USA > New York > The Pennsylvania and New York frontier : history of from 1720 to the close of the Revolution > Part 24
USA > Pennsylvania > The Pennsylvania and New York frontier : history of from 1720 to the close of the Revolution > Part 24
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The last considerable raid, along the lower Susquehanna, was made in September, when Fort Rice on the Chillisquaqa creek in Northumber- land county was attacked. Before sunset, the assailants were repulsed ; and the next day the garrison was relieved by Colonel Kelly and the militia. General James Potter with more militiamen pursued the Indians up Fish- ing creek and into Huntington, where they divided into small bands and eluded their pursuers.17 One of these bands, under Roland Montour, crossed the Susquehanna and went up Nescopeck creek, and in the shadow of Sugar Loaf Mountain, within the present outskirts of Conyngham Borough, came upon their prey, September 10th.
It so happened, on that day, a company of soldiers, forty-one in number, under Captain Daniel Klader and Lieutenant John Moyer or Myer, sent from Fort Allen to investigate a sttlement of Tories in Scotch Valley, southwest of what is now Hazleton, were resting themselves in an open meadow. The tired soldiers were lying about a cool spring, unsus- pecting any Indians were near. Montour's warriors surrounded them
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and fired. The soldiers grabbed their guns and resisted, but being scat- tered, they were soon overcome. Those who escaped made their way to Fort Allen, from whence Colonel Balliet, with one hundred fifty men, marched to the scene. He reported : "On the 17th, we arrived at the place of the action, where we found ten of our soldiers dead, scalped, stripped naked and in a most cruel and barbarous manner tomahawked, their throats cut, whom we buried."18 He also stated twenty-two out of forty-one es- caped. Klader was killed, and Moyer captured but subsequently escaped. It was later stated that the killed, wounded and missing in the battle or massacre of Sugar Loaf were twenty-three, of whom fourteen were killed and three captured.19 In this action, Roland Montour was wounded in the arm, from the effects of which he died several days later.
December 6, 1780, there was a social gathering at the home of Ben- jamin Harvey in Plymouth, at which were: Mr. Harvey, his son Elisha, daughter Lucy, Manasseh Cady, Jonathan Frisbie, James Frisbie, Nathan Bullock, Lucy Bullock and George Palmer Ransom. There was a knock at the door, and when opened, Lieutenant John Turney of Butler's Rangers and five Indians entered. They plundered the house and with the inmates started for Niagara. On the summit of Plymouth mountain, they released the young women, painted them, and the chief said: "Go tell Colonel Butler I put this paint on." The girls made their way to the Kingston ferry and crossed to Fort Wyoming, arriving before daybreak. At Mehoopany, on their way north, Mr. Harvey became exhausted, and was bound to a tree. The chief selected three young braves, gave them toma- hawks, measured the distance and pointed to Mr. Harvey's head. The first hurled his hatchet, it struck the tree a little above his head. The other two hurled their hatchets with the same effect. The superstitious old chief, evidently regarding the failure as a spiritual intervention, released the old man, but he was taken with the others to Canada, where he remained a prisoner until the war was over.20
In September, 1781, Arnold and Roasel Franklin Jr. were captured in Hanover, and the following April, the wife of Lieutenant Roasel Franklin and four children were taken from the same place. A pursuing party overtook the Indians at Wyalusing and in the fight which followed, a savage shot Mrs. Franklin. Three of her children were rescued but the infant son Ichabod was never recovered.
A roving band of Indians, July 7, 1782, attacked Asa Chapman, John and Benjamin Jameson, who were going on horseback from Hanover to Wilkes-Barre. John Jameson was killed, Chapman was wounded but clung to his horse and reached Wilkes-Barre. Benjamin Jameson's horse wheeled about and carried him safely home. This was the last Indian depredation in the Wyoming Valley.
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NOTES-CHAPTER THIRTY
1. Clinton Papers 4, 702; and account contained in New Jersey Gazette, May 12, 1779.
2. Clinton Papers 5, 162.
3. Stone, Life of Brant; Goodrich, History of Wayne County; Halsey, Old New York Frontier.
4. Hazard's Register IX, 307; also pages 184, 206, 237, 268, 303, 396, and Volume X, for exploits of this famous frontier family.
5. April 27, Colonel Hunter reported from Fort Augusta, that three or four families had been taken near Fort Jenkins but were rescued by a force from the fort. He also stated the Indians drove the troops back to the fort with loss of three men killed and four badly wounded; and that seven militiamen had been killed or taken and three inhabitants captured near Fort Freeland. Twelve persons were killed or taken near Fort Muncy.
