USA > Pennsylvania > Historical register : notes and queries historical and genealogical, chiefly relating to interior Pennsylvania. Volume II > Part 7
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NOTES AND QUERIES.
[TO THE SUBSCRIBERS .- Words of encouragement having been received from so many quarters, there was no hesitancy in continuing the Historical Register. There are many persons in Central and Western Pennsylvania interested in historical labor, who ought to patronize just such a medium of inter-communication as this periodi- cal is, and will be. There should be no difficulty in placing it on a permanent basis, and this could readily be done if cach subscriber would secure an additional one. All that is desired is that it be self- sustaining, simply the paying of expenses of publication. The mem- bers of the " Wyoming Historical and Geological Society " have taken a warm interest in the work, but there are members of other Local Historical Societies who should come up to its assistance. The value of the first volume is not to be calculated by dollars and cents, and yet it is only the forerunner of what the Register may become. The present number is certainly one to be appreciated, and commends itself to all who prize historic research. What is alone requisite is an increased list of subscribers.]
MADAME MONTOUR .- In my " History of Columbia County," in a chapter concerning Madame Montour ocenrs the following para- graph: "It seems agreed on all hands that her first husband was Roland Montour, a brave of the Senecas. And her second husband was Carondawana, a chief of the Oneidas." After the printing was done, it was suggested to me that authentic evidence was wanting of the marriage of Madame to Roland Montour ; and that her first and only husband was Carondawana, who was also called Robert Hunter. I have given the question what examination was possible since then, and have concluded that she was but once married, and then to Car- ondawana, the Oneida. That is consistent with her own story to Mr. Marshe, and with the want of other evidence. So she retained her maiden name and transmitted it to her children.
JOHN G. FREEZE.
GEN. ADISAM [ADAMSON] TANNEHILL .- Can any of our Western Pennsylvania correspondents furnish us with a sketch of this dis- tinguished officer of the Revolution ? From the Erie Gazette, for December 30, 1821, we learn that Gen. Tannehill died at Pittsburgh, on Sunday morning, December 24, 1821, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. W. II. E.
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Notes and Queries.
NEWSPAPER HISTORICAL SERIES .- In order to post our readers as to what is going on in the newspaper world relating to Pennsyl- vania history, we are in receipt of the following :
The Star and Sentinel, Gettysburg, has just completed an interest- ing series of articles on " The Dutch Colony of Conowago," by Rev. J. K. Demarest.
The Bradford Reporter, Towanda, in its issue of January 24 and 31, gave " A Citizen-Soldier's Record ; Biographical Sketch and Mil- itary Record of Lieutenant-Colonel Guy Hulett Watkins, of the One Hundred and Forty-first Regiment, Penna. Vols.," by Henry Ward.
The Public Opinion, Chambersburg, commenced on the 12th of January " Reminiscences of the War," by Jacob Hoke, of that place. The series promises to be entertaining and of permanent value.
EVENTS IN PITTSBURGH NINETY YEARS AGO .- From the Pitts- burgh Gazette of the dates mentioned, we glean the following interest- ing notes : I. C.
"MARRIED, on Monday evening last [July Ist] Mr. Ebenezer Denny, merchant, to Miss Mary Wilkins, daughter of John Wilkins, Esquire." July 6, 1793.
«* * The Printing Office and Post Office is removed to Front street, next door to the corner of Market street." September 21, 1793.
" Married, ou Thursday evening, [Dec. 19,] Mr. ISAAC GREGG, merchant, to the amiable Miss SIDNEY ORMISBY, daughter of Mr. Jolm Ormsby, sen., of this town." December 21, 1793.
"The mail after April 1Sth, 1795, will leave Philadelphia every Saturday at 11.30, A. M., and be delivered at Pittsburgh every Friday, at noon. Returning, will leave Pittsburgh at 5, P M., Friday, and be delivered next Friday noon at Philadelphia."
" The Post Office is removed to George Adams', eight doors below the Printing Office." November 19, 1796.
