USA > Pennsylvania > A history of the Juniata Valley and its people, Volume I > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
Captain, William Hendricks; First Lieutenant, John McClellan; Second Lieutenant, Francis Nichols; Third Lieutenant, George Francis ; Sergeants, Thomas Gibson, Henry Crone, Joseph Greer, and William McCoy ; Privates, Edward Agnew, George Albright, Thomas Anderson, John Blair, Philip Boker, Alexander Burns, Peter Burns, William Burns, John Campbell, Daniel Carlisle, Roger Casey, Joseph Caskey, John Chambers, Thomas Cooke, John Corswill, John Cove, John Craig, Mat- thew Cummings, Arthur Eckles, Peter Frainer, Francis Furlow, John Gardner, William Gommel, Daniel Graham, James Greer, Thomas Greer, John Hardy, John Henderson, Elijah Herdy, James Hogge, James In- load, Dennis Kelley, William Kirkpatrick, David Lamb, Thomas Lesley, John Lorain, Richard Lynch, Daniel McClellan, Richard McClure, Henry McCormick, Henry McEwen, Archibald McFarlane, Barnabas Mc- Guire, John McLin, John McCurdy, Jacob Mason, Philip Maxwell, George Morrison, George Morrow, Edward Morton, Thomas Murdoch, Daniel North, Daniel O'Hara, William O'Hara, John Ray, James Reed, George Rinehart, Edward Rodden, William Shannon, William Smith, William Snell, Robert Steel, Abraham Swaggerty, Hugh Sweeney, Edward Sweeny, Matthew Taylor, Henry Turpentine, Thomas Wither- of, Joseph Wright, and Michael Young.
The members of this company were all from Cumberland county, most of them from that section now comprising the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry. It left Carlisle on July 15, 1775, went into camp at Cambridge on August 8th, where it was assigned to Colonel Thompson's command, but on the 5th of September was ordered to join General Benedict Arnold on the expedition against Quebec. Lieutenant John McClellan died on November 3, 1775, while on the march through the wilderness; Captain Hendricks was killed in the assault on the palace gate at Quebec, January I, 1776, when most of the men belonging to the company were captured. Some of them were exchanged the follow- ing autumn, but others were held prisoners until the spring of 1777. The
239
HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
greater portion of them reentered the service and remained in the army until the close of the war.
Colonel Thompson's battalion reached Boston about the last of Au- gust, 1775, and was stationed first on Prospect Hill, later on Cobble Hill. It was designated the Second regiment (after January 1, 1776, the First regiment) "of the army of the United Colonies, commanded by His Excellency George Washington, Esquire, general and commander- in-chief." Thacher's Military Journal of the Revolution thus describes. the men of the battalion : "They are remarkably stout and hardy men, many of them exceeding six feet in height. They are dressed in rifle shirts and round hats. These men are remarkable for the accuracy of their aim, striking a mark with great certainty at two hundred yards' distance. At a review, a company of them, while on a quick advance, fired their balls into objects of seven inch diameter, at a distance of two. hundred and fifty yards. They are now stationed on our lines and their shot have frequently proved fatal to British officers and soldiers who exposed themselves to view, even at more than double the distance of common musket shot."
Such was the character of the soldiers furnished by the Juniata valley to the Continental army in the War of Independence. The esti- mation in which these frontiersmen were held by General Washington is shown by his letter from New York to the president of the Continental Congress, under date of April 22, 1776, in which he said: "The time for which the riflemen enlisted will expire on the Ist of July next, and, as the loss of such a valuable and brave body of men will be of great injury to the service, I would submit it to the consideration of Congress whether it would not be best to adopt some method to induce them to continue. They are, indeed, a very useful corps, but I need not mention this as their importance is already known to the Congress."
On July 1, 1776, the first term of enlistment having expired, the riflemen reënlisted for two years, which was later changed to "during the war," and the organization was then designated as the First regiment of the Pennsylvania line in the Continental service.