In May, Mr. and Mrs. John Sample were killed in Buffalo Valley; and two men were killed and three persons captured on Lycoming creek.
In June, the widow Smith's mills at White Deer Mills were burned; two men killed and three prisoners taken at Fort Brady; Starret's mill and the principal homes in Muncy township burned; Joseph Webster's son killed and three of his children captured at Muncy Farm; Elias and Jacob Freeland Jr. and Isaac Vincent killed, and Michael Freeland and Benjamin Vincent captured near Fort Freeland (Pa. Archs., VII, 346, 369, 365, 674).
6. See letter of Mrs. Mary Derickson, one of the inmates of the fort in Pa. Archs. XII, 364. 7. Pa. Archs. VII, 589, 590, 592, 609, 611; Meginess, History of the West Branch.
8. Camp sites : June 18, Heller's Tavern near Wind Gap; June 19, Learned's Tavern, near Tannersville; 20th, Rum Ridge or White Oak Run, called "Chowder Camp ;" 21st, "Fatigue Camp" at Hungry Hill; 22nd, Bullock's farm.
9. Camp sites : July 31, Above the mouth of the Lackawanna; August 1 and 2, above Ransom: August 3, north bank of the Tunkhannock; August 4, Black Walnut on Vanderlip and Williamson farms; August 5, 6, 7, Wyalusing; Aungust 8, Stand- ing Stone and Wysock; August 9 and 10, opposite Ulster.
10. Camp sites : August 9, Burrows farm; August 10, Yorkhams; August 11, two miles below Otsego creek; August 12, near Unadilla ; August 14, 15, 16, Oquaga ; August 17, Ingaren, Great Bend; August 18, mouth of the Chenango river; August 19, 20, Chocanut ; August 21, Manekalawaugan, present Barton.
11. Diaries of soldiers and officers of the expedition, and concise account contained in address of Rev. David Craft, at the Centennial Observance in 1879, published by State of New York and entitled "Sullivan's Expedition"; also Life of Mary Jemison and Clinton Papers.
12. Pa. Archs. VIII, 157.
13. There are several versions of this affair. See: Hazard's Register XII, 38; Stone's Wyoming, 276; Miner, Wyoming, 279; Wright Historical Sketches of Plymouth, 30, 208; Harvey, History of Wilkes-Barre, III, 1243, 1244.
14. Peck's History of Wyoming.
15. Pa. Archs. VIII, 202, 203.
16. Ibid, IX, 70.
17. Ibid 563, 567.
18. Ibid 564.
19. Johnson's Historical Record, II, 125, 167; VI, 131, to 134.
20. Harvey, History of Wilkes-Barre, III, 1259 to 1267.
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CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
It is almost impossible to give a complete account of all the Indian depredations and murders on the frontier of Southwestern Pennsylvania, during the Revolution. The settlements there were preyed upon by the Seneca Indians, living along the Allegheny river, and by the various tribes inhabiting, what is now the state of Ohio. The savages struck here and there, burning the scattered houses, murdering the occupants and impart- ing terror everywhere. The settlements were far apart and the people poor. Some idea of the panic prevailing on this unorganized and ill-protected frontier may be obtained from the accounts contained in "Frontier Forts" and the reports scattered through the many volumes of the Archives of Pennsylvania.1
General Edward Hand was appointed commander at Fort Pitt, June 1, 1777; and about that time, Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott and Simon Girty, three notorious Tories, who had been active in and about Pittsburg, fled and joined the British. In the May following, General Laclan McIntosh succeeded Hand, and in September, a treaty of peace was made at Pittsburg with White Eyes, Captain Pipe and John Kilbuck, three principal Delaware chiefs.
General McIntosh made preparations to attack Detroit, and a consider- able force and supplies were assembled at Fort McIntosh, which he erected on the right bank of the Ohio at Beaver. From there his army marched westward and built Fort Laurens on the Tuscarawas in the present state of Ohio; but before winter set in, leaving Colonel John Gibson in com- mand there, McIntosh returned to Fort McIntosh.
In April 1779, Fort Hand in the present Washington county was besieged by an enemy force, and although the attack continued from 1 o'clock until noon the next day, it was successfully defended by Cap- tain Samuel Moorehead and seventeen volunteers. Three of the defenders were wounded.
