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Title: Daily stories of Pennsylvania : $b prepared for publication in the leading daily newspapers of the state...
Author: Godcharles, Frederick A.
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Daily stories of Pennsylvania : $b prepared for publication in the leading daily newspapers of the state..." ***
PENNSYLVANIA ***
Transcriber’s Note:
This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.
Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_.
The few footnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they
are referenced.
The many sections of this volume are presented in order of the month and
day, regardless of the year, beginning with January 1.
The Contents lists the topics alphabetically, and refers to a date
(month and day) rather than a page number. These descriptions do not
necessarily exactly match the title of the sections verbatim, and the
same section occasionally appears twice, with different descriptions.
There is a more detailed index at the end of the volume, with page
references.
Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please
see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding
the handling of any issues encountered during its preparation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE CAPITOL BUILDING]
DAILY STORIES
OF
PENNSYLVANIA
Prepared for publication in the leading daily
newspapers of the State by
FREDERIC A. GODCHARLES
MILTON, PENNSYLVANIA
FORMER REPRESENTATIVE IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, STATE
SENATOR, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH,
MEMBER HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA,
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF UNION COUNTY,
HISTORICAL SOCIETY LYCOMING COUNTY,
AND OTHERS
Author of _Freemasonry in Northumberland_
_and Snyder Counties, Pennsylvania_
[Illustration: logo]
MILTON, PA.
1924
COPYRIGHTED 1924
BY
FREDERIC A. GODCHARLES
-------
Printed in the United States of America
[Illustration: publisher logo]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THESE DAILY STORIES OF PENNSYLVANIA
ARE DEDICATED TO
MY MOTHER
THROUGH WHOM I AM DESCENDED FROM
SOME OF ITS EARLIEST PIONEERS AND
PATRIOTS AND FROM WHOM I INHERITED
MUCH LOVE FOR THE STORY OF MY NATIVE
STATE.
[Illustration: _Frederic A. Godcharles._]
PRINCIPAL SOURCES UTILIZED
Archives of Pennsylvania.
Colonial Records of Pennsylvania.
Hazard’s Annals of Philadelphia.
Egle’s History of Pennsylvania.
Gordon’s History of Pennsylvania.
Cornell’s History of Pennsylvania.
Day’s Historical Collection.
Shimmel’s Pennsylvania.
Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania.
Pennypacker’s Pennsylvania The Keystone.
The Shippen Papers.
Loudon’s Indian Narratives.
Sachse’s German Pietists.
Rupp’s County Histories.
Magazine of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
American Magazine of History.
Egle’s Notes and Queries.
Harvey’s Wilkes Barre.
Miner’s History of Wyoming.
Jenkin’s Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal.
Scharf and Westcott’s History of Philadelphia.
Lossing’s Field Book of the Revolution.
On the Frontier with Colonel Antes.
Meginness’ Otzinachson.
Linn’s Annals of Buffalo Valley.
Hassler’s Old Westmoreland.
Fisher’s Making of Pennsylvania.
McClure’s Old Time Notes.
Parkman’s Works.
Shoemaker’s Folklore, Legends and Mountain Stories.
Jones’ Juniata Valley.
Prowell’s York County.
Smull’s Legislative Hand Book.
Journal of Christopher Gist.
Journal of William Maclay.
Journal of Samuel Maclay.
Journal of Rev. Charles Beatty.
Scrap Books of Thirty Years’ Preparation.
Annual Reports State Federation of Historical Societies.
And others.
INTRODUCTION
The Daily Stories of Pennsylvania were published in the newspapers under
the title “Today’s Story in Pennsylvania History,” and there has been a
genuine demand for their publication in book form.
During all his active life the author has been impressed with the
unparalleled influence of Pennsylvania in the development of affairs
which have resulted in the United States of America.
Since youth he has carefully preserved dates and facts of historical
importance and has so arranged this data that it made possible these
stories, each of which appeared on the actual anniversary of the event
or person presented.
This idea seems to have been a new venture in journalism and the
enterprising editors of our great Commonwealth, contracted for and
published “Today’s Story in Pennsylvania History,” and their readers
have manifested a deep interest to these editors and to the author.
Soon as there developed a demand for the collection of stories in book
form, the author determined to add a story for the fifty-three Sunday
dates, which have not before been published, and to arrange the entire
collection according to the calendar, and not chronologically. In this
arrangement they can be more readily found when desired for quick
reference or study.
These stories have been prepared from many different sources, not a few
from original manuscripts, or from writings which have not been
heretofore used; many are rewritten from familiar publications, but too
frequent reference to such sources has been omitted as these would
encumber the foot of so many pages that the stories would require a much
larger book or a second volume, either of which would be objectionable
and unnecessary.
It is a hopeless task to acknowledge the many courtesies received, but
in some slight manner the author must recognize the friendship of Prof.
Hiram H. Shenk, custodian of records in the State Library, who so
generously placed him in touch with many valuable papers, books and
manuscripts, and in many ways assisted in much of the historical data.
The names of Dr. Thomas L. Montgomery, Librarian Historical Society of
Pennsylvania; Dr. George P. Donehoo, former State Librarian; the late
Julius Sachse; the late Dr. Hugh Hamilton; former Governor Hon. Edwin S.
Stuart and Colonel Henry W. Shoemaker, each of whom contributed such
assistance as was requested. The valuable help extended by officers and
assistants in the State Library, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania,
The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, The Historical Society of
Dauphin County, The Lycoming County Historical Society and other similar
organizations deserves particular mention and gratitude.
It is also a matter of intense satisfaction that the author acknowledges
the following progressive newspapers which carried the stories, and the
editors of which so materially assisted by their personal attention in
making his work such an unusual success: Allentown Chronicle and News,
Altoona Mirror, Berwick Enterprise, Bethlehem Globe, Bloomsburg Morning
Press, Carlisle Sentinel, Chester Times, Coatesville Record, Danville
Morning News, Doylestown Democrat, Du Bois Courier, Easton Free Press,
Ellwood City Ledger, Erie Dispatch-Herald, Farrell News, Greensburg
Record, Greenville Advance Argus, Harrisburg Evening News, Hazleton
Standard-Sentinel, Indiana Gazette, Johnstown Tribune, Lancaster
Intelligencer, Lansford Evening Record, Mauch Chunk Daily News,
Meadville Tribune-Republican, Milton Evening Standard, Mount Carmel
Item, Norristown Times-Herald, Philadelphia Public Ledger, Pittsburgh
Chronicle-Telegraph, Pittston Gazette, Pottsville Republican, Reading
Herald-Telegram, Ridgway Record, Scranton Republican, Shamokin Dispatch,
Sharon Herald, Shenandoah Herald, Stroudsburg Times-Democrat, Sunbury
Daily Item, Tamaqua Courier, Titusville Herald, Uniontown Herald,
Waynesboro Record-Herald, Wilkes Barre Times-Leader, Williamsport Sun,
and York Gazette.
FREDERIC A. GODCHARLES.
Milton, Penna., September 4, 1924.
CONTENTS
Adoption of Federal Constitution Sept. 17
Allummapees, King of Delaware Indians Aug. 12
American, John Penn, the Jan. 29
Antes, Lt. Col. John Henry May 13
Antes, Pious Henry Jan. 12
Anti-Masonic Investigation Dec. 4
Anti-Masonic Outbreak in Pennsylvania Aug. 18
Anti-Masonic Period Terminates Dec. 4
Armed Force to Forks of Ohio Feb. 17
Armstrong, Captain John, Murdered April 9
Armstrong Destroys Kittanning Sept. 8
Arnold Arrested, General Benedict Feb. 3
Asylum, the French Settlement Dec. 20
Attempted Slaughter of Indians at Wichetunk Oct. 12
Attempt to Navigate Susquehanna Fails April 27
Baldwin, Matthias Jan. 8
Bank, First in America Dec. 31
Bank of North America Jan. 7
Bard Family Captured by Indians April 13
Bartram, John March 23
Battle of Brandywine Sept. 11
Battle of Bushy Run Aug. 6
Battle of Fallen Timbers Aug. 20
Battle of Germantown Oct. 4
Battle of Gettysburg July 1 and 2
Battle of the Kegs Jan. 5
Battle of Lake Erie Sept. 10
Battle of Minisinks July 22
Battle of Monongahela July 9
Battle of Muncy Hills Aug. 26
Battle of Trenton Dec. 26
Beatty, Rev. Charles, and Old Log College Jan. 22
Bedford County Erected March 9
Beissel, John Conrad July 6
Bell for State House June 2
Berks County Outrages Nov. 14
Bethlehem as Base Hospital in Revolution March 27
Bi-centennial Oct. 21
Bills of Credit Put State on Paper Money Basis March 2
Binns, John Nov. 16
Binns, John June 24
Binns, John, Fights Duel with Samuel Stewart Dec. 14
Black Boys Nov. 26
Bloody Saturday Aug. 14
Bloody Election Oct. 1
Boone, Daniel Oct. 22
Border Troubles Reach Provincial Authorities May 14
Border Troubles with Maryland May 25
Border Troubles with Thomas Cresap Nov. 23
Boundary Disputes Settled Nov. 5
Boundary Dispute with Maryland May 10
Boundary Dispute with Virginia Sept. 23
Bounty for Indian Scalps April 14
Bouquet Defeats Indians at Bushy Run Aug. 6
Bouquet Relieves Fort Pitt Aug. 10
Boyd, Captain John Feb. 22
Boyd, Lieutenant Thomas Murdered Sept. 13
Braddock’s Defeat July 9
Braddock’s Road Begun May 6
Braddock’s Troops Arrive Feb. 20
Brady, Captain James, Killed Aug. 8
Brady, Captain John April 11
British and Indians Attack and Destroy Fort Freeland July 28
British Destroy Indian Towns Aug. 25
British Evacuate Philadelphia June 17
British Invest Philadelphia Sept. 26
Brodhead Arrives at Fort Pitt to Fight Indians Mar. 5
Broadhead Destroys Coshocton April 20
Brodhead Makes Indian Raid Aug. 11
Brown, General Jacob Feb. 24
Brulé, Etienne Oct. 24
Buchanan, President James April 23
Buck Shot War Dec. 5
Bucks County Homes Headquarters for Washington and Staff Dec. 8
Bull, Ole Feb. 5
Bull, Gen John June 1; Aug. 9
Cameron, Colonel James July 21
Cameron Defeats Forney for Senate Jan. 13
Cammerhoff, Bishop John Christopher Jan. 6
Camp Curtin April 18
Canal Lottery, Union April 17
Canals Projected in Great Meeting Oct. 20
Canal System Started Feb. 19
Capitol, Burning of Feb. 2
Capitol, New State Jan. 2
Capital, Removed to Harrisburg Feb. 21
Capture of Timothy Pickering June 26
Carlisle Indian School July 31
Carlisle Raided by Rebels June 27
Carey, Matthew Sept. 16
Chambers-Rieger Duel May 11
Chambersburg Sacked and Burned by Rebels July 30
Charter for City of Pittsburgh Mar. 18
Charter for Pennsylvania Received by William Penn Mar. 4
Chester County, Deed for June 25
Church West of Alleghenies, First June 20
Civil Government Established in Pennsylvania Aug. 3
Clapham Builds Fort Halifax June 7
Clapham Family Murdered by Indians May 28
Clark Drafts Troops for Detroit Expedition Mar. 3
Coal First Burned in a Grate Feb. 11
Cochran, Dr. John Sept. 1
Cooke & Co. Fail, Jay Sept. 18
Cooper Shop and Union Saloon Restaurants May 27
Commissioners Appointed to Purchase Indian Lands Feb. 29
Conestoga Indians Killed by Paxtang Boys Dec. 27
Confederate Raids into Pennsylvania Oct. 10
Congress Threatened by Mob of Soldiers June 21
Constitutional Convention of 1790 Nov. 21
Constitution of 1790 March 24; Sept. 2
Constitution of United States Adopted Sept. 17
Continental Congress First Meets in Philadelphia Sept. 5
Conway Cabal Nov. 28
Cornerstones Laid for Germantown Academy April 21
Council of Censors Nov. 13
Cornwallis Defeats Americans at Brandywine Sept. 11
Counties, First Division into Feb. 1
Counties of Pennsylvania Organized Mar. 10
Courts, Early Records Jan. 11
Court Moved from Upland to Kingsesse June 8
Cruel Murder of Colonel William June 11 and 12
Crawford
Crawford Burned at Stake by Indians June 12
Crawford Captured by Indians, Colonel William June 11
Cresap’s Invasion Nov. 23
Croghan, George, King of Traders May 7
Crooked Billet Massacre May 1
Curtin Inaugurated Governor Jan. 15
Darrah, Lydia Dec. 11
Davy, the Lame Indian May 30
Declaration of Independence July 4
Deed for Chester County June 25
Deed for Province Obtained by Penn Aug. 31
Denny Succeeded by Governor Hamilton Oct. 9
De Vries Arrives on Delaware Dec. 6
Dickinson, John Nov. 10
Disberry, Joseph, Thief Nov. 22
Doan Brothers, Famous Outlaws Sept. 24
Donation Lands Mar. 12
Drake Brings in First Oil Well Aug. 28
Duel, Binns-Stewart Dec. 14
Duel in Which Capt. Stephen Chambers is Killed May 11
Dutch Gain Control of Delaware Sept. 25
Easton, Indian Conference at Jan. 27; Aug. 7; Oct. 8
Education Established, Public School Mar. 11
End of Indian War Oct. 23
Ephrata Society July 6
Era of Indian Traders Aug. 12
Erie County Settled Feb. 28
Erie Riots Dec. 9
Erie Triangle April 3
Etymology of Counties Aug. 30
Europeans Explore Waters of Pennsylvania Aug. 27
Ewell Leads Raid on Carlisle June 27
Excise Laws, First Mar. 17
Expedition Against Indians Nov. 4; Nov. 8
Exploits of David Lewis, the Robber March 25 and 26
Farmer’s Letters, Dickinson’s Nov. 10
Federal Constitution Ratified by Pennsylvania Dec. 12
Federal Party Broken Up Nov. 29
Fell Successfully Burns Anthracite Coal Feb. 11
Fires, Early, in Province Dec. 7
First Bank in America Dec. 31
First Bank in United States Jan. 7
First Church in Province Sept. 4
First Church West of Allegheny Mountains June 20
First Continental Congress Sept. 5
First Excise Laws Mar. 17
First Fire Company in Province Dec. 7
First Forty Settlers Arrive at Wyoming Feb. 8
First Governor of Commonwealth Dec. 21
First Jury Drawn in Province Nov. 12
First Law to Educate Poor Children Mar. 1
First Magazine in America Feb. 13
First Massacre at Wyoming Oct. 15
First Mint in United States April 2
First Oil Well in America Aug. 28
First Newspaper in Province Dec. 22
First Newspaper West of Allegheny Mountains July 29
First Northern Camp in Civil War April 18
First Paper Mill in America Feb. 18
First Permanent Settlement Sept. 4
First Post Office Nov. 27
First Protest Against Slavery Feb. 12
First Settlement of Germantown Oct. 6
First Theatrical Performances April 15
First Troops to Reach Washington at Cambridge July 25
First Union Officer Killed in Civil War July 21
Flag, Story of June 14
Flight of Tories from Fort Pitt Mar. 28
Forbes Invests Fort Duquesne Nov. 25
Forney Defeated for U. S. Senate by General Simon Cameron Jan. 13
Forrest, Edwin April 7
Forrest Home for Actors April 7
Fort Augusta Mar. 29
Fort Freeland Destroyed by British and Indians July 28
Fort Granville Destroyed Aug. 1
Fort Halifax June 7
Fort Henry Jan. 25
Fort Hunter Jan. 9
Fort Laurens Attacked by Simon Girty Feb. 23
Fort Mifflin Siege Begins Sept. 27
Fort Montgomery Sept. 6
Fort Patterson Oct. 2
Fort Pitt First So Called Nov. 25
Forts Built by Colonel Benjamin Franklin Dec. 29
Fort Swatara Oct. 30
Fort Wilson Attacked by Mob Oct. 5
Frame of Government April 25
Francis, Colonel Turbutt, Leads Troops to Wyoming June 22
Franklin, Benjamin Jan. 17
Franklin at Carlisle Conference Sept. 22
Franklin at French Court Dec. 28
Franklin Builds Chain of Forts Dec. 29
Franklin County Erected Sept. 9
Franklin Sails for England Nov. 8
Free Society of Traders May 29
French and Indians Destroy Fort Granville Aug. 1
French and Indian War May 5
French and Indian War Started Feb. 20
French Defeat Major Grant at Fort Duquesne Sept. 14
French Plant Leaden Plates June 15
Frenchtown, or Asylum Founded by Refugees Dec. 20
Frietchie, Barbara Dec. 18
Fries Rebellion Mar. 14
Fulton, Robert Aug. 17
Gallatin, Albert Jan. 20
Galloway, Joseph Aug. 29
Garrison at Fort Pitt Relieved by Colonel Henry Bouquet Aug. 10
German Pietists Organize Harmony Society Feb. 15
Germantown Academy April 21
Gettysburg Address, Lincoln’s Nov. 19
Gnadenhutten Destroyed Nov. 24
Gnadenhutten (Ohio) Destroyed Mar. 8
Gibson’s Lambs July 16
Gilbert Family in Indian Captivity Aug. 22
Girard, Captain Stephen May 21
Girty Attacks Fort Laurens Feb. 23
Girty, Simon, Outlaw and Renegade Jan. 16
Gordon, Governor Patrick Aug. 5
Grant Leaves Philadelphia on World Tour Dec. 16
Grant Suffers Defeat at Fort Duquesne Sept. 14
Great Runaway July 5
Groshong’s, Massacre at Jacob May 16
Hambright’s Expedition Against Great Island Nov. 4
Hamilton, James, Becomes Governor Oct. 9
Hand, General Edward Sept. 3
Hand’s Expedition Moves from Fort Pitt Oct. 19
Hannastown Burned July 13
Hannastown Jail Stormed by Mob Feb. 7
Harmony Society Feb. 15
Harris, John Oct. 25
Hartley’s Expedition Against Indians Sept. 7
Hiester, Governor Joseph Nov. 18
Hiokatoo, Chief Nov. 20
Hospital at Bethlehem, Base Mar. 27
Hot Water War Mar. 14
Howe Moves Against Philadelphia July 23
Impeachment, Supreme Court Judges Yeates, Smith and Shippen Dec. 13
Inland Waterways Meeting Oct. 20
Inquisition on Free Masonry a Fiasco Dec. 19
Inauguration of Governor Curtin Jan. 15
Inauguration, Governor Thomas Mifflin Dec. 21
Inauguration of Governor Packer Jan. 19
Indian Conference at Easton Jan. 27; Aug. 7; Oct. 8
Indian Conference at Harris Ferry April 1
Indian Conference at Philadelphia June 30; Aug. 16
Indian Conference at Lancaster Apr. 1
Indian School at Carlisle July 31
Indian Shoots at Washington Nov. 15
Indian Traders, Era of Aug. 12
Indian War Ends Oct. 23
Indians Capture Assemblyman James McKnight April 26
Indians Commit Outrages in Berks County Nov. 14
Indians Defeated at Fallen Timbers Aug. 20
Indians Destroy Widow Smith’s Mill July 8
Indians Kill Major John Lee and Family Aug. 13
Indians Murder Colonel William Clapham and Family May 28
Indians Ravage McDowell Mill
Settlement Oct. 31
Indians Slaughtered at Gnadenhutten, Ohio Mar. 8
Jail at Hannastown Stormed Feb. 7
Jennison, Mary, Capture of April 5
Johnstown Flood May 31
Journey of Bishop Cammerhoff Jan. 6
Judges Yeates, Shippin and Smith Impeached Dec. 13
Kegs, Battle of the Jan. 5
Keith, Sir William Nov. 17
Kelly, Colonel John April 8
Kittanning Destroyed by Colonel John Armstrong Sept. 8
Know Nothing Party and Pollock June 5
Labor Riots After Civil War Sept. 18
Lacock, General Abner April 12
Lafayette Retreats at Matson’s Ford May 20
Leaning Tower, John Mason’s April 22
Lee Family, Massacre of Aug. 13
Lewis, David, The Robber March 25 and 26
Lewistown Riot Sept. 12
Liberty Bell Hung in State House June 2
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address Nov. 19
Littlehales Murdered by Mollie Maguires March 15
Lochry Musters Troops in Westmoreland County Aug. 2
Locomotive, First Successful Jan. 8
Logan, Hon. James Oct. 28
Logan’s Family Slain, Chief May 24
Log College, Old Jan. 22
Lost Sister of Wyoming Nov. 2
Lottery for Union Canal April 17
Lower Counties in Turmoil Nov. 1
Lumbermen’s War at Williamsport July 10
Lycans, Andrew Mar. 7
Maclay, Samuel Jan. 4
Maclay, Hon. William July 20
Magazine, First in America Feb. 13
Major Murdered by Mollie Maguires Nov. 3
Maguires, Mollie Jan. 18; Feb. 1#; March 15; May
4; Aug. 14; Nov. 3; Dec. 2
Mason & Dixon Boundary Line Dec. 30
Mason, John, and His Leaning Tower April 22
Massacre Along Juniata River Jan. 28
Massacre at Conococheague Valley July 26
Massacre at Crooked Billet May 1
Massacre at French Jacob Groshong’s May 16
Massacre at Mahanoy Creek Oct. 18
Massacre at Patterson’s Fort Oct. 2
Massacre at Penn’s Creek Oct. 16
Massacre at Standing Stone June 19
Massacre at Williamsport June 10
Massacre at Wyoming July 3
Massacre of Americans at Paoli Sept. 20
McAllister, Colonel Richard Oct. 7
McDowell’s Mills, Outrages at Oct. 31
McFarlane, Andrew Feb. 25
McKee, Captain Thomas Jan. 24
McKnight, James, Captured by Indians April 26
Meschianza May 18
Mexican War Dec. 15
Mifflin, General Thomas Jan. 21
Mifflin, General Thomas, Inaugurated Governor Dec. 21
Military Laws Repealed Mar. 20
Militia Organization Jan. 23
Minisink Battle July 22
Mint, First in United States April 2
Minuit, Peter, Arrives Mar. 30
Mob Attacks Court House at Lewistown Sept. 12
Mob Attacks Home of James Wilson Oct. 5
Mob Threatens Congress June 21
Monmouth, Battle of June 28
Montour, Madame Sept. 15
Moravian Church Established when Mob Assails Pastor July 27
Moravian Indian Mission at Wyalusing May 23
Moravians Massacred at Gnadenhutten Nov. 24
Moravians Visit Great Island July 11
More, Dr. Nicholas May 15
Morris, Robert Jan. 31
Mother Northumberland, Old Mar. 21
Mott, Lucretia Jan. 3
Murder of Sanger and Uren by Mollie Maguires Feb. 10
Mutiny in Pennsylvania Line Jan. 1
Navy of Pennsylvania May 8
Negro Boy Starts Race Riot in Philadelphia July 12
Negro School at Nazareth Started by Whitefield May 3
Neville, Captain John, Sent to Fort Pitt July 17
News of Revolution Reaches Philadelphia April 24
New Sweden, Governor Printz Arrives Feb. 16
Northumberland County Erected Mar. 21
Oil Discovered at Titusville Aug. 28
Pack Trains Attacked at Fort Loudoun Mar. 6
Paoli Massacre Sept. 20
Paper Mill, First in America Feb. 18
Paper Money Basis Mar. 2
Pastorius and Germans Settle at Germantown Oct. 6
Patent for Province Given Duke of York June 29
Patriotic Women Feed Soldiers in Civil War May 27
Pattison to Burning of Capitol Feb. 2
Paxtang Boys Kill Conestoga Indians Dec. 27
Pence, Peter Mar. 22
Penn, John Feb. 9
Penn (John) Succeeds Richard Penn as Governor Feb. 4
Penn, John, “The American” Jan. 29
Penn Lands in His Province Oct. 29
Penn Obtains Deed for Province Aug. 31
Penn Receives Charter for Pennsylvania Mar. 4
Penn Sails for England Nov. 1
Penn, William Oct. 14
Penn’s Creek Massacre Oct. 16
Penn’s First Wife, John June 6
Penn’s Frame of Government April 25
Penn’s Second Visit to Province Dec. 1
Penn’s Trip Through Pennsylvania April 6
Pennamites Driven from Wyoming Aug. 15
Pennsylvania in Battle of Monmouth June 28
Pennsylvania Line, Mutiny in Jan. 1
Pennsylvania Navy in Revolution May 8
Pennsylvanian Proposes Railway to Pacific June 23
Pennsylvania Railroad Organized Mar. 31
Pennsylvania Ratifies Federal Constitution Dec. 12
Pennsylvania Reserve Corps April 19
Perry Wins Victory on Lake Erie Sept. 10
Philadelphia Evacuated by British June 17
Philadelphia Invested by British Sept. 26
Philadelphia Riots July 7
Pickering, Colonel Timothy June 26
Pitcher, Molly Oct. 13
Pittsburgh Gazette July 29
Pittsburgh Receives City Charter Mar. 18
Pittsburgh Railroads Fight for Entrance Jan. 14
Plot to Kidnap Governor Snyder Nov. 9
Pluck, Colonel John, Parades May 19
Plunket Defeated by Yankees Dec. 25
Plunket Defeats Yankees Sept. 28
Plunket’s Expedition Against Yankees Dec. 24
Pollock and Know Nothing Party June 5
Pontiac’s Conspiracy May 17
Post, Christian Frederic April 29
Post Office, Pioneer Nov. 27
Powder Exploit, Gibson’s July 16
Powell, Morgan, Murdered by Mollie Maguires Dec. 2
Presqu’ Isle Destroyed by Indians June 4
Preston, Margaret Junkin Mar. 19
Priestley, Dr. Joseph Feb. 6
Printz, Johan Feb. 16
Provincial Conference June 18
Provincial Convention July 15
Provincial Troops March Against Wyoming Settlements June 22
Public Education Established Mar. 11
Purchase Caused Boundary Dispute June 9
Quakers Protest vs. Slavery Feb. 12
Quick, Tom July 19
Race Riot in Philadelphia July 12
Railroads Fight to Enter Pittsburgh Jan. 14
Reading Railroad Organized April 4
Rebels Raid on Carlisle June 27
Rebels Sack and Burn Chambersburg July 30
Records of Early Courts Jan. 11
Reign of Mollie Maguire Terror Ended Jan. 18
Riots at Philadelphia July 7
Rittenhouse, William Feb. 18
Ross, Betsy Jan. 30
Ross, George July 14
Ruffians Mob Pastor July 27
Runaway, Great July 5
Sailors Cause Bloody Election Oct. 1
Saturday Evening Post Aug. 4
Sawdust War July 10
School Law, First Mar. 1
Schoolmaster and Pupils Murdered by Indians July 26
Second Constitution for State Mar. 24
Settlers Massacred at Lycoming Creek June 10
Settlers Slay Chief Logan’s Family May 24
Shawnee Indians Murder Conestoga Indians April 28
Shikellamy, Chief Dec. 17
Sholes, Christopher L., Inventor of typewriter Feb. 14
Siege at Fort Mifflin Opens Sept. 27
Slate Roof House Jan. 29
Slavery, Quakers Protest Against Feb. 12
Slocum, Francis, Indian Captive Nov. 2
Smith, Captain James Nov. 26
Smith, Captain John Sept. 29; July 24
Smith, Colonel Matthew Mar. 13;
[Oct. 10].
Smith’s Mill, Widow July 8
Snyder Calls for Troops in War of 1812 Aug. 24
Snyder Escapes Kidnapping Nov. 9
Springettsbury Manor June 16
Squaw Campaign May 2
Stamp Act Nov. 7
Steamboat, Robert Fulton’s Aug. 17
Steamboat “Susquehanna” Explodes April 27
Stevens, Inquiry About Free Masonry Dec. 19
Story of “Singed Cat” Aug. 4
Stump, Frederick Jan. 10
Sullivan’s Expedition Against Six Nations May 26
Sunbury & Erie Railroad Oct. 17
Susquehanna Company Feb. 8
Susquehanna Company Organized July 18
Swedes Come to Delaware River Mar. 30
Swedes Make First Permanent Settlement Sept. 4
Tedyuskung Annoys Moravians at Bethlehem Aug. 21
Tedyuskung at Easton Conference Oct. 8
Tedyuskung Defends Himself at Easton Council Aug. 7
Tedyuskung, King of Delaware Indians April 16
Theatrical Performances, First April 15
Thief Joseph Disberry Nov. 22
Thompson’s Battalion of Riflemen, Colonel William July 25
Threatened War with France Nov. 11
Tories Flee from Fort Pitt Mar. 28
Tories of Sinking Valley April 10
Transit of Venus June 3
Treaty of Albany Oct. 26
Treaty Ratified by Congress, Wayne’s Dec. 3
Trent, Captain William Feb. 17
Trimble, James Jan. 26
Tulliallan or Story of John Penn’s First Wife $1
Turmoil in Lower Counties Nov. 1
Typewriter, Sholes Invents the Feb. 14
Unholy Alliance with Indians Sept. 21
Upland Changed to Chester Oct. 29
Venus, Observation of Transit of June 3
Veterans French and Indian War Organize April 30
Vincent, Bishop John Heyl May 9
Walking Purchase Sept. 19
War of 1812 Aug. 24
War of 1812 Begun May 12
Washington and Whisky Insurrection Sept. 30
Washington at Logstown Nov. 30
Washington Leads Troops in Whisky Insurrections Oct. 3
Washington Shot at by Indians Nov. 15
Washington to Command Troops in War with France Nov. 11
Washington Uses Bucks County Homes for Headquarters Dec. 8
Washington, Lady Martha May 22
Waters of State Explored by Europeans Aug. 27
Watson, John Fanning Dec. 23
Wayne Defeats Indians Dec. 3
Wayne Defeats Indians at Fallen Timbers Aug. 20
Weiser, Conrad June 13
Westmoreland County Erected Feb. 26
Whisky Insurrection in Pennsylvania Sept. 30
Whitefield Starts Negro School at Nazareth May 3
White Woman of Genesee April 5
Wiconisco Valley Suffers Indian Attack Mar. 7
Wilmot, David Mar. 16
Wilson, Alexander, The Ornithologist Aug. 23
Wilson’s Indian Mission Oct. 27
Witchcraft in Pennsylvania Feb. 27
Wolf, Governor George and Public Education Mar. 11
Wyalusing Indian Mission May 23
Wyoming, First Massacre Oct. 15
Wyoming Massacre July 3
Yankees Drive Pennamites from Wyoming Aug. 15
Yankees Humiliatingly Defeat Colonel
Plunket Dec. 25
Yellow Fever Scourges Nov. 6
York County in Revolution Aug. 19
York, Duke of June 29
Yost Murdered by Mollie Maguires May 4
Zinzindorf, Count Nicholas Dec. 10
Mutiny Broke Out in Pennsylvania Line,
January 1, 1781
As the year 1780 drew to a close there were warm disputes in the
Pennsylvania regiments as to the terms on which the men had been
enlisted. This led to such a condition by New Year’s Day, 1781, that
there broke out in the encampment at Morristown, N. J., a mutiny among
the soldiers that required the best efforts of Congress, the Government
of Pennsylvania and the officers of the army to subdue.
New Year’s Day being a day of customary festivity, an extra proportion
of rum was served to the soldiers. This, together with what they were
able to purchase, was sufficient to influence the minds of the men,
already predisposed by a mixture of real and imaginary injuries, to
break forth into outrage and disorder.
The Pennsylvania Line comprised 2500 troops, almost two-thirds of the
Continental Army, the soldiers from the other colonies having, in the
main, gone home. The officers maintained that at least a quarter part of
the soldiers had enlisted for three years and the war. This seems to
have been the fact, but the soldiers, distressed and disgusted for want
of pay and clothing, and seeing the large bounties paid to those who
re-enlisted, declared that the enlistment was for three years or the
war.
As the three years had now expired, they demanded their discharges. They
were refused, and on January 1, 1781, the whole line, 1300 in number,
broke out into open revolt. An officer attempting to restrain them was
killed and several others were wounded.
Under the leadership of a board of sergeants, the men marched toward
Princeton, with the avowed purpose of going to Philadelphia to demand of
Congress a fulfillment of their many promises.
General “Mad” Anthony Wayne was in command of these troops, and was much
beloved by them. By threats and persuasions he tried to bring them back
to duty until their real grievances could be redressed. They would not
listen to him; and when he cocked his pistol, in a menacing manner, they
presented their bayonets to his breast, saying:
“We respect and love you; you have often led us into the line of battle;
but we are no longer under your command. We warn you to be on your
guard. If you fire your pistol or attempt to enforce your commands, we
shall put you instantly to death.”
General Wayne appealed to their patriotism. They pointed to the broken
promises of Congress. He reminded them of the effect their conduct would
have on the enemy. They pointed to their tattered garments and emaciated
forms. They avowed their willingness to support the cause of
independence if adequate provision could be made for their comfort and
they boldly reiterated their determination to march to Philadelphia, at
all hazards, to demand from Congress a redress of their grievances.
General Wayne determined to accompany them to Philadelphia. When they
reached Princeton the soldiers presented the general with a written list
of their demands. These demands appeared so reasonable that he had them
laid before Congress. They consisted of six general items of complaint
and were signed by William Bearnell and the other sergeants of the
committee, William Bouzar, acting as secretary.
Joseph Reed, President of Pennsylvania, who had been authorized by
Congress to make propositions to the mutineers, advanced near Princeton
on January 6, when he wrote to General Wayne in which he expressed some
doubts as to going into the camp of the insurgents. The general showed
this letter to the sergeants and they immediately wrote the President:
“Your Excellency need not be in the least afraid or apprehensive of any
irregularities or ill treatment.”
President Reed went into Princeton. His entry was greeted with the whole
line drawn up for his reception, and every mark of military honor and
respect was shown him.
Articles of agreement were finally assented to and confirmed on both
sides, January 7, 1781. These articles consisted of five sections and
related to the time of their enlistment, terms of payment, arrearages
and clothes. It was also agreed that the State of Pennsylvania should
carry out its part of their contract.
The agreement was signed by Joseph Reed and General James Potter.
General Arthur St. Clair, the distinguished Pennsylvanian, and General
Lafayette went voluntarily to Princeton and offered their services in
the settlement of the difficulty, especially as they had learned of the
attempt of the British to win the malcontents to their cause.
When Sir Henry Clinton heard of the revolt of the Pennsylvania Line he
misunderstood the spirit of the mutineers and dispatched two
emissaries—a British sergeant named John Mason and a New Jersey Tory
named James Ogden—to the insurgents, with a written offer that, on
laying down their arms and marching to New York, they should receive
their arrearages; be furnished with good clothes, have a free pardon for
all past offenses and be taken under the protection of the British
Government and that no military service should be required of them
unless voluntarily offered.
Sir Henry entirely misapprehended the temper of the Pennsylvanians. They
felt justified in using their power to obtain a redress of grievances,
but they looked with horror upon the armed oppressors of their country;
and they regarded the act and stain of treason under the circumstances
as worse than the infliction of death.
Clinton’s proposals were rejected with disdain. “See, comrades,” said
one of them, “he takes us for traitors. Let us show him that the
American army can furnish but one Arnold, and that America has no truer
friends than we.”
They seized the two emissaries, and delivered them, with Clinton’s
papers, into the hands of General Wayne.
The court of inquiry sat January 10, 1781, at Somerset, N. J., with the
court composed of General Wayne, president, and General William Irvine,
Colonel Richard Butler, Colonel Walter Stewart and Major Benjamin
Fishbourne. The court found John Mason and James Ogden guilty and
condemned them to be hanged.
Lieutenant Colonel Harmar, Inspector General of the Pennsylvania Line,
was directed to carry the execution into effect. The prisoners were
taken to “cross roads from the upper ferry from Trenton to Philadelphia
at four lanes’ ends,” and executed.
The reward which had been offered for the apprehension of the offenders
was tendered to the mutineers who seized them. They sealed the pledge of
patriotism by nobly refusing it, saying: “Necessity wrung from us the
act of demanding justice from Congress, but we desire no reward for
doing our duty to our bleeding country.”
The whole movement, when all the circumstances are taken into account,
should not be execrated as a military rebellion, for, if ever there was
a just cause for men to lift up their strength against authority, these
mutineers of the Pennsylvania Line possessed it. It must be acknowledged
that they conducted themselves in the business, culpable as it was, with
unexpected order and regularity.
A great part of the Pennsylvania Line was disbanded for the winter, but
was promptly filled by new recruits in the spring and many of the old
soldiers re-enlisted.
----------
General Assembly Occupies New State
Capitol, January 2, 1822
The General Assembly of Pennsylvania met in the Dauphin County
courthouse for the last time December 21, 1821, and then a joint
resolution was adopted:
“Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, That when the
Legislature meets at the new State Capitol, on Wednesday, the 2d of
January next, that it is highly proper, before either house proceeds to
business, they unite in prayer to the Almighty God, imploring His
blessing on their future deliberations, and that the joint committee
already appointed be authorized to make the necessary arrangements for
that purpose.”
On Wednesday, January 2, 1822, on motion of Mr. Lehman and Mr. Todd, the
House proceeded to the building lately occupied by the Legislature.
There they joined the procession to the Capitol and attended to the
solemnities directed by the resolution of December 21, relative to the
ceremonies to be observed by the Legislature upon taking possession of
the State Capitol.
The Harrisburg _Chronicle_ of January 3, 1822, printed an account of the
proceedings from which the following is taken:
“The members of both branches of the Legislature met in the morning at
10 o’clock, at the old State House (court house) whence they moved to
the Capitol in the following
ORDER OF PROCESSION
The Architect and his Workmen, two and two.
Clergy.
Governor and Heads of Departments.
Officers of the Senate.
Speaker of the Senate.
Members of the Senate, two and two.
Officers of the House of Representatives.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Members, two and two.
Judges.
Civil Authorities of Harrisburg.
Citizens.
“In front of the Capitol the architect and his workmen opened into two
lines and admitted the procession to pass between them and the Capitol.
“The service was opened by a pertinent and impressive prayer, by Rev.
Dr. A. Lochman, of Harrisburg. The prayer was followed by an appropriate
discourse, by Rev. D. Mason, principal of Dickinson College, Carlisle,
Pa., which concluded as follows:
“Sixty years have not elapsed since the sound of the first axe was heard
in the woods of Harrisburg. The wild beasts and wilder men occupied the
banks of the Susquehanna. Since that time, with the mildness which has
characterized the descendants of William Penn, and that industry which
has marked all the generations of Pennsylvania, the forests have been
subdued, the wild beasts driven away to parts more congenial to their
nature, and the wilder men have withdrawn to regions where they hunt the
deer and entrap the fish according to the mode practiced by their
ancestors.
“In the room of all these there has started up, in the course of a few
years, a town respectable for the number of its inhabitants, for its
progressive industry, for the seat of legislation in this powerful
State.
“What remains to be accomplished of all our temporal wishes? What more
have we to say? What more can be said, but go on and prosper, carry the
spirit of your improvements through till the sound of the hammer, the
whip of the wagoner, the busy hum of man, the voices of innumerable
children issuing from the places of instruction, the lofty spires of
worship, till richly endowed colleges of education, till all those arts
which embellish man shall gladden the banks of the Susquehanna and the
Delaware, and exact from admiring strangers that cheerful and grateful
tribute, this is the work of a Pennsylvania Legislature!”
The act to erect the State Capitol was passed March 18, 1816, and
carried an appropriation of $50,000. A supplement to this act was
approved February 27, 1819, when there was appropriated $70,000, with
the provision that the said Capitol should not cost more than $120,000.
But a further supplement was approved March 28, 1820, for “the purpose
of constructing columns and capitols there of hewn stone, and to cover
the roof of the dome, etc.,” there was appropriated $15,000.
At this time the total cost of all the public buildings was $275,000,
and consisted of the new Capitol, $135,000; executive offices on both
sides of the Capitol building, $93,000; Arsenal, $12,000, and public
grounds, its enclosure and embellishment, $35,000.
The cornerstone of this new Capitol was laid at 12 o’clock on Monday,
May 31, 1819, by Governor William Findlay, assisted by Stephen Hills,
the architect and contractor for the execution of the work; William
Smith, stone cutter, and Valentine Kergan and Samuel White, masons, in
the presence of the Commissioners and a large concourse of citizens. The
ceremony was followed by the firing of three volleys from the public
cannon.
The newspaper account of the event states that the above-mentioned
citizens then partook of a cold collation, provided on the public ground
by Mr. Rahn.
The Building Commissioners deposited in the cornerstone the following
documents:
Charter of Charles II to William Penn.
Declaration of Independence.
Constitution of Pennsylvania, 1776.
Articles of Confederation and perpetual union between the several
States.
Copy of so much of an act of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, by
which indemnity was made to the heirs of William Penn for their interest
in Pennsylvania.
Treaty of peace and acknowledgment by Great Britain of the independence
of the United States.
Constitution of the United States, 1787.
Constitution of Pennsylvania, 1790.
Acts of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, by which the seat of government
was removed from Philadelphia to Lancaster and Harrisburg, and the
building of a State Capitol at the latter place authorized.
A list of the names of the Commissioners, architects, stonecutter and
chief masons; likewise, a list of the then officers of the Government of
Pennsylvania, embracing the Speakers of the two Houses of the
Legislature, the Governor, the heads of departments, the Judges of the
Supreme Court and Attorney General, with the names of the President and
Vice President of the United States.
It was a singular oversight that this cornerstone was not marked as
such, and in after years it was not known at which corner of the
building the stone was situated.
An act providing for the furnishing of the State Capitol was approved
March 30, 1821: Section 1. The Governor, Auditor General, State
Treasurer, William Graydon, Jacob Bucher, Francis R. Shunk and Joseph A.
McGinsey were appointed Commissioners to superintend the furnishing of
the State Capitol. This able commission expended the $15,000
appropriated, and the new Capitol was a credit to the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania when the General Assembly formally occupied it January 2,
1822.
----------
Lucretia Mott, Celebrated Advocate of
Anti-Slavery, Born January 3, 1793
From the earliest settlement at Germantown, and especially in the period
following the Revolutionary War, there were many thoughtful people in
all walks of life who considered slavery to be an evil which should be
stopped. But the question of actually freeing the slaves was first
seriously brought forward in 1831, by William Lloyd Garrison, in his
excellent paper, “The Liberator,” published in Boston.
Seventy-five delegates met in Philadelphia in 1833 to form a National
Anti-Slavery Society. It was unpopular in those stirring days to be an
abolitionist. John Greenleaf Whittier acted as one of the secretaries,
and four women, all Quakers, attended the convention.
When the platform of this new society was being discussed, one of the
four women rose to speak. A gentleman present afterward said: “I had
never before heard a woman speak at a public meeting. She said only a
few words, but these were spoken so modestly, in such sweet tones and
yet so decisively, that no one could fail to be pleased.” The woman who
spoke was Lucretia Mott.
Lucretia Coffin was born in Nantucket January 3, 1793. In 1804 her
parents, who were Quakers, removed to Boston. She was soon afterward
sent to the Nine Partners’ Boarding School in Duchess County, N. Y.,
where her teacher (Deborah Willetts) lived until 1879. Thence she went
to Philadelphia, where her parents were residing.
At the age of eighteen years she married James Mott. In 1818 she became
a preacher among Friends, and all her long life she labored for the good
of her fellow creatures, especially for those who were in bonds of any
kind.
She was ever a most earnest advocate of temperance, pleaded for the
freedom of the slaves, and was one of the active founders of the
“American Anti-Slavery Society” in Philadelphia in 1833.
She was appointed a delegate to the World’s Anti-Slavery convention,
held in London in 1840, but was denied a seat in it on account of her
sex. She also was a very prominent advocate of the emancipation of her
sex from the disabilities to which law and custom subjected them.
When the Female Anti-Slavery Society was organized Lucretia Mott was its
first president and served in that office for many years.
The anti-slavery enthusiasts dedicated a building, Pennsylvania Hall, in
Philadelphia, May 14, 1838, which excited the rage of their enemies and
the mob burned the building three days later. The excited crowd marched
through the streets, threatening also to burn the houses of the
abolitionists.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. James Mott stood on Ninth Street above Race.
Lucretia Mott and her husband were warned of their danger, but refused
to leave their home. Their son ran in from the street, crying, “They’re
coming!”
The mob intended to burn the house, but a young man friendly to the
family assumed leadership and with the cry “On to Motts!” led them past
the place and the mob satisfied its thirst by burning a home for colored
orphans, and did not return.
Such incidents failed to daunt the spirit of Lucretia Mott, and her
husband, who approved the part she took.
A meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society in New York City was broken up by
roughs, and several of the speakers, as they left the hall, were beaten
by the mob. Lucretia Mott was being escorted from the hall by a
gentleman.
When she noticed some of the other ladies were frightened, she asked her
friend to leave her and take care of the others. “Who will look after
you?” he asked. Lucretia laid her hand on the arm of one of the roughest
in the mob, saying: “This man will see me safely through the crowd.”
Pleased by the mark of confidence, the rioter did as she asked and took
her to safety.
The home of the Motts was always open for the relief of poor colored
persons, and they helped in sending fugitive slaves to places of refuge.
On one occasion the Motts heard the noise of an approaching mob. Mr.
Mott rushed to the door and found a poor colored man, pursued by the
mob, rushing toward the friendly Mott house. He entered and escaped by
the rear door. A brick hurled at Mr. Mott fortunately missed him, but
broke the door directly over his head.
A sequel to the riot at Christiana, Lancaster County, September 11,
1851, which occurred on the farm then owned by Levi Powell, was the
arrest of Castner Hanway and Elijah Lewis, two Quakers of the
neighborhood, and nearly fifty others, mostly Negroes, on the charge of
high treason for levying war against the Government of the United
States.
The trial began in the United States Court at Philadelphia, before
Judges Green and Kane, November 24. It was one of the most exciting ever
held in the State. Thaddeus Stevens, John M. Read, Theodore C. Cuyler,
and Joseph J. Lewis, conducted the defense, while District Attorney John
W. Ashmead was assisted by the Attorney General of Maryland, and by
James Cooper, then a Whig United States Senator from Pennsylvania.
Lucretia Mott attended the trial personally every day, and after the
elaborate argument of counsel, Judge Green delivered his charge. The
jury returned a verdict, in ten minutes, of “not guilty.”
A colored man named Dangerfield was seized on a farm near Harrisburg on
a charge of being a fugitive slave. He was manacled and taken to
Philadelphia for trial.
The abolitionists engaged a lawyer to defend the Negro. Lucretia Mott
sat by the side of the prisoner during the trial. Largely through her
presence and influence Dangerfield was released. The mob outside the
court awaited Dangerfield to deliver him over to his former master, but
a band of young Quakers deceived the crowd by accompanying another Negro
to a carriage and Dangerfield walked off in another direction.
Lucretia Mott and her friends were rejoiced to see the Negroes all free.
There was still much to be done after the Civil War. This noble woman
remained a hard worker for their cause all through her life.
Lucretia Mott died in Philadelphia, November 21, 1881, at the age of
nearly ninety years. Thousands attended her funeral, the proceedings
were mostly in silence. At last some one said, “Will no one speak?” The
answer came back: “Who can speak now? The preacher is dead.” Her motto
in life had been “Truth for authority, not authority for truth.”
Lucretia Mott’s influence still lives. Tuskegee Institute in Alabama,
Hampton Institute in Virginia, and Lincoln University in Chester County,
Pennsylvania, are institutions made possible by such as she, and in them
young colored persons are taught occupations and professions in which
they can render the best service to themselves and to their country.
----------
Samuel Maclay Resigned From United
States Senate January 4, 1809
A monument was unveiled in memory of Samuel Maclay, a great
Pennsylvanian, October 16, 1908. The scene of these impressive
ceremonies was a beautiful little cemetery close by the old Dreisbach
Church, a few miles west of Lewisburg in the picturesque Buffalo Valley,
Union County.
Samuel Maclay was the eighth United States Senator from Pennsylvania and
had the proud distinction of being the brother of William Maclay, one of
the first United States Senators from Pennsylvania. The Maclays are the
only brothers to ever sit in the highest legislative body of this
country. The third brother, John, was also prominent and served in the
Senate of Pennsylvania.
The imposing shaft was erected by Pennsylvania at a cost of only $1000,
which included the contract for the marble shaft and the reinterment of
the Senator’s body.
Miss Helen Argyl Maclay, of Belleville, a great-great-granddaughter of
Samuel Maclay, unveiled the monument assisted by her two brothers, Ralph
and Robert Maclay. Rev. A. A. Stapleton, D. D., delivered the principal
address. Other speakers included Frank L. Dersham, then the
Representative in the General Assembly from Union County, who introduced
the bill for this memorial; Alfred Hayes, now deceased, also a former
member of the Assembly, who represented the Union County Historical
Society; Captain Samuel R. Maclay, of Mineral Point, Mo., a grandson of
Senator Samuel Maclay.
Lieutenant Governor Robert Murphy attended the ceremony, as did many
distinguished citizens from this and other States, school children and
military, civic, historical and patriotic societies. There were
thirty-five representatives of the Maclay family in attendance.
Perhaps the strangest emotion during the preparation of this shaft and
its unveiling was caused by the seeming lack of knowledge of this
statesman, farmer, frontiersman, soldier, surveyor, citizen, who was an
officer in the Continental Army during the Revolution, who was a
foremost actor in the actual development of the interior of the State to
commerce, one who sat in the highest legislative councils of this
Commonwealth and presided over its Senate, who represented his State in
Congress and later in the United States Senate, and so serving was the
compeer of men whose names are radiant with luster on the pages of
American history.
Yet, strange to say, the memory of this man had so completely faded from
public view that college professors, members of the General Assembly and
men who held some claim to be styled historians asked in wonder, when
the bill was before the Legislature, “Who was this man?”
The ancestors of Senator Maclay came from Scotland, where the clan
Maclay inhabited the mountains of County Boss in the northlands.
When the darkest chapter of Scotch-Irish history was written in tears
and blood, emigration was the only alternative to starvation, and among
the 30,000 exiles who left for these shores were two Maclays.
These two exiles were sons of Charles Maclay, of County Antrim and
titular Baron of Finga. Their names were Charles, born in 1703, and
John, born in 1707. They set sail for America May 30, 1734.
Upon arrival they first settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where
they remained nearly seven years, when they removed to what is now
Lurgan Township, Franklin County, on an estate, which is still in
possession of their descendants.
Here John, son of Charles, the immigrant, built a mill in 1755, which,
with modern improvements and alterations, is still operated by the third
succeeding generation. This mill was stockaded during the French and
Indian War, as it was located on the well-traveled highway leading from
McAllister’s Gap to Shippensburg.
During the Revolution every male member of the Maclay family, of
military age, was in the service, and every one an officer.
John Maclay, the younger of the immigrant brothers, married Jane
MacDonald in 1747. To this union were born three sons and one daughter;
John born 1748, a soldier of the Revolution, died 1800; Charles, born
1750, a captain in the Continental Army, who fell in the action at
Crooked Billet, 1778; Samuel, born 1751, also an officer, fell at Bunker
Hill; Elizabeth, wife of Colonel Samuel Culbertson, of the Revolution.
Charles Maclay, the elder immigrant brother, died in 1753. His wife,
Eleanore, whom he had married in Ireland, died in 1789. To them were
born four sons and one daughter: John, born in Ireland, 1734, for many
years a magistrate, and in 1776 he was a delegate to convention in
Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia. He also served in the General Assembly,
1790–1792 and 1794; William, born in Chester County, July 20, 1737,
whose sketch appears in another story; Charles, also born in Chester
County, in 1739, was a soldier of the Revolution, died in 1834 at
Maclays Mills; Samuel, the subject of our sketch, was born June 17,
1741.
Samuel Maclay was educated in the classical school conducted by Dr. J.
Allison, of Middle Spring. He also mastered the science of surveying,
which he followed for years. In 1769 he was engaged with his brother
William and Surveyor General Lukens in surveying the officers’ tracts on
the West Branch of the Susquehanna, which had been awarded to the
officers of First Battalion in Bouquet’s expedition.
A coincident fact is that the remains of this distinguished patriot lie
buried on the allotment awarded Captain John Brady, who drew the third
choice, and which was surveyed for him by Maclay.
Samuel Maclay, November 10, 1773, married Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel
William Plunket, then President Judge of Northumberland County, and
commandant of the garrison at Fort Augusta. They took up their residence
on the Brady tract in Buffalo Valley. To this union six sons and three
daughters were born.
From the moment Samuel Maclay became a resident of what is now Union
County until his death he was identified with the important history of
the valley.
Samuel Maclay was one of the commissioners to survey the headwaters of
the Schuylkill, Susquehanna and Allegheny Rivers. The others were
Timothy Matlack, of Philadelphia, and John Adlum, of York. They were
commissioned April 9, 1789. These eminent men were skilled
hydrographical and topographical engineers and completed the first great
survey of Pennsylvania.
The journal kept by Maclay is interesting and valuable and relates many
thrilling experiences quite foreign to those of present-day surveyors.
He was lieutenant colonel of the First Battalion, Northumberland County
Militia, organized at Derr’s Mills, now Lewisburg, September 12, 1775.
In 1787 Samuel Maclay was elected to Pennsylvania Assembly and served
until 1791, when he became Associate Justice of Northumberland County.
In 1794 he was elected to Congress. Three years later he was elected to
Pennsylvania Senate, where he served six years. He was elected Speaker
in 1802 and he served in this capacity until March 16, 1802, when he
took his seat in the United States Senate, where he continued until
January 4, 1809, resigning on account of broken health.
He died October 5, 1811, at the age of seventy years. His wife,
Elizabeth Plunket Maclay, survived her distinguished husband until 1835.
----------
Amusing and Memorable “Battle of the
Kegs,” January 5, 1778
In January, 1778, while the British were in possession of Philadelphia,
some Americans had formed a project of sending down by the ebb tide a
number of kegs, or machines that resembled kegs as they were floating,
charged with gunpowder and furnished with machinery, so constructed that
on the least touch of anything obstructing their free passage they would
immediately explode with great force.
The plan was to injure the British shipping, which lay at anchor
opposite the city in such great numbers that the kegs could not pass
without encountering some of them. But on January 4, the very evening in
which these kegs were sent down, the first hard frost came on and the
vessels were hauled into the docks to avoid the ice which was forming,
and the entire scheme failed.
One of the kegs, however, happened to explode near the town. This gave a
general alarm in the city, and soon the wharves were filled with troops,
and the greater part of the following day was spent in firing at every
chip or stick that was seen floating in the river. The kegs were under
water, nothing appearing on the surface but a small buoy.
This circumstance gave occasion for many stories of this incident to be
published in the papers of that day. The following account is taken from
a letter dated Philadelphia, January 9, 1778:
“This city hath lately been entertained with a most astonishing instance
of activity, bravery and military skill of the royal army and navy of
Great Britain. The affair is somewhat particular and deserves your
notice. Some time last week a keg of singular construction was observed
floating in the river. The crew of a barge attempting to take it up, it
suddenly exploded, killed four of the hands and wounded the rest.
“On Monday last some of the kegs of a singular construction made their
appearance. The alarm was immediately given. Various reports prevailed
in the city, filling the royal troops with unspeakable consternation.
Some asserted that these kegs were filled with rebels, who were to issue
forth in the dead of night, as the Grecians did of old from the wooden
horse at the siege of Troy, and take the city by surprise. Some declared
they had seen the points of bayonets sticking out of the bung-holes of
the kegs. Others said they were filled with inflammable combustibles
which would set the Delaware in flames and consume all the shipping in
the harbor. Others conjectured that they were machines constructed by
art magic and expected to see them mount the wharves and roll, all
flaming with infernal fire, through the streets of the city.
“I say nothing as to these reports and apprehensions, but certain it is,
the ships of war were immediately manned and the wharves crowded with
chosen men. Hostilities were commenced without much ceremony and it was
surprising to behold the incessant firing that was poured upon the
enemy’s kegs. Both officers and men exhibited unparalleled skill and
prowess on the occasion, whilst the citizens stood gaping as solemn
witnesses of this dreadful scene.
“In truth, not a chip, stick or drift log passed by without experiencing
the vigor of the British arms. The action began about sunrise and would
have terminated in favor of the British by noon had not an old market
woman, in crossing the river with provisions, unfortunately let a keg of
butter fall overboard, which as it was then ebb tide, floated down to
the scene of battle. At sight of this unexpected re-enforcement of the
enemy the attack was renewed with fresh forces, and the firing from the
marine and land troops was beyond imagination and so continued until
night closed the conflict.
“The rebel kegs were either totally demolished or obliged to fly, as
none of them have shown their heads since. It is said that His
Excellency, Lord Howe, has dispatched a swift sailing packet with an
account of this signal victory to the Court of London. In short, Monday,
January 5, 1778, will be memorable in history for the renowned battle of
the kegs.”
The entire transaction was laughable in the extreme and furnished the
theme for unnumbered sallies of wit from the Whig press, while the
distinguished author of “Hail Columbia,” Joseph H. Hopkinson,
paraphrased it in a ballad which was immensely popular at the time.
This ballad is worthy of reproduction and is given almost in full:
THE BATTLE OF THE KEGS
By JOSEPH H. HOPKINSON
Gallants attend and hear a friend,
Trill forth harmonious ditty,
Strange things I‘ll tell which late befell
In Philadelphia City.
‘Twas early day, as poets say,
Just when the sun was rising,
A soldier stood on a log of wood
And saw a thing surprising.
As in a maze he stood to gaze,
The truth can’t be denied, sir,
He spied a score of kegs or more,
Come floating down the tide, sir.
A sailor too in jerkin blue,
This strange appearance viewing,
First d—d his eyes, in great surprise,
Then said “some mischief’s brewing.
“These kegs, I‘m told, the rebels bold
Pack up like pickl’d herring;
And they’re come down t’attack the town
In this new way of ferry’ng.”
The soldier flew, the sailor too,
And scar’d almost to death, sir,
Wore out their shoes, to spread the news,
And ran till out of breath, sir.
Now up and down throughout the town,
Most frantic scenes were acted;
And some ran here, and others there,
Like men almost distracted.
Some fire cry’d, which some denied,
But said the earth had quaked;
And girls and boys, with hideous noise
Ran thro‘ the streets half naked.
“The motley crew, in vessels new,
With Satan for their guide, sir,
Pack’d up in bags, or wooden kegs,
Come driving down the tide, sir.
“Therefore prepare for bloody war,
These kegs must all be routed,
Or surely despis’d we shall be
And British courage doubted.”
The cannons roar from shore to shore,
The small arms loud did rattle,
Since wars began I‘m sure no man
E‘er saw so strange a battle.
The rebel dales, the rebel vales,
With rebel trees surrounded;
The distant woods, the hills and floods,
With rebel echoes sounded.
The fish below swam to and fro,
Attack’d from ev’ry quarter;
Why sure, thought they, the devil’s to pay,
‘Mongst folks above the water.
The kegs, ’tis said, tho’ strongly made
Of rebel staves and hoops, sir,
Could not oppose their powerful foes,
The conqr’ing British troops, sir.
From morn to night these men of might,
Display’d amazing courage—
And when the sun was fairly down,
Retir’d to sup their porrage.
A hundred men with each a pen,
Or more upon my word, sir,
It is most true would be too few,
Their valor to record, sir.
Such feats did they perform that day,
Against these wicked kegs, sir,
That years to come, if they get home
They’ll make their boasts and brags, sir.
----------
Bishop Cammerhoff Started Journey Among
Indians on January 6, 1748
John Christopher Cammerhoff was a Moravian missionary who undertook
several hazardous trips to the Indians along the Susquehanna and to
Onondaga, and of whom there is an interesting story to be told.
He came to America in the summer of 1747, in company with Baron John de
Watteville, a bishop of the Moravian Church, and son-in-law and
principal assistant of Count Zinzindorf. They were also accompanied on
the voyage by the Reverend John Martin Mack and the Reverend David
Zeisberger, the latter also an interpreter, and each of these figured
very prominently in the early history among the Indians of the great
Susquehanna Valleys.
Cammerhoff was born near Magdeburg, Germany, July 28, 1721; died at
Bethlehem, Pa., April 28, 1751. He was educated at Jena and at the age
of twenty-five was consecrated Bishop in London and came to America.
His greatest success was among the Indians of Pennsylvania and New York.
The Iroquois adopted him into the Turtle Tribe of the Oneida Nation, and
gave him the name of Gallichwio or “A Good Message.”
Accompanied only by Joseph Powell, he set out from Bethlehem for
Shamokin on the afternoon of January 6, 1748, and reached Macungy, now
Emaus, by night. The next day they traveled through deep snow, sleeping
that night at the home of Moses Starr, a Quaker. Early next morning the
Schuylkill was reached, which was partly frozen over. A crossing was
effected with great risk over the thin ice, leading their horses, which
broke through and nearly drowned. They passed through Heidelberg, Berks
County, and reached Tulpehocken, where they slept at Michael
Schaeffer’s.
Next morning they arrived at George Loesch’s and here determined to
leave the mountain road via the Great Swatara Gap and Mahanoy Mountains,
and to travel along the Indian path leading from Harris’ Ferry, which
they were to meet at the river.
They got as far as Henry Zender’s, where they spent the night, and next
morning set out for Harris’ Ferry, a long day’s journey along the Great
Swatara, which they reached at noon. Seven miles from Harris’ they got
lost in the woods, but the missionaries arrived at Harris’ at 7 o’clock
and found there a great company of traders.
Next morning, January 11, they proceeded toward Shamokin, following the
path made by some Indians who the previous day had traveled from
Shamokin to Harris’ Ferry. They passed by Chambers’ Mill, at the mouth
of Fishing Creek, seven miles above the ferry. They proceeded, after a
sumptuous noonday meal, and in a few hours struck the base of the
mountain, which marked the northern limit of Proprietaries’ land. They
passed over Peter’s Mountain, then forded Powell’s Creek, and,
completely exhausted, arrived at Armstrong’s house, which was at the
mouth of the present Armstrong Creek, above Halifax.
In spite of a hard storm during the night they pressed on the next day
and nearly lost their lives crossing Manhantango Creek, which was very
high, reached the house of Captain Thomas McKee and passed the night.
At 3 o’clock next day they reached Mahanoy Creek, which they forded at a
place McKee had advised, and night overtook them five miles from their
destination, but in the moonlight they pressed on, and descending the
steep hills they encountered a miraculous escape, and again at Shamokin
Creek were carried nearly 100 yards down stream by the raging current.
Here Missionary Mack and others, anticipating their approach, met them
at 9 o’clock at night and cheered them on the last two miles of their
long and tedious trip. They arrived at Shamokin (now Sunbury) at
daybreak on Sunday, January 14.
Shikellamy went to see Cammerhoff and expressed his regret that he had
such a fatiguing journey, and during his stay at that great Indian
capital showed him every attention.
Following the great conference at Philadelphia, in August, 1749, it
became necessary the next spring for the Moravian missionaries to visit
the Great Council of the Six Nations at Onondaga.
It was arranged that the Rev. David Zeisberger, who was then at
Shamokin, should join Bishop Cammerhoff at Wyoming and accompany him on
this journey. The latter, having obtained a passport from Governor
Hamilton, set out from Bethlehem on May 14, accompanied by John Martin
Mark, Timothy Horsfield and Gottlieb Bezold. They journeyed on foot up
the Lehigh to Gnadenhutten, then over the mountains to Wyoming, where
they arrived May 20, 1750, and “at once went to Nanticoke town; there
they were kindly welcomed, and where they awaited the Indian who was to
guide them.”
When the Cayuga chief arrived, accompanied by his wife, his son, aged
fourteen, and his daughter, aged four years, they departed in canoes on
the afternoon of May 28. “David and I, with the boy and girl, set out in
our canoe and the Cayuga and his wife in their hunting skiff,” records
Cammerhoff.
On June 6, they passed Wyalusing Falls, and then came to Gahontoto, the
site of an ancient Indian city where a peculiar nation once lived.
Traces of their former Indian city were discernible in the old ruined
corn fields. The Cayuga chief told the Bishop that the Five Nations had
fought and exterminated the inhabitants of this city long before they
fought with guns.
They proceeded up the Susquehanna and then into the Tioga or Chemung
River, and disembarked at Gandtscherat, a Cayuga village near Waverly,
N. Y. Thence they traveled overland by way of Cayuga to Onondaga, where
they arrived June 21, the very day the big council was to convene, but
its actual assembly was delayed because a majority of the Indians got
drunk.
When the council finally met at Onondaga, the design of the proposed
negotiations, as made known to the visitors, was that emissaries of the
French were endeavoring to entice the Six Nations from their compact
with the English.
During the course of the conference, Cammerhoff presented to the Council
a petition from the Nanticoke Indians at Wyoming, to the effect that
they might have a blacksmith shop, under Moravian auspices, set up in
their village. This request was denied by the Council, and the
Nanticokes informed that they could avail themselves of the services of
the blacksmith at Shamokin. This smith was Anthony Schmidt, who was sent
to Shamokin from the Moravian Mission at Bethlehem. He arrived there
August 3, 1747, accompanied by his wife. He remained there many years
and performed his task to the general satisfaction of the Indians who
traveled 100 or more miles to have a gun barrel straightened or the
firelock repaired.
Their business at Onondaga being finished, Cammerhoff and Zeisberger
journeyed overland to the Susquehanna, where they embarked in a canoe
and floated down the river as far as the village of the Nanticoke, which
they reached Sunday, August 2, 1750. They tarried only a day and then
proceeded to Shamokin, where they arrived August 6, having traveled more
than 600 miles on horseback, afoot and in canoes.
----------
Bank of North America, First Incorporated
Bank in the United States, Commenced
Business January 7, 1782
The first incorporated bank in America was the Bank of North America,
and its operations commenced January 7, 1782, in the commodious store
belonging to its cashier, Tench Francis, on the north side of Chestnut
Street, west of Third.
In 1780 the Assembly of Pennsylvania made a strong effort to relieve the
people from the withering blight of the Continental money. It tried to
redeem it by taxation at the rate of 1 to 40. But neither this nor any
other measure prevented the coinage of the phrase, “It is not worth a
Continental.”
To assist Congress in providing for the army, Robert Morris and other
financiers of the State established the Bank of Pennsylvania, the first
bank in America. The last attempt to prolong the life of the
“Continentals” was made by the Supreme Executive Council in May, 1781;
but the remedy proved fatal. Pelatiah Webster said of the proceedings:
“Thus fell, ended and died the Continental currency, aged six years.”
During the Revolutionary War the country was extremely poor, with few
industries but agriculture, and was quite denuded of the precious
metals, owing to a heavy and long continued adverse foreign trade, so
that the Congress of the United States experienced great difficulties in
providing the requisite means for carrying on the hostilities.
On May 10, 1775, soon after the battle of Lexington, Congress made
preparation to issue Continental paper, $2,000,000 of which were put in
circulation on June 22 following.
From month to month these issues, which in the aggregate reached three
hundred millions, depreciated, until eventually they became entirely
valueless, notwithstanding the passage of laws making them a legal
tender for the payment of debts.
On May 17, 1781, a plan for a National Bank was submitted to Congress by
Robert Morris, of Pennsylvania, the principal provisions of which were
as follows: The capital to be $400,000, in shares of $400 each; that
each share be entitled to a vote for directors; that there be twelve
directors chosen from those entitled to vote, who at their first meeting
shall choose one as president; that the directors meet quarterly; that
the board be empowered from time to time to open new subscriptions for
the purpose of increasing the capital of the bank; statements to be made
to the Superintendent of the Finances of America; that the bank notes
payable on demand shall by law be made receivable for duties and taxes
in any state, and from the respective states by the treasury of the
United States; that the Superintendent of Finances of America shall have
a right at all times to examine into the affairs of the bank.
On May 26, 1781, Congress adopted the following: “Resolved, that
Congress do approve of the plan for the establishment of a National Bank
in these United States, submitted for their consideration by Mr. R.
Morris, May 17, 1781, and that they will promote and support the same by
such ways and means, from time to time, as may appear necessary for the
institution and consistent with the public good; that the subscribers to
the said bank shall be incorporated agreeably to the principles and
terms of the plan, under the name of ‘The President, Directors, and
Company of the Bank of North America,’ so soon as the subscription shall
be filled, the directors and president chosen, and application for that
purpose made to Congress by the president and directors elected.”
On December 31 following Congress adopted “an ordinance to incorporate
the subscribers to the Bank of North America.”
The first president was Thomas Willing, and the cashier was Tench
Francis. The bank became at once a most important auxiliary in aid of
the finances of the government, and so continued to the end of the war.
This institution was also incorporated by the State of Pennsylvania, on
April 18, 1782.
Robert Morris subscribed for 633 shares of the bank on account of the
United States, paying therefore $254,000, but, owing to the necessities
of the government, he was almost immediately compelled to borrow a like
amount from the bank, so that the institution derived but little benefit
from the government subscription.
The deposits gradually assumed large proportions. Some of the States
gave to the bank the assistance of their recognition. Connecticut made
the notes receivable in payment of taxes, Rhode Island provided
punishment for counterfeiting its issue, and Massachusetts created it a
corporation according to the laws of that Commonwealth.
The operations of the bank were almost immediately attended with the
restoration of confidence and credit. The State of Pennsylvania being
unable to pay the officers of its army, relief was found in the bank,
which advanced the money for the state, and received its reimbursement
when the revenue was collected.
The public enemy infested the Delaware River and Bay, and seized vessels
in the port of Philadelphia. The bank advanced $22,500, which enabled
the merchants to fit out a ship of war, which not only cleared the river
of the enemy, but captured a cruiser of twenty guns belonging to the
British fleet.
The defense of the Western frontier was promoted by the advance of £5000
by the bank in 1782.
In the year 1785, when an ill feeling had arisen between the government
of the State of Pennsylvania and the bank, the former repealed the
charter which it had granted in 1782. The bank, however, continued its
operations under the charter granted by the Federal Government till
1787, when it was rechartered by Pennsylvania.
The charter of the Bank of North America has been renewed from time to
time, and was made a National Bank, December, 1864, and is still one of
the leading financial institutions of the State and Nation.
It is one of the only three banks in existence at the time of the
adoption of the Federal Constitution, the others being the Bank of New
York, at New York City, and the Bank of Massachusetts, at Boston.
----------
Matthias Baldwin Completed First Successful
Locomotive January 8, 1831
The first successful American locomotive was made in Philadelphia by
Matthias William Baldwin, and completed January 8, 1831.
The story of the man and his wonderful achievement is the story of one
of the greatest industrial plans in the world and is full of human
interest.
Matthias Baldwin was born December 10, 1795, the son of an Elizabeth, N.
J., carriage-maker, who was in affluent circumstances at the time of his
death, but the mismanagement of his property caused the loss of nearly
all. Matthias was the youngest of five children and but four years old
when his father died. He inherited his father’s skill with tools and
early began to construct labor-saving devices to assist his mother in
her housework.
At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a firm of jewelers in
Frankford, now a part of Philadelphia. His habits were sober,
industrious and earnest. He devoted much of his spare time to singing in
the little Presbyterian Church.
At twenty-one he became an apprentice in the firm of Fletcher & Gardner,
silversmiths and jewelers, of Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.
In 1825 he formed a partnership with David Mason, a machinist, for the
manufacture of bookbinder tools and cylinders for calico printing. Their
first shop was in a small alley running north from Walnut Street above
Fourth. Afterwards they moved into a shop on Minor Street, where they
also began to manufacture machines of Mr. Baldwin’s invention.
The first such invention was a small upright engine adapted to the
motive power of a small factory. From this success the manufacture of
stationary steam engines took a prominent place in the establishment.
The plant now employed a number of young men. Baldwin felt that these
needed some place where they could get instruction in science and
mechanical art, so that they might become more intelligent and
inventive. He talked over the matter with many other employers, and the
result was the founding of Franklin Institute, the cornerstone of which
was laid with Masonic ceremonies, June 8, 1824. This is still one of the
active and valuable institutions of the country.
About this time Mr. Mason withdrew from the firm, Mr. Baldwin continuing
the manufacture of engines.
It was in 1829–30 that steam, as a motive power on railroads, began to
attract the attention of American engineers. George Stephenson had
produced a successful locomotive in England. In 1830 the Camden and
Amboy Railroad Company brought across the ocean a locomotive, which was
kept hidden from the public eye until it should be used.
Franklin Peale, who owned the Philadelphia Museum, where up-to-date
novelties were shown, wished to have a small working model of a
locomotive to exhibit, and he turned to Matthias Baldwin.
The two men found out where the locomotive was kept, and visited the
place. Baldwin was already familiar with the published description and
sketches of engines which had taken part in the Rainhill competitions in
England, but he now had an opportunity to see and measure for himself an
actual engine.
Baldwin made the model, completing it January 8, 1831. It was taken to
the museum and on April 25 was put in motion on a circular track made of
pine boards, covered with hoop-iron. It drew two small cars, each
holding four persons, and attracted great attention from the crowds who
saw it. Both anthracite and pine-knot coal were used as fuel, and the
steam was discharged through the smokestack to increase the draught.
The success of the model obtained for Mr. Baldwin an order for a
locomotive for the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad
Company.
This engine when completed was called “Old Ironsides” and left the shop
November 23, 1832. It stood on the rails like a “thing of life.” Its
light weight, between four and five tons, did not give it that tractive
power necessary to draw a loaded train on wet and slippery rails, hence
the newspapers of that day termed it a “fair weather” locomotive,
because the notices specified that “the locomotive built by Mr. M. W.
Baldwin, of this city, will depart daily, when the weather is fair, with
a train of passenger cars. On rainy days horses will be attached.”
The “Old Ironsides” was a four-wheeled engine, modeled essentially on
the English fashion of that day. The wheels were made with heavy
cast-iron hubs, wooden spokes and rims, and wrought-iron tires. The
price of this engine was $4,000, but the company claimed that it did not
perform according to contract, and after correction had been made as far
as possible, a compromise was effected and Mr. Baldwin received $3,500
for his work.
“Old Ironsides” on subsequent trials attained a speed of thirty miles an
hour with the usual train.
Only one man in Baldwin’s shop, besides the inventor himself, could
properly run “Old Ironsides.” This man fell sick, and others who tried,
could not get it to run satisfactorily. The president of the road was
about to throw it back on Baldwin’s hands when the engineer recovered
and the locomotive gave satisfaction. But Baldwin was so thoroughly
disgusted with all the complaints, and such was his first locomotive
that he said with much decision, “That is our last locomotive.” But
other great men have been known to change their minds, and when Matthias
Baldwin died, his works had built more than 1500 locomotives.
“The Miller,” for the Charleston and Hamburg, S. C., Railroad Company
was the next engine built by Mr. Baldwin. During 1834 he completed five
locomotives, and his business was now fairly established. It was during
this year that larger quarters were necessary, and Mr. Baldwin removed
his shops to the location on Broad and Hamilton Streets, where, in 1835,
the present Baldwin Locomotive Works had their origin, and where they
have since developed into their immense proportions.
The financial difficulties of 1836–37 did not leave Mr. Baldwin
unscathed. Great as his embarrassments were a full consultation with his
creditors resulted in the wise determination to leave him in full and
complete possession of the plant and business, under an agreement to pay
full amount of indebtedness, principal and interest. In five years
Baldwin discharged every dollar of debt.
August 25, 1842, Mr. Baldwin obtained a patent for a six-wheel connected
engine, which revived the business. In 1840 Baldwin built a locomotive
for Austria and in 1845 he built three for Wurtemburg.
Mr. Baldwin died September 7, 1865, after he had virtually perfected the
locomotive and witnessed the rise and wonderful increase of the most
important material interest of the age, to the completion of which he
had contributed more than any other individual. His name was familiar
where the locomotive was known and his personal character as a Christian
and a philanthropist was as highly esteemed by his associates and
acquaintances as his scientific achievements were valued by the
profession.
----------
Fort Hunter, an Important Defense,
Garrisoned January 9, 1756
A motorist touring north along the Susquehanna Trail, when six miles
above Harrisburg, just at the point in the roadway where one would turn
off sharply to the right, if going to the beautiful Country Club of
Harrisburg, can see a boulder which marks the site of Fort Hunter, one
of the busy places during the stirring period immediately following
hostilities which inaugurated the French and Indian War.
This fort stood on the south bank of Fishing Creek, at its junction with
the Susquehanna River, on property now occupied by John W. Reily near
the village known as Rockville.
The date of its erection is uncertain, but it is probable that it was
built by the settlers about October, 1755, immediately after the two
terrible Indian massacres at Penn’s Creek and Mahanoy Creek. It was
completed by the Provincial Government in January, 1756.
Benjamin Chambers was the first white man to settle in that vicinity,
where he built a mill in 1720. He was the senior of four brothers, all
sturdy Presbyterians from the County of Antrim in the north of Ireland.
He was subsequently joined by his three brothers, and in 1735 all but
Thomas removed to the Cumberland Valley.
Benjamin erected Fort Chambers and became a most influential citizen.
Thomas remained on Fishing Creek and operated a mill. His son-in-law,
Robert Hunter, subsequently fell heir to the improvements and henceforth
the stockade was known as the fort at Hunter’s Mill, or Fort Hunter.
The first orders on record relating to Fort Hunter were issued January
9, 1756, by Governor Morris to Adam Read, of Hanover Township, Lancaster
County, and were as follows:
“The Commissioner thinking that a company of fifty men under your
command are sufficient to guard the frontier along the Kittektiny Hills,
from your own house to Hunter’s Mill, have refused for the present to
take any other men in that quarter into the pay of the Government, and
requested me to order, and I do hereby order you to detach twenty-five
of the men now at your house, to the fort at Hunter’s Mill, upon
Susquehanna, under the command of your lieutenant, or officer next under
yourself, or in case there be none such appointed by the Government,
then under the command of such person as you shall appoint for that
service; and you are to give orders to the commander of such detachment
to keep his men in order and fit for duty, and to cause a party of them,
from time to time, to range the woods along and near the mountains
toward your house; and you are in like manner to keep the men with you
in good order, and to cause a party of them from time to time, to range
the woods on or near the mountains toward Hunter’s Mill, and you and
they are to continue upon this service till further order.
“You are to add ten men to your company out of the township of Paxton,
and to make the detachment at Hunter’s Mill of twenty more men, which
with those ten, are to complete thirty for service, and keep an account
of the time when these ten enter themselves, that you may be enabled to
make up your muster roll upon oath.”
Hardly had the above order been executed and the men recruited until
additional orders were dispatched by the Governor to Captain Read: “I
have also appointed Thomas McKee to take post at or near Hunter’s Mill
with thirty men.”
An interesting sentence in his letter revealed the hardships of a
Provincial soldier: “But as the Province is at present in want of arms
and blankets, if any of the men you shall enlist will find themselves
with those articles, they shall receive half a dollar for the use of
their gun, and half a dollar for the use of a blanket.”
At the same time Governor Morris wrote to James Galbraith, Esq., a
Provincial Commissioner, rehearsing the sundry orders given to Captains
Read and McKee, to which he added:
“I have also instructed Capt. McKee to advise with you whether to finish
the fort already begun at Hunter’s Mill, or to build a new one, and as
to the place where it would be best to erect such new one. I therefore
desire you will assist him in those matters, or in anything else that
the King’s service and the safety of the inhabitants may require.”
On December 9, 1755, Thomas Foster and Thomas McKee were furnished with
“12½ pounds powder and 25 pounds swan shot.” It is therefore more than
probable the soldiers ordered there in January, 1756, by Governor Morris
were the first Provincial soldiers put on duty at Fort Hunter.
The activity of the French, in their efforts to enlist the Indians of
the Province to take up the hatchet against the English, was felt at
this post, as letters written by Captain McKee to Edward Shippen and
others reveal.
At this time the Province had decided to erect a great fortress at the
forks of the Susquehanna, which was subsequently built and named Fort
Augusta. Colonel William Clapham was commissioned early in April, 1756,
to recruit a regiment of 400 men for this purpose.
Governor Morris advised Colonel Clapham, April 7, that he had directed a
rendezvous to be established at Fort Hunter and advised the colonel to
use it for the safe storage of supplies and stocks which he would
require in his expedition farther up the river.
June 11, 1756, Colonel Clapham stationed twenty-four troops there, under
command of a Mr. Johnson, and directed him to “escort provisions, from
there to McKee’s store.” November 3 the garrison consisted of “2
sargants and 34 Private Men.”
March 14, 1757, at a conference on the defense of the Province, held at
Philadelphia, it was decided that 400 men should be kept at Fort
Augusta; 100 should constitute the garrison at Fort Halifax, and that
Fort Hunter should be demolished, only fifty being retained there
temporarily until the removal of the magazine which was to take place as
soon as possible.
The long frontier of the Blue Mountain, between the Susquehanna and
Delaware was to be defended by Colonel Conrad Weiser’s battalion, and
the forts reduced to three in number.
This caused consternation among the settlers near Fort Hunter and they
appealed to the Provincial authorities.
Commissary Young, the Reverend John Elder and others appeared in person
August 25 in Philadelphia, and strongly urged the retention of the
garrison at this important place. Their appeal was effective. Fort
Hunter was not demolished but strengthened.
Indians appeared within twenty rods of Fort Hunter, October, 1757.
William Martin was killed and scalped while picking chestnuts.
Colonel James Patterson was in command of the garrison in January, 1758.
From that time until the Pontiac Conspiracy in 1763, there was not much
activity about Fort Hunter, when it again became the rendezvous of
Provincial troops. After peace was declared Fort Hunter slowly but
surely passed out of existence until the last log was rotted and
disappeared and the old fort only existed as an historical memory.
----------
Founder of Stumpstown Murdered Ten
Indians, January 10, 1768
About a dozen years ago the members of the Lebanon County Historical
Society enjoyed three evenings of entertainment when that able and
clever historian, Dr. E. Grumbine, of Mt. Zion, gave a history of
interesting events, traditions and anecdotes of early Fredericksburg,
known for many years as Stumpstown.
The village was laid out in 1761 by Frederick Stump, who for years
afterwards led a most unusual and exciting life. The town was then in
Lancaster County, later in Dauphin, then after 1813 in Lebanon County.
In the year 1826 a postoffice was established in the place, which with
eminent propriety received the name Stumpstown. In 1843 the name of the
postoffice became Fredericksburg.
In 1828 two enterprising citizens, named Henry and Martin Meily, built a
canal boat, as the Union Canal had recently been opened and the canal
was the talk of the day. While Stumpstown was distant from the canal,
the Meilys did not seem to care for this handicap, but using a vacant
corner of the only graveyard in the village, they constructed their boat
and when finished they loaded it on heavy wagons and conveyed it four
miles overland to Jonestown, where they christened it “Columbus” and
launched it on the raging canal. It carried freight to and from
Philadelphia for many years.
In 1767 the German Lutherans erected a church of logs, which served its
purpose for sixty years.
Like many places, Stumpstown had a big fire which destroyed nearly
one-fourth of the village. That was in 1827, and was caused by a boy
shooting at a crow perched on the thatched roof of a stable. His old
flint-rock was wadded with tow, which being inflammable, set fire to the
straw thatch, and soon the barn was in flames, and fanned by a strong
northwest breeze, a total of twenty buildings including a tannery,
sheds, dwelling of owner, blacksmith shop, the only school house, and
other houses were consumed.
Frederick Stump, the founder, was a notorious character. He was born in
1735 in the neighborhood of Stumpstown, and in 1768 was living near the
mouth of Middle Creek in what is now Snyder County.
On Sunday morning, January 10, 1768, six Indians went to the house of
Frederick Stump. They were White Mingo, Cornelius, John Campbell, Jones
and two squaws. They were in a drunken condition and behaved in a
suspicious manner. Stump endeavored to get them to leave, but without
success. Fearing injury to himself, he and his servant, John Ironcutter,
killed them all, dragging their bodies to the creek, where they cut a
hole in the ice and pushed their bodies into the stream.
Fearing the news might be carried to the other Indians, Stump went the
next day to their cabins, fourteen miles up the creek, where he found
one squaw, two girls and one child. These he killed and threw their
bodies in the cabin and burned it.
The details of these murders were told by Stump to William Blythe, who
found the charred remains of the four in the cabin ruins. Blythe
testified to these acts before the Provincial authorities in
Philadelphia, January 19, 1768.
One of the bodies which Stump pushed through the hole in the ice floated
down the Susquehanna until it finally lodged against the shore on the
Cumberland County side, opposite Harrisburg, below the site of the
present bridge at Market Street.
The Indian had been killed by being struck on the forehead with some
blunt instrument, which crushed in his skull. His entire scalp,
including his ears, was torn from his head. An inquest was held February
28, 1768, at the spot where his body was found.
John Blair Linn, in his “Annals of Buffalo Valley,” places the scene of
this crime on the run that enters the creek at Middleburgh, known by the
name of Stump’s Run to this day.
This crime caused the greatest consternation throughout the Province, as
the authorities had just cause to fear a repetition of the Indian
outrages unless Stump was apprehended and punished for his crime.
A few Indians who escaped the wrath of Stump chased him toward Fort
Augusta. Stump did not enter the fort, but rushed into a house occupied
by two women. He claimed their protection, alleging he was pursued by
Indians. They did not believe him, and feared the Indians, if his story
be true, but he begged piteously they hide him between two beds.
The Indians were but a moment behind Stump, but the women insisted they
knew nothing of him. Before the Indians left the house they seized a
cat, plucked out its hair and tore it to pieces, illustrating the
reception which awaited Stump, had they found him.
Captain William Patterson led a score of his neighbors to assist in
arresting Stump and Ironcutter.
On their approach Stump fled to the woods, but Patterson pretended that
he wanted Stump to accompany him to Great Island to kill Indians. This
appealed to Stump, who returned to the house, when Patterson arrested
and bound him and took him and his servant to Carlisle, where they were
lodged in jail, Saturday evening, March 23, 1768.
But justice was to be cheated. The magistrates fought over the place of
Stump’s trial, and it was decided to try him in Philadelphia.
On Monday morning following his arrest, the Sheriff proceeded to do his
duty, but was restrained by the magistrates. On Wednesday, forty of the
country people assembled on the outskirts of Carlisle, and sent two
messengers to the jail. When they learned Stump was not to be sent to
Philadelphia for trial, they dispersed.
On Friday a company from Sherman’s Valley, where Stump had lived,
marched toward Carlisle, about eight entering the town. Two of them went
to the jail and asked the jailor for liquor. As he was serving them the
others entered with drawn cutlasses and pistols and demanded he make no
outcry. Sixty others now surrounded the jail. Stump was taken from the
dungeon, the handcuffs removed and he was released.
The Sheriff, Colonel John Armstrong and others attempted to restrain the
mob, but in the struggle which ensued Stump escaped, as did his servant,
Ironcutter.
The Governor was angered at this escape and issued instructions for his
rearrest and then a formal proclamation offering a reward of £200 for
Stump and £100 for Ironcutter.
After their rescue from the Carlisle jail both Stump and Ironcutter
returned to the neighborhood of their bloody crime, but as their
presence was not longer agreeable to the inhabitants, Stump soon left
and went to the residence of his father at Tulpehocken and Ironcutter
was spirited away by friends.
They were never again arrested, for the settlers generally sympathized
with them, but Stump and his servant both went to Virginia, where it is
known that Stump died at an advanced age.
----------
First Records of Courts in State Preserved
January 11, 1682
Nearly a month after the signing of the charter, March 4, 1681, King
Charles II, April 2, issued a declaration informing the inhabitants and
planters of the Province that William Penn, their absolute Proprietary,
was clothed with all the powers and pre-eminences necessary for the
Government. A few days later, April 8, the Proprietary addressed a
proclamation to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania.
Captain William Markham, a cousin of William Penn, was appointed Deputy
Governor and his commission contained five items of instructions, the
fourth being “to erect courts, appoint sheriffs, justices of the peace,
etc.” These courts were established and the new Government was soon
functioning.
The records of these early courts are interesting to both the lawyer and
those who care for the history of our State.
Most of our citizens are but little attracted by the tedious accounts of
routine practice, or the fine distinction between one jurisdiction and
another, yet they find gratification in contemplating the manners,
customs and modes of thought once prevalent in our courts of justice.
A review of the practice of the courts of Pennsylvania in the
seventeenth century and as late as the eighteenth present many
interesting subjects.
The power to erect courts of justice and to appoint all judicial
officers in and for the Province of Pennsylvania was by the express
terms of the charter conferred upon the Proprietary. But, in deference
to the wishes of the people, Penn was willing to forego to some degree
the exercise of this extraordinary right and the concurrence of the
Assembly was invariably required to the bill for the erection of a
court. The judges during the early years of the Province were also
selected by the Provincial Council, the members of which were elected
annually by the people in accordance with provisions of the Frame of
Government.
The County Courts of the Province had their origin in 1673, under the
Government of James, Duke of York, and were established in every county,
“to decide all matters under twenty pounds without appeal,” and to have
exclusive jurisdiction in the administration of criminal justice, with
an appeal, however, in cases extending to “Life, Limbo and Banishment,”
to the Court of Assizes in New York. These courts usually consisted of
five or six justices, which met quarterly. No one learned in the law
presided on the bench, no attorney was allowed to practice for pay.
Juries were only allowed to consist of six or seven men, except in cases
of life and death, and in all save those instances, the conclusions of
the majority were allowed to prevail.
The first court held in the Province, the records of which are
preserved, was held in Philadelphia January 11, 1682. There were six
bills presented to the Grand Jury, all but one having to do with the
highway. That one exception was a petition for a court house.
These tribunals lacked almost every element of distinctly English
procedure, but were continued by Penn. Justices of the Peace were from
time to time commissioned, some for the whole Province and some for a
particular county. Their attendance at court was secured by the penalty
of a fine.
Twelve jurymen were subsequently provided whose unanimous opinion was
required to bring in a verdict. The panel of jurymen was drawn in a
highly primitive manner. “The names of the freemen were writ on small
pieces of paper and put into a hat and shaken, forty-eight of whom were
drawn by a child, and those so drawn stood for the Sheriff’s return.”
The civil jurisdiction of the County Courts was first distinctly defined
in 1683, when all actions of debt, account or slander and all actions of
trespass were by Act of Assembly declared to be originally cognizable
solely by them. Other jurisdiction was given them by subsequent action
of the Legislature.
The justices interfered to promote and defend the popular interests in
all matters that were of public concern. In very early times they
granted letters of administration. They superintended the laying out of
roads, apportioned the town lots to responsible applicants, took
acknowledgments of deeds and registered the private brands and marks of
considerable owners of cattle.
They exercised, too, a supervision over all bond servants, regulated the
sale of their time, afforded summary relief if they were abused by their
masters, punished them with stripes or the pillory if they attempted to
escape, and took care that they were at liberty to purchase their
freedom on reasonable terms.
July 8, 1683, “Philip England made complaint against Sea Captain James
Kilner, who denieth all alleged against him, only the kicking of the
maid, and that was for spilling a chamber vessel upon the deck;
otherwise he was very kind to them.”
They were also intrusted with other duties. The minutes of the
Provincial Council for February 12, 1687–8, show that the County Court
of Philadelphia was ordered to cause “stocks and a cage to be provided,”
and was required “to suppress the noise and drunkenness of Indians,
especially in the night, and to cause the crier to go to the extent of
each street when he has anything to cry, and to put a check to horse
racing.”
In 1702 the Grand Jury found true bills for the following offenses:
“John Simes, ordinary, and others, for keeping a disorderly house to
debauch the youth. John was disguised in women’s clothes walking the
streets openly, and going from house to house against the laws of God
and this Province, to the staining of the holy profession, and against
the law of nature. Edward James, a like offender, at an unreasonable
hour of night.
“Dorothy, wife of Richard Conterill, is indicted also for being masked
in men’s clothes, walking and dancing in the house of said John Simes at
10 o’clock at night. Sarah Stiver, wife of John Stiver, was also at the
same house, dressed in men’s clothes, and walked the streets.”
It is quite probable that these indictments stopped any further attempts
to hold “masquerade balls” in Philadelphia for some years.
In 1703 three barbers were indicted for “trimming on the First day”;
three persons were brought before the Court for playing cards; a butcher
was in court for “killing meat in the street and leaving their blood and
offals there,” another for “setting up a great reed stack on Mulberry
Street, and making a close fence about the same.” Many runaways were
publicly whipped.
In the year 1708 “Solomon Cresson, a constable of the City of
Philadelphia, going his rounds at 1 o’clock at night and discovering a
very riotous assembly in a tavern, immediately ordered them to disperse,
when John Evans, Esq., Governor of the Province, happened to be one of
them, and called Solomon in the house and flogged him very severely, and
had him imprisoned for two days.”
In 1731, at New Castle, “Catherine Bevan is ordered to be burned alive,
for the murder of her husband; and Peter Murphy, the servant who
assisted her, to be hanged.”
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Pious Henry Antes Organized First
Moravian Synod January 12, 1742
Pious Henry Antes assembled at his home in Germantown on January 12,
1742, thirty-five persons, representing eight distinct denominations of
the Christian religion, and formed the first Moravian Synod.
Heinrich Antes (Von Blume) of a noble family in the Palatinate, was born
about 1620. He left a son, Philip Frederick, born about 1670.
When Philip Frederick and his wife came to America they brought only the
oldest, Johann Heinrich, born in 1701, and the youngest, Mary Elizabeth,
along.
It is not known exactly when the Antes family arrived in America. The
last time we find the name of Philip Frederick Antes in the Freinsheim
Church book of baptisms is in September, 1716. The first time we find
his name in America is in the Deed Book of Philadelphia County, in
February, 1723, when there was recorded a deed conveying to Antes a
tract of 154 acres along the Swamp Creek. In the deed Antes is described
as a resident of Germantown. On April 9, 1742, he married Elizabeth
Wayman. In 1725, Philip Frederick Antes lived in Frederick Township,
where he died November 28, 1746.
Henry Antes, the son, was taught the trade of carpenter and mill-wright
before coming to America. He was tall in stature, of a large frame,
strong physique and enjoyed robust health.
After his father moved to New Hanover Township, Henry stayed in
Germantown, where he engaged in partnership with William Dewees in the
construction of a paper mill and grist mill, both at Crefeld along the
Wissahickon.
On February 2, 1726, Henry Antes was married to his partner’s daughter,
Christina Elizabeth Dewees, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1702. She
died October 5, 1782. The ceremony was celebrated by John Philip Boehm,
pastor of the German Reformed congregations of Falkner Swamp, Skippack
and Whitemarsh.
His trade took him to various parts of the settled portion of
Pennsylvania. His services were in constant demand. Antes became known
to many people. He was thoroughly familiar with the streams, water
power, forest and soil of many localities.
On September 2, 1735, he bought 175 acres in Frederick Township, near
his father’s farm. In partnership with George Heebner he at once began
the erection of a grist mill upon his own property, which for many years
was known far and wide as Antes’ Mill.
Antes lived the rest of his life on his Frederick Township farm, except
when temporarily called away, and during his short residence in
Bethlehem among the Moravians.
In 1736 Antes had a quarrel with the Reverend Mr. Boehm, the cause of
which is not known. Boehm said he had occasion to speak to Antes several
times on necessary matters. A statement friendly to Antes said it was
caused by Antes rebuking Boehm for unbecoming behavior. It was probably
caused by Boehm speaking to Antes in protest at his close association
with Bishop Spangenberg. At any rate Antes left Boehm’s church and
became a Moravian.
In religious matters Henry Antes displayed much zeal and activity. He
became known as the “Pious Layman of Fredericktown.” He taught the
proper way of life to his countrymen, frequently calling them together
in their homes for prayers, reading of the scriptures and exhortation.
He was thus employed in Oley as early as 1736.
In 1740 a great religious revival occurred in Falkner Swamp. George
Whitefield, the great revivalist, preached at the house of Christopher
Wiegner at Skippack, then later in the day he preached at the house of
Henry Antes. About two thousand persons, mostly Germans, with some
Quakers, Dunkards, Swedes, Huguenots and other church people were in
attendance.
Antes yearned for the unity of the followers of the Christian religion.
On November 24, 1741, Count Zinzindorf came to Philadelphia to unite the
leading men of the several denominations in Pennsylvania for evangelical
work. John Bechtel indorsed the movement, and Henry Antes issued a call
for the first meeting in furtherance of this object to be held in
Germantown. In order to command the confidence of German colonists it
was necessary that the movement be recommended by one well known to the
people, so Antes issued the call.
Because the movement did not meet with success in the way anticipated
Henry Antes really died of a broken heart. The Moravian Church, however,
was one of the results.
During the session of the Moravian Synod, March, 1745, at the home of
Henry Antes, he offered the use of his farm and buildings and his mill
for the brethren to be used as boarding school for boys.
On June 3, 1745, the school was started with thirty-four scholars.
Christina Francke Christopher, of Bethlehem, was superintendent, and
John C. Heyne, a teacher. The Moravians named it Mount Frederick School,
and it was the first nonsectarian school in Pennsylvania.
Antes and his family, excepting two sons, John and Henry, who remained
as pupils, moved to Bethlehem. Here he gave his whole time to the
temporal affairs of the Moravians. He planned and superintended the
building of the first mills, dams, bridges and houses at the different
Moravian settlements.
On December 15, 1745, he was appointed by King George of England, to be
Justice of the Peace for Bucks County, in which Bethlehem was then a
part. October 27, 1748, Henry Antes was appointed business manager of
the Moravians.
In 1750 Antes withdrew from the Moravians, because he did not approve of
the introduction of the wearing of a white surplice by the minister at
the celebration of the Eucharist.
During the summer of that year the white scholars were transferred to
the schools at Oley and Macgungie and the Indians and Negroes to
Bethlehem, and in September, 1750, Mount Frederick School was closed and
Henry Antes moved back to his farm.
In 1752 Antes was appointed justice of the peace for Philadelphia
County, but at this time his health was broken, caused by an injury
received during the construction of the Friedenstal Mill, near Nazareth.
On August 25, 1752, Antes accompanied Bishop Spangenberg to North
Carolina. Antes was in miserable health and returned home in the spring
of 1753. He was an invalid until he died July 20, 1755.
He was buried by the Moravians in the family graveyard beside his
father. Bishop Spangenberg preached the funeral sermon. Ten pall-bearers
from Bethlehem carried his body to its final resting place.
Antes left four distinguished sons: Frederick, a delegate to the
Provincial Convention in Carpenters’ Hall, a colonel of the Sixth
Battalion of Philadelphia County Militia, which participated in the
Battle of Brandywine, etc. He removed to Northumberland where he held
many important positions of honor and trust, and was president judge of
the county. He was the father-in-law of Governor Simon Snyder; William,
a lieutenant colonel in the Revolution; John, a Moravian who suffered
untold agonies in a mission field in Egypt; and John Henry, Lieutenant
Colonel in Revolution, sheriff of Northumberland County and the pioneer
settler of what is Nippenose Valley in Lycoming County. Five daughters
also survived Pious Henry Antes.
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General Simon Cameron Defeated Colonel
Forney for United States Senate,
January 13, 1857
Great excitement prevailed all over the State of Pennsylvania, and the
Democracy of the great Commonwealth were thrown into intense
perturbation and indignation, January 13, 1857, by dispatches from
Harrisburg announcing that Representatives Samuel Manear, of York
County, William H. Lebo, and G. Wagenseller, of Schuylkill County,
Democratic members of the Legislature, had not only refused to support
John W. Forney, the caucus nominee of their party for United States
Senator, but had given their votes to the opposition candidate, Simon
Cameron.
Forney was one of the favorites of the Philadelphia Democracy at this
time, and they were moved to the warmest feelings of resentment by the
base treachery which had removed from his grasp the cherished object of
his ambition.
Meetings were held by various clubs and organizations, denouncing the
traitors in unmeasured terms. The names of Manear, Lebo and Wagonseller
remained for many years synonymous with corruption.
At Harrisburg the hotels long refused to receive them, and in
Philadelphia and other places there yet remain some who have not
forgotten to regard them with contempt.
The result of this unforeseen defeat of Colonel Forney was the loss of
an accomplished publicist and statesman, and to give Philadelphia, in
the career which opened before him a few months later, its most eminent
journalist.
The story of this political event is interesting to students of the
history of our state.
When Hon. James Buchanan was appointed Secretary of State, by President
Polk, in 1845, he resigned from the United States Senate to accept the
cabinet portfolio.
This vacancy brought into the political limelight Simon Cameron, then
one of the leaders of the Democratic Party in the State.
Cameron had arisen from his printer’s case in his native county of
Lancaster, and had attained prominence as a newspaper publisher in
Doylestown and Harrisburg, and had been appointed to the office of
Adjutant General by Governor Shulze, when he was but thirty years of
age. He had extensive banking and large iron interests for that day. He
had become a wealthy and influential man.
On account of his business interests he did not give enthusiastic
support to Polk, yet held his grip on the management of the party in
Pennsylvania.
There were a number of prominent candidates for the senatorship to
succeed Buchanan, one of whom was the able George W. Woodward, who
finally received the nomination of his party, and there did not seem to
be a ripple on the political surface.
But Cameron saw his opportunity, and with the power of the canal board,
which he controlled, together with a combination of Protection or
Cameron Democrats with the Whigs, Cameron defeated Woodward, and served
from 1845 to 1849. His election was a keen disappointment to President
Polk and Secretary of State Buchanan.
The new Republican Party became a national organization in 1856.
Former Senator Simon Cameron was in the Know Nothing organization but
was smarting under his long and bitter contest for Senator in 1855, when
he was defeated by former Governor William Bigler.
Colonel John W. Forney was chairman of Democratic State Committee and
had absolute charge of the battle that was fought for the election of
James Buchanan, to whom he was romantically attached.
In the event of Buchanan’s election Forney was assured the editorship of
the Washington Union, the organ of the administration, and the Senate
printing. There were subsequent developments which led the President to
assent to the sacrifice of Forney, and when tendered a cabinet position,
the President was forced to recall it.
President Buchanan then turned to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, which
was still Democratic, and asked that Colonel Forney be elected United
States Senator.
The Democratic Party was demoralized in 1856, when many of its most
distinguished members supported Fremont, and in this condition, the
party lines were rather closely drawn. The Senate stood fifteen
Democrats to eighteen opposition, and the House had fifty-three
Democrats to forty-seven opposition, giving the Democrats three majority
on joint ballot.
The nomination of Forney was not cordially supported by those who were
smarting under the defeat he had given them in October, but there were
very few who were favorable to Cameron, and certainly not one-fourth of
the members would have preferred him as a candidate.
But Cameron, with his exceptional shrewdness as a political manager, saw
that he could depend upon the resentments against Forney among the
opposition members to support him if he could assure them of his ability
to defeat Forney.
Cameron was most fortunate in having in the Senate as one of his earnest
friends Charles B. Penrose, of Philadelphia, a former Senator, and a man
of ripe experience and great political sagacity. He was quite as earnest
in his desire to punish Forney as he was to promote his friend, General
Cameron.
Cameron was not nominated in the caucus, but had the assurance from
Representatives Lebo, Manear and Wagonseller, all Democrats, that they
would vote for him if their votes could elect him.
This information was communicated to Senator Penrose, who very shrewdly
stated to the Republican caucus that the defection of these three votes
would elect General Cameron, if they would unite in their support. The
Republicans refused to take any action until the members could have
absolute information as to the Democratic defection.
Penrose had the caucus name three members who could be trusted and he
would arrange for an interview. This was held at Omit’s Hotel, and Lebo,
Manear and Wagonseller gave the assurance required, and the committee
reported the fact to the caucus, but they were pledged not to divulge
the names of the three persons.
The caucus was somewhat distrustful, but agreed to vote once for
Cameron.
The voting took place only in joint convention, and when the House and
Senate met, the compact was carried out to the letter, and Cameron was
elected over Forney for a full term senatorship.
The whole arrangement was conducted with such secrecy that not one of
the opposition legislators had any idea as to what Democrats had bolted,
and the Democrats themselves did not doubt the fidelity of any of their
members.
----------
Railroads Fight to Enter Pittsburgh. Great
State Convention January 14, 1846
It was but natural that the great undeveloped wealth of the Mississippi
Valley should attract those who had any vision as to the future of this
vast country. This enormous wealth must be dumped into the great cities
planted along the Atlantic seaboard.
General Washington, skilled surveyor that he was, early trained his eyes
westward, and he spent much time in outlining plans for connecting the
Potomac and Ohio Rivers by means of a canal. Twenty-five years after his
death the Erie Canal was opened, when the merchants of Philadelphia and
Baltimore realized they must awaken or succumb.
Baltimore believed a railroad should be built to the West. The Baltimore
and Ohio, first of all great railroads, shows by its name the purpose
for which it was incorporated. Pennsylvania, however, undertook to
connect the West by a system of combined railroads and canals.
From the first both cities looked to Pittsburgh as the logical terminus
of their improvements. Then began a struggle of Philadelphia-Baltimore
rivalry, which lasted for forty-three years, from 1828 to 1871.
In 1828 Pennsylvania had given a charter to the Baltimore and Ohio, by
which it could construct its line through Southwestern Pennsylvania to
Pittsburgh. The members of the Legislature at that time did not consider
future competition, for the State works had not been built.
The charter was granted for fifteen years, and, in 1839, another act
extended its provisions until 1847. This act, among other onerous
conditions, was discriminating in favor of traffic to Philadelphia; it
also contained a heavy State tax on freight, and the company could not
accept it.
The Pennsylvania State works from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh were
completed in 1834. When the charter of the Baltimore and Ohio expired in
1843, the road was completed only as far as Cumberland.
The company tried to obtain better terms from Pennsylvania. The
residents of the western part of the State were all eager for an
additional outlet to the coast, but the Philadelphia politicians were
unwilling to yield any concession to their Baltimore rivals.
Several years later it was admitted that the State works would never
provide adequate transportation facilities to the West, even though in
excess of $10,000,000 had already been expended and the State seriously
involved. Pennsylvanians were made to realize that railroads were
superior to canals and that the commercial solution of Philadelphia lay
in a central railroad to Pittsburgh.
The feeling in all three cities reached fever heat. The legislative hall
was the battleground and all interests were well represented. The battle
centered on the bill granting right of way through Pennsylvania to the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Public meetings were held in Philadelphia and elsewhere. A State
railroad convention was held at Harrisburg, January 14, 1846, where
resolutions were adopted favoring the Central Railroad scheme and
against the Baltimore and Ohio right of way grant.
The people of Pennsylvania believed since a railroad must be built it
would be better for it to be run entirely through Pennsylvania and be a
Pennsylvania institution. They also felt that if the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad was given the franchise, it would be next to impossible to
raise money to build the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Pittsburgh business interests were fearful if the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad was refused admission to Pennsylvania that road would extend
its rails farther down the Ohio to Wheeling, perhaps, and thus control
river trade, which had been long enjoyed at Pittsburgh. Many meetings
were held in Pittsburgh urging the support of the Baltimore bill. It
must also be understood that State prejudice held back railroads from
entering other States. In 1846 States rights theories were more
potential than they are today.
In this connection the position of the Baltimore and Ohio was
unfortunate and interesting. Either Pennsylvania or Virginia must
charter the company before a road of great importance could be built.
Neither State was willing to do so.
The Baltimore and Ohio bill was defeated in the Senate February 23,
1846, by a single vote. Philadelphia rejoiced and Pittsburgh was sad.
The Senate reversed itself February 26, and Philadelphia was maddened
beyond reason.
On April 10 the Baltimore bill passed the House, with an amendment
providing that the grant to the Baltimore and Ohio should be null and
void if the Pennsylvania Railroad obtained subscriptions of $3,000,000
in capital stock, of which $900,000 must be paid in cash by July 31. The
bill passed the Senate and was signed by Governor Shunk, April 21.
Every effort was exerted to procure the subscriptions, a house-to-house
canvass resulting in 2600 subscriptions. Nearly all of which were for
five shares or less.
Philadelphia won the struggle and the conditions were met in time.
Governor Shunk issued a proclamation announcing the grant to Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad to be null and void.
In 1837 a group of Pittsburgh men obtained a charter for the Pittsburgh
and Connellsville Railroad. This with the design to get into Baltimore,
as it would build fifty-eight miles of the route to that city.
That scheme fell through, but in 1843 the charter was renewed and the
interest of the Baltimore crowd was obtained. But they did not seem to
appreciate the advantage secured for them by the astute Pittsburgh
business men, and the Pittsburgh and Connellsville relapsed into
slumberland until 1853.
The Baltimore and Ohio had completed its line to Wheeling and the
Pennsylvania was about to finish its line into Pittsburgh. The
Pittsburgh and Connellsville obtained authority to make connection with
the Baltimore and Ohio at Cumberland. But new troubles arose. The
president of the company embezzled the funds and the City of Baltimore
failed to give as liberally as promised.
In spite of those obstacles the road was opened from Pittsburgh to
Connellsville January, 1857. Then came the panic of 1857 and the
depression by the prospect of the Civil War.
In 1864 the stretch of ninety miles between Uniontown and Cumberland
again became a political matter. Thomas A. Scott, president of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, determined this link should not be built, as the
last thing he wanted was a competing line in Pittsburgh.
On April 11, 1864, two bills were introduced into the Legislature. One
claimed the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad had misused its
charter; the other incorporated a new railroad from Connellsville. The
bills passed and became laws without the approval of Governor Curtin.
Judge Grier in United States Court June 20, 1865, held the repeal of the
Pittsburgh and Connellsville to be unconstitutional. This case now
became a legal battle for years and eventually got into Congress and
back into the Pennsylvania Legislature. On January 29, 1868, the Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania unanimously decided in favor of the Pittsburgh and
Connellsville Railroad. The next day the Legislature repealed the Act of
1864.
The happy ending was in spite of all litigation. Pittsburgh and the
great mineral and lumber wealth along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny
Valleys was opened up, and on June 26, 1871, the Pittsburgh, Washington
and Baltimore Railroad was formally opened and the long struggle for
Pittsburgh ended.
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Governor Andrew G. Curtin Inaugurated
War Governor January 15, 1861
Andrew Gregg Curtin, of Bellefonte, was inaugurated Governor of
Pennsylvania January 15, 1861, and assumed the office at a time when the
gravest problems ever presented to American statesmanship were to be
solved. The mutterings of the coming storm were approaching nearer and
nearer, and the year opened up gloomily.
In his inaugural he took occasion “to declare that Pennsylvania would,
under any circumstances, render a full and determined support of the
free institutions of the Union,” and pledged himself to stand between
the Constitution and all encroachments instigated by hatred, ambition,
fanaticism and folly.
He spoke with words of deliberation, decision and wisdom, and made a
record of statesmanship that stood the severe test of years of bloody
and lasting war. The conflict obliterated old and sacred landmarks in
political teaching.
On February 17, the House adopted resolutions pledging to Maryland the
fellowship and support of Pennsylvania. On January 24, the House had
adopted resolutions taking high ground in favor of sustaining the
Constitution of the Union.
Threatening as was the danger, while the Legislature was in session and
meetings were being held in Philadelphia and throughout the State, no
one anticipated that the strife would actually break forth so suddenly,
nor that it would grow to such fearful proportions at the very
beginning.
It is true, that the soldiers of the South, who had long secretly been
preparing to dissolve the Union unmasked their design when the guns of
Fort Moultrie were trained on Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, South
Carolina, April 12, 1861. No State in the Union was less prepared, so
far as munitions of war were concerned, to take its part in the conflict
than Pennsylvania. Her volunteer soldiery system had fallen in decay.
There were fewer volunteer companies of militia in Pennsylvania at that
moment than ever before on the rolls of the Adjutant General’s office.
But when the first overt act was committed, and the news was flashed
over the Northland, it created no fiercer feeling of resentment anywhere
than it did throughout the Keystone State.
On the morning of April 12, 1861, a message was handed to Governor
Curtin in Harrisburg which read as follows:
“The war is commenced. The batteries began firing at 4 o’clock this
morning. Major Anderson replied, and a brisk cannonading commenced. This
is reliable and has just come by Associated Press. The vessels were not
in sight.”
Later in the day, in response to the Governor’s suggestion, the
Legislature passed an act reorganizing the military department of the
State and appropriated $500,000 for the purpose.
President Lincoln issued a proclamation, April 15, calling out 75,000
militia from the different States to serve for three months. A
requisition was at once made on Pennsylvania for fourteen regiments. The
alacrity with which these regiments were furnished demonstrated not so
much the military ardor as it did the patriotic spirit of the people.
Sufficient men were rushed to Harrisburg not only to fill up the State
quota of fourteen regiments, but enough to organize twenty-five.
There were two distinguished patriotic Pennsylvanians who comprehended
the seriousness of the situation from the outset. General Simon Cameron,
who had resigned his seat in the United States Senate to become the
Secretary of War in President Lincoln’s Cabinet, advised the
organization of the most powerful army the North could raise, so that at
one blow armed rebellion might be effectually crushed. Governor Curtin
took advantage of the excess men offering their services and began at
once, after the complement of the three months’ men had been furnished
to the Federal Government, to organize the famous Reserve Corps.
He discovered the approaching tornado in the distance, and thus
commenced to prepare for its fury, the Reserves being the only troops
well organized and disciplined in the North ready for the services of
the Union at the moment of the disaster of the first battle of Bull Run.
During the second year of the Civil War, Governor Curtin broke down his
health through overwork and anxiety, and was compelled to give himself,
for weeks at a time, to the exclusive care of eminent physicians.
President Lincoln, appreciating Curtin’s faithful services, and
recognizing the necessity for a change of climate and employment,
formally tendered him a first-class Foreign Mission, which the Governor
signified his willingness to accept when his term should expire. But in
the meantime he was nominated for re-election, and again entered upon
the canvass, and was elected by more than 15,000 majority.
As is well known, the early part of the war went against the Union
forces. All through the North there were many persons, the “peace at any
price” men, who thought war was wrong, or a failure, and tried to have
it end. Governor Curtin, in order to check this feeling, issued an
invitation to the Northern Governors to hold a meeting, for the purpose
of considering how the Government might be more strongly supported and
how the loyalty of the people might be increased.
In September, 1862, just after the battle of Antietam, which stopped
Lee’s invasion of the north, eleven Governors met at Altoona. They
adopted an address to President Lincoln, warmly commending his
Emancipation Proclamation. The Governors then went to Washington,
presented the address, and asked Lincoln to keep on hand in the various
states a reserve army of 100,000, and pledged “Loyal and cordial
support, hereafter as heretofore.” It gave Lincoln renewed courage for
his heavy task.
In 1866, his health was such that his life was despaired of and in
November his physicians ordered him to Cuba to recuperate. President
Johnson offered him a foreign post but he again declined to leave his
executive duties in the state and completed his term.
In 1867 he was a strong candidate for the United States Senate and a
year later received a large vote for vice president in the Republican
Convention which nominated General Grant for President. Soon after Grant
became President, he nominated former Governor Curtin for Minister to
Russia, and he was promptly confirmed by the Senate.
Before embarking for his new post of duty Governor Curtin was the
recipient of a marked evidence of devotion. The Councils of Philadelphia
unanimously invited him to a public reception in Independence Hall and
in addition, the leading citizens, without distinction of party, united
in giving him a banquet at the Academy of Music, that has seldom been
equalled for elegance and every manifestation of popular affection and
applause.
He sailed June, 1869, and in the discharge of his diplomatic duties
proved himself one of the most popular representatives ever sent abroad
by our nation. He was again supported for the vice presidential
nomination in 1872.
Governor Curtin died October 7, 1894, in fullness of years, and
Bellefonte mourned as it had never done before, and there was given to
the great War Governor the biggest soldier’s funeral that the Bald Eagle
Valley ever saw.
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Simon Girty, Outlaw and Renegade,
Born January 16, 1744
Much of the ride along the Susquehanna trail on the western side of the
Susquehanna River is at the base of majestic hills along the old
Pennsylvania Canal bed, and more beautiful scenery it is not possible to
find anywhere. Especially is this true as the motorist nears the quaint
town of Liverpool. A few miles before reaching this place there is a gap
in the mountains long known as Girty’s Gap, named in memory of one of
the most despised outlaws in the provincial history of Pennsylvania.
The rocks on the face of the precipitous hills at this point have formed
an almost perfect Indian head; indeed, it seems to be smiling down upon
the thousands who pause to view this wonderful natural likeness of the
primitive American race.
So important is this rock-face that when the new State highway was being
built at this point summer of 1922, the engineers intended that the
rocks should be blasted out and the road straightened at this bend, but
on account of the sentiment connected with this really wonderful image
the roadway was finally laid around the rocks and so the Indian face at
Girty’s Notch is still to be seen.
Simon Girty, Senior, was a licensed Indian trader on the frontiers of
Pennsylvania as early as 1740, and about that period he located on
Sherman’s Creek, in what is now Perry County. Here his son, Simon, who
figures so conspicuously in the annals of border life, was born January
16, 1744. There were three other sons, Thomas, George and James.
In 1750, the father and sundry other “squatters” on Sherman’s Creek,
were dispossessed of their settlements by the Sheriff of Cumberland
County and his posses, under orders of the Provincial authorities.
Girty removed his family to the east side of the Susquehanna River, near
where the town of Halifax is now situated. Afterward he moved to the
Conococheague settlement, where it is related he was killed in a drunken
brawl. In 1756, his widow was killed by the savages, and Simon, George
and James were taken captives by the Indians. Thomas, the eldest
brother, being absent at his uncle’s at Antietam, was the only one who
escaped.
Simon Girty was adopted by the Seneca and given the Indian name of
Katepacomen. He became an expert hunter, and in dress, language and
habits became a thorough Indian. The author of “Crawford’s Campaign”
says that “it must be passed to his credit that his early training as a
savage was compulsory, not voluntary as has generally been supposed.”
George Girty was adopted by the Delaware and became a fierce and
ferocious savage, while James, who was adopted into the Shawnee nation,
became no less infamous as a cruel and bloodthirsty raider of the
Kentucky border, “sparing not even women and children from horrid
tortures.”
Simon Girty and his tribe roamed the wilderness northwest of the Ohio,
and when the expedition under Colonel Henry Bouquet, at the close of the
Pontiac War, in 1764, dictated peace to the Indian tribe on the
Muskingum, one of the hostages given up by the Ohio Indians was Simon
Girty. Preferring the wild life of the savage, Girty soon escaped and
returned to his home among the Seneca.
One of the conditions of the treaty referred to, was the yielding up by
the Ohio Indians of all their captives, willing or unwilling. This being
the case, Girty was again returned to the settlements and took up his
home near Fort Pitt, on the little run emptying into the Allegheny and
since known as Girty’s Run.
In the unprovoked war of Lord Dunmore, in company with Simon Kenton,
Girty served as a hunter and scout. He subsequently acted as an Indian
agent, and became intimately acquainted with Colonel William Crawford,
at whose cabin on the Youghiogheny he was a frequent and welcome guest,
and it is stated by some writers, although without any worthwhile
evidence to substantiate it, was a suitor for the hand of one of his
daughters, but was rejected.
At the outset of the Revolution, Simon Girty was a commissioned officer
of militia at Fort Pitt, took the test oath as required by the Committee
of Safety, but March 28, 1778, deserted to the enemy, in company with
the notorious Alexander McKee and Matthew Elliott.
Simon Girty began his wild career by sudden forays against the
borderers, and in his fierceness and cruelty outdid the Indians
themselves. Hence the sobriquet of “Girty the White Savage.”
Many atrocious crimes were attributed to the notorious renegade, but the
campaign against the Sandusky Indian towns in 1782, under the command of
Colonel William Crawford, proved to be the one in which Girty displayed
the most hardened nature and showed him to be a relentless foe of the
Colonies.
Girty’s brutality reached its climax when he refused any request, even
to discuss terms of easier punishment for his former friend and brother
officer, but viewed with apparent satisfaction the most horrible and
excruciating tortures which that ill-fated but brave and gallant
Crawford was doomed to suffer. This episode in his career has placed his
name among the most infamous whose long list of crimes causes a shudder
as the details are told, even after a lapse of a century and a half.
During the next seven years but little is recorded of this renegade and
desperado, except that a year after Crawford’s defeat, he married
Catharine Malott, a captive among the Shawnee. They had several children
and she survived her husband many years, dying at an advanced age.
Notwithstanding Girty’s brutality and depravity he never lost the
confidence of the Indians; the advice of Simon Girty was always
conclusive.
Girty acted as interpreter when the United States attempted to negotiate
with the Confederated Nations, for an adjustment of the difficulties
during which his conduct was insolent, and he was false in his duty as
interpreter.
In the defeat of General St. Clair, Girty saw and knew General Richard
Butler, who was writhing in agony with his wounds. The traitor told a
savage warrior he was a high officer, whereupon the Indian buried his
tomahawk in General Butler’s head, scalped him, took his heart out and
divided it into as many pieces as there were tribes engaged in the
battle.
When General Anthony Wayne in 1795 forever destroyed the power of the
Indians of the Northwest, Girty sold his trading post and removed to
Canada, where he settled upon a farm near Malden, on the Detroit River,
the recipient of a British pension. Here he resided until the War of
1812 undisturbed, but almost blind.
After the capture of the British fleet on Lake Erie, Girty followed the
British in retreat and remained away from his home until the treaty of
peace was signed, when he returned to his farm, where he died in the
fall of 1819, aged seventy-four years.
There have been efforts to make a hero of Girty, but without success. He
was without one redeeming quality. He reveled in the very excess of
malignity and above all in his hatred for his own countrymen. Such was
the life and career of Simon Girty, the outlaw and renegade.
----------
Benjamin Franklin, Youngest Son of Seventeen
Children, Born January 17, 1706
Benjamin Franklin, American statesman, philosopher and printer, was born
in Boston January 17, 1706, youngest son of the seventeen children of
Josiah and Abiah Folger Franklin.
Born a subject of Queen Anne of England and on the same day receiving
the baptismal name of Benjamin in the Old South Church, he continued for
more than seventy of the eighty-four years of his life a subject of four
successive British monarchs. During that period, neither Anne nor the
three Georges, who succeeded her, had a subject of whom they had more
reason to be proud nor one whom at his death their people generally
supposed they had more reason to detest.
Franklin learned the art of printing with his brother, but they
disagreeing, Benjamin left Boston when seventeen years old, sought
employment in New York, but, not succeeding, went to Philadelphia and
there found success, and for much more than half a century was the
greatest man in Pennsylvania.
Franklin soon attracted the attention of Governor Keith, who, making him
a promise of the Government printing, induced young Franklin to go to
England to purchase printing materials. He was deceived and remained
there eighteen months, working as a journeyman printer in London. He
returned to Philadelphia late in 1726, an accomplished printer and a man
of the world.
In 1730 he had a printing establishment and newspaper, the Pennsylvania
Gazette, and stationers’ shop of his own. Was married to Deborah Read, a
young woman whose husband had absconded, and was already pressing upon
public opinion with a powerful leverage.
For many years he published an almanac under the assumed name of Richard
Saunders. It became widely known as “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” and is
still one of the marvels of modern literature.
As a practical printer Franklin was reported to have had no superiors.
As a journalist he exerted an influence not only unrivaled in his day,
but more potent, on this continent at least, than either of his
sovereigns or their parliaments.
Franklin was the chief founder of the Philadelphia Library in 1731. The
organization of a police and later of the militia for Philadelphia; of
companies for extinguishing fires; making the sweeping and paving of the
streets a municipal function, and establishment of an academy which has
matured into the now famous University of Pennsylvania, were among the
conspicuous reforms which he planted and watered in the columns of the
Gazette.
In 1736 he became clerk of the Provincial Assembly, and the following
year was postmaster of Philadelphia. He was the founder of the
Philosophical Society of Philadelphia in 1744, and six years later was
elected to the Provincial Assembly.
In 1753 Franklin was appointed deputy postmaster for the
English-American colonies. In 1754 he was a delegate to the Colonial
Congress at Albany, in which he prepared a plan of union for the
colonies, which was the basis of the Articles of Confederation adopted
by Congress more than twenty years afterward.
Franklin graduated from journalism into diplomacy as naturally as winter
glides into spring.
The question of taxing the Penn Proprietary estates for the defense of
the Province from the French and Indians had assumed such an acute stage
in 1757 that the Assembly decided to petition the King upon the subject,
and selected Franklin to visit London and present their petition. The
next forty-one years of his life were virtually spent in the diplomatic
service.
Franklin was five years absent on this first mission. Every interest in
London was against him. He finally obtained a compromise, and for his
success the Penns and their partisans never forgave him, and his fellow
Colonists never forgot him.
Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1762, but not to remain. The
question of taxing the Colonies without representation was soon thrust
upon them in the shape of a stamp duty, and Franklin was sent out again
to urge its repeal. He reached London in November, 1764, where he
remained the next eleven years, until it became apparent that there
would never be a change during the reign of George III.
Satisfied that his usefulness was at an end, he sailed for Philadelphia
March 21, 1775, and on the morning of his arrival was elected by the
Assembly of Pennsylvania a delegate to Continental Congress.
Franklin served on ten committees in this Congress. He was one of five
who drew up the Declaration of Independence, July, 1776, and in
September following was chosen unanimously as one of the three
commissioners to be sent to solicit for the infant Republic the aid of
France and the sympathies of Continental Europe.
Franklin had begun his investigations and experiments in electricity, by
which he demonstrated its identity with lightning, as early as 1746. The
publication of his account of these experiments procured his election as
an honorary member of the Royal Society of London and his undisputed
rank among the most eminent natural philosophers of his time.
He received the Copley gold medal and the degree of LL.D. from Oxford
and Edinburgh in 1762. Harvard and Yale had previously conferred upon
him the degree of master of arts.
When Franklin arrived in Paris, therefore, he was already a member of
every important learned society in Europe.
The history of his mission and how Franklin succeeded in procuring
financial aid from the French King, and finally a treaty of peace more
favorable to his country than either England or France wished to
concede, has been often told.
Franklin’s reputation grew with his success. More was published about
him in the newspapers of the world than of any other man that ever
lived.
Franklin landed in Philadelphia on September 13, 1785, on the same wharf
on which sixty-two years before he had stepped, a friendless and
virtually penniless runaway apprentice of seventeen.
Though now in his seventy-ninth year and a victim of infirmities, he had
hardly unpacked his trunks when he was chosen a member of the Municipal
Council of Philadelphia and its chairman. Shortly after he was elected
President of Pennsylvania, his own vote only lacking to make the vote
unanimous.
He was unanimously elected for two succeeding years, and while holding
that office was chosen a member of the convention which met in May,
1787, to frame the Constitution under which the people of the United
States are still living. With the adoption of that instrument, to which
he contributed as much as any other individual, he retired from official
life, though not from the service of the public.
His last public act was the signing of a memorial to Congress on the
subject of human slavery by the Abolition Society, of which he was the
founder and president.
He died in Philadelphia April 17, 1790, and four days later his body was
interred in Christ Church burying ground. His funeral was such as the
greatest philosopher and statesman had deserved.
----------
Long Reign of Terror by Mollie Maguires
Brought to End January 18, 1876
January 18, 1876, was an eventful day in Mauch Chunk, the county seat of
Carbon County, and, in fact, for the State of Pennsylvania and the
entire country.
On that day Michael J. Doyle, of Mount Laffee, Schuylkill County, and
Edward Kelly were arraigned charged with the crime of the murder of John
P. Jones, of Lansford.
For years preceding this murder the coal regions of Pennsylvania had
been infested by a most desperate class of men, banded together for the
worst purposes—called by some the Buckshots, by others the Mollie
Maguires. They made such sad havoc of the country that life was no
longer secure and the regions suffered in many ways.
The unusual circumstance of this trial was the fact that it was the
first indictment of a “Mollie Maguire” in this country which had a
possible chance for ultimate conviction.
John P. Jones was a mine boss who had incurred the illwill of some of
the Irish connected with the organization of Mollie Maguires, masking
under the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and on the morning of September
3, 1875, he left his home in Lansford, in which were his wife and seven
children, and traveled toward the breaker where he was employed. The
three assassins, James Kerrigan, Mike Doyle and Edward Kelly, were lying
in wait for him and cruelly shot him down, killing him on the spot.
This crime was no more revolting or cruel than the many others committed
by this murderous organization, but it was the one in which the
Pinkerton detective, James McParlan, had been able to connect all the
facts in the case, and with the additional assistance of James Kerrigan
turning State’s witness the civil authorities were able to conduct such
a trial that the two other murderers were convicted.
Michael Doyle was found guilty January 22, 1876, and sentenced to death.
This was the first conviction of a Mollie Maguire in this country.
Edward Kelly was subsequently placed on trial for the same crime and on
March 29 was found guilty. Doyle and Kelly both were hanged at Mauch
Chunk, June 21, 1876, and the Mollie Maguires ceased to be the terror of
civilized people.
To form some idea of the operations of these desperadoes it must be
known that the Mollie Maguires were more than bloodthirsty and active in
1865. On August 25, that year, David Muir, superintendent of a colliery,
was shot and killed in broad daylight. On January 10, 1866, Henry H.
Dunne, a well known citizen of Pottsville, and superintendent of a large
colliery, was murdered on the highway near the city limits, while riding
home in his carriage. On Saturday, October 17, 1868, Alexander Rea,
another mining superintendent, was killed on the wagon road, near
Centralia, Columbia County. Several arrests were made but no
convictions.
On March 15, 1869, William H. Littlehales, superintendent of the Glen
Carbon Company, was killed on the highway enroute to his home in
Pottsville. F. W. S. Langdon, George K. Smith and Graham Powell, all
mine officials, met death at the hands of assassins.
On December 2, 1871, Morgan Powell, assistant superintendent of the
Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal and Iron Company, at Summitt Hill, Carbon
County, was shot down on the street.
In October, 1873, F. B. Gowen, president of the Philadelphia and Reading
Railway Company and the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company,
employed Allan Pinkerton, the noted detective, to take charge of a
thorough investigation of this organization.
Pinkerton accepted the commission and selected James McParlan, a young
Irish street-car conductor of Chicago, to be his chief operative in this
hazardous enterprise. On the evening of October 27, 1873, there arrived
at Port Carbon a tramp who gave his name as one James McKenna, who was
seeking work in the mines. This McKenna was none other than Detective
McParlan and well did he perform his task.
McParlan cleverly assumed the role of an old member of the order, and as
one who had committed such atrocious crimes in other parts of this
country that he must be careful of undue publicity. He could sing and
dance, and was an all around good fellow, but only feigned the drunken
stupor in which he was so constantly being found by his associates.
The crowning event in his three years’ work was his initiation into the
Ancient Order of Hibernians, at Shenandoah, April 14, 1874. He was soon
appointed secretary on account of his better education. In fact, he was
a leader and supposedly the most hardened criminal of the coal regions.
October 31, 1874, George Major, Chief Burgess of Mahanoy City, was shot
and killed by Mollie Maguires. On April 6, 1875, a despicable plot to
destroy the great bridge on the Catawissa Railroad only failed because
the Mollies in charge of the work failed to make the fire burn the
structure. McParlan was in on this crime, but had much to do with its
failure.
Conditions were so serious by June 1, 1875, that Governor Hartranft sent
militia to Shenandoah and in their very faces 700 Mollies attempted to
capture and destroy a breaker, June 3. August 11 there was a great riot
in Shenandoah. Edward Cosgrove and Gomer James were murdered and a
bystander was killed during the riot.
August 14, 1875, has since been known as “Bloody Saturday” in the coal
regions. On that day Thomas Gwyther, a justice of the peace, of
Girardville, was murdered. Miners rioted in many places.
September 1, Thomas Sanger, boss at Heaton & Co., colliery, near
Ashland, and William Uren were murdered. On September 3, John J. Jones,
already mentioned, was killed.
At the great trial the Commonwealth was represented by E. R. Siewers,
the able district attorney; F. W. Hughes, of Pottsville; General Charles
Albright, of Mauch Chunk, and Allen Craig. For the defense appeared Linn
Bartholomew, J. B. Reilly and John W. Ryon, of Pottsville; Daniel
Kalbfus and Edward Mulhearn of Mauch Chunk. James Kerrigan gave State’s
testimony, which left no doubt of the guilt of the prisoner, and this
also was the death knell to the Mollies. Arrests rapidly followed for
the other murders.
When the Mollies learned of McParlan’s true character, they planned his
destruction, March 5, 1876, but now it was too late. Their nefarious
work was at an end.
What might be said to be the closing climax of this reign of terror was
the trial in Bloomsburg, February 24, 1877, when Pat Hester, Pat Tully
and Peter McHugh were arraigned for the murder of Alexander Rea. The
first trial February 2, 1869, had resulted in acquittal for Thomas
Donahue, and the other cases were dropped, but this time the three
prisoners were found “guilty” and were hanged in Columbia County jail,
March 25, 1878, nine years after the murder of Rea.
On May 21, 1877, Governor Hartranft signed the death warrants for eight
other Mollies and on June 21 they were hanged. These, with the three
hanged at Bloomsburg, brought to a close the business of the Mollie
Maguires.
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Prophetic Letter to President Buchanan by
Governor Packer, Who Was Inaugurated
January 19, 1858
The campaign of 1857 was unusually active, as there were three prominent
candidates in the contest. The Democrats nominated State Senator William
F. Packer, of Williamsport, one of the most widely known of the
representative men of the State; the Republicans named the Hon. David
Wilmot, of Towanda, author of the “Wilmot Proviso,” who enjoyed a
wide-spread reputation as a public speaker and a politician; and the
Hon. Isaac Hazlehurst, was the choice of the Native American Party,
still quite a factor in Pennsylvania politics. After a spirited campaign
Senator Packer was elected by a majority of fourteen thousand votes over
both the other candidates. He was inaugurated January 19, 1858.
The political question which overshadowed all others at this period was,
whether Kansas should be admitted into the union with or without a
constitutional recognition of slavery.
Governor Packer was an ardent friend of James Buchanan, and labored
zealously to secure his nomination for the Presidency. Mr. Buchanan was
inaugurated about the time of Packer’s nomination for Governor. The
clouds were rapidly forming in Kansas where a state of hostility existed
between the inhabitants and the general Government, and the agents of
the latter, for their safety, had been compelled to flee from the
territory. The slave-holders were making a desperate effort to control
the state and thus extend their sway.
