USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 14
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 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
112
Pennsylvania Inland .- Lancaster.
are in a very flourishing condition. There they keep up the instr- tution as originally established at Ephrata, and are growing rapidly Their singing, which is weak in comparison with the old Ephrata choir, and may be likened to the performance of an overture by a musical box, with its execution by a full orchestra in the opera house, is so peculiar and affecting, that when once heard, it can never be forgotten.
The Pequea valley, besides having been the loved home of the Delawares, is still the chosen and fruitful region of their successors, the prosperous farmers of Lancaster county. At the first settlement of the county, it was selected as the preferred residence of sundry French families of the persecuted Huguenots. They bore the names of Dubois, Boileau, Larroux, Lefevre; and some of their descend- ants remain there to the present day. A large quarto Bible, which Isaac Lefevre brought with him from France at that time, is now in the possession of John C. Lefevre, Esq., and held as a. prized relic. The aforesaid names were also united with those of Charles De La Noe, a minister, and Andrew Dore, and some other French- men, who had come out under the influence of William Penn, to form vineyards, and to cultivate grapes, " up the Schuylkill." They, however, not succeeding to their expectation, felt prepared to avail themselves of a change to the Pequea valley, which was pro- duced by the arrival, in 1712-13 of Madame Mary Feree, a widow lady, having with her three sons and three daughters, and coming to this land to seek a peaceful asylum from the persecutions of religious intolerance abroad. She had just lost her husband, a gentleman of eminence in France, by such persecution ; and reaching England for refuge, she found friendship in William Penn and Queen Anne, by whom she was aided in her embarkation for America. She became possessed of four thousand acres of the best land in Pequea, recommended by Penn's agent, in this country, to her special notice : two thousand acres of which came by grant, and the other two thousand acres by purchase. To this place all those French people went for settlement, and were there heartily welcomed by the Indian king, Tanawa. When he died, soon after, all the Huguenots attended his burial; and his grave was marked with a pile of stones, which long remained to mark the place,-on what is now called La Fayette hill, near Paradise. The church of All Saints now stands on what was the Indian burial ground.
The name of Madame Feree is still remembered and venerated in the neighbourhood of Paradise, where she settled, and gave, by grant of deed to trustees, the ground for general burial, as now used by the people there.
Isaac Lefevre, before named, had lost both his parents by the massacre in France, and he arrived at Philadelphia, a youth of seventeen, in 1686 ; afterwards he became the husband of Catharine, the daughter of Madame Feree, and their son, by this marriage, was the first born white child in Pequea. Philip Feree married Leah a
HARRIS' FRONTIER HOUSE, HARRISBURG .- Page 113.
BLOCK-HOUSE AND LOG-HOUSE SETTLERS .- Page 147.
113
Pennsylvania Inland .- Harrisburg, &ºc.
daughter of Abraham Dubois. One of the Ferees became a Friend. I have been indebted for sundry of these facts, to R. Conyng- ham, Esq., who has made himself acquainted with them by his residence in the town of Paradise.
Harrisburg, &c.
This place, now the seat of government, was originally located and settled by John Harris, and the place was founded, in 1762, by his son, John Harris, Jun'r. The son of the latter, Robert Harris, now alive at the age of seventy years, has informed me of many facts connected with his family and the original settlement. I herein relate them, much in the manner I received them fromn himself, viva voce, in the year 1835, when visiting the place. Considering how recently it was but an Indian wild, and now so populous and richly settled as the growing seat of government, it cannot but prove interesting to the reader, as being in itself a proof of the varied enlargement and advancement of our prosperous country, to wit :
John Harris the first, and his wife Esther, the first settlers here sat down as Indian traders on the frontier while the Indians were still settled in their town close by, at the mouth of the Paxton creek. Many of their graves were in Harris' orchard. They were both born in Yorkshire, England, and came out to Philadelphia as first emi- grants with William Penn. He died in advanced age, in 1749. His wife survived him ten years, having married again to William Ches- ney, a resident on the other side of the river.
Robert has heard his grandfather and grandmother Reed, in Hanover, fourteen miles off, (where they had a stockade defence,) tell of the Indian alarms, and of the people running in for protec- tion ; they had seen some tomahawked.
The first lots in town were valued by commissioners at from 10 to £60.
From the market house back to the hills, and up to, and over the state house hill, was in woods when he was a boy.
