History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 5

Author: Smith, Robert Walter
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins
Number of Pages: 790

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"Signed by order of the Committee of Westmoreland County.

" Directed to Col. George Morgan, Agent for Indian Affairs, Pittsburgh.

" Laid before Council, June 18, 1777."

Col. A. Lochery to President Reed.

" HANNA'S TOWN, July 20, 1779.

" MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY :

* "The two Companies raised by Gen. McIn- tosh's orders are nearly completed, and are now at the Kittanning, or scouting in that neighborhood, but I am sorry to inform you their times will shortly expire, so that it will be necessary for Council to give directions concerning them."

" Read in Council Aug. 14."

* Col. Mackey was a citizen of Westmoreland county, where he owned a plantation.

" PITTSBURGH, Dec. 13, 1779.

" DEAR SIR: I should have been glad to have had an earlyer information respecting the Corps of Rangers. But being uninformed, I thought it very extraordinary that they should be subsisted out of the public Maga- zines, and yet be under the separate direction of a County Lieutenant. The Companies have hitherto been sta- tioned at Kittanning (Fort Armstrong) and Poketas (Fort Crawford), but as the terms of the Men were nearly ex- pired, and the river likely to close with ice, I ordered the Troops to this place because I apprehended no dan- ger from the enemy during the winter season, and if provisions had been laid in at those posts, they would have been exposed to loss, besides it would have been quite impracticable to have supplied them with provi- sions, and the Quarters at those posts were too uncom- fortable for naked men. For, though the State have provided the Troops with Shoes and Blankets, they are not yet arrived.

* * *

(Signed) " DANIEL BRODHEAD .*

" Directed to his Excellency Governor Reed."

" HANNA'S TOWN, Jan'y 9, 1780. " MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY :

* * * " The two ranging Companies were stationed at the Kittanning and Fort Crawford, at the mouth of a creek called Poketas creek, on the Allegheny river, which posts were well calculated to cover the country.

"Col. Brodhead, for some reasons best known to him- self, and without consulting me, or any of the Gentle- men of this County, ordered both Companies to Fort Pitt. * * *

(Signed) " A. LOCHERY, Col."

After Armstrong's expedition there was a lull in Indian hostilities. They were, however, afterward renewed, and the peace and safety of the early settlers on and near Crooked creek, in what is now Plum Creek and South Bend townships, and just

* Gen. Brodhead, whose name appears above, was the command- ant of Fort Pitt in 1778-9. He enjoyed, to a high degree, the esteem and confidence of Gen. Washington, who said in his letter to him in- forming him that he had been selected to succeed Gen. McIntosh- at that post : "From my opinion of your abilities, your former acquaint- ance with the back country, and the knowledge you must have ac- quired on this last tour of duty, I have appointed you to the com- mand; but if you quit the post, I apprehend there will be no other officer left of sufficicut weight and ability."

Col. Brodhead was also very popular with the Indians. The Dela- ware chiefs resolved to confer upon him the greatest honor in their power. Accordingly, April 9, 1779, they did so. At a conference of those chiefs and others, then held at Fort Pitt, they addressed him as the Great Warrior thus : "Of our ancestors, the good men of our nation, we now hand you down a name, as we look upon you to be an upright man. You are henceforth called by us the Delaware na- tion, the 'Great Moon, that is in Delaware, "Maghingua Keeshock.' Hereafter our great-grandchildren, yet unborn, when they come to years of understanding, shall know that your name is handed down as their great-grandfather. All the speeches you now send to the na- tions must be signed with your present name, Maghingua Keeshock, and all the nations will address you by that name. There were five great, good kings of our nation. One of their names you have. Taimenend is another. We have yet two to bestow. Our ancestors in former times were of a good disposition, and on the cause of our now being as one man, we now place you in the same light with us. Now hereafter, perhaps, those of our nation yet unborn are to know that that was the name of the ancestor, the good man and the great warrior of the thirteen United States, given to him by the chiefs of · the Delaware nation, at the great couneil fire at Fort Pitt." It is related that he was a tall, fine, noble-looking man, with a strikingly bland and open countenance and a mirthful, laughing blue eye. Al- though his services were important, valuable and ably rendered, yet they were not such, no matter by whom rendered, as would be likely to be blazoned before the nation, so that he may not have received- in fact, he did not receive-the full guerdon of praise which was richly his due."

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

over the western line of Indiana county, were thereby disturbed and endangered.

