Century history of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens, 20th, Vol. I, Part 14

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co. (Chicago) pbl
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 584

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > Washington > Century history of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens, 20th, Vol. I > Part 14

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Broadhead's garrison soon dwindled to 200 men, and for these he had neither money nor paymaster. Fre- quently he fretted bitterly over the lack of provisions and his consequent helplessness. He called the residents of Pittsburg a "rascally set of inhabitants," and wrote that if Col. George Morgan "had been where his em- ployment required we should have been better provided." Without supplies the militia could not be called. An at- tempt by Pennsylvania to furnish supplies from West- moreland County instead of across the mountains on pack horses failed. Broadhead in September, 1780, sent Capt. Samuel Brady and Uriah Springer to forcibly take from the settlers cattle and sheep or other supplies. Springer operated east of the Monongahela, and Capt. Brady on the west side and around Chartiers Creek. They brought in some farm stock from the little cleared patches or as they found them concealed in the forest.

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

but they made many enemies hy it, and it was a haz- ardous business. It was the custom of the whites to destroy the large cornfields and villages or huts and to confiscato the furs stored hy the Indians, and the red men in their turn bad destroyed many animals of the settlers. Amid demonstrations and dire threats, tbe much needed cattle were driven off to feed the garrisoned soldiers at Pittsburg. This supply was insufficient and this forcible plan was abandoned in ahout three months, hut the settlers hecame hitter and hostile and complained of keeping up the garrison.

The distressing situation was added to by the uncer- tainty of title and possession of land, and the mental struggle was exciting. The Virginians had the best of it. Their laws recognized the rights of every person who settled on land on these western waters at any time prior to 1778, hut Pennsylvania would not favor a settlement made hefore 1769, the date she bought off the Indiaus and opened her land offices. Pennsylvania would only allow 300 acres to a settler, hut her sister state allowed such as took the oatb of allegiance to Virginia 400 acres, or so much thereof as he could pay for at 10 shillings per acre, and he could occupy hy a tenant without com- ing himself into this exposed country. He could pre- empt any greater quantity of land adjoining not exceed- ing 1,000 acres.

Yohogania County justices and surveyors encouraged the claims of soldiers of the English and French War, which ended in 1763, for the services of which the king of Great Britain had commanded the governors of the three new colonies to grant free of charge, to every person having the rank of a field officer 5,000 acres; to every captain 3,000 acres; to every subaltern or staff officer 2,000 acres; to every non-commissioned officer 200 acres, and to every private 50 acres of the waste and unappropriated lands in America. These soldier claims were bought up and locations of land made hy many speculators.

The two states through their commissioners adopted in 1779 a plan for finally locating the state line, hut their report was subject to change and approval hy each state. The Virginia Legislature became husy enacting laws to determine titles to the lands, three heing enacted that year. One of these was called "the Corn Law," hecause the settlers got no title "unless they have made a crop of corn in that country or resided there at least a year. ''

Virgima land offices were opened along the Monoga- hela River for hearings for lands now in Washington County, the alleged purpose heing to prove settlements and decide titles. Warrants as a hasis for surveys were granted and many surveys were made in 1780, and eveu after Washington County, Pennsylvania. was established in 1781. All the titles and claims of the Penn family

were destroyed or made invalid, so far as the Legislature of Pennsylvania could do so, hy act passed November 27, 1779. This act compensated "the devisees and legatees of Thomas Penn aud Richard Penn, late pro- prietaries of Pennsylvania," and the widow of said Thomas Penn with £130,000 sterling money of Great Britain.

It has heen asserted that if the English army had ap- peared in the Monongahela Valley about the heginning of the year 1780 this region would have gone to their standard without hesitation. The harassed and dis- tracted inhabitants had no permanent, safe houses, no certain government and no sure title nor promise of any. They had hut little provisions, cattle or crops, no money of any value to purchase with, and very little of any- thing in the community that could be bought. The Vir- ginia adherents saw the hest of the horseshoe land ahout to he snatched away by the Pennsylvania houndary line survey, and the Peunsylvania adherents saw the Virginian surveyors embracing or encroaching ou their settlements by these surveys of vast tracts of land. It is impossible to conceive of a situation more distressing.