He, Robert Harris, was born in the present stone house, in 1768. The other old house stood six or seven years afterwards, as a kind of store-house. Two hundred people at a time came there to stop to find boats, &c., to go on with. He has seen three different houses, there, one hundred and fifty feet long, filled with skins.
The fields cultivated were cleared before he was born, and were back of this house, and from the river to beyond the market house.
He thinks that John Harris saw William Penn here, or at Conois creek ; he always heard that he (William Penn) visited him on the Susquehanna ; and that he did much business for Penn's interest, and even talked of buying lands of him, over on the other side, down to the Yellow Breeches creek.
The wild turkeys and the deer were plenty in the revolution. They used to have as many of the former as they chose to shoot VOL. II-P 10₺
114
Pennsylvania Inland .- Harrisburg, &c.
He and nis father have killed as many as twenty bears seen crossing the river.
The Paxton boys assembled here; they came from Cumberland and Hanover, and even as far as Franklin. John Harris, the second, tried to prevent them. Col. Smith was their principal man, and Col. Wilson Smith, of Waterford, in Erie county, of the legislature, is his son.
Esther Harris, up near Juniata, must have been John Harris' wife; she was resolute, masculine, capable of writing, and was the best trader of the two. Would box Indian chiefs' ears if they got drunk and unruly.
She carried her son John, born in 1726, to Christ church, in Philadelphia, to be baptized ; he died in 1791, aged sixty five. He was the first born white child hereabout, and the father of the present Robert Harris.
He had not his title confirmed by Shippen until 1733, but bought long before ; it was about £5 per hundred acres, at first at 50s.
There was an Indian town opposite to Harris' ferry, just where are heaps of muscle shells-they ate them much; another town was at the mouth of Canodoquinet creek, two miles above; and there was one below, about two miles, at the mouth of Yellow Breeches, or Haldeman's bridge, which was once James Chartier's landing, Indian agent.
He has heard that they could assemble here seven hundred people by firing a gun-all came over then to this side.
They had a battle at Mokonoy, six miles this side of Shamokin, John Harris, the second, was along; one hundred went up from here to inquire, they surprised the party on the return, and killed sixteen to twenty men. John Harris, the second, in crossing the river had the man behind him, a doctor, shot off.
At the old church at Paxton, under Parson Elder, three miles from Harrisburg, on the road to Reading, they used to take guns and stack them while in the church. A party of Indians came and hid them- selves for a week, to attack them; they lost two as prisoners, who told the fact. They shot at some on their return ; killed and wounded some. They broke Major Burnett's arm, he died five years ago only.
Robert Harris has seen five hundred pack-horses at a time in Carlisle, going thence to Shippenburg, &c.
The road from John Harris', on the Susquehanna, in or near Paxton, towards Philadelphia, by way of Lancaster and Chester counties, was procured, in 1736, by petitions of sundry inhabitants in said counties.
John Harris, the first, is buried at the mulberry tree before his house, and close to the block-house on the river bank. He had seven children. This Robert Harris saw the remains of the block- house and stockade-were old when he was young.
The large stone house where he dwells was built in 1766, by his father, John Harris, the second.
115
Pennsylvania Inland .-- Harrisburg, &ºc
His grandfather, John Harris, had a stockade round his old house (in front of the present one.) There an Indian came in with his gun, and fired upon the British officer therein ; his gun flashed. His grandmother, then there, blew out the candle for concealment. This was in the log-house before the present residence .*
John Harris, the first, and his wife, who came from Yorkshire, were at first livers at Philadelphia. He often assisted at clearing lands in and about Philadelphia. He moved to Chester county; then to a place above Lancaster, at the mouth of Canoy creek-the same place where Haldeman's mills now are, three miles above Co- lumbia. Then moved up to his place about a quarter of a mile below here; then moved here for the sake of being nearer the ferry. It was a ford in summer time, and chosen because of the better landing on the other side.
There were troops at the block-house, and furnished guards to travellers. Several travellers were occasionally wounded; some killed. Robert has seen one man that was scalped above Sunbury, and one here afterwards.
The Indians came to John Harris' trading store to get rum and ammunition; a party got angry and tied him to the tree to burn him, for refusing more rum. Another party came and released him. He valued the tree, and requested to be buried there ; also two of his children are there. His faithful old black man was not buried there, (as some talk,) but where the new Methodist church is built, near by.