Buchanan had been in Washington only a few days when he received a
letter from Mr. Packer, which in view of his prophetic utterances,
honest advice and the further fact that it was written by a
Pennsylvanian, so soon to become Governor, to a Pennsylvania President
of the United States, that the following paragraphs should prove of
interest.
The letter was dated Harrisburg, March 24, 1857.
“Our people confidently expect that your administration will see that
equal and exact justice shall be done to all parties—the free-state as
well as the pro-slavery men—and they will be satisfied with nothing
short of that. We approve of the Kansas bill; but in God’s name let its
provisions be honestly carried out; let the law be faithfully executed.
Let the conduct of the public agents in Kansas not only be right, but
let it _appear to be right_. If slavery should be instituted by, or
under a slave-holding executive; and Kansas should claim admission as a
slave state, it does not require a prophet to foretell the consequences
north of Mason and Dixon’s line.
“The Democratic party, which has stood by the Constitution and the
rights of the South with such unflinching fidelity, would be stricken
down in the few remaining States where it is yet in the ascendancy; the
balance of power would be lost; and Black Republicans would rule this
nation, or civil war, and disunion would inevitably follow.
“What, then, is to be done? Will you permit me to make a suggestion? The
post of honor and renown, if successfully and satisfactorily filled, at
this moment in the gift of the President, is the Governorship of Kansas.
Send one of the first men of the nation there—some gentleman who enjoys
the confidence of the North and the South—and let him cover himself with
glory by a fearless and a faithful discharge of the duties of his
station. Sustain him, then, with the whole power of the Government, and
follow with swift vengeance any party that dares to raise a hand against
the law or its prompt and faithful execution.
“The time for trifling is past. Bold, efficient action is required. To
waver or to vacillate, is to fail. Who, then, should be appointed? If
General Scott would accept of the position, and if the duties are
compatible with those of the military station he now holds, I answer,
appoint General Winfield Scott. He has the confidence of the nation. He
is acceptable to the South, having been born and reared in Virginia; and
he is not unacceptable to the North, inasmuch as he now resides there.
If requested by the President, in view of the importance of the Mission,
I do not think that he would decline. However, let some such man be
appointed—some man well known to the American people, and in whom they
confide, and the result will be the same. All will be well. Otherwise I
tremble for the result.”
It was during Governor Packer’s administration in 1858, that the office
of superintendent of public schools was separated from that of secretary
of the Commonwealth. The first state normal school was located at
Millersville, Lancaster County.
In 1859 the celebrated raid into Virginia by John Brown occurred, by
which the public property of the United States at Harper’s Ferry was
seized, and the lives of citizens of that State sacrificed by that band
of fanatics, who, in their mad zeal, attempted to excite the slave
population to insurrection. The plans for this raid were perfected in
Chambersburg, where John Brown and his associates lived for a time,
under assumed names.
The subsequent trial and conviction of John Brown, and his followers, by
no means quenched the fire of disunion which was then kindling.
Governor Packer, in his last message to the Legislature, expressed in
plain terms the fearful position in which South Carolina, and the other
states preparing for similar rebellious action, had placed themselves.
Mutterings of the coming storm were approaching nearer and nearer and
the year 1861 opened up with a gloomy aspect. In the midst of this
portentous overshadowing, Andrew G. Curtin took charge of the helm of
State.
----------
Albert Gallatin, Soldier, Statesman and
Financier, Born January 20, 1761
Albert Gallatin was born in Geneva, Switzerland, January 20, 1761. Both
of his parents were of distinguished families and died while he was an
infant. He graduated from the University of Geneva in 1779.
Feeling a great sympathy for the American colonists in their struggle
for liberty, he came to Massachusetts in 1780, entered the military
service, and for a few months commanded the post at Passamaquoddy.
At the close of the war he taught French at Harvard University, where he
remained until 1784, when he received his patrimonial estate. He
invested it in land in West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, and, in
1786, he settled on land on the banks of the Monongahela River, in
Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Here he lived and became naturalized.
The town was named New Geneva from his native place in Switzerland. Here
he built a log house, which subsequently gave place to a stone structure
yet standing. He was a partner in establishing the first glass house in
that section of the State. He became one of the foremost citizens of
America.
He served in the General Assembly of Pennsylvania for several terms and
in 1793 was chosen a United States Senator for Pennsylvania, but was
declared ineligible on the ground that he had not been a citizen of the
United States the required nine years.
During the Whisky Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania, 1794, Albert
Gallatin played a conspicuous role.
In the meeting of the malcontents, August 14, 1794, at Parkinson’s
Ferry, where 260 delegates, elected by the several counties, organized
and adopted some intemperate resolutions, Colonel Edward Cook was
appointed chairman, and Albert Gallatin, secretary. The organic force of
the insurrection was condensed into a committee of sixty and that
committee was again represented by a Standing Committee of twelve.
Gallatin was energetic in working with his friends to gain time and
restore quietness. He presented with great force the folly of resistance
and the ruinous consequences to the country of the continuance of the
insurrection. He urged that the Government was bound to vindicate the
laws and that it would surely send an overwhelming force against them.
He placed the subject in a new light and showed the insurrection to be a
much more serious affair than it had before appeared.
After the Pennsylvania commissioners had reached Pittsburgh and met with
those of the National Government and the committee appointed at the
meeting at Parkinson’s Ferry, a conference of the committee of sixty was
held at Redstone Old Fort, now Brownsville.
This meeting was opened by a long, sensible and eloquent speech by
Albert Gallatin in favor of law and order. Backed by Judge Hugh H.
Brackenridge, Gallatin won the day, and the insurrection was happily
ended before the army was called into action.
Gallatin was censured for the part he had taken, but no man stood higher
in the opinion, not only of President Washington, but of the
Pennsylvania authorities. In the General Assembly December, 1794, in an
able speech Gallatin admitted his “political sin” in the course he had
taken in the insurrectionary movement.
He was elected to Congress in 1795, and in a debate on Jay’s Treaty in
1796 he charged Washington and Jay with having pusillanimously
surrendered the honor of their country. This, from the lips of a young
foreigner, exasperated the Federalists. He was a leader of the Democrats
and directed his attention particularly to financial matters.
Gallatin remained in Congress until 1801, when President Thomas
Jefferson appointed him Secretary of the Treasury, which office he held
until 1813, and obtained the credit of being one of the best financiers
of the age.
The opponents of Jefferson’s Administration complained vehemently in
1808 that the country was threatened with direct taxation at a time when
the sources of its wealth, by the orders and decrees of Great Britain
and France, were drying up. Gallatin replied to these complaints, as
Secretary of the Treasury, by reproducing a flattering but delusive
suggestion contained in his annual report the preceding year.
He suggested that as the United States was not likely to be involved in
frequent wars, a revenue derived solely from duties on imports, even
though liable to diminution during war, would yet amply suffice to pay
off, during long intervals of peace, the expenses of such wars as might
be undertaken.
Should the United States become involved in war with both France and
Great Britain, no internal taxes would be necessary to carry it on, nor
any other financial expedient, beyond borrowing money and doubling the
duties on import. The scheme, afterwards tried, bore bitter fruit.
His influence was felt in other departments of Government and in the
politics of the country. Opposed to going to war against Great Britain
in 1812, he exerted all his influence to avert it.
In March, 1813, he was appointed one of the envoys to Russia to
negotiate for the mediation of the Czar between the United States and
Great Britain. He sailed for St. Petersburg, but the Senate in special
sessions, refused to ratify his appointment because he was Secretary of
the Treasury. The attempt at mediation was unsuccessful.
When, in January, 1814, Great Britain proposed a direct negotiation for
peace, Gallatin, who was still abroad, was appointed one of the United
States Commissioners. He resigned his secretaryship. He was one of the
signers of the Treaty of Ghent.
In 1815 he was appointed Minister to France, where he remained until
1823. He refused a seat in the Cabinet of President Monroe on his return
and also declined to be a candidate for Vice President to which the
dominant Democratic Party nominated him.
President Adams appointed him Minister to Great Britain, where he
negotiated several important commercial conventions.
Returning to America in 1827, he took up his residence in New York City.
There he was engaged in public service in various ways until 1839, when
he withdrew from public duties and directed the remainder of his life to
literary pursuits.
Although strictly in private life, Gallatin took special interest in the
progress of the country, and wrote much on the subject. His published
works include such subjects as finance, politics and ethnology.
Mr. Gallatin was chief founder, in 1842, and the first president of the
American Ethnological Society, and was president of the New York
Historical Society from 1843 until his death, August 12, 1849, at
Astoria, L. I.
----------
General Thomas Mifflin, Soldier, Statesman
and Several Times Governor, Died
January 21, 1800
When the venerable Franklin was about to step aside as the President of
the Council and withdraw from public employment, the people of
Pennsylvania became concerned in the successor to so brilliant a man.
The choice fell upon Thomas Mifflin, and he occupied the enviable
position of Chief Executive of the Commonwealth longer than any other
Pennsylvanian, two years as President of the Council and three times
Governor, an aggregate of eleven years.
Thomas Mifflin was the son of Quaker parents, and was born in
Philadelphia in 1744. He was educated in the Philadelphia College, and
his parents intended that Thomas should follow a mercantile profession.
Upon the completion of his college course he entered the counting house
of William Coleman. At the age of twenty-one he made a tour of Europe
and then entered into a business partnership with his brother in
Philadelphia.
In 1772 he was elected one of the two members of the Legislature from
the City of Philadelphia, and was re-elected the following year, when he
was the colleague of Franklin, then just returned from his mission to
England.
So conspicuous were his services in the Assembly, that when the
appointment of delegates to the first Continental Congress came to be
made, Mifflin was selected as one, and he occupied a position of
commanding influence.
“When the news,” says Dr. Rawle, his biographer, “of the battle of
Lexington reached Philadelphia, a town meeting was called and the fellow
citizens of Mifflin were delighted by his animated oratory.” None did
more than he to arouse the populace to a sense of the danger which
threatened. He did not only exhort, but he put in practice his pleading.
When the troops were to be enlisted and drilled, Mifflin was among the
foremost to train them, and was selected as a major in one of the
earliest formed regiments.
The patriot blood spilled at Lexington and Concord fired a martial
spirit throughout America by which the bold leaders in every State were
nerved to resist and resent those unprovoked assaults, and when
Washington appeared at the camp in Boston as the Commander-in-Chief of
the American armies, Mifflin was by his side.
Recognizing his great personal popularity, the ease and dignity of his
manners, breadth and soundness of his views, Washington placed Mifflin
at the head of his military family. In the absence of, or at the
retirement from the table of the chief it fell upon Mifflin to occupy
his place and do the honors; and for this duty, by his social position
at home and his foreign travel he was admirably fitted. Colonel Mifflin
was the first person in America who officiated as aide-de-camp.
When Washington, July, 1775, organized the entire army, the difficult
position of quartermaster general was assigned to Mifflin. The duties
were new and arduous. Everything was in chaos. Order had to be
established and system inaugurated.
On May 19, 1776, Congress appointed and commissioned Mifflin to be a
brigadier general and he was given command of Pennsylvania troops. An
assignment to the active field was much more to his liking than one at
headquarters.
Upon taking the field Mifflin was relieved as quartermaster general by
General Stephen Moylan, who was ill suited to the difficult task of
providing for an army where the authority for calling in supplies was
little respected and the means of paying for them was rarely in hand;
and not long after accepting the position he abandoned it.
Congress called upon Mifflin to again assume the duties of quartermaster
general and he reluctantly responded to the call of his country, deeming
it a matter of duty.
The reverses of the American Army during the summer and fall of 1776
culminated in its withdrawal into New Jersey, hotly pursued by the
British troops. Pennsylvania was threatened and especially Philadelphia,
where Congress was sitting. At this dark hour Mifflin was sent with
dispatches from Washington to Congress, calling on that body loudly for
help.
Mifflin, at the request of Congress, made a stirring address, setting
forth the perilous situation, and appealing for the means to oppose the
further advance of the defiant enemy. That body was greatly exercised
and ordered that General Mifflin should remain near Congress for
consultation and advice.
As the enemy pressed toward Philadelphia, General Putnam was sent to
take command in the city and General Mifflin was placed in charge of the
war material and stores.
The victory at Trenton produced a gleam of hope and Congress dispatched
Mifflin throughout the State of Pennsylvania in order that, by his
personal appeals, volunteers might be drawn to the support of
Washington’s decimated ranks. He caused large numbers to enlist.
Mifflin was mixed up in the “Conway Cabal,” but in after years he
explained his position, and it would seem to prove the intensity of his
devotion to the struggle in which he had staked fortune and life itself.
In 1783 General Mifflin was elected a member of Congress, and had the
satisfaction of being President of that body, when General Washington,
December 23, 1783, resigned his commission into its hands. Mifflin made
an eloquent reply.
General Mifflin was a member of the Assembly of Pennsylvania which met
in 1785; also of the convention which sat in 1787 and framed the
Constitution of the United States.
In 1788 he was chosen a member of the Supreme Executive Council, and
upon the retirement of Franklin, he was elected President.
General Mifflin was the president of the convention that framed the
State Constitution of 1790, and he and General Arthur St. Clair were the
two candidates for Governor. Mifflin triumphed and was continued in
office for that and the two succeeding terms.
Governor Mifflin was very efficient in quelling the Whisky Insurrection
of 1794, and personally commanded the troops from Pennsylvania.
His last official communication as Governor was made December 7, 1799.
It contained his farewell sentiments on taking leave of office and was
received with every manifestation of respect by the Assembly.
He was elected to the Assembly and took his seat, but did not long
survive. He died during a session of the House, then sitting in
Lancaster, on January 21, 1800. His decease was noticed with becoming
ceremonies, resolutions being adopted expressive of the high sense
entertained for him as a soldier and statesman, authorizing his
interment at the public expense and providing for the erection of a
monument to his memory.
“Thus ended,” says Dr. Rawle, “the checkered life of Thomas
Mifflin—brilliant in its outset—troubled and perplexed at a period more
advanced—again distinguished, prosperous and happy—finally clouded by
poverty and oppressed by creditors. In patriotic principle never
changing—in public action never faltering—in personal friendship
sincerely warm—in relieving the distressed always active and humane—in
his own affairs improvident—in the business of others scrupulously
just.”
----------
Story of the Old Log College and the
Reverend Charles Beatty, Born
January 22, 1715
The pioneer seminary for aspirants to the Presbyterian ministry nearly
two hundred years ago, was long known as “The Old Log College.” It stood
at Neshaminy in Warwick Township, Bucks County.
When the celebrated evangelist George Whitefield came to America in
1739, he preached here to three thousand persons.
The deed for the land upon which this early educational institution was
built, was dated 1728, and was given by Hon. James Logan, the secretary
of the Province and one of the most illustrious of the early officials
of Pennsylvania, to his cousin, Reverend William Tennent, an Irish
emigrant, who shortly after his arrival in America renounced his
allegiance to the Church of England and united with the Philadelphia
Presbytery.
The gift consisted of fifty acres of land and the part of it on which
the college stood is believed to have been an ancient Indian burying
ground. The log college, twenty feet by thirty feet in size, was for
many years the only institute south of New England where young men could
be prepared for the ministry.
The Log College flourished under Mr. Tennent for twenty years, when its
place was eminently supplied by kindred institutions thereabouts. From
its walls came many noted preachers of Scotch-Irish descent, among them
four of his own sons. One of the latter, Gilbert Tennent, preached most
eloquently to stir up patriotism during the French and Indian War.
It is said that a carload of these sermons were very opportunely
discovered in an old lumber room of Dr. Benjamin Franklin’s when the
American patriots were hunting for paper to make cartridges, after the
British evacuated Philadelphia, June 17, 1778. The sermons were utilized
as cases for cartridges, and told effectively afterwards on the
retreating British in the battle of Monmouth. Thus these eloquent
sermons served the country in two great wars, more than is usually the
case.
The Reverend Charles Beatty, an Irish Presbyterian, who was chaplain
with Colonel Benjamin Franklin in his army on the Lehigh and later with
Colonel William Clapham in his regiment which marched to Fort Augusta at
the Forks of the Susquehanna, was a student here.
The Rev. Mr. Beatty was the son of an officer in the British Army, and
was born in Ireland, January 22, 1715. He obtained a fairly accurate
classical education in his own country and when he emigrated to America
in 1740, his circumstances being meager, he employed several of the
first years of his residence as a peddler.
He halted one day at the Log College, where he addressed the Reverend
William Tennent familiarly in correct and classical Latin. After some
conversation in which the peddler manifested much piety and considerable
religious zeal, Tennent said, “Go and sell the contents of your pack,
and return immediately and study with me. It will be a sin for you to
continue a peddler, when you can be so much more useful in another
profession.”
Beatty accepted Tennent’s offer, became an eminent preacher, and
succeeded his preceptor, as head of the Log College. He was ordained in
the Presbyterian Ministry, December 1, 1743, and passed most of his life
in charge of “ye congregation of Warwick, in ye forks of the Neshaminy.”
An interesting incident is related of his military service. The soldiers
were issued a gill of rum each day in addition to their regular
stipulation, one-half being dealt out in the morning and the balance in
the evening.
Chaplain Beatty complained to Colonel Franklin that the soldiers were
not punctual in attending divine service, when Franklin suggested, “It
is, perhaps, below the dignity of your profession to act as a steward of
the rum, but if you were to distribute it out only just after prayers,
you would have them all about you.”
Mr. Beatty profited by the advice and in the future had no reason to
complain of non-attendance. A few hands regularly measured out the
liquor after prayers.
When Colonel William Clapham was detached from Franklin’s command and
ordered to recruit a regiment to build Fort Augusta, he selected Beatty
as the chaplain of the regiment. He kept an interesting journal of this
tour of duty, of which the following is the first paragraph:
“Having received his honor, the Governor’s commission to be chaplain to
the regiment of foot in the provincial service under the command of
Colonel William Clapham, and having the advice and concurrence of the
Commission of the Synod, who appointed supplies for the congregation in
my absence—set out from home in order to join the regiment at Harris’
Ferry, Monday, May 3, 1756. I was accompanied as far as Schuylkill by my
elders and some other friends, and having stopped at a friend’s house,
not far from the road to refresh myself, reached as far as the Sign of
the Ship on the Lancaster road, at which I lodged. Felt my need of the
Divine Presence to be with me in my dangerous or at least difficult
undertaking.”
He reached Lancaster the following afternoon, where he was met by
Colonel Clapham and Captain Thomas Lloyd, who advised him that Governor
Morris was in town. They called on His Excellency, who received them
very kindly.
They all set out the following morning for Harris’ Ferry, arrived at
Barney Hughes’ hotel in time for dinner and reached Harris’ Ferry in the
evening, when the soldiers were ordered to assemble for prayer and to
meet their distinguished guests.
Just as the assembly call sounded, a fire broke out in John Harris’
house and there were no prayers.
He frequently lamented in his well-kept journal, that some trifling
incident prevented officers or men, or both, from attending prayer.
“Just as service began in the afternoon, had an alarm, but few, alas,
seemed to regret the disappointment. Wickedness seems to increase in the
camp, which gives me a great deal of uneasiness.”
The following Sunday, “One of the bateaux which had on it a cannon was
upset, which occasioned a great deal of labor, and what profane swearing
there was. If I stay in the camp my ears are greeted with profane oaths,
and if I go out to shun it, I am in danger of the enemy—what a dilemma
is this? But my eyes would be toward the Lord.”
In 1766 he was appointed, with the Rev. George Duffield, missionary to
the frontier settlements in the new purchase and to the Indians of the
Ohio River. He died August 12, 1772, at Barbados whither he had gone to
collect money for the New Jersey College, which is now Princeton
University.
The Rev. Philip Fithian, who traveled through Central Pennsylvania in
1775, and who kept such an interesting journal of his experiences, was a
son-in-law of the Rev. Charles Beatty.[1]
Footnote 1:
Reverend Charles Beatty had four sons, all officers in the Continental
Army; John, who rose to the rank of colonel, and after the Revolution
became a brigadier-general in the militia; Charles Clinton, a
lieutenant, who was accidentally killed when another soldier of his
command shot him while carelessly handling a pistol; Reading, a
surgeon; and Eukuries, a lieutenant and paymaster, who continued long
in the military service of his country after the Revolution, and was a
major during the Indian campaign of 1788–1792.
-------
Militia Organized at Provincial Council
Meeting January 23, 1775
A Provincial Convention was held in Philadelphia, January 23, 1775,
which lasted six days. At the organization of the convention, General
Joseph Reed was chosen chairman.
Strong resolutions were adopted, heartily approving the conduct and
proceedings of the Continental Congress; opposing future importation of
slaves into this Province; protecting members of committees of Congress
from embarrassment on account of this service, and one, “That in case
the trade of the city and liberties of Philadelphia shall be suspended
in consequence of the present struggle, it is the opinion of this
convention that the several counties should, and that the members of
this convention will exert themselves to afford the necessary relief and
assistance to the inhabitants of the said city and liberties; who will
be more immediately affected by such an event.”
This convention also adopted a lengthy resolution which tended toward
the regulation of the supply and consumption of foodstuffs, and the
necessities of life, especially such as had been regulated by laws of
England.
The crisis to which the convention looked forward when framing these
resolutions had arrived. The battle of Lexington had been fought and
submission to the arbitrary acts of Parliament was attempted to be
enforced by the bayonet. Soon as the news of this battle spread
multitudes of men, at the suggestion of the county committees of
observation, entered into an association for defense.
The officers of these organizations were generally men of unusual
military skill, men who were veterans of several campaigns and some of
innumerable Indian incursions. This was not as generally true of the
older portion of the Province. This had been peaceable, and remote from
the frontiers, so the chief officers in these countries were frequently
without military experience, who owed their preferment to political
activity, or social prominence.
Dickinson accepted the colonelcy of the first battalion, while the
others raised in the City of Philadelphia were commanded by Daniel
Roderdeau, merchant and politician; John Cadwallader, a shopkeeper, son
of one of the Governor’s Council; Thomas McKean, lawyer and lately
Speaker of the Delaware Assembly, and Timothy Matlack, politician.
The colonels of the six battalions raised in Philadelphia County, which
then included what is now Montgomery County were: William Hamilton,
Robert Lewis, Thomas Potts, Samuel Miles, a veteran of French and Indian
War, and Hill Tench Francis, brother of Colonel Turbutt Francis, also a
hero of the French and Indian War, sons of the deceased Attorney General
Tench Francis. The colonels from the other counties were:
Bucks County—Joseph Kirkbride, Joseph Hart, Andrew Kachlein and Arthur
Erwin.
Chester County—James Moore, Thomas Hockley, Hugh Lloyd, William
Montgomery and Richard Thomas.
Lancaster—George Ross, Matthias Slough, Curtis Grubb, Thomas Porter,
John Ferree, James Burd, hero of the French and Indian War and of many
other campaigns; Peter Grubb and Bartram Galbraith.
York County—Robert Callender, William Thompson, John Montgomery and
James Wilson.
Berks County—Edward Biddle, Mark Bird, Daniel Brodhead, veteran of the
French and Indian War; Balzer Geehr and Christian Louer.
Northampton County—George Taylor, Henry Geiger, Yost Dreisbach and Jacob
Stroud.
Bedford County—Bernard Dougherty and Samuel Davidson.
Northumberland County—Samuel Hunter, James Potter and William Plunket,
each a hero of the French and Indian War and thoroughly trained as
officers.
Westmoreland County—John Proctor and John Cornahan.
To assist in carrying into effect the many measures passed for the
defense of the province, the Assembly on June 30, appointed a Committee
of Safety, consisting of ten from City of Philadelphia, four from the
county and one from each of the other counties excepting Chester, which
had two members.
Benjamin Franklin was chosen president of the committee at its first
meeting, July 3, 1775; William Garrett was named clerk and Michael
Hillegas treasurer.
The several County Commissioners were asked to purchase a specified
number of guns with bayonets, cartridge boxes with twenty-three rounds
of cartridges and knapsacks.
The Assembly offered £20 for every hundredweight of saltpeter
manufactured in the province within the next three months.
Among the first labors of the Committee of Safety was that of preparing
articles for the government of the military organizations known as
Associators. A set of resolutions to that effect were adopted August 19,
which included every possible phase of a soldier’s life, including his
personal appearance, conduct, sobriety, loyalty, demeanor as an officer,
noncommissioned officer or private, etc.
Many of the citizens refused to subscribe to the regulations, alleging
that numerous persons, rich and able to perform military duty claimed
exemption under pretense of conscientious scruples and asserting that
where liberty of all was at stake, all should aid in its defense, and
that where the cause was common to all, it was inconsistent with justice
and equity that the burden should be partial.
The Friends addressed the Legislature, setting forth their religious
faith and practice with respect to bearing arms, and claiming exemption
from military service by virtue of laws agreed upon in England and the
Charter of William Penn. The Mennonites and German Baptists also
remonstrated, praying exemption, but willing to contribute pecuniary
aid.
Assembly resolved that “all persons between the ages of sixteen and
fifty capable of bearing arms, who do not associate for the defense of
the Province, ought to contribute an equivalent for the time spent by
the associators in acquiring military discipline; ministers of the
gospel of all denominations and servants purchased bona fide for
valuable consideration only excepted.”
Returns were required from the assessors of all persons within military
age, and the captains of the companies of the Associators were directed
to furnish to their colonels and the colonels to the County
Commissioners lists of such persons as had joined the Associators. The
commissioners were empowered to assess those not associated £2 10s
annually, in addition to the ordinary tax.
The Assembly also adopted rules and regulations for the better
government of the military association, the thirty-fifth article of
which provided “that if any associator called into actual service should
leave a family not of ability to maintain themselves in his absence, the
justices of the peace of the proper city or county, with the overseer of
the poor, should make provisions for their maintenance.”
----------
Captain Thomas McKee, Indian Trader,
Makes Deposition Before Governor
January 24, 1743
Thomas McKee was the most noted of the later Shamokin Traders, and we
have records of his trading expeditions as far west as the Ohio.
His career was highly romantic, and a consideration of the same will
enable us to understand his son, Captain Alexander McKee, who afterwards
became well-known at Fort Pitt, and rendered himself notorious in border
history by deserting to the British during the time of the Revolutionary
War, carrying over to that interest a great many Indians whom he had
befriended during his service as Deputy Indian Agent under the Crown. We
will then know better why he should seek more congenial company among
the Ohio Indians and in the service of the King, than he had found among
the American forces at Fort Pitt, who were enemies of both.
Dr. W. H. Egle has stated that Thomas McKee was a son of Patrick, but it
is quite possible that he was the son of one Alexander McKee who died in
Donegal Township, Lancaster County, in May, 1740, leaving a son, Thomas,
who was the executor of his will.
A contributor to Dr. Egle’s “Notes and Queries” relates a traditionary
account of Thomas McKee’s marriage, which had been told to him in his
boyhood days by his father, a native of the Susquehanna Valley. This
story was to the effect that Thomas McKee, in his early manhood began
trading with the Indians, and after learning the language of the
Delaware, established a trading post among them, in the vicinity of
Shamokin (now Sunbury), at or near the Forks of the Susquehanna.
In the performance of this enterprise while he was on a trading
expedition farther up the West Branch, he ventured into the camp of
strange Indians, who stole his goods, drank his rum, and then becoming
incensed at the resistance he made to their proceedings, bound him as a
captive, and decided to burn him at the stake the following day.
During the night, an Indian maiden came to the wigwam where he lay bound
to a log. She released him, and they fled together, making their escape.
McKee from gratitude, made the girl his squaw and they lived together
during the remainder of their lives as husband and wife.
Edward Shippen, of Lancaster, wrote to Governor Morris April 19, 1756,
after a visit to Captain McKee’s fort, where he found ten Indians, among
them John Shikellamy. He adds; “Shikellamy let me know that he wished
the Indians would be moved down to Barney Hughes, where Captain McKee’s
woman and children live.”
In a conference between Sir William Johnson and Canaghquiesa, an Oneida
chief, the latter reported on his mission to the hostile Shawnee of
Northern Pennsylvania. He advised Sir William that one who lived near
those Indians had applied to the Delaware to accompany them to the
proposed meeting at Onondaga, which they refused to do, saying that “One
Thomas McGee, who lives on the Susquehanna and is married to a Shawnese
squaw, had told them that in ten days’ time an army of the English would
come and destroy them.”
The Moravian Bishop, Cammerhoff, visited Captain Thomas McKee’s trading
post in 1748. In his journal he writes under date of January 13:
“We have before us twenty long miles to Shamokin, also two bad creeks
and the narrowest passes along the river to pass. At 9 o’clock we
reached Thomas McKee’s, the last white settlement on the river, below
Shamokin.”
This trading post was at the site of the present village of Dalmatia,
Northumberland County. His other post at this time was below the mouth
of the Juniata, not far distant from Big (now Haldeman’s) Island. Both
these trading posts are shown on Scull’s map of 1759.
The bishop further wrote in his journal: “McKee holds a captain’s
commission under the Government, is an extensive Indian trader, bears a
good name among them and drives a brisk trade with the Allegheny
country. His wife, who was brought up among the Indians, speaks but
little English. They received us with much kindness and hospitality.”
Thomas McKee’s “woman,” “squaw” or “wife” as referred to by Edward
Shippen, Chief Canaghquiesa and Bishop Cammerhoff, respectively, may
have been the same who assisted him to escape from the unfriendly party
of Indians in the early winter of 1743. The details of that adventure
are set forth in an affidavit which McKee made before Governor Thomas in
Philadelphia, January 24, 1743.
In this deposition McKee states he had a store near the Big Island, and
that “on the 12th or 13th of this instant, January, about 7 o’clock in
the morning, the Indians of the town came to the deponent’s store and
told him they had heard the Dead Halloa and were much surprised at it.
Whereupon he, with a servant of his, took a canoe and went over to the
island, and in his passage heard the Indians belonging to the town call
over to those on the island. To which they answered that the white men
had killed some of their men. A council was called, and this deponent
attended at the Council House and was admitted.”
At the council the leader of the Iroquois war band informed the Shawnee
of an attack made upon their war expedition in Virginia, in which four
Indians were killed.
McKee addressed the council, reminding them that these disorders had not
happened in Pennsylvania, and urged them to press in their council a
treaty of peace with Pennsylvania. The Shawnee did not receive the
suggestion kindly. A short time after McKee was informed by a white
woman, who had been taken prisoner, that it was left with the Shawnee to
deal with him as they pleased and that they were going to hold a council
concerning him at some distance from the town, and that if he did not
escape he would certainly be cut off.
McKee realized the advice was timely and, with his servant, they
departed, leaving all his goods behind. The two traveled three days and
three nights before they believed themselves out of danger.
Captain Thomas McKee was in command at Fort Hunter in 1756. He died near
McKee’s Half Falls, on the eastern side of the Susquehanna, in 1772,
leaving two sons, Alexander and James. The former was then at Fort Pitt
as an assistant to George Croghan, the deputy Indian agent for the
Crown, and where he owned a large tract of land at the mouth of the
Chartiers Creek, including McKee’s Rock, still a noted landmark on the
Ohio River, just below Pittsburgh. When he deserted from the garrison at
Fort Pitt and joined the British in 1777 his possessions in Pennsylvania
passed to his brother, whose descendants are still living in Allegheny
County.
If the woman Captain Thomas McKee had made his wife was the white
captive of the Shawnee, who had been adopted into their tribe, it is not
hard to understand why her son, Alexander the renegade, should have
inherited a half-savage nature. This would be even more true if his
mother was a Shawnee squaw. His adherence to the British Government when
the Revolution came, a government which had so long been his paymaster,
is less to be wondered at than his temporary defection therefrom during
the first two years of the struggle.
----------
Work Commenced on Erection of Fort
Henry January 25, 1756
The Provincial authorities in 1755 sent Colonel Benjamin Franklin and
others to erect a chain of forts, about ten or twelve miles apart,
stretching in a line from the Delaware to the Susquehanna River.
The principal fort on the Lehigh River was Fort Allen, where the town of
Weissport, Carbon County, now stands. Fort Swatara was the principal
fort on the end of the chain as it approached the Susquehanna, although
Fort Hunter was situated on the east bank of that river, about six miles
above the present City of Harrisburg.
Fourteen miles east of Fort Swatara was erected Fort Henry, and it soon
became the most important place of defense between the two great rivers
in this chain of forts.
It is sometimes referred to as Busse’s Fort, in honor of Captain
Christian Busse, who commanded the garrison there during its most active
period. It was frequently referred to as the “Fort at Deitrick Six’s,”
because of the Indian atrocities which occurred there and which had much
to do with the decision to erect the fort on part of Six’s farm.
Fort Henry was situated on the main road to Shamokin (now Sunbury),
where Fort Augusta commanded the forks of the Susquehanna, and protected
the settlers resident on both the north and west branches of that river.
There was no town in the vicinity of Fort Henry, nor did it guard any
mountain pass or prominent stream, but it did command the connecting
highways between the Swatara Creek and the settlements near that stream.
The Indians were obliged to pass through Talihaio Gap to reach any of
the white settlements in that region.
The history of Fort Henry really begins with the attack from ambush made
on a company of six settlers traveling to Deitrick Six’s, Saturday
afternoon, November 15, 1755.
None was killed in the first attack, but as the terrified settlers
hastened toward a watch-house, a half mile distant, they were overtaken
by the savages and three of them killed and scalped, and one Indian was
killed. During the late afternoon three other settlers were killed and
three wounded.
The Indians remained in the neighborhood and the following night killed
a servant of Thomas Bower and set fire to his house and barn.
Conrad Weiser informed Governor Morris of this tragic affair in a long
letter and related this and many other incursions made by the Indians in
the region now embraced by Berks, Lebanon, Dauphin, and part of
Northumberland Counties. Weiser concluded his letter as follows:
“The Fire alarmed a neighbor, who came with two or three more Men; they
fired by the way and made a great noise, scared the Indians away from
Bower’s House, after they had set fire to it, but by Thomas Bower’s
Diligence and Conduct was timely put out again. So, Thos. Bower, with
his Family, went off that night to his Neighbor Daniel Schneider, who
came to his assistance. By 8 of ye Clock Parties came up from
Tulpenhacon & Heidleberg.
“The first Party saw four Indians running off. They had some prisoners,
whom they scalped immediately; three children lay scalped, yet alive,
one died since, the other two are like to do well. Another Party found a
woman just expired, with a Male Child by her side, both killed and
Scalped. The Woman lay upon her Face, my son Frederick turned her about
to see who she might have been and to his and his companions Surprize
they found a Babe of about 14 Days old under her, and life was yet in
it, and recovered again.
“Upon the whole, there is about 15 killed of our People, Including Men,
Women and Children, and the Enemy not beat but scared off. Several
Houses and Barns are Burned; I have no true account how many. We are in
a dismal Situation, some of this Murder has been committed in
Tulpenhacon Township. The People left their Plantation to within 6 or 7
miles of my house (which was located at the present town of Womelsdorf)
against another attack.
“Guns and Ammunition is very much wanted here. My Sons have been obliged
to part with most of what was sent for the use of the Indians. I pray
your Honour will be pleased, if it lies in your Power, to send us up a
Quantity upon any Condition. I must stand my Ground or my Neighbours
will all go away, and leave their Habitations to be destroyed by the
Enemy or our own People. This enough of such melancholy Account for
this.”
Conrad Weiser had been on a mission to the seat of government, to which
place he had escorted a band of friendly Indians, and it was on his
return that he learned of the terrible murders. In fact, the trusted
chief Scarouady, also known as the Half-King, and a company of Delaware
were still with him at his home when his sons recited the melancholy
news.
It is not to be wondered that many of the settlers did not fully
understand the exact position which Colonel Weiser held, both toward the
Provincial Government and towards the Indians. Both had implicit faith
and confidence in him. The angry settlers were so incensed at Weiser
that had not the smoke of fire along the mountain scared them off he
might have paid the price of his friendship toward the Indians with his
own life.
These atrocities decided the position of Fort Henry, and January 25,
1756, Captain Christian Busse, with a company of fifty provincial
soldiers, reported there and began the erection of a fort. Governor
Morris advised Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, and Colonel George
Washington that he had ordered Fort Henry built at this important place.
It was at Fort Henry where Colonel Weiser held his councils with the
officers of the other forts and planned the protection of the farmers
during harvest, etc.
During June, 1756, Fort Henry was honored by a visit from Governor
Morris, which was occasioned by a threatened attack by the French on
Fort Augusta, and at a time when the terms of enlistment of many men had
expired.
The Governor directed the movement of troops to the larger fortresses.
More than fifty of the inhabitants called at Fort Henry and laid their
grievances before the Governor in person.
Soon after this visit the Indians committed many murders. Five children
were carried off in one day and a sick man was slain in his bed. His
daughter, hidden under a bed in the adjoining room, saw her father
killed. Two other families were destroyed.
A French deserter was captured and held at Fort Henry. He was taken to
Weiser’s home, and put through the third degree. He proved to be quite
clever and nothing of value was learned. He was a lad of seventeen and
had been sent from Fort Machault, on the Allegheny River, on a marauding
expedition in command of thirty-three Indians, when he accidentally got
lost in the mountains and he approached the sentry at Fort Henry, as he
had been seven days without food.
June 19, 1757, the Indians carried away the wife of John Frantz and
three of their children, who lived only six miles from Fort Henry.
The actual history of Fort Henry, except for the incidents recorded
here, was one of routine military work, but it remained a garrisoned
fortification for some years, surely until the summer of 1763, for at
that time Governor Hamilton wrote to Colonel John Armstrong about
disposition of troops for Lancaster, Berks and Northampton Counties, and
mentioned Fort Henry as one of the chain of forts then occupied by
provincial troops.
----------
James Trimble, First Deputy Secretary of the
Commonwealth, Public Servant Sixty-seven
Years, Died January 26, 1837
When James Trimble died at his home in Harrisburg, January 26, 1837, he
closed a record of sixty-seven years service as an official of
Pennsylvania, a record which none other has ever approached.
Another unusual feature of this record is the fact that Mr. Trimble was
the first Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth, beginning his service as
such March 6, 1777, and being the only occupant of that important office
until his death, nearly sixty years afterwards.
James Trimble was born in Philadelphia, July 19, 1755. His father,
Alexander Trimble, emigrated from the North of Ireland; was a
Protestant, and soon became a member of the Second Presbyterian Church
of Philadelphia, then under the care of Reverend Gilbert Tennent, of
whom it is believed he was a relative.
Alexander Trimble was married to Eleanor Rogers, of Abington, June 20,
1754. Alexander died about 1769.
James was the eldest of several children, and though only a lad at the
time of his father’s death, he manifested all those qualities of mind
and heart for which he was so justly noted throughout a long life
devoted to the service of his country.
When his mother was left a widow with a store, James assisted her in the
conduct of the business.
One day James Tilghman, Secretary of the Land Office under the
Proprietaries, called at the Trimble store and made some purchases.
Young Trimble, who waited upon him, also made out his bill, and the
great gentleman was so much pleased with his writing and business style
that he at once took measures to secure his services in his department.
Thus James Trimble at the age of fifteen years became an apprenticed
clerk in the Land Office.
The endorsement upon the archives of the Board of War and the Council of
Safety indicates that James Trimble was subordinate clerk in the State
Council as early as 1775, and when Colonel Timothy Matlack became the
first Secretary of the Commonwealth, March 6, 1777, James Trimble became
Deputy Secretary, and so continued down to Thursday, January 14, 1837.
Pending some difficulties with the Supreme Executive Council in regard
to his accounts of his money trust, Colonel Matlack resigned his
position as Secretary, and March 25, 1783, General John Armstrong, Jr.,
was commissioned in his stead.
General Armstrong was elected a member of Congress in 1787, and November
7 of that year Charles Biddle became Secretary. He served in that office
until January 19, 1791, when Alexander James Dallas, Esq., was
commissioned by Governor Thomas Mifflin the first secretary of the
Commonwealth, under the Constitution of 1790.
On March 12, 1791, the very day the Governor approved the Act of
Assembly providing for a Deputy Secretary, Mr. Dallas appointed James
Trimble, who had served continuously under his several predecessors, to
be Deputy Secretary, and the appointment was approved by the Governor.
Secretary Dallas resigned his commission December 2, 1801, when Thomas
McKean Thompson succeeded him. Nathaniel B. Boileau became Secretary of
the Commonwealth, December 20, 1808, and remained through the three
terms of Governor Simon Snyder, when he was succeeded by Thomas
Sergeant, December 16, 1817; he resigned July 6, 1819, when Samuel B.
Ingham was commissioned; Andrew Gregg took up the reins of office
December 19, 1820, serving three years, when Molton C. Rogers became
Secretary; he resigned January 2, 1826, to be succeeded by Isaac G.
Barnhard, who served less than two years, when Calvin Blythe was
commissioned November 28, 1827; Samuel McKean was commissioned December
16, 1829, and was succeeded by James Findley who served until December
15, 1835, when Thomas H. Burrowes became Secretary of the Commonwealth,
and in all this time, and with these fifteen changes in the office of
Secretary, a commission and dedimus issued regularly every three years
to James Trimble as Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth.
His records are models of neatness, his papers elaborately endorsed, and
filed with great care, so that in those days of tallow candles, when he
was wont to enter his office at night, he could, without striking a
light, lay his hands on any paper he wished.
James Trimble was of slight stature, dignified, brisk in his movements
and carefully dressed in solemn black knee pants, queue, long hose, and
buckle shoes.
When he died, Harrisburg lost its last gentleman of the old school for
Alexander Graydon, his peer in dress and address, had gone before.
In the judgment of his contemporaries James Trimble was a faithful
public servant, a man of unimpeachable integrity, and obliging manners,
and respected by the community at large.
On April 22, 1782, he married Clarissa, widow of John Hastings; her
maiden name was Claypoole. She was a descendant of James Claypoole, an
intimate of William Penn, and brother to John Claypoole who married
Elizabeth, daughter of Oliver Cromwell. Mrs. Trimble died at Lancaster,
February 6, 1810. Of their eleven children two only survived them—Dr.
James Trimble, who died in Huntingdon County, in 1838, and Thomas R.,
who died in Chester County in 1868.
James Trimble helped pack and remove the State papers at the time the
British occupied Philadelphia, and again when the seat of government was
removed to Lancaster in 1799, and from Lancaster to Harrisburg in 1812.
After he removed to Harrisburg he was chosen trustee and treasurer of
the Presbyterian Church there, in which capacity he served until his
death.
That he survived his removal from office only eleven days many believed
he died of a broken heart. Truly if such be the case, party spirit must
have been at fever heat to cause the removal of such a public servant,
without some other position for him.
----------
Great Indian Conference Began in Easton
on January 27, 1777
The year 1777 opened for the colonists with much brighter prospects, as
General Washington had defeated the Hessians at Trenton, and close upon
this victory followed the action at Princeton, in which many
Pennsylvania organizations displayed such valor, but in which General
Hugh Mercer and a number of other officers and men fell.
On Monday, January 20, Brigadier General Philemon Dickinson, with about
400 militia, composed of the two Westmoreland independent companies, of
Wyoming, Pa., and New Jersey militia, defeated a foraging party of the
enemy of an equal number, near a bridge at Millstone River, two miles
from Somerset Court House, New Jersey, and took forty wagons and one
hundred horses, a large number of sheep and cattle, and some prisoners.
General Dickinson lost but five men.
To return to internal affairs: early in January, 1777, Continental
Congress received information “that certain tribes of Indians living in
the back parts of the country, near the waters of the Susquehanna within
the Confederacy and under the protection of the Six Nations, the friends
and allies of the United States,” were on their way to Easton for the
purpose of holding a conference or treaty with the General Government.
Congress thereupon appointed a commission, consisting of George Taylor,
of Easton; George Walton and others to purchase suitable presents for
the Indians and conduct a treaty with them. The Assembly of Pennsylvania
named Colonels Lowrey and Cunningham, while the Council of Safety sent
Colonels Dean and Bull. Thomas Paine was appointed secretary to the
commission.
On January 7, a company of Indians arrived at Wilkes-Barre to announce
the coming of the larger body en route to Easton. About January 15 the
main delegation reached Wilkes-Barre. There were seventy men and one
hundred women and children in the party.
Among the chiefs were the following: Taasquah, or “King Charles,” of the
Cayuga; Tawanah, or “The Big Tree,” of the Seneca; Mytakawha, or
“Walking on Foot,” and Kaknah, or “Standing by a Tree,” of the Munsee;
Amatincka, or “Raising Anything” of the Nanticoke; Wilakinko, or “King
Last Night” of the Conoy, and Thomas Green, whose wife was a Mohawk, as
interpreter.
The Indians held an informal conference there and received food from the
Wyoming authorities.
The conference was formally opened at Easton, January 27, in the new
First (German) Reformed Church, on North Third street. It is said that
while the organ played the members of the commission and the Indians
shook hands with each other and drank rum to the health of the Congress
and the Six Nations and their allies before proceeding to business.
It was soon learned that the English, through the influence of Colonel
John Butler, in the King’s service at Niagara, were making a great
effort to turn the Indians against the Americans.
In an official report of the treaty, subsequently made to the Supreme
Executive Council of Pennsylvania, it was stated: “The Indians seem to
be inclined to act the wise part with respect to the present dispute. If
they are to be relied upon, they mean to be neuter. We have already
learnt their good intentions.”
The members of the Supreme Executive Council, chosen under the
Constitution of the State, met for the first time March 4, 1777, and
proceeded to form an organization and the Council of Safety was
dissolved. In joint convention with the Assembly, Thomas Wharton, Jr.,
was elected president, and George Bryan, vice president. To give new
dignity to the executive of the new Government, the inauguration took
place on the following day, March 5.
Thomas Wharton, Jr., was born in Philadelphia in 1735. He was descended
from an ancient English family and was the grandson of Richard Wharton,
who emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1683. His father, Joseph Wharton, of
Walnut Grove, was an aristocrat of the day. Thomas Wharton was twice
married, first to Susan, daughter of Thomas Lloyd, and subsequently to
Elizabeth, daughter of William Fishbourne. He was a warm supporter of
the principles of the Revolution, and on the change of government was
elected to the highest office in the State.
President Wharton died suddenly May 25 of the following year of an
attack of quinsy, at Lancaster. His funeral on the day following was
conducted by the State authorities, and as commander-in-chief of the
forces of the State he was buried with military honors, and at the
request of the vestry was interred within the walls of Trinity Church in
Lancaster. By his decease, the Vice President, George Bryan, assumed the
executive functions.
On March 13 the Supreme Executive Council appointed a navy board,
consisting of Andrew Caldwell, Joseph Blewer, Joseph Marsh, Emmanuel
Eyre, Robert Ritchie, Paul Cox, Samuel Massey, William Bradford, Thomas
Fitzsimmons, Samuel Morris, Jr., and J. Thomas Barclay, to which board
was committed all powers necessary for that service. The board entered
very promptly upon its duties, meeting with many difficulties, boats out
of repair and inefficiently manned, difficulties about rank in the
fleet, all of which it succeeded in overcoming.
The same day a Board of War was appointed consisting of David
Rittenhouse, Owen Biddle, William Moore, Joseph Dean, Samuel Morris,
Sr., Samuel Cadwallader Morris, John Bayard, George Gray and Colonel
John Bull. This board served most capably in assisting to carry out the
provisions of the new militia law.
The Speaker of the House being seriously ill, John Bayard was chosen
Speaker March 17. On the 20th Joseph Reed was appointed Chief Justice of
Pennsylvania, but he declined on account of military engagements and on
July 28 Thomas McKean was named for that office.
On June 13, the Assembly required all white male inhabitants over
eighteen years of age, except in Bedford, Northumberland, and
Westmoreland Counties to take an oath of allegiance before July 1, and
those in said counties before August 1, excepting, however, delegates in
Congress, prisoners of war, officers and soldiers in the Continental
army and merchants and marines in port trading from foreign powers and
not becoming subjects. Any person refusing should be incapable of
holding office, serving on juries, electing or being elected or even
bringing lawsuits, or buying or selling lands and as was perfectly
reasonable, should be disarmed.
Early in June, General Howe, commander of the British forces at New
York, showed a disposition to advance by land across New Jersey, and to
take possession of Philadelphia. On the 14th of that month he actually
made an advance by two columns, which led General Washington to believe
that this was his real intention. General Mifflin again came to
Philadelphia with messages to Congress and the Assembly, and there was
intrusted to him and De Coudray the arrangements of the defense of the
Delaware River.
The same day General Morris appeared before Congress to say that
Philadelphia was in danger.
----------
Massacre of Settlers Along the Juniata River
Began January 28, 1756
The Delaware Indians, especially those who lived west of the Susquehanna
River, were exceedingly angry because of the sale of the lands along the
Susquehanna and Juniata to the whites, and declared that those coveted
hunting grounds had been given to them (the Delaware) by the Six
Nations, and that therefore the latter had no right to sell them.
The Six Nations admitted that they had given the region to their
cousins, the Delaware, as a hunting ground, yet they did not hesitate to
make the sale to the English in 1754, and to confirm it in 1758.
The Delaware received none of the 400 pounds which had been paid to the
Six Nations, and it is little wonder that they sought an opportunity and
pretext for that revenge against the English which they dared not show
against their ancient conquerors, the Six Nations.
Such an opportunity was presented by General Braddock’s disaster on the
Monongahela, July 9, 1755, immediately after which they, with the
Shawnee, became the active allies of the French.
Within three months their war parties had crossed the Alleghanies
eastward, and had committed atrocities among the frontier settlements.
On October 16 occurred the massacre on Penn’s Creek, in what is now
Snyder County, and on the 25th, John Harris’ party was ambushed at
Mahanoy Creek.
On January 27, 1756, a party of Indians from Shamokin (now Sunbury) made
a foray in the Juniata Valley, first attacking the house of Hugh
Mitcheltree, who was absent at Carlisle, having left his house in the
care of his wife and a young man named Edward Nicholas. Both of these
were killed by the Indians, who then went up the river to the house of
Edward Nicholas, Sr., whom they killed, also his wife, and took seven
prisoners, namely, Joseph, Thomas and Catherine Nicholas, John Wilcox
and the wife and two children of James Armstrong.
The scene of the first of these incursions was on the farm of James
Mitcheltree, who was a warrantee in Delaware Township in 1755, and where
he died in the early part of 1803. This farm then passed into the hands
of John Thompson, and it is still in the hands of his descendants. Hugh
Mitcheltree, who escaped death or capture in this foray, was carried off
by the Indians two months later, March 29, 1756. The Mitcheltree family
lived near the present Thompsontown, Juniata County.
While the Indians were committing the murders at the Mitcheltree and
Nicholas homes, an Indian named James Cotties, who wished to be captain
of the party, but could not be so chosen, took with him a young brave
and went to Sherman’s Creek, where they killed William Sheridan and his
family, thirteen in number. They then went down the creek to the home of
two old men and an elderly woman, named French, whom they killed.
Cotties often boasted afterward that he and the boy took more scalps
than all the others of the party.
James Cotties, in 1757, went to Fort Hunter and killed a young man named
William Martin, while he was busy picking chestnuts. After the war was
over, the same Cotties being again at the same fort was reproached by
another Indian, named Hambus, for the death of young Martin, and a
quarrel ensued in which Hambus killed Cotties.
There are letters extant which give an account of the massacre by the
Indians, on the river between Thompsontown and Mexico. They reveal the
fact that this was the largest butchery of the whites that ever took
place in the east end of Juniata County.
A letter of January 28 proves that Captain James Patterson was with his
company at his fort, on the Juniata, the day of the massacres.
Extract from a letter dated Carlisle January 29, 1756, says:
“This afternoon came to town a man that lived on Juniata, who in his
journey this way called at the house where the woolcombers lived, about
ten miles from this place, and saw at his door a bed-tick, and going
into the house found a child lying dead and scalped. This alarmed us
much and while we were consulting what to do, we received the enclosed,
which puts it past all doubt that the enemy intend to attack Sherman’s
Valley or this place. We thought it necessary to acquaint you as soon as
possible, not only to hurry you home, but, if thought needful, that the
people of York might send over some aid.”
The “enclosed” referred to in the above, was a long letter written by a
soldier in the garrison at “Patterson’s Fort, of Juniata,” dated January
28, 1756, in which the fifteen murders of the Wilcox, Nicholas and
Armstrong families were explained in all their horrible details, the
writer having visited the several places and witnessed for himself the
bodies of the victims.
The letter continues:
“The party that went to bury the dead, found one Sheridan and his wife,
three children and a man-servant, all murdered; also two others in
another house: these within a few miles of Carlisle.
“I am heartily sorry that I must grieve you with an account of a most
inhuman murder committed by the Indians at Juniata and Sherman’s Creek
on the 27th of last month. Within three miles of Patterson’s Fort was
found Adam Nicholson and his wife dead and scalped and his two sons and
a daughter carried off; William Wilcock and his wife dead and scalped;
Mrs. Hugh Micheltree and son of said Nicholson dead and scalped, with
many children, in all about seventeen. The same day one Sheridan, a
Quaker, his wife and three children, and a servant were killed and
scalped, together with one William Hamilton and his wife and daughter
and one French, within ten miles of Carlisle, a little beyond Stephen’s
Gap.”
On March 24, Captain James Patterson with his scouting party of
borderers fell in with a party of Indians on Middle Creek, now Snyder
County, attacked them, killed and scalped one and put the rest to
flight. On their return, Patterson reported that the country from the
forks of the Susquehanna to the Juniata was “swarming with Indians,
looking for scalps and plunder, and burning all the houses and
destroying all the grain which the fugitive settlers had left in the
region.”
The Indians who committed these depredations were of the Delaware
Nation; there were no Shawnee among them. They had their headquarters on
the North Branch at Nescopeck and Wyoming, and were so incited by the
craftiness of the French that they threatened “to break the heads of any
of their own race who advised peace with the English.”
----------
John Penn, “The American,” Born in Slate-Roof
House January 29, 1700
When William Penn crossed the ocean in the Canterbury to visit his
province in 1699, he came up to Chester, December 1. Two days later Penn
reached Philadelphia, and made a formal call upon his deputy, Governor
William Markham, and other dignitaries of the town and province.
From Markham’s house Penn proceeded to the Friends’ meeting house at
Second and High Streets, and took part in the afternoon meeting,
offering a prayer and delivering one of those short incisive addresses
in which he was so happy.
Penn was very well received by all classes, says James Logan, who had
come out with the Governor and was in constant attendance upon him.
After the meeting was over and the Friends had dispersed to their homes,
Penn and his suite went to the house of Edward Shippen, and lived there
for a month. About January 14 he took up his residence in the
“Slate-Roof House,” which was his home during his sojourn in his
province.
On January 29, his son John, known as “The American,” was born. John was
the only one of William Penn’s children born in his province.
This old mansion when first built was the largest house in Philadelphia,
and better known than any other, not excepting the “Letitia House,” of
any place of historic interest connected with William Penn and the city
he founded.
The Slate-Roof House was built on the southeast corner of Second Street
and Norris Alley, the site for many years of the Chamber of Commerce.
The house was built by Samuel Carpenter, and it stood until 1867.
Besides being the residence of Penn in 1699, James Logan entertained
Lord Cornbury there in 1702 and Governor James Hamilton, Mrs. Howell and
Mrs. Graydon were successively its occupants, the ladies using it for a
boarding house.
Alexander Graydon, who lived there and whose mother was the Desdemona of
the pert British officers of the day and kept the place as a boarding
house just before the Revolution, describes the old house, “as a
singular old-fashioned structure, laid out in the style of a
fortification, with abundance of angles, both salient and re-entering.
Its two wings projected to the street in the manner of bastions, to
which the main building, retreating from sixteen to eighteen feet,
served for a curtain. Within it was cut up into a number of apartments
and on that account was exceedingly well adapted to the purpose of a
lodging house, to which it had long been appropriated.”
The yard or garden was graced with a row of venerable pine trees, and
the association of the place gave it a substantial historic interest. It
bore much less the look of a fortress than Captain Graydon’s military
eye conceived.
The back building was as peaceful looking as the culinary offices should
be and the neat little chambers in the so-called bastions were cozy
nooks, with chimney places in the corners. The kitchen had a giant pile
of chimney, with a great fireplace and the garrets were high and roomy.
This house was built for Samuel Carpenter by James Portens. It was
erected about 1698, and William Penn was probably its first occupant.
Samuel Carpenter had built in 1684–85 a house on Front Street, near his
wharf and warehouses, and it is likely he lived there after the
Slate-Roof House was completed.
Carpenter was a man of great ability and enterprise, accumulating wealth
rapidly and doing much to build up the city of his adoption. He married
Hannah Hardiman, a Welsh Quakeress and preacher, in 1684, and held many
important positions, member of the Assembly, treasurer of the province,
etc. He bought large tracts of land, owned numerous vessels, mines,
quarries and mill seats, so much property, in fact, that it impoverished
him and threw him into serious pecuniary embarrassment, though he was
ranked as the richest man in the province.
Samuel Carpenter died in his house on King Street (now Water Street)
between Chestnut and Walnut Streets, April 10, 1714, and the Friends
Meeting, after his death, said of him that “he was a pattern of
humility, patience and self-denial; a man fearing God and hating
covetousness; much given to hospitality and good works. He was a loving,
affectionate husband, tender father, and a faithful friend and brother.”
When Carpenter leased his Slate-Roof House to Penn it was furnished and
so occupied until his departure for England, when James Logan moved into
it.
The Slate-Roof House was sold in the latter part of 1703 to William
Trent, the Iverness miller, who founded and gave his name to Trenton, N.
J.
Trent paid £850 for the property. In 1709 he sold it for £900
Pennsylvania currency to Isaac Norris, who occupied it until his removal
to Fairhill in 1717.
Logan was very desirous that Penn should buy the house when Trent
offered it for sale, and said that it was hard that the Governor did not
have the money to spare. “I would give twenty to thirty pounds out of my
own pocket, that it were thine, nobody’s but thine,” said honest James.
The Slate-Roof House remained in possession of the Norris family until
1807, when it was bought by the Chamber of Commerce and torn down.
From 1717 onward it seems to have been used as a boarding and lodging
house, being in the hands of Mrs. Howell and then of Mrs. Graydon.
General John Forbes, successor to General Edward Braddock, died in the
Slate-Roof House in 1759, at which time the house was kept by Mrs.
Howell. Baron de Kalb lodged there in 1768–69, when he was the secret
agent of France. Sir William Draper, the target of Junius’ sarcasm,
lodged there during his visit to the colonies. James Rivington, the Tory
printer and publisher, ate and slept there.
It is also reported that John Hancock and George Washington lodged there
during the first sessions of the Continental Congress. Baron Steuben,
Peter S. Duponceau and others lodged there after the British evacuated
Philadelphia.
The Slate-Roof House then became the seat of a boarding school, kept by
Madame Berdeau, reputed to be the widow of Dr. Dodd, hanged in London
for forgery in 1777.
Then this historic old mansion became a workshop, a general place of
business, a tenement house, with shops on the ground floor, which were
occupied by tailors, engravers, watch-makers, silversmiths, etc. Under
one of the “bastions,” a notable oyster cellar was opened, the resort of
the merchants and bankers doing business in that vicinity.
----------
Betsy Ross, Who Made First American Flag,
Died January 30, 1836
When Elizabeth Claypoole died at her home in Arch Street, Philadelphia,
January 30, 1836, aged eighty-four years, her body was borne to Mount
Moriah Cemetery and interred by the side of her husband, who had
preceded her in death nearly twenty years. A simple monument records the
above facts, but does not tell those of the present generation that this
heroine was none other than Betsy Ross.
The school children of today are learning more of the history of our
country and its flag, but the story of the woman who made the first
American flag is always interesting.
The fact that the flag of our country had its birth in the City of
Philadelphia; that it was a patriotic woman of Philadelphia who made the
first flag; that it first waved over the United States Congress then in
session in Independence Hall, is sufficient incentive for every boy and
girl in Pennsylvania to be justly proud.
The story of the flag is told on another day, but the story of how Betsy
Ross became associated with it is to be today’s story.
Ever since the Revolution began there was real necessity for an American
flag, but there was, however, no national flag authorized by an act of
the Continental Congress until June 14, 1777.
The committee appointed by Congress to prepare a design for the new flag
consisted of General George Washington, Robert Morris and Colonel George
Ross.
Colonel Ross had a relative, Betsy Ross, who lived at 239 Arch Street,
and who had previously made flags for the American Army and Navy.
The committee called upon Mrs. Ross, stated their mission, and asked her
if she would make a flag such as was ordered by Congress.
“I do not know whether I can, but I’ll try,” was her reply.
The act of Congress did not specify the number of points of the stars,
or their arrangement, simply stating: “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.”
Mrs. Ross suggested that a star of five points would be more distinct,
pleasing and appropriative than the six-pointed star which the committee
had designed. Folding a piece of white 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 that the stars, thirteen in number, should be
arranged in a circle in a blue field, as the circle is typical of
eternity.
So well pleased were the committee with the flag which Betsy Ross made
that they authorized her, in the name of Congress, to make the United
States flags. Betsy Ross employed many hands to aid her, and made flags
for the army, navy and public buildings.
The maiden name of Betsy Ross was Elizabeth Griscom. She was born in
Philadelphia in 1752, of Quaker parents. At an early age she married
John Ross, son of an English clergyman, an upholsterer. He was a nephew
of Colonel George Ross, of Lancaster, one of the signers of the
Declaration and one of the leaders of the young republic. Betsy never
went back to “Friends’ Meeting,” and was “read out” of meeting for this
marriage.
John Ross died soon after his marriage and Mrs. Ross continued the
upholstering business at 239 Arch Street, which had once been number 89.
This house is still standing, and is one of the most valued of the many
historic places in old Philadelphia. It was in this little house, where
Betsy Ross, a widow at twenty-five years of age, made the first United
States flag.
Betsy Ross was not only noted for her skill with the needle, but quite
as well for her piety and patriotism. So widely was her extraordinary
skill recognized that she adorned the parlors of the wealthy with
draperies, the theatres with curtains, hotels with quilts and even
state-rooms of the finest packet boats were fitted up by her. It is also
said that she made the handsome ruffled shirt bosoms worn by General
Washington, and not a few for other patriots who held high office in the
young nation.
At an early date, and before she made United States flags, she made
Colonial flags for the army and navy and there is a minute dated May 29,
1777, “an order on William Webb to Elizabeth Ross for fourteen pounds
twelve shillings and two pence, for making ships’ colors,” etc.
In time Mrs. Ross married Joseph Ashburn, who was captured on the
privateer Luzerene and died a prisoner of war in Mill Prison, England.
By this marriage she had two children, Zillah, who died in infancy, and
Eliza, who married a Mr. Sullivan. Ashburn sent a farewell message to
his wife by a fellow-prisoner, John Claypoole, who later was exchanged
for a British prisoner. On reaching Philadelphia he delivered his
message and personal effects, and about a year later married Mrs.
Elizabeth Ashburn.
In April, 1783, the Stars and Stripes were put to their first national
use in the demonstration for peace throughout the new nation. The Flag
of Peace was the name given to it in this widespread employment of the
ensign.
Two weeks after this occasion Betsy Ross (Ashburn) and John Claypoole
were married.
By this marriage five children were born. One, Clarissa by name, the
first child of this marriage, married a Mr. Wilson and succeeded to the
business of upholstering and making American flags. Subsequently Mrs.
Wilson became a member of the Society of Friends, and relinquished the
business of making flags for the United States Army and Navy, and thus
after many years, the making of the American flags passed from the house
and family of Betsy Ross.
Clarissa was thirty-one years old when her father died from
war-inflicted diseases.
After about eighty years of making American flags for the United States
Government, the contracts passed from the Ross family, when Clarissa
Claypoole Wilson made the following public declarations: “From
conscientious motives ceased to furnish flags for military and naval
purposes,” and “retired from the business on account of conscientious
scruples.”
Thus the Ross family discontinued to fill Government contracts a quarter
of a century after the death of Betsy Ross.
During all the eighty years women and girls were exclusively employed in
making flags, mostly daughters and granddaughters of Betsy Ross and her
neighbors, as the work grew in volume.
So the tradition of Betsy Ross, as the maker of the first American flag,
known as the Stars and Stripes, has quite as interesting a sequel in the
action of her daughter.
----------
Robert Morris, Financier of the Revolution,
Born January 31, 1734
Robert Morris was born in Liverpool, England, January 31, 1734, son of
Robert Morris, a nail maker, and grandson of Andrew Morris, who was a
seafearing man of the British Isles.
Robert Morris, Sr., was the Maryland agent of a London tobacco firm.
When Robert, Jr., was thirteen years old, his mother having died, he
came to America, rejoined his father and was for a time under the
tuition of a clergyman and then entered the mercantile firm of Charles
and Thomas Willing.
In 1750, Morris, the father, died leaving a small estate. When Robert,
the son, reached the age of twenty-one, Charles Willing made him a
partner in the business and turned over his own share to his son,
Thomas. The firm of Willing & Morris became famous, and soon their trade
was extended to Europe and the West Indies. Long before the battle drums
of the Revolution were heard the two partners became wealthy men and
were regarded as among the foremost people of the city.
Willing and Morris were among the merchants who protested against the
Stamp Act, and in 1766 Robert Morris was one of the Board of Port
Wardens.
As soon as the news of Lexington reached Philadelphia, the Assembly
appointed a Committee of Safety. Robert Morris was a member and helped
greatly to get powder and firearms, to organize troops and to fortify
the Delaware.
The Assembly elected him a member of the Continental Congress and his
practical knowledge of ships made him a member of the Naval Committee
and the first American Navy was soon launched.
April, 1776, he was specially commissioned to suggest methods and
provide plans for procuring money to prosecute the war. No other man in
Congress, probably, could have succeeded so well, and he was not
relieved from this task while the war lasted.
However reluctantly he subscribed to the Declaration of Independence,
when the crucial moment came he risked his fortune and faced beggary for
his family and he looked at the gallows for himself as bravely as any of
his contemporaries. Other Pennsylvanians who voted against it lost their
places, but neither Pennsylvania nor the Colonies could spare Robert
Morris.
When Congress in a fright fled from Philadelphia to Baltimore, Morris,
with two other men, was left in charge of its affairs and the defense of
the capital of the infant republic. The two men who were to assist
Morris failed to appear, but Morris stuck faithfully to his post, and he
became really the ruler of the city.
When Washington defeated the British at Trenton, the English were
surprised but not troubled. They expected Washington’s unpaid army to
disband and Morris thought so too. He promised $10 extra pay to each
soldier if he would remain six weeks longer, then went to his Quaker
friends and on his personal credit borrowed the money and turned the
cash over to Washington on New Year’s Day. Hope sprang up again in
patriotic hearts.
After the battle of Brandywine there remained no hope of saving
Philadelphia. Congress fled once more, this time to Lancaster, then to
York. The Liberty Bell was hauled away to Allentown, where it was hidden
under the floor of the Zion Reformed Church. The State officials went to
Lancaster, and Morris traveled there also.
Morris was not eligible for re-election in 1778, but he worked to supply
the army. He turned over a cargo of ninety tons of lead for cartridges
at a time when the troops sorely needed them. In 1780 he was again
chosen to the Assembly, and a year later was chosen by Congress to be
Superintendent of Finance.
Some persons had wished Alexander Hamilton to take this post, but
Hamilton himself proposed Morris. Until the end of the war Morris had
power to appoint and dismiss all employes in his own department and
could even fix their salaries. No one else connected with the Government
possessed such extensive powers.
Morris counseled with Washington the project of transferring his army
southward to block Cornwallis. When the troops appeared in Philadelphia,
Washington, Count de Rochambeau and other generals dined with Morris and
used his house on Market Street as their headquarters.
During this visit Morris borrowed money which the Count de Rochambeau
had brought to pay his own soldiers and gave it to the Americans. He
advanced every shilling of his own money and borrowed all he could
obtain from his friends.
Robert Morris realized that a national bank was necessary, but few had
sufficient confidence to invest in the shares, but just at this time
France sent over some hard money, which was landed at Boston. Morris
sent two trustworthy men to bring the coins to Philadelphia.
The treasure amounted to half a million dollars. The coins were packed
in great oak boxes, which when filled weighed a ton. These chests were
set on the axle of a cart and driven by oxen, through country which
contained many English troops. After a drive of two months, the coins
were safely dragged into Philadelphia. Half the money was used to start
the bank, which was chartered December 31, 1781, as the “Bank of North
America.”
At the same time the bank opened its doors, Morris reported to Congress
that a mint should be established, in which money could be coined of one
kind and one standard. The mint was established and has been making
coins to this day.
Robert Morris was a member of the convention which framed the Federal
Constitution, and he had the pleasure of nominating his friend, General
Washington, for presiding officer.
After this Constitution was ratified by the States, Pennsylvania chose
Robert Morris and William Maclay as her first two Senators.
Morris owned several magnificent homes, and much desirable real estate,
and was regarded as the richest man in America. But he had been too
hopeful. Land values did not rise quickly and he and his partners could
not sell their properties, nor were they able to pay their debts.
At last the crash came and Morris was sent to prison for debt, February
15, 1798. Close to the prison sat the Congress which, on April 4, 1800,
passed the Bankrupt Act, though it was not until August 26, 1801, that
Morris regained his liberty. He came out with three millions of debt to
be a pensioner on his family.
On May 7, 1806, Robert Morris died and was buried in Christ Churchyard.
His widow, who survived him twenty-one years, in 1824 received the first
private call made by Lafayette in Philadelphia.
It is sad to think that a man who did so much for his country should at
last have done so badly for himself. If we had had no Robert Morris
there would probably have been no United States. All he had was at the
service of America. There was no truer patriot. It was his confidence in
the quick growth of the young nation that ruined him. Our country owes a
great debt to Robert Morris, the Financier of the Revolution.
----------
First Division of Province Into Counties
Begun February 1, 1685
After William Penn had spent nearly two years in his new province and
had made a trip of investigation as far interior as the Susquehanna
River, held many interviews with Lord Baltimore over the vexed question
of boundary, made several treaties with the Indians and placed the
government of his province in competent hands, he returned to England,
where he arrived during August, 1684.
Charles II died December 12 following, and was succeeded by James, Duke
of York, whose accession was greatly dreaded by the Protestants, who
apprehended a revival of the persecutions during the reign of Mary. Penn
might have taken advantage of these apprehensions to induce more
emigrants to settle in Pennsylvania, but he was disinterested and used
his influence with the King to grant liberty of conscience to all
religionists, and more especially to the Quakers.
Penn stood in high favor with King James long before he ascended the
throne, on account of friendship which James had for his father, who had
bravely fought under his flag, and this was increased by the son, who by
that means succeeded in obtaining from the King’s Council a favorable
decree in his dispute with Lord Baltimore over the boundaries of his
province.
The lines of separation between the County of Philadelphia and those of
Bucks and Chester were confirmed by the Provincial Assembly February 1,
1685.
This was a peculiar situation. Bucks and Chester were laid out with
specified boundaries adjoining Philadelphia, and, as a consequence, the
County of Philadelphia embraced the whole province between Chester and
Bucks and north-northwest and northeast to an indefinite extent. This,
of course, meant as far as Penn had purchased the land from the Indians.
During his absence from the province all was not well with William Penn
in England or with his followers in the beloved Pennsylvania.
Dissensions sprang up between the Legislature and the Executive, and
between the members from the territories and those from the province
proper, which threatened the loss of all his possessions. Troubles of
Penn in America were not all confined to civil affairs, for his
religious society was torn with dissension.
In 1685, the Proprietary appointed Nicholas More, a London lawyer,
president of the “Free Traders” and a member of the Assembly, to the
office of Chief Justice. The Assembly was jealous of its prerogatives
and disregarded the fundamental laws of the province in enacting
statutes without previously publishing them as required to do by the
constitution.
Chief Justice More opposed some of the laws of the Assembly, and
particularly those which attempted to alter the organization of the
courts, and he incurred the enmity of the House, which proceeded to
impeach him. He was charged with violence, partiality and negligence, in
a cause in which the society of Free Traders was interested. Ten
articles were preferred against him, which he refused to answer, though
frequently summoned by the Council.
More was saved from conviction by a technicality, but was not protected
from punishment. He was expelled from the Assembly, and was interdicted
all places of trust by the Council until he should be tried upon the
articles of impeachment or give satisfaction to the board. His
punishment was not severe because he retained the confidence of the
Proprietary.
The anger of the House was extended to Patrick Robinson, clerk of the
Provincial Court, who refused to produce the minutes of that court. They
voted him to be a public enemy and ordered him into the custody of the
Sheriff.
When brought before the House Robinson refused to answer questions and
threw himself at full length upon the floor. He was disqualified from
holding any office in the province or territories, but this sentence
does not seem to have been enforced, for he afterward held the clerkship
in the Council and other offices.
Neither More nor Robinson were Quakers. They were charged with enmity to
that sect, or, in the language of Penn, “were esteemed the most unquiet
and cross to Friends.”
There were other disturbances at this time in the province. John Curtis
was charged with “uttering troublesome and dangerous words against the
King.”
Charges were made against several officers of the Government for
extortion, and gross immoralities were practiced among the lower class
of people inhabiting the caves on the banks of the Delaware. These and
other things were reported with great exaggeration in England by the
enemies of Penn and the Quakers. They prevented emigration and greatly
affected the reputation of the Society of Friends and the Proprietary.
In 1686 Penn changed the form of executive government to a board of five
commissioners, any three of whom were empowered to act. The board
consisted of Thomas Lloyd, Nicholas More, James Claypoole, Robert Turner
and John Eckley.
In 1688 the actions of the Assembly were marked by the usual want of
unanimity and the objectionable act of laying on its members a solemn
injunction of secrecy. This measure was not without an exhibition of
undignified violence. Lloyd requested to be relieved from his office,
and his request was reluctantly granted, and on his recommendation the
Proprietary changed the plural executive into a single deputy, and named
Captain John Blackwell, formerly an officer of Cromwell, under whom he
had earned a distinguished reputation in England and Ireland. He was in
New England when he received his commission, dated July 25, 1688.
Governor Blackwell met the Assembly in March, 1689, but through some
misunderstanding between him and some of the Council the public affairs
were not managed with harmony, and but little was done during his
administration, which terminated in December when he returned to
England, and the government of the province, according to charter, again
devolved upon the Council, with Thomas Lloyd as president.
The revolution in England during 1688, which drove James from the
throne, also lost for the Proprietary all his influence at the English
court. He was now an object of suspicion. His religious and political
principles were misrepresented. He was denounced as a Catholic, a Jesuit
of St. Omers, and a self-devoted slave of despotism, and was even
charged with conspiracy to restore James. He was freed of all these
charges and arranged to again visit his Province of Pennsylvania, and
was about to set sail when he was detained by another persecution.
He was charged with being engaged in a conspiracy of the Papists to
raise a rebellion, and restore James to the throne. He narrowly escaped
arrest on his return from the funeral of George Fox, the celebrated
founder of the Society of Friends. Rather than suffer the ordeal of
another trial he retired to privacy and his contemplated colony failed
and the expense of the outfit was lost.
----------
Governor Pattison’s Administration to Burning
of Capitol, February 2, 1897
In the campaign of 1890 the political conditions in Pennsylvania were
somewhat similar to those of the preceding gubernatorial campaign.
Four candidates were again in the field. The Republicans named as their
standard bearer George W. Delamater, who defeated Daniel H. Hastings in
the convention by eleven votes; former Governor Robert E. Pattison was
now eligible to again become a candidate and was promptly nominated by
the Democrats, and the Prohibition and Labor parties named John D. Gill
and T. P. Rynder as their candidates.
The campaign again revealed great dissatisfaction in the majority party
and Pattison was elected for a second time. He was inaugurated on
January 20, 1891.
During the month of May, 1891, there occurred great excitement by
failure of the Keystone and Spring Garden National Banks of
Philadelphia. John Bardsley, familiarly known as “Honest John,” was City
Treasurer, and a depositor not only of moneys belonging to that city,
but also of taxes collected for the Commonwealth.
A few days after the failure of these banks it was found that Bardsley’s
losses would make him a defaulter to the city and the State to a large
amount. He at once resigned his office, and was as promptly prosecuted
for embezzling public funds. On trial, he pleaded guilty and was
sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment and to pay a fine of $237,000.
Ballot reform became one of the leading questions before the Legislature
and on June 19, 1891, a reform act was passed, which was known as the
“Australian” ballot system, which provided for secrecy in voting.
There were several serious labor disputes during Governor Pattison’s
Administration, in the suppression of which it was necessary to use the
strong arm of State authority. April 2, 1891, a riot occurred in
Westmoreland County in which seven persons were killed and twenty-one
wounded. Two regiments of the National Guard were sent to assist the
sheriff in restoring peace.
The great labor riots at Homestead occurred early in July, 1892, and on
the sixth the sheriff of Allegheny County asked the Governor for militia
assistance.
The cause of the trouble here was a reduction of wages in the Carnegie
Steel Company, and the officials of the corporation employed armed men
to patrol the property and protect the men who accepted the cut in wages
and remained at their jobs. A large force of Pinkerton detectives was
also employed to assist in this protection. The striking miners attacked
those detectives and in the riots a dozen lives were lost.
The militia was not sent on first call for aid, but on July 10, after
other riots, Governor Pattison ordered two brigades of the National
Guard to Homestead. They arrived there on the morning of July 12. The
presence of the troopers overawed the malcontents and peace was
immediately restored.
Another riot occurred January 27, 1893, at Mansfield, Allegheny County,
which resulted in loss of life and property. In June, 1894, it was
necessary to send two regiments of militia into Jefferson County to
preserve life and property on account of rioting among foreign miners.
There were fifty-three strikes in 1893, and twenty-seven in 1894, all
failing in their purpose save three.
The interest in forestry had increased to such an extent that in 1893 a
commission on forestry was created by Act of Legislature. William F.
Shunk was appointed engineer and Dr. J. F. Rothrock, botanist of the
commission.
In 1893, the Legislature appropriated half a million dollars for the
erection of a fireproof building on the east side of the Capitol
grounds, to be occupied by the State Library and various executive
offices.
In the campaign of 1894, five candidates contested the election for
Governor. General Daniel H. Hastings, of Bellefonte, was nominated by
the Republicans, William M. Singerly, of Philadelphia, was the
Democratic standard bearer, while Charles I. Hawley, Jerome T. Allman
and Thomas H. Grundy, represented the Prohibition, People’s and
Socialist-Labor parties respectively. The Republicans presented a united
front and easily elected General Hastings, who assumed office on January
15, 1895.
The first important change in the Government was the creation of the
Superior Court, which was done by an act passed June 24, 1895.
Governor Hastings, June 28, appointed Ex-Governor James A. Beaver,
Edward N. Willard, John J. Wickham, Charles E. Rice, Howard J. Reeder,
George B. Orlady and Henry J. McCarthy as the original members of the
Court, with Charles E. Rice as President Judge. At the ensuing election
the six first named and Peter P. Smith were elected for the full term of
ten years.
The first vacancy was occasioned by the resignation of Justice Willard,
September 1, 1897, and William W. Porter was commissioned September 14;
next was the death of Justice John J. Wickham, June 18, 1898, and he was
succeeded by William D. Porter, July 6; then Justice Reeder died
December 28, 1898, to be succeeded by Dimner Beeber, January 2, 1899,
who served only until his successor was elected.
James I. Mitchell was commissioned December 6, 1899, and resigned
November 28, 1902, his place being filled by Thomas A. Morrison,
December 30, 1902; Justice William W. Porter resigned January 27, 1903,
his place being filled by John J. Henderson. John B. Head was elected
1905, and resigned April 12, 1922. John W. Kephart was elected 1913, and
resigned January 6, 1919, to become a member of the Supreme Court, his
place being filled by the commission of William H. Keller.
Former Governor James A. Beaver died January 31, 1914, and Frank M.
Trexler was commissioned February 6. J. Henry Williams succeeded Justice
Morrison December 9, 1915; he died October 24, 1919, and was succeeded
by William B. Linn, November 5. President Charles E. Rice retired at the
end of his term, December, 1915. Justice Head resigned April 12, 1922,
and Robert S. Gawthrop was commissioned.
The present court is composed of President Judge George B. Orlady, the
only survivor of the original court; William D. Porter, who has served
since July 6, 1898; John J. Henderson, who was commissioned March 11,
1903; Frank M. Trexler, William H. Keller, William B. Linn and Robert S.
Gawthrop.
The Department of Agriculture was created by act of March 13, 1895, and
Thomas J. Edge was commissioned the first Secretary. His successors have
been John Hamilton, N. B. Critchfield, Charles E. Patton, Frederic
Rasmussen and Frank P. Willits, the incumbent.
July 3, 1895, the Legislature authorized the erection of a monument to
each Pennsylvania regiment engaged in battles of Chickamauga and
Chattanooga. These were all placed in the proper positions by 1898, and
reflect much credit to the State and those who had this patriotic work
in charge.
The old Capitol Building was destroyed by fire February 2, 1897. The
Governor took immediate steps for the erection of a new Capitol Building
and the Legislature promptly authorized a commission to supervise the
erection of the same.
----------
Benedict Arnold Arrested for Conduct in
Philadelphia February 3, 1779
When our troops took possession of Philadelphia the day following the
evacuation of the British, June 18, 1778, General Benedict Arnold, then
flushed with the recent capture of Burgoyne, was sent by General
Washington to assume command of the city, and his headquarters were
established at Henry Gurney’s.
The autocratic demeanor of Arnold would make it appear as if
Philadelphia, appalled at the circumstances, deemed it provident to make
no resistance. Arnold, however, to their agreeable surprise, was polite
and clever, as were his able aides, Major Franks and Captain Clarkson.
It was here that Arnold entered upon a style of living but ill according
with republican simplicity. He issued a proclamation, among other
things, to prevent the removal, transfer, or sale of goods or
merchandise in possession of the inhabitants belonging to the King of
Great Britain.
Arnold prevented even army officers from purchasing while he made
purchases on his own account, and then through agents sold them at
exorbitant prices.
The first incident in Arnold’s administration which attracted attention
to his conduct was his questionable handling of the award of prize money
obtained in the capture of the British sloop “Active.”
Having succeeded in ingratiating himself into the good will of the
Shippen family, Arnold won the affections of Margaret (“Peggy”) Shippen,
the young and accomplished daughter of Edward Shippen, afterward Chief
Justice of the State, who became his second wife.
Owing to a recent wound received under circumstances which would alone
have established a claim to grateful remembrances, had not his
subsequent extraordinary defection obliterated his name from the roll of
his country’s heroes, Arnold during his marriage ceremony was supported
by a soldier and when seated his disabled limb was propped upon a camp
stool. These wounds may perhaps have made him more interesting to the
lovely but unfortunate bride.
At all events, her “hero,” except for his character for extravagance,
was at that moment regarded with a share of public favor, if not with
any feeling of popular affection. He had rendered “some service to the
State,” and was distinguished for gallantry among the bravest of the
land.
It is as unjust as vain to urge, as some have done, in palliation of his
stupendous crime, the fashionable and expensive propensities of his
beautiful and accomplished wife. That she was addicted to displays of
wealth inconsistent with the spirit of her time and the condition of
public affairs may not with propriety be questioned; but no external
influence can move a truly great and honorable mind and heart from a
fixed purpose of patriotic or social duty.
When a mob was formed which gave out an intention to assault the house
of Hon. James Wilson, which became known as “Fort Wilson,” and assault
his person, it was a day of great excitement in Philadelphia. Wilson’s
friends gathered around him and prepared to defend him as best they
could.
In the meantime, the mob and militia assembled on the commons, while a
meeting of the principal citizens took place at the Coffee House. The
mob began its march from Arch above Fifth Street. General Arnold came to
repress the mob, but he was so unpopular they stoned him.
Arnold’s conduct had given great offense to many of the active
supporters of the American cause, which involved him in a quarrel with
the authorities of Pennsylvania, and February 3, 1779, the Supreme
Executive Council ordered the Attorney General of the State to prosecute
General Arnold for illegal and oppressive conduct while in command of
the military in Philadelphia. Active among those who urged an
investigation of the charges was General Joseph Reed, President of the
Council.
A copy of the charges was presented to General Arnold, but he did not
care to meet them, and under pretense of attending to his duty, “fled
from the inquiry.”
From the camp on the Raritan, whence he had gone, he addressed a letter
“To the Publick,” expressing his willingness that Congress should direct
a court-martial to inquire into his conduct. The accusations of the
Supreme Executive Council were laid before that body, but the trial was
delayed and not until January, 1780, was the court-martial held.
Arnold was “convicted of using the public wagons for his own benefit,”
but he was acquitted of any corrupt intent and sentenced to be
reprimanded by General Washington.
The verdict exasperated Arnold, who was still further humiliated by the
action of Congress on claims preferred by him growing out of the
Canadian expedition. His estimate was materially reduced by the Treasury
officers, and when Arnold appealed to Congress a committee reported that
a larger sum had been allowed him than was really due. Having failed to
secure a loan from the French Ambassador, he determined to betray his
country for British gold.
The extravagance of Arnold produced the want of money and probably the
predilections of the wife for what was splendid in the British army
influenced them both to forfeit home and country for a splendid but
elusive hope.
It must be remarked of “Peggy” Shippen that she had been the belle of
Philadelphia and the standing toast of the British officers while their
army was in Philadelphia. She had been brought up in British affections.
Her father, Chief Justice Edward Shippen, was biased on that side. Major
Andre was intimate in the family, which led to a friendly correspondence
between Miss Shippen and him.
After Arnold married her he, of course, became acquainted with that
fact, and encouraged its continuance. It was continued, until at last
Arnold and Andre opened it more directly between themselves, under the
names of Gustavus for the former and John Anderson for the latter.
The failure of Arnold’s scheme to surrender West Point, his flight, the
execution of Andre, and the unhappy life of “Peggy” Shippen Arnold are
familiar facts of history.
In September, 1780, the populace of the city of Philadelphia were drawn
together in great excitement to witness the degradation and burning of
Arnold, the traitor, in effigy. His figure, in regimental uniform, was
placed on a cart and drawn through the city, to be burned on High Street
Hill.
The effigy had two faces and a mask in his left hand. Near him was the
devil, in black robes, holding out to him a purse of money. Near them
were transparencies of pictures and letters describing his treachery and
treason.
The procession began from the rear of St. George’s Methodist Church, in
Fourth Street, and was in the following order: Gentlemen on horseback, a
line of Continental officers, sundry gentlemen in a line, a guard of the
City Infantry. Just before the cart, drums and fifes playing all the way
the “Rogues’ March.” Guards on each side of the cart.
The procession was attended with a numerous concourse of people who
after expressing their abhorrence of the treason and traitor, committed
him to the flames, and left both the effigy and the original to sink
into ashes and oblivion.
----------
John Penn, Last Proprietary Governor, Succeeds
Richard Penn, Who Died
February 4, 1771
Richard Penn, one of the Proprietors, died February 4, 1771, and under
the terms of the family settlement, and his own will, Lieutenant
Governor John Penn succeeded to Richard Penn’s one-fourth interest in
Pennsylvania, and to the legal title of Governor.
On May 4, Governor John Penn embarked for England, when Mr. James
Hamilton administered the executive powers of the government as
president of council.
Richard Penn, second son of the deceased Proprietary, and previously a
member of the Governor’s Council, was appointed by his uncle and brother
to be Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties.
He arrived a second time in Pennsylvania on October 6, 1771.
The following May he married Miss Mary Masters, of Philadelphia. She was
a lady possessed of sufficient property to make her distinguished
husband somewhat independent.
Richard Penn was blessed with a pleasing personality and most charming
manners, which, with his genuine desire to keep on intimate and friendly
terms with the people, contributed much toward making him the most
popular member of the founder’s family.
He had a dispute with his brother, John, concerning his father’s will.
He claimed that the manors were not appurtenant to the Proprietorship,
but were included in the private real estate directed to be sold for the
benefit of the residuary legatees.
Thomas Penn took the side of John, and the two found fault with
Richard’s conduct in the government, but the latter defended himself,
and spoke of his father’s promise to try to have the family agreement of
1732 dissolved as unfair to his younger children in its stipulation that
the Proprietaryship should go to the eldest son, charged only with
payments to the widows and younger children of certain sums which had
since become entirely disproportionate to the estates.
Governor Richard Penn was superseded in office by his brother, John, who
arrived back in the Province in August, 1773.
For a long time Richard did not go near him, and maintained that he had
been greatly injured. John offered, as long as he should be governor, to
allow him £500 a year, but Richard declared he would not be his
brother’s pensioner.
There is a story told that the brothers attended a banquet, sitting
opposite to each other, on the right and left hand of the head of the
feast, but they did not speak to each other during the whole
entertainment.
Richard was, in May, 1774, induced to execute a release of his claim,
and a reconciliation took place, when John appointed him naval officer,
and Richard, accepting the position, called to thank him.
During the administration of John Penn the counties of Northumberland,
March 21, 1772, and Westmoreland, February 26, 1773, were erected.
The Connecticut claimants were unusually active at this time and
extended their settlements, not only in the Wyoming Valley, but built
forts and houses as far east as Shoholy and Lackawaxen, on the Delaware,
where the Proprietary had manors, and on the west they seated themselves
on the West Branch of the Susquehanna.
He made strenuous efforts to eject the Pennsylvania claimants, but the
Provincial authorities succeeded in holding the Yankees in check.
The colony of Connecticut endeavored to have Governor John Penn define a
boundary, who would not accede to their demands, but advised the
claimants that they should take their dispute before the King and
Council, where the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania would appear, and use
their best offices toward a final decision.
But this was not the only trouble Governor Penn had to contend with
usurpers, for at this very moment the boundary dispute with Virginia
claimed his best effort.
This contest was over the western limit of the province, where many
settlers, west of the Allegheny Mountains, believed they were the
subjects of the government of Virginia. Even George Croghan maintained
that the limits of Pennsylvania ended at the Laurel Hill Range. He
understood that a degree of longitude meant forty-eight miles only.
But other and darker clouds were appearing above the horizon than those
of boundary strips.
The importation of tea had been forbidden by the determined colonists,
and but a small quantity had been brought into the country.
Large accumulations had to be disposed of and the owners were determined
to unload it on the American market.
On the approach of tea ships pilots refused to conduct them into the
harbor. A large cargo landed in Charleston, S. C., was stored in damp
cellars, and rotted.
Ships designed for Boston entered that port, but before the tea could be
landed, a number of colonists boarded the vessels and emptied the cargo
into the sea.
The King and Parliament closed the port of Boston, and the colonists
believed that their civil rights were destroyed.
The terms “Whigs” and “Tories” were introduced at this time—the former
to describe those in sympathy with the cause of Boston, and arrayed on
the side of the colonies against Parliament; the latter to designate
those whose sympathies were with Great Britain against the colonies.
Throughout the Province of Pennsylvania the warmest interest and most
cordial sympathy were manifested for the people of Boston.
Governor Penn declined to convene the Assembly. The Committee of
Correspondence for Philadelphia sought the sentiments of the
inhabitants, and in a meeting held in the State House, resolutions were
adopted which resulted in the great meeting of Provincial deputies in
Philadelphia, July 15, 1774, which called upon the colonies to organize
a Continental Congress.
Such was the determined stand taken by the people of Pennsylvania, says
Sherman Day, who, with loyalty upon their lips, but the spirit of
resistance in their hearts, pushed forward the Revolution.
----------
Ole Bull, Founder of Colony in Potter
County, Born February 5, 1810
Several years ago more than one thousand persons from every section of
Pennsylvania, and not a few from Southern New York State, journeyed to a
most out-of-the-way place up in the wilds of Potter County to do homage
to the memory of a great man, and to view the scene of one of the
saddest failures in the history of the settlement of our great
Commonwealth.
This pilgrimage was to the land of Ole Bull, the great Norwegian
violinist, who during his lifetime played before the royal families of
Europe and distinguished personages all over the world.
Ole Bornemann Bull was born in Bergen, Norway, February 5, 1810, and in
his earliest childhood developed a fondness for music, especially that
of a violin.
Ole was destined for the church but failed to pass the necessary
examination, and at once decided that he would make music his vocation
in life. He became a pupil of Paulsen for a short time, about the only
instruction he ever received from a master.
It was upon a visit to Paris that Paganini heard of the youthful genius
and saw in him the latent possibility of a great musician. He encouraged
him to become a violin virtuoso. His first appearance on the concert
stage was with Ernst and Chopin, and he was received with such approval
that it was not long before his fame had spread over the entire
continent of Europe.
At a time before his talent was appreciated he had become so despondent
that he attempted suicide by drowning in the river Seine, but was
rescued by a young French woman, Alexandriene Felice Villeminot, whom he
married in 1836, and with whom he lived happily until her death in 1863.
He married a second time in 1870, taking as his bride Sara C. Thorpe, of
Wisconsin. Ole Bull died on the island of Lyso, near his native Bergen,
in Norway, August 17, 1880.
Ole Bull first visited the United States in the winter of 1843–44. He
had grave doubts of the success of an American tour but was persuaded by
friends to come here. His success was instantaneous. He was received
with wild acclaim and the financial returns were far beyond his fondest
dreams.
He again returned to America in 1852, and it was during this concert
tour that he went to Williamsport and played before a vast audience,
when the newspapers of that time wrote of him as “an attractive figure
with gold snuff box, diamond-studded buttons in his shirt and his
fingers almost covered with rings.”
Certainly a fastidious personage and one with such talent could not fail
his audiences. The bow with which he produced such perfect melody
contained a large diamond setting which sparkled as he drew it across
the strings.
During his trip to Williamsport Ole Bull was entertained in the home of
John F. Cowan, and the attention of the great violinist was called to
certain tracts of land owned by Cowan situated in Abbott and Stewardson
Townships, Potter County, and the great advantages of this location for
colonization purposes, which so impressed Bull that he visited the site
and noting a striking resemblance to his native Norway, decided at once
to found a colony of his countrymen at this spot on the headwaters of
Kettle Creek.
The following year about thirty of his countrymen, forming the advance
guard, arrived in this country and proceeded to their new home in the
wilderness. These adventurers were not of the ordinary immigrant class,
but persons of culture and refinement, many being musicians of repute.
Ten days following the arrival of the first settlers, 105 other
colonists joined them and settled in one of the four villages. These
brought a minister and religious services were begun the first Sunday
following.
The first difficulty encountered by these new arrivals was the
transportation of their personal effects, which could only be hauled by
wagon and then under the worst conditions imaginable.
Ole Bull’s colonization scheme attracted much attention, and friends and
admirers of his contributed stock, machinery and farming implements.
Among those who thus offered encouragement was Henry Clay, of Kentucky,
who gave blooded horses and cattle, descendants of which are still among
those in use in Potter County.
Four villages were laid out: Oleona, named in honor of Ole Bull; New
Norway, New Bergen and Walhalla. Sixteen houses were soon under
construction at Oleona, all finished within a year.
Ole Bull soon after his arrival selected a site for his castle and
garden. Soon as the spot was determined upon, a flag pole of beautiful
straight pine was cut, trimmed and placed. By arrangement the name by
which the town was to be known was to be pronounced as the flag was
unfurled to the mountain breeze; “Oleona” was the name of the home of
the Norwegians. Thirty-one cheers, one for each State, were given and
three long ones for Ole Bull.
The evening was one of rejoicing and celebration. Bonfires were burning
everywhere. Ole Bull made an address and then, taking his violin, played
an anthem suitable to the occasion. At the conclusion of the hymn of
liberty of old Norway, a gentleman representing the State of
Pennsylvania, stepped forward and welcomed Ole Bull and the Norwegians
to the United States of America, and to the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania.
Old Bull turned his attention to the erection of his castle, which was
built on a high eminence, about 200 feet above the valley below. From
this site he could view every part of his colony. A great retaining wall
was built at its base, extending one hundred and twenty feet in length
and rising to a height of sixteen feet. This wall gave to the place the
appearance of a large fortress and resembled some ancient castle of the
old world.
A broad road was constructed leading up to the castle, which was broad
enough to drive three teams abreast.
Any one familiar with the conditions these colonists had to face, in an
almost unbroken wilderness, far from any base of supplies with little
money and less business sagacity, can realize that the colony was doomed
to failure the very day it started. Bull was compelled to abandon his
project with the loss of his wealth, and again play in concert to recoup
his fortune.
Ole Bull was a musical genius, but building five cities in the wilds of
Potter County was a different thing than playing Beethoven’s Eighth
Sonata on a violin. He could move audiences but not mountains.
The title of the lands he bought was defective, and, while it has been
charged that he was defrauded by Cowan, there is no evidence to
substantiate that. Cowan took back the property and refunded Bull the
purchase money.
The castle was never fully completed and never occupied by Bull. The
doors and windows were never put in place, and soon after this breaking
up of the colony the building began to fall into decay until all that
now remains are the cellar and retaining wall.
Ole Bull never again visited the scene of his visionary paradise, but
his name is still perpetuated in the town of Oleona.
----------
Dr. Joseph Priestley, Discoverer of Oxygen,
Died at Northumberland February 6, 1804
Dr. Joseph Priestley was born near Leeds in Yorkshire, England, March
13, 1733. He died at Northumberland, Pennsylvania, February 6, 1804.
Joseph was the youngest of nine children. His father and grandfather
were prosperous cloth makers, employing, for that age, a large force of
workmen. From his parents, who were strict Calvinists, Joseph inherited
a deeply religious nature. He attended the school of the neighborhood
and at eleven had read most of the Latin authors, and in a few years had
made considerable progress in Greek and Hebrew, with some knowledge of
Chaldee, Syrian and Arabic.
He began to experiment at the age of eleven, when he selected spiders
and insects and placed them in bottles to ascertain how long they could
live without fresh air.
A few years later he made “electrifying machines,” and a kite of fine
silk, six feet wide, which he could take apart and carry in his pocket.
The string was composed of thirty-six threads and a wire, similar to
that used by Dr. Franklin, in Philadelphia, to “bring electric fire from
the clouds.”
At nineteen, Priestley was sent to Daventry, where he embraced the
heterodox side of almost every question, as he afterwards wrote of his
three years at Daventry: “In my time the academy was in a state
peculiarly favorable to the serious pursuits of truth, and the students
were about equally divided upon every question of much importance, such
as ‘Liberty and Necessity,’ the ‘Sleep of the Soul’ and all the articles
of theological orthodoxy and heresy.”
After leaving Daventry, he preached for three years to a dissenting
congregation at Needham. In 1761 he was a professor at Warrington
Academy. While here he published several of his books and made such
experiments in electricity and “fixed air,” that the results began to be
noised abroad. He married, while at Warrington, a daughter of a wealthy
iron manufacturer, a Mr. Wilkinson.
In one of his visits to London he met Benjamin Franklin. He became a
member of a famous club which met at the London Coffee House, and here
he interested Franklin in his experiments, and they became the closest
friends. Both became members of the Royal Society and both in turn
received its highest honor, the Copley medal. Each obtained from
Edinburgh University the degree LL. D. Oxford conferred a like degree
upon Franklin, while for a space of a century it ignored his heretical
friend.
In 1860 a statue of Dr. Priestley was erected at Oxford by Prince
Albert, afterward King Edward.
Franklin wrote to Priestley, in 1777: “I rejoice to hear of your
continual progress in those useful discoveries. I find you have set all
the philosophers of Europe at work upon fixed air (carbonic acid gas);
and it is with great pleasure I observe how high you stand in their
opinion, for I enjoy my friend’s fame as my own.”
When Franklin was in France during the closing days of the Revolution,
Priestley was there pursuing literary work. He was afterward made a
citizen and offered a seat in the National Assembly.
Shortly before the American Revolution, Priestley wrote anonymously
three pamphlets in defense of the colonies. His influence was potent.
Dr. Priestley announced his discovery of “dephlogisticated air” (oxygen)
in 1774, to a large assemblage of philosophers who were dining at the
house of M. Lavoisier in Paris. This was man’s first introduction to the
mighty element that makes one-fifth of the atmosphere in volume and
eight-ninths of the ocean by weight, besides forming one-half of the
earth’s solid crust and supporting all fire and all life.
It is unfortunate that Dr. Priestley did not have a biographer worthy
the name, for his life is full of dramatic incidents, scientific
attainment, learning and human interest.
We find him the central figure in the great gatherings of that day,
receiving the highest honors of his own and other Governments, and, when
the tide turned, denounced, persecuted, the victim of the mob, home and
library burned and pillaged. Through all the changes of this eventful
life we find him the same able, earnest, fearless and cheerful spirit to
the end.
Dr. Priestley, disregarding the warning of David Hume, and against the
wishes of his philosophic friends, took up the cause of liberty in
religion. In his letters he makes a strong appeal for Christianity. His
desire was to revive in France and England the simple spiritual
communion of the early church.
He published many works upon his religious views which made him the most
hated man in England. He was everywhere detested. The streets of London
were strewn with scurrilous handbills and caricatures of him. Even his
fellow associates in the Royal Society turned their backs upon him.
But it must be remembered that the men, at home and abroad, who opposed
Priestley’s doctrines, were the very men who honored him as a man.
At Birmingham, in 1791, the last great religious riot in England
occurred. It is often spoken of today as “Priestley’s Riots,” for the
doctor was the chief object of the mobs.
It was during a celebration on the anniversary of the fall of the
Bastille, at which Dr. Priestley was not present, that the cry of the
mob was “Church and King.” Dr. Priestley had favored the agitation, then
rife in Birmingham, for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. The
mob suddenly marched toward his home and Dr. and Mrs. Priestley, who
were playing a game of backgammon, barely succeeded in escaping. The
doctor was pursued for several days and his life threatened.
The mob vented its rage by pillaging Priestley’s house and tearing it to
pieces. The rioters made a pyre of his furniture, manuscripts, priceless
apparatus, a library of 30,000 volumes, his private correspondence, and
his diaries, and all were destroyed by fire.
In 1794 Dr. Priestley came to America and settled at Northumberland, Pa.
Here he erected a fine house and laboratory, and resumed his
experiments, which resulted in the discovery of three new gases. Here he
wrote many books.
Dr. Priestley made trips to Philadelphia, where he lectured on
historical and religious subjects, founding, in 1796, the first
Unitarian Church in that city.
The University of Pennsylvania offered him the chair of chemistry, and
afterward its presidency, but he preferred the quiet of his home at the
“Forks of the Susquehanna.”
In 1874 the chemists of America met at Northumberland to celebrate at
the grave of Dr. Priestley the centennial of his great discovery.
Messages were flashed across the Atlantic to chemists who met the same
day at Birmingham to unveil a colossal statue of the man whom that city
had, eighty years before, driven from the streets, and burned his home
and possessions.
Dr. Joseph Priestley was one of the most distinguished adopted citizens
of our great State.
----------
Western Boundary in Dispute—Jail at| Hannastown Stormed February 7, 1775
Virginia, by virtue of her “sea-to-sea” charter, made an indefinite
claim to all lands west and northwest of her coast line. She therefore
held that the region about the forks of the Ohio belonged to her.
Accordingly, in 1749, the Ohio Land Company obtained from King George II
a grant of half a million acres on the branches of the Ohio. The object
was to form a barrier against the French and to establish trade with the
Indians.
Christopher Gist was sent to explore the country, and, with eleven other
families, he settled within the present limits of Fayette County.
A fort was begun in 1754 on the present site of Pittsburgh, but the
French captured the Virginians, finished the fort and named it Fort
Duquesne. In November, 1758, General John Forbes captured the fort from
the French. It was rebuilt and named Fort Pitt.
Before 1758 the western part of Pennsylvania could be approached from
the east only by the route of the Juniata and the Kiskiminitas. In that
year Forbes finished as far as Loyalhanna the road previously begun from
Fort Loudon by way of Bedford. Many Scotch-Irish settlers seated
themselves in the Ligonier Valley at Hannastown, and about the forks of
the Ohio, and, with settlers from Maryland and Virginia, they possessed
the land in comparative quiet until Pontiac’s War.
Pittsburgh, begun in 1760, was cut off from communication during
Pontiac’s conspiracy, and had it not have been for Colonel Bouquet’s
victory over the savages at Busby Run in 1764 it might have been
entirely destroyed.
The growth of Pittsburgh was slow. England after the French and Indian
War had forbidden colonists to settle west of the headwaters of the
rivers in the Atlantic basin, and the settlers on Redstone Creek and the
Cheat River were at one time driven off by the same British
proclamation. A law was passed by the Assembly of Pennsylvania which
imposed a death penalty, without benefit of clergy, for trespassing upon
lands not purchased from the Indians.
But the continued accession of emigrants into this region made it
necessary to erect a new county, and the General Assembly, February 26,
1773, established Westmoreland County, which included all of the
southwestern portion of the province west of Laurel Hill. Robert Hanna’s
settlement, on the old Forbes road near the present site of Greensburg,
was made the county seat and named Hannastown.
When Virginia saw that Pennsylvania was extending jurisdiction over the
forks of the Ohio she renewed her claims to that country.
The Earl of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, asserted that Pittsburgh was
outside the limits of Pennsylvania. In this contention he was supported
by Colonel George Croghan and many others, who believed that the five
degrees of longitude which were to be the extent westward of
Pennsylvania placed the Monongahela beyond the limits of that province.
Croghan maintained that the limits were at the Alleghenies or Laurel
Hill Range, “having heard, among other things, that a degree of
longitude at the time of the charter of William Penn meant forty-eight
miles.”
At the close of 1773 Governor Dunmore appointed Dr. John Connelly, a
Pennsylvanian, as commandant of the militia of Pittsburgh. He took
possession of Fort Pitt and changed its name to Fort Dunmore.
Connelly defied Pennsylvania authority and commanded all the people to
appear as a militia under the authority of Lord Dunmore.
Arthur St. Clair, Prothonotary, Clerk, and Recorder of Westmoreland
County, had Connelly arrested and bound over to keep the peace. St.
Clair reported his actions to Governor Penn, who sent to Lord Dunmore a
draught of the lines of Pennsylvania as surveyed by David Rittenhouse,
William Smith and Surveyor General John Lukens, showing that Pittsburgh
was east of the westernmost limit of the grant to the Proprietaries.
Dunmore demanded better evidence and that St. Clair should be dismissed
from office for committing Dr. Connelly to jail.
A large company paraded in arms through the streets of Pittsburgh, and
opened a cask of rum. St. Clair issued an order for them to disperse.
The Sheriff allowed Connelly to go to Pittsburgh under promise to
return. He traveled about collecting adherents, and on the day he was to
return he appeared before the Hannastown court house at the head of 200
men, all armed and colors flying. He placed sentinels at the door and
kept the magistrates from entering unless they agreed to act under
Virginia authority, and he demanded their decision in writing.
The magistrates declared they would continue to act under authority of
Pennsylvania, when Connelly, a few days later, had them arrested and
brought before him in Pittsburgh. When they refused to give bail, he
sent them to the court of Augusta County, at Staunton, Va.
Governor Penn advised the three magistrates to get bail, but sent the
Attorney General of Pennsylvania and James Tilghman, as commissioners to
induce Lord Dunmore to join with the Proprietaries in a petition to the
King to have the boundary line run and marked, and in the meantime to
agree to a temporary line of jurisdiction, suggesting that the
Monongahela River would answer for a line.
The application to the King was consented to, but the boundary was not
agreed upon.
The adherents of Virginia increased in strength at Pittsburgh, and it
became impossible to collect taxes imposed by Pennsylvania. How these
troubles would have ended is unforeseen, for during the latter part of
1774, the attention of all the western frontier was turned to the Indian
invasion, since known as Dunmore’s War.
While this war was confined to the western border of Virginia, the
inhabitants of Westmoreland County organized, under command of St.
Clair, assisted by Colonels Proctor and Lochrey and Captain James Smith,
and put the frontier in a state of defense.
On February 7, 1775, by order of a Virginia magistrate, a man named
Benjamin Harrison with an armed party broke open the jail at Hannastown
and set free the prisoners. Robert Hanna, who was a magistrate, read to
them the riot act, but Harrison said he did not regard that act, or
those who read it, or those who made it. Two weeks later Hanna and
another magistrate, James Cavett, were arrested and confined in Fort
Dunmore, where they remained for months.
The controversy got into Congress, but the Revolution brought about a
more amicable feeling, and by 1779 the Virginians and Pennsylvanians
agreed to a settlement.
A commission surveyed the boundary by extending the Mason and Dixon’s
line to its western limit of five degrees. There a meridian was drawn as
far north as the Ohio.
Ceding her western lands, north of the Ohio to Congress in 1784,
Virginia had no further interest in the boundary and the next year
Pennsylvania alone extended the meridian to Lake Erie.
After the Revolution, affairs in Western Pennsylvania were generally
peaceful.
----------
First Members of Susquehanna Company
Settle in Wyoming, February 8, 1769
The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, determined to hold possession of
lands in the Wyoming Valley, which were claimed by the Connecticut
settlers, sent Captain Amos Ogden, John Anderson, Charles Stewart,
Alexander Patterson, John Jennings and several other Pennsylvanians and
New Jerseymen into that section with the intention of becoming lessees
or purchasers of the proprietary lands at Wyoming.
They established themselves on Mill Creek, December, 1768, where they
erected a small fort or blockhouse, this settlement being within the
Manor of Stoke, which had been located and surveyed for the
Proprietaries December 9 of that year.
The Susquehanna Company, which had been organized at Windham, Conn.,
July 18, 1753, determined to take possession formally of the lands
located at Wyoming, purchased by them from the Indians at Albany. The
first forty settlers under this company arrived at Wyoming February 8,
1769. A large body, led by Major John Durkee, with authority from the
Susquehanna Company, arrived at Wyoming from Connecticut and New York
May 12, 1769. They immediately began the erection of about twenty
substantial and commodious one-story log cabins. A few days later 150
additional settlers arrived.
The Connecticut settlers finished the erection of their first
twenty-five cabins by May 20 and a week later began the erection of the
stockade to surround them, which, when completed, they named “Fort
Durkee,” in honor of their leader, Major John Durkee.
Governor John Penn was immediately advised of the arrival of the
Connecticut settlers, and he at once planned to discourage their
permanent location and directed letters to Colonel Turbutt Francis, then
in command of the small garrison of provincial troops stationed at Fort
Augusta, and to John Jennings, of Bethlehem, Sheriff of Northampton
County. These letters urged them to discourage unlawful settlements, but
to use force, if necessary, to drive them off.
May 24 Sheriff Jennings arrived at Wyoming and read the Governor’s
proclamation to the “intruders.”
An exciting occurrence took place when “Colonel Turbut Francis,
commanding a fine company from the city (Philadelphia), 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 re-enforcements below
the mountains.”
Another version of the affair is: “June 22 Colonel Francis, with sixty
men, in a hostile manner demanded a surrender of our houses and
possessions. He embodied his forces within thirty or forty rods of their
(the settlers) dwelling, 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.”
Soon as Major Durkee, who had been in Easton on court business, returned
to Wyoming and learned of the hostile demonstration of Colonel Francis
and his small force he set about to strengthen the defenses of Fort
Durkee. It was at this time, July 1, 1769, that the major compounded and
originated the almost unique name “Wilkes-Barre” and bestowed it upon
the settlement and territory at and immediately adjacent to Fort Durkee.
Governor Penn was fully aware that the Yankees were determined to keep
possession of the lands upon which they were settled, and on August 24,
1769, wrote to Colonel Francis at Fort Augusta, directing him to raise
an expedition to assist the Sheriff of Northampton County in executing
the King’s writ, and concluded as follows: “It is hoped you will be able
to procure the people to go without pay, as they have already manifested
a very good disposition to bring the intruders to justice.”
The attempt to serve these writs in September, 1769, precipitated the
first of the so-called Pennamite-Yankee Wars. The Sheriff approached a
number of the settlers at work, and they were attacked by men of his
posse under the command of Amos and Nathan Ogden, and “several of the
settlers were beat and wounded.” This action and its results may be
understood from a letter written to Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut:
“In September Amos and Nathan Ogden, with twenty-six others armed with
pistols and clubs, assaulted and wounded sundry of our people, whereby
their lives were endangered. The same month thirteen of our people in
three canoes loaded with wheat and flour, about sixty miles below
Wyoming, were met and robbed of their canoes and loading by thirty armed
men who came from Fort Augusta, about one-half mile away.
“In the same month came the trial of many of our men at Easton; the
charge against them was riot. * * * In the course of the trial challenge
was made to a juryman for having some time before expressed an opinion
openly against our people; but neither that nor any other exception
would prevail. The jury were treated with wine by the King’s attorney
before verdict, which verdict was brought in against the prisoners, and
they condemned them to pay a fine of £10 each, with large costs, in
which was included the cost of the wine the jury were treated with.”
Some paid the fine, others were imprisoned. These later escaped from
jail at Easton September 24, and a reward of £60 was offered by the
sheriff for their apprehension. None of the twelve was captured, for
they all fled to Connecticut.
Another skirmish took place in November, 1769, between the Yankee
settlers at Fort Durkee and a small party of Pennsylvanians under the
command of the Ogdens.
On the afternoon of November 11 Captain Ogden, apprised of the approach
of Sheriff Jennings and his “posse comitatus,” gathered together his
whole force of Pennamites, numbering about forty, and dashed rapidly and
unexpectedly on a small party of Yankees, among whom was Major Durkee,
and captured them.
Captain Ogden, also a justice of the peace, prepared legal papers for
the commitment of Major Durkee in the city jail at Philadelphia,
shackled him with irons and sent him under heavy escort to Philadelphia,
where he was imprisoned. Emboldened by their success, Ogden and his men
that night surrounded Fort Durkee and fired upon the men within.
Sheriff Jennings and his posse arrived upon the scene the next morning
(Sunday) and paraded the whole body of Pennamites, about 200 in number,
before Fort Durkee. While Jennings was carrying on a parley with the
Yankee garrison, Ogden and a party drove off all the horses and cattle
belonging to the Yankees.
The following day the Pennamites assembled in front of Fort Durkee,
where they threw up breastworks, upon which they mounted a four-pounder
brought from Fort Augusta. They demanded the surrender of the fort, or
its destruction. Deprived of their commander and having nothing but
rifles, the Yankees agreed to sign articles of capitulation.
By the terms of this agreement all but fourteen of the settlers were to
leave the region within three days; the others were allowed to remain
and live at Fort Durkee until His Majesty’s decree should determine who
had proper title to the lands at Wyoming.
Ogden and his men, however, starved out the fourteen settlers who
remained, and in a short time they were compelled to follow their
companions in exile.
----------
John Penn, Last of Proprietary Governors,
Died February 9, 1795
John Penn, son of Richard, and grandson of William Penn, the founder,
arrived in Philadelphia October 30, 1763, and assumed the duties of
Deputy Governor.
John was the eldest son of Richard, and was born in England in 1728. At
the age of twenty-five, he first visited the Province of Pennsylvania,
and ten years later, he came bearing the commission of Deputy Governor.
The day he arrived to assume his office was on Sunday, and was marked by
the shock of an earthquake, which the superstitious interpreted as an
evil omen to his administration.
At the time of his appointment as Governor, his father was proprietor of
one-third of the Province, and his uncle, Thomas, of two-thirds, the
latter having inherited the share of John, the oldest of the three
original proprietors, upon the occasion of his death in 1746.
When John Penn arrived as Deputy Governor he was received with great
demonstrations of respect, and many entertainments were given in his
honor, one of which was a civic feast which cost £203 17s.
The administration of John Penn began when the Province was in the
throes of the terrible Pontiac War, and the condition along the frontier
was deplorable. The “Paxtang Boys” soon thereafter murdered the Moravian
Indians in the work house at Conestoga, and Governor Penn issued several
proclamations, offering rewards for the chief actors in that affair.
On July 7, 1765, Governor Penn again declared war against the Shawnee
and Delaware Indians, and sent Colonel Bouquet to Fort Pitt, who subdued
the savages.
On March 22, 1765, the obnoxious Stamp Act was passed by the British
Parliament, and the real troubles for Governor Penn began in earnest.
This in addition to the long controversy with the Government of
Connecticut over the claims of the Susquehanna Company for lands in the
Susquehanna Valley.
Early in 1771 Governor Penn was called to England by the death of his
father, leaving the government of the Province in the hands of the
Council, of which James Hamilton was President, who thus for the third
time became in effect Governor.
On October 17, 1771, Richard Penn, second son of the late Richard,
arrived in the Province, bearing the commission of Lieutenant Governor.
His administration was marked by the troubles with the Connecticut
settlers, which extended throughout his administration, a little less
than two years.
He was well fitted by nature and education to serve as Governor and when
his commission was unexpectedly revoked August 30, 1773, there was much
genuine regret among the people of the Province.
In May, 1772, he married Miss Mary Masters, of Philadelphia, and on
being superseded as Governor, he became a member of Council.
A few months later the merchants presented him with an address and
invited him to dine with them. He had acted with prudence and manliness
in difficult times, and the people believed in him.
Governor John Penn was present at the dinner. Robert Morris, who
presided, placed one on his right and the other on his left, but the
brothers did not speak. Richard had been deprived of his office without
cause and he resented it. However, Richard was induced to execute in
May, 1774, a release of his claim, and a reconciliation took place when
John appointed him naval officer, and Richard, accepting the position,
called to thank him.
Richard was intimate with members of the Continental Congress and when,
in 1775, he returned to England, he was intrusted with the last petition
from the Colonies ever presented to the King. He was examined respecting
American affairs at the bar of the House of Lords and gave testimony so
favorable to the Colonial cause that he incurred the displeasure of the
Peers.
Upon the death of his father, February 4, 1771, Governor John Penn
inherited the one-third of the Proprietary interest.
Soon after John Penn again assumed the gubernatorial powers his
attention was directed to Indian hostilities on the western border of
the Province. Then soon came the harsh measures adopted by Parliament
toward the Massachusetts Colony, especially toward the town of Boston.
A public meeting was held in Philadelphia, but the Governor refused to
convene the Assembly, and another meeting was held, at which nearly 8000
persons were present and John Dickinson and Thomas Willing presided.
The outcome of these meetings was a movement to urge the convening of a
Continental Congress and committees to that end were appointed. The
first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, September 4, 1774.
Without manifesting partisan zeal, Governor Penn was believed to
sympathize with the Colonies, though he mildly remonstrated against the
system of congressional rather than Colonial action.
During the stirring times of the early days of the Revolution, Governor
Penn was only a witness to the proceedings in the province he claimed as
his own.
On September 28, 1776, the Assembly, which had existed for nearly a
century under the organic law of William Penn, ceased to exist, and John
Penn was shorn of his power as Proprietary Governor of Pennsylvania.
After he was superseded in authority by the Supreme Executive Council,
he seems to have submitted gracefully to the progress of events, which
he found himself unable to control, and remained during the Revolution a
quiet spectator of the long struggle without manifesting any particular
interest in its result.
He married Anne Allen, daughter of William Allen, Chief Justice of the
province.
In person he is described as of middle size, reserved in manners and
very nearsighted.
When Howe sailed with his army from New York to make a mighty effort to
end the Revolution by capturing Philadelphia, the Continental Congress,
July 31, 1777, recommended to the Government of Pennsylvania to make
prisoners of such of the Crown and proprietary officers as were
disaffected.
Accordingly a warrant was made out for the apprehension of the former
Governor, John Penn, and his Chief Justice, Benjamin Chew. Some of the
City Troop made the arrest.
Both Penn and Chew refused to sign any parole, and they were taken to
Fredericksburg, Va., under care of an officer and six of the troopers.
They were soon paroled and resided at the Union Iron Works until May 15,
1778, when Congress discharged them from their parole.
Penn continued to reside in Bucks County, where he died February 9,
1795. He was buried in the aisle of Christ Church in front of the
chancel, nineteen feet from the north wall. He was sixty-seven years
old.
----------
Munley and McAllister, Mollie Maguires,
Arrested for Murder of Thomas Sanger
and William Uren, February
10, 1876
Thomas Munley and Charles McAllister were arrested February 10, 1876,
charged with the murder of Thomas Sanger and William Uren, at Raven’s
Run, near Ashland, Wednesday, September 1, 1875.
These two Mollie Maguires were brought to trial in June 1876, at
Pottsville. Munley was tried first, before Judge D. B. Green, and a
verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree was returned July 12.
It was in this case that Hon. Franklin B. Gowen, assisting the
prosecution, made his memorable address against the Mollie Maguires.
To return to the crime, which followed in two weeks the murders of Gomer
James and Squire Gwyther.
Facts brought to light by James McParlan, the Pinkerton detective, who
joined the Mollies under the name of James McKenna and lived among them
until he collected sufficient evidence to send so many to the gallows
that they ceased to function as an organization, are as follows:
On the eventful morning, Hiram Beninger, a carpenter connected with the
colliery owned by Heaton & Company, near Ashland, was on his way to
work, when he noticed two strangers sitting on some lumber near the
carpenter shop, but such being a common occurrence he passed by, but
remembered their personal appearance. John Nicolls noticed three
strangers resting on some idle trucks as he passed by to enter the
colliery, one of whom addressed him, when he returned the salutation and
almost immediately noticed the two others, where the carpenter found
them. He also remembered how they were dressed, and the fact that they
spoke to him, he could recall many details in their clothing and
personal appearance.
About fifteen minutes afterward Thomas Sanger, a boss in Heaton &
Company’s colliery, accompanied by William Uren, a miner, who boarded in
his family and who was employed in the same mine, came along the road,
carrying their dinner pails in their hands.
Sanger was a man greatly respected by his employes and neighbors, about
thirty-three years of age, and while he had long been in the employ of
the firm, he had failed to make any enemies, excepting among the
Mollies. He had been several times threatened, but more recently
believed the anger of his organized enemies was buried, forgotten, or
appeased. This proved to be a great mistake.
Sanger and his companion had not gone far from the Sanger home, when
they were both fired upon and both mortally wounded, by the same strange
men noticed by the carpenter and Nicolls.
Beninger heard the shots, and rushed out of the shop, and saw Mr. Robert
Heaton, one of the proprietors of the colliery, firing his pistol at and
running after two of the murderers.
Two of the five assassins at this moment stopped in the flight, turned
and fired their revolvers at Heaton, but without hitting him. Mr. Heaton
boldly stood his ground and continued to empty his revolver at the
strangers.
The five men then quickly turned and ran up the mountains. Heaton
followed and when opportunity offered he continued to fire at them, but
apparently none was wounded.
It was this dogged and determined courage of Mr. Heaton which made him a
marked man for the nefarious organization of murderers, and which
eventually drove him from the coal regions to reside elsewhere.
Had any of the others who witnessed the exchange of shots between Mr.
Heaton and the Mollies been armed and helped in the uneven chase, some
of them might have been killed or captured.
The assassins made good their escape in the timber and bushes of the
mountains.
Both Sanger and Uren were removed to the home of a neighbor named
Wheevil, where every attention was given them. Mrs. Sanger soon arrived
and almost immediately that a physician came into the house Sanger
expired. Uren, who had been shot in the right groin, about same place as
Sanger had been hit, lingered until next day, when he died. Neither man
retained consciousness long enough to give any coherent description of
the manner in which they had been attacked.
Mr. Heaton was eating his breakfast when he heard the firing, and at
once his mind reverted to the men he had seen sitting by the carpenter
shop. He seized his pistol and ran out of the house. He first saw
Sanger, groaning on the ground, who said: “Don’t stop for me, Bob, but
give it to them!”
Heaton then gave the chase, as before related.
A young Williams, who wanted to join Heaton in pursuit, was prevented by
his mother, but they both saw the men attack Sanger and were able to
relate the manner in which the cold-blooded murder was committed.
The careful description of the story of this murder as related in the
Shenandoah Herald, gave McParlan the clue which he pursued in running
down the murderers. It was at this time that he was believed to be the
worst Mollie in the world and was in constant danger of being killed by
people who did not know his true character.
On February 10, 1875, Captain R. J. Linden, a fellow Pinkerton operative
with McParlan, captured Thomas Munley at his home in Gilberton. Charles
McAllister was apprehended at the same time.
McAllister demanded a separate trial and George Kaercher, Esq., the
District Attorney, elected to try Munley first.
McParlan voluntarily testified in the case, and his evidence was so
accurate and convincing that no other verdict could be possible.
The wonderful address of Mr. Gowen, and those of General Charles
Albright, Hon. F. W. Hughes, and Guy E. Farquhar, Esq., added just the
argument which the jury required to find a just verdict of “guilty of
murder in the first degree.”
In November McAllister was convicted.
Munley was hanged in the Pottsville jail August 16, 1876, and McAllister
was hanged later.
----------
First Anthracite Coal Burned in Grate by
Judge Jesse Fell, February 11, 1808
The first knowledge of anthracite in America dates back to about 1750 or
1755, when an Indian brought a supply of it to a gunsmith at Nazareth
for repairing his rifle, the smith’s supply of charcoal having become
exhausted.
Stone coal was used by the garrison at Fort Augusta, mention of which
fact is made by Colonel William Plunket, who was one of the original
soldiers sent to build this important provincial fortress. The records
in the British War Office also contain references to its use there.
A certain Ensign Holler, of the fort’s garrison, wrote that in the
winter of 1758 the house was heated by stone coal brought down the river
from near Nanticoke and that a wagon load had been brought from a place
six leagues from Fort Augusta, which point must have been at or near
either the present Shamokin or Mount Carmel.
Anthracite had been used in the Wyoming Valley before 1755, and during
the Revolutionary War it was shipped down the Susquehanna for the use of
the arsenal at Carlisle.
On November 25, 1780, the Congress “Resolved, That all the artificers in
the department of military stores in Pennsylvania be removed to Carlisle
and that in the future only an issuing store and an elaboratory fixing
ammunition be kept in Philadelphia.”
Immediately thereafter Colonel Blaine was directed to prepare stores,
etc., for the troops, and during the month of December of 1780 nearly
all the artificers were sent to Carlisle.
There is no doubt that coal from Wyoming was there used in the casting
of cannon, as it could have been more readily brought down the
Susquehanna in bateaux than hauled from the seaports for that purpose.
It is also well known that provisions were taken up the Susquehanna, and
as coal was then known and probably mined, the bateaux in returning
evidently conveyed the fuel to Kelso’s ferry, opposite Harrisburg.
The barracks erected by the Hessian soldiers captured by General
Washington at the battle of Trenton, and sent to Carlisle as prisoners
of war, later became one of the historic buildings of Pennsylvania. The
building was one long used by the Carlisle Indian School and is still
standing on the Government reservation there.
Pittsburgh, too, had used fuel dug from a high bluff before the town.
Coal was known to have existed near the present City of Pottsville as
early as 1790, when Nicho Allen is said to have discovered some of the
black stones and tested their burning qualities.
An act approved by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, March 15, 1784, was
“for the purpose of improving the navigation of the Schuylkill so as to
make it passable at all times, enabling the inhabitants to bring their
produce to market, furnishing the county adjoining the same and the City
of Philadelphia with coal, masts, boards,” etc.
In 1766 a company of Nanticoke and Mohican Indians visited Philadelphia
and reported to the Governor that there were mines in Wyoming. A survey
of Wyoming in 1768 notes “stone coal” near the mouth of Toby’s Creek.
One of General Sullivan’s officers in 1779 records the presence of “vast
mines of coal, pewter, lead and copperas.”
Obadiah Gore used coal in his blacksmith forge as early as 1769. He also
used it in nailing in 1788.
The Conestoga wagons might have transported the products of the farm to
market for many years more had not Philip Ginter, the hunter, in 1791
discovered “stone coals” under the roots of a fallen tree nine miles
west of Mauch Chunk.
About the same time that Ginter made his discovery coal was discovered
by Isaac Tomlinson at what is now Shamokin. He had recently removed on a
farm between there and Mount Carmel and found the coals lying in the bed
of Quaker Run, a stream running through his farm and so called because
he was a member of the Society of Friends.
Thus we see that the three discoverers of anthracite were Allen, Ginter
and Tomlinson, and what is more remarkable, all these discoveries were
made about the same time, and yet it is a fact that coal was mined at
Wyoming nearly a quarter century before these “discoveries.”
Philip Ginter did not exactly “discover anthracite.” He knew all about
the existence of coal at Wyoming and something of its use. But his
discovery of coal in 1791 while hunting on the mountains where is now
Summit Hill is the date from which the great business of the Lehigh Coal
and Navigation Company originated, though it was twenty-nine years
before the coal trade really began.
The date is usually accepted as 1820, the time that the Lehigh schemes
got into action.
Ginter made known his discovery to Colonel Jacob Weiss, residing at what
is now known as Weissport, who took a sample in his saddlebags to
Philadelphia.
But the coal trade was active in Wyoming Valley as early as 1807, when
the Smiths shipped a boat load to Columbia. George H. Hollenback shipped
two loads down the river in 1813, and sent coal by wagon to
Philadelphia. Lord Butler and Crandall Wilcox both shipped coal in 1814.
The use of anthracite for domestic purposes seems to have been
discovered by Judge Jesse Fell, of Wilkes-Barre. The following
memorandum was made at the time on the fly-leaf of one of his books:
“February 11, 1808, made the experiment of burning the common stone coal
of the valley in a grate, in a common fireplace in my house, and found
it will answer the purpose of fuel, making a clearer and better fire, at
less expense, than burning wood in the common way. Jesse Fell.”
News of this successful experiment soon spread through the town and
country, and people flocked to witness the discovery. Similar grates
were soon constructed by Judge Fell’s neighbors, and in a short time
were in general use throughout the valley.
In the spring of that year, John and Abijah Smith loaded two arks with
coal at Ransoms Creek, in Plymouth, and took it down the river to
Columbia; but on offering it for sale, no person could be induced to
purchase. They were compelled to leave the black stones behind them
unsold, when they returned to their homes.
The next year the Smiths, not in the least discouraged, took two arks of
coal and a grate, and again proceeded to Columbia. The grate was put up,
and the coals were burned in it, thus proving the practicability of
using coal as a fuel. The result was a sale of the coal, and thus began
the initiative of the immense coal trade of Pennsylvania.
----------
Quakers Make Protest Against Slavery to
Congress February 12, 1790
There is unmistakable evidence of Negro slavery among the Dutch on the
South (now Delaware) River as early as the year 1639. In that year a
convict from Manhattan was sentenced to serve with the blacks on that
river.
In September and October, 1664, the English defeated the Dutch, and some
of the Dutch soldiers were sold in Virginia as slaves. The Negro slaves
were also confiscated by the victors and sold. A cargo of three hundred
of those unhappy beings having just landed, failed to escape capture.
In 1688 Pastorius, the Op den Graffs (now Updegraffs), and Gerhardt
Hendricks sent to the Friends’ meeting house the first public protest
ever made on this continent against the holding of slaves, or as they
uncompromisingly styled it, “the traffick of men’s body.”
These early residents of Germantown compared Negro slavery to slavery
under Turkish pirates, and failed to note that one was better than the
other. Their protest said:
“There is a saying that we shall doe to all men licke as we will be done
ourselves; making no difference of what generation, descent, or colour
they are. And those who steal or robb men, and those who buy or purchase
them, are they not all alicke? Here is liberty of Conscience, which is
right and reasonable; here ought to be likewise liberty of ye body,
except of evil doers, which is another case. In Europe there are many
oppressed for Conscience sake; and here there are those oppressed which
are of a black colour.”
This memorial is believed to be in the handwriting of Francis Daniel
Pastorius, and at the date it was written New England was doing a large
business in the Guinea trade, the slave depots being located chiefly at
Newport, where the gangs for the Southern market were arranged.
All honor is due these honest first settlers of Germantown, who asked
categorically: “Have these Negers not as much right to fight for their
freedom as you have to keep them slaves?”
They asked, further, to be informed what right Christians have to
maintain slavery, “to the end we shall be satisfied on this point and
satisfy likewise our good friends and acquaintances in our natif
country, to whom it is a fairfull thing that men should be handled so in
Pennsilvania.”
The Quakers were embarrassed by the memorial and its blunt style of
interrogatory. It was submitted to the Monthly Meeting at Dublin
Township, “inspected” and found so “weighty” that it was passed on to
the Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting, which “recommended” it to the Yearly
Meeting at Burlington, where it was adjudged “not to be so proper for
this meeting to give a positive judgment in the case, it having so
general a relation to many other parts, and, therefore, at present they
forebore it.” So the matter slept.
Very soon thereafter slavery in Philadelphia was not very different from
what it was in the South at a later period. The white mechanics and
laborers complained to the authorities that their wages were reduced by
the competition of Negroes hired out by their owners, and the owners
objected to the capital punishment of slaves for crime, as thereby their
property would be destroyed.
In 1708 two slaves, Tony and Quashy, were sentenced to death for
burglary, but their owners were allowed to sell them out of the province
after a severe flogging had been given them upon the streets on three
successive market days.
The Assembly of Pennsylvania soon viewed with much concern and
apprehension the introduction of so many slaves into the province, but
the House would not consider any proposition to free Negroes, deciding
that to attempt to do so would be “neither just nor convenient,” but it
did resolve to discourage the introduction of Negroes from Africa and
the West Indies. It laid a tax of £20 a head upon all such importations.
The Queen and Royal Council failed to approve the act, for the British
Government was set like flint against any provincial attempt to arrest
the African slave trade or tax it out of existence—that trade was a
royal perquisite.
The year 1780 is memorable in the annals of Pennsylvania for the passage
of an act for the gradual abolition of slavery in this State. On
February 5, 1780, the Supreme Executive Council in its message to the
Assembly, called the attention of that body to this subject, and
although it was forcibly presented, the matter was dismissed, “as the
Constitution would not allow them to receive the law from the Council.”
On March 1, 1780, by a vote of thirty-four to twenty-one, an abolition
act passed the Assembly. It provided for the registration of every Negro
or mulatto slave or servant for life, or till the age of thirty-one
years, before the first of November following, and also provided “that
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, or adjudged, or holden within the territory of this
Commonwealth, as slaves or servants for life, but as free men and free
women.”
The Quakers partly forgot their woes on hearing of an act which they so
much approved, as in 1774 the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting had taken a
definite and decided stand against slavery.
They proceeded without delay to urge war on the system.
On February 12, 1790, the Quakers made their first formal protest to
Congress for the abolition of slavery in every form.
The movement against slavery had been making quiet progress during all
these years, and on January 1, 1794, a convention was held in
Philadelphia by invitation of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, of
delegates from all societies throughout the United States.
At this convention two memorials were adopted, one to the Legislature of
Pennsylvania, and the other to Congress, asking for suitable laws to
suppress the slave trade.
