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CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
NI
EZPE
FROM
Cornell University Library
F 157P5 W95 History of Perry County, in Pennsylvania
olin 3 1924 028 854 516
N
1865
NDED
A.D
Cornell University Library
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.
http://archive.org/details/cu31924028854516
Perry County Poor-House in 1878.
O
HISTORY
or
PERRY COUNTY,
IN
PENNSYLVANIA,
FROM THE
EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME.
BY SILAS WRIGHT.
LANCASTER, PA .: Wylie & Griest, Printers, Book-binders and Stereotypers. 1873. KC
A768340
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, BY SILAS WRIGHT, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
WYLIE & GREIST, Stereotypers, Lancaster, Penna.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Perry County Poor-house, Title-page. Map of part of Cumberland County, which is now Perry, in 1792, 10
Newport, -
36
Perry County Court-house, 54
Map of Perry County in 1873. 153
Millerstown Depot,
- 184
CONTENTS.
SECTION I .- INTRODUCTION.
PAGE.
Chapter I .- Indians and Early Settlements,
9
Chapter II .- Villages, Towns, and Formation of Perry
County,
- 36
SECTION II .- THE WAR RECORD.
Chapter I .- The Revolution-1775-1783,
-
- - 54
Chapter II .- War of 1812-1815, and Mexican War,
1846-'48,
58
Chapter III --- The Rebellion, 1861-1865
65
SECTION III .- EDUCATION.
Chapter I .- School History up to 1854,
131
Chapter II-The Superintendency, 1854-1872,
143
Statistical Table, -
150
SECTION IV .- PHYSICAL.
Chapter I .- The Geology,
152
Chapter II .- The Flora,
160
Chapter III .- The Natural History,
173
SECTION V .- STATISTICS.
Chapter I .- Official Vote from 1820 to 1871,
-
-
- 184
Chapter II .- Census of Districts from 1820 to 1870, - 257
APPENDIX.
PREFACE.
.
In the summer of 1865, the first data for these pages was gathered. Since that time the work has been pursued with whatever of vigor time and circumstances would permit. Here a fact, and there an incident were jotted, until all the available sources of information were sought out, the old men and women wherever possible were visited, and their narratives heard and noted, all the old and most of the recent files of county newspapers were ransacked. Letters were written to many persons, not all of which were answered, and the facts of much of the descriptive part of the history first obtained or former versions of them verified from their replies.
Valuable aid is hereby acknowledged from the works of Sherman Day, I. D. Rupp, Rev. D. H. Focht, J. R. Sypher, Hon. Thomas H. Burrowes, Hon. Samuel P. Bates and several series of articles which appeared in the county papers, one under the nom de plume of Philanthus.
Since September, 1871, holidays and leisure time from the routine of daily duty in the school-room have been given to the preparation of this volume until at the end of eleven months of persistent work, the MS is ready to be placed in the hands of the publishers, and from them the book to be sent forth to be criti- cised and compared with others of a similar kind. Whether it will receive the dictum of good, bad or in-
V
·
vi
PREFACE.
different is a question of moment after having finished the most ordinary undertaking ; but it becomes one of much greater consequence when years have been given to its accomplishment, hence it is with no little degree of solicitude that the author sends forth this first born of his intellect. Go then, history of my native Perry, and may others have all the pleasure and none of the trials in reading and study- ing your pages that I have had in composing and writ- ing them.
No one who has never attempted to collect materials for even a short article of by-gone events, can reckon the degree of difficulty that attends a labor of this kind. Often after the most careful research, from title page to finis, of a large volume of old records, you are not able to add a half-dozen lines to your manu- script. Writing local history is an elegant work for leisure, and cannot be hurried beyond that spended pace.
The following special features will doubtless aid the reader in making up his estimate of the merits of the work :
Ist. The general divisions into sections, each of which again subdivided into chapters, is thought to be the best and most logical arrangement that could have been adopted, because it admits of the treatment of the greatest variety of subjects within the compass of the book.
2d. Especial attention is called to the Educational Statistical Statement, from the fact that some of it has been compiled from data which could not be obtained at Harrisburg.
3d. The Official Vote was compiled at great labor owing to the difficulty of obtaining the different years.
vii
PREFACE.
