, distinguished for long pedigrees and barren acres, whose children have lent their genius to the service of the world.
James Logan was a lad of precocious mind—at sixteen he knew Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and made rapid progress in mathematics. He afterwards mastered French, Italian and Spanish, and probably Dutch and German. He became familiar with several Indian dialects.
He went into trade as a linen-draper’s apprentice in Dublin, then in the Bristol trade for himself.
At Bristol, in 1698, he met William Penn, and became his private secretary and devoted follower ever after.
In the year 1699, he sailed with William Penn on his second visit to his province in America. In mid-ocean another ship came into sight, and as England and France were at war, all feared that the strange vessel might be an enemy. The crew prepared for action. Penn and his friends, who did not believe in warfare, went below. Only one of Penn’s party remained on deck to help defend the ship, James Logan.
Soon Logan went below to tell Penn that the strange vessel was English, when Penn reproved him for undertaking to engage in fighting, as he was a Quaker. The young man replied with spirit: “Why did thee not order me to come down? Thee was willing enough that I should stay and help to fight, when thee thought there was danger!”
Penn expected to stay in Pennsylvania the rest of his life, but on his visit he was able to spend less than two years here. But during his stay, Logan had become not only a helper but also an intimate friend.
Penn trusted his secretary to the utmost, and when he sailed away, left all his affairs in Pennsylvania under Logan’s direction. “I have left thee in an uncommon trust,” wrote Penn, “with a singular dependence on thy justice and care.”
There was no mistake in trusting James Logan. He kept Penn informed of everything, and scrupulously attended to all Penn’s business affairs.
William Penn never came back to see his province again. During the last six years of his life his mind failed, so that his wife, Hannah, carried on all business for him. Had it not been for James Logan, poverty would often have oppressed the great founder and his family.
From the moment of Penn’s departure, in 1701, to Logan’s death, 1751, he was always the power behind the proprietary throne, wielding what was sometimes almost absolute authority with singular propriety and judgment.
He was secretary of the province, commissioner of property, and of Indian affairs, member and president of Council, acting Governor, and chief justice.
After more than twenty-five years of residence in Philadelphia, Logan decided to build a country home for himself. He erected a fine mansion, which he called Stenton, near the Old York Road. Here he lived for nearly a quarter century more.
His thigh was broken in a fall, and he was compelled to live retired, but his love of books was so constant and sincere that the pursuit of literature became his passion.
But even in seclusion he never neglected his public duties for his private tastes. Many important affairs of state were transacted at Stenton, which was nearly always surrounded by deputations of Indians, who camped about the house to seek advice and favors from their honored friend “hid in the bushes.” As many as a hundred Iroquois once stayed at Stenton for three days as Logan’s guests.
Thomas Godfrey’s improvements in the quadrant were made at Stenton under Logan’s eye, and Franklin and he worked together with a thorough appreciation of each other’s good qualities.
The British determined to burn Stenton, when they captured Philadelphia, but the cleverness of an old Negro woman servant saved the historic mansion. Lord Howe afterwards made Stenton his headquarters.
Now the famous house, quite two hundred years old, is owned by the Philadelphia Society of Colonial Dames, and is kept in good condition and open for visitors. It stands near the station at Wayne Junction.
Logan was an unsuccessful suitor for the hand of Ann, daughter of Edward Shippen, who married Thomas Story. His wife was Sarah Read, daughter of a wealthy merchant of Philadelphia, to whom he was wedded eight years after his ill-success with Miss Shippen.
His children were not literary in their tastes and it was on this account that he left his library to Philadelphia, endowing it for its perpetual maintenance, with the Springettsbury Manor property which he had received from Penn’s estate.
Logan was a fine type, dignified yet courteous, and his conversation was quiet and reserved.
Gordon says, “Never was power and trust more safely bestowed for the donor. The secretary faithfully devoted his time and his thoughts to promote the interests of his master, and bore with firmness, if not with cheerfulness, the odium which his unlimited devotion drew upon himself.”
He died at Stenton, October 31, 1751.
Penn Lands at Upland and Changes Name to
Chester, October 29, 1682
After William Penn issued his frame of government for his new Province of Pennsylvania and had sent a description of his property throughout England, especially among the Friends, offering easy terms of sale, there were many persons from London, Liverpool and Bristol who embarked in this enterprise and the association called “The Free Traders’ Society of Pennsylvania” purchased large tracts of land.
Penn then obtained a deed for the three lower counties (now the State of Delaware), which was duly recorded in New York November 21, 1682.
Having completed all arrangements for his voyage to America, Penn wrote an affectionate letter to his wife and children and another “to all faithful friends in England.” Accompanied by about 100 passengers, mostly Friends from Sussex, he embarked in August on the ship Welcome, a vessel of about 300 tons burden.
After a voyage of two months they sighted the American coast about Egg Harbor, in New Jersey, on October 24, 1682, and reached New Castle, Del., on the 27th.
On the following morning Penn produced his deeds from the Duke of York and received possession by the solemn “delivery of turf, and twig, and water, and soil of the River Delaware.”
His arrival off the coast and passage up the river was a continuous demonstration of great joy by all classes—English, Dutch, Swedes, and especially by his devoted followers.
The day following his landing Penn summoned the inhabitants to the court-house at New Castle, where, says Clarkson, “he made a speech to the old magistrates, in which he explained to them the design of his coming, the nature and end of government and of that more particularly which he came to establish.”
At this time he took formal possession of the country and renewed the commissions of the magistrates.
Penn then proceeded to Upland, where he arrived October 29, 1682. This was a memorable event, says Clarkson, and to be distinguished by some marked circumstances. Penn determined, therefore, to change the name of the place, and turning toward his friend Pearson, one of his own society, who had accompanied him on the ship Welcome, he said:
“Providence has brought us here safe. Thou hast been the companion of my perils. What wilt thou that I shall call this place?”
Pearson said, “Chester,” in remembrance of the place from which he came. William Penn replied, that it should be called Chester, and that when he divided the land into counties, one of them should be called by the same name.
From Chester Penn proceeded, with some of his friends, in an open barge, in the earliest days of November, to a place about four miles above the mouth of the Schuylkill, called Coaquannock, “where there was a high bold shore, covered with lofty pines.”
Here the infant city of Philadelphia had been established, and Penn’s approach was hailed with joy by the whole population.
Immediately after his arrival in the “City of Brotherly Love,” Penn dispatched two persons to Lord Baltimore to ask of his health, offer kind neighborhood and agree upon a time of meeting. Penn then went to New York to pay his respects to the Duke, returning to Philadelphia before the close of November.
It was about this time that the “Great Treaty” took place at Shackamaxon. Tradition has persisted that a great treaty took place here under an elm tree, with William Penn, Deputy Governor Markham and others, and the representatives of the several Indian tribes of that and other localities.
Even if tradition errs in the details of this treaty, it is a fact that the Indians themselves alluded to “the treaty of amity and peace held with the great and good Onas” on all public occasions.
Onas was the Indian name for the Governor of Pennsylvania, and it is supposed that the “great and good Onas” referred particularly to William Penn himself.
It is also true that for a period of forty or fifty years the treaty Penn made with the Indians was not broken, and the land of Penn was preserved during all the time from the suffering of the scalping-knife, the tomahawk or the torch.
William Penn convened a General Assembly at Chester, December 4, 1682, of which Nicholas More, president of the Society of Free Traders, was chosen speaker.
During a session of four days this Assembly enacted three laws: (1) An act for the union of the Province and Territories; (2) An act of Naturalization; and (3) The great law, or code of laws, consisting of sixty-nine sections, and embracing most of the laws agreed upon in England and several others afterward suggested.
Penn, by appointment, met Lord Baltimore at West River December 19, where he was received with great ceremony, but their interview led to no solution of the vexatious question of boundary. The discussion lasted two days, but the weather became severely cold, precluding the possibility of taking observations or making the necessary surveys, so it was agreed to adjourn further consideration of the subject until spring.
The two Governors were taking measure of each other and gaining all possible knowledge of each other’s rights and claims preparatory to the struggle for the possession of this disputed fortieth degree of latitude, which case was destined to come before the home Government and give Penn a great deal of trouble.
Early in 1683 Penn divided the province and territories each into three counties—those of the former were called Bucks, Philadelphia and Chester; those of the latter were New Castle, Kent and Sussex.
Sheriffs and other officers were appointed for the several counties, writs for the election of members of Council and Assembly were issued conformable with the Constitution, and on January 10, 1683, Penn met the Council in Philadelphia and the Assembly two days later.
The Provincial Council was composed of eighteen members, three from each county, the Assembly fifty-four with nine from each county, making in all seventy-two. Thus was the Government of the province inaugurated, out of which has grown the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Penn concluded two important treaties with the Indians during June and July, 1683. He also visited the interior of his province, going as far west as the Susquehanna River.
The proprietary set sail for England June 12, 1684.
Penn wrote a farewell letter to his province when on board the vessel, which was couched in the most endearing terms.
After his departure the province and territories were divided into twenty-two townships. There were then 7000 inhabitants, of whom 2500 resided in Philadelphia, which already comprised 300 houses.
Frightened Settlers Build and Defend Fort
Swatara October 30, 1755
The stockades and small forts built along the frontiers during the intense excitement which followed Braddock’s defeat in July, 1755, have always been of great interest to local historians and the many citizens who reside in the vicinity of these provincial defenses.
One such place, to which not a little interesting history is attached, was built about twelve miles east of Manada Gap, near the passage through the Blue Mountains, by which the Swatara Creek wends its way to the fertile acres below, and a few miles farther empties into the Susquehanna.
In the immediate vicinity of Swatara Gap was located Fort Swatara or Smith’s Fort, as it was sometimes called. An unfortunate fact was that this fort was sometimes erroneously called Fort Henry or Busse’s Fort, and many incidents in and about this place are confused.
After the disastrous beginning of the French and Indian War the Indians swept through the frontiers of Pennsylvania and committed terrible massacres.
The news of the Penn’s Creek massacre soon reached the settlements on Swatara Creek and the farmers gathered together, October 30, armed with guns, swords, axes, pitchforks, whatever they happened to possess, until some 200 rendezvoused at Benjamin Spickers, near Stoucksburg, about six miles above Womelsdorf.
The Rev. Mr. Kurtz[[9]] of the Lutheran faith, delivered an exhortation and offered prayer, after which Conrad Weiser divided the people into companies of thirty each.
[9]. Reverend John Nicholas Kurtz, first Lutheran Minister in Pennsylvania.
They marched toward the Susquehanna, having first sent a company of fifty men “to Tolkeo in order to possess themselves of the Capes or Narrows of the Swahatawro, where we expected the enemy would come through,” wrote Colonel Conrad Weiser, to Governor Robert Hunter Morris.
The forces were augmented on the way, and by the time they arrived at Squire Adam Read’s plantation on Swatara Creek, they received the intelligence of the surprise and slaughter of members of Captain John Harris’ party at the mouth of the Mahanoy Creek.
This news dampened the ardor of the volunteers and they soon concluded they could be of more effective service guarding their own firesides and they hurried back. The news that 500 Indians had already made their way through Tolkeo Gap and had killed a number of people did not contribute to their joy on the long march home.
Colonel Weiser sensed the situation and fully understood he could not count much upon this group, so he advised them to make a breastwork of trees at Swatara Gap, promising to procure for them a quantity of bread and ammunition. They got as far as the top of the mountain; fired their guns to alarm the neighborhood, and then hurried back.
Soon came the news of the murder of Henry Hartman, just over the mountain. When Mr. Parsons and a party went to bury the body, they learned that two others had been recently killed and scalped, and some had been captured. The roads were filled with persons fleeing from their homes and confusion reigned.
It was clearly apparent that Swatara Gap must be occupied by troops and Colonel Weiser ordered Captain Christian Busse with his company of fifty men to “proceed to Tolihaio Gap, and there erect a stoccado fort of the form and dimensions given you, and to take posts there and range the woods from the fort westward towards the Swatara and eastward towards a stoccado to be built by Cap. Morgan, about half way between the said fort and Fort Lebanon.”
Governor Morris writing to Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, February 1, 1756, advised him that he had arranged to build a chain of forts, about ten or twelve miles apart, between the Delaware and Susquehanna. The best is “built at an important Pass through ye Kittahteny Hills, on our Northern Frontier and I have called it Fort Henry.” This is an error, as he should have written Fort Swatara.
This might be proved by a letter Colonel Conrad Weiser wrote to Governor Morris, July 11, 1756, giving the assignment of his troops. He stated that the men under Captain Smith are all placed in and about Swatara Gap and the Manada Fort; Captain Busse’s men were at Fort Henry and Captain Morgan’s at Fort Northkill and Fort Lebanon. This definitely proves that Fort Swatara and Fort Henry were not one and the same place.
The first and most important of the commanders of Fort Swatara was Captain Frederick Smith, whose company was recruited in Chester County. Captain Smith was ordered, January 26, to proceed as soon as possible to Swatara and in some convenient place there to erect a fort.
Captain Adam Read and Captain Hendrick, who had been ranging the mountains, were ordered to dismiss their men and turn over their arms and supplies to Captain Smith, all of which was done.
Further mention of the actual building of Fort Swatara is missing, as is the case of Manada Fort, but it is very probable that the stockade erected by the settlers was occupied by the provincial troops. This was not a very formidable fortification, and was afterward referred to in a letter to Colonel Washington as “only a block house.” It may therefore be presumed, at this late day, that it consisted of a single building, surrounded by a stockade.
The many murders committed by the savages and their stealthy approach, made it necessary to distribute the soldiers among the various farmhouses, especially during the harvest season.
The distribution of these men was usually made under the direction of Colonel Weiser, at consultations with the several commanders at Fort Henry.
This detail was not always satisfactory to the settlers, as may well be imagined. Each wanted troops to be on guard and there were never sufficient to supply the demand, but Captain Smith, at first negligent in this particular, was afterward complimented by both Colonel Weiser and Governor Morris for the faithful performance of his duty in the face of many hardships.
At the treaty held in Easton, in 1757, Conrad Weiser once more acted as agent for the Proprietaries, and interpreter. He arranged for a guard of 110 men, who were to come from sundry forts, one of which was Fort Swatara.
On February 5, 1758, Adjutant Kern reported Lieutenant Allen and thirty-three men at Fort Swatara, and “its distance to Fort Hunter, on the Susquehanna, as twenty-four miles.”
There are frequent references to be found in the Pennsylvania Archives of Paymaster Young’s visits to Fort Swatara.
Colonel James Burd’s tour of inspection in early spring of 1758 included Fort Swatara, where he remained two days longer than desired on account of incessant rains. He reviewed the garrison Tuesday morning, February 21. He did not seem very much pleased with conditions about the fort and gave orders intended to correct weaknesses. He ordered a cask of powder, 100 pounds of lead and blankets for the garrison.
After this tour of inspection there does not seem to be much more recorded of the transaction of Fort Swatara.
Indian Ravages at McDowell’s Mill, Franklin
County, October 31, 1755
A place of much consequence in provincial Pennsylvania and frequently referred to by public officers and agents was McDowell’s Mill. This was located midway between the Reverend John Steel’s Fort and Fort Loudoun, east of Kittatinny Mountains on the east bank of the Conococheague Creek, in the western part of the present Franklin County.
This defense was built in the year 1756 and was a log structure, rectangular in shape and provided with loop-holes. It stood until the year 1840. There is at present a stone house erected on or near the site of this old fort.
This place was a private establishment, and the earliest public notice of it is in a letter written by Major General Edward Braddock to Governor Morris, dated June 18, 1755, signifying his approbation of the deposits being made at McDowell’s Mill instead of at Shippensburg.
Governor Morris wrote to General Braddock July 3, 1755, saying that he had sent certain enumerated articles to Shippensburg, where “they will remain until I go up into the country, which will be on Tuesday next, and then I shall form the magazine at or near McDowell’s Mill and put some stoccados around it to protect the magazine and the people that will have the care of it; for without something of this kind, as we have no militia and the Assembly will maintain no men, four or five Indians may destroy the magazine whenever they please, as the inhabitants of that part of the Province are very much scattered.
“I send you a plan of the fort or stoccado, which I shall make by setting logs of about ten feet long in the ground, so as to inclose the storehouses. I think to place two swivel guns in two of the opposite bastions, which will be sufficient to guard it against any attack of small arms.”
On October 31 began incursions which lasted for several days. Adam Hoops wrote to Governor Morris, dated Conococheague, November 3, 1755:
“I am sorry I have to trouble you with this Melancholy and disagreeable news, for on Saturday I recd. an Express from Peters Township that the Inhabitants of the great Cove were all murdered or taken Captive and their houses and barns all in Flames. Some few fled, upon notice brought them by a certain Patrick Burns, a Captive, that made his Escape that very Morning before this sad tragedy was done.
“Upon this information, John Potter, Esq., and Self, sent Expresses through our Neighborhood, which induced many of them to Meet with us at John McDowell’s Mill, where I with many others had the unhappy prospect to see the Smoke of two houses that was set on Fire by the Indians, viz, Matthew Patton’s and Mesheck James’s, where their cattle was shot down, the horses standing bleeding with Indian Arrows in them, but the Indians fled.
“The Rev. Mr. Steel[Steel], John Potter, Esq., and Several others with us, to the Number of about an hundred, went in Quest of the Indians, with all the Expedition Imaginable, but to no Success; these Indians have likewise taken two Women Captives, belonging to said Township. I very much fear the Path Valley has undergone the same Fate.
“We, to be sure, are in as bad Circumstances as ever any poor Christions were in, For the Cries of the Widowers, Widows, fatherless and Motherless Children, with many others for their Relations, are enough to Pierce the hardest of hearts; Likewise it’s a very sorrowful spectacle to see those that Escaped with their lives with not a Mouthful to Eat, or Bed to lie on, or Clothes to Cover their Nakedness, or keep them warm, but all they had consumed into Ashes.
“These deplorable Circumstances cries aloud for your Honours most Wise Consideration, that you would take Cognizance of and Grant what shall seem most meet, for it is really very Shocking, it must be, for the Husband to see the wife of his Bosom, her head cut off, and the Children’s blood drank like Water by these Bloody and Cruel Savages as We are informed has been the fate of many.”
November 6, Hoops again wrote to Governor Morris, inclosing qualifications for two officers, and said:
“Hans Hamilton is now at McDowell’s Mill with upwards of 200 men and about 200 from this county, in all about 400 men.”
So it may be safely presumed as a fact that Governor Morris finally determined to establish his magazine at McDowell’s Mills and that these soldiers stockaded the buildings according to the plans of Governor Morris.
On Wednesday, February 11, 1756, “two lads were taken or killed at the Widow Cox’s, just under Parnell’s Knob, and a lad who went from McDowell’s Mills to see what fire it was never returned, the horse coming back with reins over his neck; they burnt the House and shot down the Cattle.”
Under date of March 25, 1756, Governor Morris sent the following to the Reverend John Steele: “With these Instructions you will receive a Commission appointing you a Captain of a Company in the pay of the Province, which is to be made up by Draughts of thirteen men out of Each of the Companys composed by James Burd, Hans Hamilton, James Patterson and Hugh Mercer, Esq., * * * also a Commission appointing James Hollowday your Lieutenant * * * When you have formed your Company you are to take post at McDowell’s Mills, upon the road to Ohio, which you are to make your Head Quarters, and to detach patroling partys from time to time to scour the woods. * * * You are to apply to Mr. Adam Hoops, for the Provincial allowance of Provisions for the men under your Command.”
Governor Morris sent instructions to Elisha Salter, Commissary General of Musters, to proceed to McDowell’s Mill and muster the company under Captain John Steel, and direct him to take post at McDowell’s Mill.
Robert Callender wrote to Governor Denny from Carlisle, dated November 4, 1756: “This day I received advice from Fort McDowell that on Monday or Tuesday last, one Samuel Perry and his two sons went from the Fort to their plantation, and not returning at the time they proposed, the commanding Officer sent there a corporal and fourteen men to know the cause of their stay, who not finding them at the plantation, they marched back toward the Fort, and on their return found the said Perry killed and scalped and covered over with leaves; immediately after a party of Indians, in number about thirty, appeared and attacked the soldiers, who returned the fire, and fought for sometime until four of our people fell, the rest of them made off—six of them got into the Fort, but what became of the rest is not yet known; there are two families cut off, but cannot tell the number of people. It is likewise reported that the enemy in their retreat burnt a quantity of grain and sundry horses in the Cove.”
The activities of Fort McDowell ceased during December, 1756, when Colonel John Armstrong removed the stores to Fort Loudoun, and increased the capacity and strength of that place. Further references to McDowell’s Mill are of no consequence, it being afterwards used by rangers who were scouting along that frontier.
Turmoil in Lower Counties; Penn Sails for
England, November 1, 1701
The Constitution, which had been under consideration for eighteen months, was finally adopted October 28, 1701, and William Penn, pressed by many claims for his presence in England, set sail November 1 and arrived there about the middle of January.
He had hardly landed before King William died, January 18, and Princess Anne of Denmark succeeded him. Penn was in great favor with her.
The new Constitution which Penn personally assisted in giving his Province was as comprehensive on the subject of civil and religious liberty as the former ones.