Colonel William Irvine was commissioned in January, 1776, as com- mander of the Sixth Pennsylvania battalion. In Captain Robert Adams' company of that battalion William Bratton, a resident of what is now Mifflin county, was first lieutenant. Later he became captain of a com-
240
HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
pany, most of the members of which came from the territory now in- cluded in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry. Following is the roster of the company :
Captain, William Bratton; Lieutenant, Thomas McCoy; Ensign, William Armstrong; Sergeants, Amos Chapman, Thomas Giles, and Timothy O'Neal; Drummer, Edward Steen; Fifer, John Waun; Pri- vates, John Beatty, William Carman, Patrick Carter, John Daily, Daniel Dunnivan, Edward Edgarton, James Elliott, Henry German, Thomas Giles, Michael Gilmore, David Hall, Francis Henry, James Higgins, Fergus Lee, Peter Lloyd, Richard Lowden, Gilbert McCay, Neal Mc- Cay, Patrick McDonald, John McGeghan, John McKean, Peter Martin, Fergus Moore, John Prent, William Redstone, Peter Rooney, John Ryan, Patrick Shockey, James Simonton, Thomas Simonton, and John Taylor.
The battalion was reorganized at Carlisle on March 15, 1777, when the men reenlisted for three years and the organization became the Sev- enth Pennsylvania regiment of the Continental line. The men compos- ing it were paid off and discharged at Carlisle in April, 1781. Captain Bratton was wounded at the battle of Germantown and a township of Mifflin county is named in his honor.
A resolution was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 18, 1775, recommending that "all able-bodied, effective men between the sixteen and fifty years of age should immediately form themselves into companies of militia, to consist of one captain, two lieutenants, one en- sign, four sergeants, four corporals, one clerk, one drummer, one fifer, and about sixty-eight privates; the companies to be formed into regi- ments or battalions, officered with a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, two ma- jors, and an adjutant or quartermaster; all officers above the rank of captain to be appointed by the provincial authorities."
Pursuant to this recommendation, that portion of Cumberland county which now forms the county of Perry furnished the greater portion of the Seventh battalion, Cumberland county militia, commanded by Colonel Frederick Watts. Colonel Watts was born in Wales in 1719, came to America about 1760 and two years later located in what is now Wheat- field township, Perry county, his farm bordering on the Juniata river. He died there on October 3, 1795. His battalion consisted of eight com- panies, commanded by Captains James Fisher, James Power, William
241
HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
Sanderson, William Blain, Frederick Taylor, Edward Graham, John Buchanan, and Thomas Clark. Samuel Ross was lieutenant-colonel of the battalion, and David Mitchell was major. No complete roster of the organization can be found, but it is known that the command consisted of forty-five officers and 465 enlisted men. The battalion, or a part of it, "went on a tour of duty early in 1776," the records showing that an order was issued "for money to be sent to Colonel Frederick Watts, to be used for defraying the expense of forwarding his men to camp." etc. He was present and was captured at the surrender of Fort Wash- ington, November 16, 1776, but was soon afterward exchanged and returned home.
In addition to the Juniata valley men in the above mentioned organi- zations, there were a number from the valley in various other commands. In fact, the territory included in the four counties treated in this work were represented in almost every regiment of the Pennsylvania line. As late as 1820 there were thirty-two pensioners of the Revolution residing within the limits of Huntingdon county ; a number of veterans settled in Mifflin county after the war; nineteen were residents of Perry county some years after the independence of the United States became an estab- lished fact, and there were fourteen pensioners living in Juniata county in 1840, one of them, Emanuel Ebbs, of Fayette township, being at that time one hundred and six years of age. John Graham, who was one of the seventeen men who came out with General Anthony Wayne from the attack on Stony Point, settled on a farm in Wayne township, Mifflin county, and there passed the remainder of his life. Thomas Brown, a veteran of Perry county, provided in his will "for the reading of the Declaration of Independence over his open grave, after which a minister was to pray for him and his beloved country."
During the Revolution no regular English troops invaded the Juniata valley but the fact that so many of the settlers had left their homes to battle for the cause of liberty awakened fears that the British would incite the Indians to attack the weakened frontier. Then there were the Tories. The terms Whig and Tory were introduced at the time the port of Boston was closed by an act of the British Parliament, the former being applied to those who sympathized with the Boston people and op- posed the act of Parliament and the latter to describe those who upheld Great Britain in her efforts to subjugate the colonies. Lytle says: "That
242
HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
part of Bedford which now constitutes Huntingdon county was the center of tory strength and activity. The disaffected element was scat- tered over all parts of it but existed principally at Huntingdon, on Stone creek, Shaver's creek, the Raystown Branch and the Aughwick, and in Canoe, Woodcock and Hare's valleys."
