Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania, Part 5

Author: Wiley, Samuel T. ed. cn
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Philadelphia [J.M. Gresham & co.]
Number of Pages: 652

USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 5
USA > Pennsylvania > Armstrong County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 5

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in Europe. On the 11th of September, Bou- quet sent Maj. Grant with eight hundred men to reconnoitre. He drew up in order of battle before Fort Duquesne, on September 13th, where he was attacked and his force routed, with the loss of three hundred men. The French and Indians, fourteen hundred strong, marched from Fort Duquesne after defeating Grant, and on the 12th of October made two attacks on Bou- quet, at Fort Ligonier, but were repulsed and retreated. The English lost twelve men killed and fifty-five wounded. In November, Forbes arrived with the main division of the army, and Washington was sent forward to open the road to Fort Duquesne, which was cut out past the sites of Hanuastown and Murrysville. On November 24th, Gen. Forbes captured Fort Duquesne and the soil of Westmoreland, Indiana and Armstrong counties, and the Ohio Valley passed into the liands of the Anglo- Saxon race.

The principal actors in the French and In- dian war were the English and French. The sub- ordinate actors were the American colonies and the Indians. The mistake of France in fighting for a mountain-line boundary instead of accepting and establishing a water-line boundary, which resulted in the loss of all her North American territory, was equaled by the error of the English in employing American colonial troops in the war, which drilled them for the Revo- lutionary war, whereby England lost the most valuable part of her North American territory.

Battle of Bushy Run .- The country was garrisoned by the English from 1758 to 1763. In that year Pontiac lcd the Indian tribes north of the Ohio against the English forts, from Detroit to Ligouier. Colonel Bouquet was dispatched to the relief of the forts of Western Pennsylvania. He raised the siege of Fort Ligonier, and marched for the relief of Fort Pitt, with a force of five hundred Scotch highlanders and Colonial volunteers. On Au- gust 5, 1763, near the site of Harrison city,

INDIANA AND ARMSTRONG COUNTIES.

Westmoreland county, he was drawn into an Indian ambuscade. Darkness saved his army from terrible defeat, and on the next day, by masterly strategy, he drew the Indian force into an ambuscade by a feigned retreat, and finally routed them with great slaughter. This battle, so nearly lost on the first day by the carelessness, and so brilliantly won on the sec- ond day by the masterly generalship of Colonel Henry Bouquet, is classed by Parkman (the historian) as one of the " decisive battles of the world ;" for mighty Pontiac's grand dream of Indian empire was wrecked when his warrior hosts were crushed and scattered at Bushy Run.

With the army of Forbes came the first set- tlers of Westmoreland county. Many of them located at Fort Ligonier, without any legal right to the soil but that of possession, and were reinforced the next year by quite a num- ber of Forbes' soldiers, who settled by military permit. One of the earliest settlements in the county, after the one at Fort Ligonier, was made by Andrew Byerly in 1759, on Bushy creek, and, ten years later, Westmoreland county settlers had pushed north of the Forbes road into the territory of Indiana and Arm- strong counties.

Struggle of the Backwoodsmen and English. -By the treaty of 1758, the authorities of Pennsylvania surrendered to the Six Nations all the territory northward and westward of the Allegheny mountains ; and Virginia, who also claimed all territory west of the Alleghe- nies, forbade all settlement. Penal laws were passed by both provinces against hunting and settling west of these mountains, but had no effect to check the tide of settlers who came into the Monongahela and Allegheny valleys. Proclamations were issued by the Penns and the Governor of Virginia, and by the King of England; but the Scotch-Irish, Germans and other back woodsmen paid no attention to Qua- ker or Cavalier, and gave no heed to even roy-

alty itself. The Pennsylvania authorities sent agents to warn off these settlers, and English soldiers were sent out from Fort Pitt to enforce the King's proclamation ; but the Backwoods- men only retired east of the mountains until the agents and soldiers left, and then returned to their clearings. In this struggle the Back- woodsmen were successful, and in 1768 Penn- sylvania purchased a large portion of the land which was offered it for sale as early as 1769. Virginia also claimed this territory as a part of her county of Augusta, which was organized in 1738, and offered much of the present coun- ties of Fayette and Westmoreland for sale. Often the same piece of land was sold by both Pennsylvania and Virginia, and the respective claimants for possession were on the verge of coming to bloodshed over their conflicting titles ; but this threatened strife between the two provinces was averted by the opening of the Revolution, when the hostile factions harino- nized in the common war waged for independ- ence. The struggle over this territory between Pennsylvania and Virginia was finally settled in Baltimore in 1779, when Virginia relin- quished all claim to the present territory of Pennsylvania west of the Allegheny moun- tains.

