Century history of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens, 20th, Vol. I, Part 19

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 19

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The members of the Washington Club were among the leading men of the community, as see paper furnished by Blaine Ewing, Esq., of Canonsburg. This paper, which is here copied, was formerly the property of John Hoge, who, with his brother William were the original proprietors of Washington Town.

"Underneath are the names of the members of the Democratic Society of Washington: John Canon, David Bradford, David Redick, James Marshel, John McDowell, William Hoge, William McCluney, James Allison, Henry Taylor, Absolem Baird, Daniel Kehr, William Wallace, James Edgar, John Marshel, John Reed, John Baldwin, Gabriel Blakeney, John Swearingen, Joseph Beeler, Jr., John Hoge Redick, John Hearor, Thomas Brownlee, Joseph Pentecost, John Meks Hillard, Alexander Wright, James Brice, John Hamilton, Benjamin Stewart, Thomas Patterson, David Acheson, Bazabel Wells, Andrew Swer- ingen. The above are names of the Democratic Society taken from the Constitution as signed and adopted by the aforesaid members, March 28, 1794."

H. M. Brackenridge, in his history, page 26, says this club "had no effect in producing the insurrection not- withstanding the assertion of Hildreth." He states that the real and most crying grievance was that of carrying persons from their districts or counties, to be taken across the mountains to answer prosecutions in suits, necessarily followed by ruin on account of the expense. A law to give relief from such hardship "had been enacted to go into operation in June, 1794, only one month before the outbreak, but while this law was under discussion, and only a few days before it was signed, process as usual was issued returnable to Philadelphia, and it will appear that the service of this process was the immediate cause of the riots."

Maj. David Lenox, United Stated marshal, (the fed- eral sheriff) as the officer was generally called, had arrived in Pittsburg from the east and served all but one of the forty writs without objection. He passed the

house of William Miller without serving him, but ro- turned the next day with the revenuo inspector, Gen. John Neville. Gen. Neville had been in charge of the Fort Pitt garrison for years and had recently been appointed inspector for the four western counties. He was a member of the State Legislature at the time, but his popularity dropped immediately after his appoint- ment. Ile owned a fine mansion and plantation which he called Bower Hill, seven miles southeast of Pittsburg. His house is said to have been worth $10,000, a large sum in those days. It was located near the tracks of the present Pittsburg and Washington trolley line. His method of living differed so much from that of the ordinary small farmer that prejudice was casily aroused. A nest of office holders at Pittsburg, including Gen. Neville, Col. Pressly Neville, his son, and Maj. Abram Kirkpatrick, his brother-in-law, were considered irritat- ing aristocrats by the plain countrymen. The General had formerly encouraged others to oppose excise officers acting under the State law, so Historian Findley says.

Many persous asserted that Neville had taken the dis- agrecable office of inspector for the money it would bring him and not from a sense of duty, as was claimed by his friends. When he appeared with the federal sher- iff to make service upon William Miller, a hatred was aroused, political friends of his and also related to Kirkpatrick, and some farmers who had been reaping grain with the sickle on this hot July day, attempted to intimidate the officers-at least a shot was fired in their direction. The news being scattered, that the federal sheriff was serving writs to force people to trials in the east, and Neville, their neighbor, acting as a guide or spy, a group of men assembled during the night and early in the morning, under the leadership of John Holcroft, started for Neville's house. This they found bolted and after some words with Gen. Neville, shots were exchanged and several persons wounded, one of these, Oliver Miller, fatally. This bloodshed aroused the community and the following day, July 17, 1894, a com- pany of men estimated at nearly 500, under the leader- ship of Maj. James McFarlane, who had been an officer in the Revolution, appeared at Neville's property. Near- ly all of these were from the Mingo Creek district. Many who had been notified were not there. Rev. Clark had made a strong argument against lawlessness before the men started. Gen. Neville had fled to Pitts- burg, but had sent out Maj. Kirkpatrick and some ten government soldiers from the little garrison there to guard his Bower Hill mansion.