The petition to Congress was referred to a committee, which made a
report recommending the passage of a law against the fitting out of any
ship or vessel in any port of the United States, or by foreigners, for
the purpose of procuring from any part of the coast of Africa the
inhabitants of the said country, to be transshipped into any foreign
ports or places of the world to be sold or disposed of as slaves. The
law was finally passed on March 22, 1794, and vessels were thereafter
liable to heavy fine and forfeiture, and the freedom of the slaves on
board.
Thus after the taunt of the early German settlers, the Quakers cleared
their own skirts and then led in the movement which abolished slaves
from Pennsylvania and were the first to lay this great question before
Congress.
----------
First Magazine in America Published in
Philadelphia, February 13, 1741
There has been recent controversy, especially among New York newspapers,
regarding the oldest magazine in America, one such newspaper concluding
that the oldest such publication was Oliver Oldschool’s “Portfolio,”
published by Bradford and Inskeep, of Philadelphia, and Inskeep and
Bradford, in New York, 1809–1810.
That is not the fact and Pennsylvania cannot be denied the honor of
being the home of the earliest magazine published on this continent.
On November 6, 1740, Andrew Bradford’s “Mercury,” published in
Philadelphia, contained a two page editorial which must surely have
caused some sensation, heralding as it did a genuine innovation.
“’Tis not in mortals to command success,” and if the innovator in this
case failed, he was at least the first to make the attempt, not alone in
Philadelphia, but throughout America.
The editorial plunged headlong into the business at hand as follows:
“The PLAN of an intended MAGAZINE.”
“The Success and Approbation which the Magazines, published in Great
Britain, have met with for many years past among all Ranks and Degrees
of People, Encouraged us to Attempt a Work of the like Nature in
America. But the Plan on which we intend to proceed, being in many
respects different from the British Models, it therefore becomes
necessary, in the first Place, to lay before the Reader a general
Prospect of the present Design.
“It is proposed to publish Monthly, ‘An Account of the Publick Affairs
transacted in His Majesty’s Colonies, as well on the Continent of
America, as well as in the West India Islands,’ and at the end of each
session, ‘an Extract of the Laws therein passed, with the Reasons on
which they were founded, the Grievances intended to be Remedied by them,
and the Benefits expected from them.”
The prospectus then proceeds to apologize beforehand for “the mistakes
which will probably be committed in handling so great a Variety of
Matter.” It sketches the general lines of the future magazine in regard
to “remarkable Trials as well Civil as Criminal,” also the “Course of
Exchange, Party-Disputes, Free Inquiry into all sorts of Subjects, its
views of the Liberty and Licentiousness of the Press, its contempt for
the rude Clamours of envious Ignorance,’ and the ‘base suggestions of
the Malevolence’,” and then terminates as follows:
“To conclude, the Reader is desired to consider the Undertaking as an
attempt to Erect on Neutral Principles A PUBLIC THEATRE in the Center of
the British Empire in America, on which the most remarkable Transactions
of each Government may be impartially represented, and fairly exhibited
to the View of all His Majesty’s Subjects, whether at Home or abroad,
who are disposed to be Spectators.
“This is TRUE Liberty, when freeborn Men,
Having to advise the Publick, may speak free,
Which he who can, and will, deserves high Praise;
Who neither can, nor will, may hold his Peace;
What can be juster in a State than this?
“From Euripides, by Milton, for a motto to his Vindication of the
Subject’s Right to the Liberty of the Press.”
The first number of this, The American Magazine, was to be published “in
March next, if by that Time there are a Sufficient Number of
Subscriptions.”
But something went wrong with the plans. The very week following this
announcement, out came Benjamin Franklin with the charge that this
scheme now put forth by John Webbe and Bradford was really his own,
“Communicated in Confidence,” to the said Webbe, who was to be the
editor of his magazine.
Webbe was not slow to indignantly repudiate the charge, and an unseemly
controversy followed between the two rival printing houses, which, no
doubt, interfered considerably with the ultimate result or their
respective ventures.
Be that as it may, “The American Magazine, or a monthly view of the
Political State of the British Colonies,” 8vo size, price eight pence
sterling, made its appearance, not in March as advertised and expected,
but on February 13, 1741.
Thus the first magazine in America made its initial bow to the public,
and only three days later, Franklin’s press brought out “The General
Magazine and Historical Chronicle, for All the British Plantations in
America.”
Both of these periodicals were advertised as monthly publications, and
the Mercury carried a small advertisement March 19, which announced the
issuance of “The American Magazine” for February; but alas! that is the
last we read of Andrew Bradford’s pioneer magazine publication.
Franklin’s “General Magazine” reached its sixth month of existence,
after which it simply ceased, no explanation of its discontinuance, not
a semblance of a valedictory appeared in “The Gazette,” where its
monthly advent had been so well heralded and advertised.
The name of these original “magazines” naturally suggests to the
present-day reader a very incorrect idea of their general appearance and
contents, thanks to the luxurious works of art that American enterprise
has put into publications now classed as magazines.
Franklin’s magazine, for example, had but one illustration, and a poor
one at that, a representation of the Prince of Wales’ feathers and the
motto “Ich dien” on its front page.
It was only a 12mo; yet under existing conditions the labor of filling
seventy-six pages with small print month after month and the neat manner
in which the work was performed reflect the highest credit upon the
publisher and was deserving of more favorable circumstances. The
contents of each number bear a favorable comparison with the best
magazines of today.
Dr. William Smith, provost of the University of Pennsylvania, soon
manifested a practical interest in intellectual affairs in the province
in an effort to found a literary review called “The American Magazine
and Monthly Chronicle for the British Colonies.”
The first number appeared October, 1757, and was printed by William
Bradford, presumably for “a society of gentlemen,” which in truth
consisted of Dr. Smith and several of his pupils in the college. This
periodical was principally devoted to political matters, literary
discussions and poetry. It was discontinued November 14, 1758, and
Pennsylvania had not yet had a successful magazine.
Between 1741 and the close of the century nearly fifty magazines were
born in America, only deservedly to die. Philadelphia and Boston
struggled for literary supremacy, yet the four magazines of today which
may be called the veterans of the field are the North American Review,
Harper’s, and Scribner’s, each published in New York, and the Atlantic,
published in Boston.
But Philadelphia was long the home of three widely circulated
magazines—Graham’s, Peterson’s and Godey’s Lady’s Book. The last named
was perhaps the most famous, established in July, 1830, by Louis A.
Godey, and it reached the enormous circulation of 150,000 a month in the
heyday of its prosperity.
If the Saturday Evening Post is regarded as a magazine, Philadelphia is
today the home of the oldest and largest in the world.
----------
Christopher L. Sholes, Inventor of Typewriter,
Born in Mooresburg, February
14, 1819
More than a score of attempts, both in this country and abroad, were
made to perfect a typewriter after the birth of the idea in the mind of
Henry Mill, an English engineer, who obtained a patent from Queen Ann of
England, January 1, 1714, but none was successful.
It remained for an humble country boy, a printer, by the name of
Christopher Latham Sholes, who was born in the little village of
Mooresburg, Montour County, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1819, to perfect
a model in the winter of 1866–67, which, after later improvements, was
the basis for the typewriting machines which are now so much a part of
commercial life throughout the world.
The patent granted to Henry Mill by Queen Ann never availed the
imaginative engineer anything, because he lacked the essential ability
to perfect a model which might be manufactured on a commercial basis. It
is true, nevertheless, that he had the idea for a “writing machine for
the impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively one
after the other,” but this was not sufficient to be practical in any
sense of the term.
The same difficulty that beset Mill prevented others from attaining
success, and it was a century and a half before the actual birth of a
commercial typewriter.
This interesting event was enacted in a small machine shop in the
outskirts of Milwaukee. An interesting history was published recently by
the Herkimer County (New York) Historical Society in commemoration of
the fiftieth anniversary of the manufacture of the first typewriter for
commercial use. According to this story the principals were Carlos
Gliden, the son of a successful iron monger of Ohio, who was engaged in
developing a mechanical plow; Samuel W. Soule and Christopher Latham
Sholes, both printers, who were engaged in developing a machine for
numbering serially the pages of blank books, etc.
Sholes was the central figure in the association subsequently formed
among the three. Sholes began his active life as an apprentice in the
office of the Danville, Pa., Intelligencer.
The Intelligencer was then the oldest paper in Montour County, founded
in 1828 by Valentine Best. At the time of Sholes’ apprenticeship the
newspaper was a leading Democratic organ. The Intelligencer office was
an excellent school for a boy when Christopher Sholes became the “devil”
and began the career which was to stamp him as one of the great
inventors of the country.
Thomas Chalfant purchased the property July 15, 1861. He was a prominent
Democratic politician, serving as member of the Legislature and as State
Senator. He was a Civil War veteran and many years postmaster at
Danville. Through all his various offices Chalfant devoted much time to
his newspaper.
Sholes was diligent and progressed in his chosen profession, becoming in
turn, editor of several newspapers and ultimately an owner. In 1866 he
was collector of the port of Milwaukee and had held other public
offices, including State Senator and Assemblyman.
Sholes’ subsequent invention of the typewriter is ascribed to
inspiration he and Glidden obtained from a description of a machine
invented by John Pratt, of Alabama, which, however, was very crude and
impracticable.
The three friends engaged the services of skilled mechanics to help them
in the construction of their typewriter, the first working model of
which was completed in that small Milwaukee shop in the fall of 1866,
but it was not until the following June that a patent was obtained for
the invention.
This original machine had innumerable defects and was a crude and
cumbersome affair, but it wrote accurately and rapidly, and after all
that was their objective.
Sholes was the one of the trio who did most to produce this machine, and
while he was not satisfied, he soon scored a notable triumph and made
the machine its own best advertiser. A number of letters were written
with it, among them one to James Densmore, then a resident of Meadville,
Pa. Densmore was immediately interested. Like Sholes and Soule, he had
been both printer and editor, and could realize the importance of such a
machine.
The relationship between Sholes and Densmore was a strange meeting of
opposites, the former was a dreamer and an idealist, the latter was
bold, aggressive and arrogant and by some considered a plain “crank.”
Densmore was not impressed with the machine more than to regard the idea
as feasible, but he determined to make an attempt at selling it to some
firm with the facility and financial resources to manufacture it.
Densmore paid all the debts incurred by Sholes whereby he obtained an
interest in the invention. He then engaged the services of a Mr. Yost,
with whom he had been associated in a Pennsylvania oil business, and
together they presented the proposition to the old firm of gun makers,
E. Remington & Son, of Ilion, N. Y.
A tentative agreement was effected between the Remingtons and Sholes and
his new partners, and the first contract signed for the manufacture of a
typewriter for commercial use, the one built by Sholes was made in
March, 1873.
The original contract was for the manufacture only, but in time the
Remingtons acquired complete ownership.
Sholes, soon thereafter, sold out his royalty right to Densmore for
$12,000, which was a goodly sum in those days, but was the only reward
that he ever received for his priceless invention and the years of
earnest labor and expense he had bestowed upon it.
Densmore did not part with his royalty rights and was subsequently
enriched.
Further improvements were made on Sholes’ invention when the skilled
mechanics of the Remington factory were brought into service, but the
fact remains that the Montour County printer was the inventor of the
almost universally used typewriter and Densmore, another Pennsylvanian,
was the medium by which the invention was saved from the scrap heap and
commercially developed to the almost perfect machine of today. Thus
Pennsylvania has given to the world the typewriter.
----------
German Christians Organized Harmony
Society in Butler, February 15, 1805
The Harmony Society, as it was organized by George Rapp in Wurtemberg
and established in America, was an outgrowth of a Separatistic movement
in Germany and an attempt to put into practice, under favorable
circumstances, Separatistic principles.
The members of the society had constituted a congregation of
Separatists, where they listened to the teachings of their pastor,
George Rapp. According to his instructions, they left their homes in
Wurtemberg and followed him to America. They settled at Harmony, Butler
County, Pennsylvania.
Without election, by common consent George Rapp had maintained himself
as their leader.
In order to put their society on a firm basis, and to prevent
misunderstanding, articles of association were drawn up and signed by
the members February 15, 1805. This was the date recognized as the
birthday of the society, and in after years its anniversary was
celebrated as the “Harmoniefest.”
The agreement contains five articles to which the subscribers pledged
themselves:
(1) To give absolutely all their property to George Rapp and his
associates.
(2) To obey the rules and regulations of the community and to work for
its welfare.
(3) If they desired to withdraw from the society, not to demand any
reward for labor or services.
In return, George Rapp and his associates pledged themselves:
(1) To supply the subscribers with all the necessities of life, both in
health and sickness, and after death, to provide for their families.
(2) In case of withdrawal to return them the value of property
contributed without interest and to give a donation in moneys to such as
contributed nothing.
The original of this agreement was in German, which was the language
used by the society.
George Rapp was born November 1, 1757, in Iptingen, Wurtemberg, the son
of Adam Rapp, a peasant. He learned the trade of weaving. Like many of
his neighbors he also engaged in wine growing.
Early in life he became deeply interested in religion. He identified
himself with the Separatists of Wurtemberg, who believed that the true
Christian must live a life of self-denial and that he must suffer
ridicule and persecution on account of the purity of his life. They
regarded the established clergy as hypocrites.
The Government interfered with their plans for living in the manner of
the early Christians with community of goods, and their religious
meetings were prohibited at the instigation of the clergy. George Rapp
decided to lead his congregation to America.
In this great undertaking, as in others of a similar nature in later
years, he displayed rare judgment in making his plans and great ability
in executing them. He did not underestimate the difficulties of such an
enterprise.
He advised his people of the hardships to be expected. He directed those
who were determined to follow him to sell their property and prepare
themselves for the journey.
He came to America in 1803, with money of his own amounting to 2000
gulden, to choose a site for the proposed settlement. He left behind him
in charge of his congregation a young man of high character, Frederick
Reickert, who in Pennsylvania was adopted by him as his son and is known
in the history of the society as Frederick Rapp.
George Rapp landed at Baltimore and early in September, 1803, was in
Lancaster, Pa., considering offers of land for his settlement.
After inspecting several tracts of land, Rapp purchased 5000 acres in
Butler County, on the Connoquenessing Creek, about twelve miles from the
Ohio River at Beaver. He then sent for his people.
They came in several companies. The ship “Aurora” brought about 300
persons to Baltimore, July 4, 1804.
Another party of 260 persons, headed by Frederick Rapp, arrived on the
ship “Atlantic” at Philadelphia in August.
The remainder of the people came in a third ship, the “Margaretta,” but
these settled in Lycoming County, under the direction of Mr. Haller, who
had assisted George Rapp in exploration for a site.
The settlers who went to the new settlement worked hard to build their
town, Harmony. They were sustained in their labors by religious
enthusiasm. After a few months they were joined by their friends and on
February 15, 1805, the Harmony Society was formally organized.
During the first year fifty log houses were erected, nearly 200 acres
cleared and a house of worship, grist mill, barn and shops were built.
The following year 400 acres more were cleared, a saw mill, tannery,
distillery and brick store house were erected and a vineyard planted.
They raised 600 bushels of wheat more than their requirements and had
3000 gallons of whisky to sell.
They soon made woolen cloth, spinning the yarn by hand. In 1809 they
erected a woolen factory for manufacturing of broadcloth from the wool
of merino sheep, which they were among the first to introduce in this
country. They had their own mechanics and tradesmen.
The society was always a religious community and George Rapp, in
temporal affairs was extremely practical, but he was an enthusiast only
in religion. He would not allow his authority to be questioned.
While the settlers were prosperous, they were disappointed in their
settlement in some respects. In Germany they had raised grapes and made
wine, and had hoped to engage in that industry here, but the land was
poorly adapted to the culture of the vine. As their manufactures
increased their transportation troubles also increased, as they were
twelve miles distant from the Ohio River.
They accordingly decided to move, and in 1814 George Rapp, John L. Baker
and Lewis Shriver explored the Western country in search of a new site
for settlement. They found a suitable place on the Wabash, in Posey
County, Indiana, and in 1815 the whole society moved there.
They had lived in Harmony ten years, during which time 100 members had
died. They were buried in a small plot, and, as was their custom, the
graves were not marked, but only numbered.
This little graveyard, together with the substantial brick buildings of
the village, is all the memorial the Harmonists have left of their first
home in America.
The society again removed, in 1825, to Economy, Beaver County,
Pennsylvania, where they arrived May 17, 1825, making the trip by boat,
their new home being located on the Ohio River twenty miles from the
first home of the society, at Harmony, and eighteen miles from
Pittsburgh.
George Rapp died August 7, 1847, aged ninety years. The society remained
intact, although reduced in membership, until May 12, 1903, when there
were but four members.
----------
Johan Printz Arrives as Governor of New
Sweden, February 16, 1643
The Swedes followed the Dutch in settling along the Delaware River,
which they called the Zuydt or South River. The Swedes formed several
companies for the purpose of trade with the New World, as America was
then called.
The first expedition came under Peter Minuit, a Hollander, in March,
1638, and settled on Christiana Creek, near the present Wilmington, Del.
Here they built Fort Christiana and gave the country the name New
Sweden. Two other expeditions came from Sweden and with them came
colonists whose names are still borne by families in Pennsylvania.
In 1642, Johan Printz, who had been kept busy capturing delinquent
Finns, who were committing all sorts of depredations in Sweden, and
refusing to either desist or return to their own Finland, was knighted
by the Swedish Government and appointed Governor of New Sweden.
He had been a lieutenant colonel of a regiment of cavalry in the Thirty
Years’ War, and had been dismissed from the service because of what was
held to be a too feeble defense of a city in which he had command.
Accompanied by his wife, daughter Armegot, and a minister, the Rev. John
Campanius, and two vessels, the Fawn and the Swan, loaded with wine,
malt, grain, peas, nets, muskets, shoes, stockings, wearing apparel,
writing paper, sealing wax, oranges, lemons and hay, and having on board
a number of poachers, deserters and culprit Finns, he arrived at Fort
Christiana, February 16, 1643, after a stormy voyage of five months.
This was an unusual expedition in that it was the most important of all
those sent out by Sweden and in the further fact that Printz was, next
to Minuit, the most conspicuous figure connected with New Sweden.
In the instructions he received with his commission, he was to deal with
the English at Varkens Kill, near the present Salem, New Jersey, and the
Dutch at Fort Nassau; to treat with the Indians with humanity, protect
them, and “civilize” them—especially to sell them goods at lower prices
than the English or Dutch.
He was allowed to choose his residence at Cape Henlopen, Christiana, or
Jacques Island; but he was ordered to see that his fort commanded the
river, and that a good winter harbor for vessels was close at hand.
Printz lost no time in carrying out his instructions. Proceeding up the
river from Christiana, he decided to make the seat of government at
Jacques Island, the place called by the Indians Tenacong and since
Tinicum. Here he built a fort of green logs, mounted on it four brass
cannon, and called it Nye (New) Gottenburg.
Thus Printz made the first settlement by white men in what is now
Pennsylvania which was destined to survive. Kling was sent to make a
settlement on the Schuylkill, and he built a fort near its mouth, called
New Korsholm.
Printz, however, was not content with the forts already erected, but a
third was built, in 1643, on the east side of the river below Mill
Creek, called Fort Elfborg, which was mounted with eight cannon and a
mortar, and garrisoned with thirteen soldiers, under Swen Skute. The
story is that later the men were driven out by mosquitoes. This fort was
intended to shut up the river, a matter which greatly exasperated the
Dutch, whose ships, when passing, had to lower their colors and were
boarded by the Swedes.
In 1645 these Swedes started what was undoubtedly the first industrial
plant in Pennsylvania. That was a small grist mill, which they built on
the waters of Cobbs Creek, and when its wheels began to turn the
industry of the greatest industrial State in the world began its
production.
At Tinicum the Swedish settlements now centered. In three or four years
following Printz’s arrival, Tinicum gradually assumed the character of a
hamlet.
In 1645, he built a mansion on Tinicum Island, and it long bore the name
of Printzhof.
A church was also built at this time, which the Reverend Mr. Campanius
dedicated September 4, 1646. This was the first house of Christian
worship within the present limits of Pennsylvania.
Indian troubles threatened during 1644. The shocking and unpardonable
cruelties of Kieft, the Governor of Manhattan, in which hundreds of
Indians, along the Hudson, were slain, caused the belief among the
natives that the newcomers were cruel.
In the spring of 1644, two white soldiers and a laborer were killed on
the Delaware, below Christiana, and later a Swedish woman and her
English husband were killed between Tinicum and Upland. This event was
the first tragedy in which white blood was shed in Pennsylvania by the
Indians.
Printz assembled his people for defense at Upland, but the Indian chiefs
of the region came in, disowned the act, and effected a treaty.
There was a long period during which no ships from Sweden came, and the
colonists were destitute for necessities which they depended on
receiving from the homeland. There was no vessel from March, 1644, until
the “Golden Shark” arrived October 1, 1646.
The settlement of the country, however, proceeded very slowly under
Swedish enterprise, while trade was pushed to an extent never before
known upon the river. This greatly annoyed the Dutch, and in consequence
of having lost this trade to the Swedes, the Dutch Governor, Kieft, sent
Hudde to keep watch on the proceedings of Governor Printz and to resist
his supposed innovation. These two soon got into angry controversy, but
through the negotiation of the Reverend Mr. Campanius, an amicable
arrangement was entered into regarding the trade of the Schuylkill.
But the real object of the Dutch was to plant a settlement on the
western shore of the Delaware, and to this Governor Printz entered a
sharp protest.
Governor Kieft was recalled about this time, and he was succeeded by
Peter Stuyvesant, whose Administration commenced May 27, 1647, and
continued until 1664, when the American interests of the Dutch passed
into the hands of the English.
The disagreement between the Dutch and Swedes continued, giving rise to
mutual hatred and jealousy. The Dutch “arms” were set up on the west
bank and as promptly taken down by the Swedes.
Printz had requested to be relieved, but he was ordered to remain when
new grants of land were made to him, and he remained at his post until
October, 1653, when he transferred the charge of the Government to his
son-in-law, John Papegoja, and sailed for Sweden.
----------
Captain William Trent Leads First English
Armed Force to Forks of Ohio,
February 17, 1754
Previous to the French and Indian War, and in fact until the Revolution,
Virginia held that the upper Ohio Valley, in what is now Pennsylvania,
was a part of their Dominion.
Governor Dinwiddie feared the aggressions of the French in that region
and commenced preparations for raising a force to be sent to the “Forks
of the Ohio” (Pittsburgh), to occupy that strategic point, and build a
defensive work that would enable him to resist the French.
This force, a company of Colonial Militiamen under command of Captain
William Trent, marched from Virginia, in January, 1754, and reached the
Forks February 17, following.
Work was begun, but proceeded slowly on account of the severity of the
weather, and Captain Trent returning to Will’s Creek, left in charge a
young commissioned officer, an ensign, named Edward Ward.
This was not, however, the first aggressive action on the part of
Virginia.
Pennsylvania authorities believed that the limits of the State were
about what they are today, but they had so many internal jealousies and
quarrels on their hands at the time the French became active intruders
along the French Creek, Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, that they delayed
making any action against them.
While Virginia was experiencing almost similar difficulties as
Pennsylvania, she did, in 1753, take steps to put a stop to the farther
advance of the French.
Governor Dinwiddie dispatched Captain William Trent to ascertain the
activities of the French, but he neglected his duty, and went no farther
than Logstown. In a letter to the Lords of Trade, Dinwiddie said of
them: “He reports the French were then one hundred and fifty miles up
the river, and, I believe, was afraid to go to them.”
The home government advised Dinwiddie to obtain information and for this
purpose to dispatch a messenger. Acting under these instructions,
Dinwiddie sent a young man who was destined to become finally the most
illustrious figure in American history. This was George Washington.
Following out his instructions, young Washington proceeded to Logstown,
and thence with Tanacharison or the Half-King, Jeskakake, White Thunder,
and Guyasutha or the Hunter, he set out November 30, and on December 11,
reached Fort Le Boeuf, which was on the site of the present Waterford,
Erie County, Pennsylvania.
Having accomplished the purpose of his mission, and obtained full
information of the strength and plans of the French, and an answer to
the letter which he had carried from Governor Dinwiddie to the French
commandant, he returned with much hardship to Virginia, reaching
Williamsburg, January 16, 1754, where he made his report to the
Governor.
This information led at once to military measures for the defense of the
Ohio, and the command of Captain Trent pushed forward.
The French were promptly warned of the arrival of Trent’s troops, and
were not long idle.
On April 17, when the fort was still uncompleted, Ensign Ward suddenly
found himself surrounded by a force of one thousand men, French and
Indians, under the command of Captain Contrecoeur, with eighteen pieces
of artillery.
By Chevalier Le Mercier, captain of the artillery of Canada, Contrecoeur
sent a summons to the commanding officer of the English to surrender,
informing him that he, Contrecoeur, “was come out into this place,
charged with orders from his General to request him (the English
commander) to retreat peaceably, with his troops from off the lands of
the French king, and not to return, or else he would find himself
obliged to fulfill his duty, and compel him to it.” “I hope,” continued
Contrecoeur, in his summons, “that you will not defer one instant, and
that you will not force me to the last extremity. In that case, sir, you
may be persuaded that I will give orders that there shall be no damage
done by my detachment.”
The friendly Half King, who was present, advised Ward to reply that he
was not an officer of rank with power to answer the demand, and to
request delay until he could send for his superior officer.
Contrecoeur refused to parley, and demanded immediate surrender.
Having less than forty men in a half finished stockade, Ward was unable
to resist the force opposed to him, and therefore prudently yielded to
the demand without further hesitation.
He was allowed to withdraw his men and take his tools with him, and on
the morning of April 18, he left the position and started on his return
to Virginia.
This affair was one of the initial events of the French and Indian War,
an epoch-making struggle.
The French took possession of the half-finished fort and completed it,
naming it Fort Duquesne, in honor of Marquis Du Quesne, then Governor
General of Canada.
Captain William Trent who led the first English armed force into the
Ohio Valley, February 17, 1754, was a native of Chester County,
Pennsylvania. His name is given to Trenton, N. J.
In 1746, Governor Thomas appointed him captain of one of the four
companies raised in Pennsylvania, for an intended expedition against
Canada. In 1749, Governor Hamilton appointed him a justice for
Cumberland County, where in the following year he formed a partnership
with George Croghan to engage in the Indian trade, and he went to
Logstown.
In 1753, the Governor of Virginia directed him to build a fort at the
“Forks of the Ohio,” which seems to be the first time he recognized the
authority of Virginia.
Captain Trent again entered the service of Pennsylvania, in 1755, as a
member of the Council, but two years later he again entered the employ
of Virginia.
In 1763, his large trading house near Fort Pitt was destroyed by the
Indians.
During the Revolution Congress gave him a commission as major.
----------
William Rittenhouse, Who Built First Paper
Mill in America, Died February 18,1708
The first paper mill on the American continent was established in 1690
by the Reverend William Rittenhouse, upon a branch of Wissahickon Creek,
and from that date until 1710 there was no other paper mill in the
American Colonies.
This mill was situated on a meadow along the bank of a stream known as
Paper-Mill Run, which empties into the Wissahickon Creek, about two
miles above its confluence with the Schuylkill.
The founder emigrated from Holland, where he was born in the
Principality of Broich, in the year 1644. He spelled his name then
Ryttinhuisen, which is anglicized into Rittenhouse.
His ancestors had been engaged for generations in paper-making, and he
had learned the same business. It has been stated that he had a brother
who originally came to New York while it was a Dutch Colony; that the
brother settled in New Jersey, but William, with his two sons, Claus or
Nicholas, and Garrett or Gerhard, came to Pennsylvania prior to or
during the year 1690. The Rittenhouses were among “sixty-four of the
first Germantown inhabitants,” as they were styled, who were granted
naturalization by Thomas Lloyd, Deputy Governor, on May 7, 1691.
At the time Rittenhouse arrived in Germantown there was a printer,
William Bradford, already established in an office in Philadelphia, and
it may be that he induced the paper-makers to locate there. Anyway they
no sooner settled at Germantown than they began the erection of a paper
mill, on property purchased from Samuel Carpenter, of Philadelphia.
It appears from the original deed that William Bradford, Robert Turner
and Thomas Tresse were interested with William Rittenhouse in the
enterprise. They were deeded twenty acres.
The mill was built, but soon thereafter Robert Turner died, and Bradford
and Tresse assigned their rights to William Rittenhouse, who became the
sole owner. Their deed for this property was acknowledged December 6,
1693. The term of the lease was for 975 years from the 29th of
September, 1705, and the rent reserved was five shillings sterling per
annum.
It thus appears that there was at first a company regularly organized to
establish a paper mill. Samuel Carpenter and Robert Turner were
extensive land owners and were advisers and coadjutors of William Penn.
Thomas Tresse was a rich iron monger and William Bradford was the famous
printer who established the first printing press in the middle colonies
of America, in 1685.
The chief and most important member of this company was William
Rittenhouse, who became the sole proprietor prior to 1705, unless the
interest of Tresse was purchased by Claus Rittenhouse, about 1701. It
also seems that the son bought Bradford’s interest in 1704. Father and
son were practical papermakers and the owners.
Bradford got himself into trouble when he printed the charter without
leave of the ruling powers, and then for printing a pamphlet of George
Keith, a seceding Scotch Quaker. He was arraigned in court, and in 1693
left Philadelphia and established himself in New York, where he
introduced the first printing plant in that province.
When Bradford left Philadelphia he was to receive for his share of the
mill paper of the value of six pounds, two shillings, and the assurance
that he had a monopoly of the entire printing paper that was made in
America from September 1, 1697, until September 1, 1707. The quantity is
not stated, neither is there anything by which we can determine, at this
late day, the capacity of the mill.
All paper was then manufactured by hand, each sheet being made
separately. At that early day and long afterward the rags were pounded
into pulp in stone and iron mortars by the aid of trip-hammers, and
several days were required to furnish a sample sheet of dry-finished
paper. At that time a day’s production per man was one and a half reams
of newspaper of the size of 20 by 30 inches. Small as was this mill, its
importance can hardly be understood, for the greatest commercial
metropolis of America drew its supply of printing paper from this mill.
There, in this secluded spot, away from any except the hermits who lived
in the caves along the Wissahickon, and with no access to Philadelphia
except by Germantown, William Rittenhouse, and his son devoted
themselves with untiring industry to their useful and honorable art.
They soon acquired a wide reputation as producers of “good paper,” and
to this they usually affixed a water-mark.
In 1701 a great misfortune overtook the honest craftsmen. The little
stream on which they depended for their water-power experienced a
freshet of such fury that the mill was swept away and entirely
destroyed, and all machinery, stock, tools and much personal property
carried away in the flood.
Nothing daunted they resolved to begin anew. They chose another site a
short distance below the first mill and in 1702 a mill, better than the
original, was erected.
In the new mill Bradford still retained an interest but Claus
Rittenhouse would not renew his monopoly on the mill’s supply. On June
30, 1704, Bradford sold his share in the mill, and from that day the
paper mill became a Rittenhouse concern and so continued for
generations, until the mill had been rebuilt a fourth time, when it was
converted into a cotton factory.
William Rittenhouse died February 18, 1708, and was succeeded in the
business by his son, Claus. Both father and son were also Mennonite
preachers.
Claus continued to supply not only Bradford in New York, but the home
market in Germantown and Philadelphia. Bradford paid partly in fine rags
for his paper.
A second paper mill was erected in 1710, in Germantown, by William De
Wees, a brother-in-law of Claus Rittenhouse, under whom he learned the
trade of papermaking. Claus Rittenhouse obtained possession of this mill
in 1713, and it was operated for many years.
When Andrew Bradford established The American Mercury, in Philadelphia,
December 22, 1719, the first newspaper ever printed in the British
Middle Colonies, the paper for his Mercury was made at the Rittenhouse
mill.
Claus Rittenhouse, the second papermaker in America, died in May, 1734,
aged sixty-eight. He was born in Holland, June 15, 1666. He was the
grandfather of David Rittenhouse, the American astronomer, who was also
treasurer of Pennsylvania during the Revolution.
----------
Canal System Started with Committee Report
of February 19, 1791
In the earliest days, before railroads and steam power were developed,
water communication was the popular mode of commercial transportation.
The spirit of the early settlers in Pennsylvania was alive with the idea
of internal improvement, and very early they were anxious to reach out
toward the western empire that was to become the promised land and
furnish food for the world. The ultimate result of this vision was the
construction of the grand system of canals connecting the navigable
rivers, Delaware and Ohio, by which products of the States and
Territories to the westward could be carried to Philadelphia, the
metropolitan seaport city of Pennsylvania.
William Penn fostered the idea and recommended a scheme to connect the
Susquehanna at what is now Middletown with Philadelphia by uniting the
waters of the Schuylkill River at Reading with those of Tulpehocken
Creek and the Quittapahilla, which flowed into the Swatara ten miles
westward and thence into the Susquehanna at Middletown.
As early as 1761 Commissioners were appointed by the Proprietaries to
clear, scour and make the Schuylkill navigable for boats, flats, rafts,
canoes and other small vessels, from the ridge of mountains commonly
called the Blue Mountains to the river Delaware. This action was the
initial step in the formation of the Schuylkill Navigation Company.
The broad river itself in many portions was concentrated into pools
forming slack water navigation and these pools were connected by
sections of canals with a depth of six feet of water, passing boats with
a capacity of 200 tons.
The committee appointed in January, 1791, to examine the report of the
Commissioners who explored the Delaware and western waters of the
Susquehanna, reported February 19. They considered the Delaware toward
New York State and to Lake Ontario; the Lehigh and Schuylkill, the
latter with the object of reaching Harrisburg; the Juniata and the north
and west branches of the Susquehanna.
The several principal canals of the State in the order of the dates in
which they were created by acts of Assembly, and from which all others
were either extensions or feeders, were as follows:
1. Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company, created September 29,
1791, passed through the counties of Dauphin, Lebanon and Berks. It
began at Columbia on the Susquehanna and extended to the mouth of the
Juniata, then later on up along that river to Hollidaysburg at the
eastern base of the Allegheny Mountains—a total length of 171 miles.
2. Delaware and Schuylkill, April 10, 1792, in Berks, Montgomery and
Philadelphia Counties.
3. Conewago Canal in York County, April 10, 1793.
4. Brandywine Canal and Lock Navigation, April 10, 1793.
5. Lehigh Navigation, February 27, 1798, in Northampton and Luzerne
Counties. A total of forty-six miles.
6. Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, February 19, 1801.
7. Concocheague Navigation, February 7, 1803; connected Chambersburg
with the Potomac.
8. Conestoga Lock and Dam Navigation, March 17, 1806, in Lancaster
County, was an improvement of Conestoga Creek by locks and dams from its
mouth to the city of Lancaster, a distance of fourteen miles.
9. Union Canal Company, April 2, 1811, connected the Susquehanna at
Middletown to the Schuylkill two miles below Reading; length eighty-two
miles. There was also a branch canal and feeder twenty-two miles in
length with a railroad of four miles to Pine Grove coal mines.
10. Neshaminy Lock Navigation, March 26, 1814.
11. Schuylkill Navigation, March 8, 1815, in Schuylkill, Berks,
Montgomery, Chester and Philadelphia Counties. This began at Port Carbon
on Schuylkill, and ran to Philadelphia, a distance of 108 miles.
12. Lackawanna Navigation, February 5, 1817, a part of the Delaware and
Hudson Canal, from Honesdale on the Lackawaxen to the mouth of that
stream, a distance of twenty miles.
13. Monongahela Navigation, March 24, 1817, in Fayette, Greene,
Westmoreland, Washington and Allegheny Counties. From Johnstown on the
Conemaugh, at the western base of the Allegheny down the Conemaugh,
Kiskiminetas and Allegheny to Pittsburgh—distance, 105 miles.
14. Octoraro Navigation, March 29, 1819.
15. Conewago Canal, east side, March 29, 1814.
In the report of Canal Commissioners made in 1827 was this paragraph:
“In the latter end of May the location of a line from the mouth of the
Juniata to Northumberland was commenced, beginning at Duncan Island, and
extending up the west side to a point opposite Northumberland.” This
canal was thirty-seven miles in length.
The North Branch began at Northumberland and extended to two miles below
Wilkes-Barre, and later extended to New York State line.
The West Branch began at Northumberland and ran to Muncy Dam, a distance
of twenty-six miles, but later was extended to Bald Eagle, where it
united with the Erie Canal.
After extensive surveys made in 1824 and 1825, the Commonwealth entered,
in the year 1826, into the actual construction of an extended system of
internal improvements and continued the annual expenditure of large sums
of money for canals and railroads for fifteen years, or until 1841.
Ground was broken at Harrisburg for the building of the Pennsylvania
Canal, on July 4, 1826. By the year 1834 a total of 673 miles of public
works had been completed, at a time when the credit of the State was
good. But unfortunately too extensive a system was undertaken and the
works were not constructed or managed with economy. The debt of 1834 had
mounted to twenty-three millions. By 1841 it reached forty-two millions,
and the State defaulted even the interest on these bonds and all work
ceased.
----------
French and Indian War Started by Arrival of
Braddock’s Troops February 20, 1755
The French and Indian War opened April 17, 1754, when Ensign Ward was
surprised by the appearance of a large French force, under Contrecoeur,
while he was engaged in completing a stockade at the forks of the Ohio.
The Ensign was obliged to surrender his position to the superior forces
and retreat.
Governor Hamilton strongly urged the Pennsylvania Assembly to organize
the militia and aid the Virginians, but they questioned the right of
Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia to invade the Province of Pennsylvania
and charged his action as impudent.
Virginia raised a force of 300 men, under command of Colonel Fry and
Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, and near the Great Meadows, in
Pennsylvania, a detachment of the French forces, under Jumonville, which
had been sent to intercept the Virginians, was defeated and Jumonville
killed.
Colonel Washington erected Fort Necessity near this point, and upon the
death of Colonel Fry was promoted to the command.
Washington led the small column against Fort Duquesne, but a large
French force compelled the Virginians to fall back upon their stockade.
The French, under M. de Villier, attacked them and, after a desperate
defense, Washington was obliged to capitulate.
In October, 1754, Governor Hamilton was succeeded by Robert Hunter
Morris, who assumed his duties at the same time that a new Assembly was
elected. At the session in December the Governor laid before it the
royal order for a concert of action with the other colonies, commanding
them to act vigorously in defense of their own province and to aid the
other colonies to repel every hostile invasion.
The Assembly appropriated £40,000 of which £20,000 was for the King’s
use, redeemable by the excise in twelve years, the balance to supplant
the torn and defaced bills of former issues.
Great Britain determined to oppose the growing power of France in
America, and ordered two regiments of foot from Ireland, under command
of Colonels Dunbar and Halkett, to Virginia, to be there reinforced;
other troops were ordered to be raised in America, 2000 in New England,
3000 in Pennsylvania, which were to be placed at the disposal of a
commander-in-chief, who would be sent over for that purpose.
Pennsylvania was, in addition, required to supply the foreign troops on
their arrival with provisions and all necessaries for the soldiers
landed or raised in the Province; also to provide the officers with
means for traveling; and to impress carriages and quarter troops. All
the expense of this program was to be borne by the Province; whilst
articles of more general concern would be charged upon a common fund to
be raised from all the colonies of North America, of which the Province
of Pennsylvania would be required to bear its proportionate share. The
Governor of Pennsylvania was also directed to urge the Assembly to
contribute liberally, until a union of the northern colonies for general
defense could be effected. At this late day it would appear that the
mother country depended more on Pennsylvania and Virginia than on all
her other possessions in North America; and more on Pennsylvania than on
Virginia for men and provisions.
Governor Morris and the Assembly fenced for position on the proposition
of a grant of an enormous sum for the King’s use. Neither side would
yield. Finally the Assembly borrowed, on the credit of the House, £5000,
to be expended in the purchase of fresh provisions, for the use of the
King’s troops on their arrival, and appointed a committee to negotiate
the loan. This action was unquestionably arrived at in an effort to
prove to the Crown that their disposition was to assist the mother
government, if treated by the Proprietary as they had a right to expect.
On January 14, 1755, Major General Edward Braddock, Sir John St. Clair,
Adjutant General, and the regiments of Colonels Dunbar and Halkett
sailed from Cork. They arrived at Alexandria, Va., February 20, whence
they marched to Fredericktown, Md.
The place of debarkation was selected with that ignorance and want of
judgment which distinguished the British Ministry. Neither the country
of Maryland nor Virginia could furnish provisions or carriages for the
army, while Pennsylvania, rich in grain and well stocked with wagons and
stock, could readily supply food and the means of transportation
required by officers and men in moving an army to any point.
The Assembly could hardly feel otherwise at such a move, than that
either the British ministry or Major-General Braddock was prejudiced
against the government of this Province, so Dr. Franklin was sent to
General Braddock, to undeceive him.
While Franklin was yet with the army the return of the wagons obtainable
was made to the general, from which it appeared that there were not more
than twenty-five, and not all these serviceable.
Braddock was so thoroughly disgusted with this condition of affairs that
he declared the expedition at an end and exclaimed against the Ministers
who would send him into a country destitute of the means of
transportation. Franklin expressed his regret that the army had not been
landed in Pennsylvania, where such means abounded. Braddock seized his
words and at once commissioned him on liberal terms to procure 150
wagons and 1500 pack horses.
Franklin immediately returned to Philadelphia and circulated
advertisements through the counties of Lancaster, York and Cumberland,
and by a clever address obtained in two weeks all the wagons, 250 pack
horses and much popularity for himself.
Franklin stated in his address that he found General Braddock incensed
at the delay of the horses and carriages he had expected from
Philadelphia, and was disposed to send an armed force to seize
carriages, horses and drivers necessary to the service. But that he,
apprehending the visit of British soldiers in their present temper would
be very inconvenient to the inhabitants and that he was desirous to try
what might be done by fair and equitable means; and that now an
opportunity was presented of obtaining £30,000 in silver and gold, which
would supply the deficiency of the Provincial currency. He expended £800
received from the general, advanced £200 from his own purse and gave his
personal bond for the payment of the value of such horses as should be
lost in the service. The claims made upon him in consequence of this
engagement amounted to £20,000, and were not settled by the Government
until after much trouble and delay.
----------
State Capital Removed to Harrisburg by Act
of February 21, 1810
Very soon after the close of the Revolution there began an agitation
about the removal of the seat of the State Government from Philadelphia.
In March, 1787, the Assembly, then a single branch, resolved that
Philadelphia was “an unfortunate location” and expressed by their votes
its determination to build a State house at Harrisburg on a plot of
ground the property of the Commonwealth, etc., being four and a half
acres, conveyed by John Harris in 1785. Harrisburg was then a town of
nearly 600 inhabitants.
Action was not taken, but again in subsequent sessions, as in 1795, the
House voted thirty-six to thirty-four in favor of moving the seat of
Government to Carlisle. The Senate did not concur.
In 1798 the House agreed to remove to Wrightsville, York County,
“without delay.” Again the Senate refused to concur.
But in 1799 the effort in favor of removal was crowned with success.
Both branches voted this time to remove to Lancaster, then a town of
great importance, by far the most considerable in the interior.
Accordingly, in December, 1799, the Legislature met in Lancaster,
continuing to do so until the spring of 1812, when the seat of
Government was removed to its present location in Harrisburg.
The provisions of the Constitution now require that no removal can
hereafter be made without the consent of the people at a general
election, and, although there have been many attempts made to relocate
at Philadelphia and elsewhere since 1812, it is hardly probable that any
other city or section will ever be acceptable to the citizens.
It appears the choice of Lancaster was not as satisfactory as expected
as agitation for another removal was almost immediately commenced. On
December 9, 1801, a motion was made by Stacy Potts, of Dauphin County,
seconded by Mr. Lord Butler, of Luzerne County, calling for the
appointment of a committee to consider and report on “the most eligible
place to fix the permanent seat of government of this State.” The House
voted to consider the report, January 13, 1802, but nothing further was
done during that session, except an attempt to introduce the measure
under a fresh dress. A measure was introduced for the erection of a
structure for the “safe preservation” of the State papers. Under this
thin disguise, the subject of removal was very skillfully avoided by
those opposed to removal in a debate extending through December, 1802,
and ending latter part of the following January.
Senator Laird, January 4, 1809, presented the petition of sundry
inhabitants of the town of Northumberland, at the forks of the
Susquehanna, setting forth the central situation of that growing town,
and showing the advantages of fixing the State government there,
offering accommodations for the officers of the State and members of the
Legislature, and praying a removal of the seat of government thither.
This petition was referred to a committee consisting of Senators Laird,
Heston, Doty, Hiester and Laycock.
The committee shortly after submitted a report recommending the removal
of the seat of government to the town of Northumberland. The Senate,
however, when the report was under consideration, struck out the word
“Northumberland,” and from that moment onward the subject was constantly
agitated.
On February 17, 1809, the Senate, in Committee of the Whole, endeavored
to have the words “City of Philadelphia,” inserted as the place for the
seat of government, but, on vote, the motion was lost when only eight
Senators supported the motion. Then another effort to insert the name of
Northumberland was made, also Middletown, and Harrisburg. Northumberland
received only seven votes, but when Harrisburg was voted upon the Senate
supported it by a vote of fourteen to ten, but the House refused to
consider the bill during that session. No further action was taken until
February, 1810, when a bill passed both branches of the Legislature and
became a law, February 21, 1810.
This act consisted of ten sections and provided “that within the month
of October, 1812, all the offices attached to the seat of government of
this State shall be removed to the Borough of Harrisburg,” etc.
Robert Harris, George Hoyer and George Ziegler were named in the act as
commissioners to superintend and direct the removal of books, records,
papers and other documents, etc., and to provide good and suitable rooms
and apartments for the accommodation of the Legislature and the State
departments.
The Governor was directed to accept “on behalf and in the name of the
Commonwealth the offer of ten acres of land in or adjoining the said
Borough of Harrisburg, at $100 per acre, made by William Maclay,
adjoining to the four-acre lot formerly appropriated by John Harris for
the use of the State,” etc.
Appropriations were made for the payment of this land and for the
erection of office buildings. The Governor was authorized to appoint
three commissioners to fix upon a site, procure plans for and
superintend the erection of the buildings.
Governor Simon Snyder appointed William Findlay, Richard M. Crain,
George Bryan, John B. Gibson and William Gibbons as commissioners and
they selected Stephen Mills as architect.
A supplement to the act passed February 7, 1812, provided that all the
offices should be removed to Harrisburg during the month of April. A
second supplement passed March 10, 1812, directed “the clerks of the two
houses, on or before the 1st of June next (1812), to remove or cause to
be removed all the papers, records, books and documents belonging to
each house aforesaid, together with whatever furniture may be thought
fit for removal.”
From these records it is ascertained that the Government of the State
was removed in all its departments, in the year 1812, from Lancaster to
Harrisburg, and that the first organization at the latter place was in
December of that year.
The first sessions of the Legislature were held in the old court house.
The cornerstone of the capitol was laid Monday, May 31, 1819, by
Governor William Findlay. The construction was rapidly pushed forward,
and the building made ready for occupancy in December, 1821.
The Legislature met in the new capitol, Wednesday, January 2, 1822, when
proper ceremonies were held in honor of the event. This building was
destroyed by fire February 2, 1897.
The present magnificent capitol building was constructed by a Commission
composed of Governor William A. Stone, Edward Bailey, William P. Snyder,
Nathan C. Schaeffer and William H. Graham. Other officers of the
commission were T. L. Erye, superintendent; Robert K. Young, general
counsel; Edgar C. Gerwig, secretary; Joseph M. Huston, architect, and
George F. Payne, contractor.
The capitol was dedicated, October 4, 1906, when President Roosevelt
delivered the oration, and was entertained at luncheon by Governor
Pennypacker.
----------
Service and Captivity of Captain John Boyd,
Born February 22, 1750
One of the distinguished patriots of the Continental Army during the
Revolution was Captain John Boyd, a frontiersman, who suffered Indian
captivity and lived to rejoin his family and again become one of the
foremost citizens of his time.
The Boyd family gained a foothold in America when John Boyd, the
emigrant from the North of Ireland, landed on these shores in 1744, and
settled in Chester County. He married Sarah De Vane, and they removed to
Northumberland County, where they continued to reside until their
decease. They were the parents of three patriotic sons—John, born
February 22, 1750; Thomas, born in 1752, and William, born in 1755.
William Boyd was a lieutenant in the Twelfth Regiment of the Continental
Line, under Colonel William Cooke. He fell at the Battle of Brandywine.
Thomas Boyd was a lieutenant in General John Sullivan’s command when he
made his successful campaign against the Six Nations in Northern
Pennsylvania and Southern New York in 1779. Lieutenant Boyd was in
charge of a scouting detail on the march when he was captured by the
Indians and Tories under command of Colonel John Butler, near Little
Beard’s Town, in the Genesee.
Boyd was surrounded by a strong detachment of the enemy, who killed
fourteen of his men. He and a soldier were captured and only eight
escaped. When General Sullivan learned of Boyd’s fate the advance was
quickened in the hope they could reach him, but on arriving at Genesee
Castle his remains and those of the other prisoners were found,
surrounded by all the horrid evidences of savage barbarity. The torture
fires were yet burning. Flaming pine knots had been thrust into their
flesh, their fingernails pulled out, their tongues cut off and their
heads severed from their bodies.
John, the eldest brother, was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the
Continental Army in May, 1777, which rank he held until February, 1781,
when he received a captain’s commission from the State of Pennsylvania,
which had resolved to raise and equip three companies of Rangers for the
defense of the western frontier, then sorely distressed by the hostile
incursions of the savages. It was to the command of one of these
companies, that Captain John Boyd was promoted.
In June, 1781, while marching his men across the Allegheny Mountains, he
fell into an ambuscade of Indians near the headwaters of the Raystown
branch of the Juniata River, in Bedford County, and was made a prisoner
with a number of his soldiers, and led captive through the wilderness to
Canada.
Captain Boyd was confined during his imprisonment in Canada on an island
in the St. Lawrence, near Montreal.
In the spring of 1782 an exchange of prisoners took place and he was
returned to Philadelphia with a number of his fellow soldiers.
Previous to his capture he had been engaged in the Battles of White
Plains, Germantown, Brandywine and Stony Point. He was one of the fifty
who composed the “forlorn hope,” led by Mad Anthony Wayne at Stony
Point, who met within the fort. He was at West Point and witnessed the
execution of the unfortunate Major Andre.
At the time of the ambuscade Captain Boyd was wounded during the
skirmish, but after his capture and in spite of his wounds, he made a
desperate effort to escape by running, but was pursued and received
three terrible gashes in his head with a tomahawk when he was
re-captured.
The Indians immediately struck across the country, reaching the West
Branch of the Susquehanna near the mouth of the Sinnemahoning Creek.
They also had another prisoner named Ross, who was wounded even more
severely than Boyd, and could travel no farther. He was fastened to a
stake, with his arms tied behind his back; his body was cut with sharp
points and pitch-pine splinters stuck into the incisions; the fire was
lighted and the savages danced around him in fiendish glee. His tortures
were terrible before death relieved him.
During this tragic scene Captain Boyd, faint from the loss of blood, was
tied to a small oak sapling, in such a position that he could not
refrain from being a silent spectator of the horrible scene; realizing
that he was soon to suffer the same tortures.
He summoned up all his courage and resigned himself to his fate.
Certainly his thoughts must have reminded him of the sufferings of his
heroic brother only two years before, almost in the same manner.
While the incarnate fiends were making preparations to torture him to
death by inches, he sang a pretty Masonic song, with a plaintive air
which attracted their attention and they listened to it closely until it
was finished. At this critical moment an old squaw came up and claimed
him for her son. The Indians did not interfere and she immediately
dressed his wounds and attended to his comfort, carefully guarding him
during their journey to Canada.
This old squaw accompanied Captain Boyd to Quebec, where he was placed
in a hospital and attended by an English surgeon. When he recovered he
was turned out on the street without a penny or a friend.
He found a Masonic Inn and made himself known to the proprietor who
cared for him until he was exchanged.
The old squaw who befriended him belonged to the Oneida tribe. Captain
Boyd remembered her kindly as one of his best friends and frequently
sent her presents of money and trinkets. On one occasion he made a
journey north to visit her in her aboriginal home and personally thank
her for saving his life.
Captain Boyd, in partnership with Colonel William Wilson, operated a
mill on Chillisquaque Creek, Northumberland County, for many years.
He was one of the surviving officers who enjoyed the provisions of the
act of Congress, May, 1828.
He was a delegate to the convention which ratified the Federal
Constitution December 12, 1787.
He was an elector of President and Vice President in 1792, when he voted
for Washington and Adams. He was appointed by President Washington
Inspector of Internal Revenue for Pennsylvania. He also served as
Register and Recorder of Northumberland County.
Captain Boyd married May 13, 1794, Rebecca, daughter of Colonel John
Bull, famous Revolutionary officer. They were the parents of five
daughters and two sons. He died February 23, 1831.
----------
Simon Girty, the Renegade, and Indians
Attacked Fort Laurens, February
23,1779
Brigadier General Lachlan McIntosh, who had been sent by Congress and
General Washington to restore peace on the harried western frontier of
Pennsylvania, relieved General Edward Hand of his command at Fort Pitt.
A treaty of peace with the Delaware Indians was concluded September 17,
1778, and General McIntosh immediately prepared an expedition against
the British post at Detroit.
On October 1, the army, consisting of 1300 troops, of whom 500 were
regulars of the Eighth Pennsylvania and Thirteenth Virginia, marched
from Fort Pitt down the Ohio, to the mouth of the Beaver.
Four weeks were occupied in building a fort within the present town of
Beaver, which was named Fort McIntosh, in honor of the commanding
officer.
A herd of lean cattle arrived at Fort McIntosh November 3, and on the
5th the army began its march, but they did not reach the Tuscarawas
River until November 19.
In accord with a provision in the treaty with the Delaware, General
McIntosh was pledged to erect a protection for the Indian women and
children. During the march to the Tuscarawas a Delaware chief was shot
by a Virginia militiaman, and many Indians deserted the American force.
General McIntosh, with great reluctance, determined not to continue the
campaign so late in the year, and to employ the troops and make a show
of enterprise, he began the construction of a stockade fort at
Tuscarawas, where the army then encamped and from which place it would
again set out in the spring on another attempt against Detroit.
The fort was named Fort Laurens, in honor of the President of the
Continental Congress.
Before this fort was finished General McIntosh realized he could not get
forward a sufficient quantity of provisions to maintain his large force
in the Indian country long enough even for an expedition against the
Sandusky towns.
The Virginians were enlisted only until the end of the year, the weather
became intensely cold, starvation and deep snows threatened, which
seemed enough to discourage any commander and the general was forced to
march his army to the Ohio.
He left 150 men of the Thirteenth Virginia, under command of Colonel
John Gibson, one of the stoutest-hearted of the frontiersmen. Colonel
Daniel Brodhead, of Northampton County, with a detachment of the Eighth
Pennsylvania, formed the winter garrison at Fort McIntosh, while General
McIntosh took up his quarters at Fort Pitt much chagrined over his
disappointments.
The little garrison at Fort Laurens experienced a terrible winter. They
were short of food and clothing. The troops hunted until driven out of
the woods by the hostile Indians.
The erection of this fort in the very heart of the Indian country
greatly provoked the Wyandot, Miami and Mingo tribes, and they plotted
its destruction. Early in January, 1779, they began to prowl about the
post.
General McIntosh promised to send provisions to the post by the middle
of January, and Captain John Clark, of the Eighth Pennsylvania, was sent
from McIntosh with fifteen men to convoy the pack horses loaded with
flour and meat to the relief of the post on the Tuscarawas.
This detail reached the fort January 21, and two days later set out on
their return to the Ohio. Three miles from the fort the party was
attacked from ambush by seventeen Mingo Indians, under the leadership of
Simon Girty, the renegade and Tory, and two soldiers were killed, four
wounded and one captured.
Captain Clark was forced back to Fort Laurens, but a few days afterward
he again started and led his little detail through without molestation.
Girty led his captive soldier to Detroit, and while there raised a much
larger force and returned to the vicinity of Fort Laurens, where he
arrived about the middle of February.
Fort Laurens was now surrounded by a band of 200 Miami and Mingo Indians
led by Girty and Captain Henry Bird. Colonel Gibson succeeded in sending
a messenger through the savage lines, who carried the distressing news
to General McIntosh.
On February 23, 1779, a wagon was sent out from the fort under an escort
of eighteen soldiers to haul some firewood which had been cut by the
troops. About a half a mile from the fort the little party passed an
ancient Indian mound behind which a band of Indians lay hidden. The
Indians burst upon them, both front and rear, and every man in the
detail was killed and scalped except two, who were taken prisoners.
The Indians then planned a regular siege upon the fort and endeavored to
starve the garrison into surrender.
Colonel Gibson dispatched another messenger, who eluded the watchful
Indians and reached Fort McCord March 3.
In the interim the condition in the garrison became desperate. A sortie
in force was contemplated but the strength of the savages caused this
plan to be abandoned. The Indians paraded over the crest of the hill
within plain sight, and about 850 warriors were counted. It was
afterward learned that 200 had been marched to make a show, four times
the strength.
Captain Bird after this stratagem, sent in a demand for surrender,
promising safe passage for the soldiers to Fort McIntosh, but Gibson
sternly refused. The Indians then promised to withdraw if Gibson would
furnish them with a barrel of flour and a barrel of meat.
Bird believed the garrison was reduced to its last ration and would, of
necessity, refuse the request, and therefore he felt certain that in a
few days the garrison must surrender.
Gibson had but a few barrels of food, and that in bad condition; but he
quickly complied with the demand, sent out two barrels and said he had
plenty yet inside. They enjoyed a feast on the flour and meat, and on
the following day left that vicinity and returned to their towns in
Northwestern Ohio.
On March 23, General McIntosh appeared with his relieving force of 300
regulars and 200 militia escorting a train of pack horses with
provisions. For more than a week the men had subsisted on roots and soup
made by boiling raw hides.
The famished troops sallied forth, and fired a volley to express their
joy. The shooting frightened the pack horses, causing them to stampede
through the woods, scattering food in every direction. Many of the
horses were never recovered and the food lost.
By the middle of May the garrison was compelled to return to Fort
McIntosh to escape actual starvation. The fort was finally dismantled
and the men returned to Fort Pitt.
----------
General Jacob Brown, Hero of War of 1812,
Died February 24, 1828; Native of
Pennsylvania
When General Jacob Brown died in Washington, D. C., February 24, 1828, a
monument was erected over his remains in the historic Congressional
burial ground, which bore the following inscription:
“Sacred to the memory of General Jacob Brown. He was born in Bucks
County, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of May, 1775, and died in the city of
Washington, commanding-general of the army, on the 24th of February,
1828.
“Let him who e’er in after days
Shall view this monument of praise,
For honor heave the patriot sigh
And for his country learn to die.”
Then this surely was an unusual man and such is the fact.
He was born of Quaker parentage, in the house long since known as the
Warner mansion, about three and a half miles below Morrisville, on the
banks of the Delaware River, where his father lived until the son Jacob
was grown, and they removed to New York toward the close of the century.
From his eighteenth to his twenty-first year Jacob Brown taught school
at Crosswicks, N. J., and passed the next two years in surveying lands
in Ohio.
In 1798 he opened a select school in New York City, and at the same time
studied law.
Some of his newspaper essays attracted the attention of General
Alexander Hamilton, to whom he became secretary while that officer was
acting General-in-Chief of the army raised in anticipation of a war with
France.
When those war clouds disappeared Brown went to northern New York,
purchased lands on the banks of the Black River, not far distant from
Sackett’s Harbor, and founded the flourishing settlement of Brownsville,
where he erected the first building within thirty miles of Lake Ontario.
There Brown became county judge; colonel of the local militia in 1809;
brigadier general in 1810; and, in 1812, received the appointment of
commander of the frontier from Oswego to Lake St. Francis, a line two
hundred miles in extent.
During the War of 1812–14, he performed most conspicuous service,
receiving two severe wounds in battle.
At the second attack upon Sackett’s Harbor, May 27, 1813, when the news
of the approach of the British squadron reached there Colonel Backus was
in command. General Jacob Brown was at his home, a few miles distant. He
was notified and arrived before dawn of the 28th. He sent expresses in
all directions to summon the militia to the field, and fired guns to
arouse the inhabitants.
As rapidly as the militia came in they were armed and sent to Horse
Island, where it was expected the enemy would attempt to land. On the
appearance of some American gun boats the British squadron went out on
the open lake. But when the enemy discovered the real weakness of the
defenders, the squadron returned on the morning of the 29th and landed a
large force on Horse Island.
The militia had been withdrawn from the island to the mainland, and fled
at the first fire of the invaders.
This disgraceful conduct astonished General Brown, who rallied his
troops, when he discovered the store houses and a ship in flames, set on
fire by Americans who believed their militia was in full retreat. This
caused General Brown to redouble his exertions to rally the militia. He
succeeded, and so turned the fortunes of the day in favor of his
country.
When Sir George Prevost, mounted on a high stump, saw the rallying
militia on his flank and rear, he believed them to be American
reinforcements and sounded a retreat.
For his conduct in the defense of Sackett’s Harbor, Brown was made a
brigadier in the United States Army.
General Brown made the only redeeming movement in Wilkinson’s
disgraceful expedition down the St. Lawrence River against Montreal,
November, 1813. Brown captured and held the post at the foot of the
rapids, which movement permitted the union of the several armies, or the
defeat would have been even more disastrous.
General Brown was severely wounded at the repulse of the British at Fort
Erie, August 15, 1814.
Both parties prepared to renew the contest, and General Brown remained
in command. On September 17, he stormed the attacking forces by a sortie
from the fort, and won a brilliant victory. This saved Fort Erie with
Buffalo, and the stores on the Niagara frontier.
Public honors were bestowed upon Generals Brown, Porter and Ripley.
Congress presented each with a gold medal.
To the chief commander, General Brown, it was said, “no enterprise which
he undertook ever failed,” and the city of New York gave him the freedom
of the city in a beautiful gold box. The Governor of New York presented
him with an elegant sword.
At the function in New York City, held February 4, 1815, Mayor DeWitt
Clinton presided, and the aldermen and principal citizens hailed him as
the hero of Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane.
The citizens of Philadelphia gave him a great public banquet at
Washington Hall, Chief Justice Tilghman presiding, and Major Jackson,
vice president.
The sanguinary battle near the cataract of the Niagara is known in
history as the battle of Lundy’s Lane.
The British had just been defeated (July 5, 1814), at Chippewa, and were
smarting under the disgrace of having their veteran troops defeated by
raw Americans.
General Brown was ably supported by General Scott in this action and
both were severely wounded. The command devolved upon General Ripley who
disobeyed General Brown’s orders, lost the advantage of a brilliant
victory, and was soon replaced by General E. P. Gaines.
At the close of the war, General Brown was retained in command of the
northern division of the army, and was made general-in-chief, March 10,
1821, which exalted position he held with honor and credit till his
death.
----------
Andrew McFarlane Captured by Indians at
Kittanning February 25, 1777
The Indian depredations along the Ohio River in the fall of 1776 began
along its eastern shore, when small parties of the Mingo tribe made
incursions among the settlements, inflicting only slight damage. But in
the spring of 1777, the outrages became general and more destructive.
The first outrage was on the frontier of Westmoreland County when Andrew
McFarlane was captured at an outpost of Kittanning.
McFarlane soon after the close of the French and Indian War, made his
way west to Fort Pitt, where he engaged in the Indian trade with his
brother James. When the territorial dispute with Virginia became acute,
in January, 1774, Andrew McFarlane was appointed a justice of the peace
by Governor Penn and he vigorously upheld the Pennsylvania authority.
Captain John Connolly, at the head of his Virginia militia, interrupted
the sessions of the Pennsylvania court at Hannastown, April, 1774, and
arrested three Pennsylvania justices, who resided in Pittsburgh; Andrew
McFarlane, Devereux Smith and Captain Aeneas Mackay. They were taken as
prisoners to Staunton, Va., and there detained four weeks, until
released by order of Governor Dunmore.
On the evening of his arrest in Pittsburgh, McFarlane managed to send a
letter to Governor Penn, in which he said: “I am taken at a great
inconvenience, as my business is suffering much on account of my
absence, but I am willing to suffer a great deal more rather than bring
a disgrace upon the commission which I bear under your honor.” One
result of his arrest indicates that McFarlane did not really suffer much
during his captivity at Staunton for there he met and married Margaret
Lynn Lewis, daughter of William Lewis, famed in the military history of
Virginia.
Andrew and James McFarlane, to escape exactions and persecutions of
Virginia military authority, removed their store, in the autumn of 1774,
to Kittanning, at that time the extreme limit of white settlements
toward the North. Here they prospered.
When the Iroquois tribe began to give concern to the settlers on the
western frontier, after the Revolution opened, the Continental Congress
in July 1776, ordered the raising of a regiment consisting of seven
companies from Westmoreland and one from Bedford, to build and garrison
forts at Kittanning, Le Boeuf and Erie and protect that region from
British and Iroquois.
These troops were promptly raised under command of Colonel Aeneas
Mackay, with George Wilson, lieutenant colonel, and Richard Butler, as
major. This regiment rendezvoused at Kittanning preparatory to an
advance up the Allegheny, to build two other forts.
A call was received for the regiment to march eastward, across the
State, and join the hard-pressed army of General Washington, then near
the Delaware. This regiment obeyed the call, in spite of a storm of
protest on the frontier, and became known as the Eighth Pennsylvania.
The long march began early in January, 1777.
Many settlers believed the western frontier was not in imminent danger
but Andrew McFarlane was not one of these. As soon as Mackay’s regiment
departed Justice McFarlane begged of the Westmoreland Commissioners that
a company of militia be sent to Kittanning. He could hardly restrain his
neighbors from running away, and during the late winter many did flee,
leaving McFarlane and two clerks the only men at the place.
There were many stores left at Kittanning by Colonel Mackay but no
soldiers could be spared to guard them. In this emergency Samuel
Moorhead, who lived at Black Lick Creek, undertook the formation of a
company of volunteer rangers. He chose McFarlane as his lieutenant, and
these two spent much time trying to recruit a small company from the
scattered settlers.
The story of the capture of Andrew McFarlane is preserved in two forms:
One is gathered from letters written at the time, while the other is a
tradition handed down in the Lewis family of Virginia. The Lewis story
is now preserved in a history of Lynchburg, Va., and is in part as
follows:
“When Margaret Lynn Lewis married Mr. McFarlane, of Pittsburgh, and left
the parental roof, she traveled through a wilderness infested with
hostile Indians till she reached that place. Once, when they least
apprehended danger, a war whoop was heard, her husband taken prisoner,
the tomahawk raised and she averted her eyes to avoid witnessing the
fatal stroke.
The river was between them and she, with her infant and maid servant, of
course endeavored to fly, knowing the inevitable consequences of delay.
After starting, the servant reminded Mrs. McFarlane of her husband’s
money and valuable papers, but she desired the girl not to mention
anything of that sort at such a moment; but, regardless of the commands
of her mistress, the servant returned to the dwelling, bringing with her
all of the money and as many of the papers as she could hold in her
apron, overtaking, in a short time, her mistress, as the snow was three
feet deep. On looking back she saw the house in flames, and pursuing
their journey with incredible fatigue, reached the house of Colonel
Crawford, a distance of fourteen miles.
The contemporary account of this event is found in letters from the
frontier, written to the officers of the Pennsylvania Government at
Philadelphia and made public in later years. “Two British subalterns,
two Chippewa and two Iroquois Indians were sent by the commandant of
Fort Niagara, to descend to Allegheny.
“On February 25, 1777, they arrived opposite the little settlement of
Kittanning. Standing on the shore, they shouted toward the far shore,
calling for a canoe. Thinking the Indians had come to trade or to bring
important news McFarlane decided to venture across. The instant he
stepped from his boat he was seized by the savages and told he was their
prisoner. His capture was witnessed by his wife and some men at the
settlement.”
At the time Andrew McFarlane was captured, his brother James was a
lieutenant in the First Pennsylvania of the Continental Line. It was
through his personal efforts that Andrew was exchanged, in the fall of
1780. The released man immediately rejoined his wife and child at
Staunton, and they soon afterward returned to the vicinity of
Pittsburgh. Kittanning being deserted and exposed, Andrew McFarlane
opened a store on Chartier’s Creek, where he lived for many years.
His eldest son, Andrew, doubtless the infant whom Mrs. McFarlane carried
in her arms when she fled from Kittanning, became one of the pioneer
settlers on the Shenango, near the present New Castle, Pa., and his
descendants are numerous in Lawrence County.
----------
Westmoreland County, Last Under Proprietary,
Erected February 26, 1773
The county of Westmoreland was erected by the Assembly of the Province
of Pennsylvania by an act of February 26, 1773. It was the eleventh
county in Pennsylvania and the last erected under the Proprietary
Government. Like all the other counties, except Philadelphia, it
received its name from a county in England.
In 1771 this wide region was included in the county of Bedford, but
settlements grew so rapidly west of the mountains during the year 1772
that a new frontier county was demanded. The evacuation of Fort Pitt by
the British troops in the fall of 1772 also led the frontiersmen to
demand a stronger civil government.
When Westmoreland was erected it included all the Province west of
Laurel Hill, being what is broadly known as Southwestern Pennsylvania
and included what is now Westmoreland, Fayette, Washington, Greene, and
the parts of Allegheny and Beaver Counties south of the Ohio River and
about two-thirds of Indiana and one-third of Armstrong County, a total
area of 4,700 square miles.
While this was the area of Westmoreland County in the intent of the
Provincial Government, it was restricted in fact by Virginia’s seizure
and government of a large portion of the territory.
A general settlement of the country west of the Allegheny Mountains did
not begin until after the land office was opened in April, 1769.
The settlers flocked into this new region from two directions. The Scots
from the Cumberland Valley and other settled posts of the Province made
their way westward along the Forbes military road and planted their
cabins along its course. These men were loyal Pennsylvanians, and they
held their lands under the Provincial Government. Other Scots came from
the South, principally from the Old Dominion; they crossed the mountains
by the Braddock road and occupied the fertile lands along the
Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers and Chartiers Creek. These men were
Virginians and believed their settlements were still within that
territory.
A lively contest was carried on between Pennsylvania and Virginia for
control of this region, and the organization of Westmoreland County had
signal influence in strengthening the Pennsylvania authority, especially
when sixteen magistrates were commissioned to administer justice within
its boundaries.
The county seat was established at Robert Hanna’s little settlement on
Forbes Road, about thirty-five miles east of Fort Pitt, and here at
Hannastown, the first Pennsylvania court, west of the mountains, was
held April 13, 1773. It was a Court of Quarter Sessions and William
Crawford presided. These proceedings stirred up the Virginia
authorities.
The Earl of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, took forcible possession of
the disputed territory. He appointed John Connolly, of Pittsburgh,
“captain commandant of Pittsburgh and its dependencies.”
Connolly mustered the militia under the Virginia law, seized and
garrisoned Fort Pitt, 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.
Pennsylvania had no militia law at that time and was powerless to resist
the usurpation.
By this action upon the part of Virginia the territory of Westmoreland
County, during the period of the Revolution, was limited to about half
its actual area. It was not until the summer of 1780 that Virginia
finally agreed to accept the results of a joint survey which would
extend the southern boundary line of Pennsylvania to a distance of 5
degrees of longitude west of the Delaware River.
Ligonier Valley, which extends along the eastern border of the county,
was well settled by 1775, the largest settlement being Ligonier, where
the British had built a fort in 1758. The principal citizen here was
Captain, afterwards General Arthur St. Clair, a Scotchman who served
under Wolfe at Quebec and afterwards became the agent of the Penn family
in Western Pennsylvania.
Settlements also became numerous west of Chestnut Ridge, along the
Loyalhanna and its tributaries, as far as Hannastown on the Forbes Road.
Derry settlement was to the north of the road, between the Loyalhanna
and the Conemaugh. Nearly all the settlers were Scots from Ulster, or
their immediate descendants, with a sprinkling of Irish of Presbyterian
faith. There was another Ulster settlement at the Braddock road crossing
of Big Sewickley Creek, while lower down that stream were cabins and
blockhouses of German emigrants from the Rhine Palatinate.
The Virginia settlers along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny were a
generation or more removed from the old country, but were nearly all of
Scotch stock. The richest of these brought their slaves with them from
Virginia, who were held in bondage long after the Revolution.
The traders and principal citizens in the vicinity of Fort Pitt were
members of the Church of England; it was from among these that the Tory
sentiment developed during the Revolution. Old Westmoreland was,
however, decidedly a Scotch and Calvinistic settlement.
The Scotch pioneers were bold, stout and industrious men, sharp at
bargains, fond of religious and political controversy and not strongly
attached to government either of the royal or the proprietary brand. In
nearly every cabin could be found three principal articles, the Bible, a
rifle and a whiskey jug. Their hatred of the treacherous Indian was a
strong characteristic.
In 1775 the most prominent representatives of the Pennsylvania
interests, in addition to General Arthur St. Clair, were Colonel John
Proctor and Colonel Archibald Lochry, who lived near the Forbes Road,
west of Chestnut Ridge; Robert Hanna and Michael Huffnagle, of
Hannastown; James Cavet and Christopher Hays, of Sewickley; John Ormsby,
Devereux Smith and Aeneas Mackay, traders and storekeepers at
Pittsburgh; Edward Cook, near Redstone, and George Wilson, whose
plantation was in the very heart of the Virginia sympathizers, on the
Monongahela at the mouth of George’s Creek.
----------
Early Days of Witchcraft in Pennsylvania—Two
Women on Trial February 27, 1683
The most conspicuous of the early provincial tribunals and by far the
best known to the present-day reader was the Provincial Council. Its
duties were at once executive, legislative and judicial.
The judicial functions discharged by the members of the Council were
both interesting and important, and the volume of such business was very
great. Its members were regarded by all classes as the supreme judges of
the land.
The trial of Margaret Mattson, which took place on February 27, 1683,
before William Penn himself, is of great interest, both on account of
the peculiarity of the accusation and the notoriety it has acquired as
illustrating the temper of our ancestors.
The records of the early Provincial Council contain this item:
“1683, 7th, 12th mo., Margaret Mattson and Yethro Hendrickson were
examined and about to be proved witches; whereupon this board ordered
that Neels Mattson should enter into a recognizance of fifty pounds for
his wife’s appearance before this board on the 27th instant. Hendrick
Jacobson doth the same for his wife.”
“27th of the 12th mo. Margaret Mattson’s indictment was read, and she
pleads not guilty, and will be tryed by ye country.”
It is a matter of historical interest that the Council was then composed
of William Penn, Proprietor and Governor, and James Harrison, William
Biles, Lasse Cock, William Haigue, Chris Taylor, William Clayton and
Thomas Holmes.
The Grand Jury was as follows: Robert Euer, foreman; Samuel Carpenter,
Andrew Griscom, Benjamin Whiteman, John Barnes, Samuel Allen, John
Parsons, Richard Orne, John Day, John Fisher, John Barnes, Gunner Rambo,
Enoch Flower, Henry Drystreet, Thomas Mosse, Thomas Duckett, Dennis
Lince, Thomas Phillips, Thomas Millard, John Yattman and Harnaby Wilcox.
The petit jury was composed of John Hastings, foreman; Robert Wade,
William Hewes, John Gibbons, Albortus Hendrickson, Nathaniel Evans,
Jeremiah Collett, Walter Martin, Robert Piles, Edward Carter, John
Kinsman and Edward Bezac.
The evidence adduced against the prisoner was of the most trifling
character, and such as now would be scouted from the witness-box of a
court of justice.
“Henry Drystreet, one of the Grand Jurors attested, saith he was tould
20 years agoe that the prisoner at the Barr was a witch and that
severall cows were bewitcht by her, also that James Sunderling’s mother
tould that she bewitcht her cow but afterwards said it was a mistake and
that her cow should doe well againe for it was not her cow but another
persons that should dye.
“Charles Ashcom attested, saith, that Anthony’s wife being asked why she
sould her cattle was because his mother had bewitcht them having taken
the witchcraft off of Hendricks cattle and put on their oxen, she might
keep but noe other cattle; and also that one night the Daughter of the
Prisoner called him up hastily and when he came she sayd there was a
great Light but just before and an old woman with a knife in her hand at
the Bedd’s feet and therefore shee cryed out and desired Jno. Symcock to
take away his calves or else she would send them to Hell.
“Annakey Coolin attested, saith, her husband tooke the heart of a calfe
that dyed as they thought by witchcraft and Boyled it whereupon the
Prisoner at the Barr came in and asked them what they were doing, they
said boyling of flesh, she said they had better they had boyled the
bones with severall other unseemly Expressions.
“Margaret Mattson saith that she values not Drystreets Evidence but if
Sunderlin’s mother had come she would have answered her also denyeth
Charles Ashcoms attestation at her soul and saith where is my daughter
lett her come and say so.
“Annakey Coolin’s attestation concerning the Gees she denyeth, saying
she was never out of her conoo, and also that she never said any such
things concerning the calves heart.
“The Prisoner denyeth all things and saith that ye witnesses speake only
by hear say.
“After which the Govr. gave the jury their charge concerning ye Prisoner
at ye Barr.
“The jury went forth and upon their Returne brought her in Guilty of
having the common fame of a witch but not Guilty in the manner and forme
as she stands indicted.
“Neels Mattson and Anthon. Neelson Enters into Recognizance of fifty
pounds apiece for the good behavior of Margaret Mattson for six months.”
In 1695 Robert Roman, presented by the grand inquest of Chester County
for practicing geomancy according to Hidon, and divining by a stick. He
submitted himself to the bench and was fined £5, and his books, Hidon’s
Temple of Wisdom, Scott’s Discovery of Witchcraft, and Cornelius
Agrippa’s Geomancy, were ordered to be taken from him and brought into
Court.
In 1701 a petition of Robert Guard and his wife was read before Council,
setting forth “That a certain strange woman lately arrived in this town,
being seized with a very sudden illness after she had been in their
company on the 17th instant, and several pins being taken out of her
breasts, one John Richards Butler and his wife Ann charged the
petitioners with witchcraft and as being the authors of the said
mischief.” A summons was issued accordingly, but the matter, being
judged trifling, was dismissed.
Even as late as 1719, the Commissions to the justices of Chester County
empowered them to inquire of all “witchcrafts, enchantments, sorceries
and magic arts.”
George Shrunk, of Germantown, known as “Old Shrunk,” was a great
conjuror and many persons from Philadelphia and elsewhere went to him to
learn where stolen goods were secreted and to have him tell their
fortunes. They believed he could make any thieves stand still, while
they desired to run away. They believed he could tell them where to dig
for money and hidden treasures, and this brought “Old Shrunk” much
business, for the idea was very prevalent that the pirates of
Blackbeard’s day had deposited treasures along the Delaware and
Schuylkill Rivers.
----------
Towns Laid Out in Erie County by Act of
Assembly, February 28, 1794
The frontiers of Pennsylvania had not been seriously harassed by the
Indians since the close of the Revolution, but late in 1793 they again
became restive and early in the following year so many depredations had
been committed along the western frontier of the State that the Assembly
on February 28, 1794, passed an act for enlisting soldiers for the
defense of the Delaware River and the western frontiers. At the same
time efforts were made toward the laying out of a town at Presqu’ Isle,
“in order to facilitate and promote the progress of settlement within
the Commonwealth and to afford additional security to the frontiers
thereof.”
Governor Mifflin transmitted to the President of the United States a
copy of this act, apprehending the difficulties which soon manifested
themselves. Prior to this he had sent to Captain Ebenezer Denny a
commission, giving him command of the Allegheny Company, which was
ordered to protect William Irvine, Andrew Elliott and Albert Gallatin,
who had been appointed Commissioners to lay out the town. For the same
object a post had been established at Le Boeuf, two miles below the old
French fort of the same name.
The three Commissioners were instructed to lay out 1,600 acres for town
lots and thirty-four acres for out-lots at Erie, the town lots to
contain about one-third of an acre and the out-lots to contain five
acres. In addition, sixty acres were reserved for the use of the United
States near the entrance of the harbor for forts, etc. Upon completion
of the surveys the Governor was authorized to offer at auction one-third
of all the lots, conditioned upon the building upon the lots within two
years of a house with a stone or brick chimney.
The troops were busily employed to protect the surveyors from the
incursions of the Indians. Miss Sanford in her History of Erie County
says:
“Thomas Rees, Esq., for more than half a century a citizen of Erie
County, made a deposition in 1806 as follows: ‘Thomas Rees of Harbor
Creek Township, in Erie County, farmer, being sworn according to law,
etc. I was appointed deputy surveyor of District No. 1 north and west of
the rivers Ohio, Allegheny and Connewango Creek, now Erie County, in
May, 1792, and opened an office in Northumberland County, which was the
adjoining. The reason of this was, all the accounts of the country north
and west of the rivers, Ohio, Allegheny, and the Connewango Creek,
represented it as dangerous to go into the country. In the latter part
of said year I received three hundred and ninety warrants, the property
of the Penn Population company for land situated in the Triangle and
entered the same year in my book of entries. In 1793 I made an attempt
to go; went to the mouth of Buffalo Creek to inquire of the Indians
there whether they would permit me to go into my district to make
surveys. They refused and added that if I went into the country I would
be killed. At the same time I received information from different
quarters which prevented me from going that year.
“‘In 1794 I went into District No. 1, now Erie County, and made surveys
on the three hundred and ninety warrants, mentioned above in the
Triangle, except one or two for which no lands could be found. Among the
surveys made on the warrants above mentioned, was that on the warrant in
the name of John McCullough.
“‘Before I had completed I was frequently alarmed by hearing of Indians
killing persons on the Allegheny River, in consequence of which, as soon
as the surveys were completed, I moved from the country and went to
Franklin, where I was informed that there were a number of Indians
belonging to the Six Nations going to Le Boeuf to order the troops off
that ground. I immediately returned to Le Boeuf. The Indians had left
the place one day before I arrived there. I was told by Major Denny,
then commanding at that place, that the Indians had brought General
Chapin, the Indian agent, with them to Le Boeuf; that they were very
much displeased, and told him not to build a garrison at Presqu’ Isle.
“‘There were no improvements made, nor any person living on any tract of
land within my district during the year 1794.
“‘In 1795 I went into the country and took a number of men with me. We
kept in a body, as there appeared to be great danger, and continued so
for that season. There was no work done of any consequence, nor was any
person, to my knowledge, residing on any tract within my district. In
the course of the summer the Commissioners came on to lay out the town
of Erie, with a company of men to guard them.
“There were two persons killed within one mile of Presqu’ Isle, and
others in different parts of the country. Such were the fears that
though some did occasionally venture out to view the lands, many would
not. We all laid under the protection of the troops. I sold, as agent of
the Penn Population Company, during that season, 79,700 acres of land,
of which 7,150 acres were a gratuity. The above quantity of land was
applied for and sold to 200 persons. That fall we left the country,’”
Captain Martin Strong, of Waterford, who had arrived at Presqu’ Isle the
last of July, 1795, said:
“A few days previous to this a company of United States troops had
commenced felling the timber on Garrison hill, headed by General
Elliott, escorted by a company of Pennsylvania militia commanded by
Captain John Grubb, to lay out the town of Erie. We were in some degree
under martial law, the two Rutledges having been shot a few days before
(July 26 or 27) by the Indians near the present site of the present
railway depot.
“In 1795 there were but four families residing in what is now Erie
County. These were the names of Reed, Talmadge, Miles and Baird. The
first mill built in the Triangle was at the mouth of Walnut Creek; there
were two others built about the same time in what is now Erie County;
one by William Miles, on the north branch of French Creek, now Union;
the other by William Culbertson, at the inlet of Conneautte Lake, near
Edinboro.”
In spite of all these preparations, the Legislature suspended the laying
out of a town at Presqu’ Isle, and it was not until April 18, 1795, the
difficulties were removed and the Assembly authorized the laying out of
the towns at Le Boeuf, at the mouth of Conewango Creek, at the mouth of
French Creek and at Presqu’ Isle.
July 25, 1796, the Harrisburg and Presqu’ Isle Company was formed “for
the settling, improving and populating the country near and adjoining to
Lake Erie.”
Erie County was erected March 12, 1800, and Erie named as the place for
holding courts of justice, but it was not organized judicially until
April, 1803, when Judge Jesse Moore held the first court near French and
Third Streets.
----------
Commissioners Appointed to Purchase Last
Indian Lands, February 29, 1784
William Maclay, Samuel John Atlee and Francis Johnson were appointed
February 29, 1784, by the Supreme Executive Council to be Commissioners
to treat with the Indians claiming the unpurchased territory within the
acknowledged limits of the State.
At the close of the Revolution, in 1783, the ownership of a large area
of the territory within the charter boundaries of Pennsylvania was still
claimed by the Indians of the several tribes that were commonly known as
the Six Nations.
The last purchase of lands from these Indians by the Proprietaries was
made at Fort Stanwix, November 5, 1768. The Indian claim, therefore,
embraced all that part of the State lying to the northwest of the
purchase lines of 1768.
As early as March 12, 1783, the General Assembly had passed an act
setting apart certain lands lying north and west of the Ohio and
Allegheny Rivers and Conewango Creek to be sold for the purpose of
redeeming the depreciation certificates given to the officers and
soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line, and for the purpose of making
donations of land to the same officers and soldiers in compliance with a
resolution adopted in 1780.
At the time this resolution was adopted the Indian claim of title to
these lands was still in force, but the authorities were fully alive to
the necessity of securing the right to all the lands within the
State—about five-sixteenths of its area—that remained unpurchased after
the treaty of 1768.
September 25, 1783, the General Assembly placed itself on record in the
form of a resolution which recommended the appointment of a committee to
devise ways and means for this acquisition.
The three persons named as commissioners acknowledged their appointment
to the trust May 17, and recommended that Samuel Weiser, a son of
Colonel Conrad Weiser, a proper person to notify the Indians of the
desire to treat with them, as he was familiar with their language and
customs and could also act as interpreter.
The Continental Congress had likewise appointed Commissioners to meet
the Six Nations for the purpose of purchasing lands beyond the limits of
Pennsylvania, and these arranged for the meeting at Fort Stanwix. The
Commissioners of Pennsylvania reached Fort Stanwix early in the month of
October, where they found some of the tribes already assembled, and with
them the Commissioners of the Continental Congress.
The negotiations continued until the twenty-third of the month, and on
that day ended in an agreement by which the Indian title to all the
lands within the boundaries of the State that remained after the title
of 1768 was extinguished. The consideration agreed upon for this
surrender of their rights was $5,000.
This deed, dated October 23, 1784, is signed by all the chiefs of the
Six Nations and by the Continental Commissioners as witnesses.
The territory thus acquired included a part of the present Bradford,
Tioga, Clinton, Center, Clearfield, Indiana, Armstrong, Allegheny and
Beaver Counties, and all of the land within Crawford, Mercer, Lawrence,
Butler, Venango, Clarion, Forest, Jefferson, Elk, Warren, McKean, Potter
and Cameron Counties and all of Erie County, excepting the small portion
of the Erie triangle which did not become a part of Erie County until
1792.
After the Commissioners had accomplished in so satisfactory a manner the
object for which they journeyed to Fort Stanwix, it became necessary to
appease the Western Indians, the Wyandot and the Delaware, who also
claimed rights to the same lands.
The same Commissioners were therefore sent to Fort Mcintosh, on the Ohio
River, at the site of the present town of Beaver, where in January,
1785, they were successful in reaching an agreement with those Indians
for the same lands. This deed, signed by the chiefs of both tribes, is
dated January 21, 1785, and is in the same words (except as to the
consideration money, which is $2,000) and recites the same boundaries as
the deed signed at Fort Stanwix.
The Indian claim of right to the soil of Pennsylvania, within its
charter limits, had thus, in a period of a little more than one hundred
years ceased to exist.
This large and important division of our great Commonwealth, now teeming
with population and wealth, thriving villages, busy towns and great
cities, was, in 1784, largely an uninhabited and untraversed wilderness.
After the purchase of 1768 a disagreement arose between the Proprietary
Government and the Indians as to whether the creek flowing into the West
Branch of the Susquehanna, and called in the deed “Tyadaghton” was
intended for Lycoming Creek or Pine Creek. The Indians said it was the
former, the proprietaries claimed the latter stream to be the extent of
the purchase, but in order to avoid any trouble that might arise from
the dispute, it was wisely determined that no rights should be granted
for lands west of Lycoming Creek.
This determination, however, did not deter or prevent adventurous
pioneers from making settlements within the disputed territory.
These settlers, being classed as outlaws, were compelled to enter into
an agreement for their government and protection. This resulted in an
organization known as Fair Play Men.
It is handed down as a tradition that they met when and where the
exigencies arose, and on short notice, tried the case at hand.
It is related that when a squatter refused to abide by the decision of
the court, he was immediately placed in a canoe, in which was a small
quantity of food, then rowed to the mouth of Lycoming Creek, the
boundary line of civilization, and there sent adrift down the river.
These Fair Play courts were composed of three commissioners as they were
termed, and after hearing a case and making a decision, there was no
appeal.
After the purchase of 1784 it was discovered that the trouble was likely
to arise with the original squatters and the Legislature passed an act
entitling those who had made actual settlement prior to 1780, the
benefit of pre-emption to their respective possessions.
----------
First Law to Educate Poor Children Signed
March 1, 1802
The same earnest solicitude for public education which made itself
manifest in the settlement of the New England Colonies in an unusual
degree does not run through the early history of Pennsylvania, yet,
outside of the Puritan settlements, there was no other colony which paid
so much attention as Pennsylvania to the mental training of youth.
During the seventeenth century the general character of the province, as
regards the intelligence of its people, stood deservedly high. The
school-house, with its inevitable concomitant, the printing-press, never
at any time ceased to exert its wholesome influence in training up a
population which as regards sobriety, thrift, and all the substantial
qualities that flow from instructions, has never been surpassed by any
other great community.
William Penn, who was one of the most accomplished scholars of his time,
never wearied in pointing out to the colony the advantages of public
education. The Constitution which he proposed for the infant
Commonwealth contains the direction that virtue and wisdom must be
propagated by educating the youth, and that after ages would have the
benefit of the care and prudence of the founders in this respect.
It was one of the provisions of the great law of April 25, 1683, that
“schools should be established for the education of the young” and those
in authority did not long delay in carrying it into practical effect.
On December 26, 1683, the subject of education was brought up in the
Provincial Council, when it was agreed that there existed a great
necessity for a schoolmaster. Accordingly an agreement was entered into
with Enoch Flower, who promised that in conducting such an establishment
as was needed he would charge only four shillings for teaching English
each quarter, six shillings for reading, writing and costing accounts. A
scholar who boarded with him would receive his tuition as well as his
lodging, meals and washing for £10 a year.
This was the first regular English school in Pennsylvania. There had
been schools during the ascendancy of the Swedes and the Dutch. The
former are known to have maintained schools at Chester and Tinicum as
early as 1642, and the Dutch records show that in 1657 Evert Pieterson
came over from Holland, and in the capacity of “schoolmaster, comforter
of the sick and setter of Psalms,” sought twenty-five pupils.
In 1689 George Keith was engaged at a salary of £50 a year, the use of a
house, and the profits of the school for one year, to open a grammar
school in Philadelphia. This institution was a flourishing one for many
years. Here the children of the poor were instructed free of charge, the
schoolhouse being located on Fourth Street, below Chestnut, and
conducted under a charter which had been procured by Edward Shippen,
David Lloyd, John Jones, Samuel Carpenter, Anthony Morris, James Fox,
William Southby and others.
Darby became the seat of a school in 1692. One was established in
Germantown in 1701, with the learned Pastorius at its head.
No church or sect was more active in education than the Moravians, and
schools were established at Germantown, Nazareth, Bethlehem and Lititz.
Christopher Dock, “the pious schoolmaster of the Skippack,” taught a
Moravian school in Germantown, and is the author of the first book on
school teaching published in America.
During the sixty years following the establishment of Keith’s school
there was no attempt made to start schools that would be free to all and
not marked by the distinction between the rich and poor children. This
democratic principle was not clearly formulated and advanced until it
was taken up by Benjamin Franklin in 1749, when he distributed gratis a
pamphlet which soon became productive of important results in the
establishment of the future University of Pennsylvania. Prior to that
time most of the schools in the province were conducted either under
strictly private auspices or under the patronage of religious
denominations.
March 1, 1802, Governor Thomas McKean signed the first law for the
education of the children of the poor gratis, although both the
Constitution of 1776 and that of 1790 provided for the establishment of
“a school or schools in every county.” Owing to the lameness of this
law, it remained a dead statute so far as some of the counties of the
State were concerned.
The City and County of Philadelphia had been erected into “the first
school district of Pennsylvania” in 1818, and in 1822 the City and
County of Lancaster were erected into “the second school district.”
These, termed the Lancasterian methods, were the beginnings of that
glorious system of free education which has been a blessing to our great
Commonwealth.
Up to 1830, the great free-school system, as we now have it, was still
in embryo. The people began to awaken; public meetings were held all
over the State, resolutions were adopted, comparisons with other States
were made. The result was that on March 15, 1834, “An Act to Establish a
General System of Education by Common Schools” was passed. Only a single
member of the House and three Senators voted nay.
Late in 1834 the enemies of free schools attacked the measure all over
the State, and the Senate voted to repeal the act of 1834, but Thaddeus
Stevens saved the measure in the House. By 1848 this school law had
grown much in favor, but it was not until 1874 that the last district in
the State accepted the law. State Superintendent Wickersham then said in
his annual report: “For the first time in our history the door of a
public school house stands open to receive every child of proper age
within the limits of the State.”
The progress of education after 1850 was very rapid. The crowning acts
to make elementary education universal were the free textbook law of
1893 and the compulsory attendance law of 1895.
----------
Pennsylvania on Paper Money Basis When
Bills of Credit Are Issued
March 2, 1722–23
The first bills of credit, or paper-money, issued in the English
American colonies were put forth by Massachusetts, in 1690, to pay the
troops who went on an expedition against Quebec, under Sir William
Phipps.
It was Governor Sir William Keith who first introduced the people of
Pennsylvania to the pleasures and benefits of an irredeemable paper
currency.
There had been great and long-standing complaint about the deficiency of
a circulating medium, for the use of wampum had ceased, and foreign coin
had never become plenty. The course of exchange ran heavily against the
Province, and those who possessed money made enormous profits by the
purchase and sale of bills.
The merchants of England did not ship bank-notes or coin to the
Provinces. They paid for the produce which they purchased here with
English goods, and settled the balances by shipments of sugar, rum,
etc., from Barbadoes and other places in the West Indies, and by Negroes
and indentured servants.
There seems to have been more hard money in Philadelphia than in New
England, for Franklin, a paper-money man, notes in his autobiography how
his fellow-workmen in Boston were surprised when he returned to his
brother’s place in 1724 from Philadelphia. Franklin displayed a handful
of silver, which was a rare sight, for they only had paper-money in
Boston.
When Franklin first visited Philadelphia, in 1723, he noticed with
surprise the free circulation of metallic money among the people of
Pennsylvania. The whole of his own money then consisted of a Dutch
dollar and a shilling’s worth of coppers.
But this condition soon changed for James Logan, in writing to the
Proprietaries late in 1724, says, “No gold or silver passes amongst us.”
The Proprietary demanded sterling money in payment of quit-rents, no
matter what the depreciation of the provincial currency. This was their
right since they had nothing to do either with the emission of the
currency or its depreciation.
As early as 1729 Logan wrote, “I dare not speak one word against it. The
popular phrenzy will never stop till their credit will be as bad as they
are in New England, where an ounce of silver is worth twenty shillings
of this paper. They already talk of making more, and no man dares appear
to stem the fury of popular rage.” Logan at that early date thought the
king should arrest the delusion by proclamation.
The peltries, grain, flour, ships, cooper-stuff, and lumber of
Philadelphia were always good for hard money with a good mercantile
system. But the people were not satisfied.
It is quite likely that wages and small debts were paid almost entirely
in the way of barter instead of money, and this, by the losses it
occasioned produced discontent. The capitalists opposed a change in the
currency, the farmers, laborers, and small trades people favored it.
In the language of petitions sent to the Assembly at this time, the
friends of paper money contended that they were sensibly “aggrieved in
their estates and dealings, to the great loss and growing ruin of
themselves, and the evident decay of the province in general, for want
of a medium to buy and sell with,” and they therefore prayed a paper
currency.
The people of Chester County, on the other hand, asked to have the value
of the current money of the Province raised, the exportation of money
prohibited, and produce made a legal tender, so as to obviate the
necessity for paper money. They did not want a regular State issue, but
nevertheless, like men of more modern greenback times, they wanted an
inconvertible paper money, a non-exportable currency, as if that were a
blessing.
On March 2, 1722–23 an act was passed to issue £15,000. Governor Keith,
in consenting to and promoting this experimental load, had been
encouraged by the popularity of a similar measure matured by Governor
Burnett of New Jersey.
Pennsylvania was the very last of the middle colonies to embark in the
paper money manufacture; but once embarked, she plunged in rapidly and
deeply.
This first small loan of £15,000 was to be redeemed within eight years.
In 1723 £30,000 was issued; in 1740 the issue reached a total of
£80,000.
Benjamin Franklin, who had urged and used his personal influence for
this currency became alarmed and wrote, “I now think there are limits
beyond which the quantity may be hurtful.” He was right.
In 1755 Pennsylvania had £160,000 currency out; and in 1783 the State’s
irredeemable currency had been increased by various issues until it
reached $4,325,000, a sum simply ruinous to all values.
The general plan of these loans was good. No bills were loaned but on
good security. The friends of the system were many.
Paper money was also issued at times by individuals. In May, 1746,
Joseph Gray gave notice that Franklin had printed for him £27,100 in
notes of hand of 2 d., 3 d., and 6 d., “out of sheer necessity for want
of pence for running change. Whoever takes them shall have them
exchanged on demand with the best money I have.”
In 1749 the scarcity of small change was so great that the inhabitants
petitioned for relief, and a committee of the Assembly was appointed to
bring in a bill for the issue of £20,000, mostly in small bills.
An association was formed for issuing paper money to relieve the
pressure for change. Eight reputable merchants issued five-pound notes
to the amount of £20,000, payable at nine months with five per cent
interest. It was soon evident that anyone might do the same thing, and
the community be flooded with valueless currency. It was also at the
same time a new way of borrowing capital. A petition signed by two
hundred tradesmen was presented to the Assembly, which forbade it.
In 1763 the whole paper-money system of the colonies, including that of
Pennsylvania, was outlawed by act of Parliament, when Franklin wrote a
pamphlet, protesting against the act.
This outlawing of colonial money had much to do with prejudicing the
people of the colonies against the rule of Parliament.
----------
General Clark Began Draft for Troops in
Drive Against Detroit, March 3, 1781
The Western frontiers of Pennsylvania were sorely distressed during the
spring and summer of 1781 by the efforts of General George Rogers Clark,
an officer of the Dominion of Virginia, to raise troops for an
expedition in the interest of Virginia against the British post at
Detroit.
Clark received a commission as brigadier general and was given ample
funds with which to purchase provisions in the country west of the
Allegheny Mountains. Also a small force of 140 Virginia regulars was
placed at his service and he was empowered to equip additional
volunteers in the border counties.
Agents were sent in advance of General Clark into the country between
the Laurel Hill range and the Ohio River, who began to buy flour and
live cattle. This caused much uneasiness among the Pennsylvania
militiamen stationed in that country, and Colonel Daniel Brodhead made
complaint to the State Government.
Colonel Brodhead received a letter from General Washington directing him
to give aid to General Clark’s undertaking and to detach from his own
force the field artillery under command of Captain Isaac Craig, and at
least a captain’s command of infantry, to assist the Virginia
expedition.
General Clark arrived on the Pennsylvania frontier March 3 and
established his headquarters at the house of Colonel William Crawford,
on the Youghiogheny, spending part of his time with Colonel Dorsey
Pentecost on Chartiers Creek.
It was generally known by this time that all of Virginia county of
Yohogania and much of the counties of Monongahela and Ohio, claimed as
part of Virginia, really belonged to Pennsylvania, but the actual
boundary line had not been surveyed west of the Monongahela River.
Among the settlers there were many factions, some who would only obey
the laws of Pennsylvania, and who declared that Clark was a Virginia
officer and had no business in Pennsylvania; others adhered to Virginia
authority until the line should be permanently settled. A few took
advantage of the situation and refused to obey either government saying
they did not know which had authority over them, and they had enough to
do to plant and keep their rifles in readiness for the savages.
Clark intended to raise a force of 2,000 men. When he arrived at Colonel
Crawford’s he learned that the frontiers were being raided by bands of
Shawnee from the Scioto, Delaware from the Muskingum and Wyandot from
the Sandusky.
An expedition against those tribes would be more popular among the
Western Pennsylvanians than a campaign against distant Detroit, and
Clark very adroitly made an ostensible change in his plans. He gave it
out that he was going against the Ohio savages, for the immediate
benefit of the Westmoreland frontier, but his real design to conquer
Detroit was not altered.
Colonel Brodhead was not for one moment deceived by General Clark, but
many Pennsylvania officials were. On March 23 Clark wrote to President
Reed, of Pennsylvania, asking his indorsement of the enterprise, for the
effect it might have on the frontiersmen who called themselves
Pennsylvanians.
Colonel Christopher Hays, the Westmoreland County member of the Supreme
Executive Council, was directed to aid Clark’s expedition, but he was at
heart opposed to it.
Colonel Hays called a meeting of all the commissioned officers of the
Westmoreland militia to arrange a plan for the frontier defense. The
officers met June 18, at the home of Captain John McClelland, on Big
Sewickley Creek, and, much to the chagrin of Colonel Hays, decided by a
majority vote to give aid to General Clark. It was resolved to furnish
300 men out of the county militia to join Clark’s army and Colonel
Lochry was directed to see that this quota was raised by “volunteer or
draft.”
This was the initial effort on the Pennsylvania frontier to raise
soldiers by draft and it caused an outcry.
Such prominent citizens as Colonel Pentecost, John Canon, Gabriel Cox
and Daniel Leet worked zealously to recruit men for General Clark, while
county lieutenant Marshel and his adherents were just as active to
defeat the Virginian project. This rivalry, which grew exceedingly
bitter, was fatal to Clark’s enterprise.
Few assembled at the general rendezvous, and Clark began to draft men
for his army. This afforded the rougher element among the Virginians an
opportunity to exploit their hatred toward Pennsylvanians. The draft
proceeded amid pillage, cruelty and personal violence. Virginian raiding
parties scoured the country, seizing and beating men, frightening and
abusing women, breaking into houses and barns and causing a general
reign of terror.
Captain John Hardin was most vigorous in denouncing the Virginia
proceedings and advising against the draft. He owned a grist mill near
Redstone. His eldest son, John, was a lieutenant in the Eighth
Pennsylvania, afterward famous as General John Hardin, of Kentucky.
At the head of forty horsemen General Clark visited Hardin’s settlement
and announced his purpose of hanging the stubborn old pioneer. Hardin
could not be found, but one of his sons was caught and kept bound for
several days. They broke open the mill, fed the grain to their horses,
occupied his dwelling, killed his sheep and hogs for food and feasted
there several days.
General Clark declared Hardin’s estate forfeited for treason. The
general threatened to hang those opposed to the draft, but none were
hanged.
On August 8, Clark began the descent of the Ohio with a force of 400,
but with his spirit broken. The evening of the day he left Colonel
Archibald Lochry arrived with 100 volunteers from Westmoreland County.
These expert riflemen could have been used to advantage by Clark and at
the same time they would have avoided the disaster which befell Lochry
during his effort to join Clark.
Most of Clark’s force deserted him before he reached Louisville, so that
he could not venture upon his march into the enemy’s country. He soon
returned with small detachments, who dispersed to their homes in
Virginia and Pennsylvania.
----------
William Penn Received Charter for Pennsylvania
from King, March 4, 1681
Admiral Sir William Penn, renowned in English history by his martial
valor as an officer of the British Navy, left to his son a claim against
the Government for £16,000, consisting to a great extent of money
advanced by him in the sea service and of arrearages in his pay.
Sir William Penn was in command of an English warship at the age of
twenty-three, when sent to the coast of Ireland to help fight the battle
of Parliament against Charles the First.
When the war with the Dutch followed—caused by the seizure of New
Netherlands—Admiral Penn commanded the English fleet, under the Duke of
York, in a fierce naval engagement off the east coast of England at
Lowestoft, in June, 1665. Just before this battle the admiral’s son,
William Penn, Jr., was sent to the King with dispatches.
Admiral Penn died in 1670, worn out at forty-nine, and his son succeeded
to his estates.
In 1680 William Penn petitioned Charles II to grant him, in lieu of the
sum due to his father’s estate, letter-patent, “for a tract of land in
America, lying north of Maryland, on the east bounded with the Delaware
River, on the west limited as Maryland, and northward to extend as far
as plantable.”
King Charles II was at once willing to grant the petition of William
Penn because he could thus pay the debt owed Sir William. Some of his
counselors objected, saying, that it would be ridiculous to suppose that
the interests of the British nation were to be promoted by sending a
colony of people that would not fight, that would have nothing to do
with gin and gunpowder in dealing with the Indians. But the young Quaker
stood high in the favor of the Duke of York, and of Charles II, and the
King gladly consented to this easy mode of discharging the obligation.
The Duke of York desired to retain the three lower counties, or the
present State of Delaware, as an appendage to New York, but his
objections were finally withdrawn, as were those of Lord Baltimore.
After sundry conferences and discussions concerning the boundary lines
and other matters of minor importance, the committee finally sent in a
favorable recommendation and presented a draft of charter, constituting
William Penn, Esq., absolute Proprietary of a tract of land in America,
therein mentioned, to the King for his approbation; and leaving to him
also the naming of the Province.
The King affixed his signature on March 4, 1681. The original charter is
in the State Library. It is written on three pieces of strong parchment,
in old English handwriting, with each line underscored with lines of red
ink. The borders are gorgeously decorated with heraldic devices, and the
top of the first page exhibits a finely executed likeness of His
Majesty, in good preservation.
Penn wished his province to be called New Wales, but the King insisted
on Pennsylvania. Penn next proposed Sylvania, on the ground that the
prefix “Penn” would appear like a vanity on his part, and not as a mark
of respect for his father; but no amendment was accepted.
The extent of the province was three degrees of latitude by five degrees
of longitude, the eastern boundary being the Delaware River, the
northern boundary “the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of
northern latitude, and on the south a circle drawn at twelve miles
distant from New Castle, northward and westward into the beginning of
the fortieth degree of northern latitude, and then by a straight line
westward to the limits of longitude above mentioned.” The three lower
counties on the Delaware were not included in the charter.
The charter gave title to more than 45,000 square miles of land, and was
among the largest tracts in America ever granted to a single individual.
This grant gave Penn no coast line for his colony; so, August 2, 1682,
he purchased from the Duke of York the “Three Counties Upon the
Delaware,” which now form the State of Delaware. Although these were
separated from Pennsylvania in 1702, they remained a part of the domain
of the Penn family until the American Revolution.
Three things moved Penn to plant a colony in the New World; first, he
would get payment for the amount of £16,000 due his father; secondly, he
would find a place for his brethren, the Quakers, or Friends, where they
would not be openly insulted in the streets, or dragged from their
meeting houses to loathsome jails and robbed of the last bed or cow to
pay the fines for not attending the established church; and thirdly, he
would satisfy the desire which the glowing accounts of the brethren in
the present New Jersey had created in him.
The second of these motives was by far the strongest. Penn himself had
been tried for preaching to “an unlawful, seditious and riotous
assembly.” Penn and his people enjoyed neither religious nor civil
liberty in England.
The charter to Penn sets forth three objects; a desire on the part of
Penn to enlarge the English empire; to promote trade; and to bring the
savage natives by gentleness and justice to the love of civil society
and the Christian religion.
Besides the territory granted, the charter gave Penn the power to make
laws, set up courts, to trade, to erect towns, to collect customs
duties; to make war, to sell lands and to impose taxes.
Copies of all laws were to be sent to England, and if disapproved within
six months they became void. No war was to be made upon any State at
peace with England. Any twenty of the people could request the Bishop of
London to send them a preacher of the Church of England, who was to
reside within the province without being molested.
Penn offered attractive concessions to the settlers. Land was sold to
them at the rate of $10 for 100 acres and every purchaser of lands
should have a lot in the city, to be laid out along the river. In
clearing the ground care was to be taken “to leave one acre of trees for
every five acres cleared.” This was the beginning of forestry in
America.
At the time of the charter the present limits of the State were
inhabited by the Indians, with some Swedes and Dutch settled along the
Delaware.
The first real settlement under the new proprietor was made in 1681,
when Penn sent William Markham, his cousin, to take possession of the
province. The next year Penn himself arrived, bringing in his ship, the
Welcome, a hundred colonists of his own faith, to found Philadelphia,
the city of “Brotherly Love.”
Penn bought the land from the Indians, making a treaty of peace with
them which remained unbroken for more than fifty years. “We shall never
forget the counsel he gave us,” said an Indian chief at Conestoga in
1721.
----------
Colonel Daniel Brodhead Arrives at Fort Pitt
to Fight Indians, March 5, 1779
Colonel Daniel Brodhead was sent to Fort Pitt to relieve General Edward
Hand, and he arrived there March 5, 1779. He was a trained soldier and
knew how to fight Indians.
General Hand turned over to him seven hundred militiamen. Some of these
were stationed at Fort McIntosh, at what is now Beaver, some at Fort
Henry, now Wheeling, W. Va., a few at Fort Randolph, now Point Pleasant,
details at Fort Hand, near Kiskimimetas, near Apollo, and another guard
at Fort Crawford, now Parnassus.
Forts Hand and Crawford were intended to protect the northern border of
Westmoreland County from the raids of the Iroquois who lived on the
upper waters of the Allegheny River.
With the first mild weather of spring the incursions of the savages
began. The Seneca and Munsee descended the Allegheny in canoes and
scattered in little bands throughout the country. They burned cabins,
killed and scalped men, carried off the women and children and household
goods.
Colonel Brodhead put into operation a system of scouting along the
border from one fort to another. From his regulars at Fort Pitt, he
selected his boldest and most experienced frontiersmen and organized
ranging parties and sent them on extended tours through the forests. To
the command of these important details he selected three of the bravest
woodsmen in the Eighth Pennsylvania, Captain Van Swearingen, Lieutenant
Samuel Brady and Lieutenant John Hardin. It was in this service that
Brady won his fame as an Indian fighter.
Samuel Brady’s hatred of the savages was personal and he made it his
business to kill them. In this he was justified in the cruel death of
his brother, James, August 8, 1778, which was followed by the
treacherous murder of his father, the celebrated Captain John Brady,
April 11, 1779.
Samuel Brady received the news of his father’s death about the time he
was chosen by Colonel Brodhead to the command of forest rangers. This
increased his hatred of the red men and moved him to execute vengeance.
Brady and his scouts were clad entirely in Indian fashion. In the forest
excursions they even painted their bodies and faces and wore feathers in
their hair, in imitation of savage warriors.
An attack was made on Ligonier settlement in April. On April 26, one
hundred Indians and Tories attacked Fort Hand, in both affairs defenders
were killed and many captured, and other places were attacked and
habitations burned.
During May, Brodhead kept his scouts out along the upper Allegheny to
give warning of the approach of hostile bands.
Brodhead learned, about June 1, that a large band of Seneca and Tories,
under Colonel John Butler was preparing to descend the Allegheny, and he
dispatched three scouts, in canoes as far as Venango, the present
Franklin. The scouts were discovered and pursued, and narrowly escaped
capture, but brought the news which confirmed the report received by
Brodhead.
The savages penetrated into Westmoreland, where they killed and scalped
a solitary soldier, then attacked the little settlement at James Perry’s
Mills, on Big Sewickley Creek, killed a woman and four children, and
carried off two children, many cattle and much plunder.
Two ranging parties were sent after these marauders. One was marched to
the Sewickley settlement and an attempt was made to follow the trail.
The other band consisted of twenty men under Brady, which ascended the
Allegheny River.
As Brady’s detail advanced one evening along the beach within the mouth
of the Big Mahoning where it empties into the Allegheny, they found many
Indian canoes drawn up and hidden among the shrubbery. The Indians had
gone into camp in the woods, on a little knoll north of the creek, and
were preparing the evening meal when discovered by Brady. They had
hobbled their horses and turned them out to graze. The stream was very
high and the scouts were compelled to ascend it two miles before they
could wade across.
After nightfall Brady and his men hid themselves in the tall grass near
the Indian camp. Brady and Chief Nonowland, laying aside their
tomahawks, knives, powder horns and bullet pouches, crept to within a
few yards of the Indian camp to count the savages and ascertain the
position of the captive children.
One of the Indians suddenly cast off his blanket, arose, stepped forth
to within six feet of where Brady lay, stood there awhile, stretched
himself and then returned to his slumber.
Brady and Nonowland then prepared for an attack at daybreak. The whole
party of scouts made their way through the grass and weeds to a position
as near the camp as was considered safe, and lay awaiting the dawn.
As daylight appeared an Indian awoke and aroused the others. They stood
about the fire laughing and chatting when a deadly volley broke forth
from the rifles of the scouts lying in the bushes. The chief and seven
Indian warriors fell dead and the others, almost naked, fled into the
dense forest, two of them severely wounded. Brady’s own rifle brought
down the chief, and with a shout of almost fiendish triumph he sprang
forward and scalped him.
The traditions of the Brady family say that the chief was none other
than Bald Eagle, who had struck down and scalped Brady’s younger
brother, James, ten months before. Brodhead reported to Washington that
the chief was “a notorious warrior of the Munsee nation.”
The children captured at Sewickley were recovered unharmed and Brady and
his men returned to Fort Pitt with the stolen horses and plunder, the
blankets, guns, tomahawks and knives of the savages and many scalps.
----------
Settlers Attack Pack Trains Near Fort
Loudoun, March 6, 1765
The period immediately following Colonel Bouquet’s successful expedition
against the Indians at Muskingum October, 1764, was one of comparative
peace, but this did not long continue.
A most interesting episode occurred about this time in the Conococheague
Valley, from the North to the South Mountain. The people who had been
driven off had gradually returned and were now determined to make a
better stand against the enemy. They raised a sum of money and recruited
a company of riflemen, of which James Smith was elected captain. They
dressed in Indian fashion and painted their faces red and black like the
Indian warriors.
Two of the officers had long been in Indian captivity, and they drilled
their men in Indian discipline, and so expert did this company become
that it was recognized by the British Government and Captain Smith
received a commission in the regular service under King George III, and
the following year was with Bouquet’s expedition against Muskingum.
George Croghan, the deputy agent for Indian affairs, went to Fort Pitt
in February, 1765, and brought about the meeting with Sir William
Johnson, whereby on May 8, 1765, a definite treaty of peace was made
with the Delaware.
When Croghan set out from Philadelphia for Fort Pitt, March 1, 1765, he
gave a pass for a large number of wagons belonging to Boynton and
Wharton, of Philadelphia, loaded with merchandise, which was intended as
presents for the Indians at Fort Pitt.
But the people of Cumberland County took the law into their own hands to
prevent warlike stores being supplied to savages recently in arms
against them. These goods were hauled to Henry Collins, at
Conococheague, and there he contracted to pack them on eighty-one
horses, by which they were to be delivered into Fort Pitt.
This large transaction alarmed the country and William Duffield raised
and armed about fifty of the trained men of that valley and marched to
Fort Loudoun, where Duffield made a request that this consignment of
goods be stored up until further orders, but this was refused, and on
March 6 the pack train proceeded on its journey.
The same morning a large company started from the house of William
Smith, one of the Justices of Cumberland County. They came up with this
pack train at Sideling Hill, about seventeen miles beyond Fort Loudoun,
when sixty-three of the horse loads were burned or pillaged.
A sergeant and twelve men of the Highlanders sent from the fort, went
through the neighborhood, saved the balance of the goods, captured
several persons, five rifles and four smooth bore guns.
The traders, after losing their caravan, went back to the fort and
complained to the commanding officer. It was then that three hundred
riflemen marched to Fort Loudoun and encamped on the hill in sight of
the fort.
James Smith, a relative of Justice Smith, and the captain who served
with Bouquet, appeared in a few days at the head of a large crowd of his
infuriated neighbors, and declared that they would suffer death to the
last man, rather than let the prisoners be put to jail at Carlisle.
Two months later another caravan of horses laden with liquors, etc., for
the troops at Fort Pitt, under a pass from the commander there, arrived
at Fort Loudoun, about May 1, and were relieved of their burden in the
fort. The drivers led their horses out to pasture, when about thirty
men, with their faces painted black, rushed upon them, flogged the
drivers, killed five horses and burned all the saddles. In the battle
which ensued one of the attacking party was wounded.
Again Captain James Smith led his neighbors to the fort. He was
accompanied by three Justices who demanded right to search the goods in
store there, but intended for transportation to Fort Pitt.
Lieutenant Charles Grant, of the Highlanders, commandant of the fort,
explained that the general had committed the goods to his care, but had
ordered an inventory to be taken before a justice of the peace, but this
inventory could not be taken in the presence of a mob.
The vigilance men threw off the restraints of decent appearance by
issuing the following:
“Advertisement. These are to give notice to all our Loyal Volunteers to
those that has not yet inlisted, you are to come to our Town and come to
our Tavern and fill your Belly’s with Liquor and your mouth with
swearing, and you will have your pass, but if not, your Back must be
whipt and mouth gagged. * * * We will have Grant, the officer of
Loudoun, whip’d or hanged. * * * The Governor will pardon our Crimes,
and the Clergy will give-us absolution, and the Country will stand by
us; so we may do what we please. * * * free toleration for drinking,
swearing, sabbath breaking, and any outrage what we have a mind to, to
let those Strangers know their place. * * * We call it Hell’s town, in
Cumberland County, the 25th May, 1765. Peter’s Township.”
The crowning deed was reserved for May 28. Lieutenant Grant, while
riding about a mile from the fort, was fired upon. His horse started
suddenly at the crack of the rifle and he was thrown off. Captain James
Smith and others seized him, carried him six miles distant and kept him
a prisoner all night in the woods. He was there threatened unless he
agreed to give up all the arms taken from the rioters.
Governor Penn and General Gage were humiliated by these insults to the
King’s uniform and their inability to punish the offenders, but the more
serious concern was in the obstruction of the communication for traders
with their goods to reach the Illinois country, where the French across
the Mississippi, were ready to obtain an influence by commerce.
While allegiance of the Indians was thus jeopardized, white men began to
creep over the mountains and encroach upon land not yet sold by the
aborigines. Red Stone settlement was thus made, at the risk of another
war. Gage sent a detachment of Highlanders to this region to compel all
whites west of the Alleghenies to return to their own provinces, but
those who left soon went back again with others.
On June 4, 1765, Governor Penn declared trade with the Indians open from
June 20 to all inhabitants of the Province who should apply for and
obtain his license.
----------
Andrew Lycans Killed in Attack by Indians
in Wiconisco Valley, March 7,1756
The Wiconisco or Lykens Valley includes that section of the “Upper End”
of Dauphin County that is watered by the Wiconisco Creek and its
branches, save where local names have been given to certain portions,
such as Williams Valley, etc.
In 1732 Andrew Lycans settled on the Swartara Creek, where he took up
250 acres of land. In 1740 he removed to the west side of the
Susquehanna, where he settled between Sherman’s Creek and the Juniata,
in then Cumberland County.
This land had not been included in the last Indian purchase and the
Shawnee Indians, who had a few scattered villages on the Juniata,
complained of the encroachments of these settlers and demanded their
removal. To pacify the Indians the provincial authorities sent, in 1748,
the Sheriff of Lancaster County, with three magistrates, accompanied by
Conrad Weiser, to warn the people to leave at once, but they remained,
determined not to be driven away, at least by threats.
On May 22, 1750, a number of high dignitaries appointed by the
Lieutenant Governor, held a conference at the house of George Croghan,
in Pennsborough Township, Cumberland County. Subsequently, accompanied
by Deputy Sheriff Andrew Work, of that county, they went to the place
where Andrew Lycans and his neighbors lived, took them all into custody
and burned their cabins.
Sheriff Work presented his account for the “removal of trespassers at
Juniata,” in which he asked for ten days’ pay for his “attendance on the
Secretary Magistrates of the County of Cumberland, by his Hon’s. the
Governor’s command to remove sundry persons settled to the northward of
the Kickitania Mountains.” This and the expenses of a messenger sent
from Lancaster amounted to three pounds and seven shillings. Then he
asked for “the Under-Sheriff’s attendance in taking down Andrew Lycan to
prison to Lancaster; other expenses on the journey; two pounds ten
shillings.”
Lycans and his neighbors were subsequently released by order of Governor
Hamilton. Andrew Lycans removed with his family to the east side of the
Susquehanna, beyond the Kittochtinny Mountains, and by permission of the
authorities “settled on a tract of about 200 acres situated on the
northerly side of Whiconesong Creek.” Here he made extensive
improvements.
Until the spring of 1756 these pioneers were not disturbed, but
following the defeat of General Braddock, everywhere along the frontier
the savages began their work of devastation and death.
On March 7, 1756, Andrew Lycans and John Rewalt went out early to feed
their cattle, when they were suddenly startled by the report of two
rifles. Neither of them being harmed, they were able to reach the house,
where they prepared themselves for defense in case of an attack.
The Indians concealed themselves behind a hog-house not far from the
dwelling. John Lycans, a son of Andrew; John Rewalt and Ludwig Shutt, a
neighbor, crept out of the house in an effort to discover the
whereabouts of the savages and get a shot at them, but they were fired
upon by five Indians and each one wounded, Shutt receiving a dangerous
wound in the abdomen.
At this moment Andrew Lycans discovered one of the Indians named Joshua
James near the hog-house and also two white men running away from their
hiding place. Lycans fired and killed James.
Lycans and his party in the house believed this a favorable opportunity
for escape and started from the dwelling, but they were observed and
closely pursued by a score of the enemy.
John Lycans and John Rewalt were too badly wounded to put up much
resistance, but with the aid of a Negro servant they escaped, leaving
Andrew Lycans, Ludwig Shutt and a boy to engage the Indians.
The savages rushed in upon them, and one Indian in the act of striking
the boy with his tomahawk was shot dead by Shutt, while Lycans killed
another and wounded a third Indian.
The Indian killed by Shutt was named Bill Davis. Two others recognized
by Lycans were Tom Hickman and Tom Hayes, all of the Delaware tribe, and
well known in that neighborhood.
This upset in the plan of attack caused the Indians to momentarily cease
their pursuit and Lycans, Shutt and the lad, being exhausted from loss
of blood, sat down on a log to rest themselves, believing they were no
longer in danger. The Indians stood some distance off to keep them in
view, but in spite of this caution, Lycans managed to lead his little
party to a place of safe concealment and later over the mountain into
Hanover Township, where neighbors gave them assistance; but Andrew
Lycans died from his injuries and exposure.
This pioneer martyr left a wife, one son and five daughters. These
returned to their home soon as the danger was over, and on more than one
subsequent occasion were compelled to flee before the marauding savages.
The one attack in which Andrew Lycans was killed is the only occasion
where a life was lost by the Indian incursions in the Wiconisco Valley.
John Lycans, son of Andrew, became an officer in the provincial service,
commissioned July 12, 1762. In June, 1764, he was stationed at Manada
Gap. His mother, Jane Lycans, in February, 1765, had a patent issued to
her for the land on which her husband had located.
The original Lycans cabin stood until about fifty years ago. It was
situated near the present site of Oakdale, a few yards north of the
bridge that crosses the Wiconisco. It was built of hewn logs with
windows about nine inches square, which were also used as port holes.
Andrew Lycans has given his name to the beautiful valley of the
Wiconisco, owing possibly to his fatal encounter with the Indians, March
7, 1756.
Ludwig Shutt recovered from his serious wounds and lived until 1790, and
left a large family, some of his descendants being present residents of
Lykens Valley. John Rewalt subsequently removed to another part of the
province as did John Lycans, following his tour of duty as an officer in
the provincial service.
----------
Frightful Slaughter of Indians at Gnadenhuetten,
March 8, 1782
In the fall of 1781, Pennsylvania frontiersmen decided that their safety
would no longer permit the residence of the Moravian Indians on the
Muskingum, which was about seventy miles from Fort McIntosh, in the
present State of Ohio. Fort McIntosh was on the right bank of the Ohio
River at the mouth of Beaver River, now Beaver, Pennsylvania.
Colonel David Williamson, one of the battalion commanders of Washington
County, gathered a company of 100 men and on November 5 started for the
Tuscarawa Indians to compel the Moravians either to migrate into the
hostile country or to move in a body to Fort Pitt. They found the
village deserted save by a few Indian men and women. Colonel Williamson
conducted these Indians safely to Fort Pitt.
A small settlement of Delaware had already been established near Fort
Pitt. After Colonel Daniel Brodhead destroyed Coshocton, in the spring
of 1781, Killbuck, the chief sachem of the Delaware, with his immediate
kindred and the families of Big Cat, Nonowland and other chiefs, who
remained friends to the American cause took possession of a small island
at the mouth of the Allegheny River, opposite Fort Pitt, where they
built bark wigwams, planted corn and vegetables and otherwise supported
themselves by hunting and the sale of furs. This place became known as
Killbuck Island, afterwards Smoky Island.
Many of this settlement accompanied military scouting parties, and were
of much service in the defense of the Western frontier. Chief Killbuck,
also known as Gelemend, meaning “leader,” became a soldier and officer
in the United States Army. He died in 1811.
In the spring of 1782, which was unusually early, came the marauding
Indians. The first blow fell February 8, when John Fink was killed near
Buchanan’s Fort, on the upper Monongahela. On Sunday, February 10, a
large body of Indians visited the dwelling of Robert Wallace, on Raccoon
Creek, Beaver County. The head of the family being absent at the time,
the savages killed all his cattle and hogs, plundered the house of its
contents and carried away Mrs. Wallace and her three children.
About February 15, six Indians captured John Carpenter and two of his
horses on the Dutch Fork, of Buffalo Creek. They crossed the Ohio at
Mingo Bottom and made off toward the Tuscarawa villages. Four of these
Indians were Wyandot. Two spoke Dutch, and told Carpenter they were
Moravians. On the morning of the second day, Carpenter was sent to the
woods to get the horses. Finding them some distance from the camp fire,
he mounted one of the horses and dashed for Fort Pitt, where he told his
story to Colonel Gibson.
Gibson mustered 160 young men of Washington County, and placed Colonel
Williamson in command of the expedition, which moved immediately. The
Ohio was at flood height and they effected a crossing Monday, March 4,
and hastened along the beaten trail toward Gnadenhuetten on the
Muskingum. As may well be imagined Robert Wallace was an eager volunteer
in this expedition.
They had not proceeded far until they found the torn corpse of Mrs.
Wallace, impaled on the trunk of a sapling, just off the path. The
mutilated body of her infant lay nearby. The infuriated frontiersmen
remounted their horses, reached the environs of Gnadenhuetten in the
evening of March 6, when their scouts brought back word that the village
was now full of Indians.
Colonel Williamson divided his force into three parties, sending one
command to strike the river below the town, a second to cross the stream
above and cut off retreat in that direction, the third forming the
center to advance upon the place directly.
The attack was begun on the morning of March 7, and not a shot was fired
by the center or left. The presence of women and children warned the
frontiersmen that it was not occupied simply by a war party, and Colonel
Williamson quickly learned the Indians were Moravians. No resistance was
made and soon the frontiersmen were conversing with the Indians who
could speak English. In a council the colonel told them they must go to
Fort Pitt, which the Indians appeared willing to do. The Indians sent
messengers down the river to Salem to tell their people to come to
Gnadenhuetten.
The right wing had a more thrilling experience when they found the
Tuscarawas was in flood and too swift for their horses to swim. A young
man named Sloughter swam across to get a canoe, which proved to be a
maple sugar trough, but he paddled it across the swollen stream. The
others stripped, placed their clothing and rifles in the trough, swam
across, pushing the trough before them.
Advancing down the western shore, a solitary Indian was shot and wounded
in the arm. This act was witnessed by another Indian named Jacob, who
sought escape in a canoe, but was killed.
The company advancing upon the Indians working in the corn field, found
them to be Moravians and led them to the village. Soon the Indians from
Salem arrived to the number of 96, all of whom were confined in a log
church, after being disarmed.
An Indian woman was found to be wearing the dress of Mrs. Wallace. The
garment was identified by the bereaved husband. A search of the cabins
was then made which resulted in finding stolen household effects.
The volunteers could hardly be restrained longer. Colonel Williamson
consulted with his captains, some of whom favored the execution of the
whole band. But during this council many Indians were brought before it,
one at a time, and examined. Not one acknowledged his own guilt, but
some confessed that others had been on the war path. Some were even then
in their war paint. These revelations produced such an effect upon the
borderers that the Colonel could no longer resist their outcry for
vengeance. He put the question to a vote and only eighteen of the entire
body of volunteers voted for mercy.
Friday morning, March 8th, the decree of condemnation was executed. The
Indian men were led, two by two, to the cooper shop and there beaten to
death with mallets and hatchets. Two broke away and ran for the river,
but were shot dead. The women were led to another building and slain
like the men.
Only forty of the volunteers participated in the execution of forty men,
twenty women and thirty-four children. It is probable that even the
frontiersmen who stood aside and looked on did not consider their deed a
crime.
The volunteers then burned the Indian village at Schoenbrun, and before
they departed from Gnadenhuetten they set fire to every building. Salem
was also destroyed.
Two weeks later, on Sunday, March 24, some militiamen attacked the
Indians on Killbuck Island. Several Indians were killed. Killbuck and
most of his band escaped in canoes.
General Irvine returned to Fort Pitt from a visit to Philadelphia and
Carlisle the day after the attack and immediately put a stop to the
raids.
----------
County of Bedford Formed from a Part of
Cumberland, March 9, 1771
The county of Bedford was erected March 9, 1771, by an act of the
General Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania.
The entire territory for the new county was cut from Cumberland County.
The commissioners appointed to “run, mark out, and distinguish the
boundary lines between the said counties of Cumberland and Bedford,”
were Robert McCrea, William Miller, and Robert Moore.
The boundaries of the new county embraced the entire southwestern
portion of the State, from the Tuscarora Mountains westward to the Ohio
and Virginia line.
March 21, 1772, at the time Northumberland County was erected, the
limits of Bedford County were more definitely explained. Northumberland
County was given a part of the original territory of Bedford.
The limits of Bedford were afterward reduced by the erection of
Westmoreland in 1773, Huntingdon in 1787, Somerset in 1795, Cambria in
1804, Blair in 1846, and Fulton in 1850. The territory now wholly or in
part of twenty of the present counties of Pennsylvania was in the
original Bedford County.
The name was taken from the county town, which was selected when the
county was erected. The town was so called from the fort of that name,
which had been given to it by Governor John Penn, when, by his order the
fort at Raystown was built. This was in honor of one of the dukes of the
house of Bedford, in England, during the latter part of the reign of
King George II.
The exact date of the building of Fort Bedford is not certain, but there
is no doubt that the place of defense was celebrated during the French
and Indian Wars. It was one of the earliest settlements west of the
Allegheny Mountains. Mr. Jones in his History of the Juniata Valley
claims that the earliest settlement on the Raystown Branch of the
Juniata was made by a man named Ray in 1751, who built three cabins near
where Bedford now stands. He further says: “In 1755 the province agreed
to open a wagon road from Fort Loudon, in Cumberland County, to the
forks of the Youghiogheny River. For this purpose three hundred men were
sent up, but for some cause or other the project was abandoned.”
This road was completed in 1758, when the allied forces of Virginia,
Maryland, and Pennsylvania marched against Fort Duquesne, under General
John Forbes.
A fort was built at this same time at Raystown, and called Fort Bedford.
Mr. Charles N. Hickok, of Bedford, who has written much of the history
of that county, claims that Rae, as he spells the name, defended his
settlement as early as 1751, almost a decade before the soldiers of
Forbes’ exposition arrived there. The settlement was known as “Camp at
Raystown” before General Forbes was encamped there, and his first
official papers were so dated.
Early in April, 1757, Governor Denny ordered Colonel John Armstrong and
his battalion to encamp at Raystown, “a well chosen situation on this
side of the Allegheny Hills between two Indian roads.”
In June following Captain Hance Hamilton led a scouting party from the
“Fort at Carlisle to Raystown, but encountered no Indians.”
On August 16, 1758, Major Joseph Shippen wrote from the camp at
Raystown: “We have a good stockade fort here, with several convenient
and large store houses. Our camps are all secured with good breast works
and a small ditch on the outside, and everything goes well.”
The “Old Fort House,” which is still standing, was a large and
commodious building for the period in which it was erected. It was used
as the officers’ quarters, and was designated as the “King’s House.”
Fort Bedford was the center of much activity during the latter part of
the French and Indian and the Pontiac Wars. At times more than a
thousand troops were quartered there. There are accounts of mutiny among
the troops and other exciting incidents.
In 1763, Fort Bedford was the principal depot for military stores
between Carlisle and Fort Pitt, and in order to further strengthen it,
the small stockades at Juniata Crossing and Stony Creek were abandoned
and the force concentrated at Fort Bedford.
Indians never made an attack upon the fort, but killed, scalped, or took
prisoner, eighteen persons, in that immediate neighborhood.
The town of Bedford was laid out by Surveyor-General John Lukens, in
1766.
Following the Pontiac War Colonel James Smith, and his celebrated band
of “Black Boys,” were conspicuous for several years and kept the Indians
in check and administered a lasting rebuke to the Proprietary Government
when it attempted to furnish food and clothing to the Indians on the
western frontier.
The history of Fort Bedford was celebrated by the visitations of such
celebrities as Generals Forbes and Washington, Colonels Armstrong,
Bouquet, Burd and others.
The first white child born at Raystown was William Fraser.
The county buildings, court house and prison, were arranged for in the
act which erected the county. The first session of court was held April
16, 1771, before “William Proctor, Jr., Robert Cluggage, Robert Hanna,
George Wilson, William Lochrey, and William McConnell, Esquires,
justices of our Lord the King.” William Proctor was the first sheriff,
and Arthur St. Clair was appointed first prothonotary, recorder, and
clerk of the court.
