USA > Pennsylvania > Annals of Buffalo Valley, Pennsylvania, 1755-1855 > Part 14
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John Bashor's daughter, Catherine, married Jacob Wolfe, son of George Wolfe, one of the first settlers of our Valley. Her children were Samuel Wolfe, late of Lewisburg, Michael, Jacob, and Jona- than, still living at Lewisburg.
Albert Pohlhemus and wife, driven off from Muncy, both died at Northumberland. They left seven small children, who became charges upon the public. One of them was bound to Elias Younk- man; some to William Thompson. Court ordered them to be brought up in the Presbyterian form of worship.
Paul Fisher (of Slifer) tells me that at the time Bashor was killed, his grandfather, John Fisher, lived at Esquire Datisman's. The In- dians burned Peter Swartz's house, and killed a man named Ayres, near White Deer creek. His grandfather, with his two sisters, con- cealed themselves in the straw in their barn, and expected every mo-
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ment to be burned up in it; but the Indians went into Hoffman's house, just above, and carried out a good many articles, among the rest a clock. They seated themselves to examine the clock, when Aaron Norcross, John Fisher, junior, and others who had gathered, hallooed and startled them off, leaving their plunder. This old clock is still in the possession of Jacob Hoffman, living up near the Muncy hills.
David Quinn, Esquire, of Chicago, grandson of Terrence Quinn, has furnished me with an interesting incident of this attack of the Indians in Dry valley. He says, " my great grandfather Corinnius Michael, an old soldier of the days of Frederick the Great, emi- grated to America, prior to the Revolution, and brought with him two daughters. What became of the youngest, after her arrival, for some time, is now unknown; but the oldest, Mary, was sold for a term of years, as was the custom in those days, to pay her passage over. While residing with the family that purchased her in Lancas- ter, Pennsylvania, my grandfather, Terrence Quinn, formed her acquaintance, purchased her unexpired time, and married her. In 1778, they had four little children, and the other sister, unmarried, was living with them. The night the Indians entered the Valley, the news was spread through a system of alarms previously arranged ; and those who received warning, fled precipitately. My grandfather and family ran in one direction, and my grandaunt in another.
" They were thus separated, and continued separated for fifty-two years, each one supposing the other had been tomahawked. At the end of this long period, one of my grandmother's neighbors, whose name I have forgotten, was traveling in the Mahanoy valley, at a time when the stream was so swollen that she was compelled to stop at a farm house for shelter. While here, she fell into conversation about friends and relatives with an old woman, who proved to be the grandmother of the house full of children, and the mother of John Lechman, the proprietor of the premises. The old lady re- lated the story of her kindred, and among other things remarked, that she once had a sister, but she had been killed by the Indians, in a place called Dry valley, more than fifty years ago. A little more conversation developed who she was, and the joyful informa- tion, that her visitor was a neighbor of her sister, and she was still alive, and lived on Turtle creek, near Lewisburg. The traveler re- turned, and told her story. Before the sun had risen over Montour's
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ridge the next morning, Mary Quinn, though in her ninetieth year, was on her way to see her long lost sister. They met, but not as they parted. Each frame, now bent with the weight of years, em- braced its kindred, long mourned as dead. Such a meeting, who can describe ? The sacred pensman of the history of Joseph, alone. It was their final meeting, too; but they are now where there are no partings."
(1872.) Philip Seebold told me he often heard old Mrs. Fought tell of this raid. She said, they were threshing flax on their place, where the road through Chappel's Hollow comes out into Dry val- ley, when the Indians came upon them suddenly. Her baby was near her, and she picked it up and ran. Another child, that could just run about, was back of their little barn. She heard it call, " O mother, take me along, too." She looked around, and the Indians were close upon her. She ran the whole way, two miles, to Penn's creek, to a house where the neighbors had gathered. She never heard of her child again; but as there was no indication that it was killed, she hoped for its return some day. At night and in the quiet hours of the day, the last words of her child, " O mother, take me along, too," she said, rang in her ears, long years after.
She said the house they took refuge in, was surrounded by the Indians. They suffered from thirst, and a man named Peter said he would have water, if he died for it. They allowed him to go out, and as he turned the corner of the house, a rifle cracked, and he fell dead. The next day the Indians withdrew, and they em- barked in canoes, and went down Penn's creek. On the Isle of Que, she said, she went into a house, and found no one about. A baby sat propped up in a cradle. On close inspection, she found it was dead, and the marks of the tomahawk.