In April, 1779, General McIntosh, because of ill-health, retired and Colonel Daniel Brodhead succeeded him. Brodhead obtained authority, from Washington, to invade the Indian country on the headwaters of the Allegheny and began his preparations by erecting Fort Armstrong at Kit- tanning. In order to avail himself of the troops there, he ordered Fort
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Laurens to be evacuated. Having received this accession of strength, Brod- head left Pittsburg with six hundred and five men rank and file, August 11th ; and made his way up the Allegheny river for upwards of two hun- dred miles, burning all the Indian towns and destroying the cornfields. At their upper village, about forty miles from the Genesee, he destroyed one hundred thirty houses, some of which accommodated three or four families. It was surrounded by five hundred acres of corn, which were cut down. Brodhead estimated the plunder obtained at $30,000 and stated he burned in all one hundred and sixty-five cabins.2
In May, 1781, Colonel Brodhead led an expedition against the revolted Delaware towns on the Muskingum, and inflicted severe losses on the rebellious Indians and secured a large amount of plunder. He had con- siderable assistance from two chiefs, Captains Kilbuck and Luzerne; and mentions "Captains Montour and Wilson and three other faithful Indians, who contributed greatly to our success." The Moravian Indians furnished supplies to subsist his men until they reached the Ohio.3
In June, 1782, Colonel Crawford, with a force of volunteers from western Pennsylvania, led an expedition toward Sandusky; but he was captured by the Indians and with twelve of his men burned at the stake, the unfortunate colonel being three hours in burning. The Indians justified their cruelty, as retaliation for the massacre of the Moravian Indians at Gnadenhutten.4
July 7, 1782, Hanna's Town, the county seat of Westmoreland county, was attacked by one hundred Tories and Indians, and the town burned. At Fort Miller, nearby, twenty of the inhabitants were killed or captured. The residents of Hanna's Town had warning and made their escape to the fort, which resisted the first attack. It was expected the fort would be assaulted, again, in the morning, but some reinforcements arrived during the night, and it is said, by a subterfuge, the enemy was deceived as to their numbers, and decamped in the morning.5
Rice's Fort on Buffalo creek, in what is now Washington county, was attacked in December, 1782, but was successfully defended by five men, the other occupant, George Felebaum, having been killed early in the action.6
Priscilla Peck lived near Wolf's Fort in the present Washington county, and was confined to her bed when the Indians broke in the house. One of the family threw a quilt around her and told her to run. Her strength giving out, she leaned over a fence for support. An Indian dis- covered her and sclaped but did not kill her. Scalped and enervated by illness, she crawled on her hands and knees to the fort and subsequently recovered.7
The Indians, having previously killed John Hupp and Jacob Miller, surrounded Miller's blockhouse on the Dutch fork of Buffalo creek, in the present Washington county. The inmates of the blockhouse were only an old man, and women and children, but there were rifles and ammunition, and these were used, by the women under the leadership of the heroic Ann Hupp, widow of John, so successfully that the Indians were baffled
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until the women were reinforced by three men, who eluded the savages and dashed into the blockhouse. The Indians were compelled to withdraw.8
Near Garard's Fort in the present town of Garard, Greene county, occurred the horrible butchery of the Crobly family. The Rev. Mr. Crobly and his family were on their way to church when attacked. Mrs. Crobly with a child in her arms, a six year old son and a daughter were killed. Mr. Crobly who was some distance in the rear of the family succeeded in outrunning the savages and escaped. The eldest daughter and a sister were scalped but survived.9
The fact that so many were scalped while alive and survived, leads to the suspicion, that the Indians, in many cases, purposely refrained from killing their victims. They were only interested in obtaining the scalps for which the British government paid a liberal bounty.
General Irvine succeeded Brodhead as commander at Fort Pitt, in July, 1782, and continued until October 1783, when the Pennsylvania troops, there, were ordered to Carlisle and those from Virginia to Win- chester. The close of the Revolution did not entirely end the savage depre- dations in western Pennsylvania, as disaffected Indians in the Ohio terri- tory continued their incursions until they were completely defeated by General Wayne.
In 1783, Arthur Lee visited Pittsburg, and wrote of it as follows :
"Pittsburg is inhabited almost entirely by Scots and Irish, who live in paltry houses and are as dirty as in the north of Ireland or even in Scotland. There is a great deal of small trade carried on; the goods being brought at the vast expense of 45 shillings per cwt., from Phila. and Baltimore. They take in the shops, money, wheat, flour and skins. There are in the town four attorneys, two doctors and not a priest of any persua- sion, nor church nor chapel, so they are likely to be damned without bene- fit of clergy. The river encroaches fast on the town. The place, I believe will never be very considerable."