There was established a Council of State, composed of ten members, chiefly Quakers and his intimate friends, of whom four made a quorum who were empowered “to consult and assist with the best of their advice the Proprietary himself or his deputies in all public affairs and matters relating to the government.”
Andrew Hamilton, a native of Scotland, one of the Proprietaries of New Jersey, and formerly Governor of East and West Jersey, was appointed Deputy Governor, and James Logan Provincial Secretary and Clerk of the Council.
Governor Hamilton’s administration was very brief, for he died while on a visit to Amboy, April 20, 1703. The government then devolved upon the Council, of which Edward Shippen was president.
Almost the entire attention of the Government was directed to the consummation of a union between the Province and Territories.
The Territories, or Lower Counties, persisted in the absolute refusal to join with the Province in legislation until 1703, when it was finally determined and settled between them that they should compose different and distinct assemblies, entirely independent of each other, pursuant to the liberty allowed by the clause in the charter for that purpose.
The proprietary selected Mr. John Evans as the successor to Governor Hamilton. He arrived in the province in February, 1704, and soon increased the number of the council and called to that board, with others, William Penn the younger, who had accompanied him to the province. Pursuant to the instruction of the proprietary, he earnestly applied himself to re-unite the province and Territories; and his lack of success in this measure produced an unfavorable disposition toward the province, which embittered his whole Administration.
Governor Evans was but twenty-six years old when appointed, and he was zealous and active in the proprietary’s interest; he was deficient in neither wit nor talents, but lacked experience, prudence and tact, and was offensive to the Quakers. He showed a partiality toward the lower counties, which produced unpleasant effects in the province.
England was at war with France and Spain, and Evans was ordered by the Queen to raise an armed force in Pennsylvania, but his efforts proved unsuccessful. He incurred even greater unpopularity among the Quakers and became odious[odious] to the people of Philadelphia.
He offended the merchants of Philadelphia, when he authorized the erection of a fort near New Castle, where it could be of little use to the province, and inward bound ships, not owned by residents, were obliged to deliver their half-pound of powder for each ton measurement. The provincialists remonstrated against this abuse in vain.
At length Richard Hill, William Fishbourne and Samuel Preston, three spirited Quakers, resolved to remove the nuisance by a method different from any that had yet been attempted.
Hill and his companions, on board the Philadelphia, a vessel belonging to the former, dropped down the river and anchored above the fort. Two of them went ashore and informed French, the commander, that their vessel was regularly cleared, demanding to pass without interruption. This demand was refused, when Hill, who had been bred at sea, stood at the helm and passed the fort with no other injury than a shot through the mainsail. French pursued in an armed boat and was taken aboard, while his boat, cut from the vessel, fell astern, and he was led a prisoner to the cabin.
Governor Evans was apprized of the matter and followed the Philadelphia by land to New Castle and, after she had passed the fort, pursued her in a smaller but faster boat to Salem, where he boarded her in great anger, and behaved with considerable intemperance.
Lord Cornbury, Governor of New Jersey, who was also Vice Admiral of the Delaware, happened to be at Salem, and the prisoners were taken before him. He gave them and Governor Evans, as well, a severe reprimand, and when all promised to behave in the future they were dismissed and Governor Evans was jeered.
Following this spirited action, the fort no longer impeded the navigation of the Delaware.
Governor Evans made an extended trip among the Indians, which began June 27, 1707. He was accompanied by several friends and servants. The Conestoga and other Indians had advised him that the Nanticoke of Maryland designed war against the Five Nations. Governor Evans visited in turn: Pequehan, on the Pequea; Dekonoagah, on the Susquehanna, about nine miles distant from Pequehan; Conestogoe and Peixtang.
At the latter place he seized one Nicole, a French Indian trader, against whom heavy complaints had been made. His capture was attended with difficulties, but he was finally secured and mounted upon a horse with his legs tied together, beneath the horse’s belly.
The articles of remonstrance, subsequently addressed to the Proprietary by the Assembly, make it appear that the Governor’s conduct on this occasion and among the Indians was not free from censure, it being described as “abominable, and unwarrantable.”
To add to Governor Evans’ other troubles he had a very unhappy misunderstanding with his secretary, James Logan, which, with the antagonism of the Assembly, almost paralyzed legislative action, and led to a most lamentable exhibition of ill-temper on the part of the Governor.
Remonstrances were sent to William Penn, which tended to produce the very steps which the Assembly desired to guard against, of provoking the Governor to relinquish a troublesome and ungrateful Province to the Crown of England, which had long wished to possess it.
Governor Evans was removed early in the year 1709 and Captain Charles Gookin appointed as his successor. Gookin was an officer in Earle’s Royal Regiment, quite advanced in years, and in the language of Penn “a man of pure morals, mild temper and moderate disposition.”
Indians Captured Frances Slocum, the “Lost
Sister of Wyoming,” November 2, 1778
Among the many dramatic incidents in the history of the Wyoming Valley few, if any, are more thrilling or unusual than the carrying away into captivity of little Frances Slocum.
Jonathan Slocum, a Quaker, settled at Wyoming in 1762 and, with others who survived the awful Indian massacre of October 15, 1763, left the valley.
In the autumn of 1777 he brought his wife, six sons and three daughters from Rhode Island and again made his home at Wyoming.
On Monday, November 2, 1778, Jonathan Slocum and his sons, William and Benjamin, were at work completing their corn harvest. At the Slocum home were the other members of the family, together with Mrs. Nathan Kingsley and her two sons. About noonday the Kingsley lads were sharpening a knife on a grindstone in the front yard. Suddenly the crack of a rifle was heard, and Mrs. Slocum hastened to the front door, when she was horrified to see the lifeless body of the elder Kingsley boy lying on the ground. The Indian who killed him was preparing to scalp his victim with the very knife the boys were sharpening.
The terrified mother snatched her infant from the cradle, called to the others to run for their lives, and fled out of the rear door to a log fence beyond which lay a swamp, and there hid herself and her baby.
Meanwhile the younger Kingsley boy and Frances Slocum, then five-and-a-half years old, hid themselves under a staircase; Judith Slocum, with her three-year-old brother Isaac, fled toward the swamp, while little Mary Slocum, less than ten years old, started on a run in the direction of Fort Wyoming, carrying in her arms her baby brother, aged one-and-a-half years. Ebenezer Slocum, then thirteen years old, was a cripple and unable to get away with the others.
While the Slocums were fleeing from their home the Indian in their door-yard was joined by two others, who made their way into the house and quickly ransacked it. Frances Slocum and young Kingsley were discovered in their hiding place, and dragged forth, while Ebenezer Slocum was seized in another part of the house.
Mrs. Slocum, leaving her baby behind, rushed into the presence of the Indians and implored the savages to release the children. She pointed to the crippled feet of Ebenezer and exclaimed: “The child is lame; he can do thee no good.”
The Indian who had him in his grasp released him to his mother. She pleaded piteously for her daughter, but in vain.
The chief Indian of the three threw Frances athwart his shoulder, one of the other Indians did likewise with young Kingsley, while the third one of the party shouldered the big bundle of plunder which had been taken from the house. They then dashed into the woods, and that was the last Mrs. Slocum ever saw of her daughter, Frances.
Years later it was learned from Frances Slocum herself that she and young Kingsley were carried to a cave where they stayed all night. Early the following morning they set out and traveled for many days. When they arrived at the village to which the Indians belonged, young Kingsley was taken away and Frances never learned what became of him.
The chief took Frances to an aged couple of the Delaware nation, who adopted her. She was given the name of Weletawash, which was the name of their youngest child, whom they had lately buried.
They were living in Ontario when the Revolution ended. They then moved to Kekionga, the present site of the city of Fort Wayne, Ind.
Frances states she was there long after she was full grown, and that she could relate incidents of Harmar’s defeat, October, 1790. In 1790 Frances married a Delaware brave named “Little Turtle.”
During four years of war in what is Ohio and Indiana, Frances and her husband and her foster-parents were almost constantly on the move. Her foster-father could speak English and so could Frances, until he died, when she lost her mother-tongue. In 1794, “Little Turtle” left her and went west.
Sometime in 1795 while on the move with her foster-parents, Frances discovered an Indian lying in the path suffering from wounds received in battle with the whites. She dressed his wounds and nursed him back to health. He supplied them with game.
When about to leave he was promised the adopted daughter in marriage and Frances became the wife of Shepoconah, a chief of the Miami tribe. Soon thereafter her foster-parents died and Frances and her husband removed to Fort Wayne.
In 1801 they, with their two sons and a daughter, removed to the Osage Village, on the Mississineva River, about one mile from its confluence with the Wabash. Here Shepoconah was made war chief, and Frances was admitted into the Miami tribe and given the name Maconaquah, signifying “A Young Bear.” Shepoconah died in 1832.
After the capture of Frances her father was killed, but many efforts were made to obtain clues as to the whereabouts of Frances. After peace was declared her brothers made a journey to Fort Niagara, where they offered a reward of 100 guineas for the recovery of their sister. These brothers never gave up the search. They visited many Indian villages and traveled thousands of miles, even enlisting the Government and large parties of Indians in their search. They attended every gathering of Indians where white children captives were to be given up. They believed she still lived, and until 1797 every possible search was made, but the Slocums could get no trace of their captive sister during the life of their mother.
In January, 1835, Colonel George W. Ewing, an Indian trader, was quartered in the home of Maconaquah and she related the story of her life to him. The next day he marveled at its mystery and wrote a narrative of this woman, and addressed it to the postmaster at Lancaster, Pa. No one was interested. Two years later John W. Forney became the publisher of the Intelligencer and ran across this letter and published it, July, 1837.
Immediately it was read by those who knew the story of the “Lost Sister of Wyoming.” Correspondence was started, and Joseph Slocum and two nephews traveled to the home of Maconaquah, where she was positively identified and acknowledged him as her brother, but expressed no inclination to leave her wigwam to partake of the comforts of his comfortable mansion in Wilkes-Barre.
She said in reply to their pleadings: “No, I cannot. I have always lived with the Indians: they have always used me very kindly; I am used to them. The Great Spirit has always allowed me to live with them, and I wish to live and die with them.”
She had indeed become an Indian even in looks. She thought, felt and reasoned like an Indian.
The Slocums had this comfort, their “Lost Sister of Wyoming” was not degraded in her habits or character; her Anglo-Saxon blood had not been tainted by savage touch, but bore itself gloriously amid long series of trials through which it had passed.
Correspondence was kept up between the relatives until the death of Frances, which occurred March 9, 1847.
George Major, Chief Burgess of Mahanoy
City, Murdered by Mollie Maguires,
November 3, 1874
George Major, the popular chief burgess of Mahanoy City, died Tuesday, November 3, 1874, from the effects of pistol shot wounds received the Saturday previous, the assassins being members of the notorious Mollie Maguires.
A great strike was in progress in the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania, and during such periods of intense excitement the Mollies were as active as a community of hornets whose nest some schoolboys had invaded with paddles.
George Major had long since gained the enmity of this nefarious organization, and was a doomed man.
James McParlan, a young Irishman from Chicago, was the Pinkerton detective who lived among the Mollies, became one of them, and who successfully rid the State of the whole organization.
On the day of this murder James McKenna (as McParlan was known to the Mollies), was in Shenandoah, but soon received intelligence of the affair. He was an officer of the Mollie organization and, in his official capacity, was detailed with Charles Hayes to go to the scene of the shooting and gather such particulars as it was possible to obtain.
This information, of course, was for the use of the Mollies in event any of their members should be arrested for the crime, that an alibi could be prepared for them.
McKenna and Hayes arrived on the scene early Monday morning, while the victim was yet alive, but not expected to survive that day.
McKenna appeared particularly sad and dejected, declaring to his fellow Mollies that his income from his (supposed) crooked peculations had run several months behind, so that he had no funds to expend in too many treats. This was an excuse to provide him with a safe cover from which to carry on his observations, and he at once commenced hunting up the facts connected with the shooting of Burgess Major.
Major had been shot through the left breast, two inches above the heart. This fact was learned by McKenna as soon as he arrived at Clark’s house, the rendezvous of the Mollies.
The proprietor, Clark, was not a member of the order, but his two sons were Mollies. He was alone when McKenna arrived, and soon started to talk about the shooting.
After the usual greetings, McKenna asked Clark if he knew who fired the shot.
“That I can’t, for the life of me, tell! There’s two stories about it. One of them puts it on Dan Dougherty, but I believe him just as innocent as the babe unborn—and the other charges it on Major’s own brother, William, hitting him be mischance, when firing after the Hibernian company’s boys—for ye must know that the whole trouble came about through a quarrel between the Hibernian an' the Citizen Fire Companies. One is wholly made up of our countrymen, an' the other of Modocs—English, German, Welsh an' what not! I suppose ye know that?
“Yes! But who started the row?” queried McKenna.
Clark replied that he was sure it was not Dougherty. He told McKenna of the fire which had called out the companies, and the fact that many firemen were drunk. That on the way home some firemen got to fighting, when Chief Burgess George Major came out of his house, flourished his revolver, and during the confusion shot a dog that was barking nearby. This led to more shooting, when someone in the crowd took off the Chief Burgess, and his brother shot Dougherty in the neck.
McKenna then met Clark’s brother, who was a Mollie, and they went to Dougherty’s home, and soon gained permission to see the wounded man.
Dougherty was almost delirious, and barely recognized his friends. He was terribly wounded, the surgeons even thinking it unsafe to probe for the bullet.
McKenna and Clark then went to McCann’s and soon gained the landlady’s confidence and she invited them upstairs, where McCann was found in bed, also wounded. He claimed Major had fired three shots at him.
Here the scheme was hatched to swear out a warrant for the Chief Burgess before he should die, charging him with an assault with a deadly weapon. That, they contended, would place McCann on the witness-stand and prevent him from being brought to the bar as a defendant. Others present desired McCann to make his escape.
The Chief Burgess succumbed to his wounds Tuesday, November 3, and received burial, with suitable honors, the ensuing day.
McKenna returned to Shenandoah and reported to the Mollies the issue of his trip. He had previously sent to Mr. Allan Pinkerton daily bulletins of his inquiries and their results.
Dougherty recovered, had his trial, early in May, and was acquitted.
McKenna was not ready to call his work at an end. Sufficient evidence had not yet been obtained to bring the band of criminals to justice.
But it was only a few months later when the murderers of Alexander Rae, Gomer James, William and Jesse Major, F. W. S. Langdon, Morgan Powell, Thomas Sanger, William Uren, and others were brought to trial and such evidence obtained that the usual Mollie alibi was broken down and those guilty were made to suffer the penalty which they deserved.
Captain John Hambright Leads Expedition
from Fort Augusta Against Great
Island, November 4, 1756
Fort Augusta was built and garrisoned during the summer and fall of 1756 under the direction of Colonel William Clapham and 400 Provincial soldiers recruited for that purpose. This formidable fortress was situated at Shamokin, at the Forks of the Susquehanna, in what is now the city of Sunbury.
The soldiers had barely landed at Shamokin until reports were brought there that the French were coming in great force to besiege[besiege] the fort.
The Indians, hostile to the English, committed such depredations that Colonel Clapham sent out expeditions against the Indian towns on the Juniata, at Chincklamoose (now Clearfield); at Great Island (now Lock Haven), and up both branches of the Susquehanna River.
During October, 1756, intelligence was received that Indian families, resident at the Great Island, were making many incursions against the settlements. Several of them had visited Shamokin in August, when they killed a bullock guard at the spring. And as they had formerly lived at Shamokin, they were capable of very great mischief.
Colonel Clapham directed Captain John Hambright, of Lancaster, to lead a company of picked men and destroy the village.
The instructions for this perilous expedition are peculiar and of unusual interest to the present day residents along the West Branch of the Susquehanna as far up as Lock Haven and, because they reveal the dangers such enterprises always encountered, they are given in full:
“Sir:
“You are to march with a Party of 2 Serjts., 2 Corporals and 38 Private men, under your Command to attack, burn and destroy an Indian Town or Towns, with their Inhabitants, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, to which Monsieur Montour will conduct you, whose advice you are directed to pursue in every Case.
“You are to attack the Town agreeable to the Plan and Disposition herewith given you, observing to Intermix the men with Bayonets equally among the three Partys in the attack, and if any Indians are found there you are to kill, Scalp, and captivate as many as you can, and if no Indians are there you are to endeavor to act in such manner, and with such Caution, as to prevent the Discovery of your having been there by any Party, which may arrive Shortly after you, for which Reason you are strictly forbid to burn, take away, Destroy or Meddle with anything found at such Places, and immediately dispatch Monsieur Montour, with one or two more to me with Intelligence.
“When ye come near the Place of action you are to detach Monsieur Montour, with as many men as he shall Judge necessary to reconnoiter the Parts, and to wait in concealment in the mean Time with your whole Party till his Return, then to form your measures accordingly.
After having burnt and destroyed the Town, you are in your Retreat to post an officer and twelve men in Ambush, close to the Road side, at the most convenient Place for such Purpose which may offer, at about Twelve miles Distance from the Place of action, who are to surprise and cut off any Party who may attempt to pursue, or may happen to be engaged in Hunting thereabouts, and at the same Time secure the Retreat of your main Body.
“'Tis very probable, that on these Moon Light Nights, you will find them engag’d in Dancing, in which case embrace that opportunity, by all means, of attacking them, which you are not to attempt at a greater distance than 20 to 25 yards, and be particularly careful to prevent the Escape of the Women and Children, whose lives Humanity will direct you to preserve as much as possible.
“If it does not happen that you find them Dancing, the attack is to be made in the morning, just at a season when you have Light enough to Execute it, in which attempt your party are to march to the several houses, and bursting open the Doors, to rush in at once. Let the Signal for the general attack be the Discharge of one Firelock, in the Centre Division.
“If there are no Indians at the Several Towns, you are in such case to proceed with the utmost Caution and Vigilance to the Road which leads to Fort Duquesne, there to lye in Ambush and to intercept any Party or partys of the Enemy on the march to or from the English Settlements, and there to remain with the Design till the want of Provisions obliges you to return.
“I wish you all imaginable Success, of which the Opinion I have of your self, the Officers and Party under your Command, leave me no Room to doubt,
& am, Sir,
“Your Humble Servant,
“William Clapham.
“P. S.—You will not omit to post the Sergeant with a party on the other side of the River during the attack, according to Direction, in order to prevent the Enemy from escaping that way and to reserve always one half of your Fire.
“Given at Fort Augusta, Nov. 4th, 1756.”
A close examination of the route of march reveals to those at all familiar with the topography of that part of the State that the expedition crossed the river at Fort Augusta and marched through the ravine to the lower side of Blue Hill, into what is now known as Granger’s Hollow, and continued up the country on the west side of the river, passing through what is now Winfield, Lewisburg, West Milton, New Columbia and White Deer, where they evidently marched over the present Loganton road, following alongside White Deer Creek and then into the Nippenose Valley; thence over the hills and down again into McElhattan Gap, emerging at the river near Great Island.
This is the most direct route, and, as the Indians were good civil engineers and usually found the easy grades for their beaten trails, there is little doubt but that Captain Hambright and his sturdy band of chosen men surely experienced a hard, rough march, even for that early period.
He surely carried out his instructions, but what actually happened on this march is unknown, as no records of his report are to be found among the papers of that period. This is a matter of sincere regret, for the expedition was one of great importance.
It is believed from notes made on a time-stained paper now in the State Library that the first village visited was situated a few miles above the mouth of Pine Creek, opposite what is now the village of Pine, Clinton County. The paper bears the following indorsement: “4th Nov., 1756. Route of Capt. Hambright’s Secret Expedition, Inclos’d in Col. W. Clapham’s Ler of” (This sentence was unfinished).
Antiquarians inform us that many years ago great quantities of Indian relics were found at this site. It is only a short distance east of Great Island, and nearly the exact distance from Fort Augusta, by following the river, that is noted in Colonel Clapham’s letter.
Disputed Boundary Lines Settled at Fort
Stanwix November 5, 1768
Notwithstanding the surrender to the Six Nations by the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, in September, 1758, of “all the territory lying to the northward and westward of the Allegheny Mountains,” the white settlers continued to encroach on the hunting grounds of the Indians.
At the great treaty held at Albany, the Proprietaries purchased and received a deed dated July 6, 1754, for the land of the Province above Penn’s Creek, in what is now Snyder County.
The Indians afterward asserted they were defrauded in this sale; that the territory included lands they did not purpose selling and there was much dissatisfaction.
To settle their trouble a compromise was made at the Easton treaty, October, 1758, by the terms of which the Proprietaries authorized Richard Peters and Conrad Weiser to release and reconvey to the Six Nations all the territory lying northward and westward of the Allegheny Mountains which had been conveyed to the Proprietaries by the deed of July 6, 1754, “provided the Six Nations fully stipulate and settle the exact and certain bounds of the residue of the said lands included in the before-mentioned purchase.”
Following the successful termination of the Pontiac Conspiracy in 1764, the whites were less fearful of the Indians and settled in the Indian country with much more confidence. The Indians were quick to grasp the situation and made vigorous complaint to the Governor and all the other provincial authorities.