Incidents of the Battle of Monmouth.
Captain William Wilson Potter, of Bellefonte, has the flag of the Royal Grenadiers, captured on the field of Monmouth, by his (ma- ternal) grandfather, the late Judge William Wilson, of Chillisquaque Mills, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania.
The ground or main surface is lemon, or light yellow, heavy corded silk ; five feet four inches by four feet eight ; corresponding,
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in proportions, with the flag of the seventh regiment, surrendered, among others, by Cornwallis, at Yorktown, and presented, by order of Congress, to General Washington, lately in the museum at Alex- andria, Virginia, but eight inches less in size ; the latter being six feet long, and five feet four inches wide.
The device at the upper right corner is twenty inches square, and is that of the English Union, which distinguishes the Royal standard of Great Britain. It is composed of the Cross of Saint George, to denote England, and Saint Andrew's Cross, in the form of an X, to denote Scotland. This device was placed in the corner of the Royal flag, after the accession of James the Sixth of Scotland to the throne of England, as James the First. The field of the device is blue, the central stripes (Cross of Saint George) red, the marginal ones white. It wants the Crown and Garter, and full blown rose in the centre, of the Alexandria flag.
The flag has the appearance of having been wrenched from the staff, and has a few old dust marks on the device ; otherwise it looks as bright and new as if it had just come from the gentle fingers that made it, although ninety-nine years have rolled away since its golden folds drooped in the sultry air of that June-day battle.
The battle of Monmouth occurred on the 28th of June, 1778; a fearfully hot day, evinced by the fact that fifty-nine of the British soldiers died of heat, without receiving a wound. This flag was cap- tured near the old parsonage of the Freehold, New Jersey, church, where the hottest of the fighting was. A short description of that portion of the engagement will interest many :
After General Lee's retreat was checked by General Washington, in person, the latter fornied a new line for his advanced troops, and put Lee again in command. General Washington then rode back to the main body, and formed it on an eminence, with a road in the rear and a morass in the front. The left was commanded by Lord Stirling, with a detachment of artillery; Lafayette, with Wayne, was posted in the center, partly in an orchard, and partly sheltered by a barn ; General Greene was on the right, with his artillery, under General Knox, posted on commanding ground. General Lee main- tained his advanced position as long as he could, himself coming off with his rear across a road, which traversed the morass in front of Stirling's troops. The British followed sharp, and, meeting with a
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warm reception, endeavored to turn the left flank, but were driven back. They then tried the right, but were met by General Greene's forces, and heavy discharges from Knox's artillery, which not only checked them, but raked the whole length of the columns in front of the left wing. Then came a determined effort to break the cen- ter, maintained by General Wayne and the Pennsylvania regiments, and the Royal Grenadiers, the flower of the British army, were ordered to do it. They advanced several times, crossing a hedge row in front of the morass, and were driven back. Colonel Monck- ton, their commander, then made a speech to his men, (the troops at the parsonage and those in the orchard heard his ringing voice above the storm of the battle,) and, forming the Grenadiers in solid column, advanced to the charge like troops on parade, the men marching with such precision that a ball from Comb's hill, enfilading a platoon, disarmed every man.
Wayne ordered his men to reserve their fire, and the British came on in silence within a few rods, when Monckton waived his sword above his head, and ordered his Grenadiers to charge ; simultane- ously, Wayne ordered his men to fire, and a terrible volley laid low the front ranks, and most of the officers. The colors were in ad- vance, to the right, with the colonel, and they went down with him. Captain Wilson and his company, who were on the right of the first Pennsylvania, made a rush for the colors and the body of the colonel. The Grenadiers fought desperately, and a hand to hand struggle ensued, but the Pennsylvanians secured his body and the colors. The Grenadiers gave way, the whole British army fell back to Lee's position in the morning, and decamped so quietly in the night that General Poor, who laid near them, with orders to re- commence the battle in the morning, was not aware of their de- parture.