" Departed this life, on Monday afternoon last, [April 3d,] after a few days illness, Mrs. Neville, consort of General John Neville, of this place." April 8, 1797.
"Nathaniel Gibson has erected a machine near Connellsville, Fayette county, Pa., which goes by water, for cutting nails out of hot iron. Price, not more than eighteen pence per lb. at the Factory. Yough Forge, May 29, 1797." June 10, 1797.
"Plans of the towns of Erie, Waterford, Franklin, and Warren, may be seen at the Prothonotary's Office, in Pittsburgh, at any time before the 15th of August next." June 25, 1796.
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WITMAN FAMILY .- JOHN WITMAN, b. in 1746, in Germany ; emi- grated to Pennsylvania, and located at Reading, Berks co., where he died in isi8; m. ANNA MARIA YEAGER, also a native of Germany. Their sons were :
2. i. Benjamin, b. 1774 ; m. Margaret Otto.
3. ii. Jonathan; m. and left issue.
4. iii. William; m. and left issue.
ir. Jacob; resided at Reading all his life ; have no further know- ledge.
II. BENJAMIN WITMAN, (John,) b. 1774, at Reading ; d. 1856, in the same place : he resided some years in Milton, Pa. ; he m. MAR- GARET OTTO, b. 1777; d. 1838; daughter of Dr. John A. Otto, of Reading. They had issue :
i. Mary Otto, b. 1800; d. ISSO ; unm.
ii. John Otto, b. 1802; a physician, resides at Halifax, Dauphin co. Pa.
iii. Otto, b. 1801; resides at Catawissa, Penna.
iv. Bodo, b. 1806: d. 1821.
t. Christopher, b. 180S; d. 1826.
vi. Benjamin, b. 1810 ; resides at Reading.
vii. Charles, b. 1812 ; d. 1863 ; unm.
viii. William, b. 1814; went to California; not heard from since 1861.
ix. Daniel, b. 1816 ; d. 1847 ; unm.
x. Gabriel, b. 1819 ; d. 1851 ; unm.
xi. Catharine, b. 1821 ; m. J. R. McConnell ; reside in Missouri.
III. JONATHAN WITMAN, (John); m. and settled in Gratz, Dauphin county, about 1S36; had issue :
2. Edward; his children reside in " Upper End " of Dauphin co. Pa.
ii. George; one of his sons, Mark D. Witman, represented Dauphin co. in the Legislature of 1859.
iii. John ; resided at Ashland, Schuylkill co., Pa.
iv. Henry; resided at Bernville, Pa.
IV. WILLIAM WITMAN (John,) resided at Reading, where he died : had among other children :
i. Charles.
ii. Collinson.
iii. Hamilton; was a surgeon of prominence at Reading, and died during the Rebellion.
There were two daughters, each of whom married a Dr. Otto.
If any of our correspondents can furnish us additional information, they will greatly oblige a subscriber to the Register.
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Notes and Queries.
FOLK-LORE .- The amount of superstition existing in the rural districts is surprising. The most of them can be traced back to the old countries, but the following appear to have originated in this country :
" That it is unlucky to sit in a rocking-chair on a working day."
" In making soap a sassafras stiek must be used, and always stirred in one direction."
" That it is unlucky to sell eggs after sunset, or to buy anything on New Year's morning."
" That a sick person who gets up, for the first time, on Friday or Sunday will never get well."
" That a person born on Christmas night can see supernatural things."
" That boy who cannot span his own wrist is a bastard."
" That a person will be unlucky in raising turkeys if the eggs are bought ; to be successful the eggs must be stolen."
" That the ring of dollars and half dollars is owing to glass in the coins."
"That if a young girl permits her dish-water to boil she will not be married for seven years."
' That a bride must be married in her bridesmaid's garters to get a good husband."
Truly, as Dean Swift says, " Superstition is the spleen of the soul." I. C.
RECENT HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS.