Proclamations were issued against the settlers without effect, and finally, February 3, 1768, the Pennsylvania Assembly passed an act on the subject. It was enacted that if any persons, already settled or afterward moved on unpurchased lands, neglected or refused to remove from the same within thirty days after they were required to do so by the Governor after notice prohibiting occupancy as aforesaid, being legally convicted, were to be punished with death without the benefit of clergy.
Three weeks after the enactment of the foregoing law Governor Penn issued a proclamation to every person to remove themselves and their families off and from the said lands on or before the first day of May next ensuing.
But proclamations, edicts and acts seemed to be of no avail, and the disputes between the whites and Indians became most acute. At length, in the summer of 1768, Sir William Johnson, the great English agent and true friend of the Six Nations Indians, determined to hold a great council with the Indians “not only for the purpose of renewing the ancient covenant chain between the English and the Indians, but to establish a scientific frontier.”
In preparation for this great council twenty large bateaux, laden with presents best suited to propitiate the Indians, had been conveyed to Fort Stanwix, now Rome, N. Y. Sir William Johnson ordered sixty barrels of rice and seventy barrels of provisions. When the council opened 3200 Indians were present, “each of whom,” wrote Sir William, “consumes daily more than two ordinary men amongst us, and would be extremely dissatisfied if stinted when convened for business.”
The Indians invited to the council began to assemble at Fort Stanwix early in October, 1768, and by the middle of the month the various officials expected to be present were on the ground. From Pennsylvania came Governor John Penn, the Reverend Richard Peters, Benjamin Franklin and James Tilghman.
Governor Penn remained only for the preliminary negotiations, as important business of the Province compelled his early presence in Philadelphia.
Messrs Peters and Tilghman represented Pennsylvania as Commissioners. Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia and New York were also represented by high officials.
Eight tribes of Indians, including the Delaware, the Shawnee and all the tribes of the Six Nations, were present in larger numbers, while many other tribes were represented by small delegations.
The Seneca went to this great conference armed as if going on the warpath. There were also present a large number of private citizens either through curiosity or by reason of some personal interest in the proceedings.
The records of this great council would indicate that Sir William Johnson and the Commissioners dined together. They formally drank various toasts, as was usual in those times. Frequently these toasts were drunk to the King’s health, and on one or two occasions the language used gave offense to certain of the King’s officers at the table. Once a minister proposed a toast “not to the King of England, but to the King that hears our prayers.” The trouble with the mother country was even then brewing.
Sir William opened the council by telling the Indians that “the King was resolved to terminate the grievances from which they suffered for want of a boundary, and that the King had ordered presents proportionate to the nature and extent of the interests involved.” The Indians retired and for several days were in private council.
The new boundary had been practically agreed upon at a treaty held in 1765, its course being diagonally through Pennsylvania from a point one mile above the mouth of John Penn’s Creek, Snyder County, to a point then called Oswegy, now Oswego, N. Y. Beyond that point, the direction in which the line should be run seems to have occasioned the greatest discussion.
The question was finally and satisfactorily settled, and a deed was made and signed November 5, 1768, by a representative from each tribe of the Six Nations, fixing and describing the boundary-line and granting the land east of it to the King of England. The actual sum paid for this vast territory was about $50,600.
From a point on the Allegheny River several miles above Pittsburgh, this historic line of property ran in a northeasterly direction to the head of Towanda Creek, proceeding down the stream to the Susquehanna; thence it went northward along the river to Tioga Point, eastward to Owego, and crossed the country to the Delaware, reaching it at a point a few miles below Hancock. From here it went up the Delaware to what is now Deposit, Broome County, N. Y. Thence the line went directly across the hills to the Unadilla, and up that stream “to the west branch, to the head thereof.”
The “Fort Stanwix Treaty Lines” through Pennsylvania included all or part of the present counties of Pike, Wayne, Susquehanna, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Bradford, Sullivan, Wyoming, Montour, Northumberland, Lycoming, Union, Clinton, Center, Clearfield, Cambria, Indiana, Armstrong, Allegheny, Westmoreland, Somerset, Fayette, Green, Washington and Beaver.
It was also at this treaty that the Proprietaries were actively concerned in the purchase of the Wyoming lands then claimed by the State of Connecticut. In this object the Pennsylvanians were successful.
First Siege of Yellow Fever Checked in
Philadelphia November 6, 1793
Philadelphia was visited twice by the dreaded pestilence of yellow fever, first in the year 1793 and again in 1798. The general consternation which incited many to flee from the destroyer “produced scenes of distress and misery,” wrote Matthew Carey, “of which parallels are rarely met with, and which nothing could palliate but the extraordinary public panic and the great law of self-preservation. Men of affluent fortunes, who gave daily employment and sustenance to hundreds, were abandoned to the care of a Negro after their wives, children, friends, clerks and servants had fled away and left them to their fate.
“In some cases, at the commencement of the disorder, no money could procure proper attendance. With the poor the case was, as might be expected, infinitely worse than the rich, and many of these perished without a human being to hand them a drink of water, to administer medicine or to perform any charitable office for them. Various instances occurred of dead bodies being found lying in the streets, of persons who had no house or habitation and could procure no shelter.”
The cessation of business, in consequence of the plague, threw hundreds of poor people out of employment. Want and famine made their appearance. While the fatal atmosphere of contagion overspread the devoted city the most frightful exaggerations of the real condition of things were spread throughout the country, the consequence of which very soon became serious.
In nearly all the cities and towns, near and far, with a few humane exceptions, all intercourse with Philadelphia was prohibited. This added to the general distress.
The deadly disease swept away whole families. Eleven persons died in one house within a day.
Philadelphia with 50,000 population in 1792 was then not only the largest and busiest city of the Nation but its seat of government. The Congress moved from the city to Germantown; President George Washington and the members of his Cabinet and their families departed the city, and every person who could afford it followed their example.
One out of every five who remained in Philadelphia died. Churches and schools, as well as the stores and mills closed their doors. Half the houses stood empty. Those who ventured to walk abroad held over their nostrils handkerchiefs soaked in vinegar and avoided shaking hands with any one.
Grass grew high in the main streets. Carts passed the main thoroughfares to carry the bodies of those who had perished. The drivers called out at intervals, “Bring out your dead!”
The disease itself was horrible and filthy. The sick were gathered into hospitals, but these, unlike the great hospitals of today, added to their misery. They were mere barns where patients lay crowded together, without proper care. Nurses could not be obtained even at high wages, for to nurse the victims of yellow fever meant almost certain death.
Mayor Mathew Clarkson asked for volunteers to form a Committee of Safety which should do whatever seemed possible for the health of the city. Only twelve men in that greatest of American cities answered the call, so serious was the situation.
One of these volunteers was none other than the greatest man of his day, Captain Stephen Girard. Only two of these twelve volunteered to serve at the hospital, and these heroes were Stephen Girard and Peter Helm. Both possessed great wealth and might have fled the city to live in safety and comfort far from the scene of this horrible pestilence, but they nobly chose to help their fellow men and risk their own lives.
Of these two men Girard took the post of greatest danger, the interior of the hospital. There for two months he spent a large part of each day, nursing his patients. No money could pay for such services and Girard would have accepted no return. Moreover, he went with his own carriage to the houses where the sick lay, entered them, and drove with them to the hospital.
At last the benevolence of the inhabitants elsewhere came to their relief, and contributions in money and provisions were poured out with a liberal hand, which relieved the physical distress. But it took the return of cold weather to check the fever and on November 6 the citizens who had fled at the beginning of the plague began to return, and from that day conditions rapidly improved.
In the plague of 1793 the mortality was 3293, as reported by the “Minutes of the Committee.”
In this scourge there were on Market Street and north thereof 1178 houses shut up and 1066 open, and 1152 deaths. Of the white inhabitants 4627 fled, 7332 remained in the city, and of the colored inhabitants 64 fled out of the city and 474 remained.
South of Market Street 1009 houses were closed and 969 remained open and occupied, 1068 died, 4289 fled and 6133 remained, and 174 Negroes fled and 833 remained to face the plague.
In the Northern Liberties 302 houses were closed and 822 remained occupied; 546 died, 1751 fled and 4943 remained; 28 Negroes ran away and 205 remained.
In the district of Southwark 239 houses were empty and 742 occupied; 527 died, 1239 whites fled and 4521 remained, and 24 Negroes fled and 234 remained.
Thus in the city 2728 houses were closed on account of the occupants fleeing the city or dying and 3599 remained occupied. More than 12,000 inhabitants fled the city, while 25,000 remained and came into close contact with the fever victims.
The figures given here were taken during the month of November, when the cooler weather was beginning to check the ravages of the plague. According to the statisticians of that day, the average of those who fell victims to the fever amounted to more than six and one-third persons to the house.
Among those attacked were Governor Thomas Mifflin and Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury in President Washington’s Cabinet.
Both recovered and on November 14 the Governor issued a proclamation stating the pestilence had ceased and fixing a day of thanksgiving, fasting and prayer. The disease was considered to be conquered about November 6, and from that time confidence returned.
When the city was again desolated by yellow fever in 1798 the deaths reached an enormous rate and much greater than in 1793.
In the month of August, 1798, the deaths in Philadelphia were 621 and in August, 1793, 264; in twelve days in September, 1798, 720 died, and during the same days in 1793 there were 290 deaths reported. From August 8 to October 3, 1798, there were 2778 deaths, and in this same period in 1793 there were 1847 deaths, so it is safe to predict that about twice as many deaths occurred in the second plague as in the first.
Philadelphia Merchants Rebel Against
Stamp Act in Great Meeting,
November 7, 1765
The relations between the colonies and the mother country at end of the French and Indian War would doubtless have continued friendly had the latter not seen fit to pursue a new policy toward the former with respect to revenue and taxation. The colonies, until then, had been permitted to tax themselves.
The first act of the British Parliament aiming at the drawing of a revenue from the colonies was passed September 29, 1764. This act imposed a duty on “clayed sugar, indigo, coffee, etc., being a produce of a colony not under the dominion of his Majesty.”
In the colonies it was contended that “taxation and representation were inseparable, and that they could not be safe if their property might be taken from them without their consent.”
This claim of right of taxation on the one side and the denial of it on the other was the very pivot on which the Revolution turned.
England maintained her position in this matter, and in 1765 the famous Stamp Act passed both Houses of Parliament. This ordained that instruments of writing, such as deeds, bonds, notes, etc., among the colonies should be null and void unless executed on stamped paper, for which duty should be paid to the Crown.
The efforts of the American colonists to stay the mad career of the English Ministry proved unavailing. Dr. Benjamin Franklin, then in London as the agent of the Province of Pennsylvania, labored earnestly to avert a measure which his sagacity and extensive acquaintance with the American people taught him was pregnant with danger to the British Empire; but he did not entertain the thought that it would be forcibly resisted.
The opposition to the Stamp Act was so decided and universal that Lord Grenville, to conciliate the Americans, asked their agents to suggest the person to have the sale of the stamps in their respective colonies. Franklin named his friend John Hughes, who in the Assembly had been voting with the opponents of the Proprietaries.
Franklin’s enemies tried to make much capital out of this participation in the introduction of the stamps, while Hughes and Galloway tried to lay the blame for the popular outburst upon the Proprietary Party in both contrivance and connivance.
Massachusetts Assembly suggested that the various Houses of Representatives or Burgesses in America send committees to a meeting in New York City on the first Tuesday of October, 1765, to consider a united representation to the King and Parliament.
The Assembly of Pennsylvania decided unanimously that it ought to remonstrate against the Stamp Act, and appointed as its committee Speaker Fox and Messrs. John Dickinson, George Bryan and John Morton. Nine resolutions on the subject of the “unconstitutional impositions” were adopted unanimously.
Mr. Hughes feared being mobbed during the joy of celebration incident to the change of ministry in England. He sat at his home, armed, watching for an attack on his house, but at midnight those whom he feared dispersed, after burning a “stamp man” in effigy.
Hughes wrote to Governor John Penn and to Mr. Dickinson, the master of the ship which brought the stamps, that he had received no commission to take charge of them. The ship then lay at New Castle, afraid to proceed farther, but on October 5 she sailed up the river to Philadelphia, escorted by a man-of-war.
All the vessels in the harbor put their flags at half-mast, the bells of the State House and Christ Church were muffled and tolled until evening, and two Negroes with drums summoned the people to a meeting at the State House. This sent Robert Morris, Charles Thomson, and others to Hughes, who was very ill at his home, asking him to resign, or at least to promise not to execute his office.
The crowd, Hughes said, was stirred up by the son of Franklin’s great enemy, Chief Justice Allen.
On the following Monday, Hughes gave assurance that neither he nor his deputies would act until King George’s pleasure be known, or the law be put into execution in other colonies, or the Governor commanded him.
Hughes wrote to the Commissioners of the Stamp Office that he would perform his duties if his hands were sufficiently strengthened, but in due time he resigned.
On November 7, 1765, the merchants of Philadelphia assembled at the Court House, where they adopted nonimportation resolutions which were embodied in an agreement soon signed by almost everybody who could be described as a merchant or trader, setting forth that the difficulties they labored under were owing to the restrictions, prohibitions and ill-advised resolutions in recent acts of Parliament.
These measures had limited the exportation of some of the produce, increased the expense of many imported articles and cut off the means of supplying themselves with sufficient specie even to pay the duties imposed.
The Province was heavily in debt to Great Britain for importations, and the Stamp Act would tend to prevent remittances, and so it was hoped the people of the Province would be frugal in the consumption of all manufactures except those of America or of Ireland, coming directly thence, and that the merchants and manufacturers of Great Britain would find it to their interest to befriend them.
The subscribers agreed and pledged their honor to direct all goods ordered from Great Britain not to be shipped and to cancel all former orders until the Stamp Act be repealed. The ships already cleared for Great Britain owned by the merchants were allowed to bring back the usual bulky articles but no dry goods, except dye stuffs, and utensils necessary for carrying on the manufactures, and to sell no articles sent on commission after January 1, 1766.
The committee which circulated this agreement for signatures, and was appointed to see to its being carried out, was composed of Thomas Willing, Samuel Mifflin, Thomas Montgomery, Samuel Howell, Samuel Wharton, John Rhea, William Fisher, Joshua Fisher, Peter Chevalier, Benjamin Fuller and Abel Jones.
In February Franklin was examined before the House of Commons, when he told them there was not enough gold and silver in the colonies to pay the stamp duty for one year. He gave it as his opinion that the people of America would never submit to paying the stamp duty unless compelled by force.
Parliament had only the alternative to compel submission or to repeal the act. It was repealed March 18, 1766, but accompanying it was the one known as the Declaratory Act, more hostile to the American rights than any of its predecessors. This act affirmed “that Parliament have, and of right ought to have power to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever.”
The news of the repeal reached America in May and caused unbounded demonstrations of joy. Though the Quakers generally would not have violently resisted the execution of the law, they shared with others the joy produced by the tidings of the repeal.
Expeditions Against Indians—Franklin Sails
for England, November 8, 1764
Soon after John Penn assumed the office of Lieutenant Governor, November, 1763, he convened the Assembly and presented General Gage’s request for 1000 men, to be used in the proposed Indian campaign, which was granted, together with a vote of credit for the additional force necessary “to frustrate the further wicked designs of those lawless rioters.” This had reference to the “Paxtang Boys” and their bold attack upon the Conestoga Indians, December 14, 1763.
Sir William Johnson, of New York, who had charge of Indian affairs for the Royal Government, having learned of both the above massacre and those in the Nain and Wichetunk settlements, a short time previous, and being possessed of the actual facts, was particularly anxious to acquaint the Six Nations with the details, and thus remove any bad impressions as to the faith of Pennsylvania in dealing with friendly Indians. It was most vital that there should be no alienation of the Six Nations from the English interest.
The affair of the Paxtang Boys was happily settled without any unfair or unwise hardships and the attention of the authorities again turned to bigger problems and those more difficult of solution.
Early in 1764 extensive[extensive] measures were resolved upon for the reduction of the Indians. General Gage determined to attack them on two sides, and to force them from the frontiers by carrying the war into the heart of their own country. One corps was sent under command of Colonel Bradstreet to act against the Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa and other nations living upon or near the lakes. Another, under command of Colonel Henry Bouquet, was sent to attack the Delaware, Shawnee, Mingo, Mohican and other nations between the Ohio River and the lakes.
The two commands were to act in concert. Colonel Bradstreet was directed to proceed to Detroit, Michilimackinack and other places, and on his return to encamp and remain at Sandusky, and prevent the Western Indians from rendering aid to those on the Ohio, while Colonel Bouquet was to attack the latter in the midst of their settlements.
Part of the Forty-second and Sixtieth Regiments were assigned to Colonel Bouquet, to be joined with 200 friendly Indians, and provincial troops from Pennsylvania and Virginia. The Indians never came and Virginia could not spare any men, but Pennsylvania furnished the one thousand men, which was its quota. The Provincial Assembly also voted 50,000 pounds to maintain it.
This force was reduced by the desertion of 200 before leaving Carlisle, and of others at Fort Bedford. Those remaining, with a very few regulars, and less than 200 Virginians, made up the army of Colonel Bouquet, which advanced from Fort Pitt in October, 1764, and marched ninety-six miles to Muskingum, mostly through a wilderness which the savages had deemed their sure defense.
This expedition appearing in such force in the heart of the enemy’s country overawed the Indians, who sued for peace. The Delaware, Shawnee and Seneca agreed to cease hostilities. Many white people held as prisoners were liberated.
So thoroughly is Pennsylvania entitled to the credit of this successful expedition, which not only restored so many of her men, women and children to their families, but it had the chief part in securing peace to the adjoining colonies.
The Legislatures of Maryland and Virginia did not contribute a penny to the expense, but left Colonel Bouquet personally liable for the pay of the volunteers from those provinces. The Pennsylvania Assembly in due time came to his relief, and also paid for this.
By the agreement of 1760 the Assembly was allowed to tax the Proprietaries’ lands upon certain conditions. The Assembly tried to have the language of the bill changed so that the Proprietaries’ land would not be taxed “only as high as the worst lands owned by the settlers” was taxed, but no such change was allowed.
Indeed, harmony was scarcely to be expected between one of the Proprietary family, as Governor on the one side, and the Assembly on the other.
The Assembly was compelled to yield to the necessities of the province, but the conduct of Governor John Penn so incensed the Assembly, that it was determined by a large majority to petition the King to purchase the jurisdiction of the province from the Proprietaries, and vest the Government directly in the Crown.
Joseph Galloway sponsored the resolutions which resulted in the petition being signed by three thousand five hundred persons and addressed to King George III.
There was much opposition from leading men in the province against throwing off the proprietary dominion, and these were not alone of the Quaker belief.
Isaac Norris, the venerable Speaker; John Dickinson, afterwards distinguished in the Revolution; the Reverend Gilbert Tennant, and the Reverend Francis Allison, representing the Presbyterian interest, with William Allen, Chief Justice, and afterward father-in-law of Governor John Penn, were strong leaders in opposition to the measure.
The Quakers, on the other hand, supported it, and were sustained by several successive Assemblies. The argument which lined up the Presbyterians with those who opposed the change in Government was the important question of defending the province, and particularly their brethren on the frontiers. It mattered comparatively little whether the Proprietaries or the richer inhabitants paid for this protection.
They also feared that under the Crown the Church of England might become the Established Church. The majority, which wished to divest the Founder’s descendants of their authority, were the strict followers of the Founder’s religion.
Dickinson was re-elected to the Assembly, as was Norris, even though he did not desire to return to that body. Galloway and Franklin were defeated, the latter by twenty-five majority out of 4000 votes. Only two of the ten members from Philadelphia were in favor of the change of Government.
Norris was again elected Speaker, but dissensions arose which caused him to resign the speakership, when Joseph Fox was elected to succeed him. He appointed Dr. Franklin as an additional provincial agent in London, and directed him to go with all dispatch, and urge the adoption of the measure before the British Ministry.
Franklin sailed for England on November 8, 1764, being escorted by 300 admirers, to Chester, where he embarked.
He took with him a copy of the resolution which the Assembly, upon hearing of the proposal in England of a stamp act or some other means of revenue had passed, acknowledged it a duty to grant aid to the Crown, according to ability, whenever required in the usual constitutional manner.
Franklin found, on his arrival at London, that he had to contend with a power far stronger and more obstinate than the Proprietaries themselves, even with the very power whose protection he had come to seek.
Governor Simon Snyder, Prey of Kidnappers[Kidnappers],
Died November 9, 1819
Simon Snyder, three times Governor of Pennsylvania, was born in Lancaster County, November 5, 1749, and died in his beautiful stone mansion in Selinsgrove November 9, 1819.
Snyder had been defeated in the gubernatorial contest of 1805, but his election was not long delayed.
Alderman John Binns, editor of the Democratic Press, then the most powerful political leader in the State, was Snyder’s closest friend and adviser and soon influenced such a current of popular sentiment toward his friend’s candidacy that William J. Duane and Dr. Michael Leib were compelled to support Snyder even though they realized Binns would be more potent in guiding his Administration.
Snyder carried every county except six and defeated James Ross by 28,400 votes.
No sooner had the election occurred than the Governor was importuned to appoint Dr. Lieb to the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth, but the astute Executive named N. B. Boileau, of Montgomery County, to that important place.
Governor Snyder was re-elected in 1811 and again in 1814, being the last Governor of Pennsylvania to serve three terms.