Colonel Monckton was a gallant officer. He had been lieuenant colonel in the battle of Long Island, where he was shot through the body, but recovered. He was buried, the day after the battle, in the Freehold church-yard, about six feet from the west end of the building. The only monument that marks his grave is a plain board, painted red, upon which is painted in black letters, " Hic Jacet, Col. Monckton, killed 28th June, 1778. W. R. W." By a note-worthy coincidence in name, this board was prepared and set
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up by a Scotch school-master, named Wilson, who taught the young people in the school-house near the old meeting-house.
Chappel's painting of this battle represents the scene as Monck- ton fell, and the fearful hand to hand fight over his body ; and the little old-fashioned sword looks as if it might have been painted from the original, now in the possession of Mrs. Abram S. Wilson, of Lewistown, Pennsylvania. On the left is the old parsonage. Be- yond it the morass, (now, 1872, good meadow land with a fine stream of water running through it,) extending right and left. On the right is the rising ground from which the Grenadiers made their charge.
The sword had many adventures, and never got back to its captor in his life time. (Judge Wilson died in 1813, and is buried in the Presbyterian church yard, in Northumberland. He was as- sociate judge of Northumberland, from 1792 until his death, when he was succeeded by the late Honorable Andrew Albright.) Captain Wilson gave it to General Wayne, who presented it to General La- fayette, who took it with him to Europe, retained it all through the upheavals and riots of the French revolution, his captivity in a dungeon at Olmutz, and brought it with him to America in 1824, when he visited America, upon the invitation of the United States Government. It is a remarkable instance of his thoughfulness that, after the lapse of nearly half a century, he desired to restore it in person to Captain Wilson. He made inquiries in Philadelphia for him, and not being able to hear anything of him, he left it with old Captain Hunter, with express directions to restore it to Cap- tain Wilson, or if dead, to some of his family. After some years Captain Hunter, found out through Mrs. Billington, of Sunbury, that Judge A. S. Wilson was a son of Captain Wilson, and had the pleasure of delivering the sword to the judge, the next time he went to Philadelphia.
The flag was always in the possession of Judge Wilson, senior, and his family. I can recollect well, at least thirty-five years ago, when his son William used to display it on the 4th of July, at Lewisburg and Milton, make a speech about it, and then have a salute fired from sheriff Brady's cannon, brought from Fort Free- land.
Mrs. John B. Linn, of Bellefonte, has a very fine oil portrait of her grandfather, Captain William Wilson, taken sixty or seventy
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years ago, pronounced by aged people about Northumberland an excellent likeness.
On the 16th of July, Colonel Brodhead's regiment, on its way to Fort Pitt, was ordered to the West Branch; part of Colonel Hartley's regiment was on its way to Sunbury, and the militia were ordered up from Lancaster and Berks, and the people came back to reap their crops. July 24th, Colonel Brodhead, then at Muncy, detached a captain and twenty-four men into Penn's val- ley to protect the reapers at General Potter's place. General Pot- ter writes from Penn's valley, on the 25th, that " the inhabitants of the valley are returned, and were cutting their grain. He left Sun- bury last Sunday afternoon, and the people were returning to all parts of the county. Yesterday, two men of Captain Finley's com- pany, of Colonel Brodhead's regiment, went out from this place on the plains a little below my fields, and met a party of Indians, five in number, whom they engaged. One of the soldiers, Thomas Van Doran, was shot dead; the other, Jacob Shedacre, ran about four hundred yards, and was pursued by one of the Indians. They attacked each other with their knives, and our excellent soldier killed his antagonist. His fate was hard, for another Indian came up and shot him. He and the Indian lay within a perch of each other. These two soldiers served with Colonel Morgan in the last campaign." James Alexander, who, in after years, farmed the Old Fort farms, near Centre Hall, casually kicked up a hunting knife, so rusted as to indicate that it might have belonged either to the Indian or the soldier killed. Two stones were put up to mark the spot on William Henning's place, near Old Fort.
August 1, Colonel Hartley was in command at Sunbury, with his regulars and two hundred militia. On the 8th he was at Muncy, Colonel Brodhead's regiment having resumed its march to Fort Pitt. Lieutenant Samuel Brady belonged to this regiment-the eighth-in which he was appointed Captain July 28, 1780.
Sunbury, August 1, General Potter writes: " I came here last week to station the militia. I found General deHaas here, who said he commanded all the troops. The next day Colonel Hartley came and showed me his orders to command the troops, and po- litely requested me to take the command, which I declined, as I never was very fond of command, and this is a disagreeable one. .
