USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > Connellsville > Centennial history of the borough of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, 1806-1906 > Part 13
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The tidings of Crawford's tragic and awful death spread gloom over all the settlements, called forth utter- ances of deep sorrow from Washington and all his military associates, and darkened the home from which he had reluctantly taken his departure less than a month before.
A monument, eight and a half feet in height, stands on the spot where the massacre occurred, and bears the follow- ing inscription :
IN MEMORY OF COL. CRAWFORD WHO WAS BURNEDSY THEINDIANS IN THIS VALLEY JUNE 11. 1782.
ERECTED BY THE
PIONEER ASSOCIATION
OF WYANDOT CQ.0
Auc.30.1877!
THE SCENE OF CRAWFORD'S DEATH
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"In memory of Colonel Crawford, who was burned by the Indians in this valley. Erected by the Pioneer Associa- tion of Wyandot county, Ohio, August 30, 1877."
The Colonel's son, John, reached home, but his nephew, William, and his son-in-law, William Harrison, were put to death by their Indian captors. Dr. John Knight, after a thrilling experience, made his escape and reached Fort Pitt on the 4th of July, 1782. John Slover made a hair-breadth escape from his torturers and reached Fort Pitt July 10th, James Paull, of Dunbar township, became separated from the army, but with almost incredible perseverance in over- coming difficulties, he reached home. Although but twenty- two years of age, he had already rendered important mili- tary service, and afterward he served with distinction in Harmar's campaign of 1790. He died July 9, 1841, in the 81st year of his age. John Sherrard, a home-friend of Paull, reached home, though for a time separated from the army and in imminent peril of capture.
The State of Pennsylvania promptly paid the losses sustained by those who had served in the expedition, and, under a special law, granted pensions to all who had re- ceived injuries of any kind.
We do not know the number of Revolutionary soldiers who, at some time or other, have lived here. There are well-known names among them, at any rate, as Peter Still- wagon, Sr., a sergeant who took part in many battles, Trenton, Princeton and others, was captured and for nearly two years lay prisoner in New York, which at the time was in possession of the British. George Mathiot served in a regiment from Lancaster county. William Turner, of the 8th Pennsylvania line, lived here in 1835, at the age of 87 years. An Englishman who had served in the American army came here after the war, and was a clerk and also a teacher. Jacob Buttermore, of Berks county, was a mem- ber of the "German regiment" for four years and eight months. He enlisted, August, 1776, in Captain Peter Boy- er's company ; was in the battles of Trenton, Princeton and
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Mommouth and in Sullivan's Indian campaign (spring of 1780) ; was wounded at Trenton, though he continued in the service until the regiment was mustered out, New Year's day, 1781. He died in Connellsville township in 1820, and was buried in the Quaker burial ground. John Sherrard, later of Dunbar township, went from Lancaster county in what was known as the "Flying company," and was in the campaign for the relief of Boston.
THE WHISKY INSURRECTION.
At the suggestion of Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, a bill was passed by congress, March 3, 1791, imposing a tax of four pence per gallon on all distilled spirits. This excise law was extremely offensive to the counties of southwestern Pennsylvania. The farmers had a very limited home market for their grain, and they had found that the grain could not be carried over the moun- tains to the eastern market at a profit, unless converted into whisky. "A horse," said they, "can carry only four bushels of rye, but a horse can carry twenty-four bushels of rye when turned into whisky." Every fifth or sixth farmer, in most localities, had a "still house," and was a distiller as well as farmer ; in the winter converting his own grain and that of his neighbors "into a portable and saleable article." The excise law was energetically opposed on the ground that it was not only an interference with their political rights and liberties, but a financial calamity, consuming, as they said. "what little money the sale of whisky brings into the country." The tax on distilled spirits was "regarded in the same light as the citizens of Ohio would now regard a United States tax on lard, pork or flour." Great excite- ment prevailed from the time the law was enacted until in 1194 it amounted to an insurrection. Washington county took the most active part, but Greene, Westmoreland, Alle- gheny and Fayette were not inactive. Meetings were held. Collectors were denounced, resisted and, in some instances. assailed, tarred and feathered, beaten, threatened, boycot-
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ted, or, as in the case of General Neville and Benjamin Wells, their homes destroyed. Military organizations were formed. The United States mail was interfered with. At "Braddock's Field," August 1, 1794, an immense crowd assembled, "of which a good proportion was composed of militia men and volunteers under arms," and hostile oper- ations were freely talked of and even determined upon.