There were many thrilling events during the nine years of his Administration, the most important of which was the War of 1812–14.
The Chief Executive of no State in the Union performed his part more patriotically or with a firmer determination than did Governor Snyder.
A month before the formal declaration of our second war with England he had issued an order drafting 14,000 men as the quota of Pennsylvania for the general defense. His several addresses to the Legislature were of the most patriotic fervor and he deserved the hearty support which was generously given him.
During the trying period of the war, Governor Snyder exhibited many splendid traits of character, and met every emergency with determined courage and the consciousness of having performed his full duty.
Pennsylvania has been remarkably free from crimes against officials holding high office, and yet the nearest attempt was a plot to kidnap Governor Snyder.
Early in the year of 1816 Richard Smith, as principal in the first degree, and Ann Carson, in the second degree, were tried in Philadelphia before the Hon. Jacob Rush and his associates for the murder of John Carson, her husband. The trial resulted in the conviction of Smith and the acquittal of Ann Carson.
Richard Smith was a lieutenant in the Twenty-third Infantry Regiment U. S. A. He was of Irish descent, a nephew of Daniel Clark, of New Orleans, and heir to his estate, worth in excess of $1,000,000.
Ann Carson was the most captivating beauty of the underworld and the most notorious character in the State, according to the newspapers of a century ago. She married a Scotchman, Captain John Carson, a dissipated ex-captain of the United States Navy, who was nearly twice her age.
Several years after this marriage Captain Carson sailed for China, in command of the ship Ganges, and nothing more was heard of him for four or five years, and his wife believed he had perished at sea.
During his absence Ann Carson became infatuated with the dashing young Lieutenant Smith, who occupied an apartment in her home.
In the fall of 1815 Captain Carson appeared at the home and his estranged wife had no welcome for him.
For the following several months the trio lived a life of continual strife. One evening in January, 1816, the two men met in the parlor of the Carson home on Second and Dock Streets, when Smith shot and killed Carson.
The murderer was taken before Alderman Binns, who committed him to prison on a charge of murder. As already stated, Smith was convicted and Mrs. Carson acquitted.
Mrs. Carson immediately planned to save Smith from the scaffold. She was able to command the services of the most desperate criminals.
Both Smith and Mrs. Carson knew that the Alderman and editor had great influence with Governor Snyder, and their first effort was to bring pressure upon him to obtain a pardon for the condemned man.
Binns refused to interfere, and in addition published a caustic warning against any attempt to stay the course of justice. Never had there been so much feeling manifested in the desire to obtain a pardon for murder as on this occasion.
Ann Carson conceived the scheme to kidnap Binns and hold him as a hostage for Smith. This plan failed. Then the desperate criminals endeavored to coerce Binns into their measures by planning to kidnap his son, who had been christened Snyder, after the then Governor. The boy was not quite six years old, but daily went to his school.
This plot was communicated to Binns and the child was kept in his home, and that plot also failed.
Then the notorious and desperate Ann Carson determined to kidnap the Governor himself, and keep him in custody, under a threat of being put to death, if he did not grant a pardon for Smith.
The very night this scheme was determined on, it was, through a lay-cousin of Lieutenant Smith’s, communicated to John Binns, who immediately dispatched the details of the plot to the Governor, who was then at his home in Selinsgrove.
Ann Carson, accompanied by two ruffians named “Lige” Brown and Henry Way, set out from Philadelphia on horseback[horseback] to Selinsgrove. At Lancaster, Way robbed a drover, but was badly beaten over the head and easily captured. The others, however, made their escape and proceeded on their nefarious errand.
Governor Snyder hastened to Harrisburg, where he swore out a warrant against the woman, and she was apprehended and held in $5000 bail, which was furnished by her friends. She returned to Philadelphia.
Way escaped from jail after nearly killing his jailer and was never captured. Lieutenant Smith was executed.
Mrs. Carson’s subsequent career was merely a succession of crimes, in which she affected the disguise of a demure Quakeress. It was in this disguise she was detected passing a counterfeit note on the Girard Bank. She was sentenced to seven years in the Walnut Street prison.
A writer says she was appointed matron in the women’s ward, where her cruel treatment drove the female convicts to revolt and that Mrs. Carson was killed during one of these uprisings.
John Binns in his “Recollections” says that while in prison she was a kind and most attentive nurse.
The latter is true. Ann Carson died in prison April 27, 1824, of typhus fever, which she contracted while nursing other victims of the plague.
John Dickinson Writes First “Farmer”
Letter, November 10, 1767
In 1767 a bill was passed by Parliament which affirmed its right “to bind the Colonies in all cases whatsoever” and levied duties on tea, paper, glass and painters’ colors imported into the Colonies from Great Britain, payable in America. This act, with several others, rekindled the opposition of the Colonies. Again associations were formed to prevent the importation of British goods and meetings called to resolve, petition and remonstrate.
The first of the “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies,” appeared November 10, 1767, the authorship of which gave John Dickinson, of Philadelphia, so much of his celebrity.
They were published in every colony, also in London, and afterwards translated into French in Paris.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who had formerly been an enemy of Dickinson wrote the preface to the London edition; while the people of Boston, assembled in a town meeting, voted Dickinson their thanks.
Letter No. 1 began: “My Dear Countrymen: I am a farmer, settled, after a variety of fortunes, near the banks of the Delaware, in the Province of Pennsylvania. I received a liberal education, and have been engaged in busy scenes of life; but am now convinced that a man may be as happy without bustle as with it.
“My farm is small; my servants few and good; I have a little money at interest; I wish for no more; my employment in my own affairs is easy; and with a contented, grateful mind, undisturbed by worldly hopes or fears, relating to myself, I am completing the number of days allotted to me by Divine goodness.”
Every man ought to espouse the sacred cause of liberty to the extent of his powers and “The Farmer” offered some thoughts on late transactions, praying that his lines might be read with the same zeal for the happiness of British America with which they had been written.
He had observed that little notice had been taken of the Act of Parliament for suspending the legislation of New York. This was punishment for noncompliance by the Assembly of that Province with a former act requiring certain provisions to be made for the troops. To compel the colonies to furnish certain articles for the troops was, he proceeded to show, taxation in another form and New York was being punished for resisting such taxation.
In Letter No. 2, the “Farmer” took up the Act imposing duties on paper, glass, etc., which he deemed a most dangerous innovation upon the old practice of imposing duties merely for the regulation of trade.
Parliament had a right to regulate the trade of the colonies; but here it was vowing the design of raising revenues from America; a right, which, America felt, was inherent in her own representatives. This taxation was attempted by the device of levying duties on certain articles imported to the colonies. The effect of this was clearly pointed out.
Great Britain had prohibited certain manufactures in the colonies, and had prohibited the purchase of such manufactured goods except from the mother country.
“If you once admit that Great Britain may lay duties upon her exportations to us, for the purpose of levying money on us only,” he wrote, “she will then have nothing to do but to lay those duties on the articles, which she prohibits us to manufacture—and the tragedy of American liberty is finished.”
In Letter No. 3 the “Farmer” explained there were other modes of resistance to oppression than any breach of peace and deprecated, as Dickinson did ever afterward, any attempt to make the colonies independent.
“If once we are separated from our mother country,” he said, “what new form of government shall we adopt, or where shall we find another Britain to supply our loss? Torn from the body to which we are united by religion, liberty, laws, affections, relation, language and commerce, we must bleed at every vein.”
In the subsequent letters, the dangers to American liberty were expiated, objections answered and the people urged to make a stand for themselves and their posterity peaceably, prudently, firmly, jointly. “You are assigned by Divine Providence, in the appointed orders of things the protectors of unborn ages, whose fate depends upon your virtue,” he said. “Whether they shall arise the generous and indisputable heirs of the noblest patrimonies or the dastardly and hereditary drudges of imperious taskmasters, you must determine.”
The effect of the Farmer’s letters was tremendous. About this time a letter to Governor Penn arrived from the Earl of Hillsborough, dated April 21, 1768, informing him that King George III considered the circular letter from the Massachusetts Legislature, calling upon the other colonies to send commissioners to New York City to consider a united representation to the King and Parliament to be of a most dangerous and factious tendency, and that Governor Penn should exert his influence to prevail upon the Assembly of Pennsylvania to take no notice of it, and to prorogue or dissolve that body.
The Assembly, September 16, resolved that the Governor had no authority to prorogue or dissolve and that it was the undoubted right of the Assembly to correspond with any of the American colonies to obtain by decent petitions to the King and Parliament redress of any grievances.
Four days later the Assembly addressed a petition to the King, the following day one to the House of Lords and another to the House of Commons. Each of these paraphrased in softer language and adapted to Pennsylvania the latter from Massachusetts.
The petition to the King referred to the settlement of the province when it was only a wilderness with a view of enjoying that liberty, civil and religious, of which the petitioners’ ancestors were in a great measure deprived in their native land, and also to extend the British empire, increase its commerce and promote its wealth and power.
With inexpressible labor, toil and expense, and without assistance from the mother country, that wilderness had been peopled, planted and improved.
It was conceived that by no act had the people surrendered up or forfeited their rights and liberties as natural-born subjects of the British Government; but those rights had been brought over and were vested by inheritance.
The duties and taxes for the sole purpose of raising revenue imposed by parliament upon the Americans, they not being represented in that body, and being taxable only by themselves or their representatives, were destructive of those rights and without precedent until the passage of the Stamp Act.
Whenever the King had had occasion for aid to defend and secure the colonies, requisitions had been made upon the Pennsylvania Assemblies, who with cheerfulness granted them, and “often so liberally as to exceed the abilities and circumstances of the people.”
It was essential to the liberties of Englishmen that no laws be made which would take away their property without their consent, and even if this taxation had been constitutional the present law was injurious to the mother country as well as America. And lastly, the revenue was to be applied in such colonies as it should be thought proper. Thus Pennsylvania would pay, without their consent, taxes which might be applied to the use of other colonies.
In Anticipation of War with France General
Washington Arrives in Philadelphia,
November 11, 1798
On November 11, 1798, General George Washington, who was then lieutenant-general of the army, arrived in Philadelphia to assume charge of matters in relation to the threatened war with France, and was received by the troops of horse and a large number of uniformed companies of foot.
On the 24th President John Adams, who had left the city on account of the recurrence of the yellow fever, returned, and was received with salutes from the sloop-of-war “Delaware,” Captain Stephen Decatur, and Captain Matthew Hale’s Ninth Company of Philadelphia Artillery, which was stationed near Center Square.
The presence of John Jay, of New York, in England to make a treaty with Great Britain aroused the French to a sense of the importance[importance] of observing its own treaty stipulations with the United States, which had been utterly disregarded since the war with England began. Jay’s treaty with England, November 19, 1794, caused such a division of the Americans that they were all either Frenchmen or Englishmen in their politics.
Genet, the French minister, received the most flattering attention from the day he arrived until he was recalled. When Adet, his successor, ordered all Frenchmen in America to wear the tri-colored French cockade, everybody in Philadelphia wore it.
On January 4, 1795, a new decree was issued, giving full force and effect to those clauses of the treaty of commerce, signed in 1778, with the United States.
When the news of the failure of the Americans to elect Thomas Jefferson President reached France, the Directory issued a decree, March 2, 1797, purporting to define the authority granted to French cruisers by a former decree. It was intended to annihilate American commerce in European waters.
The treaty with America was modified as to make American vessels liable to capture for any cause recognized as lawful ground of capture by Jay’s treaty.
They also decreed that any Americans found serving on board hostile owned vessels should be treated as pirates; in other words, American seamen, impressed by the British, were made liable to be hanged by the French.
On January 18, 1798, a sweeping decree against American commerce was promulgated by the French Directory.
In consequence of this insolent attitude of the French Directory and the continued seizures of American vessels by French cruisers, the popularity of France had declined, and it soon became evident that the country was slowly but surely drifting into war.
On March 5, 1798, President Adams[, President Adams] informed Congress of the failure of the mission of the American Envoys, and accompanying this information was a message from the French Directory to the Council of Five Hundred urging the passage of further objectionable laws against American commerce.
A few days later Congress was informed that the representatives of Prince Talleyrand, one of the French ministers, had demanded a bribe of £50,000 for the members of the Directory and a loan to the Republic, in consideration of the adoption of a satisfactory treaty.
Great excitement was caused by the publication of these facts. In every section of the country was re-echoed the vigorous language of Charles Pinckney: “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.”
Governor Mifflin and his associates in the State Government openly sympathized with France, and in the Pennsylvania Senate the feeling in favor of France was still very strong. On March 20 that body adopted resolutions declaring that the representatives of Pennsylvania bear their public testimony against war in any shape or with any nation unless the territories of the United States shall be invaded, but more especially against the people with whom our hearts and hands have been lately united in friendship.
In the House, however, the resolutions were received and laid upon the table, but never taken up for consideration.
The councils of Philadelphia passed resolutions in favor of sustaining friendly relations with France, but strongly endorsed the Federal administration in its conduct of the matter. A great meeting of the merchants and traders of Philadelphia was held, April 11, when an address to the President was adopted, which expressed regret at the failure of the negotiations with France, and their determination to support the Government.
Popular indignation at the conduct of France was rapidly intensifying, and the publication of a new patriotic song, “Hail Columbia,” greatly stimulated the agitation.
At the request of Gilbert Fox, a young actor, Joseph Hopkinson, of Philadelphia, then twenty-eight years of age, wrote “Hail Columbia” to accompany the air of “The President’s March,” which had become very popular in Philadelphia.
This new song was first sung by Fox at his benefit in the theater, April 25, 1798, and excited the wildest applause. The words were caught up and repeated throughout the country.
Among other demonstrations in support of the Government was a meeting of youths between eighteen and twenty-three years of age, April 28, at James Cameron’s tavern.
Resolutions were passed approving the action of the Federal Government, and a committee was appointed to prepare an address to the President. On May 7, more than twelve hundred of them each wearing a black cockade marched in procession to the home of President Adams.
On the following night parties of men wearing the French cockades appeared on the streets and made some disorder, in consequence of which the Citizens’ Volunteers were placed on guard at the mint and arsenal, and troops of cavalry paraded the streets at night.
The newspapers contributed not a little to the excitation of feeling. Editor William Cobbett was particularly violent and Benjamin Franklin Bache, in the Aurora, was almost as vehement.
The citizen military organizations were most active and during the summer months assembled frequently and performed various evolutions.
Early in June, Governor Mifflin addressed a circular letter to militia[militia] officers, requesting their co-operation in preparation of measures for defense.
The necessity for Lieutenant-General Washington and his army soon passed. The trouble with France was brought to a satisfactory result through diplomatic channels and President Adams issued a proclamation calling for a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer, on April 25, 1799, over the happy event.
First Jury Drawn in Early Courts of
Province on November 12, 1678
The early judicial history of Pennsylvania presents striking features of interest to two classes in the community—the professional lawyer and the student of history.
To the former it must be a matter of curiosity and interest to study the first rude means devised to administer justice between man and man—to discern among the transactions of those early times the rise and development of institutions and practices.
But to the student of history the subject affords a different kind of interest. He finds gratification in the manner, customs and modes of thought once prevalent in these early courts.
In them he finds traces of the past life of the Nation, learns of the matters which then interested the people, the nature of their industries, the extent of their commerce, the character of their education, the attention paid to their morals, and even the depth of their religious convictions.
The early courts of what is now Pennsylvania had their origin in 1673, under the government of James, Duke of York.
After the Swedish settlements on the Delaware were conquered by the Dutch, the Swedes were directed to concentrate in villages, but they never did so. Among the places named for this purpose was Upland, now Chester.
The Swedish magistrates were permitted to remain in office—a conciliatory policy which was imitated by the English when they came into possession of Pennsylvania.
The Dutch divided the western shore of the Delaware into three counties or judicial districts, the most northern of which was called Ophlandt, its capital being Upland. This division was recognized and continued by the English.
In 1676, under Governor Andross, the Magistrates of Upland were Peter Cock (Cox), Peter Rambo, Israel Helm, Lace Andries, Oele Swen, and Otto Ernest Cock, all Swedes.
At the court at Upland, November 13, 1677, Captain Hans Jargin was ordered “to fit up the House of Defense for the use of the court at its next sitting.” The court previously had been holding its sessions at the house of Neeles Laersen, who kept a tavern, a troublesome fellow, whose daughter seems to have taken after her father, both having appeared several times in court.
On November 12, 1678, complaint was made against Laersen for building a fence which stopped the usual path of travel over the meadow. The Court ordered him to remove the obstruction.
At the same session of court the case of William Orian vs. John D'haes was called. It was an action on a book account for the sum of 167 guilders, and the first jury known to have been called in Pennsylvania was impaneled.
The names of these original jurymen were Hans Moens, Dunk Williams, Xtopper Barnes, Edmund Draufton, Peter Jockum, Isaac Sanoy, Jan Hendricks, Jonas Kien, Moens Cock, John Browne, Jan Boelson and Henry Hastings.
The verdict was for the plaintiff for the full amount of his claim which had been disputed.
These early county courts were vested with criminal jurisdiction in all save cases of heinous or enormous crimes. Treason, murder and manslaughter were outside their cognizance. Trials for larceny, swearing, laboring on the first day of the week, assault and battery, shooting or maiming the prosecutor’s hogs, unduly encouraging drunkenness, selling rum to the Indians and offenses against the public morality and decency constituted the great bulk of the criminal business.
“Lying in conversation” was fined half a crown, “drinking healths which may provoke people to unnecessary and excessive drinking” was fined five shillings, while the sale of beer made of molasses at more than a penny a quart was visited with a like penalty of five shillings for every quart sold.
No person could “Smoak tobacco in the streets of Philadelphia or New Castle, by day or by night,” on penalty of a fine of twelve pence, to be applied to the purchase of leather buckets and other instruments against fire.
Any person “convicted at playing of cards, dice, lotteries or such-like enticing, vain and evil sports and games” was to pay five shillings or to be imprisoned five days at hard labor, while those who introduced or frequented “such rude and riotous sports and practices as prizes, stage plays, masques, revels, bull baitings, cock fightings and the like” were either to forfeit twenty shillings or to be imprisoned at hard labor for ten days.
Smoking tobacco in the courtroom was an heinous offense. Luke Watson, himself a Justice, twice offended the Court on the same day in this manner and was fined the first time fifty pounds of tobacco, the second 100 pounds. In 1687 William Bradford was fined for swearing in the presence of the Justices, and Thomas Hasellum was fined for singing and making a noise.
Thomas Jones, who was wanted in court as a witness, was a hardened character and refused to appear. When two constables brought him into court he cursed at a horrible rate.
The records state “said Jones being brought into court, the Court told him of his misdemeanor, and told him he should suffer for it; he told the Court he questioned their power, so the Court ordered the Sheriff and constable to secure him and they carried and dragged him to ye Smith Shop, where they put irons upon him, but he quickly got the Irons off and Escaped, he having before wounded several persons’ legs with his spurs that strived with him, and when they was goeing[goeing] to put him in the Stocks, before that they put him in Irons, he kicked the Sheriff on the mouth and was very unruly and abusive, and soon got out of the Stocks.”
An excellent law in the early days of the Province provided “that whereas there was a necessity for the sake of commerce in this infancy of things, that the growth and produce of this Province should pass in lieu of money, that, therefore, all merchantable wheat, rye, Indian corn, barley, oats, pork, beef and tobacco should pass current at the market price.”
Of this provision the people availed themselves largely. They frequently gave bonds to each other acknowledging their debts in kinds. Judgments were accordingly sometimes entered “for 172 pounds of pork and two bushels of wheat, being the balance of an account brought into court,” or for “32 shillings for a gun, and 150 pounds of pork for a shirt,” while, perhaps, the climax is reached in an entry of judgment for “One thousand of six-penny nails, and three bottles of rum.”
The early Provincial Courts were unusual peace makers and made peculiar awards.
In Chester County, in 1687, in an action of an assault and battery by Samuel Baker against Samuel Rowland was this award: “Samuel Rowland shall pay the lawful charges of this court, and give the said Samuel Baker a Hatt, and so Discharge each other of all manner of Differences from the Beginning of the World to this Present day.”
The sentences imposed were not unusually severe. The whipping post, the pillory and the imposition of fines were usually resorted to as punishments in preference to long terms of imprisonment. The services of the culprit were more desirable than to keep him within a prison’s walls.
Council of Censors First Met Under Constitution
of 1776, November 13, 1783
The Constitution of 1776, as would be expected, was hastily prepared. Great excitement prevailed everywhere throughout the Province and the document was adopted with the same determined spirit which characterized all public movements during that thrilling period of our history.
Nothing less than the impending war for liberty could justify the methods that were employed to change the frame of government under which the people had lived for nearly a century.
The most effective improvement in this instrument could have been made by amendment in the regular manner, but this method would not have served to satisfy the determined purposes of the leaders of that day.
The chief objections to the Constitution were the existence of a single legislative body, and a council of censors consisting of two men from each city and county in the State to hold office for seven years.
The function of the censors were of a most extraordinary character. The members were to meet annually, and inquire whether the Constitution had been kept inviolate; whether the legislative and executive branches had carefully functioned; whether taxes had been justly levied and collected, etc. A majority vote of their number was sufficient to determine every action, excepting the calling of a convention to revise the Constitution, which alone required the consent of two-thirds of the council.