The first attorney to be sworn was Robert Magraw.
The names recommended to the Governor for license as tavern-keepers were
Margaret Fraser, Jean Woods, Frederic Naugel, George Funk, John
Campbell, Joseph Irwin, John Miller, and Samuel Paxton.
Bedford County became an active unit in the State and when the
Revolution broke out she sent her best men into the State Conventions
and during all that long struggle for independence performed her full
duty to Pennsylvania and the colonies.
Bedford County has had some illustrious sons among whom were Hon. Thomas
Smith, Hon. Jonathan Walker, Hon. Charles Huston, Hon. John Tod, Hon.
Jeremiah S. Black, all members of the Supreme Court, and other high
offices; United States Senator Hon. William Wilkins, and Hon. John S.
Carlisle, who served as United States Senator from West Virginia, and
others
The medicinal springs at Bedford are widely and justly celebrated, and
the town is one of the most attractive resorts in all this country.
----------
Organization of Sixty-seven Counties of
Pennsylvania Began with Philadelphia,
March 10, 1682
The three original counties of Pennsylvania were Philadelphia, Chester
and Bucks. Some authorities claim Philadelphia was the original county
and the others formed soon thereafter. These authorities give the date
of the erection of Philadelphia County as March 10, 1682.
Pennsylvania historians generally agree that the three were originally
erected at the same time by William Penn. Philadelphia extended toward
the northwest, bounded on either side by its neighboring counties, Bucks
and Chester.
Bucks was called Buckingham in a letter written by William Penn to the
Society of Free Traders in 1683. At that time its northern boundary was
the Kittatinny Mountains, or as far as the land might be purchased from
the Indians—a very indeterminate line.
Chester County included what is now Delaware County, and all the
territory, except a small portion now in Philadelphia County southwest
of the Schuykill, to the extreme limits of the Province.
The first county to be formed in addition to the three original counties
was Lancaster, which was taken from the territory of Chester County May
10, 1729. Its boundaries then comprised “all the province lying to the
northward of the Octararo Creek, and westward of a line of marked trees
running from the north branch of the said Octararo Creek northeasterly
to the Schuylkill.” This new county was first reduced in size August 19,
1749, when York County was cut from its territory; and secondly on
January 27, 1750, when the big county of Cumberland was erected from
Lancaster. The limits of Cumberland then included the whole country west
to the boundary of the State, or as far as the preceding Indian
purchase.
Bucks County was reduced in size when Northampton County was erected
from its territory, March 11, 1752, and on the same day the County of
Berks was erected from Philadelphia, Bucks and Lancaster. Thus the
Province of Pennsylvania continued with the eight counties until March
9, 1771, when Bedford was formed from Cumberland, the first of the many
counties taken from her territory.
Northumberland County was erected March 21, 1772, from parts of
Lancaster, Cumberland, Berks, Bedford and Northampton. On account of
Indian purchases now reaching to the western boundaries of the State,
the limits of Northumberland reached to the western and northern
boundaries of the State. Her territory was so extensive that she has
been known as “The Mother of Counties,” and all or parts of thirty of
the present counties of Pennsylvania have been taken from the original
territory of “Old Mother Northumberland.”
February 26, 1773, was erected the County of Westmoreland, whose
territory was taken from Bedford County. It then included the entire
southwestern section of the State. The next county to be erected was
Washington, on March 28, 1781, and its territory was taken from
Westmoreland, as was the County of Fayette, formed September 26, 1783.
Thus, Westmoreland was considerably reduced in size within ten years
from its organization.
Franklin County was erected September 9, 1784, and its territory taken
from Cumberland. The following day, September 10, 1784, Montgomery
County was formed from a part of Philadelphia County, the last territory
to be taken from the original county.
March 4, 1785, Dauphin was cut off from Lancaster; September 25, 1786,
Luzerne was erected from Northumberland, and September 20, 1787,
Huntingdon was formed from Bedford.
Allegheny County was formed from Westmoreland and Washington Counties,
September 24, 1788. Mifflin was formed from Cumberland and
Northumberland Counties September 19, 1789.
Old Chester County lost part of its territory when Delaware County was
cut from it September 26, 1789. Thus the county which comprised the most
ancient settlements in Pennsylvania was now formed into the new County
of Delaware, and the organization of counties in the southeastern part
of the State completed.
When the County of Lycoming was cut from Northumberland, April 13, 1795,
it was for years the largest county of the State. Four days later the
County of Somerset was formed from Bedford. Green County was cut from
Washington February 9, 1796, thus completing the formation of counties
in the southwest corner of the State.
The next county to be formed was that of Wayne, which was set off from
Northampton March 21, 1797, and formed the northeastern corner of the
State.
Adams was erected from York January 22, 1800, and February 13 following
Center was formed from parts of Northumberland, Lycoming, Mifflin and
Huntingdon, and March 12 eight new counties—Armstrong, Beaver, Butler,
Crawford, Erie, Mercer, Venango and Warren—were formed. Thus, the
remaining corner of the State was organized. The counties were taken
from Lycoming and Allegheny, Westmoreland furnished a part of Armstrong
and Washington yielded up a portion for Beaver, but Allegheny furnished
the largest amount of territory for the new counties.
Indiana was cut from Westmoreland and Lycoming, March 30, 1803.
Six new counties were erected on March 26, 1804, when Cambria,
Clearfield, Jefferson, McKean, Potter and Tioga were formed. The latter
four being taken from Lycoming, while Northumberland helped with
Clearfield, but Cambria was cut from parts of Huntingdon, Somerset and
Bedford. Bradford and Susquehanna, were formed February 21, 1810, the
former from Lycoming and Luzerne and the latter from Luzerne alone.
March 11, 1811, Schuylkill was formed from Berks and Northampton. March
6, 1812, Lehigh was taken from Northampton, and February 16, 1813,
Lebanon was erected from Lancaster and Dauphin. Columbia and Union were
erected March 22, 1813, both being taken from Northumberland. Pike was
cut from Wayne, March 26, 1814, and Perry was taken from Cumberland,
March 22, 1820.
The State remained thus until Juniata was formed, March 2, 1831, from
Mifflin; Monroe was taken from Northampton and Pike, April 1, 1836;
Clarion was taken from Venango and Armstrong, March 11, 1839, and on
June 21 following Clinton was formed from Lycoming and Center. Wyoming
was erected from Luzerne, April 4, 1842, and Carbon was formed from
Northampton and Monroe, March 13, 1843. April 18 following, Elk was cut
from Jefferson, Clearfield and McKean.
Blair was formed February 26, 1846 from Huntingdon and Bedford; Sullivan
was taken from Lycoming, March 15, 1847; Forest was formed from
Jefferson and Venango, April 11, 1848; Lawrence from Beaver and Mercer,
March 20, 1849; Fulton was cut from Bedford, April 19, 1850, and little
Montour was taken from Columbia, May 3, of the same year.
Snyder was formed from Union March 2, 1855, and March 29, 1860, Cameron
was cut from parts of Clinton, Elk, McKean and Potter.
The last of the sixty-seven counties of Pennsylvania is Lackawanna which
was cut from Luzerne, August 13, 1878.
----------
Public Education Established by Governor
George Wolf, Who Died March 11, 1840
George Wolf, the seventh Governor of Pennsylvania, was born in Allen
Township, Northampton County, August 12, 1777, and died March 11, 1840.
He attended a classical school established in the county by a society
formed for the purpose, which was presided over by Robert Andrews, A.
M., a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. Here he acquired a good
knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages and of the sciences usually
pursued in a liberal education. Leaving school he took charge of his
father’s farm and also acted as principal of the academy in his native
township. Before his majority he acted as clerk to the prothonotary, at
the same time studying law under the direction of John Ross.
He early espoused the political principles of Thomas Jefferson, and when
the latter became President he appointed Mr. Wolf Postmaster at Easton,
and shortly after Governor Thomas McKean appointed him Clerk of the
Orphans’ Court of Northampton County, which office he held until 1809.
In 1814 he was elected a member of the Legislature, and in 1824 he was
elected a Representative in Congress, a position he acceptably filled
for three terms.
In 1829 he was chosen Governor of Pennsylvania over Joseph Ritner.
Mr. Wolf was not an active aspirant for the office of Governor and
received the nomination without knowing that any considerable strength
in the convention was in his favor. He accepted the nomination,
abandoned his lucrative practice and entered vigorously into the
campaign.
At this period there began to be a change in the political horizon of
the state. A fearful crusade was made against secret societies, which
were denounced as tending to subvert government.
Commencing in the New England States, the reported abduction of a
traitor to the Freemasons in Batavia, New York, assisted to spread
rapidly the contagion, and party lines were almost equally drawn in the
State of Pennsylvania. The Federal party lost its identity, and the
Anti-Masons sprang up like mushrooms. Their candidate, Joseph Ritner,
was defeated at the first election by seventeen thousand and at the
second by only three thousand out of a poll of almost two hundred
thousand.
When Governor Wolf came into office the financial affairs of the
Commonwealth, owing to the extensive scheme of public improvements, then
progressing at a fair rate, were in deplorable condition. There was but
one course to pursue which would maintain the credit of the State and
that was to push the works to rapid completion. This was done and in a
few years he with others had the proud satisfaction of beholding how far
these needed improvements went towards developing the great natural
resources of Pennsylvania.
But the most substantial and enduring merit of Governor Wolf was evinced
in his advocacy of a system of popular education.
James Buchanan, in a speech delivered at West Chester previous to the
election of the Governor, had said: “If ever the passion of envy could
be excused a man ambitious of true glory, he might almost be justified
in envying the fame of the favored individual, whoever he may be, whom
Providence intends to make the instrument in establishing Common Schools
throughout the Commonwealth. His task will be arduous. He will have many
difficulties to encounter and many prejudices to overcome; but his fame
will exceed that of the great Clinton, in the same proportion that mind
is superior to matter. Whilst, the one has erected a frail memorial,
which like everything human must decay and perish, the other will raise
a monument which shall flourish in immortal youth, and endure whilst the
human soul shall continue to exist. ‘Ages unborn and nations yet behind’
shall bless his memory.”
To Governor George Wolf that honor was accorded.
The Governor, in his annual message, December, 1831 said in reference to
this subject: “It is cause for no ordinary measure of gratification that
the Legislature, at its last session, considered this subject worthy of
its deliberations, and advancing one step toward the intellectual
regeneration of the State by laying a foundation for raising a fund to
be employed hereafter in the righteous cause of a practical general
education. It is no less gratifying to know that public opinion is
giving strong indications of having undergone a favorable change in
reference to this momentous measure, and by its gradual but powerful
workings is fast dispelling the groveling fallacies, but too long
prevalent, that gold is preferable to knowledge and that dollars and
cents are of a higher estimation than learning. I would suggest for your
consideration the propriety of appointing a commission, to consist of
three or more talented and intelligent individuals, known friends of a
liberal and enlightened system of education, whose duty it should be to
collect all the information and possess themselves of all the facts and
knowledge that can be obtained from any quarter having a bearing upon or
connection with the subject of education, and arrange and embody the
same in a report to the Legislature.”
In compliance with this wise recommendation, Senator Samuel Breck, of
Philadelphia, was made chairman of the committee, which reported a bill,
embodying what were believed to be the best features of those systems
which had been most successful in other States, and at the session of
1834 it passed both branches of the Legislature with a unanimity rarely
equaled in legislation. The bill was approved by the Governor April 1,
1834.
Although the school bill was adopted with comparative unanimity, it was
at once attacked by a storm of opposition in certain sections of the
State. The opposition was well crystallized when the Legislature
convened in the fall of 1834.
Governor Wolf’s message was firm, but the members had been flooded with
petitions for the repeal of the measure.
On April 11, 1835, Thaddeus Stevens, by a memorable speech and a
remarkable parliamentary effort, swayed the opposition, and by a vote of
55 to 30 successfully defended the schools when threatened with
destruction.
Thus public education in Pennsylvania was saved; but Governor Wolf, who
had advocated it so strenuously, was defeated for a third term by Joseph
Ritner.
Retiring from the gubernatorial chair, he was appointed by President
Jackson in 1836, to the office of First Comptroller of the Treasury.
After holding this position for two years he was appointed by President
Van Buren to be Collector of the Port of Philadelphia, which he held
until his death on March 11, 1840.
----------
Lands Set Apart for Soldiers of Revolution,
March 12, 1783
The soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line who served in the War of the
Revolution were by act of legislation entitled to wild lands of the
State and a large area of the northwestern portion of the State north of
the depreciation lands and west of the Allegheny River was set apart and
surveyed to the officers and soldiers.
As early as March 7, 1780, while the war for the independence of the
American colonies was still in active progress, and being vigorously
waged by the hostile armies in the field, the General Assembly of
Pennsylvania, by resolution, made a promise of “certain donations and
quantities of land” to the soldiers of the State, known as the
“Pennsylvania Line,” then serving in the Continental Army.
This resolution provided that these lands should be “surveyed and
divided off” at the end of the war, and allotted to those entitled to
receive them according to their several rank. In order to comply with
the letter and intention of the resolution, an act was passed by the
General Assembly on March 12, 1783, by the provisions of which certain
lands were set apart to be sold for the purpose of redeeming the
certificates of depreciation given to the soldiers of the Pennsylvania
Line. It also provided that a certain tract of country, beginning at the
mouth of Mogulbughtition Creek, now known as Mahoning Creek, in
Armstrong County; then up the Allegheny River to the mouth of Cagnawaga
Creek, in now Warren County; thence due north to the northern boundary
of the State; thence west by the said boundary, to the northwest corner
of the State, thence south, by the western boundary of the State, to the
northwest corner of lands appropriated by the act for discharging the
depreciation certificates; and thence by the same lands east to the
place of beginning, “which said tract of country shall be reserved and
set apart for the only and sole use of fulfilling and carrying into
execution the said resolve.”
The territory thus set apart comprised parts of the present counties of
Lawrence, Butler, Armstrong, Venango, Forest and Warren, all of the
counties of Mercer and Crawford and that portion of Erie County which
lies south of the triangle.
This territory was a wild and unbroken wilderness, except at the few
places fortified by the French and later occupied by the English and
Colonists during the Revolution.
The officers of the First and Second Battalions of the Province of
Pennsylvania in the French and Indian War petitioned for and received
twenty-four thousand acres of land along the West Branch of the
Susquehanna River, and these officers and their families thus became
pioneer settlers in that picturesque valley, and now the veterans of the
Revolution were given homes in the northwestern section of the State and
there planted the settlements which have grown into the most important
industrial centers of the Western Hemisphere.
The act of March 12, 1783, gave a clear title to the land, for under
Section 6, all rights, titles, or claims to land within the described
bounds, whether obtained from the Indians, the late Proprietaries, or
any other person or persons, were declared to be null and void, thus
reserving the entire tract from sale or settlement until after the
allotments to the soldiers were duly made and their claims fully
satisfied.
By the following section of the act the officers and enlisted soldiers
were to be allowed two years after the declaration of peace in which to
make their applications, and in event of death occurring before any
veteran made his application, an additional year was allowed his heirs,
executors or administrators to make application. Thereafter the
unlocated tracts were to be disposed of upon such terms as the
Legislature might direct. This period for making applications was many
times extended, so that no veteran was deprived of a fair opportunity to
obtain his tract of the donation land.
The authorities of Pennsylvania were even more thoughtful of these
Revolutionary veterans, for the General Assembly passed an act which
exempted from taxation during lifetime the land which fell to lot of
each veteran unless the same was transferred or assigned to another
person.
Then followed the great purchase of October 23, 1784, and then the Act
of March 24, 1785, which directed the manner in which the allowances of
land were to be distributed to the troops, and provided for legal
titles, vesting in them the right of ownership.
A section of the act described the persons who should be entitled to
land, and Section 5, in order to comply with a previous resolution of
the General Assembly, included the names of Baron Steuben, the German
patriot drill master of the Continental Army, who was to receive a grant
equal to that of a major general of the Pennsylvania Line, and
Lieutenant Colonel Tilghman a grant equal to his rank.
Complete lists of all soldiers entitled to land were furnished by the
Comptroller General to the Supreme Executive Council, and these
claimants were divided into four classes.
Upon application of the officers of the Pennsylvania Line, General
William Irvine, the commanding officer at Fort Pitt, was appointed agent
to explore the lands, as he was well acquainted with all the land
appropriated for donation purposes.
General Irvine entered upon his duties promptly and seemed to have
exercised good judgment. An interesting report of his notes and
observations was transmitted to President John Dickinson of the Supreme
Executive Council in a letter dated at Carlisle, August 17, 1785. The
streams, boundaries and other natural terrain were carefully described,
and the general gave a most comprehensive narrative of his every act
while on this important tour of duty.
Section 8 provided minute directions for the distribution of the tracts
by lottery.
The drawing of the lottery commenced October 1, 1786, and was to
continue one year. The committee of the Supreme Executive Council
selected to superintend the drawing consisted of Captain John Boyd,
Jonathan Hoge, Stephen Balliet and William Brown, to which was shortly
added Peter Muhlenberg and Samuel Dean.
The time of the drawing was subsequently extended until under various
laws the last limit of time was fixed as April 1, 1810, and from that
day the offices were closed against any further applications for
donation lands.
----------
Colonel Matthew Smith, Hero of Early Wars,
Born March 13, 1740
Matthew Smith was the eldest son of Robert Smith, and was born March 13,
1740, in Paxtang, then Lancaster County, but since March 4, 1785, a part
of Dauphin County. At the age of fifteen he was a soldier under Colonel
Henry Bouquet, serving in the final campaign of the French and Indian
War. During the interim between that war and the Revolutionary War he
was an active leader among the early settlers in what are now Dauphin,
Cumberland and Northumberland Counties, a leader in the struggles
against the Indians and a respected and brave frontiersman.
Late in 1763 the Indians, especially the Conestoga, caused much
suffering in the lower Susquehanna region and the territory between
Harris’ Ferry and the Schuylkill. The terrible incursions perpetrated
and the many murders committed by these savages resulted in having the
provincial authorities place these Indians under their care in
Lancaster, Conestoga and Philadelphia.
This protection so incensed the settlers, who had lost many of their kin
through the perfidy of the so-called friendly Indians, that an appeal
was made to the authorities against this support and protection, but no
attention was given the frontiersmen.
These settlers continued to suffer until their patience was sorely
tried. They then took matters in their own hands and banded together as
the “Paxtang Boys,” under the leadership of Captains Matthew Smith and
Lazarus Stewart, and they made a clean job of their design.
The “Paxtang Boys” marched to Lancaster, December 27, 1763, broke into
the workhouse, and before their anger could be suppressed the last of
the so-called “Conestogas” had yielded up his life. After this no other
murder was committed by the Indians among the settlers in this vicinity.
Captain Matthew Smith, as one of the actual leaders, seems to have borne
the lion’s share of the blame for the act.
February 13, 1764, a lengthy declaration was prepared for presentation
to the General Assembly, then meeting in Philadelphia, signed by two of
the citizens, Matthew Smith and James Gibson. The petition stated,
however, that they signed it “on behalf of ourselves and by appointment
of a great number of the frontier inhabitants.” This petition was one of
the most important ever presented to a Pennsylvania Legislature and
caused much heated debate.
A long and exciting siege in the Assembly was enacted by the leaders. On
one side were Benjamin Franklin, Israel Pemberton, the Quaker leader,
and Joseph Galloway, and on the popular side, or that of the people and
the “Paxtang Boys,” were the Rev. John Ewing, the Rev. Gilbert Tennent,
Dr. David James Dove and many others.
As a stronger act in supporting their position the “Paxtang Boys”
planned a march to Philadelphia and started in a body under Captain
Matthew Smith. Great consternation was witnessed in the capital city.
The militia was called out and all business was suspended. But the
delegation was not warlike and totally unaware of the anxiety felt in
Philadelphia or of the military preparations made to receive them.
Proudly bearing their declaration, approved by fifteen hundred of the
frontier inhabitants, with many letters from prominent personages, they
were met by commissioners sent out by the Governor, to whom they made
known their intentions. Captain Smith presented their declarations to
the Assembly, which was termed in the minutes of that day as “The
declaration of the rioters and the petition of the back inhabitants.”
During the long debate the main body of the party returned home and thus
ended the “Paxtang Boys’ Insurrection.”
At the very outbreak of the Revolution Captain Smith organized a company
of riflemen, which was assigned to Colonel Thompson’s battalion. After a
tedious march overland from Dauphin County to Boston, the company joined
the Continental Army at that place and on September 5, 1775, his company
was detached to General Arnold’s command for the expedition to Canada.
He survived the hardships of the march through the Maine woods, the
disastrous assault at Quebec December 31, and the brief confinement as a
prisoner of war which followed, when he joined his regiment together
with the few survivors of his company, but he soon thereafter resigned
his commission on December 5, 1776. Captain Smith’s services were,
however, much appreciated and he was promoted to full rank of major,
September 27, 1777, and assigned to the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment.
In the spring of 1778 he was elected by the citizens of the central part
of the Province as a member of the Supreme Executive Council. October
11, 1779, he was elected vice president of the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, but resigned shortly after assuming the responsible duties
of his high office.
When the intelligence of the capture and total destruction of Fort
Freeland, on Warrior Run, in Northumberland County, reached Paxtang,
Matthew Smith marched to Sunbury with a volunteer militia of fifty men
raised by his own efforts and made a hurried march to overtake the
British commander, Captain McDonald, and the retreating British
invaders, including their Indian allies.
This distinguished statesman-soldier-patriot established himself in a
fine residence, in what is now the Fourth Ward of Milton and became its
most influential and revered citizen.
The following obituary appeared in Kennedy’s Gazette, published at
Northumberland, under date July 30, 1794:
“Died, the 22d inst., about sunset at Milton, Colonel Matthew Smith,
aged fifty-four years, being one of the first patriots for liberty; went
to Canada in the year 1775, and suffered extremities. He was once
prothonotary of Northumberland County. Was interred 23d inst., attended
by a large number of his friends and acquaintances, together with a
volunteer company of light infantry from Milton, conducted by Major
Pratt, and commanded by Captain James Boyd, who, marching about six
miles to Warrior Run burying ground and shedding a tear over the old
patriot’s grave, deposited his remains with three well directed volleys
and returned home in good order.”
Linn’s Annals of Buffalo Valley is authority for the statement that
these soldiers actually carried the body the entire distance of six
miles to the old cemetery, where his bones now repose. The dust of this
patriot, soldier and statesman lies within a few rods of the very fort
he rushed from Paxtang with his brave militiamen to protect. His grave
is unmarked and few have knowledge that he is buried there.
----------
Fries’ Rebellion or Hot-Water War Arouses
Governor, March 14, 1799
In 1798 the Federal Government enacted a direct tax law, which became
known as the “house tax,” and was unpopular in many parts of the
country, especially in some of the counties of Pennsylvania, and it led
to an insurrection known in history as “Fries’ Rebellion.”
The story of this insurrection, as told in “Pennsylvania Colonial and
Federal” by Jenkins, is as follows:
“The troubles between the United States and France at this time assumed
the form of active hostilities, and James McHenry, Secretary of War,
began to organize an army. The President was given authority to borrow
$5,000,000, and $2,000,000 more was to be raised by a new and odious
tax. This tax was direct, and fell upon houses, lands and slaves.
“For every slave between the ages of twelve and fifty years, fifty cents
was to be required of the owner. For every house valued at from $200 to
$500, twenty cents per $100 was required, while the tax was thirty cents
per 100 on houses valued from $500 to $1000.
“There were but few slaves in Pennsylvania, and as a result the tax fell
mainly on houses and lands. The value of the houses was determined by
counting the number and measuring the size of the windows. Houses with
but few and small windows were rated lower, and in order to save the tax
the farmers usually had small windows in their houses. Pennsylvania’s
share of the tax was $232,177.72.”
The assessors and collectors of the tax found very little difficulty and
opposition until the eastern part of the State was reached. It was in
the counties of Bucks, Montgomery and Northampton, almost within sight
of the Federal capital, that the opposition became alarming, arising
from the fact that the German people did not understand the law. Many a
farmer knew nothing of the tax until the assessor came around. The
people remembered the old hearth tax of Germany, and they thought this
tax was a revival of it.
Women set dogs on the assessors, and poured scalding water on them when
they tried to measure windows. This fact has also given the name “Hot
Water War” to the affair. In a number of townships, associations of the
people were formed in order to prevent the officers from performing
their duty.
In many places, violence was actually used and the assessors were taken
and imprisoned by armed parties. The insurrection rose to such a height
that it became necessary to compel the execution of the laws, and
warrants were issued against certain persons and served upon them.
Headquarters were appointed for the prisoners at Bethlehem but a number
of persons marched there and demanded the release of the prisoners. The
operations of the mob were so hostile that the marshals could offer no
resistance, so the prisoners were released.
The leading spirit in the opposition to the Government was John Fries, a
farmer’s son, born in Hatfield Township, Montgomery County, in 1750. He
learned the cooper trade and in 1779 married Mary Brunner, of Whitemarsh
Township. In 1775 Fries removed to Lower Milford Township, Bucks County.
He saw service in the Revolution. He also helped to put down the Whisky
Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania.
After settling in Bucks County, Fries became a traveling auctioneer and
journeyed from village to village in this employment. He and his dog,
Whiskey, were familiar figures in every country store. He could speak
German fluently and in his rounds had excellent opportunities to
denounce the tax.
Fries was present at a meeting in February, 1798, at the house of Jacob
Kline, near the point of union of the four counties of Montgomery,
Bucks, Lehigh and Berks. Fries assisted in drawing up a paper in
opposition to the tax, which received fifty-five names. He also pledged
himself to raise 700 men to resist the tax. His expressions against the
law were very violent, and he threatened to shoot one of the assessors,
Mr. Foulke, through the legs if he proceeded to assess the houses. Fries
and his partisans followed and persecuted a number of the assessors,
chasing them from township to township.
Fries was armed with a large horse pistol, and a man named Kuyder
assisted him in command. Learning that the marshal had taken a number of
prisoners, the rioters determined to rescue them. Fries drew up a paper
at his own house, setting forth their design, and the next morning more
than twenty followers appeared in arms. They then set out for Bethlehem
to release the prisoners. The marshal was intimidated and the imprisoned
rioters were released.
The Government became greatly alarmed at these proceedings. The
President issued a proclamation commanding rioters to disperse. He also
called upon the Governor and militia of Pennsylvania to assist in
maintaining order. Governor Mifflin issued a proclamation March 14,
1799, and on March 20 the cavalry from Philadelphia, Chester,
Montgomery, Bucks and Lancaster Counties was called out and encamped at
Springhouse, Montgomery County. Here General MacPherson issued a
proclamation to the rioters. Proceeding to Quakertown, the army began to
make arrests and to scour the country in search of rioters.
After releasing the prisoners at Bethlehem, Fries returned to his old
employment, but was arrested while holding a vendue. At the cry of the
soldiers he leaped to the ground and fled to a swamp. He was arrested
for treason, and with some thirty others taken to Philadelphia for
trial.
The case of Fries was called up in Federal Court at Philadelphia on
April 30, 1799. His lawyers were Alexander J. Dallas and Messrs. Ewing
and Lewis. Messrs. Rawle and Sitgrave were the counsel for the United
States. The verdict was guilty, but as it appeared after the verdict
that one of the jury, previous to being empaneled, had expressed the
opinion that Fries ought to be hanged, a new trial was granted. The
second trial was called April 29, 1800. At the former trial Fries’
lawyers argued at great length that the offense was only riot and not
treason. They cited many cases in support of their view. But the Court
relied upon the definition of treason in the Constitution.
Fries’ counsel then refused to appear further in the case. He was again
declared guilty, the Friday for the hanging was named and the sheriff’s
posse was selected.
The cause of Fries was espoused by the old Republican Party and by a
number of newspapers throughout the State. The Aurora denounced the
action of the officers and charged that the Army lived in free quarters
on the inhabitants. The Adler, a German paper published in Reading also
condemned the course of the Government and claimed that the troops
imposed upon the people as they marched through the country. Discussion
on the subject became so bitter that it entered into National and State
politics and became an important issue.
In the meantime National political affairs were so developing that
President Adams was led to pardon Fries.
----------
Mollie Maguires Murder Wm. H. Littlehales,
March 15, 1869, Which Brings
Detective McParlan to the
Coal Regions
The bloody record of the Mollie Maguires during the decade 1865 to 1875
marks the darkest and most terrible period in the history of the
anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania.
This was a secret organization, composed of lawless Irishmen, who
resorted to murder in its most cowardly form, to attain their ends and
satisfy their revengeful feelings toward mine owners, superintendents
and bosses, and also justices of the peace and borough officials who had
the integrity to administer justice, and not cringe before these
criminals, when under arrest.
The members of this organization became unusually active and
bloodthirsty in 1865. On August 25 of that year David Muir, a colliery
superintendent, was cruelly murdered in Foster Township, Schuylkill
County; January 10, 1866, Henry H. Dunne, superintendent of a colliery
and one of the leading citizens of Pottsville, was murdered on the
public road, near his home.
There were other crimes committed by the members of this organization,
but those which most aroused the indignation of the public were where
prominent men were killed from ambush for no apparent reason than that
they held responsible position in a coal company.
October 17, 1868, Alexander Rea was murdered near Centralia, Columbia
County, and this crime was the most heinous up to this time. Arrests
were made, and a strong chain of circumstantial evidence made out by the
Commonwealth against them. One of the accomplices even gave out the
facts which caused the apprehension of the others.
Separate trials were granted by the Columbia County Court, and Thomas
Donahue was tried first. He was defended by Messrs. Ryon, Freeze,
Strouse, Wolverton and Marr. He was acquitted February, 1869. The
others, Pat Hester, Peter McHugh, and Pat Tully, were not then placed on
trial.
But the next and most important outrage committed by the Mollie Maguires
was the murder of William H. Littlehales, superintendent of the Glen
Carbon Coal Company, in Cass Township, Schuylkill County.
This crime occurred March 15, 1869, on the main highway leading from his
home to the mines. The act was witnessed by several persons, but the
assassins escaped.
It was this act which caused Hon. Franklin B. Gowen, President of the
Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company, and the Philadelphia and
Reading Coal and Iron Company to send for Mr. Allan Pinkerton, and
engage his services in dispersing this murderous crew.
Mr. Pinkerton accepted the employment offered him and assigned to the
principal task a young man named James McParlan, a native of Ireland,
aged twenty-eight years.
McParlan set out on his mission Monday, October 27, 1873, in the
disguise of a vagabond Irishman seeking employment in the mines, and as
a criminal who was seeking refuge from crimes committed in the vicinity
of Buffalo, N. Y.
He assumed the name of James McKenna, and as such won his way into the
confidence of the Mollies, joined their organization and became known as
the most desperate Mollie in all the anthracite region.
Many others were murdered after McParlan arrived in the region. He
prevented murder when it was possible to do so. He warned those who were
to be victims through Mr. Franklin, superintendent of the Philadelphia
and Reading Coal Company, with whom he kept in daily contact by clever
correspondence.
Up to the hour that James McParlan arrived in Schuylkill County, no
information had been obtained concerning the identity of those who
murdered Littlehales, nor had it been possible to convict a single
Mollie Maguire in any court where they were brought to trial.
Another crime which McParlan was sent to investigate was the murder of
Morgan Powell, at Summit Hill, Carbon County, which occurred December 2,
1871. These were enough to occupy the time of a man even as clever as
Detective McParlan alias James McKenna.
During the more than two years that McParlan lived among the Mollies he
did not learn the murderers of Littlehales but succeeded in bringing to
justice many other murderers.
The arrests quickly followed one another when once begun early in 1876.
The trials began in Mauch Chunk in March. While McParlan did not testify
in the first case he furnished very valuable information, and greatly
assisted the prosecution.
Then followed the arrest and trial of others in Pottsville, Mauch Chunk
and Bloomsburg with the conviction of many.
McParlan went upon the stand in the trial of James Carrol, Thomas Duffy,
James Roarty, Hugh McGehan, and James Boyle, for the murder of B. F.
Yost, which occurred at Tamaqua, July 6, 1875. This trial was held at
Pottsville, before a full bench of Hon. C. L. Pershing, D. B. Green and
T. H. Walker. James Kerrigan, a Mollie, was a witness for the
Commonwealth.
The trial of Thomas Munley in June, 1876, in the same court, for the
murder of Thomas Sanger and William Uren, brought Mr. F. B. Gowen into
the case and the delivery of his wonderful speech, which will ever
remain one of the greatest in the history of the criminal courts of our
State.
The Mollies were convicted of murder in the first degree and paid the
extreme penalty on the gallows.
Many other Mollies were hanged, and on May 21, 1877, Governor J. F.
Hartranft issued warrants for the execution of eight of the Mollie
Maguires, which brought to an end the bloody record of this nefarious
organization.
----------
David Wilmot, Author of Proviso, Died at
Towanda, March 16, 1868
David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, retired from Congress after six years of
service, March 4, 1851, with his name more generally involved in the
political discussion of the country than that of any other of our
statesmen. He was born in Bethany, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, January
20, 1814, and died in Towanda, March 16, 1868.
After acquiring an academic education wholly by his own efforts he was
admitted to the bar in Wilkes-Barre in 1834. He at once located at
Towanda, the county seat of Bradford, where he commenced his career and
to which place he brought great and lasting honor.
He took a leading part in the support of Van Buren for the presidency in
1836, and in 1844 he was elected to Congress from the Twelfth District,
then composed of the Counties of Bradford, Susquehanna and Tioga.
At that time there existed much friction with Mexico over the boundary
line, also ominous signs of a determined effort to extend slavery beyond
its then existing limits, tariff agitation, trouble with Great Britain
in the Oregon region, and other grave questions of national import.
The admission of Texas as a State, March 1, 1845, which was favored by
Wilmot and his party, was followed by the war with Mexico a year later.
A bill was introduced August 8, 1846, which authorized the placing of
$2,000,000 at the disposal of President Polk for the purpose of
negotiating peace with Mexico and the crucial hour in our history had
arrived. The prospect of the erection of future slave States out of
Mexican territory aroused the anti-slavery sentiment of the North, and
among the most pronounced of the dozen or more anti-slavery Democrats
was David Wilmot.
At a conference of anti-slavery Democrats was presented what became
known as the Wilmot proviso, of which the text was a repetition of the
Jefferson proviso to the ordinance of 1787, except that it was framed
for the present situation. The following is the full text: “Provided,
that as an expressed and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any
territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of
any treaty that may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the
Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of such territory,
except for crime whereof the party shall be first duly convicted.”
When offered by Wilmot the proviso produced the utmost consternation in
the House, as many members had become alarmed at the anti-slavery
sentiment in their districts. The House was in committee of the whole,
and to the surprise of both sides the proviso was adopted by a vote of
83 to 64, the Democrats of the North supporting it with but three
exceptions.
An effort was made in the Senate to remove the proviso, but the last day
of the session the gavel fell while the proviso was being debated, the
first instance in which a bill was defeated by speaking against time in
the Senate.
Wilmot was vehemently assailed by most of the leaders of his party, but
the growing anti-slavery sentiment in the North only served to inspire
Wilmot in his great battle, and he developed wonderful power as a public
disputant.
Wilmot’s contest for re-election in 1848 attracted the attention of the
whole Nation, and his triumph did much to strengthen the anti-slavery
movement throughout the North.
Opposition to the Wilmot Proviso was finally forced as a cardinal
doctrine of the party. When Wilmot came up for re-election in 1850 he
was nominated at the Democratic primaries, but the newspapers opposed
him and his defeat was regarded as one of the first duties of those who
desired the success of the Democracy against him, and it appeared as if
a Whig was sure to be elected.
Conservative Democrats suggested that both the Democratic candidates
withdraw and select another upon whom all could unite. Wilmot promptly
agreed on condition that the one nominated would sustain his
anti-slavery faith and be personally acceptable to himself. He was asked
to suggest a man, and he named Galusha A. Grow, then a young member of
the bar in Susquehanna County, who had studied law with him.
Grow was found by a committee in his mountain retreat and hurried back
to make his battle. He was elected and became the Speaker of Congress in
the trying days of the Civil War.
The year Wilmot retired from Congress he succeeded Hon. Horace Willston
on the bench of the judicial district then composed of Bradford,
Susquehanna and Sullivan Counties, and ably served in that capacity
until 1857, when he resigned to become a candidate for the governorship
against William F. Packer, by whom he was defeated. After his defeat,
Wilmot, by appointment of Governor Pollock, resumed his place on the
bench and served until 1861.
When Wilmot cast his lot with the Republican Party he was recognized as
a leader in the first national convention in 1856. He was tendered the
nomination as Vice President on the ticket with Fremont, which was
declined. He was chairman of the Committee on Resolutions and to him
belongs the honor of drafting the first platform of the Republican
Party.
In the campaign of 1860 Wilmot was a delegate at large and was honored
by being selected as the temporary chairman of that historic body that
nominated Abraham Lincoln.
Wilmot was a candidate for Senator in 1861, but Simon Cameron held the
balance of power in the contest, and gave the victory to Edgar Cowan.
Later during the same session when Cameron resigned his seat in the
Senate to enter the Cabinet of President Lincoln, as Secretary of War,
Wilmot was chosen to succeed him.
At the end of his two years’ term the Democrats had carried the
Legislature by one majority and made Charles R. Buckalew, of Columbia
County, the Senator. Soon thereafter he was appointed by President
Lincoln Judge of the Court of Claims, which position he held until death
terminated his remarkable career.
His vigor was much impaired during the last few years of his life by
steadily failing health, and he was finally able to give but little of
his time to his judicial duties, and March 16, 1868, he quietly passed
away in his home at Towanda.
In the beautiful suburbs of the town may be seen Riverside Cemetery, and
near the public road stands the simple marble headstone of the grave of
David Wilmot, with his name and date of birth and death on the inner
surface, and on the outer surface, where it can be seen by every
passerby, is inscribed the text of the Wilmot Proviso.
----------
First Excise Laws of Pennsylvania Enacted
March 17, 1684
The first excise tax in Pennsylvania was imposed by the Assembly of the
Province March 17, 1684, in an act entitled “Bill for Aid and Assistance
of the Government.”
This act seems to have been prompted by a record in the minutes of the
Assembly for February 20, 1684: “The Govr. & Provll Councill have
thought fitt. from the Exteriordinary in the Case, to place Patrick
Robinson as administrator to Benj. Acrods Estate, and to have a recourse
to this board from time to time.
“Wheras, the Verdict of the Coroner’s Jury was, that Benj. Acrod killed
himselfe with drinke, wch might give the Province a pretence to his
Estate therin. The Propor & Govr. Relinquished all his Claime thereunto
in Council, and desired ye Council to take Care that some person be
appoynted to take Care of ye Estate of ye sd Acrod, for ye paymt of his
debts, and the remaineder to be disposed of according to Law, &c.”
At the session held on March 26 a bill was read that it should be left
to the Governor and Provincial Council to discuss with Indians matters
concerning the use of rum among them. Another bill was read which
prohibited bargains being made “when People are in Drinke.” This bill
was passed.
The objectionable features of the first excise bill passed by the
Assembly were soon after repealed and not again renewed until the year
1738, when the Provincial Assembly, August 14, heard a bill “sent by the
House of Representatives, entitled an Act for laying an Excise on Wine,
Rum, Brandy and other Spirits.” This bill was passed without amendments
and signed by Lieutenant Governor George Thomas, August 25, 1738.
This bill proved to be very unpopular, and it remained in force only a
few months.
In 1744 this subject was again revived when at the session of the
Provincial Council held May 25 Lieutenant Governor Thomas in a message
sent to him by the Assembly was advised among other things that “We are
also of the Opinion that it will be for the Interests of Our
Constituents to make further Provision concerning the Excise Act and we
have a bill before us to this Purpose; and we hope these Bills, and such
others as shall be truly useful to the Province, when offered, will meet
with the Governor’s assent. And we, on our Part, shall then Cheerfully
make Provision for his Support for the Current Year, equal to any
granted for the like Time to either of his immediate Predecessors.”
This bill proposed an excise tax as a means of providing money without
resorting to a general tax, not only to be used to purchase arms and
ammunition for defense, but as well to answer such demands as might be
made upon the inhabitants of the Province by his Majesty for distressing
the public enemy in America. This bill, like the former ones, was not
long in operation.
March 31, 1764, a bill was passed by the Assembly and Council and signed
by Lieutenant Governor John Penn, which tended to suppress “Idleness,
Drunkenness, & other Debaucheries, within this Government.”
The attention of the Assembly was once more called to the excise as a
productive source of revenue on February 24, 1772, when Lieutenant
Governor Richard Penn laid before the Council a bill sent to him by the
Assembly, entitled “An Act for the support of the Government of this
Province making the Excise on Wine, Rum, Brandy, and other spirits more
equal, and preventing Frauds in the Collecting and paying the said
Excise.”
That a considerable portion of the money expended in the Provincial
Government was raised by excise is evidenced from a report made by
Governor John Penn June 26, 1775, which was an account of the several
amounts of the excise tax collected for the years 1771, 72, 73 and 74,
the total amount of which, after deducting the commissions to the
Treasurer and collectors exceeded £28,000. Together with this report was
another indorsed “State of the Bills of Credit struck on the Excise for
several years, laid before the Governor with the bill for the support of
Government & paymt of public debts.”
In the Act of 1722 a duty was levied on domestic and foreign spirits. At
first, however, as to home-distilled spirits it was not executed, and,
indeed, hardly any steps were taken for the purpose particularly in the
older counties. But, during the Revolutionary War, the necessities of
the State and a temporary unpopularity of distillation, owing to the
immense amount of grain consumed, when the troops so much needed it as a
food, rendered the collection of duties both necessary and practicable,
and a considerable revenue was thereby obtained. Toward the end of the
war the act was repealed.
In 1780 Congress resolved that an allowance of an additional sum should
be made to the army, to compensate the troops for the depreciation in
their pay. This was distributed among the several States for discharge.
Pennsylvania made several appropriations for the purpose, but the
revenues so applied turned out to be unproductive.
The depreciation fund was always favorably regarded, and upon an
application of officers of the Pennsylvania Line, another effort was
made, the revenue arising from the excise remaining uncollected was
appropriated to this fund, and vigorous measures were taken for its
collection.
Great changes, however, had taken place in the disposition of the people
since the first imposition of these duties. The neighboring States were
free from the burden, and in New Jersey, where a law had been passed for
the purpose, its execution had been entirely prevented by a powerful
combination. The Pennsylvania law, therefore, met with great opposition,
especially west of the Allegheny Mountains and there is no evidence that
the excise was ever paid in that section.
The excise law of Pennsylvania, after remaining for years a dead letter,
was repealed, and the people were to submit to a similar law passed by
the Congress of the new Federal Government March 3, 1791. This laid an
excise of fourpence per gallon on all distilled spirits.
The members of Congress from Western Pennsylvania, Smilie, of Fayette,
and Findley, of Westmoreland, stoutly opposed the passage of the law,
and on their return among their constituents loudly and openly
disapproved of it. Albert Gallatin, then residing in Fayette County,
also opposed the law by all constitutional methods.
The majority of the people in the western counties of the State were of
Scotch-Irish descent. They had heard of the exaction and oppression in
the Old Country under the excise laws—that houses were entered by excise
officers, the most private apartments examined, and confiscation and
imprisonment followed if the smallest quantity of whisky was discovered
not marked with the official brand. They also remembered the effective
resistance to the Stamp Act, that those who forced the repeal of the
odious law were the real factors in bringing about the independence of
America. Holding these opinions, it is not to be wondered at that the
more hot-headed resorted to threats of violence and precipitated the
riotous proceedings known in Pennsylvania history as the Whisky
Insurrection.
----------
Pittsburgh Built in 1760, Incorporated April
22, 1794, and Chartered as City
March 18, 1816
On April 17, 1754, Ensign Ward was surprised by the appearance of
Frenchmen, who landed, planted their cannon and summoned the English to
surrender. The French soon demolished an unfinished fort and built in
its place a much larger and better one, calling it Fort Duquesne, in
honor of the Marquis Duquesne, the French Governor of Canada.
This was the actual beginning of what is now Pittsburgh, but there were
many stirring conflicts for permanent possession of the site at the
“Forks of the Ohio.”
When General John Forbes invested Fort Duquesne November 25, 1758, he
marched into a place which had been abandoned by the French and instead
of a formidable fortress it was now nothing but a mass of blackened and
smoldering ruins. The enemy, after burning the barracks and storehouses,
had blown up the fortifications. Forbes’ first care was to provide a
better defense and shelter for his troops, and a strong stockade was
built, which he named Pittsburgh, in honor of England’s great Minister
William Pitt.
A strong fort was subsequently built, which was known as Fort Pitt, and
which continued until after the Revolutionary War to be the western base
of the military department.
The first town of Pittsburgh was built near Fort Pitt in 1760. In a very
carefully prepared list of the houses and the inhabitants outside of the
fort, headed “a return of the number of houses of the names of the
owners and number of the names of the owners and number of men, women
and children in each house Fort Pitt, April 14, 1761,” the number of
inhabitants is 233, with the addition of ninety-five officers, soldiers
and their families residing in the town, making the whole number 328.
There were 104 houses. The lower town was nearer the fort, the upper on
higher ground, principally along the bank of the Monongahela, extending
as far as the present Market Street.
This town enjoyed comparative quiet until the Pontiac War, in 1763, when
Fort Pitt was completely surrounded by the savage foe and the garrison
reduced to dire straits until relieved by Colonel Bouquet.
The second town of Pittsburgh was laid out in 1765, by Colonel John
Campbell, by permission of the commandant of Fort Pitt. It comprised the
ground bounded by present Water Street, Second and Ferry Streets.
Campbell’s plan of lots was subsequently incorporated unaltered in the
survey made by George Woods for the Penns in 1784, and is known as the
“Old Military Plan.” Several of these houses built of hewn logs and
weather-boarded stood until quite recently and the old redoubt of
Colonel Bouquet, built in 1764, north of the present Penn Street, west
of Point, remains the most valued relic of the pre-Revolutionary days in
Western Pennsylvania.
The little building is of brick, five-sided, with two floors having a
squared oak log with loop holes on each floor. There are two underground
passages, one connecting it with the fort, and the other leading to the
Monongahela River. This building and ground upon which it stands is
owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution of Allegheny County,
who keep it in excellent repair. It was the gift of Mrs. Mary E.
Schenley, April 1, 1894.
During the Revolution the Assembly confiscated the property of the Penn
family, excepting certain manors and other property which the
Proprietaries held in their private capacities by devise, purchase, or
descent. The Manor of Pittsburgh contained 5766 acres and included the
present city of Pittsburgh and the country eastward of it and south of
the Monongahela; this was surveyed March 27, 1769, and remained as the
property of the Penns.
In 1784 Tench Francis, of Philadelphia, as agent for the Proprietaries,
laid out this Manor in town and outlots. The surveyor’s work was done by
George Woods, of Bedford. These lots found ready sale and by 1786 there
were 100 houses and 500 population. The fur trade was still the most
important, although the general business was improving.
The first newspaper published west of the Alleghenies was the Pittsburgh
Gazette, now the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, established July 29, 1786.
Pittsburgh was incorporated as a borough April 22, 1794.
Another important event occurred May 19, 1798, when the galley President
Adams was launched at Pittsburgh. She was the first vessel built here
which was competent for a sea voyage, and was constructed by the
Government, in preparation for the threatened war with France. The
Senator Ross was launched the following spring.
The first glass works were established here in 1797 by James O’Hara and
Isaac Craig. William Eichbaum was brought from near Philadelphia to
superintend this new enterprise, the first real manufacturing venture in
this place. The first paper mill west of the Alleghenies was erected
this same year in Pittsburgh.
During the three years from 1802 to 1805 four ships, three brigs and
three schooners were built in Pittsburgh.
The first bank in the western part of the State was a branch of the Bank
of Pennsylvania, which opened for business January 1, 1804, on Second
Street, between Ferry and Chancery Lane. An iron foundry was established
by Joseph McClurg during 1804.
On March 24, 1811, the New Orleans, the first steamboat ever built or
run on Western waters, was launched at Pittsburgh. This boat started on
its initial trip to the Crescent City, December 24 following. The second
such boat was christened the Comet and launched in Pittsburgh in 1813. A
large number of boats was built in this city, and the trade was immense.
The first canal boat ever built or run west of the mountains was the
General Abner Lacock. She was owned by Patrick Leonard, of Pittsburgh,
but was built in Apollo. This was a fine packet boat, with berths and
dining service, as well as capacity for carrying freight.
The first railroad entered Pittsburgh in the fall of 1834, on the
completion of the Philadelphia and Columbia, and the Allegheny portage
railroads.
Pittsburgh became a city by an Act of Assembly at the sessions of
1815–1816, the date of the change in city government being March 18,
1816. At the first election for municipal officers under the City
Charter, Major Ebenezer Denny was chosen Mayor.
The first great consolidation was effected March 29, 1872, when the
South side was united with Pittsburgh. This brought into the city the
boroughs of Birmingham, East Birmingham, Ormsby, Allentown, St. Clair,
South Pittsburgh, Monongahela, Mount Washington, Union, West Pittsburgh
and Temperanceville.
The population of Pittsburgh according to the census of 1920 was
588,343.
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Margaret Junkin Preston, Poetess-Laureate,| Died March 19, 1897
It is a matter of just pride that the most brilliant and beloved poetess
of yesteryear was none other than a Pennsylvania girl, Margaret Junkin
Preston, who through her writings, both in prose and poetry, attained
Nation-wide distinction and won the title “Poetess-Laureate of the
South.”
Margaret Junkin was born in Milton, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania,
May 19, 1820, the eldest child of Rev. George and Julia Rush Miller
Junkin.
Her parents were of that stalwart, heroic race, the Covenanters of
Scotland.
Dr. Junkin’s life was devoted to religion and education, and at the time
of his marriage he was the minister of the Presbyterian Church at
Milton.
When Margaret was ten years old her parents moved to Germantown, where
her father assumed charge of the Manual Labor Academy of Pennsylvania.
After a delightful residence of two years Dr. Junkin was called to the
first presidency of Lafayette College, and the family moved to the
“Forks of the Delaware.”
It was during the incumbency of Dr. Junkin that the college, which for
two years was conducted on a farm south of the Lehigh, was moved to the
present site, on what has since been known as College Hill Easton, and
Old South College built. President and Mrs. Junkin and their seven
children moved into the original building, where they continued to
reside until March 30, 1841, when the doctor accepted the presidency of
Miami College, Oxford, O.
It was during her residence at Easton that Margaret and her sister,
Eleanor, became members of the First Presbyterian Church and that her
first productions in verse appeared in the columns of a local newspaper;
they were “Childhood,” “The Forest Grave” and “Where Dwelleth the Scent
of the Rose.” After her removal to Oxford, O., she wrote “Lines Written
on Reading Letters Bringing Sad News From Easton.”
In 1844 Dr. Junkin returned to Easton to again assume the presidency of
Lafayette College, in which position he capably served until 1848, when
he accepted the presidency of Washington College, now Washington and Lee
University, at Lexington, Va.
Upon Margaret Junkin’s return to Easton, she wrote “Love’s Tribute to
the Departed,” occasioned by the death of an intimate friend, and “The
Fate of a Raindrop.” These were followed after removing to Lexington, by
“Thoughts Suggested by Powers’ Proserpine,” “The Old Dominion,” “The
Solaced Grief,” “Galileo Before the Inquisition,” and “The Polish Boy.”
The life of Margaret Junkin at Lexington differed from that which she
experienced as a young girl at Germantown, Easton and Oxford. She had
reached the age of twenty-eight, and the old town in the Shenandoah
Valley, with its educational institutions, social atmosphere and local
culture brought many interesting persons as visitors, not to speak of
the quaint life among the slaves. This all appealed to her. She entered
into the spirit of this environment to the fullest extent. Her lovely
character, unusual attainments, literary and social, were fully
recognized at home and abroad.
The death, in 1849, of her brother, Joseph, followed by that of her
mother, in 1854, and only a few months later by that of her favorite
sister, Eleanor, brought profound grief to the Junkin household.
The sister, Eleanor, survived only a year her marriage to Major Thomas
J. Jackson, a graduate of West Point, and then a professor in the
Virginia Military Institute, who later achieved fame in the Civil War
and gained the sobriquet of “Stonewall Jackson,” second only to his
commander-in-chief, Robert E. Lee. After the death of Mrs. Jackson, her
husband continued to be a member of Dr. Junkin’s household for four
years.
Margaret Junkin married, August 3, 1857, Major T. L. Preston, professor
of Latin in the Virginia Military Institute, a widower with seven
children. To this family she proved to be an affectionate and devoted
mother.
Two sons were born to Major and Margaret Junkin Preston—George Junkin
Preston, for many years a successful specialist in nervous diseases at
Baltimore, now deceased, and Herbert Preston, now General Solicitor for
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company.
The war clouds were lowering for a bitter conflict between the North and
South, and the Junkin family became divided. The father, Rev. George
Junkin, a pronounced abolitionist and opposed to secession, resigned the
presidency of Washington College, and, with his widowed daughter
departed for Philadelphia.
The story told of this trip, which was made overland, is that when the
Mason and Dixon line was reached the team pulling the heavy load of
household effects, and the one attached to the carriage in which the
doctor and his daughter were riding, were halted, the goods unloaded,
the horses, harness, wagon, carriage and themselves all carefully
washed, then again loaded and driven over the boundary line into
Pennsylvania. As the doctor afterwards related, no Southern soil should
be brought into Pennsylvania, he wanted to leave it all where it
belonged.
His son, William, espoused the Southern cause and became a captain, but
his son, John M., served as a surgeon in the Federal Army.
Following the close of the Civil War, Mrs. Preston devoted much time to
reviewing books for various publishers, and in compiling and arranging
for publication her own compositions in prose and verse, the latter
resulting in the publication, in 1866, of her “Bechenbrook,” a book of
poems voicing the sorrow and patriotism of the Southern people, and of
“Old Songs and New” in 1870.
These were followed by “Cartoons,” “Handful of Monographs,” “For Love’s
Sake,” “Colonial Ballads and Sonnets,” “Chimes for Church Children” and
“Aunt Dorothy.” In addition she contributed to Century Magazine in the
early eighties some reminiscences of General Robert E. Lee, and personal
reminiscences of General “Stonewall” Jackson.
Colonel Preston resigned his professorship in 1882, when he and his
talented wife traveled and visited among their children. The husband
died July 15, 1890, and Mrs. Preston continued to live at Lexington for
two years, but late in December, 1892, she removed to Baltimore and made
her home with her eldest son, Dr. George Junkin Preston.
Margaret Junkin Preston died March 19, 1897.
There was much written about this poetess at the time, and possibly the
best known was “An Appreciation of Margaret J. Preston, a Sketch of her
Fifty Years of Literary Life,” by Prof. James A. Harrison, of the
University of Virginia.
Mrs. Elizabeth Randolph Preston Allan compiled and published a volume
entitled “The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston,” and an
excellent sketch of her interesting life has also been written by Ethan
Allen Weaver, of Germantown, from which much of this story of the
“Poetess-Laureate of the South” has been taken.
----------
Military Laws of Province Repealed by
Import Act, March 20, 1780
On March 20, 1780, a law was passed to effect a reorganization of the
whole militia system in Pennsylvania. It provided for the appointment of
a lieutenant for each county, and two sub-lieutenants or more, not
exceeding the number of battalions, which were to be divided into
classes as heretofore. Fines, however for non-attendance on muster days
were fixed for commissioned officers at the price of three days’ labor.
When called out, the pay of privates was to be equal to one day’s labor.
Persons called out, but neglecting or refusing to go, were liable to pay
in each case the price of a day’s labor during the term of service,
beside a tax of fifteen shillings on the hundred pounds upon their
estates. As a relief to this class, the hiring of substitutes was
allowed. Pensions were promised the wounded in battle, and support to
the families of those militiamen who were killed, at rates to be fixed
by the courts. Considerable opposition was made to this law, from the
fact that by permitting the hiring of substitutes it would relieve the
disaffected and Tories.
While this bill, undoubtedly, had many defects, it was the first real
effort toward the establishment of a military system in the Commonwealth
upon a practical basis.
Militia companies were provided in each county, the State being divided
into districts, and all males were required to enroll, who were between
eighteen and fifty-three years of age.
This act was modified in 1783, when a more specific code of discipline
was adopted. This act remained in force until 1793.
The militia act of March 20, 1780, was the outgrowth or development of
the militia system of Pennsylvania which may be considered to have begun
in the year 1747. Altho in the charter given to William Penn, the
Governor was given authority to levy, muster and train men, to make war
upon and pursue the enemy, even beyond the limits of the province.
As early as 1702, Lieutenant Governor Hamilton asked the Assembly to
enact a bill to provide for “what may come against us by land or by
sea.”
Several years later Lieutenant Governor Evans urged a similar law, but
the idea was unpopular. Several other similar bills were subsequently
defeated, yet the Assembly occasionally appropriated funds for “the
King’s use,” for the purchase of bread, beef, pork, flour, wheat and
“other grain.” Franklin later commented that “other grain” meant black
grains of gunpowder.
It was through the effort and influence of Franklin, in 1747, that a
volunteer military association was effected, consisting of about 1200 of
the most influential men in the province. This soon grew to 10,000 and
the following year the “Associated Companies,” by which name the
organization became known, had enrolled 12,000 horse, foot and
artillery, each armed and equipped at personal expense, and the officers
chosen from the members. Franklin was one of the original colonels.
This association rendered conspicuous service in the French and Indian
wars and preserved its organization. Many of the companies volunteered
for service in the Revolution and formed the backbone of the State’s
militia.
In 1756 there were in Philadelphia three of these companies, with a
total of seventeen officers and 260 private men, one troop of horse with
five officers and forty men and one battery of artillery with three
officers and 150 men. In Bucks County there were nine companies with
thirty-nine officers and 513 men; in Chester County there were several
companies, under command of Captain John Singleton, Samuel West, Robert
Boyd and Jacob Richardson. In York County there were eight companies
with an enrollment of 642 men and in Lancaster County there were nine
companies and 545 men.
It was not until Braddock’s defeat that the Assembly voted a substantial
sum for the “King’s use,” but made no provision for an organized
military force. November 25, 1755, the Assembly passed “an Act for the
better ordering and regulating such as are willing and desirous to be
united for military purposes within the province.”
This was the first act of Assembly which in any way provided for the
organized defense of the province, and this was to remain in force only
until October 30, 1756.
By March 29, 1757, the Quakers had become a minority in the Assembly and
an act was passed which was more satisfactory. It also provided for the
compulsory enrollment of all male persons between the ages of seventeen
and fifty-five years. It also stated the financial responsibility
required of those who would serve as officers.
One section of this act provided “that all Quakers, Menonists, Moravians
and others conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, who shall appear
on any alarm with the militia, though without arms, and obey the
commands of the officers in extinguishing fires, suppressing
insurrection of slaves or other evil-minded persons during an attack, in
caring for the wounded, conveying intelligence as expresses or
messengers, carrying refreshments to such as are on duty, and in
conveying to places of safety women and children, aged and infirm, and
wounded persons are free and exempt from penalties of this act.” This
act remained in force until the close of the French and Indian War in
1763.
There was no special control of military affairs again until June 30,
1775, when the Assembly passed an act for “the defense of their lives,
liberty and property.”
At this same session there was established a Committee of Safety, of
twenty-five members, which constituted the Board of War, whose powers
enabled them to call into service so many of the associators as they
deemed necessary or the occasion required.
The Committee of Safety was organized July 3, 1775, with Benjamin
Franklin as president.
This committee exercised supreme control of the land and naval forces of
the province until October 13, 1777, when its powers were transferred to
the body known as the Council of Safety, this comprising the Supreme
Executive Council and nine others. The Council of Safety was dissolved
December 6, 1777, when the military authority was assumed by the Supreme
Executive Council and the Assembly.
The aggregate number of men furnished by the Associators during the
Revolution was in excess of 35,000.
Pennsylvania furnished in all arms of the service, under the various
calls, a total of 120,514 men, which number does not include many bodies
of militia and many men who were under arms for a brief period, a record
of which service was not kept during the early years of the war.
Laws were passed during the war relating to the military forces, but
these were all repealed by the formal act of March 20, 1780.
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Old Northumberland, Mother of Counties,
Erected March 21, 1772
The political development of Pennsylvania followed closely in the wake
of its expanding settlements. In 1682 the Counties of Philadelphia,
Bucks and Chester were formed, with limits intended to include not only
the populated area, but territory enough in addition to meet for a
considerable time to come the growing necessities of the rapidly
increasing immigration.
It was not until 1729, therefore, that the extension of the settlements
and the purchase of new lands from the Indians led to the erection of
Lancaster County. At that time the Susquehanna River marked the western
limit of the land purchased from the Indians in the province. But the
purchase of October 11, 1736, opened a triangular area west of the
river, which was attached to Lancaster until the convenience of the
increasing settlements in this region in 1749 demanded the erection of
York County, and a year later for the erection of Cumberland County.
The northern extension of these counties was limited by the Indian
boundary line, marked by the Kittatinny Range.
Again the extension of settlements and the treaty of August 22, 1749,
demanded new county organizations, and in 1752 Berks and Northampton
were formed to include in their jurisdiction the northern portions of
the older counties and the newly acquired territory between the Delaware
and Susquehanna Rivers. Berks embraced the larger area.
Additional territory west of the Susquehanna was acquired from the
Indians by the treaties of 1754 and 1758, which made the outlying county
of Cumberland too large for the convenience of its inhabitants, and in
1771 Bedford County was erected.
A similar development was rapidly taking place east of the Susquehanna,
occasioned by the activity about Fort Augusta, at the Forks of the
Susquehanna, and the Pennamite-Yankee War, which was being waged for
possession of the territory in the Wyoming Valley and elsewhere, claimed
by the Susquehanna Company of Connecticut, and the treaty of November 5,
1768, added much new territory.
By an act passed March 21, 1772, the County of Northumberland was
erected out of parts of the counties of Lancaster, Cumberland, Berks,
Bedford and Northampton. The bounds of the new county stretched to the
New York-Pennsylvania boundary line on the north and to the Allegheny
River on the west, including in its extensive territory the present-day
counties of Susquehanna, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wyoming, Bradford,
Sullivan, Columbia, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, Union, Lycoming,
Tioga, Potter, Clinton, Cameron, Elk, McKean, Forest, Jefferson, Clarion
and parts of Schuylkill, Center, Mifflin, Juniata, Clearfield, Indiana,
Armstrong, Venango and Warren.
It is with eminent propriety this tenth county of Pennsylvania has been
frequently styled “Old Mother Northumberland,” and each of her
twenty-nine children refer back to her for their earliest political
history.
Its greatest proportions were attained in 1785, when, by the Act of
April 9, all that part of the purchase of October 22, 1784, east of the
Conewango Creek and Allegheny River was placed within its limits. The
county thus extended along the northern line of the State as far west as
the Conewango Creek, which crosses the New York-Pennsylvania boundary
line in Warren County, and from the Lehigh River to the Allegheny River,
with a maximum width of nearly two-thirds that of the State. The extent
of this region exceeds that of several States of the Union.
By the Act of September 24, 1788, Allegheny County was created,
including all the territory in the State north and west of the Ohio and
Allegheny Rivers, and from this territory, by act of March 12, 1800, the
counties of Beaver, Butler, Mercer, Crawford, Erie, Warren, Venango and
Armstrong were erected. Thus it would seem that the first five of these
should be added with the offspring of Old Northumberland, for three
years at least. If this be the case her children would number
thirty-four of the sixty-seven counties of the State.
The first curtailment of this generous domain resulted from the erection
of Luzerne County, September 25, 1786. West of the Susquehanna the first
county to which Northumberland contributed was Mifflin, erected
September 19, 1789, but the part taken from Northumberland with
additional territory from Northumberland and other counties, was erected
into Center, February 13, 1800. The formation of Lycoming County, April
13, 1795, deprived Northumberland of the large extent of territory it
had acquired under the purchase of 1784, with a considerable part of its
original area.
Northumberland was thus reduced to the position of an interior county.
With this reduced territory the statesmen of Pennsylvania were not fully
satisfied, and March 22, 1813, the townships of Chillisquaque and Turbot
were detached to form part of the new Columbia County, but this was an
unpopular move and the greater part of these townships were re-annexed
to Northumberland, February 21, 1815.
On June 16, 1772, the surveyor general was directed to “lay out a town
for the county of Northumberland, to be called by the name of Sunbury,
at the most commodious place between the fort (Augusta) and the mouth of
Shamokin Creek.”
Until the court house was built the courts were held at Fort Augusta,
the first session being held April 9, 1772.
The first jail in the county was the dungeon beneath the magazine of
Fort Augusta. This is the only part of the early county buildings now in
existence, and this particular dungeon and the old well which supplied
water for the garrison are now the property of the Commonwealth.
When the county was erected the Governor appointed William Plunket,
Turbut Francis, Samuel Hunter, James Potter, William Maclay, Caleb
Graydon, Benjamin Allison, Robert Moodie, John Lowdon, Thomas Lemon,
Ellis Hughes and Benjamin Weiser to be justices. William Plunket was the
president of the court and served as such four years.
William Maclay was the Prothonotary and Register and Recorder, and
served until March 22, 1777; George Nagel, Sheriff of Berks County,
served in a similar capacity in the new county; Edward Burd was the
State’s attorney, and the Coroner was James Parr. The original County
Commissioners were William Gray, Thomas Hewitt and John Weitzel.
Alexander Hunter was Treasurer, and Walter Clark, Jonathan Lodge, Peter
Hosterman, James Harrison, Nicholas Miller, Jacob Heverling and Samuel
Weiser, Assessors; Thomas Lemon, Collector of Excise; Joshua Elder,
James Potter, Jesse Lukens and William Scull were appointed to run the
boundary line; Samuel Hunter was the first member of the Assembly.
----------
Peter Pence, Indian Fighter, Captured
March 22, 1780
One of the conspicuous characters along the Susquehanna Valleys during
the period of the Revolutionary War, and afterwards, was a Pennsylvania
Dutchman by the name of Peter Pence. It is generally believed that his
proper name was Bentz, a name which occurs frequently in Lancaster
County, from which place he went to Shamokin. The well-known aptitude of
the Dutchman to incorrectly sound his letters is given as the reason
that his name was pronounced and spelled Pence.
In accord with the resolution adopted by Congress, June 14, 1775,
directing the formation of six companies of expert riflemen in
Pennsylvania to be employed as light infantry, one of the companies was
recruited in Northumberland County, June 25, 1775, under the command of
Captain John Lowdon.
Captain Lowdon then resided on a farm called Silver Spring, adjoining
the present town of Mifflinburg, Union County, where he died in
February, 1798, aged sixty-eight years.
The company formed part of the battalion of riflemen commanded by
Colonel William Thompson, of Carlisle. This company boarded boats on the
Susquehanna River and were conveyed to Harris’ Ferry, then marched
overland to Reading, where they arrived July 13, and received knapsacks,
blankets and other equipment. This battalion was composed of nine
companies, two from Cumberland County, two from Lancaster, and one each
from York and Northumberland, Berks, Bedford and Northampton.
The battalion arrived at Cambridge August 7, and soon became the
picketguard of the 2000 provincials there. It also became the First
Regiment of the Continental Line, Colonel Thompson being promoted to
brigadier general, March 1, 1776. He was succeeded by Colonel Edward
Hand, of Lancaster, who also became a brigadier, September 17, 1778.
This battalion participated in the Battle of Trenton, was at the taking
of Burgoyne, was with Sullivan in his expedition against the Six Nation
Indians, was at Stony Point under General Wayne and finally served in
the campaign of South Carolina during the latter days of the war.
The first record of Peter Pence is as a private soldier in Lowdon’s
company, and the further fact that he served faithfully is sufficient
introduction to the thrilling life he led in the frontiers of
Pennsylvania.
On March 22, 1780, the Indians made an attack on some settlers in the
vicinity of Fort Wheeler, on the banks of Fishing Creek, about three
miles above the present town of Bloomsburg, Columbia County. The Indians
killed and scalped Cornelius Van Campen and his brother, and a son was
tomahawked, scalped and thrown into the fire. Lieutenant Moses Van
Campen, another son, was taken captive, as was his cousin, a young lad,
and Peter Pence. Soon after this, at another place, the Indians took a
lad named Jonah Rogers and a man named Abram Pike.
With their captives the Indians made their way over the mountains, into
what is now Bradford County. The savage warriors were ten in number.
One evening, while the prisoners were being bound for the night, an
Indian accidentally dropped his knife close to Van Campen’s feet, and he
covered the knife unobserved.
About midnight, when the warriors were all asleep, Van Campen got the
knife and released Peter Pence, who in turn released the others.
Cautiously and quickly the weapons were obtained and a plan of action
determined. The prisoners had been placed in the midst of the warriors.
Van Campen and Pike were to use the tomahawk on one group, while Peter
Pence opened fire on the other with the rifles.
The work was well done, Van Campen and Pike dispatched four while Pence,
with unerring aim speedily killed his group. A hand to hand fight
between the remaining Indian, John, a Mohawk sachem, and Van Campen,
resulted in the Indian making his escape.
The liberated captives scalped the Indians, picked up their plunder and
hastily constructed a raft, and, after a series of adventures, reached
Wyoming, April 4, 1780, where Pike and young Rogers left the party.
Peter Pence and the Van Campens reached Fort Jenkins on the morning of
April 6, where they found Colonel John Kelly, with 100 frontiersmen who
had hurried there from the West Branch. The following day Pence and Van
Campen reached Fort Augusta, where they were received in a regular
frontier triumph.
The next exploit in which we find Pence engaged is in the year 1781,
when one of the most atrocious murders was committed near Selinsgrove.
Three brothers by the name of Stock were at work in the field when a
party of about thirty Indians appeared. They did not attack the boys,
but passed on to the house, which they entered. On the way they found
another son plowing, whom they killed. Mrs. Stock and a daughter-in-law
were found in the house. The mother defended herself with a canoe pole,
as she retreated toward the field where her husband was working. She was
tomahawked, however, the house plundered and the young woman carried
into the woods nearby and killed and scalped. When Stock returned and
found his wife, son and daughter-in-law inhumanly butchered he gave an
alarm.
Three experienced Indian fighters, Michael Grove, John Stroh and Peter
Pence went in pursuit of the enemy. They found them encamped on the
North Branch, on the side of a hill covered with fern. Grove crept close
enough to discover that their rifles were stacked around a tree and that
all but three were asleep.
One of the Indians was narrating in high glee how Mrs. Stock defended
herself with the pole. Grove lay quiet until all the Indians fell
asleep. He then returned to his companions, Stroh and Pence. They
decided to attack, and crept up close to the camp, when they dashed
among the sleeping savages. Grove plied his deadly tomahawk, while Stroh
and Pence seized the rifles and fired among the sleepers. Several
Indians were killed; the others, believing they were attacked by a large
party fled to the woods.
A captive white boy was liberated and the three brave men brought home a
number of scalps and the best rifles.
March 10, 1810, the Legislature passed an act granting an annuity to
Peter Pence, in consideration of his services, of $40 per annum. He died
in the Nippenose Valley, in 1812. He left several sons and daughters.
Robert Hamilton, of Pine Creek Township, Clinton County, was the
executor of his estate. He left a will which is recorded in Lycoming
County.
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John Bartram, First Great American Botanist
and Founder of Bartram Gardens, Born
at Darby, March 23, 1699
It is not generally known, at least outside of Pennsylvania, that that
State was the birth place of a man whom the celebrated Linnaeus
pronounced the greatest natural botanist in the world. This man was John
Bartram, a native of Delaware County.
August 30, 1685 John Bartram bought three hundred acres of land from
Thomas Brassey, which land was situated along Darby Creek, in now
Delaware County. Here John Bartram was born March 23, 1699.
His early attention was first directed to botanical studies by one of
those accidents which seem to shape the destinies of all great men.
When a mere lad and helping his father with the work about the farm he
plowed up a daisy. Despite everything the modest little flower kept
intruding itself on his consideration, until after several days he hired
a man to plow while he rode to Philadelphia to procure a treatise on
botany and a Latin grammar.
Fortunately for himself and the world he inherited a farm from a
bachelor uncle, which gave him the means to marry early, and purchase
the land where he afterwards established the noted “Botanical Gardens.”
His wife was Mary, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Maris; they were
married April 25, 1723. Mrs. Bartram died within a few years, and he
then married Ann Mendenhall, February 11, 1729.
Bartram bought his piece of ground at Gray’s Ferry in 1728. On this
estate he built with his own hands a stone house, and on one of the
stones in the gable was cut “John * Ann Bartram, 1731.”
Here he pursued his studious habits, his reputation spreading abroad
until correspondence was solicited by the leading botanists of the Old
World,—Linnaeus, Dr. Fothergill, and others,—while in the colonies, all
scientific men in the same line of study sought his favor, advice and
opinions. Dr. Benjamin Franklin was his earnest friend, and constantly
urged Bartram to authorship.
His fame had so extended that in 1765 King George III appointed him
botanist to the King.
He transmitted both his talents and tastes to his son William, and their
joint labors during a period of nearly one hundred years were the most
valuable contributions that this country has made to the science in
whose behalf they were devoted.
They were pious Quakers, admired and loved by their acquaintances.
James Logan was probably the first person who directed the mind of John
Bartram seriously to botany as the pursuit of a lifetime.
Logan was a lover of plants and flowers and enjoyed a wonderful garden
at “Stenton,” and Bartram was a welcome guest.
Logan, in 1729, sent to England for a copy of “Parkinson’s Herbal,”
saying he wanted to present it to John Bartram, who was a person
worthier of a heavier purse than fortune had yet allowed him, and had “a
genius perfectly well turned for botany.”
A subscription was started in 1742 to enable Bartram to travel in search
of botanical specimens. It was proposed to raise enough for him to
continue his travels for three years, he being described as a person who
“has had a propensity to Botanicks from his infancy,” and “an accurate
observer, of great industry and temperance, and of unquestionable
veracity.”
The result of these travels was the publication of two very delightful
books by this earliest of American botanists.
The specimens he collected were sent to Europe, where they attracted
Kahn and many other naturalists to this country.
In 1751 he published his work, “Observations on the Inhabitants,
Climate, Soil, Divers Productions, Animals, etc., made in his Travels
from Pennsylvania to Onondaga, Oswego, and the Lake Ontario.” In 1766
appeared “An Account of East Florida, by William Stork, with a Journal
kept by John Bartram, of Philadelphia, upon a Journey from St.
Augustine, Fla., up the River St. John’s.”
He also contributed numerous papers to the Philosophical Transactions
from 1740 to 1763.
He was the first in this country to form a botanical garden.
On the outside of his house, over the front window of his study, was a
stone with the inscription, carved by his own hand:
“’Tis God alone, Almighty God,
The Holy One, by me Adored.
John Bartram, 1770;”
and an inscription over the door of his greenhouse was:
“Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
But looks through nature up to Nature’s God.”
As the British soldiers were approaching Philadelphia from the Battle of
Brandywine, John Bartram greatly feared they would destroy his “beloved
garden,” the work of a lifetime. He became very much excited, and said,
“I want to die!” and expired half an hour later, September 22, 1777. His
remains lie buried in the Friends’ burying ground, Darby.
His son William went to Florida to study and collect botanical
specimens, returning home in 1771. In 1773, at the instance of the
distinguished Quaker physician, Dr. John Fothergill, of London, William
spent five years in the study of the natural productions of the Southern
States. The results of these investigations were published by Dr.
Fothergill.
In 1782 he was elected Professor of Botany in the University of
Pennsylvania, but declined the appointment on the score of ill health.
Besides his discoveries and publications on botany, he prepared the most
complete table of American ornithology prior to Wilson’s great work, and
he was an assistant of the latter in a portion of his work.
He died suddenly, July 22, 1823, just a moment after he had completed
writing a sketch of a new specimen of a plant.
This first botanical garden in America is situated in West Philadelphia,
near Fifty-fourth Street and Woodland Avenue. There is a cider mill, and
close by the grave of an old and faithful slave.
The house is sufficient to attract any visitor, and it was here where
the illustrious visitors from various parts of the world were received
by the Bartrams.
The city authorities assumed control of this property in 1891.
----------
Proposal for Second Constitution for Pennsylvania
Adopted March 24, 1789
The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 proving inadequate for the
requirements of a useful and effective Government, its revision was
demanded. On March 24, 1789, the Assembly adopted resolutions
recommending the election of delegates to form a new Constitution.
The struggle for independence had been fought and won, but with the
triumph of the Revolution even those who had been opposed to the
movement speedily acquiesced, though many years elapsed before all the
bitter memories engendered by the strife could pass away. Time was
healing the wounds of war, and others were growing up who had not
suffered.
The adoption of the Federal Constitution had rendered the institution of
measures necessary for the election of members of Congress and electors
of President and Vice President of the United States. In order to avail
themselves as fully as possible of the privileges afforded, the
Anti-Federalists were early at work.
A few of the leading men of this party assembled in convention at
Harrisburg in September, 1788, ostensibly for the purpose of
recommending revision of the new Constitution. Blair McClenachen was
chosen as the chairman of this small assembly, and General John A.
Hanna, secretary. They resolved that it was expedient to recommend an
acquiescence in the Constitution but that a revision of the instrument
was necessary. They debated among other topics, a reform in the ratio of
congressional representation, and a referendum on the term of a Senator.
Several other changes were advocated, but the body contented itself by
nominating a general ticket for Congress.
The action of this body was immediately denounced and as the nominees
were Anti-Federalists, it was said that power to enforce the new
constitutional system ought not to be granted to its opponents.
A new convention was to meet at Lancaster, which selected candidates for
Congress and electors for President. The election took place in
November, and in the State six of the nominees on 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 political condition of Pennsylvania had undergone a great change,
and now the three original counties had multiplied by 1790 to
twenty-one. Immigration was strongly flowing into the State. The
abundance of fertile lands formed an attraction to the immigrant almost
without parallel in the county.
Then the Constitution of 1776 had been rather hastily prepared amid
great excitement and was adopted with the determined spirit that
characterized all public measures during the Revolutionary period.
Even though the instrument had become somewhat antiquated, it might have
been improved by regular methods, and the amended Constitution would
have been acceptable to a large number of people, but such action would
not have served the personal ambitions of the leaders.
The chief objections to the Constitution were the single legislative
body, and a Council of Censors whose functions were of such an unusual
character, the latter body being the real bone of contention.
When the people had grown discontented with the old Constitution,
believing they had suffered long enough through lack of action and
authority, they were willing to adopt another Constitution containing
the principles of enduring life.
The same movement that led to the ratification of the Federal
Constitution by Pennsylvania stirred the waters in another direction. If
the Federal Constitution could be ratified by a convention, why could
not a convention be called to make and adopt another Constitution for
Pennsylvania?
A petition was addressed to the Legislature, which adopted a resolution
March 24, 1789, but the Supreme Executive Council refused to promulgate
this action of the Assembly.
September 15, 1789, the Assembly adopted another resolution calling for
a convention by a vote of 39 to 17.
At the election in October delegates were chosen, and on Tuesday,
November 24, 1789, the convention assembled in Philadelphia, but a
quorum not being present, the organization was effected the following
day with sixty-four delegates in attendance. No returns had been
received from the counties of Northumberland and Allegheny, and Mifflin
had sent a double delegation.
Thomas Mifflin was chosen president; Joseph Redman, secretary; Frederick
Snyder, messenger, and Joseph Fry, doorkeeper.
On the Republican side, those in favor of a new constitution were James
Wilson, Thomas McKean and Thomas Mifflin, all of Philadelphia; Timothy
Pickering, of Luzerne; Edward Hand, of Lancaster. Among the
Constitutionalists were William Findley, of Westmoreland; John Smilie
and Albert Gallatin, of Fayette; Robert Whitehill and William Irvine, of
Cumberland.
After a long session the convention adjourned Friday, February 26, 1790,
to meet Monday, August 9.
The second session of the convention met pursuant to adjournment and got
down to business the third day, and concluded its work by the final
adoption of a new instrument September 2, 1790, the final vote being
sixty-one to one, Mr. George Roberts, of Philadelphia, voting against
its adoption.
The most radical changes were made in the executive and legislative
branches of 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 entrusted.
The former judicial system was continued, excepting that the judges of
the higher courts were to be appointed during good behavior, instead of
seven years. The Bill of Rights re-enacted the old Provincial provision
copied into the first Constitution, respecting freedom of worship and
the rights of conscience. 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 under the Constitution of the Commonwealth, that
of 1790, resulted in the choice of Thomas Mifflin, the president of the
convention, which made, adopted and proclaimed the Constitution, for
Governor. He served three terms.
----------
David Lewis, Robber and Counterfeiter,
Born March 25, 1790
David Lewis was the most notorious robber and counterfeiter in this
country a little more than a century ago.
He was born at Carlisle, March 25, 1790, of poor, but respectable
parents, being one of a large family of children. The father died when
David was less than ten years old, and the widow had a hard struggle to
raise her family. Be it said to the credit of David that he remained
with her and assisted in raising the family until he was seventeen years
old. Then he worked at different occupations in and about Bellefonte
until he enlisted in the army.
During this service he was punished by a sergeant for some offense and
deserted, only to re-enlist a few months later, as a private in Captain
William N. Irvine’s company of light artillery, under an assumed name.
By this time he had formed vicious habits and he immediately planned to
decamp with his bounty money, but he was discovered as a former
deserter. The War of 1812 was imminent and discipline rigid, so that the
sentence of his court martial was death. Through the efforts of his
distressed mother, his sentence was commuted to imprisonment in a guard
house, secured by ball and chain.
He served only one week of this sentence, for he then made his escape
and safely reached a cave on the banks of the Conodoguinet Creek, less
than two miles from Carlisle. The very night he arrived in this favorite
haunt Lewis began his long and varied career of robbery and lawlessness.
This cave and another on Little Chickies Creek near Mount Joy, Lancaster
County, were the storehouses for the major portion of the ill-gotten
loot of Lewis and his gang.
The first victims of Lewis were the country banks, but recently
established and whose bank notes were easy to counterfeit. Lewis was
quick to make the most of this condition. He journeyed to Vermont and
there made enormous quantities of spurious bank bills, purporting to
have been issued from banks in Philadelphia and various Pennsylvania
towns. These were successfully passed in New York.
Lewis was captured and committed to jail at Troy, from which he soon
escaped, with the assistance of the jailer’s daughter, who fled with him
and became his wife. His devotion to her was so genuine that it is
strange her influence did not prove sufficient for him to have become a
valuable member of society instead of one of the worst criminals on
record.
Lewis was a man of unusual physical strength, handsome, and possessed a
most pleasing personality. He was conscious of that fact, and made many
friends, not in crime, but those who would aid him in making escape or
give him timely warning. The story is told of Nicholas Howard, a
prominent landlord near Doubling Gap, who would display a flag from a
certain upper window when the coast was clear, and Lewis was thus
advised of the movements of the officers seeking his apprehension. Food
was often carried to him in his hiding place by those who never
suspected they were befriending an outlaw.
A Mr. Black, of Cumberland, Md., related a personal adventure with Lewis
in the Allegheny Mountains. Black had crossed the mountain on horseback
to Brownsville, where he collected a large sum of money. He rode a
speedy black horse. While in Brownsville he won another horse in a race
and the following day started home, riding the new horse, leading his
own “Blacky.”
In a lonely ravine a man suddenly appeared and jumped on Blacky’s back
and rode alongside Black and began to barter for the horse. The horse
was not for sale and they rode together until a spring was reached,
where they dismounted and quenched their thirst and ate a bite and drank
some peach brandy. By the time a second spring was reached Black and his
new-found companion were on intimate terms. The stranger asked Black if
he had ever seen Lewis, about whom there was so much fear and
excitement. He replied that he had not.
“Well, sir,” replied the stranger, jumping to his feet, “here is Lewis—I
am the man.”
Black further stated that Lewis told him he had seen the race in
Brownsville and knew he had collected much money there, and that he had
preceded him to waylay and rob him, but that Black had treated him like
a gentleman and he would not harm him or take a cent from his pocket.
At another time when a large searching party in Adams County in pursuit
of Lewis met a well-dressed stranger on horseback, they asked him if he
had “seen or heard anything of Lewis, the robber.” He replied that he
had not and joined in the pursuit. Later he had the audacity to send a
letter stating that they had been riding with Lewis, and he was anxious
to learn if they had thought him an agreeable companion.
One of the best of his exploits took place in Mifflin County. Having
failed in the execution of some plots to rob several wealthy farmers,
his ready cash uncomfortably low, he set out to replenish his finances.
Coming across a fine, large house that stood back from the highway, he
knocked at the door, which was opened by an elderly woman of respectable
appearance. Lewis, to ascertain where her money was kept, asked her to
change a five dollar note.
“That I am not able to do,” replied the woman, “for I am unfortunate and
have not a dollar in the house, and what is worse,” she added
despondently, as she caught sight of a man coming through the woods
toward the house, “there comes the constable to take my cow for the last
half-year’s rent. I don’t know what to do without her.”
“How much do you owe?” inquired Lewis, hurriedly.
“Twenty dollars, sir,” answered the woman.
“Have you no one to help you?” inquired Lewis.
“No one,” she replied.
“Then I will,” said the robber, as he drew from his pocket the exact
sum. “Pay that fellow his demand and be sure to take his receipt, but
don’t say anything about me.”
Lewis had just time to make his escape, unobserved, when the constable
arrived and proceeded to drive away the widow’s cow, but she rushed
forward, paid him the money and took his receipt.
He immediately set out upon his return, but had not proceeded far, when
Lewis bounded into the road and greeted him as follows:
“How d’ye do, stranger? Got any spare change about you?”
“No,” answered the frightened constable.
“Come, shell out, old fellow, or I’ll save you the trouble,” retorted
Lewis, as he presented his pistol. This argument convinced the worthy
official that the stranger meant business and he quickly handed over his
money.
Lewis got back his twenty dollars and forty dollars in addition. He
often afterward boasted that the loan of that twenty to the widow was
one of the best investments he ever made.
----------
More Exploits of Lewis, the Robber—Conclusion
of Yesterday’s Story, March 26
Yesterday’s story was a brief outline of the early life of David Lewis,
the robber and counterfeiter, and in this will be told those events
which followed and ended in his death.
In 1818, Dr. Peter Shoenberger, owner of the Huntingdon Furnace, in
Huntingdon County, had made extensive shipments of iron to Harper’s
Ferry and prepared to cross the mountains to receive his pay. Lewis and
his band knew of this proposed trip and determined to waylay and rob
him. The sum to be collected amounted to more than $13,000, and the
ironmaster’s credit would be ruined if this sum was not in deposit in
Bellefonte by a certain date.
While they were scheming to rob Shoenberger news reached them that their
victim was returning home by way of the Cumberland Valley and
Harrisburg.
When Lewis and his gang arrived at Harrisburg they learned that the
doctor, warned of their designs, had again changed his route, but the
highwaymen knew the country and soon got in advance of their victim. In
the early hours of the morning, a few miles east of Bellefonte, the
doctor was confronted by a large man on horseback, who, with a pistol in
hand, ordered him to “stand and deliver.”
The doctor was in a dilemma; he faced financial ruin or loss of life. As
he reached for his saddlebag he heard a shout and at the same time saw
the top of a Conestoga wagon reaching the top of the hill. The wagoners
were encouraging their horses as the doctor yelled in desperation, “Men,
I am being robbed. Help! Help!”
Lewis snapped his pistol, but it failed to discharge. Connelly, a mate
of Lewis, rode up and would have killed the doctor, but for Lewis. A
shot by one of the wagoners struck Connelly in the shoulder, but he and
Lewis escaped in the woods.
During his operations in New York City Lewis formed a partnership with
other noted crooks. Each one signed an ironclad compact with blood drawn
from the veins of each member as they formed in a circle, while Lewis
held a basin to receive the blood of each, which was used as ink.
Lewis knew that Mrs. John Jacob Astor was to attend a well-advertised
auction sale, where she made many purchases of rare laces and jewelry,
placing them in a reticule, which she kept on a bench close by her side.
While she was engaged in conversation, Lewis stole the bag and made his
escape. He failed to divide the plunder with the gang, but gave it all
to his wife, barely escaping their wrath.
Lewis headed for Princeton, where, he said, he found “empty heads and
full purses.” He succeeded in fleecing many of the students of all the
money they had or could obtain.
His next exploits were in Philadelphia, where he was the leader of a
band which attempted to decoy Stephen Girard out of the city into the
country, to keep him in confinement until forced to purchase his
freedom. They also planned to dig a tunnel from the Dock Street sewer to
Girard’s banking house, where they intended to reach the bank vaults
from below. The dangerous illness of Lewis’ daughter caused a delay in
these plans, his gang drifted apart, and the scheme was abandoned.
He then drove a team in the United States Army, where he robbed officers
and men. When he received his pay for his services and for his
employer’s teams and wagons, he stole the entire proceeds and left for
Western Pennsylvania, where he was most active and successful in his
nefarious pursuit.
His wife died about this time and his grief was so genuine that he
almost changed his mode of life, but soon fell in with another gang and
for some time devoted his attention to making and circulating spurious
money. He was caught passing bad money and arrested at Bedford and
sentenced to the penitentiary, from which he was pardoned by Governor
Findlay.
Lewis and his band robbed a Mr. McClelland, who was riding from
Pittsburgh to Bedford. Lewis saved McClelland’s life when Connelly
insisted on shooting him, saying “Dead men tell no tales.” Lewis was
again caught and confined in the Bedford jail. He not only escaped, but
he set free all the convicts who entered in the plan with him, leaving
behind “an ordinary thief who had robbed a poor widow. Such a thief
should remain in jail and pay the price,” wrote Lewis in his confession.
Lewis and Connelly made a trip through York and Cumberland Counties
robbing wealthy German farmers. A well-laid plot to rob a wealthy Mr.
Bashore was frustrated through the presence of mind and bravery of his
wife, who blew a horn to alarm the neighborhood, as Lewis confessed,
“displaying as much courage as any man and more resolution than any
woman I had met with.”
On several occasions he was known to have risked capture, and even his
life, just to spend a few hours with his mother, whom he dearly loved.
Lewis learned that a wagon load of merchandise belonging to Hamilton and
Page, of Bellefonte, was expected to pass through the Seven Mountains.
He and his gang quickly planned and successfully executed this robbery,
and immediately thereafter made a rich haul from the store of General
James Potter, in Penn’s Valley near the Old Fort.
Lewis was a shrewd mountaineer and smart as a steel trap, but like all
such criminals of his daring was sure to meet his fate. Even though
frequently arrested and confined in jail, none was strong enough to hold
him. He never served a sentence in a single institution.
After the robbery of General Potter’s store, Lewis and Connelly started
for Sinnemahoning, meeting at the house of Samuel Smith, where they
participated in shooting at a mark, and mingled in the crowd. Lewis and
Connelly were recognized and their surrender demanded as rewards were
everywhere offered for their arrest. Connelly opened fire, killing one
of the captors.
Lewis, never having taken life, snapped his pistol in the air, but the
fire was returned in earnest, Lewis being shot in the right arm and
Connelly in the hip. The latter was found hiding in a tree top. Lewis
and Connelly were loaded in canoes and taken down the river to Great
Island, now Lock Haven, where three physicians attended them. Connelly
died that night. Lewis was removed, as soon as his wounds would permit
to Bellefonte jail, where he died a month later, July 13, 1820.
Thus a sad commentary in the life of Lewis, the Robber, that the only
jail from which he failed to escape was the Bellefonte bastile, and
while there his wounds were of such a nature he could not plan nor did
he desire to escape, but he often told his jailer he could easily get
away any hour he pleased.
----------
Bethlehem Hospital Base During Revolution,
Moved March 27, 1777
Bethlehem was the seat of a general hospital twice during the Revolution
and during the six years from 1775 to 1781, it was a thoroughfare for
Continental troops. Heavy baggage and munitions of war and General
Washington’s private baggage were stored in the town and guarded by 200
Continentals under command of Colonel William Polk, of North Carolina,
while many houses were occupied by American troops and British prisoners
of war. The Continental Congress found refuge there when on its flight
from Philadelphia.
The inhabitants of Bethlehem, therefore, witnessed not only the horrors
and experienced the discomforts of war, but also its “pomp and
circumstance,” for at times there were sojourning among them Generals
Washington, Lafayette, Greene, Knox, Sterling, Schuyler, Gates,
Sullivan, De Kalb, Steuben, Pulaski and Arnold, with members of their
staffs, and General Charles Lee’s division of the army in command of
General Sullivan was encamped opposite the town.
The population of Bethlehem in those stirring days was about 500 souls,
principally Moravians. The “Church Store,” on Market Street, was well
stocked and spacious; in its cellars were stored supplies for the
hospital and in the dwelling part sick and wounded soldiers found
desirable quarters.
The dwelling of Thomas Horsfield was nearby. He was a hero of the French
and Indian War, a colonel of the Provincial forces and a magistrate.
Many refugees from Philadelphia and New York were provided a temporary
home by the old veteran. Beyond, to the west, resided William Boehler,
where Captain Thomas Webb, the founder of Methodism in America, and a
British prisoner of war with his family of seven persons, were
comfortably accommodated.
On what is now Main Street, and north of the “Brethren House,” stood the
“Family House,” for married people, in which were confined more than 200
British prisoners, whose guard of 100 Continentals were quartered in the
water works building. When they marched for Reading and Lancaster, the
surgeons of the hospital occupied the building.
Farther up the thoroughfares were the farm buildings and dwelling of
Frederick Boeckel, the farmer general of the Moravian estates, where
Lafayette, after being wounded at Brandywine, was tenderly nursed to
convalescence by Dame Barbara Boeckel and her pretty daughter, Liesel.
The last house overlooking the Valley of the Monocacy was the Sun Inn, a
hostelry unsurpassed in the Colonies, and surely none other entertained
and sheltered so many of the patriots of the American Revolution.
The Single Brethren’s House now the middle building of the Moravian
Seminary and College for Women, which has weathered the storms of more
than 175 years, was twice during the Revolution occupied as a general
hospital, the first time from December, 1776, to April, 1777, and for
the last time from September, 1777, to April, 1778. The cornerstone of
this large building was laid April 1, 1748.
The Americans were defeated at Long Island in August, 1776, when
Washington withdrew his troops to New York City, which a few days later
fell into the hands of the enemy. This loss was quickly followed by that
of Fort Washington and Fort Lee, when Washington crossed the North River
into New Jersey, and continued his retreat to Trenton, in which he was
closely pursued by Cornwallis. It was at this crisis that the general
hospital, in which more than 1,000 sick and wounded were living, was
removed from Morristown to Bethlehem.
On December 3, 1776, Dr. Cornelius Baldwin rode up to the clergy house
and delivered to Reverend John Ettwein an order from General John
Warren, general hospital surgeon, which stated that General Washington
had ordered the General Hospital to Bethlehem and directed the Moravian
brethren to put their buildings in condition for the reception of the
invalids and he doubted not “but you will act upon this occasion as
becomes men and Christians.”
Toward evening Drs. William Shippen and John Warren arrived and made
arrangements with Reverend Ettwein for the reception of 250 of the sick.
During the ensuing two days the invalids, in charge of their surgeons,
commenced to arrive. Their suffering from exposure and improper
transportation made them pitiable objects to behold and two died before
they were removed from the wagons. Food was scarce and the Moravians
relieved their distress from their own supplies. Some of the sick were
taken to Easton and Allentown.
On December 7 two deaths occurred and a site for a cemetery was selected
on the bluff on the west bank of the Monocacy Creek.
The Moravians constantly attended the sick and Mr. Ettwein visited the
patients daily. In February smallpox was brought to the hospital by some
soldiers, but an epidemic was averted. On March 27, 1777, the hospital
was transferred to Philadelphia.
During the time the hospital was in Bethlehem more than 100 died,
coffins for whom were made by the Moravian carpenters, who also dug the
graves and served at the burial of the deceased patriots.
Again when the Continental army failed to defend Philadelphia, the
hospital was removed to Bethlehem. On September 13, 1777, Washington
ordered all military stores of the army, in 700 wagons to Bethlehem. The
Church bells of Philadelphia, with the Liberty Bell, were also
transported to Bethlehem en route to Allentown. Again the Moravians were
directed to prepare their buildings for hospital use and September 20,
the sick and wounded began to arrive, among them Lafayette and Colonel,
later General John Armstrong, of Carlisle. On the twenty-second the
archives and money of Congress, under an escort, arrived.
On October 7 the wounded from the Battle of Germantown began to arrive
and in a fortnight 450 patients were being treated. A rain lasting six
days set in and the suffering was indescribable. The Moravians furnished
many blankets and much clothing for the destitute soldiers. During
December many sick soldiers were brought to Bethlehem from hospitals in
New Jersey. The loss was enormous due to lack of proper facilities with
which to treat the patients, and the mortality during eight months and
ten days was 120.
Among the surgeons from Pennsylvania were William Shippen, Jr., John
Morgan, Thomas Bond, Jr., William Smith, Bodo Otto, Aquila Wilmot, James
Houston, S. Halling and Francis Allison, Jr.
On August 28, 1778, the remaining sixty-five patients were removed to
Lancaster and Yellow Springs, and Bethlehem ceased to be a hospital base
during the war.
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Flight of Tory Leaders from Pittsburgh,
March 28, 1778
General Edward Hand, the commandant at Fort Pitt, had failed in two
expeditions, and the resultant effect was disastrous to the American
cause on the border, especially in the spring of 1778. During the
previous winter the British, under General Howe, had occupied
Philadelphia, the capital of the colonies; the Continental Congress had
been driven to York, and Washington’s Army, reduced to half-naked and
half-starved condition, had suffered in camp at Valley Forge, so there
was not much to win adherents to the cause of liberty among those
otherwise inclined.
Governor Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, sent many agents,
red and white, to penetrate the border settlements to organize the
Tories into effective military units. In February and March, 1778, a
daring and shrewd British spy visited Pittsburgh and carried on his
plotting against the colonies almost under the nose of General Hand.
Most of the Tories of this neighborhood were at the house of Alexander
McKee, at what is now called McKees Rocks. Another place of assembly was
at Redstone, where a British flag flew nearly all of that winter.
Captain Alexander McKee, the Tory leader at Pittsburgh, was an educated
man of wide influence on the frontier. He had been an Indian trader and
for twelve years prior to the Revolution had been the King’s deputy
agent for Indian affairs at Fort Pitt. For a short time he had been one
of the justices of the peace for Westmoreland County, and he was
intimately acquainted with most of the Indian chiefs. In 1764 he
received a grant of 1,400 acres of land from Colonel Henry Bouquet, at
the mouth of Chartier’s Creek, and he divided his time between his house
in Pittsburgh and his farm at McKees Rocks.
In the spring of 1776, McKee was discovered to be in correspondence with
the British officers in Canada, and he was put on his parole not to give
aid or comfort to the enemies of American liberty, and not to leave the
vicinity of Pittsburgh without the consent of the Revolutionary
Committee.
In February, 1778, General Hand had reason to suspect that McKee had
resumed his relations and correspondence with the British authorities
and ordered the captain to go to York and report himself to the
Continental Congress. For a time McKee avoided compliance, on plea of
illness, but unable to further delay, he contrived to escape to Detroit
and there openly ally himself with the British cause.
About a year before this a young trader, Matthew Elliott, who understood
the Shawnee language, had been employed by the Americans to carry
messages from Fort Pitt to the Shawnee and other Indian tribes to the
westward, in the interest of peace. On one of his missions he was
captured by hostile savages and carried to Detroit, where, after a short
imprisonment, he had been released on parole.
He returned to Pittsburgh via Quebec, New York and Philadelphia, all
then in British possession. He had been impressed by the show of British
power in the East, in contrast to the miserable conditions of the
American forces, especially along the frontier. He became convinced that
the colonists would fail in the Revolution, and on his return to
Pittsburgh got into communication with Captain McKee and others of the
Tory party.
Elliott was suspected of having poured into McKee’s ears the wild tale
that he was to be waylaid and killed on his journey to York. McKee heard
such a story and believed it, which decided him to escape from Fort Pitt
and go to Detroit.
The flight of the Tories took place from Alexander McKee’s house during
the night of March 28, 1778. General Hand received a hint of this move
early in the evening and dispatched a squad of soldiers to McKee’s house
Sunday morning to remove McKee to Fort Pitt. The soldiers arrived too
late. The members of the little party who had fled into Indian land in
that rough season were Captain McKee, his cousin, Robert Surphlit; Simon
Girty, Matthew Elliott, a man of the name of Higgins, and two Negro
slaves belonging to McKee.
Simon Girty was a Pennsylvanian, who had been captured by the Indians
when eleven years old, kept in captivity for three years by the Seneca,
and afterward employed at Fort Pitt as an interpreter and messenger. He
had served the American cause faithfully. He then became the most
notorious renegade and Tory in Pennsylvania.
The Tories in their flight made their way through the woods to the
Delaware town Coshocton, where they tarried several days endeavoring to
incite the tribe to rise against the colonists. Their efforts were
thwarted by Chief White Eyes, who declared his friendship for the
“buckskins” as he called the Americans, and he proved his sincerity
until his death.
Chief White Eyes and Captain Pipe, an influential chief, debated in the
Coshocton council on the advocacy of war, White Eyes pleading the cause
of peace. The oratory of White Eyes carried the day and the seven Tories
departed to the Shawnee towns on the Scioto, where they were welcomed.
Many of the Shawnee were already on the warpath, and all were eager to
hear the arguments of their friend McKee. James Girty, a brother of
Simon, was then with the Shawnee tribe, having been sent from Fort Pitt
by General Hand on a futile peace mission. He had been raised among the
Shawnee, was a natural savage and at once joined his brother and the
other Tories.
When Governor Hamilton heard of the flight of Captain McKee and his
companions from Fort Pitt, he dispatched Edward Hazle to the Scioto to
conduct the renegades safely through the several Indian tribes to
Detroit. Hamilton, as would be expected, received them cordially and
gave them commissions in the British service. For sixteen years McKee,
Elliott and the Girtys were the merciless scourges of the border. They
were the instigators and leaders of many Indian raids, and their
intimate knowledge of the frontier rendered their operations especially
effective. Long after the close of the Revolution they continued their
deadly enmity to the American cause and were largely responsible for the
general Indian war of 1790–94.
McKee and his associate renegades left behind them at Fort Pitt a band
of Tories who had planned to blow up the fortress and escape in boats at
night. In some way the scheme was frustrated just in time, probably by
the confession of one of the conspirators, and the disaster averted. A
score of the traitors escaped in boats during the night, and fled down
the Ohio River. On the following day they were pursued and overtaken
near the mouth of the Muskingum. Eight of the runaways escaped to the
shore and were lost in the trackless woods; some were killed in the
conflict which then occurred and the others were taken back as prisoners
to Fort Pitt.
Two were shot, another hanged and two were publicly whipped on the
parade ground of the fort. The punishment of these men was almost the
last act performed by General Hand before he was relieved by General
Lachlan McIntosh, but it put an end to the machinations of the Tories at
Pittsburgh.
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Colonel Clapham Commissioned to Build
Fort Augusta, March 29, 1756
From the moment Captain John Smith beheld the waters of the Susquehanna
to the present, it has been the main artery for the development of
Central and Northern Pennsylvania.
The two great branches of the Susquehanna River join at what is now
Northumberland, but opposite is a plain, where the old Indian town of
Shamokin was located, upon which the present city of Sunbury was laid
out July 4, 1772.
It was at Shamokin where the Indians established a vice-regal government
and installed the noble Shikellamy, the friend of the English and foe of
intemperance and vice. This was the largest and most important Indian
town south of Tioga Point. It was visited by the Moravian missionaries
and the interpreter, Conrad Weiser, tarried there in 1737 on his way to
a council at Onondaga. He and Shikellamy became intimate friends and
remained so until the latter’s death, December 17, 1748.
The erection of a fort at Shamokin was repeatedly urged by friendly
Indians, especially Andrew Montour and Monakatuatha or the Delaware Half
King, at a council at Harris’ Ferry, November 1, 1755. This request was
favorably considered by Governor Morris, but refused by the Assembly.
After Braddock’s defeat, when the French and Indians began to attack the
settlers along the frontier, occurred the terrible massacre at Penn’s
Creek, October 16. Later forty-six terrified settlers fled to Shamokin
for protection, but the attitude of the Indians caused them to leave the
following day, and as they traveled south they were fired upon from
ambush near Mahonoy Creek and four killed.
The Moravians broke up their mission at Shamokin and soon thereafter the
Indians abandoned the town.
October 31, 1755, a number of inhabitants gathered at John Harris’ and
signed a petition for a fort at Shamokin as a protection against the
French and Indians. On the same day a like gathering at Conrad Weiser’s
sent a similar petition to the provincial authorities. John Shikellamy,
son of the great vicegerent, went to Philadelphia and personally
solicited the Governor to build a fort, saying “that such Indians as
continue true to you want a place to come to and live in security
against your and their enemies, and to Shamokin, when you erect the
fort, they will come and bring their wives and children. Brethren,
hasten the work; our warriors will assist you in building the fort.”
At a conference held at Carlisle January 17, 1756, this necessity was
again brought to the notice of the Governor, who replied that he would
build a strong house at Shamokin.
The fear of delay was because the French had for some time realized the
importance of the strategic situation of Shamokin and if they could gain
a foothold there the places below would be easy prey.
The Governor was determined that the fort should be built and made his
plans accordingly. He informed the Board of Commissioners April 15,
1756, that he had on March 29 commissioned Lieutenant Colonel William
Clapham to recruit a battalion for the purpose. This was the third
battalion and was known as the Augusta Regiment. Major James Burd was
second in command and Asher Clayton was commissioned adjutant of the
battalion.
The regiment rendezvoused at Harris’ Ferry, where Governor Morris
attended the recruiting and training in person. On June 12 orders were
received to march.
A stockade was built at Halifax, where supplies were stored and a
garrison maintained. While at this camp Colonel Clapham had a conference
with the Iroquois chief, Oghagradisha, assuring him they were on their
way to Shamokin.
Sufficient bateaux were built by July 1, when the regiment marched from
Halifax, and by a tedious march the 400 troops reached Shamokin without
mishap July 6 and immediately began the construction of the fort, which
was built from plans drawn by E. Meyer, engineer of the British
Government. It was called Fort Augusta in honor of the daughter of King
George II.
Colonel Clapham pushed the work of construction with dispatch and
September 23, wrote to Governor Denny, “The fort is now almost finished,
and a fine one it is.” The construction required less than seven weeks
upon the main works, but much time was employed in better protecting the
fortress and in adding necessary buildings.
Much difficulty was experienced in obtaining adequate supplies of
provisions and ammunition, as the only means of transportation were pack
horses over a mountainous Indian trail or by bateaux and the latter was
impossible during the severe winters.
Colonel Clapham was succeeded by Colonel James Burd, who left such a
fascinating journal of his experiences at that frontier fort.
Expeditions were sent out from the fort to the Great Island, now Lock
Haven; to Chinklacamoose, now Clearfield; to Penn’s Creek, to Wyoming,
and other places.
The fort faced the main river and was nearly 300 feet square, with
bastions at the four corners. The total length of the fortification was
more than 600 feet. A magazine was later built in the south bastion and
a covered way to the river. This was strongly built with a brick arched
roof and was reached by a narrow stairway descending into it. This is
now the surviving structure of that dark and gloomy period in the
State’s history. It is the property of the Commonwealth and it is well
marked and well kept.
Fort Augusta was far in advance of any English settlement in the
Province, holding the only passage by water and blocking the pathway
along the river by land, to the settlements below.
The Assembly wanted to dismantle the fort and save the expense of the
garrison, but no Governor would agree to this plan, as it was an actual
protection for the inhabitants.
During the Revolution Fort Augusta again became an important place, the
headquarters of the Military Department of the Susquehanna. Colonel
Samuel Hunter, the county lieutenant, mustered and trained troops there
for the Continental Army. It was here where Colonel Thomas Hartley drew
his supplies for his expedition against the Indians in 1778.
It was at Fort Augusta where the terrified inhabitants found safety in
the “Great Runaway,” following the Indian incursions which culminated in
the Wyoming massacre, July 3, 1778.
The work of dismantling the fort began about 1780, as the ground then
passed into private hands. Thus this old fort has crumbled into ruins,
its story unsung, its heroes forgotten.
But for the wisdom of the Indians this fort would not have been built
and the horrors of the French and Indian War would have been carried to
the banks of the Delaware. This fort was where the high tide of the
Revolution was turned backward and the English and their Indian allies
forced to turn their faces again toward Canada. It was the largest and
most important provincial fortification on the frontier of this
continent.
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Swedes Come to the Delaware—Peter Minuit
Steps Ashore, March 30, 1638
Samuel Blummaert, of Holland, who had business interests in Sweden,
directed the attention of the Swedish Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna, to
the possibilities of the copper trade with the West Indies. At that time
Peter Minuit, who had been Governor of New Netherlands, 1626 to 1632,
and was dissatisfied with his treatment, having been dismissed, offered
his service to Blummaert, knowing that the latter owned lands on the
South River, now the Delaware.
The great Gustavus died in November, 1632, and upon Oxenstierna devolved
all the burdens of the American scheme. Sweden was poor; the times were
unpropitious; he was forced to wait five years until practical plans
could be matured. Minuit had suggested the founding of a colony upon the
South River to trade with the Indians. A company was formed with the
exclusive right to trade on that river for twenty years and to send
goods to Sweden for a period of ten years free of duty. The ownership of
this company was half Swedish and half Dutch.
An expedition reached the South River, landing at the mouth of Mispillon
Creek, which they called “Paradise Point.” Passing on upward they cast
anchor at Minquas-kill, where Minuit went ashore March 30, 1638, to
confer with the Indians. He knew well the story of Swanendael and meant
to avoid a recurrence. The chief with whom he talked was Mattahoorn, the
principal sachem of that region and an Indian of worthy character, who
came often into the early history of Pennsylvania before William Penn
arrived. Minuit concluded an agreement, obtaining land on which to build
a house for “a kettle and other articles,” and for ground on which to
plant, he was to give half the tobacco raised upon it. The land was
defined as “within six trees.”
Minuit had instructions to set up the arms of Sweden and take possession
of the country, avoiding New Netherlands, to do no harm to the Indians,
to name the country New Sweden, to dispose of his cargo and then,
leaving the sloop, return to Sweden.
Minuit built Fort Christiana, named in honor of the girl queen at
Stockholm, five miles below the Dutch Fort Nassau, and left in it when
he departed twenty-four men.
Nearly coincident with the arrival of the Swedes at Minquas-kill, came a
new Director-General of the Dutch at Manhattan, in the person of William
Kieft, who sailed into that port, March 18, 1638. He was disturbed over
this Swedish intrusion, and promptly wrote to his company in Holland
and, May 6 addressed a formal letter to Minuit, protesting against his
settlement, declaring that both banks of the river belonged to the
Dutch.
This claim by the Dutch to the west bank was based on De Vries’
adventure at Swanendael. Minuit made no reply, he knew that no white man
had more than six years been living on the west side of the river. So he
pushed the work on his fort and built log-houses. Trade with the Indians
was firmly established. A second treaty with the Indians was made, which
purchase included land down the river and bay and northward as far as
the Falls of Trenton. Minuit returned with his two vessels, July, 1638.
The twenty-four persons now comprising the colony at Christiana were
under command of Mans Kling, with Hendrik Huyghen as commissary. This
company formed the first permanent settlement by white men on the
Delaware Bay, or River, on either side.
Minuit was lost at sea on his return voyage and New Sweden suffered a
hard stroke of misfortune. He and De Vries were the ablest men ever sent
to the South River.
The colony was in such distress in 1639 that the people thought
seriously of abandoning the locality and going to Manhattan, but the
following year another vessel arrived from Sweden with supplies. She
sailed into Christiana, April 17, 1640. On board were four mares and two
horses, a number of farming implements, thirty-one barrels of beer, and
colonists, made up to some extent of deserters from the army and people
accused of offenses. This vessel soon returned laden with beaver skins
and other peltry. At this time the Dutch members of the company sold
their interest to the Swedes.
Peter Hollender, who succeeded Peter Minuit as Governor of the Swedes,
arrived in April, 1640, and continued in authority until February, 1643.
Another effort to send colonists to New Sweden originated in Utrecht. A
charter granted to Hendrik Hooghkamer and others authorized them to
start a settlement on the west side of South River twenty miles above
Fort Christiana. They were to have what land was needed, provided they
improved it within ten years. They could start manufactories and carry
on trade. They were given religious liberty and were required to support
ministers of the Gospel and schoolmasters. But they were compelled to
submit to the Swedish law and Government and pay a tax of three florins
a year for each family.
Under this arrangement the ship Fredenburg sailed from Holland, and
arrived at Christiana, November 2, 1640. This ship was armed with
twenty-five cannon and carried fifty Dutch colonists, headed by Jost de
Bogharat. The Fredenburg took back to Sweden 737 beaver skins, 29 bear
skins and some other productions of the New World.
It was a difficult matter to find colonists. At this time there were
many Finns scattered over Sweden, who lived a somewhat nomadic life.
They roamed about, burned the forests, and shot deer and other game
unlawfully. Severe laws were passed to prevent this wantonness, but the
Finns paid little attention to them, and they refused to return to
Finland. New Sweden seemed to be the solution and the Government of
Sweden ordered the capture of these law-breaking Finns.
Among those engaged in the pursuit of these Finns was Johan Printz, who
was later Governor of New Sweden. When he caught a Finn, who had cut
down six apple trees in the King’s orchard, he was given his choice
between going to New Sweden or being hanged.
Two vessels were fitted out for the voyage to the New World; one of them
carried thirty-five colonists, mostly Finns. They set sail in November,
1641, and arrived in New Sweden the following April. Among these
arrivals were Olaf Paullsson, Anders Hansson, Axel Stille, Henrich
Mattson, Olaf Stille, Mans Swensson, and Per Kock, and their names are
still borne by families in Pennsylvania. Tobacco soon became the main
article of commerce sent from New Sweden.
When the Swedes first arrived with Peter Minuit they built inside the
fort little cottages of round logs, with low doors and no windows except
the loop-holes cut between the logs. The cracks were closed with mud or
clay. The fireplaces were made of stone, and a bake-oven was built
within the house.
In 1640 lands were bought from the Indians on the west side of the South
River from the Schuylkill as far north as the site of Trenton.
----------
History of Pennsylvania Railroad Begins
with Organization of Company
March 31, 1847
Prior to 1809, Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, urged repeatedly in public
addresses the construction of a passenger railroad from Philadelphia to
New York, and in that year attempted to form a company for this purpose.
In 1829 a railroad, sixteen miles long, from Honesdale to Carbondale, to
carry coal, was completed.
In 1827 the Mauch Chunk railroad, nine miles long, was built to connect
coal mines with the Lehigh River; the gauge was three feet seven inches,
and wooden rails were faced with iron.
The Baltimore and Ohio finished, in 1829, the first six miles of track
upon which passengers were carried.
The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company was incorporated by
special act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, approved April 4, 1833.
The charter granted to the company, December 5, 1833, authorized it to
construct a railroad from Reading to Philadelphia. At Reading it was
proposed to connect with the Little Schuylkill Navigation and Railroad,
which had been incorporated in 1827, to build a railroad from Tamaqua to
Reading.
Then followed the development of the rails in this country, and the
first T-rails made in America were rolled at the Montour Mill, in
Danville, Pa., in 1845. This was also an American invention. The first
rails, thirty feet in length, were made at the Cambria Iron Works, at
Johnstown, Pa., in 1856.
The greatest development of the locomotive was made by the great Baldwin
plant in Philadelphia.
Among the several great railroad groups of America is that of the
Pennsylvania system, and this corporation enjoys the distinction of
having the greatest number of individual stock holders.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the most important carrier in
Pennsylvania and in the Eastern United States, and one of the greatest
and most extensive railroad systems in the entire world, was brought
into existence by an act of Assembly of Pennsylvania, approved by
Governor Francis R. Shunk, April 13, 1846. Letters patent were issued
February 15, 1847, and the company organized March 20, but the election
of officers was held and the actual beginning of this great corporation
dates from March 31, 1847.
Under the articles of incorporation this company was authorized to
construct, equip, and operate a line of steam railroad to connect with
the then known Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy and Lancaster Railroad,
and to run to Pittsburgh or to any point in Allegheny County, or to
Erie, in Erie County, as its management might deem expedient.
This charter was not obtained without opposition, as it was understood
that the operation of this new railroad would draw from the revenues
upon which the State system of public works largely depended for
support. This was undoubtedly true, but the charter was granted and the
work of construction was carried forward with such vigor that in 1850
portions of the line were completed and ready for operation.
The Erie Canal, devised by DeWitt Clinton, and constructed by David
Thomas, a Pennsylvanian, had deflected the trade of the Great Lakes and
the West from Philadelphia to New York, and made the latter the leading
city of the nation. It was expected that a railroad over the mountains
would bring this trade back to Philadelphia and restore the supremacy of
that city.
In order to make sure that no outside influence should get control, the
charter provided that all of the directors “shall be citizens and
residents of this Commonwealth.” This part of the plan failed, but the
leading capitalists of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere in the
State, subscribed liberally to the stock of the company and from the
beginning the enterprise was well backed with ample funds and equally
valuable influence.
Hardly had the original road been opened for traffic before the company
began to extend its lines and enlarge the field of its operations.
The movement which proved of the greatest benefit to the public, and to
the company itself, was in 1857, when the Legislature passed an act, May
16, directing the line of public works between Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh to be sold, and the Pennsylvania Railroad Company became the
purchaser.
The purchase price was seven and one-half millions, and ownership was
obtained for the combined State canal and railroad. The State was
relieved of a burdensome property, and at the same time these public
works were placed under the control of a corporation whose methods of
management must result in great benefit to the people of the State.
Governor James Pollock caused the sale to be made, June 25, and on July
31 following the actual transfer was consummated.
This transaction fixes the date from which the progressive history of
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company begins.
The canals on the Susquehanna and its branches above the mouth of the
Juniata, together with the Delaware division, were sold the following
year to the Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company, now a part of the great
Pennsylvania system, and the work of extension did not cease.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in 1861, leased for 999 years the
Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy and Lancaster road and brought it
under the Pennsylvania’s management.
The work of extension has ever kept pace with the opportunity to develop
this great railroad system until it includes, in whole, or in part, more
than one hundred lesser lines of road, with its main line, branches and
spurs.
The great terminal station in Philadelphia, recently damaged by fire,
will soon be replaced by one of the finest railroad stations in the
world, even comparable with the great Pennsylvania Station in New York
City.
The greatest corporation in Pennsylvania is the railroad system which so
gloriously carries the name of the Keystone State into every part of the
Western Hemisphere.
----------
Great Indian Council Opened at Harris’ Ferry, April 1, 1757
September 10, 1756, Governor Denny ordered a suspension of hostilities
against the Indians on the east side of the Susquehanna. A month later
Major Parsons wrote from Easton that nine Indian men and one Indian
woman with four white prisoners had arrived at Easton. One of the
prisoners was Henry Hess, who had been taken prisoner on New Year’s day
from his father’s plantation in Lower Smithfield, Northampton (now
Monroe) County. These had been sent by Tedyuskung from Wyoming.
The Governor sent Conrad Weiser to Easton, who met and greeted the
Indians in his behalf. Weiser concluded his mission by inviting
Tedyuskung to meet the Governor in Philadelphia, but he declined and
demanded the Governor convene a council at Easton.
This attitude incensed the Governor, who refused to humor the Indians,
and said no treaty should be held outside of Philadelphia. The Governor
finally yielded and under escort of a heavy guard proceeded to Easton.
This treaty was formally opened on Monday, November 8, with a great
display of militia and ceremonial pomp. Tedyuskung was again the
principal speaker for the Indians and he assured the Governor that the
Delaware were glad to meet again their old friends, the English. The
council continued nine days, during which Governor Denny appears to have
conducted himself with much tact and good judgment.
Early in December accounts were received that some of the Indians who
had been at the Easton treaty had, on their way home, murdered certain
white settlers on the frontiers—thus making it appear that Tedyuskung’s
authority over these Indians was very doubtful.
About the middle of January George Croghan, next to Sir William Johnson
the most prominent figure among British Indian agents, sent Joe Peepy,
son of the deceased Shikellamy, and Lewis Montour, son of the celebrated
Madame Montour, with a message to the Susquehanna Indians, inviting them
to attend a council, or treaty, at Lancaster. Peepy and Montour
delivered the message to the Indians assembled in council at Tioga when
they went to the Ohio to inform the Delaware and Shawnee there of the
proposed Lancaster meeting.
Upon their return Peepy and Montour reported to Croghan that all the
Susquehanna Indians were disposed for peace except the Munsee, or
Minisink Indians, although the messengers believe that these Indians
would come down to the treaty with King Tedyuskung.
On February 18, 1757, Zaccheus, a Delaware Indian, formerly of
Gnadenhuetten, arrived at Fort Allen and on the following day seven
Indian women and three children arrived there, all sent from Tioga by
Tedyuskung to announce to Governor Denny that they intended to come in
March to Easton to hold a treaty.
Early in March Tedyuskung with two of his sons, his half-brothers,
Captain Harris and Sam Evans, squaws and children, in all numbering
about fifty, arrived at Fort Allen. Captain Arndt, commandant of the
fort, advised Major Parsons that these Indians had “built cabins about
sixty perches from the fort, where they live and intend to stay till the
King comes.”
About the time these Indians had departed from Wyoming for Fort Allen
all the Six Nations, Nanticoke and Delaware, who had accompanied
Tedyuskung there from the Council at Tioga, proceeded down the river to
Fort Augusta at Shamokin.
Major James Burd, then in command of the garrison, wrote, March 21,
advising Governor Denny that 150 Six Nations had arrived there. “Sent by
Sir William Johnson to oblige the Delawares to lay down the hatchet, and
to be present at the treaty proposed between the Government and the
Delawares.” These Indians did not tarry long at Fort Augusta, for they
arrived at John Harris’ March 29, where they were met by George Croghan,
who reported there were “about 160 of them—men, women and children—part
of eight tribes.” A day later they were joined by some Conestoga
Indians.
April 1 a formal conference between Croghan and the Indians was begun at
Harris’ Ferry. Thus this much-discussed council was opened at neither
Lancaster, where Croghan had suggested it be held, nor at Easton, where
Tedyuskung said it would be held, but at John Harris’ Ferry, now
Harrisburg.
Among the white men present were the Reverend John Elder, of the Paxton
Presbyterian Church, known as the “Fighting Parson,” Captain Thomas
McKee, John Harris and Hugh Crawford. Scarouady was the principal
speaker for the Indians.
On April 6 it was decided to remove the council-fire to Lancaster, and
the next day the entire company marched thither, being met on the
outskirts of Lancaster by a number of the principal inhabitants.
The conference at Lancaster was delayed by the failure of Governor Denny
to attend. Smallpox had broken out among the Indians, and they were
uneasy. At length the Governor reached Lancaster, attended by members of
the Provincial Council, the Assembly, the Indian Commissioners, Colonel
Stanwix of the “Royal Americans,” and a number of citizens.
Three days later, May 12, 1757, the conference was formally opened in
the Lancaster Courthouse. “Little Abe” and Thomas King were the chief
speakers for the Indians. The former told of the declaration of the
Delaware at a council where they denied the allegation they were women,
and further said they acknowledged no authority over them among the Six
Nations, but would listen to the Seneca.
Little Abe then advised that the Seneca be invited to a meeting with the
Delaware and Shawnee at Lancaster or elsewhere. Messengers were
accordingly sent, who were also instructed to see Tedyuskung and inquire
as to the reasons for his absence from the Lancaster conference, which
was that day brought to a close.
On the 23d all the Indians, in charge of Captain McKee, departed from
Lancaster and arrived at Fort Augusta June 1. They tarried four days,
and on the 5th all, except the Delaware, left the fort “in canoes, with
plenty of flour, rum, etc., sufficient to carry them home.” The Delaware
started a few days later across the country to Bethlehem.
Edward Shippen, of Lancaster, in a letter to his son-in-law, Major James
Burd, at Fort Augusta, dated May 22, 1757, among other interesting
things wrote: “We have had many meetings of the Indians here, to whom
valuable presents have been given by the Governor and the Quakers; but
as Tedyuskung and the Indians who were expected along with him were not
come, a very handsome part is reserved for them.
“It appears to me that unless the Militia Act be passed we of this
borough shall in less than a month become the frontiers.”
On June 16, 1757, Sir William Johnson held a conference with the
Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca, of the Six Nations, and made an earnest and
successful appeal for them to remain loyal to the English. Tedyuskung
was severely censured for his conduct, and Sir William charged the
Seneca to bring him around to a sensible understanding.
----------
First Mint Established in Philadelphia by Act
of April 2, 1792
The project of a national mint for the United States was first
introduced by Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, the patriot and financier
of the Revolution.
As the head of the Finance Department, Mr. Morris was instructed by
Congress to prepare a report on the foreign coins then in circulation in
the United States. On January 15, 1782, he laid before Congress an
exposition of the whole subject, and accompanying this report, was a
plan for American coinage.
Robert Morris was assisted in his effort to establish a mint by Thomas
Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.
On April 15, 1790, Congress instructed the Secretary of the Treasury,
Alexander Hamilton, to prepare and report a proper plan for the
establishment of a national mint. This was done at the ensuing session
of Congress. The act was framed and passed finally March 26, 1792, and
received the approval of President George Washington April 2, 1792.
A lot of ground was purchased on Seventh Street near Arch, and
appropriations were made for erecting the necessary buildings. An old
stillhouse, which stood on the lot, had first to be removed. In an
account book of that time we find an entry on July 31, 1792, of the sale
of some old material from the stillhouse for seven shillings and
sixpence, which Mr. Rittenhouse directed “should be laid out for punch
in laying the foundation stone.”
David Rittenhouse was the first Director of the Mint, April 14, 1792,
until his health compelled him to resign in June, 1795.
This building for the United States Mint in Philadelphia was the first
structure erected in America for public use under authority of the
Federal Government. It was a brick building, the cornerstone of which
was laid by David Rittenhouse July 31, 1792.
In the following October operations were commenced by the coinage of the
silver half dimes. President Washington mentions this first coinage in
his address to Congress, November 6, 1792, as follows: “There has been a
small beginning in the coinage of half dimes, the want of small coins in
circulation calling the first attention to them.”
The original purchase of metal for coinage was six pounds of old copper
at one shilling and three pence per pound, which was coined and
delivered to the Treasurer in 1793. The first deposit of silver bullion
was made July 18, 1794, by the Bank of Maryland. This consisted of coins
of France amounting to $80,715.73½. The first return of silver coins to
the Treasurer was made on October 15, 1794. The first deposit of gold
bullion was made by Moses Brown, a Boston merchant, on February 12,
1795, and paid for in silver coins. The first gold coins turned into the
Treasury were 744 half eagles, on July 31, 1795. Eagles were first
delivered September 22, when 400 were delivered.
There were four different currencies or rates, in different parts of the
Union, and a consequent perplexity, until the passage of the law which
regulated the coins of the United States. The present system of coins is
formed upon the principles laid down in the resolution of 1786, by which
Congress determined the denominations should be dollars (the dollar
being the unit), dimes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and mills or
thousandths of a dollar.
Nothing could be more simple or convenient than this decimal
sub-division. The terms are proper because they express the proportions
which they are intended to designate. The dollar was wisely chosen, as
it corresponded with the Spanish coin, with which the colonists had long
been familiar.
The mills were imaginary and never coined. The first cents were made of
copper, round and about an inch in diameter and one-sixth of an inch in
thickness.
It is an interesting fact that silver was first coined in money 869
years before the Christian era.
Previous to the coinage of silver dollars at the Philadelphia mint, in
1794, there occurred an amusing incident in Congress, when a member from
the South bitterly opposed the choice of the eagle, on the ground of its
being the “king of birds,” and hence neither proper nor suitable to
represent a nation whose institutions were inimical to monarchial forms
of government.
Judge Thatcher playfully in reply suggested that perhaps a goose might
suit the gentleman, as it was a rather humble and republican bird, and
would also be serviceable in other respects, as the goslings would
answer to place on the dimes.
This answer created considerable merriment, and the irate Southerner,
conceiving the humorous rejoinder as an insult, sent a challenge to the
Judge who promptly declined it. The bearer, rather astonished, asked,
“Will you be branded as a coward?” “Certainly, if he pleases,” replied
Thatcher; “I always was one and he knew it, or he would never have
risked a challenge.”
The affair occasioned much mirth, and, in due time, former existing
cordial relations were restored; the irritable Southerner concluding
there was nothing to gain fighting one who fired nothing but jokes.
March 2, 1829, provisions were made by Congress, for extending the Mint
establishment, the supply of bullion for coinage having increased beyond
the capacity of the existing accommodations.
The Mint edifice under this provision was erected at the northwest
corner of Chestnut and Juniper Streets. The corner-stone was laid July
4, 1829, by Samuel Moore, then Director of the Mint. The building was
occupied in 1833.
This was among the finest of Philadelphia’s classic structures, and it
was admired by every resident and visitor. The building was of marble
and of the Grecian style of architecture, the roof being covered with
copper. Each front on Chestnut Street and Penn Square was ornamented
with a portico of sixty feet, containing six Ionic columns.
The present structure on Spring Garden Street is huge and an impressive
building, but a disappointment when compared with the beautiful edifice
that it supplanted. It was first occupied October 1, 1901, and was about
three years in building.
Nearly two-thirds of our coinage comes from the mint at Philadelphia,
which is the largest and most completely equipped mint in the world. The
coins for nearly all the South American countries are also made in this
mint.
A wonderful collection of coins and medals of all lands can be seen by
the public in this building.
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Act for Purchase of Erie Triangle Passed
April 3, 1792
For many years after William Penn received the charter for Pennsylvania
he was engaged in controversies over the boundary line of his Province,
and long after his death the several proprietaries were concerned with
the question. It was not until 1774 that the controversy with Maryland
was concluded, and it was after the Revolution that the armed conflict
with Connecticut was finally determined by Congress, and the imminent
conflict with Virginia over the territory west of the Alleghenies was
satisfactorily settled.
It was not until 1786, after many difficulties between the States of
Pennsylvania and Virginia, that the western boundary of our State was
surveyed by extending the Mason and Dixon line to the end of the five
degrees west from the Delaware River and a meridian drawn from the
western extremity to the northern limit.
In 1785 commissioners were appointed on the part of Pennsylvania and New
York to ascertain the northern boundary of the former from the Delaware
River westward to the northwest corner. The commissioners were David
Rittenhouse on the part of Pennsylvania, and Samuel Holland on the part
of New York. They proceeded to act in pursuance of that appointment, and
in December, 1786, ascertained and fixed the beginning of the
forty-third degree of north latitude, erected suitable monuments there
and near the Delaware River, but were prevented by inclement weather
from proceeding further in the survey.
The next year Andrew Ellicott was appointed a commissioner, on the part
of Pennsylvania, and James Clinton and Simeon Dewitt on the part of New
York. In 1787 they completed the running and marking of this northern
boundary 259 miles and 88 perches from its commencement at the Delaware
River, to its termination in Lake Erie, five or six miles east of the
Ohio State line and marked the whole distance throughout by milestones,
each one indicating the distance from the Delaware River. In 1789 an act
of Assembly confirmed the acts of the commissioners.
The Indians being recognized as owners of the soil, the whole was
purchased from them by different treaties. One at Fort Stanwix
extinguished their title to the lands of Western Pennsylvania and New
York, excepting the Triangle or Presqu’ Isle lands, which were
accidentally left out of Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts,
Connecticut and Virginia and were supposed at different times to belong
to each.
General William Irvine discovered while surveying the Donation Lands
that Pennsylvania had but a few miles of lake coast and not any harbor,
and in consequence of his representations the State of Pennsylvania made
propositions for its purchase from Philips and Gorham, the reputed
owners, in the year 1788. Surveyor General Andrew Ellicott surveyed and
established lines at the request of the Federal Government, but Frederic
Saxton accompanied him on behalf of the owners.
It was finally determined by comparison with the charters of New York,
Massachusetts and Connecticut just what was the western limit of New
York. This was found to be twenty miles east of Presqu’ Isle.
On June 6, 1788, the Board of Treasury was induced to make a contract
for the sale of this tract described as bounded “on the east by New
York, on the south by Pennsylvania and on the north and west by Lake
Erie.”
On September 4 it was resolved by Congress “that the United States do
relinquish and transfer to Pennsylvania all their right, title and claim
to the Government and jurisdiction of the said land forever, and it is
declared and made known that the laws and public acts of Pennsylvania
shall extend over every part of said tract as if the said tract had
originally been within the charter bounds of the State.”
By an act of October 2, 1788, the sum of £1200 was appropriated to
purchase the Indian title to the tract, in fulfillment of the contract
to sell it to Pennsylvania.
At the treaty of Fort McIntosh, January 9, 1789, Chief Cornplanter and
other chiefs of the Six Nations signed a deed in consideration of the
sum of £1200, ceding the Presqu’ Isle lands to the United States. It was
then, by a deed dated March 3, 1792, ceded by the United States to
Pennsylvania. This deed is signed by George Washington, President, and
Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
In 1790 Surveyor-General Andrew Ellicott made a survey of the triangle
and found it to contain 202,287 acres. The purchase-money paid to the
United States, at seventy-five cents an acre, was $151,640.25.
This purchase having been completed before the passage of the act of
April 3, 1792, the lands within it except the reservations were sold
under the provisions of this act. The first settlements in Erie County
were made under the provisions of that law, and many instances of
personal violence occurred between the contending claimants. The
squatters would league together to prevent the legal claimants from
depriving them of their improvements.
The settlement of the lands northwest of the Allegheny River, and
especially the Presqu’ Isle lands, was never cordially acquiesced in by
the Six Nations, and Cornplanter became very unpopular among his own
people. It was charged upon him that he and Little Billy had received
the purchase price both at Fort McIntosh and Philadelphia. Cornplanter
himself protested to the United States at Buffalo Creek in June, 1794,
against the garrison established by General Anthony Wayne at Presqu’
Isle, when he went out against the Miami Indians.