AN ADDRESS AT THE BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN, PA., AND THE BEGINNING OF GERMAN EMIGRATION TO AMERICA, by Samuel W. Pennypacker, in the Philadelphia Academy of Music, on the evening of October 6, 18$3. [S vo., pp. 10.]
The German element in Pennsylvania history has no more faithful champion than Mr. Pennypacker. His German scholarship and his devoted student life have given us, in the brief ten minutes' speech, a line of thought which we hope some day to see the anthor carry out in fuller elucidation. Such a work will be highly appreciated, and he is well fitted for the task.
ELEVEN DAYS IN THE MILITIA DURING THE WAR OF THE RE_ BELLION : BEING A JOURNAL OF THE " EMERGENCY" CAM- PAIGN OF 1862. By a militiaman. 1853. [24 mo., pp. 53.]
We presume we are not betraying confidence when we state that the foregoing reminiscences of the " Antietam Campaign " of the Civil War, is the journal of Louis Richards, Esq., of Reading. It is from such personal records that the future historian will look for many of the minor details of the various campaigns of that struggle for the Union. "A militiaman " has furnished us with a pleasant reminiscence.
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OTTERBEIN AND THE REFORMED CHURCH. By Rev. J. H. Dubbs. D. D. [S yo. pp. 24] Lancaster, Penna., 1881.
What is of special and historical importance in this interesting pamphlet is the publication of recently discovered minutes of five religious conferences held in the years 1774 and 1776, which go to show that the Reformed Church, within certain congregations in Maryland and on the Pennsylvania border, had then established the class system of worship, and that the founder of the U. B. church was a prime factor in that movement. This is of historical import- ance, and Dr. Dubbs has properly given it to the public.
LIFE OF JAMES BUCHANAN, FIFTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. By George Ticknor Curtis. In two volumes. New York. Harper Brothers, Franklin Square. 1S83. [Svo., vol. i, pp. xiv, 625; vol. ii, pp. vili, 707.]
The life of Webster by the author of this work, proved his ability to present a biography, like the one before us, in a dignified and in- dependent spirit. He says he did not know Buchanan, yet he has seized the prominent characteristics of his subject so intelligently that those who did not know how delightful a character he was in private life may form a fair idea of him ; and those who are disposed to give him credit for as dignified administration of the high political interests confided to him for more than forty years, may learn how well he performed his task as a statesman and patriot.
Mr. Buchanan studied law at Lancaster, in which county he had no family connection ; was admitted to practice in 1812 ; in 1814, he was chosen a Representative in the Legislature, when but twenty- . three years of age ; made a reputation at Harrisburg, and at the end of two years retired to attend to his growing professional engage- ments. This shows the estimation in which he was held. His first year of practice yielded him nine hundred and fifty-eight dollars ; his ninth year eleven thousand two hundred and ninety-seven dollars. When he was elected to Congress in 1820 his practice fell off for want of attention, but he was temperate, moral, cautious, and, unlike many public men, he never suffered for want of means to live ac- cording to his public station. Mr. Curtis has made a very readable work, well worth perusal. The letters from Dix, Holt, and Stanton, in the first days of the war, are a remarkable exhibition of what they thought of the condition of public affairs after the first Bull Run, and how very highly they thought of their late chief. Those of Mr. Stanton are especially friendly, and the responses of Mr. Buchanan eminently patriotic. The gentlemen we speak of were in Mr. B.'s cabinet, presumably in his confidence; their ability and training were recognized by Mr. Lincoln ; as members of his cabinet they were of the very greatest service to the country. Not one of them has recorded an incident against the patriotism or integrity of Mr. Buchanan. In addition to the extracts in the work, we have had the
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privilege of examining some letters in the possession of a former cor- respondent of Mr. Buchanan, and feel at liberty to make the follow- ing extracts :
ON THE TARIFF.
" Washington, 24 October, 1836 .- It is my own opinion, from my knowledge of the State and the information I have received from various quarters, that if the Democratic party accept the issue which the Whigs have tendered between the tariff of 1842 and 1846, that neither Governor Shunk nor any other Democratic candidate can be elected next October For my own part I cannot abandon the doc- trines on the subject which I maintained in my speech before the Senate in 1842."