The excitement grew so violent and the proceedings so turbulent that President Washington issued a procla- mation giving warning to the disaffected people; the next day he appointed commissioners to visit the region involved with a view of restoring order, but all this failing to secure the end desired, he called out troops, to the number of fif- teen thousand men, under General Henry Lee, the "Light Horse Harry" of Revolutionary fame, and sent them to the scene of the insurrection. One wing of the army came westward by way of Bedford, Somerset and Mount Pleas- ant ; the other wing by way of Cumberland, and Uniontown, meeting on the Monongahela near Parkinson's Ferry, now Monongahela City. In a brief campaign the insurrection was crushed without battle or bloodshed.
The Whisky Insurrection had the sympathy of many of the Fayette county people. Liberty poles, as they were called, were erected in various parts of the county, one of them at the Union furnace, Dunbar township. Only a few Fayette county men attended the incendiary "muster" at Braddock's Field. Findley, in his history of the insurrec- tion, says there were not more than twelve. Nor have there been recorded any scenes of riot in our neighborhood, ex- cept the attack on the house of Benjamin Wells, collector of revenue for Fayette and Westmoreland counties. His house stood on what is now ?th street, New Haven, and he had his office in it. Three times the house was attacked by night, April, 1793, November, 1793, and July, 1794, On the last occasion, the rioting party set fire to the house and destroyed it with all its contents.
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THE WAR OF 1812.
The Borough of Connellsville was incorporated at an important juncture in international history. Napoleon Bonaparte was on the throne of France. France and Eng- land were at war. England seized American vessels along the coasts of Europe, claiming the right of search, crip- pling our commerce, and violating the law of nations toward neutrals. The causes of irritation multiplied until, at three o'clock in the afternoon of June 19, 1812, James Madison, president of the United States, by authority of Congress, issued a declaration of war. Thus the Second War for Independence, as it has justly been styled, was legally be- gun, after several years of exasperating experiences.
Governor Snyder, of Pennsylvania, sustained the na- tional government in its course, and devoted himself faith- fully to the work of securing troops.
Recruiting began at once in Fayette county. A com- pany under Captain Thomas Collins, of Uniontown, left the county seat in August, going to Oswego and the New York frontier. A company was raised in Connellsville in Sep- tember. Its captain was James Whaley (born March 20,. 1788, in Tyrone township), whose father, Benjamin Wha- ley, had been a captain in Revolutionary times. George Huey was first lieutenant and Hugh Ray, second. The sergeants were Andrew Reece, Patrick Adair, Crawford Springer and Abram Kilpatrick. The corporals were Henry Jones, Aaron Agen, Henry Haselton and John Marple. John Robbins was drum-major, George Biddle drummer and Charles Long fife-major.
A dinner was given the company at David Barnes' house (afterward the Page House), on Main street the: day of its departure for the war, and a farewell address was made by "Father" Connelly. The company crossed. the river to New Haven and marched thence to Pittsburgh where, on the second day of October, 1812, they were mus- tered into service, assigned to a regiment commanded by Colonel Robert Patterson and taken to the army of the
1
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northwest of which General William Henry Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe, was at the head.
In the summer of that year, an unsuccessful campaign under General William Hull, had ended in the surrender of Detroit and the loss of Michigan. On the 22d of Jan- uary, 1813, General James Wilkinson was defeated by the British and Indians near the Maumee Rapids. On reach- ing the field of operations, Harrison, whose aim was to retake Detroit and invade Canada, was obliged to go into winter quarters at Fort Meigs on the Maumee River, some miles south of the present city of Toledo.
Here our Connellsville men were stationed for the win- ter, but when the spring and summer came, they were kept busy in a series of skirmishes and sieges until, on the 5th of October, Harrison's army totally routed the enemy on the River Thames, Canada, recovered all that Hull had lost and, with Perry's great naval victory of September 10, gained for the Americans the full control of Lake Erie and a strong foothold in Canada.
There were other Connellsville men, besides those in Captain Whaley's company, engaged in the War of 1812, as Mr. William Davidson, who had become a resident of the Borough four years before that war began and was through life one of our most influential citizens, and Major David Cummings, who was wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Beaver Dam, Canada, remaining a prisoner for six months. Both he and Mr. Davison represented Fayette county in the Legislature in after years. Major Cummings was the father of Dr. James C. Cummings, who was for many years a prominent physician of Connellsville, and a member of the Legislature in 1843-4.