----------
Reading Railroad Incorporated by Act
Passed April 4, 1833
The Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company was incorporated by special
act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, approved April 4, 1833.
The charter granted to the company, December 5, 1833, authorized it to
construct a railroad from Reading to Philadelphia. At Reading it was
proposed to connect with the Little Schuylkill Navigation and Railroad,
which had been incorporated in 1827, to build a railroad from Tamaqua to
Reading. By a latter statute the company was authorized to extend its
road from Reading to Port Clinton, where connection was made with the
Little Schuylkill and Navigation and Railroad.
The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was planned primarily to transport
anthracite from the Schuylkill region to Philadelphia and intermediate
points, especially where a number of blast furnaces were then operating.
Anthracite was known to exist in the Schuylkill Valley as early as 1800,
since which time the iron industry had become one of much importance,
the first furnace being established on Manatawney Creek, near Pottstown,
in 1716. Wood and charcoal were first used in smelting the ore, but the
increasing scarcity of these fuels led to experiments, which, in 1808,
proved that anthracite could be used advantageously as furnace fuel.
Anthracite was first transported by the Schuylkill Canal from the
vicinity of Pottsville to Philadelphia, and the furnaces in the
Schuylkill Valley. The growing need for this new fuel in domestic and
furnace use and the limitations of canal transportation led to the era
of railroad construction between the anthracite regions and tidewater
ports.
On December 5, 1839, the railroad was opened to traffic from Reading to
Philadelphia, and on January 1, 1842, the first locomotive and train
passed over the entire line between Mount Carbon in Schuylkill County,
and Philadelphia. On May 17, 1842, the Richmond Branch, from the Falls
of the Schuylkill to the terminal at Port Richmond, on the Delaware, was
opened, from which time the Reading has been an important railroad.
In 1853 the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company began the
construction of the Lebanon Valley Railroad, extending from Reading to
Harrisburg. The line was completed in 1858, and merged into the Reading
Railroad.
May 8, 1871, the parent company bought the Northern Liberties and Penn
Township Railroad, in Philadelphia, control of which had been obtained
in 1857.
In the period between 1859 and 1870, the Philadelphia and Reading
Railroad Company commenced the systematic extension which has resulted
in the development of the present Reading System. In that period the
company acquired through purchase or lease twenty-six railroads. Between
1870 and 1880, thirteen more were acquired; in the next decade nine were
added; from 1890 to 1900 eight were acquired and since 1900, four more
were added, until, at the present time the Reading Company, with its
affiliated lines operates 1619.15 miles of railroad, exclusive of the
Central Railroad of New Jersey, and 3.63 miles of road leased jointly by
the Reading Company and the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
Forming quite a contrast with the huge high-speed Pacific type
locomotives used today, are the locomotives used in the early days. At
first these locomotives in appearance were somewhat grotesque. Their
loud puffing was alarming, and the twenty-mile speed was terrifying.
One of these early engines, the Rocket, has been preserved for posterity
and is on exhibition in the Columbia Avenue Station in Philadelphia.
The Rocket never ran when it rained. On clear days it was capable of
taking a train at nearly thirty miles per hour. It burned wood as fuel
but later adopted coal.
The engineer of the Rocket was also the fireman. When his steam was
running low he reached over, grabbed a log from the pile along the
platform, thrust it into the fire box, then again became an engineer.
There was only one lever, and that was the throttle. All the way ahead
there was one speed, same in reverse. There were only four wheels and no
driving rods. There were no brakes on the Rocket. It had a kerosene
bull’s eye and a pop whistle, and at night when it came crashing along
at its twenty-mile clip, its bull’s-eye quivering, its stack emitting
sparks, its whistle popping, it was the marvel of the countryside.
Of almost equal interest are the stories of the first day coaches and
the Pullman cars. In the early days the coaches were very narrow, built
to meet the conditions of the narrow-gauge tracks, as there was a row of
double seats in one side of the aisle and a row of single seats on the
other.
There were first and second class coaches, designated by the figure 1
and 2 on the sides of the car. Those of the first class were upholstered
with black hair cloth, while the second-class had only plain wooden
seats and backs. The windows were small and placed near the roof.
In the winter the cars were heated with wood stoves. The cars were
lighted with candles. When a change from one line to another was made
each passenger picked out his own baggage and attended to its loading on
the new train.
At the dining stations the menu consisted of coffee and ham sandwiches
and sometimes beef stew.
The first sleeping cars were the ordinary day coaches changed by adding
sleeping requirements. They were usually divided into four compartments,
in each of which three bunks were built against one side of the car,
while in a corner of the rear end of the car were provided water, a
towel and a basin. No bedclothes were furnished, and the passengers,
fully dressed, retired upon rough mattresses with their overcoats pulled
over them for covering.
Continued patronage by the public of the day coaches, parlor, sleeping
and dining cars led, step by step to the facilities for comfortable and
luxurious travel offered today, where there is nothing left to be
desired and modern American railroad comfort is supreme.
----------
Mary Jemison, White Woman of Genesee,
Captured April 5, 1758
The thrilling narrative of the life of Mary Jemison, who was captured by
the Indians April 5, 1758, when only twelve years old, and who continued
to live among them during her long and eventful life, marrying two
chiefs of renown, continues to this day to be a wondrous story of one of
the most remarkable captivities suffered at the hands of the Indians by
the pioneer settlers of this country.
Mary Jemison, who came to be known as “The White Woman of the Genesee,”
related her own story of her capture and life among the Indians when
eighty years old.
She endured hardship and suffering with astonishing fortitude, and
amidst all the surrounding of barbaric life she preserved the
sensibilities of a white woman. The story of the captivity may be
briefly told as follows: Thomas and Jane Erwin Jemison emigrated from
Ireland about the year 1746. Mary, the fourth child, was born on
shipboard during the voyage to America.
Thomas Jemison removed his family to the then frontier settlements of
Pennsylvania on a tract of excellent land lying on Marsh Creek, in
Franklin Township, Adams County. They removed to another place near the
confluence of Sharps Run and Conewago Creek, a short distance from their
first home.
A few neighbors had come to live with the Jemison family on account of
the men being with Washington’s army and their fear of the Indians.
One morning Mary returned from an errand to the mill, and a man took her
horse to his house after a bag of grain. Mary’s father was busy with the
chores, her mother was getting breakfast; the two older brothers were in
the barn, and the little ones with Mary and the neighbor woman and her
three children in the house.
Breakfast was not yet ready when they were alarmed by the discharge of a
number of guns. On opening the door the man and horse lay dead. The
Indians captured Mr. Jemison, then rushed into the house and made
prisoners of Mrs. Jemison, Robert, Matthew, Betsey and Mary and the
other woman and her three children and then plundered the house. The two
brothers in the barn escaped and afterward went to Virginia.
In the attacking party were six Indians and four Frenchmen, and after
they took everything they wanted and all the food in the house, they set
out in great haste with their prisoners, keeping them in single file,
using a whip when any one lagged behind. No food or water was given them
all that day, and at night, fatigued and hungry, they were compelled to
lie upon the ground without fire or shelter. In the morning they were
given breakfast from the provisions taken from the Jemison home.
They were made to march a great distance the second day and at night had
a meal with bread and meat.
An Indian removed Mary’s shoes and stockings and put a pair of moccasins
on her feet which Mrs. Jemison believed meant they intended to spare her
life and destroy the other captives. An Indian removed the shoes and
stockings from the neighbor boy, and after putting moccasins on him, led
him and Mary off from the others some distance into the woods and there
laid down with them for the night.
That was the last time Mary ever saw her parents, for during the night,
the Indians murdered in most cruel manner the rest of the captives and
left their bodies in the swamps to be devoured by wild beasts.
During the next day’s march Mary had to watch them scrape and dry the
scalps of her parents, brothers and sisters and neighbors. Her mother’s
hair being red, she could easily distinguish it from the others, but she
knew them all, and the sight was one which remained with her during all
her life.
The boy was given to the French and Mary was given to two Shawnee
squaws. They started down the Ohio in canoes, toward their home at
Sciota. Upon arrival at the home of the squaws, Mary was given a suit of
Indian clothing and formally adopted according to Indian custom,
replacing a brother of the squaws, who had been killed in war. She was
given the Indian name Dickewamis, which means pretty girl or good thing.
She was not allowed to speak English, so soon learned the Indian tongue.
At this time the English had taken Fort Pitt, and as soon as the corn
was harvested the Indians went to the fort to make peace with the
British and Mary was taken along. She went with a light heart, feeling
sure she was to be restored to her brothers. The English asked her many
questions about herself, and this interest so alarmed her Indian sisters
that they hurried her away in their canoe. She learned later that some
white people had come to take her away, but could not find her.
Her Indian sisters made her marry a Delaware Indian named Sheninjee.
Mary spoke of him as noble, large in stature, elegant in appearance,
generous in conduct, courageous in war, a friend to peace and a great
lover of justice. Truly a fine tribute for an Indian warrior.
Her first child died soon after birth, but the fourth year she had a son
who she named in memory of her father, Thomas Jemison.
She had many hardships traveling with her child to the Genesee country,
which was 600 miles through an almost pathless wilderness.
Her husband died while she was en route to her new home. Several times
efforts were made to restore her to the English, and on one occasion the
chiefs determined she should be given up, but she fought against it
herself and her Indian brother helped her in her effort to remain among
the Indians.
Several years after the death of her husband she married Hiokatoo,
commonly called Gardow, by whom she had four daughters and two sons. Her
second husband was the most cruel Indian known.
Mary Jemison continued to live in the German Flats, N. Y., and upon the
death of Hiokatoo became possessed of much valuable land.
Two great sorrows were experienced when a feud between her sons resulted
in John, a wayward fellow, killing Thomas, who was a great comfort to
his mother and a leader among the Indians, and some years later John
killed his other brother, Jesse.
This double grief was almost more than the venerable woman could endure
and it was not assuaged when John was murdered in a drunken quarrel with
two Indians.
She was naturalized April 19, 1817, by which she received a clear title
to her reservation. In 1823 she disposed of the major portion of her
real estate holdings, reserving a tract two miles long and one mile
wide.
She died September 19, 1833, aged ninety-one years, and was buried with
Christian service in the cemetery of Seneca Mission Church, Buffalo
Creek Reservation. Her body was reinterred on March 7, 1874, in the
Indian Council House Grounds at Letchworth Park, where an elegant bronze
statue marks the grave of Mary Jemison, “The White Woman of the
Genesee.”
----------
Governor Penn Makes Trip Through State,
Starting April 6, 1788
Following the last great purchase from the Indians at Fort Stanwix,
October 23, 1784, the State enjoyed a steady flow of immigration. There
was an abundance of fertile and cheap lands, a desirable climate and low
taxes. It was possible for a foreigner to buy and hold lands with
relinquishment of their allegiance to the country of their birth. This
right had been granted for three years from 1787, and was continued for
a longer period after 1790.
About this time John Penn, son of Thomas Penn, and a grandson of William
Penn, and twice governor of the Province, traveled through the State to
look after some of the Proprietary estates, and during his trip from
Philadelphia to Carlisle and return he made some notes that are replete
with interest.
He set out from Philadelphia on the morning of April 6, 1788, on horse
back. He passed through the Township of Roxborough, and on his way saw
two meeting houses filled with people, another proof that the Friends
were still faithful to their old traditions.
At a tavern where he alighted he met a hoary-headed guest who invited
him within, calling him the “honorable proprietor.” That night he rested
at Brooke’s tavern and very much admired the sign, which was a striking
likeness of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, painted by George Rutter (Ritter), a
noted sign painter of that period. He then called on Frederick A.
Muhlenberg, Speaker of the last Assembly.
As Penn drew near Reading he was questioned by a person concerning a
manor of which he was the owner. This was Penn’s Mount, at that time on
the eastern limits of the town. Penn thought Reading was finely
situated. He dined on catfish with Abraham Whitman, the only tavern
keeper who had not voted against the confirmation of the proprietary
estate. He visited a ferry, still belonging to him, and from there went
to a farm “belonging to the proprietors,” which he determined to divide
and sell in smaller parcels.
Penn paid a visit to Angelica, the beautiful farm belonging to General
Thomas Mifflin, situated a few miles from Reading. A neighbor of General
Mifflin’s, who attracted Penn’s attention, was “one of the marrying
Dunkers, who live in their own houses like other countrymen, but wear
their beards long.”
Penn tarried here until the 9th, then went to Womelsdorf, passing on the
way one place that was “remarkable for its European appearance.” He then
rode through Lebanon, “a handsome town containing some hundred
inhabitants.” The horses were “baited” at Millerstown.
About sunset Penn caught his first glimpse of the Susquehanna “flowing
between its wooded and cultivated banks close to the town” of
Harrisburg.
Penn adds: “Mr. Harris, the owner and founder of the town, informed me
that three years ago there was but one house built and seemed to possess
pride and pleasure in his success.
“Though the courts are held here generally, Lebanon is infinitely
larger. The situation of this place is one of the finest I ever saw. One
good point of view is the tavern, almost close to the river. It is
called the Compass, and is one of the first public houses in
Pennsylvania. The room I had is twenty-two feet square and high in
proportion.”
After breakfast on the morning of April 11 Penn and John Harris walked
to the ferry and had a thrilling experience while ferrying across the
river, and on account of the high water and swift current they were
carried far out of their course.
About two miles west of the river they passed the home of Robert
Whitehill, the Assemblyman, and about 3 o’clock in the afternoon they
reached the town of Carlisle.
The first buildings seen were three or four separate wings, intended for
magazines originally, but granted by Congress to the trustees of
Dickinson College for twenty years. The Reverend Charles Nisbet, D. D.,
was then at the head of the institution.
In the neighborhood of Carlisle Penn had lands in charge of General John
Armstrong. Colonel Robert Magaw was also his companion during his stay
in Carlisle.
After remaining in Carlisle until the 13th Penn commenced his return to
Philadelphia by rising early in order “to see a cave near Conedoguinet
Creek,” in which the water petrifies as it drops from the roof. Then he
resumed his route and noted the “Yellow Breeches Creek,” reaching the
Susquehanna, again crossed Harris’ Ferry and then traveled along the
eastern bank of the river to Middletown. He was impressed with the
scenery and made many comments about both banks of the river. He wrote:
“At Middletown I put up at one More’s, who was a teacher formerly at
Philadelphia of Latin and Greek. He talked very sensibly, chiefly on
subjects which discovered him to be a warm Tory and friend of passive
obedience. Here the Great Swatara joins the Susquehanna, and a very fine
mill is kept at their confluence by Mr. Frey, a Dutchman, to whom I
carried a letter from Mr. D. Clymer.”
“April 14. Before my departure Mr. Frey showed me his excellent mill and
still more extraordinary millstream, running from one part of the
Swatara for above a mile till it rejoins it at the mouth. It was cut by
himself, with great expense and trouble, and is the only work of the
kind in Pennsylvania. Middletown is in a situation as beautiful as it is
adapted to trade, and already of respectable size.”
Penn then writes of passing through Elizabethtown, and over Creeks
Conewago and Chickesalunga, and adds: “As you leave Dauphin for
Lancaster County the lands improve.” He was told of a farm “said to be
worth £15 per acre.”
On his return through Lancaster Penn learned that the country was
friendly to the new Federal Constitution, the argument being “that
matters could not be worse nor taxes higher.”
“April 15. I rode alone over to Bluerock and spent a great part of the
day in examining the grounds, not returning till dusk. The consequence
of this ride was the resolution I made of keeping or purchasing nearly
200 acres round a spot admirably calculated for a country seat.”
Penn’s next stop was at the Horse and Groom, next to Nottingham Meeting
House. To this society William Penn had given forty acres as a place of
worship. The titles were in dispute, owing to the boundary lines being
uncertain between Pennsylvania and Maryland, and the grandson, having
his eyes wide open to all possibilities, remarked that he could gain
little information of his “claims to these lands.”
Continuing his journey Penn reached Wilmington, and after a brief visit
there returned to Philadelphia.
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Edwin Forrest, the Great American Actor,
Founded the Home for Actors,
April 7, 1873
One of the asylums which has attracted more attention than many others
is the Edwin Forrest Home for Retired Actors.
It was founded under the direction of Edwin Forrest, the famous
tragedian, who by his will, dated April 5, 1866, bequeathed to his
executors, James Oakes of Boston, James Lawson of New York, and David
Dougherty of Philadelphia, all his property, with the exception of
annuities to his sisters and some personal legacies, in trust for an
institution “which they will call the Edwin Forrest Home.” He further
directed that it should be established at his country place called
Spring Brook, below Holmesburg, in the city of Philadelphia, which he
had purchased some years before.
Mr. Forrest recommended that an application should be made to the
Legislature for a charter to trustees, with authority to conduct the
affairs of the institution in accordance with his plans.
Application was accordingly made, and on April 7, 1873, James Oakes of
Boston, James Lawson of New York, Daniel Dougherty, John W. Forney,
James H. Castle, John H. Michener, and the mayor of Philadelphia for the
time being, were made a body politic by the name of the Edwin Forrest
Home, with authority to carry out the designs of the donor.
The estate which Mr. Forrest left was largely in real property, land and
houses, some of it unproductive and waiting for a market, so that there
was no product from it. In addition there was a claim on behalf of his
wife, who had been separated from him for years, which seemed to affect
his property. She had been divorced in the State of New York, where the
judge had allowed her alimony, three thousand dollars per year, and this
claim was thought to be good against Mr. Forrest’s estate during the
entire period of her life.
This condition embarrassed the executors, but a compromise was arrived
at which released the property, upon payment of a large sum of money, by
which the aggregate fund for the support of the home was considerably
diminished.
The executors were not able to open the home until 1876, when it
commenced with four inmates, William Lomas, George G. Spear, Mrs. Rhoda
Wood and Mrs. Burroughs. To these old actors and actresses was shortly
added Jacob W. Thoman, who had made his first appearance at the Chestnut
Street Theater, Philadelphia, in 1834.
The location of the home was far out in the country and the actors who
spent their life in the environment of the stage, would prefer to spend
their declining days near the theatres, so that they could frequently
visit them and renew acquaintances and friendships with old companions
of the mask and wig.
The mansion was a fine house, and capable of being made comfortable. It
was of old style, three stories high, skirted by broad pillared
porticos, tastefully decorated with growing plants.
The halls and rooms were hung with portraits and works of arts, and
marble busts of the great characters of earlier days were there in
abundance. Many fine oil portraits of Forrest in different roles were
among the collection of art. Many interesting play-bills of his early
performances, and portraits of most of the actors who had won fame
before the footlights were on the walls.
The bedrooms were each furnished with high-post bedsteads, and old types
of bureaus and dressers.
The library was unique and wonderfully furnished, and the eight thousand
volumes embraced the classics, treatises upon art, and interesting
histories of the stage. In niches of the walls were busts of the
nation’s great men. Art masterpieces in oil and marble were to be found
in the old home.
The farm attached to the fine mansion contains one hundred and eleven
acres.
Edwin Forrest was born in Philadelphia, March 9, 1806. He died there
December 12, 1872.
His father was Scotch, his mother of German birth. He exhibited from
early age a taste for the stage, and when eleven years old participated
in theatrical representations as a member of an amateur club, sometimes
performing female roles.
His first appearance on the regular stage was on November 27, 1820, in
the part of Douglas in Home’s tragedy of that name.
A protracted professional tour in the west and south ensued, in which he
won considerable reputation.
His first great success was achieved May 26, 1826, in the Park Theater,
New York, as Othello. This led to a long engagement at the Bowery
Theater, where he enjoyed extraordinary popularity.
In 1836 he crossed the Atlantic and first appeared as Spartacus in Drury
Lane Theater, London, October 17. He achieved distinguished success, and
acquired the friendship of Macready, Kemble, and others.
In 1837 he married Catherine Norton Sinclair, daughter of John Sinclair
the singer, and soon afterward returned to the United States, where he
was welcomed by enthusiastic audiences.
In 1845 Mr. and Mrs. Forrest returned to London. During this visit,
which lasted two years, a rupture occurred in the friendly relations
between Forrest and Macready, and to the zeal with which the friends of
the former espoused his quarrel was due the disgraceful riot in New
York, May 10, 1849, during an engagement of Macready at the Astor Place
Theater. This was accompanied by serious loss of life.
Soon after Forrest separated from his wife, and between 1853 and 1860 he
retired from professional life, but when he returned to the stage he
filled the role of Hamlet with all his former acceptance.
Latterly he suffered considerably from illness, and his last engagement
began on February 6, 1871.
He died of apoplexy, surviving the attack only half an hour.
He was a man of fine presence, well equipped for his profession,
naturally frank and engaging.
A large part of his valuable library and Shakespeare collection, which
he had spent many years in gathering, was almost entirely destroyed by
fire in his house in Philadelphia, January 15, 1873.
----------
Monument Erected to Colonel Kelly, Revolutionary
War Hero, April 8, 1835
A monument to the memory of Colonel John Kelly was erected with
impressive ceremonies April 8, 1835, in the Presbyterian burial-ground,
in the borough of Lewisburg. A company of cavalry from Northumberland
County, one from Union, and three infantry companies participated.
General Abbott Green was grand marshal, with General Robert H. Hammond,
General Michael Brobst, Colonel Philip Ruhl and Surgeon Major Dr. James
S. Dougal as aids.
The parade was formed by the adjutant, Colonel Jackson McFadden, with
the citizen militia on the right of line, followed by the veterans of
the Revolutionary War and those of the War of 1812, and hundreds of
citizens.
The most interesting feature of the large procession was a float which
was drawn by four gray horses, upon which was placed the monument.
Cavalry on either side acted as a guard of honor. In the carriages were
the orator, General James Merrill, the clergy, and relatives of the old
hero in whose honor the celebration was being held.
Upon its arrival at the ground, after the proper military manoeuver was
performed, the monument was set by the architects, William Hubbard, F.
Stoughton, Samuel Hursh and Charles Penny. The orator had a subject
worthy of his best efforts, for such was Colonel John Kelly.
Colonel Kelly was born in Lancaster County, February, 1744. Almost
immediately after the purchase from the Indians, November 5, 1768, he
went to Buffalo Valley, in what is now Union County. There he endured
hardships common to all the settlers who pushed out along the frontiers.
He was in the prime of manhood, of a robust constitution, vigorous and
muscular, 6 feet 2 inches in height, and almost insensible to fatigue,
and so accustomed to dangers that bodily fear was foreign to his nature.
Colonel Kelly served in the Revolutionary War and distinguished himself
in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. In the course of one of the
retreats Colonel James Potter sent an order to Major Kelly to have a
certain bridge cut down to prevent the advance of the British, who were
then in sight. Kelly sent for an ax, but represented that the enterprise
would be very hazardous. Still the British advance must be stopped and
the order was not withdrawn. He said he could not order another to do
what some would say he was afraid to do himself—he would cut down the
bridge.
Before all the logs were cut away he was within range of the British
fire, and many balls struck the logs. The last log fell sooner than he
expected and he fell with it into the swollen stream. The American
soldiers moved off, not believing it possible to assist him to make his
escape. He, however, reached the shore and joined the troops and managed
to capture an armed British scout on the way and took him into camp a
prisoner of war.
History records the fact that our army was saved by the destruction of
that bridge, but the manner in which it was done or the person who did
it is not mentioned.
After his discharge Major Kelly returned to his farm and family, and
during the three succeeding years the Indians were troublesome to the
settlers on the West Branch. He became colonel of the regiment, and it
was his duty to guard the valley against the incursions of the savages.
When the “Big Runaway” occurred following the Wyoming massacre, Colonel
Kelly was among the first to return. For at least two harvests reapers
took their rifles to the field, and some of the company watched while
others wrought.
Colonel Kelly had the principal command of scouting parties in the
valley, and very often he went in person. Many nights he laid on the
branches of trees without a fire, because it would have indicated his
position to the enemy. He was skilled in Indian mode of warfare and was
a terror to their marauding bands.
So greatly was he feared by the savages that they determined on his
destruction and, being too cowardly to attack him openly, sought his
life by stealth. One night he apprehended they were near. He rose early
next morning and, looking through the crevices of his log house, he
ascertained that two at least, if not more, were lying with their arms
so as to shoot him when he should open his door. He fixed his own rifle
and took his position so that by a string he could open the door and
watch the Indians. The moment he pulled the door open two balls came
into the house and the Indians rose to advance. He fired and wounded
one, when they both retreated. When safe to do so he followed them by
the blood, but they escaped.
After the capture and destruction of Fort Freeland, Colonel Kelly with a
company of men went to the scene of the battle and buried the dead.
For many years Colonel Kelly held the office of Justice of the Peace,
and, in the administration of justice, he exhibited the same anxiety to
do right, which had characterized him in his military service. He would
at any time forego his own fees, and, if the parties were poor, pay the
constable’s costs, to procure a compromise.
While he was a devout Presbyterian he entertained an intense hatred for
an Indian. When the Presbytery of Northumberland called on Colonel Kelly
for a contribution to be used to evangelize the savages, he refused to
give one cent, but said he would cheerfully subscribe any sum required
to buy ropes to hang them.
Toward the end of a long and active life, Colonel Kelly became by
disease incapable of much motion; and seldom left his home. He died
February 18, 1832, aged eighty-eight years. He was greatly respected by
his neighbors and friends, and it is little wonder that a monument was
unveiled to his memory three years later.
The spring of 1856 the monument, together with his remains, were removed
to the new and beautiful cemetery on the western border of the Union
County seat.
The old colonel was survived by his wife, seven sons and two daughters.
One son, James, was the father of United States Senator James K. Kelly,
of Oregon.
----------
Captain John Armstrong Murdered in Jack’s
Narrows April 9, 1744
John Armstrong, a trader among the Indians, residing on the Susquehanna
above Peter’s Mountain, on the east bank of the river, and two of his
servants, James Smith and Woodward Arnold, were barbarously murdered
April 9, 1744, by an Indian of the Delaware tribe named Musemeelin in
Jack’s Narrows, now Huntingdon County.
The murderer was apprehended and delivered up by his own nation and
imprisoned at Lancaster, whence he was removed to Philadelphia lest he
should escape or his trial and execution, if found guilty, produce an
unfavorable impression on the Indians. This was particularly important,
as a large council was about to convene at Lancaster.
Governor George Thomas directed that the property of Armstrong be
returned to his family. He also invited a deputation of the Delaware
tribe to attend the trial of Musemeelin and to be present at his
execution, if such was to take place.
Nine of Armstrong’s relatives and neighbors went in search of the
remains of the murdered men and to gather such evidence as they could
about the details of the crime. They signed a deposition before James
Armstrong, one of His Majesty’s justices of the peace for Lancaster
County, dated “Paxtang, 19th day of April, 1744.”
These deponents testified that when they learned of the murder they met
at the house of Joseph Chambers, in Paxtang, and determined to go to
Shamokin and consult with Shilkellamy, the vicegerent of the Six
Nations, what they should do concerning the affair.
Shikellamy sent eight Indians to accompany the deponents. The entire
party then went to the house of James Berry, on Mahantango Creek, which
empties into the Susquehanna above the mouth of the Juniata.
On the way to Berry’s three of the Indians ran away, but on the morning
after their arrival there, the deponents, with the five Indians, set out
in quest of the bodies.
They proceeded to the last known sleeping place of John Armstrong and
his men, and a short distance from this place James Berry picked up the
shoulder bone of a human being. He showed his find to his companions,
and the action of the Indians at this time proved to the whites that
they knew more about the crime than they had made known.
The party proceeded along a path three miles, heading to the Juniata
Narrows, to a point where they suspected the crime to have been
committed. Here the white men directed the Indians to go farther down
the creek, but they hung back, and actually followed the white men. Some
eagles or vultures were noticed and then the Indians disappeared.
At this place a corpse was discovered, which they believed to be that of
James Smith; three shots were heard at a short distance, and the
deponents, believing the Indians had fired them to advise the finding of
another corpse, rushed to the place, but the Indians had run away. A
quarter of a mile farther down the creek the corpse of Woodward Arnold
was found lying on a rock.
The deponents examined the bodies of Arnold and Smith and found them to
have been most barbarously and inhumanely murdered by being gashed with
deep cuts on their heads with tomahawks, and other parts of their bodies
mutilated. The body of Armstrong was believed to have been eaten by the
savages.
This deposition was signed by Alexander Armstrong, a brother of John,
the murdered man, who lived at the mouth of Armstrong’s Creek, above the
present town of Halifax, Dauphin County; Thomas McKee; John Foster, who
also lived on the west side of the Susquehanna; William Baskins, James
Berry, who lived on the east side, near the Juniata, and John Watts,
James Armstrong and David Denny.
The atrocity of this outrage was so revolting that a Provincial Council
was held to take the matter into consideration, and it was finally
resolved that Conrad Weiser should be sent to Shamokin to make demands,
in the name of the Governor, for those concerned in the crime.
Mr. Weiser arrived at Shamokin, May, 1744, and delivered Governor
Thomas’ message to Allummapees, then the Delaware King, a large number
of that tribe and in the presence of Shikellamy and a small number of
the Six Nations.
Following the presentation of the affidavit, Allummapees replied,
confessing the guilt of Musemeelin. Shikellamy then arose and entered
into a full account of the unhappy affair.
He claimed that Musemeelin owed Armstrong some skins, and that Armstrong
seized a horse and rifled gun belonging to the Indian in lieu of the
skins. These were taken by Smith for Armstrong.
When Musemeelin met Armstrong near the Juniata, he paid all the account
but twenty shillings and demanded his horse. Armstrong refused to give
up the animal, and after a quarrel the Indian went away in great anger.
Some time later Armstrong and his two servants, on their way to the Ohio
country, passed by the cabin of Musemeelin, and his wife demanded the
horse of Armstrong, but by this time he had sold the beast to James
Berry.
Upon his return from a hunting trip his wife told Musemeelin of her
demand to Armstrong. This angered the Indian, who determined on revenge.
Musemeelin engaged two young Indians to go on a hunting trip, but he led
them to the camp of Armstrong and his men. When they arrived at a fire
James Smith was sitting there alone. Musemeelin told Smith he wanted to
speak with him privately, and they went into the woods. Musemeelin soon
came back laughing, as he had killed Smith and shot Arnold, whom he
found coming back to the camp.
The young Indians were terrified, but too afraid of Musemeelin to leave
him. They soon came across John Armstrong sitting on an old log.
Musemeelin asked: “Where is my horse?” Armstrong replied: “He will come
by and by.” “I want him now,” said Musemeelin. “You shall have him. Come
to the fire and let us smoke and talk together,” said Armstrong. As they
proceeded, Armstrong in the advance, Musemeelin shot him in the back,
then tomahawked him.
Shikellamy further said that the three Indians buried John Armstrong and
that the others were thrown into the river.
Jacks Narrows, where this crime was committed, takes it name from
Captain John (Jack) Armstrong, the victim.
Musemeelin was not convicted of the crime, but returned to his wigwam
and was looked upon by his savage people as a hero.
----------
Tories of Sinking Valley Take Oath to King
April 10,1778
Among the tragedies during the Revolutionary war, none seem more
melancholy than those connected with efforts of the disaffected to
escape to the enemy. During the winter of 1777–78, British agents were
busy along the western frontier and as far east as Cumberland County,
seeking to corrupt the frontier settlers, insinuating sentiments of
discontent, assuring them that the American cause was sure to fail and
making glittering promises of reward for those who should join the cause
of the King.
One of the agents visited the valleys of the Allegheny Mountains in what
is now Blair County, but then was a part of Bedford. He was successful
in deluding a considerable band of ignorant frontiersmen by the most
despicable methods.
This rascal held out to these mountaineers a vision of wholesale plunder
and carnage on the property of their patriot neighbors. His appeals were
made only to the vicious, who were promised if they would organize and
join a force of British and Indians coming down the Allegheny Valley in
the spring they would be permitted to participate in a general onslaught
on the settlements and would receive their share of the pillage and, in
addition to this, they should each receive grants for the lands of the
rebel neighbors to the extent of 300 acres each, wherever they should
select.
One of the men who entered into this despicable plot afterward confessed
that it was the design to slaughter the peaceable inhabitants without
mercy—men, women and children—and seize their property and lands.
In the northern part of Blair County is a deep valley called Sinking
Spring Valley. It is still a wild and romantic country, but 150 years
ago was singularly desolate and lonely and seemed a fitting place for
the meeting of such conspirators as had been enlisted in this cruel Tory
plot.
In Sinking Spring Valley the tory band held its gatherings during
February and March, 1778. Many of the plotters were from the frontier
settlement of Frankstown, near what is now Hollidaysburg. The leader was
John Weston, a bold, lawless man, half farmer, half hunter, half
civilized, who lived with his wife and brother, Richard, in a crude
mountain cabin.
The British agent, having thoroughly enlisted Weston in the murderous
enterprise, returned up the Allegheny, promising to be at Kittanning
about the middle of April, with 300 Indians and white men, there to meet
his mountain friends and with them swoop down on the other settlements,
and make all of his partisans weary under the burden of their rich
plunder.
Weston furthered the propaganda and enlisted thirty of his neighbors in
the adventure. Alarming intelligence of the Tory plans leaked out,
reached the larger settlement of Standing Stone, now Huntingdon, where
it was reported that a thousand Indians and Tories were about to fall on
the frontier.
A stockade had been built at Standing Stone, but its garrison never
consisted of more than a score of green militiamen, and there was a
general flight of the terrified people from the upper valley of the
Juniata toward Carlisle and York.
The band of plotters was joined, about April 1, by a man named McKee, of
Carlisle. He had been in communication with a British officer, who was
confined in Carlisle, with other prisoners of war. He gave McKee a
letter addressed to all British officers, vouching for the loyalty of
McKee and his associates. This letter was to be used in securing
protection and a welcome for the Sinking Spring Valley Tories when they
should meet with the British and Indians on their flight to the
Allegheny.
At the appointed time word reached the valley that a large force of
Indians had gathered at Kittanning. The last meeting of the plotters was
held April 10, in the forest, and thirty-one took the oath of allegiance
and pledged themselves to follow Weston.
On the following morning, at the break of day they began their march
over the mountains. In the afternoon of the second day they had come
within a few miles of their intended destination, when they encountered
a band of about 100 Iroquois Indians. The savages burst suddenly out of
the thicket in full war paint.
John Weston sprang forward, waving his hand and crying out, “Friends!
Friends!” The Indians were not in the British conspiracy, but were bent
on a plundering raid on their own account and regarded Weston and his
armed companions as a hostile party.
The Indian chieftain fired at Weston, and the Tory leader fell dead. His
startled and horrified followers halted in dread astonishment. Another
of the savages sprang forward and, before the ignorant borderers could
recover from their surprise, tore the scalp from Weston’s head.
At this point McKee rushed out, holding aloft in one hand a white
handkerchief and in the other hand the letter from the British officer
at Carlisle, and called out to the Indians: “Brothers! Brothers!” The
savages did not respond. Almost as suddenly as they appeared they
vanished into the undergrowth, leaving the bewildered mountaineers alone
with their dead and scalped leader. Weston was buried where he fell.
The Tories feared to go forward and even more to return to their homes.
They held a consultation, when some declared their intention to return
to Bedford County, but others feared arrest and determined they would
seek safety elsewhere.
Hard was the fate of this company. Some of them wandered in the forests
and perished from hunger. Some of them made their way to the southward,
and reached British posts after great suffering. Five of them returned
to their homes in Sinking Spring Valley and were seized by the aroused
frontiersmen and lodged in the log jail at Bedford.
Richard Weston, brother of the slain leader, was caught near his home by
a party of settlers going to work in the lead mines there, and he was
sent under guard to Carlisle. Weston confessed the whole plot, but
claimed he had been misled by his older brother. He escaped from prison
before his trial, so his taint of treason was hardly to be blamed on his
brother.
The Supreme Executive Council ordered a special court to try the
prisoners at Bedford. It held two sessions in the fall of 1778 and
spring of 1779, with General John Armstrong, of Carlisle, as president.
The court failed to convict any of the defendants on the charge of high
treason. The leaders were either dead or out of the country, and the few
men brought before the court seemed to be sufficiently punished by their
imprisonment and the contempt of their neighbors.
Those who fled away were tainted with treason and their estates were
declared forfeited.
----------
Captain John Brady, Noted Hero, Killed by
Indians April 11, 1779
Captain John Brady was foremost in all the expeditions that went out
from the West Branch of the Susquehanna settlements, and his untimely
death, April 11, 1779, was the worst blow ever inflicted upon the
distressed settlers.
John Brady, second son of Hugh and Hannah Brady was born in 1733, near
Newark, Delaware. He came with his parents to Pennsylvania, married Mary
Quigley, when he was twenty-two years old, and soon thereafter enlisted
in the French and Indian War. On July 19, 1763, he was commissioned
captain and assigned to the Second Battalion of the Pennsylvania
Regiment, commanded by Governor John Penn and Lieutenant Colonels
Turbutt Francis and Asher Clayton.
The following year his command was with Colonel Henry Bouquet on his
expedition west of the Ohio, and was actively engaged against the
Indians who made terrible slaughter in Bedford and Cumberland Counties.
Captain Brady was one of the officers who received land grants from the
Proprietaries, and, in 1768, he removed his family to Standing Stone,
now Huntingdon. The following year he changed his residence to a site
opposite the present town of Lewisburg. He was a land surveyor and his
note books furnish much valuable land data.
In 1776 Brady removed to Muncy Manor, where he built a semi-fortified
log house, known later as Fort Brady. It was in what is now the borough
of Muncy, and was a private affair but was classed among the provincial
fortifications.
In December, 1775, when Colonel William Plunket made his famous
expedition to the Wyoming Valley, Captain John Brady was one of his
ablest assistants. When the Twelfth Regiment of the Continental Line was
organized under command of Colonel William Cooke, September 28, 1776,
Captain Brady was one of the original captains. Two of Captain Brady’s
sons married daughters of Colonel Cooke.
At the Battle of Brandywine the Twelfth was engaged under General John
Sullivan and was cut to pieces in the desperate fighting near the
Birmingham Meeting House. Captain John Brady was among those seriously
wounded, and his son, John, a lad of only fifteen, who had come like
David of old, with supplies for the camp and had remained for the
battle, was also wounded, and only saved from capture by the act of his
colonel in throwing the boy upon a horse when the troops retreated. So
fierce was the fighting that every officer in Captain Brady’s company
was killed or wounded, together with most of his men.
Captain Brady was given a leave of absence while the army was in winter
quarters at Valley Forge, and during this time was at his home at Fort
Brady. When the Indians became so troublesome between the North and West
Branch Valleys, he removed his family to Sunbury, and September 1, 1778
returned to the army. He served for a time with Colonel Daniel
Brodhead’s regiment at Fort Pitt.
James Brady, Captain John’s second son, who was himself a militia
captain, was mortally wounded August 8, 1778, while he was working in
the field near Fort Muncy. Young Brady survived his frightful wound for
five days and died at Sunbury in the arms of his mother, an heroic
pioneer woman.
Captain John Brady had taken such an active part in the efforts of the
settlers to subdue the Indian atrocities, and his daring and repeated
endeavors had so intensified their hatred, that they determined his
capture above all other efforts.
April 11, 1779, Captain Brady went up the river some distance to procure
supplies for those in the fort, and he took with him a wagon, team and
guard, and was in charge of the party. They secured the supplies and
were returning in the afternoon, Captain Brady astride a fine mare.
Within a short distance of the fort, where the road forked, he was
riding a little distance in the rear of the team and guard, and engaged
in conversation with Peter Smith, who was walking. He determined that
they would not follow the team, but would take another and shorter road
to the fort. They rode and walked along together until they reached a
small run where the same roads again joined. Brady observed, “This would
be a good place for Indians to secrete themselves.” Smith replied “yes.”
That instant three rifles cracked and Brady fell.
The mare ran toward Smith, who grabbed her and threw himself upon her
back and in a few moments reached the fort.
The people in the fort heard the rifle shots and, seeing Smith on the
mare coming at full speed, all rushed out to learn the fate of Captain
Brady. Mrs. Brady led those of the party in reaching Smith’s side. Smith
told them, “Brady is in heaven or hell or on his way to Tioga,” meaning
that he was either killed or taken prisoner. Those in the fort ran to
the spot and soon found the captain lying on the ground, his scalp and
rifle gone; but the Indians had been in too much haste to take his watch
or shot-pouch.
Samuel, known as “Old Sam,” Brady happened to be at the fort when
Captain John Brady was killed, and it was he who rushed out, followed by
some of the garrison, and bore his brother’s body into the fort.
Thus perished one of the most skilled and daring Indians fighters, on
whose sterling qualities and sound judgment the pioneers so much
depended.
His remains are interred in the old graveyard near Halls, where a heavy
granite marker was erected bearing the inscription:
Captain John Brady
Fell in defense of our forefathers
at Wolf Run, April 11, 1779.
Aged 46 years.
One hundred years after his death funds for a monument were raised by
public subscription and $1600 secured, and on October 15, 1879, the
shaft was unveiled in Muncy cemetery. The oration was delivered by the
Hon. John Blair Linn, in the presence of an immense concourse made up of
military and patriotic organizations and thousands of citizens,
including several hundred of the Brady family.
----------
General Abner Lacock, United States Senator
and Distinguished Citizen, Died in
Beaver County, April 12, 1837
In the Biographical Annals of the Civil Government of the United States
published in 1876, appears the following brief notice of a once
prominent citizen of Pennsylvania:
“Abner Lacock, born in Virginia, in 1770. Without the advantage of much
early education, he raised himself by his talents to eminence as a
legislator, statesman and civilian. He filled various public stations
for a period of nearly forty years; was a Representative in Congress
from Pennsylvania from 1811 to 1813, and United States Senator from 1813
to 1819. He died in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, April 12, 1837.”
A search for further information concerning one of whom so little is
known by the public, but who was honored with the highest offices in the
gift of his neighbors and of the whole people of our State, reveals many
interesting details and important events in the life of this man.
Abner Lacock was popularly known as General Lacock. He was born in Cobs
Run, near Alexandria, Virginia, July 9, 1770. His father was a native of
England, and his mother a native of France. The father emigrated to
Washington County, Pennsylvania, while Abner was quite young, and
settled on a farm.
In 1796 Abner removed to the town of Beaver, then in Allegheny County,
and was one of the first settlers in that neighborhood.
His public career commenced almost immediately after his settlement at
Beaver. On September 19, 1796, he was commissioned by Governor Thomas
Mifflin a justice of the peace for Pitt Township, Allegheny County. This
appointment made him the first public official within the present limits
of Beaver County, which was formed out of parts of Allegheny and
Washington Counties, March 12, 1800.
In his first office Lacock evinced such a natural strength of mind and
sound intelligence that he was elected in 1801, the first Representative
to the State Legislature from Beaver County, which post he filled until
1803, when he was commissioned the first associate judge for the new
county, but he resigned at the end of the year to again enter the
Legislature. The first session of court was held in Abner Lacock’s
house, February 6, 1804.
After serving four successive terms in the House, in 1808, he was
elected to the Senate, representing Allegheny, Beaver and Butler
Counties in the upper body of the Pennsylvania Legislature with marked
ability.
The War of 1812 with the agitation which preceded it brought him into
the larger field of national politics. In 1810 he was elected by the
people of his district as the “War Candidate” to Congress, when he
showed such qualities of leadership that in 1813 the Legislature of his
State with great unanimity elected him a Senator of the United States.
He served in the House during the Twelfth Congress and in the Senate in
the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Congresses.
General Lacock was a warm friend of Madison and Monroe, and a bitter
enemy of Andrew Jackson. In his later years he was an Adams and Henry
Clay Whig.
On December 18, 1818, a select committee of five members was appointed
in the Senate of the United States, to investigate the conduct of
General Andrew Jackson in connection with the Seminole War. Of this
committee Senator Lacock was chairman, and author of the report made
February 24, 1819, which severely arraigned Jackson with the violation
of the Constitution and International Laws.
This action of the committee made Jackson and his friends furious, he
threatening members of the committee with personal violence. Lacock was
unafraid and wrote frequently about Jackson’s boasting only in public,
and that he should never avoid him a single inch.
The clash never came, and they left the capital on the same day, and in
the same public conveyance.
General Lacock was one of the most active promoters of internal
improvements in the State of Pennsylvania. Soon after his term in the
United States Senate had ceased, he entered heartily into the scheme for
uniting the waters of the Delaware and the Ohio by a State line of
Canals and railroads. On April 11, 1825, he was appointed one of five
commissioners to make a complete survey of the route for the
contemplated improvements.
On February 25, 1826, the Legislature authorized the commencement of the
work on the canal. General Lacock was chosen to supervise the
construction of the Western division of the canal from Pittsburgh to
Johnstown.
The first canal boat built or run west of the Allegheny Mountains was
named the “General Abner Lacock.” It was built at Apollo by Philip
Dally.
Later General Lacock repeatedly served Beaver County in the State
Legislature, and in 1836 was appointed to survey and construct the
Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, known as the “cross-cut canal,” connecting
the Erie division of the Pennsylvania Canal with the Portsmouth and Ohio
Canal, contracting in its service in that year his last illness.
Besides those named, General Lacock held, or was offered many other
positions of high public trust, both in this and other states.
Abner Lacock obtained the title of General in the early part of his
public career while serving as an officer of the Pennsylvania militia.
As early as 1807 he was a brigadier general, commanding a brigade in the
counties of Beaver and Butler.
General Lacock was the friend and earnest champion of the common school
system, which when first proposed was very unpopular in Pennsylvania.
His library was one of the largest in Western Pennsylvania, and was
partially destroyed by a flood in the Ohio River in 1832.
General Lacock was of medium height and well proportioned. He was strong
and athletic. He was the father of a large family, but there are no
living male descendants of this distinguished citizen.
He died at his residence, near Freedom, on Wednesday morning, April 12,
1837, after a long and painful illness.
----------
Family of Richard Bard Captured by Indians
April 13, 1758
During the French and Indian War of 1755–58, the barrier of the South
Mountain shielded the settlers of York County, from the savage
incursions that desolated the Cumberland Valley and other parts of the
frontier of Pennsylvania. Yet occasionally a party more daring than the
rest would push across the mountain and murder or carry defenseless
families into captivity.
An affecting instance of this kind was the captivity of Richard Bard,
which is narrated in detail by his son, the late Archibald Bard, of
Franklin County.
Richard Bard owned and resided near a mill, which was later known as
Marshall’s Mill, on the Carroll tract, in now Adams County.
On the morning of April 13, 1758, his house was invested by a party of
nineteen Delaware Indians, who were discovered by a little girl named
Hannah McBride. She was at the door and when they approached she
screamed and ran into the house, where were Richard Bard and his wife, a
child six months old, a bound boy, and a relative of the Bards,
Lieutenant Thomas Potter, a brother of General James Potter.
The Indians rushed into the house, and one of them, with a large cutlass
in his grasp, made a blow at Potter, who wrested it from the savage. Mr.
Bard laid hold of a pistol that hung on the wall and snapped it at the
breast of one of the Indians, but there being tow in the pan it did not
fire, but the Indians ran out of the house.
The savages were numerous and there was no ammunition in the Bard home,
and fearing a slaughter or being burned alive, those inside surrendered,
as the Indians promised no harm would befall them. The Indians went to a
field and made prisoners of Samuel Hunter, Daniel McManimy, and a lad
named William White, who was coming to the mill.
Having secured the prisoners the Indians plundered the house and set
fire to the mill. About seventy rods from the house, contrary to their
promises, they put to death Thomas Potter; and having proceeded on the
mountain three or four miles, one of the Indians sunk the spear of his
tomahawk into the breast of the small child, and after repeated blows
scalped it.
The prisoners were taken over the mountain past McCord’s fort, into the
Path Valley, where they encamped for the night. The second day the
Indians discovered a party of white men in pursuit, on which they
hastened the pace of their prisoners, under threat of being tomahawked.
When they reached the top of the Tuscarora Mountain, they sat down to
rest, when an Indian, without any previous warning, sunk a tomahawk into
the forehead of Samuel Hunter, who was seated next to Richard Bard,
killed and scalped him.
Passing over Sideling Hill, and the Allegheny Mountains, by Blair’s Gap,
they encamped beyond Stony Creek. Here Bard’s head had been painted red
on one side only, denoting that a council has been held, and an equal
number were for killing him, and for saving his life, and that his fate
would be determined at the next council.
While Mr. and Mrs. Bard were engaged together in plucking a turkey, the
former told his wife of his design to escape. Some of the Indians were
asleep, and one was amusing the others by dressing himself in Mrs.
Bard’s gown. Bard was sent to the spring for water and contrived to
escape, while his wife kept the Indians amused with the gown.
The Indians made an unsuccessful search for Bard, and proceeded to Fort
Duquesne, then twenty miles down the Ohio River to Kuskusky, in what is
now Butler County.
Here Mrs. Bard and two boys and girls were compelled to run the
gauntlet, and were beaten in an unmerciful manner. It was at this place
that Daniel McManimy was put to death. The Indians formed themselves
into a circle round the prisoner, and beat him with sticks and
tomahawks, then tied him to a post, and after more torturing he was
scalped alive, a gun barrel was heated and passed over his body, and he
was pierced in the body until he was relieved from further torture by
death.
Mrs. Bard was taken from the other prisoners and led from place to
place, until she was finally adopted into the tribe by two Indian men,
to take the place of a deceased sister.
She was next taken to the headwaters of the Susquehanna, and during this
journey she suffered much from fatigue and illness. She lay two months
in this doleful situation, with none to comfort or sympathize with her,
a blanket her only covering, and boiled corn her only food.
She met with a woman who had been in captivity several years and was
married to an Indian. She told Mrs. Bard that soon as she could speak
the Delaware tongue she would be obliged to marry one of the Indians or
be put to death. She then resolved not to learn the language. She was
kept in captivity two years and five months, during which time she was
treated with much kindness by her adopted relations.
Richard Bard suffered extreme hardships in effecting his escape and
return to his home, traveling over mountains thick with laurel and
briers and covered with snow. His feet were sore, his clothes wet and
frozen and he was often exhausted and ready to lie down and perish for
want of food. His food during a journey of nine days was a few buds and
four snakes, when he reached Fort Littleton, in now Bedford County.
After this he did but little else than wander from place to place in
quest of information respecting his wife. He made several perilous
journeys to Fort Duquesne, in which he narrowly escaped capture several
times. He at length learned she was at Fort Augusta, at Shamokin, and
redeemed her.
Before the Bards departed from Shamokin, Richard Bard requested the
Indian, who was the adopted brother of his wife, to visit them at their
home. Accordingly, some time afterwards the Indian paid them a visit,
when the Bards were living about ten miles from Chambersburg.
The Indian remained there for some time and one day went to McCormack’s
tavern and became intoxicated, when he fell into a brawl with a rough
named Newgen, who stabbed the Indian in the neck. Newgen escaped the
wrath of the settlers by fleeing the neighborhood. The Indian was
attended by a physician and recovered, being nursed back to health by
his adopted sister, Mrs. Richard Bard.
When he returned to his own people he was put to death on the pretext of
having, as they said, joined the white people.
----------
Bounties for Scalps of Indians Proclaimed
April 14, 1756
After Braddock’s defeat, the protection of the frontiers of Pennsylvania
being left to the inhabitants themselves, they rapidly formed companies,
designated their own officers and received commissions from Lieutenant
Governor Morris.
It was thought that the Indians would do no mischief in Pennsylvania
until they could draw all the others out of the province and away from
the Susquehanna. But the Delaware and Shawnee had been ravaging in the
neighborhood of Fort Cumberland on both sides of the Potomac. In the
middle of October, 1755, occurred the terrible massacres of John Penn’s
Creek, at the mouth of Mahanoy Creek, and when the Great and Little
Coves were destroyed. Shortly after occurred the massacres at
Tulpehocken and other places.
When any Indians of the Delaware or Shawnee Nations were discovered they
were found in their war paint. These were under the command of Chief
Shingass.
These incursions aroused the Quakers, and November 7, 1775, an address
signed by Anthony Morris and twenty-two other Quakers was presented to
the Assembly, expressing willingness to contribute toward the exigencies
of government. But the Assembly and the Executive still fought over the
tax bill.
At this juncture Scarouady went to Philadelphia and demanded to know if
the people of Pennsylvania intended to fight, yes or no. The Governor
explained to the chieftain how the Assembly and he could not agree.
Scarouady, who had suffered defeat with Braddock and remained a firm
friend of the English, with many other Indians went to Shamokin to live,
or at least hunt, during the ensuing season.
Governor Morris sent Scarouady to the Six Nations to report the conduct
of the Delawares. While he was on this mission the Delaware destroyed
Gnadenhutten, in Northampton County, and the farm houses between that
place and Nazareth were burned January 1, 1756.
Benjamin Franklin, as Commissioner, then marched with several companies
and built Fort Allen.
The Delaware, forcing even John Shikellamy to go against the English,
sent representatives to the Six Nations to justify their conduct, but
were condemned and ordered to desist.
When Lieutenant Governor Morris heard this chastisement given the
Delaware, and seeing that it so far had not deterred the enemy, he
determined to meet barbarity with barbarity, and gave a hatchet to
Scarouady, as a declaration of war against the Delaware, and obtained an
offer in writing from Commissioners Fox, Hamilton, Morgan, Mifflin and
Hughes to pay rewards for Indian prisoners.
Governor Morris issued a proclamation April 14, 1756, offering such
bounties that he hoped would incite not only the soldiers and more
venturesome of the inhabitants, but which would also alarm those Indians
who still remained friendly to the English.
The proclamation contains the following provisions:
“For every male Indian enemy above twelve years old, who shall be taken
prisoner and delivered at any fort, garrisoned by the troops in pay of
this Province, or at any of the county towns to the keepers of the
common jail there, the sum of 150 Spanish dollars or pieces of eight;
for the scalp of every male enemy above the age of twelve years,
produced to evidence of their being killed the sum of 130 pieces of
eight; for every female Indian taken prisoner and brought in as
aforesaid, and for every male Indian prisoner under the age of twelve
years, taken and brought in as aforesaid, 130 pieces of eight; for the
scalp of every Indian woman, produced as evidence of their being killed,
the sum of fifty pieces of eight, and for every English subject that has
been killed and carried from this Province into captivity that shall be
recovered and brought in and delivered at the City of Philadelphia, to
the Governor of this Province, the sum of 130 pieces of eight, but
nothing for their scalps; and that there shall be paid to every officer
or soldier as are or shall be in the pay of the Province who shall
redeem and deliver any English subject carried into captivity as
aforesaid, or shall take, bring in and produce any enemy prisoner, or
scalp as aforesaid, one-half of the said several and respective premiums
and bounties.”
This proclamation gave great offense to the Assembly, but not to the
population, especially those who lived in the counties distant from
Philadelphia. The times were perilous, and the bounties were absolutely
necessary to secure better protection of the borders. To the credit of
the hardy and brave frontier pioneers of Pennsylvania be it said no
Indian was wantonly killed for the sake of the reward.
Robert Morris resigned the office of Lieutenant Governor he had held
during these stirring years, and on August 20, 1756, William Denny
arrived from England, and superseded him. Governor Denny was well
educated and held in high favor at Court. His advent here was hailed
with joy by the Assembly, who flattered themselves that with a change of
the executives at this time there would come a change of such measures
as had caused their enmity with his predecessors. Upon his assumption of
the office and making known the Proprietary instructions, to which he
stated he was compelled to adhere, all friendly feeling was at an end,
and there was a renewal of the old discord.
Before Governor Morris resigned as Lieutenant Governor he had concerted
with Colonel John Armstrong an expedition against the strong Indian town
of Kittanning, on the Allegheny River.
----------
Theatrical Performances Begun in State
April 15, 1754
The amusements of the young people were for many years of the simplest
and most innocent kind. Riding, swimming and skating afforded pleasant
outdoor sport.
Yearly Meeting, in 1716, advised Friends against “going to or being in
any way concerned in plays, games, lotteries, music and dancing.” In
1719 advice was given “that such be dealt with as run races, either on
horseback or on foot, laying wagers, or use any gaming or needless and
vain sport and pastimes, for our time passeth swiftly away, and our
pleasure and delight ought to be in the law of the Lord.”
Various early laws of the Province prohibited stage plays and
amusements, not only bull-baiting, bear-baiting and cock-fighting, but
such as were neither immoral nor cruel, as bowls, billiards and quoits.
Macauley said of the Puritans that they opposed bear-baiting “not
because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the
spectators.”
Quaker legislation as to games was, indeed, scarcely stricter than Henry
VIII’s, but Quakerism discountenanced excitement.
In 1723 a wandering showman arrived in Philadelphia and set up a stage
just below South Street, where he was outside the jurisdiction of the
City Corporation. At the desire of the Quaker Assemblymen, the Speaker,
Joseph Growdon, on March 30, asked Lieutenant Governor Keith to prohibit
any performance. This he declined to do, but promised that good order
should be kept.
So the actor issued his playbills and gave what is supposed to have been
the first entertainment in Pennsylvania that might be called theatrical.
As the man who entertained by his “Comical Humour” in April, 1724,
called himself the audience’s “Old friend Pickle Herring,” he may be
presumed to have been the owner of both shows. In 1724, he introduced
the “Roap-Dancing” as “newly arrived.” The rope-walkers were a lad of
seven years and a woman. There was also a woman who would spin around
rapidly for a quarter of an hour with seven or eight swords pointed at
her eyes, mouth and breast. Governor Keith himself attended one or more
of these performances.
Small shows now, from time to time, made their appearance. In 1727, “The
Lion, King of Beasts,” was advertised to be exhibited on Water Street.
The Quakers and rigid Presbyterians, who in the early days frowned down
dancing and other “frivolous amusements,” could not be expected to
countenance the introduction of the drama in Philadelphia. So when
Murray and Kean’s company of Thespians made their appearance in 1749
they were not permitted to make a long stay, but were ordered off as
soon as the worthy rulers of the city’s morals realized the fact that
their entertainments possessed irresistible attractions. So Murray and
Kean went to New York and for five years the Philadelphians did not see
a play.
In August, 1749, mention is made of the tragedy of Cato being acted; but
January 8, 1750, attention being called to some persons having lately
taken upon themselves to act plays, and intending “to make a frequent
practice thereof,” the City Council asked the magistrates to suppress
the same.
In the year 1753 Lewis Hallam’s English company, after traveling a year
in the Southern colonies and performing in various places in Virginia
and Maryland, went to New York, where they opened their theatre in the
month of September. The report of the great success of their talented
actors awakened a desire among the more liberal-minded Philadelphians
that Hallam should visit the Quaker City.
On April 15, 1754, they gave their first performance in the large brick
warehouse of William Plumstead, situated in King or Water Street,
between Pine and Lombard Streets. This house remained standing until
1849, when it was pulled down.
The opening piece was the tragedy of “The Fair Penitent,” followed by
the farce “Miss in Her Teens.”
Mr. Rigby spoke a prologue and Mrs. Hallam an epilogue written for the
occasion, in which, after defending the stage from the accusation of
sinfulness and alluding to the effect produced by the tragedy upon the
audience, she asked:
“If then the soul in Virtue’s cause we move
Why should the friends of Virtue disapprove?”
This temporary theatre was neatly fitted up and opened to a full house.
The license was for twenty-four nights but this number was extended to
thirty, and the theatre closed June 24 after having had a brilliant and
profitable season. One of the performances was given for the benefit of
the charity school.
Hallam’s company came back to Philadelphia in 1759 to occupy a permanent
theatre erected for them in Southwark, at the corner of Cedar (or South)
and Vernon Streets, on Society Hill.
This theatre was opened June 25, 1759, but either because the house was
too small and not well equipped or because of discouraging opposition
the company only played in it one season. They remained away five years.
On their return a new house, much larger than the first one, was built
at the corner of South and Apollo Streets. This new theatre was opened
November 12, 1766.
It was in this theatre and by “The American Company” that the first play
by an American author performed on any regular stage was given April 24,
1767. This was “The Prince of Porthia,” by Thomas Godfrey, Jr., of
Philadelphia.
The American Company played at this theatre several seasons. The theatre
remained closed from the beginning of the Revolutionary War until it was
opened by the British officers during their occupancy of the city,
1777–78.
These amateur performers gave regular plays, the proceeds going to
widows and orphan children of the soldiers. The ill-fated Major Andre
and Captain Delancy painted the scenes and other decorations. The
curtain, representing a waterfall scene, the work of young Andre,
remained in use until the theatre was destroyed by fire May 9, 1823.
After the return of the Continental Congress the Legislature of
Pennsylvania legislated against theatrical performances. No plays were
given until 1789, when a petition signed by 1900 citizens, asking the
repeal of the prohibiting provision relating to theatres, was presented
to the Legislature. The religious community presented a petition signed
by more than 1000 citizens as a remonstrance against the repeal.
The restrictive portion of the act was repealed and Hallam and Henry
opened the Southwark Theatre January 6, 1790, with “The Rivals” and “The
Critic.”
The season was unusually brilliant, and the theatre in Philadelphia and
elsewhere throughout Pennsylvania has since been popular.
----------
Tedyuskung, Indian Chieftain, Burns to
Death in Cabin, April 16, 1763
Tedyuskung was made king of the Delaware nation in the spring of 1756,
and from that date until his untimely death this great Indian chieftain
exerted a most powerful influence throughout the entire Province of
Pennsylvania.
The name is of Munsee dialect, and signifies “the healer,” or “one who
cures wounds, bruises, etc.”
He was one of the most famous and crafty of the Delaware chiefs during
the period of discussion of the Indian claims, following the sale of the
lands along the Delaware and Susquehanna to the Proprietors of
Pennsylvania by the Iroquois.
Tedyuskung was born at the present site of Trenton, N.J., about 1705,
and died April 16, 1763. Nothing is known of his life before the time he
first appears as an historic character, prior to which he was known as
“Honest John.”
When about fifty years old he was chosen chief of the Delaware on the
Susquehanna, and from that time wielded a potent influence, although he
occupied a peculiar position.
Sir William Johnson, of New York, was a zealous friend of the Iroquois,
while Conrad Weiser and George Croghan, of Pennsylvania, were strongly
prejudiced against the Delaware and Shawnee. The problem which the
Provincial Government of Pennsylvania had to solve was how to keep peace
with the Iroquois and at the same time prevent the Delaware and the
Shawnee who were then becoming independent of the Iroquois, from going
over to the French.
The Delaware were conscious they had been unjustly deprived of their
lands by the Pennsylvania authorities, aided by the Iroquois. They had
been driven from the Delaware to the Susquehanna, and many had been
forced even as far west as the Ohio, and now that France and England had
commenced to struggle for the possession of that region the Delaware
felt they were to be again driven from their home. They were revolting
not only against the English, but against their masters, the Iroquois.
At this critical time, when the border settlements in Western
Pennsylvania were being ravaged by hostile bands of Delaware and
Shawnee, and when the English were making preparations for an expedition
to take Fort Duquesne, Tedyuskung took his stand as a friend of the
English.
Christian Frederic Post had been sent on a mission to the Ohio Indians,
and Conrad Weiser and others were working to retain the friendship of
these Indians. The many squatters along the Juniata River and the
illegal sale of land at Wyoming made by the Mohawk to the Connecticut
settlers complicated the situation and made the work of these emissaries
much more difficult and trying. Then the Indians who had been in
conference at Albany in 1754, found when they returned home that lands
had been sold to the Proprietors which they did not comprehend.
Washington suffered defeat at Fort Necessity and this was followed by
the terrible Braddock disaster; which with the evil effects of the rum
traffic among the Indians and the almost total neglect by the Province
of Pennsylvania had almost entirely alienated them from the English
cause.
Then began the several attempts to win them back, but the passage of the
Scalp Act and the declaration of war against the Delaware caused this
tribe to rise in rebellion against the Province and also against their
hated title of “women,” given them by the Iroquois.
Such was the situation when the great council was called at Easton,
July, 1756, at which Tedyuskung appeared as the champion of the
Delaware. Governor Morris opened the council with a speech, in which he
warmly welcomed the chief. Tedyuskung replied: “The Delaware are no
longer the slaves of the Six Nations. I, Tedyuskung, have been appointed
King over the Five United Nations. What I do here will be approved by
all. This is a good day. I wish the same good that possessed the good
old man, William Penn, who was a friend of the Indian, may inspire the
people of the Province at this time.”
The first session was followed by a grand feast and reception, during
which King Tedyuskung and Chief Newcastle were sent to give the “big
peace halloo” to the Indians and invite them to a larger conference,
which was held at a later time.
Tedyuskung left Easton, but loitered about Fort Allen, where he became
drunk and disorderly, and so incensed Lieutenant Miller that the whole
outcome of the peace conference was, for a time, endangered.
During this drunken spree Tedyuskung was blamed for having dealings with
the French, but no evidence was produced to prove the charges; yet
Governor Morris dispatched Chief Newcastle to Sir William Johnson to
learn if the Iroquois had deputized Tedyuskung to act for them. This
they denied.
Then followed endless discussions in Provincial Council. Governor Morris
had been succeeded by Governor Denny, who went to the council at Easton,
July, 1757, under a heavy guard. Tedyuskung, in his opening speech,
said: “I am sorry for what our people have done. I have gone among our
people pleading for peace. If it cost me my life I would do it.”
Tedyuskung demanded a clerk at this Easton Council on threat of leaving,
and he was assigned such official. While Tedyuskung was drunk each
night, he appeared at council each morning with a clear head and was the
equal of any in debate.
This second Easton council determined upon a general peace and
Tedyuskung promised to see that their white prisoners were all returned.
He then went to Fort Allen, where he and his warriors had a drunken
frolic. Conrad Weiser says of him at this time: “Though he is a drunkard
and a very irregular man, yet he is a man that can think well, and I
believe him to be sincere in what he said.”
A fourth council was held at Easton in October, 1758, when Post had
returned from his Western mission. Land disputes again became a
principal topic, and Tedyuskung was discredited by the Iroquois, who
attempted to destroy his influence with the Provincial Government. They
even left the council when he spoke, but the old King won out and the
council finally ended in a treaty of peace.
In 1762 the Governor offered Tedyuskung £400 as a present if he would
withdraw his charges of fraud in the “Walking Purchase,” and he accepted
the bribe.
After all the dealing with the Governors and councils of Pennsylvania,
and his personal controversies with the enemy tribes, this last of the
chiefs of the eastern Delaware traveled from Philadelphia to his home at
Wyoming, and on the night of April 16, 1763, his house was set on fire
while he lay on his couch in a drunken debauch and he was burned to
death in the flames. The perpetrators of this crime were either Seneca
or Mohawk.
He was the most virile chief of the Delaware nation during the years of
their subjugation to the Iroquois. His efforts for peace did much to win
the Ohio region from the French.
A monument to Tedyuskung has been erected in Fairmount Park,
Philadelphia.
----------
Lottery for Union Canal for $400,000 Authorized
by Legislature, April 17, 1795
By the act of April 17, 1795, the president and managers of the
Schuykill and Susquehanna Navigation, and the president and managers of
the Delaware and Schuykill Canal Navigation, were authorized to raise by
means of a lottery, a sum of $400,000 for the purpose of completing the
works cited in their acts of incorporation, under a prohibition that
neither of them should form the same into capital stock, upon which to
declare a dividend of profits.
An Act Passed March 4, 1807, authorized the said companies to raise
their respective sums separately, subject to the prohibition as to
dividends.
The two companies were consolidated by act of April 2, 1811 into a
corporation known as the Union Canal Company of Pennsylvania. The new
company was authorized to raise money by loan to complete the canal and
to use the proceeds of the lotteries already authorized, and by the
twenty-eighth section of the act authority was given to raise the
residue of the original sum equal to $340,000 by a lottery.
By the act of March 29, 1819 the proceeds of the above lottery were
pledged as a fund for the payment of an annual interest of 6 per cent
upon the stock of the company.
By these and subsequent acts it appears that the lottery grants were
given in the first instance, to the two companies, and afterwards
continued to the Union Canal Company to aid and encourage the
construction and completion of a canal and lock navigation uniting the
waters of the Susquehanna and Schuylkill.
In consequence of these lottery grants, individuals were induced to
invest their funds in the furtherance of the work, and loans to the
amount of $830,400 were made upon the credit of the capital stock and
the profits of the lotteries.
The Union Canal Company entered into contracts for the conduct of these
lotteries, the last one, October 6, 1824, for five years, which expired
December 31, 1829.
There was much sentiment against these lotteries and as there were laws
in force for suppressing and preventing lotteries, there was objection
made when the extension of this lottery was brought to the General
Assembly. The Committee on Ways and Means, February 9, 1828, reported
that it was inexpedient to resume the lottery grants to the Union Canal
Company at this time and further resolved, “that the committee be
instructed to bring in a bill to regulate lottery brokers, and to
restrain the sale of lottery tickets within this Commonwealth.”
For more than half a century after the founding of the Province,
Pennsylvania was dominated by the Quakers, who were constantly opposed
to all games of chance. At the very first meeting of the Assembly, at
Chester, in 1682, an act was passed against cards, dice, lotteries, etc.
This and similar acts were annulled by the English Government.
Although lotteries were not legally prohibited only one lottery appears
to have been drawn during the next several decades. In 1720 a Mr. Reed
by means of a lottery of 350 tickets, which were sold for twenty
shillings each, disposed of a new brick house and several lots in
Philadelphia.
In 1730 lotteries were prohibited under a penalty of £100, half of which
was to go to the Governor, and half to the party bringing suit.
It seems probable that the Provincial Assembly authorized lotteries by
special legislation for at least two lotteries had the official sanction
of the Philadelphia Council; one in 1747, for the fortification of the
City, the other a year later for street paving. From this time until the
passage of the anti-lottery act of 1762, lotteries increased in number.
During this period lotteries were drawn for the college, academy and
charitable school of Philadelphia, to complete the Episcopal Church,
etc.
The act of 1762 proved to be effective in limiting the number and
purposes for which lotteries might be established. Between 1762 and
1796, there were only twenty-three lotteries in Pennsylvania. Of these
six were private, eight were for public use and nine for the erection of
church buildings, in which twenty-one churches were concerned.
With the establishment of the Federal Government the financial condition
of the country rapidly improved. With the gradual growth of population,
and rapid development of business, came increased demands for new
churches, schools, public buildings and improved transportation. To meet
these public needs the regular revenue was insufficient and to avoid an
abnormal increase in taxation, petitions were presented to the
Legislature for the privilege of establishing public or semi-public
lotteries.
The Legislature rejected all requests for lotteries, except when some
important purpose was to be served. Only one lottery was authorized in
1790, for the erection of a Jewish synagogue; none then until 1795, when
one was granted the Aaronsburg Town Lottery, in now Center County, and
the other was to aid in opening the canal navigation between the
Schuylkill and Susquehanna Rivers.
From 1796 to 1808 inclusive seventy-eight different lotteries were
authorized.
The lottery of 1782 for the improvement of roads west of Philadelphia
was managed as a state lottery. Others were county, city, borough and
township schemes. Some were for erection of bridges, ferries and even
improving creeks. One was for a garden and public bath in Philadelphia,
one for the pay of soldiers in the French and Indian War; hospitals were
also included, as were schools.
Many churches were built by means of lotteries and the newspapers of
that period carried many advertisements, both from those authorized by
the Pennsylvania Legislature and those of other States. It is estimated
that at least fifty lotteries chartered by other States had agencies in
Pennsylvania.
From 1747 to 1883 there were 176 separate lotteries. One single lottery,
Union Canal lottery, awarded in prizes more than $33,000,000 between
1811 and December 31, 1833.
The State became flooded with local and foreign lottery tickets, and
many memorials were presented to the Legislature against all form of
lotteries, but they continued to thrive until December 31, 1833, when
they were abolished by law, Pennsylvania taking the lead of all States
in banishing lotteries.
Governor George Wolf said in a message to the General Assembly: “A more
pernicious, ruinous and demoralizing evil can scarcely be imagined.”
----------
First Northern Camp in Civil War
Established April 18, 1861
On April 18, 1861, Camp Curtin was regularly and formally established in
the northwestern suburbs of Harrisburg. It was the first regular camp
formed north of the Susquehanna in the loyal States, and before the end
of the month twenty-five regiments were sent to the front from the
counties of Pennsylvania.
The willing and prompt response to the call of President Lincoln and the
appeal of Governor Curtin created immediately the necessity for a great
rendezvous for the State’s troops. Harrisburg was the logical place for
such a camp, for it had the advantage of being the seat of government
and railroad lines extending in all directions.
The troops began to pour into Harrisburg so suddenly that temporary
shelter was erected on all public grounds, within three days after the
President’s call for volunteers.
Governor Curtin acted promptly in procuring accommodations for the
troops, and on April 18 requested Captain E. C. Williams to take charge
of the grounds controlled by the Dauphin County Agricultural Society,
near the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company on the east and
less than a quarter of a mile from the Susquehanna on the west.
It was the original intention to call this rendezvous “Camp Union,” but
Captain E. C. Williams, Captain J. P. Knipe and others very
appropriately changed the name in honor of the patriotic and beloved
Governor of Pennsylvania.
When the war broke out in all its suddenness, and Washington was cut off
from the loyal States of the North by the riotous proceedings at
Baltimore, there was an utter lack of military organization in
Pennsylvania. The military system of the State had decayed and aside
from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, there were very few military companies
in the State fully armed and equipped. Of these only a few contained the
minimum number of thirty-two men. But, as the appeal for men was
disseminated through the towns and villages of the interior counties,
the officers of such military companies as did exist very promptly
rallied their men and tendered their services to the Governor.
Ringgold Light Artillery, Captain McKnight, of Reading; the Logan
Guards, Captain Selheimer, of Lewistown; the Washington Artillery,
Captain Wren, and the National Light Infantry, Captain McDonald, both of
Pottsville, and the Allen Rifles, Captain Yeager, of Allentown, were the
first to offer their services in an armed and disciplined condition for
immediate action. When the Ringgold Light Artillery, numbering one
hundred and two men, reached Harrisburg and word was sent to the
Secretary of War of the presence of so strong a company at the State
Capital, he at once telegraphed for its immediate presence in
Washington, but for prudence the order was suppressed.
On the morning of the 18th, the day Camp Curtin was established, a
detachment of Company H, Fourth United States Artillery, numbering
fifty, arrived from the West, in command of Lieutenant Pemberton.
The five volunteer companies, first to report at Camp Curtin, were
promptly mustered into the United States service by Captain, afterwards
Colonel Seneca G. Simmons, of the Seventh United States Infantry, and
the regulars, mentioned above, and these volunteers departed on the same
train for Fort McHenry, to assist in the defense of Washington.
The volunteers marched through Baltimore, then filled with Southern
sympathizers, ready and eager to obstruct their passage through the
city. On leaving the cars at Bolton station to march to the Camden
station, a battalion was formed. As the march began the Baltimore police
appeared in large force, headed by Marshall Kane, followed by a mob, who
at once attacked the volunteers and were countenanced by the police sent
to give safe conduct through the city. The troops were ordered to
maintain their discipline.
When in the center of the city, the regulars under Lieutenant Pemberton
marched off toward Fort McHenry leaving the volunteers to pursue their
march to Camden station. This seemed to be a signal to the mob, and at
once the air was filled with flying missiles, while every species of
oath and imprecation were flung at the volunteers as they marched
forward. Not a man made a reply, but steadily, sternly, and undauntedly
the five companies of Pennsylvanians moved over the cobble-stoned
streets of the city. At every step the mob increased, but with
unblanched faces and martial step the brave men never for one moment
wavered, marching like veterans as the mob gave way before and around
them as they forced their passage to the depot.
The mob believed that a portion of the Logan Guards carried loaded guns,
because their half-cocked pieces displayed percussion caps, but in
reality there was not a load of powder and ball in the entire five
companies. Nevertheless, the feint of displaying the caps, which was
done partly as a jest on leaving the cars at Bolton Station, saved the
men from the bloody attack which was hurled the next day at the force of
Massachusetts troops passing through the city. As it was, when the
troops were boarding the cars at Camden station, the infuriated rabble
who had dogged their steps, hurled bricks, stones, clubs and mud into
their disorganized ranks, without, fortunately, injuring a single
volunteer.
Attempts were made to throw the cars from the track, to detach the
locomotive, and even to break the driving mechanism of the engine, all
of which failed, and the train pulled out of the station amid the
demoniac yells of the disappointed ruffians whose thirst for blood was
now aroused to a savage fury.
The solicitude of Governor Curtin for the safe transportation of these
troops through Baltimore was intense. He remained at the telegraph
office in Harrisburg receiving dispatches which depicted the stirring
scenes in the streets of Baltimore. When it was finally announced that
the trains had passed out of reach of their assailants with the men
safely aboard, he emphatically declared that not another Pennsylvania
soldier should march through Baltimore unarmed, but fully prepared to
defend himself.
At 7 o’clock in the evening of the eighteenth, the five Pennsylvania
companies reached Washington, the first troops which arrived from any
State to defend the National Capital. On July 22 Congress adopted a
resolution commending these Pennsylvania volunteers for the gallantry
displayed in passing through the Baltimore mob and reaching Washington
so promptly. It is of interest to note that our own Pennsylvanian,
Galusha A. Grow, was then Speaker of the House of Representatives and
signed this resolution.
----------
Training of Troops Began at Camp Curtin,
April 19, 1861
When the First Defenders departed from Camp Curtin and were the first
troops which arrived at Washington from any State to defend the National
Capital, the real activities of this famous training camp began.
Beginning on the morning of April 19 every inbound train brought troops
to Harrisburg, and soon Camp Curtin was a hive of activity.
Eli Seifer, Secretary of the Commonwealth, assumed the discharge of
certain military functions, such as replying to telegraphic offer of
troops, etc., but beginning April 19, Captain G. A. C. Seiler, the
commandant, assumed the responsibilities, and displayed great energy.
His administration was characterized by earnestness and activity, until
by exposure and over-work, he contracted a disease from which he died.
He was succeeded July 31 by Colonel John H. Taggart, of Philadelphia.
Colonel Taggart was the editor of the Sunday Times, in Philadelphia, and
when the news of hostilities reached there, he raised a company of
volunteers called “The Wayne Guards” and marched them from Philadelphia
to Harrisburg. They arrived at Camp Curtin June 7.
Governor Curtin was not over sanguine that the war was likely to be
concluded at the first contest so when the responses to the first call
for volunteers brought enough to make twenty-five regiments instead of
only the eight asked for, the Governor did not disband them, but
directed that they preserve their organizations, and immediately applied
to the Legislature for authority to form a corps of thirteen regiments
of infantry, one of cavalry, and one of artillery, to be organized and
equipped by the State, to be subject to the call of the National
Government if needed, and at all times to be in readiness for immediate
service.
On May 15, the Legislature passed an act authorizing the organization of
the “Reserve Volunteer Corps of the Commonwealth,” and Governor Curtin
issued his call for men to compose the corps, and apportioned the number
that would be received from each county, in order that each section of
the State and every class of its people should be duly represented in
it.
Four camps of instruction were established; one at Easton, under command
of Colonel William B. Mann, of Philadelphia; one at West Chester, under
Captain Henry M. McIntire, of West Chester; one at Pittsburgh, under
Colonel John W. McLean; and one at Camp Curtin, Harrisburg, under
Colonel G. A. C. Seiler, of Harrisburg.
George A. McCall, a graduate of the West Point Military Academy, of the
class of 1822, a distinguished soldier in the war with Mexico, was
appointed a Major General to command the corps. General McCall
immediately organized his staff by appointing Henry J. Biddle, Assistant
Adjutant General, and Henry Sheets and Eldrige McConkey, Aids-de-Camp.
Subsequently, Professor Henry Coppee was attached to the staff as
Inspector General.
On June 22 two of the regiments were ordered to Cumberland, Md., and
soon afterward rendered excellent service at New Creek and Piedmont, in
West Virginia until ordered to the lower Potomac regions.
On July 22, the day after the disaster at Bull Run, a requisition was
made on the State for its Reserve Corps, and as quickly as the means of
transportation could be provided, eleven thousand of these troops, fully
armed and equipped, were sent to the defenses of Washington, and a few
days later the regiments were mustered into the United States service
for three years, or during the war.
This was the beginning of the Pennsylvania Reserves, an organization,
which, during the later years of the war, won fame on many battlefields,
and many of whose members sleep beneath the sod in Southern States.
Their skill was everywhere recognized, and no others were more renowned
for bravery.
Reverend A. S. Williams who gave the historical address on the occasion
of the dedication of the statue to Governor Curtin on the site of Camp
Curtin, among other interesting facts said: “When General McDowell’s
soldiers were defeated at Bull’s Run, the trained Pennsylvania Reserve
Regiment from Camp Curtin, steadied the Government at Washington. When
General Lee attempted to invade the North in 1862, Governor Curtin
called for fifty thousand volunteers, and a strong reserve was
maintained at Camp Curtin ready to march at a moment’s notice.
“During the early months of the war, on one occasion trucks were pushed
on the tracks of the railroad to the east of the Camp and a Brigade of
Soldiers stepped on them and was carried by way of Huntingdon over the
Broad Top Railroad to Hopewell; from here they marched through Bedford
to Cumberland, Md. For two months these soldiers protected this
community from the harrassing enemy.
“In June 1863 when the people of the State became apprehensive lest
Harrisburg and Philadelphia fall into the hands of General Lee, again
the troops from Camp Curtin met the enemy but a few miles from
Harrisburg along the Carlisle Pike.”
Camp Curtin was available and often used as an Army hospital.
Among the commanders at Camp Curtin besides those above mentioned were
Colonel Thomas Welsh, of Lancaster; Colonel Charles J. Biddle, of
Philadelphia; and Colonel James A. Beaver, afterwards General and later
Governor of Pennsylvania.
Governor Curtin, after all, was the leading spirit in this greatest of
Army Camps and it is appropriate that the words on a bronze tablet on
his statue should read: “His administration of the Gubernatorial office
during the dark days of the Republic made an imperishable name for his
family, and added historic grandeur to the annals of the Commonwealth.”
----------
Colonel Brodhead Destroyed Indian Town
of Coshocton, April 20, 1781
Colonel Daniel Brodhead, the commandant at Fort Pitt, had not been able
to execute his design to lead a force against the Wyandot and Shawnee
Indian towns in Ohio. He had expected to obtain the help of the Delaware
warriors at Coshocton for this expedition, but in the spring of 1781, a
change in the situation impelled him to strike at the Delaware.
Until December, 1780, the Delaware took no part, as a nation, in the
warfare against the frontiers of Pennsylvania, and the alliance with the
United States, made by their three principal chiefs in the autumn of
1778, was outwardly observed for more than two years. The death of their
noted chief, White Eyes, which occurred from an attack of smallpox, at
Pittsburgh, November, 1778, was followed by the election of Killbuck, or
Gelelemand, the celebrated sachem, who proved himself to be an
unswerving friend of the Americans. Chief Killbuck found himself the
leader of the minority of his nation, but his influence was sufficient
to delay the union of the Delaware with the other hostile Indian
nations.
The Americans gave no presents to the Indians and had little else of
value to offer them, while the British, especially those at the Detroit
post, gave them not only alluring promises but showered many valuable
presents upon them. It was then only a matter of time until the Shawnee,
Seneca, Miami, Wyandot and other Indians hostile to the Americans could
persuade the Delaware to join with them in war against the Colonists.
Captain Pipe was the principal Delaware chief who had long led the war
party and finally controlled their determination to take up the hatchet.
In February, 1781, a council was held at Coshocton, at which Killbuck
was not present, being then on an important mission to Fort Pitt, and
the Delaware yielded to the pressure and voted to join in warfare
against the borders of Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Killbuck was afraid to return to Coshocton, as he learned of threats
against his life, so he made his home with the Moravians and their
converted Indians at Salem, on the western branch of the Tuscarawas
River, fourteen miles below New Philadelphia. Here he professed
Christianity and was baptized and received the Christian name William
Henry, in honor of a distinguished citizen of Lancaster, Pa. He was
afterward commissioned by the United States Congress and was proud to
call himself “Colonel Henry.” When he removed his family to Salem he
took also with him the family of White Eyes and other Delaware Indians,
including the aged warriors Big Cat and Nonowland.
Killbuck wrote a long letter to Colonel Brodhead informing him of the
hostile action of the council at Coshocton. The missionary, the Reverend
John Heckewelder, who penned this letter, also sent another by the same
messenger, John Montour, in which he suggested an expedition against
Coshocton.
Colonel Brodhead at once determined to attack the place and punish the
Delaware for their perfidy. The Pennsylvania Government gave him much
assistance and a supply of provisions, but his force of regular troops
at Fort Pitt had been reduced, from various causes, to about 200 men. He
made a call for assistance to the officers of the border counties, but
no troops were furnished by them. Colonel David Shepherd, county
lieutenant of Ohio County, Virginia (now Green County, Pa.) however,
sent him a body of excellent volunteers consisting of 134 Virginia
militiamen, arranged in four companies, under Captains John Ogle,
Benjamin Royce, Jacob Leffler and William Crawford. These men were hardy
young farmers from the settlements in Washington County; most of them
rode their own horses, and cheerfully responded to Colonel Shepherd’s
call.
These troops rendezvoused at Fort Henry, the stockade at Wheeling, where
Colonel Brodhead and his command joined them. On Tuesday, April 19, the
little army of 300 was ferried over the Ohio River and marched over the
Indian trail for Muskingum River. John Montour, Nonowland and Delaware
braves joined the Americans to fight their own treacherous tribesmen.
The purpose was to march rapidly and take the village of Coshocton by
surprise; yet it required ten days to reach that place on account of
severe weather and unusually heavy rains. A short pause was made at
Salem, where Colonel Brodhead held a conference with the Reverend John
Heckewelder.
He learned there were no Christian Indians at Coshocton. The Moravians
were to prepare corn and cattle for the soldiers against the return
march. The missionary then hastened back to Gnadenhuetten and Salem to
carry the news that the Americans were in the country and Killbuck and
his warriors again donned the war paint to join the Continentals against
other savages.
Although it required ten days to reach the Muskingum, the Delaware were
taken by surprise. They had no expectation that the Americans would act
so promptly and, on account of stormy weather, they were careless and
kept out no scouts. Then some of the principal chiefs were at Detroit,
in attendance at a big council with De Peyster, the British governor.
On Friday morning, April 20, during a heavy downpour, the advance guard
came upon three Indians in the woods, not more than a mile distant from
Coshocton. One of the savages was captured, but the two others escaped
to the town and gave the alarm. The captured Indian said there were not
many warriors at home, that a band of forty had just returned from a
border raid, with scalps and prisoners, but had crossed to the farther
side of the river, a few miles above the town, to enjoy a drunken revel.
Brodhead hurried forward and dashed into the Indian capital, finding but
fifteen warriors there, who made a brave resistance, but every one was
either killed by rifle ball or tomahawked by an American soldier. The
mounted men were first in the town and they would not accept surrender
or suffer the wounded to linger long in agony. No harm was done to any
of the old men, women or children, of whom more than a score were
captured. These were removed and every building in Coshocton set on
fire. A great quantity of peltry and other stores was taken and forty
head of cattle furnished good food for the hungry soldiers.
As a result of the Coshocton campaign the hostile Delaware migrated to
the headwaters of the Sandusky and other places farther westward, while
the adherents of Chief Killbuck and those friendly to the Americans
moved to Pittsburgh and erected their rude wigwams on Smoky Island,
sometimes called Killbuck Island, at the northern side of the junction
of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers.
----------
Cornerstones Laid for Germantown
Academy, April 21, 1760
By the year 1760, the French and Indian War had narrowed its area and
was confined chiefly to Canada. This was then a period of development in
and about Philadelphia.
The Germantown Academy was organized January 1, 1760, and four
cornerstones were laid with appropriate ceremonies, April 21, 1760.
This ancient and honorable institution was originated in a meeting held
December 6, 1759, at the house of Daniel Mackinet, when it was resolved
to start a subscription for erecting a large and commodious building
near the center of the town for the use of an English and High Dutch
School, with suitable dwelling houses for the teachers. Christopher
Meng, Christopher Sower, Baltus Reser, Daniel Machinet, John Jones, and
Charles Bensell were appointed to solicit and receive subscriptions.
At the organization meeting held by the contributors, January 1, 1760,
Richard Johnson was appointed treasurer, and Christopher Sower, Thomas
Rosse, John Jones, Daniel Mackinet, Jacob Rizer, John Bowman, Thomas
Livezey, David Dreshler, George Absentz, Joseph Galloway, Charles
Bensell, Jacob Naglee and Benjamin Engle were chosen trustees.
The trustees purchased a lot from George Bringhurst in Bensell’s Lane,
subsequently called Schoolhouse Lane. The institution was named
Germantown Union High School House.
It was also decided that the school should be free to persons of all
religious denominations.
The buildings were completed by the following year, when the school was
opened in September.
The schoolhouse was eighty feet long and forty feet wide, two stories
high, and six schoolrooms, and wings supplying two dwelling houses for
the use of the masters.
The Academy is a long-fronted building of rough gray stone topped by a
quaint little belfry tower, and with small stone houses on either side,
which balance the pleasing effect. There is a worn stone sill, which
doubtless is the same upon which Washington stepped when he visited the
institution.
Hilarius Becker made his appearance as the German teacher, with seventy
pupils, and David James Dove as the English teacher, with sixty-one
pupils and Thomas Pratt was the English usher.
Although the mass of people used the German language, these numbers show
that those of the English-speaking tongue were rapidly creeping on them.
David James Dove was one of the most famous characters in old
Philadelphia. He had formerly taught grammar sixteen years at
Chichester, England. He was an excellent master and his scholars made
surprising progress. He was the first English teacher in Franklin’s
Academy, and then conducted a school of his own in Vidells Alley before
he became the first English teacher in the new academy at Germantown.
He became rather overbearing and also divided too much of his time with
private scholars, and in 1763 the trustees tried to remove him, but he
refused to be removed, even though Pelatiah Webster had already been
appointed as his successor. Dove held possession of the schoolhouse and
declared he would not retire. Finally Joseph Galloway and Thomas Wharton
were charged with the duty of dealing with Dove.
Of course, Dove made way after a time for his successor, but for many
years he continued to teach a private school in Germantown.
Dove’s method of reclaiming truants was to send a committee of five or
six boys in search of them with a lighted lantern and a bell and in an
odd equipage in broad daylight. The bell was always tinkling as they
went about the town, and soon they would bring the culprits back filled
with shame.
The progress of the academy was most satisfactory, for in 1764 Greek,
Latin and the higher mathematics were taught. In the early seventies
additional ground in the rear of the lot was obtained.
The rudiments of good manners were taught along with those of learning,
but it was expressly enjoined that youths of Quaker parentage should not
be required to take off their hats in saluting the teachers.
In March, 1761, a lottery scheme was put forth to raise £1125 for the
use of this school. Another lottery the same year was for the Germantown
Public School. The academy lottery consisted of 6667 tickets at $3 to
raise $3000.
As the Revolution approached, and, at last, swept over them, the school
experienced troubled times; it was difficult even to get a quorum of the
trustees.
In July, 1777, a new teacher was appointed because Thomas Dungan, the
master of the English school, had joined the American army.
After the Battle of Germantown the academy was used by the British as a
hospital. Some twenty feet to the east of the back part of the grounds
six British soldiers, who died of their wounds, were buried in what was
Dreshler’s lot.
After the war the revival was slow. In 1784 a charter was obtained
incorporating it as the “Public School at Germantown,” which was amended
in 1786. The school was poor, the State could not furnish much
assistance and contributions were solicited. These and the increase in
the enrollment kept the Academy forging ahead. In 1808 another lottery
was held which yielded about $500, but John Bowman, the treasurer,
refused to receive the money.
In the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 the Legislature of Pennsylvania and
the Congress of the United States made proposals for an occupation. It
was given to Congress, on the rather easy terms of the restoration of
“104 panes of glass, two window shutters, two door linings, three door
locks, the steps front and back both of new wood, the hearths to be laid
with new bricks, sundry patchings and white washing for which repairs
and no others, the sum of $60 will be allowed out of the rent, which is
to be $300 for one session.”
In the yellow fever of 1798 the use of the lower floor and cellar was
granted to the Banks of North America and Pennsylvania, they agreeing as
compensation to paint the building and to renew its roof.
The centennial anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone was
celebrated with great enthusiasm April 21, 1860, by ringing the bell,
parade, 100 guns, and in the evening an address by John S. Littell and
an oration by Sidney George Foster.
These are only incidents in the career of more than 160 years, and the
Academy has long been one of the most celebrated in the country.
----------
Eccentric John Mason’s Leaning Tower on
Blue Hill Destroyed April 22, 1864
Travelers up and down both branches of the Susquehanna River years ago
will well remember the leaning tower high up on Blue Hill, opposite
Northumberland. This peculiar building hung over a precipice and viewed
from the river level, looked as if a breath of air would topple it to
the rocks below. It was built by John Mason, who owned a farm of ninety
acres of land on the hill, and who, from his eccentricities, came to be
known as the “Hermit of Blue Hill.”
The tower, which was built as an observatory, was about sixteen by
eighteen feet, two stories in height and of octagonal shape. It leaned
at an angle of about twenty-two degrees and for safety was clamped to
the rock upon which it was built with strong iron rods. The roof was
flat, and there was a railing around it for protection of those who had
courage to go upon it and look down the frightful precipice.
The view from the roof of “John Mason’s Leaning Tower,” as it was
called, was one of superlative grandeur. Both the North and West
Branches of the Susquehanna, as well as the main stream below their
confluence, the majestic hills and pretty towns of Northumberland and
Sunbury could all be taken in one panoramic view. Blue Hill at this
point is 301 feet in height, as determined by the engineers who laid out
the railroad in after years.
The leaning tower was built very near the spot one now sees, in seeking
the profile of old “Shikellamy,” which would be located about where the
top of the forehead would be seen. The tower was almost destroyed by
visitors who cut their initials upon everything of wood, until it was
entirely covered by these characters.
John Mason built this odd-looking house in 1839. William Henry did the
carpenter work. It stood there until the spring of 1864—a period of
twenty-five years—when, on a Sunday afternoon, April 22, it was
destroyed by a party of railroad men in a spirit of deviltry. They
loosened its moorings and the curious tower rolled down the rocky
precipice with a tremendous crash and landed on a raft of logs passing
down stream.
Its destruction removed one of the oddest, as well as one of the most
conspicuous, landmarks along the Susquehanna River.
There are several stories related of John Mason’s eccentricities and the
motives which induced him to erect this leaning tower.
About the time the vandals destroyed the tower a most interesting novel
was written entitled “Eros and Antiros,” which story was woven about
this scene and its unusual builder. In fact, John Mason was the hero of
the story. The author, being a personal acquaintance, may have written
from a knowledge of the facts.
In the story John Mason had been disappointed in a love affair and
sought this manner to remove himself from the busier world and to live
and die in seclusion.
Another version of the eccentric John Mason’s leaning tower is that it
was his eyrie, where he gathered together a rare collection of queer old
English books—they sold at 75 cents the bushel-basketful at his sale—and
here he slung his hammock and here he read his books.
That story says John Mason’s father was a Quaker, living in
Philadelphia, an old acquaintance of James Jenkins, Jr., at Turtle
Creek, opposite the town of Northumberland, at the base of Blue Hill,
who said to him one day, speaking of his son John, that he was a
restless fellow and wanted to go to sea, and that it would be the death
of his mother. “Can’t thee take him out with thee?” Jenkins replied that
it was a wild place and not likely to suit the taste of one who wanted
to go sea-faring.
But John Mason did go up into the wilderness, engaged in the mercantile
business for a time at Northumberland, then moved his stock of
merchandise to the western side of the river and opened a store at
Turtle Creek.
John Mason never recognized or became intimate with women. One evening
at the Jenkins home, Mason came in as was his custom from the store,
about 9 o’clock, and seated himself by the ample fireplace to read a
book. There was a number of young people in the room, who were playing
pawns and forfeits. One pretty girl was condemned in a whisper, to kiss
John Mason. He was apparently paying no attention to the others, but, as
she slyly approached within reaching distance, he raised the tongs
between them, saying, “Not one step nearer.”
Jenkins and he went alternately to Philadelphia to buy goods. Mason
always walked there and back. He lived to an extreme age and was buried
on his hill-top.
So much for that story. It is generally accepted that John Mason was of
English origin, born in Philadelphia, December 7, 1768, and died on the
farm of Colonel Meens above the present city of Williamsport, April 25,
1849.
During his life at the Blue Hill home, it is told of him that he was a
sterling athlete, and could skate to Harrisburg in half a day; that he
often walked to Williamsport, always carrying an old umbrella. His
eccentricities were much talked about in his day.
During the winter following his death his remains were removed by
friends, on a sled and carried to the scene of his hermit life, and
buried under the wide spreading branches of a chestnut tree a few yards
in the rear of his leaning tower. A neat marble tombstone, properly
inscribed, was erected to mark the place of his burial.
This grave has long since been so trampled upon by curious visitors,
that it was entirely obliterated many years ago. Relic hunters so
defaced the stone that it was removed to a neighboring farm house for
preservation. This is all that remains by which to remember John Mason,
“The Hermit of Blue Hill,” the builder of the “Leaning Tower.”
----------
James Buchanan, Pennsylvania’s Only President,
Born April 23, 1791
James Buchanan, Pennsylvania’s only President of the United States, was
born in a little settlement which bore the odd name of Stony Batter,
near Mercersburg, Franklin County, Pa., April 23, 1791.
Among the Scotch-Irish, whose enterprise brought them to America, was
James Buchanan, a native of Donegal, Ireland. He settled in Franklin
County in 1783, where he set up a store, married Elizabeth Speer,
daughter of a farmer of Adams County, a woman of remarkable native
intellect, and distinguished for her good sense and rare literary taste.
Many a man has owed his success to his mother. James Buchanan said: “My
mother was a remarkable woman. The daughter of a country farmer, engaged
in household employment from early life until after my father’s death,
she yet found time to read much and to reflect on it. What she read once
she remembered forever. For her sons she was a delightful and
instructive companion. I attribute any distinction which I may have
gained to the blessing which God conferred upon me in granting me such a
mother.”
After he was grown a man, James might often be found sitting in the
kitchen to talk with his mother while she worked.
In 1798 James Buchanan, the elder, removed to Mercersburg, where his son
received his academical education and made such progress that his
parents determined to give him the benefit of a collegiate course.
He entered Dickinson College at Carlisle at the age of fourteen. Here he
found that many of the students did very much as they pleased. “To be a
sober, industrious, plodding youth,” said Buchanan afterwards, “was to
incur the ridicule of the mass of students.” He imitated the majority
and soon learned that he was not longer desired as a student. Knowing
his father would not help him out of his plight, he turned to the pastor
of his church, and by his aid James received another chance and made
good use of it. He graduated in June, 1809.
In December, following, he commenced to study law with James Hopkins, of
Lancaster. He applied himself, “determined” said he, “that if severe
application would make me a good lawyer, I should not fail. I studied
law and nothing but law.” He was admitted to practice November 17, 1812,
and at once took the first rank in his profession. So successful was he,
that when but forty years old he had acquired means that enabled him to
retire from the profession.
When the British burned the Capitol at Washington and threatened
Baltimore, James Buchanan displayed his patriotism by enlisting as a
private in the company commanded by Captain Henry Shipman, which marched
from Lancaster to the defense of Baltimore and with which he served
until honorably discharged.
In October, 1814, he was selected a representative in the Legislature,
and re-elected. His intention, however, was to return to the practice of
law and stay out of political office. A sad event changed the current of
Buchanan’s life.
A young woman, to whom Buchanan was engaged in early manhood, a daughter
of the wealthiest family in the county, wrote him a letter of dismissal
under the spell of jealousy which had been aroused by gossips. Pride on
both sides kept the two apart until their separation was made
irrevocable by her sudden death. In grief and horror, the young lover
wrote to the father of the dead girl, begging the privilege of looking
upon her remains and of following them to the grave. But the letter was
returned to him unopened.
Four and forty years passed, and Buchanan went to his grave without ever
having taken any other woman to his heart.
To help him forget his grief, Buchanan accepted the nomination for
Congress. He did not expect to win but did, and his career thenceforward
became political. He served five terms and at the end of his service the
Democrats of Pennsylvania brought forward his name for the vice
presidency. Then President Jackson appointed him Minister to Russia. In
this position he concluded the first commercial treaty between the
United States and Russia, securing to our seamen important privileges in
the Baltic and Black Seas.
In 1833, on his return to the United States, he was elected United
States Senator, taking his seat December 15, 1834.
President Van Buren offered Buchanan the place of Attorney General, but
it was declined. When Polk became President, the post of Secretary of
State was offered and accepted. The most pressing question Buchanan had
before him was the northern boundary of the Oregon Territory. Buchanan
closed this transaction with Great Britain in 1846, and completed our
boundary line to the Pacific.
At the close of Polk’s Administration, Buchanan retired to private life
at his country home, called Wheatland, just outside of Lancaster. A
niece and nephew were taken into his home and raised as his own
children.
When Pierce became President, on March 4, 1853, Buchanan was sent as
United States Minister to England. On his return from this mission he
was nominated and elected to the presidency, and inaugurated March 4,
1857.
Buchanan clung to the idea that freedom rather than slavery was to blame
for all the trouble. He believed that since this Government had
permitted slavery when the Union was formed, the Nation had no right to
interfere with it in States already in the Union.
When South Carolina seceded he was within ten weeks of the end of his
term, with a hostile Congress in front of him and behind him a country
as resolute as himself.
Buchanan lived quietly at Wheatland and saw the Rebellion begin and
triumphantly end.
Whatever the writers of history may say concerning the wisdom of
Buchanan’s political ideas, no one can deny the honesty of his
character. No President could have been more careful to set a good
example to others. He considered that his time belonged to the Nation.
When presented with gifts of any value, he at once returned them to the
sender.
In his travels he paid his own fare, and never used a pass even when out
of office. “When I cannot afford to pay my way,” he declared, “I will
stay at home.”
His niece, Harriet Lane, while “Mistress of the White House,” took a
trip to West Point on a Government vessel which had been named after
her. Her uncle wrote to her that national vessels should not be employed
on pleasure excursions, and that he would put a stop to the practice.
James Buchanan died at Wheatland, June 1, 1868.
----------
News of Revolution Reached Philadelphia by
Messenger, April 24, 1775
At 5 o’clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, April 24, 1775, an express
rider came galloping into Philadelphia from Trenton, with the greatest
possible haste, excitement in his looks and on his lips. The rider
hurried up to the City Tavern, where the people crowded in eagerness to
learn of his mission. Members of the Committee of Correspondence were in
the crowd and to these the rider delivered his dispatch. It was a brief
and hurried message, but it had come a long route and it was big with
the fate of a nation.
It was a dispatch from Watertown, dated April 19, announcing that
General Gage’s men had marched out of Boston the night before, crossed
to Cambridge, fired on and killed the militia at Lexington, destroyed a
store at Concord, were now on the retreat and hotly pursued. Many were
killed on both sides and the country was rising.
The message had come by way of Worchester, where it was vised by the
town clerk. It then went to Brookline, Thursday, 20th, and was forwarded
at 4 o’clock in the afternoon from Norwich; at 7 that evening it was
expressed from New London.
The committee at Lynn received, copied and started the rider with it at
1 o’clock Friday morning. It came to Saybrook before sun-up. At
breakfast time another messenger took it up to Killingworth. At 8
o’clock it was at East Guilford; at 10 in Guilford, and at noon in
Brandford. It was sent from New Haven with further details on Saturday,
and dispatched from the New York committee rooms 4 o’clock Sunday
afternoon. It reached New Brunswick at 2 o’clock Monday morning,
Princeton at 6 o’clock in the evening and Trenton at 9 o’clock Tuesday
morning. It was indorsed: “Rec’d the above p. express and forwarded the
same to the Committee of Philadelphia.”
Thus was the news of the actual opening battle of the Revolution carried
by express riders from Watertown to Philadelphia, which had been
selected as the seat of Government for the Thirteen Colonies.
Two days later another express came into Philadelphia bringing fuller
particulars of “the Battle of Lexington,” as that memorable fight has
since been called.
The news of Lexington arrived too late in the day to spread at once over
the city. But next morning every man, woman and child knew it, and,
borne by intense patriotic feeling the people assembled in public
meeting, as if by common consent at the State House.
There were 8000 persons present, and all seemed to be actuated with but
a single purpose. The Committee of Correspondence took charge of the
meeting and its authority was recognized and accepted.
Only one resolution was proposed and adopted, to “associate together, to
defend with arms their property, liberty and lives against all attempts
to deprive them of it,” and then, with impatience and eagerness, to
action. The time for words was passed. The time for organization,
arming, drilling and marching had come.
The enrollment began at this meeting. The committee besought all who had
arms to let them know, so that they might be purchased and secured. The
associates availed themselves of their existing organization to turn
themselves forthwith into military companies.
It was agreed that two troops of light horse, two companies of riflemen
and two companies of artillery, with brass and iron field pieces, should
be formed immediately.
Drilling was started at once, and the progress was so marked that the
companies were ready to parade by May 10, when they turned out to
receive Continental Congress, and also to honor John Hancock.
The foot company and riflemen turned out to meet the Southern delegates
to Congress at Gray’s Ferry. The officers of all the companies mounted,
went out to meet the Eastern delegates and Hancock.
The associators’ organization was officered as follows: First Battalion,
John Dickinson, colonel; John Chevalier, lieutenant colonel; Jacob
Morgan and William Coates, majors. Second Battalion, Daniel Roderdeau,
colonel; Joseph Reed, lieutenant colonel; John Cox and John Bayard,
majors. Third Battalion, John Cadwallader, colonel; John Nixon,
lieutenant colonel; Thomas Mifflin and Samuel Merideth, majors.
Peter Markoe was captain of the light horse, Joseph Cowperthwait of the
Quaker Blues, James Biddle, Benjamin Loxley, Thomas Proctor and Joseph
Moulder, were officers of the artillery, and Richard Peters, Tench
Francis, William Bradford and Lambert Cadwallader were in command of the
Greens. John Shee, John Wilcocks, Thomas Willing, Francis Gurney and
others were of the staff.
The battalions, mustering 1500 men, all uniformed and equipped, and 500
artillerymen and troops of horse, gave a drill early in June in the
presence of the “honorable members of the Continental Congress and
several thousand spectators.”
The troops were reviewed by General Washington on June 20 and next day
he set out for Boston escorted across New Jersey by the cavalry troop.
On June 23, the associators listened to an eloquent sermon by the
Reverend Dr. William Smith.
They petitioned the Assembly, setting forth a full and detailed account
of their organization into companies, etc., and asked that they be put
into service at once. Neither the Governor nor the Council had the power
or funds to comply, and even the Congress had no direct authority as yet
to raise an army.
Franklin had returned from England May 5, and the next morning he was
elected to Congress. But his work on the Committee of Safety is really
the history of the defense of Philadelphia during the first year of the
war.
It was late in June before the Committee of Safety was given power to
employ the associators, and the city and counties were called upon to
provide arms and equipment, the House agreeing to pay for the service of
the troops.
A committee was named whose duty it was to call troops into the service
as necessity demanded and to provide for the defense of this Province
against insurrections and invasion.
The Committee of Safety met July 3. Franklin was unanimously chosen
president, and William Govett, clerk. It proceeded to business with
energy and dispatch.
----------
Frame of Government Written by William
Penn, April 25, 1682
Penn’s remarkable frame of Government, dated April 25, 1682, was so far
in advance of the age that, as Bancroft says, “its essential principles
remain to this day without change.” Another competent critic has said
that in it was “the germ if not the development of every valuable
improvement in Government or legislation which has been introduced into
the political systems of more modern epochs.”
The government was to consist of the Governor, a Provincial Council, and
a General Assembly. These bodies, which were to make laws, create
courts, choose officers and transact public affairs, were to be elected
by the freemen by ballot. By freemen, were meant not only handholders,
but “every inhabitant, artificer, or other resident that pays scot or
lot to the Government.” Penn believed that “any government is free to
the people under it, whatever be the frame, where the laws rule and the
people are a party to those laws, and more than this is tyranny,
oligarchy or confusion.”
The “Frame of Government” and the “Laws Agreed Upon in England” were the
final products of all Penn’s best thinking and conferences, and were
brought with him to the Colony. Though changed in form many times, they
shaped all future Constitutions of Pennsylvania, of other States and
even the Federal Union.
This frame was published by Penn, together with certain laws agreed on
between 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 seem meet.”
James Claypoole called it in one of his letters, “the fundamentals for
government.” In effect it was the first Constitution of Pennsylvania. It
was the work of William Penn and reflects precisely some of the
brightest and some of the much less bright traits of his genius and
character.
The “preface” or preamble to this Constitution is curious, for it is
written as if Penn felt that the eyes of the court were upon him. The
first two paragraphs form a simple excursus upon the doctrine of the law
and the transgressor as expounded in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans:
“For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under the
sin,” etc. From this Penn derives “the divine right of government,” the
object of government being two-fold, to terrify evildoers and to cherish
those who do well “which gives government a life beyond corruption (i.
e., divine right), and makes it as durable in the world as good men
should be.” Hence Penn thought that government seemed like a part of
religion itself, a thing sacred in its institution and end.
“They weakly err,” continues Penn, “that think there is no other use of
government than correction; which is the coarsest part of it. * * * Men
side with their passions against their reason, and their sinister
interests have so strong a bias upon their minds that they lean to them
against the good of the things they know.”
The form, he concludes, does not matter much after all, “Any government
is free to the people under it (whatever be the frame) where the laws
rule and the people are a party to these laws.” Good men are to be
preferred even above good laws. The frame of laws now published, Penn
adds, “has been carefully contrived to secure the people from abuse of
power.”
In the Constitution which follows the preamble, Penn begins by
confirming to the freemen of the province all the liberties, franchises
and properties secured to them by the patent of King Charles II.
After stating how the government was to be organized, he directed that
the council of seventy-two members, was to be elected at once, one-third
of the members to go out, and their successors elected each year, and
after the first seven years those going out each year shall not be
returned within a year. Two-thirds of the members constituted a quorum
on all important matters, but twenty-four would suffice on minor
questions.
The Governor was to preside and to have three votes. All bills should be
prepared and proposed by the Council for presentation to the General
Assembly, which body, on the ninth day should pass or defeat such
measures as presented.
To be sure the Provincial Council also was an elective body, but the
difference was in the fact that it was meant to consist of the
Governor’s friends; it was an aristocratic body, and therefore not
entirely representative.
Aside from this fatal defect there is much to praise in Penn’s
Constitution and something to wonder at, as being so far in advance of
his age.
Besides carefully defining and limiting the executive functions of the
Governor and Council a wholesome and liberal provision was made for
education, public schools, inventions and useful scientific discoveries.
The Constitution could not be altered without the consent of the
Governor and six-sevenths of the Council and the General Assembly, which
rule, if enforced, would have perpetuated any Constitution, however bad.
On May 15, 1682, Penn’s code of laws, passed in England, to be altered
or amended in Pennsylvania, was promulgated. It consisted of forty
statutes, the first of which declared the character or Constitution,
which has just been analyzed to be “fundamental in the Government
itself.”
Regulations as to taxes, trials, prisons and marriage were clearly set
forth in the code. It was also arranged that every child of twelve
should be taught some useful trade. Members of the Council and General
Assembly, as well as Judges, were to be professing Christians. Every one
was to be allowed to worship God according to the dictates of his own
conscience and this not as a mere matter of toleration, but because it
was an inherent right.
The penalty of death was to be inflicted sparingly; some 200 offenses
which were named as capital by English law were to be punished in a
lighter manner.
During Penn’s absence there was clashing, dissension and tumult. If he
could have kept his hand in person on the Government for a generation
there would have been a wonderful difference in the results attained.
----------
Indians Captured James McKnight, Assemblyman,
April 26, 1779
In the spring of 1779 conditions along the frontier became more serious
than in any time past. The Indians were more active and destroyed
growing crops and burned the homes and outbuildings of the settlers,
whom they murdered or took away in captivity.
The condition was so alarming it was reported to the Supreme Executive
Council. One such letter, dated “Fort Augusta 27th April, 1779” written
by Colonel Samuel Hunter, was in part: “I am really sorry to inform you
of our present Disturbances; not a day, but there is some of the Enemy
makes their appearances on our Frontiers. On Sunday last, there was a
party of Savages attact’d the inhabitants that lived near Fort Jenkins,
and had taken two or three familys prisoners, but the Garrison being
appris’d of it, about thirty men turned out of the Fort and Rescued the
Prisoners; the Indians collecting Themselves in a body drove our men
under Cover of the Fort, with the loss of three men kill’d & four Badly
Wounded; they burned several houses near the Fort, kill’d cattle, &
drove off a number of Horses.
“Yesterday there was another party of Indians, about thirty or forty,
kill’d and took seven of our militia, that was stationed at a little
Fort near Muncy Hill, call’d Fort Freeland; there was two or three of
the inhabitants taken prisoners; among the latter is James McKnight,
Esqr., one of our Assemblymen; the same day a party of thirteen of the
inhabitants that went to hunt their Horses, about four or five miles
from Fort Muncy was fired upon by a large party of Indians, and all
taken or kill’d except one man. Captain Walker, of the Continental
Troops, who commands at that post turned out with thirty-four men to the
place he heard the firing, and found four men kill’d and scalped and
supposes they Captured ye Remaind’r.
“This is the way our Frontiers is harrassed by a cruel Savage Enemy, so
that they cannot get any Spring crops in to induce them to stay in the
County. I am afraid in a very short time we shall have no inhabitants
above this place unless when General Hand arrives here he may order some
of the Troops at Wyoming down on our Frontiers, all Col. Hartley’s
Regiment, our two month’s men, and what militia we can turn out, is very
inadequate to guard our Country.
“I am certain everything is doing for our relief but afraid it will be
too late for this County, as its impossible to prevail on the
inhabitants to make a stand, upon account of their Women and Childer.
“Our case is Really deplorable and alarming, and our County on ye Eve of
breaking up, as I am informed at the time I am writing this by two or
three expresses that there is nothing to be seen but Desolation, fire &
smoke, as the inhabitants is collected at particular places, the Enemy
burns all their Houses that they have evacuated.” The bearer of this
important letter was James Hepburn.
It is a matter of interest that the James McKnight captured at Fort
Freeland had secured 300 acres of land, April 3, 1769, in what is now
Union County, where he brought his family. In 1774 they purchased three
tracts of land “contiguous to and bounded on each other,” on Limestone
Run, in Turbut Township, Northumberland County.
In 1776 William McKnight was chosen a member of the Committee of Safety,
and was a most zealous and active patriot.
Both he and his wife perished at the hands of the Indians, when they
attempted to make a trip from Fort Freeland, where they had sought
refuge from the savages. Their only son, James, carried their bodies
from Fort Freeland to the graveyard now known as Chillisquaque, and
there buried them himself.
James McKnight had three sisters. He married Elizabeth Gillen, and was
regarded as a man of great courage and rectitude. In 1778 he was elected
to the General Assembly, but did not long survive to enjoy the honor.
The McKnight family had frequent and terrible experiences with the
Indians. In the autumn of 1778 Mrs. James McKnight and Mrs. Margaret
Wilson Durham, each with an infant in her arms, started on horseback
from Fort Freeland to go to Northumberland. Near the mouth of Warrior
Run, about two miles from the fort, they were fired upon by a band of
Indians, lying in ambush. Mrs. Durham’s child was killed in her arms,
and she fell from her horse. An Indian rushed out of the bushes, scalped
her and fled.
Alexander Guffy and two companions named Peter and Ellis Williams rushed
to the scene of the shooting and when they approached Mrs. Durham, whom
they supposed dead, they were greatly surprised to see her rise up and
piteously call for water. With the loss of her scalp she presented a
horrible appearance. Guffy ran to the river and brought water in his
hat. They then bound up her head, as best they could, and placed her in
a canoe and hastily paddled down stream fifteen miles to Sunbury, where
Colonel William Plunket, also a distinguished physician, dressed her
wounded head, and she recovered. She died in 1829, aged seventy-four
years.
Mrs. McKnight escaped unhurt from the surprise attack. The shots
frightened the horse she was riding, it turned and ran back to the fort.
Mrs. McKnight came near losing her child, when the horse wheeled and the
child fell from her arms, but she caught it by the foot and held to it
until the fort was reached.
Two sons of Mrs. McKnight, who were accompanying the party on foot,
attempted to escape by hiding under the bank of the river, but were
taken by the Indians.
James Durham, husband of Margaret, was taken at the same time. The three
prisoners survived their captivity in Canada, and returned to their
homes at the close of the Revolution in 1783.
On the eventful day that the little stockade was next attacked, April
26, 1779, Hon. James McKnight, was captured by the Indians.
William McKnight and his wife and James and his wife are interred in the
old Chillisquaque burying ground.
----------
Steam Boat Susquehanna, in Effort to
Navigate River, Starts Fatal Trip,
April 27, 1826
Even before the advent of canals or railroads the enterprising merchants
of Baltimore sensed the importance of facilitating the commerce along
the great Susquehanna River.
They believed it would materially enhance their volume of business,
especially in lumber, iron, grain, and whiskey, if the river would be
freed of such obstructions as impeded or hindered navigation.
Large sums of money were expended in removing rocky channels in the
river below Columbia, so as to admit the passage of arks and rafts down
stream, on their way to tide water. A canal had been constructed from
Port Deposit, northward, in order that the returning craft might avoid
the shoals and dangerous reefs along the first ten miles above tide
water.
Yet in spite of all these improvements no satisfactory way had been
found which would return to the producers of the Susquehanna Valley such
articles of commerce and merchandise as they would naturally require in
return for the raw products of the forest, field and mine.
The authorities of Pennsylvania were also awake to the situation, as
were the citizens. Several attempts had been made to have complete
surveys of the river and estimates of the cost of the work required to
make the great river navigable.
To Baltimore, more than to Pennsylvania, belongs the credit of an actual
attempt to establish steamboat navigation.
In 1825 a small steamboat, named the Susquehanna, was built in Baltimore
and, when launched, was towed up to Port Deposit.
The Harrisburg Chronicle said:
“The Susquehanna was expected at Columbia on Sunday night, Tuesday’s
reports were, that she had not got to Columbia. Eye-witnesses to her
progress put the matter to rest on Wednesday; they had seen her a short
distance above the head of the Maryland Canal, with a posse of men
tugging at the ropes, and when they had tugged nine miles gave up the
job. So ended all the romance about the Susquehanna. She drew too much
water (22 inches) for the purpose and started at the wrong point.
Watermen say that the crookedness of the channel, with the rapidity of
the current, makes it utterly impossible for a steamboat to ascend the
falls between the head of the canal and Columbia.”
The Chronicle article says further: “We have a report that Mr.
Winchester, of Baltimore, has contracted for the building of a steamboat
at York Haven. We also learn that the York Company are making great
progress with the sheet-iron steamboat, and that she will be launched
about the 4th of July.”
This sheetiron boat was called the Codorus, and early in April of the
next year ascended the river as far as Binghamton, after which she
returned to York Haven. Her captain, a Mr. Elger, reported that
navigation of the Susquehanna by steam was impracticable.
Either the original Susquehanna renamed or another steamboat built by
the Baltimore promoters, and named Susquehanna and Baltimore was put on
the river and operation above Conewago Falls by Captain Cornwell, an
experienced river pilot.
She was accompanied on her trial trip on this portion of the river by a
board of Commissioners of the State of Maryland, Messrs. Patterson,
Ellicott and Morris, three distinguished citizens of Baltimore. Capt.
Cornwell had already in March made several successful trips as far up as
Northumberland and Danville on the North Branch and to Milton on the
West Branch, returning to York Haven without accident.
April 17, 1826, the boat started from York Haven, having in tow a large
keel boat capable of carrying a thousand bushels of wheat, and proceeded
on her fatal trip, arriving at the Nescopeck Falls at 4 o’clock on May
3. At these falls there was an outer and an artificial inner channel of
shallow water for the accommodation of rafts and arks. Capt. Cornwell
decided after consulting with other river men on board, to try first the
main, or deep water channel, and the captain argued that if the boat
would not stem it, that he could then drop back and try the other one.
The boat made a halt in a small eddy below the falls on the east side of
the river and some of the passengers went ashore; this was the case with
the Maryland Commissioners.
The boat was directed into the main channel, and had proceeded perhaps
two-thirds of the distance through the falls, when she ceased to make
further progress, the engine was stopped and she was permitted to drift
back to the foot of the rapid, where she struck upon a wall dividing the
artificial from the main channel, and at that instant one of her boilers
exploded.
The scene was as awful as the imagination can picture. Two of the
passengers on board, named John Turk and Heber Whitmarsh, raftmen from
Chenango, N.Y., were instantly killed; William Camp, a merchant from
Owego, was fatally scalded by escaping steam. Dave Rose, of Chenango, N.
Y., was fatally injured. Quincy Maynard, the engineer, as stated in the
account published in the Danville Watchman, one week after the
occurrence, was not expected to recover. Christian Brobst, of Catawissa
and Jeremiah Miller, of Juniata, were seriously injured. Messrs.
Woodside, Colt and Underwood, of Danville, were more or less injured, as
were Messrs. Barton, Hurley, Foster and Colonel Paxton, of Catawissa,
and Benjamin Edwards, of Braintrim, Luzerne County.
It was said by somebody on board that at the time of the explosion, a
passenger was holding down the lever of the safety valve, but why this
should be done after the boat had ceased her efforts to pull through is
difficult to conjecture. Thus ended the second attempt to navigate the
Susquehanna by steam power.
----------
Shawnee Indians Murder Conestoga Tribesmen
April 28, 1728
Two Shawnee Indians cruelly murdered a man and a woman of the Conestoga
tribe, April 28, 1728. John Wright, of Hempfield, wrote from Lancaster,
May 2, advising James Logan of this murder, and that the Conestoga have
demanded of the Shawnee the surrender of the murderers. He further wrote
that some Shawnee had brought the Shawnee murderers as far as Peter
Chartier’s house, but there the party engaged in a drinking bout and
through the connivance of Chartier the two murderers escaped.
Chartier was an Indian trader among the Shawnee and was himself a
half-blood Shawnee. He had traded for a time on the Pequea Creek and at
Paxtang. Later he settled at the Shawnee town on the west side of the
Susquehanna, at the mouth of the Yellow Breeches Creek, the present site
of New Cumberland. He later removed on the Conemaugh, then to the
Allegheny, about 1734.
The action upon the part of Chartier incensed the Conestoga so much that
they threatened to wipe out the whole section of the Shawnee.
John Wright further states in his letter, “Yesterday there came
seventeen or eighteen of the young men, commanded by Tilehausey, all
Conestoga Indians, painted for war, all armed. We inquired which way
they were going. They would not tell us, but said they or some of them
were going to war, and that there were some Canoy to go along with them.
But we hearing the above report, are apt to think that they are going
against the Shawnee.”
Almost contemporary with this murder, the whites along the Schuylkill
had their safety threatened from another quarter. Kakowwatchy, head of
the Shawnee at Pechoquealon, claimed to have heard that the Flatheads,
or Catawba from Carolina, had entered Pennsylvania to strike the Indians
along the Susquehanna. He sent eleven warriors to ascertain the truth of
this incursion of the Southern Indians, and as they approached the
neighborhood of the Durham Iron Works, at Manatawny, their provisions
failing, forced the inhabitants to give them victuals and drink.
The people did not know these Indians and believing the chief of the
band to be a Spanish Indian, caused great alarm.
Families left their plantations, and the women and children were in
great danger from exposure, as the weather was cold. About twenty white
men took arms, approached the band, and soon a battle was in progress.
The whites said that the Indians refused a parley and fired first,
wounding several of the inhabitants. The red men made off into the woods
and were not seen again. Their leader was wounded, but escaped.
The identity of this band was not known until ten days later, May 20,
when the Lieutenant Governor Patrick Gordon was waited upon by John
Smith and Nicholas Schonhoven, two Indian traders from Pechoquealon, who
delivered to him a verbal message from Kakowwatchy, which was an
explanation of the unfortunate affair, and for which the chief sent his
regrets, and asked the Governor for a return of the gun which the
wounded leader had lost.
The Lieutenant Governor, accompanied by many other citizens of
Philadelphia went to the troubled district, and personally pleaded with
those who had fled from their plantations to return. So excited were the
whites that they seemed ready to kill any red man or woman.
On May 20, an Indian man, two women and two girls, appeared at John
Roberts, at Cucussea, then in Chester County. Their neighbors fearing
danger, rallied to their defense, and shot the man and one of the women,
beat out the brains of the other woman, and wounded the girls. Their
excuse was that the Indian had put an arrow into his bow.
The Provincial authorities were fearful that revenge upon the people
might be attempted, so the two neighbors who committed the atrocity were
arrested and sent to Chester for trial, and notice of the affair was
sent to Sassoonan, Opekasset, and Manawhyhickon, with a request that
they bring their people to a treaty, arranged to be held at Conestoga
with Chief Civility and the Indians there.
The Pennsylvania Government did not leave all to diplomacy. John
Pawling, Marcus Hulings and Mordecai Lincoln (a relative of President
Abraham Lincoln) were commissioned to gather the inhabitants and to put
them in a posture to defend themselves.
Having forwarded to Kakowwatchy the watchcoats, belts and tomahawks
dropped by the eleven warriors, and having sent a present, together with
a request that he warn his Indians to be more cautious in the future,
Governor Gordon expressed a wish to see Kakowwatchy at Durham, then went
to Conestoga, and met Civility, Tawenne and other Conestoga, some
Delaware and three Shawnee chiefs.
Gordon began by reminding the Indians of the links in the chain of
friendship and that neither the Indians nor Christians would believe ill
reports of each other without investigation of the facts. The Governor
then made them presents of watchcoats, duffels, blankets, shirts,
gunpowder, lead, flints and knives.
The Governor then told them of the recent murders, and of the intention
to punish those who killed the Indians, if found guilty. The chiefs, in
turn, declared that they had no cause of complaint.
Sassoonan, or Allummapees, the head of the Delaware, and his nephew,
Opekasset, and some other chiefs, including the great Shikellamy,
vicegerent of the Six Nations, met with Governor Gordon at Molatton, and
from there went to Philadelphia, where a great council was held June 4,
1728, which was concluded most satisfactorily for all concerned.
----------
Christian Post, Moravian Missionary and
Messenger, Died April 29, 1785
Christian Frederic Post, who has been denominated “the great Moravian
peace-maker,” was a simple uneducated missionary of the Moravian Church.
He was born in Polish Prussia, in 1710, and at an early age came under
the influence of the Moravians. He emigrated to this country as a member
of the “Sea Congregation,” which arrived on the Catherine, at New
London, Conn., May 30, 1742. Post, with the other members, joined the
congregation at Bethlehem, Pa., three weeks later.
From that time until his death, at Germantown, April 29, 1785, he
performed many hazardous missions for his church and the Provincial
Government of Pennsylvania, and many times was in imminent peril. The
first several years of his residence in Pennsylvania he was employed as
a Moravian missionary, but afterwards was almost constantly performing
important services for the Province in its Indian dealings.
Some of the journals of Post, which appear in the Archives of
Pennsylvania, and have been republished elsewhere, are valuable for the
intimate history of the peoples and the country through which he
traveled. One of the editors who republished his journals, wrote as
follows concerning the missionary and mediator: “Antiquarians and
historians have alike admired the sublime courage of the man and the
heroic patriotism which made him capable of advancing into the heart of
a hostile territory, into the very hands of a cruel and treacherous foe.
But aside from Post’s supreme religious faith, he had a shrewd knowledge
of Indian customs, and knew that in the character of an ambassador
requested by the Western tribes his mission would be a source of
protection. Therefore, even under the very walls of Fort Dusquesne, he
trusted not in vain to Indian good faith.”
When Conrad Weiser visited Shikellamy at Shamokin, May, 1743, he wrote:
“As I saw their old men seated on rude benches and on the ground
listening with decorous gravity and rapt attention to Post, I fancied I
saw before me a congregation of primitive Christians.”
In 1743 Post was married to a converted Indian woman, and endeared
himself to all the Indians. But all was not smooth, for the Brethren
were persecuted and humbled before their converts. Post, who had been on
a journey to the Iroquois country, in March, 1745, was arrested at
Canajoharie and sent to New York, where he was imprisoned for weeks, on
a trumped-up charge of abetting Indian raids. He was released April 10.
In 1758 it became a matter of importance with Governor Denny and Sir
William Johnson, that a treaty of peace be secured with the Western
Indians. Post was selected to convey to them the white belt of peace and
reconciliation. Tedyuskung, the Delaware king, protested against his
going, declaring he would never return alive, but the bold and confident
Christian said it was a mission of peace, that God would protect him,
and that he must go.
On July 15, 1758, Post departed from Philadelphia with five Indian
guides. He carried with him copies of the treaties made with Tedyuskung,
belts of wampum and messages from the Governor. He made his trip by way
of Bethlehem, Shamokin, Great Island, Chinclamoose, etc.
It was a perilous journey. Twice he got lost in the woods, and one of
his guides strayed away and could not be found. Without food and
drenched with rain, night after night he slept on the cold, wet ground.
He was frequently very near the French. Finally he arrived at King
Beaver’s, who ruled over the Delaware in the West. These Indians
remembered him when he preached the gospel at Wyoming, and were glad to
see him. They gave him a public dinner, to which they invited the
surrounding tribes.
The French sent spies to watch him and to induce him to go to Fort
Duquesne. Post refused to be trapped, but instead succeeded in making
arrangements for kindling a great council-fire at Easton in October
following.
Post now set out on his return and had not proceeded far when he heard
the thunder of nineteen cannon discharged at the fort. Under the very
mouths of these guns he had, singly and alone, with the full knowledge
of the French, laid a plan which rent asunder the alliance between them
and their Indian allies.
Post succeeded in his mission, and the French at the fort, finding
themselves abandoned by their allies, fired it and fled, as the invalid
general, John Forbes, and his army made their appearance.
Frank Cowan, poet of Southwestern Pennsylvania, tells the story in one
of his songs, of which the following is a verse:
“The Head of Iron from his couch,
Gave courage and command,
Which Washington, Bouquet and Grant
Repeated to the band;
Till Hark! the Highlanders began
With their chieftain’s word to swell,
‘Tonight, I shall sup and drain my cup
In Fort Du Quense—or Hell!’
But the Man of Prayer, and not of boast,
Had spoken first, in Frederic Post.”
Again, in 1761, he proceeded to the Muskingum and built the first white
man’s house within the present State of Ohio. He had made previous trips
into this country, and always succeeded in persuading the Shawnee and
Delaware to “bury the hatchet” and desert the French. He did this with a
heavy reward upon his scalp, and while his every footstep was surrounded
with danger.
In 1762 the Reverend John G. B. Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary and
writer, especially among the Delaware, was an assistant to Post.
Toward the close of his eventful life Post retired from the Moravian
sect and entered the Protestant Episcopal Church. He died at Germantown
on April 29, 1785, and on May 1 his remains were interred in the “Lower
graveyard of that place, the Reverend William White, then rector of
Christ Church,” conducting the funeral service.
----------
Veterans of French and Indian Wars
Organize April 30, 1765
As early as 1764 officers of the First and Second Battalions of
Pennsylvania who had served under Colonel Henry Bouquet during the
French and Indian War tarried at Bedford on their way home and formed an
association. The purpose of this organization was that they be awarded
the land to which they were entitled for service rendered.
This association held another and more important meeting at Carlisle,
April 30, 1765, when they elected officers and renewed their application
to the proprietaries and asked for 24,000 acres of land along the West
Branch of the Susquehanna.
In this formal application they stated their object was “to embody
themselves on some good land at some distance from the inhabited part of
the Province, where by their industry they might procure a comfortable
subsistance for themselves and by their arms, union and increase become
a powerful barrier to the Province.”
These officers knew that the Proprietaries had not that much land to
award them and that they had not yet purchased the West Branch lands
from the Indians, but at this meeting they adopted a strong resolution
calling upon them to make such a purchase.
Following the French and Indian War the lawless white men had been
encroaching upon Indian lands, provoked hostilities and murdered many
innocent Indians. The situation became so acute that General Gage
offered troops to assist Governor Penn in removing and punishing these
intruders.
Governor Penn appealed to the Assembly for help. In the discussion of
this important matter it was learned from George Croghan, Sir William
Johnson and others that the Indians designed a northern confederacy, and
were determined to avenge this intrusion and the murder of the Conestoga
Indians at Lancaster.
The Assembly agreed to pass a boundary bill. They also sent a message to
the Indians promising to punish those responsible for the Conestoga
massacre, and urged a conference at which a boundary line could be
established. They also appropriated £3000 as a present to appease the
Indians.
During the following spring several conferences were held, the largest
being at Fort Pitt, where many chiefs and warriors of the Six Nations
were present; in all 1103 men, women and children. The explanations were
satisfactory and the presents and cash joyously received.
But it is quite probable that another savage war was averted by the
intervention of Sir William Johnson, who, at this critical period,
suggested a great council be held at Fort Stanwix, where this vital
question could be definitely decided. This council was held in October,
1768, with Governor Penn present in person, as well as the principal
chiefs of the tribes which had grievances to air.
The council, in the treaty of November 5, 1768, settled the boundary
dispute and the Indians sold to the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania most
of the central and western end of the State, excepting a small strip
along Lake Erie. The consideration was $10,000.
Now that the Proprietaries had purchased the land desired by the
association, on February 3, 1769, it was ordered by the Board of
Property “that Colonel Francis and the officers of the First and Second
Battalions of the Pennsylvania Regiment be allowed to take up 24,000
acres, to be divided among them in district surveys on the waters of the
West Branch of the Susquehanna, to be seated with a family for each 300
acres, within two years from the time of the survey, paying £5 per
hundred and one penny sterling per acre.”
Near the close of February many of the officers met at Fort Augusta and
agreed to take the land proposed by the Proprietaries, and that one of
the tracts should be surveyed on the West Branch, adjoining Andrew
Montour’s place at Chillisquaque Creek, and one in Buffalo Valley. It
was also agreed that Captains Plunket, Brady, Piper and Lieutenant Askey
should accompany William Scull to the eastern side of the river as they
made the surveys.
These surveys were promptly made and another meeting was held at Fort
Augusta, when it was determined that the third tract of 8000 acres
should be surveyed on Bald Eagle Creek. Captains Hunter, Brady and Piper
were appointed to accompany Charles Lukens as he made the survey.