INCIDENT ABOUT GEN. TAYLOR.
"Washington, 22 July, 1848 .- Old Zach finding the expense too heavy to pay the postage on all the letters he received, refused to take a parcel of about fifty out of the post-office at Baton Rouge ; where- upon they were transmitted, as the law directs, to the general post- office in this city. Among the number the letter from Gov. Moor- head announcing his nomination has been found. The whole pack- age will now be sent back to him upon his request-thus his postage will be greatly increased. Of course the letter from Gov. Moorhead has not been opened, but there is a letter among them indorsed in his handwriting and directed to General Taylor. No doubt is enter- tained but that this is the long-missing epistle."
[The notification to Taylor was missing for a long while, and the incident made a great noise at the time.]
" My desire for retirement becomes stronger every day. It almost amounts to a passion. I have been so long in the political harness that it now galls me severely. My friends say I shall get tired of it [retirement]. We shall see."
HIS VISIT TO THE WESTERN COUNTIES.
"Wheatland, 5 Nov., '49 .- The kindness, I might add the enthu- siasm, of my reception everywhere I have been, and almost without dis- tinction of party, was truly gratifying ; but the condition of my poor sister, at Meadville, cast a gloom over me which I could not dispel."
[Mrs. Henry died about this time.]
POLITICAL HAND-BOOK OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, 1752- 1883. By Morton L. Montgomery, member of the Berks county bar. Reading, Pa., Press of B. F. Owen, 515, 517 Court street. 1883. [Svo., pp. 104. Price $1.]
The author of this excellent hand-book of "Alt Berks," has been doing good service; this being the initiatory manual of a contem- plated series of works relating to the general history of that grand old county. Ilis plan is an extensive one, but in his " labor of love" there is nothing left undone to produce in the end a record of Berks,
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HISTORICAL REGISTER:
NOTES AND QUERIES,
BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL.
RELATING TO
Interior Pennsylvania.
Vol. II. - No. 2.
" Out of monuments, names, words, proverbs, traditions, private records, and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of books, and the like, we doe save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time."
HARRISBURG, PA. LANE S. HART, PUBLISHER. ISS4.
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unequaled by any other county in this State. The hand-book em- braces the names of all officials from the formation of the county to the present year, and of the city of Reading, with the election and census returns, making it a most valuable political compend. As a book of reference and an important portion of the county history, it will find a place in every intelligent home.
KELKER FAMILY REGISTER. By Rudolph F. Kelker. Harrisburg.
Lane S. Hart, printer and binder, 1883. [Printed for the use of the members of the family. Sm. fol. pp. 133.]
This record includes not only the Swiss ancestry, but the American down to the present date. The former is in German-and the whole genealogy shows how much valuable and interesting information can be obtained from the records in foreign countries. Mr. Kelker has done.excellent service in thus preparing and preserving this account of his family; as a contribution to Pennsylvania genealogy, it is well-timed and valuable.
OUR LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES.
THE WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY held its twenty-sixth annual meeting at Wilkes- Barre, on the evening of Feb- ruary 11, 1884, at which the following officers were elected :
President-Hon. E. L. Dana. Vice Presidents-Dr. C. F. Ingham, Rev. Il. L. Jones, Capt. Calvin Parsons, and Hon. Eckley B. Coxe. Recording Secretary-Harrison Wright, Ph. D. Corresponding Sec- retary-Sheldon Reynolds. Treasurer-A. F. Derr. Librarian-A. H. McClintock. Assistant Librarian-J. Mortimer Lewis. Cura- tors-S. Reynolds, Curator of Archaeology ; Rev. H. E. Haydon, Cura- tor of Numismatics; II. Wright, Curator of Mineralogy, Ph. D. ; R. D. Lacoe, Curator of Palæontology : C. F. Ingham, M. D., Curator of Conchology. Meteorolgist-Hon. E. L. Dana. Historiographer- Geo. B. Kulp. Trustees -- Dr. Charles F. Ingham, Edward P. Dar- ling, Ralph D. Lacoe, Sheldon Reynolds, and Harrison Wright, Ph. D.