NOTES-CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
1. In August, 1777, Carnahans blockhouse, in Bell township, Westmoreland county was attacked and James Carnahan killed. In November, four men killed and Colonel Campbell and four others captured near Blackleg's creek; a man killed near Wallace's fort Westmoreland county, where in April, 1778, nine men were killed and wounded; Ensign Wood and eight persons killed at Palmer's fort near Ligonier. (Frontier Forts II, 333, 334, 344). In 1779, members of the Holliday family killed near Holliday's fort in Bedford county; house of Matthew Dean, near Fort Lowery set on fire and three children burned therein. (Frontier Forts I, 495 to 498) In June: Indians killed a soldier near Fort Crawford, and attacked the Sewickley settlement where they killed a woman and four children and captured two children. In March, 1780, five men killed and three boys and three girls captured on Racoon creek; Colonel Brodhead reported that from March 1st to April 29th, forty three persons were killed or captured in Western Pennsylvania, and ten killed,
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wounded or captured in Westmoreland county, by May 1st. In June: five people killed or captured near Fort Ligonier; two men killed and one wounded near Bushy Run. In September: Two men killed on Robinson's Run; seven persons killed or taken on Ten Mile Run. In April, 1781: Colonel Pomeroy's home raided, one man killed and another missing; thirteen persons captured and killed in Westmoreland county. (Pa. Archs. VIII, 282, 536; IX, 51, 79; XII, 210, 224).
2. Brodhead Letters, Pa. Archs. XII. 105 to 106.
3. Pa. Archs. IX, 161.
4. Ibid, 575.
5. Ibid, 596 to 606; Frontier Forts II, 300.
6. Frontier Forts II, 408.
7. Ibid, 411.
8. Ibid, 413.
9. Ibid, 440.
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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
THE LAST RAIDS
Sir John Johnson, in May, 1789, with a force reported to have been four hundred Tories and two hundred Indians, invaded the Mohawk Valley. They struck first the Caughnawaga district, and nearly all the houses and barns, from below Tribes Hill to Anthony's Nose, a distance of about thirteen miles, were burned. Nine persons were reported killed and thirty-three prisoners taken. Among the casualties were some of the most prominent inhabitants, including the father and three brothers of Major Fonda. Colonel Visscher and Mr. Hansen were wounded and scalped, but left living. After visiting his old home, Johnson Hall, and, it is said, repossessing himself of a large amount of buried silver, Johnson decamped towards Crown Point. The militia, under Governor Clinton's orders followed in that direction, but it does not appear, they were able to intercept the enemy.1
Brant and a party of British and Indians, July 26, 1780, appeared before Fort Schuyler ; but they were driven off by artillery fire. All com- munication with the fort was interrupted. A large force raided the Cana- johaire district, murdering the inhabitants and capturing many women and children. They drove off the horses and cattle, and Colonel Wemple, who pursued them, reported that not less than a hundred dwelling houses were burned. Colonel Samuel Clyde, in a communication written from Fort Plank, August 8th, wrote that the bodies of fourteen had been found and that between fifty and sixty persons, mostly women and children had been taken, but of these twelve had returned. He also stated, fifty-three dwellings and as many barns, one gristmill and two small forts burned, three hundred horses and cattle driven off and all the farmer's wagons and implements destroyed.2
This raid was followed by the invasion of Schoharie, August 9th, when a number of houses were burned at Vrooman's land. The enemy proceeded to within two miles of the Middle Fort, where three persons were killed and fourteen made prisoners.3
In September, a small band assaulted the house of one Shell, three miles north of Fort Herkimer, but he with his wife and two sons bravely defended themselves and the foe was driven away.4 A British force, under
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Major Carleton invaded the Lake Champlain region, and in October, Fort George was surrendered by Captain Chipman, its commander.5
Sir John Johnson, the Butlers and Brant made another raid in October and Schoharie was burned. The first fire was discovered near the Middle Fort about 8 o'clock in the morning of the 17th and at 4 o clock in the afternoon, the raiders passed on both sides of the fort with an immense amount of booty. A number of buildings were destroyed at Ballston and Stone Arabia was burned. General Robert Van Rensselaer with the militia pursued them, but the British successfully eluded him and escaped. Gov- ernor Clinton estimated the losses as of, at least 150,000 bushels of wheat, besides other grain and forage and two hundred dwellings in this raid. Colonel Brown with a detachment of militia encountered the whole body of the enemy and in the severe engagement which followed suffered the loss of thirty-nine men.6
Other devastating raids were made in the closing years of the war. At Cherry Valley, nearly all the people remaining there, were captured. The same band descended on Canajohaire and killed Peter Young, his wife, Isaac Young his wife and children and burned several houses and barns.7 In August, 1781, a roving band of Indians penetrated the frontier of Ulster county and attacked the settlement at Wawarsing. About a dozen houses were burned, but only one of the inhabitants was killed the rest, having had timely warning, escaped.8 The same month, the enemy made an incursion to Cobleskill and did considerable mischief.9 Lieutenant Woodworth and a scouting party were ambushed not far from Fort Herkimer and eleven including Woodworth were slain.