May 16, 1769, the officers met at Harris Ferry, where Messrs. Maclay,
Scull and Lukens laid before them the drafts of their respective
surveys. They agreed that Colonel Turbutt Francis should receive his
share, 2075 acres, surveyed to him in one tract. Accordingly he selected
land upon which the town of Milton is now the center.
Lots were then drawn by the other officers for the choice of lands.
Captain William Hendricks, Captain William Plunket, Captain John Brady,
Captain John Kern, Lieutenant Dr. Thomas Wiggins, Captain Conrad Bucher,
Captain William Irvine and Lieutenants Askey, Stewart and McAllister
took land in Buffalo Valley.
Ensign A. Stein, Lieutenant Daniel Hunsicker, Captain William Piper,
Lieutenant James Hayes, Captain Samuel Hunter, Captain Nicholas
Hausegger took lands above Chillisquaque Creek. Major John Philip de
Haas was the principal officer to be awarded land on the Bald Eagle, and
near him were Lieutenant James Hays and Thomas Wiggans, Ensign William
McMeen, Lieutenant Hunsicker, Captain Timothy Green, Captain John Brady,
Captain James Irvine and Captain William Plunket.
Colonel Francis acquired by purchase land from Chillisquaque Creek to
and including the present town of Northumberland, and then owned a
continuous strip from the North Branch to a point near Watsontown, a
distance of eighteen miles along the West Branch. This made him one of
the most extensive land owners of that time.
By these awards the West Branch Valley was permanently settled by these
distinguished officers or their kin, and many of the families resident
there today are descendants of these sturdy patriots.
----------
British Foragers Massacre Americans at
Crooked Billet, May 1, 1778
With the exception of occasional depredations committed by the British
foraging parties during the winter of 1777–78, all was quiet on the
Delaware. The vigilance of Generals James Potter and John Lacey greatly
restrained these forays. In the meantime General Washington, with the
aid of Baron von Steuben and other foreign officers in the Continental
army, transformed the band of American patriots into a well-disciplined,
well-drilled and confident army.
General Wayne’s command was encamped during the whole winter and spring
at Mount Joy, in Montgomery County, and materially assisted in securing
supplies of provisions for the army at Valley Forge.
When Washington withdrew from Whitemarsh, he was anxious that the upper
part of the Delaware-Schuylkill peninsula should be well guarded. A
thousand Pennsylvania militia were placed under command of General John
Lacey, January 9, 1778. Lacey established his headquarters at the
Crooked Billet Tavern, Bucks County, now called Hatboro, about
twenty-five miles north of Philadelphia.
The country nearer Philadelphia, where the British were encamped, was
thus open to the Queen’s Rangers and James’ and Hovenden’s Loyalists,
who foraged and ravaged as they pleased. There was intense hatred
between these Tories and the Continentals.
The British continually employed troops to forage and plunder, and while
Lacey was himself in Bucks County, he could do nothing to save it from
their ravages. But his energy and enterprise, even with his small
forces, enabled him to reduce the supplies of Philadelphia so materially
that the attempt was made to destroy his command, and an expedition was
sent against him.
The party was under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Abercrombie,
comprising light infantry, cavalry and Simcoe’s Rangers, and started on
May 1, 1778. Simcoe was to get in Lacey’s rear and a party was to be
placed in ambush, while the mounted infantry and cavalry advanced along
the road.
Lacey’s officers and patrols were negligent, and his force was
completely surprised and surrounded on all sides. They retreated
fighting, but without their baggage, and finally got away with a loss of
twenty-six killed, eight or ten wounded, and fifty-eight missing.
The British, as at Paoli, bayoneted many of the American troops after
they were so seriously wounded they could be of no further effect
against them; others of the wounded were thrown in among some buckwheat
straw, which was then set on fire, and they were roasted to death. The
bodies of many of the killed among the Americans were then thrown into
the burning straw. The famous scoundrels who committed these atrocities
were the Tory soldiers of Simcoe’s Rangers. The British loss was
nominal.
Among the American slain in this massacre was Captain John Downey, who
had been a schoolmaster in Philadelphia and a gallant volunteer at
Trenton and Princeton. He had surveyed the Delaware River for the
Committee of Safety, and was acting as commissary to General Lacey’s
brigade. He was bayoneted and mutilated while lying wounded and a
prisoner at the Crooked Billet.
A monument was erected in December, 1861, to the victims of Lacey’s
command in this fight, on the battlefield at Hatboro. The surprise was a
legitimate act of war, but the massacre after surrender was a barbarous
atrocity.
The Supreme Executive Council of the State, and the Assembly in session
at Lancaster, and the Continental Congress at York had been principally
engaged in legislating for the interests of the army, preparing for the
ensuing campaign. The Assembly passed the “act for the attainder of
divers traitors,” among whom were specially mentioned Joseph Galloway,
Andrew Allen, Reverend Jacob Duche, John Biddle, John Allen, William
Allen, James Rankin, of York County, Gilbert Hicks, of Bucks County,
Samuel Shoemaker, late of Penn’s Council, John Potts, Nathaniel Vernon,
ex-Sheriff of Chester County, Christian Fouts, formerly
lieutenant-colonel in Lancaster militia, Reynold Keen and John Biddle,
latter two of Berks County. Reverend Duche had made the prayer at the
opening of the first Continental Congress and since had been chaplain to
Congress, but had prayed for the King.
Joseph Galloway’s estate was worth in excess of £40,000 sterling, and
his handsome home on the southeast corner of Sixth and High Streets in
Philadelphia, was appropriated by the State of Pennsylvania as a
residence for the President of the Supreme Executive Council, who was
the chief executive officer of the State. This house was afterwards sold
to Robert Morris.
Through the influence and negotiations of Benjamin Franklin Silas Deane
and Arthur Lee, Commissioners sent to Paris by Congress, France had now
openly espoused the American cause. The joyful news reached Congress
sitting at York, May 2, 1778.
On May 7, Lord Howe was superseded by Sir Henry Clinton. Previous to the
British commander’s departure, a magnificent fete called the
“Mischianza,” was held May 18 in his honor.
On the following day, Lafayette with 2500 men and eight cannon crossed
the Schuylkill to Barren Hill. Howe, with 5700 under Clinton and
Knyphausen, supported by Grant in his rear, with 5,300 troops, marched
to overwhelm this important post of the American army. Lafayette escaped
by Matson’s Ford. Four days later, May 24, Howe embarked for England.
The same day a council of war was held under Sir Henry Clinton, and it
was resolved to evacuate the city, which event occurred on June 19. This
movement had been delayed owing to the arrival on June 6, of three
British Commissioners to negotiate peace and a reconciliation. It was
too late.
Among other intrigues, it is stated, the Commissioners secretly offered
to General Joseph Reed, then delegate to Congress, and afterwards
President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, £10,000
sterling, with the best office in the Colonies to promote their plans.
General Reed promptly replied: “I am not worth purchasing, but such as I
am, the King of Great Britain is not rich enough to do it.”
Upon occupation of Philadelphia, 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
return of the Whigs after being so long kept out of their property.”
----------
General Edward Hand Relieved of Command
Following Squaw Campaign
May 2, 1778
For some time General Washington had believed that the permanent safety
of the western section of Pennsylvania could only be secured by carrying
on a successful war, in an aggressive manner, against the enemy in their
own country. That determination was strengthened by the Commissioners of
Congress, who met in Pittsburgh late in 1777, and learned first handed
of the barbarous warfare carried on against the western frontier by the
British under Henry Hamilton, then Governor of Detroit, with the
assistance of their Indian allies.
During October and November, 1777, while General Edward Hand, then
commandant at Fort Pitt, was trying to recruit his army for the invasion
of the Indian country, many raids were made in Westmoreland County.
Eleven men were killed and scalped near Palmer’s Fort, in Ligonier
Valley, and a few days later four children were killed within sight of
the fort. Three men were killed and a woman captured within a few miles
of Ligonier. A band of Indians, led by a Canadian, made a fierce attack
on Fort Wallace, near Blairsville, but the Canadian was killed and the
savages repulsed. These maurauders were pursued by a party of rangers
led by Captain James Smith and overtaken near Kittanning, where five
redskins were killed and scalped. The snows of winter prevented other
ravages.
During the Christmas holidays General Hand learned that the British had
built a magazine where Cleveland now stands and had stored arms,
ammunition, clothing and provisions in it for the use of the Indians in
the spring. He immediately planned an expedition for the destruction of
the magazine. His call for troops required each man to be mounted and
provided with food for a short campaign. He promised to provide the arms
and ammunition.
The general proposed, as a special inducement to enlist, that all
plunder would be sold and the cash proceeds divided among the force.
February 15, about 500 horsemen were at Pittsburgh ready for the
adventure, and this considerable force caused General Hand to be
sanguine for its success.
The expedition followed the old Indian trail which descended the Ohio
River to the Beaver and then ascended that stream and the Mahoning
toward the Cuyahoga. The snow on the ground was soon melted by heavy
rains and the marching was made difficult.
By the time the Mahoning was reached that stream was almost impassable,
even some of the level lands were covered with water for wide stretches.
The horsemen grumbled and Hand too was so discouraged that he was about
to give up the expedition and return, when the foot-prints of some
Indians were discovered on the high ground.
The tracks led to a small village, where a sudden attack was made, but
the place contained only one old man, some squaws and children. The
warriors were away on a hunt. The startled savages scattered and all
escaped except the old man and one woman, who were shot and a woman
taken prisoner.
This affair took place about where Edenburg is, in Lawrence County. The
Indian told her captors that ten Wolf, or Munsee, Indians were making
salt ten miles farther up the Mahoning. Hand dispatched a detachment
after these savages and he went into camp under uncomfortable
conditions.
The reported Munsee proved to be four squaws and a boy. The soldiers
killed three of the squaws and the boy, the other squaw was taken
prisoner. One of the soldiers was wounded here and another drowned
during the march.
The weather conditions made further campaigns impossible and General
Hand led his dispirited and hungry men back to Fort Pitt. The trophies
were two Indian women. His formidable force had slain one old man, four
women and a boy. On his arrival at Fort Pitt his work was generally
derided by the frontiersmen and his expedition was dubbed the Squaw
Campaign.
This finished General Hand as an Indian fighter. He asked General
Washington to relieve him and May 2, 1778, Congress voted his recall and
commissioned General Lachlan McIntosh to succeed him.
General Edward Hand won distinction in other directions. He was born at
Elzduffs, Kings County, Ireland, December 31, 1744.
In 1767 he was appointed by George III surgeon of the 18th Royal Irish
Regiment of foot, and sailed with the regiment from Cork on May 20 of
the same year, arriving in Philadelphia July 11.
He served with this regiment at Fort Pitt and returning to Philadelphia
in 1774, resigned his commission, receiving a regular discharge from the
British service. In the same year he went to Lancaster and began the
practice of his profession.
He joined the First Battalion of Pennsylvania Riflemen as
lieutenant-colonel at the outbreak of the Revolution and served in the
siege of Boston. He was promoted to colonel in 1776, and led his
regiment in the Battle of Long Island, and also at Trenton. In April,
1777, he was appointed brigadier-general; and in this capacity served in
command of the Western Department until relieved May 2, 1778; in October
following he succeeded General Stark in command at Albany.
In the successful expedition against the Six Nations Indians in 1779,
led by General John Sullivan, General Hand was an active participant.
Near the close of 1780, General Hand succeeded General Scammel as
adjutant-general. He was an intimate friend of General Washington and
had his full confidence during the entire struggle of the colonies. He
was one of the original members of the Order of the Cincinnati.
In 1785 General Hand was elected to the Assembly; then he was a member
of Congress and assisted in the formation of the Constitution of
Pennsylvania in 1789, when the second Constitution of the State was
written, and adopted the following year.
General Hand died at Rockford, Lancaster County, September 3, 1802.
----------
Evangelist Whitefield Bought Site for Negro
School at Nazareth May 3, 1740
The Reverend George Whitefield was an exceeding earnest worker for the
good of souls. He came to America and spent much of his time in Georgia,
where he preached effectively and established an orphan house and school
near Savannah, laying the first brick himself for the building, March
25, 1740. He named it “Bethesda”—a house of mercy. It afterward became
eminently useful.
Whitefield undertook to found a school for Negroes in Pennsylvania, and
with it a settlement for persons converted in England by his preaching
and subjected to annoyance on that account.
An agreement for a site was made with William Allen, May 3, 1740, when
5000 acres of land were purchased, situated at the Forks of the
Delaware, the consideration being £2200. The title was made to
Whitefield and then assigned to his friend William Seward, who was a man
of considerable wealth, as security for Seward’s advancing the purchase
money.
Two days afterward Whitefield preached in the morning at the German
settlement on the Skippack Creek to about 5000 persons, and in the
evening, after riding twelve miles to Henry Antes’, he preached to about
3000. The Moravian Boehler followed with an address in German.
During this same day Whitefield offered to hire as builders the
Moravians who had arrived from Savannah on the sloop with him.
Whitefield and the Moravians then visited the ground, when the latter,
by the cast of the lot, according to their custom, felt directed to
engage in the enterprise.
Seward, several days after the purchase of the site was made, sailed
from Philadelphia for England, partly to convert some securities into
cash and also to solicit further contributions. He was accidentally hit
on the head while at Caerleon, Wales, from the effect of which blow he
died a few days later, October 22, 1740.
The Moravians arrived in that part of Northampton County, which is now
within the limits of Upper and Lower Nazareth and Bethlehem Townships,
and there commenced to erect a large stone house which Whitefield
proposed to use as the school for Negroes. This tract its proprietor
named Nazareth.
Here the Moravians worked for the remainder of the year and by their
efforts had built two houses. But at this time there arose a dispute
between Whitefield and those employed on the buildings. It is believed
Whitefield disapproved of Boehler’s doctrinal opinions and, unable in an
argument conducted in Latin to convince him, discharged the workmen.
The Moravians were allowed to stay on the property for some time by
Allen’s agent, but the whole project failed, largely through Seward’s
death. Whitefield again secured the title and cheerfully assigned it to
the Moravians.
The Moravian workmen were compelled to seek a new home. This they found
when their Bishop, David Nitcshmann, secured a tract of 5000 acres at
the confluence of the Monocacy Creek and the Delaware River, on which,
in March, 1741, they began to build Bethlehem. This eventually became
the principal settlement of the Moravians in the province.
George Whitefield was born in Gloucester, England, December 16, 1714,
and entered Oxford in 1732. He was a religious enthusiast in very early
life, fasting twice a week for thirty-six hours and while an
undergraduate became a member of the “Holy Club,” in which the
denomination of Methodists took its rise.
Whitefield became intimately associated in religious matters with John
and Charles Wesley. He was made deacon by the Bishop of Gloucester on
Sunday, June 20, 1736, two weeks before his graduation, and attracted
attention even by his first sermon; he drew such crowds in London and
Bristol that people hung upon the rails of the organ loft and climbed in
the windows.
The Wesleys accompanied Oglethorpe to Georgia in 1736 and the following
year John Wesley invited Whitefield to join him in his work in America.
He came in May, 1738, and after laboring for months as a missionary in
the colony of Georgia he returned to England and was ordained priest at
Oxford, Sunday, January 14, 1739. On his way a second time to Georgia he
first visited Pennsylvania.
Whitefield and his friend, William Seward, arrived in Philadelphia in
the evening of Friday, November 2, 1739, on horseback from Lewes, where
they had disembarked.
He read prayers and assisted at Christ Church in the services of the
following Sunday, and preached there in the afternoon and every day for
the rest of the week with increasing congregations. He dined at Thomas
Penn’s, and was visited by the ministers of the Presbyterian and Baptist
Churches and by many Quakers. He preached twice to more than three
thousand persons.
He made a trip to New York, and on his return preached from the yard of
the Reverend William Tennent’s church on the Neshaminy to about three
thousand, and from the porch window of the Presbyterian Church at
Abington, and again several times at Christ Church.
When Whitefield was to preach his farewell sermon in the afternoon of
November 28, the church not being large enough for those expected he
adjourned to the fields, and preached to 10,000. Twenty gentlemen on
horseback accompanied him out of town. At Chester he spoke from a
balcony to 5000, of whom one-fifth had come from Philadelphia.
He was energetically philanthropic. His main purpose in going back to
Georgia was to carry on his work among the poor orphans.
On Boston Common he preached to 20,000 at one time, and was distinctly
heard.
Although he was active in the establishment of the Methodist
denomination, he disagreed with Wesley on points of doctrine, and was
finally an evangelist without the discipline of any denomination.
Whitefield crossed the ocean many times, and made tours from Georgia to
New Hampshire. In September, 1769, he started on his seventh tour there,
and the day before his death he preached two hours at Exeter, N. H., and
the same evening preached in the open air at Newburyport, Mass. He died
of asthma the next day, September 30, 1770, and was buried under the
pulpit of the Federal Street Church in that town.
----------
Trial of Five Mollie Maguires for Murder
of B. F. Yost Begun at Pottsville
May 4, 1876
On May 4, 1876, James Carroll, Thomas Duffy, James Roarty, Hugh McGehan,
and James Boyle, were placed on trial in Schuylkill County Court at
Pottsville, for the murder of Benjamin F. Yost, of Tamaqua.
The details of this revolting crime and the apprehension of the Mollie
Maguires are of interest as they reveal the terrible horrors experienced
in the anthracite coal fields during the reign of this lawless
organization.
James McParlan, the Pinkerton detective, who joined the Mollies under
the alias of James McKenna, and successfully brought their leaders to
the gallows, was working on the Gomer James murder outrage, when he
learned that the next victim was to be an excellent and competent
policeman of Tamaqua, of the name of Benjamin F. Yost.
McParlan had been unable to learn sufficient of their designs to get a
warning to Yost, as he had so frequently done in other cases.
Yost had experienced considerable trouble with the Mollies, especially
as he had several times arrested James Kerrigan, their local leader, for
drunkenness. Barney McCarron, the other member of the Tamaqua police
force, had also come in for his share of their ill-will, but, from his
German parentage, Yost was the more intensely hated. Yost had been
threatened several times but was a fearless man, a veteran of the Civil
War, where he displayed conspicuous valor on many battlefields, and a
policeman who served his community with fidelity.
About midnight of July 5, 1875, the two policemen in passing Carroll’s
saloon, noted that the place was still open, went inside and saw
Kerrigan and another man drinking.
The policemen proceeded with their duties, and extinguished the street
lamps on their route. They arrived at Yost’s residence about two o’clock
and partook of a lunch, preparatory to finishing up the night’s work.
The two officers parted at Yost’s front gate, and Mrs. Yost, looking out
of her bedroom window, saw her husband place a small ladder against a
lamp post a short distance from their home, and step upon the rungs, but
he never reached the light.
The woman saw two flashes from a pistol; heard the two loud reports and
saw her husband fall from the ladder. She ran down the stairs and into
the street, and met the wounded man, staggering and weak with loss of
blood, clinging to the fence, looking toward his once happy home.
Yost lived long enough to say that his murderers were two Irishmen who
had been in Carroll’s saloon that evening. He exonerated Kerrigan of the
crime, saying one was larger and the other smaller than he. He did not
see Kerrigan.
Yost died at nine o’clock that morning; he was then thirty-three years
of age.
McParlan was soon on the trail of the Mollies who committed this cruel
murder, and Captain Linden, another Pinkerton operative, was also active
on the case.
McParlan was at this time under suspicion by the Mollies of being a
detective and his work was the most dangerous any man was ever called
upon to perform, but he was a hero.
He now affected the role of a drunken man and while sleeping off his
debauch listened to a conversation which gave him a clue; he then fell
in with Carroll, engaged his wife in conversation and soon learned much
of importance.
The next day he learned the names of two of the men who had killed Yost,
Hugh McGehan and James Boyle, both of Summit Hill.
The following day he went to Coaldale and visited James Roarty, head of
the Mollie branch there, ostensibly to see another person. Here they had
a drinking bout, and Roarty told too much, and he was Mollie number
three.
Two days later McParlan was back in Tamaqua and lounging about Carroll’s
saloon where he got more information from Roarty and Carroll. He then
learned that Thomas Duffy was an actor in the crime.
Sunday, July 26, McParlan and Carroll spent some time together, when the
latter related the conversation he had had with some detectives (which
McParlan had sent there), and boasted about loaning his pistol to the
man who did the job. This made Carroll number four.
Soon afterwards Duffy bragged to McParlan of the part he had taken and
the fifth Mollie was trapped.
All that was then needed was to gather his evidence so that it could be
used against these criminals, and for this purpose Captain Linden was
most valuable.
Kerrigan took McParlan to the scene of the murder and enacted the crime
for his friend’s benefit, and soon after this incident the detective
learned that McGehan fired the two shots which killed Yost.
This is the same James Kerrigan who turned State’s evidence in the great
trial of Mollies at Mauch Chunk, January 18, 1876, which resulted in the
conviction of Kerrigan, Michael J. Doyle, and Edward Kelly for the
murder of John P. Jones. Kerrigan’s evidence was the most stunning blow
the Mollies had thus far received, but they knew not the heavier blows
which were to fall on their villainous heads.
The great trial of Thomas Munley and Charles McAllister for the murder
of Thomas Sanger and William Uren, which was held at Pottsville, June,
1876, brought the great Franklin B. Gowen into the case, and the
testimony of McParlan, the Pinkerton detective. Conviction followed.
Then May 4, when the five Mollies were placed on trial at Pottsville for
the murder of Yost. Judges C. L. Pershing, D. B. Green and T. H. Walker
presided.
A juror was taken sick and died, and the second trial was begun July 6,
each of the Mollies was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and
each was hanged in the Pottsville jail yard, the warrants being signed
by Governor Hartranft, May 21, 1877, the executions being held June 21,
the day eight Mollies expiated their crimes.
----------
French and Indian Wars—Lieutenant
Governor Thomas Resigned
May 5, 1747
Coincident with the announcement in the Assembly of the death of John
Penn, one of the Proprietors, was the resignation of Lieutenant Governor
Sir George Thomas, May 5, 1747, on account of ill-health.
On the departure of Governor Thomas, the executive functions again
devolved on the Provincial Council, of which Anthony Palmer was
president; he served until the arrival of James Hamilton, son of Andrew
Hamilton, former Speaker of the Assembly, as Lieutenant Governor,
November 23, 1749.
The harvests of the years 1750 to 1752 were so abundant that an extract
of the time is interesting: “The years 1751 and 1752 have been so
fruitful in wheat and other grain that men in wanton carelessness sought
to waste the supply: for the precious wheat which might have supported
many poor, they used to fatten hogs, which afterward they consumed in
their sumptuousness. Besides, distilleries were erected everywhere, and
thus this great blessing was turned into strong drink, which gave rise
to much disorder.
These years of plenty were followed by three years of scarcity,
1753–1755, and on the heels of it came the terrible Indian hostilities.
The progress of the white population toward the West alarmed and
irritated the Indians. The new settlers did not suffer the delays of the
land office, nor did they pay for their lands, but in search for richer
soils sought homes in regions where the Indian title had not been
extinguished. Some of these settlements were commenced prior to 1740,
and rapidly increased, despite the complaints of the Indians, the laws
of the Province or the several proclamations of the Governor.
An alarming crisis was now at hand. The French in the neighborhood of
the Great Lakes were sedulously applying themselves to seduce the
Indians from their allegiance to the English. The Shawnee had already
joined the French cause; the Delaware only waited for an opportunity to
avenge their wrongs; and of the Six Nations, the Onondaga, Cayuga and
Seneca were wavering and listening to overtures from the agents of both
the English and French.
To keep the Indians in favor of the province required much cunning
diplomacy and many expensive presents. In the midst of this alarming
condition the old flame of civil dissension burst out with increased
fury. The presents so frequently procured for the Indians, the erection
of a chain of forts along the frontier and the maintenance of a military
force drew too heavily upon the provincial purse, which never was
burdened with any great surplus.
The Assembly urged that the Proprietary estates be taxed, as well as
those of humble individuals. The Proprietaries, as would be expected,
refused to be taxed and pleaded prerogative, charter and law; the
Assembly in turn pleaded equity, common danger, common benefit and at
common expense.
The Proprietaries offered bounties in lands not yet acquired from the
Indians by treaty or purchase, and in addition proposed the issuing of
more paper money. The Assembly was not satisfied; they wanted something
more tangible. They passed laws laying taxes and granting supplies, but
the Proprietaries opposed the conditions. They were willing to aid the
Assembly in taxing the people, but not the Proprietaries. Here were sown
the germs of the Revolution, though not fully matured until twenty years
later.
During those frivolous disputes in the Assembly the frontiers were left
fully exposed. The pacific principles, too, of the Quakers, Dunkards,
Mennonites and Schwenckfelders came in to complicate the strife, but as
the danger increased they prudently kept aloof from public office,
leaving the management of the war to sects less scrupulous. The pulpit
and the press were deeply involved, and the inhabitants divided into
opposing factions upon this question.
The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was scarcely regarded more seriously than
a truce by the French in America. In their eagerness to extend their
territories and connect their northern possessions with Louisiana, they
projected a line of forts and military posts from one to the other along
the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. They explored and occupied the land
upon the latter stream, buried in many places leaden plates, by which
they claimed possession of those lands.
The French established themselves at Presqu’ Isle and extended
themselves southward; they erected a fort at Au Boeuf and another at the
mouth of French Creek, which they called Fort Machault.
Virginia was much interested in this foothold gained by the French along
the Ohio, for they claimed the territory of Pennsylvania west of the
Allegheny Mountains as part of their dominion.
The English Government having learned that the French claimed right to
the Ohio River country by virtue of the discovery of La Salle, made
sixty years previous, remonstrated with the Court of Versailles, but
without avail, and resolved to oppose force with force.
The first move made by the English was to present a solid front by
combining the efforts of all the colonies. To this end a conference was
called at Albany in July, 1754, to which the Six Nations were invited.
Governor Hamilton could not attend this conference, and John Penn and
Richard Peters, of the Council, and Isaac Norris and Benjamin Franklin,
of the Assembly, were commissioned to represent the Province of
Pennsylvania. They carried with them £500 as the provincial present to
the Indians.
The results of this confederated council were not satisfactory, but the
Pennsylvania Commissioners obtained a great part of the land in the
province, to which the Indian title was not extinct, comprising the
lands lying southwest of a line beginning one mile above the mouth of
Penns Creek, in what is now Snyder County, and running northwest by west
“to the western boundary of the State.”
The Shawnee, Delaware and Munsee Indians, on the Susquehanna, Juniata,
Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, thus found their lands “sold from under their
feet,” which the Six Nations had guaranteed to them on their removal
from the Eastern waters. This proved of great dissatisfaction to these
Indians and had not a little part in causing their alienation from the
English interest.
----------
Work Begun on Building Braddock Road
Over Alleghenies May 6, 1755
Preparatory to the ill-fated expedition of General Braddock, which
precipitated the forays of the French and Indians upon the unprotected
frontiers of Pennsylvania, was the letter to Governor Morris, of
Pennsylvania, asking to have a road cut so that there might be
communication between Philadelphia and the Three Forks of the
Youghiogheny, both for the security of retreat and to facilitate the
transport of provisions. These English officers were unacquainted with
American geography, and at best the maps used by them were by no means
accurate.
Governor Morris in response advised Sir John St. Clair, deputy
quartermaster general, that there was a very good wagon road from
Philadelphia to the mouth of the Conococheague, but only a horse path
through the mountains by which the Indian traders carried their goods,
and that there would be great difficulty in making a wagon road that
way. He also gently intimated that the distance was much greater than
the English officers realized.
Governor Morris, with the sanction of the Assembly, sent George Croghan,
John Armstrong, James Burd, William Buchanan and Adam Hoopes as
commissioners to explore the country west of the “Great Virginia Road,”
as the road through the Cumberland Valley was called, and to survey and
lay out such roads as were most direct and commodious. No better men
could have been chosen. They were acquainted with the country, and
Armstrong was the best surveyor on the frontier.
These commissioners projected a road from McDowell’s Mill, in present
Franklin County, to within eighteen miles of the Three Forks, where they
found too many French and Indians scouting and hunting to venture
farther. The length of projected road so far as it was surveyed was
sixty-nine miles.
The commissioners could not effect a meeting with Sir John until April
16. When they showed him the drafts he raved like a wild man, and the
commissioners, believing they had done their part well, were abashed by
their unusual reception.
Sir John told them it was too late to build this road now, and instead
of marching to the Ohio they would march into Cumberland County. Not a
soldier should handle an ax, but by fire and sword General Braddock
would compel the inhabitants to build it. He would kill all the cattle
and drive away the horses, burn the houses, and if the French defeated
the army by the delays of the Province, he would, with his sword drawn,
pass through it and treat the inhabitants as a parcel of traitors to his
master. He even avowed his purpose to “shake Mr. Penn’s Proprietaryship”
by representing Pennsylvania as a disaffected province.
Braddock was constantly complaining of the failure of Pennsylvania and
Virginia. He spoke slightingly of the provincial contingent and scoffed
at danger from the Indians. “These savages,” he said to Franklin, “may
indeed be a formidable enemy to raw American militia, but upon the
King’s regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should
make an impression.”
Governor Morris early in May sent Secretary Peters to expedite the work
of the road-makers by his presence. Neither General Braddock nor Sir
John had any distinct idea of the obstacles to road-building over the
Pennsylvania mountains or of the difficulties which confronted Governor
Morris in a work of such magnitude, who lacked both money and men for
the undertaking.
This road, which afterward received the name of Braddock’s Road, passed
beyond McDowell’s Mill, around Parnell’s and Jordan’s Knobs into Path
Valley, into Cowan’s Gap, past Burnt Cabins and Sugar Cabins to Sideling
Hill. From the latter point the road extended to the crossing of the
Juniata, thence to Raystown (now Bedford), and it then went over the
Alleghenies to the Great Crossing, three miles from Turkey’s Foot.
The entire expense of making the road was to be paid by the Province.
Advertisements were broadcasted in Cumberland, York and Lancaster
Counties for laborers. James Wright and John Smith contracted to supply
the workmen with provisions.
Ground was broken May 6, 1755, when only ten men reported for work under
command of James Burd. By the 15th there were seventy men at work and by
the end of the month 120.
Mr. Burd was in sole charge of the work at the outset, the other
commissioners being too busy—Croghan with the Indian contingent ordered
by Braddock, Armstrong with complications growing out of the purchase of
1754 and Buchanan and Hoopes with their private affairs.
The road was built thirty feet wide for about ten miles, when it was
determined to make it twenty feet, and parts requiring digging or
quarrying only ten feet.
Twenty days were required to make the road from Anthony Thompson’s to
Sideling Hill, a distance of nineteen miles. William Smith was
commissioned to assist Mr. Burd and reported May 28.
Much of the money required for the work was supplied by Joseph Armstrong
and Samuel Smith, members of the Assembly from Cumberland County, from
their private purse, for the Legislature held its pursestrings with a
tight grip. The workmen at times suffered for the want of bread and
liquor.
By June 16, Mr. Burd wrote from “Alloqueepy’s Town,” thirty-four and a
half miles from Thompson’s, that he expected to finish the work there
the next day, and join the advance division, under Smith, at Raystown.
The Indians menaced the work at this time and Braddock, who at first
refused aid, sent 100 men, under Captain Hogg, as a guard. The soldiers
came none too soon.
As Braddock penetrated the Alleghenies, Indian ravages began in his
rear. True to their character, the savages spared neither sex nor age.
The soldiers deserted and the workmen were unprotected and in constant
danger.
By July 5 the road was completed to the eastern base of the Alleghenies.
On the day that Braddock’s body was buried at Great Meadows, John
Armstrong wrote to him from Carlisle to say that the new road would soon
be completed. It was too late. Braddock had no further need for a road,
except a spot for a burial place in that great highway over which he had
marched to defeat with so much military pomp.
----------
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 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.
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 died at his home in
Milton, April 30, 1837.
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, 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 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 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 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 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, 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, 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 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 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, 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.
Footnote 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.
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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 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
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.
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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 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 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 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—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 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 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]
Footnote 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 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]
Footnote 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 & 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 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 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]
Footnote 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
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 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 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
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, 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 and some of his adherents set up an opposition paper called
the “Tree of 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 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, 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 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 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 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.”
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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 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 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.
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]
Footnote 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) 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 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.”
Footnote 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 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 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.
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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 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.
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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 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.
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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.
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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.
Footnote 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.”
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 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.” 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 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 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. 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.
Footnote 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, 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 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 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 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,
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 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 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 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
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 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. On November 24, 1789, the convention met
to revise the Constitution.
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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 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.
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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
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.
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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.
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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 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 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.
----------
Federal Party Is Broken Up in Closing Days
of November, 1823
It was during the administration of Governor John Andrew Shulze, of
Lebanon County, that in 1823, President Monroe made his celebrated
declaration in favor of the cause of liberty in the Western Hemisphere
and the noninterference of European Powers in the political affairs of
this continent.
The determined stand taken by President Monroe was warmly indorsed by
the people of Pennsylvania, and the Legislature of the State at the
subsequent session adopted resolutions to the effect that it afforded
them “the highest gratification to observe the President of the United
States, expressing the sentiments of millions of freemen, proclaiming to
the world that any attempt on the part of the allied sovereigns of
Europe to extend their political systems to any portion of the continent
of America, or in any other manner to interfere in their internal
concerns, would be considered as dangerous to the peace and safety of
the United States.”
Governor Shulze, in transmitting the resolutions to the President,
expressed his hearty indorsement of the doctrines therein set forth.
Soon after the election of Shulze, in the closing days of November,
1823, the old parties were broken up, none after that calling themselves
Federalists. Indeed, the term Federalist became odious; but from the
ashes there sprang a party that became more powerful than any which
before or since has borne sway in this country, the great Democratic
Party.
Every Federal newspaper in Pennsylvania except three—the United States
Gazette, of Philadelphia; The Village Record, of West Chester, and the
Pittsburgh Gazette—joined in its support.
In the national election of 1824, parties being in a disorganized state,
there was no choice for President by the people. Crawford, Adams, Clay,
Calhoun and Jackson were supported. John Quincy Adams was elected to the
House of Representatives. But in 1828 Jackson was chosen, receiving a
majority of 50,000 in Pennsylvania. His brilliant victory at New
Orleans, gained with scarcely a casualty on our side, created immense
enthusiasm among the people in his favor.
In 1824 and 1825 the Nation’s early friend and benefactor, General
Lafayette, revisited the scenes of his former trials and final triumphs.
Governor Shulze had the satisfaction of welcoming the hero to the soil
of Pennsylvania, which he did at Morrisville in a brief but eloquent and
impressive speech.
This was Lafayette’s second visit to Pennsylvania and was an event which
produced marked and spontaneous enthusiasm among the entire population.
Next to the great Washington he was hailed as the deliverer of this
country, and nowhere was he made more welcome than in Philadelphia,
Harrisburg and other parts of Pennsylvania.
This was the era when stupendous plans for the internal improvement of
the Commonwealth were adopted and put into execution. The Schuylkill
navigation canal, which had been projected almost thirty years
previously, although not commenced until 1815, was completed in 1825.
The occasion was one of great rejoicing and the success of the
enterprise gave an impetus to other improvements.
Shortly afterward the Union Canal was also finished, and the great
Pennsylvania Canal was prosecuted with vigor. Governor Schulze hesitated
somewhat at this stupendous plan of internal improvements by the State
and opposed the loan of $1,000,000 authorized by the Legislature. He was
obliged to yield, however, to the popular will, and before the close of
his second term $6,000,000 had been borrowed.
At the session of the General Assembly in 1826 a Board of Commissioners
for internal improvements was established. The Legislature authorized
the Commissioners to contract for a canal from Middletown extending up
the Susquehanna River as far as the mouth of the Juniata, and from
Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Kiskiminitas, a navigable feeder of a
canal from French Creek to the summit level of Conneaut Lake, and to
survey a canal from there to Erie. These enterprises were started with
the modest appropriation of $300,000, which was to be borrowed.
The board made two contracts, one for twenty-two and one-half miles
along the Susquehanna and twenty-four miles along the Allegheny. At the
following session the canals authorized were to be extended farther up
the Susquehanna, the Juniata, and up the valley of the Kiskiminetas and
the Conemaugh, another between Bristol and Easton and others of lesser
importance.
In 1826 Governor Shulze was renominated and received within 1000 of all
the votes cast for Governor. This was the nearest to a unanimous
election ever known in Pennsylvania, and was an evidence of the
confidence the people had in him, his fine character and intelligence.
Previous to 1827 the only railroads in America were a short wooden
railroad constructed at Leiper’s stone quarry, in Delaware County, Pa.,
and a road three miles in length opened at the Quincy granite quarries
in Massachusetts in 1826.
In May, 1827, a railroad nine miles in length was constructed from Mauch
Chunk to the coal mines. This was, at the time, the longest and most
important railroad in America.
In 1828 the State determined to engage in railroad building. The canal
extending through the center of the State was to be connected by a
railroad crossing the Allegheny Mountains, and with Philadelphia by a
railroad extending to Columbia. Thus by railroad and canal a system of
highway improved communication would extend from the Delaware to the
Ohio.
The expenditures were now so rapid and enormous that the State began to
suffer. Governor Shulze convened the Assembly in November, 1828, a month
before retiring from office, and explained the tense situation. Funds
had given out, the work was stopped and something must be done. But as
he was soon to retire, he smoothed over the situation, leaving his
successor to wrestle with the problem.
On December 15, 1829, George Wolf, of Northampton County, was
inaugurated as Governor of Pennsylvania. He had defeated Joseph Ritner,
who attempted to seek this high office on the rising wave of the
anti-Masonic era, which at this time changed the political horizon of
the State and Nation.
Governor Wolf stepped into office at the time the financial affairs were
in a deplorable condition. His only remedy was to push the public works
to rapid completion. This was done, and in a few years he, with others,
had the proud satisfaction of beholding how far these needed
improvements went toward developing the natural resources of
Pennsylvania.
----------
Major George Washington Meets French
Commander Joncaire at Logstown,
November 30, 1753
The contention between Great Britain and France for the possession of
what is now Western Pennsylvania began about the middle of the
eighteenth century. The Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, signed October 18,
1748, while it nominally closed the war between those two countries,
failed to establish the boundaries between their respective colonies in
America, and this failure, together with the hostile and conflicting
attitude of the colonists in America, was the cause of another long and
bloody war.
An association was formed in Virginia about 1748, called the Ohio
Company, which was given a royal grant. The object of the company,
according to its charter, was to trade with the Indians, but its actual
purpose was to settle the region about the forks of the Ohio, now
Pittsburgh, with English colonists from Virginia and Maryland.
All the vast territory from the Mississippi to the Alleghany Mountains,
south of the Great Lakes, had been explored and partly occupied by the
French. They had forts, trading posts and missions at various points and
they made every endeavor to conciliate the Indians. It was apparent they
intended to extend their occupancy to the extreme tributaries of the
Ohio, which they claimed by virtue of prior discovery.
So it was but natural when the English sought to gain a permanent
occupancy of the Ohio Valley that the French should begin actively to
assert their claims to the same region.
The Governor-General of Canada, the Marquis de la Galissoniere, sent
Captain Bienville de Celeron in 1749 down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers
to take possession in the name of the King of France. His command
consisted of two hundred and fifteen French and Canadian soldiers and
fifty-five Indians. The principal officers under him were Captain
Contrecœur, who afterwards built Fort Duquesne, Coulon de Villiers, and
Joncaire-Chabet.
They planted leaden plates, properly inscribed, at different points,
beginning at the present town of Warren, and then along the Allegheny
River, then along the Ohio, and up the Miami, and they reached Lake
Erie, October 19, 1749.
The French affairs were actively pushed by Joncaire-Chabet, who occupied
the house at the mouth of French Creek, or Venango, which had been built
by John Frazer, a Pennsylvania trader, whom Celeron drove off when he
found him there.
Early in January, 1753, a French expedition consisting of 300 men under
command of Monsieur Babier set out from Quebec. Traveling over land and
ice, they reached Fort Niagara in April, then pushed on to the
southeastern shore of Lake Erie, at the mouth of Chautauqua Creek. In
May Monsieur Morin arrived with an additional force of 500 men, and he
assumed command.
It was intended to build a fort here, but the water was found to be too
shallow and the expedition moved to a place which, from the peculiar
formation of the lake shore, they named Presqu’ Isle, or the Peninsula.
This is now the City of Erie.
Here the first fort was built and named Fort la Presqu’ Isle. It was
constructed of square logs, was about 120 feet square and fifteen feet
high. It was finished in June, 1753 and garrisoned by about 100 men
under command of Captain Depontency.
The remainder of the forces cut a road southward about fifteen miles to
Le Boeuf River, or French Creek. Here they built a second fort, which
they called Fort Le Boeuf, similar to the first, but smaller. This is
the site of the present Borough of Waterford, Erie County, Pa.
In 1752 a treaty had been entered into with the Indians which secured
the right of occupancy, and twelve families, headed by Captain
Christopher Gist, established themselves on the Monongahela, and
subsequently commenced the erection of a fort where the City of
Pittsburgh now stands.
The activity of the French alarmed these settlers, and soon all their
proceedings were reported to Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia. He
determined to send an official communication to the commander of the
French, who had established his headquarters at Fort Le Boeuf,
protesting against the forcible interference with their chartered
rights, granted by the Crown of Britain, pointing to the late treaties
of peace entered into between the English and French, whereby it was
agreed that each should respect the colonial possessions of the other.
George Washington, then only twenty-three years old, was selected for
this mission by Governor Dinwiddie. He performed his duty with the
greatest tact and to the satisfaction of his Government.
With a party of seven besides himself, among whom was Christopher Gist,
he set out November 15, 1753, from Wills Creek, the site of Fort
Cumberland, in Maryland, which was the limit of the road that had been
opened by the Ohio Company.
The first place of importance was Logstown, where they arrived on
November 30. This important Indian village was on the right bank of the
Ohio River, about fourteen miles below the present Pittsburgh. It was at
Logstown where the Treaty of 1752 was made. Here Washington enlisted the
services of the chief Indians and proceeded on his mission.
Washington writes in his journal that they set out from Logstown for
Venango about 9 o’clock in the morning, with Tanacharison, the
Half-King, Jeskakake, White Thunder and the Hunter, and arrived at
Venango on December 4.
Soon as Captain Joncaire had finished his greetings wine was passed and
after much drinking all restraint was banished, which gave license to
their tongues and their true sentiments were revealed.
The French officers told young Washington that it was their absolute
design to take possession of the Ohio, to which they had undoubted right
from a discovery made by LaSalle sixty years since. They also told him
they had raised an expedition to prevent the English from settling on
the river.
Joncaire endeavored by every means to win the Half-King from the
English, but the chief remained true to his mission, and accompanied
Washington to Le Boeuf, to which place he was referred, as the
commanding officer of the French had his headquarters there.
The party arrived at Fort Le Boeuf on December 11. Washington was
received with courtesy by the commandant, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre.
In regard to the message of Governor Dinwiddie, Saint-Pierre replied
that he would forward it to the Governor-General of Canada, but that in
the meantime, his orders were to hold possession of the country, and
this he would do to the best of his ability.
With this answer Washington retraced his steps, enduring many hardships
and passing through many perils, until he presented his report to the
Governor at Williamsburg, Va., January 16, 1754.
----------
William Penn and Family Arrive in Province
on His Second Visit, December 1, 1699
Captain John Blackwell, an officer and one of the heroes under Cromwell,
was commissioned Deputy Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania July
25, 1688, while he was in New England, but did not present himself
before the Council until the following March. He and the Council never
acted in harmony, and nothing of importance was accomplished during his
short and stormy term, which ended the following December.
Thomas Lloyd again became the Chief Executive. During 1691 the six
Councilors from the Lower Counties, without Lloyd’s knowledge, formed
themselves into a separate Council, appointed Judges for those counties
and made ordinances.
The President and Council of the Province immediately published a
proclamation declaring all the acts of the six seceding members illegal.
The latter made counter-proposals, but they were rejected.
Penn tried to restore better understanding between the two sections of
his Province and gave them the choice of three modes of executive
government, viz., by Joint Council, by five Commissioners or by a
Lieutenant Governor.
The members from Pennsylvania preferred the last, but those of the Lower
Counties declared for the Commissioners, but they could not agree upon
any plan, so the counties of Pennsylvania elected Thomas Lloyd for their
Governor and three lower counties rejected him.
Penn confirmed the appointment of Lloyd and sent William Markham, who
had joined with the protesting members, as the head of the government in
the Lower Counties. This was done against Penn’s judgment and had the
consequences he predicted.
These dissensions served to furnish the Crown with a pretext to deprive
Penn of his Province. William and Mary seized this opportunity to punish
him for this attachment to the late King, and they commissioned Benjamin
Fletcher, Governor General of New York, also to be the Governor of
Pennsylvania and the territories. The Council of the Province was
officially advised of his appointment April 19, 1693.
Governor Fletcher was empowered to summon the General Assembly, require
its members to subscribe to the oaths and tests prescribed by acts of
parliament, and to make laws in conjunction with the Assembly, he having
a vote upon their acts, etc. No mention was made of William Penn, nor of
the Provincial constitution, yet, on the arrival of Colonel Fletcher at
Philadelphia, the Government was surrendered to him without objection,
but most of the Quaker magistrates refused to accept from him the
renewal of their commissions.
William Penn condemned this ready abandonment of his rights, and
addressed a letter to Colonel Fletcher, warning him of the illegality of
his appointment, which might have restrained the latter from exercising
his authority had it been timely received, as he was attached to Penn by
many personal favors.
Trouble arose when Fletcher attempted a new form of election contrary to
the laws of the Province, and the rejection of eight of the old laws,
chiefly penal. The Assembly insisted that their rights should first be
redressed.
Fletcher claimed the right to alter laws without even the assent of
Assembly, and to strengthen his position threatened to annex the
Province to New York. The moderate party, rather than submit to this,
preferred receiving the confirmation of their rights and liberties as a
favor at the hands of the Governor.
Prior to his departure for New York, in 1694, Fletcher appointed William
Markham, the Proprietary’s cousin, to be Lieutenant Governor. Governor
Fletcher attended the second session of the Assembly and insisted upon
further appropriations for public defense. The Assembly refused to
comply with Fletcher’s demand and was dissolved.
The Proprietary was not wholly in accord with the resolute refusal of
the Assembly, nor was he unmindful of the effects which such opposition
to the wishes of the Crown might have upon his particular interests.
William Penn was now no longer under the cloud of suspicion. He had many
friends among the nobles who surrounded the King, and his true character
was at last made known.
He succeeded in obtaining a hearing before a Privy Council and was
honorably acquitted and restored to his Proprietary rights by a patent
dated August, 1694, in which the disorders in the Province were ascribed
solely to his absence. Shortly before his reinstatement, William Penn’s
wife, Gulielma Maria, died.
Penn appointed Markham his Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania and
Territories September 24, 1694. The restoration of the former government
was not happy, for Governor Fletcher had made himself unpopular, and it
was not an easy matter for Markham to immediately gain their confidence,
even though he had called the Assembly according to the forms prescribed
by the charter.
The great bone of contention was the subsidy to be granted to the King.
Finally a joint committee of the two branches of the Legislature was
acceded to, when it was agreed to accept the new Constitution, and a new
subsidy of £300 was granted for the support of the Royal Government and
of the suffering Indians. This was raised by a tax of one penny on the
pound on all assessed property.
The new Constitution was more democratic. The Council consisted of two
from each county, elected biennially. The Assembly had four members from
each county, elected annually. The latter was given the right to
originate bills, to sit on its adjournments and to be indissoluble
during the term for which it was elected.
This instrument was never formally sanctioned by the Proprietary and
continued in force only until after his second arrival, when a new and
more lasting one was substituted in its place. Under it the people were
content.
William Penn, accompanied by his second wife and children, sailed from
England in the ship Canterbury in September, 1699, and on account of
adverse winds had a tedious voyage of more than three months, arriving
in the Delaware, December 1, 1699. Penn was cordially welcomed, it being
generally understood that he intended to spend the remainder of his life
in the Province.
The Proprietary believed the time was ripe for an entirely new form of
government and labored earnestly to obtain additional legislative
restrictions upon intercourse with the Indians in order to protect them
from the artifices of the whites. Penn conferred frequently with the
several nations of the Province, visiting them familiarly in their
forests, participating in their festivals and entertaining them with
much hospitality and state at his mansion at Pennsbury.
He formed a new treaty with the tribes located on the Susquehanna and
its tributaries and also with the Five Nations. This treaty was one of
peace. In 1701, William Penn took a second trip into the interior of the
Province.
----------
Morgan Powell Cruelly Murdered by Mollie
Maguires, December 2, 1871
The bloody record of the Mollie Maguires began about the time the Civil
War was brought to a close and continued until James McParlan, the able
detective in the employ of the Pinkerton agency, ferreted out these
criminals and brought the guilty to trials which resulted in their
execution or long terms of imprisonment.
The anthracite coal regions were not free of this scourge until 1877.
The Mollies were unusually active and bloodthirsty in 1865. August 25 of
that year, David Muir, colliery superintendent, was killed in Foster
Township, shot to death on the public highway, in broad daylight, within
two hundred yards of the office in which he was employed.
January 10, 1866, Henry H. Dunne, of Pottsville, superintendent of a
colliery, was murdered on the turnpike, while riding to his home in his
carriage.
October 17, 1868, occurred the tragic death of Alexander Rae, near
Centralia, Columbia County.
The next important outrage of this character was the murder of William
H. Littlehales, superintendent of the Glen Carbon Coal Mining Company,
March 15, 1869. He was killed on the highway in Cass Township,
Schuylkill County, while enroute to his home in Pottsville.
Then occurred the murders of F. W. S. Langdon, George K. Smith and
Graham Powell, each of whom was a mining official.
But the crowning act of the Mollie Maguires, up to the time James
McParlan was engaged by Mr. Allen Pinkerton to investigate the workings
of this nefarious organization, and the one reaching the culmination of
many previous and similar events, was the murder of Morgan Powell.
This event exasperated the good people of the anthracite region to the
pitch where endurance ceases to be a virtue, and where only desperate
methods to put a stop to these crimes can be put in operation.
This unprovoked murder occurred December 2, 1871. Morgan Powell was
assistant superintendent of the Lehigh and Wilkes Barre Coal and Iron
Company, at Summit Hill, Carbon County.
The murder was committed about seven o’clock in the evening, on the main
street of the little town, not more than twenty feet from the store of
Henry Williamson, which place Powell had but a few minutes earlier left
to go to the office of Mr. Zehner, the general superintendent of the
company.
It seems that one of three men, who had been seen by different parties
waiting near the store, approached Mr. Powell from the rear, close
beside a gate leading into the stables, and fired a pistol shot into the
left breast of the victim. The assassin reached over the shoulder of
Powell to accomplish his deadly purpose.
The bullet passed through Powell’s body, lodged in the back near the
spinal column, producing immediate paralysis of the lower limbs, and
resulting in death two days afterward.
The wounded man was carried back to the store by some of his friends and
his son, Charles Powell, the latter then but fourteen years of age, and
there remained all night. The next day he was removed to the residence
of Morgan Price, where he died the following day.
Hardly had the smoke from the murderer’s pistol mingled with the clear
air of that star-lit winter evening, when the assassins were discovered
rapidly making their way from the scene of their savage deed toward the
top of Plant No. 1.
They were met by the Reverend Allan John Morton and Lewis Richards, who
were hurrying to the spot to learn what had caused the firing.
Mr. Morton asked, as they halted on the rigging-stand, what was the
trouble, when one of the three strangers answered: “I guess a man has
been shot!”
Descriptions of the three men were remembered by the Reverend Morgan and
Mr. Richards, and the trio started forward in the direction in which Mr.
Powell had pointed when asked which way the attacking party had gone.
“I'm shot to death! My lower limbs have no feeling in them!” exclaimed
Mr. Powell, when Williamson first raised his head.
No one could tell who shot him. The three suspects were strangers.
Patrick Kildea, who was thought to resemble one of them, was arrested
and tried, but finally acquitted, from lack of evidence to convict.
This, for the time, was the end of the matter.
When McParlan, disguised as James McKenna, was working on the case of
the murder of B. F. Yost, of Tamaqua, in 1875, he learned first-handed
from John Donahue, alias “Yellow Jack,” that he was the murderer of
Morgan Powell.
Donahue related the circumstances to his “friend” and named his two
confederates. He bragged of the affair as being a clean job.
He said the escape was easy, as they did not go ten yards from the spot
where Powell dropped, until the excitement cooled down, when, in the
darkness, they quietly departed from the bushes, and reached their homes
in safety.
The detective made mental notes of this disclosure, and his report
subsequently transmitted to his superiors was the first light upon this
crime, which had, for four years baffled the best efforts of the
officers of justice.
The time was not ripe to press Donahue for more details, but as the
detective was supposed to have recently assisted in a murder, Donahue
talked freely with him about others who were soon to be victims of the
Mollies.
In the fall of 1876, when the arrests of the Mollies were made, John
Donahue, Thomas P. Fisher, Patrick McKenna, Alexander Campbell, Patrick
O'Donnell, and John Malloy were taken in Carbon County, charged with the
murder of Morgan Powell, at Summit Hill, December 2, 1871.
The defendants were tried at different terms of the Carbon County Court,
at Mauch Chunk. James McParlan, the detective, now in his true
character, frequently appeared as a witness and testified to the
confessions of the Mollies.
They were found guilty as follows: Donahue of murder in the first
degree, Fisher of murder in the first degree, McKenna of murder in the
first degree, and O'Donnell as an accessory. McKenna served nine years
and O'Donnell five years’ imprisonment.
Thus was the death of Morgan Powell avenged.
----------
General Anthony Wayne Defeats Indians;
Congress Ratifies Treaty, December
3, 1795
Congress ratified the treaty made at Greenville by General Anthony
Wayne, December 3, 1795. This is one of the few such treaties the
provisions of which were respected.
Anthony Wayne was a member of the convention which met in Philadelphia
and adopted a paper, drawn by John Dickinson, which recommended the
Assembly to appoint delegates to a Congress of the Colonies. He was one
of four members of that committee who became distinguished generals in
the Revolution. His father had been an officer in the French and Indian
War and Anthony studied surveying, but his attention was more centered
on things military.
At the age of twenty he managed an expedition sent to Nova Scotia in the
interest of Great Britain. On the very day that the battle of Lexington
was fought he was made a member of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety.
He was made a colonel of one of the first regiments raised by
Pennsylvania and soon was engaged in the perilous Canadian campaign.
Wayne then was given command of Fort Ticonderoga, which Ethan Allen had
captured “in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental
Congress.” During this tour of duty he was made a brigadier general and
begged General Washington for more active service.
He was called to general headquarters at Morristown and given command of
eight Pennsylvania regiments. These he taught to fight.
General Wayne fought bravely at Brandywine, and after Howe captured
Philadelphia Washington posted him to watch the British and annoy them
while the main army was being put in better condition to meet the enemy.
Through the betrayal of his position by a Tory, Wayne’s command was
surprised at Paoli, when more than sixty of his soldiers were stabbed to
death by the British bayonets. It was due to no fault of General Wayne
and he managed to march away most of his men in good order.
Two weeks later the Battle of Germantown was fought and Wayne’s troops
had a chance to make a bayonet attack upon the same soldiers who had
rushed into their camp at Paoli. “They took ample vengeance for that
night’s work,” said Wayne. He was delighted to see his Pennsylvanians
beat the British at their own style of fighting.
Wayne’s troops suffered through the long winter following at Valley
Forge, and none worked harder to relieve their distress than did the
popular general.
Washington dispatched Wayne on a foraging expedition through New Jersey
for much-needed supplies, and in spite of several skirmishes with
British troops on the same mission Wayne brought back the supplies.
When Howe evacuated Philadelphia and Washington followed him across New
Jersey, it was Wayne who encouraged Washington to fight the enemy. The
Battle of Monmouth resulted, and it was Wayne’s line which held back the
British until Washington could move up the rest of his army.
In Washington’s report to Congress about this battle he mentioned only
one general by name, General Anthony Wayne.
Wayne’s most daring exploit was the capture of Stony Point, on the
Hudson. This was accomplished by 1300 men in a bayonet attack at night.
Wayne was wounded and afterward was spoken of by envious officers as
“Mad Anthony.”
He performed conspicuous service at Yorktown, and was afterward sent to
Georgia, where he fought Indians as well as British. The State of
Georgia gave Wayne a rice plantation in token of gratitude.
After Washington resigned the active command of the army, General Josiah
Harmar, one of a family living along the Perkiomen, succeeded him.
Harmar led an expedition against the Miami Indians in the Northwest in
1790, but was defeated.
General Arthur St. Clair, who had been a major general of the
Pennsylvania Line and President of the Continental Congress, succeeded
Harmar. St. Clair at the time was also Governor of the Northwestern
Territory. He, too, suffered a humiliating defeat in a serious
engagement November 4, 1791, by the Miami, led by their chiefs and aided
by Simon Girty, the notorious Tory and renegade, another Pennsylvanian.
After his reverse Washington appointed Anthony Wayne a major general and
put him in command of the Army of the United States. The Indians were
aided by the British.
Within seven years they had killed 1500 people, and their object was to
prevent the settlements beyond the Ohio River.
General Wayne organized an army of 2631 men at Pittsburgh. A large
proportion of the soldiers were Pennsylvanians.
The war lasted more than two years. Wayne moved his army down the Ohio,
thence to the site of Cincinnati, to the Miami River, 400 miles into the
wilderness.
On August 20, 1794, at the Fallen Timbers he encountered a force of 2000
Indians and won the most important victory ever secured over the Indian
foes. Almost all the dead warriors were found with British arms.
Wayne laid waste their country and by the middle of September moved up
to the junction of the St. Mary’s and St. Joseph’s Rivers, near the
present City of Fort Wayne, Ind., and built a strong fortification,
which he named Fort Wayne. The little army wintered at Greenville, O.
The barbarians realized their weakness and sued for peace.
Wayne returned to Philadelphia to report his operations. As he
approached the city the cavalry troops met him as a guard of honor. When
he crossed the ferry over the Schuylkill a salute of fifteen guns was
fired, and the bells of the city pealed their acclaim. The people
crowded the sidewalks to catch a glimpse of the victorious general.
Congress voted him its thanks.
The following summer 1130 sachems and warriors, representing twelve
tribes or nations, met at Greenville on August 3 and concluded a treaty
the basis of which was that hostilities should permanently cease and all
prisoners be restored. The boundary line between the United States and
the lands of the several tribes was fixed. It made possible the
settlement of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and the West.
When this treaty was successfully concluded Wayne embarked in a schooner
at Detroit for his home in Chester County. He was taken ill with his old
complaint, the gout, and landed at Presqu’ Isle in great physical
distress. Before an army surgeon could reach him he died in the
Block-House there, December 15, 1796.
Bury me at the foot of the flagstaff, boys,” he ordered, and his command
was obeyed. Thirteen years later his son, Colonel Isaac Wayne, removed
his remains to Radnor churchyard, in Delaware County, over which the
Pennsylvania State Society of Cincinnati erected an elegant white marble
monument.
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Anti-Masonic Period Terminates in Trouble on December 4, 1838
In the campaign of 1838 Governor Joseph Ritner was renominated by the
Fusionist Whig-Anti-Masonic-Abolitionist Party for the office of
Governor, and David R. Porter, of Huntingdon, was the nominee of the
Democratic organization for the same office.
The campaign was one of vituperation and personal abuse of the
candidates unparalleled in the history of politics.
When the news of the election became known it showed that Porter had
been elected by a majority of 5540 votes.
Immediately thereafter Secretary of the Commonwealth Thomas H. Burrowes,
who was also chairman of the Anti-Masonic State Committee, issued a
circular to the “Friends of Governor Ritner,” calling upon them to
“treat the election held on October 9 as if it had never taken place.”
This circular had the desired effect and the defeated Anti-Masonic and
weak candidates for the Legislature contested the seats of their
successful Democratic competitors on the slightest pretext.
Thaddeus Stevens said at a public meeting in the Courthouse at
Gettysburg that “the Anti-Masons would organize the House, and if
Governor Porter were declared elected the Legislature would elect Canal
Commissioners for three years and then adjourn before date fixed by the
new Constitution for the inauguration, and that Porter would never be
Governor.”
As the time approached for the meeting of the Legislature on December 4,
trouble was anticipated and “Committees on Safety” were appointed in
nearly all of the counties, while many persons, especially from the
districts in which contests were expected, flocked to Harrisburg to
witness the result of the struggle.
It may not be generally known, but there had been a secret meeting
composed of Burrowes, Stevens and Fenn, none of whom was born in
Pennsylvania, at which were suggested some strong revolutionary
measures.
After the excitement was over the Legislature settled down to business,
and Governor Porter having been inaugurated, it was seriously considered
whether these men should not be tried for treason.
The House then consisted of 100 members, eight of whom were from
Philadelphia, whose seats were contested, and of the remaining number
forty-eight were Democrats and forty-four anti-Masonic Whigs. The
majority of the Senate belonged to the latter party, and consequently
promptly organized by the election of Charles B. Penrose as Speaker.
In the House the clerk read the names of the members as given him by the
Secretary of the Commonwealth.
Upon reading the returns from Philadelphia County it was discovered that
the legal returns had been withheld and fraudulent ones substituted.
This had been anticipated, as the Secretary of the Commonwealth had
determined to seat the minority members, thus compelling the majority to
be contestants and to witness the organization of the House. The
Democrats produced and read the true returns, as duly certified by the
Prothonotary of Philadelphia. This seated both sets of contesting
delegates and caused the wildest excitement.
At this moment Thaddeus Stevens moved that the House proceed to the
election of the Speaker. The clerk then called the roll of the Whig and
Anti-Masonic members and declared Thomas S. Cunningham, of Beaver
County, elected. He was conducted to the Speaker’s chair and took his
seat.
The Democrats paid very little attention to the movements of the
opposition and elected William Hopkins, of Washington County, Speaker.
Two members escorted Mr. Hopkins to the platform, where Mr. Cunningham
had already been seated.
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives thus enjoyed a double-headed
organization. The members of the House of each party were then sworn in
by their respective officers—fifty-two members who had elected Mr.
Cunningham and fifty-six members who elected Mr. Hopkins.
After some necessary routine the Governor and the Senate were informed
the House was ready to proceed to business; then both bodies adjourned
their respective organizations to meet next day at 10 o’clock.
The Cunningham party did not wait until its appointed time. In the
afternoon they met again in the hall, and after being called to order by
their Speaker, he called Mr. Spackman, of Philadelphia, to act as
Speaker pro tem. Some Philadelphians who were in the lobby as
spectators, feeling indignant at the proceedings of the Cunningham
party, went up to the platform and carried Spackman off and sat him down
in the aisle.
This interference from outsiders could not be resented by the rump House
and it immediately adjourned amid great confusion. They afterwards met
in Matthew Wilson’s Hall, until recently known as the Lochiel Hotel.
During these exciting scenes large crowds gathered outside the Capitol
and became boisterous. The aspect of affairs appeared alarming.
While the foregoing incidents were transpiring in the House, there were
contests for seats in the Senate from several districts. Upon the floor
were members of the House, among them Thaddeus Stevens and Secretary of
the Commonwealth Burrowes, of Lancaster, who had gone there with
minority returns. These two individuals, who controlled the Executive,
were of the opinion that the first returns received were to have
precedence.
A large crowd in the rear of the Senate Chamber was composed of excited
and enraged citizens, especially toward those who were working to seat
Hanna and Wagner, of Philadelphia, in place of those legally entitled to
the seats. Threats of violence were heard.
The clerk had opened and read the returns, as far as Philadelphia. When
those were reached, Charles Brown, who had been elected on the majority
return, arose and presented to the Speaker what he said was a copy of
the true return, alleging the other false. The Speaker attempted to stop
him, but the crowd insisted that Brown be heard. Brown was allowed to
proceed, and during his remarks the crowds in the lobby and gallery
shouted, threatening violence to Penrose, Burrowes and Stevens.
The scene was now one of fearful confusion, disorder and terror, and at
last Speaker Penrose, unable to stem the current any longer, abandoned
his post, and with Stevens and Burrowes escaped through a window in the
rear of the Senate Chamber. The Senate adjourned until next day.
On the night of the first day of the session a large public meeting was
held in the Courthouse over which General Thomas Craig Miller, of Adams
County, presided.
The Governor then issued a proclamation which stated that “a lawless,
infuriated, armed mob, from the counties of Philadelphia, Lancaster,
Adams and other places, have assembled at the seat of government with
the avowed object of disturbing, interrupting and overawing the
Legislature of this Commonwealth and of preventing its proper
organization and the peaceful and free discharge of its duties. This mob
had entered the Senate Chamber and threatened the lives of the members
and it still remained in the city in force, etc.”
The Governor called upon the civil authorities, the military force of
the Commonwealth and the citizens to hold themselves in readiness for
instant duty.
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Troops Called Out in “Buck Shot War” on
December 5, 1838
Amid all the excitement of the first day of the “Buckshot” War, December
4, 1837, at the moment Governor Joseph Ritner had issued his
proclamation calling upon the people to disperse the lawless element and
to add further excitement, the State Arsenal was seized by friends of
the Governor, where large quantities of powder and cartridges were
stored. The proclamation and call for troops and the seizure of the
arsenal filled the city of Harrisburg with intense alarm.
William Cochran, Sheriff of Dauphin County, issued a proclamation in
which he stated that at no time had there been any riotous proceedings,
nor any disturbances which rendered necessary his interposition as a
civil officer to preserve peace.
The following day, December 5, the Governor made a requisition on Major
General Robert Patterson, commanding the First Division Pennsylvania
Militia to furnish sufficient of his command to “quell this
insurrection.”
General Patterson obtained from the Frankford Arsenal a supply of the
regular ammunition for infantry, which was then buckshot. About a
hundred of General Patterson’s command arrived in Harrisburg, on
Saturday night, December 8, and the next afternoon 800 troops arrived.
They were paraded through the streets to the public grounds in front of
the State Arsenal.
The general and his staff reported to the Governor. The door was locked
and barred, and the general could not gain admittance until the Governor
learned from a second-story window who was seeking an entrance.
The Governor sent for his Cabinet, and five responded. They asked the
General many questions, among others, if he would obey an order of the
Speaker of the Senate, to which he replied in the negative. He said he
had not come on a political mission, and anyway, would not sustain a
party clearly in the wrong.
He was asked if he would obey an order from the Speaker of the House. He
replied he would not, for two reasons: They had two Speakers, he did not
know the right one, and he would not obey the regular Speaker anyway, as
he had no right to give him an order. He said he would obey only the
Governor, and then only when the Governor gave him an order he had a
right to give.
General Patterson refused to help seat either Speaker. He said the House
alone could do that. If ordered to fire, he would refuse to issue the
order. Nor would he permit a single shot to be fired except in
self-defense, if assailed by the rebels, or in the protection of public
property. The conference ended abruptly.
The Governor had called upon Captain Sumner, then in command of the
Carlisle Barracks, for troops, but he refused to send them to interfere
in political troubles.
Governor Ritner also wrote to President Van Buren, laying before him a
full account of the affair, requesting the President to take such
measures as would protect the State against violence. The Governor named
several Government officials who were active in the trouble.
The Governor’s party finding they could not get General Patterson to
install them in power, his troops were ordered home and a requisition
was made upon Major General Alexander, of the Eleventh Division of State
Militia, a citizen of Carlisle, and an ultra-Whig in politics.
Out of three companies only sixty-seven men responded. The battalion,
under the command of Colonel Willis Foulk, marched from Carlisle to
Harrisburg, December 15, arriving on the following day.
There never had been occasion for soldiers and now as the Carlisle
troops arrived the disturbance in the Legislature was nearing an end.
The soldiers regarded the trip as a frolic.
On December 17 Messrs. Butler and Sturdevant, of Luzerne, and Montelius,
of Union County, three legally elected Whig members, abandoned their
Anti-Masonic associates and were sworn in as members of the “Hopkins
House,” which gave it a legal quorum over and above the eight Democrats
from Philadelphia whose rights the “Rump House” disputed.
Finally on December 27, Mr. Michler, of Northampton County, submitted a
resolution which recognized that the House was now legally organized,
and it was adopted, by the close vote of seventeen yeas to sixteen nays.
The committee called for in the resolution was named and waited on the
Governor, informing him the Legislature was organized.
With this reconciliation the returns were opened and read; the amendment
to the Constitution was declared carried and the election of David R.
Porter as Governor of the Commonwealth promulgated. However, the
animosity still existed, and resulted in the appointment by both Houses
of select committees to inquire into the causes of the disturbances and
other matters.
Mr. Stevens, the ring leader, refused at first to be reconciled, and
absented himself several months from the sessions of the House. It was
not until May 8 that his colleague in the House announced that Mr.
Stevens was now in his seat and ready to take the requisite
qualifications.
Objection was made, and a resolution offered declaring that Mr. Stevens
had “forfeited that right by act in violation of the laws of the land,
by contempt to the House, and by the virtual resignation of his
character as a representative.” Action was postponed.
On the following day Mr. Stevens again appeared, and, through his
colleague, demanded that the oath be administered. This was on motion
postponed by a vote of forty-eight to thirty. Two days afterward Mr.
Stevens appeared a third time, but by a vote of fifty-three to
thirty-three the question was postponed, and a committee appointed to
examine whether he had not forfeited his right to a seat as a member.
On the 20th this committee reported that he was “not entitled” to his
seat.
The House, however, by declaring his seat vacant, caused an election,
when Mr. Stevens was again returned and appearing, was duly qualified.
Mr. Penrose, the Speaker of the Senate, issued a manifesto “To the
People of the State,” explaining his participation in the proceedings of
December 4.
Subsequently a number of pamphlets appeared, chiefly of the facetious
class, which attempted to make a farce of what might have resulted in a
very serious affair. One of these severely criticized Secretary Burrowes
for withholding the correct and legal returns; Speaker Penrose for the
violation of his duty; the six Senators who were denounced as traitors
and the last paragraph was:
“Finally, if the leaders of the party who claimed to be ‘all the
decency,’ and were the first to cry out mob, had behaved themselves
honorably and honestly there would have been no ‘Buckshot War,’ and
perhaps they would not have so soon been compelled to witness the 'Last
Kick of Anti-Masonry.'”
The piper was now to pay and it took many years to heal the political
sores. The Anti-Masonic crusade had come to an end, and from that date
Masonry and Odd Fellowship, those “twin sisters of iniquity,” as
Thaddeus Stevens designated them, thrived more than ever. The term
“Buckshot War,” was a thorn in the side of its leaders.
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De Vries Finds Entire Dutch Colony Destroyed,
December 6, 1632
The Dutch were the first Europeans to pursue explorations in the New
World, and as early as 1609, sent Henry Hudson on an expedition to
America, where he arrived at the head of Delaware Bay, August 28 of that
year. Hudson later sailed up the New Jersey Coast and anchored off Sandy
Hook, September 3; nine days later entered New York Bay through the
Narrows, and entered the great river that since has borne his name.
The Dutch East India Company received glowing reports from its navigator
and immediately set in motion other expeditions to the New Netherlands.
Before 1614 a fleet of five vessels, under command of Captain Cornelius
Jacobson Mey, arrived in Delaware Bay, and two years later Cornelius
Hendrickson sailed up the Delaware and discovered the mouth of the
Schuylkill, the present site of Philadelphia.
In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was chartered and in 1623 Captain
Mey built Fort Nassau about five miles above Wilmington, Del., on the
eastern shore. Another settlement of a few families was made farther
north upon the same side of the river, but in 1631 no white man had made
a settlement on the west bank of the Delaware River.
In that year there came to the southern cape, now Henlopen, a party of
colonists from Holland, under David Pieterson De Vries, of Hoorn, “a
bold and skillful seaman,” and the finest personage in the settlement of
America.
On December 12, 1630, a ship and a yacht for the Zuydt Revier (South
River) were sent from the Texel “with a number of people and a large
stock of cattle,” the object being, said De Vries, “as well to carry on
a whale fishery in that region, as to plant a colony for the cultivation
of all sorts of grain, for which the country is well adapted, and of
tobacco.”
These colonists made a settlement near the present town of Lewes and
called it Swanendael, or the Valley of the Swans. They built a
substantial house, surrounded it with palisades, and began their
settlement. A few weeks later the Walrus sailed on its return to Holland
with De Vries aboard, who left the colony in charge of Gilles Hosset,
who had come out as “commissary.” This colony was destined to be the
most unfortunate and of short duration.
Early in 1632 De Vries agreed with his associates in Holland to go out
to Swanendael himself. He fitted out two vessels, and with them set sail
from the Texel, May 24, 1632, to be in good time at his colony, for the
winter fishery. The whales, he understood, “come in the winter, and
remained until March.”
As he was leaving Holland the bad news reached him that Swanendael had
been destroyed by the Indians. The expedition proceeded, however, and it
was December 5 when they reached Cape Cornelius and found the melancholy
report only too true.
On the 6th De Vries went ashore to view the desolate place. He says:
“I found lying here and there the skulls and bones of our people, and
the heads of the horses and cows which they had brought with them.”
No Indians were visible, so he went aboard the boat and let the gunner
fire a shot to see if he could find any trace of them. The next day some
Indians appeared.
In the conferences which followed, De Vries obtained some explanation of
the disaster. It seems to have been the result of a misunderstanding. An
Indian, who was induced to remain on board all night December 8,
rehearsed the story. Commissary Hosset set up a pole, upon which was
fastened a piece of tin bearing the arms of The Netherlands, as an
evidence of its claim and profession.
An Indian, seeing the glitter of the tin, ignorant of the object of this
exhibition and unconscious of the right of exclusive property,
appropriated to his own use this honored symbol “for the purpose of
making tobacco pipes.”
The Dutch regarded the offense as an affair of state, not merely a
larceny, and Hosset urged his complaints and demands for redress with so
much vehemence that the perplexed tribe brought him the head of the
offender. This was a punishment which Hosset neither wished nor had
foreseen, and he dreaded its consequences.
In vain he reprehended the severity of the Indians, and told them had
they brought the delinquent to him, he would have been dismissed with a
reprimand. The love of vengeance, inseparable from the Indian character,
sought a dire gratification; and, though the culprit was executed by his
own tribe, still they beheld its cause in the exaction of the strangers.
Availing themselves of the season in which many of the Dutch were
engaged in the cultivation of the fields, at a distance from their
house, the Indians entered it, under the amicable pretense of trade, and
murdered the unsuspicious Hosset, also a sentinel who attended him. They
proceeded to the fields, fell upon the laborers and massacred every
individual.
De Vries did not put the blame on Hosset, but the colony was ruined.
Neither did he chastise the natives nor send out a punitive expedition
against them; more bloodshed would not heal the wounds already made.
With a view to future fishing, he exchanged some goods with the Indians,
and made an engagement of peace.
On January 1, 1634, he proceeded up the river and on the 6th arrived at
Fort Nassau. It was now deserted, except by Indians. He was suspicious
of these, and traded with extreme caution. He remained in the vicinity
of the fort for four days, ever on the alert. He nearly fell a victim
here to the perfidy of the natives.
They directed him to haul his yacht into the narrow Timmer-Kill, which
furnished a convenient place for an attack, but he was warned by a
female of the tribe of their design, and told the English crew of a
vessel which had been sent from Virginia to explore the river the
September previous had been murdered. De Vries then hastened to Fort
Nassau, which he found filled with savages.
On January 10 he drifted his yacht off on the ebbtide, anchored at noon
“on the bar at Jacques Island” and on the 13th rejoined his ship at
Swanendael.
Jacques Island has been identified as Little Tinicum, opposite the
greater Tinicum which is now part of Delaware County. The kill in which
he lay was therefore Ridley, or perhaps Chester Creek. In either case,
it seems, De Vries was then within the State of Pennsylvania.
In April De Vries returned to Holland. Thus at the expiration of
twenty-five years from the discovery of the Delaware by Hudson, not a
single European remained upon its shores.
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Fires of Early Days; First Fire Fighting
Company Organized December 7, 1736
The City of Philadelphia had not been laid out one year until it was
visited by a fire, the sufferers being some recently arrived Germans and
for whose relief a subscription was made.
From this time until 1696 no public precautions seem to have been taken
against fire. In the latter year the Provincial Assembly passed a law
for preventing accidents that might happen by fire in the towns of
Philadelphia and New Castle, by which persons were forbidden to fire
their chimneys to cleanse them, or suffer them to be so foul as to take
fire, under a penalty of forty shillings, and each house owner was
required to provide and keep ready a swab twelve or fourteen feet long,
and a bucket or pail, under a penalty of ten shillings.
No person should presume to smoke tobacco in the streets, either by day
or night, under a penalty of twelve pence. All such fines were to be
used to buy leather buckets and other instruments or engines against
fires for the public use.
An act was passed in 1700, applying to Philadelphia, Bristol,
Germantown, Darby and Chester, which provided for two leather buckets,
and forbade more than six pounds of powder to be kept in any house or
shop, unless forty perches distant from any dwelling house, under the
penalty of ten pounds. A year later the magistrates were directed to
procure “six or eight good hooks for tearing down houses on fire.”
As the city grew, fires became more frequent, through faulty constructed
chimneys and the general use of wood for fuel. Mayor Samuel Preston in
1711 recommended the purchase of buckets, hooks and an engine. In
December, 1718, the City Council purchased of Abraham Bickley a fire
engine he had imported from England for £50. This fire engine was then
in Bethlehem. It was the first fire engine purchased by the city of
Philadelphia.
The first “great fire” took place between 10 and 11 o’clock on the night
of April 24, 1730. The fire started in a store along the wharf and
burned several stores under one roof, two cooper shops and an immense
quantity of staves on King Street, and two new tenement houses, all
owned by Mr. Fishbourne; a new house of Mr. Plumstead’s; John
Dickinson’s fine new house, and Captain Anthony’s house. Several other
buildings were damaged and much property fell prey to thieves.
This disastrous fire made the whole population realize that new
fire-fighting apparatus was needed. The City Council at once ordered
three fire engines and 400 leather buckets to be purchased in England
and provided twenty ladders and twenty-five hooks and axes.
A year elapsed, however, before two of the engines and 250 buckets were
received, and Mayor Hassel directed one to be stationed in the yard of
the Friends’ Meeting House, Second and Market Streets, and the other on
the lot of Francis Jones, corner Second and Walnut Streets.
The old Bickley engine was stationed in the yard of the Baptist Church,
on Second near Arch Street. As late as 1771 only six fire engines
comprised the entire force of the city.
A third engine was built in Philadelphia by Anthony Nichols, in 1733,
and other buckets were manufactured there. This is the first fire engine
ever built in Pennsylvania.
At a fire in January, 1733, this engine threw a stream higher than any
other engine had been able to do, but Nichols was not given another
order because his price was too high, he had “used wood instead of brass
and they feared it would not last long.”
In December, 1733, there appeared in Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette an
article on fires and their origin, and the mode of putting them out.
Another article suggested that public pumps should be built, and gave a
plan for the organization of a club or society for putting out fires,
after the manner of one in Boston.
Franklin was the author of both articles, and they caused such interest
that a project of forming such a company was soon undertaken. Thirty
joined the association, and every member was obliged to keep in order
and fit for service a certain number of buckets. They were to meet
monthly and discuss topics which might be useful in their conduct at
fires.
The advantages of the association were so apparent they became so
numerous as to include quite all the inhabitants who were men of
property.
Out of this movement started by Benjamin Franklin was organized the
Union Fire Company, December 7, 1736, this being the first fire company
in Philadelphia. Among the early members were Franklin, Isaac Paschal,
Philip Syng, William Rawle and Samuel Powell.
The second company was the Fellowship Fire Company, organized March 1,
1738; the third the Hand-in-Hand, organized March 1, 1742; the fourth
the Heart-in-Hand, organized February 22, 1743; the fifth the
Friendship, organized July 30, 1747; the sixth the Britannia, organized
in 1750.
Richard Mason in 1768 manufactured engines which were operated by levers
at the ends instead of the side of the engine. These were successful,
and he continued to produce his engines until 1801.
Patrick Lyon, about 1794, became the greatest fire-engine builder, when
he invented an engine which would throw more water and with greater
force than the others. He built fire engines as late as 1824. The
“Reliance” and “Old Diligent,” built by him, performed useful service
until the introduction of steam fire engines in 1855.
The first truly great fire in Philadelphia occurred July 9, 1850, when
367 houses were destroyed on Delaware Avenue, near Vine Street.
On November 12, 1851, three lives were lost in a fire which destroyed
Bruner’s cotton factory.
The borough of Somerset was almost totally destroyed in 1833, and again
on May 9, 1872. In the latter conflagration 117 buildings were
destroyed.
On April 10, 1845, the city of Pittsburgh was visited by its first great
fire, which burned over a space of fifty-six acres of the business and
residential section.
December 15, 1850, the greater portion of the borough of Carbondale was
wiped out.
Chambersburg suffered first in Stuart’s rebel raid, October 10, 1862,
and again when General McCausland destroyed the beautiful Franklin
County seat, July 30, 1864.
Selinsgrove was visited by a terrible fire February 22, 1872, and
another fire almost wiped out the town October 30, 1874.
Mifflintown suffered by a great fire in 1871, again on August 23, 1873,
and the borough of Milton was almost destroyed May 14, 1880, when 644
houses and business blocks were burned from noon until 4 o’clock in the
afternoon.
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Washington’s Headquarters in Several Bucks
County Mansions Began December
8, 1776
During the Revolution General Washington established his headquarters in
no less than three of the old-time dwellings of Bucks County.
When Washington crossed the Delaware into Bucks County, Pennsylvania,
with the rear guard of his army, Sunday, December 8, 1776, he took up
his quarters in the country house of Mrs. Berkley, while the troops were
stationed opposite the crossing.
This dwelling was built in 1750, in the village of Morrisville. The
house is still in a fine state of preservation, occupies a commanding
situation, with a farm of one hundred and sixty-two acres belonging to
it, and is within the site once selected by Congress for the capital of
the United States.
In this house, George Clymer, a signer of the Declaration of
Independence, lived and died. It was then owned by his son, Henry
Clymer, afterwards it became the property of the Waddells.
Local tradition, seldom at fault in such cases, points this house out as
Washington’s quarters immediately after he crossed the river, and
mementos of the troops have been found in the adjacent fields.
After Washington had placed his troops in position to guard the fords of
the Delaware and prevent the enemy crossing, the headquarters of the
army, and the quarters of the commander-in-chief’s most trusted
lieutenants, were fixed at farm houses in the same neighborhood in Upper
Wakefield Township, where they were always within easy communication.
General Washington occupied the dwelling of William Keith, on the road
from Brownsburg to the Eagle Tavern; General Green was at Robert
Merrick’s, a few hundred yards away across the fields and meadows;
General Sullivan was at John Hayhurst’s; and Generals Knox and Hamilton
were at Doctor Chapman’s over Jericho Hill.
The troops belonging to the headquarters were encamped in sheltered
places along the creeks, and not far removed from the river.
This position for headquarters was selected on account of its seclusion,
its nearness to the river and because of its proximity to Jericho
Mountain. From the top of this mountain in the winter, signals may be
seen a long distance up and down the river.
Here, too, Washington was near the fords, at which the enemy would
attempt to cross, if pursuit was intended, and he was also within a half
hour’s ride of Newtown, the depot of supplies.
The three old mansions in which Washington, Greene and Knox quartered,
are still standing.
The Keith mansion was a two-story, pointed-stone house, twenty-four by
twenty-eight feet in size, built by William Keith in 1763.
The pine door, in two folds, set in a solid oaken frame, is garnished
with a wooden lock, fourteen by eighteen inches, the same which locked
out intruders when Washington occupied the house. The interior is
finished in yellow pine. At the time Washington used the dwelling the
yard was inclosed with a stone wall. The property, containing two
hundred and forty acres, and purchased by William Keith, of the London
Company, December 3, 1761, has never been out of the family.
The Merrick house, a quarter of a mile distant to the east, on the road
from Newtown to Neely’s Mill, is a pointed-stone dwelling, twenty by
twenty feet, and kitchen adjoining. It was bought by Samuel Merrick in
1773, and was for many years owned by Edward, a descendant.
When General Greene occupied the dwelling, the first floor was divided
into three rooms, and the family lived in the log end on the west. As
the house was not then finished, the General had the walls of the rooms
on the ground floor painted in a tasteful manner, with a picture of the
rising sun over the fireplace.
At that time Samuel Merrick had a family of half-grown children, who
were deeply impressed with passing events, and many traditions have been
handed down to the present generations.
General Greene purchased the confidence of Hannah, a young daughter, by
the gift of a small tea canister, which was kept many years in the
family. They told how the Rhode Island blacksmith lived on the fat of
the land while quartered at the house of their ancestor, devouring his
flock of turkeys, and monopolizing the only fresh milk cow, besides
eating her calf.
At the last supper which General Washington took with General Greene at
the Merrick house, at which the daughter Hannah waited upon the table,
she kept the plate from which the commander-in-chief ate as a memento of
the occasion.
The Hayhurst house, where Sullivan quartered, was on the adjoining farm
to Keith’s, where this plain member of the Wrightstown meeting lived
with his family of five small children.
The Chapman mansion, the quarters of General Knox, is on the north side
of the Jericho Mountain, a mile from Brownsburg. It is still in
excellent condition.
Knox occupied the first floor of the east end, then divided into two
rooms. Alexander Hamilton, then a youthful captain of artillery, lay
sick in the back room.
A considerable portion of the Continental army found shelter in this
neighborhood immediately preceding the attack on Trenton, Christmas Day,
1776, and Washington had his headquarters at a quiet farm house in the
shadow of Jericho Hill.
In August, 1777, the Continental Army tarried thirteen days on the
Neshaminy Hills, Bucks County, on the York road from Coryell’s Ferry,
now New Hope, until it received notice of the departure of the British
fleet, which had recently sailed from New York, and which was destined
for the capture of Philadelphia.
During this time Washington was quartered in the stone house not far
from the north end of the bridge over the Neshaminy, and on the left
side of the York road going south. It was long since known as the
Bothwell home.
A whipping post was erected on the opposite side of the road.
While Washington was quartered in this house Lafayette reported to him
for service in the Continental army; and in it was held the first
council of war at which Lafayette had a seat.
The army marched hence August 22, through Philadelphia, and then engaged
the enemy on the field of Brandywine.
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Railroad Riots in Erie; Bridges Destroyed
December 9, 1853
One of the most interesting and irritating episodes that became
interwoven with the administration of Governor James Pollock was what
was then known as the Erie Riots.
Pollock was seriously handicapped at the outset of his administration by
the only Know Nothing Legislature in the history of the State. Nothing
constructive came out of this session, but a movement was begun which
led to the sale of the Main Line of the public works. In this the
Governor was a strong advocate, and two years later the Legislature
passed the enabling acts by which the Pennsylvania Railroad Company
became the purchaser.
The Erie and Northwestern Railroad Company had built a short line to
connect with the New York Central at Buffalo, and with the Lake Shore
Line at Erie, by which a continuous railway line was made to the West.
The several railroads at that time did not have uniform gauge, and the
road west of Erie was of a different gauge than those east of that city,
which was the most important connecting point; and all passengers and
traffic were required to be transferred at Erie.
The necessities of the growing commerce required that the causes of this
detention in transfer should be removed, both on account of the delay
and the cost of handling of the freight, and the annoyance to the
passengers in changing cars, all of which was because there was a
difference of one or two inches in the gauge of the rails of the two
lines.
The railroads therefore changed the gauge. This action aroused the
hostility of the people of the city of Erie, whose sympathies the
railway company seemed to have generally alienated and the battle
progressed little by little until the entire community became involved
in one of the most disgraceful local conflicts of the history of
Pennsylvania.
On December 9, 1853, two railroad bridges and many crossings were
destroyed by a mob of women, and a great parade of the rioters was held
amid the shouts of their sympathizers and jeers of their opponents.
The people, however, were not all on one side. They were in fact, about
equally divided.
The contending forces were popularly known as “Rippers” and “Shanghais.”
The former term was applied to those who favored the break of the gauge,
as they repeatedly ripped up the tracks of the road.
This contest continued for several years and so completely inflamed the
entire community that the prominent citizens became divided on the issue
and ceased all social intercourse. They even carried that feeling so far
that they would not worship at the same church.
Erie was an important county, and although reliably Whig, all political
ties were disregarded and only those could be elected to the Legislature
who would work for the repeal of the charter of the Erie and
Northwestern Road.
After a long and bitter conflict the bill transferring the custody of
the road to the State was passed and approved by Governor Pollock. The
charter powers passed to the Commonwealth and the road in consequence
was operated by State authorities.
The Governor appointed ex-Congressman Joseph Casey as State
superintendent to operate the road. After struggling for a few months in
vain efforts to harmonize the people and to maintain an open line of
communication between the East and West, he resigned in disgust.
Governor Pollock then appointed General William F. Small, of
Philadelphia, a veteran of the Mexican War and an experienced member of
the State Senate, in the expectation that he would be able to calm down
the belligerents and operate the line. After a few weeks on the job he
resigned. The Governor urged his close friend, Colonel Alexander K.
McClure, of Philadelphia, but formerly of Chambersburg, to assume the
uninviting task.
Colonel McClure was given full authority to handle the situation as he
thought best. He went to Erie and soon won the confidence of leaders of
both factions, with many of whom he already had personal acquaintance.
Lined up against the railroad were such men of importance as Judge James
Thompson, afterward Chief Justice of the State; State Senator James
Skinner, Mr. Morrow B. Lowrey, later a member of the State Senate, and a
large number of men prominent in the business circles of the city.
On the other side were men of like distinction, such as John H. Walker,
former State Senator and president of the last Constitutional
Convention; Senator J. B. Johnson, who was also editor of the
Constitution, one of the leading papers of the city; Milton C.
Courtright, a principal stockholder of the railroad company, and many
others.
Each faction entertained Colonel McClure. The city was in distress; even
its population had dwindled to about 5000. Business was at a standstill.
The only question discussed in the home, shop, store, church or on the
street was the railroad issue.
Colonel McClure endeavored to hold conferences with the leaders, but
when one faction was willing to attend the other rebelled and vice
versa. Finally he worked out a plan by which it appeared the road could
be operated without interference.
Colonel McClure started East on a vacation, but only two days later
received a dispatch stating that rioting had again broken out afresh,
that Senator Johnson’s printing office had been destroyed and the
materials burned in a bonfire on the street.
McClure returned and immediately got into communication with the
leaders. It was learned that the mob spirit was to blame; the leaders
had endeavored to restrain them, but without avail.
Colonel McClure determined that no further efforts be made to harmonize
the difficulty but that he would operate the road if it required a
soldier upon every cross-tie to protect the property, whether the
offenders wore trousers or petticoats.
Two leaders of each faction were invited to the Colonel’s room without
either knowing the others were invited. Judge Thompson arrived on the
hour, and soon ex-Senator Walker entered. Walker and Courtright on the
one side and Thompson and Skinner on the other had had no social,
business or personal intercourse for more than a year.
With unusual diplomacy Colonel McClure induced these leaders to shake
hands and drink a friendly glass with him. Soon the others arrived and
then before many moments the five were enjoying the genial hospitality
of the colonel and the best supper that Brown’s Hotel could furnish. A
game of cards was enjoyed until the sun appeared in the morning, when
they all shook hands, each repaired to his own home and the Erie riots
became only a bit of the history of Pennsylvania.
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Count Zinzindorf, Moravian Church
Founder, Arrives December
10, 1741
Count Zinzindorf arrived in Philadelphia December 10, 1741. He was full
of enthusiasm, eager to preach the gospel to all men. His idea was to
unite all Protestant denominations into a Christian confederacy.
Nicholas Ludwig, Count von Zinzindorf, was born at Dresden, Germany, May
26, 1700. In August, 1727, on his estate at Herrnhut (“The Lord’s
Keeping”), in Saxony, he organized some three hundred persons, emigrants
from Moravia and Bohemia, into a religious organization known
indiscriminately as “The Church of the Brethren” and “Herrnhutters”—the
forerunner of the United Brethren, or Moravian Church in America.
In 1733 this society had become a distinct Church and in 1737,
Zinzindorf was consecrated Bishop, and was the “Advocate” of the Church
until his death.
He came to America to inspect the Moravian establishments in general
here, and especially to acquaint himself with the fruits of the
Brethren’s labors among the Indians. He certainly did not come to this
country with a view of founding Moravian congregations.
The nobleman’s activity consisted chiefly in preaching in Philadelphia
and the neighborhood, and holding seven synods or free meetings of all
denominations, most of them at Germantown, each lasting two or three
days. These meetings were without practical results, but they surely
served to awaken a greater interest in religious matters.
December 31, 1741, he appeared for the first time in an American pulpit,
preaching to a large congregation in the German Reformed Church at
Germantown. A few months later the Hon. James Logan wrote to a friend
concerning Zinzindorf as follows:
“He speaks Latin and French, is aged I suppose between forty and fifty
years, wears his own hair and is in all other respects very plain as
making the propagation of the gospel his whole purpose and business.”
Zinzindorf’s stay in this country was a period of varied and strenuous
activity. Few men could have accomplished in the same time what he did.
Dr. Gill, in his “Life of Zinzindorf,” says the Count gave the Indians
among whom he went on his several missionary tours “a practical insight
into the religion he came to teach by simply leading a Christian life
among them; and, when favorable impressions had thus been made and
inquiry was excited, he preached the leading truths of the gospel,
taking care not to put more things into their heads than their hearts
could lay hold of. His mode of approaching them was carefully adapted to
their distinctive peculiarities.”
Early in the spring of 1741 David Zeisberger and his son David, John
Martin, Mack and some four or five more of the Moravian Brethren, who
had already established several missions in this country, began a new
missionary settlement near the “Forks” of the Delaware, on land derived
from William Allen, Esq., of Philadelphia, and lying at the confluence
of the Lehigh River and Monacasy Creek, in Buck’s (now Northampton)
County.
On Christmas Eve of the same year this settlement received the name of
“Bethlehem” from Count Zinzindorf, who had arrived there a few days
previously. Ever since then Bethlehem has been the headquarters in this
country of the Moravian Church, now known as the “Church of the United
Brethren in the United States of America.”
From Bethlehem and other Moravian mission stations the Brethren went out
among the Indians, making converts and establishing new missions. The
Indian wars had hardened the hearts of the New England Puritans against
the aborigines, and it was left to the Moravians to preach a gentler
creed to the Indians.
In May, 1742, Zinzindorf was called by the Lutherans of Philadelphia to
be their pastor, but he declined, as he intended to journey to the
Indian country.
Reverend John C. Pyrlaeus, a minister of the Moravian Church, was called
in his stead. There was a strong faction in the Lutheran Church hostile
to the Moravians, and July 9, 1742, Pyrlaeus was forcibly ejected by a
gang of ruffians from the church. Some of the congregation followed him,
and this event led to the erection of the First Moravian Church in
Philadelphia. Zinzindorf paid for its erection out of his own purse.
August 3, 1742, Count Zinzindorf visited Conrad Weiser at his home, on
Tulpehocken, and there met the chief deputies of the Six Nations and
some other Indians, who had been at the Philadelphia conference, and on
their way home were paying Weiser a visit. Among them were Shikellamy
and Canassatego.
With those chiefs the Count ratified a covenant of friendship in behalf
of the Brethren, stipulating for permission for the latter to pass to
and from and sojourn within the domains of the Iroquois Confederacy; not
as strangers, but as friends and without suspicion, until such times as
they should have “mutually learned each other’s peculiarities.”
In reply to the speech made by Zinzindorf, Canassatego said: “Brother,
you have journeyed a long way from beyond the sea in order to preach to
the white people and the Indians. You did not know we were here (at
Tulpehocken). We had no knowledge of your coming. The Great Spirit has
brought us together. Come to our people; you shall be welcome. Take this
fathom of wampum; it is a token that our words are true.”
This “fathom” was composed of 186 white wampums, and was preserved by
the Brethren for a long time, and was often used in conference with
Indians.
September 24, 1742, Zinzindorf and Weiser set out on horseback for
Shamokin and Wyoming. They were also accompanied by the Count’s
daughter, Benigna, Anna Nitschmann, two Indians and John Martin Mack.
The Count kept a journal of his trip which is most interesting. The
little company spent several days the guests of the great vicegerent,
Shikellamy at Shamokin (now Sunbury), and then proceeded along the West
Branch to what is now Montoursville, where they met the celebrated
Madame Montour and her son, Andrew.
The Count and his companions remained with the Montours for four days,
during which several religious services were held.
The party left October 9, under the guidance of Andrew Montour, and at
the mouth of Warrior Run they took a southeasterly direction, striking
the North Branch at what is now Bloomsburg, and thence traveled to
Wyoming.
During his stay at this place they were several times seriously
threatened by Indians, and Weiser finally persuaded the missionaries to
depart, which they did on October 30. Zinzindorf returned to Bethlehem
via Shamokin, arriving there November 8.
January 20, 1743, Count Zinzindorf set sail from New York for Dover,
England, and never returned to this country. He died at Herrnhut May 9,
1760. He was the author of many sermons, hymns, catechisms and a number
of controversial and devotional works. He published more than 100 works
of prose and verse.
----------
General Washington Praises Lydia Darrah
to Congress December 11, 1777
When the British army held possession of Philadelphia, September 26,
1777, to June 19, 1778, General Howe’s headquarters were in Second
Street, the fourth door below Spruce, in a house which was before
occupied by General John Cadwallader. Directly opposite resided William
and Lydia Darrah, members of the Society of Friends.
A superior officer of the British Army, believed to be the adjutant
general, fixed upon one of the chambers in the Darrah home, a back room,
for holding private conferences, and two or more officers, frequently
met there, by candle light, and remained long in consultation.
On December 2, 1777, the adjutant general told Lydia Darrah that they
would be in the room at seven o’clock that evening; they would remain
late, and that he wished the family to retire early to bed, adding that
when they were going away they would call her to let them out and to
extinguish their candles and fire.
She accordingly sent all the family to bed, but as the high officer had
been so particular, her womanly curiosity was excited. She removed her
shoes, and walked quietly to the door, when she placed her ear to the
keyhole and listened to the conversation of the officers, which was held
in subdued tones. She overheard the reading of an order which was to
call out all the British troops on the evening of the 4th to attack
General Washington’s army, then encamped at White Marsh.
On hearing this news she returned in her chamber and lay down. Soon
after the officer knocked at the door, but she rose only at the third
summons, having feigned herself asleep. Her mind was so much agitated
that she could neither eat nor sleep, supposing it to be in her power to
save the lives of thousands of her fellow-countrymen, but not knowing
how she was to convey the information to General Washington, not even
daring to communicate it to her husband.
The time left, however, was short. She must act promptly. She determined
to make her way quickly as possible to the American outposts. In the
early morning she informed her family that, as she was in need of flour,
she would go to Frankford for some. Her husband insisted that she take
her maid servant with her, but to his surprise she politely refused.
She got access to General Howe and solicited a pass through the British
line, which was readily granted. Leaving her bag at the mill, she
hastened toward the American lines and encountered on her way an
American lieutenant colonel by the name of Craig, of the Light Horse,
who, with some of his men, was on the lookout for information.
The officer recognized Mrs. Darrah as an acquaintance, and inquired
where she was going. She answered, in quest of her son, an officer in
the American Army, and prayed that the colonel might alight and walk
with her. He did so, ordering his troops to keep in sight.
To Colonel Craig she disclosed her secret after having obtained from him
a solemn promise never to betray her individually, as her life might be
at stake with the British.
The colonel conducted her to a house near at hand, directed something be
given her to eat, and he then hastened with all possible speed to
headquarters, where he immediately acquainted General Washington with
what he had heard.
Washington put in motion every possible preparation to baffle the
meditated surprise.
Mrs. Darrah obtained her flour and returned home; sat up alone to watch
the movement of the British troops, heard their footsteps as they
silently marched away; but when they returned a few days after, she did
not dare to ask a question, though solicitous to learn of the event.
The following evening the adjutant general came to the house and
requested Mrs. Darrah to walk up to his room, as he wished to put some
questions to her.
She followed him in terror; and when he locked the door and begged her,
with an air of mystery, to be seated, she was sure that she was either
suspected or betrayed.
He inquired earnestly whether any of her family was up the last night
when he and the other officers met. She assured him that they all
retired at 8 o’clock. He then observed:
“I know you were asleep, for I knocked at your chamber door three times
before you heard me. I am entirely at a loss to imagine who gave General
Washington information of our intended attack, unless the walls of the
house could speak. When we arrived near White Marsh we found all their
cannon mounted and the troops prepared to receive us, and we have
marched back like a parcel of fools.”
Among the published correspondence of General Washington is a letter
written by him, addressed Headquarters, Whitemarsh, 10 December, 1777,
which is as follows:
“Sir—I have the honor to inform you that in the course of last week,
from a variety of intelligence, I had reason to expect that General Howe
was preparing to give us a general action. Accordingly, on Thursday
night he moved from the city with all his force, except a very
inconsiderable part left in his lines and redoubts, and appeared the
next morning on Chestnut Hill, in front of, and about three miles
distant from, our right wing.
“As soon as our position was discovered, the Pennsylvania militia were
ordered from our right, to skirmish with their light advanced parties;
and I am sorry to mention, that Brigadier General Irvine, who led them
on, had the misfortune to be wounded and to be taken prisoner. Nothing
more occurred on that day.
“On Friday night the enemy changed their ground, and moved to our left
within a mile of our line, where they remained quiet and advantageously
posted the whole of the next day.
“On Sunday they inclined still further to our left; and, from every
appearance there was reason to apprehend they were determined on an
action. In this movement their advanced and flanking parties were warmly
attacked by Colonel Morgan and his corps and also by the Maryland
militia under Colonel Gist. Their loss I cannot ascertain; but I am
informed it was considerable.
“On Monday afternoon they began to move again, and instead of advancing,
filed off from their right; and the first certain account that I could
obtain of their intentions was, that they were in full march toward
Philadelphia.
“The enemy’s loss, as I have observed, I cannot ascertain. One account
from the city is that 500 wounded had been sent in; another is that
eighty-two wagons had gone in with men in this situation. These, I fear,
are both exaggerated, and not to be depended upon. We lost twenty-seven
men in Morgan’s corps, killed and wounded, besides Major Morris, a brave
and gallant officer, who is among the latter.”
In a second letter to Congress, dated Headquarters near the Guelph, 11,
December, 1777, General Washington referred to the bravery of a
Pennsylvanian as being the means of saving the army. There is hardly a
doubt but that he had in mind the brave action of Lydia Darrah, one of
the heroines of our country.
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Federal Constitution Adopted by Pennsylvania
December 12, 1787
The establishment of a free nation resulted through the close of the war
of independence, yet it also brought anxious solicitude to every
patriot’s mind, and this state of apprehension increased with each
succeeding year.
The State debts operated severely on all classes, to meet the payment of
which was impossible. This and kindred troubles, financial and
governmental, impressed the people with the gloomy conviction that the
great work of independence was only half done. It was felt that above
all things a definite and organic form of government—reflecting the will
of the people—should be fixed upon, to give energy to national power and
success to individual and public enterprise.
So portentous a crisis as this formed another epoch for the display of
the intellectual and political attainments of American statesmen, and
the ordeal was one through which they passed with the highest honor and
with ever-enduring fame at home and abroad.
A change was now to be wrought. The same hall which had resounded with
words of patriotic defiance that shook the throne of King George III and
proclaimed to an astonished world the Declaration of Independence, that
same hall in which the Congress had continued to sit during the greater
part of that war, the State House in Philadelphia, was soon to witness
the assembling of such a body of men as in point of intellectual talent,
personal integrity and lofty purpose had perhaps never before been
brought together.
On the proposition of uniting the water of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers
deputies from five States met at Annapolis in September, 1786. Their
powers were too limited, and nothing was accomplished. This meeting was
not, however, without its beneficial effect, for there were assembled
men who deeply felt the depressed and distracted condition of the
country, and put their sentiments into action.
They drew up a report and an address to all the States strongly
representing the inefficiency of the present Federal Government, and
earnestly urging them to send delegates to meet in Philadelphia in May,
1787. Congress responded to this proceeding in February by adopting
resolutions recommending the proposed measure.
On the day appointed for the meeting, May 14, 1787, only a small number
of delegates had arrived in Philadelphia. The deliberations did not
commence, therefore, until May 25, when there were present twenty-nine
members representing nine States. Others soon arrived, until there were
fifty-five to respond to their names. Never, perhaps, had any body of
men combined for so great a purpose, to form a constitution which was to
rule a great people for many generations.
Washington was the outstanding figure, and then the idol of the whole
people. And there was Rufus King, Gerry and Strong, of Massachusetts;
Langdon, of New Hampshire; Ellsworth and Sherman, of Connecticut;
Hamilton, of New York; Livingston and Dickinson, of New Jersey;
Randolph, Wythe and Madison, of Virginia; Martin, of Maryland; Davies,
of North Carolina; Rutledge and Pickens, of South Carolina.
From our own great Commonwealth were Franklin, one of the profoundest
philosophers in the world, and, though nearly fourscore years of age,
was able to grasp and throw light upon the complex problems relating to
the science of government; Robert Morris, the great financier, of whom
it has been truthfully said, that “Americans owed, and still owe, as
much acknowledgment to the financial operations of Robert Morris, as to
the negotiations of Benjamin Franklin, or even to the arms of George
Washington.” Gouverneur Morris conspicuous for his accomplishments in
learning, his fluent conversation, and sterling abilities in debate;
George Clymer, distinguished among Pennsylvanians as one of the first to
raise a defiant voice against the aribitrary acts of the mother country;
Thomas Mifflin, ardent almost beyond discretion, in zeal for his
country’s rights and liberties; James Wilson, the most distinguished
lawyer in that body, and Jared Ingersoll, another of the great lawyers
of that day.
When the convention proceeded to organize, Robert Morris nominated
General Washington to preside, and he was unanimously elected. Standing
rules were adopted, one of which was that nothing spoken during the
deliberations be printed or otherwise published or made known in any
manner without special permission.
The delegates to the convention had been appointed merely with a view to
the revision or improvement of the old Articles of Confederation, which
still held the States together as a Nation.
Mr. Randolph, of Virginia, in opening the great discussion, laid bare
the defects of the Articles of Confederation, and then submitted a
series of resolutions embodying the substance of a plan of government,
similar to that suggested in letters of Washington, Madison and
Jefferson a few months previous.
The plan in question proposed the formation of a general government,
constituted as follows: The national legislature to consist of two
branches, the members of the first branch to be elected by the people of
the several States, and the members of the second branch to be elected
by the first branch; a national chief executive to be chosen by the
national legislature; and a national judiciary. Provision also was made
for the admission of new states into the Union.
Mr. Randolph’s plan had many supporters, but other projects were brought
forward, which occasioned angry debates for some days, and but for the
timely and healing wisdom of Dr. Franklin, the mentor of the
Constitution, might have broken up the body.
The debate closed September 17, and the result of the convention’s
labors was the formation of a constitution establishing a national
government on the principles that the affairs of the people of the
United States were thenceforth to be administered not by a confederacy
or mere league of friendship between the Sovereign States, but by a
government, distributed into three great departments—legislative,
judicial and executive.
The final draft of the Constitution was signed by all members present
except Randolph and Mason, of Virginia and Gerry, of Massachusetts.
Washington signed first, and as he stood, pen in hand, said: “Should the
States reject this excellent Constitution, the probability is that an
opportunity will never again be offered to cancel another in peace—the
next will be drawn in blood.” The other members solemnly signed the
historic document.
The convention, however, was not clothed with legislative power, nor was
the Continental Congress, competent to accept or reject it. It was
referred to the several States to be the law of the Nation when ratified
by nine of the States.
It was not until the summer of 1788 that ratification of the nine States
was obtained, beginning with Delaware, December 7, 1787, closely
followed by Pennsylvania, five days later, December 12, 1787, some by
large and some by very small majorities.
In New York the opposition resulted in serious riots. Of the thirteen
original states, Rhode Island was the last to accept the Constitution,
which she did in May, 1790.
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Attempt to Impeach Justices Yeates, Shippen
and Smith Fails, December 13, 1803
Thomas McKean became Governor of Pennsylvania December 17, 1799.
With the election of McKean there was at once a lively commotion
concerning the disposition of offices, and for the first time in the
history of the State the Governor found himself confronted with this new
and perplexing problem.
There never had been any radical change in the offices during the long
period of the Provincial Government, while the party of the Revolution,
after the war, with the single exception of Dickinson’s term, had been
in power until this time. But now the political ax was to be swung.
McKean knew how to swing it and the work suited his strong nature. His
course was sharply criticized, and party feeling during his entire
administration was exceedingly warm and bitter.
The Federalists in the Legislature made an attack upon the Governor for
holding the principles he enunciated, and the address of the Senate was
one of accusation instead of congratulation.
Governor McKean made a long reply, declaring that the objectionable
expressions were uttered before he assumed office, and that as regards
the removals from office he relied upon his right to make such changes
as he deemed proper, without accountability to any person or party.
In the address of the Democratic nominee for 1803 is used the following
language: “As Pennsylvania is the keystone of the Democratic arch, every
engine will be used to sever it from its place”—being probably the first
instance in which the comparison of the Commonwealth to the keystone of
an arch was used, and the origin of a figure of speech since very
common.
During the session of the Legislature, December 13, 1803, a memorial was
presented from Thomas Passmore, of Philadelphia, charging Justices
Jasper Yeates, Edward Shippen and Thomas Smith of the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania, with oppression and false imprisonment, the complainant
having been committed for contempt of court.
The matter was considered in General Assembly and the House recommended
that the court be impeached for high misdemeanors. Articles of complaint
were prepared and the impeachment sent to the Senate. It was not until
the subsequent session that proceedings were had when upon the final
vote in the Senate, 13 voted guilty and 11 not guilty. The
constitutional majority of two-thirds not being obtained the accused
were acquitted.
In this proceeding the chief point in connection was the extent to which
the common law of England was applicable or in force in Pennsylvania;
whether the justices had exceeded their authority in construing its
provisions and harmonizing them with the statutes then in force, and
also with peculiar exigencies of the case out of which the impeachment
had grown.
As an element of State history the affair of the impeachment of the
justices was of minor importance. In its relation to the jurisprudence
of the Commonwealth, it was a subject of great moment, and was discussed
and commented upon in all the populous States of the country, as the
beginning of a movement to set aside the strict teachings of English
common law and to establish precedents applicable to our own necessities
without especial regard to those which originally had been imported from
the Mother Country.
The time had come when an independent judicial system in this State was
made necessary, and this was one of the beginnings.
It can hardly be questioned but that partisan politics played some part
in the impeachment proceedings, as Justices Yeates, Shippen and Smith
belonged to the Federalist Party, and their impeachment would have made
three fine places for their opponents. It was ever thus.
A movement was started in 1805 by a faction of the Democratic Party for
revision of the Constitution. It grew out of the impeachment
proceedings, and the advocates of the measure proposed to make the
election of Senators annual, to reduce the patronage of the Governor and
to limit the tenure of the judiciary.
This new party assumed the name of “Constitutionalists,” while those
opposed styled themselves “Friends of the People.” The controversy for
some reason was carried on with much bitterness.
Governor McKean strongly opposed another constitutional convention, and
in a message expressed his views as follows:
“The organization of the judicial power of Pennsylvania has been long
and fairly condemned. But there is not a defect suggested from any
quarter which the Legislature is not competent to remedy. The authority
of the Judges may be restricted or enlarged. The law they dispense,
whether statute law or common law, may be annulled or modified. The
delay of justice may be obviated by increasing the number of judges in
proportion to the obvious increase of judicial business or by
instituting local tribunals, where local cases demand a more constant
exercise of jurisdiction.”
Although the constitutional convention was not held, the proposition
found many supporters in all parties. Under the changed conditions
McKean’s friends knew that Editor Duane’s influence would seek to defeat
his renomination for Governor if possible. The nomination for Governor
was then made by a legislative caucus.
The legislative nominating caucus at Lancaster dissolved in confusion.
Some were for McKean, while others equally enthusiastic were for Simon
Snyder, the speaker of the House. The “Freeman’s Journal” characterized
Snyder as a “Pennsylvania Dutchman” and intimated that even Duane in the
“Aurora” did not give him a very hearty support. The campaign was
spirited. Numerous societies were formed and addresses in German
broadcast.
Governor McKean was elected by 5601 majority and once more found himself
supported by those from whom he had broken away only a few years before.
The Constitutionalists soon disappeared from the political stage.
The re-election of the Governor was not without its losses, however, for
soon afterward he became involved in libel suits with Duane, Dr. Leib
and others, while they in the spirit of retaliation presented the
Governor for impeachment on charges of abuse of the executive power.
The impeachment proceedings were hardly more than a revival of the old
political troubles in which envy and jealousy played the leading roles.
The committee of the House investigated the charges and reported to the
House, when a vote was taken which resulted in a tie. The division was
strictly on party lines, and the matter was therefore indefinitely
postponed. The Governor’s reputation was in no wise injured in the
unfortunate action.
The Governor, in a message to the General Assembly, reminded the members
that “libeling had become the crying sin of the Nation and the times.”
He strongly denounced a condition which permitted the prostitution of
the liberty of the press, the overwhelming torrent of political
dissension, the indiscriminate demolition of public characters, and the
barbarous inroads upon the peace and happiness of individuals, etc.
----------
John Binns and Samuel Stewart Fight Last
Duel in Pennsylvania December
14, 1805
Dueling was prohibited by an act of Assembly in Pennsylvania March 31,
1806, and it is a fact that the passage of this prohibitory measure was
due wholly, or in a great degree, to a duel which had occurred between
John Binns and Samuel Stewart December 14, 1805.
The prominence of the antagonists had much to do with the public feeling
which followed this affair.
Binns was the owner and editor of the Republican Argus, of
Northumberland, the most influential newspaper published at that time in
the State save the Aurora, of Philadelphia, and Binns was the agency
which, a few years later, drove that paper out of publication.
Samuel Stewart was a resident of Williamsport, where he enjoyed a wide
political influence, which made him the object of attack in the
opposition newspapers.
John Binns in his autobiography says: “On Saturday, November 2, 1805,
while I was in the public ball alley, in Sunbury, with a yellow pine bat
in my right hand, tossing a ball against a wall, waiting for Major
Charles Maclay to play a game, a very tall, stout stranger came to me
and said:
“‘My name is Sam Stewart, of Lycoming County; your name, I understand,
is John Binns, and that you are the editor of the Republican Argus.’ I
answered: ‘You have been correctly informed,’ ‘I wish,’ said he, ‘to
know who is the author of the letters published in that paper signed
“One of the People.”' ‘For what purpose?’ said I. ‘Because,’ said he,
‘there are some remarks in one of them which reflect upon my character,
and I must know the author.’
“With this demand I declined to reply, but said: ‘If there be anything
in them untrue it shall be corrected.’ Stewart, who was standing at my
right side, instantly threw his left arm across my breast and with it
held both my arms tight above the elbows and at the same time threw his
right arm across the back of my head, violently pushing the end of his
forefinger into the corner of my right eye, evidently with intent to
tear it out of my head.
“Upon the instant I struck him, with all the strength I could command,
over the shin with the edge of the yellow pine bat, which I fortunately
had in my right hand. This severe blow made Stewart instantly snatch his
finger from my eye, and seizing me around the waist with both arms
lifted me from the ground and endeavored to throw me down.
“This attack and struggle took place in the ball alley of Henry
Schaffer, into whose hotel I went and wrote a note, which was handed to
Mr. Stewart forthwith by Major Maclay, Sunbury, November 2, 1805. ‘After
threatening me like a bravo, you have attacked me like a ruffian. Some
satisfaction ought to be rendered for such conduct. If you have the
spirit and the courage to meet me as a gentleman, and will appoint time
and place and meet me with pistols, accompanied by a friend, what has
passed shall be overlooked by John Binns.’
“To this note Mr. Stewart returned a verbal answer, by Major Maclay,
that he was going to the city, but would be back in two or three weeks,
when he would acquaint Mr. Binns of his arrival and give him time to
send to Buffalo (Union County) for Major Maclay, who, he presumed, would
attend Mr. Binns as his friend on the occasion.
“On the day of its date I received a note, of which the following is a
copy, from Andrew Kennedy, the printer of the Northumberland Gazette,
who informed me Mr. Stewart was at his house, and requested that any
answer I thought proper to send should be sent there.
“‘Northumberland, Dec. 13, 1805.
“‘When I received your challenge I was at that time on my way to the
city, and had it not in my power to meet you, but now I am here, ready
to see you. You will therefore, mention the time and place, and you will
have it in your power to try my spirits that you so much doubted; it
must be immediately; let me hear from you.'
“To this note I forthwith returned the following answer:
“‘Yours I have just received. You are aware that my friend Major Maclay
is to attend me; so soon as he arrives, I shall be ready; I shall send
for him immediately, and expect he will lose no time in coming to
Northumberland, in which case I presume every necessary arrangement can
be made between him and your friend this evening and we can meet
tomorrow morning.’
“Immediately after writing the above note, I wrapped a pair of pistols
in my great-coat pocket and walked about half a mile to the house of
William Bonham, where I had directed that my horse, and any answer sent
to my note, should be forwarded. While waiting at Bonham’s, Major Maclay
arrived. I made him a statement of all that had passed between Stewart
and myself, put him in full possession of my opinion and wishes, and he
went to Northumberland to settle the time and place.
“On Maclay’s return, he informed me that the meeting was to be at 7
o’clock the next morning behind Lawshe’s house, opposite Derrstown,
where we agreed to sleep that night.
“We were on the ground at 7 o’clock just at the gray of the morning. In
a few minutes, we saw Stewart and Kennedy coming down the lane. After
mutual salutations, Maclay and Kennedy then retired and after some
conversation, stepped eight paces and placed Stewart and myself at the
extreme ends of the line. Maclay then said: ‘Gentlemen, it is agreed
between Kennedy and myself, that if either of the parties shall leave
his ground until the affair is finally settled, such party shall be
regarded as disgraced.’
“The seconds then tossed up to determine which of whom should give the
word. Maclay won. The pistols were presented and discharged so
simultaneously that but one report was heard. Neither of the balls took
effect. Maclay then addressed Kennedy and said, ‘You had better consult
your principal, and I will do the same.’ Maclay’s first words to Binns
were, ‘Kennedy is a scoundrel. He is determined, if he can, to have you
shot.’ Binns said, ‘Very well, you know the terms agreed upon and we
will carry them out.’
“Mr. Maclay came between the antagonists and said, 'Gentlemen, I think
this business has gone far enough and may be amicably and honorably
adjusted. To effect this I propose that Mr. Stewart shall apologize for
the attack he made upon Mr. Binns, and then Mr. Binns declare that the
publication which gave offense to Mr. Stewart was not made from any wish
to wound the feelings or injuriously affect the character of Mr.
Stewart, but because Mr. Binns believed it to be true and that it was a
matter proper for public publication.’”
After a pause Mr. Stewart made the required apology and Binns made the
declaration which his friend proposed.
The matter being thus satisfactorily arranged, the parties shook hands
and at a tavern in the neighborhood they and their friends breakfasted
together. Stewart and Binns continued friends.
Stewart was elected to the Assembly from Lycoming County by the Federal
Party and every year voted for John Binns, then editor of the Democratic
Press, of Philadelphia, as a director of the Pennsylvania Bank.
----------
Pennsylvania Troops Mustered for Mexican
War, December 15, 1846
During the second year of Governor Francis R. Shunk’s administration the
war with Mexico was begun. Pennsylvania was authorized to furnish six
regiments of infantry. Two were mustered into the service, the first on
December 15, 1846, at Pittsburgh, under command of Colonel Wynkoop, the
second on January 5, 1847, also at Pittsburgh, under command of Colonel
Roberts, who was succeeded by Colonel Geary.
The gallant services of the troops on the fields of Mexico at Vera Cruz,
Cerro Gordo, Chepultepec and the City of Mexico, their bravery and
valor, secured the highest commendation of their venerated chieftain.
During Governor Shunk’s administration the economic condition of the
State was greatly improved. The financial storm was passed and men were
recovering from their reverses. Banks were clamoring for charters, but
the Governor limited the number and refused to sponsor the establishment
of a system of free banking, such as was in operation in several States.
It was during Governor Shunk’s term that the Legislature enacted the
first law extending to women the rights of property. There also was a
change made in the law relating to the separation of married persons.
In 1847, Governor Shunk was re-elected for a second term. Early in the
year 1848 he was attacked with a pulmonary trouble which soon assumed a
serious character. Just as the remnants of our brave and heroic troops
were returning from the battlefields of Mexico with their laurels,
Governor Shunk suffered a severe hemorrhage of the lungs, on the morning
of July 9. On that day, feeling that his days were numbered, the
Governor wrote a letter of resignation to the people of Pennsylvania and
a few days later, July 20, 1848, died. His body was laid to rest in the
old Lutheran burying ground at the Trappe.
Governor Shunk was succeeded by William Freame Johnston, the Speaker of
the Senate, according to the provisions of the Constitution, the vacancy
occurring three months before the general election. The Acting Governor
issued the necessary writs for the election of a Chief Magistrate, which
resulted in the election of Senator Johnston. The new Governor was a
native of Greensburg, Westmoreland County.
The attention of the Legislature having been called to the neglected and
suffering condition of the insane poor of the State, in 1844, there was
provision made for the establishment of an asylum to be located within
ten miles of the seat of Government. The citizens of Harrisburg, with
the aid of a liberal appropriation by Dauphin County, purchased a farm
adjoining that city, and in 1848, the commissioners appointed by the
State began the construction of the first building erected by the
Commonwealth for the reception and care of the indigent insane.
The Fugitive Slave Law was passed by Congress during Governor Johnston’s
administration, and the excitement incident to the return of fugitives
under it, soon became a subject of heated discussion. In 1851 a serious
riot occurred at Christiana, Lancaster County, and in other localities
the arrest of fugitive slaves led to bloodshed.
Under the administration of Governor Johnston, the records of the
Provincial and State Government, which had remained in single manuscript
copy in a very confused condition, were preserved.
In compliance with the Governor’s recommendation, an act was passed
authorizing the appointment of a suitable agent to select and
superintend their publication. Samuel Hazard, of Philadelphia, was
delegated, and under his supervision twenty-eight volumes of colonial
records and Pennsylvania archives, containing a vast amount of original
papers of incalculable value and interest were published.
They form almost complete details of the transactions of Government from
1682 to 1790, invaluable in their importance to a full comprehension of
the early history of Pennsylvania. The work has been continued and only
recently the seventh series of the Archives appeared.
In 1849 considerable excitement existed in Pittsburgh and in the western
part of the State, occasioned by the erection of a bridge over the Ohio
River at Wheeling, W. Va., which obstructed the river to navigation in
time of high water. Appeals for relief were made to the Legislature, and
to Congress, and finally to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Measures, however, were adopted which removed all objections.
Governor Johnston was renominated for a second term. His Democratic
opponent was William Bigler, of Clearfield. The campaign was unusually
spirited and was carried on vigorously from midsummer until the day of
the election in October. State questions were forgotten, the Fugitive
Slave law and slavery in the Territories now demanded universal
attention. Bigler was elected by a good majority, and was inaugurated
January 20, 1852.
By a remarkable coincidence his own election as Governor of Pennsylvania
was simultaneous with the election of his elder brother, John, also a
native of Pennsylvania, to the same dignity in the new State of
California.
Governor Bigler’s Administration is marked with stronger features than
any one of his immediate predecessors. Several very important measures
were adopted by the Legislature, the principle of which were the
establishing of the office of the County Superintendent of Common
Schools and the founding of the Pennsylvania Training School for
Feeble-Minded Children.
The completion of the Pennsylvania Railroad from Harrisburg to
Pittsburgh in February, 1854, added a powerful impulse to the
development of the resources of the State.
The County of Philadelphia was merged with the city February 2, 1854, a
measure of great importance, as it enlarged the sphere of municipal
action.
Governor Bigler urged the payment of the public debt, and used his great
influence in behalf of the public schools with beneficent results.
In March, 1854, Bigler was unanimously nominated for a second term and
immediately entered upon another hard campaign for re-election. Opposed
to him was James Pollock, of Milton, a man of rare culture and ability.
In the midst of the campaign Governor Bigler was stricken down with
sickness, and he lay ill at his home in Clearfield during most of the
canvass, thus being unable to stir up his followers by his personal
presence and earnestness. Pollock’s campaign was allied with the Native
American or Know-Nothing Party. He also was an active leader in the Free
Soil movement. Bigler had violently opposed the Know-Nothing Party from
its first organization, and his attitude toward the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
cost him many votes. As a result Pollock was elected Governor by a large
majority.
----------
General U. S. Grant Leaves Philadelphia on
Trip Around World, Arriving There on
Return December 16, 1879
There were several incidents in life of General Ulysses Simpson Grant
which are of especial interest to Pennsylvanians.
On June 10, 1865, he was tendered a formal reception at the Union League
Club house in Philadelphia, at which he was received with such
enthusiasm, the general was engaged more than three hours in shaking
hands with his visitors.
When the great fair was held at the Academy of Music, commencing October
23, 1865, to aid the Soldiers and Sailors’ Home, the inauguration
ceremonies were conducted by Lieutenant-General Grant, Major General
Meade, and Admiral Farragut, and an executive committee, including the
most distinguished officers and civilians.
As these three most distinguished officers appeared together, the entire
audience rose and saluted them with long continued applause. They each
made short addresses.
August 14, 1866, General Grant accompanied President Johnson and other
distinguished citizens to Philadelphia, where they were received by a
great procession of militia and firemen.
The burial of General George G. Meade at Laurel Hill, Philadelphia,
November 11, 1872, was the occasion of much mourning.
General Meade was the one conspicuous Philadelphian who stood out above
all other Pennsylvanians in the Civil War, and in the years after the
Rebellion he was an object of admiration to all the people. His death
was regarded as a genuine public loss, and his funeral was attended with
most impressive ceremonies.
The procession contained many of the greatest soldiers and civilians in
the country, chiefest among whom was General Grant, President of the
United States.
On December 18, 1875, President Grant, members of his cabinet and a
large number of senators and representatives in Congress made a trip to
Philadelphia to inspect the Centennial buildings, then nearly completed.
They were entertained at a sumptuous banquet in Horticultural Hall, at
which President Grant delivered the principal address.
President Grant was the guest of honor at the opening of the great
exhibition, May 10, 1876, when simple but appropriate exercises were
held. Four thousand soldiers escorted the President to the grounds. One
hundred and fifty thousand people acclaimed the President and the
Centennial Exposition.
On May 15, 1877, ex-President Grant started on his memorable trip around
the world.
He sailed from the port of Philadelphia in the ship “Indiana.” His
departure attracted much attention, and on the day previous he had held
a public reception in Independence Hall.
He was accompanied down the Delaware River on the steamboat “Twilight”
by a crowd of distinguished citizens, among whom were General Sherman,
Senator Zachariah Chandler, Senator Simon Cameron, and others prominent
in State and Nation.
He was accompanied by his wife and one son, and they made a tour of the
whole civilized world, visiting especially the great countries of Europe
and Asia, and receiving, as a soldier and civilian and the first citizen
of the United States, all the honor which rulers and people could
bestow. As the unofficial representative of his country, his bearing was
such as to win universal admiration and respect.
When he arrived in the Mersey River, England, the ships of all nations
gathered there displayed their flags to greet him.
In England a grand reception was accorded him in every city he visited.
He was received by Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales in London, and
later visited the Queen in Windsor Castle.
After visiting the other countries of Europe and being entertained by
all the crowned heads, the United States man-of-war “Vandalia” was
placed at his service and on board her he made a cruise of the
Mediterranean Sea.
He then visited Bombay and Calcutta in India, Hong Kong, Canton and
Peking in China, and finally Japan.
On September 20, 1879, he arrived at San Francisco, where a magnificent
demonstration was made in his honor, and during his route East, across
the United States, he was given public receptions and greeted with every
mark of honor wherever he stopped.
His circuit around the world was accomplished in two years and seven
months, and when he arrived back in Philadelphia, December 16, 1879, on
the Pennsylvania Railroad, a great procession awaited him. All business
was suspended by general consent.
The decorations along the route of the parade were unprecedented in
number, variety and costliness.
The procession under the marshalship of Colonel A. Loudon Snowden, took
nearly half the day in passing a given point, and it is supposed that
hardly less than 40,000 men were in line.
For several days and nights the ex-President and great general had
hardly any time that he could call his own; receptions, entertainments,
banquets, and other methods of welcome and hospitality being kept up in
rapid succession.
He was placed on the retired list of the army by a special act of
Congress, March, 1884, with the rank and pay of General.
During the last few months of his life he wrote his “Memoirs,” which was
published soon after his death, which occurred on Mount McGregor, near
Saratoga, N. Y., July 23, 1885.
His body found its final resting place in a magnificent mausoleum in
Riverside Park, New York City, overlooking the Hudson River.
----------
Shikellamy, Vicegerent of Six Nations, Died
in Shamokin, December 17, 1748
Shikellamy is the most picturesque and historic Indian character who
ever lived in Pennsylvania. His early life is shrouded in mystery.
It has been claimed that he was a Susquehannock by birth, but others
claim his father was a Frenchman. John Bartram, who accompanied Conrad
Weiser and Lewis Evans to Onondaga in 1743, wrote of Shikellamy in his
journal: “July 10, 1743—He was of the Six Nations, or rather a Frenchman
born at Montreal, and adopted by the Oneidoes after being taken a
prisoner, but his son told me that he (the son) was of the Cayuga
Nations.”
Dr. Crantz, in the “History of the Brethren,” 1768, writes of
Shikellamy:
“When he was spoken to concerning baptism, he said he had been baptized
in infancy. We were informed afterward that he was born of European
parents in French Canada, taken prisoner when a child two years old and
brought up among the Indians. He was so much altered in his way of life
that he was hardly distinguished from other savages.”
His name, according to Dr. George P. Donehoo, State Librarian and an
eminent authority on the Indians of Pennsylvania, is a much corrupted
form of the Oneida chieftain title, Ongwaternohiat-he, meaning, “It has
caused the sky to be light for us.” The other name, Swataney, is a
corrupt form of Onkhiswathe-tani, “He causes it to be light for us.”
The official spelling of the name is Skikellamy.
He was early trained in war, and for his valor was rewarded by adoption
into the Oneida tribe, of which he eventually became the chief, an
exceptional distinction for one not a member of the tribe and possibly
not a full-blooded Indian by birth. It is not probable that he was
appointed vicegerent before 1728. He was not present at the treaty with
the Five Nations in Philadelphia in July of the preceding year, and
James Le Tort does not mention him among the Indians of consequence whom
he met “on the upper parts of the River Susquehanna” in the winter of
1727–28.
The first conference that he attended in Philadelphia was that of July
4–5, 1728, but it does not appear that he took any part in the
proceedings. He was present on a similar occasion in the following
October, when, after the close of the conference, the Council considered
“what present might be proper to be made to Shikellamy, of the Five
Nations, appointed to reside among the Shawnese, whose services had been
and may yet further be of great advantage to this Government.”
At the close of a conference several years later, the Governor having
represented that Shikellamy was “a trusty good man and a great lover of
the English,” commissioned him as a bearer of a present to the Six
Nations and a message inviting them to visit Philadelphia. This they
accordingly accepted, arriving August 18, 1732.
Shikellamy was present on this occasion and he and Conrad Weiser were
employed to transact business between the Indians and the Provincial
Government. He was a great friend of James Logan, and named one of his
sons after this popular provincial officer.
In August, 1740, he went to Philadelphia to inquire against whom the
British were making preparations for war, rumors of which had reached
the great council at Onondaga. He was also present at the conference in
Philadelphia July, 1742, at the treaty in Lancaster in June and July,
1744, and at Philadelphia conference in the following August. On April,
1748, accompanied by his son and Conrad Weiser, he visited Philadelphia
for the last time, but no business of a public nature was transacted.
One of the chief facts of his life as vicegerent of the Iroquois
confederation was his great friendliness to the cause of the Moravian
missionaries among the Indians. All the prominent leaders of the
Moravian Church who came to the Susquehanna region, visited him at his
home at Shamokin, and were kindly received. Count Zinzindorf was among
these and none was more favorably impressed with the old Oneida
diplomat. His journal for September 22, 1742, reads:
“He was truly an excellent and good man, possessed of many noble
qualities of mind, that would do honor to many white men, laying claims
to refinement and intelligence. He was possessed of great dignity,
sobriety and prudence, and was particularly noted for his extreme
kindness to the inhabitants with whom he came in contact.”
Loskiel, who knew him well, thus speaks of him: “Being the first
magistrate, and head chief of all the Iroquois Indians living on the
banks of the Susquehanna, as far as Onondaga, he thought it incumbent
upon him to be very circumspect in his dealings with the white people.
He assisted the missionaries in building, and defended them against the
insults of the drunken Indians; being himself never addicted to
drinking, because, as he expressed it, he never wished to become a
fool.”
He had built his house upon pillars, for safety, in which he always shut
himself up when any drunken frolic was going on in the village.
He had been taken ill on a trip to Philadelphia, but so far recovered
that he had visited Conrad Weiser at Tulpehocken, April, 1748, and
completed the trip to Philadelphia.
He was again taken ill upon his return to Shamokin, and, in June,
Council was advised he was so ill that he might lose his eyesight, but
he recovered sufficiently to make a trip to Bethlehem early in December.
On his return he became so ill that he only reached his home by the
assistance of Bishop Zeisberger.
His death occurred December 17, 1748, and was extremely pathetic. His
daughter and the Reverend David Zeisberger were with him during his last
illness and death.
Bishop Zeisberger and Henry Fry made him a coffin, and the Indians
painted the body in their gayest colors, bedecked it with his choicest
ornaments, and placed with him his weapons, according to Indian custom.
Then after Christian rites conducted by the good Bishop, he was buried
in the Indian burying ground of his people, near the site of old Fort
Augusta, in the present Sunbury.
