USA > Pennsylvania > Annals of Buffalo Valley, Pennsylvania, 1755-1855 > Part 4
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On 25th of September, he surveyed for John Lee the small thirty- eight acre tract, at Strohecker's landing. He says he began at the white oak of the survey Ludwig Derr lives on ; thence ran N. 50°, W. 56, &c., showing that Derr then lived on the site of Lewisburg. I found Lee's receipt for the purchase money among Youngman and Walters' papers, who lately owned the place where Lee was killed by the Indians.
Michael Pfoutz was Wilson's chain-carrier.
Colonel John Kelly at this time lived on the place where he died, as appears by Mr. Wilson's notes.
In an assessment for the year 1770, of Paxton township, now Dau- phin county, occur the names of Robert Clark, Walter Clark, Robert Fruit, William Maclay, Matthew Smith, William Plunket, George
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ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.
[1771.
Overmeier, Michael Troy, William Clark, the four last named marked inmates, indicating either a widower or unmarried man; and in Middletown we find the name of Albright Swineford, all prominent in the subsequent annals.
William Scull's map of date April 4, 1770, has Mahantango creek, Middle creek, Penn's creek, Turtle, Buffalo, and White Deer creeks laid down, with their respective names. Reed's residence is marked half-way between Mahantango and Penn's. Gabriel's, now Selins- grove, is marked "Cox's borough." Nittany and Jack's mountains are on, with these respective names, but he has a range of mountains running up the river from the mouth of Buffalo creek.
1771.
GREAT FLOOD-PENN TOWNSHIP SETTLERS-GEORGE GABRIEL - FIRST MILLS BUILT-DREISBACH'S CHURCH-MICHAEL WEYLAND.
B ICHARD PENN, Lieutenant Governor from October 16. Edward Biddle and Henry Christ, Representatives of Berks county; Sheriff, George Nagle. William Allen and John Montgomery, Representatives of Cumberland ; Sheriff, Ephraim Blaine.
9th March, the Susquehanna river, Bald Eagle creek up to Spring creek, and Penn's creek, for twenty miles above its mouth, were declared public highways. John Lowdon was appointed one of the commissioners for making them navigable. I Smith's Laws, 324.
On the same day, the officers of the first and second battalions held another meeting. Charles Lukens reported that the whole tract surveyed by him on Bald Eagle creek contained only eight thousand three hundred and eighty acres, which is fifteen hundred and twenty-four acres less than the Quantity allowed them. He divided the Bald Eagle tract into twenty shares, the last of which
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ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.
1771.]
Lieutenant Askey got ; so that Lieutenant McAllister, Ensign Piper, Captain Sems, and Captain Kern yet lacked their shares. Colonel Francis then said that a grant might be obtained for the tract of land in Buffalo Valley formerly intended to be located by Captain Plunket, and since surveyed for the Proprietaries, containing one thousand and five acres. Piper was, therefore, given lot No. 6, on Bald Eagle, surveyed for Ensign Morrow, who was excluded from the grant by the Penns, because he was of the party that rescued Stump and Iron-Cutter, the murderers of the Indians on Middle creek ; Captain Kern, two hundred and eighty-seven acres, late the Chamberlain mill tract, in Kelly, now Hoffa's; Lieutenant McAl- lister, two hundred and ninety acres, late Howard farm, adjoining the above ; and Colonel Francis, for Captain Sems, five hundred and twenty-seven and one half acres, adjoining. Colonel Francis sold the latter tract to William Linn, of Lurgan township, Franklin county, who divided it among his children. His grandson, W. T. Linn, still owns his father's share.
Loskiel mentions that in the spring of this year there was a great flood in the Susquehanna, which compelled the Indians at Wyoming to leave their houses, and take to the hills, where they remained four days.