No serious trouble occurred on the frontier until the spring of 1778. The Tories in the vicinity mentioned by Lytle conceived the idea of gathering a large force of Tories and Indians at Kittanning, from which point they would march eastward through the Cumberland and Juniata valleys, killing and plundering the inhabitants along the line of march, sparing only those families that displayed the Tory flag. Secret meet- ings were held at the house of the Tory leader, John Weston, in Canoe valley west of Water Street. Jacob Hare, whose home was near Maple- ton, and a man named McKee, from Amberson valley, were active in promoting the expedition. Late in April some thirty-five men assembled at Weston's house and started for Kittanning. The fate of the enterprise is well told in a letter from Colonel John Piper, of Bedford, to the supreme executive council, under date of May 4, 1778. "They came up," says Colonel Piper, "with a body of Indians near or at the Kittan- nings, and in conferring with them, they, the Indians, suspecting some design in the white people, on w'ch one of their Chiefs shot one Weston, who was the Ring-leader of the Tories, and scalped him before the Rest, and immediately (as if Divine Providence, ever attentive to Baffle and defeat the Schemes and Measures of wicked Men) the rest fled and dis- persed."
A company of loyal citizens followed the Weston party and succeeded in capturing five of the Tories, who were lodged in jail at Bedford. Those who escaped never returned to the Juniata valley. Some went to Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh), whence they went south and were later joined by their families. In his flight Jacob Hare stopped for the night with a Tory friend near the village of Concord. Learning of his identity, the neighbors surrounded the house and took him into custody. After dis- cussing various methods of punishment it was finally decided to cut off his ears and turn him loose. Professor Guss says that "William Dar- lington, taking a case-knife with a hacked blade, executed the sentence by sawing off both his ears close to his head." The failure of the Weston expedition ended the fears of a Tory invasion, but from the Indians
243
HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
there was always imminent danger. As a means of protection a number of forts were established along the border.
An old French map of 1758 shows "Fort Standen Stone." where the city of Huntingdon is now located, but the existence of a military post there at that time is extremely problematical. The commission appointed by the state to locate the frontier forts says that Fort Standing Stone was built in 1762, at the mouth of the creek of the same name, near the junction of Penn and Second streets in the borough of Huntingdon. Before it was finished the Pontiac war so frightened the settlers that they fled to Carlisle. At the beginning of the Revolution the fort was rebuilt on a more elaborate scale and it was "the only reliable place of refuge for the people residing as far west as the Allegheny mountains."
Fort Anderson, built in 1778, was situated on Shaver's creek near the mouth, "directly across the creek from Petersburg along the road leading to Alexandria." It was named for Samuel Anderson, who was regarded as the most active and energetic man in the Shaver's creek settlement during the Revolution.
Fort Hartsog (or Hartsock's fort) was built about 1778 for the de- fense of the settlers in the Woodcock valley. It stood not far from Marklesburg, "on the brow of a hill about 150 feet east of the road from Marklesburg to Huntingdon.
McAlvey's fort, also built about 1778, was a blockhouse which stood on a bluff overlooking the Standing Stone creek in the northeast- ern corner of Huntingdon county and not far from the present village of that name. It was named for Captain William McAlevy, one of the first settlers in that region and one of the most active patriots at the time of the Revolutionary war.
Another frontier fort was Alexander McCormick's house near Neff's Mills. When rumors of an Indian uprising grew rife in the spring of 1778, the people of Stone valley determined to build a fort and Mr. Mc- Cormick agreed to permit his house to be used for that purpose. It was accordingly put in a state of defense, the walls pierced by loopholes, etc., and formed the principal rallying point for the settlement.
Crum's fort, supposed to have been built about the same time as Mc- Cormick's, was located a short distance northeast of Manor Hill and formed another place of refuge for the people of Stone valley. But little can be learned of this fort.
244
HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
Fort Lytle, whose history is also somewhat obscure, was situated in what is now Porter township, Huntingdon county, and formed the prin- cipal defense for the inhabitants of the Hartslog valley.
Fort Lowry, three miles southwest of Water Street, and Fort Rob- erdeau in Sinking valley, although in Blair county, were important posts in protecting the Juniata valley from Indian forays. Both were built in 1778. General Daniel Roberdeau, then a member of Congress, obtained a leave of absence to visit the valley for the purpose of mining lead ore for the Continental army. To protect his workmen a stockade was built, which was called Fort Roberdeau. Lead ore could not be found in sufficient quantities to justify the mining operations, but the stockade remained and was used by the settlers as a place of refuge.