THE CRAWFORD COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, at Meadville, have chosen officers for the present year, as follows : President- Joshua Douglass. Vice Presidents-Hon. William Reynolds, Rev. J. V. Reynolds, D. D., A. C. Huidekoper, Hon. S. B. Dick, S. P. Bates, LL. D., George B. Sennett, Hon. II. L. Richmond, junior, and James E. McFarland. Corresponding Secretary-Rev. R. Craighead. Re- cording Secretary-A. C. Huidekoper.
THE DAUPHIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, at their meeting on January 29, 1884, elected the following officers: President-A. Royd Hamilton. Vice Presidents-Hamilton Alricks, Danniel Ep- pley, and Hon. John. W. Simonton. Corresponding Secretary-Rev. Thomas H. Robinson, D. D. Recording Secretary-George Wolf Buehler. Librarian-William H. Egle, M. D.
HISTORICAL REGISTER: NOTES AND QUERIES, BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL.
VOL. II. JUNE, 1884. No. 2.
FORT ARMSTRONG AND THE MANOR OF KIT- TANNING.
BY REV. A. A. LAMBING, A. M.
[ Read before the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, May 8, 1884. ]
The territory of Pennsylvania, which had been granted to William Penn by Royal Charter dated March 4, 1681, was taken from his descendants by an act of the Assembly of No- vember 27, 1779, annulling the charter. As a compensation for the rights and possessions of which they were deprived by this act, they were to receive one hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling, and were, besides, permitted to retain their "Manors" in the different parts of the State as private prop- erty. They also received from the British Government four thousand pounds as a compensation for their losses in the war of the Revolution. These manors were extensive tracts of land which had been surveyed at different times previously, and generally consisted of several thousand acres in what was re- garded as the most desirable parts of the Province. There were in all forty-four manors, aggregating 421,015 acres. Of these, the "Manor of Kittanning" lay on the eastern bank of the Allegheny river, commencing at a point just two miles south of the present town of Kittanning, and in the middle of the present village of Manorville, extending down the river a dis- tance of three miles and a fraction, and eastward into the country to a distance sufficient to embrace a little more than
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4,887 acres. It was surveyed by Joshua Elder, Deputy Sur- vovor-General, March 28, 1769, in virtue of a warrant of the 23d of the previous February. It has sometimes been called " Appleby Manor" by local historians, but upon what author- ity I have not been able to learn: nor does the name appear to have been used either for the manor or the fort which stood upon it before the year 1805 or a little later. But the name as applied to both is erroneous, as we shall see in the sequel. The name "Kittanning" only appears in the State archives at Harrisburg.
Having been born in the manor and near the site of the fort, and being familiar from infancy with relies of it and with per- sons who had seen its ruins, and my father having spent the greater part of the last fifty-four years at the same place, a brief account of the fort, while reviving early recollections in my- self, may also be interesting to the members of this Society.
The Indians who had been committing depredations on the frontier settlers from the beginning, regardless, as a rule, of treaties, lost nothing of their native ferocity as time went on ; but. on the contrary, they grew all the more aggressive as they saw the whites encroach more and more on the ancient domain of their hunting ground. The condition of the pioneers, which was perilous enough at any time, was rendered more so during the Revolution, because, on the one hand, as the Earl of Chat- ham charged it, the English Government "had dared to asso- ciate to its arms the tomahawk and scalping knife of the savage; to call into civilized alliance the wild and inhuman inhabitants of the woods; to delegate to the merciless Indian the defence of disputed rights; to attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to the cannibal savage, torturing, murdering, devouring, drinking the blood of his mangled victims: " and, on the other hand, the Assembly and the inhabitants of the eastern and more thickly populated parts of the country were so deeply engaged in combating a foreign foe as not to be able either to appreciate the situation of their frontier brethren, or to afford them any substantial assistance.