It is worthy of mention that another Connellsville man, a young man of twenty-three years, was one of the heroes of
THE ALAMO.
David P. Cummings, son of Major David Cummings, was graduated from Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pa., during
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MILITARY HISTORY
the excitement occasioned by the Texan war for indepen- dence, and, at the earliest opportunity, he went to the scene of activity to take part in the struggle. He was one of the 172 men who garrisoned the fort known as the Alamo, near San Antonio. Santa Anna, the Mexican dictator, with 4,000 men, bombarded the fort for 11 days. The garri- son fought with unflinching courage until the interior of the fort was "drenched with blood and heaped with corpses." On the 6th of March, 1836, the fort was carried by storm, and not a soul escaped alive. Colonel David Crockett "fell, stabbed by a dozen swords;" Colonel Bowie, though ill in bed, and Major Evans were shot. The whole garrison was slain, and the bodies were gathered into the center of the Alamo (originally a Spanish mission and fort, an acre in extent) and were burned to ashes.
The Cummings family monument in Hill Grove ceme- tery bears an appropriate inscription, on one of its panels, to the young hero's memory.
THE MEXICAN WAR.
The Mexican War began with a slight collision on the Rio Grande between the American forces under General Zachary Taylor and the Mexicans under General Arista, in April, 1846. On May 11th President Polk, in a special message to Congress declared that "war existed by the Act of Mexico," and Congress authorized him to call out 50,000 volunteers.
In the fall of 1846, a company was raised in Connells- ville and Uniontown. It bore the name of the "Fayette County Volunteers," and became Co. H of the Second regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers.
The recruiting in Connellsville was done under the direction of Dr. William Quail, at his office on Main street, a few doors above the Presbyterian Church. About 30 men enlisted, among whom were Dr. Quail himself, Daniel Forrey, Henry N. Stillwagon, Peter A. Johns, Zephaniah Ellis Barnes, John Bishop, William Freeman, Alexander
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Hood, Jackson Kilpatrick and his brother, John P. Kil- patrick, Samuel Page, Andrew Pritchard, James Shaw, James Turner and William Turner.
The first captain of Company H was William B. Rob- erts, a furniture dealer in Uniontown, with Dr. Quail, first lieutenant.
On the 2nd of January, 1847, the company marched from Uniontown to Brownsville, and went by boat from that point to Pittsburgh where the regimental organization was formed. Captain Roberts, of Company H, was made colonel, Dr. Quail succeeding him as captain.
The regiment was taken by steamboat to New Or- leans, and thence by the J. N. Cooper, a sailing vessel, to. Vera Cruz. It took part at once in the celebrated siege of Vera Cruz, under General Winfield Scott, lasting from March 7th, 1847, until March 27th, when the city sur- rendered. In the march from Vera Cruz to the interior, the regiment was assigned to General Quitman's division, taking part in the battles of Cerro Gordo, April 18th, Con- treras, August 20th, and Cherubusco, the same day, in the bombardment of Chepultepec, September 12th and 13th, and in the triumphal entry into the City of Mexico, Tuesday morning, September 14th. It was one of the first regi- ments to plant the stars and stripes on the spot where once stood the Halls of the Montezumas.
We are not able to say what losses Company H sus- tained in these and other engagements. Many succumbed to the climate. Colonel Roberts died from disease in the City of Mexico, October 3, 1847, less than three weeks after the entry. His body was sent home and was laid to rest in the Methodist Episcopal burial ground with "every demonstration of sorrow and respect." John Stur- geon, first lieutenant of Company H, died in the City of Mexico, and his body was sent home with that of Colonel Roberts.
Daniel Forrey, who had been a school teacher in New Haven and was second lieutenant in Company H, fell a. victim to disease and died at Vera Cruz.
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Alexander Hood, whose father, Daniel Hood, Sr., had been a soldier under General Scott in the War of 1812, died of yellow fever in the City of Mexico.
The army suffered greatly from sickness during the whole campaign. Many were not able to go farther than Vera Cruz. Eighteen hundred men were left behind at Puebla, and seven hundred died at Perote, on the summit of the Cordilleras.
After the death of Colonel Roberts, Lieutenant Colonel John W. Geary, afterward a general in the Civil War and governor of Pennsylvania, took command of the regiment, which served until the close of the war.