Few of these frontier forts were built by provincial authority or furnished with regular garrisons. They were merely places of shelter erected by the settlers themselves, but they served the purpose of holding the Indians in abeyance and lessening the danger of invasion.
The surrender of General Cornwallis' army of more than 7,000 men at Yorktown, October 19, 1781, practically ended the Revolutionary war. Preliminary articles of peace between Great Britain and the American colonies were agreed to on November 30, 1782, and by the treaty of Paris, which was concluded on September 3, 1783, Great Britain ac- knowledged the independence of the United States of America. Then, with the exception of a little excitement over the "Whiskey Insurrec- tion" in 1794, the people of the Juniata valley were not disturbed by "war's rude alarums" until
THE WAR OF 1812
The immediate cause of the War of 1812-the second war with Great Britain-grew out of England's policy of searching American ships and impressing seamen under the plea that they were British sub- jects. For years the United States protested against the so-called "right of search," but the protests were ignored. Although war was not for- mally declared by Congress until June 18, 1812, President Madison had before that time taken steps to place the country upon a war footing. In 1811 Congress was convened a month earlier than usual and promptly responded to the measures adopted by the President by authorizing a call for 100,000 volunteers, Pennsylvania's quota being fixed for 14,000
245
HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
men. On May 12, 1812, Governor Simon Snyder issued a call for 14,000 militia. In his proclamation he expressed the hope that the state would volunteer her quota, and Egle says: "Such was the enthusiasm of the hour that in response to the governor's call three times as many troops tendered their services as were required. The disappointment of some was so great that money was freely offered to secure a place among those accepted by the authorities."
At that time the counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin and Centre consti- tuted the Eleventh militia district, the quota of which under the call was 686 men. Juniata county was then a part of Mifflin, and Perry was a part of Cumberland. On May 4, 1812, eight days before Governor Snyder issued his call, and more than a month before the formal declara- tion of war, Captain Robert Allison's company, the "Huntingdon Vol- unteers," voted unanimously "to tender their services to the president in the then impending war with Great Britain."
Notwithstanding troops were called for in May, no companies left the Juniata valley until the following September. According to an old diary of Captain Allison, his company consisted of forty-one privates, with the following officers: Captain, Robert Allison; First Lieutenant, Jacob Miller; Second Lieutenant, Henry Swoope; Ensign, Samuel Swoope; First Sergeant, Henry Miller. Captain Allison received his commission on August 22, 1812, and on September 7th the company left Huntingdon for Buffalo, where it arrived on October 2d, "after a march of 331 miles without tents." At Buffalo it was attached to a New York regiment commanded by a Colonel McClure, whom Captain Allison refers to as "an Irish Democrat from New York and a very clever man."
On June 9, 1812, Moses Canan, captain of a company called the "Juniata Volunteers," a light infantry organization at Alexandria and attached to the One Hundred and Nineteenth regiment, tendered his company to the governor. Shortly afterward Captain Isaac Vande- vander, commander of a company of riflemen at McConnellstown, Hunt- ingdon county, and Jacob Vanderbelt, captain of a rifle company in the same county, offered the services of their respective companies. In gen- eral orders dated August 25th and September 5th, Governor Snyder accepted these companies, and on September IIth they left Alexandria for Meadville, where they joined other commands bound for Niagara.
Captain John McGarry's company of fifty-nine men, from that part
246
HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
of Mifflin county which is now Juniata, left Mifflintown on September 8, 1812, for Meadville. This company belonged to the First brigade of the Eleventh militia division. The next day the "Thompsontown Blues" started for the front. In the Long Narrows they were met by a number of Lewistown citizens and Captain Milliken's Troop of Horse and es- corted to the county seat, where their reception amounted to an ovation. On the morning of the 10th they continued their march toward Mead- ville and at Pottersville were met by a company from Aaronsburg, Cen- tre county. No roster or muster roll of these companies can be found in the Pennsylvania Archives.
The following call was published in the Juniata Gazette (now the Lewistown Gazette) of September 11, 1812: "The members of Cap- tain Milliken's Troop of Horse are requested to meet at the house of Alexander Reed on Saturday, the 19th inst. All those persons desirous of serving their country are earnestly invited to come forward and join the troop."