When the farmers appeared and found the house bar- ricaded, they erected a flag of truce and demanded Neville's surrender with his commission and all papers and books. After some further delay, firing was com- menced and engaged in by the regulars and the country -

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men. During a lull in the firing, Maj. McFarlane was shot as he stepped from behind a tree. It was alleged afterwards, perhaps erroneously, that he had stepped out feeling secure because of another flag of truce, exposed at the house, and the shot that killed him was fired by Maj. Abram Kirkpatrick, brother-in-law of John Neville. His death infuriated the farmers and was followed at once by the firing of the barns and outbuildings. From these the large mansion house, an exceedingly aristicratic building for those days, caught fire and was destroyed with the surrounding outbuildings, except that they saved the bacon in an outbuilding at the request of Neville's negroes.

Maj. Kirkpatrick and the soldiers surrendered and Maj. Isaac Craig and Col. Pressley Neville, the high- minded son of Gen. Neville, were captured as they rode out from Pittsburg with holstered pistols on their saddle bows, intending to join in the fight. The soldiers were permitted to go, and their self-appointed commander Kirkpatrick was detained for some time, but permitted to make his escape. Maj. Craig was set at liberty, but young Neville and the United States marshal, Lenox, were not permitted to go until the rioters had, as they supposed, obtained a promise equivalent to a parole that they would be returned again when wanted, and that the writs served would also be returned.

The riotous farmers retired with the body of Maj. McFarlane and buried it in the graveyard of the old Mingo Creek meeting house. The old slab with its hon- orable inscription can yet be seen in the graveyard at the church, in Union Township, which stands close by the trolley line now extending from Finleyville to Monongahela City.

The day after the destruction of the house of the inspector, David Hamilton, a justice of the peace of Nottingham Township, went to Pittsburg with John Black, authorized by the committee to return to the fed- eral sheriff his pistols and to him the writs which had · been served, in order that they might be destroyed. The government officer and Pressley Neville denied that they had promised to surrender these writs or that they had made any engagement except not to make any further service. This led to the question whether judgment could be taken on these writs which would bind the land here so that they could be sold on execution in Phila- delphia. An opinion was obtained from H. H. Brack- enridge, Esq., but Hamilton thought that this would not satisfy the community in the country, and said that "if the people had known that the United States marshal was bound to return the writs to Philadelphia, he doubted much if he would ever have escaped from Neville's plantation. Officer Lenox, on being informed of this saw his danger. It was impossible for him to satisfy the people and exceedingly difficult to leave the country.

Gen. Neville demanded from Brackenridge, who was a member of the committee representing Allegheny County, that he and the officer should be given passports, which he thought would allow them to escape in safety. These were furnished and the same afternoon the officer and Gen. Neville departed in a boat down the Ohio, during a violent storm of wind, and passing through the western part of Virginia, escaped into the east. Hamilton and Black on their way home were accompanied by Deputy Robert Johnston, who had formerly been tarred and feathered, and to Hamilton, Johnston delivered his resignation as deputy. This was at once published in full in the Pittsburg "Gazette." They stopped at the scene of the fire to look for the body of a person who was supposed to have been killed at the time of the attack by the party under John Holcroft on the 16th, but the body was not found until some days afterwards, when it was found and buried by the negroes.

When Hamilton and Black made their report to the committee, a meeting was at once called to be held at the Mingo Creek meeting house on Wednesday, July 23. Notices were sent out to the four counties and many assembled together at the old church, some through fear and others desiring to prevent their neighbors from being too rash. The purpose of the leaders was to commit the full western counties to the adoption of the crimes already committed and to combine to obtain a satisfac- tory settlement with the government. Some of the most prominent men from Pittsburg, Canonsburg and Wash- ington were in attendance, but many of them were not in sympathy with the desperate plans. No one knew how far to trust his neighbor and all were fearful of the result. Even David Bradford, who was afterwards the acknowledged leader in the insurrection, tried to avoid these meetings, but was warned to come, under penalty of being burned out. Hints were dropped that Neville, Attorney Brackenridge and certain others were to be assassinated. The mysterious methods of writing notices and signing the paper "Tom, the Tinker," was used to frighten and to warn people considered as wavering or as in opposition to the general movement. The name was used to indicate that the stills which paid the excise taxes needed tinkering with, and the unknown and every where present "Tom, the Tinker," would see to the enforcement of the threats contained in the mysterious notices. At this meeting the chief speakers were Col. Marshel, sheriff of Washigton County, David Bradford, the attorney, Benjamin Parkinson, all of Washington County, and H. H. Brackenridge, of Pittsburg. It caused Brackenridge much trouble in after years to explain why he was at the meeting and why he spoke, although he and his friends maintained that he was sent by the younger Neville and other prominent men of that village and was conciliating at all times, and that he