Revolutionary War .- The rifle shots on "Lexington Common " awoke patriotism in the hearts of the Westmoreland pioneers, whose answer was emphatically given in the Hannas- town Declaration of Independence. It was made on the 16th of May, 1775, and in the form of resolutions condemned the system of English tyranny imposed on Massachusetts, and declared that Westmorelanders "would oppose it with their lives and fortunes." The inhabitants of Westmoreland, at this general meeting, also resolved to form themselves into a military body, to consist of several compa- nies, and to be known as the " Association of Westmoreland County." This regiment of Westmoreland Associations was organized un-

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF

der Colonel Proctor, and most of its members afterwards served in different Pennsylvania regiments, and fought in nearly all the battles of the Revolution. Westmorelanders were with Arnold amid the snows of Canada, suffered untold privations at Valley Forge, were with Washington at Trenton and Princeton, won imperishable renown at Saratoga under Arnold and Morgan, fought with Wayne at Stony Point, and were at Yorktown. Six companies were enlisted in Westmoreland county for the Continental army. Their captains were Jolın Nelson, William Butler, Stephen Bayard, Jo- seph Erwin, James Carnahan and Matthew Scott. Seven of the eight companies of the Eighth Pennsylvania were raised in the county. This regiment was organized in July, 1776, to protect the western frontier, but in three months was called to the front, served under Washing- ton and Gates, and in 1778 were sent to Fort Pitt for the defence of the western frontiers. General Arthur St. Clair was the leading char- acter of Westmoreland county in the Revolu- tionary war, while prominent among her many brave sons in that great struggle were Lieuten- ant John Hardin (afterwards General John Hardin), of Kentucky, Captains Van Swearin- gen and David Kilgore. Some of those who afterward became pioneers in settling Indiana and Armstrong counties were officers and sol- diers from Westmoreland in the Eighth Penn- sylvania.

Lochry's Expedition .- In the spring of 1781 General Rogers Clarke proposed to lay waste the Ohio Indian country, and thins protect the fron- tiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The Penn- sylvania authorities ordered Colonel Archibald Lochry to raise fifty volunteers in Westmore- land county and join Clarke's forces. Lochry collected one hundred and seven men at Carna- han's block-house, eleven miles northwest of Hannastown. He had two companies of rang- ers, commanded respectively by Captain Thomas Stokely and Captain Samuel Shearer, and one

company of horse under Captain Charles Camp- bell. On July 25, 1781, Colonel Lochry de- parted to join Clarke at Wheeling (then Fort Henry). Arriving there he found Clarke gone, and, according to orders left by the general, proceeded down the Ohio river, but did not overtake him. General Clarke had failed to receive troops from Kentucky, and was com- pelled to push rapidly down the Ohio, as his men were deserting in considerable numbers. Lochry's force, when it arrived at the mouth of the Kanawha river, was nearly out of provi- sions and needed ammunition. Lochry sent four men in a boat to overtake Clarke and notify him of their condition. The Indians captured these men, learned from Lochry's let- ter, which they carried, of his destitute condi- tion, and made preparations to attack him. On the 24th of August Lochry landed at the inlet of a creek on the Ohio river, some nine miles below the mouth of the Muskingum. He was here attacked by the Indians, and a desperate encounter ensued, in which Lochry and forty- two of his men were killed and the remainder of his command taken prisoners. The Indians held these prisoners until 1783, when they were ransomed by the British in Canada and ex- changed. But more than half of Lochry's command never returned to Pennsylvania, and Westmoreland county lost over fifty of her bravest sons by that unfortunate expedition.

Crawford's Expedition .- In May, 1782, Col- onel William Crawford led an expedition of four hundred and eighty men against the Ohio. Indians. In May, 1782, his force was attacked on the Sandusky plains by the Indians and badly defeated. Colonel Crawford was cap- tured and burned at the stake. His men were from what is now Fayette and Washington counties, and his home was near the site of Connellsville, Pa.