In the latter part of October, 1781, with a force of four hundred fifty Tories and Indians, Major Ross proceeded from Buck's Island to Lake Oneida, and thence by the way of Cherry Valley marched to the Mohawk Valley. In the vicinity of Warren Bush, they killed two persons and burned twenty houses. Crossing the river, they went to Johnson Hall, arriving October 25th, just in advance of the Americans, under Colonel Marinus Willett, who immediately began the action. He gained the advan- tage, but some of the men of his right wing gave way and he lost his ammunition cart. Night ended the contest and Ross retreated and camped that night about six miles from Johnson Hall. Willett pursued the enemy, who offered little resistance, except at a difficult ford of Canada creek where there was a slight engagement in which Walter Butler was killed. The story, often told, is that Butler was shot and wounded by Skenandoah, an Oneida Indian, and that Butler implored the Indian to spare him, but he shouted "Remember Sherry Valley" and sunk his tomahawk in Butler's skull.
Willett in his report says: "Amongst the killed at that place was Walter Butler, who commanded the massacre at Cherry Valley. Their flight was performed in an Indian file upon a constant trott, and one man's being knocked in the head or falling off into the woods never stopped the progress of his neighbor, not even the fall of their favorite Walter Butler could attract their attention, so much as to induce them to take even the
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money or anything else out of his pocket, although he was not dead, when found by one of our Indians, who finished his business for him and got a considerable booty."10
This completes the tragic account of the frontier. Cornwallis had surrendered and the war was practically over. The Iroquois Confederacy was crushed, and by subsequent treaties and adjustments New York acquired most of the Indian territory.
Writers have blamed this official and that officer, this policy and lack of policy for the widespread destruction, but the best explanation would seem, the natural condition of the frontier and inevitable circumstances prevailing. Some say more forts and garrisons would have been adequate protection, but Pennsylvania, during the French and Indian War, had a chain of forts across its frontier, which did not prevent the murdering of the frontier people. The methods of the foe were those of the thief and murderer, and no one, yet, has been able to protect society from the thief and murderer.
The settlements were widely scattered and there was little efficient government on the frontier. The frontiersmen, themselves had much to do with their disasters. They were poor and many of them incapable. They had reckless daring and were seemingly unaware of their own danger. They neglected to organize themselves into disciplined bands of militia, sent out, practically, no scouts, had few sentinels and guards and thus allowed the foe to ambush them. They often refused or neglected to seek the protection of the forts when warned, and ventured to work their crops when the foe was near. It would seem, the destruction of the frontier just had to be.
The end of the war brought to a close, the New York and Pennsyl- vania frontier. Many of those, who had borne the struggles of its existence, were unfitted for the thrift and industry of peace, and sold their slight improvements to a more steady class from the east and moved to a new frontier in Ohio and the prairie states. The Sctoch-Irish in the Susque- hanna region were largely displaced by Pennsylvania German farmers who absorbed the choice lands, when these Sctoch-Irish moved to a new frontier and stirring scenes in Kentucky and Ohio. A tide of New Eng- land immigration flooded the fertile lands of central and western New York. Yet, enough of the spirit remained to tinge the culture, of the vast region west of the Susquehanna, with the individuality, independence and self-reliance of the old frontier.
NOTES-CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
1. Clinton Papers V, 736, 747, 761, 816.
In September, 1779, three inhabitants of German Flats killed and three made prisoners ; two soldiers captured in sight of Fort George. (Clinton Papers V, 267) In March, 1780: Captain Keyser, two sons and three others captured in the Palatine District; garrison of Skenesborough surprised, ten captured and three escaped. An inhabitant killed. (Clinton Papers V, 545, 551, 558)
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In April, Brant made a raid on Harpersfield, three persons killed and twelve captured, including Captain Alexander Harper (Clinton Papers. V. 578 to 580) ; Nineteen persons captured at Rensnyder's Bush in the Palatine District, (Clinton Papers, V, 631).
2. Clinton Papers VI, 59, 63, 77 to 82, 88 to 90.
3. Ibid, 93, 94, 136.
4. Ibid, 169.
5. Ibid 290.
6. Ibid, 346 to 355.
7. Ibid, 811, 812.
8. Clinton Papers VII, 196 to 199.
9. Ibid, 291.
10. Ibid, 443, 447, 472; For Life of Walter Butler, see Swiggett, "War Out of Niagara."
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