On being mustered out at Pittsburg, in July, 1848, Company H came by boat to Brownsville where it was met by an immense concourse of people and received an en- thusiastic welcome. Many people were there from Union- town and Connellsville, and there was great cheering, great beating of drums, great firing of salutes. The festivities of the occasion were marred, however, by an accident, the bursting of a small cannon, which resulted in the death of Samuel Austin, of Uniontown. He had himself been with the army in Mexico, but had come home from Vera Cruz disabled. He had gone with the Uniontown people to give welcome to his returning comrades.
Quite a number of Connellsville men enlisted and served in other organizations, among whom were Thomas R. Davidson, John Andrew Cummings (a member of the Santa Fe expedition), Henry L. Reeger, of the 11th U. S. Infantry, and some who were in Captain P. N. Guthrie's company in the 11th Pennsylvania volunteers.
OLD-TIME MUSTERS.
Until 45 years ago, the militia laws of Pennsylvania required the enrollment, with certain exceptions, of all able- bodied citizens between the ages of 18 and 45, to be trained to military duty, to be called out in cases of need and to hold annual drills or "training days," every enrolled
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man to attend these "musters" under penalty of a militia tax. In early days, the men attended the "musters" with- out uniform or arms, going through the manual of arms with wooden guns, sticks and even cornstalks. Hence, they were commonly styled "the Cornstalk Militia."
In time, however, militia companies were formed and regularly armed and accoutered.
As early as the '20s, companies of militia were or- ganized in the important centers of the county. The first Connellsville company was the Youghiogheny Blues, or- ganized August 12, 1823. The younger Samuel Trevor was captain in 1824, a Mr. Smith in 1825, Dr. Joseph Rodgers in 1831, a Mr. White in 1835. In its early days, Uriah Springer was first lieutenant; Hiram Herbert, first ser- geant; Provance McCormick, first corporal. The musi- cians were Samuel Keepers, Jacob Eicher and Solomon Reager. Among the "high privates" were Henry and Cyrus White, Robert Torrence, William, George and John Balsley, Jonathan Newmyer, Hiram Snyder, George But- termore, Josiah Stillwagon, John W. Phillips, Richard Crossland, George Ashman, George Nichols and Henry Y. Loar. The company wore blue uniforms, as its name im- plies, and carried flint-lock muskets with immense bay- onets. The Blues always celebrated their anniversary by a parade on the 17th of August. They "turned out" upon every important occasion, including the 4th of July.
In 1824, the 4th of July was a gala day. The Mount Pleasant Volunteers came over and, with our own Yough- iogheny Blues, paraded through the streets, and afterward sat down to a bountiful open-air dinner, at which William Davidson presided, several persons responded to toasts and Captain Samuel Trevor read the Declaration of Indepen- dence.
A still greater day, in the history of the Blues, was Thursday, May 26, 1825. It was the day of Lafayette's visit to Uniontown, when making his second tour of Amer- ica. Many of the militia companies took part in the pro-
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cession, the Union Volunteers, the Pennsylvania Blues, the Fayette Guards and the Youghiogheny Blues. Late in the afternoon, thirteen guns were fired out the National Road west of town. The companies were stationed on the hill. Lafayette appeared, drawn in an open carriage by four spirited bay horses. As he was driven along the main street of the county seat, the Union Volunteers went before him, the other three companies following after him. The street was lined with cheering multitudes. Two triumphal arches spanned the street, and near the court house stood "an elegantly decorated platform" upon which Albert Gal- latin, late secretary of the treasury, delivered an address of welcome to the distinguished visitor. We cannot doubt that Captain Smith was proud of the Blues from Connells- ville, and that every man of them marched with erect head and elastic step, showing that they endorsed the inscription on one of the arches :
"Our choicest welcome hereby is exprest
In heartful homage to the Nation's Guest."
But what greater day could there have been, after all, than the day of the "Big Muster," when the militia of the county met for training, as they did every year, sometimes in this place, sometimes in that. How great the excitement along the Yough, when the muster was held on the green level, the commons at the north end of New Haven. The country people for miles around, men, women and chil- dren, came to town in wagons, in buggies, on horseback and on foot. It was like "show day," and we hear that it was a "bigger day than the Fourth of July."
