It stands on a stony plain on the top of the high cliff which conceals it from the river, and contains about thirty indifferent houses, much scattered, on three parallel streets. There is a stone gaol not quite finished, which was the only publick building we noticed.[55] The inhabitants not finding water at a convenient depth, have, in preference to digging very deep wells, led it by wooden pipes from a hill near a mile from the town, and have placed publick wooden fountains in the streets at convenient distances.
{82} We were shewn the scite of Fort M’Intosh, of which no vestige remains except the hearth of the officers’ fire place: It is on the edge of the cliff commanding the river. Altogether, Beaver seems to be very badly situated on the high plain, when it ought to have been placed at the confluence of Beaver creek with the Ohio, where there is a bottom with room enough for a town, and an excellent landing, and where are now two good looking houses with tavern signs. The neighbouring high situation notwithstanding its inconveniences, was probably preferred, on account of the superior salubrity of the air.[56]
On entering Beaver, we refreshed ourselves with six cents worth of whiskey and water at general Lacock’s tavern. He is one of the representatives in the assembly of the state, and has both considerable influence and abilities. I had heard him in the house of representatives when I was at Lancaster in the winter, and was much entertained by the wit and humour he displayed in the course of a debate on fixing a permanent seat of government.[57] We had not the pleasure of seeing the general now, and proceeded from his house to Mr. Wilson’s, one of the best in the place, conformably to a promise I had given him in Pittsburgh. Mrs. Wilson, a very pretty woman, told us that her husband was absent in Philadelphia:—We left our names, walked across the street to Hemphill’s tavern, got some information respecting the country; and then returned to our boat, meeting on our way the constable crying at publick sale, a poor horse attached for debt, for which the last bid was thirteen dollars twenty-five cents. It is seven years since Beaver was laid out for a town.
FOOTNOTES:
[43] The Navigator or Trader’s useful Guide to Navigating the Monongahela, Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers ... was published by Zadok Cramer at Pittsburg—the same house that produced Cuming’s Western Tour. Cuming doubtless had the fifth edition, issued in 1806. The work was useful and popular, and ran through twelve editions.—Ed.
[44] The former villages of the Shawnees and Delawares in the vicinity of Pittsburg were removed at the close of the French and Indian War to the neighborhood of the Muskingum.
Cornplanter, the chief of a large band of Senecas, was for many years a much dreaded hostile. He is known to have been with the French at Braddock’s defeat; later, influenced by the British agents, he took part in the massacre at Wyoming and in many border raids. Brodhead led out an expedition in 1779, which burned the towns of this chieftain; and at the close of the Revolution, becoming impressed with the growing power of the Americans, the wily warrior professed peace, assisted in securing the treaties of Fort Stanwix (1784) and Fort Harmar (1789), and had an interview with Washington in 1790. His professions secured him a large reservation in the present county of Warren, Pennsylvania, where he lived quietly until his death in 1836.—Ed.
[45] In 1798, the Quakers of Philadelphia sent out a committee of three or five, men and women, among the Cornplanters Indians, with implements of husbandry, to instruct the poor natives in the arts of agriculture and comfortable living. In these, with much good example, industry, and perseverance, they have succeeded wonderfully in bringing their red brethren to a considerable advanced state of civilization, to a knowledge of agriculture, the mechanick arts, and a practice of the social virtues. I had the pleasure of conversing with Joel Swain, one of the members of the committee not long since, who observed, that the farms of the natives extended several miles on both banks of the Allegheny river, well stocked with cattle, horses, and hogs. That one or two of the Indians had already learnt how to make their own plough-irons, axes, hoes, &c. while others were learning to make tubs and buckets, and that he expected to learn an ingenuous boy to make spinning wheels the ensuing year, for which he was then hunting irons. That a tanyard was about to be sunk for the purpose of learning them the art of tanning. That the Indian women had spun and wove about seventy yards of flaxen linen that year, 1808, and was able to knit their own stockings. That they, the committee, had got both men and women to quit the habit of drinking whiskey, or any other kind of ardent spirits, either at home or abroad—This circumstance has been frequently witnessed among those who came down to Pittsburgh with skins, trading, and who uniformly refuse whiskey when offered to them by those to whom they sell their skins, shaking their heads, saying, too scos, too scos, meaning, not good, repeating in broken English, “may be scos, good, for white man, but too scos, bad, for Indian.”
The Quakers of Baltimore, under the same Christian, and highly laudable spirit, sent out in 1805, a deputation among the Shawaneese, Delawares, and Wyandots, and such other tribes as they could find it practicable to visit, to see what might be wanting to forward the interests and happiness of the natives, to some of whose tribes they had forwarded a few articles of farming utensils in 1798, particularly to those situated on the banks of the Tuskarowas river; since which, ploughs, hoes, axes, &c. have been forwarded to Fort Wayne as presents to the Indians on the Wabash, where considerable clearings and improvements have been made under the particular direction of Philip Dennis, agent of the Friends’ society.
The Western Missionary society are also laudably engaged in this Christian like work, and we hope and flatter ourselves, that much good will be done, and the poor natives be advanced to a state of rational life. The Rev. Joseph Badger resides on the Sandusky, where no doubt his indefatigable industry will be turned to the best advantage for the welfare of the Indians in that quarter. He has one farm already stocked with cattle, &c. a tolerable crop was raised last year—and a school is kept to teach the children the English language. Divine service is also held among them frequently, where men, women, and children attend, to receive the instruction of their worthy pastor. Mr. Badger was among us not long ago, and he gives a flattering account of the aptness of the Indian children, and their willingness and desire for learning, and states that they do not want for capacity.—This subject opens a wide field for the humane and philosophick citizen, and we hope the minds of many will be drawn to pay it that attention it so richly merits.—Cramer.