It is believed that George Bryan and James Cannon were the authors of this unusual provision. Both were ardent patriots.
The Constitution fairly reflected the political opinions of those opposed to the English Parliament.
The office of Governor was swept away, and the Constitution of 1776 provided that the Supreme Executive Council should choose one of its number President, whose duties were those of the Chief Executive.
Every effort to secure a revision of the Constitution proved unavailing and public opinion waited impatiently for the first seven years to pass, in the hopes that a revision would then be possible. If the enemies of the Constitution were numerous and bitter, it had also many enthusiastic supporters.
The Council of Censors assembled, as the Constitution required, on November 13, 1783, and continuing in session nearly a year, adjourned finally September 25, 1784. Frederick A. Muhlenberg was elected President.
Various amendments were discussed and strong difference of opinion manifested, but in the address of the freemen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, at the close of their labors, they recommended a continuance of the frame of government.
They say, “if with heart and hand united, we will all combine to support the Constitution, and apply its injunction to the best use of society, we shall find it a source of the richest blessings. We would earnestly recommend this to you. Give it a fair and honest trial; and if after all, at the end of another seven years, it shall be found necessary or proper to introduce any changes, they may then be brought in, and established upon a full conviction of their usefulness, with harmony and good temper, without noise, tumult, or violence.”
A majority of the members favored amending the Constitution, so that the Legislature should consist of a house of representatives of 100 members and a legislative council of twenty-nine members; that the executive power be vested in a Governor with a veto power; that the Judges should be appointed by the Governor to serve during good behavior, with fixed salaries and that the Council of Censors should be abolished.
Twelve Councilors favored and nine opposed these amendments, a two-thirds vote could not be had. The majority issued an appeal, as did the minority. Then followed a pamphlet war on the action of the convention, lasting all summer. It was not, however, especially bitter.
On resuming its sessions the Council then assumed its rights under the Constitution, but could arrive at no definite conclusion, and finally resolved “that there does not appear to this Council an absolute necessity to call a convention to alter or explain or amend the Constitution.” This report was adopted by a vote of 14 to 8, a marked change in the opinion of some of the censors since their previous action.
This change was occasioned by the people. A petition signed by 18,000 persons had been sent to the Council of Censors, opposing all changes in the Constitution. Then, too, George Bryan had been elected from Philadelphia to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of a Conservative. Bryan was a radical of the radicals, and his election was sensed as an indication of the drift of public sentiment.
President Muhlenberg admitted early in the summer that the Conservatives were beaten, and attributed it to the “blind passion and mad party spirit of the common crowd.” General Joseph Reed thought their chief mistake was in presenting too many amendments. Bryan was severely attacked, and was characterized as the censor general of Pennsylvania.
In justification of their cause the censors simply issued an address to the people and then adjourned. They admitted that there were defects in the Constitution, but they could not agree on the changes. Even this address lacked unanimity, for twelve voted for it and nine opposed it. Thus the Constitution, which had been assailed so long, weathered the first storm and still remained unchanged.
The discontent with the Constitution did not die with the inaction of the censors. The old confederation was now expiring and the chaos was becoming darker than ever. Finally when all authority was gone, and the people had suffered enough for the lack of it, they were willing to adopt another constitution containing the principles of enduring life.
The movement that led to the ratification of the Federal Constitution by Pennsylvania gave the proponents of a new constitution the suggestion that a convention should be called to adopt another constitution for Pennsylvania.
The necessary steps were then taken, and the Legislature, acting upon petitions addressed to it, after many heated debates, reported the resolutions from the Committee of the Whole with favorable recommendations.
By this time it was clearly evident the majority of the people desired this in preference to a new Constitution made by the Council of Censors.
Furthermore, the Bill of Rights recognized the people as possessed of all the necessary powers in the premises. The report recommended a plan for the election of members to the proposed convention, and method of procedure. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 39 to 17.
The learned members of the Council of Censors did not agree; indeed, there was a strong and general feeling, especially among the most influential and intelligent, that the Constitution of 1776 was inadequate, and was still more so since the close of the war, when the situation was entirely changed.[changed.] On November 24, 1789, the convention met to revise the Constitution.
Indian Outrages in Berks County Began
November 14, 1755
The first violent outbreak by the Indians in Berks County, after the defeat of General Braddock in July, 1775, occurred in the vicinity of Deitrick[Deitrick] Six’s plantation, near what is now the village of Millersburg, in Bethel Township. This tragedy occurred November 14, 1755.
Conrad Weiser, who resided in what is now Womeldsdorf, frequently accompanied bands of friendly Indians on important missions to Philadelphia, but after many cruel murders had been committed upon the settlers, the inhabitants turned against Weiser, believing him to be protecting Indians who did not deserve it.
The redskins all looked alike to the sturdy settlers, who so frequently lost their own lives, or those of their dear ones, or suffered the destruction of their homes and barns at the hands of these treacherous savages.
There is no doubt of the loyalty of Colonel Weiser and his brave sons, who were ever on the alert to help others in distress or travel to the seat of government and plead the cause of the less fortunate.
Upon his return home from a trip to Philadelphia, while the trusted Chief Scarouady and his friendly Delaware Indians were still under the shelter of Weiser’s roof, his two sons, Philip and Frederic, just home from a scouting expedition, related the story of the terrible massacre, which they had received from the lips of those who felt the cruel blow, but escaped death at the hands of the Indians.
The story they related to their father was immediately sent by him to Governor Morris. The facts are of interest.
Six of the settlers were on the road going to Deitrick Six’s plantation when a party of Indians fired upon them. The frightened white men hurried toward a watchhouse, a half mile distant, but were ambushed before reaching their haven of refuge and three of the party were killed and scalped. A man named Ury shot an Indian through the heart and his body was dragged off by the savages, but it was found by the whites the next day, when a dead Indian lost his scalp.
After this attack the Indians divided themselves in two parties. The one prowling around the watchhouse overtook some settlers fleeing toward that place, when they killed three of them, making six of the inhabitants killed by the Indians within an hour’s time.
On the following night the Indians crept up in the darkness to the home of Thomas Bower, on Swatara Creek, pushed their guns through a window and killed a cobbler, who was at work repairing a shoe. They also set fire to Bower’s house before being driven away.
The Bower family sought refuge through the night in the home of Daniel Snyder, a neighbor, and returning to their home in the morning, they saw four skulking Indians running away, who had with them the scalps just taken from the heads of three children, two being yet alive. They also ran across the body of a woman who had just been killed, with a two-weeks old baby under her body, but unhurt.
Colonel Weiser dispatched a second letter the same day to Governor Morris in which he wrote:
“That night after my arrival from Philadelphia, Emanuel Carpenter and Simon Adam Kuhn, Esqr’s., came to my House and lodged with me. They acquainted me that a meeting was appointed of the people of Tulpenhacon and Heidelberg and adjacent places in Tulpenhacon Township at Benjamin Spicker’s early next morning. I made all the haste with the Indians I could, and gave them a letter to Thos. McKee, to furnish them with necessaries for their journey. Scarouady had no creature to ride on. I gave him one.
“Before I could get done with the Indians 3 or 4 Men came from Benja. Spickers to warn the Indians not to go that way, for the People were so enraged against all the Indians & would kill them without distinction. I went with them; so did the Gentlemen before named.
“When we came near Benjamin Spickers I saw about 400 or 500 men, and there was loud noise, I rode before, and in riding along the road and armed men on both Sides of the Road I heard some say, why must we be killed by the Indians and we not kill them? Why are our Hands so tied?
“I got the Indians to the House with much adoe, where I treated them with a small Dram, and so parted in Love and Friendship. Capt’n Diefenbach undertook to conduct them, with five other men, to the Susquehanna. After this a sort of a counsel of war was held by the officers present, the before named and other Freeholders.
“It was agreed that 150 men should be raised immediately to serve as out scouts, and as Guards at Certain Places under the Kittitany Hills for 40 days. That those so raised to have 2 Shillings a Day & 2 Pounds of Bread, 2 Pounds of Beaff and a Jill of Rum, and Powder and lead. Arms they must find themselves.
“This Scheme was signed by a good many Freeholders and read to the People. They cried out that so much for an Indian Scalp would they have, be they Friends or Enemies, from the Governor. I told them I had no such Power from the Governor nor Assembly. They began, some to Curse the Governor; some the Assembly; called me a Traitor of the Country who held with the Indians, and must have known this murder beforehand. I sat in the House by a Lowe window, some of my friends came to pull me away from it, telling me some of the people threatened to shoot me.
“I offered to go out to the People and either Pasefy them or make the King’s Proclamation: But those in the House with me would not let me go out. The cry was, The Land was betrayed and sold. The Common People from Lancaster (now Lebanon County) were the worst. The Wages they said was a Trifle and some Body pocketed the Rest, and they would resent it. Some Body had put it in their Head that I had it in my power to give them as much as I pleased. I was in Danger of being Shot to Death.
“In the mean Time a great smoke arose under Tulpenhacon Mountain, with the news following that the Indians had committed a murder on Mill Creek (a false alarm) and set fire to a Barn, most of the People Ran, and those that had Horses Rode off without any Order or Regulation. I then took my Horse and went Home, where I intend to stay and defend my own House as long as I can. The People of Tulpenhacon all fled; till about 6 or 7 miles from me some few remains. Another such attack will lay all the Country waste on the West side of Schuylkill.”
There is undoubted sarcasm in Colonel Weiser’s account of how the people fled upon the first faint rumor of an Indian attack, after they had made mob threats against him, yet the gravity of the situation cannot be questioned.
The principal inhabitants sent a petition to the Governor, November 24, in which they recited their distress and accurately stated the lack of order and discipline among the people. They believed a reward should be offered for Indian scalps.
Indian Shoots at Major Washington While
on Important Mission November
15, 1753
George Washington had several very narrow escapes from tragic death a long time before he led the Continental Army through the eight years of the Revolution, and on one occasion was actually shot at by a treacherous Indian guide.
Late in the year of 1753 Governor Dinwiddie dispatched Major Washington on an important mission to the Ohio River, in Pennsylvania, where he was to convene the Indian chiefs at Logstown, learn from them the designs and strength of the French; then proceed to the principal French post, present his credentials and in the name of his Britannic Majesty demand the object of their invasion.
He departed from Williamsburg, the seat of Government of Virginia, on October 31, 1753. The route he was to pursue was about 560 miles in great part over high and rugged mountains, and more than half of the way through the heart of the wilderness, where no traces of civilization as yet appeared.
He arrived at Wills Creek, November 15, when John Davidson, an Indian interpreter, and Jacob Vanbraam, a Dutchman, but acquainted with the French language, were employed to accompany him. He was also fortunate in securing the services of Christopher Gist, a surveyor and guide, who was always his companion on this mission.
At length they arrived at the forks of the Ohio, where Pittsburgh now stands. Washington was impressed with the advantages it afforded as a military post.
They hastened to Logstown, twenty miles below the forks, where Washington held conferences with Shingas, Lawmolach and Monakatuatha, the Half-King. The latter had been sent by several tribes to the headquarters of French, and he related to Washington the substance of the speech he made on that mission.
Washington made a speech to the chiefs, and gave them a belt of wampum. The Indians consulted and made a friendly reply and promised an escort as soon as their young warriors would return from hunting, but Washington could not wait and on November 30, his party set out, accompanied by four Indians only, Half-King being of the number.
The post of the French Commandant was 120 miles distant and they arrived there December 11.
M. de St. Pierre, the commandant, promised immediate attention to the letter from Governor Dinwiddie and provided for the comfort of Major Washington and his party. During the two days the French officers were framing an answer, Washington examined the fort, and made accurate description of its form and size.
Washington and Gist clad themselves in Indian dress and set out on foot, leaving the weak and miserable horses to transport the baggage as best they could.
The next day an adventure occurred which is well narrated by Mr. Gist in his diary:
“We rose early in the morning, and set out about two o clock, and got to the Murdering Town on the southeast fork of Beaver Creek. Here we met with an Indian, whom I thought I had seen at Joncaire’s, at Venango, when on our journey up to the French fort.
“This fellow called me by an Indian name, and pretended to be glad to see me. He asked us several questions, as, how we came to travel on foot, when we left Venango, where we parted with our horses, and when they would be there. Major Washington insisted on traveling by the nearest way to the Forks of the Allegheny. We asked the Indian if he could go with us and show us the nearest way. The Indian seemed very glad, and ready to go with us; upon which we set out, and the Indian took the Major’s pack.
“We traveled very brisk for eight or ten miles, when the Major’s feet grew very sore. The Major desired to encamp; upon which the Indian asked to carry his gun, but he refused. Then the Indian grew churlish, and pressed us to keep on, telling us there were Ottawa Indians in those woods, and they would scalp us if we lay out; but go to his cabin and we should be safe.
“I thought very ill of the fellow, but did not care to let the Major know I mistrusted him. But he soon mistrusted him as much as I did. The Indian said he could hear a gun from his cabin and steered up more northwardly. We grew uneasy and then he said two whoops might be heard from his cabin. We went two miles farther. Then the Major said he would stay at the next water.
“We desired the Indian to stop at the next water, but before we came to water, we came to a clear meadow. It was very light and snow was on the ground.
“The Indian made a stop and turned about. The Major saw him point his gun towards us and he fired. Said the Major, ‘Are you shot?’ ‘No,’ said I; upon which the Indian ran forward to a big standing light oak and began loading his gun, but we were soon with him. I would have killed him, but the Major would not suffer me. We let him charge his gun. We found he put in a ball; then we took care of him. Either the Major or I always stood by the guns. We made him make a fire for us by a little run, as if we intended to sleep there.”
The Indian was sent ahead to his cabin and Washington and Gist traveled all night, reaching Piny Creek in the morning.
Whether it was the intention of the Indian to kill either of them can only be conjectured. The circumstances were extremely suspicious. Major Washington hints at this incident in his journal.
The next night, at dusk, the travelers came to the Allegheny River, a little above Shannopino, where they expected to cross over on the ice. In that they were disappointed, the river being frozen only a few yards on each side, and a great body of broken ice driving rapidly down the current.
There was no way of getting over the river but on a raft, which they set about to build with the aid of but one poor hatchet. They worked hard all day and finished the raft just after sundown. They launched their raft, got aboard and pushed off. But before they got to midstream they got caught in an ice jam. Washington set his pole in an effort to stop the raft, but the current threw the raft against his pole with much violence and he was hurled out into ten feet of water. He fortunately saved himself by grabbing hold of a raft log, and was assisted aboard by his companions, but in spite of all their efforts they could not get the raft to either shore, but were obliged to land on a small island and encamp for the night.
Mr. Gist’s hands and feet were frozen and their sufferings through the night were extreme. The ice had formed during the night of sufficient thickness to bear their weight, and they crossed over without accident, and the same day traveled about ten miles, reaching a trading post[trading post] established by John Frazier, at Turtle Creek, near the spot where eighteen months afterward was fought the memorable battle of the Monongahela.
Anxious to hasten back and report to Governor Dinwiddie the result of his mission, Major Washington and Mr. Gist recrossed the Allegheny Mountains to Gist’s house on Wills Creek and thence Washington proceeded with dispatch to Williamsburg, where he arrived on January 16, 1754, having been absent eleven weeks.
John Binns, English Political Prisoner,
American Politician and Editor, Died
November 16, 1860
John Binns was one of the most influential citizens of the State during the quarter century of which the War of 1812 might be considered the central period. He was a politician, but more than all else an editor, who was a fearless and trenchant writer.
Binns had experienced a stormy life in England before he came to America. He was born December 22, 1772, in the city of Dublin, Ireland, and received a fair education at an English school.
April, 1794, he went to London and soon became a member of the London Corresponding Society, an event which gave much color to his future life. This society was the leading opposition to the Crown and many of its members were arrested and tried for high treason. Binns was an officer and most active member, and was soon in trouble, being arrested, March 11, 1796, while making an address in Birmingham, and imprisoned in “The Dungeon,” charged with “delivering seditious and inflammatory lectures.”
Binns was mixed up in the movement of the United Irishmen to have France make an invasion of Ireland. He was arrested four times for the same offense, and was sentenced to Clerkwell Prison. Soon as he was liberated, he was again arrested for high treason, and sent to the Tower of London, where he was confined under a strict watch.
After a number of trials he was freed, only to be again arrested, and confined in Gloucester prison, where he was ill-treated. On his liberation he embarked, July 1, 1801, for the United States and landed in Baltimore September 1.
Upon his arrival at Baltimore, he hired three wagons, loaded them with his personal effects, and set out, on foot to accompany them to Northumberland, where he proposed to reside. At Harrisburg he hired a boat, and helped push it up the Susquehanna. At Northumberland he joined Dr. Joseph Priestley and Judge Thomas Cooper, two former Englishmen, who had sought refuge there.
Dr. Priestley lived an ideal life of peace and usefulness in Northumberland, but Dr. Cooper, the most learned man of his time, a Judge, president of two different colleges, and renowned chemist, was so violent in his politics that he was imprisoned for a libel on President John Adams.
On July 4, 1802, John Binns delivered an oration, which was printed in the Northumberland Gazette, the only paper published beyond Harrisburg, in the State, at that time. The many criticisms of this oration led to a lengthy newspaper controversy, and finally resulted in John Binns establishing at Northumberland the Republican Argus, which soon became one of the best and most widely known papers in Pennsylvania.
John Binns, from that date and for many years thereafter, became a dominant factor in politics. About this time he fought a duel, near Milton, with a man from Williamsport, named Samuel Stewart, which was one of the last duels fought on Pennsylvania soil.
In January, 1807, he was urged by the influential Democrats to remove from Northumberland to Philadelphia and to establish a newspaper there. The Aurora had lost its punch; William J. Duane was losing his grip as a leader, and Binns’ power and influence were in the ascendent.
Binns yielded to these solicitations and the first number of the Democratic Press appeared in Philadelphia March 27, 1807. He was advised against using the world “Democratic” in his paper’s title, and later took much satisfaction in having started the first paper anywhere published under the name. He claimed the title of his paper led to the change of the party name to “Democratic.”
Binns was an ardent friend and admirer of Simon Snyder, then Speaker of the House of Representatives. Governor McKean defeated Snyder, “the Pennsylvania Dutchman,” but the latter was again returned to the House and elected Speaker.
Snyder was again nominated in 1808. During this campaign Binns wrote a series of letters, over the signature of “One of the People,” addressed to Governor McKean, which were published in all the Democratic newspapers of the State, and also in pamphlets.
Binns had no sooner arrived in Philadelphia than he had a clash with Dr. Michael Leib, who had been the autocratic political leader, but for some years with lessening power.
The Democratic Press openly opposed Dr. Leib’s candidacy for re-election to the General Assembly, claiming the doctor was the cause of the dissensions among the Republican Party. Leib was elected, but by a much reduced majority than the other Republican candidate received, and Duane was defeated for the Senate. The Aurora groaned aloud at this “first Federal triumph” since Jefferson’s election.
From its first issue Binn’s paper was highly successful. It soon was published daily. Its circulation increased rapidly and in the same proportion the Aurora began to lose subscribers.
The power of Binns was increased in the election of Simon Snyder as Governor in 1808. Duane and Leib were, at heart, opposed to Snyder, but could not stem the tide and supported him.
Dr. Leib was elected to the United States Senate in 1809, but Duane was not pleased with Governor Snyder. The Press defended him. The Aurora criticized his conduct and was soon in opposition in all that he did. By August the Aurora threatened the Governor with impeachment, and in October announced he should never again be Governor.
Binns called the Aurora and its supporters “The Philadelphia Junto,” and they soon joined with the Federalists. Binns already was in favor of a war with England, and he was active in pledging support to the Administration.
In 1811, Governor Snyder was overwhelmingly re-elected, and by 1812 Binns was even stronger as a leader, possibly increased by his war enthusiasm. The Democratic Press published strong articles on the war, while the Aurora was silent.
In fall of 1813 the Democrats were successful, but in 1814, though Snyder was elected for a third term by 20,000 votes over Wayne, and the State Legislature was strongly Democratic, yet the Federalists were largely successful in Philadelphia.
Leib was appointed postmaster at Philadelphia in February, 1814, but the opposition was too strong and he was removed, and passed off the political stage. Duane, who was supreme for a time, antagonized large numbers of his party, and finally yielded to Binns, who completely took from him his power.
Binns was an aid on the staff of Governor Snyder, with rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was actively engaged during the War of 1812–14.
Governor Snyder always remained a close and intimate friend of Binns, and while he was in office, Binns exercised great power, but only maintained his sway a few years after Snyder’s last term.
Binns bitterly opposed Jackson for President. He issued the famous coffin handbills in 1828, and excited thereby such opposition that his house was mobbed, Binns escaping by the roof.
He was appointed an alderman by Governor Hiester in 1822, and in 1829 the publication of the Democratic Press ceased.
John Binns died November 16, 1860.
Administration of Sir William Keith as
Deputy-Governor. He Died
November 17, 1749
During the administration of Sir William Keith, Deputy-Governor of the Province, July, 1718, to July, 1726, a difficulty arose between the Southern Indians upon the Shenandoah, and those resident upon the Susquehanna in the Province of Pennsylvania, respecting the limits of their hunting grounds. Hostilities between them seemed imminent. It was necessary to settle these difficulties amicably or the peace of the Province was seriously threatened.
