USA > Massachusetts > Our western border : its life, combats, adventures, forays, massacres, captivities, scouts, red chiefs, pioneer women, one hundred years ago, containing the cream of all the rare old border chronicles > Part 21
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176
OUR WESTERN BORDER,
THE MASSACRE OF THE CONESTOGA INDIANS.
Logan, in the letter attached to a war club, left at a borderer's house, used these significant words: " The white people killed my kin at Conestoga a great while ago, and I thought nothing of that, but you killed my kin again at Yellow Creek," &c. This allusion was to the massacre in 1763, over ten years previous, of a small settlement of friendly and in- offensive Iroquois at Conestoga, near Lancaster. The perpetrators of this cruel and cowardly slaughter were a company of fanatical back- woodsmen of the Scotch-Irish stock, called the Paxton Boys, who lived at Paxton, Derry and Donegal, old settlements near Harrisburg. These rude and hardy borderers, consisting of scouts, rangers, hunters, farm- ers and traders, had suffered enormously for years by Indian forays and scalpings and were goaded almost to desperation at their loss of rela- tives, property and stock. They looked upon the redmen as so many dogs, and, many of them being religious zealots, found abundant war- rant in Scripture for treating the Indians like the Canaanites of old, to "smite them and utterly destroy them: to make no covenant with them nor show mercy unto them."
These hot-headed and tempestuous fanatics were about as much exas- perated at the Quakers and the Provincial Legislature as they were against the savages themselves. They complained, and with much show of justice, that while they on the harassed and smitten border, were scourged and peeled, the Legislature and the Quakers sat at their ease, perfectly indifferent, wasting the precious days in factious wrangling and more careful of the copper-colored pagans than they were of them. It is difficult for us in these times, and only reading of the devastating outrages of savages as a matter of remote interest, to understand the intense bitterness and implacable, unquenchable hatred that many of the frontiermen had against the redmen, whom they deemed the authors of all their woes and the barriers to their success as land-getters. The misery of the matter was that with many this hate was blind and indis- criminate. They placed all Indians in the same category, only fit to be tracked and hunted like wild beasts and utterly swept off the face of the earth.
This little band of lounging, broom-selling Conestogas were unfor- tunate enough to incur the suspicion of the Paxton Boys and were charged, if not with secretly indulging in the border murders and rob-
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MASSACRE OF THE CONESTOGA INDIANS.
beries, at least with stealthily abetting them and sneakingly conveying information to the actual depredators. The Paxton Boys had formed themselves into a body of rangers for the protection of the frontier, under the auspices of their pastor, the Rev. Colonel Elder, who went about with cocked hat and rifle slung on shoulder-and under the lead- ership of Captain Lazarus Stewart and Matthew Smith, daring and reckless partisan Captains of the day. Smith heard through some wan- dering scouts that an Indian, who was known to have committed some late atrocities, had been traced to the Conestoga settlement. This was enough to fire his excitable heart, and hastily collecting a few of his " boys," of like mind with himself, they reached the peaceable Indian hamlet. Here Smith dismounted, and crawling forward, rifle in hand, to reconnoitre, saw, or fancied he saw, a number of armed warriors in the cabins.
The party being too weak for an attack, returned to Paxton. Run ners were sent out, and the very next day a body of fifty-seven mounted men, bloodily resolute on extirpating the Conestogas, set out, arriving at their destination by daybreak. Separating into small squads, they stealthily surrounded the humble cabins. An Indian, alarmed at the strange sounds without, issued from one of the huts and came in their direction. " He is the very one that killed my mother !" asserted one with an oath, and drawing sight he was ruthlessly shot down. This was signal enough with men only too anxious to commence the slaughter. With an appalling shout they now rushed forward out of the night ; burst into the peaceful cabins; shot, stabbed, tomahawked and scalped all they could find therein to the number of fourteen men, women and children, and then, seizing on whatever booty offered, they set fire to the hamlet. The rest of the hapless community were scattered about the neighborhood.