There were several blockhouses along down the Allegheny river below Kittanning, and one near South Bend, to which the families of the early settlers sometimes fled for safety.

CAPTAIN SHARP AND OTHER PIONEERS.

Among the pioneers in the Plum Creek region was Capt. Andrew Sharp, who had been an officer in the revolutionary service, under Washington. He, with his wife and infant child, emigrated to this region in 1784, and purchased, settled upon and improved the tract of land, consisting of several hundred acres, on which are Shelocta and the United Presbyterian church, near the county line, on a part of which John Anthony and the Wiggins now live, being then in Westmoreland county. The writer mentions his case in the gen- eral sketch of this county because he has reliable information concerning it, because many of his descendants now live in the county, and because it is illustrative of dangers and hardships, varying in kind, encountered and endured by the inhabitants of this region in those times.

Capt. Sharp, after residing about ten years on his farm, revisited his kindred in Cumberland county, procured a supply of school-books and Bibles for his children, and returned to his home in the wilderness. Determined that his children should have facilities for education which did not exist there, he traded his farm there for one in Ken- tucky. In the spring of 1794 he removed with his family to Black Lick Creek, where he either built or purchased a flatboat, in which he, his wife and six children, a Mr. Connor, wife and five children, a Mr. Taylor, wife and one child, and Messrs. McCoy and Connor, single men, twenty in all, with their baggage and household effects, embarked on the proposed passage down the Kiskiminetas and Allegheny rivers to Pittsburgh, and thence on to Kentucky. Low water in the Black Lick ren- dered their descent down it difficult. They glided down the Conemaugh and Kiskiminetas to a point two miles below the falls of the latter, at the mouth of Two Mile run, below the present site of Apollo. Capt. Sharp tied the boat there, and went back for the canoe which had been detached while crossing the falls. When he returned the children were gathering berries and playing on the bank ; the women were preparing supper, and the men who led the horses had arrived. It was about an hour and a half before sunset. A man then came along and reported that the Indians were near. The women and children were called into the boat,

and the men having charge of the horses tied them on shore. It was then thought best that the party should go to the house of David Hall, wbo was the father of David Hall, of North Buffalo township, this county, and the grandfather of Rev. David Hall, D. D., the present pastor of the Presby- terian church at Indiana, Pennsylvania, to spend the night. While the men were tying the horses, seven Indians, concealed behind a large fallen tree; on the other side of which the children had been playing half-an-hour before, fired on the party in the boat. Capt. Sharp's right eyebrow was shot off by the first firing. Taylor is said to have mounted one of his horses and fled to the woods, leaving his wife and child to the care and protection of others. While Capt. Sharp was cutting one end of the boat loose, he received a bullet-wound in his left side, and, while cutting the other end loose, received another wound in his right side. Never- theless, he succeeded in removing the boat from its fastenings before the Indians could enter it, and, discovering an Indian in the woods, and calling for his gun, which his wife handed to him, shot and killed the Indian. While the boat was in the whirlpool, it whirled around for two and a half hours, when the open side of the boat, that is, the side on which the baggage was not piled up for a breastwork, was toward the land, the Indians fired into it. They followed it twelve miles down the river, and bade those in it to disembark, else they would fire into them again. Mrs. Connor and her eldest son -a young man - wished to land. The latter requested the Indians to come to the boat, informing them that all the men had been shot. Capt. Sharp ordered him to desist, saying that he would shoot him if he did not. Just then young Connor was shot by one of the Indians, and fell dead across Mrs. Sharp's feet. McCoy was killed. All the women and children escaped injury. Mr. Connor was severely wounded. After the Indians ceased following, Capt. Sharp became so much exhausted by his exertions and loss of blood, that his wife was obliged to manage the boat all night. At daylight the next morning they were within nine miles of Pittsburgh. Some men on shore, having been signaled, came to their assistance. One of them preceded the party in a canoe, so that when they reached Pittsburgh, a physician was ready to attend upon them. Other preparations had been made for their comfort and hospitable reception by the good people of that place.

Capt. Sharp, having suffered severely from his wounds, died July 8, 1794, forty days after he was wounded, with the roar of cannon, so to speak, re- verberating in his ears, which he had heard cele-

OBSTACLES TO SETTLEMENT.

brating the eighteenth anniversary of our national independence, which he, under Washington, had helped achieve. Two of his daughters were the only members of his family that could follow his remains to the grave. He was buried with the honors of war, in the presence of a large concourse of people. His youngest child was then only eleven days old. As soon as his widow had sufficiently recovered, she was conducted by her eldest daughter, Hannah, to his grave.