To avert this, says Proud, Governor Keith paid a visit to the Governor of Virginia, with whom he framed a convention, confining the Indians on the North and South of the Potomac to their respective side of that river. A conference was held with the Pennsylvania Indians and the Five Nations, at Conestoga, July 6, 1721, when this convention was fully ratified.
Governor Keith made this visit in state. He was attended by seventy horsemen, many of them were armed. He was welcomed upon his return at the upper ferry on the Schuylkill, by Mayor William Fishbourne and the Aldermen of Philadelphia, accompanied by two hundred of the most respectable citizens, who conducted him through the streets after the manner of a hero returned from a conquest.
Trouble over the boundary arose when the Governor of Maryland proposed making a survey on the Susquehanna, within the limits of the present York County.
Governor Keith resolved to resist this attempt by force, and ordered out a militia company from New Castle. The Provincial Council discouraged this show of violence.
The Indians became alarmed at the encroachments of the Marylanders and conveyed to Governor Keith a large tract of land, that he might have a better title to resist them. This land was given for the use of Springett Penn, the grandson of William Penn, and was afterwards known by the name of Springettsbury Manor.
The fears of the Province were soon after awakened by a quarrel between two brothers named Cartlidge and an Indian near Conestoga, in which the Indian was killed, with many evidences of cruelty. The known principles of revenge professed by the Indians gave reason to apprehend severe retaliation. Policy and justice required a rigid inquiry and punishment of the murderers.
Governor Keith took prompt measures for their apprehension and the Assembly ordered a coroner’s inquest, though the body had been buried two months, and the arrest of the Cartlidge brothers.
Messengers were dispatched to the Five Nations to deprecate hostilities, and, to prevent further irregularities, the prohibition of sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians was re-enacted, with additional penalties.
The Indians invited Governor Keith and the governors of Virginia, New York, and the New England colonies, to meet with them in council at Albany, where with great magnanimity, the Indians pardoned the offense of the Cartlidges, and requested they might be discharged without further punishment. The address of the Indian sachem is worth repeating:
“The great King of the Five Nations is sorry for the death of the Indian that was killed, for he was of his own flesh and blood; he believes the Governor is also sorry; but, now that it is done, there is no help for it, and he desires that Cartlidge may not be put to death, nor that he should be spared for a time and afterwards executed; one life is enough to be lost; there should not two die. The King’s heart is good to the Governor, and all the English.”
Governor Keith was attended on this journey to Albany by Messrs. Hill, Norris, and Hamilton, of his Council.
A considerable part of the emigration to the colonies was composed of servants, who were of two classes. The first and the larger part, were poor and oppressed in the land of their nativity, sometimes the victims of political changes or religious intolerance, who submitted to temporary servitude, as a price of freedom, plenty and peace. The second, vagrants and felons, the dregs of the British populace, who were cast by the mother country upon her colonies, with the most selfish disregard of the feelings she outraged.
As early as 1682 the Council proposed to prohibit convicts from the province, but as none had entered and this was only prospective, no law was enacted. Now the Council did enact such a law, by placing a duty of five pounds upon every convicted felon brought into the Province, and the importer was also required to give surety for the good behavior of the convict for one year.
In the year 1722 there were commercial embarrassments caused by the deficiency of the circulating medium. Governor Keith proposed to overcome this difficulty by the introduction of paper money. The Assembly moved with caution, for they had full knowledge of the mistakes of the colonies, and issued only £15,000 on favorable terms to keep up their credit. This act was passed March 2, 1723. The emission proved of advantage but was insufficient, so towards the end of the year £30,000 more were emitted on the same terms.
Governor Keith, in espousing this popular cause, pleased the Assembly but incurred the displeasure of the Proprietary party and its leader, James Logan. Complications arose which eventuated in the triumph of Logan and the deposition of Keith, who was decidedly the most successful of the Proprietary Governors.
Franklin said of Keith, that “he differed from the great body of the people whom he governed, in religion and manners, yet he acquired their esteem and confidence. If he sought popularity, he promoted the public happiness; and his courage in resisting the demands of the family may be ascribed to a higher motive than private interest. The conduct of the Assembly toward him was neither honorable nor polite; for his sins against his principles were virtues to the people, with whom he was deservedly a favorite; and the House should have given him substantial marks of their gratitude as would have tempted his successors to walk in his steps. But fear of further offence to the Proprietary family, the influence of Logan, and a quarrel between the Governor and Lloyd, turned their attention from him to his successor.”
After his removal, Sir William Keith resided in the Province, and was elected to the Assembly, but he manifested a most unjustifiable and malicious spirit, and caused dissensions in the administration of his successor. His power and influence rapidly waned.
In 1729 he returned to England, where, it is sad to record, he died in obscurity, in London, November 17, 1749.
“It may be very little known,” says Watson, “that he who moved with so much excitement and as our Governor in 1726, should at last fall into such neglect, as to leave his widow among us unnoticed and almost forgotten! She lived and died in a small wooden house on Third Street, between High and Mulberry. There, much pinched for subsistence, she eked out her existence with an old female, declining all intercourse with society or with her neighbors. The house itself was burnt in 1786.”
Lady Ann Keith died July 31, 1740, aged 65 years, and lies entombed at Christ Church graveyard.
Governor Joseph Hiester, Distinguished
Revolutionary Officer and Statesman,
Born November 18, 1872
In the early settlement of that part of Pennsylvania which is now included within the limits of Berks County a large portion of the population was drawn from those parts of Germany bordering on or near the River Rhine.
Among these sturdy emigrants were three brothers, John, Joseph and Daniel Hiester.
John, the eldest, emigrated in 1732, and was followed in 1737 by Joseph and Daniel, who sailed in that year in the ship St. Andrew from Rotterdam.
These three brothers were sons of John and Catherine Hiester and their birthplace was the village of Elcoff in the county of Wittgenstein, in the province of Westphalia, Prussia. The father, John Hiester, was born in January, 1708.
The three brothers first settled in Goshenhoppen, then Philadelphia, now Montgomery County. Soon after the arrival of Joseph and Daniel, they purchased of the Proprietary Government a tract of several thousand acres in Bern Township, now Berks County.
Here John and Joseph settled, and the Hiester family in America are their descendants. Here was born a patriot of the Revolution, distinguished citizen and statesman, who afterwards became a governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Joseph Hiester, son of John Hiester, was born in Bern Township, November 18, 1752.
He spent his early days on the farm and in the intervals of the routine from labor, Joseph received the rudiments of an English and German education under the supervision of the pastor of Bern Reformed Church.
In 1771, in his nineteenth year, he married Elizabeth Whitman, daughter of Adam Whitman, of Reading, to which place he soon removed, and went into the mercantile business with his father-in-law.
Joseph Hiester was an ardent Whig in politics and took an aggressive part in espousing the cause of the Revolution.
As a representative of that party he was chosen a member of the Pennsylvania Conference, which met in Philadelphia, June 18, 1776, and which in reality assumed the government of the Province, called a convention to frame a new constitution, gave instructions for the guidance of its representatives in Congress, and authorized the calling out of troops for the Continental Army. In all these proceedings he was a warm supporter of the popular cause.
He was then a captain of militia, and no sooner had the conference adjourned, than he hastened home and aroused the young men of Reading and vicinity to the importance of enlisting in the cause of American independence, at that time but feebly supported.
Joseph Hiester called together, by beat of drum, his fellow-townsmen, to take into consideration the alarming state and gloomy prospects of their country. He explained to them the perilous situation of General Washington in New Jersey, and urged them to enlist and march to his support.
He was heard with attention and respect, and his proposition was kindly received. He then laid forty dollars on the drum-head and said: “I will give this sum as a bounty, and the appointment of a sergeant to the first man who will subscribe to the articles of association to form a volunteer company to march forthwith and join the Commander-in-Chief; and I will also pledge myself to furnish the company with blankets and necessary funds for their equipment, and on the march!”
This promise he honorably and faithfully fulfilled.
Matthias Babb stepped forward, signed the article, and took the money from the drumhead. His example, and the further advancement of smaller sums of money, induced twenty men that evening to subscribe to the articles of association. In ten days Captain Joseph Hiester had enrolled a company of eighty men.
The company became a part of the Flying Camp, but soon Captain Hiester was induced to extend his efforts, and a battalion was shortly obtained. He could have been made their colonel but declined to be even a major, so attached was he to his original company.
When his command reached Elizabethtown, N. J., it was learned General Washington had moved to Long Island. Captain Hiester used his best endeavor to induce the men to advance, as they had enlisted only for Pennsylvania service, and following his patriotic lead, they marched to join Washington.
The gallant captain little knew the hard fate that was to be his. In the battle of Long Island he was taken prisoner, with most of his men, and confined in the notorious prison-ship, Jersey, where they were subjected to every indignity which refined cruelty could invent.
After seven months’ imprisonment Captain Hiester was exchanged, and returned in time to take part in the battle of Germantown, where he received a wound in the head.
In the varied fortunes of the patriot army he continued to share until the close of the war.
He was appointed by the Supreme Executive Council one of the commissioners of exchange, April 5, 1779, and on October 21, following, one of the committee to seize the personal effects of traitors.
He was chosen to the General Assembly in 1780, and served almost continuously from that date until 1790.
He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the Federal Constitution in 1787, and in 1789, he was a member of the convention which framed the State Constitution of 1790. He was chosen a presidential elector in 1792, and again in 1796.
He served in the fifth to eighth Congress, and again in the fifteenth and sixteenth Congresses, and during his last term was elected Governor of Pennsylvania by the Federalists, defeating Governor William Findlay, in a campaign which for personal vituperation has never been equalled in Pennsylvania.
Governor Hiester’s administration was most successful, but he would not allow himself to be nominated for a second term.
Returning to Reading, he retired to private life, and died there June 10, 1832.
President Lincoln Delivered Address at Dedication
of the National Cemetery at
Gettysburg, November 19, 1863
Abraham Lincoln made many notable speeches, the most prominent of which, probably, were those delivered in his historic debates with Stephen A. Douglas, the “Little Giant.”
On his way from his home in Springfield to Washington for his inauguration he made a number of speeches, the most notable of which was delivered in Philadelphia in Independence Hall. But the most famous of all his addresses as President was delivered November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery on the battlefield of Gettysburg.
President Lincoln left Washington at noon on Wednesday, November 18, 1863. There were four passenger coaches, in which were seated the President, members of his Cabinet, several foreign ministers, the private secretaries of the President, officers of the Army and Navy, a military detail serving as a guard, and newspaper correspondents. This special train pulled into the town of Gettysburg about dark of that day.
Mr. Lincoln passed the evening and night in the home of David Wills, who was the special representative of Governor Andrew G. Curtin and the most active agent in the establishment of the Soldiers’ Cemetery.
Arnold, in his “History of Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery,” asserts that the President while on his way from the White House to the battlefield was notified that he would be expected to make some remarks, and that asking for some paper a rough sheet of foolscap was handed to him. Retiring to a seat by himself, with a pencil be wrote the address.
Mrs. Andrews in her beautiful story entitled “The Perfect Tribute” says, “The President appealed to Secretary Seward for the brown paper he had just removed from a package of books: ‘May I have this to do a little writing?’ and then with a stump of a pencil labored for hours over his speech.”
Contrary to those statements, General James B. Fry, who was present in the car as one of the escort, says:
“I have no recollection of seeing him writing or even reading his speech during the journey; in fact, there was hardly any opportunity for him to read or write.”
That opinion is shared by no less an authority than Nicolay, the senior of the President’s private secretaries, who in an interesting and highly valuable paper on the Gettysburg address, says:
“There is neither record, evidence, nor well-founded tradition that Mr. Lincoln did any writing or made any notes on the journey between Washington and Gettysburg. The many interruptions incident to the journey, together with the rocking and jolting of the train, made writing virtually impossible.”
Morory in his “History of the United States for Schools,” says: “There is conclusive evidence that the words of the address were not written out until after the presidential party had arrived on the ground”; and in an appendix it is stated:
“The following account of how the address was written was received directly from the lips of ex-Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, who was present on the occasion and knew whereof he affirmed. Governor Curtin said that after the arrival of the party from Washington, while the President and his Cabinet, Edward Everett, the orator of the day, Governor Curtin, and others were sitting in the parlor of the hotel, the President remarked that he understood that the committee expected him to say something. He would, therefore, if they would excuse him, retire to the next room and see if he could write out something.”
The Hon. Edward McPherson, of Gettysburg, for many years Clerk of the House of Representatives and father of the present Judge Hon. Donald P. McPherson, of Adams County, said in 1875, that after Lincoln had retired to his room on the night of the 18th he sent for his host and “inquired the order of exercises for the next day and begun to put in writing what he called some stray thoughts to utter on the morrow.” Mr. Wills always believed the address was written in his house and said in 1893, as he had earlier, that the President read “from the same paper on which I had seen him writing it the night before.”
Noah Brooks, a newspaper correspondent at Washington during the war, who was on terms of friendly intimacy, declared that a few days prior to November 19, 1863, Lincoln told him that Mr. Everett had kindly sent him a copy of his oration in order that the same ground might not be gone over by both. The President added, “There is no danger that I shall; my speech is all blocked out—it is very short.”
Ward H. Lamon, a personal friend and chief marshal of the ceremonies at Gettysburg, in his “Recollections of Abraham Lincoln,” states that Mr, Lincoln read to him, a day or two before the dedication, what he claims to have been in substance, if not in exact words, what was afterward printed in his famous Gettysburg speech.
Senator Simon Cameron, also asserted, in a newspaper interview, that he had seen a draft of the address in the White House before the President left Washington.
Such are the divergent testimonies concerning the preparation of the Address. Fortunately there exists documentary evidence to substantiate the statements of Noah Brooks, Ward H. Lamon and Senator Cameron and to establish conclusively that the address was the outcome of deliberation and careful thought.
That is further emphasized in the wording of the formal invitation to the President, which was written on November 2, and specifically stated that “it is the desire that you as Chief Executive of the Nation formally set apart these grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks.”
The address has been so long and so generously accepted as the highest expression of American oratory, that it is difficult to realize that it ever had less appreciation than now. The testimonies of those who heard the address delivered differ widely as to the reception given and as to the impression it made.
Bates in his “History of the Battle of Gettysburg,” in 1875, says: “Its delivery was more solemn and impressive than is possible to conceive from its perusal.”
Arnold says: “Before the last sentence was completed, a thrill of feeling like an electric spark pervaded the crowd. As he closed, and the tears and sobs and cheers which expressed the emotions of the people subsided, he turned to Everett and, grasping his hand, said, ‘I congratulate you on your success.’ The orator gratefully replied, 'Ah! Mr. President, how gladly would I exchange all my hundred pages to have been the author of your twenty lines’.” Major Nickerson, Robert Miller and many others commented on a similar vein.
The reports of the address, published November 20, 1863, in the Public Ledger, the North American, the Press, and the Bulletin, of Philadelphia, were furnished by the Associated Press, the text is identical in each. But many variations of this address are to be found even today.
Not until the war itself had ended and the great leader had fallen did the Nation realize that this speech had given to Gettysburg another claim to immortality and to American eloquence its highest glory.
The Seneca Chief Hiokatoo, “Most Cruel
Human Being,” Died November
20, 1811
The second husband of Mary Jemison, the celebrated Indian captive known as “The White Woman of the Genesee” was Chief Hiokatoo, who she describes as the most cruel human being of whom we have any authentic record.
When Mary Jemison was an old woman she related the thrilling narrative of her long life among the Indians. Nothing told by the venerable captive was more thrilling than the life of Hiokatoo, also known as Gardow.
She says: “He was an old man when I first saw him, but he was by no means enervated. During the nearly fifty years that I lived with him, I received, according to Indian customs, all the kindness and attention that was my due as his wife. Although war was his trade from youth till old age and decrepitude[decrepitude] stopped his career, he uniformly treated me with tenderness, and never offered an insult.
“I have frequently heard him repeat the history of his life from his childhood; and when he came to that part which related to his actions, his bravery and his valor in war; when he spoke of the ambush, the combat, the spoiling of his enemies and the sacrifice of the victims, his nerves seemed strung with youthful ardor. The warmth of the able warrior seemed to animate his frame and to produce the heated gestures he had practiced in middle age. He was a man of tender feelings to his friends, ready and willing to assist them in distress. Yet, as a warrior, his cruelties to his enemies perhaps were unparalleled, and will not admit of a word of palliation.
“Hiokatoo was born in one of the tribes of the Six Nations that inhabited the banks of the West Branch of the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania. He belonged to a tribe of the Seneca nation. He was a cousin to Farmer’s Brother, a chief who has been justly celebrated for his worth. Their mothers were sisters, and it was through the influence of Farmer’s Brother that I became the wife of Hiokatoo.
“In early life Hiokatoo showed signs of thirst for blood by attending only to the art of war, in the use of the tomahawk and scalping knife and in practicing cruelties upon everything that chanced to fall into his hands which was susceptible of pain. In that way he learned to use his implements of war effectually and at the same time blunted all those fine feelings and tender sympathies that are naturally excited by seeing or hearing a fellow being in distress.
“He could inflict the most excruciating tortures upon his enemies and prided himself upon his fortitude in having performed the most barbarous ceremonies and tortures without the least degree of pity or remorse. Thus qualified, when very young he was initiated into scenes of carnage by being engaged in the wars that prevailed among the Indian tribes.”
In 1731 he was appointed a runner and assisted in collecting an army to go against the Catawba, Cherokee and other Southern Indians. In one great battle of this war the Northern Indians ambushed their enemies and in two days massacred 1200 of their Southern enemies.
During the French and Indian War Hiokatoo was in every battle that was fought along the Susquehanna and Ohio Rivers. At Braddock’s defeat he took two white prisoners and burned them alive in a fire of his own kindling.
Mary Jemison says he participated in the battle at Fort Freeland, on Warrior Run, Northumberland County, July 28, 1779. She says:
“Hiokatoo was in command of the 300 Seneca Indians, and that Captain John MacDonald commanded more than one hundred British regulars. Hiokatoo, with the help of a few Indians, tomahawked every wounded American while earnestly begging with uplifted hands for quarter.”
In an expedition against Cherry Valley, N. Y., Hiokatoo was second in command. This force of hundreds of Indians was determined upon the total destruction of the whites.
Besides these instances, he was in a number of parties during the Revolution, where he ever acted a conspicuous part.
When Tory Colonel John Butler and Chief Joe Brant were making their terrible incursions against the settlers in lower New York and Pennsylvania they frequently resided with Chief Hiokatoo and his wife, Mary Jemison, at their home in the German Flats.
During General Sullivan’s expedition against the Indians in the summer of 1779, Hiokatoo was most active in his attempt to frustrate his plans. During this march Lieutenant Thomas Boyd was captured by the Indians in ambush. While Chief Little Beard was in command at Boyd’s cruel execution, Hiokatoo was a close second.
Hiokatoo was one of the leading actors in the diabolical scene following the capture of Colonel William Crawford, July, 1782, when he was put to death after the most inhuman barbarities were inflicted upon him.
The cruel Indian chief was assisted in these fiendish scenes by Simon Girty, the white savage renegade and outlaw Tory. Hiokatoo was the leading chief in the battle which destroyed Colonel Crawford’s command and personally directed the colonel’s execution. He painted Dr. Knight’s face black with his own hands and had him conducted to the place where he was to be executed. Dr. Knight escaped during the night and was able to reach his home and give the horrid details of Crawford’s execution.
Chief Hiokatoo served in seventeen campaigns during the period of the Revolution, until his death, which occurred on November 20, 1811, at the advanced age of 103 years.
Hiokatoo was about six feet four inches tall, large boned and rather inclined to leanness. He was very powerful and active for a man of his unusual size, and his wife said of him that he never found an Indian who could keep up with him in a race or throw him wrestling.
His eye was quick and penetrating and his voice was so harsh and powerful that amongst the Indians it always commanded attention. His health was uniformly good, and he was never confined by illness until attacked with tuberculosis when quite 100 years of age.
During his married life as the husband of the White Woman of the Genesee he was the father of four daughters and two sons. The elder of the two sons, John, killed his half-brother, Thomas, in a family feud which had existed between them since John was born, although Thomas was a fine character and John dissolute.
John a few years later, May, 1812, killed his own brother, Jesse, in a drunken frenzy, inflicting no less than eighteen wounds with a knife, each so deep that it would have been fatal. Jesse was twenty-seven years old and had been more like his mother than the other children. He shunned the Indian frolics, dressed and acted more like a white man and was sober and industrious.
Thus we see the cruelty of old Chief Hiokatoo inherited by his own son and inflicted upon his own blood in a most fiendish manner.
Delegates to the Constitutional Convention
Chosen November 21, 1789
On November 5, 1788, General Thomas Mifflin succeeded Dr. Benjamin Franklin as president of the Supreme Executive Council. Dr. Franklin was now eighty-two years old and desired to be relieved of so exacting a responsibility and declined the re-election, which was assured him. At the same time George Ross, of Lancaster, was elected vice president.