The records of Yohogania courts sbow that John Camp- hell, one of the justices whose house was close to the present site of Carnegie, had heen captured hy the In- dians, and the ever prominent Dorsey Pentecost was given command of the militia of this county. Many former military officers came into court in 1779 and 1780 and proved their service under the king of England in order to entitle them to the military land warrants, men- tioned ahove. The Virginia adherents kept up their show of control to the very last, ordering that a whipping post be erected at a cost of $2,000 only two months prior to the final meeting of court on August 28, 1780. The court record does not disclose any reason why the meet- ings ceased or any expectation that this would be the final session of Yohogama Justice's Conrt. For one whole year before the court of Washington County started its legal meetings no courts assemhled in this region except the Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, court, recently started up again away over at little Hannastown.

One reason given by the Virginia partisans was that when the news of the agreement at Baltimore iu 1779 finally reached the backwoods, and a report immediately following that the state line should he run without pro- crastination, it produced a "relaxation among the offi- eers, knowing that a line as proposed would include the whole, or nearly so, of Yohogania County, and hy that means the whole county was thrown into anarchy and confusion. ''

Another explanation is that the alleged usurpations had been laid hefore the President and Council of Penn- sylvania and by them been presented to Congress, so

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

that tho affairs became a National question, or rather, a question for tho League of States. The Continental Cougress attempted to lay a quieting hand on tho cou- troversy by recommending peaco and nou-interference hetween the states, and the withholding of land grants until a final adjustment of the state line.

The granting of land or issuing of patents by thesc contesting states ecased, but warrants issued by the com- missioners "appointed by Virginia to adjust claims to unpatented lands in Yobga., Monga., and Ohio Counties" and the surveying of choice lands by Virginia authority continued to be a ready way of avoiding the effect of the advice given hy the Continental Congress. Iu later years Pennsylvania was under legal compulsion obliged to issue patents based on those warrants and surveys, and lost large acreages hy the decision of the Virginia commissioners, thus forcing the grant of lands hased upon the king's ancient proclamation of rewards for services to Great Britain.

An influence for peace appeared at this time as a star of hope. The court sitting at West Augusta and at Andrew Heath's house had administered the Virginia oath of allegiance to a number of preachers of the gospel, but none of them appear to have stayed in the commun- ity permanently until Rev. John McMillen came with his family to the congregations of Pigeon Creek and Char- tiers in 1778, Rev. Tbadeus Dodd to Ten Mile region, Cook's Settlement and Lindley's Fort, now Amity and Prosperity, in 1778 or 1779, and Rev. Joseph Smith to Cross Creek and Rev. Matthew Henderson to North Buffalo almost at the same time. Rev. McMillen had first visited here in 1775, and in 1776 had accepted the offer of the congregations, and Rev. Dodd had been to his people in the autumn of 1776, but both were deterred from bringing their families because of the Indians.

The introduction of religion and religions services into any community is a great historic event. The years 1778 and 1781 were of unusnal importance because of the be- ginning of the religious movement which affected mate- rially the character of the future settlers and their poli- cies. This is peculiarly true of Washington County, for in no other locality west of the mountains did Scotch- Irish Presbyterianism, with its serious views of this and the future life, take such deep root and obtain a quicker and more permanent growth. The work of the three named ministers most clearly proves that "what we do, in weakness or in strength, in widening circles touches the infinite and so go on forever." Their cherished purpose was to raise upon the field fellow-helpers. They did not cry to the churches east of the mountains to "come over and help us" with either men or money. They took things as they found them, erected churches of logs with no tools hut the ax, preached in the woods with or with- out pulpits, in churches, large tents, private houses or out under the trees, and religiously took up their collections.

As lato as 1802 an English traveler walking from Pitt -- burg to Wheeling wrote of seeing a pulpit in the woods between Pittsburg and Canonsburg. Not only did they build churches, hut they taught the aspiring young men of tho neighborhood, and Dodd and McMillen hoth soon had log-academies built. Dodd's Academy developed in the year 1806 into Washington College, and McMillen's Academy developed in the year 1802 into Jefferson Col- lege. The union of these two colleges in tho year 1865 has made the immortally famous Washington and Jeffer- son College, in the very heart of Washington County.