It is believed to be a very valuable addition to the work. In the preparation of both the political and war records, Mr. Henry Hopple's scrap-book was found to be a valuable auxiliary.
4th. The Natural History, Flora and Geology should attract attention and induce somebody to push further investigations into their inviting domains.
5th. " The War Record" will preserve the names of those who so signally "made and preserved us a nation," as well as give an account of their doings.
6th. The Alphabetical Appendix embodies many short biographical sketches and incidents which could not have been given in any other part of the work.
Without the hope of large pecuniary reward, but rather trusting that it may be the means of doing good, this little volume is humbly entrusted to the public by the author.
S. W.
MILLERSTOWN, July 31, 1872.
SECTION I .- INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I.
INDIANS AND FIRST SETTLERS.
Cumberland county, east of the Kittatinny Moun- tains, was organized in January, 1750. It was then believed that a people of a common nationality should locate in the same settlement, and with such instruction from the Proprietary their agents sent the Irish, Scotch and English settlers to Cum- berland, and the Germans to York county. When organized Cumberland had 807 taxable inhabitants.
The country north of the Blue Hills was valued by the Indians as their best hunting grounds, and when in 1740 and '41 their rights began to be in- vaded by German and other squatters who had built cabins in Sherman's Valley, and on the Juni- ata, their complaints caused the Provincial govern- ment to order their immediate removal, and to forbid others following their example. After this nothing of a decided character was done to prevent settlements until a seat of justice was established in the North, or Cumberland Valley. Previously there was no county seat nearer than Lancaster, Lancaster county.
Soon after the organization of Cumberland coun- ty, in 1750, it was decided that all persons living on lands north of the Kittatinny Mountains should
9
IO
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
be removed. For this purpose Secretary Richard Peters was sent by the Lieutenant-Governor, James Hamilton, to remove all persons from the country north of the Blue Mountain. These people had been warned and advised to leave in 1748, and now, the 23d of May, 1750, Richard Peters, Mat- thew Dill, George Groghan, Benjamin Chambers, Conrad Weiser, Thomas Wilson, John Finley and James Galbraith, Esqrs., accompanied by the under-sheriff of Cumberland county, went to the place where Andrew Lycon, George Cahoon, William Galloway and David Hiddleston had set- tled, where they found five cabins. Taking all the settlers into custody who suffered themselves to be taken, they set fire to the log cabins and pro- ceeded from thence to Sherman's creek, where they found James and Thomas Parker, Owen Mc- Keeb, John McClare, Richard Kirkpatrick, James Murray, John Scott, Henry Gass, Simon Girty, and John Kilbaugh, whose cabins were also burn- ed. These men were bound in recognizance of one hundred pounds each to appear and answer for their trespass at the next county court to be held at Shippensburg.
In order to prevent settlements in the future, or the return to their former residences of the persons thus driven out, Andrew Monture was licensed to settle and reside in any place he might judge con- venient. He settled on the north side of Sherman's creek, on the Elliott farm, about five miles from George Croghan's, who lived on the present Cum- berland side of the Kittatinny, near Sterret's Gap,
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DAUPHIN
A MAP of the Part of CUMBERLAND COUNTY which is now PERRY in 1792.
FRANKLIN COUNTY.
MIFFLIN Jordans
& Creek
Thades
Wild catR.
Firmnes
O
TYBOINE
Fishing Greek
II
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
-Monture's run bears evidence of the location. Frederick Starr, a German, with two or three of his countrymen, made settlements on Big Juniata, about twenty-five miles from the mouth thereof, and about ten miles north from the Blue Hills, at a place much esteemed by the Indians as their best hunting grounds Starr's settlement was probably on the flat ground not far from the Penn- sylvania Railroad bridge across Big Buffalo creek, in Oliver township, and was in all probability too close to an Indian encampment of the Six Nations.
