USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Bridgeport > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 2
USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > West Brownsville > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 2
USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > Brownsville > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 2
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Christopher Gist arrived at Fort Necessity on the 6th of June, from Wills creek with the information that Colonel Frye had died at Wills creek on the 30th of May. This put Washington in full command of the regiment. On the 9th of June Major Muse arrived from Wills Creek with the remainder of the regiment, nine swivel guns and a lot of ammunition. Washington now had a total force of six companies butt in all there were only three hundred men besides the officers. Major Muse on his arrival also brought word that Captain Mackay of the South Carolina Royal Independents had arrived at Wills creek a few days before and that he was then on his way to Fort Neces- sity, and in fact he arrived the next day, June 10th, with about one hundred men, supplies and ammunition. Captain Mackay does not seem to have been of much service to Washington, however, as he and his men, being Royal troops felt too aristocratic to take part in the, to them, menial duties of frontier warfare, such as building roads, forts, and moving supplies and ordnance, though they were not really guilty of serious insubordination.
After some scouting for reputed French and Indian forces that it after- wards transpired were nine French deserters who were captured and brought into camp, Washington commenced a movement towards the mouth of Red- stone, taking the Nemacolin trail towards Gist's. He [took with him all his own men, ordnance, ample ammunition and most of the wagons. He left at the fort, Captain Mackay and his company. Though the distance to Gist's from the fort is only thirteen miles, it took them thirteen days to make a passable road over the distance. Before reaching Gist's a force was
11
Fort Necessity
sent ahead to open up the way from Gist's to the Redstone. It was the 29th of June when Washington reached Gist's where he received information that a strong French and Indian force was advancing up the Monongahela river from Fort Duquesne. A council of war was held and it was decided to con- centrate all the forces at Gist's and there take a stand against the approach- ing foe. The detachments that had been sent ahead to open the way from Gist's to Redstone, were called in and Captain Mackay was ordered to move his company from Fort Necessity to Gist's at once, an order which he promptly obeyed. When all the forces had been concentrated at Gist's another council of war was held and this time it was decided to abandon the position taken at Gist's where already considerable work had been done on intrenchments, and retreat to Fort Necessity. Then commenced a march that though it had taken Washington 13 days to make the distance from Great Meadows to Gist's, he now made it back in two days. The officers used their horses for pack animals, walking the distance and helping to drag the swivel guns and other munitions of war. In this march Captain Mackay and his men again played the aristocratic dodge or baby act, refusing to as- sist in any of the arduous work, most of which fell upon the Virginia regiment, Washington setting the example by leaving his own baggage behind and using his horse for a pack animal.
On the first day of July, they reached Great Meadows and at once com- menced to strengthen Fort Necessity for the fray. It was at first intended to go on to Wills Creek but on reaching the Great Meadows, Washington saw that it would be impossible for them to go further, as the men were worn- ottt and could no longer drag the guns or carry their equipment. Besides, some of the troops had been eight days without bread and only a few bags of flour were found at the Great Meadows, or Fort Necessity. Here they hoped for reinforcemments and supplies but, alas, they never came. A description of this fort is not essential to this stroy as descriptions are many and varied. Perhaps the best is that in Veech's "Monongahela of Old."
In the meantime while Washington was preparing to defend himself at Fort Necessity, a force of about five hundred French and a number of Indians had left Fort Duquesne under command of M. Coulon de Villiers, who, by the way, was a half-brother of M. de Jumonville who had been killed only a short time before as has been related. and were making their way up the Monongahela river. On the 30th of June they reached the Hanguard at the mouth of Redstone. Here they left some of their stores under a sufficient guard and then pressed on to the Great Meadows where they arrived on the 3d of July. According to history, the French camped at Gist's on the night of July second and arrived at Fort Necessity about eleven o'clock on the morning of the third, thus covering the distance between Gist's and Fort Necessity in about five hours while it took Washington and his forces two days to cover the same distance in their retreat a few days before. At any rate Fort Necessity was attacked by the French and Indians on the third of July from the wooded heights near the fort. Fighting was kept up all the remainder of the day and up till about eight o'clock at night or in the evening, when with the deadly fire of the French and Indians and the incessant downpour
12
General Braddock's Disastrous Expedition
of rain it was found useless to continue the conflict any longer, negotiations for the surrender of Washington were commenced under a flag of truce, and concluded and signed about midnight amid a downpour of rain and with the dim and flickering light of a tallow dip. On the morning of the fourth of July Washington and his force marched out of the fort and made their way back to Wills creek. This was the first and the last time that Washington ever surrendered to an enemy and as a strange coincidence it occurred on the day that 22 years later became the greatest day in American history, the great and glorious Fourth of July.