Burning of Hannastown .- From 1781 to 1783 was the midnight period in the early his- tory of Westmoreland county. It seems that

INDIANA AND ARMSTRONG COUNTIES.

in the summer of the latter year the Brit- ish in Canada projected an expedition against Fort Pitt, in which they were joined by a con- siderable force of Indians and a large number of Tories. A report of reinforcements at Fort Pitt deterred them from an attack on that place, and several small bodies were detached from the main force against defenceless points along the western frontiers. One of these de- tachments, numbering about one hundred, and composed of Tories and Indians, was sent against Hannastown. On Saturday, July 13, 1782, this band arrived at Michael Huffnagle's, about one and one-half miles north of Han- nastown, where the settlers had gathered on that day to cut Huffnagle's harvest. The Indians were discovered in time for the set- tlers to make good their escape to the fort at Hannastown. Tradition has suggested, but history is silent as to who the leaders of the Tories and Indians were. By the time the renegades and Indians arrived at Hannas- town, the court, which was in session that day, and all the inhabitants of the town, were safely within the palisades of the fort. The exasper- ated enemy set fire to Hannastown, which con- sisted of about thirty log houses and cabins. All the buildings were- burned, except Robert Hanna's and another house, which stood close to the stockade. Within the fort were twenty men, who had only nine guns; without, one hundred savages and Tories, who were well armed. Foiled in their attempt to surprise the place, they invested the stockade, and sent out a party of forty or fifty, who surprised and captured Miller's block-house. Burning the block-house and surrounding cabins, they re- turned with several prisoners. None of the in- mates of the stockade fort were killed or wounded by the desultory fire of the force, ex- cept Margaret Shaw, who lost her life in res- cuing a child which was crawling toward the stockade pickets. In the evening the enemy fixed their camp in the Crabtree hollow, where.

they killed one prisoner and made the others run the gauntlet. During the night thirty men from George's station succeeded in approaching and entering the Hannastown fort. Captain Matthew Jack and David Shaw risked their lives in notifying the settlers outside the forts. Towards morning the Indians became apprehen- sive of their retreat being cut off by forces from Fort Ligonier, and fled. They killed Captain Brownlee and several of their captives during their retreat. They crossed the Kiskiminetas near the site of Apollo, and distanced the pur- suit of the whites. They took about twenty prisoners, and killed over one hundred head of cattle, with a loss of only two warriors, who were shot at Hannastown. The Indians traded their scalps and prisoners to the British in Can- ada. The prisoners were afterwards exchanged and returned to Westmoreland county.

Among those who helped defend the Hannas- town stockade was Captain Clark, the grand- father of Judge Clark, of Indiana.

Hannastown, where the first English court of justice was established west of the Allegheny mountains, made the first protest against Brit- ish tyranny, and was really the last battle-field of the Revolution.

Harmar's Defeat .- From 1782 to 1784 the settlers west of Chestnut ridge, in Westmore- land county, planted no crops and were gathered into the frontier forts and block-houses. From 1784 to 1790 was a period of peace in West- moreland, and many settlers came into the county. In 1790 Gen. Harmar collected one thousand one hundred and thirty-three militia, and marched from the site of Cincinnati toward Miami to punish the Indians for their continued depredations in Ohio. In October he was at- tacked and badly defeated, with a loss of two hundred men and half his horses. One of his bravest officers was Col. Christopher Truby, of Greensburg.

St. Clair's Defeat .- The next year Gen. St. Clair set out with two thousand men to retrieve

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF

Harmar's failure, but at the battle of the Wabaslı, on November 4, 1791, he suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of the Indians, by which he lost over seven hundred men and his artillery. One company of Westmoreland mi- litia was in his army and fought very creditably in this disastrous battle.

Last Indian Troubles .- The success of the Indians in Ohio emboldened the tribes along the Allegheny river, and the northern part of Westmoreland and Indiana and Armstrong counties were frequently raided by war parties from 1790 to 1795. During this period ranger and militia companies were stationed at the forts and block-houses throughout these counties. In 1792 a party of Cornplanter Indians came into Derry township, Westmoreland county, where they killed Mrs. Mitchell and took her son Charles prisoner. In the same year they captured Massy Harbison, whose captivity and sufferings have so often been related in the his- tories of the frontier.

Wayne's victory at the battle of the Fallen Timbers forever broke the Indian power and gave peace to the frontier of western Pennsylvania.

Pioneer Settlements .- Indiana county had been explored in 1766 and in 1769 a settle- ment was made at the juncture of Conemaugh river and Black Lick creek. Among the first settlers were Fergus, Samuel and Joseph Moore- head and James Kelly, who commenced im- provements near the town of Indiana in 1772. The early settlers were principally Scotch-Irish of Presbyterian faitlı and came from West- moreland county and the Cumberland Valley.