No roster of Captain Milliken's company has been preserved, but it is known that it went to Meadville and from there to Buffalo with a number of other commands from the Juniata valley. The term of ser- vice of these first companies must have been rather short, as the Juniata Gazette of December 25, 1812, announces the return unhurt ( !) of all those who had marched from Mifflin county to the border.
In the military operations about Niagara during the summer and fall of 1812 the American troops were at first under the command of General Van Rensselaer. The conduct of the New York militia at Queenstown and other places so discouraged him that he resigned his command and was succeeded by General Alexander Smyth. It was not long before Smyth was charged with incompetency, disloyalty and cow- ardice and a mutiny broke out among the soldiers, in which the Penn- sylvania militia was especially active. Within three months Smyth was removed, but when the Juniata boys returned home in December they had rather unpleasant stories to tell of their military service. Linn's "Annals of the Buffalo Valley" says: "They give different accounts of the pro- ceedings at Black Rock, but all say that they came off without being discharged, and all agree that General Smythe has acted the part of a traitor."
The unfortunate experience of the first volunteers, together with the
247
HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
removal of the seat of war farther from the interior, had a tendency to abate the military enthusiasm, so that when a call was made for more troops in 1813 the response was not as prompt as in the preceding year. A number of companies were raised by draft, two of them from Hunt- ingdon county. The officers of the first of these two companies were : William Morris, captain; Daniel Weaver, first lieutenant; William Is- grigg, second lieutenant; Cornelius Crum, third lieutenant; William Love, ensign; Alexander Cresswell, Henry Newingham, John Stratton, Joseph Metzbaugh, William Wilson, John Brotherland, and Joseph Esk- ley, sergeants. Lieutenant Crum resigned on June 5th, when Ensign Love was promoted to the vacancy, and on the same date Alexander Cresswell was made orderly sergeant. The muster roll of this company shows eighty-one privates. The other drafted company from Hunting- don county was officered as follows: Captain, Edmund Tipton; First Lieutenant, John McCabe; Second Lieutenant, Isaac Vantrees; Third Lieutenant, John Cox; Fourth Lieutenant, Christian Deulinger ; Ensign, Patrick Madden; Sergeants, John Calderwood, Benjamin McCune, Jesse Moore, Peter Hewit, Jacob Shafer. Seventy-seven privates were en- rolled in this company.
Captain Matthew Rodgers' company, of Mifflin county, was mus- tered into the United States service on May 5, 1813, and served to Sep- tember 17, 1813, in the regiment commanded by Colonel Reese Hill. This company consisted of eighty-seven privates and the following offi- cers : Captain, Matthew Rodgers; First Lieutenant, James Crisswell ; Second Lieutenant, John McCoy; Third Lieutenant, Michael Holman; Ensign, Robert U. Elliott ; Sergeants, William Butler, Samuel McKil- lips, James Dunn, Samuel Edmiston, William Robb, and Samuel Craw- ford. There were also a drummer, a fifer, and four corporals.
When Commodore Perry, late in July, called for volunteers to serve on board his fleet on Lake Erie, sixteen men from Captain Rodgers' company answered the call. They were Ensign Elliott, Corporal Rich- ard Fear, Fielding Alford, John Adams, William Allen, William Henry, Henry Hoyt, Neal Leyman, Alexander Metlin, James Mitchell, John Rice (said to have been the last survivor of Perry's force), James Sims, Daniel Swisher, Samuel Sweezy, William Shuler and Jacob Tool.
The story of Perry's victory has been told and retold in history, but it is not generally known that two Mifflin county boys rowed the boat
248
HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
that carried Commodore Perry from one ship to another while the battle was raging. Alexander Metlin and Jacob Tool were from the ferry at Mifflintown, where they had developed considerable skill in rowing. When the Lawrence was disabled the two young men were called upon to row their intrepid commander to the Niagara and succeeded in per- forming the hazardous feat under a heavy fire from the British guns. One shot struck the little boat, tearing a great hole in its side, but Perry whipped off his coat and stopped the leak, thus enabling them to reach the Niagara in safety. Had it not been for the expert manner in which Metlin and Tool handled their oars the famous despatch-"We have met the enemy and they are ours"-might never have been written. Nor is it generally known that James Sims, another Juniata county volunteer, was the first man to board the British vessel, Queen Charlotte, after her surrender, receiving therefor the reward of five hundred dollars.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.