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I rather chose to act as a private gentleman, and do all the good in my power ; but people will make observations."
August 8, James Brady was killed above Loyal Sock. Colonel Hartley relates the circumstance as follows : A corporal and four men of his regiment, with three militia, were ordered to guard four- teen reapers and cradlers who went to cut the grain of Peter Smith, who had his wife1 and four children killed by the Indians. On Friday they cut the greater part, and intended to complete the work next morning. Four of the reapers improperly moved off that night. The rest went to work-the cradlers, four in number, by themselves, near the house; the reapers somewhat distant. The reapers, except Brady, placed their guns around a tree. Brady thought this wrong, and put his at some distance from the rest. The morning was very foggy, and an hour after sunrise the sentry and reapers were surprised by a number of Indians, under cover of the fog. The sentry retired towards the reapers, and they in turn fell back. Brady ran towards his rifle, and was pursued by three Indians, and, within a few rods of it, was wounded. He ran for some distance, and then fell. He received another wound with a spear, and was tomahawked and scalped in an instant. The sentry fired, but was shot down, as also a militia-man. Young Brady, who is an exceeding fine young fellow, soon after, rose and came to the house. Jerome Vanness ventured to remain with him; the others fled. There were thirty Indians, supposed to be Mingoes. Brady wanted Vanness to leave him, but he would not do it. He assisted him to the river, where he drank a great deal of water. Captain Walker and a party came up from the fort at Muncy. When they approached, Brady, supposing them to be Indians, sprang to his feet and cocked his gun. They made a bier and car- ried him to Sunbury, where his mother then was. Robert Coven- hoven was one of the party. On the way he became delirious, and drank large quantities of water. It was late at night when they got there, and they did not intend to arouse his mother. But she had fears that something had happened, and met them at the river. He was a fearful looking object, and the meeting with his mother was heart-rending. He lived five days, the first four being delirious ; but on the fifth his reason returned, and he related the whole cir-
1 Peter Smith's farm was on Turkey run, across the river from Williamsport.
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cumstance distinctly. He said Bald Eagle belonged to the party, who was afterwards killed by Captain Samuel Brady, on the Alle- gheny. James Brady was buried at Fort Augusta, but his grave has, with that of many others, been long since plowed over.
August 8, the justices of the court, through Thomond Ball, deputy prothonotary, notify the president of the State Council that busi- ness is much impeded for want of an attorney to prosecute for the Commonwealth; that it was the second court at which no State attorney had appeared, and many persons hal to be admitted to bail ; that the long suspension of justice, from February, 1776, to November, 1777, had rendered the people licentious enough, and a further delay of executing the laws must lead them to lengths too difficult to be recalled ; tippling-house keepers, the notorious pro- moters of vice and immorality, remained unpunished, though fre- quently returned, for want of an indictment; that there were two prisoners for murder, one was admitted to bail and the other in close confinement, who should be brought to trial. In August, bill found against Isaac Webb for misprision of treason.
September 1, Captain John Brady returned to the army.
2 Ist September. As some of our settlers took a very prominent part in Colonel Hartley's expedition, it is worthy of a short sketch. It left Muncy on the 21st, two hundred rank and file strong, at four, A. M., with twelve days provisions. Great rains, swamps, mount- ains, and defiles impeded the march. They waded or swam the Lycoming creek twenty times. On the morning of the 26th, the advance party of nineteen men met an equal number of Indians. Our people had the first fire, and an important Indian chief was killed and scalped ; the rest fled. A few miles further, they came upon a camp where seventy Indians lay the night before. These also fled. They then pressed on to Tioga, now Athens, Bradford county. They burned Tioga, Queen Esther's palace and town. On the 28th, they crossed the river and marched towards Wyalu- sing, where they arrived at eleven o'clock that night. Here seventy of the men took to the canoes and the rest marched by land. Lieut. Sweeney commanded the rear guard of thirty men, besides five scouts under Captain Campleton. The advance guard consisted of an officer and fifteen men. At two o'clock, a heavy attack was made on the rear, which gave way. At this critical moment Cap-
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tains Boone and Brady, and Lieutenant King, with a few brave fel- lows, landed from the canoes, joined Sweeney, and renewed the action. They advanced on the enemy on all sides, with great noise and shouting, when the Indians fled, leaving their dead, (ten.) The expedition arrived at Sunbury on the 5th of October, having performed a circuit of three hundred miles, and brought off fifty head of cattle, twenty-eight canoes, &c.