The first election for electors of President and Vice President of the United States, under the new Constitution was held January 7, 1789. The Federal ticket was successful. The ten votes of Pennsylvania were given to General George Washington as President, and eight votes for John Adams, and two for John Hancock, for Vice President.
The National Government, feeble at first, had no buildings and no home. During seven years of Washington’s term as President the capital was at Philadelphia. Congress met at Sixth and Chestnut Streets. The Supreme Court met at Fifth and Chestnut Streets. The President lived on Market Street below Sixth Street. The Government of the United States has never paid the rent for these public buildings and in its infancy and weakness, Pennsylvania gave our National Government a home without compensation therefor.
The Constitution of Pennsylvania as adopted in 1776, had long since proved inadequate for the requirements of a useful and effective government, and its revision was demanded. The Assembly, March 24, 1789, adopted resolutions recommending the election of delegates to form a new Constitution. The Supreme Executive Council refused to promulgate this action of the Assembly. In September following the Assembly adopted resolutions for calling a convention.
At the election in October delegates were chosen and on November 21, 1789, the convention assembled in Philadelphia, and organized with the election of General Thomas Mifflin, Chief Executive of the State, as President of the convention. The sessions of the convention were long and tedious, and an adjournment was had for a time in 1790, but their labors were concluded, and the new Constitution adopted September 2, 1790.
The most radical changes were made in the executive and legislative branches of the Government. The Assembly ceased to have the sole right to make laws, a Senate being created. The Supreme Executive Council was abolished. A Governor was directed to be elected, to whom the administration of affairs was to be intrusted.
The former judicial system was continued, excepting that the Judges of the higher courts were to be appointed during good behavior instead of for seven years. The Bill of Rights re-enacted the old provincial provision copied into the first Constitution respecting freedom of worship, rights of conscience and exemptions from compulsory contribution for the support of any ministry.
The recognition of God and of a future state of rewards and punishments was still demanded of all holding office, but a belief in the divine inspiration of the Old and New Testaments was not included. The Council of Censors ceased to have authority, and Pennsylvania conformed in all important matters to the system upon which the new Federal Government was to be administered.
The first election held in Pennsylvania under the new Constitution of the Commonwealth—that of 1790—resulted in the election of General Thomas Mifflin, then president of the Supreme Executive Council, who had presided at the forming of the new instrument. Mifflin had little or no opposition. His election was evident from the start, for there were no real issues. The result turned chiefly on his better-known personal qualities. Parties had not yet become crystallized with definite issues.
General Arthur St. Clair, his opponent, was highly esteemed as a citizen and brilliant soldier, but the popularity of Mifflin carried him in triumph, and for three terms he was chosen to the chief magistracy of Pennsylvania. His success was his own; he builded his own house.
Governor Mifflin’s chief political adviser was Alexander J. Dallas, who was appointed to the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth. That was a wise selection. Dallas was young, but brilliant and deeply interested in politics. He knew the leading men of the State and maintained a close relationship with them.
With the new Constitution functioning, the course of legislation turned in various channels. The promotion of internal improvements which have since become so important in Pennsylvania, and other enterprises of a less public character, soon demanded the attention of the General Assembly.
One of the first measures was that urged by the Society for the Improvement of Roads and Canals, and which contemplated the construction of highways and artificial waterways at the expense of the State. This suggestion aroused such a storm of opposition that the Legislature was compelled to reject the original proposition and to pass bills providing only partial and doubtful encouragement for their establishment by private enterprise.
A long and valuable report was made February 19, 1791, which embodied the results of examinations made previously. The committee reported that the Delaware River could be made an important channel for the trade of New York by the construction of a portage canal of nineteen miles; that a safe boat and raft navigation might be made to the northern boundary of the State for £25,000. They gave an estimate of the grain which was brought down the Susquehanna and the Juniata and they reported on the probable trade along the Allegheny River and how it could be increased by canals at certain places.
They recommended that the Governor should issue a proclamation inviting proposals for building canals and locks in and near the waters of the Tulpehocken and Quittapahilla; for a canal from Frankstown to Poplar Run, and for clearing the Susquehanna from Wright’s Ferry to Havre de Grace. They also wanted proposals for a turnpike from Philadelphia through Lancaster to the Susquehanna and for other roads throughout the State.
A bill was passed April 6, 1792, and in August Governor Mifflin apprised the Legislature that he had made contracts for the improvements of certain streams, but that “several propositions had not yet met with persons willing to undertake the specified work.”
During the year 1793 the Bank of Pennsylvania was incorporated by the Legislature, the opinion being expressed that it would “promote the regular, permanent and successful operations of the finances of the State and be productive of great benefit to trade and industry in general.”
The State subscribed for one-third of the entire stock and branches were established at Lancaster, Harrisburg, Reading, Easton and Pittsburgh. These were discontinued in 1810; in 1843 the State sold its stock, and with the great financial crisis of 1857 the Bank of Pennsylvania sank in ruin.
Joe Disberry, Remarkable Thief, First
Arrested November 22, 1783
About the close of the Revolutionary War a notorious character named Disberry lived between Selinsgrove and Sunbury. He was possessed of great physical strength and had few superiors in running, jumping and skating. But in thieving and lying he was considered a match for the prince of darkness himself.
So bold was he that, according to reminiscences preserved by early settlers, he was known to enter the kitchen of a dwelling when the family were in bed, start up a fire, cook a meal and eat at his leisure. If disturbed in this agreeable occupation he relied on his swiftness of foot to escape.
At length Joe became so notorious on account of his thieving propensities that the whole settlement was up in arms against him, and he was finally arrested November 22, 1783, and imprisoned in the jail at Sunbury. But as the jail—which was the first one built in Northumberland County—was not secure he quickly escaped, and Sheriff Antes offered a reward for his apprehension.
On another occasion Disberry took refuge on the “Isle of Que” and concealed himself in a thicket of bushes, where he fancied himself secure. He might have remained undiscovered and escaped but for his inordinate love of perpetrating jokes.
Lying on the watch near the road cut through the thicket Joe heard the footsteps[footsteps] of a horse and, slyly peeping from his covert, espied the Sheriff’s wife approaching on horseback. He at once stepped into the road and, pulling off his hat, made a polite bow, when he suddenly disappeared in the bushes. The lady hurried to Selinsgrove and gave the alarm.
A party headed by George Kremer was immediately formed and went to the island in pursuit of Joe. Guided by the lady’s instructions, Kremer went to the spot and soon had the culprit in custody. He was taken back to jail, tried and sentenced, and his sentence is one of the strangest found in the annals of criminal history of Pennsylvania.
In the Quarter Sessions docket of Northumberland County the record shows that Joe Disberry was arraigned on the charge of felony, tried and found guilty. The jury was composed as follows: Peter Hosterman, Adam Grove, George Shaffer, Philip Frick, John Harrison, Michael Grove, William Clark, Adam Christ, Robert Irwin, Paul Baldy, John Shaffer, Alexander McGrady. The sentence of the Court, which still stands out boldly on the record, was as follows:
“Judgment that the said Joseph Disberry receive thirty-nine lashes between the hours of 8 and 9 o’clock tomorrow; to stand in the pillory one hour; to have his ears cut off and nailed to the post; to return the property stolen or the value thereof; remain in prison three months; pay a fine of £30 to the honorable the president of this State for the support of the Government, and stand convicted until fine, fees, etc., are paid.”
This remarkable sentence shows the estimate that was put on Joe as a criminal. The whipping post and pillory stood in the public square in Sunbury.
Colonel John Henry Antes was the Sheriff at that time and directed the whipping, if he did not do it himself.
There is no record to show who did the ear chopping, but as the surgical operation fell to the Sheriff also, it is probable that he did it.
John Buyers was the president of the court at that time, assisted by associates, and the duty of imposing the sentence fell on him. The Court met, according to the entry in the docket on the fourth Tuesday of August, 1784, and as the trial took place at once, the sentence was carried out on Wednesday.
Among the jurors were several men who were prominent as Indian fighters and participants in the war for liberty.
Peter Hosterman, foreman, was active as a militia officer and had command of a body of militia to watch and repel savage attacks.
Adam and Michael Grove were famous as Indian scouts, and the latter only a short time before he served on this jury, was one of a company that pursued a party of marauding Indians up the Sinnemahoning. Discovering their camp they stealthily approached at night, rushed upon them, surprised them, captured their arms and killed several. The balance escaped. The Grove brothers then lived in Buffalo Valley, now Union County.
This severe sentence, it seems, did not cure Joe Disberry of his thieving propensities, for the Quarter Sessions docket for August term, 1798 (Northumberland County), shows that he was arraigned and tried on three indictments for burglarizing the houses of Philip Bower, Peter Jones and Isaiah Willits, and convicted on each.
The jurors who found him guilty on each count were John Clark, John Metzgar, John Friesbach, George Clark, John Armstrong, John Cochran, Thomas Murray, Christian Gettig, John Dewart, George Bright, Peter Disher and Hamelius Lomison.
Judge Jacob Rush was President Judge assisted by Captain William Wilson, John McPherson, Thomas Strawbridge and Colonel William Cooke as associates. Robert Irwin was high sheriff of the county. Judge Rush, on sentencing Disberry, said:
“That the prisoner, Joseph Disberry, forfeit all and singular his goods and chattels, lands and tenements, to and for the use of the Commonwealth, and undergo a servitude of seven years for the burglary committed in the house of Peter Bower, and be committed to the house of correction, pay the cost of prosecution, &c.”
The Court then sentenced him on the two other indictments, seven years each. Joe, who was listening very attentively remarked rather jocosely: “Why, Your Honor, three sevens make twenty-one!”
Judge Rush then continued: “That the defendant be conveyed to the gaol and penitentiary house of the city of Philadelphia to undergo the servitude aforesaid for the term of twenty-one years. And that the said Joe Disberry be kept for the space of two years in solitary cells out of the term of twenty-one years.”
This remarkable criminal served his long sentence and returned in 1819 to his old haunts, about Sunbury and the Selinsgrove, an aged man, but as merry as a cricket. Being a natural-born thief, he could not resist the temptation to steal everything upon which he could lay his hands.
The date of his death is unknown. But the late Dr. Robert Harris Awl, of Sunbury, said that some time after his return from serving his long sentence, he went one night to a mill in Union County to steal flour and falling through a hatchway sustained injuries which resulted in his death. It is said that when they came to bury him, the owner of the mill insisted that he should be buried deep. “For,” said he, “if it is not done he will return and steal mill, dam and all!”
It is not positively known whence this remarkable man came. Tradition says that he was a native of Connecticut. In that event he might have been among the emigrants to Wyoming, but on account of his evil propensities was banished to Sunbury as a punishment to Dr. Plunket and his people, for whom the Wyomingites bore no love. Neither is it known whether he had any family or property. His criminal record, however, would furnish material enough for a first-class romance.
Border Invasion by Thomas Cresap Ceased
After His Arrest, November 23, 1736
There was great conflict between the several Lords Baltimore, Proprietaries of Maryland, and the Penns, Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, over the boundary of their respective provinces, which lasted from the time William Penn first received his grant until the Mason and Dixon boundary line was surveyed in 1763–67.
Conestoga Township, in what is now Lancaster County, was originally organized about 1712. Prior to 1719 it was divided into East and West Conestoga. The western boundaries of the latter were not defined until 1722, when Donegal Township was erected and Chicques Creek was made its eastern boundary. Pequea Township seems to have been to the northeast of Conestoga, with not very well defined boundaries, and was probably erected about the year 1720.
Lord Baltimore selected a pliant and bold adventurer for his agent in this disputed territory named Thomas Cresap, aged twenty-six years, a carpenter by occupation, and in religious faith a Roman Catholic, same as the Calverts of Maryland. He was to go to Conejohela Valley and settle, where he built a cabin and established a ferry, on March 16, 1730, near James Patterson’s land.
In a joint statement made by James Patterson to Justices John Wright and Samuel Blunston they issued a warrant and wrote to Governor Patrick Gordon, October 30, 1732, and said:
“About two years Since, Thomas Cresap, and some other people of Loose Morals and Turbulent Spirits, Came and disturbed the Indians, our friends and Allies, who were peaceably Settled on those lands from when the said Parnel and others had been removed, Burnt their Cabbins, and destroyed their goods, And with much threatening and Ill-usage, drove them away, and by pretending to be under the Maryland government, sought to Evade ours. Thus they proceeded to play booty. Disturbing the Peace of the Government, Carrying people out of the Province by Violence, Taking away the guns from our friends, the Indians, Tying and making them Prisoners without any offence given; and threatening all who should Oppose them; And by Underhand and Unfair practices, Endeavoring to Alienate the minds of the Inhabitants of this Province, and Draw them from Obedience to their party. Their Insolence Increasing, they killed the horses of Such of our people whose trade with the Indians made it Necessary to Keep them on that Side of the river, for Carrying their Goods and Skins; assaulted those who were sent to look after them.”
Cresap’s house was a convenient refuge for runaway servants and debtors. Samuel Chance, a runaway debtor of Edward Cartlidge, an Indian trader who lived in the Manor, took up his abode with Cresap and assisted him to row his ferryboat. A son of Cartlidge laid a plan to capture Chance by decoying him to the east side of the river.
Cresap and Chance got into their boat and rowed over to the Blue Rock, where they found Edward Beddock, Rice Morgan, and a Negro servant of Mr. Cartlidge. After being taken into the boat, and rowed out into the stream a few yards, Beddock and Morgan threw Cresap into the river, and took Chance to shore with them. Cresap made his escape to an island nearby, where he remained until after dark, when he was discovered by an Indian and rescued.
Cresap made complaint to the Maryland authorities, and a sharp correspondence between the Governors of the two Provinces resulted.
In the fall of 1733, Cresap came up to Wright’s Ferry and commenced to build boats and erect a house. Wright and Blunston had placed a number of men in the ferryhouse, who sallied forth and took Cresap’s men prisoners.
John Emerson, a lawyer, who lived in Lancaster, was appointed ranger and keeper of the Conestoga Manor. He also owned a ferry at Blue Rock. On January 29, 1734, accompanied by Knowles Daunt and five others, Emerson went down to Cresap’s house to arrest him. Cresap shot Daunt in the leg, from the effects of which he died. They failed to capture Cresap and he afterward made frequent raids into Kreitz Valley with bands of armed men.
In July, 1735, when John Wright was harvesting his grain, Cresap appeared with twenty men, women and lads, armed with guns, swords, pistols, blunderbusses and drums beating.
Wright approached Cresap and demanded the reason of their military display. Cresap replied that they came to fight the Pennsylvanians, drew his sword and aimed his pistol at Wright’s breast, who, by his courage, completely cowed Cresap and captured his wagons. Wright and his men then made a fort of the ferryhouse on the west side of the river.
Cresap reported these doings to Governor Ogle, who ordered out the Maryland militia. Wright learned of this martial movement and engaged Benjamin Chambers to ascertain their designs. Chambers was suspected as a spy and arrested, but escaped to Wright’s Ferry and made a full report. He then went to Donegal and collected a number of Scotch-Irish, and marched them to Wright’s Ferry, where they repelled two or three hundred Marylanders, under Colonel Hall.
Cresap built a fort from which bands of armed men went out to raid plantations, destroy houses and take the settlers prisoners to Maryland. Joshua Minshal and John Wright, Jr., were the only two men left in Kreitz’s Valley.
Cresap had surveyed forty tracts of land, which were owned by Germans. This state of affairs became so critical that Provincial Council concluded to have Cresap arrested for the murder of Knowles Daunt.
On November 23, 1736, a warrant was placed in the hands of Sheriff Samuel Smith, who lived at Donegal. He called upon John Kelley, Benjamin Sterratt, Arthur Buchanan, Samuel Scott, David Priest, John Sterratt, John Galbraith, James, John and Alexander Mitchell, James Allison and nineteen others to assist him.
On the night of November 24, 1736, they surrounded Cresap’s house, in which he had a number of armed men, who fired upon Sheriff Smith and his party. Laughlin Malone, of Cresap’s party, was killed, and John Copper, of the Sheriff’s party, was wounded.
Finding that Cresap would not surrender, the Sheriff set his house on fire, when Cresap attempted to escape, but was overpowered and carried in triumph to Philadelphia and placed in prison.
Colonel Hall and Captain Higgenbotham came to Cresap’s fort with 300 men, and at different times marched through the valley in martial array. In January, 1737, a company attacked these Marylanders in Cresap’s fort, but were repulsed with the loss of eight men.
The Governor of Maryland offered £100 reward for the arrest of John Wright, Samuel Blunston, Sheriff Samuel Smith, John Ross, Michael Tanner, Joshua Minshal and Charles Jones. The last three persons were arrested and taken to Annapolis jail.
The Marylanders were finally driven back to their State, and all efforts to colonize that part of Pennsylvania with Marylanders was abandoned in 1738, and the Cresap invasions into Pennsylvania ceased.
Moravians Slaughtered in Indian Village of
Gnadenhutten, November 24, 1755
The first settlement in what is now Carbon County was made by the Moravian missionaries in the year 1746.
The converted Mohican Indians having been driven out of Shekomeko, N. Y., near the border of Connecticut, and from Pochgatgach, in the latter State, found an asylum for a short time at Friedenshutten, near Bethlehem.
The missionaries considered it unwise to maintain a large Indian congregation so near Bethlehem, and they purchased two hundred acres on the north side of Mahoning Creek, about a half mile above its junction with the Lehigh. Here the Indian town of Gnadenhutten became a regular fixture, and in it each Indian family possessed its own lot of ground.
The paths to Wyoming and other Indian towns passed through the settlement. A church stood in the valley, the Indian houses formed a crescent upon the higher ground, and on the open end stood the home of the missionary and the burying ground.
In September, 1749, Baron John de Watteville, a noted bishop of the Moravian Brethren, went to Gnadenhutten and laid the foundation of a new church, replacing the one built in 1746, which was too small for the growing congregation, which then consisted of 500 Indians.
About this time Reverend David Brainerd and several Indian converts visited Gnadenhutten. The congregation continued in this pleasing and regular state until 1754.
The Delaware and Shawnee on the Susquehanna began to waver in their allegiance to the English. They were preparing to take up the hatchet on the side of the French, and it became a matter of concern to them to withdraw their Indian brethren in the Moravian settlements beyond the reach of the whites, that the hostile savages might more freely descend upon the white settlements.
The Christian Indians for some time resolutely refused to move to Wyoming or Shamokin. At length, however, a considerable part of them were seduced by the influence of the Delaware King Tedyuskung to move.
The Mohicans who remained were joined by other Christian Delaware and soon the land upon which they lived became so impoverished that the inhabitants of Gnadenhutten removed to the north side of the Lehigh River.
The dwellings were removed and a new chapel built in June, 1754. This place was called New Gnadenhutten, and stood where the borough of Weissport now stands.
In New Gnadenhutten the Mohican lived on one side of the street, the Delaware on the opposite side. The cultivation was under the direct charge of the Moravian missionaries.
The Indians who had gone over to the French interests became incensed that any of the Moravian converts among their people should choose to remain at Gnadenhutten, and they determined to cut off the settlement.
After Braddock’s defeat, July, 1755, the whole frontier was open to the inroads of the savage foe. Every day disclosed new scenes of barbarity committed by the Indians. The whole country was in terror; the neighbors of the brethren in Gnadenhutten forsook their dwellings and fled, but the brethren covenanted together to remain undaunted in the place they believed Providence had allotted them.
In that decision they neglected no caution whatever. But it was not to be as the Moravians had planned.
Late in the evening of November 24, 1755, the mission house on the Mahoning was attacked by the French Indians, the house burned to the ground and eleven of the inhabitants murdered.
The attack was made while the family was at supper. The uncommon barking of the dogs was noticed, upon which Brother Senseman went out to the back door to ascertain what was the matter. The report of a gun was heard, when several of the family rushed to the open door, where they were confronted with the Indians who stood with their firearms pointed toward the door, who simultaneously fired upon the Moravians.
Martin Nitschmann was instantly killed, his wife and several others were wounded, but were able to flee with the rest of the household upstairs into the garret, where they barricaded the door with bedsteads. Brother Partsch escaped by jumping out of a rear window. Brother Worbass, who was ill in bed in an adjoining house, also escaped by a window, although the savages had placed a guard before his door.
The savages pursued those who had taken refuge in the garret and finding the door too strongly secured, they set fire to the house. A lad, named Sturgis, jumped from the blazing roof and escaped, but not before he was severely burned by the flames and shot in the face in making his escape.
Soon as Sturgis was seen to get away, Sister Partsch took courage and jumped from the burning roof, and escaped unhurt. Brother Fabricius attempted to flee in the same manner, but was observed by the Indians and twice wounded and captured. He was immediately tomahawked and scalped. The rest of the household were all burnt alive.
Brother Senseman witnessed his wife being consumed by the flames. The scene was terrible to behold.
Soon as the house was destroyed the savages set fire to the barns and stables, by which all the corn, hay and cattle were destroyed.
The Indians then divided the spoils, soaked some bread in milk, made a hearty meal, and departed—all this being observed by Sister Partsch looking on from her hiding place behind a tree upon a hill near the house.
This melancholy event proved to be the delivery of the Indian converts at Gnadenhutten; for upon the first crack of the guns and seeing the flames, they sensed the cause and would have rushed to the defense of the Moravians had not a missionary advised them to the contrary. Instead they all fled to the woods, and in a few minutes, Gnadenhutten was cleared of everything worth while.