As soon as Washington had left Fort Necessity, the French took possession of it and proceeded to demolish the work and to break the cannon the British had left behind. They then returned to Gist's destroyed the works that Washington had thrown up there, burned all the houses within their reach, came on to the mouth of Redstone where they embarked for Fort Duquesne after destroying the Hanguard. They also destroyed everything in their reach as they went down the river and reached Fort Duquesne July 7th.
GENERAL BRADDOCK'S DISASTROUS EXPEDITION.
The news of Washington's defeat at Fort Necessity set England to think- ing and it was then that Braddock's invasion of the territory west of the Alleghenies which after Washington's defeat was entirely in the hands of the French, took place. For the preparations for Braddock's expedition and the details of the same, we refer the reader to Ellis' history of Fayette County, Veech's "Monongahela of Old," and "Frontier Forts of Western Pennsylvania," by George Dallas Albert.
To preserve the connection of this story, however, we will give a synopsis of Braddock's movements. It was resolved by the English to reclaim the valleys of the Allegheny and Monongahela at whatever cost and they at once set about to do this. It was further determined to make the force a formid- able one for that day, and accordingly General Braddock was ordered to sail from Cork, Ireland for America to take charge of the expedition, which he did on the 14th day of January, 1755, with the two regular regiments, the Forty-fourth and Forty-eighth Royal regiments of Foot. These regi- ments were commanded respectively by Col. Sir Peter Halket and Col. Thomas Dunbar. All the preliminaries are set forth in Ellis' history of Fayette County. In this connection suffice it to say that after much preliminary work and no little display of "spleen" and lack of judgment on the part of General Braddock during which time he took every occasion to abuse the colonists, the forces arrived in the neighborhood of Fort Du- quesne and the famous battle of the Monongahela took place. The result was that when the English under Braddock were met between the mouth of Turtle creek and old Fort Duquesne, Braddock seeking to conduct the forces under his command on the principles of warfare on the plains of Europe, huddled his men all together in an open space while the French and Indians, very much after the order of the battle at Fort Necessity, assailed them
13
General Braddock's Disastrous Expedition
from ambush and killed them like sheep in a corral. Fourteen hundred and sixty troops had entered the forest defile under Braddock on the ninth day of July, 1755, but only five hundred and eighty-three escaped unhurt, Ellis in his history of Fayette County says:
The force which entered the forest defile, was fourteen hundred and sixty strong, including officers and privates. Of this force, four hundred and fifty- six were killed and four hundred and twenty-one wounded, making a total of eight hundred and seventy-seven. Of eighty-nine commissioned officers. sixty-three were killed or wounded, including every officer above the rank of captain, except Colonel Washington. Of the captains, ten were killed and five were wounded. Of the lieutenants, fifteen were killed and twenty- two wounded. General Braddock had four horses shot under him and while mounting the fifth, received the fatal shot that resulted in his death four days later at Fort Necessity. Sir Peter Halket who was next in com- mand to General Braddock, was killed outright, while Washington had three horses shot from under him.
A number of women and officers' servants were also killed and scalped but it is said that every wagoner escaped. General Braddock's papers including orders, instructions, etc., about one hundred beeves, and the army chest containing about $100,000, were also captured.
