Century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and representative citizens 20th, Part 5

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1526

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they were mining their lead, and the white men were never able to discover its loca- tion. As late as 1850 an Indian of the Cornplanter tribe is said to have come to Butler and stopped at the old Beatty Hotel over night. The next morning he went down along the Connoquenessing Creek alone and returned in the evening with all the lead he could carry. The next day he returned by stage to his home. Day's "Historical Collections of Pennsylvania" says that a lead mine existed at an early day near Harmony, and that the first set- tlers in that section of the county found a small furnace that the Indians had used in melting the lead. No white man has ever been able to discover these lead deposits which were known to the Indians, and whether or not they are phantoms is left to the reader to judge for himself.

FORESTS.

With the exception of the southeastern townships, a tract in Parker Township, and a few groves in other townships, the pine and the hemlock are absent. Vast forests of oak, elm, chestnut, walnut, ash, hickory, maple, and other hard wood trees abounded in every township in the county, and for many years was the source of a great lumber supply. In the matter of orchards, the apple tree holds first place, the peach tree second, while the pear and the plum are cultivated to a large. extent. Much of the territory in the county is fitted for vine culture, but little attention is given thereto. Thirty years ago extensive vineyards were planted in Butler County which flourished for a few years. The vines were attacked by a blight which con- tinued until this branch of industry has been abandoned.

There are one hundred species of mam- mals known in Butler County, and the list of birds includes three hundred and thirty species, of which one hundred and fifteen are natives. The panther was the lion of the wilderness whose scream was as famil-

iar to the pioneer as the bark of a dog is to the people of the present day. Many stories of adventure are told concerning the "painter," several of which are re- lated in the adventures of the pioneers. Contradictory stories are told about the last panther killed within the limits of the county. Some say it was in 1856, some place it earlier, and some later. The bear grew to gigantic stature in this district, and the wolf attained his greatest strength, and both animals were a source of danger, loss and trouble to the early settlers. The county was a paradise for hunters, who found along the deer-licks enjoyment and profit. It was the practice of the hunters in the winter time to hunt deer and carry their carcasses to Pittsburg where they were sold for cash. Adam Brown of For- ward Township, who was considered a great hunter of his day, shot forty-eight deer in one winter, and hauled them to Pittsburg on a sled. Jacob Ekas was an- other deer hunter equally as famous, and many others could be mentioned. The greed of the hunters led to the annihilation of the deer and the bounty laws tended toward the extermination of the wild ani- mals. The otter and the beaver abounded on Bear Creek and on Muddy Creek, but they have long since disappeared. The last of the otter tribe vanished from Bear Creek about 1872 and a few years later they had disappeared from Muddy Creek.

The birds, however, have largely held their own, and are still with us. In Novem- ber, 1881, a golden eagle measuring seven feet from tip to tip was captured in Penn Township by Elijah T. Phillips. The owl, the hawk, and other predatory birds are numerous, but the species are kept from increasing by the hunters. Game birds and song birds are protected by law.

ARCHEOLOGY.

Butler County is not without interest from an archeological point of view. On the site of old Indian towns along the old

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY

Indian trails, and even in places where no signs of Indian habitations were found by the early settlers, arrowheads, stone chis- els, and other reminders of the original inhabitants of the ' land are frequently brought to light. As late as 1907 arrow- heads were found in the northern part of Connoquenessing Township and in many other localities in the county similar dis- coveries have been made where Indian camps and villages are known to have ex- isted. In 1893 a butternut tree and butter- nuts were found petrified within a rock in the outcrop south of the Connoquenessing Creek, opposite the borough of Butler. When that tree was covered with sand, or when the sand was converted into rock, are secrets of nature which invite the attention of the scientist. A few years later in ex- cavating for the foundation of the Broad Street School building in Butler, the work- men discovered a petrified log at the depth of twenty-five feet and a section of a laurel bush of gigantic size, which had doubtless been the growth of some prehistoric age.

FLOODS AND STORMS, AND EPIDEMICS.