Lycon, Cahoon, Galloway, Hiddleston and White probably built their cabins in Pfoutz's Valley, not far from Millerstown, which was then the site of the other of the only two encampments of Indians within the present limits of Perry county. These Indians either willingly quitted their homes, or were forcibly compelled to leave them after the Albany treaty in 1754. They afterward settled in the country of the Ohio. By the treaty of 1754 all the land extending from the Kittatinny Mountains to the Alleghany Mountains was added to Cumber- land county. There are traces of either a long residence at Millerstown, or probably a fierce battle which was fought between the resident Delawares and the immigrating Shawnese.
The location of this conflict was no doubt near the canal bridge, for they were interred in a wide and deep mound west of the house now the resi- dence of Mrs. Oliver, and found by the workmen who dug the canal.
These were the only Indian villages on the
12
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
Juniata in Perry county, owing to the fact that the river was too much hemmed in by mountains between its mouth and Newport, and the distance to Millerstown was not great enough for two sets of people to live nearer, who depended upon hunt- ing and fishing for a living. The Newport Indians had the celebrated fishery now owned by Robert Mitchell, Esq., while those at Millerstown doubt- less fished from North's Island, below the rope ferry, westward. The hunting grounds of the former extended along the Buffalo creek, on the west, and into Buck's Valley on the east of the Juniata. This is said to have been abundant in deer and smaller game.
The Millerstown Indians had the range of Wild- cat, Pfoutz's and Raccoon valleys, which furnished rich returns of deer, bear, raccoon, turkey, squir- rels, etc. Then the rarest of Juniata shad sported in their greatest abundance in its waters, while every tributary abounded in the speckled trout and salmon.
Fishing was followed as a business by the early settlers until 1840, during spring and fall, and yielded large returns. The public works threw dams across the river, and saw-mills were erected on the tributary streams, thus preventing the return of the fish in the spring of the year to spawn, and destroying them by the sawdust. The making of the Juniata canal marks the era of the downfall of the fisheries. Since then fish-baskets have been erected below the Millerstown dam, but the Legislature has declared it an illicit business, and as such only is it now pursued.
13
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
Safe from all harm, except the net, spear and hook, it is hoped the fish will again multiply and fill our waters, as in days of yore.
After the burning of the cabins and binding the settlers in recognizance of £100 each, settlements were made in various parts within the present limits of Perry county. Thc arm of the Provis- ional government could remove the settlers and burn their cabins, but it could not prevent their returning. The Indians threatened summary ven- geance if the government did not prevent this. Hence, to satisfy all parties and obviate further difficulties, the purchase of a large tract of land from the Indians was strongly recommended by Governor Hamilton. This brought about the Albany treaty, to which allusion has been made previously, in which it was stipulated that for the consideration of £400, John and Richard Penn should have all that tract of land extending from the Kittatinny Mountains east of the Alleghany Mountains. The Indian chiefs and sachems who were not present at the treaty declared the whole transaction a fraud, and even those who were present afterward contended that they did not un- derstand the points of the compass, and if the line were run to include the west branch of the Susque- hanna they would never agree. This treaty, ac- cording to Smith's Laws, vol. xxI., p. 120, included the land where the Shawnee and Ohio Indians lived, and the hunting grounds of the Dclawares, the Nanticokes and the Tuletos.
On the 3d of February, 1755, the Land Office 1*
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
was opened for the sale of lands in Sherman's Valley and on the Juniata river. While the sale of these lands was progressing, General Braddock was moving toward "Braddock's Field," where British pride and contempt for the advice of expe- rienced American officers in Indian warfare paid for the dissatisfaction of the savages a year ago at Albany. This was the longest retreat on record, and well evinced the leadership of Washington, who so masterly conducted the haughty red-coats from the scene of their leader's death.
Owing to the fact that Braddock's defeat left the whole frontier exposed to the ravages of the cruel and merciless savages, very little land was entered at the Land Office from the fall of 1755 to 1761.
All the settlements north of the Kittatinny Moun- tains were wasted by the savages and the improve- ments destroyed or deserted, and their inhabitants fled to Cumberland Valley for protection. The settlers of Sherman's Valley, and on the Juniata, suf- fered in common with all others similarly exposed. In Pfoutz's Valley; we have vague accounts of the torturing of white human beings while the relent- less savages held their demoniacal revels around the fagots which slowly consumed their victims. Such a scene is said to have occurred around a hick- ory tree at St. Michael's church, more than a cen- tury ago. It is probable that the same hickory tree which now stands at the corner of the grave-yard was the one.