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was endeavoring to pacify and prevent unlawful action. He sought for an exeuso to leavo the neighborhood and suggested that a committeo to include himself should bo sent to the President to seek reconciliation. He was afraid to leave, lest his property be burned and was afraid to remain in Pittsburg lest he bo implicated in tho insurrection. His attendance at that meeting without regard to the motive, was afterwards considered an act of treason. Tho meeting broke up after reminding that the townships of the counties west of the mountains were to meet and choose representatives with instructions to meet at Parkinson's Ferry on the 14th of August, to tako into consideration the conditions of the western counties.

On the 26th day of July, the United States mail car- rier who carried the United States mail from Pittsburg to Greensburg, where he exchanged horses and continued on his way to Philadelphia, left Pittsburg at daybreak and was waylaid and the mail robbed of the letters which were addressed to Philadelphia. The scheme had been proposed in the Black Horse Tavern at Canonsburg to rob the mail between Washington and Pittsburg to learn who in Washington were unfriendly to the uprising. This had failed, and those who did the work twelve miles east of Greensburg rested that night at the house of Benjamin Parkinson at or near Parkinson's Ferry. At the opening of the mail the next night at Canonsburg, Benjamin Parkinson, Craig Ritchie, Col. John Canon, James Marshall, David Bradford, Alex. Fulton, Thomas Spears, J. Loekney and perhaps some others were present. The letters they found addressed to prominent men of Pittsburg, fringhtened as well as angered the leaders of the opposition. A project for taking the public arms, ammunition and stores at Pittsburg was set on foot, and embraced the seizing and punishing the writers of these letters. Some of those present that night would gladly have been left out of the deliberations, but once in could not escape, as the most dire results were likely to follow under directions of "Tom, the Tinker." The next day a circular went out to all the military officers of the four western counties setting forth that certain secrets had been discovered hostile to the interests of the counties and that it was now a crisis which required that every citizen should express his sentiments, not by his words but by his actions, and called on them to assemble their respective commands on the first day of August at 2 P. M., on Braddock's Field, the usual place of the annual muster. Many times the militia had been assembled on short notice and it was their custom to obey immediately because of the need to guard against the Indians.

Bradford and Marshall on their return to Washington, heard so much objection to this meeting that Bradford attempted to recall the order for meeting at Braddock's

Field. As soon as this was rumored along the little street, the people of Washington broke out into a furious rage, called a meeting at tho court houso, and the coun- try peoplo also came rushing in, making still greater excitement. James Ross, United States senator, who then resided there, in a speech of great earnestness of two hours, endeavored to dissnado the populace. Thomas Scott, of the House of Representatives, Thomas Stokely, of tho Senate, David Reddick, prothonotary (clerk of tho court), Henry Purviance and others of the bar, exerted themselves to effect tho same object. James Marshall was in earnest to retraet, and spoke publicly. Bradford, seeing the violence of the multitude, was more inflammatory than he had ever been and denied that he had given his consent to the countermand. It was now carried by a vote that the march to Braddock's Field should proceed. To show their displeasure with Mar- shall, the door of his house was tarred and feathered that night, threats of personal injury were thrown out, and he was compelled to declare his readiness to go. Others were threatened, for a revolutionary spirit, some- thing like that which at that time raged in France, appears to have taken possession of the uninformed; they threw aside all respect for the laws, and talked familiarly of taking life and violating the rights of prop- erty.