He got money of Mrs. Logan's mother, at Chester, and called to pay interest once a year.
John Harris procured his patent of Shippen, in 1733. But the land was purchased much earlier.
John Harris owned all the town ground, eight to nine hundred acres ; it was laid out in 1785, and sold off in fee simple. Lots in town sold first at 10 to £15, but now some would bring 2500 dollars to 5000 dollars! Robert Harris sold his family mansion and ground, in 1835, to Elder, for 5000 dollars, built in 1766.
The first old log-house was gone before Robert Harris was born. He saw the orchard there, all killed since, one old cherry tree only is standing.
There are several present log-houses still in the town, but now weather-boarded. Houses here are generally brick of two stories; several of white frame. The bridge across to M'Clay's island, in two divisions, done 1816-began three years before. This is the only stone house, save that of M'Clay at the other end, in the town. It is very large, and fronts the river at the lower end.
His grandmother rode once on urgency to Philadelphia, the same horse, in one day ! At one time, when at Big Island, on trade, and hearing of her husband's illness, s'_e came down in a day and a night in a bark canoe!
. We give many of the following notitia, from memoranda we had made when a' Harrisburg .- J. F. W.
.16
Pennsylvania Inland .-- Harrisburg, &ºc.
His grandfather farmed fields; he was the first who used a plough along the Susquehanna. He was a brewer in England.
The Indians went away to Shamokin and Seeling's Grove, and Muncey, and there lived, while John Harris, the first, lived down here. He traded for furs. Robert Harris often saw many families in bark canoes come down here to trade, and go down to Lancaster. Harrisburg built up very fast, even in the first year ; five to six hun- dred people in three years. Government came here in 1809-10.
Esther Harris laid the foundation of the brick house, now Carson's, five miles up the Susquehanna. When the Indians made an inva- sion they shunned to attack it, because the scaffold holes in the walls scared them off, as supposing they were loop holes for guns!
One of the Harrises was a wild devil, of great agility and strength, who liked to encounter five or six Indians at once at grip and wrestle. He could beat them too, at their play at foot ball.
Once Esther Harris showed her courage and management, when on an occasion of sending her maid up stairs she put her lighted candle into a powder cask as a stand, upon a sudden call down stairs, thinking it was flaxseed ! Mrs. Harris ran up and took it out carefully with her own hands.
June 19th, 1733, Shekallamy, a chief, by Conrad Weiser, as in- terpreter, said, that he had before, together with Sassoonar, sent a letter to John Harris, to desire him to desist from making a planta- tion at the mouth of Choniata, (Juniata,) where Harris had only built that house for carrying on his trade, that his plantation, on which he has houses, barns, &c., at Paxton, is his place of dwelling, and that he has no warrant for any settlement at Choniata, and might have only intended to clear some land to raise corn for his horses, but that they should give the necessary orders in it. Shekal- lamy, acting for the Six Nations, then said, he had no ill will to John Harris, but that he is afraid that the warriors of the Six Nations, in passing there, will see it and take it ill.
Mrs. Esther Harris, was an excellent swimmer, and could use fire arms like a hunter. Even her grandaughter, Mrs. Mary Hana, the widow of Gen. Hana, who is now alive, aged about sixty-eight, could swim half across the river, and has learned several girls of her day to swim, as seen by Mr. Fahnestock.
The Indians were all great friends to John Harris, and afterwards became as friendly to his wife.
A letter from the justices of the peace in Berks county, of the 23d July, 1755, sent express to Governor Morris, signed by Conrad Weiser and nve others, says, as all our Protestant inhabitants are very uneasy at the behaviour of the Roman Catholics, who are very numerous in this county, some of whom show great joy at the bad news lately come from the army, we have thought it our duty to inform your honour, and to ask that they may be disarmed. We have reason to believe that those who live in Cussahoppen, believed to be now present Summany town, where they have a very magnifi
------
117
Pennsylvania Inland .- Harrisburg, g.c.
cent chapel, and have had large processions, have bad designs, and besides it is reported and believed generally, that in that neighbour- hood there are thirty Indians lurking for prey and well armed. [This is another reason, perhaps, why the people of Paxton, &c., all Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, believed that their own Indians were misicd and made hostile, as expecting great support from distant Indians in the French and papal pay and interest.]
A letter from the Rev. John Elder, of Paxton, to the secretary, R. Peters.