The defeated and demoralized forces of Braddock returned over the course they had taken, reaching the Great Meadows and encamping near Fort Necessity on the night of the 13th of July, where General Braddock who had been brought with the retreating army by several of his faithful officers among them Washington, died at about eight o'clock. This was Sunday night and about daybreak next morning the General was buried. When the soldiers broke camp, the line of march was directly over the new-made grave so as to obliterate all traces of it and thereby prevent its desecration by the savages who were supposed to be in pursuit.
We may be excused here for digressing sufficiently to say that the conduct of Colonel Dunbar was to say the least, reprehensible. While it seems that in after years he claimed that General Braddock who was then in the throes of death (July 11th) gave the orders for the destruction of all munitions of war and in fact everything that could not be carried, and a precipitous retreat be made to Fort Cumberland, there is no doubt that the order was issued by Dunbar. At any rate it was done, and as it is recorded, there was never in the annals of history, a more disgraceful scene enacted than that rout. Imagine about 1,000 soldiers with plenty of provisions and ammunition, located where they could have made an almost impregnable defense, fleeing from a much smaller force that was miles away and in fact going in an opposite direction, and you have the picture that was enacted in what is now Wharton township. Fayette County, Pennsylvania, July 14, 1755.
All these things have been related here in the beginning because what is now Fayette County was virtually the center of action and many who took part appear conspicuously in the subsequent history of the county.
14
General Forbes' Expedition
GENERAL FORBES' EXPEDITION-FRENCH ABANDON FORT DUQUESNE.
The rout of Braddock as herein briefly related. left the French in absolute possession of all territory west of the Allegheny mountains. They came to Dunbar's camp several weeks after he had left it and destroyed whatever they found which was certainly not much, and within sixty days there was not left in all this section a settler or trader not friendly to the French.
"Braddock's Grave," in Wharton township, a few rods north of the National Road and about two miles from Fort Necessity, is supposed to be the last resting place of the brave but indiscreet General Braddock, but there is no certainty about it. It does appear that in 1812 while a party of men were excavating for the National Road in that section, they exhumed parts of a human skeleton and some military trappings. These were supposed to be the remains of General Braddock. Some of the bones were carried away by relic hunters but it seems were afterwards collected by Abraham Stewart, father of Hon. Andrew Stewart, who had charge of the men who dug them up, and in 1820, reinterred at the spot now known as " Braddock's Grave."
The taking of Fort Duquesne by the advance guard of General Forbes' troops commanded by Col. George Washington, or rather the abandon- ing of it by the French on the approach of the English, on the 25th of No- vember, 1758, its destruction by the retreating foe and the subsequent build- ing of Fort Pitt within a few hundred yards of the site of Fort Duquesne, are not matters directly connected with this work, hence we pass them over at a glance.
The next step in this synopsis will be the colonial history of what is now Fayette County.
MOUNDS AND MOUND-BUILDERS-REDSTONE OLD FORT.
Between the events related in the preceding pages and the formation of Fayette County in 1783 or perhaps more properly speaking, February 17. 1784 (for the county lines as formed or established in 1783 were extended in 1784), there transpired many things that will be of interest to the readers of this book, and with these we will now deal. In doing this, however, we will have to go back into the dim aisles of the ages, first; back to a date, perhaps, when the foundations of the pyramids were not yet laid, and how far back of that no history has ever told nor is there any other record save the mounds the builders left behind them. Certain it is that some time subsequent to the glacial period a strange people inhabited this part of North America. It may have been long before there was a sign of civilization on the plains of Babylonia. The first existence of human beings or perhaps more properly speaking, the first communities of human beings seem to have made their appearance on the earth about the time that the diluvial rivers of the northern hemisphere subsided into their present, or approximately, their
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Mounds and Mond-Builders
Old Relic of Mound-builders
present channels, and that, according to the best information obtainable. was fully twenty-five thousand years ago. Those people who first left, or rather, established records of their lives and works whether tribal or national, were the Egyptians in the valley of the Nile, the later Babylonians, and the Chinese along the Hoang-Ho. But while all this was being done in what is to us the Old World, there is no reason to believe that there were not like signs of life and progress here in what is now called the New World. At any rate, it is not taxing the imagination too much to conclude that while the Children of Israel were making bricks without straw, under the lash of the Egyptian taskmasters, the progeny of the mound-builders, were gather- ing shells along the verdant shores of some placid water, to use with clay in making the pottery found in the only other records, the mounds, that this ancient people left behind them.