High waters in the creeks in the county have not been unusual, but the damage

was generally confined to buildings on the lowlands, and the bridges across the streams, and no lives were lost. The flood which carried away a large portion of Petrolia was the most disastrous one known within that period. The drouths of 1854 and of the summer of 1894 were the most serious in the history of the county entailing heavy losses on the farm- ers, and rendering water exceedingly scarce by drying up many of the streams. The tornado which carried away part of Coaltown, and the rainstorm of June 21, 1872, which damaged a few houses in But- ler are the only disastrous visitations of the elements worthy of mention. In 1832 the locusts ravaged the county and again in 1849 they threatened the crops, but dis- appeared during the last week in June of that year. The frost of June 5, 1859, was one of the disasters of the middle of the century which effected the entire county. Fruit was killed and the prospects of a harvest were dashed to the ground.

In 1838 scarlet fever and catarrhal fever were epidemic in Butler and vicinity, and the typhoid fever epidemic of 1903-4 is the subject of a separate article in this work.

CHAPTER II

SETTLEMENT OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

Indian Occupation-Early Maps-The Original People-The First White Men-Wash- ington's Journey-England Takes Action-Cause of Indian Dissatisfaction- Christopher Gist-Frederick Post-Post Returns to the Delawares-Kaskaskunk -Pakanke-Glikkikin-Rev. John Rothe-Settlements up to 1804-Pioneer Set- tlers-Pioneer Anecdotes and Adventures-Destruction of Kittanning-The Story of Massy Harbison-Gen. Richard Butler.

There appears to be much mystery as to who the original inhabitants of Western Pennsylvania were. The only evidences of the Indian occupation found here by the pioneers from 1790 to 1800 were the old Indian trails and the traces of Indian vil- lages to be found in various part of the county. The Senecas were the occupants of this part of the State south of Lake Erie, but at the time the tide of immigra- tion reached the east bank of the Allegheny the country was claimed by several tribes, including remnants of the Delaware, the Shawanese, Munceys, and Senecas. These tribes, under the leadership of the Tory Scotch-Irishmen, Simon Girty, Alexander McKee, and Captain Elliott, were allies of the British during the Revolution.

EARLY MAPS OF THE COUNTY.

The maps of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania published in 1875 show the Indian towns of what is now But- ler County to have been Cushcushking, on Wolf Creek in the present limits of Slip- pery Rock Township; Kaskaskunk, west of Holyoke Church in Center Township near the Franklin Township line; Sakonk

on the west line of Alexander's District, where it intersects Connoquenessing Creek near Harmony; and another Indian town named Sakonk, which stood near the mouth of the Beaver River. Logstown was lo- cated on the northeast bank of the Ohio, a few miles southwest of the southwest corner of Butler County; and Shannopin Town stood across the Allegheny River opposite the Indian town of Allegheny. The map does not mention Murdering Town which stood north of Amberson's Bridge on Connoquenessing Creek; the Indian village that at one time existed near the mouth of Breakneck Creek; the Indian village in Buffalo Township on the Jacob Simmers farm; the Indian town that once existed in the northeastern section of the county near the present town of Bruin; the Indian village in Franklin Township about one mile south of Prospect on the old White farm; nor the Indian camps that were known to exist at Buhl's Mill in Forward Township, near Mechanicsburg in Worth Township, and on the present site of Harrisville in Mercer Township. Nor is any mention made of the old Indian camping place on the Kearns farm in But-

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY

ler Township at what is now known as the Transfer, nor the Indian camp within the present limits of Butler borough on the site of the courthouse. A small band of Indians lived in the village near Bruin as late as 1796 when the first settlers came to that district, and a small band of Moravian Indians lived in a village near West Lib- erty as late as 1812.

No mention is made of the Indian trails or paths leading across Butler County, of which there were a large number. As early as 1750 there was known to be an Indian trail or great path leading from Philadelphia across the mountains to Kit- tanning on the Allegheny River; and thence west to the Ohio line, probably passing the town of Kaskaskunk north of Butler. A path led north from Kittanning along the river bank to Franklin and traces of an old north and south path were found in Buffalo Township by the early settlers. The old Venango trail led from the forks of the Ohio River north through Cran- berry and Jackson Townships, passing Murdering Town and in the vicinity of Prospect and Harrisville. Traces of this path are yet to be seen on the west line of the Greer McCandless farm in Connoque- nessing Township. The old Logstown path, followed by George Washington and his party in 1753, came up Beaver River and Connoquenessing Creek and inter- . sected the Venango path at some point near Murdering Town. Another old path existed in early days leading from Mur- dering Town along the banks of the Con- noquenessing Creek to Butler, and thence east toward Kittanning. The early set- tlers of Butler Township and the southern part of the county say that an Indian trail once existed leading from the present site of Butler directly south to the present site of Pittsburg. Many of these old Indian trails were marked on the Colonial and State documents as being the property of the Cornplanter Indians, and they were used by these tribes when the pioneers