The assessment of Penn's township contains this year the names of the following additional settlers : Frederick Albright, Thomas Allen, Tobias Bickle, Henry Bower, Robert Boyd, Tobias Bickle, junior, Michael Beidenbaugh, William Burchard, Abraham Billman, George Bowerman, Peter Druckenmiller, Widow Dowd, Michael Egulph, John Foutz, George Herrold, Joseph Jacobs, Michael Kers- tetter, Bostian Kerstetter, Andrew Moor, Jacob Myer, Robert Moody, Edward McConnell, William Nees, John Regenbach, junior, Michael Stoke, Michael Swingle, Harman Snyder, Michael Weaver, George Miller, Andrew Ulsh. Freemen : Casper Snyder, Conrad Hayslick, and Michael Foutz.
George Gabriel, no doubt, died this year, as his name disappears from the assessment list. His obituary, or the only one I can find, at least, is not very complimentary. On the 13th November, 1772, at a meeting of " the officers," Mr. Lukens and Little had a claim, they said, for a location of three hundred acres, presented to them by Colonel John Armstrong, which was included in the officers' sur-
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vey, insisting that the place now called Cedar springs, Pontius's now, was the same to which Colonel Armstrong gave the name of Snake spring, in 1755; and Mr. Ewing read a paper, said to be a copy of George Gabriel's deposition, who was with Colonel Armstrong when the name was given. "We told them that their location was extremely vague, being for land near John Penn's creek, twelve miles south- ward of Fort Augusta, which did not affect our claim in the least. As to Gabriel's deposition, it is but ex parte testimony. The man is since dead, but is well known to have been a man of infamous character. That Colonel Armstrong, the gentleman who gave the location, is still living, and has declared that he cannot fix upon the spot." This claim was, no doubt, founded upon the Manor survey of 1760.
Jacob Fought built the first mill in West Buffalo township, and, perhaps, the first in the Valley, unless, we except Derr's, at Lewis- burg, the exact date of the building of which I cannot ascertain, though, probably, in 1770. The date of Fought's is fixed by an agreement, yet on record, with George Rote, dated 14th November, 1776. It recites that Fought built the mill in 1771, and a dam on the south branch of the creek. Finding that insufficient, he dug a water-course, and erected a dam to take the water from the north branch of Buffalo creek. George Rote had purchased the adjoining tract of Colonel deHaas, who had purchased of Ensign Foster. By this agreement, the yearly damage to Rote's land was fixed at £1 5s, and Fought bound himself, his heirs, and successors to pay said sum yearly; but if the mill-dam became "extink" or the water ceased to do damage, the agreement was to be void. Marks were to be made on a big rock, on an iron-wood, and on a white oak. When the water reached these marks, it was to be run over the dam. The dam on the north branch was to be three feet, and no higher. At Fought's mill the first elections in the Valley were held.
James Wilson made numerous surveys this year : 31st May, the William Kelly tract, on Black's run, on which Stahl, the noted wagon- maker, lived so long ; 22d June, Peter Herrold and John Flack- inger, on White Deer creek ; 16th August, the Thomas Mackemiss, beginning at a black oak, he says, where Samuel Maclay stopped with the officers' line, on the west line of Cumberland county, (north of Ray's church ;) 17th September, the Joseph Updegraff, the lead-
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ing survey on the north branch of Buffalo creek, (Kelly's mills.) Thomas McGuire, the elder, was then a resident of the Valley. Hawkins Boone made this year the John Musser surveys, in White Deer Hole valley, four miles from the river.
From a short sketch of the Dreisbach church, compiled by the late John Schrack, Esquire, it appears there were Lutheran and German Reformed churches organized in the Valley at this date. He speaks of a record of baptisms, extending from 1771 to 1775. The church was not built, however, and worship was held in private houses. Among the names of parents, occur those of Henry Bolender, Henry Pontius, Christian Storms, Simon Himrod. (The latter lived in Turbutt township. Was afterwards member of Assembly. The family removed to near Waterford, Erie county, in 1798.) Leonard Welker, Philip Stover, Christian Biehl, Yost Derr, Christian Ewig, Stephen Duchman, and Henry Bickel, afterwards killed by the Indians.