The famous " Kittanning path " being one of the best known and most frequently used of Indian trails passing through their
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Fort Armstrong and the Manor of Kittanning.
territory, the inhabitants of Westmoreland county, which then embraced the whole western part of the State. had only too good reason to fear that the savages of the West would follow it in their incursions into the outlying settlements. Hence it was that as early as June 5, 1776, a memorial was presented to the Assembly of Pennsylvania from the people of West- moreland county setting forth that they feared an attack from + Detroit and the Indian country, and that Van Swearingen, Esq., had raised a company of effective men at a considerable expense, which the memorialists had continued and stationed at Kittan- ning, and which they prayed might be continued. Congress re- solved, July 15, that the battalion which was to garrison the posts to be established at Presqu' Isle, Le Bœuf, and Kittanning be raised in the counties of Westmoreland and Bedford. Some time afterwards, the battalion commanded by Col. ÆEneas Mackay was stationed at Kittanning, where it remained till December 15 of the same year, when the commanding officer was ordered to collect his scattered forces at a suitable place of rendezvous to go elsewhere. No troops were stationed at Kit- tanning from that time until 1779: although the country was in a measure protected by ranging companies under the pay of the State. In an action which took place near Kittanning about the close of the year 1777, five Indian scalps were taken.
As to the time when the fort was built there, we have the following evidence: General Washington writing to Col. Brod- head under date of March 22, 1779, says: "I have directed Col. Rawlings' corps, consisting of three companies, to march from Fort Frederick, in Maryland, . . to Fort Pitt, as soon as he is relieved by a guard of militia. Upon his ar- rival you are to detach him with his own corps and as many as will make up one hundred, should his company be short of that number, to take post at Kittanning, and immediately throw up a'stockade fort for the security of the convoys. When this is accomplished, a small garrison is to be left there, and the re- mainder are to proceed to Venango," &c. But the fort was not built at that time, whatever may have been the reason, for Col. Brodhead wrote, June 3, to Archibald Lochry, Lieutenant of Westmoreland county : "I purpose building a small fort at Kit-
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tanning as soon as possible, and that will be more effectual security to the inhabitants than all the little posts now occupied by the garrisons." On the 23d be again wrote: "Lieut. Col. Bayard is at Kittanning, and will cover the frontier effectually." And on the 31st of July he wrote to General Washington : "A complete stockade fort is erected at the Kittanning, and now called Fort Armstrong." The fact then is that the fort was begun in the latter part of June and finished before the end of July, and the work was done, or at least finished, by Lieut. Col. Stephen Bayard, whose name is familar to all who are acquainted with the early history of the city of Pittsburgh. Suffice it to say of him, in passing, that when the Proprietaries, John Penn and John Penn, Jr., determined to sell the land embraced in the Manor of Pittsburgh, Stephen Bayard and Isaac Craig purchased, in January, 1784, all the ground between Fort Pitt and the Allegheny river, supposed to contain about three acres. (Craig's History of Pittsburgh, p, 181.) This is what is now known as "the Schenly property," at the Point, and upon it the greater part of my congregation live. In January, 1784,- or, according to another authority, 1787,-Col. Bayard laid out a village upon land that he had purchased on the east bank of the Monongahela river twenty-two miles above Pittsburgh, which he named Elizabeth in honor of his wife, and which is the oldest town in Allegheny county. He brought a company of ship builders from Philadelphia, and began the building of vessels about the year 1800. (Day's Hist. Coll. of Penn'a, p. 91; History of Allegheny county, p. 162.) He also appears to have owned considerable property on the bank of the Alle- gheny river about a mile from the Point, on which a town was built known as Bayardstown, and also as "The Northern Liberties of Pittsburgh," but which has long since been incor- porated into the city. But to return. It will be seen that the site of Fort Armstrong was occupied either continuously or at intervals for a considerable time before the construction of the fort.
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