first came to occupy the land in the county. The narrative of Massy Harbison indi- cates that an Indian settlement of some proportion existed at an early day on the Connoquenessing Creek north of Butler, but there are no records to show who in- habited the place.

THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE.

While the Senecas, the Delawares and the Shawanese occupied the territory west of the Allegheny River and north of the Ohio at the time the first white men came into the country, they were by no means the first inhabitants of the land. A tradi- tion about the origin of the Delaware In- dians is of interest at this point on account of the fact that this nation of Indians occu- pied the territory, of which Butler County is a part, prior to emigrating to the east- ern part of the State. When the English- men first came to the shores of America they found that the Lenni Lenape occupied the shores of the Delaware River in Penn- sylvania, hence the name Delaware In- dians. In the Indian language Lenni Lenape means the "original people." The tradition is that many centuries ago the Lenni Lenape came from west of the Mis- sissippi River. When they reached the shores of the Mississippi they fell in with the Mengwe, or Iroquois, who were also of western origin, and had come from the far west near the source of the Mississippi River. They found that the country east of the Mississippi River was occupied by a people called the Allegewi, who lived in fortified towns and occupied all the terri- tory as far east as the Allegheny River. The Allegheny River and the Allegheny Mountains derived their names from this tribe of people, who were said to be tall and stout and many of them of gigantic stature. Vestiges of these people are yet to be seen in the historic mounds of south- ern Ohio and in Allegheny County in western Pennsylvania.

The Lenape requested permission of the

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Allegewi to occupy the country, but the re- quest was refused. After a long council, however, the chiefs of the Allegewi granted permission for the strangers to cross the river, pass through the country, and oc- cupy the lands to the eastward. When the Allegewi saw the numbers of the strangers passing the river they became alarmed and assailed and destroyed many of those who had reached the eastern shore. A long war ensued in which the Allegewi were driven out of the country never to return. The Lenape called the Mississippi River the Namaesi Sipu, or the river of fish. After the Allegewi had been conquered, the Lenape and the Iroquois divided the terri- tory, the former occupying the lands south and along the Ohio River, and the latter the country in the neighborhood of the Great Lakes.

The conquerors lived in harmony for many generations. Finally a band of hunters of the Lenape tribe crossed the Allegheny Mountains and discovered the great rivers and bays of the Susquehanna and Delaware, going as far east as the Hudson. After a long absence they re- turned to their people and told of the dis- covery of a new land which abounded in game, fish, fowls and fruit, and in which no inhabitants lived. The Lenape imme- diately emigrated to the new country, establishing their principal towns on the Delaware River, and occupying the coun- try as far as the Hudson River and south to the Potomac. All of their nation, how- ever, did not cross the Mississippi River, but some remained behind, and because of the wars with the Allegewi they became frightened and went to the far west. They thus became divided into three parts, those that inhabited the Atlantic coast, those that inhabited the land between the Alle- gheny and the Mississippi, and those west of the Mississippi. The Lenape that occu- pied the Atlantic coast were divided into three tribes, called the Turtle, the Turkey, and the Wolf. The Minsi, or Wolf tribe,

formed a barrier in central Pennsylvania between their nation and the Iroquois on the north and became known as the "Mon- seys." Forty tribes of Indians are said to be traceable to the Lenape, among which is the Shawanese. The latter tribe are said to be of southern origin and came from the basin of the Cumberland River to the Susquehanna Valley in Pennsyl- vania in 1673. In 1698 seventy families of this tribe settled on Conestoga and Pequea Creek under their principal chief, Opessa. They followed the west branch of the Sus- quehanna River and in 1728 were in the Ohio region. In 1832 the whole tribe occu- pied the tributaries of the Ohio in what is now western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, and there is no doubt but that many of the Indian villages and camps in Butler County were occupied by these people either as hunting lodges or principal places of residence. The Delaware Indians who - inhabited western Pennsylvania, or at least that part of the State west of the Alle- gheny River, were no doubt descendants of that part of the Lenape family that re- mained east of the Mississippi River when the principal part of the tribe emigrated to the Atlantic coast.