Major Eben Denny makes this mention in his military journal, June 1, 1794 : " Two days ago, the Indians, disappointed in that attack"- on men in a canoe on the Allegheny river, elsewhere men- tioned -" erossed to the Kiskiminetas and unfortu- nately fell in with a Kentucky boat full of women and children, with but four men, lying to, feeding their cattle. The men, who were ashore, received a fire without much damage, got into a boat, all but one, who fled to a house not far distant. The Indians fired into the boat, killed two men and wounded the third. The boat had been set afloat, and drifted down in that helpless condition, twenty- four women and children on board."

Col. Charles Campbell, in his letter to Gov. Mifflin, June 5, 1794, respecting the stopping of the draft for the support of the Presque Isle station, stated : "The Indians, on the evening of May 30, fired on a boat that left my place to go to Kentucky, about two miles below the Falls of the Kiskimine- tas, killed three persons and wounded one, who were all the men in the boat, which drifted down to about twelve miles above Pittsburgh, whenee they were aided by some persons on their way to Pittsburgh."

Mrs. Sharp - her maiden name was Ann Wood - and her children were removed to their kindred in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. Having re- mained there three years, they returned to the farm near Crooked Creek, of which they had been repos- sessed, where the family remained together for a long time. The eldest daughter, Hannah, married Mr. Robert Leason, who, for many years before his death, resided at Serub Grass, Butler county, Penn- sylvania. He was probably a descendant of John Leason, whose name appears as an ensign on the list of officers for Laneaster county, which then ex- tended to the western limits of the province, to whom commissions were granted between the entries of minutes in the eouneil books of the prov- ince of March 8 and 29, 1748. (See Col. Ree., vol. V, p. 210.) It is from her statement, written by herself, August 3, 1863, that the writer has gleaned most of the facts herein presented concerning Capt. Sharp and his family. 3

Mrs. Leason further states that the Indians who had attacked and followed the above-mentioned party on and down the Kiskiminetas River con- sisted of twelve, who had previously been to Pitts- burgh, and, because the people refused to trade with them, became indignant and determined to kill all the whites they could. Of three men, who had descended that river in a canoe shortly before her father and the rest of his party did, one was shot dead and the other two were wounded, one of whom died.

Such is a type of the hardships, inconveniences, dangers and sufferings to which white settlers in this region were subjected prior to 1796.

Mrs. Leason, speaking of her father's family after their return to the farm on Crooked Creek, says, " Providence was very kind to them."

Mrs. Sharp's death occurred fifteen years after her husband's. Their daughter Agnes is said to have been the first white child born this side, or west, of Crooked Creek, in this section of Pennsyl- vania. She was born on that farm February 21, 1785 ; married to David Ralston in 1803, and, after his death, to James Mitchell in 1810, and died August 2, 1862, and was buried in the Crooked Creek cemetery.

OBSTACLES TO SETTLEMENT.

The Indian wars, the uncertainty of land titles, and the frequent litigation growing out of unwise land laws, retarded the settlement of this in common with other portions of the northwestern part of this state. Henee many emigrants who would other- wise have been attracted to this region passed on to Ohio and other parts of the Northwest Terri- tory. Many who had even settled in northwestern "Pennsylvania, having been harassed with litigation, abandoned their elaims and went west, where land titles were settled .* Less than a century ago nearly all the region within the limits of Armstrong county was uninhabited by white people - was a howling wilderness.

MORE FAVORABLE CIRCUMSTANCES.

Wiser legislation, Gen. Wayne's treaty with the Indians at Fort Grenville, Ohio, and other causes, operated favorably in causing permanent settle- ments to be made in this section of the state, from

# At a meeting of the Armstrong county bar, held at Kittanning, May 3, 1871, on the occasion of the retirement of Judge Buffington from the bench, ex-Gov. Johnston, in the course of his remarks, said : "I remember well the conflicts to settle land titles in this county, growing out of the many questions connected with the . Donation Lands,' the 'Stuck District," the ' Depreciation Titles,' the ‘ Old Mili- tary Permits,' the 'New Descriptive Warrants,' the ‘Shifting Loca- tions' and the titles arising under the ' New Purchase,' as well as the original grants from the Penn family, and the stormy disputes and controversies arising under the act of April 3, 1792, with its warrants of acceptance, and the rights relating to settlers under its supple- ments, et id omne genus, how warm and energetic our contests were."