Reverend David Zeisberger, who had just arrived at Gnadenhutten from Bethlehem, hastened back to give notice of this terrible event to a body of English militia which had marched within five miles of the spot, but they did not venture to pursue the savages in the dark.
The fugitive congregation arrived safely at Bethlehem. After the French and Indians had retired, the remains of those killed on the Mahoning were carefully collected from the ruins and solemnly interred.
A broad slab of marble placed there in 1788, now marks the grave, which is situated on the hill a short distance from Lehighton, and a little north of a small hamlet which occupies the site of the ancient missionary village. The following is the inscription on the marble:
“To the memory of Gottleib and Joanna Anders, with their child, Christiana; Martin and Susanna Nitschmann, Anna Catherine Senseman, John Gattenmeyer, George Fabricius, clerk; George Schweigert and Martin Presser, who lived here at Gnadenhutten unto the Lord, and lost their lives in a surprise from Indian warriors, November the 24th, 1755.
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints—Psalms cxvi, 15.”
General Forbes Invested Fort Duquesne and
Named It Pittsburgh, November
25, 1758
After the humiliating defeat of Major Grant, September 14, 1758, when he disobeyed his orders and attacked the French and Indians at Fort Duquesne and was himself taken prisoner, the French, exulting over their unlooked-for victory, believed that a successful attack could now be made upon the main army of General John Forbes in camp at Loyalhanna. By this bold stroke, in which they would use their entire force, they could, in the discomfiture of the English, end all hostilities, as they had done in the fateful defeat of Braddock.
General Forbes was wiser than his predecessor, and better appreciated the talents and experience of Colonel George Washington, and did not fail to seek his counsel.
General Forbes had joined Colonel Henry Bouquet at Loyalhanna and determined to advance upon Fort Duquesne. Washington drew up the plan, illustrating the proper disposition of the troops in the line of march, so the English would not again be overwhelmed by a surprise attack.
At this moment the forces of the French and their Indian allies rushed through the woods toward Loyalhanna, dragging some light cannon with them. They reached their objective before the British army had moved. An attack was made and long sustained, but the English, under General Forbes, repulsed the French, who returned to Fort Duquesne.
The battle of Loyalhanna has never been given its proper place in history for it was a noteworthy affair, important in its consequences.
The French had beaten Braddock by the aid of their Indian allies, and they hoped to defeat Forbes in the same way, but Colonel Bouquet had adopted the provincial practice of fighting Indians, which was the means of bringing them to a realization of their inability to conquer the English, and they abandoned hopes of success and quit the French.
The strength of the French garrison in Fort Duquesne in September, 1758, was 4000 troops, but by October this number was reduced to less than 2000, including the Indians. On September 22, Christian Frederic Post, the noted Moravian missionary and friend of the English, who had visited the garrison, reported its strength as 1400, but added he believed “there would be full 3000 French and Indians, almost all Canadians, who would be ready to meet the army under Forbes.”
The militia of Louisiana and Illinois left the fort early in November and went home. The Indians of Detroit and the Wabash country would remain no longer, and, what was even worse, the supplies destined for Port Duquesne had been destroyed by Bradstreet at Fort Frontenac. Hence M. de Ligneris, the commandant, was compelled by prospective starvation to dismiss the greater part of his force, and await the approach of the English with those that remained.
The French had always depended on the aid of the Indians to hold this fort. But it was the custom of the Indians after a battle, whether successful or not, to go home.
Colonel James Smith, at that time a prisoner who had been adopted into one of the tribes, in his very valuable narrative, says that after the defeat of Major Grant the Indians held a council, in which their opinions were divided. Some believed General Forbes would now turn back and go home the way he came, as Dunbar had done after the Braddock defeat; others supposed he would press forward and make the attack. The French urged the Indians to remain, but many returned to their squaws, children and hunting.
These things were unknown to the English. But when the actual condition of affairs in Fort Duquesne reached General Forbes, he concluded, late as it was, to advance.
On November 13 Colonel John Armstrong with one thousand men was sent forward to assist Colonel Washington in opening the road, and four days later General Forbes pressed forward. He met with no opposition, but the extremely disagreeable weather impeded his progress. The wagons and all the artillery, except a few light pieces, were left behind.
The force consisted of 2500 picked men, who marched without shelter or baggage and burdened only with knapsack and blankets. There were in addition the pioneers, wagoners and provincials engaged to work on the roads. Friendly Indians were kept out as scouts, and the greatest vigilance was exercised to avoid surprise. Washington and Armstrong opened the way to within a day’s march of the fort.
On the evening of November 24, the army encamped among the hills of Turtle Creek. That night they were informed by an Indian scout that he had discovered a cloud of smoke above the fort and soon after another scout came with the certain intelligence that the fort was burned and abandoned by the enemy. A troop of horse was sent forward immediately to extinguish the fire. At midnight the men on guard heard a dull and heavy booming over the western woods.
In the morning the march was resumed, the strong advance guard leading the column. Forbes came next, carried in his litter, as he was quite ill. The troops followed in three parallel columns, the Highlanders, under Montgomery, in the center, the Royal Americans on the right and the provincials on the left under Colonels Bouquet and Washington. It was dusk when they emerged upon the open plain and saw Fort Duquesne before them, with the background of wintry hills beyond the Monongahela and Allegheny.
When the fort was invested on November 25 it presented a sorry appearance. It had consisted of two fortifications, about 200 yards apart. One, built with immense labor, was small but strong; the other stood on the bank of the Allegheny, in form of a parallelogram, but weaker than the other. There were about thirty chimneys standing, the houses being destroyed by fire.
The French had also blown up one of the magazines, but in the other was found sixteen barrels of ammunition, a large quantity of iron, gun barrels, guns and a cartload of scalping knives. It has never been made known if they buried their cannon in the river or carried them away in their hasty retreat.
A boy twelve years old who had been an Indian prisoner two years escaped during the retreat and told General Forbes that the French had carried a large quantity of wood into the fort and that they burned five of the prisoners they took at Major Grant’s defeat on the parade and delivered the others to the Indians, who tomahawked the men on the spot.
There were many dead bodies found within a short distance of the fort, and many evidences of French inhumanity.
The Indians remaining about the fort were only too eager to treat with General Forbes.
Bancroft says: “Armstrong’s own hand raised the British flag on the ruined bastions of the fortress. As the banner of England floated over the waters the place, at the suggestion of Forbes, was with one voice called Pittsburgh.”
Captain James Smith, of the “Black Boys,”
Born in Chester County, November
26, 1737
One of the first captives of the French and Indian War in 1755 was James Smith, of the Conococheague frontier, in what is now Franklin County.
He survived a long captivity and afterward wrote a remarkable account of his experiences which were published in Archibald Loudon’s “Indian Narratives.”
He was born in Chester County November 26, 1737, and spent his early youth in that neighborhood. In 1755 he was living along the frontier in the vicinity of McDowell’s Mill, in present Franklin County, where he was employed by his brother William, who was a commissioner to build a road from the above mill to the Three Forks of the Youghiogheny, over which it was intended to transport supplies for General Braddock.
When the builders reached the base of the Alleghenies a storehouse for supplies was placed in charge of Robert McCoy. The supply of meat was almost exhausted and McCoy dispatched young Smith to meet the wagons, bringing a fresh supply, and hurry along the cattle and provisions.
Before reaching the Juniata Smith met Arnold Vigorus, who advised him that the wagons were near at hand. Smith then started back with Vigorus, but when the wagons arrived at McCoy’s the wagoners reported they had seen nothing of Smith or his companion.
McCoy sent out a searching party, who soon found the boy’s hat and Vigorus’s gun, and a short distance away his scalped body.
James Smith was a captive for five years and experienced a most varied and severe ordeal.
He effected his escape and returned to the Conococheague in 1760. As his family and friends believed him dead, their surprise over his return was the greater and even his gait and manners of the Indians did not lessen their joy in his return.
Smith learned that the sweetheart of his boyhood, believing him long since dead, had married only three days before his return, when his thought was to claim her.
Smith had no sooner returned to his home than he organized a company of Indian fighters, who wore Indian clothes, and were trained to Indian methods. This company soon became known as the “Black Boys,” because they painted their faces in the Indian colors—red and black. Smith was the captain.
During the Pontiac War these “Black Boys” were put under regular pay, and two other Indian captives served as Captain Smith’s lieutenants. This company rendered effective service in the Cumberland Valley.
As Smith had served with Colonel John Armstrong and Colonel Henry Bouquet, he had become familiar with the attitude of the Provincial authorities in their treatment of the Indians.
It so happened that one day he overheard an interview in the Great Cove which revealed the arrogance of the traders and the unfairness of those at the seat of government. He took matters in his own hands, and determined food, clothing and other goods should not be sent to the Western Indians if he could prevent it.
Captain Smith assembled ten of his command. They painted their faces in the Indian fashion and waylaid a pack train at Sideling Hill, an episode in frontier history which has been misunderstood and misrepresented in history.
The engagement was brief and decisive. The horses fell one after the other until the drivers were compelled to surrender.
The goods were assembled on one side, and the drivers led off some distance, under guard. The “Black Boys” examined the contents of the packs, and, as they suspected, found them to consist of blankets, shirts, vermilion, lead, beads, wampum, tomahawks, scalping-knifes, etc. The whole lot was burned.
The English soldiers thought the “Black Boys” were rioters, but the inhabitants viewed their acts with general satisfaction.
Lieutenant Grant attempted to effect the arrest of Captain Smith and his command, but the latter soon raised a force of 300 frontiersmen and promptly captured two British soldiers of the garrison at Fort Loudoun for every one of the “Black Boys” they held as prisoners.
The result of this action was that very few pack trains passed through that valley carrying goods to the Indians along the Ohio.
In 1769, when the Indians became troublesome in the vicinity of Fort Bedford, a new company of “Black Boys” was organized, but members were arrested and confined in irons, as they were not understood.
Captain Smith determined to release the men, and by a ruse managed to apprize the British of his approach and intended attack, which was to occur at midday. But at dawn his command was under the bank of the Juniata awaiting word from William Thompson who had entered the fort as a spy.
At the given signal the little band rushed the fort and secured the arms which were stocked in the center of the parade.
The prisoners were released and the first British fort in America was then and there captured by what they termed “American rebels.”
Captain Smith was afterward arrested in Bedford and confined in jail, on a trumped up charge of murder.
His “Black Boys” would have rescued him but Smith was conscious of his innocence and stood trial. In spite of the fact they desired it otherwise he was acquitted.
Smith afterwards became a valued officer in the Revolution, attaining the rank of colonel, and was several terms in the General Assembly and a most distinguished citizen.
After the Revolution Colonel Smith removed to Kentucky where he again earned an enviable reputation as an able member of the Legislature of that State.
He died there in 1812.
Pioneer Postoffice of Pennsylvania Established
in Philadelphia, November
27, 1700
In July, 1683, a post was established from Philadelphia to Maryland by William Penn. Henry Waldy, of Tacony, had authority to run the post and supply the passengers with horses.
The rates of postage were: Letters from the Falls to Philadelphia, three pence; to Chester, five pence; to New Castle, seven pence; to Maryland, nine pence; from Philadelphia to Chester, two pence; to New Castle, four pence; to Maryland, six pence. It went once a week, notice having been placed on the meeting-house door and at other public places. Communication was frequent with Manhattan and New York, the road starting on the eastern side of the Delaware at about Bordentown, New Jersey.
But the pioneer postoffice in the Province of Pennsylvania was established in Philadelphia under an act of Assembly, November 27, 1700.
The act by which this postoffice was established recited that “Whereas, The King and the late Queen Mary, by their royal letters patent under the great seal of England, bearing date the seventeenth day of February, which was in the year one thousand and six hundred and ninety-one, did grant Thomas Neal, Esquire, his executors, administrators and assigns, full power and authority to erect, settle, establish within the King’s colonies and plantations in America, one or more office or offices for receiving and dispatching of letters and packets by post, and to receive, send and deliver the same, under such rates and sums of money, as shall be agreeable to the rates established by act of Parliament in England, or as the planters and others should agree to give on the first settlement, to have, hold and enjoy the same for a term of twenty-one years, with and under such powers, limitations and conditions as in and by the said letters patent may more fully appear.
“And whereas, The King’s Postmaster General of England, and at the request, desire and nomination of the said Thomas Neale, hath deputed Andrew Hamilton, Esquire, for such time and under such conditions as is his deputation is for that purpose mentioned to govern and manage the said General Post Office for and throughout all the King’s plantations and colonies in the mainland or continent of America and the islands adjacent thereto, and in and by the said deputation may more fully appear.
“And whereas, The said Andrew Hamilton hath, by and with the good liking and approbation of the Post Master General of England made application to the proprietary and Governor of this Province and Territories and freemen thereof convened in General Assembly, that they would ascertain and establish such rates and sums of money upon letters and packets going by post as may be an effectual encouragement for carrying on and maintaining a general post, and the proprietary and Governor and Freemen in General Assembly met, considering that maintaining of mutual and speedy correspondencies is very beneficial to the King and his subjects, and a great encouragement to trade, and that the same is best carried on and managed by public post, as well as for the preventing of inconveniences which heretofore have happened for want thereof, as for a certain, safe and speedy dispatch, carrying and recarrying of all letters and packets of letters by post to and from all parts and places within the continent of America and several parts of Europe, and that the well ordering thereof is matter of general concernment and of great advantage, and being willing to encourage such a public benefit.
“Section 1. Have therefore enacted and be it enacted, etc. That there be from henceforth one general letter office erected and established within the town of Philadelphia, from whence all letters and packets whatsoever may be with speed and expedition sent into any part of the neighboring Colonies and plantations on the mainland and continent of America, or into any other of the King’s kingdoms or dominions, or unto any kingdom or country beyond the seas; at which said office all returns and answers may likewise be received, etc.”
Thus Governor Andrew Hamilton, of New Jersey, first devised the postoffice scheme for America, for which he obtained a patent, and the profits accruing. He afterwards sold it to the Crown.
The Assembly appropriated £20 yearly as a salary to Andrew Hamilton, “the postmaster of North America under the Crown.”
Thus was the postal system established, and the postmaster empowered to deliver mail to every corner of the Western World.
The first list of letters advertised appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette, March 21, 1738. It contained about 150 names of all the letters collected and uncalled for in the previous six months, mostly for non-residents.
In July, 1762, the following advertisement appeared in Bradford’s Journal:
“The lad who was lately employed at the Postoffice as penny post having run away, the gentlemen who expect letters are requested to call for them until a suitable person can be procured to carry them. William Dunlap.”
In November, 1756, the first stage was established between New York and Philadelphia by John Butler. The Philadelphia terminal was at the sign of the Death of the Fox in Strawberry Alley. It was to go via Trenton and Perth Amboy, and to arrive in New York in three days. Butler was started in business by the old Hunting Club, to which he had been huntsman and keeper of the kennels.
In 1765 a line of stage vessels and wagons was established between Philadelphia and Baltimore, via Christiana and Frenchtown on the Elk River. These trips were made weekly.
In 1773, Messrs. C. Bessonett & Co., of Bristol, started a stage coach line which made the trip to New York in two days and charged $4 fare.
The old Postoffice was afterwards the Congress Hall Hotel. It was kept by Robert Patton, postmaster from 1791 to 1814.
The first postmaster of Philadelphia who received a newspaper notice as such was Peter Baynton in the Pennsylvania Gazette, of November 27, 1776.
When the Government was removed from New York to Philadelphia in 1791 the departments were located in private homes, and the “General Postoffice was on the east side of Water Street, a few doors below High Street.”
An early pioneer mail route through the wilderness, across the State was over the old State road. It was established in 1805. The mail was carried on horseback from Bellefonte to Meadville. The first contractor was James Randolph, of Meadville, the second was Hamilton, of Bellefonte.
Conway Cabal Started in Reading by General
Mifflin on November 28, 1777
When the British marched triumphantly into Philadelphia there was gloom over America such as to make people lose all confidence in General Washington, the commander-in-chief, and as General Gates had but recently, on October 19, 1777, achieved such a brilliant victory over Burgoyne at Saratoga, the one event to bring joy to their hearts, it was but natural to suggest that Gates was the more competent. Many letters appeared in the public press favoring a change of commanders and Pennsylvanians were clamorous for the retaking of Philadelphia.
General Conway had written, “Heaven has been determined to save—your country or a weak general and bad counselors would have ruined it.” The words reached Washington’s ears, and he let Conway know the fact. A personal interview ensued, but Conway refused to apologize, and he boastfully told General Mifflin of his interview with the commander-in-chief. He was commended by Gates, Mifflin and others.
The Gates faction in Congress procured Conway’s appointment as inspector general of the Army and made him independent of the chief.
General Thomas Mifflin at this time was head of the Board of War, but on November 27 Gates became its president and the following day Mifflin declared to Gates that Conway’s letter was a “collection of just sentiments.” This produced what has been known in history as the “Conway Cabal.”
The principal events which led up to this cabal transpired in Reading, which during the British occupation of Philadelphia became a favorite place of resort for Philadelphians who wished to retire a little from the stormy political atmosphere of the city.
More than a score of fugitive families made their homes there, among them being General Thomas Mifflin, who at that moment was out of command in the army, complaining, though not ill, considerably restive, and apparently not in high favor at headquarters. He was resting at his country estate, “Angelica,” three miles distant from Reading.
There were other officers of the Continental Army there and many gay social gatherings were held.
It was in these dissipations that gossip among the high officers frequently turned against General Washington, who, according to Mifflin, would only counsel with General Greene.
They said Greene was not the wisest, the bravest, nor the most patriotic of counselors.
In short, they averred that the campaign in this quarter was stigmatized as a series of blunders, and those who conducted it were incapable.
The better fortune of the northern army was ascribed to the superior talents of its leader; and it began to be whispered that General Gates was the man who of right should have the station sustained by Washington.
A cabal was soon formed, in which Gates, Mifflin and Conway were already engaged, and in which the congenial spirit of General Charles Lee, on his exchange as a prisoner of war, immediately took a share.
The well-known apostrophe of General Conway to America, imparting that “Heaven had passed a decree in her favor, or her ruin must long before have ensued from the imbecility of her military counsels,” was at this time familiar wherever officers congregated.
On a visit which Conway made to Reading he expressed himself to the effect that “no man was more a gentleman than General Washington, or appeared to more advantage at his table, or in the usual intercourse of life, but as to his talents for the command of an army, they were miserable, indeed.”
These and similar expressions repeated frequently could not fail to create an unfavorable sentiment against the commander-in-chief.
It is also fortunate that the general population did not yet believe any of the officers busy in the cabal against Washington to be superior to Washington.
Without the knowledge of Washington, the Board of War devised a winter campaign against Canada, and gave the command to Lafayette. It was a trick of Gates to detach the marquis from Washington. It failed.
Lafayette was summoned to York to receive his commission from Congress, then in session there. That distinguished patriot met Gates, Mifflin and others at table. The wine flowed freely and toasts abounded.
At length the marquis, thinking it time to show his colors, said: “Gentlemen, I perceive one toast has been omitted, which I will now propose.” They filled their glasses, when he gave praise to “the commander-in-chief of the American armies.”
The coldness with which that toast was received confirmed Lafayette’s worst opinion respecting the men around him, and he was disgusted.
The conspirators, finding they could not use the marquis, abandoned the expedition. So, also, was the conspiracy abandoned soon afterward.
There is no doubt that the duel which subsequently took place between General Conway and General Cadwalader, though immediately proceeding from an unfavorable opinion expressed by the latter of the conduct of the former at the Battle of Germantown, had, perhaps, deeper origin, and some reference to this intrigue, for the brave and competent Philadelphian was an ardent champion of General Washington.
Some of Gates’ New England friends became tired of him. Conway, found out, was despised, left the army and returned to France.
So the cabal resulted happily, in a thorough vindication of the wisdom of Washington, and brought deserved censure on those who had not done their full duty.
Bancroft says “that those who had caviled at Washington, being unable to shake the confidence of the people, wished their words benevolently interpreted or forgotten, and Gates and Mifflin asked to be excused from serving on the committee,” meaning the committee which had been appointed by Congress to consult with Washington upon a complete reform in his administration of the army.
Mifflin became a major general in the following February and General Greene was made quartermaster general a few days later. Mifflin made a request to join the army in the field, but Congress desired Washington to make an inquiry into his conduct, which Washington did not do, and Mifflin then tendered his resignation, which Congress refused to accept, and, although Mifflin’s health was miserable, he served throughout the war.
The internment of the army at Valley Forge called forth remonstrances of the Continental Congress, the Supreme Executive Council and the Assembly of Pennsylvania and furnished much of the subject-matter by which Washington was censured by those who were partisans of other generals who coveted the high and important office. These discouragements weighed heavily upon the anxious commander, who had quite enough trouble without those in authority adding thereto.
The men in camp erected huts of logs and mud, but blankets and clothing were scantily provided. Yet amid all this suffering, day after day, surrounded by the frosts and snows of a severe winter, patriotism was still warm and hopeful in the hearts of the soldiers. It has often been recorded that Washington considered his experiences at Valley Forge as the most trying scenes of his life.