Shikellamy left to mourn him three sons and a daughter. Another son,
Unhappy Jake, was killed in the war with the Catawba in 1743. The three
sons who survived were Taghneghdoarus, also known as John Shikellamy,
who succeeded his distinguished father in authority, but never gained
the confidence in which he was held by Indians or whites; Tahgahjute or
Sayughtowa, better known as James Logan, the most celebrated of the
children of Shikellamy, and John Petty. His daughter was the widow of
Cajadies, the “best hunter among all the Indians,” who died in November,
1747.
After the death of Shikellamy, Shamokin declined as a center of Indian
affairs. His death was the beginning of evil days. His son
Taghneghdoarus was made chief, but was unable to restrain his people.
----------
Barbara Frietchie, Native of Pennsylvania,
Died December 18, 1862
Where is the person who has not been thrilled with the reading or
recitation of John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem, “Barbara Frietchie?”
It is even doubtful if the Massachusetts Quaker poet realized how famous
he was going to make the venerable Barbara, and himself, when he penned
his immortal poem. But there are few persons of the present generation
who know anything about the personal side of Barbara Frietchie.
This patriot was born in Lancaster County, Pa., December 3, 1766, when
George Washington was a young man of thirty-four. She was the third
daughter of John Niclaus Hauer and Catherine Zeiler Hauer, who were both
born in Germany. In 1753 they emigrated to America.
When Barbara was two years old her parents moved to Frederick, Md., then
a long distance away. The trip was made in old-fashioned ox carts.
This noted woman was born during patriotic times. The hated Stamp Act
had just been repealed. In fact, Frederick County, in 1765, was the
first to officially protest against it.
It is said of Barbara that she met many of the patriots of that day, and
when she was twenty-five years old she had the pleasure of conversing
with George Washington.
This event occurred one afternoon in 1791 at Kimball’s Tavern, now the
City Hall of Frederick.
A number of ladies were participating in a quilting bee, when a
messenger leaped from his horse in front of the hotel and announced that
President Washington would soon arrive and intended to pass the night at
the tavern.
This unusual news broke up the party, and the ladies turned in to assist
in preparing for the reception to the great Washington.
The tavern did not possess a suitable coffee urn, and Barbara Hauer
hurried to her home and returned with her choice Liverpool coffee pot, a
precious heirloom in the family.
Barbara was the one who was specially assigned to look after the
personal comfort of the President, and her pretty face, pleasant manners
and vivacious spirit greatly pleased the first President of the United
States.
After supper he gave Barbara a beautiful china bowl, which he was
carrying to Mount Vernon in his traveling bag. Nothing that she
possessed in after life did she prize so highly as this precious gift.
The beginning of the one romance of her life happened in an unusually
strange manner. When she was fourteen years old, Barbara accompanied her
mother to a quilting party, where all sorts of things and events of that
period were discussed, from parson to pig butchering, petticoats,
pumpkin pies, sickness, deaths and births. One old maiden lady coyly
announced that Mr. and Mrs. Casper Frietchie had that day been presented
with a fine baby boy. None present ventured the prediction that some day
little Barbara would become the bride of this little John Casper
Frietchie, but nevertheless, twenty-six years later, May 6, 1806, that
is just what happened.
Despite the somewhat unusual difference in their ages, they lived
happily throughout their married life. It is claimed their home was one
of the most popular in Frederick.
Young Frietchie was the proud proprietor of a prosperous glove factory
and he enjoyed a fair income.
Besides taking much pride in her housekeeping Barbara Frietchie was a
great reader and kept herself well informed upon subjects of that
period.
The Frietchies had no children of their own, but adopted Catharine
Stover, a niece of Mrs. Frietchie, who lived with them until she was
married in 1825.
Mr. Frietchie died after a very short illness in 1849. Mrs. Frietchie
continued to reside in their old home, where she devoted her time to her
flowers, garden and the entertainment of her young relatives.
At the breaking out of the Civil War, Barbara Frietchie was one of
Abraham Lincoln’s most loyal supporters.
The story of the flag-waving incident which resulted in Whittier’s poem
is heard in different ways, but it is a fact that the geographical
location of Frederick caused it to figure conspicuously in the movements
of both armies.
Sentiment was naturally divided, there being a strong feeling both for
and against the Union. It was a trying time, but the real bitterness of
the war came toward the close of the summer of 1862.
The Confederate forces had crossed the Potomac and entered Maryland on
September 5. The main body encamped at Frederick Junction, three miles
south of Frederick, but a large portion of the army marched through the
city on September 6 and went into camp.
The next morning (Sunday), while his troops lay resting General
“Stonewall” Jackson took advantage of the opportunity to attend divine
worship.
Early on the morning of the 10th the army broke camp and moved westward,
going out West Patrick street, passing the home of Barbara Frietchie. It
was at this time the flag incident occurred.
The venerable patriot hearing the troops were approaching, took her silk
flag from between the leaves of the old family Bible, and stepped out on
her front porch, thinking they were Union soldiers. Immediately an
officer rode up, saying: “Granny, give me your flag.” “You can’t have
it,” she said, and then she noticed the gray uniforms, but she continued
to wave the flag.
The officer spoke to his men, and they turned facing her. She thought
they intended to fire on her, but, instead, the officer rode off a short
distance to Mill Alley, and returned in a moment with another officer
and some soldiers.
This officer said to her: “Give me your flag, Granny, and I'll stick it
in my horse’s head.” “No, you can’t have it,” she said. One of the men
then called out, “Shoot her damned head off.”
The officer turned angrily upon him, saying: “If you harm a hair of her
head, I'll shoot you down like a dog.” Then turning to the trembling old
lady, he said: “Go on, Granny, wave your flag as much as you please.”
This version of the affair was related by Barbara Frietchie to her niece
who was visiting her, some time after the incident. It is also said that
this account has been certified by Confederate soldiers, who also stated
that the episode was talked about by the troops all through the lines.
McClellan’s army followed closely and none gave them a more joyous
welcome than dame Barbara, who, with her silk flag in hand, stood at her
front window. She attracted much attention, many soldiers going from the
ranks to speak to her.
Mrs. Frietchie did not live to see the victorious end of the Civil War.
Shortly after the celebration of her ninety-sixth birthday, on December
3, 1862, she was stricken with pneumonia and died December 18, 1862. Her
body was tenderly carried to the churchyard and placed by the side of
her husband.
May 30, 1913, the bodies of Barbara and her husband were reinterred in
Mount Olivet Cemetery at Frederick. On September 9, 1914, an artistic
monument in honor of the famous woman was unveiled upon which is a large
tablet bearing the words of Whittier’s poem, “Barbara Frietchie.”
----------
Thaddeus Stevens Inquiry of Masonry and
Odd Fellowship Began December
19, 1835
At the gubernatorial election in October, 1835, owing to an unfortunate
defection in the Democratic ranks whereby there were two nominees for
that office, Governor George Wolf and Henry A. Muhlenberg, Joseph Ritner
was elected to the highest office of the State by a minority vote.
In possession of both the executive and legislative branches of the
State Government, the Anti-Masons were determined to carry out various
measures with a high hand.
No sooner did the session of the Legislature open in December following
than did Thaddeus Stevens, bring in a bill entitled: “An act to suppress
secret societies, bound together by secret and unlawful oaths,” while
both houses were deluged with petitions “praying God an investigation
into the evils of Freemasonry.”
On December 15, the oath of office was administered to Governor Ritner,
after which he addressed the members of both House and Senate. In this
inaugural he used the following:
“The supremacy of the laws, and the equal rights of the people, whether
threatened or assailed by individuals or by secret sworn associations, I
shall, so far as may be compatible with the constitutional powers of the
executive, endeavor to maintain, as well in compliance with the known
will of the people, as from obligations of duty to the Commonwealth.
“In these endeavors I shall entertain no doubt of zealous cooperation by
the enlightened and patriotic Legislature of the State. The people have
willed the destruction of all secret bodies, and that will cannot be
disregarded.”
Four days later, December 19, on motion of Mr. Stevens himself, all the
petitions were referred to a committee consisting of “Messrs. Stevens,
Cox, Huston (of Fayette) Spackman and Frew, with power to send for
persons and papers.”
On the same day this committee organized and prepared a series of eleven
questions which were to be put to each person brought before the
committee. The questions were intended to establish the fact of
membership in Free Masonry or Odd Fellowship and whether or not such
witness could repeat the several oaths of the society to which he
belonged.
This “Inquisition” held its first meeting December 23, 1835. To this
star chamber they obtained the evidence of a man named Shed, who had
been imported for the purpose from the State of Ohio. He seems to have
resided in several States, and to have arrived at Fort Niagara about the
time of Captain Morgan’s abduction, learned all about it, and was
acquainted with the scoundrel Giddings, who, if his story was true, as
well as Shed’s, ought to have been hanged with him. If not true, they
were perjured villains. But the High Court of Inquisition was not after
martyrs, it was wire-pulling in other directions.
A large number of prominent Masons, and citizens, were brought before
the committee, among them being ex-Governor Wolf, Francis R. Shunk,
George M. Dallas, Chief Justice Gibson, Josiah Randall, Samuel H.
Perkins, Joseph R. Chandler, and the Reverend William T. Sproul. They
invariably declined being qualified, or answering any questions
propounded by Mr. Stevens, and for their refusal to so testify, several
of the gentlemen were brought to the bar of the House, but nothing more
was done to any of them.
Mr. Stevens was obliged to depend for witnesses upon seceding Masons,
imported from Massachusetts, New York and Northern Pennsylvania. Their
evidence, however, was only a rehash of Morgan and his successor,
Bernard, in their so-called “Revelations of the Doings of Freemasonry
and Odd Fellowship.”
Mr. Stevens, unfortunately, could not control his temper, and in the
case of Rev. Mr. Sproul, when that gentleman, in reading his protest,
came to the expression, “Gentlemen, if you are willing to convert
yourselves into a modern Juggernaut, then roll on,” “Stop,” thundered
the chairman of the “inquisition,” white with wrath and further reading
was dispensed with.
Governor Wolf, in his letter to the committee, wrote:
“The Constitution is explicit and declaratory of the personal security
of the people, and is the precious repository of the privileges of the
freemen of this Commonwealth which never shall have a wound inflicted
upon its sacred reservations, through any person, without a solemn
asseveration of its principles.
“What article of the Constitution clothes the House with power to
institute such an investigation? What article of the venerated
instrument forbids the people from associating together in pursuit of
their own happiness? If the association is criminal, or in violation of
any principle of the Constitution or laws, the mode and manner of
suppressing the unlawful combination must be in accordance with the
Constitution and laws.
“I have yet to learn that an inquisition at whose shrine the rights and
liberties of the citizens are to be invaded, is authorized by the
principles of our institutions; or that any power exists by which a
citizen can be coerced to give testimony before any tribunal, or for any
object other than the investigation of matters at issue, affecting the
rights of persons or of things.”
An incident occurred about this period which fully exemplified to what
length the enemies of Freemasonry would go. All sorts of crimes or
collusions with crimes were imputed to the craft. Everything that was
vile was blamed upon the fraternity.
A murder was committed between Middletown and Hummelstown. Female
apparel was found which was recognized as belonging to Sophia Garman,
who was missing from her home. Search was made, and some one discovered
where the earth had been recently disturbed in the center of which was a
branch of a spruce or cedar tree. An investigation resulted in finding
the body of the murdered girl.
The people who had been reading everything anti-Masonic at once jumped
to the conclusion that this was the work of one who was a Mason. An
individual who was last seen with the unfortunate girl was arrested and
it was broadcasted that he was a member of Perseverance Lodge, No. 21,
Free and Accepted Masons, of Harrisburg. His name was Tom McHenry.
In the course of events, there not being the least evidence upon which
to convict him, the accused was declared not guilty.
The outside conclusion then was that the jury must have been composed of
Masons and the result could not be otherwise.
The fact is that McHenry was not a Mason nor was a single member of the
jury which tried him.
The Stevens investigation continued for nearly a month and ended in
nothing.
The men whom the committee tried to impanel would not testify; those who
did were pretended renouncers of Masonry. Concerning the real motive of
Stevens public opinion was divided.
Stevens would have resorted to strong measures to compel witnesses to
testify if he had not seen that the tide of public opinion was turning
against the inquiry. To preserve appearances a lengthy report was
submitted and adopted.
----------
Storm Stops French Refugees in Settlement
Work December 20, 1793
Frenchtown, or Asylum, was the name of a settlement founded in
Northumberland County (now Bradford) in 1793, by French refugees as the
residence of the doomed Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. But the
Terrorists prevented her ever seeing America.
During the French Revolution, when many of the Frenchmen fled from their
homes, not a few sought refuge in San Domingo, and those jumped from the
frying pan into the fire. The Negro slaves soon heard of the success of
the Revolution in France and revolted against their masters. That bloody
conflict was termed the “Horrors of San Domingo.” Many of the French
exiles came to America and took up their residence in Philadelphia,
where they were cordially welcomed.
So great was the number of refugees it was deemed necessary that some
provision should be made for their settlement as a colony.
The two most active and influential promoters of the colony scheme were
Viscount Louis Marie de Noailles and the Marquis Antoine Omer Talon. The
former was a distinguished military officer under Rochambeau in the
siege of Yorktown, Va., where he commanded a regiment. He was one of the
Commissioners to arrange the articles of capitulation for the surrender
of Cornwallis. He was a brother-in-law of Lafayette.
Marquis Talon belonged to one of the most illustrious families of the
French magistracy. He was Advocate General when the Revolution broke
out. In 1790 he was compromised in the flight of the King, Louis XVII,
and was arrested and imprisoned for a time. He fled to Marseilles, where
a wine merchant, Bartholomew Laporte, placed him in a large wine cask
and carried him aboard a vessel sailing for America.
Laporte sailed with Talon and they became citizens of the United States.
The borough of Laporte takes its name from Judge John Laporte, son of
the early immigrant.
The refugees organized a company, and M. Charles Felix Beu Boulogne, and
Adam Hoopes were delegated to select a site. They proceeded to
Wilkes-Barre, where they arrived August 27, 1793. Judge Matthais
Hollenback accepted their letter of credit from Robert Morris.
They examined several localities, and finally selected the Schufeldt
Flats, now called Frenchtown, in the Township of Asylum, nearly opposite
Rummerfield station, in Bradford County.
About the middle of November, M. de Noailles, who continued to reside in
Philadelphia, visited the place which took the name of Asylum, or
“Azilum,” as the French pronounced it. The plan of settlement was
determined, and the town surveyed into lots.
The tract consists of 2400 acres and, in addition, the Asylum Company
had secured title to a number of tracts of “wild land,” as it was
termed, in the present Counties of Bradford, Sullivan, Lycoming and
Luzerne, which were sold on liberal terms to actual settlers. The town,
as laid out, contained, besides an open square and fine wide streets,
413 house lots of an acre each.
M. Boulogne bent every energy to get the houses ready for the colonists
in the early spring, and was favored with mild weather until five days
before Christmas, when the weather became stormy. The work, which was
suspended December 20, was resumed in the spring. The emigrants then
began to arrive. They traveled by land to Catawissa, thence in boats up
the river.
The houses were built of hewn logs two stories high, roofed with pine
shingles, and all houses had a good cellar. To the native Americans
these houses looked like palaces.
The house built by M. Talon was the most pretentious, and is said to be
the largest log house ever built in America. It was known as “La Grande
Maison,” or the great house. This house stood until 1846, when it was
torn down.
M. Talon, who was general manager, planned improvements on a large
scale. He built a horsepower grist mill, several stores, a tavern, for
which a license was granted in August, 1794, to Mr. Lefevre. A small
Catholic chapel was erected, and later a theatre was built. They set up
a bakery and built a brewery. A post was established with Philadelphia.
Most of the emigrants had been wealthy, and some of them members of the
royal household, entirely ignorant of farming and unused to manual
labor, found great difficulty in adapting themselves to their new
conditions. Yet they endured their privations with great fortitude.
The continuance of the Asylum settlement was less than ten years, but
the Frenchmen set their Pennsylvania neighbors the example of better
houses and roads, better gardens and orchards and courteous manners.
Robespierre issued a decree commanding all emigrants to return to France
under penalty of having their estates confiscated. When the strong hand
of Napoleon assumed power, all Frenchmen were invited to return. This
was joyous news at Asylum, and they returned to their beloved France as
soon as they could dispose of their property, until only two remained.
In 1796 Asylum consisted of about fifty log houses occupied by about
forty families. Among the most noted, besides those already mentioned,
were M. De Blacons, a member of the French Constituent Assembly from
Dauphine; M. Le Montule, a captain of a troop of horse; M. Beaulieu, a
captain of infantry in the French service, who served in the Revolution
in this country under Potosky; Dr. Buzzard a planter from San Domingo,
and M. Dandelot, an officer in the French Infantry.
But perhaps the best known of all, at least in this country, was M.
Dupretit-Thouars, or as he was generally called by the Americans, the
Admiral. Wrecked while on a voyage in search of La Perouse, he reached
Asylum destitute of everything but an unfaltering courage, a genial
temper and the chivalrous pride of a Frenchman.
Disdaining to be a pensioner on the bounty of his countrymen he obtained
a grant of four hundred acres in the dense wilderness of what is now
Sullivan County, and went out literally single-handed, having lost an
arm in the French naval service, commenced a clearing, built himself a
house, returning to Asylum once a week for necessary food and change of
apparel.
He returned to his native country, obtained a position in the navy,
saying he had yet another arm to give to France. He was placed in
command of the ship Le Tonnant and was killed in the battle of the Nile.
The borough of Dushore, which includes the clearings of this indomitable
Frenchman, was named in honor of him this being nearly the Anglicised
pronunciation of his name.
During the continuance of the settlement, it was visited by many very
distinguished personages who since obtained a world-wide reputation.
Louis Philippe, a future King of France, spent several weeks at Asylum
enjoying the hospitality of M. Antoine Talon. In 1795 Talleyrand spent
some time there and Count de la Rochefoucauld de Laincourt was several
days at Asylum while on his journey through the States in 1795–6.
Another notable visitor was Mrs. Blennerhassett the charming woman who
figured in Aaron Burr’s conspiracy.
----------
General Thomas Mifflin Inaugurated First
Governor of Pennsylvania December
21, 1790
The inauguration of the first Governor of the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania took place December 21, 1790, when Hon. Thomas Mifflin was
inducted into office amid all the splendor of that now distant day.
The transfer of the present State of Pennsylvania from a feudal province
to a sovereign State was effected by the promulgation on September 28,
1776, of the first Constitution. This was so thoroughly revolutionary
that it was never fully approved of by the people of the State.
The Council of Censors, to which was delegated important duties, met for
its only meeting, November 10, 1783. This body discussed various
amendments and strong differences of opinion were manifested. They sat
eight months and then recommended a continuance of the present form of
government.
They said: “Give it a fair and honest trial, and if after all, at the
end of another seven years (the time when this Council of Censors would
again meet), it shall be found necessary or proper to cause 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.”
Nevertheless the Constitution of 1776 proved inadequate for the
requirements of a useful and an effective government, and its revision
was imperatively demanded. The newspapers, from the close of the
Revolution for a period of six years are filled with elaborate
communications in favor of, and opposed to, any change. The adoption of
the Federal Constitution in 1787, however, and its successful working,
impressed the people that some revisions should be made in the
Constitution of the State.
The resolutions of the Assembly were adopted by the electorate and the
convention called, and organized with General Thomas Mifflin as
president. After a long session, the new instrument was adopted
September 2, 1790, and then by the people.
The personnel of the Constitutional Convention of 1790 was one of
unusual ability. Thomas Mifflin, soon to be elected the first Governor
under its provisions; James Wilson and William Lewis, two of the most
noted lawyers of that time; Thomas McKean, the second; Simon Snyder, of
Northumberland County; William Findlay, of Westmoreland County, and
Joseph Heister, of Berks County, each of whom filled in their turn the
gubernatorial office, were members of this body. General William Irvine,
of Carlisle; General John Gibson, of Allegheny County, and Colonel Jacob
Cook, of Lancaster, all of Revolutionary fame, and Robert Whitehill, of
Dauphin County. Charles Smith, author of “Smith’s Laws,” was Simon
Snyder’s colleague from Northumberland County.
Of the seventy-one persons who composed this illustrious body there was
not one who had not taken a prominent part in public affairs during the
struggle for liberty. It was a body of intellectual men, such as any
Commonwealth could be justly proud.
At the election in October, 1790, General Thomas Mifflin and General
Arthur St. Clair were the opposing candidates for Governor. The vote in
the State for Mifflin was 27,118, and for St. Clair 2819. Under the
Constitution the General Assembly met on the first Tuesday in December,
when the Senate and House promptly organized and a committee of
conference was appointed by both houses to consider and report a time,
place and manner in which the election of Governor should be published,
notified and proclaimed, and the oath prescribed by the Constitution
administered to the Governor.
On Friday, December 17, the House of Representatives attended in the
Senate chamber, where Richard Peters, Speaker of the House, was seated
on the right of William Bingham, Speaker of the Senate. The returns of
the election for Governor were opened, when Thomas Mifflin was declared
duly chosen Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
On the morning of December 21, 1790, after the members of the Senate and
House had assembled in the Senate chamber, the Speaker of the Senate
informed both houses that according to their order the certificate of
the election of the Governor was recorded in the rolls office of this
Commonwealth, whereupon the committee of both houses of the Legislature,
three representing the Senate and three representing the House of
Representatives, waited upon the Governor-elect and at the hour of 12:30
introduced Thomas Mifflin into the Senate chamber and he was seated in
front of the Speakers.
The Chief Justice, the Hon. Thomas McKean, in solemn form administered
to Mr. Mifflin the oath required by the Constitution of the Commonwealth
and also the oath required by the Constitution of the United States,
which said oaths the Governor-elect took, and subscribed in the Senate
chamber, and Speaker and members of the House of Representatives and the
Governor then withdrew from the Senate chamber in order to proceed to
the court house on High Street, agreeably to the following order of
procession:
Constables with their staffs; sub-sheriffs with their wands; High
Sheriff and Coroner with their wands; Judges of the Supreme Court and
Judge of the High Court of Errors and Appeals; Attorney General and
Prothonotary of the Supreme Court; wardens of the Port of Philadelphia;
Treasurer, Comptroller and Register General; Secretary of the Land
Office; Receiver General and Surveyor General; justices of the peace;
Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas and clerk of the Court of
Quarter Sessions; clerk of the Mayor’s court and the corporation; Mayor,
Recorder and aldermen; Common Council, two and two; Master of the Rolls
and Register of Wills; Register of German Passengers and Collector of
Excise in the City and County of Philadelphia; assistant secretary of
Council, members of Council, two and two; the Governor-elect;
sergeant-at-arms of the Senate; clerk of the Senate; Speaker of the
Senate; members of the Senate, two and two; doorkeeper of the Senate;
sergeant-at-arms of the House of Representatives; assistant clerk;
clerk; members, two and two; doorkeeper; provost and faculty of the
University, two and two; officers of the militia; citizens.
Arriving at the court house, the certificate of the election of the
Governor was read by the clerk of the Senate, when the official
proclamation was thrice made by the clerk of the court declaring Thomas
Mifflin Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and
commander-in-chief of the army and navy thereof. This being done, the
procession reformed, returning to the Senate chamber. The Governor then
delivered his inaugural address.
On the days following various bodies of tradesmen and society
organizations waited upon the Governor and tendered their
congratulations, and upon the first day of January following, City
Councils, with the Mayor and Recorder, waited upon his Excellency and
formally congratulated him on his accession to his high office.
----------
First Newspaper in Pennsylvania Published
December 22, 1719
The first newspaper published in Pennsylvania was entitled the American
Weekly Mercury, and was established by Andrew Bradford, at Philadelphia,
and sold by John Copsom. The initial number appeared December 22, 1719.
The Mercury was published weekly, generally on Tuesday, but the day of
publication varied.
Andrew Bradford died November 23, 1742; and the next number of the
Mercury, dated December 2, appeared in mourning.
The widow, Cornelia Bradford, took into partnership Isaiah Warner in
March, 1742, and they continued to publish the Mercury until October 18,
1744, when Cornelia Bradford resumed the publication alone, and until
the end of 1746, when it was discontinued.
The second newspaper established in the Province was the Universal
Instructor in All Arts and Science; and Pennsylvania Gazette, which
continued in publication for many years, becoming the oldest newspaper
in the United States a half century after its establishment.
This newspaper first appeared December 24, 1728, and was edited by
Samuel Keimer, and printed on a small sheet, pot size folio, 15½ by 12½
inches.
Benjamin Franklin soon after he began business formed the design of
publishing a newspaper, but was prevented by the sudden appearance of
this Gazette, and was so greatly disappointed that he used his endeavors
to bring it into contempt. In this he was successful, and Keimer was
soon obliged to relinquish it, for a trifling consideration, and
Franklin purchased the good will and fixtures.
At this time Franklin was in partnership with Hugh Meredith. The first
part of the title was soon dropped and the paper was called the
Pennsylvania Gazette. It soon gained reputation, and when Franklin
became postmaster the Gazette enjoyed a wide circulation and liberal
advertising patronage.
The partnership was dissolved in 1732, and Franklin in 1748 took into
partnership David Hall.
On May 9, 1754, the device of a snake divided into parts, with the
motto—“Join or Die,” appeared in this paper. It accompanied an account
of the French and Indians having killed and scalped many inhabitants
along the frontiers. The account was published with this device, with a
view to rouse the British Colonies and cause them to unite in effectual
measures for their defense and security against common enemy.
The snake was divided into eight parts to represent first New England;
second, New York; third, New Jersey; fourth, Pennsylvania; fifth,
Maryland; sixth, Virginia; seventh, North Carolina, and eighth, South
Carolina.
The Gazette put on mourning October 31, 1765, on account of the Stamp
Act, passed by the British Parliament, which was to take effect the next
day. From that time until November 21 following the publication of it
was suspended.
In the interim, large handbills, as substitutes, were published. When
revived, it was published without an imprint until February 6, 1766,
when it then appeared with the name of David Hall, only, who now became
the proprietor and the printer of it.
In May, 1766, it was published by Hall and Sellers, who continued it
until 1777; but on the approach of the British Army, the publishers
retired from Philadelphia and the publication was suspended while the
British possessed the city.
On the evacuation of Philadelphia, the Gazette was again revived, and
published once a week until the death of Sellers in 1804. After this
event, it was printed by William and David Hall, then later by Hall and
Pierre. When the Gazette observed its centennial of publication, a
grandson of David and son of William Hall was the publisher.
The next newspaper to be established in Pennsylvania was the
Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser, which made its initial bow
to the public, Tuesday, December 2, 1742. Its publisher was William
Bradford.
In 1776, William and Thomas Bradford were the publishers and, like the
Gazette, suspended publication during the British occupancy of
Philadelphia, but it was revived soon afterward.
A newspaper in the German language was published in Philadelphia as
early as May, 1743, by Joseph Crellius. It was called the “High Dutch
Pennsylvania Journal.”
In September, 1751, the “Dutch and English Gazette” was published in the
two languages “at the German Printing Office,” in Arch Street, by
Gotthan Armbruster.
Der Wochentliche Philadelphische Staatsbote was first printed in the
German language in January, 1762, by Henry Miller. This was a successful
newspaper. It continued until 1779.
Two papers printed in German were published in Germantown, one by
Christopher Sower, in 1739, called the Pennsylvania German Recorder of
Events. This was discontinued in 1744, when Christopher Sower, Jr.,
began the publication of the Germantown Zeitung, and continued until the
Revolutionary War.
The Pennsylvania Chronicle and Universal Advertiser made its appearance
Monday, January 6, 1767. It was published by William Goddard.
This was the fourth paper in the English language established in
Philadelphia and the first one with four columns to the page, printed in
all the colonies. Joseph Galloway and Thomas Wharton were silent
partners of Goddard. The Chronicle was published until February, 1773,
when it was removed to Baltimore.
The Pennsylvania Packet, or the General Advertiser, was first published
in November, 1771, by John Dunlap. During the British occupancy Dunlap
continued the publication of the Packet at Lancaster, and in July, 1778,
he published at Philadelphia, and made it a semi-weekly, and then a
tri-weekly.
In 1783, Dunlap sold his paper to D. C. Claypoole, who had previously
been a partner, and a year later the Packet was published daily. This
then became the first daily newspaper in the United States.
The Pennsylvania Ledger, or the Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New
Jersey Weekly Advertiser, was first published in Philadelphia, January
28, 1775, by James Humphreys, Jr. Humphreys was deemed a Tory and his
paper denounced as being under corrupt influence. Humphreys was obliged
in November, 1776, to discontinue the Ledger, and leave the city.
He returned when the British occupied Philadelphia and revived the
publication as a semi-weekly. The last number was published May 23,
1778, a month before the British evacuated the city. He was in
possession of advance information, as are some editors of today.
The Pennsylvania Evening Post by Benjamin Towne, as a tri-weekly, was
first published January 24, 1775, and it was the third newspaper in the
colonies which was published as an evening paper. This paper continued
publication in Philadelphia during the British occupancy.
Towne was proscribed by a law of Pennsylvania. He did not, however,
leave the State, and continued to publish the Post until 1782, when it
died a natural death.
Story and Humphrey’s Pennsylvania Mercury and Universal Advertiser first
came before the public in April, 1775. This was the last newspaper to be
established in Pennsylvania prior to the Revolution. The Mercury was
short lived. The printing house, with all its contents, was destroyed by
fire in December, 1775, and in consequence of the event, the paper was
discontinued.
----------
John F. Watson, Annalist, Historian, Antiquarian
and Collector of Historical Objects,
Died December 23, 1860
John Fanning Watson died December 23, 1860, at the age of eighty-two
years, and left behind him a monument to his mental powers in his
“Annals of Philadelphia.”
Mr. Watson was a native of Burlington County, N. J., where he was born
June 13, 1779. His parents were of English origin; his grandfather,
Thomas Watson, came to America in 1667, settling at Salem, where William
Watson, father of John F. was born.
Among his ancestors were some of the earliest settlers of our country.
All were devoted patriots, with the exception of one, a distinguished
Tory, General Edmund Fanning, a graduate of Yale, in 1757, of whom The
Gentleman’s Magazine, for 1818, says, “the world contained no better
man.”
After completing the usual course of education to qualify himself for
mercantile pursuits, John Fanning Watson entered the counting-house of
James Vanuxem, an eminent merchant of Philadelphia, with whom he
remained but a short time, having offended the French interests of that
firm by becoming a member of the Macpherson Blues, of which body of
volunteer militiamen, he was one of last six surviving members at the
time of his decease.
He was now nineteen years of age, and a clerkship in the War Department
at Washington was offered him, which he accepted, and held until 1804,
when he engaged himself in business with General James O'Hara, formerly
Quartermaster-General to General Anthony Wayne’s Indian Army, and chief
founder of the City of Pittsburgh.
During this business connection Watson resided at New Orleans, holding
the responsible position of Commissary of Provisions for the United
States Army at all the posts in Louisiana.
At this period there was no Protestant worship in that city, and to
remedy this, together with Edward Livingston, he became the prime. mover
in establishing the Protestant Episcopal Church by giving a call to the
Reverend Mr. Chase, since the venerable Bishop of Ohio and Illinois.
After a residence of two years at New Orleans sudden domestic affliction
caused his return to Philadelphia to the support of his widowed mother,
and to this event the public are profoundly indebted for his invaluable
services as a local historian of the olden time. As such his works will
ever be enduring monuments of his wonderful assiduity and laborious
research.
Following his return to Philadelphia he made his first essay as a
bookseller and publisher, establishing a business on Chestnut Street.
Among the various works he published were Dr. Adam Clark’s Commentary on
the Old and New Testament, the Select Reviews of Literature, etc.
He contributed frequently to the columns of various literary,
scientific, historical, and ecclesiastical serials.
Besides historical works, he left some unpublished manuscript volumes on
theology, which show great originality of thought and deep research. He
also devoted some pages to the vindication of Cromwell. To his marriage
with a lineal descendant of the Lord Protector may be attributed some of
the interest he evinced on this subject.
In 1814, Mr. Watson was elected cashier of the Bank of Germantown, which
position he held till 1847, when he was chosen treasurer and secretary
of the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad Company.
During his connection with the Bank of Germantown he resided in the
stone bank building of which the celebrated annalist himself says, “The
house in which I now reside was once honoured with the presence of
Generals Washington, Knox and Greene, shortly after the battle of
Germantown. They slept in it one or two nights.”
In 1859, being at that time eighty years of age, he retired from all
active business.
In 1820, he began to collect antiquarian material, the first being
history and legends of Germantown, though none of them were printed
until about 1828, when some extracts from his manuscript books were
printed in Hazard’s “Register of Pennsylvania.”
In 1830 the first edition of the “Annals of Philadelphia,” was issued,
the same “being a Collection of Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Incidents of the
City and its Inhabitants from the days of the Pilgrim Fathers; also
Olden Time Researches and Reminiscences of New York City in 1828.” It
was in one volume of eight hundred pages, and illustrated by
lithographs.
In 1842 the work was republished in two volumes, revised and enlarged,
and again, in 1856, he made a full and final revision, adding an
appendix to the second volume. The editions subsequent to the first did
not contain the matter relative to New York.
A noteworthy characteristic of Watson was his reverence for the graves
of great and good men, who had been useful in their generation, as
illustrated in the removal of the remains of Thomas Godfrey, the
inventor of the quadrant, and family from a neglected spot on his old
farm to Laurel Hill, where a suitable monument was erected by
subscription to his memory.
In 1832, he published “Historic Tales of Olden Time” of New York City,
which was followed the next year by “Historic Tales of Olden Time,
concerning the Early Settlement and Progress of Philadelphia and
Pennsylvania.”
Then followed other volumes of both New York annals and works other than
history.
Mr. Watson’s first publisher and most active co-worker was Samuel
Hazard, and to them is due the awakening of that spirit of
antiquarianism and historical research from which sprung the great
Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Watson was an ardent collector of all objects of historic interest,
many of which are now deposited in the Philadelphia Library and with the
Historical Society.
----------
Colonel Plunket Begins Action in Second
Pennamite War on December 24, 1775
The first armed conflict between the Proprietary Government and the
Connecticut settlers in the Wyoming Valley occurred when the Yankees
came down into the region in 1769 and seated themselves under the
Government of Connecticut. The conflict lasted, with more or less
intensity, until 1771, when the Penns were compelled to surrender and
leave the intruders in questioned possession of that territory. This
series of attacks, assaults and real battles has since been known as the
first Pennamite War.
For four years the Yankees lived in tranquillity, and were not even
seriously disturbed by the Indians.
On September 28, 1775, Colonel William Plunket, the Provincial
commandant at Fort Augusta, at the head of a large body of troops,
defeated the Yankees at Squire John Vincent’s in Judea Township on the
West Branch, and marched all the men as prisoners to Sunbury.
The old colonel was more elated than wisdom seems to have justified. He
became the man of the hour and, supported by a resolution of the
Provincial Assembly, October 27, 1775, which justified the attack on the
Yankees, he set about to muster troops for an expedition against the
Connecticut settlers at Wyoming, in spite of the fact that the weather
was becoming very severe. Snow had fallen early in November.
The Council of Safety of Connecticut learned of the determination to
send a large armed force against their settlement at Wyoming, and
Governor Trumbull wrote to the President of Congress, November 11, 1775,
complaining of this invasion.
Congress adopted a resolution requesting both States to prevent
hostilities. But the Assembly did not welcome this interference,
especially as they had received a letter from Colonel Samuel Hunter,
lieutenant for Northumberland County, dated Sunbury, November 20, 1775,
acquainting the House that two of the Magistrates and Sheriff William
Cooke had an interview with Colonel Zebulon Butler and some of the
principal men among the Connecticut settlers at Wyoming. They read the
late Resolves of the Pennsylvania Assembly to them, and inquired whether
they would peaceably submit themselves to the laws of Pennsylvania. They
answered that they despised the laws of that Province and never would
submit unless compelled by force.
Two days later, November 25, Governor John Penn wrote to Judge Plunket
and his associate Justices as follows:
“I have just now received a message from the Assembly, founded on a
letter addressed to them from the county of Northumberland, respecting
the Connecticut settlers at Wyoming, requesting me to give orders for a
due execution of the laws of this Province in the counties of
Northumberland and Northampton. In consequence thereof, I do most
cheerfully order you to use your utmost diligence and activity in
putting the laws of this Province in execution throughout the County of
Northumberland; and you may depend on the faith of the House, and my
concurrence with them, that every proper and necessary expense that may
be incurred on the occasion will be defrayed.”
After the failure of the expedition to Squire Vincent’s the New
Englanders in Wyoming managed, by the aid of spies, and in other ways,
to keep themselves informed as to the movements of the Pennamites.
There are letters extant which reveal the activities in and about
Sunbury which were written there and sent to Colonel Butler and others
in authority at Wyoming. One such letter advised Colonel Butler that the
Pennamites were surely going to march against Wyoming, and would not be
stopped even by Congress.
It was the purpose of Colonel Plunket to recruit all the troops which
could be raised along the West Branch settlements at Fort Augusta, and
then form a junction with the troops which were to be raised in
Northampton County, at Fishing Creek, about a mile and a half above the
present borough of Bloomsburg.
The Connecticut delegates in Congress presented a memorial in that body
on December 18, 1775, in which they complained bitterly of the
threatened invasion, and advised Congress that the troops had begun to
march December 11. This was accompanied by depositions from inhabitants,
tending to strengthen their statements about the number of the invading
forces and their intentions.
During the continuance of the first Pennamite War from 1769 to 1771,
every expedition against Wyoming was of a civil character. There were no
direct military maneuvers. The Sheriff of Northampton County, of which
county Wyoming was then a part, was the chief officer on duty, merely
supported by the military commanders, with their several companies; the
burnished musket, the glittering bayonet, the four-pounder, the whole
martial array being simply an appurtenant to a peace officer while he
should serve a civil process.
The same policy was again pursued. Colonel Plunket and his large force
and fine equipment, were the mere accompaniments of the Sheriff, whose
business to Wyoming was to arrest two or three individuals on civil
writs.
The old colonel had mustered 600 well-armed and well-equipped men and
the march was taken up at Fort Augusta, December 15, 1775.
In order that the proposed expedition might be considered of a civil
rather than a military character, this small army was denominated the
“_posse comitatus_ of Northumberland.” Moreover it was to be accompanied
on its march by William Scull, the newly elected Sheriff of
Northumberland County, within whose jurisdiction the Wyoming lands lay,
if to be considered a part of the Province of Pennsylvania.
He was provided with a train of boats, with two small field-pieces, one
of which was mounted on the largest and leading boat, ready for action
on board or to be landed if necessary. There was a second field-piece
mounted on one of the other boats, a large supply of ammunition for
cannon, rifles and muskets, supplies and stores.
About the time Colonel Plunket began active preparations for his
expedition Benjamin Harvey, Jr., and another Yankee settler and trader
of Wyoming Valley, who were returning from Harris Ferry in bateaux laden
with supplies, and laboriously and slowly pulling their boats up the
Susquehanna toward home, were seized by the Pennsylvanians as they
reached Sunbury, thrown into jail, and their boats and cargoes
confiscated.
When Plunket was ready to proceed up the river he placed Harvey in the
leading boat, with orders to pilot the flotilla of the expedition to its
destination.
----------
Pennamites Humiliatingly Defeated by
Yankees, December 25, 1775
On December 20, the very day on which Congress adopted resolutions
calling on Pennsylvania and Connecticut to cease armed conflict during
the period of the Revolution, it was learned by the Yankee scouts that
Colonel William Plunket and the Pennamites had pushed their flotilla up
the North Branch of the Susquehanna River as far as the mouth of
Nescopeck Creek, about nineteen miles below Nanticoke Falls, but that
they were advancing slowly on account of the snow, which was then
falling, and the ice which was gathering on the river.
Colonel Zebulon Butler quickly mustered his available force, which
numbered about 400 men and boys, on Saturday, December 23, and marched
to the left bank of Harvey’s Creek, where he encamped for the night on a
level stretch of land near the river.
The vanguard of Colonel Plunket’s expedition arrived at “Harvey’s
Landing” shortly after the Yankees had gone into camp above Harvey’s
Creek.
Major John Garrett was dispatched under a flag of truce to Colonel
Plunket to ascertain the meaning of his approach with armed militia. The
answer returned to Colonel Butler was that he came peaceably as an
attendant to Sheriff Scull, who was authorized to arrest several persons
at Wyoming for violating the laws of Pennsylvania, and he trusted there
would be no opposition to a measure so reasonable and pacific. Major
Garrett reported to Colonel Butler and advised him of the strength of
the enemy.
Colonel Butler early Sunday morning (December 24) dispatched Ensign
Mason F. Alden with a detail of eighteen men to remain on guard at
Harvey’s Creek. Captain Lazarus Stewart, with twenty men, was detached
to the east side of the river, above Nanticoke Falls, with orders to lie
in ambush and prevent the landing on that shore of any boat’s crew.
Colonel Butler, with the remainder of his force, then retired up the
river about a mile to a point of natural defense on the plantation of
Benjamin Harvey, Sr., where a precipitous ledge of rocks extends from
the Shawanese Mountains in a southerly direction almost to the bank of
the river, a distance of nearly half a mile. The Yankees took up their
position in this rocky rampart, and wherever it was defective for their
defense they erected breastworks of logs and stones.
Later in the morning of Sunday about 11 o’clock, Ensign Alden, being
apprised at the mouth of Harvey’s Creek of the approach of the Plunket
expedition, retired with his men up the river and joined Colonel Butler.
Deploying his column on the flat just abandoned by the Yankees, Plunket
directed a spirited advance in pursuit of Alden, not doubting but that
the main force of the settlers was near and that the hour of conflict
had arrived. In less than thirty minutes the advancing line was halted
by Colonel Plunket, who exclaimed, “My God! What a breastwork!”
Scarcely had those words been uttered when there came a discharge of
musketry, crackling from end to end of the long-extended rampart, and
giving no uncertain notice that the unlooked-for barricade was
garrisoned.
One of Plunket’s men, Hugh McWilliams, was killed and three others
wounded, while the whole body of Pennamites was thrown into great
confusion and without returning the fire of the Yankees immediately
retreated to Harvey’s Creek.
They then brought two of their boats from Harvey’s Landing past
Nanticoke Falls by land and made preparations to cross the river in
detachments, in order to march by way of the eastern shore against the
village of Wyoming, the objective point of the expedition.
After nightfall the boats, well filled with soldiers, started across the
river some distance above the falls. In the bow of the first boat sat
Benjamin Harvey, still held a prisoner by the Pennamites, and acting as
pilot under compulsion, while Colonel Plunket himself occupied a place
in the second boat.
When the boats nearly reached the opposite shore they were, without
warning, fired upon by Captain Lazarus Stewart and his men, who were
concealed in the thick brush on the river’s bank.
Two or three men in the first boat were wounded, one of whom, Jesse
Lukens, subsequently died. All the occupants of the boat would have been
killed, probably, had not Harvey made his presence known to the Yankees.
The boats were hurriedly backed astern, whereby they safely shot through
the rifles and into the pool at Harvey’s Landing. Thus ended the
occurrences of Sunday.
Early in the morning of Monday, which was Christmas, the Pennamites were
astir. Colonel Plunket formed his men and marched them into two
divisions toward the breastworks held by the Yankees. While one division
stormed the works, the other ascended the mountain on their left in an
attempt to turn the right flank of Colonel Butler’s defenders.
The conflict lasted, with frequent cessations, during the greater part
of the day, and on the part of the Yankees three or four men were killed
and three times as many more wounded. Toward the close of the day
Colonel Plunket realized that the position of the Yankees was too strong
to be carried by assault and he ordered a retreat down the west side of
the river.
In this movement he was closely pursued by Captain Stewart and his party
on the east side of the river, who determined, if possible, to capture
at least one of the boats of the Pennamites. But Harvey, who was still a
prisoner, called to them not to fire. So the expedition was permitted to
float peaceably downstream toward Fort Augusta.
Colonel Zebulon Butler reported the battle to the Connecticut
authorities under date of December 27, 1775, and stated the losses among
the Plunket forces to have been fifty or sixty dead and wounded and that
two were killed and three wounded of his own party and that one had
since died.
The Pennamites reported the affair quite differently. William Scull, the
Sheriff; Samuel Harris, Coroner; William Plunket, Samuel Hunter, Michael
Troy and John Weitzel, Justices, wrote to Governor Penn under date
Sunbury, December 30, 1775, in which they related the expedition as one
to serve legal processes. They blamed the Yankees for firing upon the
Sheriff’s posse without warning, and even with firing on the wounded as
they retreated down the river.
The Governor transmitted this letter to the Provincial Assembly and
asked them to pay the bills.
Four days after the battle the inhabitants of Westmoreland assembled in
town meeting, elected officers and appointed a committee to repair to
Philadelphia to “lay before the Honorable Continental Congress an
account of the late invasion made by the Tory Party of the Pennsylvania
people.” It was also voted to collect funds for three women whose
husbands were killed in the battle.
Jesse Lukens, who lost his life in this ill-fated expedition, was a
young man of much promise, the son of John Lukens, who was the Surveyor
General of Pennsylvania from 1769 till his death in 1789. Jesse was born
August 8, 1748, and had only recently arrived at Sunbury on a vacation
and joined the Plunket expedition as a lark.
----------
Pennsylvania Militia in Battle of Trenton,
December 26, 1776
Early in the Revolution Pennsylvania began to suffer severe losses. Each
of the battalions organized at the request of Congress had been sent
immediately to the front, some to Canada, some to the defense of the
Hudson, and the balance with the main army.
During the summer of 1776 the necessities of the Continental service
were such that the Council of Safety of Pennsylvania placed the State
battalions under Colonels Samuel Miles, Samuel J. Atlee and Daniel
Brodhead at the disposal of Congress. These were marched to Long Island,
where, with the Continental Regiments of the Pennsylvania Line, viz:
Colonel Shee’s, Magaw’s and Lambert Cadwalader’s, they were engaged in
battle August 27, which resulted in the defeat of the American forces
and the evacuation of Long Island. The Pennsylvanians sustained severe
loss. Lieutenant Colonel Caleb Perry and other officers were killed.
Colonel Miles, Colonel Atlee and Lieutenant Colonel James Piper were
among the many taken prisoners.
Fort Washington was reduced November 16 and again Pennsylvania lost
heavily and the battalions of Morgan, Cadwalader, Atlee, Swope, Watts
and Montgomery were taken prisoners, and, in addition to those losses,
Howe was menacing Philadelphia.
Congress made a precipitate adjournment in Philadelphia and removed to
Baltimore. General Washington dispatched Major General Israel Putnam to
Philadelphia to direct the defense of that place. He arrived December
12, and assumed military command of the city. The fort at Billingsport
was of little consequence, and works were commenced at Red Bank, N. J.
General Howe returned for winter quarters in New York, leaving British
troops at Trenton and Burlington, which threatened Philadelphia from the
east side of the Delaware. The Americans had brigades under Lord
Stirling and Generals Mercer, Stephen and De Fermoy, at the several
ferries from Coryells (New Hope) to Yardleys. General Ewing was farther
south with the Pennsylvania Flying Camp. Philemon Dickinson’s troops
were opposite Bordentown, Cadwalader’s were near Bristol, and Colonel
Nixon’s Third Pennsylvania Battalion was at Dunks Ferry.
On December 25 Colonel John Cadwalader and Colonel Samuel Miles, who was
then a prisoner of war, were appointed by Pennsylvania to be brigadier
generals.
General Washington, with his army, was on the west bank of the Delaware,
encamped near Taylorsville, then McConkeys Ferry, eight miles above
Trenton.
When Washington matured his plans to cross the Delaware River above the
falls at Trenton with his main army, the two smaller divisions, under
Generals Ewing and Cadwalader were ordered to cross at the same time at
points lower down the shore. Cadwalader could not pass through the ice,
but finally got across on the 27th from Bristol and remained on the
Jersey side, the troops from Burlington having retreated. Ewing’s
command crossed on the 28th and 29th and took possession at Bordentown.
General Washington made the crossing on Christmas night, and the morning
of the 26th took Trenton with more than 900 prisoners: General Rall, who
commanded the Hessians, was mortally wounded in the engagement.
General Washington thought it best to get back to the Pennsylvania side
and before night had crossed with his forces, prisoners and other
trophies of victory. But in several days he crossed again and joined the
divisions of Cadwalader and Ewing. Mifflin brought to Bordentown 1800
recruits from Pennsylvania.
The British were alarmed by the blow at Trenton and broke up their
encampments along the Delaware, and retired to Princeton. Washington
thereupon reoccupied Trenton, where he was speedily joined by
Pennsylvania Militia.
On January 3, 1777, Washington made an attack on Princeton. This battle
was sharp and decisive. Mercer’s forces were furiously attacked with the
deadly bayonet, and they fled in disorder. The enemy pursued until, on
the brow of a hill, they discovered the American regulars and
Pennsylvania Militia, under Washington, marching to the support of
Mercer, who, in trying to rally his men, had his horse disabled under
him, and was finally knocked down by a clubbed musket and mortally
wounded.
Washington checked the flight and intercepted the British who were in
pursuit. In this action the Pennsylvania militia bore the brunt of the
attack, and but for the personal leadership of General Washington and
the timely arrival of reinforcements, would have been compelled to yield
the field.
In this short but sharp battle the British lost in killed, wounded and
prisoners about 430 men. The American loss was about 100, including
Colonels Haslet and James Potter, Major Morris and Captains Shippen,
Fleming and Neal. General Hugh Mercer died nine days after the battle.
Here General Cadwalader distinguished himself as an able and brave
officer.
Washington in his report to the president of Congress alluded to General
Cadwalader as “a man of ability, a good disciplinarian and a man of good
principle and of intrepid bravery.”
Chief Justice John Marshall, who was at that time an officer in the
army, in a letter speaks of General Cadwalader’s “activity, talents and
zeal.”
General Joseph Reed in a letter to the President of Pennsylvania, dated
Morristown, January 24, 1777, said: “General Cadwalader has conducted
his command with great honor to himself and the province; all the field
officers supported their character; their example was followed by the
inferior officers and men; so they have returned with the thanks of
every general officer of the army.”
It was also in the Battle of Princeton that the Philadelphia City Troop,
under command of Captain Samuel Morris, and the company of marines under
Captain William Brown, belonging to the Pennsylvania ship Montgomery,
distinguished themselves by their bravery.
Cornwallis was about to sail for England when the Battle of Trenton took
place, and Howe detained him and rushed him to take command of the
troops at Princeton. When he arrived there Washington and his little
army and prisoners were far on their way in pursuit of two British
regiments.
On account of the fatigue of his soldiers, Washington gave up this chase
and moved into winter quarters at Morristown, N. J.
It is said that Frederick the Great of Prussia declared that the
achievements of Washington and his little band of patriots between
December 25, 1776, and January 4, 1777, were the most brilliant of any
recorded in military history.
----------
Paxtang Boys Wipe Out Conestoga Indians
on December 27, 1763
It was during the Pontiac War that Governor James Hamilton, in reply to
earnest appeals for help and protection, said he could give the
frontiersmen no aid whatever. Neither the Governor nor the Assembly
showed the proper spirit. It was a time when the tomahawk, the scalping
knife and the torch were desolating the frontiers of the Province.
The Indians set fire to houses, barns, corn, hay, in short, to
everything that was combustible, so that the whole frontier seemed to be
one general blaze. Great numbers of back inhabitants were murdered in
the most shocking manner and their dead bodies inhumanly mangled.
Paxtang, near what is now Harrisburg, became truly the frontier, for
west of the Susquehanna so great was the terror that scarcely an
inhabitant was left. At this juncture the Reverend John Elder, the
revered pastor of the Paxton Presbyterian Church, at Paxtang, organized
his rangers under authority of the Provincial Government. They were
mostly members of his own and the Hanover congregations.
These brave men were ever on the alert, watching with eagle eye the
Indian marauders. The Paxtang rangers were truly the terror of the red
men, swift on foot, excellent horsemen, good shots, skillful in pursuit
or in escape, dexterous as scouts, and expert in maneuvering.
In August, 1763, Colonel John Armstrong, the “hero of Kittanning,” with
200 Paxtang and Hanover rangers and some soldiers from Cumberland
County, marched to the Indian town at Great Island (now Lock Haven).
Several skirmishes were fought, and some killed in the Muncy Hills.
These volunteers returned home enraged at learning that the Conestoga
Indians had sent messengers to inform their friends of the expedition.
Subsequently, on September 9, 1763, the rangers who were scouting in
Berks County, were apprised by their out-scouts of the approach of
Indians. The savages intended to take the rangers by surprise, and
during a short engagement, it was discovered these Indians were from the
Moravian settlement in Northampton County. The “Paxtang Boys” were
determined to ascertain the treacherous.
In October occurred the murder of the Stinson family and others; the
Paxtang men solicited their colonel to make an excursion against the
enemy. The first massacre at Wyoming occurred October 15. Two companies
in command of Captain Lazarus Stewart and Captain Asher Clayton were
sent by Colonel Elder to Wyoming. Upon their arrival they learned first
handed of the awful outrages committed by the bloodthirsty savages under
“Captain Bull.”
Indians had been traced by these scouts to the wigwams at Conestoga, and
some to those of the Moravian Indians at Nain and Wichetunk. The rangers
insisted on captivating the murderers but the merciful colonel dissuaded
them. It was then that Colonel Elder advised Governor Hamilton to remove
the Indians from Conestoga.
Colonel Timothy Green wrote to the Governor: “We live in daily fear of
our lives. At the Indian town the incarnate devils are secreted, and the
people here demand that those Indians be removed from among us.”
John Harris wrote: “I hope Your Honor will be pleased to cause these
Indians to be removed to some other place, as I don’t like their
company.”
Governor Penn replied: “The Indians of Conestoga have been
misrepresented as innocent, helpless and dependent on this Government
for support. The faith of this Government is pledged for their
protection. I cannot remove them without adequate cause.”
The rangers resolved on taking the law into their own hands. The
destruction of the Conestoga Indians was not then projected. That was
the result. Colonel Elder approved the capture of the most notorious
Indians.
The “Paxtang Boys” reached the Indian settlement about daybreak, when
the barking of a dog made their approach known. The Indians rushed from
their wigwams, brandishing their tomahawks. This show of resistance was
sufficient excuse for the rangers to make use of their guns.
In a few minutes every Indian fell before the unerring fire of the brave
frontiersmen. Unfortunately a number of Indians were absent from
Conestoga, prowling about the neighboring settlement.
Soon as this attack was known some Indians were placed in the Lancaster
workhouse and several, well known to Parson Elder’s scouts, were hurried
to Philadelphia, where they were secreted among the Moravian Indians
protected in that city.
Governor Penn did not act with dispatch in removing the Indians from
Lancaster, nor did he seem to care for them.
The “Paxtang Boys” realized their work was only half done. Captain
Stewart proposed they capture the principal Indian outlaw, in the
Lancaster workhouse, and take him to Carlisle jail, where he could be
held for trial. This plan was heartily approved and fifty of the
“Paxtang Boys” proceeded to Lancaster on December 27, broke into the
workhouse, and but for the show of resistance would have effected their
purpose.
But the rangers were so enraged at the defiance of the Indians that
before they could be repressed the last of the so-called Conestoga
Indians had yielded up his life. In a few minutes the daring rangers
were safe from pursuit.
The excitement throughout the Province was great. No language could
describe the outcry which arose from the Quakers in Philadelphia, or the
excitement along the frontiers.
Fears were entertained for the safety of the Moravian Indian converts,
and they were removed to Philadelphia and lodged in the city barracks.
This open and avowed protection of the Indians exasperated the
frontiersmen, and they started for Philadelphia with the avowed purpose
of killing the Indians and punishing the Quakers.
The city was greatly alarmed. Military companies were organized. Even
the staid, reverent, peaceful Quakers shouldered guns and drilled. The
wildest rumors were current as to the numbers and anger of the
Scotch-Irish.
But the “Paxtang Boys” when they learned the effective measures for
protection taken in the city, halted their march at Germantown. A
delegation of leading men composed of Benjamin Franklin, Israel
Pemberton and Joseph Galloway was sent by Governor Penn to meet the
insurgents and hear their grievances.
The “Paxtang Boys” presented their side, and left a committee consisting
of Captain Matthew Smith, afterward vice president of the State, and
James Gibson, to accompany the Provincial Commissioners to Philadelphia,
where they met the Governor and the Assembly, to whom they presented
their grievances in the form of a declaration. The remaining members of
the party returned to their homes, and the inhabitants of the city to
their peaceful avocations. And thus ended the “Paxtang Boys’
Insurrection.”
----------
Benjamin Franklin Presents Treaty Plan to
King of France, December 28, 1776
So soon as the idea of independence had taken the practical shape of a
resolution and declaration adopted by the Continental Congress, the
Americans began to contemplate the necessity of foreign aid, material
and moral. Congress appointed a Secret Committee of Correspondence for
the purpose and sent Silas Deane, of Connecticut, upon a
half-commercial, half-diplomatic mission to France.
Franklin was at first opposed to seeking foreign alliances. “A virgin
state,” he said, “should preserve the virgin character, and not go about
suitoring for alliance, but wait with decent dignity for the application
of others.”
But Franklin soon became chief suitor in Europe.
Later in the autumn of 1776 Dr. Franklin was sent by the Continental
Congress as a diplomatic agent to France. He sailed in the ship
Reprisal. The passage occupied thirty days during which that vessel had
been chased by British cruisers and had taken two British brigantines as
prizes.
Franklin landed at Nantes, December 7. Europe was not prepared for his
arrival, having had no advance notice of his coming and the event was in
consequence one of great surprise. By this time Franklin’s fame was
world-wide.
The courts were filled with conjectures, and in England the story was
current that Dr. Franklin was a fugitive for his own personal safety.
Burke said, “I never will believe that he is going to conclude a long
life, which has brightened every hour it has continued, with so foul and
dishonorable a flight.”
On the Continent it was concluded that he was in Europe on a most
important mission. To the French he spoke frankly, saying that twenty
successful campaigns could not subdue the Americans, that their decision
for independence was irrevocable and that they would be forever
independent states.
On the morning of December 28, Franklin, with the other
commissioners—Silas Deane, of Connecticut, and Arthur Lee, of
Virginia—waited upon Vergennes, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs,
when he presented the plan as suggested by the Continental Congress for
a treaty, by which it was hoped the states might obtain their
independence.
The Commissioners were instructed to press for an immediate declaration
of the French Government in favor of the Americans. Knowing the desire
of the French to widen the breach and cause a dismemberment of the
British Empire, the Commissioners were to intimate that a reunion of the
Colonies with Great Britain might be the consequence of delay.
Vergennes spoke of the attachment of the French nation to the American
cause and requested a paper from Dr. Franklin upon the condition of
America and that in the future intercourse with the sage might be in
secret, without the intervention of a third person. Personal friendship
between these two distinguished men became strong and abiding.
The French Minister told Franklin that as Spain and France were in
perfect accord, he might communicate freely with the Spanish Minister,
the Count de Aranda.
With him Franklin, Deane and Lee held secret but barren interviews, for
Spain was quite indifferent. Aranda would only promise the freedom of
Spanish ports to American vessels.
As for France, she was at that time unwilling to incur the risk of war
with Great Britain, but when the defeat and surrender of Burgoyne was
made known at Versailles late in 1777, and assured thereby that the
American Colonies could help themselves, the French Court was ready to
listen to Franklin. To him was chiefly due the successful negotiation of
the treaty of alliance which meant so much to the American cause at that
critical period in the War for Independence.
The presence of an agent of the British Ministry in Paris, on social
terms with the American Commissioners, hastened the negotiations, and
February, 1778, two treaties were secretly signed at Paris by the
American Commissioners and the Count de Vergennes on the part of France.
One was a commercial agreement, the other an alliance contingent on the
breaking out of hostilities between France and Great Britain.
It was stipulated in the treaty of alliance that peace should not be
made until the mercantile and political independence of the United
States should be secured.
Franklin continued to represent the States in France until 1785, when he
returned home. He took an important part in the negotiations for peace.
In 1786 he was elected Governor of Pennsylvania; and, in 1787 he was the
leading member in the convention which framed the National Constitution.
Dr. Franklin had deserved confidence in his ability and honesty. To
Silas Deane was intrusted the receipt and expenditure of money by the
Commissioners to France. The jealous, querulous Arthur Lee, who was the
third Commissioner, soon made trouble.
Lee wrote letters to his brother in Congress (Richard Henry Lee), in
which he made many insinuations against both his colleagues. Ralph
Izard, of South Carolina, Commissioner to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who
felt offended because he was not consulted about the treaty with France,
when he also was in Paris, sent home similar letters to those of Lee.
William Carmichael, of Maryland, a secretary of the Commissioners, who
had returned to Philadelphia, insinuated in Congress that Deane had
appropriated the public money to his own use. Deane was recalled.
Out of this incident sprang two violent parties. Robert Morris, of
Philadelphia, and other members of Congress, who were commercial
experts, took the side of Deane, and Richard Henry Lee, then chairman of
the Committee on Foreign Affairs, opposed him.
Deane published in the Philadelphia Gazette an “Address to the People of
the United States,” in which he referred to the brothers Lee with much
severity and claiming for himself the credit of obtaining supplies from
France through Beaumarchais. Thomas Paine replied to Deane, making use
of public documents in his charge.
The statement called out loud complaints from the French Minister and
Paine’s indiscretion cost him his place as secretary of the Committee on
Foreign Affairs.
This discussion among diplomatic agents soon led to the recall of all of
them except Franklin, who remained sole Minister at the French Court.
Franklin testified to Deane’s strict honesty and private worth, but
Arthur Lee had the ear of Congress, and Deane had to suffer. He died in
obscurity and poverty at Deal, England, August 23, 1789. He has since
been vindicated and all unjust suspicions have been removed, thus
confirming the judgment of the wise Franklin.
From Franklin’s advent in the French Court, December 28, 1776, until he
sailed for his home in Philadelphia, in 1785, he was held in the high
esteem which his talents, experience and personality entitled him.
----------
Franklin Begins Building Chain of Forts on
December 29, 1755
Governor Robert Hunter Morris summoned the Provincial Assembly for
November 3, 1755, when he laid before them an account of the
depredations committed by the enemy, and demanded money and a militia
law.
Petitions began to pour in from all parts of the Province; from the
frontier counties praying for arms and munitions; from the middle
counties, deprecating further resistance to the views of the Governor,
and urging, if necessary, a sacrifice of property for the better defense
of their lives. All wished that the religious scruples of the members of
the Assembly might no longer prevent the better defense of the Province.
By the middle of November, and while the Assembly was receiving these
petitions, the Indians entered the passes of the Blue Mountains and
broke into the Counties of Lancaster, Berks and Northampton, committing
murder, devastation and every other kind of horrid mischief, and yet the
Assembly debated and debated the measures for defense.
The Governor, wearied with this delay, sent a message requesting the
Assembly to strengthen his hands and afford assistance to the back
inhabitants, but this time they made the excuse that in so doing they
might alienate the affections of the Indians, and to a large degree
refused to grant the means necessary for the protection of the
frontiers. This was truly an unfortunate position.
But at this time the alarming news of Braddock’s defeat reached the
proprietaries in England, and they came forward with a donation of £5000
for defense, to be collected from arrears in quit-rents; but they
refused to grant it on any other ground than as a free gift. The
Assembly waived their rights for a time, in consideration of the
distressed state of the Province, and passed a bill to strike £30,000 in
bills of credit, based upon the excise. This bill was approved by
Governor Morris.
The population of the Province was not yet satisfied with the cold
indifference of the Assembly at such a crisis and throughout all the
counties there were indignant protests. Public meetings were held
throughout Lancaster and the frontier counties, at which it was resolved
that the people should “repair to Philadelphia and compel the provincial
authorities to pass proper laws to defend the country and oppose the
enemy.”
In addition, the dead bodies of some of the murdered and mangled were
sent to Philadelphia and hauled about the streets with placards
announcing that they were victims of the Quaker policy of nonresistance.
A large and threatening mob surrounded the House of Assembly, placed the
dead bodies of their neighbors in the doorway and demanded immediate
relief for the people of the frontiers. Such indeed were the desperate
measures resorted to in their effort to obtain better defense.
One of the results of these demonstrative measures and the protests of
the people was the erection of a chain of forts and block-houses. These
were designed to guard against the Indian incursions and were erected by
the Province, at a cost of £85,000.
This chain extended from along the Kittatinny Hills, near where
Stroudsburg now stands, southeasterly through the Province, to the
Maryland line. They were constructed at the important passes of the
mountains and at important places, almost equi-distant, so that they
would the better serve as havens of refuge when attacked suddenly.
These forts were garrisoned by troops in the pay of the Province, twenty
to seventy-five men always under the command of a commissioned officer.
Even the Moravians at Bethlehem cheerfully fortified their town and took
up arms in self-defense.
Benjamin Franklin and James Hamilton were selected to repair to the
forks of the Delaware and raise troops for the execution of the plan.
They arrived at Easton, December 29, and appointed William Parsons to be
major of the troops to be raised in Northampton County.
In the meantime Captain Hays, with his company from the Irish
Settlement, in that county, had been ordered to New Gnadenhutten, which
had recently been the scene of an Indian raid, in which they applied the
torch, many being burned to death and others escaped to Bethlehem in
their nightclothes in the cold winter air.
The troops erected a temporary stockade and a garrison was placed there
to guard the Brethren’s mills, which were filled with grain, and to
protect the few settlers who had the hardihood to return and again
settle there.
Captain Hay’s detachment was attacked on New Year’s Day, 1756, while
some of the troops were amusing themselves skating on the ice of the
river, near the stockade. They noticed some Indians in the distance and
thinking it an easy matter to capture or kill them the soldiers gave
chase, and rapidly gained on these Indians, who proved to be decoys
skilfully maneuvering to draw the untrained Indian fighters into an
ambuscade.
After the troops had gone some distance a party of Indians rushed out
behind them, cut off their retreat and, falling upon them with great
fury, as well as with the advantage of surprise and superior numbers,
quickly dispatched them. Some of the soldiers, remaining in the
stockade, filled with terror by the murder of their comrades, deserted,
and the few remaining thinking themselves incapable of defending the
place, withdrew.
The savages then seized upon such property as they could use and set
fire to the stockade, the Indians’ houses and the Brethren’s mills.
Seven farm houses between Gnadenhutten and Nazareth were burned by those
same Indians, who also murdered such of the people as they discovered.
This incursion was the inception of Fort Allen. It seems that “it was
the intention to build a fort at New Gnadenhutten, and Colonel Franklin
started to Bethlehem to carry that plan into operation.” But the
situation required him to change his plans and he marched to what is now
Weissport, in Carbon County, and there erected Fort Allen. The site of
this provincial fort is now occupied by Fort Allen Hotel. The old well
is still in existence.
The Assembly requested Franklin’s appearance and when he responded to
this call he turned his command over to Colonel William Clapham.
It is interesting to note that the chain of forts began with Fort Dupui,
built on the property of Samuel Dupui, a Huguenot settler, in the
present town of Shawnee, on the Delaware River, five and one-half miles
from the present town of Stroudsburg. Then Fort Hamilton was built on
the present site of Stroudsburg, where Fort Penn was also in the eastern
part of the town. These forts were in the heart of the territory which
the Minsink, or Munsee, Indians occupied.
Fort Norris came next in the chain and was near Greensweig’s, Monroe
County, and fifteen miles west was Fort Allen, and then Fort Franklin,
in Albany Township, Berks County, and nineteen miles west was Fort
Lebanon, also known as Fort William, about a mile and a half from the
present town of Auburn, a short distance from Port Clinton. The next in
the chain was the small fort at Deitrick Six’s, then Fort Henry; then
Fort Swatara, both described in former stories, and then Fort Hunter,
six miles above Harrisburg, and Fort Halifax, both on the Susquehanna
River.
Crossing the river was Fort Patterson, in the Tuscarora Valley, opposite
Mexico, Juniata County; Fort Granville, near Lewistown; Fort Shirley,
near Aughwick Creek; Fort Lyttleton, at Sugar Cabins, and Fort McDowell,
in Franklin County, the last of the line in the Province of
Pennsylvania.
----------
Mason and Dixon Determined Starting Point
for Boundary Survey, December 30, 1763
The dispute over the boundary of the province on the south began with
the acquisition of the charter and continued through the life of William
Penn and his descendants, until almost the end of Proprietary Government
in Pennsylvania.
Charles Calvert, the fifth Lord Baltimore, drew an agreement, defining
the boundaries between Maryland and Delaware and Maryland and
Pennsylvania. On May 10, 1732, John and Thomas Penn agreed to this and
signed the instrument. John Penn and Lord Baltimore then came to
America, and, Baltimore changed his mind and caused every possible delay
in having a survey made of this disputed line.
Commissioners had been appointed by both governments and they did
nothing but wrangle for the eighteen months allowed in the agreement,
and Baltimore believed this made it of no effect.
The Penn family won in court and the conduct of Baltimore was censured.
Frederick, the sixth Lord Baltimore, declined to be bound by any act of
his predecessors, and again many years were wasted.
In 1760 a new agreement was made which was practically identical with
the one of 1732. Commissioners on the part of Pennsylvania were the
Governor, James Hamilton, Richard Peters, Reverend Dr. Ewing, William
Allen, William Coleman, Thomas Willing, Benjamin Clew, and Edward
Shippen, Jr., a selection which assured good and faithful performance.
The first three years were spent by the surveyors employed in marking
the lines of Delaware. The circle around New Castle was drawn by David
Rittenhouse, and added much to his reputation.
This work proceeded too slowly and on August 4, 1763, Thomas and Richard
Penn, and Frederick, Lord Baltimore, then being together in London,
agreed with Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two well known English
astronomers, “to mark, run out, settle, fix, and determine all such
parts of the circle, marks, lines, and boundaries, as were mentioned in
the several articles or commissions, and were not yet completed.”
Mason and Dixon arrived in Philadelphia, November 15, 1763, and
forthwith engaged in work.
They began their survey by ascertaining the latitude of the southernmost
part of the City of Philadelphia, which they agreed was the north wall
of the house then occupied by Thomas Plumstead and Joseph Huddle, on the
south side of Cedar Street. They determined it was 39° 56' 37.4”. This
was ascertained December 30, 1763, and the actual survey of the boundary
line properly began on this date.
During January and February, 1764, they measured thirty-one miles
westward of the city to the forks of the Brandywine, where they planted
a quartzose stone, six miles west of the meridian of the court house in
West Chester.
With this stone as a fixed point they determined the point from which
they should start to run the horizontal line of five degrees longitude
to fix the southern boundary. This was of course the northeast corner of
the State of Maryland.
From this point they extended the line 230 miles, eighteen chains, and
twenty-one links, or 244 miles, thirty-eight chains, and thirty-six
links, from the Delaware River. This was done during 1766 and 1767.
The Indians could not understand the object of an exploring expedition
that spent every clear night gazing at the stars through big guns, and
they soon stopped their progress. The Penns used their influence with
the Indians and the work proceeded.
The western extremity of Maryland was reached and passed, and the
astronomers were encamped on the banks of the Monongahela, when the
Indians again interposed. Their attitude was so threatening that many of
the servants and workmen of the expedition deserted. But the great
delight and satisfaction of running an astronomical line through
primeval forests raised Mason and Dixon above all fears, and they
pressed on to the Warrior Branch of the great Catawba Indian trail.
This was on the borders of a stream called Dunkard Creek, about the
middle point on the southern boundary line of the present Green County.
Here the Indians took such a menacing stand that Mason and Dixon were
obliged to return, and their Dunkard Creek trail, or Warrior trail,
remained the terminus of their line for many years.
This Mason and Dixon’s line was a great achievement in that day, and a
new thing in science. These two modest but skillful men had made
themselves immortal. Their line was not marked by river, creek or even
mountain range, it was an imaginary one. At every fifth mile a stone was
set up marked on the northern side with the arms of the Penns and on the
southern side with the arms of Baltimore, each intermediate mile was
marked with stones having P. on the one side and M. on the opposite
side.
This line, fixed after nearly a hundred years of conflict, is more
unalterable than if nature had originally made it. It became the
boundary line between the great sides of the slavery question, and
divided the armies of the North and South in the great Civil War.
The interference of the Indians having arrested further work, Messrs.
Mason and Dixon returned to Philadelphia, where they reported to the
commissioner, and on December 26, 1767, received an honorable discharge.
There were many minor disturbances occasioned by this line, and the
actions of the rough border population were slow to become satisfied. A
surveyor’s transit or astronomy was not enough to determine the limits
of their civil pride. These people had grown accustomed to the temporary
lines which had been run about 1740, which was about one-quarter of a
mile above the true one, and they became as much excited over that
narrow strip as they had been when they hoped to penetrate miles into
Pennsylvania.
The government of Pennsylvania determined to acquire its rightful
jurisdiction and in 1774, a proclamation was issued, which has generally
been considered the final act in the boundary controversy.
The residue of the southern boundary, a little less than twenty-two
miles, was run in 1782 by Robert Andrews, Andrew Ellicott, John Ewing,
David Rittenhouse, and John Hutchins, and completed and permanently
marked in 1784.
----------
First Bank in America Chartered in
Philadelphia, December 31, 1781
Congress again assembled in Philadelphia on July 2, 1778, and on the 9th
the “Articles of Confederation,” engrossed on parchment, were signed by
the delegates of eight States.
Pennsylvania was one of those states which immediately acceded to the
Confederation. The delegation from this State consisted of Benjamin
Franklin, Robert Morris, Daniel Roderdeau, Jonathan Bayard Smith, James
Smith, of Yorktown; William Clingan and Joseph Reed.
The “Articles of Confederation” were submitted to the several State
Legislatures. Slowly the States ratified them, some of them pointing out
serious defects, and all taking time to discuss them. The first State to
ratify, in addition to the eight which immediately signed, was North
Carolina, July 21, but Maryland steadily refused until March 1, 1781,
when the League of States was perfected.
It was soon perceived that under this new Government the Congress had no
power, independent of the several States, to enforce taxation.
Robert Morris, then Superintendent of Finance (Secretary of the
Treasury), proposed the establishment of a bank in Philadelphia, to
supply the Government with money, with a capital of $400,000.
The promissory notes of the bank were to be a legal tender of currency,
to be received in payment of all taxes, duties and debts due the United
States.
But before Congress could act the patriotic citizens of Philadelphia
moved for the establishment of a bank by which means the soldiers in the
Continental Army could be supplied with provisions.
A plan for this bank was prepared in Philadelphia which set forth the
entire scheme of subscription and operation, down to the minutest
detail, even stating that the factor (cashier) “shall provide his store
with rum, sugar, coffee, salt and other goods at the cheapest price to
those who supply him with provisions, that he may gain a preference of
what comes to market.” The provisions were to be purchased for the army
in the field.
This plan named the original board of inspectors, Robert Morris, J. M.
Nesbitt, Blair M'Clenachan, Samuel Miles and Cadwallader Morris. The two
directors were John Nixon and George Clymer and the factor was Tench
Francis.
The subscription list was headed:
“Whereas, in the present situation of public affairs in the United
States, the greatest and most vigorous exertions are required for the
successful management of the just and necessary war in which they are
engaged with Great Britain; We, the subscribers, deeply impressed with
the sentiments that on such an occasion should govern us, in the
prosecution of a war, in the event of which, our own freedom and that of
our posterity and the freedom and independence of the United States are
all involved, hereby severally pledge our property and credit for the
several sums specified and mentioned after our names, in order to
support the credit of a bank to be established for furnishing a supply
of provisions for the armies of the United States; and we do hereby
severally promise and engage to execute to the directors of the said
bank bonds of the form hereunto annexed.
“Witness our hands the 17th day of June, in the year of our Lord, 1780.”
There were ninety-two original patriot subscribers, the total pledges of
whom amounted to £300,000 Pennsylvania currency, payable in gold or
silver.
Robert Morris and Blair McClenachan each subscribed £10,000; Bunner,
Murray & Co., £6000; Tench Francis, £5500; James Wilson, George Clymer,
William Bingham, J. M. Nesbitt & Co., Richard Peters, Samuel Meredith,
James Mease, Thomas Barclay, Samuel Morris, Jr., John Cox, Robert L.
Hooper, Jr., Hugh Shiell, Samuel Eyre, Matthew Irwin, Thomas Irwin, John
Philip De Haas, Philip Moore, John Nixon, Robert Bridges, John Benezet,
Henry Hill, John Morgan, Samuel Mifflin, Thomas Mifflin, Thomas Willing
and Samuel Powell, each subscribed £5000.
None of the subscribers pledged less than £1000, and it is a question if
ever a more liberal list of patriots could be found anywhere than this
one.
This bank opened its doors on July 17, 1780, in Front Street,
Philadelphia, two doors above Walnut.
To show the mode of doing business an old advertisement says: “All
persons who have already lent money are desired to apply for bank notes;
and the directors request the favor of those who may hereafter lodge
their cash in the bank, that they would tie it up in bundles of bills of
one denomination, with labels, and their names indorsed, as the business
will thereby be done with less trouble and much greater dispatch.”
The bank continued in operation till the establishment of the Bank of
North America, December 31, 1781, and was the first banking institution
in America.
The plan for the bank for the Government was approved by the Continental
Congress, May 26, 1781, and this financial agent of the Government was
chartered by the Congress December 31, 1781. The capital stock was
divided into shares of $400 each, in money of gold and silver, to be
procured by subscriptions.
Twelve directors were appointed to manage the affairs of the bank, which
was entitled by the Congress “The President, Directors and Company of
the Bank of North America.”
Alexander Hamilton, observing the prosperity and usefulness to the
commercial community and the financial operations of the Government of
the Bank of North America, in Philadelphia, and of the Bank of New York,
and the Bank of Massachusetts, which were afterward established, and
which three banks held the entire banking capital of the country before
1791, recommended the establishment of a Government bank in his famous
report on the finances (1790), as Secretary of the Treasury.
Hamilton’s suggestion was speedily acted upon, and an act for the
purpose was adopted February 8, 1791.
President Washington asked the written opinion of his Cabinet concerning
its constitutionality. They were equally divided. The President,
believing it legal, signed the bill.
The bank was named “The United States Bank” and its charter limited to
twenty years.
This bank was soon established, with a capital of $10,000,000, of which
amount the Government subscribed $2,000,000 in specie and $6,000,000 in
stocks of the United States.
The measure was very popular. The shares of the bank rose to 25 and 45
per cent premium, and it paid an average dividend of 8½ per cent on its
capital. The shares were $400 each, same as the Bank of North America.
The United States Bank was chartered February 25, 1791, and established
at Philadelphia, with branches at different points. Its charter expired
without renewal March 4, 1811.
INDEX
A
Aaronsburg Lottery, 276
Abduction of Colonel Timothy Pickering, 438
Abe Little, 236
Abercrombie, Lieutenant Colonel James W., 307
Abington, 736
Abolition Society, 46, 114
Abraham, 540
Abraham, Heights of, 498
Absentz, George, 284
Academy, 45, 882
Academy, Germantown, 283
Academy of Music, 41
Acrods, Benjamin, 190
Adams County, 181, 218, 244, 264, 288, 416, 582, 596, 698, 811, 853
Adams, John, 53, 139, 191, 200, 263, 383, 459, 789, 791, 816
Adams, General John, 583
Addison, Alexander, 605
Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg, Story, 810
Adet, 789
Adjouquay, 394
Adler (of Reading), The, 191
Adlum, John, 11, 731, 732
Agnew, General James, 691
Agriculture, Department of, 88
Agrippa, Cornelius, 151
Alabama, 8
Advocate, 866
Albany, 45, 491
Albany Township, 918
Albright, General Charles, 49, 109
Alden, Mason F., 906
Alexander, Captain Charles, 324, 713
Alexander, Major General, 854
Alexander, Mrs. Catherine, 369
Alexander’s Tavern,
Allan, Mrs. Elizabeth R. P., 204
Allegheny, 300
Allegheny County, 64, 87, 131, 147, 156, 180, 181, 200, 208, 216, 223,
262, 596, 598, 687, 775, 896
Allegheny Episodes (quoted), 391
Allegheny River, 11 etc.
Allegheny & Portage Railroad, 201
Allen, Andrew, 308, 661
Allen, Anne, 107, 393
Allen, Christopher, 531
Allen, John, 510
Allen, General Ethan, 848
Allen, Lieutenant, 759
Allen, Massacre of Family, 344
Allen, Nathaniel, 340
Allen, Nicholas, 110
Allen, Peter, 392
Allen Rifles, 277
Allen, Samuel, 150
Allen, William, 107, 392, 513, 682, 779, 782, 867
Allentown, 81, 277, 384
Allentown (Pitts), 201
Allison, Benjamin, 209, 674
Allison, Dr. Francis, 224
Allison, Dr. J., 10
Allison, James, 827
Allison, Robert, 441
Allison, R. W. Francis, 782
Allison, William, 623
Allman, J. T., 88
Allemewi, 424
Alliance with Indians, Unholy, 654
Alloqueppy’s Town, 320
Allummapees, 255, 283, 301, 437, 449
Almanac, Lancaster County, 678
Almanac, Poor Richard’s, 45
Alricks, Jacob, 667
Alricks, Peter, 447
Altona, 667
Altoona, 40
Alumingh, Falls of, 666
Amatincka, 71
Amboy Railroad, 21,
American Company, 271
American Ethnological Society, 54
American Magazine, The, 642
American or Know Nothing Party, 389
American Philosophical Society, 385
American Rebels, 831
Americans, Royal, The, 236
American Sunday School Society, 642
American, The, 75
American Weekly Mercury, 897
“Americanus,” 594
Amherst, General Jeffrey, 346, 372, 538, 587, 703, 710
Ancient Order Hibernians, 47
Anderson, John, 102
Anderson, Major, 39
André, Major John, 91, 138, 271, 347, 348, 607, 669, 709
Andrew (Indian), 437
Andrews, Mrs. (quoted), 811
Andrews, Robert, 662, 708, 921
Andrews, Robert A., 182
Andries, Gunla, 396
Andries, Lace, 792
Andros, Governor Edmund, 447, 610, 792
Anders, Christiana, 826
Anders, Gottleib, 826
Anders, Joanna, 826
Angelica, 835
Angle, The, 455
Annals of Buffalo Valley, 27, 445
Annals of Philadelphia, 900
Annapolis, 337, 364
Annapolis, Jail, 823
Anne, Princess, 763
Anne, Queen, 44, 118
Antes Burying Ground, 337
Antes Fort, 335
Antes Gap, 555
Antes, Heinrich, 31
Antes, Henry, 31, 32, 33, 312, 336, 512, 514
Antes, John, 33
Antes, Johan Heinrich, 31
Antes, John Henry, 335, 819
Antes, Mary Elizabeth, 31, 336
Antes Mill, 31
Antes, Philip Frederic, 31, 335, 336, 380, 731, 732
Antes, William, 336
Anthony, Captain, 859
Anthracite Coal, 110, 111, 112
Antoinette, Marie, 892
Anti-federalists, 518
Anti-Masonry, 182, 518, 567, 568, 850, 855, 868
Anti-Masonic Era, 839;
Story, 850, 855
Anti-Masonic Convention, 568
Anti-Masonic Investigation, Story, 889
Anti-Masonic Party, 518
Anti-Slavery Society, Female, 7
Anti-Slavery Society, National, 6, 7
Anti-Slavery Society, World’s, 7
Antrim, County of, 23
Anvil, The, 628
Apollo, 167, 201, 263
Appoquincinnik Creek, 437
Arbor Day, First, 735
Archer, Elizabeth, 510
Archer, General Stephen, 452
Archer, John, 510
Archives of Pennsylvania, 302, 429, 880
Ardanda, Count de, 914
Argall, Captain Samuel, 589
Argus, Northumberland, 546
Argus Republican, 876
Armbruster, Gotthan, 899
Arms, King’s, 383
Armstrong, Alexander, 255
Armstrong Creek, 16
Armstrong County, 147, 156, 181, 185, 208, 596, 597, 775
Armstrong, Edward (Lieutenant), 525, 526, 619
Armstrong, James, 73, 254, 400, 630
Armstrong, John, General, 27, 67, 69, 178, 259, 268, 319, 381, 504,
525, 526, 545, 587, 597, 619, 690, 703, 711, 722, 762, 820, 828,
829, 830, 911
Armstrong, John (Jack), 254
Armstrong, Joseph, 320
Armstrong, Thomas A., 735
Armstrongs, 370, 393
Arndt, Captain Jacob, 541, 575
Arnold, Benedict, General, 3, 89, 90, 91, 188, 222, 309, 418, 461, 635,
509, 709
Arnold Expedition to Quebec, 699, 708
Arnold (quoted), 811
Arnold (ship), 324
Arnold, Woodward, 254
Arsenal, 5
Articles of Confederation, 5, 45, 570, 872, 873, 921
Ashburn, Elizabeth, 79
Ashburn, Zillah, 79
Ashburn, Joseph, 79
Ashcom, Charles, 151
Ashland, 1, 49, 107
Ashmead, John W., 8
Askey, Lieutenant, 305, 306
Assarandongnas, 701
Astor, Mrs. John Jacob, 220
Astor Place Theatre, 251
Astoria, 54
Asylum, Story of, 892
*Aetna (ship), 324
Atlee, Colonel Samuel John, 155, 545, 908
Attaock, 506
Auburn, 918
Auchmuty, Miss, 348
Audubon, J. J., 581
Aughwick (Old Town), 322, 525, 619
Aughwick Creek, 918
Aughwick Valley, 322
Augsburg Confession, 609
Augusta County, 660
Augusta Fort, see Fort Augusta
Augusta Regiment, 393, 685
Augustus (Indian), 575
Augustus (ship), 671
Aurora, The, 434, 791, 877
Australian Ballot System, 87
Austria, 22
Averills, General William W., 521
Awl, Dr. R. H., 820
B
Bache, Richard, 357
Backus, Colonel Electus, 143
Bailey, Edward, 137
Baker, John, 378
Baker, John L., 122
Baker, Samuel, 794
Baker’s Bottom, 362
Baker’s Creek, 649
Bald Eagle, Chief, 169, 543
Bald Eagle Creek, 305, 475
Baldwin, Dr. Cornelius, 223
Baldwin Locomotive Works, 22
Baldwin, Matthias, 20, 21, 22
Baldy, Paul, 819
Balliet, Stephen, 186
Baltimore, 277, 298
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 232
Baltimore, Lord, 165, 328, 489
Baltimore Riot, 277
Bancroft (quoted), 293, 489, 612, 660, 829, 836
Bank, First in U. S., 921
Bank, First at Pittsburgh, 201
Bank of Germantown, 901
Bank, Girard, 355, 785
Bank of Massachusetts, 20
Bank, National, 20
Bank of New York, 20
Bank of North America, 18, 19, 20, 285, 923
Bank, Pennsylvania, 285, 708, 818
Bank of United States, 923
Barbadoes, 340, 447
Barbier, Monsieur, 840
Barclay, Commodore, 626
Barclay, Robert, 717
Barclay, Thomas, 922
Bard, Archibald, 264
Bard, Richard, 264
Barker, Thomas, 373
Barlow, Joel, 565
Barnes, Xtopper, 792
Barnes, John, 150
Barney, Capt. Joshua, 426
Barnitz, Ensign Jacob, 570
Baron of Finga, 10
Barren Hill, 308, 352
Barren Hill Church, 353
Barry, Commodore John, 325
Bartholomew, Edward, 380
Barton, Mr., 299
Bartram Gardens, 212, 213, 214
Bartram, Ann, 212
Bartram, John, 212, 213, 214, 884
Bartram, Mary, 212
Bartram, William, 213, 214, 580
Baskins, William, 255, 525
Bastile, 99
Bates, Samuel P. (quoted), 812
Battalions, First and Second, 185, 304, 311
Battles, General, 521
Battle of Antietam, 40
Battle of Brandywine, 81, 137, 138, 213, 570, 627
Battle of Bull Run, 40, 280
Battle of Bushy Run, 100, 496, 537
Battle of Chattanooga, 89
Battle of Chickamauga, 89
Battle of Chippewa, 144
Battle of Crooked Billet, 10, 307
Battle of Fallen Timbers, 572, 849
Battle of Fort Freeland (See Fort Freeland)
Battle of Germantown, 138, 224
Battle of Gettysburg, Story, 451, 455
Brittle of Lake Erie, 624
Battle of Long Island, 311
Battle, Lundy’s Lane, 144
Battle, Monongahela, 470
Battle of Monmouth, 57
Battle of Princeton, 496
Battle of Stillwater, 634
Battle of Stony Point, 138, 210
Battle of Trenton, 81, 210, 311, 496
Battle of White Plains, 138
Bayard, John, 292, 669
Baynton, Peter, 834
Beale, Thomas, 630
Beard, Sarah, 556
Beard, William, 556
Bearnell, William, 2
Beaujeu, Captain Hyacinthe Marie L. de, 470, 471, 472
Beaulieu, M., 894
Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin Caron de, 915
Beaver, 121, 167, 174
Beaver County, 122, 147, 156, 175, 181, 208, 262, 597, 775
Beaver Creek, 174
Beaver, Governor James A., 280, 379, 735
Beaver, King, 303
Beck, Paul, 693
Becker, Hilarius, 284
Beddock, Edward, 822
Bedford, 100, 145;
Story, 177, 304, 537, 689
Bedford, Captain, 587
Bedford County, 61, 72, 138, 145, 147, 177, 180, 181, 208, 210, 257,
259, 266, 416, 420, 508, 551, 587, 596, 606, 731
Bedford, England, 177
Bedford, Fort (See Fort Bedford)
Bedford Springs, 179
Beekman, William, 667
Beissel, John Conrad, Story, 463
Bell, Liberty, 504
Bell, William, 630
Belle Riviere, 412
Bells Church, 223, 504
Bellefonte, 735, 834
Bellew, Captain, 324
Belleville, 9
Bender, Charles A., 523
Benezet, John, 922
Beninger, Hiram, 108
Bensell, Charles, 283
Bensell, Lane, 284
Benton, 429
Benway, John, 474
Berkeley, Lord, 716
Berkley, Mrs., 861
*Beresford, Sir John P., 335
Berks County, 16, 60, 66, 67, 131, 180, 190, 207, 208, 210, 215, 308,
416, 419, 508, 582, 596, 606, 616, 617, 645, 648, 726, 736, 797,
808, 895, 916, 918
Bern Township, 808
Bernard, 890
Bernard, Governor, 380, 700
Berry, James, 254
Berwick, 515, 614
Berzar, John, 531
Bessonett & Co., C., 834
Best, Valentine, 118
Bethany, Pa., 194
Bethel Township, 797
Bethlehem (Pa.), 15, 17, 32, 33, 102, 159, 191, 222, 237, 302, 303,
313, 336, 359, 360, 384, 425, 504, 514, 541, 575, 576, 588, 710,
917, 918
“Bethlehem,” 867
Bethlehem Hospital, Story, 222
Bethlehem Moravians, 222
Bethlehem Township, 312
Bethesda, 312
Betsy (Ship), 325
Bevan, Catherine, 30
Bezac, Edward, 150
Bezar, John, 340
Bezel, John, 474
Bezold, Gottleib, 17
Bicentennial, William Penn, Story, 733
Bickley, Abraham, 859
Biddle, Charles J., General, 280, 452
Biddle, Clement C., 334
Biddle, Edward, 611
Biddle, Henry J., Adjutant General, 280
Biddle, James, Captain, 292
Biddle, John, 308
Biddle, Nicholas, Captain, 326
Biddle, Owen, 385, 483
Biddle, Thomas, 334
Big Beaver, 423, 722
Big Cat (Indian), 174, 282
Big Island, 476
Big Mahoning, 168
Big Sewickley Creek, 149, 168
“Big Tree” Indian, 638
Biles, William, 150, 530
Bigler, John, Governor, 881
Bigler, William, Governor, 389, 880
Billet, Crooked, 10, 307
Billingsport, 324, 545, 669, 908
Bills of Credit, 160
Bingham, William, 896, 922
Binghamton, 298
Binns, John, 433, 783, 785, 802, 876
Binns, Recollections, etc.,(quoted), 433
Biographical Annals, 262
Bird, Captain Harry, 141
Birmingham, 98, 201
Birmingham, East, 201
Birmingham, James M., 473
Birmingham Meeting House, 260, 504, 628
Bissell, George H., 592
Black Boys, 178, 829
Black, Captain David, 442
Black, Mr., 218
Black, Chauncey F., 735
Black, Jeremiah S., 179, 390
Blackbeard, 152
Blackburn, Admiral, 582
Blacky (horse), 218
Blackfish, Chief, 738
“Black Horse” Tavern, 680
Black Lick Creek, 146
Black Walnut Bottom, 439
Blackwell, Captain John, 843
Blacons, M. De, 894
Blaine, Ephraim, 110, 679
Blaine, Lieutenant, 346
Blair County, 177, 181, 257, 596
Blair, John, 496
Blair, Thomas, 390
Blair’s Gap, 265
Blairsville, 309
Blake, Thos. F., 473
Bland, Colonel Theodoric, Jr., 629
Blenker, Colonel, 369
Blennerhassett, Mrs. Adeline Agnew, 894
Bloody Saturday, Story, 557
Bloomfield, John, 514
Bloomsburg, 49, 210, 491, 614, 868, 904
Bloomsbury Forge, 483
“Blue Bell” Tavern, 396
Blue Hill, 287, 772
Blue Mountain, 25, 561, 651, 721
Blue Rock, 822
Blues, Philadelphia, 334
Blues, Quaker, 292
Blummaert, Samuel, 229
Blunston, Samuel, 821
Blythe, William, 26, 469
Board of War, 570
Boatman, Claudius, 556
Boatman, Miss, 555
Boatman, Mrs. Claudius, 554, 555
Bobb, Matthias, 809
Bodley, General Thomas, 334
Boeckel, Dame Barbara, 222
Boeckel, Liesel, 222
Boehler, William, 222, 312
Boelson, Jan, 792
Boen, Andrew, 396
Bogharat, Jost de, 231
Bok, Edward W., 532
Boileau, N. B., 784
Bolilogue, Charles Felix Bea, 892
Boozar, William, 2
Bom (quoted), 696
Bombaugh, Conrad, 679
Bonaparte, 565
Bonaparte, Charles Lincoln, 581
Bond, Becky, 348
Bond, Dr. Thomas, 602
Bond, Dr. Thomas, Jr., 224
Bond, Wilhelmina, 348
Bonham, John, 694
Bonham, William, 878
Bonnecamps, Father, 412
Boone, Daniel, 515, 736
Boone, George, 736
Boone, George III, 736
Boone, Hawkins, Captain, 515
Boone, Mary Maugridge, 736
Boone, Squire, 736
Boonesborough, 737
Bordentown, 909
Border Dispute, Story, 338
Borrows, Arad, 369
Boston, 507, 508
Boston, Siege of, 311
Bothwell Howe, 863
Bouquet, Henry, 10, 42, 105, 169, 178, 304, 346, 347, 371, 388, 537,
547, 587, 588, 636, 680, 704, 710, 781, 782, 827, 830
Boundary Dispute, 99, 659
Bounties for Scalps, Story, 267
Bowen, Major, 521
Bower, Philip, 820
Bower, Thomas, 797
Bowman, John, 284
Bowrey Theatre, 251
Bowser, William, 710
Boyd Family, 326
Boyd, Captain James, 189
Boyd, Captain John, 137, 186, 442, 517, 633
Boyd, Robert, 206
Boyd, Thomas, 137, 633, 814
Boyd, William, 137, 633
Boyle, James, 193, 314
Boynton & Wharton, 170
Brackenridge, Hugh Henry, 517, 688
Braddock, Edward, 60, 73, 77, 134, 148, 149, 172, 260, 267, 319, 370,
408, 470, 476, 486, 547, 549, 573, 623, 686, 704, 721, 726, 757,
760, 797, 825, 827, 830, 916
Braddock Road, Story, 319
Bradford, Andrew, 115, 130, 897
Bradford, Cornelia, 897
Bradford County, 156, 181, 194, 195, 208, 210, 359, 423, 458, 596, 597,
775, 892, 893
Bradford, David, 687, 689
Bradford, Thomas, 899
Bradford, William, 128, 580, 597, 669, 689, 793, 899
Bradford, William, (Jr.), 115, 292
Bradstreet, General John, 347, 388, 548, 781, 828
Bradt, Captain Andrew, 740
Brady, 423, 533
Brady, Fort, See Fort Brady
Brady, Hannah, 259
Brady, Hugh, 259, 334
Brady, James, Story, 542
Brady, Captain John, 11;
Story, 259, 305, 544
Brady, Mary, 544
Brady, Samuel, 261, 498
Brady, Captain Samuel, 168, 543, 544, 549, 740
Brady Tract, 11
Brainard, David, 475, 824
Braintrim, 299
Brandon, John, 498
Brandywine, Battle of, 504
Brandywine Creek, 504
Brant, Joseph, 323, 501, 529, 633, 814
Brassey, Thomas, 212, 373
Brattan, John, 731
Bread Street, 514
Breck, Senator Samuel, 184
Breed’s Hill, 606
Brethren House, 222
Brewer, Martin, 463
Breylinger, Hannah, 722
Breylinger, Jacob, 722
Bridges, Robert, 922
Bridgewater, Battle of, 583
Bridgewater, Duke of, 565
Bright, George, 820
Bringhurst, George, 284
Bristol, 859, 909
Brison, John, 479
Britannia Fire Company, 860
British Burn National Capitol, Story, 582
British Squadron, 625
Brobst, Christian, 299
Brobst, Michael, 252
Brockden, Charles, 514
Brodhead, Daniel, 162, 163, 167, 281, 462, 584, 585, 617, 618, 637,
654, 908
Brokenstraw, 550
Brook, Grassy, 501
Brook, Half Way, 501
Brook, John, 343
Brooks, Edward, 373
Brooks, Noah, 812
Brooke’s Tavern, 247
Brotherhood of Ephrata, 463
Brotherly Love, City of, 167
Brother Jethro, 463
Brown, B. S., 369
Brown, Enoch, 511
Brown, General Jacob, 142, 143, 144, 334
Brown, Lige, 785
Brown, Moses, 238
Brown, William, 186, 630, 910
Browne, George, 397
Browne, John, 792
Brownlee, John, 479
Brownsbury, 861
“Brown’s Hotel,”, 865
Brownsville, 143, 218, 328
Brulé, Etienne, 589, 741
Bruner’s Cotton Factory, 860
Brunner, Mary, 190
Brush Creek, 376
Brush Valley, 343
Bryan, George, 136, 662, 708, 779, 794
Bryan, Rebecca, 736
Bryson, Samuel, Story, 630
Buchanan, Arthur, 679
Buchanan, Polly, 679
Buchanan, William, 319
Buchanan, James, 34, 35, 183, 288, 624, 679
Bucher, Conrad, 306
Bucher, Jacob, 6
Buckalew, Charles R., 196
Buckaloons, 551
Buckingham, 179
Bucks County, 33, 57, 60, 84, 107, 142, 179, 180, 190, 191, 207, 307,
308, 334, 370, 416, 419, 448, 450, 530, 596, 649, 650, 662, 861, 867
Buckshot War, Story, 853
Budden, Captain, 383
Bull, Ole, 94, 95, 96
Buffalo, 877
Buffalo Creek, 175, 241
Buffalo Valley, 9, 11, 305, 461, 526
Buffalo Valley, Linn (quoted), 189
Buffington’s, 628
Building Commissioners, 5
Bull, Captain (Indian), 492, 718, 911
Bull, General John, 139, 380, 484, 544
Bull, Mary Phillips, 546
Bull, Rebecca, 139
Bull Run, 280
Bullet, Captain, 636
Bulletin, 813
Bunker Hill, 10, 606
Bunner, Murray & Co., 922
Burd, Edward, 209, 228, 483, 508, 693
Burd, Colonel James, 178, 237, 319, 684, 759
Burgoyne, General John, 456, 834
Burlington Meeting, 113
Burnes, Patrick, 760
Burnet, Dr. William, 602
Burnett, Governor of New Jersey, 161
Burnett’s Hills, 399
Burning of Chambersburg, Story, 519
Burns, John, 583
Burns, Robert, 579
Burnt Cabins, 320, 680
Burr, Aaron, 894
Burroughs, Mrs., 250
Burrowes, Thomas H., 850, 855
Bush Hill, 351
Bushy Run, Battle of, 537, 548
Butler, 120, 121, 122, 854
Butler (Indian), 372
Butler County, 120, 121, 156, 181, 185, 208, 262, 265, 551, 596, 597
Butler, Colonel John, 456, 833
Butler, Colonel John (Tory), 71, 138, 168, 367, 456, 579, 633, 814
Butler, John Richard, 152
Butler, Lord, 111, 135
Butler, Richard, General, 3, 43, 146, 750
Butler, Colonel Zebulon, 438, 456, 492, 903
Butler’s Rift, 495
Buyers, Judge John, 819
Buzzard, Dr., 894
Byberry, 577
Bygrove, Lieutenant, 348
Bylhinge, Edward, 716
C
Cabot, John, 446
Cadwalader, Colonel Lambert, 292, 908
Cadwalader, General Thomas, 334
Cadwallader, General John, 292, 417, 836, 868
Cady, 439
Caghuawaga, 363
Cagnawaga Creek, 185
Caledonia (ship), 626
Cajadies, 886
Caldwell, Captain, 456
Caldwell, Commodore Andrew, 324
Caldwell, Samuel, 332
Callander, Robert, 322, 762
Calvert, Charles, 330, 821, 919
Camden & Amboy Railroad, 21
Cambria, 378
Cambria County, 177, 181, 596, 725, 775
Cambria Iron Works, 232, 378
Cambridge, 409
Cameron County, 156, 182, 208, 596
Cameron, Donald, 498
Cameron House, 745
Cameron, Colonel James, 498
Cameron, General Simon, 196, 498, 812, 883
Cammerhoff, Bishop John Frederick, 15, 16, 17, 63
Campanius, Rev. John, 123, 609
Camp Curtin, Story, 276 to 280
Camp Union, 277
Camp, William, 299
Campbell, Alexander, 557, 558, 847
Campbell, James, 644
Campbell, John, 179, 200
Campbell, Michael, 400
Campbell, Mrs., 558
Campbell, Captain William, 527
Campbell (poet) quoted, 457
Canada, 743
Canajoharie, 302
Canal Commissioners, Board of, 723
Canal, Union, 26
Canal, Story, 130
Canassatego, 449, 867
*Conewago, 744
Cannon, James, 485, 669, 794
Canoe Place, 731
Canon, John, 164
Canterbury, 845
*Causeland, Nieu, 667
Cape Cornelius, 857
Capes of Chesapeake, 627
Capitol Hill, 746
Capitol, State, 3, 5, 6, 86, 89, 94, 135
Capson, John, 897
Captain Pipe, 226
Carantouan, 742
Carbon County, 47, 48, 65, 181, 193, 380, 448, 557, 564, 577, 597, 651,
846, 847, 918
Carbondale, 232
Carey, 591
Carey, Henry Charles, 643
Carey, Matthew, 641;
Story, 775
Carleton, Sir Guy, 426, 739
Carigiatatie, Nikes, 700
Carlisle, 4, 27, 73, 74, 75, 110, 135, 170, 176, 178, 217, 227, 247,
248, 258, 288, 321, 322, 346, 388, 441, 443, 445, 508,
Carlisle Barracks, 522, 854
Carlisle, Earl of, 417
Carlisle Indian School, 110;
Story, 522
Carlisle Jail, 912
Carlisle, Hon. John S., 179
Carlisle Pike, 280
Carlisle, Raid on, Story, 441
Carmichael, William, 915
Carolina, 300
Carondowanen (Indian), 638
Carpenter, Emanuel, 798
Carpenter, Edward, 150
Carpenter, Samuel, 128, 150, 159
Carpenters’ Hall, 10, 33, 419, 611, 694
Carr, Colonel Robert, 446
Carroll, General Samuel Sprigg, 454
Carroll, James, 193, 314
Carroll Tract, 264
Carroll, Colonel William, 334
Carson, Ann, 784
Carson, John, 784
Carteret, Sir George, 716
Cartlidge, Edward, 805, 806, 822
Cartlidge, John, 552, 805, 806
Casey, Joseph, 864
Cashtown Pike, 452
Cass Township, 846
Cassimer, Fort, 609
Castle, James H, 249
Castleman, William, 586
Cat, Story of Singed, 532
Catawba, 300
Catawissa, 299, 893
Cathcart, Lord, 348
Catherine (ship), 302
Cave, 248
Cavet, James, 101, 149
Cayuga, 17
Celeron, Captain Bienville de, 411, 840
Cemetery Hill, 453
Centennial, 882
Center County, 156, 181, 208, 276, 344, 597, 775
Central Railroad of New Jersey, 243
Centralia, 192, 846
Chadd’s Ford, 503, 504, 628
Chain of Forts, 916
Chalfant, Thomas, 119
Chamberlin, Colonel Thomas, 453
Chambers, Benjamin, 23, 623, 822
Chambers, David, 400
Chambers, Fort, 23
Chambers, James, 343, 508, 688
Chambers, Jane, 331
Chambers, Joseph, 254, 623
Chambers Mill, 16
Chambers, Captain Stephen, Story, 331
Chambers, Thomas, 23
Chambersburg, 51, 519, 678, 680, 706, 707, 735, 860, 864
Chamberstown, 622
Champlain, Samuel, 742
Chance, Samuel, 822
Chance (ship), 325
Chancery Lane, 517
Chandler, Zachariah, 883
Chandler, Joseph R., 890
Chapin, General, 153
Chapman, Dr., 861
Charles, Edward (Scotland), 498
Charles II, King, 165, 294, 446
Charles (Indian), 437
Charles, Robert, 382
Charlestown, 673
Charleston & Hamburg Railroad Company, 22
Charter, 5, 165, 166, 167
Chartiers Creek, 147, 163, 225, 528
Chartier, Peter, 300
Chase, Samuel, 383
Chase, Rev. Mr., 901
Chautauqua Creek, 412, 840
Chautauqua Lake, 413
Chautauqua, Story, 326
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, 327
Chautauqua Sunday School Assembly, 327
Chemung, 367
Chemung River, 17
Chemunk, 578
Cheat River, 100
Chenango, N. Y., 299
Cherry, Fort, 586
Cherry, John, 586
Cherry Tree Township, 591
Cherry Valley, 814
Chesapeake, 505, 588
Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, 131
Chester, 61, 75, 158, 275, 328, 396, 486, 503, 504, 610, 754
Chester County, 8, 10, 60, 70, 84, 127, 131, 137, 151, 152, 161, 179,
180, 191, 205, 207, 301, 308, 339, 414, 416, 419, 436, 463, 496,
503, 565, 582, 596, 610, 664, 709, 850
Chestnut Hill, 690, 870
Chestnut Ridge, 149
Chestnut Street Theatre, 250
Chevalier, John, 292
Chevalier, Peter, 780
Chevaux de frise, 324
Chevey, Squire Thomas, 629
Chew, Benjamin, 107, 357, 919
Chew, Benjamin, Jr., 357
Chew House, 691
Chew, Peggy, 348
Chew, Sophia, 348
Chickahominy, 677
Chilloway, Job, 359, 655
Chickies Creek, Little, 217, 821
Chickesalunga, 249
Child, Francis, 641
Chillisquaque Creek, 139, 305, 515, 553, 614
Chillisquaque Township, 208
China, 430
Chincklamoose, 228, 303, 770
Chippewa, 334, 583
Chobet, 840
Christ, Adam, 819
Christiana, 8, 667
Christiana Creek, 123, 324, 609
Christiana, Fort, 123, 609
Christiana Riots, 880
Chronicle, The Harrisburg, 4, 298
Church, Catholic, 86
Church, Christ, 46, 82
Church, First Dedication, 419
Church, First Moravian, Story, 512
Church, First Permanent Settlement, Story, 608
Church, Gloria Dei, 610
Church and King, 99
Church of the Brethren, 866, 867
Church, Old Swede, 610
Church Store, 222
Cicero, 752
Cilley, Colonel Joseph, 367
Cincinnati, 849
Cincinnati, Order of, 311, 332, 850
City Cavalry, First Troop, 694
City Grays, Harrisburg, 473
City Grays, Williamsport, 473
City Troop, First, 107, 357, 574
City Zouaves, Middletown, 473
Civil Government of Pennsylvania, 530
Civility, Chief, 301
Claess, Christian, 396
Clapham Colonel William, 24, 25, 227, 228, 229, 370, 393, 396, 770,
819, 918
Clarion County, 156, 181, 208, 597
Clark, 769
Clark, Dr. Adam, 901
Clark, Daniel, 784
Clark, General Geo. Rogers, 162, 488, 527, 528, 820
Clark, Governor (N. Y.), 500
Clark, John, 141, 343, 630, 740, 820
Clark, Walter, 209
Clarkson, Matthew, 325, 776
Clarkson (quoted), 755
Clay, Henry, 95
Claypoole, D. C. 899
Claypoole, James, 293, 373
Claypoole & Morris, 469
Clayton, Major Asher, 228, 259, 560, 711 718, 911
Clayton, William, 150, 396
Clearfield, 228, 491, 770
Clearfield County, 156, 181, 208, 597, 775
Clerkwell Prison, 802
Clermont, Fulton’s, 564
Cleveland, 309
Clingan, William, 921
Clinton, 183
Clinton County, 156, 181, 182, 208, 212, 596 597, 775
Clinton, DeWitt, 144, 233
Clinton, Sir Henry, 2, 3, 308
Clinton, General James, 240, 347, 367, 416 426, 443, 710
Clinton, Governor George, 412
Cloister, Ephrata, 464
Clow’s Dragoons, 349
Cluggage, Captain Robert, 178, 508
Clymer, Daniel, 248, 694
Clymer, George, 332, 643, 861, 872
Coaldale, 315
Coal Oil, 591
Coal Oil Johnnie, 592
Coates, William, 292
Coats, William, 380
Cobbett, William, 791
Cobb’s Creek, 124, 448
Cobb’s Run, 261
Cocalio Creek, 463
Cochran, Captain, 521
Cochran, Colonel, 442
Cochran, Dr. John, 442;
Story, 601, 820
Cochran, William, 853
Cock, Lasse, 150
Cock, Laurens, 396
Cock, Moens, 792
Cock, Otto Ernest, 396, 792
Cock, Peter, 396, 667, 792
Code of Laws, Penn’s, 295
Codorus, 298
Coeur du Lac, Fort, 578
Coeur, Jean, 412
Confederation, Articles of, 5, etc.