The settlement of the county, the planting of the churches and the teaching of the youth constituted one and the same social movement. Of tho first men wbo crossed the mountains-"the primitive settlers-the men who fished and hunted for a living, and served as guides and army scouts, it cannot he said that they made much religious profession of any kind. They were an extremely heterogeneous class and restive of the restraint of well-ordered society. Yet even among these could be found here and there a sturdy, God-fearing Presbyterian family." Occasionally was found, especially about Pitts- hurg, an adherent of the Church of England, and these quite often exhibited tendencies toward toryism. In ex- planation of the influence of this religion upon the poli- cies of the time Dr. George P. Hays, in "Presbyterian- ism," page 113, states: "The English officials and their tory friends laid a large portion of the hlame for the insubordination of the people upon the Preshyterians. The Preshyterians of Scotland and Ireland had been leaders in resisting English religious oppression. The reputation therefore of Presbyterians in the old country was that of a people who would not readily suhmit to oppression hy monarchial authority. Peter Van Schaak in 1769 used these exultant words: "The election in New York City is ended and the church is triumphant in spite of all the efforts of the Preshyterians. The Pres- hyterians think they have as a religious body everything to dread from the power of the church."

This fairly expressed the feeling on hoth sides. The Presbyterians did dread the persecuting power of the English Church through the government, and the Eng- lish government dreaded the Preshyterians as ringleaders in resistance. For the English soldiery to hear a house- hold or a body of men singing "Rouse's Psalms" was a sufficient proof of the insubordinate character of the singers. Preaching in New York without authority from the English church was at one time punished with im- prisonment.

To escape this and other persecutions was the hope of our forefathers in settling in this wilderness. Their early experiences on this soil were most dangerous and aggravating, and did not decrease, hut seemed to in· crease immediately upon the organization of Washington County in 1781.

CHAPTER IX

EVENTS OF 1781-1782.

Delawares become Enemies-Broadhead Attacks Them-Committee of Safety-Washington County Established- George Rogers Clark Arrives-James Marshall Opposes-New Government Party-Demand for State Line- Clark's Draft under Virginia Authority-Marshall's Militia Elections under Pennsylvania Authority-Broad- head Averse to Clark-Broadhead's Campaign Fails for Want of Supplies-Clark's Campaign Fails for Want of Men and a State Line-Col. Lochry Marched through Washington County-Pentecost Elected to High Office in Pennsylvania Justices and Washington County Officers Elected and Commissioned-First Court Held-Captain Jack Hughs-Williamson's Expedition-The Moravians-Indian Aggressions-Killbuck at Pittsburg-Attack by Men from Chartiers Creek-Crawford's Campaign-State Line Survey-Abandoned Expedition-New State Agitation-First Thanksgiving Day.

The year 1781 started with the disaffection of the Delawares. At their council held at Coshocton in Febru- ary they yielded to the English influences and with Chief Pipe as their leader broke their long continued peace treaty. Their council had an influence over almost twenty nations. The result was a most dangerous, harassing and disturbed year for the frontiersmen. Much of the American influence upon this tribe was lost by the in- ability of Gen. Broadhead to have supplies for his garri- son at Fort Pitt and to carry on trinket trading for furs, and possibly much mischief was done by the efforts of Westmoreland County men to take the scalps of a large party of friendly Delawares who had come to Pittsburg to trade and to assist Gen. Broadhead in an attack against the Indians on our west.

The little garrison at Fort Pitt was so impoverished that the commanding general, upon hearing the pre- ceding September that some persons along Ten Mile Creek had been killed or captured by the Indians, was too helpless to send any soldiers or rangers after those who had committed this and other outrages in that vi- cinity. Gen. Broadhead apparently expected and ob- tained more assistance from Pennsylvania than from the Continental Congress. Having obtained supplies from the east during the winter, and possibly some buffalo meat from the detachment of Delawares and hunters which he had sent to the Big Kanawa the preceding fall for that purpose, he started to Coshocton to subdue the Indian uprising. His effort was a success in surprising the Delawares, who had not yet become completely or- ganized under Chief Pipe, and they removed farther west.