During this year, Daniel Nargong made an improvement on Dog run, near the site of New Columbia. He afterwards took up a tract higher up the run. His daughters married Nicholas and Jacob Welch, whose family owned the place within a few years back, and, perhaps, do still.
In November, 1771, Walter Clark, of Paxton township, bought the one thousand one hundred and fifty acres, surveyed to Reverend John Ewing, in trust for himself, Robert Fruit, William Gray, Robert Clark, and William Clark, all of the same township. They divided it into six tracts, agreed each to take one sixth, and sell the remaining tract, which they did to Ludwig Derr, 31st July, 1773. Walter Clark settled on the place now owned by Honorable Eli Slifer, William Gray where Major Paul Geddes now lives, Robert Fruit on the Heinly place, William Clark on the place now owned by M. H. Taggart, and Robert on what is now Judge Hummel's farm. Walter Clark sold to Joseph Musser in 1802, and moved to Mercer county, where his family became prominent. His son John was a member of the Legislature from that county. Captain Gray, afterwards an officer in the Revolution, lived and died on his place. He was ancestor of Dunlaps's, Hayes, Hutchinsons, Hudsons, Wal- laces, W. G. Williams, (of Bellefonte,) &c. Richard Fruit sold out to Henry Hursh in 1812, and moved to Derry, Northumberland
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ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.
[1772.
county. Robert and William Clark died on their respective places.
Among the deaths this year occurred that of Michael Weyland, leaving a widow, Magdalena, and nine children, Michael, junior, Jacob, George, John, Samuel, Mary, (married to Peter Swartz, junior,) Margaret, (to Christian Moyer,) Catherine, and Magdalena. He was buried on the place, in an old grave-yard there. Colonel James Moore told me it was still in existence when his father lived there, a little piece up the road running from the river.
1772.
NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY ERECTED-OFFICIALS-BOUNDARIES OF TOWN- SHIPS-SUNBURY LAID OUT-FIRST ROADS-CONNECTICUT CLAIM- WILLIAM SPEDDY-LUDWIG DERR-DEATHS.
B
ICHARD PENN, Lieutenant Governor. Representative in Assembly, Samuel Hunter. George Nagel, Sheriff of Berks and Northumberland.
Additional residents in Penn's township: Abraham Clements, Michael Hawn, Henry Miser, George Miller, John Swartz, Melchior Stock, Adam Steffy, Simon Scouden, widow of Andrew Moore, Benjamin Ewig, Conrad Hafflich, John Reber. The first assessments of Penn's and Buffalo, from the organization of the county down to 1775, seem to have been lost when the records were forwarded to Paxton, during the great runaway. List of settlers cannot, therefore, be given for the three years intervening.
21st March, Northumberland county was erected out of parts of Berks, Bedford, Lancaster, Cumberland, and Northampton, by the following bounds: Beginning at the mouth of Mahantango creek, up the south side, to the head of Robert Meteer's spring, (in West Perry, near Mr. Winey's, sometimes miscalled Montour's spring ;) thence west by north, to the top of Tussey's mountain; thence along
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1772. ]
the summit to the little Juniata; thence up the east side of the main branch, to the head thereof; thence north to the line of Berks county ; thence north-west, along the same line, to the extremity of the Province ; thence east, along the north boundary, to a point due north of the most northern part of Great swamp, (the numerous ponds in the upper end of Luzerne county are here referred to ;) thence south to the most southern point of said swamp; thence, with a straight line, to the head of Lehigh; thence down the creek so far that a line run west south-west will strike the forks of Mahantango creek, where Pine creek falls into the same, at the place called Spread Eagle, (now Klingerstown,) on the east side of the Susque- hanna ; thence down the south side of the creek to the river; thence across the river to the beginning.