There is every reason to believe that ages elapsed during the building of these mounds. It would be hard to find shells enough along the banks of the Monongahela river now to do much in the line of making pottery and the probability is that when the mounds that now mark Fayette County, were built, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico were laving the foothills of the Alle- ghenies in this latitude and the foothills of the Rockies as well, or that neither the Alleghenies nor Rockies existed. Gradually receding during seem- ingly interminable ages, the great Mississippi valley, the great plains west of the Mississippi and the arid deserts of the west, were laid bare, and this
16
Redstone Old Fort
ancient civilization no doubt followed the receding waters for many cen- turies, gathering shells for their pottery and building their mounds. The fact that some of the mounds stand on high ground and some on low, is no indication that they were not all on a level at the time they were built. The internal disturbances of the earth during the centuries that have passed since these mounds were built will readily account for this Upon this hypothesis, one we have never heard advanced, it is easy to believe that they were built close to what was then the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and were built to protect their builders against high tides or just such waves as recently rolled in and destroyed Galveston. There is another thing that bears out this theory and that is that there has never been discovered in any of these mounds, a trace of anything that would show a most primitive knowledge of navigation. They had no need to cross the streams that were slowly forming in the valleys, if indeed there were valleys then, or if they had, these streams were at that time so small that they could easily cross them without other means than that with which nature endowed them ; they had no foe from which to flee nor whom to pursue; they had no knowledge of the world beyond the waters, a world that in fact was at that time as primitive as the one in which they lived; they had no need for ineans of navigation, no desire to pierce beyond the veil that hung upon the great waters they were following down the earth. Therefore, is it not possible that the beautifull valleys through which these rivers now flow, were very shallow bays or inlets on the shores of which these mounds were built and that their builders for ages followed the receding waters, building their mounds as some great storm or high tide indicated a necessity for them, making their crude utensils from the shells of the shore and finally from their own inactivity and from non-competition, or ennui, went out with the last tide and ceased to be ?
There is not among all the relics taken from these mounds, an implement of war; they had no competition, they fought no battles, there was no strife and no need of protection save against the ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and against this they built their mounds. Having no foe to face, no need of energy and no victory to gain, existence itself became the burden that crushed them and the hand of time wiped them from the face of the earth which is a field for action, centuries before another race of people came upon the scene.
The relies of these ancient mound-builders in Fayette County are numer- ous but of no material importance to the history of the county, except that in some instances they have been used by the carly settlers in which or on which to build their early settlers' forts, and in some instances, military forts, as was the case when Col. J. Burd, in the fall of 1759 built Fort Burd on the site of Redstone Old Fort at or near where the Bowman mansion now stands, and whose parapet may be seen from far up and down the Monongahela river.
This mound, known as Redstone Old Fort or Fort Old Redstone, was one of the largest and most important in Fayette County and requires no description here. It has been described and illustrated in almost every history
$ ACTION
A
DITCH
PALISADES
LOG HOUSE
A
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PALISADES
39 FEET
SQUARE
WELL
Old Well at Fort Burd, Brownsville
Fort Brabill, Bridgeport
Ground Plan of Fort Burd
18
Conditions of Penn's Charter
that has ever been published of Western Pennsylvania. Suffice is to say, however, that it was so well known that notwithstanding Colonel Burd gave his name to the fort he had built, the name Old Fort or Redstone Old Fort, has ever clung to it. But the cause that led to the building of Fort Burd, is of more interest and more directly concerns this story than does the fort or its dimensions.
When the English had finally expelled the French from this section of the country and had taken possession of it, the next thing for them to do was to prepare to hold it and this could not be done without forts properly garrisoned, as bases of supplies, and roads over which soldiers could march or merchandise be transported, hence Fort Burd was built as an inter mediate station between Fort Cumberland and Fort Pitt, the latter having been hastily constructed the previous year after the destruction of Fort Duquesne.