In this expedition which left Fort Henry (now Wheel- ing), where they had gathered on April 10, volunteers from Washington County were of good assistance. It is not probable, however, that these brave men riding their horses through the thickets and swamps beyond the Ohio knew that they were citizens of Washington County, as news of the organization had not yet become widespread. How slowly the news traveled even by special messenger appears from the fact that Thomas Scott's letter writ- ten from a few miles east of the Monongahela River, dated October 8, did not reach President Reed at Phila- delphia for over four months.

This letter referred to the political movement to in- corporate the new county, to be known as Washington, called for Gen. George Washington, then a hero in this new, struggling country.

The troops and volunteers returned to Fort Henry about the 1st of May, after destroying a number of In. dians and about forty head of cattle and bringing away peltry and goods which sold at vendue for £80,000. The interest in this attack was stirred up by Dorsey Pente- cost and some others. They had visited the frontier set- tlement to the west of Catfish Camp in the winter, found them much dejected and fearful, returned and adver- tised a meeting of ways and means. A committee of safety was organized, and several committee meetings were held, but the expense of hiring rangers gave rise to discontent and disputes among members of the com- mittee.

It may have been fear of expense or it may have been the energetic and domineering disposition of Col. Pente- cost that caused the establishment of Washington County

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

March 28, 1781, iguoring him entirely as an officer thereof, just as he had been ignored eight years before at the organization of Westmoreland Couuty. His ac- count is that in tho spring "a certain James Marshall (a person of yesterday among us), a frontier inhabitant (from Cross Creek Township), and a member of the committee, went home from one of the meetings, pre- pared a petition to the Assembly of Pennsylvania, as- sured the distressed frontier's people that he would ob- taiu their immediate sueeor, got their assistance in signa- tures and cash and went to Philadelphia. At his return he brought the Act of Assembly ereating that part of Westmoreland County lying west of the Monongahela into a separate county by the name of Washington and for himself three commissions, lieutenant, reeorder and register for said county; and in that Aet of Assembly, on his (Mr. Marshall's) or some of his friends' repre- sentations, a set of men were appointed, who all (exeept Capt. Swearingen and Mr. D. Leet) are strangers to the county, being gentlemen who have but recently eome among us."

While James Marshall was in Philadelphia, Gen. George Rogers Clark, not yet thirty years old, flushed with vie- tory in his most brilliant campaign, in which he had eap- tured Gov. Gen. Hamilton, eame here with an intent to carry against the savages another expedition, which was principally intended to be aided from this county. Clark had come from Richmond, Va., with money and a briga- dier-general's commission and with about 140 Virginia regulars. He had authority to get volunteers, and as they did uot come to him very rapidly he literally went for them.

Col. James Marshall with his several commissions, rely- ing especially upon that of county lieutenant or highest military offieer in Washington County, became at once the county leader and the opposer of the efforts of Gen. Clark and his aiders and abettors. Matters were fur- ther complicated by Dorsey Pentecost swearing into an old commission as lieutenant for Yohogania County, which had been in the county for upwards of a year, but which he said he "had neglected to qualify to on ac- count of the apparent probability there was for a change of government." There were upwards of 2,500 effective men in the limits of Washington County, according to Col. James Marshall's estimate. How many were in Yohogania County we are not told. It embraced a eon- siderable part of the present counties of Fayette and Allegheny along the eastern side of the Monongahela River, but did not inelnde Ten Mile Creek, along which was a considerable settlement.

The Virginians were extremely anxious to prevent Ten Mile Creek, as well as the Monongahela River, from be- coming Pennsylvania property or territory, as they wanted control of both those waterways to reach their

favorite Kentucky region, ealled the County of Ken- tueky, and the Indian fur trado in their Illinois County, and to control the Ohio River. It was at that time rumored that the unexplored Ten Mile Creek would lead out by a short portage to connect with the Ohio River, or to use the words of Gen. George Washington, "the west fork of Monongahela communicates very nearly with the waters of the Kanawa-that the portage docs not exceed nine miles, and that a very good wagon road may be had between." Virginians had no other plan for a good opening through to the west exeept down the Monongahela. They considered that a state having within its borders such waterways was supposed then to be in position to compel tribute from travelers from other states, or to exclude such travel entirely. This gave additional interest to a New State Party or New Government Party, which had existed for a few years, and was eneonraged by Virginia, which preferred that these waters should be controlled by themselves or any others rather than by the slow Pennsylvania government residing at far distant Philadelphia.