The county, therefore, extended as far west as Lake Erie, the head of Lehigh on the east, (Pike county,) New York State on the north, and the mouth of Mahantango creek on the south. Fort Augusta was fixed as the place of election, and the county to be en- titled to one Representative. The Governor was to nominate a competent number of justices, any three of whom could hold the several courts on the fourth Tuesday of February, May, August, and November, at Fort Augusta, until a court-house should be built. William Maclay, John Lowdon, Samuel Hunter, Joseph Wallis, and Robert Moodie were appointed trustees to purchase a piece of ground on which the court-house was to be erected, subject to the Governor's approval. Thomas Lemmon was made collector of excise. Joshua Elder, James Potter, Jesse Lukens, and William Scull were appointed to run the boundary line.
Officials.
William Plunket, Turbutt Francis, Samuel Hunter, James Potter, William Maclay, John Lowdon, Thomas Lemmon, Ellis Hughes, and Benjamin Weiser confirmed as justices in Council, and William Maclay, prothonotary and clerk of the several courts, March 24.
The first county commissioners were William Gray, Thomas Hewitt, and John Weitzel. November 23, Casper Reed, of Penn's, was sworn in as county commissioner ; Alexander Hunter, county treasurer ; Walter Clark, Jonathan Lodge, Peter Hosterman, James
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Harrison, Nicholas Miller, Jacob Heverling, and Samuel Weiser, assessors.
9th April, the first court, which was a private sessions of the peace, William Plunket presiding, James Potter and John Lowdon assist- ing, was held. The county was divided into seven townships : Penn's, Augusta, Turbutt, Buffalo, Bald Eagle, Muncy, and Wyo- ming. Our annals relate only to Buffalo and Penn's.
The boundary of Buffalo commenced at the mouth of Penn's creek, at the head of the Isle of Que; thence up the same to the forks, (a few miles south of Millheim, Centre county ; ) thence by a north line to the West Branch, (this struck the river at the mouth of Bald Eagle creek, a mile below Lock Haven ;) thence down the river to the place of beginning. Thus embracing all of Union, a large part of Snyder and Centre, and a great part of Lycoming counties, as now constituted. Robert King was the first constable.
The boundary of Penn's, before that in Cumberland county, be- gan at the mouth of Mahantango creek ; thence, by the county line, to Meteer's spring; thence, with the same line, to the top of Tussey's mountain; thence, along the top thereof, easterly, to Penn's creek; thence down the creek to its mouth; thence down the river to the place of beginning. This boundary ran along the present line of Snyder county; thence to the north line of Mifflin county, at the corner of the present townships of Jackson and Brown, and em- braced part of Brown, nearly all of Armagh and Decatur town- ships, in Mifflin, the southern portions of Hartley and Lewis, and all the present county of Snyder, except Monroe township.
The first court of common pleas was held on the fourth Tuesday of May, before Justices William Plunket, Samuel Hunter, Caleb Grayson, Thomas Lemmon, and Robert Moodie. The commission of William Maclay, prothonotary, was read, and the following mem- bers of the bar sworn in: James Wilson, of York, (a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, ) then residing at York ; Robert Magaw, of Carlisle, (afterwards colonel of the Sixth Pennsylvania and defender of Fort Washington ;) Edward Burd, district attorney ; Christian Hucks1 and George North. After examination, James Potts, Charles
1 Afterwards the Tory, Captain Hueks, of Tarleton's dragoons, killed in South Carolina, in 1780-81 .- Graydon Memoirs, page 270.
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1772.]
Stedman, and Andrew Robinson. Tavern keepers applying for license were George Wolf, (below the Northumberland bridge,) Mar- tin Trester of Buffalo, and Martin Cost. The number of suits brought to August term was thirty-three. No. I was James Patton vs. James Garley-Magaw for plaintiff, Wilson for defendant. Of the first grand jurors were Captain John Brady, foreman, George Overmeier, John Rearick, Peter Leonard, William Gray, Ludwig Derr, Andrew Hafer, Hawkins Boone, James Park, and John Walk- er, all of Buffalo Valley.