The early pioneers of Armstrong were prin- cipally Scotch-Irish and German and came from the same counties of Pennsylvania as the early settlers of Indiana county. Thrifty, moral and economical, they soon cleared out large farnis and formed settlements which within the course of a couple of generations became populous and wealthy.

These counties possess an interesting history

which will be given in the sketch of each county. Settled by the Backwoodsmen of the Alleghanies, their early scttlers were prominent in the Indian wars of the Colonies and the early years of the Republic, while their de- scendants fought well in the war of 1812 and the Mexican war and made an enviable record for devotion to the Union and bravery in battle during the late civil war. The pioneer stock of the "Great West," for over three-quarters of a century, has drawn largely of its numbers from the green hills and pleasant valleys of Indiana and Armstrong, and thousands of loving hearts throughout this great republic cherish them fondly as the land of their birth and the home of their fathers.

The growth and development of these coun- ties liave been slow but steady and sure. The record of their progress shows that they stand in the front rank of the counties of western Pennsylvania-a rank which they are justly entitled to by their immense material resources ; by their educational advantages ; by their re- ligious standing, and by an intelligent press, wielding a potent influence for the public weal and contributing to the high moral character which these counties have abroad for peace and good order.

Their Future .- In all the features which dis- tinguish a prosperous and progressive country as connected with religion, morality, benevo- lence, industry and education, Indiana and Armstrong are behind no counties of their size in the Union.

Their vast resources-iron, coal, limestone, timber, soil and climate-have only been brought to public notice within the last decade. Their great mineral wealth, from present indications, will be developed in a sound and business-like manner, and the new era which is just dawning will lead to the establishment of numerous and varied manufacturing industries, which in time, will make these counties one of the im- portant and favored manufacturing regions of

INDIANA AND ARMSTRONG COUNTIES.

the United States. This development will not be confined to manufactures alone, but will pre- vail in agriculture, commerce and railroad building, for these counties are but in the infancy of a long career of future prosperity.

In the vote on prohibition, in 1889, Indiana gave a majority for prohibition, and Armstrong, in a vote of over seven thousand, only recorded a majority of a little over one hundred against it. In the Whiskey Insurrection of 1791-95, when all western Pennsylvania was more or less engaged in that uprising, we can find no instance of any of the citizens of Indiana or Armstrong counties participating in any of the proceedings of the insurgents. When the United States army, that was sent out to repress it, arrived in the rebellious region, there were no troops sta- tioned in either of these counties.

The Whiskey Insurrection was the first re- bellion against the United States. It was con-' fined to Fayette, Washington and Allegheny counties, Pa., and Monongalia and Ohio coun- ties, Va. (now West Virginia). As early as 1785, Graham, the excise collector for West- moreland county, was driven out of Greensburg, and in June, 1794, John Wells, who was serv- ing in the same capacity, was captured and escorted beyond the county line. William Findley and many other citizens were promi- nent in this insurrection, that died for want of military leaders. Its undeveloped elements of strength were such that Alexander Hamilton said that it endangered the foundations of the newly established republic, and that Washing- ton purposed leading in person against it an army of fifteen thousand men, whose divisions were commanded by his ablest generals of the Revolutionary war. On October 22, 1794, a meeting was held at Greensburg, and resolu- tions were passed by the citizens present to yield obedience to the laws of the country. The insurgents dispersed before the United States army arrived, and all of the guilty participants were eventually pardoned by the government.

Western Pennsylvania was specially adapted to the production of grain, and there was at that time (1791) nothing produced which was marketable but ginseng, beeswax, snake-root and whiskey. It is true that some trappers on the Laurel Hill could get something for wolf- scalps, which had to be taken over the moun- tains or two thousand miles down the rivers. Judge Veach says that while improved land in Westmoreland could be assessed at five dollars per acre, and in Lancaster at fifty dollars per acre, a percentage of taxation might be fair, but a tax of seven cents per gallon on whiskey made on Chartiers was one-fourth its value, while if made on the banks of the Brandywine it was perhaps less than one-eighth its value. William Findley, in a letter to Gov. Mifflin, in November, 1792, says plainly that the injustice of being obliged to pay as much excise out of two shillings, with difficulty procured, as other citizens better situated have to pay out of per- haps three times that sum, much easier obtained, comes home to the understanding of those who cannot comprehend theories.