Col. Marshall, upon whom devolved all responsibility for the new eonnty, there being no courts or active magistrate to represent it, became extremely anxious and pressing for the state line to be run as promised. The high-handed methods of Clark, Pentecost, Gabriel Cox and others in drafting men for service in the west caused Marshall and others to allege that their objeet was to extend the influence and enlarge the territory of Virginia on our west. The people denied Virginia's right to force them and refused to submit to the military laws of either state. Many refused to pay taxes to either state. Col. Marshall feared to organize his militia, as it threatened eivil war between state faetions, or, as he ex- pressed it, he feared "the consequences of involving the good subjeets of this state in a civil war with Col. Pentecost's Banditti and a New Government Party." Col. John Canon, who was appointed a sub-lieutenant of Washington County militia, sided with Pentecost, and Daniel Leet, the other sub-lieutenant, refused to act until the state line was run. Many letters were written to President Reed, of Pennsylvania. Thomas Scott, of West- moreland County, who had been appointed by the Legis- lature the prothonotary of Washington County, wrote urging the state line survey, and Gen. Broadhead, of Fort Pitt, wrote with the same object. Gen. Clark wrote that "as for Mr. Marshall he has, I learn, lived in obscurity until lately; his promotion has so confused him that his conduet is contradictory in his own publiek writing, and as wavering as the minds of that elass of mortals he has had the honor to influenee. "'

Clark laid the blame for his failure to raise sufficient troops to Marshall and a few others, ineluding Christo- pher Hays, of Westmoreland County. His belief was that

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

if the line between the two states was "established and the whole well officered these western people might in a short time be made valuable citizens, and any necessary force called to the field on the shortest notice. But at present scarcely a week passes but you hear of some massacre." A draft in aid of Clark's expedition was ordered by the militia officers of Yohogania County at the court house on Andrew Heath's farm near Elizabeth on June 5, which was ten months after the courts of that county had given up their jurisdiction.

Ten days later Col. Marshall advertised two battalion elections for selecting military officers for Washington County, but soon found that the efforts of Gen. Clark's expedition by Clark and the old Virginia officers were greatly in his way, and his notices of the elections were pulled down and the people dissuaded from attending the elections. President Reed had written to Christopher Hays, prominent in Westmoreland County, with a view that it should be communicated to Marshall, that it was his wish to have Gen. Clark assisted so far as to encour- age volunteers to go with him. Hays had not given this information to Marshall, and this newly made colonel conceived he "had no right so much as to say any of the people of this county had a right to go with Gen. Clark" without President Reed's order as chief executive of Pennsylvania. He was charged with shielding persons from the draft. President Reed in reply to some of the letters above mentioned wrote: "We have heartily repro- bated the general's standing over these two counties (Washington and Westmoreland) with armed force, in order to dragoon the inhabitants into obedience to a draft under the laws of Virginia or rather under the arbi- trary orders of the officers of that government without any orders from Virginia for that purpose, and this is really the part the general has acted, or rather the use that has been made of him in this country."

Col. Broadhead, at Fort Pitt, expressed alarm and jealousy in contemplating Col. Clark's project and feared that Clark's purchase of supplies for his campaign and that which would be consumed by the multitudes of emi- grants arrived and expected in the district (chiefly to avoid military duty and taxes) would scarcely leave a pound of flour for the regular or other troops. "It seems the state of Virginia is now prepared to acquire more extensive territory by sending a great body of men under Col. Clark (whom they intend to raise to brigadier) to attempt the reduction of Detroit. I have hitherto been encouraged to flatter myself that I should sooner or later be enabled to reduce that place. But it seems the United States cannot furnish either troops or re- sources for the purpose, but the state of Virginia can."

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Century history of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens, 20th, Vol. I, Part 14

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co. (Chicago) pbl Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 584

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co. (Chicago) pbl
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 584