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

and after 1796. Such had been the increase of population therein that the Legislature, by aet of March 12, 1800, organized the eounties of Arm- strong, Beaver, Butler, Erie, Venango and Warren.

POPULATION AND NATIONALITY OF EARLY SETTLERS.

In 1800 the population of Armstrong county, when its territory was more extensive than it now is, was 2,339; in 1810 it was 6,143; in 1820 it was 10,324; in 1830 it was 17,625; in 1840 it was 18,685. After deducting the number in that por- tion detached in the formation of Clarion county, in 1850, it was 29,500; in 1860 it was 35,797; in 1870 it was 43,382. The number of taxable inhab- itants in 1870 was 9,355. Dividing the whole popu- lation by the number of taxables gives 4102016, or about +§ inhabitants for each taxable. The num- ber of taxables this year is 11,843, which, multiplied by 43, gives 54,477 as the total population of this county in the centennial year, 1876. The colored population was 96 in 1830, 129 in 1850, 178 in 1860, 179 in 1870.

The early settlers of this county were chiefly of Scotch-Irish and German descent. Most of the former came from Westmoreland and adjacent counties, and most of the latter from Lehigh and Northampton.

CABIN BUILDING-NEIGHBORLY KINDNESS.

In early times, in this as in other counties, neigh- bors were sparse and less independent than in older and denser society. Neighborly kindness was then cordial as well as necessary. The interchange of obliging acts was frequent and pleasing. If, for instance, a log cabin was to be raised, the inhabi- tants from several miles around would assemble where the cabin was to be erected, with their teams, axes, and other implements needed for the purpose. Such a cabin was generally one and a half stories high, roofed with clapboards and weight-poles, with openings cut in the side and end of the build- ing for a door and chimney. The logs were round, the loft was covered with split puncheons, and the chimney was chunked and daubed. The walls and roof were made from the stump in a single day. The work was cheerfully done by neighbors for a neighbor. At the close of the day, when their work of charity was done, the ground floor was eleared and then followed a jolly hoe-down until midnight, the dancers and lookers on being exhila- rated by what was left of the contents of a five- gallon keg of whisky, which was placed, at the beginning of the dance, in a corner of the room. The light of science had not then disclosed to these

good-hearted pioneers in the wilderness the true character of the mocking fiend that lurked in their whisky-kegs.

GAME.

For years after the early settlement there was an abundance of deer, wild turkeys, rabbits, squirrels, foxes, crows and partridges. Wolves must have been troublesome, for there are several items of amounts paid for wolf scalps, and wolf orders in the statement of the final settlement made between the commissioners of Armstrong and Westmoreland counties in 1808 : For 1803, wolf scalps, $195.67 ; for 1804, wolf orders, $139.33; for 1805, wolf orders, $96,60; for 1806, wolf orders, $104; for 1807, wolf orders, $8 ; for 1808, wolf orders, $24. Total for those years, $567.60. The bounty paid for a full-grown wolf's or panther's scalp was $8 until 1820, and after that $12. Trivial amounts are still paid annually for fox scalps. Crows and squir- rels must have been destructive pests, for it was provided by the act of March 4, 1807, that a tax of $300 be levied, out of which the county treasurer was required to pay for all scalps produced to and receipted by a justice of the peace and then burned, viz., for each crow's scalp, three cents; for each squirrel's scalp, one and one-half cents.

AMUSEMENTS.

The amusements in rural districts in early times consisted chiefly of frolics, or, as elsewhere called, bees, grubbings, rail-maulings, corn-huskings, quiltings, singing-schools at private houses, and occasional dances at frolics. In 1828 there was a prevalent mania for circular fox and wolf hunts. The areas of the several circles covered nearly the entire territory of the county. Several columns in the papers were filled with notices of the routes, times and arrangements. Those hunts temporarily excited a deep and general interest in the aged, middle-aged, and the young. They were designed not only for amusement, but for the beneficial pur- pose of exterminating these pestiferous and de- structive animals. Yet the Indiana and Jefferson Whig denounced them as demoralizing and caus- ing a useless waste of time.

TIIE ARMSTRONG PURCHASE.