Paxton, 9th November, 1755.
I have just now received an express, informing me that out of a small party on guard last night in Tullyhoe's gap of the mountain, five were killed and two wounded. Such shocking accounts we frequently receive, and though we are careful to transmit them to Philadelphia, and remonstrate and petition from time to time, yet to no purpose, so that we seem to be given up into the hands of a merciless enemy.
There are within this few weeks upwards of forty of his majesty's subjects massacred on the frontiers of this and Cumberland counties, besides a great many carried into captivity, and yet nothing but unseasonable debates between the two parties of our legislature, instead of uniting on some probable scheme for the protection of the province. What may be the end of these things, God only knows; but I really fear that unless vigorous methods are speedily used, we in these back settlements will unavoidably fall a sacrifice, and this part of the province be lost.
If I have expressed my sentiments with too much warmth, you will be kind enough to pardon me, as it proceeds from a hearty regard to the public good.
Sir, your obedient servant, JOHN ELDER
[The subscriber was the first minister of the Paxton church.] Note .- He had also a colonel's commission-was born in Ireland, and was sixty years minister of the Presbyterian church.
"The flying rumours gather'd as they roll'd, Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told ; And all who told it, adding something new, And all who heard it, made enlargement too!"
Letter from Edward Biddle, at Reading, to his father, James Biddle, in Philadelphia.
I am in so much horror and confusion, I scarce know what I am writing, [at Sunday, one o'clock.] The drum is beating to arms, and the bells ringing, and all the people under arms. This moment express has arrived from Michael Reiss, at Tulpehoccan, eighteen miles off, who left about thirty of their people engaged with an equal number of Indians at said Reiss'. This night we expect an
118
Pennsylvania Inland .- Harrisburg, &c
attack. Truly alarming is our situation. The people exclaim against the Quakers, and are scarce restrained from burning the houses of those few who are in this town. Oh my country ! My bleeding country !- My love to sister and Jemmy.
Your affectionate son,
E. BIDDLE.
Peter Spycker, writing from Tulpehoccan, says that the people, hearing a firing, and running there, found the Indians (four) sitting on children scalping them: three of them are dead and two alive without scalps. Thence went to the watch-house of Derrick Sixth, and found six dead bodies, four being scalped. They have burned four plantations.
In council, 25th August, 1757 .- A petition was received from the inhabitants of the township of Paxton, setting forth that the evacuating of fort Hunter is of great disadvantage to them, that fort Halifax is not necessary to secure the communication with fort Augusta, and is not so proper a station for the batteaux parties as fort Hunter, praying that the governor would please to fix a sufficient number of men at Hunter's, under the command of an active officer, with strict orders to range the frontiers daily. It is said at same time that fort Halifax was built by Colonel Clapham, without the orders of Governor Morris, and is in a bad situation, where none could be protected by it in batteau parties, it having no command of the channel. Although the fort or block-house at Hunter's (mills) was not tenable, being hastily erected and not finished, yet it was the best situation upon the river for every service, as well as for the pro- tection of the frontiers.
In September, 1755, Conrad Weiser, in his letter to the governor, states that on the 7th inst., he went by orders to meet the Indians at John Harris' ferry. He found several had gone up the river to settle about Shamokin. He found there, however, "the Belt" and Seneca George, and five or six other elderly men, and fifty or sixty others. The Belt said the Six Nations were now resolved to revenge the death of Braddock, and drive away the French, "which the great general could not do because of pride and obstinacy, and for which the most High had thus punished him."
Harris' ferry, the 8th January, 1756. The governor, R. H. Morris, held a treaty here, having Conrad Weiser as interpreter, and James Hamilton, Richard Peters and Joseph Fox, commissioners, present ; the Belt of Wampum and the Broken Thigh, with their families, the former a Seneca, the other a Mohock, which was adjourned to Carlisle, because of only one house at Harris' to accommodate them. At Carlisle, they were also joined by John Hamilton and William Logan, and by Mr. George Croghan, from his residence at Aucquick [also Awkwick.]
Mr. Hamilton informed the council, that in November, 1755, he was at John Harris', and finding the people collected there in the
119
Pennsylvania Inland .- Harrisburg, &ºc.
utmost confusion, and in continual fear of being fallen upon by a large body of French and Indians, who were said to have passed the Allegheny hills in their march towards this province, he was induced to offer a great reward to Aroas, (Silver Heels,) to go up the east side of Susquehanna as far as Shamokin, to ascertain the facts in the case, and he being since returned and now present, was asked to relate the facts of his journey. He had gone as far as Nescopecka, where he found one hundred and forty warriors in their dance, and who expressed much anger against the English, and an intention to fall upon them to the eastward.