In Sherman's Valley Indian atrocity reached the highest degree of cruelty. Here the well-known
15
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
savage vengeance was wreaked upon man, woman and child.
From Robert Robinson's narrative we obtain the following: In the year 1756, a man named Woolcomber, living on the south side of Sherman's creek, not far from Center, declined to leave his home or remove his family, on the ground that it was the Irish who were killing one another ; "the peaceable Indians," said he, "will harm no one."
While at dinner one day, a number of Indians came into Woolcomber's house. He invited then to eat, when an Indian answered that they did not come to eat, but for scalps. When Woolcomber's son, who was then about fifteen years of age, heard the Indian's reply, he left the table and walk- ed out of the house through a back door. Looking back when he was out of the house, he saw an In- dian strike his tomahawk into his father's head. He then ran across Sherman's creek, which was near to the house, and as he ran his fears were confirmed by the screams of his mother, sisters and brothers. He came to our (Robinson's) fort and gave the alarm, whereupon about forty volunteers went to the scene of the murder and buried the dead. The Indians were never punished. Wool- comber was a Quaker of the non-resistant kind : one who relied upon the promise of the Indian orator who assured William Penn, seventy-four years before, that "the Indians and English will live in love as long as the sun and moon shall en- dure," and thus sacrificed himself and family to his faith in a savage's promise.
16
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
In July, 1756, which we are induced to believe was subsequent to the murder of the Woolcomb- ers, the settlers of Sherman's Valley gathered the women and children into Robinson's Fort, and went out in companies to reap the harvest.
A party of Indians stealthily approached the fort and killed a Miss Miller, daughter of Robert Miller, John Simmeson, Mrs. Wilson, wife of James Wilson, and the widow Gibson, and carried with them as prisoners Hugh Gibson and Betsy Henry
The reapers, hearing the firing of guns at the fort, returned home as hastily as possible, but they came too late to meet the savages, who had made good their escape.
The following is Hugh Gibson's account of his captivity : "At the time my mother was killed, I was taken prisoner, and suffered much from hun- ger and abuse. Many times they beat me severely, and once sent me to gather wood to burn myself. I was adopted into an Indian family, and lived as they did, though the living was poor. I was four- teen years of age when I was captured. My In- dian father's name was Busqueetam. He was lame in consequence of a wound received from his knife, while skinning a deer ; and being unable to walk, he ordered me to drive sticks into the ground, and cover them with bark, to make a lodge for him to live in ; but the forks not being securely fastened, they gave away and the bark fell down upon him and hurt him severely, which put him in a great rage, and calling for his scalping-knife, he would have killed me, but my Indian mother took care to
17
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
convey the knife away and ordered me to conceal myself, which I did until his passion wore off, and we did very well in the future. Some time after this, all the prisoners in the neighborhood were collected to be spectators of the death by torture of a poor, unhappy woman, a fellow-prisoner, who had escaped and been recaptured. They stripped her naked, tied her to a post, and pierced her with red-hot irons, the flesh sticking to the irons at every touch. She screamed in the most pitiful manner, and cried for mercy, but the ruthless bar- barians were deaf to her agonizing shrieks and prayers, and continued their horrid cruelty until death came to her relief.
"At last a favorable opportunity offered to gain my liberty. Busqueetam lost a horse and sent me to hunt him. After hunting some time, I came home and told him I had discovered his tracks at some considerable distance, and that I thought I would find him ; that I would take my gun and provisions, and would hunt for three or four days, and if I could kill a deer or a bear, I would pack home the meat on the horse." Thus lulled, the suspicions of Gibson's real design were not aroused until he had ample time to effect his escape.
During the year following the murders by the Indians which have just been related, so many urgent petitions were sent to Governor Morris that he sent a message to the Assembly, stating that the people to the west of the Susquehanna, distressed by the frequent incursions of the enemy, and weak- ened by their great losses, are moving into the in-
18
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
terior parts of the province, and I am fearful that the whole country will be evacuated, if timely and vigorous measures are not taken to prevent it.