On the return of these night-prowlers from their unholy mission, they were met by Thomas Wright, who testified afterwards that, struck by their disordered appearance, and seeing a bloody tomahawk at each sad- dle bow, he asked where they had been and what doing, and on being told, they, seeing the horror depicted on his countenance, demanded of him if he believed in the Bible, and if the Scriptures did not command that the heathen should be destroyed. The devil could always quote Scripture for his purpose, and strangely believing or affecting to believe that they had been doing good service, these bloody miscreants quietly dispersed to their homes.
A prodigious excitement was caused by these lawless and execrable proceedings. The community was divided in opinion, but the great majority being of those who had personally suffered from savage bar- 12
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
along the border by this atrocious massacre. The people of the fron- tier knew that many of the men engaged in the deed were not brutal ruffians, but were among the best and most substantial residents, who had long and effectively been employed, too, as rangers in protecting the whole border. They knew, also, how much that border had suffered from savage atrocities, and while they heartily condemned the crime, they inclined to excuse the perpetrators of it. But in Philadelphia it was widely different. They there looked upon the massacre in some such light as we would now regard it. They-Quakers especially-as- sailed not only the murderers, but the whole Presbyterian sect with a perfect tempest of reproach and abuse. In obedience to public cla- mor, large rewards were offered for the arrest of the criminals, but these shrank not from the trial, but boldly proclaimed the necessity of their act, and defended it by argument and Scripture. So great was the excitement along the frontier that to arrest the ringleaders of the murderous band would have been almost impossible, or, at least, would have required the assistance of a large military force.
The excitement, instead of decreasing by time, daily augmented, but not altogether from this one cause. The backwoods people had always suspected the Moravian or Christianized Indians of complicity in the attacks of the heathen Indians, and several attempts had been made to assault and drive them out of their country. So dangerous became their position that at last, though some time before the proceedings just narrated, the Quaker assembly was compelled to disarm and then re- move these converted Indians to Philadelphia for safety. Much against their will, they had, in the midst of Winter, to prepare for migration. Their total number was one hundred and forty. It was in November when the forlorn procession-the aged, the young, the sick and the blind borne in wagons; while the rest went on foot-commenced its weary journey. At every village and hamlet they were rudely greeted with curses and threats. In passing through Germantown they were insulted by an infuriate mob, but, meek and gentle, the jaded pilgrims answered not, but steadily kept moving on, arriving at the Philadel- phia barracks in safety.
Here the soldiers quartered there, obstinately refused them admis- sion, and the shrinking, cowering fugitives were compelled to stand in the street for five hours, constantly exposed to a hooting, yelling and cursing rabble, who threatened to kill them outright. The soldiers still persisting in their contumacy, the deplorable procession again took up its dreary march, followed by an angry and tumultuous mob of many thousands and proceeded some six miles further to Province Island, and were there lodged in some waste buildings. Here they held their regu-
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MASSACRE OF THE CONESTOGA INDIANS.
lar religious meetings and remained peaceably until the massacre of the Conestogas, already related, put an entirely different complexion on matters. Those engaged in that successful piece of butchery, were soon heard to boast that they would finish this Indian business at Phila- delphia. The idea, strange as it may seem, soon grew rapidly into favor. The disgraceful conduct of the Quakers-they alleged-in ba maintaining, at public expense, a lot of savages all through the Winter, who in Spring would be found scalping and butchering upon the border, was constantly rung upon with all the changes.
Meetings were now held, inflammatory harangues delivered, false and absurd reports were industriously circulated, and soon these reck- less and hot-headed borderers, finding their sentiments were re-echoedl from a noisy and lawless party in Philadelphia itself, began to clamor to be led on to that city. Once before they had sent thither a wagon load of the scalped and mutilated bodies of their neighbors to impress the Quakers with a realizing sense of how they on the frontier were treated by their special pets, the Indians. Now they resolved to go themselves. armed cap-a-pie, and to demand protection. This was, indeed, no empty threat, for a force estimated at from five to fifteen hundred men mustered in January, under their most popular leaders, and actually took up the march to Philadelphia.