Abraham Horn, of Northampton, and Peter Frailey, of Orwick- burgh, (now dead,) were the leading and influential persons, who most caused the removal of the seat of government from Philadelphia to Lancaster, by a resolution of March, 1799. They were supported by the members from Bucks county, and all along the Delaware, (so says secretary Trimball.)
The subject had been before agitated several times, and it would have been carried on one occasion, but for the casting vote of John Channon, of Huntingdon, in the senate.
The sale of the state lands was procured by the influence of ban- queting parties, and good suppers, by " the committees of vigilance," so called, and since called borers, so first named after 1812, at Harris- burg. This measure gave great offence to many back members.
The most offensive case, and most prominent as a final and lead- ing measure of removal, was the case of the removal of the court of justice in Wayne county to Bethany. This was procured by old Samuel Preston, (died in 1836,) a surveyor and postmaster, who acted in Wayne county as agent for Henry Drinker's lands. The last was a Philadelphian.
When they went to Lancaster, it was called a temporary object, for ten years only. They continued there until 1812.
The Paxton boys, being memorable in their day, and being often spoken of in these pages, we here add some special facts concerning them, to wit : Thomas Elder, a gentleman of the bar at Harrisburg, now about seventy-five years of age, tells me that his father, the Rev. Mr. Elder, rode after the Paxton boys, and got at their head to turn them back, and they declared they would shoot him down They were generally from Hanover, fourteen miles off. They took sacrament at the Paxton church, before going.
Elder's father was a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian minister, the first for Paxton church. He came from Ireland to it, about the year 1732; lived to be eighty-died in 1792, and had been the minister there sixty years. The Indians came twice to destroy his congrega- tion, in time of worship; one time they laid about, seeking their chance, for a week ; but having come on Monday, and laying about so long, they had to go away ; in doing so they killed and wounded some whom they met. Major Burnett was wounded in his arm. Two prisoners who escaped told these things. At another time,
120
Pennsylvania Inland .- Harrisburg, g.c.
they saw all the congregation bring their arms and stack them at the door. One of their prisoners escaped and gave the alarm, and they were repulsed with some blood on both sides. Mr. Elder remembers several Indian families still near here in his early days.
Mr. Fahnestock, aged sixty-six, remembers to have seen several of the leaders of the Paxton boys; he named Stewart, Colhoun, Smith, and Dickey. This last was the grandfather of the present Robert Dickey, who is doorkeeper to the senate. They lived to be aged men, in and about. Harrisburg.
The Love rock, near M'Clay's house, was a place of Indian resort and council-part of it has been blown off.
A letter from Harris, to Conrad Weiser, dated June 30, 1755, at Paxton, to wit :
"I am sorry that I have occasion to inform you of such melancholy news. On Monday, the 22d inst., was killed and scalped three persons by Indians, near our fort, at Wills' creek. [Wills' creek was near Chambersburg.] And within three days after, upwards of twenty of our inhabitants have been killed or taken near Fort Cum- berland. William Chesney is come home, who saw a little boy in our fort who was scalped last week, and likely to live. In short there seems to be nothing but desolation on the Potowmac. There was not scarce an hour since the army marched, but news of alarm comes down the road, that it will probably be stopped by the enemy; one soldier was found upon it killed. Our own Indians are strongly suspected for several reasons; first their deserting our army, all except about six men, and also, by English goods or arms found on one Indian killed last week by one Williams, which articles were delivered but lately out of our fort to Indians then there. I think it advisable that you should use endeavours to find out, if our own Indians are concerned, so that we might with the least delay, lay some schemes for revenge, before they can find time to use us as they have done our fellow subjects and acquaintances. We need men to be directly raised for our defence, and to guard provisions, &c., to our camp and army." [The foregoing letter shows perhaps the grounds of the massacre of the Conestoga Indians by the Paxton boys. They believed too, that the two or three persons killed at Quitepahilla, not far from Harris' ferry, eighteen miles towards Reading, were destroyed by their own Indians, just before they went off. John Harris above was son of the first John Harris, an original settler.]
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.