Coffee House, 325
Coffin, Lucretia, 6
Colebrookdale, 616
Coleman Guards, Lebanon, 473
Coleman, William, 919
Colesberry, Alexander P., 734
College, Dickinson, 4
Collett, Jeremiah, 150
Collins, Henry, 170
Colonial Dames, 753
Colonial Records, 880
Colonial Society, Swedish, 608
Colony of Pennsylvania, 507
Colt, Mr., 299
Columbia, 112, 297, 414
Columbia County, 48, 49, 181, 192, 196, 208, 432, 564, 596, 846
Columbia Railroad, 499
Columbian Magazine, The, 642
Columbus, 26
Colver, Ephraim, 577
Combush (Indian), 650
Company H, 4th U. S. A., 277
Compass Hotel, 248
Concord, 290, 695
Concord Meeting House, 651
Conejohela Valley, 821
Conemaugh, 132, 149, 300, 377
Conemaugh, Lake, 378
Conemaugh River, 377
Conestoga, 105, 912
Conestoga Creek, 463
Conestoga Lock and Dam, 131
Conestoga Manor, 822
Conestoga Murdered by Shawnee, Story, 300
Conestoga Township, 821
Conewago Canal, 131, 132, 244
Conewago Falls, 298
Conewango Creek, 153, 411
Confederate Raid, 705
Conference, Provincial, 419
Congress (ship), 325
Congress Hall Hotel, 834
Congress, Mutiny Against, 426
Conlin, Patrick, 474
Connelly, Dr. John, 100, 145, 148, 489, 660
Connelly, Robber, 220
Connellsville, 328
Connecticut Settlers, 93
Connoquenessing Creek, 121
Connolloways, Big and Little, 749
Conococheague, 319, 622
Conococheague Creek, 510
Conococheague, Massacre at, Story, 510
Conococheague Navigation Company, 131, 169
Conococheague Valley, 510
Conodoguinet Creek, 217, 248
Conrad, Mrs. James, 369
Conrad, Robert T., 389
Constitution, 5, 214, 603, 643, 794, 816, 895
Constitution, Federal, 5;
Story, 643
Constitution (ship), 583, 624
Constitutional Party, 692
Constitutionalists, 875
Contrecoeur, Captain M. de, 126, 470, 660
Continental Currency, 18
Conway Cabal, 417;
Story, 834
Conway, General Thomas, 417, 690
Cook, Edward, 149
Cooke, Jay, 646
Cooke, Colonel Jacob, 896
Cooke, Jay & Co., 646
Cooke, Colonel William, 137, 260, 674, 820, 903
Coolin, Annakey, 151
Cooper Ferry, 670
Cooper Hospital, 369
Cooper, James, 8
Cooper, J. Fennimore, 323
Cooper, Mrs., 369
Cooper Shop Story, 368
Cooper, Thomas, 433, 803
Cooper, William M., 369
Copley, John Singleton, 410
Copley Medal, 95
Coppee, Henry, 280
Copper, John, 823
Copp’s Hill, 606
Corbar, Brother, 413
Corinthian Yacht Club, 608
Cork, 311
Corken, James, 510
Cornaghan’s Blockhouse, 527
Cornbury, Lord Edward Hyde, 639, 764
Cornelius, Cape, 589
Cornell, Hugh, 525
Cornerstone, 5, 239, 283
Cornplanter, Chief, 241, 549, 550, 572, 732
Cornwall, Captain, 298
Cornwall, William, 510
Cornstalk, Chief, 362, 750
Cornwallis, Lord Charles, 223, 443, 504, 628, 651, 669, 691, 692
Corporation Act., 99
Corry, 593
Coryell’s Ferry, 863, 909
Coshocton, 226, 281;
Story, 656, 750
Couch, General Darius N., 519, 520, 707
Council of Censors, 794, 895
Council of Safety, 903
Council, Supreme Executive, Threatened, Story, 426
Counterfeiter, 217
Counties, Etymology of, 596
Country Club of Harrisburg, 23
Country Gentleman, 533
Courland, Colonel, 367
Court, Earliest, 396;
Story, 791
Court of Admiralty, 325
Courtright, Milton C., 865
Cove, Great, 267, 623, 749
Cove, Little, 267, 622, 749
Cove Mountains, 707
Covenhoven, Robert, 400, 462
Covenhoven, Thomas, 402
Coventry, 463
Cowan, Edgar, 196
Cowan, Frank (quoted), 303
Cowan, J. F., 95
Cowan’s Gap, 320
Cowperthwaite, Joseph, 292
Cox, Assemblyman, 890
Cox, Gabriel, 164
Cox, John, 292, 922
Cox, Widow, 761
Crabtree Creek, 479
Craig, Isaac, 200
Craig, Jane, 348
Craig, Lieutenant, 869
Craig, Neville B., 518
Cragie, Dr. Andrew, 602
Craik, Dr. James, 602
Crain, Richard, 136
Crane, Hook, 610
Crantz, Dr. (quoted), 884
Cram, Claes, 397
Crascraft, Charles, 528
Crawford County, 156, 181, 185, 208, 596, 597
Crawford, Edward, Jr., 623
Crawford, Fort, 549
Crawford, Hugh, 236
Crawford, Captain John, 404
Crawford, Josiah, 622
Crawford, Captain William, 282, 488, 587
Crawford, Colonel William, 146, 148, 163;
Story, 402, 739, 814
Crefeld, 696
Crellius, Joseph, 899
Crescent City, 201
Cresap, Michael, 361
Cresap, Thomas, 330, 365;
Story, 821
Cresap War, 330
Cressinger, Dr. Jacob R., 500
“Crisis,” Paine’s, 571;
quoted, 426
Crispin, Silas, 531
Crispin, William, 334, 531
Croghan, Catherine, 323
Croghan, Colonel George, 93, 235, 305, 319, 321, 323, 425, 525
Cromwell, 843, 901
Crook, Henry, 473
Crooked Billet, 10, 307;
Massacre at, Story, 307
Crown Point, 70
“Crown,” The, 541, 575, 576
Cubbertson, William, 154
Cucussea, 301
Culbertson, Elizabeth, 10
Culbertson, John, 510
Culbertson, Colonel Samuel, 10
Culloden, 498
Culp’s Hill, 454
Cumberland County, 26, 42, 127, 134, 170, 171, 172, 177, 180, 181, 187,
207, 208, 210, 216, 221, 257, 259, 319, 320, 416, 419, 496, 508,
544, 587, 596, 606, 615, 622, 678, 684, 698, 711, 731, 911
Cumberland, Md., 280, 470
Cumberland Valley, 23
Cunningham, Susan King, 511
Cunningham, Thomas S., 851
Curtin, Governor Andrew G., 389, 810
Curtis, Cyrus H. K., 532
Curtis Publishing Company, 533
Curtis, Tom (Indian), 359
Custis, George Washington, 358
Custis, Miss, 358
Cuyler, Theodore C., 8
Cyane (ship), 583
D
Daillon, Father de la Roche, 742
Dallas, Alexander James, 69, 191, 817
Dallas, George Mifflin, 890
Dally, Philip, 263
Dalmatia, 63
Dandelot, M., 894
Dangerfield, 8
Danville, 118, 232
Danville Intelligencer, The, 118
Danziger, Charles W., 519
Darby, 159, 357, 504, 545, 580, 859
Darby Creek, 608, 611, 779, 848, 859
Darrah, Lydia, 868
Darrah, William, 868
Daughters American Revolution, 200
Dauphin County, 3, 25, 66, 131, 135, 172, 180, 181, 187, 188, 249, 255,
277, 498, 564, 582, 596, 597, 853, 896
Dauphin County Agriculture Society, 277
Daunt, Knowles, 822
Daventry, 97
Davidson, John, 800
Davidson, Samuel, 61, 324
Davies, William R., 872
Davis, Beaver, 619
Davis, Bill, 173
Davis, Philip, 614
Davy the Lame Indian, 375
Day, Sherman, 93
Dayton, Colonel Elias, 367
Dean, Colonel Joseph, 70
Dean, Samuel, 186
Dean, William, 731, 732
Deane, Silas, 308, 913
Dearborn, General Henry, 334, 582
Death of the Fox, 833
Deauchamp, David, 474
Debarre, General Prudhomme, 629
Decatur, Captain Stephen, 789
Declaration of Independence, 5, 46, 81, 458, 483, 871
Declaration of Rights, 611
Decker’s Tavern, 494
De Coudray, 72
Dee, River, 565
Deed for Christ Church, 436
Deed for Province, 598
De Formoy, General, 909
DeHaas, General John Philip, 306, 381, 545, 618, 922
D'haes, John, 792
DeHaven, Peter, 461
Deimer, John, 748
Delaware County, 179, 180, 212, 596, 598, 838, 858
Dekonoagah, 764
Delancy, Captain John Peter, 271
Delaware, 873
Delaware (ship), 789
Delaware Company, 492
Delaware & Schuylkill Canal, 131
Delaware Water Gap, 494
Delemater, George W., 86
Delaval, Lieutenant, 348
“Democratic,” 803
Democratic Press, The, 434, 783, 803, 879
Dennison (Indian), 523
Dennison, Colonel Nathan, 456
Densmore, James, 119
Denny, Ebenezer, 152, 201
Denny, David, 255
Denny, Governor William, 178, 303, 619, 700, 703
De Peyster, Captain Arent Schuyler, 283
Depontency, Captain, 840
Deposit, 775
Derr’s Mills, 11
Derrstown, 462, 878
Derry, 149
Dersham, Frank L., 9
Der Wochentlicks Phila. Staatsbate, 899
Desdemona, 76
Detroit, 140, 388, 704
Detroit, Fort (see Fort Detroit)
Detroit, Ship, 625
Devane, Sarah, 137
Devil’s Den, 453
Devores Ferry, 528
DeVries, David Pieterson, 230, 590, 856
Dewart, John, 820
Dewees, Christina, 336
Dewees Mill, 130
Dewees, William, 31, 130, 336
Dewitt, Simeon, 240
Dick, Captain John, 561
Dickewanis, 245
Dickinson College, 4, 248, 288, 441
Dickinson, John, 60, 106, 186, 292, 428, 443, 458, 594, 623, 872, 874
Dickinson, General Philemon, 70
Dickinson (ship), 418
Dickinson’s Farmer’s Letters, Story, 786
Diefenbach, Captain, 798
“Diligent, Old,” 860
Dill, Andrew H., 733
Dill, Matthew, 698
Dill, Mary, 698
Dillsburg, 441, 698
Dinwiddie, Governor Robert, 67, 125, 657, 758, 799
Director of Mint, 238
Disberry, Joe, 818
Directory, French, 789
Disher, Peter, 820
Dixon, Jeremiah, 919
Doan Outlaws, Story, 662
Dock Creek, 374
Dock, Christopher, 159
Dodd, Dr., 77
Dodson, Abigail, 577
Dolland, 385
Donahue, John, 847
Donahue, Thomas, 49, 192
Donation Lands, 184, 185, 186
Dondel, Captain Michael, 508
Donegal, 62, 700, 821, 823
Donehoo, Dr. George P., 523, 884
Donop, Colonel Carl Emil Kurt von, 504, 671
Donnelly, Felix, 422
Donnelly, Francis, 422
Dorrance, George, 456
Doty, Senator, 136
Doubleday, General Charles William, 452
Doubling Gap, 218
Dougal, Dr. James S., 252
Dougherty, Bernard, 61
Dougherty, Daniel, 769
Dougherty, David, 249
Dougherty, James, 516
Douglass, Stephen A., 810
Dove, Dr. David James, 188, 284
Downey, Captain John, 308
Downingtown, 329
Doyle, Michael, 47, 557
Doyle, Thomas H., 521
Doylestown, 34
Draft for Troops, 162, 163, 164
Drafton, Edmund, 792
Drake (quoted), 621
Drake, Colonel Edwin L., 591
Draper, Major Simeon, 559
Draper, Sir William, 77
Dreisbach Church, 9, 344, 732
Dreisbach, Yost, 61
Dreshler, David, 284
Drickett, Thomas, 150
Drury Lane Theatre, 251
Dry Run Cemetery, 343
Drystreet, Henry, 150
Duane, William J., 335, 434, 783, 803, 804, 876
Dublin Township Meeting, 113
DuBois, Colonel, 367
Duche, Rev. Jacob, 308, 418
Duck Creek, 436
Dudley, Gideon, 439
Dudley, Joseph, 439
Duels—Binns-Stewart, 434, 876;
Cadwallader-Conway, 417;
Chambers-Rieger, 331;
Wilkinson-Gates, 571
Duffield, Rev. George, 59
Duffield, William, 170
Duffy, Thomas, 193, 314
Dugan, James, 558
Dugan, Patrick, 474
Duke of York, 28
Dunbar Camp, 471
Dunbar, Colonel Thomas, 133, 470, 471, 828
Duncan, Matthew, 508
Dungeon, The, 802
Dunkard Creek, 920
Dunkards, 32, 318
Dunlap, John, 899
Dunmore, Lord (John Murray), 43, 100, 101, 145, 148, 362, 489, 660, 737
Dunmore’s War, 101
Dunne, Henry H., 192, 217, 845
Dunquat (Indian), 584
Duponceau, Peter S., 77
Dupont, Camp, 334
Dupretit, 894
Dupui, Samuel, 918
Duquesne, Marquis, 127, 199
Durham, 516
Durham Iron Works, 300
Durham, James, 297
Durham, Mrs. Margaret W., 296
Durkee, Colonel John, 102, 429, 559, 560, 561
Dushore, 894
Dutch Control Delaware River, 665
Dutch East India Company, 589, 856
Dutch & English Gazette, The, 899
Dutchess County, N. Y., 6
Dutch Fork, 175
Dutchman, The Pennsylvania, 876
Dutch West India Company, 590, 667, 856
E
Eagle County, 597
“Eagle” (ship), 671
Eagle Tavern, 861
Earl of Dunmore, 100
Earle Brothers, 439
Earle’s Royal Regiment, 765
Early, General Jubal A., 441, 454, 519
Eastborn, Benjamin, 650
East Cemetery Hill, 454
East Conemaugh, 378
Easton, 70, 71, 103, 153, 182, 202, 223, 233, 235, 240, 273, 279, 322,
366, 368, 370, 380, 413, 483, 504, 624, 840
Eaton, D. L., 518
Eckerline, Gabriel, 463
Eckerline, Israel, 463
Eckley, John, 85
Economy, 122
Ecuyer, Captain Simeon, 346
Edenberg, 309
Edinburgh, 46, 97
Edminston, Samuel, 630
Education, 158, 182, 183, 184
Edward, King, 98
“Edward” (ship), 325
Edwards, Benjamin, 299
Effigy, 91
“Effingham” (ship), 418
Egle, Dr. William—quoted, 62
Egypt, 327
Eichbaum, William, 200
Eichbaum & Johnson, 518
Eicher, Anna, 463
Eighth New York Regiment, 369
Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, 140, 168, 462
Eighteenth Royal Regiment of Foot, 311
Eighty-fourth “Bloody,” 350
Elder, Rev. John, 25, 236, 718, 911
Elder, Joshua, 209
Election, Bloody, 682
Electrifying Machines, 97
Elger, Mr., 298
Elizabeth, Princess, 717
Elizabethtown, 249
Elk County, 156, 181, 182, 208, 597
Elk River, 503
Elkton, 503
Ellicott, Andrew, 240, 298, 921
Elliott, Andrew, 662
Elliott, Captain, 43, 152, 584
Elliott, Joseph, 457
Elliott, Matthew, 225
Ellsworth, Oliver, 872
Elmira, N. Y., 514
Elswick, 665
Emancipation, Proclamation, 41
Emanuel’s Reformed Church, 699
Emaus, 15
Emmerson, John, 822
Emmettsburg, 452
Endt, Theobold, 512
England, Philip, 30
Engle, Benj., 284
English, John, 556
Ephrata, 463, 602
Erie, 154, 233, 240, 333, 413, 592, 624, 840
Erie, Battle at, 624
Erie Canal, 36, 233
Erie County, 126, 152, 156, 181, 185, 208, 223, 596, 598, 718
Erie, Fort, see Fort Erie
Erie, Lake, 624
Erie & Northwestern R. R., 863
Erie Observer—quoted, 387
Ernst, 94
Eros and Antiros, 286
Erskind, Sir William, 352, 545
Erwin, Arthur, 60
Essepenaick, 436
Essington, 608, 665
Esther’s Town, Queen, 619
Etter, Edward G., 520
Ettwein, Rev. John, 223
Ettinger, Joel B., 523
Etymology of Counties, 596
Etzweiler, George, 343
Eucharist, 33
Euer, Robert, 150
Eustice, Michael, 474
Evans, John, 30, 205, 763
Evans, Lewis, 422, 884
Evans, Nathaniel, 150
Evans, Sam, 236
Everett, Edward, 811
Everett, W. S., 520
Ewell, General Richard C., 441, 454
Ewing, Alexander, 344
Ewing, Catherine, 606
Ewing, Colonel George W., 767
Ewing, General James, 698
Ewing, John, 188, 191, 385, 606, 708, 909, 919, 921
Ewing, Mrs. Sarah, 369
Eyer, Henry C., 568
Eyre, Emmanuel, 72
Eyre, Samuel, 922
Eyre, T. Lawrence, 137
Excise Laws, 196, 197, 198
Exeter, 736
Expedition, Forbes’, 685
Expedition, Hambright, 770
Expedition, Hartley, 616
Expedition, Sullivan, 366
F
Fabricius, Brother, 825
Fagg, Manor of, 416
Fairfield Gap, 455
Fairman, Thomas, 396, 696
Fair Play Men, 156
Falkner, Daniel, 336, 512
Falkner Swamp, 31, 32, 335, 463
Fallen Timbers, 572, 849
Falling Spring, 623
Falls of Schuylkill, 504
Falls Township (Bucks Co.), 530
Falls of Trenton, 230
Faltz, M. A., 520
Family House, 222
Fanning, General Edmund, 900
Farmer’s Brother, 814
Farmer’s Letters, 786
Farquhar, Guy E., 109
Farragut, Admiral David Glasgow, 882
Fatland Ford, 668
Fayette County, 52, 99, 131, 147, 180, 198, 216, 596, 597, 775
Federal Constitution, 735, 871
Federal Party, 837
Felebaum, George, 741
Felkstrug, 436
Fellowship Fire Company, 860
Fenwick, John, 716
Ferdey, John, 350
Ferree, John, 60
Fever, Yellow, 775
Field Book of Revolution, Lossing’s, 363
Fifth National Guard, Pennsylvania, 379
Financier of Rebellion, 646
Findlay, Governor William, 5, 136, 198, 216, 332, 435, 605, 688, 810,
895
Findley, James, 69, 623
Fink, John, 174
Finland, 667
Finley, John, 736
Finns, 231
Fire Companies, 45, 858
Fires, Early, 858
First Army Corps, 452
First Defenders, 279
First Forty Settlers, 102
First German Reformed Church, 71
First Newspaper, 897
First Newspaper West of Allegheny Mountains, 517
First Regiment of Pennsylvania, 509
First and Second Battalions, 185
First State Regiment, 381
Fishbourne, Benjamin, 3
Fishbourne, William, 71, 764, 805, 859
Fisher, John, 150
Fisher, Joshua, 780
Fisher, Peter, 393
Fisher, Thomas P., 847
Fisher, William, 780
Fisher’s Ferry, 393
Fisher’s Stone House, 393
Fishing Creek, 16, 23, 210, 515, 623, 904
Fithian, Rev. Philip (quoted), 59, 331, 421
Fitzhugh, Captain, 520
Fitzsimmons, Thomas, 72, 643
Fitzwater, George, 374
Flag, 409, 483
Flag Captured at Monmouth, 443
Flatheads, 300
Fleming, Captain, 910
Fletcher, Governor Benjamin, 843
Fletcher & Gardner, 21
Fleury, Major Louis de, 672
Flood, Johnstown, 377
Flower, Enoch, 150, 158
Flying Camp, 570, 909
Folger, Josiah, 44
Foragers, British, 307
Forbes, Major General John, 100, 148, 177, 303, 380, 489, 544, 636,
660, 703, 827
Forbes Road, 148
Ford, Lieutenant, 418
Ford, Philip, 373
Forest County, 156, 181, 185, 208, 597
Foresters, The, 580
Forest House, 343
Forman, General David, 690
Forney, John W., 33, 34, 35, 249, 767
Forrest, Edwin, 249
Fort, C. V., 369
Fort Allen, 65, 236, 267, 270, 273, 370, 380, 540, 541, 544, 559, 574,
576, 577, 719, 918
Fort Antes, 335, 337, 400, 461
Fort Armstrong, 395, 549
Fort Augusta, 11, 24, 25, 27, 57, 58, 65, 67, 102, 103, 104, 110, 207,
211, 227, 236, 237, 266, 295, 305, 371, 372, 393, 395, 429, 430,
461, 462, 515, 516, 517, 527, 537, 542, 543, 544, 555, 587, 614,
618, 675, 685, 686, 711, 718, 719, 720, 770, 903, 904, 907
Fort Bedford, 177, 346, 388, 537, 547, 587, 711, 782, 831
Fort Billingsport, 324, 545, 669, 908
Fort Boone, 515
Fort Bostley, 515
Fort Brady, 260
Fort Buchanan, 175
Fort Burd, 686, 709
Fort Busse’s, 65, 757
Fort Carlisle, 178, 537, 587
Fort Cassimer, 610, 665, 667
Fort Chambers, 23
Fort Cherry, 585, 586
Fort Christiana, 123, 230, 231, 609, 610, 666
Fort Coeur du Lac, 578
Fort Coulon de Villiers, 840
Fort Crawford, 167, 549
Fort Cresap, 823
Fort Cumberland, 267, 686, 841
Fort Defiance, 572
Fort Detroit, 347, 388
Fort Dunmore, 100, 101, 489, 660
Fort Duquesne, 100, 127, 133, 177, 199, 265, 266, 272, 302, 303, 345,
380, 413, 470, 476, 489, 621, 635, 685, 704, 721, 722, 771, 827, 840
Fort Durkee, 102, 103, 104, 559
Fort Dupui, 918
Fort Elfborg, 124
Fort Erie, 144, 145, 334, 413, 572
Fort Forty, 456, 492
Fort Franklin, 918
Fort Freeland, 188, 253, 295, 296, 297, 326, 496, 514, 515, 516, 614,
674, 814
Fort Frontenac, 412, 828
Fort Granville, 525, 619, 620, 918
Fort Greenville, 572
Fort Halifax, 25, 228, 371, 393, 394, 395, 918
Fort Hamilton, 918
Fort Hand, 167, 168, 607
Fort Harris, 744, 745
Fort Henry, 65, 66, 67, 544, 757, 758, 918
Fort Henry (Wheeling), 167, 282, 488, 528, 740
Fort Hunter, 23, 25, 64, 65, 74, 371, 393, 623, 685, 759, 918
Fort Island, 324
Fort Jenkins, 211, 295, 456, 515, 614, 616
Fort Johnson, 540
Fort Kittanning, 145
Fort Korsholm, 667
Fort Laurens, 140, 141, 142
Fort Lebanon, 758, 918
Fort LeBoeuf, 126, 145, 152, 318, 345, 388, 413, 537, 586, 718, 840
Fort Lee, 223
Fort Ligonier, 346, 388, 537, 547, 587, 636
Fort Littleton, 266, 918
Fort Loudoun, 100, 169, 170, 171, 177, 510, 511, 760, 762, 831
Fort McCord, 141, 265
Fort McDowell, 319, 320, 510, 760, 829, 918
Fort McHenry, 277, 488
Fort McIntosh, 140, 141, 142, 156, 167, 174, 241, 400, 406, 549
Fort McKee, 63
Fort Machault, 67, 318
Fort Manada, 758, 759
Fort Manyunk, 663
Fort Meninger, 469
Fort Mercer, 545, 670, 671, 672, 673
Fort Miami, 345
Fort Michillimackimac, 345
Fort Mifflin, 418, 670
Fort Montgomery, 515, 614
Fort Moultrie, 39
Fort Muncy, 260, 296, 366, 400, 401, 458, 462, 463, 515, 542, 543, 618
Fort Nassau, 123, 230, 446, 590, 858
Fort Necessity, 133, 272, 322
Fort New Gottenburg, 124
Fort Niagara, 147, 345, 347, 388, 516, 840
Fort Norris, 918
Fort Northkill, 758
Fort Onachtown, 345, 718
Fort Orange, 446
Fort, Old, 221
Fort, Palmer’s, 309
Fort Patterson, 74, 525, 684, 918
Fort Penn, 324, 918
Fort Pitt, 43, 62, 64, 100, 127, 140, 141, 142, 145, 147, 148, 149,
167, 169, 170, 171, 174, 175, 176, 178, 199, 225, 226, 245, 260,
281, 305, 309, 310, 323, 345, 347, 372, 375, 376, 388, 403, 425,
462, 482, 488, 489, 490, 517, 518, 528, 537, 539, 547, 549, 551,
585, 587, 606, 618, 654, 660, 661, 688, 710, 711, 718, 722, 728,
739, 740, 741, 749, 782
Fort Pomfret Castle, 684
Fort Potter, 221
Fort Presque Isle, 153, 318, 345, 387, 388, 413, 537, 586, 718, 840
Fort Randolph, 167
Fort Recovery, 572
Fort Redstone, Old, 52, 171, 322
Fort Reid, 614
Fort Rice, 615, 616
Fort Raystown, 177
Fort Sandusky, 345, 718
Fort San Marco, 522
*Fort Swartz, 470, 616
Fort Shirley, 525, 619, 918
Fort, Six, 65, 918
Fort Smith, 757
Fort, Widow Smith’s, 467
Fort Standing Stone, 422
Fort Stanwix, 155, 156, 240, 247, 305, 361, 398, 410, 492, 773
Fort Steel, 760
Fort St. Joseph, 345
Fort Sumter, 39
Fort Swatara, 65, 757, 918
Fort Ticonderoga, 848
Fort Trinity, 610, 655
Fort Venango, 168, 345, 413, 537, 586, 718
Fort Wallace, 309
Fort Walthour, 376
Fort Washington, 223, 570
Fort Wayne, 850
Fort Wheeler, 210, 515
Fort Wheeling, 488
Fort, Wilkes-Barre, 457
Fort “Wilson,” 90, 332, 692
Fort Wintermoot, 456
Fort Wyoming, 560, 561
Fortune (ship), 589
Foster, John, 255, 343, 583
Foster, Sidney, George, 285
Foster, Thomas, 24
Foster Township, 192
Fothergill, Dr., 212
Foulk, Colonel Willis, 854
Foulke, Assessor, 190
*Fontainbleau, 704
Fourteenth Regiment National Guard of Pennsylvania, 379
Fouts, Christian, 308
Fowney (ship), 661
Fox, George, 447, 717
Fox, Gilbert, 790
Fox, James, 159
Fox, Speaker, 779
Frame of Government, 28, 293, 341
Francis, Hill Tench, 60
Francis, Tench, 18, 60, 200, 292, 922, 923
Francis, Turbutt, 60, 102, 103, 209, 305, 306, 428
Frankford, 21, 546
Frankford Arsenal, 853
Frankford Land Company, 336, 695
Franklin, Benjamin, 44, 54, 56, 57, 58, 61, 65, 97, 98, 116, 117, 134,
159, 160, 161, 187, 205, 212, 247, 267, 284, 292, 308, 318, 323,
371, 385, 386, 426, 458, 459, 460, 484, 490, 532, 533, 594, 597,
604, 612, 622, 643, 657, 658, 670, 684, 703, 747, 749, 752, 774,
778, 779, 780, 781, 786, 789, 791, 807, 816, 859, 860, 872, 873,
898, 913, 916, 921
Franklin, 412
Franklin County, 10, 180, 264, 288, 319, 510, 596, 597, 622, 678, 705,
706, 760, 829, 918
Franklin (ship), 325
Franklin, Deborah, 44
Franklin Institute, 21
Franklin, Colonel John, 438
Franklin and Marshall College, 624
Franklin, Superintendent, 193, 557
Franklin, Temple, 357
Franklin, William, 323
Franks, Rebecca, 348
Frankstown, 257, 619, 818
Fraser, Margaret, 179
Fraser, William, 178
Frazer, General Simon, 634
Frazer, John, 840
Frazier, John, 802
Frederick, 886
Frederick, Lord Baltimore, 919
Frederick the Great, 910
Frederick Township, 31, 512
Fredericksburg, Md., 470
Fredericksburg (Pa.), 25
Fredericksburg, Va., 107
Fredericktown, Md., 134
Freedom, 264
Freeland, Michael, 326, 516
Freeland Mills, 674
Freeman’s Journal, 641, 876
Freemasons, 182, 567
Free Masonry and Odd Fellowship, 890
Free Soil Movement, 881
Free Traders Society, 754
Fremont, 35
Frew, 890
Frey, Mr., 248
French, 74, 126
French Creek, 126, 318, 413, 551
French deserter, 67
French and Indian War, 316
French, Colonel John, 415
Frenchtown, 639, 892
Freeze (attorney), 192
Freinsheim Church, 31
Freisbach, George, 826
Freisbach, John, 820
Frick, Henry, 429, 568
Frick, Philip, 819
Friedenstadt, 423
Friedenstal Mill, 33
Friedenshuetten, 360, 424
Friendship Fire Company, 860
Friends’ Meeting House, 859
Friends, Society of, 341
Fries, John, 189
Fries, Just Henry, 568
Fries Rebellion, 189, 190, 191
Friedsam, 464
Frietchie, Barbara, Story, 886
Fry, Colonel Joshua, 132
Fry, Henry, 886
Fry, General James B., 811
Fry, Joseph, 216
Fryling, Henry G., 500
Fugitive Slave Law, 880
Fuller, Benjamin, 780
Fullerton, Judge Humphrey, 622
Fulton County, 177, 181, 596, 597
Fulton, Robert, 564, 597
Fulton’s Folly, 566
Funk, George, 179
G
Gabriel, George, 721, 726
Gage, General Thomas, 171, 304, 323, 388, 548
Gahontoto, 17
Gaine, Hugh, 642
Gaines, Camp, 334
Gaines, General Edmund Pendleton, 144
Gainsworth, Colonel, 367
Galena, 326, 327
Galissoniere, Marquis de la, 411, 840
Gallatin, Albert, 51, 52, 53, 152, 198, 216, 605, 688
Gallichwio, 15
Galloway, Joseph, 188, 284, 308, 358, 418, 593, 611, 613, 779, 899, 913
Galloway, Peter, 593
Galloway, Richard, 593
Galbraith, Andrew, 731
Galbraith, Bertram, 485
Galbraith, James, 60, 485, 541
Galbraith, John, 823
Gamble, Colonel, 452
Gamble, Judge James, 474
Gandtscherat, 17
Ganges (ship), 784
Gardner, Joseph, 669
Gardners, 456
Gardow, 246, 813
Garman, Sophia, 891
Garrett, Major John, 456, 905
Garrett, William, 61
Garrison Hill, 154
Garrison, William Lloyd, 6
Garrigues, Jacob, 484
Gates, General Horatio, 222, 571, 834
Gattenmayer, John, 826
Gawthrop, Judge Robert S., 88
Gazette, The, 898, 915
Gazette, Franklin’s, 45, 116
Gazette and Manufacturer and Mercantile Advertiser, 518
Gazette, Pennsylvania, 44, 532, 833, 898
Gazette, The Pittsburgh, 517, 837
Gazetteer (ship), 644
Gearhart, Maclay C., 500
Geary, Governor John W., 473, 474, 646, 879
Geehr, Balzar, 60
Gelemend (Killbuck), 174, 281
Genaskund, 425
General Advertiser, The, 899
Genesee, 138, 633
Genesee Castle, 138, 634
Geneva, 51
Genet, Edmond Charles, 779
Gentleman’s Magazine, The, 900
George III, King, 32, 45, 99, 170, 177, 212, 228, 311, 485, 606, 871
Georges Creek, 149
Georges, Mr. John, 339, 364
Gerard, Robert, 151
German Christians, 120
German Flats, 246, 814
German Printing Office, 899
German Reform Church, 512
German Regiment, 615
“German Rifles,” 369
German Town, 695
Germantown, 6, 31, 32, 112, 113, 114, 128, 129, 130, 152, 159, 203,
204, 284, 302, 304, 504, 512, 689, 695
Germantown Academy, 283, 284, 285
Germantown, Battle of, 689
Germantown, Settlement of, 695
Germantown Union High School House, 284
Gerry, Elbridge, 644, 872
Gertrude of Wyoming, 457
Gerwig, Edgar C., 137
Gesner, Dr. Abraham, 591
Gettig, Christian, 820
Gettysburg, 451, 452, 453, 455, 519, 698, 707, 735, 810
Gettysburg Address, Lincoln, Story, 810
Gettysburg, Battle of, Story, 451 to 455
Giant, Little, 810
Gibbons, John, 150
Gibbons, William, 136
Gibson, James, 187, 913
Gibson, Captain George, 486
Gibson, General John, 140, 175, 362, 750, 896
Gibson, John Bannister, 136, 890
Gibson’s Lambs, 486
Giddings, Edward, 567, 890
Gieger, Henry
Gilbert, Benjamin Sr., 577
Gilbert Family in Captivity, 577
Gilfray, John, 418
Gill, Dr. (quoted), 866
Gill, John D., 86
Gillen, Elizabeth, 296
Gilmore, Major Harry, 520
Ginter, Philip, 111
Girard Bank, 355, 785
Girard College, 356
Girard, Stephen, 220, 335, 354, 776
Girardville, 49, 558
Girty, George, 42, 529
Girty, James, 42, 226
Girty, Simon, 41, 42, 43, 44, 140, 225, 395, 403, 404, 750, 849, 815
Girty, Simon Sr., 42
Girty, Thomas, 42
Girty’s Gap, 41
Girty’s Notch, 42
Girty’s Run, 43
Gist, Christopher, 99, 322, 799, 841, 870
Glen Carbon, 48, 192
Glen Carbon Coal Mining Company, 846
Glen Onoko, 557
Glickhickan (Indian), 425
Glidden, Carlos, 118
Gloria Dei Church, 581
Gloucester, 434
Gloucester, Bishop of, 313
Gloucester Prison, 802
Gnadenhuetten, Ohio, 174, 282, 585
Gnadenhuetten (Pa.), 236, 267, 824
Gobin, John Peter Shindel, 473
Goddard, William, 899
Godey, Louis A., 117
Godfrey, Thomas, 753, 902
Godfrey, Thomas Jr., 271
Gold Medal, Congress, 144
Good Message, 15
Goodson, Job, 374
Gookin, Charles, 765
Gordon, Governor Patrick, 301, 407, 534, 639
Gordon (quoted), 754
Gore, Obadiah, 111
Goschgoschunk, 424
Goshen, 502
Goshen Meeting, 504, 651
Gosnold, Bartholomew, 676
Gottenberg, 608
Gottrecht, 464
Gould, Samuel, 326, 516
Govett, William, 292
Gowen, Franklin B., 48, 108, 192, 316
Graff, Sebastian, 731
Graham, William H., 137
Grand Army Republic, 699
Granger’s Hollow, 772
Granger, Postmaster General Gideon, 435
Grant, General James (British), 308, 352, 651, 691
Grant, Lieutenant Charles, 171
Grant, General U. S., 41, 326, 327, 882
Grant, Major William, 303, 636, 827, 831
Granville, Fort (see Fort Granville)
Grave Creek, 362
Gray, George, 72
Gray, Matthew, 732
Gray, William, 209
Graydon, Alexander, 69, 483
Graydon, Caleb, 209
Graydon, Mrs., 76
Graydon, William, 6
Grays City, 473
Gray’s Ferry, 291, 357, 545, 670, 694
Gray’s Ferry Road, 580
Gray’s Garden, 357
Great Cove, 830
Great Crossing, 320
Greathouse (Indian), 362
Great Island, 587, 711, 911
Great Meadows, 132, 472
Great Meeting House, 449
Great Path, 555
Great Plains, 722
Great Runaway, 228, 337, 460, 468, 496, 514, 618
Great Swatara, 16, 248
Great Swatara Gap, 16
Great Treaty, 755
Great Virginia Road, 319
Greece, 327
Green, General Abbott, 252
Green, Colonel Christopher, 671
Green, Judge, 8
Green, Judge D. B., 107, 193, 316
Green, Thomas, 7
Green, Colonel Timothy, 306, 912
Greenback Party, 735
Greencastle, 680, 707
Greene County, 131, 147, 181, 282, 596, 597, 775, 920
Greene, General Nathaniel, 571, 691, 834, 861
Greenleaf, Thomas, 641
Greens, 292
Greensburg, 88, 100
Greensweigs, 918
Greenville, 573
Greenway, Robert, 531
*Grenville, Lord George, 778
Greevy, Thomas H., 473, 474
Gregg, Andrew, 69
Gregg, General David McMurtrie, 452
Grey, General Charles, 352, 652
Grier, David, 570
Grier, Joseph, 661
Grier, Judge Robert Cooper, 38
Griffiths, Alderman, 682
Gripsholm, 667
Griscom, Andrew, 150
Griscom, Elizabeth, 79
Groshong, Jacob, 343
Grove, Adam, 819
Grove, Micheal, 211, 819
Grow, Galusha A., 195, 278
Growden, Grace, 593
Growden, Joseph, 269
Growden, Lawrence, 593
Grubb, Curtis, 669
Grubb, Captain John, 154
Grube, Rev. Bernard Adam, 712
Grumbine, Professor E., 25
Grundy, Thomas H., 88
Guelph, 871
Guerriere, 624
Guffy, Alexander, 297
Guinea, 113
Gurney, Francis, 292
Gurney’s, Henry, 89
Guss, A. L. (quoted), 507
Gustavus, 229
Guyasuta (Indian), 126, 549, 550, 749
Gwynedd Meeting, 736
Gwyther, Squire Thomas, 49, 108, 558
H
Hackett, Thomas, 474
Haeger, Rev. John L., 407
Haigue, William, 150
Hail Columbia, 13, 790
Haldeman, John, 731
Haldeman Island, 63
Hale, Captain Matthew, 789
“Half Moon” (ship), 588, 742
Half King, 66
Halifax, 16, 42, 228
Halkett, Colonel, 133, 470
Hall, Carpenters’ (see Carpenters’ Hall)
Hall, Colonel, 823
Hall, David, 898
Hall, David Jr., 899
Hall, E. S., 369
Hall, Independence (see Independence Hall)
Hall, Joseph, 517
Hall, Pennsylvania, 7
Hall, William, 899
Hall & Pierre, 899
Hall & Sellers, 570, 898
Hallam, James, 270
Hallam, Mrs., 270
Haller, Mr., 121
Hailing, Dr. S., 224
Hall’s Station, 618
Hall’s Stone House, 618
Hambright’s, Captain John, Expedition, Story, 770
Hambus, 74
Hamilton, Mr., 631
Hamilton, General Alexander, 861, 862, 872
Hamilton, Andrew, 594, 749, 832
Hamilton, Captain Hance, 178, 698, 761
Hamilton, Colonel Henry, 730, 751
Hamilton James, 67, 76, 92, 105, 127, 132, 133, 172, 205, 224, 226,
268, 316, 318, 321, 359, 413, 562, 563, 660, 703, 705, 718, 719,
749, 763, 806, 911, 912, 917, 919
Hamilton, John, 89
Hamilton, Robert, 212
Hamilton, William, 60, 75
Hammond, 400, 457
Hammond, General Robert H., 252
Hampton, Va., 522
Hampton Institute, 8
Hampton, General Wade, 524, 706
Hancock, 775
Hancock, John, 77, 291, 816
Hancock, General Winfield Scott, 453, 648
Hand, General Edward, 140, 224, 225, 226, 296, 309, 490, 507, 605, 606,
654, 728
Hand’s Expedition, General, Story, 728
Hand-in-Hand, 860
Hanjost (Indian), 633
Hanna, General John A., 215
Hanna, Robert, 100, 148, 178, 477
Hanna, Senator, 852
Hannastown, 99, 145, 477, 490, 660
Hannastown, Burning of, Story, 477
Hannah (Indian), 437
Hanover, 492
Hanover Junction, 453
Hanover, Township, 23, 173
Hansen, Andrew, 610
Hansen, Catherine, 610
Hansson, Mathys, 667
Hanway, Castner, 8
Hardin, Captain John, 164, 168
Hardin, General John, 164
Hardin, Lieutenant, 549
Hardings, 456
Hardman (Chief), 750
Hardman, Hannah, 76
Hare, Robert, 357
Harman’s Creek, 585
Harmar, General Josiah, 3, 572, 766, 849
Harmar’s Defeat, 766
Harmony, 120, 121, 122
Harner, Mrs. Abigail, 369
Harnick, Captain, 348
Harper’s Ferry, 51, 219, 680
Harrigar, Andrew, 577
Harris, Captain (Indian), 236
Harris, John, 135, 401, 496, 744, 912
Harris, Mary McClure, 496
Harris, Robert, 136
Harris, Samuel, 907
Harris, Samuel, 401
Harris’ Ferry, 16, 58, 59, 227, 228, 235, 236, 248, 321, 322, 392, 393,
430, 461, 711, 726, 744, 905
Harrisburg, 4, 5, 8, 23, 26, 33, 34, 37, 39, 40, 50, 58, 65, 68, 69,
70, 110, 132, 135, 136, 215, 236, 248, 276, 277, 279, 288, 298, 321,
434, 451, 453, 473, 474, 496, 497, 500
Harrisburg, Academy, 497
“Harrisburg Chronicle,” 4
Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy and Lancaster Railroad, 233
Harrisburg & Presque Isle Company, 154
Harrison, Benjamin, 101
Harrison, George, 357
Harrison, George L., 734
Harrison, James, 150, 209
Harrison, Professor James A., 204
Harrison, John, 819
Harrison, Major, 404
Hart, Joseph, 60, 419, 664
Harter, Benjamin, 350
Hartley, George, 616
Hartley, Colonel Thomas, 229, 366, 458, 468, 616
Hartman, Henry, 758
Hartranft, Governor John F., 48, 193, 316, 647, 733
Hartsfelder, Jurian, 696
Hartshorne, Richard, 717
Harvard, 328
Harvey, Benjamin, 905
Harvey, Benjamin Sr., 906
Harvey, Henry L., 387
Harvey, Oscar, J. (Authorities consulted)
Harvey’s Creek, 905
Harvey’s Landing, 905
Hasellum, Thomas, 793
Hassel, Mayor, 859
Hasset, Gilles, 856
Hastings, Governor Daniel H., 86, 379
Hastings, Henry, 792
Hastings, John, 69, 150
Hatboro, 307
Hatfield, Township, 190
Hauer, Barbara, 887
Hauer, Catherine Z., 887
Hauer, John Nicholas, 887
Hausegger, Nicholas, 306
Havre de Grace, 818
Hawley, Charles I., 88
Hay, Captain George, 571
Hayes, Alfred, 9
Hayes, James, 306
Hayes, Thomas, 173
Hayes, William, 380
Hayhurst, John, 861
Hays, Captain, 917
Hays, Christopher, 149, 163
Hays, John Casper, 713
Hazard’s Register of Pennsylvania, 902
Hazard, Samuel, 880
Hazelhurst, Hon. Isaac, 49
Hazelwood, Commodore John, 417, 670
Hazen, Colonel Moses, 740
Hazle, Edward, 226
Head, John B., 88
Head of Iron, 303
Hean, Captain B. Y., 473
Heart-in-Hand, 860
Heaton & Company, 49, 108
Heaton, Robert, 49, 108
Heberling, Solomon, 344
Heckewelder, Rev. John, 282, 304, 361, 584, 621
Hecksher’s Grove, 558
Heebner, George, 31
Heidelberg, 16, 66, 798
Heidelberg Township, 562
Himrod, John, 326, 327
Himrod, Martha, 327
Helm, Israel, 396, 792
Hempfield, 300
Henderson, J. J., 88
Hendricks, Jan, 792
Hendricks, John, 337, 364
Hendricks, Gerhardt, 112, 696
Hendricks, Captain William, 306, 508, 758
Hendrickson, Albertus, 150
Hendrickson, Cornelius, 856
Hendrickson, Yethro, 150
Henlopen, 666
Henlopen Cape, 600
Henlopen Light House, 385
Henry, Colonel, 282
Henry, John Joseph, 331, 509, 556
Henry, Patrick, 490, 644, 749
Henry, William, 287, 565, 571
Henry, William (Indian) 282
Hepburn, James, 296
Hepburn, Colonel William, 401
Hercules, 745
Herdic Park, 474
Herdic, Peter, 474
Herkimer County (New York) Historical Society, 118
Hermit of Blue Hill, 287
Herold’s, 732
Herring, Old Friend Pickle, 269
Herrnhut, 866
Herrnhutters, 866
Herron’s Branch, 680
Hess, Henry, 235
Hessians, 70, 110, 504, 505, 629, 668
Hester, Pat, 49
Heston, Senator, 136
Heverling, Jacob, 209
Hewes, William, 150
Hewitt, Thomas, 209
Heyne, John C., 32
Hibernians, Ancient Order of, 47, 642
Hickman, Thomas, 173, 380
Hickok, Charles N., 178
Hicks, Gilbert, 308
Hickoqueon, 437
Hidon, 151
Hiester, Catherine, 808
Hiester, Daniel, 136, 215, 645, 808
Hiester, John, 808
Hiester, Governor Joseph, 136, 435, 605, 804, 808, 895
Higgenbotham, Captain, 823
High Dutch Pennsylvania Journal, 899
Highlanders, 170, 636
Higgins (Tory), 225
Hiles, Colonel Samuel, 332
Hill, General A. P., 452
Hill, Henry, 380, 922
Hill, Commissioner, 806
Hill, Richard. 764
Hillegas, Michael, 61
Hills, Stephen, 5
Hillsborough, Earl of, 787
Himrod, John, 326, 327
Himrod, Martha, 327
Hiokatoo, 246, 326, 514, 614, 813
Historic Tales of Olden Times, 902
History of Battle of Gettysburg (quoted), 812
History of the Brethren, 884
History of Lincoln (quoted), 811
History Moravian Church of Philadelphia, 513
History of Wyoming (quoted), 634
Hjort, Reverend, 666
Hobart, Captain, 348
Hockesson Meeting House, 503, 628
Hockley, Thomas, 60
Hog Island, 672
Hoge, Jonathan, 186, 484
Hogg, Lieutenant, 620
Holcroft, John, 688
Holland, 856
Hollenback, Matthais, 457, 893
Hollander, Peter, 231
Holler, Ensign, 110
Hollidaysburg, 257
Hollowday, James, 761
Holmes, Thomas, 150, 531
Holmes, Captain George, 446
Holmesburg, 249
Holt, Colonel, 631
Holt, John, 641
Holy Club, 313
Home for Actors, 249
Homestead, 87
Homman, Andrew, 396
Honesdale, 232
Honest John (Indian), 271
Hood, General John B., 454
Hooghkamer Hendrik, 231
Hooker, General Joseph, 451
Hoopes, Adam, 319, 760, 892
Hooper, Robert L., 922
Hoorn, 856
Hoover, William, 500
Hopkins House, 854
Hopkins, James, 288
Hopkins, Robert, 683
Hopkins, William, 851
Hopkinson, Francis, 13
Hopkinson, Joseph, 790
Horekill, 447
“Hornet” (ship), 324
Horse Island, 143
Horse & Groom, 249
Horse, Philadelphia Light, 503
Horsfield, Thomas, 222
Horticulture Hall, 882
Hospitals, Military, 222, 601
Hosterman, Colonel, 400, 819
Hosterman, Peter, 209
Hot Water War, 189, 190, 191
House Tax, 189
Houston, Dr. James, 224
Houston, Robert J., 735
Hovenden’s Loyalists, 307
Howard, 46
Howard, General, 452
Howard, Nicholas, 218
Howe, Admiral Richard, 13, 308, 347, 352, 627
Howe, Sir William, 72, 107, 347, 352, 358, 381, 416, 503, 533, 545,
595, 627, 690, 849, 868, 908
Howell, Mrs., 76
Howell, Reading, 731
Howell, Samuel, 780
Howelville, 652
Hoyer, George, 136
Hoyt, Henry Martyn, 733
Hubbard, William, 252
Hubley, Colonel Adam, 367, 634
Hudde, Andreas, 125, 667
Huddle, Joseph, 920
Hudson, Henry, 588, 742, 856
Hudson River, 124, 523
Huffnagle, Michael, 149
Hughes, John, 268
Hughes, Barney, 59, 63
Hughes, Ellis, 209, 674
Hughes, F. W., 49, 109
Hughes, John, 541, 779
Huguenots, 32
Hull, General William, 624
Hulings, Marcus, 301, 516
Hume, David, 98
Hummellstown, 461, 891
Humphreys, 459
Humphreys, Charles, 611
Humphreys, James Jr., 899
Humpton, Colonel, 653
Hunt, General, 455
“Hunter” (ship) 841
Hunter, General David (Civil War), 519
Hunter, Alexander, 209
Hunter, Mrs., 462
Hunter, Robert, 23, 639
Hunter, Colonel Samuel, 61, 209, 229, 265, 295, 305, 306, 445, 461,
462, 555, 615, 616, 674, 718, 907
Hunter, Samuel H., 265
Hunter’s Mills, 23, 24, 371
Hunting Club, 834
Huntingdon, 421, 850
Huntingdon County, 70, 177, 180, 181, 219, 254, 422, 596, 619
Huntingdon Furnace, 219
Hunsicker, Daniel, 306
Hurley, Mr., 299
Hurley, Thomas, 559
Huron, Lake, 743
Hursh, Samuel, 252
Huston, 890
Huston, Hon. Charles, 179
Huston, Joseph M., 137
Hutchins, John, 921
Huyghen, Hendrick, 230
I
Iam, William, 474
Impeachment:—McKean, 876
Impeachment:—Dr. Moore, 340
Impeachment:—Yeates, Shippen, Smith, 874
Inauguration:—Governor Curtin, 39, 40, 41
Inauguration:—Governor Mifflin, 895
Independence Hall, 382, 810, 883
Indian Council, 235, 236
Indian Head (Girty’s Notch), 42
Indian Helper (Publication), 523
Indian Outrages, Berks County, 797
Indian Queen Tavern, 421
Indian Walk, 536, 747
“Indiana” (ship), 883
Indiana County, 147, 156, 181, 208, 596, 775
Ingersoll, Jared, 643, 872
Ingham, Samuel B., 69
“In God We Trust,” 433
Inland Waterways, 731
In Old Pennsylvania Towns, 744
Inquirer, Philadelphia, 435
Inskeep & Bradford, 115
Insley, Captain, 270
Institute, Hampton, 8
Institute, Tuskegee, 8
Intelligencer, Harrisburg (quoted), 568
Intelligencer, Lancaster, 767
Invasion:—Lee’s, 626
Invasion:—McCausland’s 519, 520, 521
Ironcutter, John, 27, 28, 686
Iron Foundry (Pittsburgh), 201
Iron Hill, 627
Ironsides, Old, 21, 22
Irvin, Robert, 819, 820
Irvine, James, 306
Irvine, General William, 3, 152, 176, 186, 216, 217, 240, 306, 375,
376, 545, 584, 617, 713, 739, 740, 741, 870
Irvine, Mrs. William, 713
Irwin, Joseph, 179
Irwin, Matthew, 922
Irwin, Thomas, 922
Isaac (Indian), 425
Isle of Que, 721
“Isis” (ship), 671
Italy, 327
Izard, Ralph, 915
J
Jack, John, 585, 622
Jack, John, Jr., 623
Jackham, 436
Jack’s Narrows, 256
Jackson, President Andrew, 184, 263, 804
Jackson, Major, 144
Jackson, Philip, 585
Jackson, Thomas J. (Stonewall), 203, 888
Jackson, William, 643
Jackson and Sharpless, 518
Jacob, French, 343
Jacob (Indian), 176
Jacobs, Captain (Indian), 526, 619
Jacobs, Henry, 396
Jacobs, John, 484
Jacob’s “Life of Cresap” (quoted), 361
Jacobson, Rev. Henry (quoted), 513
Jacques Island, 123, 858
Jacquet, John Paul, 667
James I., 717
James II., 598
James, Duke of York, 28, 84, 446, 792
James, Edward, 30
James, Gomer, 48, 108, 559, 770
James, Joshua, 173
James’ Loyalists, 307
James, Mesheck, 761
James River, 677
Jamestown, 505, 677
Japan, 430
Jargin, Captain Hans, 792
Jarvis, 436
Jay, John, 779
Jay’s Treaty, 52, 779
Jefferson County, 87, 156, 181, 208, 596
Jefferson, Thomas, 53, 182, 194, 237, 361, 386, 460, 490, 789
Jeffries, Lieutenant, 733
Jemison, Betsy, 245
Jemison, Jane Erwin, 244
Jemison, Jesse, 246
Jemison, John, 246, 815
Jemison, Mary, 244, 813
Jemison, Matthew, 245
Jemison, Robert, 245
Jemison, Thomas, 244, 815
Jemison, Thomas, Jr., 246, 815
Jenkins “Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal,” 189, 646
Jenkins, Eleanor, 203
Jenkins, General Albert G., 707
Jenkins, James, 287
Jenkins, Major John, 438, 456
Jenkins, John M., 203
Jenkins, Joseph, 203
Jenkins, Julia Rush Miller, 202
Jenkins, William, 203
Jennings, John, Sheriff, 428
Jennings, Solomon, 650
Jenoshawdego, 732
Jericho Hill, 861
Jersey Shore, 337, 398, 461, 555, 711
Jeskakake, 126, 841
Jesuit, 86
Jockum, Peter, 792
John, Captain, 732
John (Indian), 211
“John” (ship), 340
John, Earl of Dunmore (see Dunmore)
Johnnie, Coal Oil, 592
Johnson, President Andrew, 882
Johnson, General Bradley, 520, 707
Johnson (Indian), 524
Johnson, Mr., 25
Johnson, Francis, 155
Johnson, J. B., 865
Johnson, John, 622
Johnson, Sir John, 456
Johnson, Richard, 284
Johnson, General Richard W. (Union officer), 454
Johnson, Sir William, 63, 170, 235, 303, 321, 492, 773, 781
Johnstons, The Two, 367
Johnstown, 232, 377
Jonassen, Keeles, 396
Joncaire, 321, 839
Jones, 447
Jones (Indian), 26, 792
Jones, Abel, 780
Jones, Charles, 823
Jones, Henry, 396
Jones, John P., 47, 316, 557
Jones, John Paul, 410
Jones, Peter, 820
Jones, Thomas, 558, 793
Jones, U. J. (quoted), 177, 395
Jordan, Hon. Alexander, 499
Jordan, David, 630
Jordan’s Knobs, 320
Jordan’s Meeting House, 734
“Journal,” 644
Journal, Colonel James Burd’s, 686
Juan, Story of, 477
Judd, Major William, 674
Judea, 673, 903
Jumonville, 133
Juniata County, 73, 74, 181, 208, 596, 598, 918
Juniata Crossing, 178
Juniata Falls, 393
Juniata Narrows, 255
Juniata River, 63, 73, 74, 75, 619
Juniata Valley, 73, 74, 75, 619
Junkin, Eleanor, 202
Junkin, Rev. George, 202
Junkin, Margaret, 202
Junto, Philadelphia, 435, 804
Jurian, Hans, 397
Jury, First, Story of, 791
Justice, Binns’, 435
K
Kachlein, Colonel Andrew, 60
Kaercher, George, 109
Kakowwatchy, 300
Kalb, Baron de, 77
Kalbfus, Daniel, 49
Kandt (Indian), 700
Kane, Marshall, 8, 277
Kansas, 50
Kansas Bill, 50
Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 881
Katepacomen, 42
Kaye, John, 325
Kechlin, Sheriff Peter, 560
Kedar, 464
Keen, Reynold, 308
Kelso, General Thomas, 333
Kelso’s Ferry, 110
Kemble, Charles, 251
Kegs, Battle of, 12, 13, 14
Kehoe, Jack, 559
Keith, Governor Sir William, 44, 129, 160, 407, 414, 535, 536, 805, 861
Keith, Lady Ann, 807
Keith’s School, 159
Kekelappan, 436
Kektuscung (Indian), 372
Keller, Judge William H., 88
Kelly, Edward, 47, 557
Kelly, James, 254
Kelly, James K., 254
Kelly, John, 823
Kelly, Colonel John, 211, 252, 463, 468, 469, 470, 616
Kennedy, Andrew, 877
Kennedy, Mr., 664
Kennedy, Thomas B., 520
Kennedy’s Gazette, 189
Kennet Square, 504, 628
Kensington Railroad Riots, 466
Kenton, Simon, 43
Kentucky, 736
Kephart, Judge John W., 88
Kergan, Valentine, 5
Kern, Adjutant, 759
Kern, John, 306
Kernville, 378
Kerrel, Hugh, 510
Kerrigan, James, 47, 193, 315
Kessler, Rev. John, 568
Keystone State, 460
Kidnap, Plot to, Governor Snyder, 783
Kieft, William, 124, 230
Kien, Jonas, 792
Kier, Mr., 592
Kikionga, 766
Kilborn, 439
Kildea, Patrick, 847
Killbuck, Chief, 174, 281, 655, 751
Killbuck Island, 174, 283
Kilner, James, 30
Kilpatrick, General Hugh J., 453
Kimball’s Tavern, 887
King, Rufus, 872
King, Ruth, 400
King, Sarah, 400
King, Thomas, 701
King, Thomas (Indian), 236
King, William, 400
King’s Son, 620
Kingsesse, Story, 396, 580, 667
Kingsley, Mrs. Nathan, 765
Kingston, 492
Kinsman, John, 150
Kirk, General, 743
Kirk, Moses, 516
Kirkbride, Joseph, 60
Kirkpatrick, Abraham, 688
Kishcoquillas Creek, 525
Kiskiminitas, 100, 167, 838
Kittanning, 145, 258, 310, 525, 526, 619, 911
Kittanning, Hero of, 911
Kittanning Hills, 917
Kittanning Path, 619
Kiyasuta, 586
Kline, Jacob, 190
Klinesmith, Baltzer, 344
Klinesmith, Catherine, 344
Klinesmith, Elizabeth, 344
Kling, Maus, 124, 230, 609
Knight, Dr. John, 404, 815
Knipe, Captain J. P., 277, 441
Know Nothing Party, 34, 389, 863
Knox, General John, 222, 440, 861
Knyphausen, General, 308, 348, 352, 443, 503, 504, 628
Kock, Per, 231
Konigsmark, 447
Kowatz, 618
Kreitz Valley, 820
Kremer, George, 819
Krishelm, 696
Kuhn, Captain, 442
Kuhn, Simon Adam, 798
Kurtz, Rev. John Nicholas, 757
Kuskusky, 265, 424, 722
Kuskuskee, New, 425
L
Labor Reform Journal, 474
Labor Riots, 646
Lacey, John, 307
Lackawanna County, 182, 208, 596, 598, 775
Lackawanna Creek, 394, 439
Lackawanna, Navigation, 131, 367
Lackawaxen, 93, 500, 651
Lacock, General Abner, 136, 201, 262, 263
“Ladies’ Home Journal,”, 532
Laersen, Neeles, 792
Lafayette College, 202
Lafayette (Indiana), 323
Lafayette, Marquis de, 2, 83, 222, 308, 309, 352, 353, 444, 445, 504,
571, 597, 603, 641, 836, 838, 863
La Grande Maison, 893
Laincourt, Count, 894
Laird, Senator, 136
Lake Erie, Battle of, 624
Lake Shore Line, 863
Lamberton, George, 446
Lambs, Gibson’s, 486
Lame Indian, Davy, the, 375
Lamon, Ward H., 812
Lancaster, 5, 34, 58, 69, 70, 71, 72, 79, 81, 121, 135, 159, 172, 235,
237, 254, 282, 288, 289, 322, 325, 331, 332, 394, 418, 427, 482,
483, 484, 508, 509
Lancaster County, 8, 23, 25, 34, 51, 60, 62, 67, 131, 134, 159, 172,
179, 180, 181, 187, 191, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 216, 217, 249,
252, 254, 308, 311, 320, 332, 339, 416, 419, 463, 482, 498, 505,
508, 509, 541, 564, 582, 596, 606, 617, 678, 731, 783, 821, 853,
880, 886, 896, 916
Lancaster Workhouse, 912
Land Purchase, Great, 562
Landing Day, 734
Landis, John B., 712
Langdon, F. W. S., 48, 770, 846
Langdon, John, 872
Langlon Fencibles, 474
Lansford, 47, 557
Lapacpicton, 721
La Salle, 318, 411, 841
Last Night (Indian), 700
Latta, James W., 647
Laughlin, Captain, 587
Laurel Hill, 93, 902
Laurel Hill or Range, 162, 323
Lavoisier, M., 98
Lawlor, Anne, 482
Lawmolach, 800
“Lawrence” (ship), 625
Lawrence County, 147, 156, 181, 185, 309, 361, 596, 597
Lawrence, John, 418
Lawrence, Thomas, 693
Lawshe’s Hotel, 878
Lawson, Alexander, 580
Lawson, James, 249
Lawunakhanna, 424, 425
Leach, Thomas, 382
Lebanon, 247, 381, 732
Lebanon County, 25, 66, 131, 181, 564, 582, 596, 837
Lebanon, Fort (see Fort Lebanon)
Lebanon Valley Railroad, 242
Lebo, Mr. H., 33, 34, 35
LeBoeuf (see Fort LeBoeuf)
Lechmere’s Point, 509, 606
Ledger, Evening Public, 533
Ledger, Pennsylvania, 899
Ledger, The Public, 533
Lee, Arthur, 308, 914
Lee, Charles, 835
Lee, Eliza, 556
Lee, Fitzhugh, 442
Lee, John, 554
Lee, Mrs. John, 554, 555, 556
Lee, Rebecca, 556
Lee, Richard Henry, 419, 459, 689, 915
Lee, Robert, 555, 556
Lee, General Robert E., 203, 222, 280, 624, 707
Lee, Thomas, 555, 556
Lee’s Invasion, 40
Leet, Daniel, 164
Leffler, Jacob, 282
Legion, Wayne’s, 572
Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, 111, 131
Lehigh County, 181, 190, 596, 598
Lehigh Water Gap, 651
Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, 48, 846
Lehighton, 579
Leib, Dr. Michael, 434, 783, 803, 804, 876
Leib, Duane & Company, 435
Leininger, Barbara, 722
Leininger, Rachel, 722
Leipers Stone Quarry, 838
Lemon, Thomas, 209
Leonard, Patrick, 201
LeRoy, Anna, 723
LeRoy, Marie, 722
LeRoy, Jacob, 722
Lesher, John, 485
Leslie, Andrew, 561
Letchworth Park, 246
Letitia House, 75
Le Tort, James, 415, 553, 884
“Levant” (ship), 583
Level Corner (Pennsylvania), 555
Lewis, Andrew, 655
Lewis, David, 217, 222
Lewis, Ellis, 191, 669
Lewis, Elijah, 8
Lewis, Major, 637
Lewis, Margaret Lynn, 145
Lewis, Robert, 60
Lewis Township, 614
Lewis, William, 895
Lewisburg, 9, 432, 554, 772
Lewistown, 277, 525, 630, 918
Lewistown Riot, 630
Lexington Battle, 18, 54, 60, 81, 290
Lexington, Virginia, 203
Liberator, The, 6
Liberties, 373
Liberty Bell, 81, 382, 504
Liberty Island, 324
Library, Philadelphia, 45
Lick, John, 722
Lick, Peter, 722
Lick, William, 722
“Life of Cresap,” Jacob’s, 363
Life of Zinzindorf, 866
Ligneris, M. de, 828
Ligonier, 100, 148, 309, 388, 489
Ligonier, Fort (see Fort Ligonier)
Ligonier Valley, 148, 309
Lince, Dennis, 150
Lincoln, Abraham, 40, 196, 270, 301, 326, 433, 501, 740, 810, 888
Lincoln, Mordecai, 301
Lincoln University, 8
Lincoln’s Address, 810
Linden, 557
Linden, R. J., 109, 315
Lindstorm, 666
Line, Pennsylvania, 1, 2, 3
Linn, John Blair, 27, 189, 261, 445
Linn, William, 486
Linn, Judge William B., 88
Linneas, Carlolus, 212
Lititz, 159, 602
Littell, John S., 285
Little Beard, Chief, 814
Little Beard’s Town, 138, 633
Little Billy, 241
Little Britain Township, 564
Little Castle, 633
Little Conewaugh River, 377
Little, John, 515, 516
Little, Kanawha, 528
Little Meadows, 470
Little Raccoon Creek, 585
Little Schuylkill, Navigation, 232, 242
Little Tinicum, 858
Little Turtle (Indian), 766
Littlehales, William H., 48, 192, 193, 194, 846
Liverpool, 41, 721
“Liverpool” (ship), 324, 671
Livezey, Thomas, 284
Livingston, Colonel Henry, 367
Livingston, Edward, 901
Livingston, Harriet, 566
Livingston, Philip, 872
Livingston, Robert R., 459, 566
Livingston, Walter, 566
Lloyd, David, 159
Lloyd, Hugh, 60
Lloyd, Susan, 71
Lloyd, Thomas, 59, 71, 85, 128, 682, 843
Lock, 610
Lock, Carolus, 447
Lock Haven, 221, 228, 433, 473, 475, 614, 770, 911
Lockman, Rev. Dr. A., 4
Lockport Run, 415
Lochiel Hotel, 852
Lockrey, Archibald, 101, 149, 163, 164, 527, 731
Lochry Expedition, 480
Lochry’s Run, 529
Lochrey, William, 178
Lodge, Grand F. & A. M., 332
Lodge, Jonathan, 209
Lodge, No. 22, of Sunbury, 332
Lodge, Perseverance No. 21, Harrisburg, 891
Loe, Thomas, 715
Loeoch’s George, 16
Logan, Chief, 361, 721
Logan Guards, 277
Logan, Hannah, 753
Logan, James, 57, 75, 77, 160, 161, 213, 300, 338, 361, 408, 449, 500,
536, 669, 682, 748, 752, 763, 765, 806, 866, 885
Logan, James (Indian), 886
Logan, Patrick, 752
Logan, Sir Robert, 752
Loganton, 772
Logstown, 126, 321, 489, 800, 839
Loller, Robert, 380
Lomas, William, 250
Lomison, Hamelius, 820
London, 45, 677, 829
London Company, 659
London Corresponding Society, 802
London Tower, 434, 598
“Long Finn,”, 447
Long House, 448
Long, Joseph, 623
Long Narrows, 630
Long, Peter, 750
Longnecker, Speaker, 724
Longstreet, 453, 706
“Long Talk,”, 434
Lords of Trade, 323
Lorimer, George Horace, 533
Loskiel (quoted), 885
Lossing (quoted), 363
Lost Sister of Wyoming, 765
Lotteries, 274, 285
Louis XIV., 412
Louis XVII., 892
Louisiana, 487
Lovelace, Francis, 446
Low, Captain John S., 442
Lowden, John, 508
Lowdon, John, 209, 210
Lower Counties, 92, 843
Lower Smithfield Township, 235
Lowescroft, 165
Lowrey, 70
Lowrey, Morrow B., 865
Loyalhanna, 100, 149, 827
Loyalists, Hovenden’s, 307
Loyalists, James’, 307
Loyalist Politician, 593
Loyalsock Creek, 400
Loxley, Benjamin, 292
Lucas, Robert, 530
Ludget, Joseph, 474
Ludwig, Mary, 712
Ludwig, John George, 712
Lukens, Charles, 305, 422
Lukens, Jesse, 209, 902, 908
Lukens, John, 10, 101, 385, 422, 496, 662, 908
“Lumber City,”, 472
Lumm, Mary, 355
Lurgan Township, 10
Lundy’s Lane, 334
Luzerne County, 131, 135, 180, 181, 182, 208, 216, 299, 440, 563, 564,
596, 597, 775, 854, 893
Luzerne, M. de, 426
Lycans, Andrew, 172, 173, 174
Lycans, John, 173, 174
Lycoming County, 33, 121, 180, 181, 208, 212, 366, 398, 432, 474, 587,
596, 598, 639, 673, 775, 893
Lycoming Creek Massacre, Story, 400
Lycoming Gazette, 498
Lycoming River, 618
Lyderberg, Ambassador, 666
Lykens Valley, 172, 173, 174
Lynchburg, Virginia, 146
Lyon, Lieutenant, 418
Lyon, Patrick, 860
Lyttleton, Fort, 918
M
MacDonald, Jane, 10
MacDonald, John, 515, 516, 614
Macgungie, 33
Machree, Widow, 558
Mack, Rev. John Martin, 16, 17, 475, 575, 867
Mackey, Aeneas, 145, 149
Mackey, Justice, 660
Mackinet, Daniel, 283
Maclay, Major Charles, 877
Maclay, Samuel, 732
Maclay, William, 9, 82, 155, 209, 461, 496, 674, 746
MacLean, David M., 518
Maconaquah, 767
Macpherson, General William, 191
Macpherson Blues, 900
Macready, William Charles, 251
Madgeburg, 15
Madison, James, 263, 662, 708, 872
Magraw, Colonel Robert, 179, 248, 508, 908
Magaw, William, 508
Magazine, “American,” The, 116
Magazine, “American” (Dr. Smith), 117
Magazine First, 115, 116, 117
Magazine, “General,” The, 116
Magazine, “Godey’s,” The, 117
Magazine, “Graham’s,”, 117
Magazine, “Harper’s,”, 117
Magazine, North American Review, 117
Magazine, “Peterson’s,”, 117
Magazine, “Scribner’s,”, 117
Maghingue-Chahocking (Pennsylvania), 551
Magistrate’s Manual, 435
Maguire, Bartholomew, 422
Maguire, Jane, 422
Maguires, Mollie, 47, 107, 192, 314, 557, 768, 845
Mahantango Creek, 16, 684
Mahoning, 309
Mahanoy City, 48
Mahanoy Creek, 16, 23, 73, 185, 227, 267, 408, 746
Mahanoy Mountains, 16
Mahanoy Valley, 558
Maidstone Jail, 434
Major, George, 48, 768
Major, Jesse, 770
Major, William, 769
*Molatton, 302
Malchaloa, 436
Malden, 44
Malibor, 436
Malloy, John, 847
Malone, Laughlin, 823
Maloney, Thomas, 473
Malvern Station, 653
Manada Gap, 173, 757
Manatawney, 300, 690
Manatawney Creek, 242
Manawhyhickon, 301
Manear, Samuel, 33, 34, 35
Man from Maine, 532
Manhattan, 112
Mann, Abraham, 341
Mann, William B., 279
Manor of Pittsburgh, 200, 489
Manor of Stoke, 102
Mansions of Bucks County as Headquarters, 861
Manual Labor Academy, 202
Marcus Hook, 334, 583
Margaret, French, 540
Maris, Mary, 212
Market House, 690
Market Street Bridge, 503
Markham, Governor William, 28, 167, 328, 340, 530, 599, 649, 755, 843
Marlborough Township, 437
Markoe, Peter, 292
Marr (attorney), 192
Marsh Creek, 244, 452
Marshall College, 624
Marshall, Edward, 536, 650
Marshall, John, 382, 688, 910
Marshall, O. H. (quoted), 412, 546
Marshall’s Mill, 264
Marshe, Witham, 639
Marshel, County Lieutenant, 164
Martin, Joseph, 510
Martin, Luther, 872
Martin, Robert, 484
Martin, Walter, 150
Mary Ann Furnace, 483
Mary, Queen, 832
Maryland, 39, 921
Maske, Manor of, 416
Mason, Charles, 919
Mason, Rev. D., 4
Mason, David, 20, 21
Mason, John, 2, 3, 286
Mason, Richard, 860
Mason’s Leaning Tower, 286
Mason and Dixon’s Line, 50, 102, 203, 240, 385, 414, 661, 708, 821, 919
Masonic Ceremonies, 21
Masonic Inn, 139
Masonic Song, 139
Masonry, 889
Massacre, Allens’, 344
Massacre, Cherry Valley, 366
Massacre, Conocheague, 510
Massacre, Conestoga, 305
Massacre, Crooked Billet, 307
Massacre, French Jacob’s, 343
Massacre, Juanita Valley, 73, 74, 75
Massacre, Mahanoy Creek, 23, 726
Massacre, Paoli
Massacre, Patterson’s, Story, 684
Massacre, Penn’s Creek, 23, 720
Massacre, Standing Stone, 421
Massacre, Sugar Loaf, 616
Massacre, Williamsport, 400
Massacre, Wyoming, 366, 456, 718
Master, 106
Matilde (ship), 383
Matlack, Timothy, 11, 60, 68, 485, 731
Matson’s Ford, 309, 352
Mattahoorn, 230
Matthews, 348
Mattson, Henrich, 231
Mattson, Margaret, 150
Mattson, Neels, 150
Mauch Chunk, 47, 111, 232, 557, 839
Maull, William M., 369
Maxwell, James, 622
Maxwell, General William, 367, 443, 503, 628, 690
Maxwell’s Light Infantry, 628
Mayer, Mr., 363
Maynard, Quincy, 299
McAllister, Abdiel, 699
McAllister, Archibald, 698, 699
McAllister, Julian, 700
McAllister, Charles, 315
McAllister, Lieutenant, 306, 315
McAllister, Matthew, 700
McAllister, Richard, 570, 697
McAllister’s Gap, 10
McBride, Hannah, 264
McCall, George A., 280
McCalmont, James, 622
McCann, Landlord, 769
McCarron, Barney, 314
McCarty, Henry J., 88
McCausland, 519, 520, 521, 624, 707
McClain, Jennie, 685
McClelland, John, 163, 220
McClenachen, Blair, 215, 693, 922
McClintock, D., 623
McClellan, General George B., 889
McClure, Alexander K., 521, 864
McClure, Mrs. A. K., 521
McConkey, Elridge, 280
McConkey’s Ferry, 909
McConnell, John, 623
McConnellsburg, 707
McCormack’s Tavern, 266
McCoy, Captain, 616
McCoy, Robert, 830
McCrea, Robert, 177
McCullom, Father, 521
McCullough, Archibald, 511
McCullough, Elizabeth, 510
McCullough, James, 510
McCullough, James, Sr., 510
McCullough, John, 153, 510
McCullough Massacre, Story, 510
McCullough, Mary, 510
McCullough, Robert, 680
McCullough, Thomas, 680
McDevitt, James H., 500
McDonald, Captain, 637
McDonald, Captain John, 188, 326, 367, 614, 814
McDonald, Captain E., 277
McDonald, James, 510
McDonald, William, 510
McDougall, General Alexander, 670, 690, 691
McDowell, John, 761
McDowell, William, 623
McDowell, William H., 520
McDowell’s Mills, 280, 319, 760, 830
McElhattan, 772
McEwensville, 515
McFadden, Jackson, 252
McFarland, Colonel, 632
McFarland, Daniel, 319, 830
McFarlane, Andrew, Story, 145, 146, 147
McFarlane, James, 145
McFarlane, Justice, 660
McFarlane, Margaret, 145
McGehan, Hugh, 193, 314, 557
McGinsey, Joseph A., 6
McGrady, Alexander, 819
McHenry, James, 189
McHenry, Thomas, 891
McHugh, Peter, 49
McIntire, Henry M., 279
McIntosh, Fort (see Fort McIntosh)
McIntosh, Colonel Lachlan, 140, 226, 311, 618
McKean County, 156, 181, 182, 208, 596
McKean, Samuel, 69
McKean, General Thomas, 60, 72, 159, 182, 216, 419, 605, 803, 874, 875,
876, 895, 896
McKee, 258
McKee, Alexander, 43, 64, 224, 574
McKee, James, 64
McKee, Thomas, 16, 24, 25, 62, 63, 64, 236, 394, 798
McKee’s Half Falls, 64
McKee’s Rocks, 64, 224
McKenna, James, 47, 108, 192, 193, 194, 314, 557, 768, 845
McKenna, Patrick, 847
McKinley, John, 405
McKnight, William, 296
McKnight, Captain James, 277
McKnight, James, Capture of, 295
McKnight, Mrs. James, 296
McKnight, Dr. Charles, 602
McLane, Captain Allen, 349, 352, 693
McLaughlin, James, 732
McLaughlin, Samuel, 343
McLean, John W., 279
McLellan, William, 520
McManning, Daniel, 265
McMeen, William, 306
McMullen, Daniel, 474
McParlan, James, 47, 108, 109, 192, 193, 194, 314, 557, 768, 845
McPherson, Hon. Edward, 811
McPherson, Hon., Donald P., 811
McPherson, John, 820
McQuoid, Anthony, 510
McQuoid, James, 510
McWilliams, Hugh, 906
Meads, David, 733
*Meade, General George Gordon, 451, 882
Meadville, 119, 333, 733, 834
Mease, James, 922
Meens, 287
Meginness, John F., 588
Mendenhall, Ann, 212
Mehaffy, Andrew, 499
Mellen, Mrs. Sarah, 369
Memorials of Moravian Church, 541, 575
Meng, Christopher, 283
Mennonite, 318
Mennonite Meeting House, 691
Mercer County, 156, 181, 185, 208, 596, 597
Mercer, General Hugh, 70, 496, 607, 619, 909
Mercer, William A., 524
Mercersburg, 6, 288, 519, 623, 707
Mercersburg Academy, 624
Mercier, Chevalier, 126
Mercury, 115, 130, 386, 518, 897, 900
Mercury, Transit of, 386
Meredith, Hugh, 898
Meredith, Samuel, 292, 357, 922
Methodist Episcopal Sunday School Union, 327
Meredith, William M., 646
Merlin (ship), 672
Merricks, Hannah, 862
Merricks, Robert 861
Merricks, Samuel, 862
Merrill, Jesse, 252, 568
Merritt, Jesse, 474
Metoxen (Indian), 524
Metuchen Hills, 690
Metzger, John, 820
Mexican War, 879
Mexico (Pennsylvania), 525, 918
Mexico, 685
Mey, Cape, 589
Mey, Cornelius Jacobson, 589, 856
Meyer, E., 228
Miami College, 202
Michener, John H., 249
Michler, Representative, 854
Middleburgh, 27
Middle Creek, 26
Middletown, 130, 136, 248, 891
Middletown Zouaves, 473
Middlesworth, Honorable Ner, 568
Mieley, Henry, 26
Mieley, Martin, 26
Mieker, 50
Mifflin County, 180, 181, 208, 216, 218, 596, 597, 630
Mifflin Fort, Siege of, Story, 670
Mifflin, Samuel, 780, 922
Mifflin, General Thomas, 69, 72, 152, 191, 216, 247, 262, 268, 292,
357, 505, 597, 604, 605, 611, 612, 643, 668, 679, 689, 694, 777,
816, 817, 834, 836, 872, 895, 909, 922
Mifflinburg, 210
Mifflintown, 860
Miles, Captain, 357
Miles Family, 154
Miles, James, 326
Miles, Nathan, 395
Miles, Colonel Samuel, 545, 570, 908, 922
Miles, William, 154
Milford, 493
Militia, 45, 59, 204, 237, 508
Mill Creek, 102, 124, 560, 799
Mill Hall, 474
Mill, Henry, 118
Millard, Thomas, 150
Miller, Henry, 570, 899
Miller, Jeremiah, 299
Miller, John, 179
Miller, Lieutenant, 273
Miller, Nicholas, 209
Miller, Peter, 463, 465
Miller, Robert, 812
Miller, Locomotive, The, 22
Miller, Thomas Craig, 853
Miller, William, 177
Millersburg, 797
Miller’s Station, 480
Millerstown, 247
Millersville State Normal, 51
Millet, Abraham, 508
Mills, Captain, 694
Mills, Samuel, 60
Mills, Stephen, 136
Millville, 378
Milroy, 707
Milton, 116, 188, 189, 202, 298, 306, 326, 327, 402, 433, 491, 499,
515, 516, 615, 673, 674, 708, 723, 860, 881
Miner, Charles (quoted), 429, 634
Mineral Point, 378
Mingo, Bottom, 175
Mingo, White, 26
Minisink, 493, 500
Minisink, Battle of, 500
Minquas-kill, 230
Minshall, Joshua, 338, 364, 823
Mint, Story, 237
Minuit, Peter, 123, 590
Mischianza, 308, 347, 352, 417
Mispillon, 230
Missouri Compromise, 389
Mitchell, Alexander, 823
Mitchell, James, 415, 823
Mitchell, John, 823
Mitcheltree, Hugh, 685
Mob, 630, 695
Mock, Alexander, 463
Moens, Hans, 792
Mogulbughtition Creek, 185
Mohawk Valley, 322
Mollie Maguires, 47, 107, 192, 314, 557, 768, 845
Monacatootha, 227, 728, 800
Monckton, Henry, 444
Monmouth, Battle of, 443, 712
Monmouth Court House, 443
Monocacy Creek, 313
Monongahela, 38, 52, 201, 517
Monongahela Navigation, 131
Monongalia County, Va., 163, 489
Monroe County, 181, 235, 448, 564, 596, 651, 710
Monroe, President James, 53, 263, 837
Monroe, Timothy, 568
Montelius, 854
Montgomery, 828
Montgomery (ship), 324, 417, 910
Montgomery, Colonel John, 908
Montgomery County, 60, 131, 180, 190, 191, 215, 307, 335, 336, 380,
596, 603, 645
Montgomery, Fort (see Fort Montgomery)
Montgomery, John, 614, 615, 616
Montgomery, Thomas, 780
Montgomery Township, Franklin County, 510
Montgomery, William, 60
Montluissant, Monsieur, 348
Montour, Andrew, 227, 305, 321, 476, 597, 638, 727, 728, 868
Montour County, 118, 120, 181, 208, 432, 596, 597, 775
Montour, Henry, 597
Montour, John, 282, 638, 751
Montour, Lewis, 235, 638
Montour, Madame, 235, 553, 597, 638, 751, 868
Montour Mills, 232
Montour, Monsieur, 770
Montour, Queen Esther, 457
Montour, Robert, 638
Montour, Rowland, 638
Montoursville, 868
Montreal, 704
Montule, M. Le, 893
Moodie, Robert, 209, 674
Moore, James, 60
Moore, Jesse, 154
Moore, Philip, 922
Moore, Robert, 177
Moore, Samuel, 239
Moore, William, 708
Mooresburg, 118
Moorehead, Samuel, 146
Morse, Samuel F. B., 431
Moravian Seminary and College for Women, 223
Moravian Mission, Story, 359
Moravian Synod, 31
Moravians, 31, 105, 223, 359, 475, 824
Moravians, Slaughter of, 824
Moravians Visit Great Island, 475
More, Doctor Nicholas, 340, 373, 756
Moreland, 342
More’s, 248
Morin, Monsieur, 840
Morgan, “Captain” William, 557, 850, 890
Morgan, Commissioner, 268
Morgan, Colonel Daniel, 352, 485, 870, 908
Morgan, George, 323
Morgan, Jacob, 484
Morgan, Dr. John, 224, 922
Morgan, Rice, 822
Morgan’s Riflemen, 352
Morgan, William, Story, 567
Morory (quoted), 811
Morrell, Isaac, 333
Morris, Agnes, 696
Morris, Major Anthony, 159, 267, 696, 871, 910
Morris, Cadwallader, 922
Morris, Gouveneur, 643
Morris, John, 484, 561
Morris, Mr., of Baltimore, 298
Morris, Robert, 18, 19, 24, 78, 80, 106, 133, 237, 308, 335, 355, 358,
409, 459, 460, 469, 483, 497, 595, 643, 693, 779, 872, 893, 915,
921, 922
Morris, Governor Robert Hunter, 59, 63, 65, 67, 72, 133, 227, 267, 268,
272, 273, 319, 320, 321, 370, 371, 393, 394, 395, 526, 619, 722,
726, 757, 758, 759, 760, 761, 762, 797, 916
Morris, Captain Samuel, 910, 922
Morris, Samuel C., 419, 693
Morris House, 358
Morristown, New Jersey, 1, 223, 848, 910
Morrisville, 143, 838, 861
Morrow, William, 680
Morton, Rev. Allan John, 846
Morton, John, 459, 611, 613, 779
Morton, Robert, 459
Mosse, Thomas, 150
Mother of Counties, 180, 500
Mott, James, 7, 8
Mott, Henry, S., 390
Mott, Lucretia, 6, 7, 8
Moulder, Joseph, 292
Mount Carbon, 242
Mount Carmel, 110
Mount Frederick School, 32, 33
Mount Joy, 217, 307
Mount Laffee, 47
Mount Washington, 201
Moylan, Stephen, 55
Mud Island, 381, 670
Muddy Run, 615
Muench, Robert L., 500
Muhlenberg, David, 215, 645
Muhlenberg, Frederick Augustus, 247, 644, 795
Muhlenberg, Henry Augustus, 889
Muhlenberg, Henry Melchior, 513
Muhlenberg, John Peter Gabriel, 186
Muir, David, 47, 192, 845
Mulhearn, Edward, 49
Muncy, 515, 542
Muncy Creek, 673
Muncy, Fort, 515
Muncy Hill, 295, 515, 615, 911
Muncy, Manor of, 260
Municipal Council of Philadelphia, 46
Munley, Thomas, 107, 193, 316
Murdering Town, 800
Murphy, Philip, 30
Murphy, Robert S., 9
Murphy, Timothy, 634
Murray, James, 674
Murray & Kean’s Company, 270
Murray, Thomas, 820
Musemelin, 254
Musgrave, 652
Muskingum, 42, 169, 304
Muskwink, 494
Mutiny in Pennsylvania Line, 1, 709
Myers, Henry, 334
Myerstown, 679
N
Nagel, George, 209, 508
Naglee, Jacob, 284
Nain, 711, 712, 781
Nantes, 914
Nanticoke Falls, 906
Nanticoke Indians, 17
Nantucket, 6
Napoleon, 893
Nash, 690
Nathaniel, 540
National Artillery, 277
Native American Party, 49, 881
Native American Riots, 466
Naugel, Frederic, 179
Navy, Pennsylvania, 324
Nazareth, 33, 110, 267, 312, 513
Nazareth, Lower Township, 312
Nazareth, Upper Township, 312
Neal, Captain, 910
Neal, Thomas, 832
Nealson, Peter, 396
Nebinger, Dr. Andrew, 369
Nebinger, Dr. George, 369
Needham, 97
Neely’s Mill, 862
Neepaheilomon, 650
Negley’s Run, 375
Negro School, 312
Neily, Samuel, 510
Nertunius, 666
Nesbitt, J. M., 922
Nescopeck, 75
Nescopeck Creek, 905
Nescopeck Falls, 299
Nescopeck Path, 577
Neshaminy, 57, 313, 437, 863
Neshaminy Lock Navigation, 131
Neversink, 494
Neville, General John, 488, 688, 728
Neville, Morgan, 518
New Amstel, 446
New Amsterdam, 446
New Bergen, 96
New Berlin, 343, 567, 568, 722
New Castle, Chief, 273
New Castle (Delaware), 30, 166, 324, 328, 919
New Castle (Pennsylvania), 147, 446, 491
Newcomer, King, 750
New Cumberland, 300
New England Magazine, The, 643
New France, 589
New Garden, 628
Newgen, 266
New Geneva, 52
New Gnadenhutten, 917
New Gottenberg, 124, 608
New Hanover Township, 31
New Hope, 863, 909
New Jersey College, 59
New Korsholm, 124
Newman, Wingate, 325
New London, 302
New Netherlands, 165
New Norway, 96
New Olive Branch, The, 642
New Orleans, 487, 583, 838, 901
New Orleans, Battle of, 583
New Orleans (ship), 201
Newport, C., 676
Newport, 503
Newport (Rhode Island), 113
New Philadelphia, 282
News of Revolution, 290
New Sweden, 123
Newton, 451
Newtown, 367, 664, 682
New York, 2, 53, 446, 459, 509, 530, 566, 779, 832, 833, 834, 923
New York Advertiser, The, 641
New York Central Railroad, 863
New York Historical Society, 54
New Years, 1, 81
New Wales, 166
Niagara, 704
Niagara Falls, 580
Niagara, Fort (see Fort Niagara)
Niagara (ship), 625
Nickerson, 812
Nicholas (Indian), 437
Nicholas, Catherine, 73
Nicholas, Edward, 73
Nicholas, Thomas, 73
Nicholls, Colonel Richard, 446
Nichols, Anthony, 859
Nichols, General, 694
Nicholson, Adam, 74
Nicholson, Joseph, 750
Nickles, Mrs. Grace, 369
Nicole, 764
Nicolls, John, 108
Nielson, Jonas, 396
Nieu Causeland, 667
Nikes, 700
Nile, 894
Nimwha, 656
Nine Mile Run, 636
Nine Partners Boarding School, 6
Ninth, Pennsylvania, 188
Nippenose Valley, 33, 337, 772
Nisbet, Rev. Charles, 248
Nitschmann, Anna, 513, 868
Nitschmann, Bishop David, 313, 513
Nitschmann, Martin, [825]
Nitschmann, Susanna, 826
Nittany Mountains, 344
Nixon, Colonel John, 292, 909, 922
Noailles, Viscount Louis Marie de, 892
Nonowland, Chief, 169, 174, 282
Norbury, Joseph, 350
Nord, Edward, [610]
Norland, 521
Norris, Isaac, 77, 318, 382, 594, 657, 682, 782, 806
Norristown, 380, 602
Norriton, 380, 385
North American, The, 813
Northampton County, 11, 61, 67, 102, 103, 131, 141, 180, 181, 182, 190,
207, 208, 210, 235, 267, 312, 416, 419, 428, 429, 492, 508, 596,
606, 651, 719, 839, 854, 867, 904, 911, 916
North Branch of Susquehanna Canal, 132
Northern Central Railroad, 499
Northern Governors, 40
Northern Liberties, 242, 712
North, Lord Frederick, 328
Northumberland, 136, 298, 402, 461, 546, 553, 555, 556, 558, 633, 723,
732, 803, 876, 877, 878, 904
Northumberland County, 11, 33, 61, 63, 66, 72, 93, 137, 139, 177, 180,
181, 187, 188, 189, 202, 207, 210, 216, 252, 296, 326, 331, 332,
334, 337, 344, 416, 420, 432, 438, 445, 469, 496, 499, 500, 508,
509, 551, 556, 564, 596, 606, 614, 617, 639, 675, 686, 708, 731,
739, 775, 814, 819, 820, 892, 895, 903, 904, 905
Northumberland County Soldiers’ Monument Association, 500
Northumberland Gazette, The, 803, 878
*Natchez, 487
Notes on Virginia, Jefferson’s (quoted), 361
Nutimus, King, 450, 540, 563
Nya Wasa, 667
Nyckel, Kalmer, 609
O
Oakdale, 174
Oakes, James, 249
Oak Hall, 453
O'Connor’s Fields, 479
Octorora Creek, 180
Octorora Navigation, 132
Odd Fellowship, 855, 890
O'Donnell, Patrick, 827
Ogashtash, 562
Ogden, Amos, 102, 103, 428, 559, 560, 561, 673
Ogden, James, 2, 3
Ogden, Nathan, 103, 560, 673
Ogdensburg, 334, 578
Oghagradisha, 228, 394
Ogle, Governor Samuel, 364, 414
Ogle, John, 282, 822
Oglethorpe, James Edward, 313
O'Hara, General James, 200, 901
Ohio Company, 99, 841
Ohio County, Virginia, 163, 282, 489
Oil City, 593
Oil Creek, 551, 591
Oil Creek Valley, 591
Oil, Story of, 591
Okley, John, 513
Old Fort House, 178, 221
Old Log College, 57
Old Military Plan, 200
Old Mother Northumberland, 180, 207
Old School, Oliver, 115
Old South Church, 44
Old York Road, 753
Olden, Colonel, 367
Oleona, 96
Oley, 33, 463, 512
Oliver, George S., 519
Olympic Games, 523
Omit’s Hotel, 35
Onas, 449
“One of the People,” 803
O'Neal, John, 657
Ongwaternohiat-he, 884
Onkhiswathe-tani, 884
Onondaga, 15, 16, 63, 227
Onondaga Castle, 562
“Onrust” (ship), 590
Op-den-Graeffs, 112, 696
Opden Graeff, Abraham, 696
Opden Graeff, Dirck, 696
Opekasset, 301
Orange County, New York, 492
Ord, George, 581
Organization of Counties, 179, 180, 181
Orian, William, 396, 792
Orlady, Judge George W., 88
Ormsby, John, 149, 201
Orne, Richard, 150
Ornithologist, American, 579
Orr, Robert, 527
Orrery, 385
Orrery, Earl of, 385
Ontario County, 597
Oswald, Eleazer, 641
Ostenwackin, 639
Oswegy, 775
Otsego, 323
Otto, Bodo, Doctor, 224
Otzinachson, 399, 722
“Otzinachson” (quoted), 588
Owego, 299
Owen, Evan, 374
Oxenstierna, Axel, 229
Oxford, 46, 97, 313
Oxygen, 97, 98, 99
P
“P,” 531
Packenah, 436
Pack Horses, 134
Pack Trains, 169
Packer Guards, 474
Packer, Governor William F., 498, 724
Packer’s Island, 554
Packet, 644
Packet boats, 201
Paddy Mountain, 722
Paganini, 94
Page, T., 662
Paine, Thomas, 70, 571
Paisley (Scotland), 579, 601
Palatines, 406
Palatinate, 31, 149
Palestine, 327
Palmer, Anthony, 316, 749
Pananke, Chief, 425
Pan Handle, 489
Paoli, 307, 607, 651, 668, 690, 848
Paoli Massacre, Story, 651
Paoli Tavern, 652
Papegoja, Johan, 125, 609, 667
Papegoja, Madame, 447
Paper Mill, First, 128, 129, 130, 201
Paper Money, 160
Papunhank, 359
Parade, Bloody 84th, 350
Paradise, 614
Paradise, Point, 230
Park Theatre, 251
Parker, Michael, 635
Parker’s Ford, 667
Parkinson’s Ferry, 52, 688
Parnassus, 167
Parnell’s Knob, 761
Parr, James, 209, 352, 367
Parson, Fighting, 236
Parsons, John, 150
Parsons, Major, 575
Parsons, William, 235, 917
Partsch, Brother, 825
Partsch, Sister, 825
Parvin, Benjamin, 359
Paschal, Isaac, 860
Pass & Stow, 383
Passamaquoddy, 51
Passmore, Thomas, 874
Passyunk, 323, 667
Pastorius, Francis D., 112, 113, 159, 695
Path Valley, 265, 320, 623, 761
Patosky, 894
Patriotic Order Sons of America, 712
Patterson, Colonel Robert, 503
Patterson, Fort, 918
Patterson, James, 684, 761, 821
Patterson’s Massacre, Story, 684, 918
Patterson, Mr., 298
Patterson, Robert, 853
Patterson, William, 27, 614, 684, 918
Pattison, Governor Robert E., 735
Patton, Matthew, 761
*Pawling, Henry, 623
Pauling, John, 301
Paullsson, Olaf, 231
Paulus Hook, New Jersey, 566
Paxinoso, 540, 563, 575
Paxson, Henry D., 610
Paxson, Miss Nancy, 608
Paxtang, 300, 461, 498, 553, 554, 560, 587, 594, 614, 718, 726, 764,
781, 911
Paxtang Boys, 105, 187, 560, 594, 718, 781, 911
Paxtang Riot, 594
Paxton, 299
Paxton Presbyterian Church, 236, 498, 746, 911
Paxton, Samuel, 179
Payne, George F., 137
Peach Orchard, 453
Peale, Charles W., 426
Peale, Franklin, 21
Pearl (ship), 671
Pearce, Henry W., 369
Pearson, 755
Pearson, James, 385
Peart, Benjamin, 577
Peart, Thomas, 577
Pechoquealon, 300, 501
Peepy, Joe, 235, 540
Pemberton, Israel, 187, 913
Pence, Peter, 209, 210, 211
Penn Family, 489, 492
Penn, Fort, 918
Penn, Gulielma Maria, 844
Penn, Hannah Callowhill, 330
Penn, John, 75, 92, 93, 94, 101, 102, 103, 105, 106, 107, 145, 171,
177, 198, 247, 304, 305, 316, 330, 338, 391, 399, 428, 429, 482,
496, 535, 536, 559, 613, 649, 660, 661, 674, 712, 748, 774, 779,
781, 787, 903, 912, 913, 919
Penn, Marie Cox, 392
Penn, Mrs., 715
Penn, Mount, 247
Penn, Richard, 92, 105, 106, 197, 391, 414, 535, 536, 747
Penn, Springett, 414, 805
Penn, Thomas, 92, 105, 247, 330, 338, 339, 364, 391, 392, 496, 535,
536, 649, 747, 919
Penn, William, 4, 5, 28, 29, 61, 69, 75, 76, 77, 84, 100, 105, 106,
128, 130, 150, 158, 165, 179, 205, 247, 273, 293, 328, 329, 330,
336, 340, 341, 372, 373, 374, 414, 415, 416, 436, 448, 489, 492,
493, 530, 531, 534, 552, 596, 598, 648, 649, 650, 660, 682, 695,
715, 734, 752, 754, 763, 805, 821, 832, 843, 919
Penn, Sir William, 165, 391, 715
Pennamite-Yankee Wars, 103, 207, 428, 492, 673, 903, 905
Pennsborough Township, 172
Pennsbury, 530
Penn’s Creek, 73, 227, 228, 267, 318, 476, 773
Penn’s Creek Massacre, Story, 720, 757
Penn’s Valley, 221
Penn’s Woods, 649
Pennsylvania Canal, 41
Pennsylvania Chronicle and Universal Advertiser, 899
“Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal,” 189, 646
Pennsylvania Dutchmen, 803, 876
Pennsylvania Evening Post, 900
Pennsylvania German Recorder of Events, 899
Pennsylvania Hall, 7, 466
Pennsylvania Hall Riot, 466
Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser, The, 899
Pennsylvania, The Keystone, 643
Pennsylvania Ledger, The, 899
Pennsylvania Line, 1, 849
Pennsylvania Packet, The, 899
Pennsylvania Population Company, 154
Pennsylvania Railroad, 37, 38, 48, 232, 618, 723, 863
Pennsylvania State Works, 36
Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble Minded, 881
Pennsylvania University, 45, 54
Penny, Charles, 252
Pennypack Creek, 436
Pennypacker, Samuel W., 137, 643
Pennypacker’s Mills, 690
Penobscot, 678
Penrose, Charles B., 35, 851, 855
Penrose, W. M., 441
Pentecost, Dorsey, 163
Pequea, 764
Pequea Creek, 300
Pequea Township, 821
Pequehan, 764
“Perfect Tribute” (quoted), 811
Perkins, Samuel H., 890
Perkiomen, 849
Perseverance Lodge No. 21 F. & A. M., 891
Pershing, Honorable C. L., 193, 316
Perry, Colonel Caleb, 908
Perry County, 42, 181, 596, 597
Perry, Commodore Oliver H., 597, 624
Perry, Samuel, 510, 748
Perry’s Mills, James, 168
Peters, Hans, 397
Peter’s Mountains, 16, 254
Peters, Richard, 292, 318, 357, 657, 700, 773, 896, 919, 922
Peters Township, 171, 760
Petit, Alfred C., 735
Petroleum Oil Company, 592
Pettigrew, General James Johnston, 452
Petty, John, 886
Peyster, J. W. de, 584
Pfoutz, Conrad, 498
Philadelphia, 1, 2, 3, etc.
Philadelphia City Troop, 910
Philadelphia County, 8, 31, 33, 60, 84, 131, 159, 179, 191, 207, 216,
380, 416, 419, 596, 604, 852, 853, 874, 881
Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad, 201
Philadelphia Junto, 804
Philadelphia Light Horse, 503, 409, 679
Philadelphia and Reading Coal Company, 48, 192, 193, 232, 618
Philadelphia Times, The, 521
Philippe, Louis, 894
Phillips, Thomas, 150
Phillips & Gorham, 241
Philosophical Society, 45
Phipps, Sir William, 160
Pickens, Andrew, 872
Pickering (a tailor), 694
Pickering, Timothy, 216, 438, 605
Pickett’s Charge, 455
Pieces of Eight, 325
Pierce Brothers (Indians), 524
Pierce, Edward, 373
Pigeon Creek, 687
Pigeon, Joseph, 374
Piggott, Rev. Henry, 568
Pike, Abram, 210
Pike County, 181, 448, 493, 494, 500, 501, 502, 564, 597, 651, 775
Piles, Robert, 150
Pine Creek, 398, 673
Pine Grove Furnace, 679
Pinkerton, Allan, 47, 193, 557, 769, 846
Piny Creek, 801
Pious Henry Antes, 31, 32, 33
Pipe, Captain (Indian), 281, 404, 584
Piper, Colonel James, 305, 306, 908
Pisquitomen, 380
Pitcher, Molly, 445
Pitt, Fort (see Fort Pitt)
Pitt, William, 199, 635, 703
Pittsburgh, 36, 37, 38, 64, 100, 101, 102, 110, 125, 148, 279, 281,
322, 333, 375, 378, 487, 489, 490, 517, 518, 519
Pittsburgh & Connellsville Railroad, 38
Pittsburgh Gazette, The, 200
Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, The, 200, 519
Pittsburgh Manor, 489
Pittsburgh, South, 201
Pittsburgh Times, The, 519
Pittsburgh, Washington & Baltimore Railroad, 38
Plain Truth, 747
Plant, Louis, 474
Plant, Mrs. Mary, 369
Plates, French Plant Leaden, 411
Ploughed Hill, 508
Pluck, Colonel John, 350
Pluggy, Chief, 750
Pluggystown, 750
Plumstead, Mr., 859
Plumstead, Thomas, 919
Plumstead Township, 663
Plumstead, William, 270
Plunket, Elizabeth, 11
Plunket, Colonel William, 11, 61, 110, 209, 260, 297, 305, 306, 337,
673, 821, 903, 905
Plymouth, 112, 492, 563
Poak, Joseph, 344
Pocahontas, 677
Pocketgach, 824
Poe, Adam, 586
Poe, Andrew, 586
Poe, James, 623
Poetess-Laureate, 202
Point Pleasant, 167, 362
Polk, President James K., 34, 194, 289
Polk, William, 222
Pollock, Governor James, 195, 233, 389, 431, 723, 863, 881
Pollock, Oliver, 487
Police, Organ of, 45
Pomfret Castle, 684
Pomunky, King of, 677
Pontiac, 25, 42, 100, 105, 323, 345, 360, 586, 773
Poor, General Enoch, 353, 367
Poplar Run, 818
Population of Pittsburgh, 201
Poquessing Creek, 437
Port Carbon, 48
Port Deposit, 297
Porter, Governor David Rittenhouse, 850, 855
Porter, General David, 144
Porter, Thomas, 60
Porters, James, 76
Portfolio, The, 115, 580
Port Jervis, 494
Portquesott, 436
Porvey, 436
“Posse Comitatus,” 904
Post, Christian Frederic, 272, 302, 476, 827
Post Master, 45
Post Office, Pioneer, Story, 832
Potomac River, 36
Potts, James, 25
Potts, John, 308, 693
Potts, Stacy, 135
Potts, Thomas, 60, 380
Potter County, 94, 95, 96, 156, 181, 182, 208, 597
Potter, General James, 2, 61, 209, 221, 252, 264, 307, 337, 344, 463,
469, 470, 556, 597, 615, 618, 739, 741, 910
Potter, John, 760
Potter, Thomas, 264
Potterfield, 545
Pottsgrove (Montgomery County), 336, 614
Pottstown, 242, 335
Pottsville, 47, 48, 192, 277
Powder Exploit, Gibson’s, 486
Powell, Graham, 48
Powell, Joseph, 15, 513
Powell, Levi, 7
Powell, Morgan, 48, 193, 770, 845
Powell, Samuel, 513, 860, 922
Powell’s Creek, 16
Powell’s Map, 422
Powhatan, 677
Pratt, John, 119
Pratt, Major, 189
Pratt, R. H., 522
Pratt, Thomas, 284
Presbytery, Philadelphia, 57
Presque Isle, 152, 241, 318, 387, 413
Presque Isle, Destruction of, Story, 387, 413
Press, The, 813
Presser, Martin, 826
Preston, Alderman, 682
Preston, George Junkin, 203
Preston, Herbert, 207
Preston, Margaret Junkin, 202, 203, 204
Preston, Samuel, 764, 859
Prevost, Colonel Charles M., 334
Prevost, Sir George, 144
Prevost, Lady, 625
Price, Morgan, 846
Priest, David, 823
Priestley, Dr. Joseph, 97, 98, 99, 433, 803
Priestley, Joseph, Jr., 433
Priestley Riots, 98
Prince of Wales, 117
Princeton (Town), 1, 2, 428, 909
Princeton University, 59, 386, 428, 909
Printing Press, 570
Printz, Armegot, 123, 609
Printz Hall, 608, 665
Printz, Johan, 123, 124, 125, 396, 447, 608, 609, 665
Printzhof, 124, 608
Prior, Thomas, 385
Proctor, Captain (Naval), 324
Proctor, John, 61, 149, 292
Proctor, Colonel Thomas, 101, 367, 713
Proctor, William, Jr., 178
Prospect Hill, 409, 606
Protest vs. Slavery, First, 696
Proud (quoted), 805
Providence Island, 670
Proviso, Wilmot, 194, 195, 196
Public Ledger, The, 813
Public School at Germantown, 285
Pulaski, Count Casimir, 222, 501, 692
Pullman Cars, 243
Purchase, Land, 398
Purdy, Colonel, 615
Put-in-Bay, 625
Putnam, Major General Israel, 55, 908
Pyrlaeus, John Christopher, 513, 867
Q
Quadrogue, 506
Quagnant, Chief, 406
Quakake Creek, 577
Quakertown, 191
Quashy, 113
Que, Isle of, 819
Quebec, 139, 188, 461, 509, 704
Quebec Bill, 612
Queen Esther, 457
Queen Esther’s Town, 367, 619
Queen’s Rangers, 307
Quenameckquid, 437
Quick, Tom, 493
Quid Party, 434
Quigley, Mary, 259
Quiltinunk, 367
Quing Quingos, 436
Quittapahilla, 130, 818
R
Racoon Creek, 175, 528
Radner Church, 850
Rae, Alexander, 770, 846
Rahn, Mr., 5
Raid, Brodhead’s, 549
Railroad, First, 201
Railroad Riots, 863
Rainhill, 21
Rall, General, 909
Rambo, Gunner, 150
Rambo, Peter, 667, 792
Randall, Josiah, 890
Randolph, James, 834
Randolph, Peyton, 611, 872
Rangers, Provincial, 547
Rankin, James, 308
Rankin, William, 586
Ransom’s Creek, 112
Rapp, Adam, 121
Rapp, Frederick, 121
Rapp, George, 120, 121, 122
Rasmussen, Frederic, 89
Raven’s Run, 107
Rawle, Dr. (quoted), 54
Rawle, William, 191, 860
*Rawdon, Lord Francis, 348
Ray, John, 623
Raystown, 177, 178, 179, 320
Raystown Branch, 138, 177
Rea, Alexander, 48, 192
Read, Adam, 23, 758
Read, Deborah, 44
Read, John M., 8
Read, Sara, 754
Reading, 130, 277, 602, 616
Reading Railroad, 242
Regiment, German, 615
Recollections, Binns’, 786
Red Clay Creek, 503
Red Hill, 650
Red Man, The, 523
Red Man and Helper, The, 523
Redman, Nancy, 348
Redman, Joseph, 216
Redman, Rebecca, 348
Red Row, Riot of, 478
Red Stone, 171, 224, 322
Red Stone Creek, 518
Redstone, Old Fort, 52
Redstone River, 100
Reed, 154, 367
Reed, Charles, 374
Reed, James, 324
Reed, General Joseph, 2, 59, 90, 309, 343, 796, 910, 921
Reed, Thomas, 326
Reed, William, 333
Reeder, Andrew H., 648
Reeder, Howard J., 88
Reemey’s, 561
Reeser, Baltus, 283
Rees’ Cyclopedia, 580
Rees, Thomas, 153
Reichel (quoted), 575, 576
Reickert, Frederick, 121
Reilly, John W., 23
Reliance, 860
Remington & Son, E., 119
Reprisal (ship), 324
Republican Argus, The, 434, 803
Republican Party, 692
Republican Society, 332
Reserve Corps, 40, 279
Revolutionary Forces Threaten Congress, 426
Rewalt, John, 173
Reynolds, General John Fulton, 400, 452
Rhea, John, 780
Rhoads, Samuel, 611, 612
Rhode Island, 19, 873
Rice, Abraham, 740
Rice Blockhouse, 741
Rice, Charles E., 88
Rice, John, 615
Rice, Owen, 513
Rice, William, 513
Richard, Poor, 45
Richards, J. C., 520
Richards, Lewis, 846
Richardson, Jacob, 206
Richmond Branch, 242
Richmond, Port, 242
Ridge Roads, 546
Ridley Creek, 858
Riegelsville, 501
Rigby, Mr., 270
Ringgold, Artillery, 277
Riots, 87, 98, 251, 332, 465, 477, 630, 646, 692, 863
Riots, Erie, 863
Ripley, William, 144, 680
Rip Van Winkle, 495
Rippers, 864
Ritchie, Robert, 72
Ritner, Governor Joseph, 568, 839, 850, 853, 889
Rittenhouse, Benjamin, 731
Rittenhouse, Claus, 128, 696
Rittenhouse, David, 72, 101, 238, 240, 385, 485, 604, 662, 669, 708,
919, 921
Rittenhouse, Gerhard, 128, 696
Rittenhouse, William, 128, 129, 130, 695
Rizer, Jacob, 284
Roarty, James, 193, 314
Robber Lewis, 217, 222
Robb’s Row, Riot of, 465
Roberts, Colonel, 879
Roberts, George, 216
Roberts, John, 301
Robertson, James, 325
Robinson, Andrew, 325, 693
Robinson, Patrick, 85, 196, 341
Robinson, Robert, 661
Rochambeau, Count de, 82
Rock Creek, 454
Rocket (engine), 243
Rockford, 311, 606
Rockville, 23
Roderdeau, Daniel, 60, 292, 921
Rodes, General Robert E., 422
Roebuck (ship), 324
Rogers, Eleanor, 68
Rogers, Jonah, 210
Rogers, Morton, Company, 69
Roman, Robert, 151
Rome, New York, 774
Roosevelt, Theodore, 137
Rose, Dave, 299
Rose, Major, 404
Rosencrantz, James, 495
Ross, Anna M., 369
Ross, Catherine Van Gazel, 482
Ross, Charles, 335
Ross, Clarissa, 80
Ross, Colonel, 629
Ross, Earl of, 482
Ross, General Robert (British), 582
Ross, George, 78, 325, 409, 482, 484, 604, 611, 612, 816
Ross, James, 689, 784
Ross, John, 79, 357, 481, 482, 823
Ross, The Senator (ship), 200
Ross, William, 439
Rosse, Thomas, 284
Rossmere, 483
Rothrock, J. F., 87
Round Top, 453
Rouseville, 593
Rowland, Samuel, 794
Royal Americans, 372, 828
Royal Grenadiers, 445
Royal Society of London, 46, 97
Royce, Benjamin, 282
Ruddell’s Station, 363
Ruffians Mob Pastor, 512
Ruhl, Philip, 252
Rummerfield, 893
Rump House, 854
Runaway, Great, 253
Rush, Jacob, 784, 820
Rush, Lewis, 334
Russia, 41, 53
Rutledge, Edward, 459, 872
Rutter, George, 247
Ryon, John W., 49, 192
Rynder, T. P., 86
Rysingh, Johan Claesson, 610, 665
S
Sacking and Burning Chambersburg, 519
Sadbury, 601
Sabbath School, First, 465
Sacketts Harbor, 143
Sagard (quoted), 743
Sailors Cause Riot, 682
Salem, 175, 282, 585, 673
Salem (Ohio), 282
Salter, Captain Elisha, 525, 762
Salter, Hanna, 396
“Sam,”, 389
Sample, John, 468
Sandelands, James, 396
Sanderson Guards, 474
San Domingo, 892, 894
Sandy Hook, 856
Sandusky Indians, 43
Sanford, Laura G., 153
San Francisco, 384
Sanger, Thomas, 49, 107, 193, 316, 770
Sanoy, Isaac, 792
Sarah (ship), 340
Sassafras Street, 514
Sasquesohanough, 506
Sassoonan, 301, 437
Sattelihu (Indian), 640
Saturday, Bloody, 48
Saturday Evening Post, 117, 532
Saunders, Richard, 45
Saur, Christopher, 695
Savannah, 312
Saw Dust War, 472
Saxton, Frederick, 241
Say, Esther, 744
Sayughtowa, 886
Scalps, 267, 272
Scammel, General Alexander, 311, 367
Scarouady, 66, 236, 267, 322, 658, 797
Schaeffer, Nathan C., 137
Schaeffers, Michael, 16
Schaffer, Henry, 877
Schenley, Mrs. Mary E., 200
*Schneider, Daniel, 66
Schmidt, Anthony, 18
Schmick, Rev. John Jacob, 360
*Schofield, General John McAllister, 648
Schoenbrun, 176, 585
Schoharie County, 463
School, High Dutch, 283
Schute, 665, 667
Schuyler, Gertrude, 601
Schuyler, General Philip, 222, 601
Schuylkill, 11
Schuylkill County, 33, 47, 131, 181, 192, 193, 208, 242, 314, 474, 564,
582, 597, 598, 846
Schuylkill Ferries, 504
Schuylkill Fishing Company, 593
Schuylkill Navigation Company, 130, 131
Schuylkill & Susquehanna Navigation Company, 131
Schweigert, 826
Schwenckfelders, 318
Scioto, 163
Scotch Irish, 623
Scotland (Pa.), 624
Scotosh, 585
Scott, Adam, 578
Scott, Samuel, 823
Scott, Thomas A., 38
Scott, General Winfield, 51, 144, 334
Scranton, 648
Scull, John, 517, 518
Scull, John I., 518
Scull, Map, 63
Scull, Nicholas, 449
Scull, William, 209, 305, 905
Sea Congregation, 302
Secane, 436
Second Presbyterian Church, 68
Secord (quoted), 579
Sedgwick, General John, 453
Seiler, Captain G. A. C., 279
Seimens, Jan, 696
Selheimer, Captain John B., 277
Selina, Countess Huntingdon, 422
Selinsgrove, 783, 860
Sellers, John, 385
Seminary Ridge, 452, 454
Seneca, 42
Seneca Mission Church, 246
Seneca Oil, 591
Senseman, Anna Catherine, 826
Senseman, Brother, 825
Separatists, 120
Sergeant, Jonathan Dickinson, 669
Sergeant, Thomas, 69
Settlement, Swede, 608
Seventh Day Baptists, 463
Seventh United States Infantry, 277
Seventy-ninth New York Highlanders, 498
Seward, William, 312
Sewickley Creek, 163, 371
“Shades of Death,” 458
Shaffer, George, 819
Shaffer, John, 819
Shakhappoh, 436
Shamokin Borough, 110
Shamokin Indians Creek, 336
Shamokin (Sunbury), 15, 16, 17, 62, 63, 65, 73, 110, 111, 209, 227,
235, 236, 254, 255, 266, 302, 303, 361, 371, 393, 423, 429, 449,
450, 474, 475, 563, 746, 748, 770, 824, 885, 886
Shamokin Trader, 62
Shanghai, 864
Shangom, Conne, 732
Shannon, John, 748
Shannon, Captain Samuel, 527
Shannon, Timothy, 474
Shannopino, 801
Sharp, Captain, 587
Sharp, J. McDowell, 520
Sharp’s Run, 244
Shaver’s Creek, 422
Shaw, David, 479
Shaw, John, 663
Shawnee, 42, 918
Shawnee Murder, Conestoga, 300
Shear, Joseph, 474
Shed, 890
Shea, John G. (quoted), 742
Shee, John, 292, 908
Shekoneko, 824
Shellpot, 334
Shenandoah, 48
Shenandoah Herald, 49, 109
Shenandoah Valley, 490
Shenandoah (Va.), 805
Sheninger, 246
Shepherd, David, 282, 488
Shepoconah, 767
Sherloe, William, 373
Sherman, General William T., 454, 883
Sherman, Roger, 460, 872
Sherman’s Creek, 172
Sheshequanink, 360
Sheshequin, 458
Shikellamy, 16, 63, 227, 235, 254, 255, 256, 301, 302, 361, 407, 449,
540, 554, 640, 721, 748, 752, 867, 868, 884
Shikellamy, John, 63, 267, 380, 886
Shikellamy, Logan, Story, 361, 721
Shiloh, 521
Shingas, 619, 800
Shipbuilding at Pittsburgh, 201
Shipman, Captain Henry, 289
Shippen, Story, 601
Shippen, Edward, 24, 63, 75, 89, 159, 237, 394, 541, 622, 763, 754,
874, 919
Shippen, Joseph, 178, 385, 910
Shippen, Mary, 348
Shippen, Peggy, 89, 90, 91, 348, 418, 709, 754
Shippen, Sarah, 348
Shippen, Dr. William, 223, 224
Shippensburg, 622, 760
Shirley, Fort, 918
Shively, Christopher, 343
Shockalawlin (Indian), 554
Shoenberger, Dr. Peter, 219
Shoemaker, Henry W., 26, 391
Shoemaker, Samuel, 308
Shoholy, 93
Sholes, Christopher L., 118, 119, 120
Shott, Colonel, 367
Shreeve, Colonel, 367
Shriver, Lewis, 122
Shulze, Governor John Andrew, 34, 837
Shunk, Governor Francis Rawn, 6, 37, 38, 233, 879, 890
Shutt, Ludwig, 173
Sickles, General Daniel E., 453
Sideling Hill, 170, 265, 320, 830
Sievers, E. R., 49
Sign of the Boat Inn, 504
Sikals, 436
Silliman, Professor Benjamin, 592
Silver Spring, 210
Simcoe’s Rangers, 307
Simes, John, 30
Simmons, Seneca G., 277
Simpson, Adam M., 369
Simpson, John, 509
Simpson, General Michael, 509, 680
Simpson, William, 509
Sinclair, Catherine, 251
Sinclair, John, 251
Siney, John, 474
Single Brethren’s House, 223
Singleton, Captain John, 205
Sinking Spring Valley, 257
Sinneamahoning, 138, 221
Sitgreave (Attorney), 191
Sitgreaves, Samuel, 605
Six, Deitrick, 65, 797, 918
Skinners, 681
Skinner, James, 865
Skippack, 31, 312
Skippack Creek, 669
Sladen, James, 474
Slavery, Negro, 112, 113, 114, 696
Slifer, Eli, 279
Slocum, Benjamin, 765
Slocum, Ebenezer, 766
Slocum, Frances, 765
Slocum, General Henry Warner, 454
Slocum, Jonathan, 765
Slocum, Joseph, 767
Slocum, Judith, 766
Slocum, Mary, 766
Slocum, William, 765
Sloper, Lieutenant, 348
Slough, Mathias, 331
Sloughter, 175
Sluman, Joseph, 674
Small, William F., 864
Smallpox, 236
Smallwood, General William, 652, 690
Smilie, John, 198, 216
Smiley, Captain, 442
Smiley, Robert, 688
Smith, 362
Smith, Charles, 895
Smith, Devereux, 145, 149
Smith, Frederick, 758
Smith, George K., 48, 846
Smith, George Nelson, 725
Smith, James, 101, 169, 178, 309, 484, 604, 617, 828, 921
Smith, Colonel James (York), 569, 669
Smith, John, 112, 320
Smith, Captain John, 227, 328, 505, 588, 676, 741, 829
Smith, John (Indian), 301
Smith, Colonel John B., 419
Smith, Jonathan B., 669, 921
Smith, Justice, 660
Smith, Matthew, 187, 508, 708, 913
Smith, Obadiah, 112
Smith, Peter, 261, 400, 467, 500, 542
Smith, Richard, 784
Smith, Robert, 187
Smith, Samuel, 221, 320, 823
Smith, Thomas, 179, 484, 874
Smith, Timothy, 650
Smith, “Uncle Billy,” 592
Smith, Widow, Story of, 467
Smith, Wilhelmina, 348
Smith, William, 170, 224, 292, 320, 385, 422, 829
Smith Mountain, 264
Smith’s Beneficial Hall Riots, 466
Smith’s Laws (quoted), 398, 895
Smith’s Mill Destroyed, 467
Smoky Island, 174, 283
Smyth, Albert, 533
Snodgrass, 400
Snowden, Colonel A. Loudon, 883
Snyder County, 26, 73, 75, 181, 208, 318, 596, 684, 722, 726, 773, 774
Snyder, Daniel, 798
Snyder, Frederick, 216
Snyder, George A., 568
Snyder, Henry W., 568
Snyder, Governor Simon, 33, 69, 136, 333, 435, 546, 582, 783, 803, 876,
895
Snyder, William P., 137
Society of Free Traders, 179, 372
Society Hill, 270, 373
Soldiers Orphan School, Scotland, 624
Soldiers and Sailors Home, 882
Solomon (Indian), 424
Somerset, Pa., 329, 860
Somerset County, 177, 181, 596, 775
Somerset, New Jersey, 3
Somerset (ship), 671
Sommer, Lausen, 696
Soule, Samuel W., 118
Southby, William, 159
South Carolina, 39, 51
South Fork, 378
South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, 378
South Fork Lake, 377
South River, 123
Southwark Theatre, 270
Sower, Christopher, 283, 695, 899
Sower, Christopher, Jr., 899
Spackman, Mr., 852, 890
Spalding, Captain, 458
Spangenberg, Bishop, 32, 514, 575
Spangler, Baltzer, 571
Spanglers Spring, 454
Spaulding, Colonel, 367
Speaker, The, 682
Spear, George G., 250
Speer, Eliza, 288
Spencer, Colonel, 367
Spickers, Benjamin, 757, 798
Spring, Big, 422
Spring Brook, 249
Spring, Cornelius, 449
Spring Forge III, 483
Springett, Gulielma Maria, 716
Springett, Sir William, 716
Springettsbury Manor, 805
Springhouse, Montgomery County, 191
Sprogel, John H., 336
Sproul, Rev. William T., 890
Spulong, James, 474
Squaw Campaign, 309
St. Augustine, Fla., 522
St. Clair (Pittsburgh), 201
St. Clair, Arthur, 2, 43, 100, 101, 148, 149, 179, 479, 488, 490, 572,
604, 817, 849, 896
St. Clair, Sir John, 134, 319
St. Clair’s Defeat, 488
St. James Church, Lancaster, 483
St. John’s, 571
St. Joseph’s River, 849
St. Mary’s, 437
St. Mary’s River, 849
St. Petersburg, 53
St. Peter’s Church, 384
St. Philip de Neri Church, 467
St. Pierre, M. de, 800
St. Pierre, Legardier de, 841
Staecket, Moens, 396
Stamp Act, 778, 887, 898
Standard Oil Co., 593
Standing Stone, 258, 367, 421, 473, 617
Stanley, Captain James, 473
Stanwix, Fort, 773
Stanwix, John, 236, 245
Stapleton, Rev. A. A., 9
Stark, General John, 311, 607
Starkweather, S. W., 473
Starr, Moses, 16
Starratt, John, 823
Star Spangled Banner, 410
Stars and Stripes, 624
State House, 4, 93
State Library, 165
State Sanitarium, Mt. Alto, 624
Staunton, Va., 145, 490, 660
Stead, Captain A. H., 473
Steamboat, 297, 564
Steele, Rev. John, 760
Steele, Robert, 663
Stein, Ensign A., 306
Stenton, 213, 669, 753
Stenton, John, 719
Stephen, General, 504, 691, 909
Stephenson, George, 21, 483
Sterritt, 631
Sterling, Lord Thomas, 222, 504, 629, 669, 690, 909
Stevens, Thaddeus, 159, 569, 850, 855, 889
Steuben, Baron Frederick William von, 186, 307, 417, 571
Stewart, Charles, 102, 560, 583
Stewart, John, 735
Stewart, Lazarus, 187, 560, 561, 711, 906, 911
Stewart, Lieutenant, 306
Stewart, Mr., 630
Stewart, Robert E., 477
Stewart, Samuel, 434, 803, 876
Stewart, Walter, 3, 545
Still, Isaac, 380
Stille, Axel, 231
Stille, Olaf, 231, 667
Stiver, John, 30
Stiver, Sarah, 30
Stock Family Murder, 211
Stoke, Manor of, 102, 560
Stokeley, Captain Thomas, 527
Stone, General Charles Pomeroy, 452
Stone, Governor William A., 137
Stoner, David, 622
Stoner, Kitty, 554
Stony Batter, 288
Stony Creek, 178, 377
Stony Point, 849
Story & Humphreys Pennsylvania Mercury, 900
Story of Singed Cat, 532
Story, Thomas, 754
Stoucksburg, 757
Stoughton, F., 252
Stover, Catherine, 888
Straus, Wijk, 667
Strawbridge, Thomas, 820
Stroh, John, 211
Strong, Caleb, 872
Strong, Captain Martin, 154
Stroud, Jacob, 61, 484
Stroudsburg, 458, 491, 917, 918
Strouse (Attorney), 192
Stuart, General J. E. B., 453, 624, 706, 860
Stuart’s Raid, 860
Stumbaugh, Colonel, 521
Stump, Frederick, 25, 26, 27, 686
Stump’s Run, 27
Stumpstown, 25, 26, 27
Sturdevant, 854
Stuyvesant, Peter, 125, 665
Sturgis (lad), 825
Sugar Cabins, 320
Sugar Loaf Massacre, 616
Sugar Run, 360
Sullivan County, 181, 195, 208, 432, 596, 597, 775, 893
Sullivan, General John, 260, 311, 366, 504, 514, 629, 690, 861
Summit Hill, 48, 111, 315, 557, 846
Sunbury, 65, 209, 286, 331, 332, 393, 461, 496, 499, 553, 563, 615,
675, 723, 741, 746, 748, 818, 820, 877, 903, 908
Sunbury & Erie Railroad, 234, 723
Sunbury, Manor of, 560
“Sunday Indians,” 424
Sunday School Union and Tract Society, 327
Sunday Times, The, 279
Surphlit, Robert, 225
Susquehanna Company, 102, 207, 491
Susquehanna County, 181, 194, 195, 208, 596, 598, 775
Susquehanna Navigation Company, 274
Susquehanna River Exploration, 741
Susquehanna (steamboat), 297
Susquehanna Trail, 23, 41, 515
Swamp Creek, 31
Swampes, 437
Swanendael, 230, 590, 856
“Swannocks,” 424
Swans, Valley of, 590
Swartz, Fort, 616
Swataney, 884
Swatara, 16, 130, 172
Swatara Creek, 757, 797
Swatara, Fort, 757, 918
Swatara Gap, 758
Swedes Church, Old, 581
Swedes Ford, 353
Swedes Mill, 448
Swedes Road, 652
Sweeney, Edward, 732
Swen, Ole, 792
Swensson, Maus, 231
Swithes Fording, 555
Swope, Michael, 570, 908
Sykes, General, 451
Sylvania, 166
Symcock, John, 151, 373
Syng, Philip, 860
T
Taasquah, 71
Tacony, 832
Tadame, 450
Taggart, Captain John H., 279
Tahgahjute, 361, 886
Takeghsatu, 700, 701
Talbot, Jeremiah, 623
Talbot, Major, 673
Talihaio Gap, 65
Talleyrand, Prince, 790, 894
Talmadge Family, 154
Talon, Marquis Antoine Omer, 892
Tamaqua, 193, 242, 557, 579
Taminy, 437
Tammany Society, 434
Tamment, King, 437
Tanacharison, 126, 841
Tangorus, 437
Tannehill, General Adamson, 323
Tanner, Michael, 823
Tapescawen, 540
Tarentum, 592
Tariff 1842, 432
Tarlton, Major Banastre, 348
Tate, Alem, 473
Tawandarweuk, 360
Tawena, 415
Tawenne, Chief, 301
Taylor, Bayard, 733
Taylor, Christopher, 150
Taylor, George, 61, 484
Taylor Guards, 473
Taylorsville, 909
Tedyuskung, 235, 236, 237, 271, 303, 491, 539, 574, 588, 700, 704, 719,
720, 824
Tedyuskung, Eliza, wife of, 575
Telner, Jacob, 695
Temperanceville, 201
Ten-Mile Run, 561
Tennent, Gilbert, 57, 188
Tennent, Rev. William, 57, 313, 782
Tesinigh, 506
Test Act, 99
Texel, 590, 856
Thatcher, Judge, 239
Thatcher (quoted), 388
Tharachiawakon, 407
Thayer, Major, 672
Theatrical Performances, Story, 269
Thespians, 270
Thirteenth Virginia Regiment, 140, 405
Thirty Years War, 123, 608
Thistle (ship), 325
Thoman, Jacob W., 250
Thomas, David, 233
Thomas, Governor Sir George, 63, 197, 316, 449, 536, 683, 747
Thomas, John, 536
Thomas, Richard, 60
Thomas, William M., 558
Thompson (Pa.), 550
Thompson, Charles, 779
Thompson, James, 344, 864
Thompson, John, 73
Thompson, Dr. Robert, 601
Thompson, Thomas McKean, 69
Thompson, General William, 60, 188, 483, 507, 570, 606, 694, 831
Thompson’s, 320
Thompson’s Battalion Riflemen, 188, 570
Thompsontown, 73
Thomson, Charles, 385, 540
Thorpe, James, 523
Thorpe, Samuel C., 95
Three Counties on Delaware, 166
Three Islands, 528
Three Mile Run, 670
Three Rivers, 713
Thunder Bay, 744
Tiadaghton, 398
Ticonderoga, 703, 848
Tiger (ship), 589
Tilehausey, 300
Tilghman, James, 68, 101, 144, 186, 661, 774
Till, William, 683
Times, The Philadelphia, 533
Tinicum, 124, 608
Tinicum Island, 608, 665
Tioga, 458, 619
Tioga County, 156, 181, 194, 208, 596, 598
Tioga Flats, 367
Tioga Point, 227, 556
Titusville, 591
Toanchain, 744
Toby’s Creek, 111
Tockwogh River, 505
Tod, Honorable John, 179
Todd, Mr., 4
Todkahdohs, 362
Tohickon, 664
Tolkeo, 757
Tomlinson, Isaac, 111
Tomlinson’s Run, 586
“Tommy,” British, 533
Tonnant, La (ship), 894
Tony, 113
Tories, 93, 224, 257
Torkillus, Rev. Reorus, 609
Torpedo, Fulton’s, 565
Tour, Grant’s, 882
Towanah, 71
Towanda, 49, 194, 360
Towanda Creek, 360, 775
Tower, John Mason’s, 287
Tower of London, 802
Traders, Era of Indian, 552
Traders, King of, 321
Trappe, 880
Treat, Captain, 672
Treat, Dr. Malichi, 602
Treaty, 607
Treaty of Ghent, 53, 583
Treaty of Peace, 5
Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle, 318, 412, 839
Treaty of Ryswick, 412
Treaty of St. Marys, 437
Treaty of Utrecht, 412
Treaty of Versailles, 427
Treasurer, State, 6
“Tree of Life,”, 518
Trent, William, 77, 125, 126, 127, 322, 748
Trenton, 3, 55
Trenton, Battle of, 908
Tresse, Thomas, 128
Trexler, Frank M., 88
T Rails, 232
Triangle, Erie, 156, 240
Trimble, Alexander, 68
Trimble, James, 68, 69, 70
Trimble’s Ford, 628
Trindlespring Road, 441
Trinity Church, 71
Trinity College, 182
Triumph (vessel), 426
Troop, Philadelphia City, 355, 607
Troy, Michael, 674, 907
Trumbull, Governor Jonathan, 103, 903
Tulliallan, 391, 392
Tully, Pat, 49
Tulpehocken, 16, 28, 66, 267, 408, 463, 563, 587, 798, 818, 886
Tulpehocken Creek, 130
Tuneam, Joe, 650
Tuneam, Tom, 650
Tunkhannock, 367, 439, 542
Turbutt Township, 208
Turk, John, 299
Turtle Creek, 287, 537, 802, 828
Turkey’s Foot, 320
Turkey Point, 627
Turner, John, 526
Turner, Nathaniel, 446
Turner, Robert, 85
Turner, Susan, 369
Tuscany, Grand Duke of, 915
Tuscarawas, 140
Tuskegee Institute, 8
Tusten, Colonel, 501
Tutelo, 563
Twelfth Regiment Continental Line, 260, 332
Twenty-fifth Emergency Regiment, 452
Twightwee, 657
Twilight (ship), 883
Type Foundry, First, 695
Typewriter, Story, 118, 119, 120
U
Ulster, 360
Underwood, 299, 348
Ungaza, Don Louis de, 487
Unhappy Jake (Indian), 886
Union, 201
Union Canal, 131, 274, 830
Union County, 9, 11, 181, 208, 210, 252, 296, 343, 344, 432, 461, 467,
554, 568, 596, 673, 775, 854
Union County Historical Society, 9
Union Fire Company, 860
Union Iron Works, 107
Union League Club, 882
Union Saloon, 368
Uniontown, 38
Unitarian Church, 99
United States Gazette (quoted), 351, 837
United States Bank, 923
Universal Instructor, etc., 898
University of Pennsylvania, 45, 99, 422
Updegraffs, 112
Upland, 124, 328, 530, 599, 754, 792
Upland County, 396
Upper Sandusky, 739
Upper Wakefield Township, 861
Uren, William, 49, 107, 193, 316, 770
Utchowig, 506
V
Vale, Captain Joseph G., 715
Valley Forge, 224, 307, 353, 836, 848
Valley of the Swans, 856
Van Bibber, 336
Vanbraam, Jacob, 800
Van Buren, President Martin, 184, 194, 289, 854
Van Buskirk, Samuel, 473
Van Campen, Cornelius, 210
Van Campen, Moses, 210
Vandemark, 493
Vanderslips Farm, 367
Van Dyck, Sheriff, 667
Vandyke, Henry, 468
Van Gundy, Christian, 468
Van Horn, Rev. William, 484
Vanness, Jerome, 543
Vansdale, Mrs. Catherine, 369
Vansdale, Mrs. Elizabeth, 369
Van Swearingen, Captain, 168
Van Syckel, Samuel, 593
Vanuxenn, James, 900
Varkens Kill, 123
Vaudreuil, Philippe de Rigaud, 639
Vaughn, Captain Robert V., 473
Vaux, Richard, 389
Venango, 413, 800
Venango County, 156, 181, 185, 208, 591, 596, 598, 718
Venus, Transit of, Story, 384
Vergennes, 914
Vernon, Nathaniel, 308
Versailles, 318
Veterans, F. & I. War Organize, Story, 304
Victoria, Queen, 883
Village Record, 837
Villeminot, Alexandrienne Felice, 95
Villier, M. de, 133
Vincent, Benjamin, 326
Vincent, Bethuel, 327, 516
Vincent, Cornelius, 326, 516, 674
Vincent, Daniel, 327, 516
Vincent, George Edgar, 328
Vincent, Isaac, 326
Vincent, John, 326, 516, 674, 903
Vincent, John Heyl, 326
Vincent, Peter, 326, 674
Vincent Island, 402
Vindicia Hibernicæ, 642
Virginia, 37, 51
Virginia Boundary Dispute, 659
Virginia Military Institute, 203
Virgorus, Arnold, 830
Von Blume, 335
W
Wade, J. B., 369
Wade, Jennie, 453
Wade, Robert, 150
Waddells, 861
Wagenseller, G., 33, 34, 35
Wagons, 134
Wagner, 852
Waldy, Henry, 832
Wales, Prince of, 883
Walhalla, 96
Walhonding River, 585
Walker (quoted), 526
Walker, Captain Andrew, 543
Walker, Captain, 296
Walker, Colonel, 631
Walker, John, 554
Walker, Honorable Jonathan, 179, 646, 865
Walker, Honorable T. H., 193, 316
Walking Purchase, 273, 448, 648
Wallace, Robert, 175
Wallace, Mrs. Robert, 175
Walnut Street Prison, 785
Walrus (ship), 590, 856
Walthour, Christopher, 375
Walton, George, 70
Wangomen, 424
Warboss, Brother, 825
Ward, Captain, 526
Ward, Ensign Edward, 125, 132, 199
Warley, Francis, 415
Warren, 840
Warren County, 156, 181, 185, 208, 596, 597
Warren, General John, 223, 597
Warren, Maria, 392
Warner, Edward, 382
Warner, Isaiah, 897
Warner, Manson, 143
Warrington Academy, 97
Warrior Branch, 920
Warrior Run, 188, 296, 327, 868
Warrior’s Path, 559
*Wurtemberg, 22
Warwick, 57, 58
Warwick Furnace, 651
Washington Artillery, 277
Washington County, 131, 147, 174, 175, 180, 181, 262, 282, 329, 596,
597, 687, 775, 851
Washington College, 202
Washington, George, 36, 52, 55, 67, 70, 72, 77, 78, 79, 81, 82, 90,
110, 126, 132, 133, 139, 140, 146, 162, 178, 222, 238, 241, 272,
307, 311, 322, 356, 357, 358, 366, 402, 406, 408, 409, 416, 417,
418, 426, 440, 443, 444, 445, 470, 471, 483, 497, 503, 504, 507,
509, 514, 542, 550, 551, 570, 571, 597, 601, 602, 603, 606, 607,
617, 627, 628, 629, 636, 638, 643, 651, 652, 660, 668, 669, 670,
678, 687, 690, 691, 698, 699, 704, 710, 729, 731, 739, 741, 759,
791, 799, 809, 816, 827, 828, 834, 839, 848, 849, 861, 868, 869,
870, 871, 873, 886, 887, 901, 908, 909, 910
Washington and Lee University, 202
Washington Union, 35
Washingtonville, 515
Washington Zouaves, 473
Wasp (ship), 324
Watson, Captain, 348
Watson, Mrs. (Captain), 369
Watson Flats, 591
Watson, Tames, 520
Watson, John Fanning, 450, 807, 900
Watson, Luke, 793
Watson, General Nathan, 335, 583
Watson, Thomas, 900
Watson, William, 900
Watsontown, 306
Watchman, The Danville, 299
Waterford, 126, 413, 840
Waterville (Pa.), 556
Watteville, Baron John de, 824
Watts, John, 255, 908
“Watty & Meg,” 579
Waverly, N. Y., 17
Wayman, Elizabeth, 31
Wayne, General Anthony, 1, 2, 3, 44, 138, 210, 241, 307, 444, 445, 504,
571, 572, 597, 603, 617, 629, 652, 653, 668, 690, 709, 848, 901
Wayne County, 181, 194, 564, 596, 597, 775
Wayne Guards, 279
Wayne, Isaac, 450
Wayne Junction, 754
Waynesboro, 623, 707
Weaver, Ethan Allen, 204
Weaver’s Riots, Kensington, 466
Webb, William, 79
Webbe, John, 116
Webster, Pelatiah, 18, 284
Weheequeckhon, 437
Weidrich, 454
Weiser, Benjamin, 209
Weiser, Conrad, 65, 66, 67, 155, 172, 227, 235, 255, 272, 273, 302,
322, 326, 406, 421, 449, 540, 541, 552, 562, 563, 640, 658, 700,
721, 722, 726, 748, 757, 758, 759, 773, 797, 798, 867, 868, 884,
885, 886
Weiser, Samuel, 209
Weiss, Colonel Jacob, 111
Weissport, 65, 111, 388, 577, 824, 918
Weitzel, John, 209, 907
Welcome (ship), 167, 531, 596
Weletawash, 766
Welsh’s Tavern, 628
Weltner, Colonel, 616
Wesley, Charles, 313
Wesley, John, 313
West, Benjamin, 565
West, Robert, 206
West Augusta (Va.), 489
West Branch Battle, 586
West Branch Canal, 132
West Chester, 183, 504, 837, 920
West Findlay (Pa.), 328
West, Milton, 772
Westminster, 673
Westmoreland County, 61, 72, 87, 93, 100, 101, 131, 145, 146, 147, 163,
164, 167, 168, 177, 180, 181, 198, 216, 225, 309, 402, 404, 416,
420, 479, 489, 527, 551, 596, 660, 775, 880, 895
Westmoreland County (Conn.), 493
Westmoreland Township (Conn.), 493
West Newton, 528
West Pittsburgh, 201
West Point, 91, 138, 280
West Point Military Academy, 280
West River, 328
Weston, John, 257
Weston, Richard, 257
Wetherald, 719
Wharton, Anne Hollingsworth, 613, 692, 744
Wharton, Joseph, 71
Wharton Mansion, 347, 352
Wharton, Richard, 71
Wharton, Samuel, 780
Wharton, Thomas, 71, 284, 347, 699
Wharton, Governor Thomas, Jr., 71, 485, 604
Wheatfield, 453
Wheatland, 289
Wheelock, James (Indian), 523
Wheeling, W. Va., 37, 38, 167, 362, 488, 740
Wheeling Creek, 412
Whigs, 34, 93
Whitacre, James, 586
White, John H., 473
White, Miss N., 348
White, Samuel, 5
White, Bishop William, 265, 304, 642
White Deer, 772
White Deer Creek, 467, 503, 614, 772
White Deer Valley, 468
White Eyes, 226, 281, 654, 749
White Horse, 651
White Horse Inn, 504
White Marsh, 31, 307, 352, 869
White Plains, 607
White Thunder, 841
White Woman of Genesee, 244, 813
Whitefield, George, 32, 57, 312, 336
Whitehill, Robert, 216, 248, 485, 896
Whiteman, Benjamin, 150
Whitemarsh, Heber, 299
Whiteman, Adam, 808
Whitten, O. J., 473, 474
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 6, 886
Whiskey (dog), 190
Whisky, “Monongahela,” 687
Whisky Insurrection, 52, 56, 199, 678, 687
Whistling Johnnie, 350
Wicacoa, 667
Wichetunk, 710, 781, 912
Wickam, J. J., 88
Wickersham, State Superintendent, 160
Wickes, Captain, 324
Wiconisco Valley, 173
Wiegner, Christopher, 32
Wiggans, Dr. Thomas, 306
Wilakinko, 71
Wilcox, Crandall, 111
Wilcox, John, 73, 292, 693
Wilkins, Robert, 623
Wilkins, Honorable William, 179, 552
Wilkes Barre, 70, 71, 103, 111, 132, 194, 359, 439, 440, 451, 457, 458,
491, 492, 556
Wilkinson, General James, 144, 331, 571, 607
Wilkinson, Mr., 97
Will, Edward C., 379
Wills Creek, 125, 470, 800, 841
Wills, David, 810
Willard, 375
Willard, Edward N., 88
Willard, Mrs. Mary, 376
Willets, Frank P., 89
William, 763
William and Mary, 843
Williams, Rev. A. S., 280
Williams, Dunk, 792
Williams, Captain E. C., 277
Williams, Ellis, 297
Williams, J. T., 369
Williams, J. Henry, 88
Williams, Timothy, 326
Williams Valley, 172
Williams, Young, 109
Williamsburg, 126, 661, 799, 802, 842
Williamson, Colonel David, 174, 402
Williamson, Henry, 846
Williamson, Dr. Hugh, 385
Williamsport, 49, 95, 287, 398, 400, 434, 472, 498, 542, 723, 877
Willing, Charles, 80
Willing, Thomas, 80, 106, 292, 459, 613, 780, 919
Willing & Morris, 80
Willitts, Deborah, 7
Willits, Isaiah, 820
Willoughby Run, 452
Willston, Honorable Horace, 195
Wilmington, 503, 627
Wilmot, Dr. Aquila, 224
Wilmot, David, 49, 194, 195, 196, 432
Wilmot Proviso, 432
Wilson, Alexander, 214, 579
Wilson, Judge A. S., 445
Wilson, Clarissa, 80
Wilson College, 624
Wilson Fort, Story, 692
Wilson, George, 146, 149, 178, 631
Wilson, Honorable James, 60, 90, 216, 459, 605, 749, 872
Wilson, Lieutenant, 418
Wilson, Mr., 80
Wilson, William, 139, 443, 631, 749, 820
Wilson’s Hall, Matthew, 852
Winchester, 707
Winchester, Mr., 298
Windham, 491
Winfield, 554, 677, 772
Wingebone, 436
Winter, Colonel, 400
Wintermoot’s Fort, 456
Winyard, Lieutenant, 348
Wissahickon, 31
Witchcraft, Story, 150, 151, 152
Wohlheiter Family, 343
Wolf, Charles S., 735
Wolf, Governor George, 182, 276, 569, 839, 889, 890, 891
Wolf, Jacob, 474
Wolf Run, 261
Wolfe, General James, 149, 704
Wolverton, Simon Peter, 192, 496
Womelsdorf, 247, 407, 757
Wood, Mrs. Rhoda, 250
Woodmancy, William, 396
Woods, George, 200
Woods, Jean, 179
Woods, John, 510
Woodside, Mr., 299
Woodvale, 378
Woodward, George W., 31
Woolman, John, 359
Work, Andrew, 172
World’s Fair, Chicago, 384
World’s Tour, Grant, 882
Wren, Captain, 277
Wright, James, 320
Wright, John, 300, 821, 822
Wright, John, Jr., 823
Wright’s Ferry, 571, 680, 818, 822
Wrightstown, 862
Wrightsville, 135, 451, 650
Wrightsville Meeting House, 650
Wunderlich & Nead, 706
Wyalusing, 359, 423, 458
Wyalusing Falls, 17
Wyckoff, Cornelius, 402
Wyckoff, Peter, 402
Wyngenim, Chief, 404
Wynksop, Colonel, 879
Wyoming, 17, 70, 71, 75, 102, 103, 104, 111, 229, 254, 274, 366, 367,
368, 430, 438, 450, 456, 460, 462, 468, 491, 492, 493, 496, 507,
514, 540, 541, 559, 562, 563, 575, 588, 617, 634, 673, 675, 711,
718, 765, 775, 868, 903, 905, 911
Wyoming County, 181, 208, 596, 598, 775
Wyoming Fort, 560
Wyoming Massacre, 228, 468, 618, 456, 911
Wythe, George, 872
Y
Yadkin River Valley, 736
Yaqueekhon, 437
Yale, 46, 328
Yankee-Pennamite War Story, 559
Yardleys, 909
Yarnell, Lieutenant, 626
Yattman, John, 150
Yeager, Captain, 277
Yeates, Catherine, 606
Yeates, James, 650
Yeates, Jasper, 372, 483, 606, 689, 874
Yeates, Sara, 606
Yellow Breeches Creek, 248, 300
Yellow Creek, 361
Yellow Fever, 355, 775, 789
“Yellow Jack,” 847
Yellow Springs, 224, 602
Yohogania County, Va., 163, 489
York, 11, 81, 258, 329, 415, 418, 569, 582, 616, 680, 735, 836
York, Burning of, 582
York County, 33, 60, 131, 134, 135, 180, 181, 206, 207, 210, 221, 264,
308, 320, 364, 414, 416, 419, 483, 508, 569, 582, 596, 606, 617,
678, 697, 698, 699, 731
York, Duke of, 165, 755
York Haven, 298
York Road, Old, 689
York town, 849
York, Va., 661
Yost, B. F., 193, 314, 847
Yost, Mr., 119
Yost, Mrs. B. F., 315, 557
Yost’s Mill, 719
Youghiogheny River, 43, 148, 319
Youghiogheny Valley, 38
Young Bear (Indian), 767
Young, Commissary James, 25, 759
Young, Robert K., 137
Z
Zaccheus, 235
Zacharias, 540
Zahner, Mr., 846
Zane, Ebenezer, 740
Zeisburger, Rev. David, 16, 359, 42, 475, 563, 584, 826, 867, 886
Ziegler, George, 136
Zimmerman, Christian, 558
Zinzindorf, Benigna, 513, 868
Zinzindorf, Count Nicholas Ludwig, 15, 16, 32, 512, 513, 514, 639, 866,
888
Zion, 464
Zion, Mount, 464
Zion Reformed Church, 81, 384
Zuydt River, 123, 589, 856
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber’s Note
Where there are variant spellings, the text has been corrected to match
the preponderant versions, and are noted. Some compound words are found
both with and without hyphens. Where the hyphen occurs on a line break,
the hyphen is removed, or not, in accordance with the most common
version.
The entry for Oct. 11, regarding the appointment of Matthew Smith to the
Vice Presidency of the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council is not
referred to in the Contents. An entry, enclosed in [ ], is added under
his name there.
The Index entries for ’Nord, Edward’ and ’Nitschmann, Martin’ lacked a
page number. The correct pages (p. 619 and 825, respectively) are added
here, enclosed in [ ].
The Index entry for ’Ringgold, Arthur’ most likely should read ’Ringgold
Artillery’. The founder of the unit was Maj. Sanuel Ringgold. There is
no ’Arthur Ringgold’ mentioned in the text.
On p. 518, the antifederalist newspaper founded by Hugh Henry
Brackenridge in 1799 was actually called the “Tree of Liberty”, not the
“Tree of Life” as it appears here and in the Index. There seems to be
some confusion of “Lawyer Brackenridge” in Pittsburgh, and a later
American painter, Hugh Henry Breckenridge, who worked in Philadelphia
and Massachusetts, and one of whose better known paintings was called
“The Tree of Life”, though the latter is judged to have been created ca.
1929, four years later than the publication date of 1924.
On p. 918, there is a passage that opens a quotation, (“it was the
intention...) but has no closure. By context, the quotation would end
with that sentence (...carried that plan into operation.”) It is
possible that the opening mark is spurious, since there’s no apparent
source for the passage.
On occasion, apparent errors appear in quoted text, in which case they
stand uncorrected but are noted.
Some items in the Index appear out of alphabetic order. These have been
marked with a leading ‘*’, but have not been moved.
The Index reference to ‘Fontainbleau’ on p. 704 is spelled
‘Fountainbleau', and has been corrected. This places the item in the
wrong place, alphabetically, and so has been marked with ‘*’.
Those errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s (and there are many)
have been corrected, and are noted below. The references are to the page
and line in the original.
ix.14 Fr[ei/ie]tchie, Barbara Transposed.
xii.24 Tulliall[e/a]n Replaced.
19.45 belonging to the Britis[t/h] fleet Replaced.
24.42 Governor Morris advised Colonel Clap[man/ham] Replaced.
45.33 Every interest in London was again[st] him. Added.
49.29 Gover[n]or Packer Inserted.
63.20 “One Thomas [McGee] _Sic_: McKee
66.10 [“]The> first Party Added.
80.17 on account of conscientious scruples.[”] Added.
80.30 who was a [seafearing] man _sic_:
seafaring?
82.8 Count [D/d]e Rochambeau Replaced.
82.20 and driven by o[v/x]en Replaced.
89.41 which would alone hav[e] established Added.
92.1 John Penn, Last Propriet[o/a]ry Governor Replaced.
94.27 Ole Bornemann Bull was [born] in Bergen Missing.
99.24 a colossal statu[t]e of the man Removed.
99.30 Jail at Hannastown Stormed Febru[ru]ary Removed.
109.39 murder in the first degree.[’/”] Replaced.
121.16 The Government interfer[r]ed with their plans Removed.
125.5 through the negotia[it/ti]on of Transposed.
126.15 destined to bec[a/o]me Replaced.
151.23 Annakey Coolin[g/’]s attestation Replaced.
128.29 Robert Turner and Thomas Tre[e/s]se were Replaced.
interested
149.20 a Scotch and Calv[a/i]nistic settlement. Replaced.
156.4 after the title of 1768 was ex[t]inguished Inserted.
194.20 from the Twel[f]th District Inserted.
196.14 was chosen to succee[e]d him Removed.
199.38 with the ad[d]ition> of ninety-five officers Inserted.
201.15 was built in Ap[p]ollo Removed.
201.18 and the Alleghen[e]y portage railroads Removed.
204.24 published a volum[n/e] Replaced.
205.27 and [“]other grain.” Added
(likely).
211.17 we find Pence en[e]gaged Removed.
227.35 son of the great vice[-]gerent Removed.
235.11 The Governor sent Con[ar/ra]d Weiser Transposed.
243.18 One of these early engines, the Rocket[t] Removed.
259.36 Li[ue/eu]tenant Colonels Transposed.
260.38 to subdue the Indian atrocit[i]es Inserted.
263.25 he entered heart[i]ly into the scheme Inserted.
263.29 for the contemplated i[n/m]provements Replaced.
277.3 in procuring accom[m]odations Inserted.
282.26 These troops rendez[v]oused at Fort Henry Inserted.
288.2 it was entirely obli[b/t]erated many years ago Replaced.
291.42 receive [the] Continental Congress _sic_:
missing?
295.33 had taken two or three [familys] prisoners _sic_
298.37 built by the Balt[i]more promoters Inserted.
301.26 did not leave all to di[s]plomacy Removed.
303.21 invited the sur[r]ounding tribes Inserted.
307.12 in Mon[t]gomery County Inserted.
308.32 the Supreme Ex[e]cutive Council Inserted.
309.40 These [maurauders] were pursued _sic_
317.25 much cunning di[s]plomacy Removed.
322.46 did not reach his des[t]ination Inserted.
325.12 for poultry and fresh p[r]ovisions. Inserted.
327.17 Beth[eu/ue]l died at his home Transposed.
327.19 Beth[eu/ue]l Vincent, born June 3, 1762 Transposed.
330.29 an agreement of s[e]ttlement Inserted.
332.28 becoming his sur[i/e]ties Replaced.
338.8 oppose the preten[t/s]ions of Lord Baltimore Replaced.
347.3 not[h]withstanding all their endeavors Removed.
351.14 Dem[o/a]gogues have been using commissions Replaced.
358.26 that Washington had died[,] bells were muffled Added.
361.5 Zeisberger left Fr[ei/ie]denhutten Transposed.
368.24 and temporary hospital accom[m]odations Inserted.
368.31 commis[s]erating Removed.
390.36 over Bair, Know No[r]thing Removed.
412.4 the reign of Loui[x/s] XIV Replaced.
414.30 as the propriet[o/a]ry’s one-tenth Replaced.
421.40 contained many h[ei/ie]roglyphics Transposed.
428.6 dissati[s]fied with the indisposition Inserted.
430.29 They were on the[re/ir] way Replaced.
431.34 by its ac[c]omplishment Inserted.
445.37 possession of de[s]cendants of Captain Wilson Inserted.
447.45 Peter Alrick[s] Added.
460.5 Not[h]withstandin his overcautiousness Removed.
469.34 as tenant of Claypool[e] Added.
470.38 Beauje[a]u’s command was reinforced Removed.
471.28 A[t] this point the supply Added.
501.45 by a stra[get/teg]ic movement Transposed.
512.27 dis[tin]guished visitor. Inserted.
513.23 and rough[t]ly handled him Removed.
513.33 Henry Melch[oi/io]r Muhlenberg Transposed.
518.21 Lawyer Br[e/a]ckenridge, in 1799, left Replaced.
518.24 Br[e/a]ckenridge and some of his adherents Replaced.
518.25 the “Tree of [Life].” _sic_
Liberty
535.10 and allot[t]ing ten thousand acres Inserted.
539.35 at the hands of Canass[atego/etoga] Replaced.
544.17 the great Oneida vice[-]gerent Removed.
544.29 He and William Hayes had volunte[e]red Inserted.
548.6 abandoned the s[ei/ie]ge on this fort Transposed.
548.31 the valley of the Musking[ha/u]m Replaced.
553.17 [Allegany] on the branch of Ohio _sic_
553.26 they would pass the [Susquehannah] _sic_
634.39 some seen carried off[)] Added
(likely).
637.9 under the preten[t/s]ion of fears Replaced.
643.19 that a convention [h/b]e called Replaced.
652.8 the artillery in cas[t/e] of defeat. Replaced.
667.8 John Paul Ja[e/c]quet Replaced.
669.43 he stayed in Philade[l]phia Inserted.
679.15 I arrived about 11 o’clock. o’clock.[”] Added.
687.20 any person who had [ac-]accepted or might Removed.
accept
697.19 to start a school here in Germantown.[”] Added.
720.30 one of promise for the Engli[g/s]h Replaced.
731.34 S[abastai/ebastia]n Graff and John Haldeman Replaced.
741.36 was propelled with sail and oar[,/.] Replaced.
761.6 The Rev. Mr. Stee[e]l Removed.
764.8 became odi[o]us to the people of Philadelphia Inserted.
770.20 in great force to bes[ei/ie]ge> the fort Transposed.
781.22 Early in 1764 e[tx/xt]ensive measures Transposed.
783.28 Prey of Kidnap[p]ers Inserted.
785.32 on hor[es/se]back Transposed.
789.15 a sense of the i[n/m]portance Replaced.
790.5 On March 5, 1798[,] President Adams[,] Added/Removed.
informed Congress
791.16 circular letter to milit[i]a officers Inserted.
793.29 and when they was [goeing] to put him _sic_
796.39 the situation was entirely changed[.] Added.
797.5 the vicinity of D[ie/ei]trick Six’s Transposed.
802.3 reaching a trading[-/ ]post Replaced.
813.22 old age and decrep[t]itude Removed.
819.8 Joe heard the foo[t]steps Inserted.
842.1 Saint[ /-]Pierre replied Replaced.
850.21 [“]Bury me at the foot Added.
852.13 and carried Spac[h/k]man off Replaced.
864.7 one of the m[a/o]st disgraceful local Replaced.
conflicts
878.30 after some conversation[;/,] stepped eight Replaced.
paces
888.1 was the prou[n]d proprietor Removed.
910.15 General Cadwal[l]ader’s Removed.
900.29 His parents were of Engli[g/s]h origin Replaced.
902.4 “Annals of Philadelphia[,]” Removed.
918.15 that plan into operation.[”] Added. But
see note.
935.25 *Fo[u]ntainbleau, 704 Removed.
919.38 ascertaining the lat[t]itude Removed.
946.70 Muhlenberg, Henry Melch[oi/io]r, 513 Transposed.
947.27 Ogleth[ro/or]pe, James Edward, 313 Transposed.
951.2 Ringgold, [Arthur Artillery], 277 Replaced.
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