From peep of day, there is stir and bustle. Tents are erected on the green level. The Youghiogheny Blues and the Youghiogheny Greens, our own two home companies, are ready to welcome the outside companies as they arrive. Here comes the Dunbar cavalry on the gallop, and, one after another, the Dunlap's Creek cavalry, the George's Creek cavalry, the Lafayette artillerists, the Union Volun- teers from Uniontown, the sharpshooters from Smithfield,
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the "Swamp Blackbirds" from Perryopolis-company after company.
The citizens are all in the streets, or at the doors and windows. The boys and girls go up to the Pinnacle to see the company from Springfield coming into town by the Mud Pike, headed by the Salt Lick Buckwheat Band, with fife and drum.
When the militia is assembled, the roll is called. The drill is conducted. The general in command, in gorgeous uniform, with plumed hat and huge epaulettes, and mounted on a richly caparisoned horse, dashes up and down the line.
The parade is long and splendid. Let us hope that the Youghiogheny Blues will not suffer from heat, in their heavy coats with high, stiff collars, and with their heavy muskets, weighing ten, twelve, some say fourteen pounds.
Men from various places meet at the "Big Muster" to transact business, according to previous agreement, while, as for food and refreshments, there are booths and stands on the green level, on the Anchorage and along the streets where the dusty crowds can find biscuits, ginger bread, cakes and "small, home-brewed beer."
The Youghiogheny Greens, of whom we have just spoken, was a company of militia, raised chiefly through the efforts of Herman Gebhart, at one time proprietor of a nail factory on Water street ; many of its members, how- ever, belonging to the New Haven side. It was in exist- ence as early as 1831, for it took part in the general muster at Uniontown in September of that year. Henry Black- stone was the first captain. The company was armed with rifles and wore, at first, green hunting shirts, afterward green uniform of the regulation kind. The old-fashioned musters, it may be added, were kept up until the Civil War.
THE CIVIL WAR.
When President Lincoln's proclamation was issued, April 15, 1861, calling for 75,000 volunteers to preserve the
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Union, Fayette county responded so promptly that within six days a company, ninety-eight men strong, left Union- town, for Pittsburgh, to be mustered into the service of their country. This company became Company G. Eighth Penn- sylvania Reserves.
Sixteen companies in all, were recruited in Fayette county during the progress of the Civil War. Connells- ville men were to be found in several of these companies, as, also, in companies raised in neighboring counties. Six of our men, for instance, enlisted in Pittsburgh in one com- pany, Company B, Fifteenth Pennsylvania cavalry, and rendered faithful service in the army of the Cumberland. Twenty-five men from Connellsville, New Haven and vicin- ity were in Company K, Seventh Pennsylvania cavalry, also in the army of the Cumberland. Among the non-commis- sioned officers of the company were James J. Barnhart, of Juniataville, William Crossland, of Connellsville, and John N. Boyd, of New Haven. James Guthrie Taylor, of New Haven, was mustered in as Second Lieutenant of the com- pany, October 12, 1861, to rank from October 8th. He was wounded May 5, 1862, at Lebanon, Tenn., promoted to first lieutenant July 1, 1863, to rank from May 1, 1863; promoted to captain, March 25, 1864, to rank from March 1, 1864. Captain Taylor was killed in battle at Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, in the Atlanta campaign, August 20, 1864. He was the youngest brother of Mrs. John R. Johnston, of Connellsville.
Company H, 142nd regiment, P. V., was recruited in Connellsville in August, 1862. It was at a critical junc- ture in the history of the war. The army of the Potomac had failed in its campaign against Richmond. The City of Washington was in great peril. Another call for vol- unteers had been issued.
Joshua M. Dushane, who had been the last captain of the Youghiogheny Blues and who had hitherto been unable to leave home, decided to raise a company here in his own town; and so on Thursday, August 8th, he posted notices
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in prominent places that there would be "a war meeting in the Presbyterian Church" that night, and that there would be "good music and good speeches." When the hour of meeting arrived, the church was well filled. Mr. Alexander Johnston, an elder of the church, was called to the chair. A band of music discoursed patriotic . airs. Rev. E. R. Donehoo, D. D., then a young man supplying the Presby- terian pulpit, afterward one of the most prominent minis- ters in Pittsburgh, delivered an eloquent and stirring ad- dress. Others spoke briefly ; then volunteers were called for, and at once men began going forward to give their names at the secretary's table until, in a little while, two-thirds of the company had been raised. The other third was easily secured the next day.
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