The ostensible object of this audacious excursion was the destruction of the Moravian Indians; what political designs against the Quakers lay back of this have never been divulged. Their numbers gathered strength at every mile, and the prodigious excitement which the thick- crowding reports of this singularly daring expedition engendered in Philadelphia may be faintly imagined. Terror and confusion were uni- versal, and the city was working like a hive of bees. Even the non- resisting Quakers were aroused to a sense of what was due from their manhood in this alarming exigency. The magistrates were pressingly urged to take immediate measures for repelling force by force. Eight pieces of heavy ordnance were drawn up to the barracks, where the alarmed Indians were now confined. The citizens, and even many of the young Quakers, took up arms and stationed themselves at these bar- racks, which they put in as good a condition of defence as possible.
On the night of February the 5th, the mob of borderers were an- nounced as approaching. Every preparation was made to receive them. The whole city was in an uproar. The bells were rung, the streets were illuminated, and the citizens, being suddenly awakened from sleep, were ordered to the town hall to receive their arms and am- munition. Two companies of volunteers repaired to the barracks, and = four more cannon were mounted. These prompt and decided prepara-
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
tions caused the approaching mob to pause and ponder. Some gentle- men were deputed to visit them and ask their cause of complaint. With great presumption and arrogance, they asserted there were several murderers among the Moravians, and insolently demanded that these should be delivered up to them. To pacify them, one of the ring- leaders was induced to enter the barracks and asked to point out the offenders. Each shrinking Indian was examined, but not one was found against whom any crime could be truthfully charged. The rioters, on hearing this, then asserted that the Quakers must have re- moved and secreted the criminal Indians. This was proved false, and the turbulent invaders were forced to relinquish their design and to take up the homeward march.
The Indians now became objects of great curiosity, and were visited by thousands of all ranks and conditions. Their Sunday services were attended by crowds of respectful listeners, and the soldiers themselves were won to kindness by their meekness and sincerity. Yet still their condition was a very hard one. Accustomed to the free, roaming life of the woods, confinement bore disastrously upon them. The high- seasoned food disagreed with them, and as the Summer advanced, fevers and small-pox broke out among them, causing great loss and al- most despair. No less than fifty-six of them died during this long cap- tivity, while the remainder were not released until March, 1765, after the Indian war was well over. They now settled at a new place which they built up near Wyalusing Creek, and called Friedenshutten (Tents of Peace). They were now at peace, and at length, after all their severe trials and troubles, were, for a season, contented, happy and prosperous.
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CHAPTER III.
THE LIFE AND CUSTOMS OF THE WESTERN PIONEERS.
Not with the bold array
Of armies dread, came they Proud conquest on.
Through a long warfare rude, With patient hardihood, By toil and strife and blood, The soil was won .- L. y. Cist.
We now arrive at a period in Western Border History which, if it have not for the reader so much of a general interest, has yet a more special fascination since it abounds in a series of remarkable personal adventures and captivities ; in fierce and obstinate individual conflicts, and in incidents of varied and thrilling interest. By the close of Dunmore's war, and at the outbreak of the Revolution, the tide of emi- gration had fairly set in for the West. It was relentless as fate-as irresistible as old ocean's onrolling waves. The restless, adventurous pioneer still pushed on and on ; penetrating deeper and deeper into the wilderness; ready to bid a stern defiance to all who opposed, and hold- ing on to the soil he had so valorously won, with a grim and unflinch- ing tenacity. Often rudely checked, they were never disheartened; sought out and harassed by a foe that neither pitied or slumbered, they still fought on and on. Ever environed by perils ; subjected to every variety of exposure and privation ; frequently decimated by savage marauds and forays, and having those most dear to their hearts killed, scalped or carried into captivity, yet they never turned back upon foe, but met him or hunted him with resolute heart, unquailing eye, and with a cool, reckless courage that was almost sublime.
Thus the borderers grew stronger, bolder and more stubborn as the years rolled on. The ringing sounds of their keen axes could be ever heard in new clearings, and within the deepest core of the wilderness ; strange forests were notched or girdled in each successive year, serving to mark additional claims; the jealous denizens of the woods would come suddenly upon roving surveying parties with pole and chain, and
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
goaded to madness at the sight, would attack them with vindictive bit- terness. An undying and implacable hatred grew up between the two races, as fierce and bitter as that which formerly existed between Moor and Spaniard, and engendered, too, by much the same cause. One sight of each other was the signal for a grapple and a deadly struggle. With kindled eye and expanded nostril, they swiftly rushed to the con- flict, inspired by
That stern joy which warriors feel
In meeting foemen worthy of their steel.