Under the confederation the appropriation of Pennsylvania for the allowance to the army, under an act of Congress of 1780, remaining unpaid, an effort was made about 1785 to col- lect some of the fund still remaining unpaid, out of her excise law of 1772. This law met with great opposition, especially west of the Alleghenies, and there is no evidence that the excise was ever paid in that section. The ex- cise tax not being collected, gave occasion to the eastern part of the State to grumble, and in June, 1785, a collector by the name of Graham was sent out. With much trouble he collected some in Fayette county and a little in West- moreland.

This State law was repealed, and the people scarcely looked for it again, but in 1791 Con- gress passed a law levying a tax of four pence per gallon on all distilled spirits. The mem- bers of western Pennylvania-Smiley, from

HISTORICAL SKETCHI OF INDIANA AND ARMSTRONG COUNTIES.

Fayette, and Findley, from Westmoreland- stoutly opposed it. This tax led to the Whis- key Insurrection that has been so much dis- cussed and is so little understood.

These counties are wonderfully blessed with fuel for heating and manufacturing purposes in their natural gas and Connellsville coking coal.

In 1865 the soldier was lost in the citizen, and peace, the "gladness-giving queen," reigned supreme throughout the land. After the war the people of Westmoreland county, very soon turned their attention largely to the de- velopment of their immense coal beds in the Connellsville coking belt. In 1873 the South- west Pennsylvania railroad was completed from Greensburg to Scottdale, and from that time until the present the coke industry has increased with wonderful rapidity. The num- ber of coke ovens in the county has increased from a few hundred in 1873, to many thou- sands in 1890. These ovens produce the typi- cal coke of the world, and now are beginning to light up at night the valleys of Indiana county.

The natural gas wells in the Murrysville and Grapeville districts, in Westmoreland county, are conceded by geologists to be the greatest on the globe. These wells have given no sign of failure for over ten years, and supply Pitts- burgh and many towns over thirty miles away.

The abundance and cheapness of this gas has brought steel, iron and glass works to the county, and has increased three-fold its volume of business. It has led to a building boom in all the main towns of that county, and led to the founding and growth of Jeannette, "the magical city of glass," that in one year after being laid out numbered two thousand people. If such is the prosperity of the southern border at the present time of Westmoreland county, brought about by the use of natural gas as a fuel, we need not be surprised, when the wells in the last-named two counties are developed, to see them increase wonderfully in wealth and popu- lation.

To write the history of these countics, treat- ing of the living as well as the dead, is a deli- cate task. To write this history, making a faithful presentation of facts, may not render it acceptable to the extreme enthusiastical, too prone to over-exalt; or the over-critical, too liable to under-estimate. To gather a large portion of the events of this history, from scant records and imperfect sources-is an undertak- ing of no small degree. . While it unavoidably possesses considerable to make it a wearisome task, it also necessarily contains much to render it a work of pleasure to some citizen of these counties, either of which possesses men compe- tent to perform such a work.

GEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCH

INDIANA COUNTY.

Boundaries and area-Geology-Surface features-In- dians-Conrad Weiser-Armstrong's march-The Purchase line-Early settlements-Frontier forts- Old Frankstown road-County formation-Salt wells -Pennsylvania canal- Underground railroad-Rail- roads-Great Civil war-Progress and material de- velopment-The press, education, churches and banks -The bar and medical profession -- Political history- Census statistics-County officials-Miscellaneous.

INDIANA COUNTY, Pennsylvania, lies between forty degrees twenty-three min- utes and forty degrees fifty-six minutes north latitude ; and seventy-eight degrees forty- nine minutes and seventy-nine degrees fourteen minutes west longitude from Greenwich, or be- tween one degree forty-nine minutes and twenty degrees fourteen minutes west longitude from Washington City. As a political division of the State it is bounded on the north by Jefferson county ; on the east by Clearfield and Cambria counties ; on the south by Westmoreland coun- y, from which it is separated by the Cone- naugh river, and on the west by Armstrong county. Indiana county occupies the centre of vestern Pennsylvania and its bituminous coal ields. The western boundary line has a |

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Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania, Part 5

Author: Wiley, Samuel T. ed. cn Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Philadelphia [J.M. Gresham & co.] Number of Pages: 652

Author: Wiley, Samuel T. ed. cn
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Philadelphia [J.M. Gresham & co.]
Number of Pages: 652