The opening of the road from Cumberland through to Wheeling, and the contemporaneous and subsequent history has been told so often and so well in Ellis' "History of Fayette County," in "Old Westmoreland" by Edgar W. Hassler, in "The Monongahela of Old" by James Veech and in "The Old Pike" by T. B. Searight, that we need not repeat it here. However, the people who came here during this time and settled in what is now Fayette County, the development of the country, its commercial and social interests, are of more interest and of these we will write.
CONDITIONS OF PENN'S CHARTER.
That the reader may more fully comprehend the following, a backward glance may not be out of order at this point. Notwithstanding that the charter of Pennsylvania, granted William Penn by Charles II of England, in 1681, virtually conveyed the land to him and his heirs in fee simple, there being, it is true, a stipulation that the Penns should pay to the crown two beaver skins annually and one-fifth of the gold and silver ore, it is well known that it was always the policy of Penn to buy the land of the Indians who occupied it, before allowing or at least sanctioning settlements on it.
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA BOUGHT OF SIX NATIONS.
This is how it came that in November, 1768 at Fort Stanwix, N. Y., the Penns bought of the Six Nations, the following land in southwestern Penn- sylvania: "All iands lying within a boundary line extending from Canoe Point, on the west branch of the Sesquehanna river, west by north to the site of the Indian town called Kittanning, on the Allegheny river, thence down along the Allegheny and the Ohio rivers to the western limits of the province," while its western and southern boundaries were to be the western and southern boundaries of the "Province," then not definitely known, but which are now defined by the state line.
William Penn
20
Settlement of Western Pennsylvania
SETTLEMENT OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA.
Up until 1771 all this territory was included in the county of Bedford. During these years the population grew very fast, west of the mountains, and particularly during 1772, so that the seat of county government was getting too far from too many people and those west of the mountains com- menced to clamor for a new county just as many in Pennsylvania and in many other states are still doing. There was just as much opposition to cut- ting up this vast county then as there is now to cutting up the larger counties of the state, but it was done, nevertheless. There was also another factor that assisted the settlers in their demand for a new county and that was the fact that in 1772 the British troops were withdrawn from Fort Pitt which necessitated a stronger and closer civil organization. Accordingly on Friday February 26, 1773, the county of Westmoreland was formed by the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania by an act signed by Lieutenant Governor Richard Penn. This was the eleventh county erected under the proprietary government.
INFLUENCE OF THE OHIO COMPANY-GIST'S PLANTATION
It was through the Ohio Company that many were induced to come over the mountains and it seems that most of these settled within the confines of Fayette County. The Ohio Company was formed by Thos. Lee, a Mr. Hanbury, Lawrence and John Augustine Washington, brothers of George Washington and about ten others. The object of this company as before stated, was to checkmate the settlements of the French and to form permanent English settlements. The objective point of these settlers was Fort Pitt and their course to that point led them directly through Fayette County. The operations of this company brought into this county, as their agent, Christo- pher Gist who seems to have been the next permanent settler after the Browns. We find Mr. Gist here located at what is now Mt. Braddock as early as 1753 when Washington made his trip to Fort LeBoeuf, and being already estab- lished then at Mt. Braddock, he must have landed there as early as 1752. Gist's place was located in what is now Dunbar township near the line of North Union township. Gist called his place or plantation as they were wont to call these settlements, "Monongahela." According to the best information we can gather, he had with him at that time, his two sons, Richard and Thomas and his son-in-law, William Cromwell. It also appears that he induced a number of other families to settle about him, probably those whom Washing- ton met on his return from Fort LeBoeuf and who were no doubt en route to Fort Pitt. Judge Veech in his ' Monongahela of Old" says that there is some doubt as to these settlers being at or around Gist's, but that from the notes of the French commander, De Villieres who after destroying Fort Necessity, says that he ordered all the houses round about Gist's to be destroyed, he is inclined to believe that they were there. Col. James Paull whose father, George Paull, was early upon the scene and intimate with Gist, says that he never heard of these families, but Judge Veech adds that inasmuch as Colonel
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