On August 1, from 5,000 to 8,000 armed and organized men, according to estimates, arrived at Braddock's Field, many of whom were ready for any violent deeds. Some had experiences similar to that of John Brackenridge, living on Brushy Run, in Washington County, who, "hav- ing no gun sat up two nights in his cabin with his axe in his hand, to defend himself against his captain, named Sharp, who had threatened his life for not com- ing to the burning of Neville's house agreeable to sum- mons. He yielded to the order to go to Braddock's Field and saw, as he went along, the tomahawk drawn over the heads of men at their breakfast or dinner, and they were thus obliged to fall in and march." David Bradford, mounted on a gray horse, and wearing the gorgeous uniform of a major general, commanded the troops. The mass of the people had the most vague and uncertain notions of what they were to do or for what purpose they were assembled.

The day before the meeting on Braddock's Field, Absolom Baird, William Meetkirk, Gabriel Blakeney and Henry Purviance had ridden over from Washington and at a meeting at the court house in Pittsburg, they had advised that Pittsburg would probably be destroyed unless the writers of the letters which had been inter- cepted were sent out of the town and that the Pittsburg people would go out to meet the military troops at Brad- dock's Field to show that they were not hostile to them, and thus prevent their coming into the city. The little

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garrison at Pittshurg, under the command of Col. But- ler, had only forty soldiers, and the militia of Pittsburg and vicinity, under the command of Gen. Wilkins, could not hring out more than 250 men capable of bearing arms, and even some of these could not he relied on, as they were likely to go over to the insurgents. It was hopeless to attempt the preservation of the city hy oppos- ing arms against the assembled multitude of men from the country with their rifles, hunting shirts, aud with their handkerchiefs tied around their heads as they usually went when in search of Indians. The meeting at the Pittsburg court house finally succeeded in getting the ohjectionahle letter writers aud Kirkpatrick, who had headed the soldiers in defending Neville's house, to leave the town as a matter of policy.

The next day the Pittsburg Gazette ran off 600 cir- culars stating that these persons had gone and many of these circulars were carried and distributed at Brad- dock's Field. Gen. Wilkins marched his troops out to the place of rendezvous, Pittshurg's committee of twen- ty-one appeared also, and the day was spent in deliherat- ing what should be done. Bradford said the men had come there to do something and something must be done. When convinced that the ohjectionable people had been sent away from Pittsburg, the sentiment as discovered was decidedly to visit Pittsburg. The following day this was done. Guided by some of the most influential men in the town, the multitude, with shouts of "Huzza for Tom the Tinker," marched into the town hy the Fourth Street Road. "They marched in files and in good order, leaving a small space in hetween each hattalion. They appeared to be upwards of two and a half miles long, and hy the space of ground they took up there might be hetween 5,000 and 6,000, some said 7,000 or 8,000." (Several thousand had attended from Westmoreland County, hut did not come to town.) They kept out of sight of the garrison and marched down the main street to the Monongahela, the whole party passing over to the south side of the river, and about 4 o'clock halting on the hank to the east of the town on the property of H. H. Brackenridge. Fourt flat boats were used to bring the footmen across, but the horsemen, ahout one-third of the whole army, were piloted by Brackenridge to a fording place a little ahove the mouth of the Allegheny River. Entertainment was furnished them here hy the people of Pittsburg, who were hospitahle as a matter of necessity.

A company commanded by Capt. Riddle, dressed in yel- low hunting shirts, did not cross the river. About 9 o'clock that night, some one set fire to the farm build- ings of Kirkpatrick, on Coal Hill, opposite the town, and Riddle's company were ahout to burn Kirkpatrick's house in the town and fronting on the Monogahela. Col. Cook, Col. James Marshall and Andrew McFarlane,

hrother of James, deceased, used all their efforts with those of Brackenridge to dissuade the parties from hurn- ing the house. McFarlane had heen called upon as hav- ing the greatest cause of resentment against Kirkpat- rick, thus, if he should oppose the burning others could not insist on it. By much persuasion the firing was pre- vented and the village of Pittshurg, with its little wooden buildings, which contained 376 inhabitants within its town plot, according to the census of 1790, was saved from destruction.

The next day heing Sunday everybody went home.