Sunbury.
In a letter, dated June 2, 1772, Mr. Tilghman, Secretary of the Land Office, writes to William Maclay : "Mr. Lukens goes to lay out the town, agreeably to instructions. You are joined with him in the work. You are to treat with Mr. Lowdon, and if his title be good, and he will take a sum named in the instructions, (£200,) the town is to be laid out in the Forks; otherwise on the fort side. Wallis and Haines have said they had a right, and they must relin- quish it. As Lowdon's application was in his wife's name, she must convey. As putting the town in the forks is a concession against the interest of the Proprietaries to accommodate the people, if the place cannot be clear of claims, the town must be on the other side."
Some of the difficulties were insuperable, for the instructions to treat with Lowdon for three hundred and thirty acres, or there- abouts, situated near the point of the Forks, are stricken out of the rough draft, and on the 16th of June, the Governor and his Coun- cil issued an order to the Surveyor General, John Lukens, to repair to Fort Augusta, and, with the assistance of William Maclay, lay out a town for the county of Northumberland, to be called by the name of Sunbury, at the most commodious place between the forks of the river and the mouth of Shamokin creek. Main street to be eighty feet wide, the others sixty, the lanes and alleys twenty, &c. The town was accordingly laid out in June, 1772. On the 31st of Au- gust, William Maclay writes, that the noise about the point town is already greatly quieted, and the people begin to think Sunbury the best situation.
[1772.
ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.
The Ferry.
August 14th, Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, by letters patent, granted to Robert King, his executors and assigns, the privilege of keeping a ferry, over the main branch of the Susquehanna at Sun- bury. (King conveyed his right to Adam Heverling, November 30, 1773; Heverling to Christopher Gettig, April 17, 1775 ; Gettig to Abraham Dewitt, October 8, 1779 ; Eleanor Dewitt, alias Coldern, administratrix of Dewitt, to John Lyon, October 25, 1787 ; and on the 2d of November, 1787, John Lyon presented a petition to the Assembly for the privilege for a term of years, which was granted.)
The first criminal case was tried at August sessions, King vs. John Williams, for larceny-Robert Fruit and Robert Clark were on the jury. He was found guilty, and sentenced to pay a fine of £5, to receive twenty-one lashes on his bare back, and to be committed to the magazine of the fort until the sentence was complied with.
Thomas Hartley, (lieutenant colonel of Eleventh Pennsylvania regiment,) Casper Weitzel, Andrew Ross, and James Whitehead were sworn in as attorneys, at August term. Hawkins Boone and Thomas Sutherland had suits at this term-Weitzel for Boone, Sted- man for Sutherland; also, Michael Regor vs. William Blythe. The latter suit referred to Samuel Maclay, John Brady, and George Wolfe, to settle. George Nagel, sheriff of Berks, acted as sheriff until Colonel William Cooke was commissioned, in October, the first sheriff of Northumberland county.
The first road up the river from Fort Augusta was reported by the viewers, Richard Malone, Marcus Huling, John Robb, and Alexander Stephens, in October :
" To begin at the end of the road lately laid out from the head of the Schuylkill to Fort Augusta; thence north-east, one hundred and sixty perches, to the fording ; thence across the North Branch, to a marked hickory, near the bank on the main point ; at two miles eighty-six perches, they came to John Alexander's ; at one and a half miles further, they crossed Chillisquaque creek ; at nearly one mile further, they came to William Plunket's; at three miles further, John Dougherty's ; at two miles further, Marcus Huling's ; at ten miles, the gap in the Muncy hills; at four miles, Muncy creek ; at two hundred and seven rods, Wolfe's run ; four hundred and forty-
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ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.