The Assembly were at first disposed to regard this statement as the mere fancy of an excited mind, but the news of the horrible savage slaughter coming from so many quarters, they were induced to pass a bill for raising forty thousand pounds, but carefully incorporated into it a clause taxing the proprietary estates. For the reason that the bill contained the odious clause relating to the pro- prietary, it was vetoed by the Governor.
The proprietary presented the Governor five thou- sand pounds about this time, which were immedi- ately applied to the frontier defense of the colony.
Governor Morris and the Assembly disagreed as to the urgency of protecting the defenseless fron- tier settlements from the ravages of the French and Indians combined. The matter, with the petitions of citizens of Cumberland county, was referred to the King of Great Britain. The petitioners were . heard in London, before a committee of the Privy Council, Mr. Paris acting as their agent, with Messrs. Yorke and Forrester as his counsel, and Messrs. Sharp, Henly and Pratt representing the Assembly.
The committee denounced the conduct of the Assembly in relation to the public defense since the year 1742, and characterized their militia bill as a flimsy pretext to exempt persons from military service, rather than to promote and encourage them to take up arms in defense of their homes.
19
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
After considering the report of the special com- mittee, the Privy Council were of opinion that the Legislature of Pennsylvania, as of every other country, was bound to support such goverment and its subjects; that the measures heretofore adopted by the Assembly for that purpose were improper, inadequate and ineffectual ; and that there was no cause to hope for other measures, whilst the majority of the Assembly consisted of persons whose avowed principles were against military ser- vice; who, though not a sixth part of the inhabi- tants of the province, were admitted to hold offices of trust and profit, and to sit in the Assembly without their allegiance being secured by the sanc- tion of an oath.
In February, of 1756, a party of Indians from Shamokin came to the Juniata to Hugh Mitchel- tree's, who lived near the river. He had goneto Car- lisle on business, and got Edward Nicholas to stay at his house until he should return. The Indians killed Mrs. Mitcheltree and young Nicholas before they left.
From Micheltree's this same party of Indians proceeded up the river to where the Lukens now live. Mrs. William Wilcox and her son had crossed the river shortly before, and while she was staying for a visit at old Edward Nicholas' house, they made their appearance, killed old Mr. Nicho- as and his wife, and took Joseph, Thomas and Catharine Nicholas, John Wilcox, (the son who ac- companied his mother over the river), James Arm- strong's wife and two children, prisoners. While
20
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
committing these depredations in Juniata county, an Indian named Cotties wished to be cap- tain of this party, but they did not choose him; whereupon he and a boy went to Sherman's creek, and killed William Sheridan and his family, thir- teen in number. They then went down the creek to where three old persons lived, two men and a 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.
These murders were caused by the French, who offered large rewards for the scalps of the English which should be brought in by the Indians.
In the autumn of 1756, James Bell and his brother agreed to go into Sherman's Valley to hunt for deer, and were to meet at Sterret's Gap, on the Kittatinny Mountains. By some means or other, they did not meet, and Samuel slept that night in a cabin belonging to Mr. Patton, on Sherman's creek. The next morning he had not traveled far before he spied three Indians, who saw him at the same time. They all fired at each other ; he wound- ed one of the Indians, but received no damage, ex- cept that his clothes were pierced with balls. Sev- eral shots were fired from both sides, each shelter- ed by the covert of trees. He now stuck his tomahawk into the tree behind which he stood, so that should they approach he might be prepared. The tree was grazed with the Indian's balls, and he had thought seriously of making his escape by flight, but hesitated, fearing his ability to outrun them. After some time the Indians took the
21
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
wounded one and put him over the fence, one tak- ing one course and the other another, intending to make a circuit so that Bell could no longer secure himself by the tree. But in trying to reach these advantageous positions they had to expose them- selves, when he had the good fortune to shoot one of them dead. The other ran and took the dead In- dian on his back, one leg over each shoulder. By this time, Bell's gun was re-loaded; he then ran after the Indian until he came within forty yards of him, when he shot through the dead Indian and lodged a ball in the living one, who dropped the dead man and ran off. On his return home from the deer hunt, Bell coming past the fence where the wounded Indian lay, he dispatched him, but did not know that he had killed the third Indian until his bones were found years afterward.
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