Bradford at Pittshurg and after his return to Wash- ington expatiated on his achievement, his hloodless vic- tory, the expulsion of the ohnoxious persons. It must he set down to the credit of the leaders that no blood was shed by the insurrectionists at any time, notwithstanding the many provocations. The general impression seemed to he that the execution of the excise laws was now suspended by the immediate act of the people, and yet in other respects there was no disregard of the authority of the magistrates, although a general feeling on insecur- ity prevailed. Liherty poles with inscriptions and devices were raised everywhere. No person seemed to have any idea of seeking to separate from the govern- ment or to overthrow it, hut simply to oppose the excise law, and yet the people acted and spoke as if they were in a state of revolution, threatening life and property. Judge Addison was absent in Philadelphia and it heing reported that he had encouraged the federal sheriff to serve the processes, threats were made to prevent his return. The alarm was general and there could he no doubt that all restraint of law would have been thrown off but for the contemplated assemblage of an authority . emanating directly from the masses, and this kept in check the prevailing tendency to anarchy.

About this time the term of "Tom the Tinker" came into very general use. Notices threatening individuals or admonishing them were posted frequently, with threats to burn houses and barns or with some other violence. No one knew who this mystic person was and no doubt many notices were posted with which he had nothing to do. The originator of this title, seems now to have been John Holcroft, who lived in the then Peter's Township, not far east of Gastonville, where his old log house, which had been erected on his 400 acres, called "Liberty Hall," stood until recently. The extent of the dissat- isfaction was expressed in a letter from Edmund Randolf, secretary of state to President Washington, as follows:

"A radical and universal dissatisfaction with the excise pervades the four transmontane counties of Pennsylvania, having more than 63,000 souls in the whole, and more than 15,000 white males ahove the age of sixteen. The counties on the eastern side of the mountains, and some other populous counties, are infected by similar prejudies, inferior in degree, and dormant, but not extinguished.

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Several counties in Virginia, having a strong militia, participate in these feelings."

There was also great dissatisfaction in Kentucky and meetings had been called and engaged in by some of the leading lawyers and other gentlemen of that region, com- plaining of the tax aud of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers being closed to trade. The flame had also caught in Maryland, so Washington told David Redick.

The mail robbery and the great demonstration on the Braddock Parade Ground had not been forescon by tho people meeting at Mingo Creek Church July 23, when another meeting of delegates had been arranged for at Parkinson's Ferry to be held Angust 14. In preparation for the 14th efforts were made by some leading minds to send as delegates persons opposed to violence. James Ross, Esq., our congressman then, was engaged in this way iu and around Washington. Washington County furnished 93 out of the 226 delegates that met at Parkinson's Ferry August 14, in an open field on the banks of the river, with fallen timber aud stumps, with a few shade trees, nnder a liberty pole and flag with inscription, " Equal taxation and no excise, no asylum for traitors and eowards." The delegates were probably ontnum- bered by a crowd who were in attendance. The pro- ceedings were largely controlled by such men as H. H. Braekenridge, Albert Gallatin, James Edgar, of the Counties of Allegheny, Fayette and Washington, respect- ively.

The plan worked out was to narrow the business work to a small committee. Bradford had prepared resolu- tions proposing a committee on safety, magazines, cloth- ing, provisions and other warlike preparations. Dis- cussion on these was adroitly avoided by reference to a committee, and on the next day the committee on resoln- tions, Gallatin, Bradford, Brackenridge and Herman Husbands, met and presented but three resolutions, which, with slight amendments, were adopted. A standing com- mittee of sixty was selected with members from each township, which was called by the general public, a "Committee of Safety," and this set September 2, at Redstone Old Fort, as the time and place for their next meeting. They also chose a committee of twelve to meet with the three United States commissioners recently appointed by the President to nrge submission and the two appointed by the governor of Pennsylvania. James Ross, Esq., who had tanght in the academy at Canons- burg, studied law under Brackenridge and had been present at the Braddock's Field and other meetings, was mingling with the people at this meeting at Parkinson's Ferry. He was one of the three commissioners appointed by Gen. Washington, although this was not known ex- cept by a very few who were present. When it was learned that two of the United States commissioners had arrived at Greensburg, there was great difficulty in get-

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Century history of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens, 20th, Vol. I, Part 19

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