November 9, Colonel Hartley writes from Sunbury that the enemy had come down and invested Wyoming, and destroyed the settlements on the North Branch as far as Nescopeck. About seventy Indians were seen twenty-two miles from here yesterday, advancing towards the forks of the Chillisquaque creek. They took some prisoners yesterday.
14th, he writes from Fort Jenkins that he is advancing towards Wyoming.
December 4, John Macpherson bought the Andrew Gibson place and ferry, now Cauley's, Winfield.
In the fall of 1778, as a party of settlers were leaving Fort Free- land, they were fired at, and Mrs. Durham's infant was killed in her arms. They scalped her, and when the men came there, she raised up and asked for a drink of water. Elias Williams ran to the river and brought his hat full. They put her in a canoe and took her to Northumberland, where Dr. Plunket dressed her wounds, and she lived for fifty years afterwards. She is buried in the Warrior Run grave-yard.
The mill of Samuel Fisher, who resided on what is now Kaufman furnace tract, was burned this fall, it was said, by some settlers, to get nails, the place having been abandoned. In a letter, in Decem- ber, Colonel Hunter expresses great regret at Colonel Hartley's departure. He says he made the very best possible use of his troops. He complains of the forestallers of grain, whom he looks upon as worse than savages, for raising the price of grain upon the people.
December 1, Joseph Reed elected President of the State, Cham- bers, Dale, and Himrod voting for him.
1779.
DEATH OF CAPTAIN JOHN BRADY-INDIAN OUTRAGES IN THE VALLEY-JOUIN SAMPLE AND WIFE KILLED-CAPTURE OF FORT FREELAND-DEATHI OF CAPTAIN HAWKINS BOONE.
P RESIDENT of the State, Joseph Reed. Councillor, John Hambright. Members of Assembly, Samuel Dale, Robert Martin, and William Montgomery. Presiding Justice, Thomas Hewitt. Prothonotary, David Harris. Officers elected in October : Sheriff, Major James Crawford; Cor- oner, John Foster ; County Commissioners, Walter Clark and Wil- liam Mackey ; Assessors, Albright Swineford, Peter Kester, William Clark, etc.
Buffalo : Constable, Joseph Taveler ; Supervisors, Casper Bower and Alexander McGrady ; Overseers, Ludwig Derr and James Mc- Celvey.
White Deer : Constable, James Pollock; Supervisors, Thomas Leckey and James McClenachan; Overseers, Thomas Hutchinson and Philip Stover.
At February sessions, Jacob Links was licensed, the first tavern in Derrstown.
25th March, Joseph McHarge made affidavit before the court, that he, with others of Colonel Cooke's twelfth Pennsylvania regi- ment, was taken prisoner at Piscataway, (10th May, 1777 ;) that he was carried to New York, compelled to take the oath of allegiance, and sent on board the vessel that carried General Howe's baggage to Philadelphia, whence he made his escape in disguise ; that his sight had failed him, and, on account of bodily infirmity, he could not go
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back into service. The court discharged him. Some companies of the twelfth were now in General St. Clair's division, first brigade. St. Clair complained to the Council, which ordered Justice Hewitt to deliver him over to the military authorities.
IIth April, Captain John Brady was killed. He was born in the State of Delaware, in 1733. His father, Hugh, an emigrant from Ireland, first settled in Delaware, and then removed to within five miles of Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. John Brady married Mary Quigley, and their eldest son, Samuel, was born in Shippensburg, in 1758. He was a surveyor and pioneer in the settlements, and lived at Standing Stone, now Huntingdon, in 1768, when his son, Gen- eral Hugh, and twin sister, Jennie, were born. In 1769 he came over on the West Branch, and settled on what is still the property of Honorable George Kremer's heirs, opposite Strohecker's landing, below Lewisburg, where he resided until the fall of 1776, when he removed to a place a little above Muncy, and built upon it. Octo- ber 14, 1776, he was appointed captain in the twelfth Pennsylvania, and was wounded severely in the battle of Brandywine.
I copy McCabe's account, published many years ago in the Blairs- ville (Indiana county) Record. For General Hugh Brady's account, see 1783. McCabe, no doubt, received his version from William P. Brady, senior :
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