1772.]
two rods, crossed the run above Samuel Wallis' house; three hundred and twenty-two rods, crossed next run above; at four and a half miles, Loyalsock creek ; at five and a half miles, Lycoming creek." Total, thirty-seven miles from Northumberland point to now New- berry, in the city of Williamsport. This road was confirmed, and ordered to be opened, thirty-three feet in width. The line of the Indian purchase was then assumed to be at Lycoming creek, after- wards, admitted by the Indians to be at Pine creek. The order specified the "Indian line," as the terminus of the road.
Of the Connecticut Claim.
It will be recollected that the Connecticut people, or Yankees, as they were called by the Pennamites, claimed under their charter the land as far south as the forty-first degree of latitude, which passes through the county a mile or more north of Lewisburg. By the following memorandum, furnished me by O. N. Worden, Esquire, which he found among the records of the Susquehanna Land Com- pany, at Hartford, Connecticut, it appears that William Speddy (the elder) was their authorized agent to take and hold possession of land claimed by them in the Valley. " 1771, William Speddy voted one 'selling right' in Wyoming, for previous efforts in hold- ing possession in June, and for further intended efforts."
The following affidavit, in the handwriting of William Maclay, which I found among the papers of the deputy surveyor's office of Union county, is the first notice I have of his appearance in Buffalo Valley. It is worthy of note in this connection, that, in deeds of this year (1772) for lands in our Valley, special warrants were common "against the claim of the inhabitants of New England." It appears (Votes of Assembly, 1773, page 492) that in June a large band of armed men from Connecticut appeared upon the West Branch, to dispossess the inhabitants, and were prevented. Speddy was the mere advanced skirmisher or picket :
" Northumberland County, ss :
" John Scott, of Northampton county, being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, deposeth that the night before last, this deponent and his son and another man from Bucks county, lay in the woods near Buffaloe creek, and in the morning a
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ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.
[1772
certain William Speddy came to them and told them he supposed they were travelers and looking for lands to buy; this deponent and company answered in the affirmative. He then desired them to take care how they purchased of Penn, unless they had likewise New England rights; this deponent answered that he would not give a copper for New England rights. He said this deponent might be mistaken in being too sure in depending on Penn's rights. That the New England people had more right than we thought for ; he owned that he stood by and saw Stuart shoot Ogden, and justi- fied the action. Much more was said to nearly the same purpose by the said Speddy, who spoke with great violence, and would not bear any contradiction to what he asserted. Sworn and subscribed the 17 of June, 1772."
William Speddy's name first appears in "a list of rioters in the fort at Wyoming, 21st January, 1771, when Nathan Ogden was murdered," to use the language of Governor John Penn. (John Penn's proclamation offering a reward of £50 for the arrest of William Speddy, 9th February, 1771.) In Hugh Gaines' New York Gazette of November 14, 1771, there is a paragraph of Phila- delphia news, dated November 4, 1771, as follows: " At the Su- preme Court, held here on Tuesday last, William Speddy was arraigned and tried for the murder of Lieutenant Nathan Ogden, who was shot from the block-house at Wyoming, whilst it was in the possession of Lazarus Stewart and company. After a long and impartial hearing, the jury soon gave in their verdict ' not guilty.'"' Doctor Peck, in his history of Wyoming, notices him thus: "An- other of these rioters, 'as they were called, was William Speddy. He was somewhat in years, and was called 'Old Speddy,' but his age could not abate the rigor of the Pennsylvania authorities, for they kept him in close confinement in Philadelphia for more than two years. How, where, or precisely when Speddy was captured we are not able to say, but his final examination must have taken place some time in the year 1771. Mrs. Myers says when her sister Polly was two years old, and she was twelve, her mother was desired to go to Philadelphia, as a witness in favor of Speddy, who was to be tried for the murder of Nathan Ogden. This journey Mrs. Bennett performed alone on horseback, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles, most of the way through the wilderness.
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