Gen. Armstrong purchased from the proprietors of the then Province of Pennsylvania 5563 acres with the usual allowances. The tract was surveyed to him by virtue of a proprietary letter to the sec- retary, dated May 29, 1771, on November 5, 1794. The patent for that tract bears date March 22, 1775. It is thus described : " A certain tract of

COUNTY SEAT.

land called ' Victory,' etc. Beginning at a marked black oak* by the side of the Allegheny River ; thence by vacant hills east thirty-eight perches to a marked white oak ; south four degrees, west one hundred and ten perches to a marked maple ; south seventy-nine degrees, east forty-seven perches to a marked white oak ; north thirteen degrees, east one hundred and thirteen perches to a marked white oak ; south seventy-seven degrees, east forty-nine perches to a marked black oak ; south forty degrees, east ninety-six perches to a marked white oak ; south two and three-fourths degrees, east four hun- dred and fifty-four perches to a marked sugar-tree ; south six degrees, west eighty-four perches to a marked hickoryt at the side of the Allegheny River aforesaid ; thence up the same river seven hundred and two perches to the place of beginning, contain- ing five hundred and fifty-six and one-half acres and the usual allowances, including the Indian town and settlement called Kittanning." That tract of land, with other property, was devised by the will of Gen. Armstrong, proven July 25, 1797, to his two sons, John and James. The former was secretary of war during a part of Madison's admin- istration.

COUNTY SEAT.

The seat of justice of this county was directed by act of assembly to be located at a distance not greater than five miles from "Old Kittanning Town." By the same act of March 12, 1800, John Craig, James Sloan and James Barr were named and constituted trustees to receive and hold the title for the necessary public buildings ; and for that purpose they were authorized to receive pro- posals in writing from any person or body corporate for the conveyance or grant of any lands within the limits of that act. That portion of that act was repealed by the act of April 4, 1803, and James Sloan, James Matthews and Alexander Walker were appointed trustees for the county, for locating the county seat and organizing the county. The last-named declined to act, and the duties were performed and the powers exercised by James Sloan and James Matthews. It having been contem- plated by the legislature to lay out a town to be called Kittanning, in the most convenient place for the seat of justice of this county, and the above- described tract of land having been considered the most convenient therefor, application was made to Dr. James Armstrong, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, one of the devisees of Gen. Armstrong, for so much

of that tract as might be necessary for that purpose, who, in behalf of himself and his brother, John Armstrong, the other devisee, as well for enhancing the residue of the tract as for and in consideration of one-half of the purchase-money of all the town lots to be laid out, executed and delivered to the governor of this state, to and for the use of this county, an obligation whereby he bound himself and his brother John to make and execute a deed of conveyance in fee simple to the trustees of this county, which offer the trustees were, by an act of 1803, empowered to accept. In pursuance thereof, John Armstrong and Alida his wife -a daughter of Chancellor Livingston - and Dr. James Arm- strong and Mary his wife, did, by their deed dated December 17, 1804, convey to James Sloan, James Matthews and Alexander Walker, the trustees or commissioners of this county, and their successors, that part of the above-described tract bounded thus : "Beginning at a post on the Allegheny River, thence north fifty-one degrees, east one hundred and fifteen and one-tenth perches to a post; thence south thirty-nine degrees, east one hundred and sixty-three and nine-tenths perches to a post; thence south fifty-one degrees, west thirty-five and five-tenths perches toa post ; thence south thirty-nine degrees, east forty and seven- tenths perches to a post ; thence south fifty-one degrees, west twenty-four perches and seven-tenths to a post; thence south thirty-nine degrees, east thirty-six and seven-tenths perches to a white oak ; thence south fifty degrees, west fifty-four and nine- tenths perches to a walnut-tree on the Allegheny river aforesaid ; thence up the same north thirty degrees, west two hundred and forty-one and nine- tenths perches to the place of beginning, contain- ing one hundred and fifty acres, be the same more or less."

By the act of 1804 the trustees or commissioners of this county were authorized to lay out in that one hundred and fifty acre tract lots for the public buildings, and to sell the remainder in town lots, containing not less than one-fourth nor more than two-thirds of an acre each. Two acres were re- served for public use, namely, one acre on the south- east corner of Market and Jefferson streets, where the first court-house and public offices were erected, and the other acre on the northwest corner of Mar- ket and McKean streets, on which the first jail was erected. One-half of the proceeds arising from the sale of those lots went to the donors, and the other half was to be applied to the erection of the public buildings.

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History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 5

Author: Smith, Robert Walter Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins Number of Pages: 790

Author: Smith, Robert Walter
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins
Number of Pages: 790