Notwithstanding the facts that the In- dians of the Allegheny River were well known to the French soldiers in 1753-59, the names of but few have been preserved in the pages of American history. Custa- loga and Kiassuta, or Guyasutha, the hunter, were the great chiefs here in the middle of the eighteenth century. Wash- ington met the first at Venango on French Creek in 1753, and the latter was one of his guides on that historical expedition. Both of these Indians after proving recreant to the French became earnest supporters of the British, and during the Revolution took part in many a bloody foray into the settlements east of the Allegheny River and Mountains. Early historians do not mention the fact that about the time Wash- ington made his visit to Fort Venango, one

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY

of the principal Indian towns was Kas- kaskunk in the present limits of Butler County, which was then inhabited by the Delaware Indians under the noted chief Pakanke, and the celebrated warrior and Indian orator, Glikkikkin.

THE FIRST WHITE MEN.

The pioneer white men of western Penn- sylvania, as they were also of the Missis- sippi and Ohio Valleys, were the French. Their claims to the right of possession were based on the discoveries of LaSalle, who, about 1669-1670, started south from the Great Lakes, struck the head waters of the Allegheny River, and followed that stream to the Ohio and thence to the falls at Louisville, returning to Canada the same year.

In 1749 Gallissionere, the governor of Canada, organized an expedition which he placed under the command of Capt. Pierre Joseph Céloron, the object of which was to connect the French possession in Canada with Louisiana by a chain of forts reach- ing from the lakes to the Ohio River and thence south. Advancing by way of Lakes Erie and Chautauqua, and Conewango Creek to the Allegheny River, Celoron pro- ceeded down that stream to the Ohio. In descending the Allegheny, he crossed the northeast and the southeast corners of Butler County, and this therefore takes rank as the first white exploration of west- ern Pennsylvania. Celoron took formal possession of the country in the name of Louis XV., King of France, and buried leaden plates at certain points as evidence of possession. One of these plates was buried at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. The mathema- tician, geographer, and chaplain of this expedition was a Jesuit priest named Rev. Joseph Peter de Bonnecamp.

In 1753, four years after the first French expedition, the French erected a fort at Erie called Presque Isle, one at Waterford called Fort LeBoeuf, and took possession

of John Frazier's cabin at the mouth of French Creek on the site of Franklin. Upon the crest of this cabin they placed the flag of France, and left the place in charge of a half-breed French officer named Capt. Chabert de Joncaire. Fort Machault, called Venango by the English, was erected in the spring of 1754.

English jealousy being aroused by these proceedings, Governor Dinwiddie, of Vir- ginia, sent Maj. George Washington, aft- erward immortalized in American history, to learn from the French commandant his intentions, and to protest against the French occupying the Allegheny Valley, to which the English laid claim. Early in 1754 the governor of Virginia sent a small force to the confluence of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers and commenced the erec- tion of a fort for the purpose of heading off the French, but the latter descended the Allegheny River, drove the English away, and completed the fort, which they named Duquesne. This was the beginning of the long and bloody contest known as the French and Indian War, which closed in 1759, with the expulsion of the French from western Pennsylvania. The Pontiac conspiracy in 1763 resulted in widespread havoc and wiped out the three forts north of Fort Pitt. The last mentioned was gar- risoned by the English until the Revolu- tion, when the Americans became master of the country.

WASHINGTON'S JOURNEY.