Now it was that such daring and indomitable characters as Boone, Kenton, Harrod, Brady, Logan, Sevier, the Poes, the Zanes, the Mc- Collochs and the Wetzells, first came to the fore-front-the most promi- nent types of their class ; to whom fear was utterly unknown; who all had a certain free dash of the wilderness in their ways and wander- ings ; whose very buckskin garments had the odor of the forest mould or herbage about them, and who soon learned to surpass even their swarthy foes themselves in woodcraft, in trailing, in artful strategy and in hand- to-hand combat.
For several years, parts of the Monongahela valley, the region about Fort Pitt and the West Virginia valleys had been sparsely settled, and the Zanes had formed a flourishing colony at Fort Henry, (now Wheeling.) Most of the emigrants came by way of Redstone, (now Brownsville,) on the Monongahela, and since, by Dunmore's treaty at Camp Charlotte a peace or rather a temporary truce was patched up, the settlers came out in swarms, extending as far west as Kentucky. It was the true, genuine spirit of the Anglo-Saxon which spurned all restraint and subdued all things to its will, that impelled them, and they clustered about the var- ious outposts of civilization, prepared to "do or die " -- to wrest a gen- erous living from the teeming soil, or leave their bones within its bosom. Those who located along the Ohio differed from those who se- lected lands in the interior. They were more ambitious of pushing themselves forward and many of them, anticipating the time when the Indian territory across the Ohio would be thrown open to settlement, crossed to explore the country and to pick out for themselves the choice spots.
Around these they would generally mark trees or otherwise define boundaries by which they could be afterwards identified. There were, also, at every frontier post, persons who were attracted thither by their love of hunting and by a genuine attachment for the wild, unshackled scenes of a ranger's life. Existence in the house or in forts was inex- pressibly irksome to them. They only felt perfectly free and joyous when roaming the unbounded forests, couched on their beds of leaves › or skins at night, and utterly heedless of all restraint or trammel.
185
LIFE AND CUSTOMS OF THE WESTERN PIONEERS.
This constant practice in the " mimicry of war" soon begot a nerve and skill which enabled them to cope successfully with the wily savage. They were perfectly at home in the woods by day or by night, and could steer their way to any part of the compass with as much unerring certainty as the redskins themselves. It was, notwithstanding the ex- cessive hazard in time of war, a free and happy life, and it is no marvel that so many of the frontier men and youth became completely enamored of this Gypsey abandon of the forest, passing most of their time in vagabondizing hither and yon, "wandering at their own sweet will." When gathered about their fire at night, the stars glimmering dimly through the roof above them, they could right heartily join in the "Song of the Pioneer : "
The hunt, the shot, the glorious chase ; The captured elk or deer ; The camp, the big, bright fire, and then The rich and wholesome cheer ; The sweet, sound sleep at dead of night By the camp fire blazing high, Unbroken by the wolf's long howl Or the panther springing by.
As one of their own number truthfully writes : "Various as may have been their objects in emigrating, no sooner had they come to- gether than there existed in each settlement a perfect unison of feeling. Similitude of situation and commonality of danger, operating as a magic charm, stifled in their birth all those little bickerings which are so apt to disturb the quiet of 'society.' Ambition of preferment and the pride of place, too often but hindrances to social intercourse, were un- known among them. Equality of condition rendered them strangers alike to the baneful distinctions created by wealth as to other adven- titious circumstances. A sense of mutual dependence for their common security locked them in amity ; and, conducting their several purposes in harmonious concert, together they toiled and together suffered.
"In their intercourse with others they were kind, beneficent and disin- terested ; extending to all the most generous hospitality which their cir- cumstances could afford. That selfishness which prompts to liberality for the sake of remuneration, and proffers the civilities of life with an eye to individual interest, was unknown to them. They were kind for kindness' sake, and sought no other recompense than the never-failing concomitant of good deeds-the reward of an approving conscience. Such were the early pioneers of the West, and we might even now profit from the contemplation of their humble virtues, hospitable homes, and spirits patient, noble, proud and free-their self-respect grafted on innocent thoughts ; their days of health and nights of sleep-their toils
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
by danger dignified, yet guiltless their hopes of cheerful old age and a quiet grave, with cross and garland over its green turf. and their grand- children's love for an epitaph.
The great object with most who moved West was, of course, to better their condition, and this more especially after the Revolution. Land was the great desideratum, and it could be obtained literally "for the taking up." The methods in which this was done are best described by Rev. Joseph Doddridge, D. D., whose father moved into West Virginia in 1773, just before the outbreak of Dunmore's, or, as it is sometimes called, Cresap's war. Brought up in a rude wilderness cabin, the Doc- tor spent his whole life amid the dangers and vicissitudes which made up the backwoodsman's life, and has written very graphically of the sports, customs, struggles, privations and vicissitudes which went to make up the pioneer's average life. His earliest recollections were of the humble log cabin, the protecting fort, the encircling woods, the ex- citements of the chase, and the perils of the redskin scalp-hunters. His infant slumbers were disturbed by the yell of the Indian, and the scene of his boyish sports was a dense and sombre forest, in which danger lay ambushed in so many shapes that even the lads of the border grew cun- ning in eluding or self-possessed in meeting it. We shall hereafter quote freely and liberally from his famous "Notes," now long out of print.
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THE HARDSHIPS OF SETTLERS.
THE TITLE TO LANDS-THE HARDSHIPS OF SETTLERS.
"Our early land laws allowed four hundred acres and no more to a set- tlement right. Many of our first settlers seemed to regard this as enough for one family, and believed that any attempt to get more would be sin- ful, although they might have evaded the law, which allowed of but one settlement right to any one individual, by taking out the title papers in the names of others, to be afterwards transferred to them as if by pur- chase. Some few, indeed, pursued this practice, but it was generally held in detestation.
The division lines between those whose lands adjoined were generally made in an amicable manner before any survey was made by the parties concerned. In doing this they were guided mainly by the tops of ridges and water courses. Hence, the greater number of farms in the west- ern parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia bore a striking resemblance to an amphitheatre. The buildings occupied a low situation, and the tops of the surrounding hills were the boundaries of the tract to which the family mansion belonged. Our forefathers were fond of farms of this description, because, as they said, 'Everything 'comes to the house down hill.' In the hilly parts of the State of Ohio, the land having been laid out by straight parallel lines, the farms present a different as- pect. There the buildings frequently occupy the tops of the hills.
Our people had become so accustomed to the mode of 'getting land for taking it up,' that for a long time it was believed that the west side of the Ohio would ultimately be disposed of in the same way. Hence, almost the whole region between the Ohio and Muskingum was parceled out.in 'tomahawk improvements,' but those so claiming were not satis- fied with a single four hundred acre tract. Many owned a great num- ber of tracts of the best land, and thus, in imagination, were as 'wealthy as a South Sea dream.' Some of these land jobbers did not content themselves with marking trees at the usual height with the initials of their names, but climbed up the large beeches and cut the letters in their retentive bark, from twenty to forty feet from the ground. To enable them to identify these trees at a future period, they made marks on the trees around as references. At an early period of our settlements there was an inferior kind of land title, denominated a 'tomahawk right.' This was made by deadening a few trees near a spring, and marking on one or more of them the initials of the name of the person by whom
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
the improvement was made. Rights acquired in this way were fre- quently bought and sold.
The settlement of a new country in the immediate neighborhood of an old one is not attended with much difficulty, because supplies can be readily obtained from the latter; but the settlement of a country more remote is quite a different thing, because at the outset, food, raiment and the implements of husbandry are only obtained in small supplies and with great difficulty. The task of making new establish- ments in a remote wilderness, in time of profound peace, is sufficiently difficult, but when, in addition to all the unavoidable hardships attend- ing on this business, those resulting from an extensive and furious war- fare with savages are superadded, toil, privations and sufferings are then carried to the full extent of the capacity of men to endure them.
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