In 1753 Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, as above noted, sent George Washington to the French post at Venango and Fort LeBoeuf. Washington carried letters of instruction dated at the city of Williams- burg the 30th day of October and he set out on his journey the same day. He em- ployed a French interpreter and upon the 14th of November arrived at Will's Creek. Here he engaged Christopher Gist, one of the most noted pioneers and woodsmen upon the stage during the troublous times

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from 1750 to 1783, and also four others as servants. The party then proceeded to the mouth of Turtle Creek, which point they reached on the 22d of November, and from there they went to the forks of the Ohio, now the site of Pittsburg, and Wash- ington spent some time in viewing the river and the land between the Allegheny and the Monongahela, which he thought extremely well situated for a fort. The party then proceeded down the Ohio River to Logstown, where Washington met the Half-King Tannac Harrison, who gave him much information concerning the French and the route he must pursue to meet their commandant. On the 30th of November, Washington and his party, ac- companied by the Half-King, left Logs- town and proceeded to Venango where they arrived on the 4th of December. Washington described Venango as an old town situated on the mouth of French Creek on the Ohio River. It appears from this entry in Washington's journal that the Allegheny was called the Ohio at this period, which accounts in a measure for some of the confusing statements about the location of Indian towns in the early histories. At Venango the English found the French colors hoisted at the house of John Frazier, an English subject, and Washington immediately repaired there to learn where the French commandant re- sided. There were three French officers at Frazier's house, one of whom was said to have command of the Ohio, but they told the commissioner of the English that there was a general officer at Fort Le- Boeuf, now Waterford, Erie County, and advised Washington to apply there for an answer to his inquiry. The officers at Venango told Washington that it was the intention of the French to take possession of the Ohio, and added with an oath that they would do it, although they knew that the English could raise two men to their one. In his journal Washington says that "the French pretended to have an un-

doubted right to the river from the dis- covery made by one LaSalle sixty years previous to that time, and that the rise of this expedition is to prevent English set- tlement on the river or the waters of it." Washington journeyed on to Fort LeBoeuf where he arrived on the 11th of December and remained until the 16th, holding an unsatisfactory conference with the com- mander Legardur LaPierre.

On the journey to Venango, Washington and his party traveled from Logstown to Murdering Town on the Connoquenessing Creek in the present limits of Butler County, and thence followed the old Venango trail, which traverses the western section of the county, probably passing the vicinity of Prospect and Harrisville. On the return trip the party reached Venango on the 22d of December, where they were obliged to give up their horses on account of the weakened condition of the animals after making the long and arduous jour- ney. Washington, being anxious to make a report of his expedition as quickly as possible, left the rest of the party at Venango and with Christopher Gist as his . sole companion, started on foot for the forks of the Ohio. On the second day they reached Murdering Town, and it was on the evening of this day that Washington had an adventure with an Indian, which is briefly touched upon in his journal. Wash- ington's journal says at this point that it was the intention to leave the trail at Murdering Town and steer across the country to Shannopin Town, an Indian village situated on the east bank of the Allegheny near the forks of the Ohio. It is probable that they intended using the old trail that existed at an early day, and which ran from the forks of the Ohio north through what is now Cranberry and Jack- son Townships, intersecting the Logstown trail at or near Murdering Town-called the Venango trail.

Just after they had passed Murdering Town, Washington and Gist fell in with

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY

a party of French Indians, and the inci- dent which is casually alluded to in Wash- ington's journal, is related at some length in the journal kept by Gist. According to Gist, they arrived at Murdering Town about two o'clock in the afternoon. Gist says that at Murdering Town he met an Indian who called him by his Indian name and pretended to be glad to see him. The Indian accompanied them on their journey and when about two miles from Murdering Town he remarked that he could hear a gun from his cabin, and steered the party in a more northerly direction. The Indian also remarked that he could hear two war whoops and acted altogether in such a suspicious manner that both Washington and Gist became uneasy. Washington re- marked that they would stay for the night at the next water. They came to the water, passed it, and came to a clear meadow where the Indian made a stop, turned about, and discharged his gun directly at Washington. His aim was un- steady and both Washington and Gist escaped injury, although they were close together. Gist wanted to kill the Indian, but yielding to the persuasion of Washing- ton, they captured him, made him make a fire for them and pretended that they were going to camp at the spot for the night. They relieved the Indian of his gun and told him to go to his home, which was but a little way off, and said that they would follow him to his cabin in the morning. Gist followed the Indian until he was out of the way and then he and Washington set their compass and traveled all night, arriving at the head of Pine Creek in Alle- gheny County about daylight in the morn- ing. The clear meadow mentioned in the narrative is supposed to have been in the vicinity of Buhl's Mill and the route fol- lowed by Gist and Washington must have passed very near the location of Evans City.

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Century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and representative citizens 20th, Part 5

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1526

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1526