History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 71

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

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The president having directed the secretary of war to consider the above-mentioned memorial of December 21, the latter reported, January 1, 1792, that it was unfortunate that the United States had no general militia law, and as the frontiers required immediate protection, no other expedient presented itself except requesting the executives of the states that had exposed counties to call out such numbers of militia as would afford the necessary aid. He suggested that, as the militia were to be called out for the general defense and to be paid out of the general or national funds, they should be called for

six months, unless sooner discharged. The gen- eral assembly of Pennsylvania, in order to make some effectual provision in aid of the measures of the federal government for the protection of the frontiers, passed an act, January, 1792, authorizing the governor to engage for six months, unless sooner discharged, a number of active and experi- encod riflemen, not exceeding 228 non-commis- sioned officers and privates, who were to be stationed at such places and in such proportions as should in his judgment be best calculated to defend these frontiers. He was required to organ- ize the men thus engaged into three companies, over which he might, if necessary, appoint and com- mission one major, and one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, four sergeants, four corporals and two musicians for each company to consist of sixty-six privates. The pay of the commissioned officers was the same as that of like officers in the service of the United States, and that of the non-com- missioned officers and privates, with the bounty added, was equal to 60 shillings per month to each sergeant, 55 shillings to each corporal, and 50 shillings to each musician and private. The sum of £4,500 was appropriated for rendering that act operative.

The circular letter of Gov. Mifflin, January 20, 1792, to the lieutenants of Allegheny, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties, advised them, among other things, that those three com- panies, when filled, should be stationed thus : The first one at thé southwest corner of Washington, now Greene county, and range thence to the Ohio; the second one at the mouth of Great Beaver, and range thence by the heads of Pine creek to Fort Crawford; the third one at the Kittanning, and range thence up and down the Allegheny river.

Maj. George McCully was appointed command- ant of the corps. To. Col. Clement Biddle, who was then quartermaster-general for the state, were assigned the inspection and management of the same. John Wilkins, Jr., was the contractor of rations. The commissioned officers of the first company were : Captain-James Paul, Fayette county; lieutenant - Henry Enochs,* Washington county ; ensign -Jeremiah Long, Washington county. Those of the second company : Captain - Samuel- Smith, Washington county ; lieutenant - Daniel Hamilton,t Washington county; ensign - William Jones, Allegheny county. Those of the third company : Captain -John Guthrie, West- moreland county ; lieutenant - William Cooper,

* Declined; John Gray was appointed in his stead.

+ Declined ; Robert Stevison, or Stevenson, was appointed in his stead.

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

Westmoreland county ; ensign - Samuel Murphy, Westmoreland county.

The estimate of the money required for the then immediate purpose of raising and equipping the troops under the command of Maj. George Mc- Cully, as made by Q. M. G. Clement Biddle, which included one month's pay, rifles, powder, lead, etc., was £2,700, for which Gov. Mifflin, February 8, 1792, directed a warrant to be drawn.

The stationing of these companies at the above- mentioned points covered the frontiers of Alle- gheny and Westmoreland counties quite effect- ually, but left a considerable gap open in the north- westerly part of Washington county, as David Redick demonstrated by his pen and ink sketch or map of the river and region on that side of the last-mentioned county, which accompanied his let- ter of February 13, 1792, to Gov. Mifflin, in which letter he stated that he had been informed that many of the riflemen of that county had declined entering into the six months' service for that reason. Said they, "Why will we go into a ser- vice which appears to be calculated for the pro- tection of Allegheny county, whilst our own friends and families will continue exposed ?" A meeting of the inhabitants living on the Ohio, at and near Holliday's cove, held on Saturday, February 4, took a similar view of their situation, and resolved, among other things, that the drafting of the front- ier inhabitants to serve on militia duty in any other part of the country, except where they re- sided, was unjust, oppressive and impolitic. They bound themselves to keep respectively, in good order, at least one gun, and to have always in readiness a sufficient quantity of ammunition to be prepared at a minute's warning to repulse any attack which might be made on the frontier in- habited by them. Maj. McCully was satisfied from the survey shown him by David Redick that there was "a frontier of forty miles on the south- west of that county, exclusive of ninety miles from Yallow creek to Kittannion, on the Ohio and Allegheny," and intimated to Gov. Mifflin, two days before the meeting at Holliday's cove, that if the Governor would order one company of militia to be drafted for that uncovered part of the front- ier, he would dispose of his three companies on the river, hoping to give a good account. He wrote to the quartermaster-general from Greens- burgh, March 31, that Capt. Paul, with a bean- tiful company, had marched from Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the 28th, to cover that southwestern frontier.

McCully wrote to Biddle, March 11, that on the arrival of certain articles which the latter had

ordered to be forwarded, he would " send detach- ments to fixed posts."

Such was the exposure of the white settlers to hostile attacks from the Indians along the Alle- gheny and Ohio rivers, from above Kittanning to Yellow creek, when the site of Fort Green was se- lected as one of those "fixed posts," whither it is probable " Ensign Murphy marched, on Thursday, 29th, with twenty-eight men of Capt. Guthrie's company, completely armed, to join some who had been sent out before to cover the frontiers of Westmoreland county," as Maj. McCully wrote from Greensburgh on the 31st, adding that he was then on his way to those frontiers, and that he should order Capt. Guthrie out with the rest of his company with all possible haste. In his letter to the secretary of the commonwealth, April 6, re- gretting the non-arrival of any part of his and the companies' camp equipage, a portion of the rifles, which prevented him establishing posts on the frontier of Allegheny county, which would otherwise have been done, he stated that the three companies needed but six privates to complete the whole two companies, and that he had posted the one on the frontier of Washington, and the other on the frontier of Westmoreland county, though not completely armed and equipped. The latter probably remained at Fort Green several weeks, and then the principal portion of it was stationed several miles below; for Col. Charles Campbell, from Black Lick, his residence in what is now In- diana county, May 28, wrote to Gov. Mifflin, that on the 22d the Indians attacked Lieut. William Cooper's station, near the mouth of the Kiskimin- etas, and killed one man and wounded another, and that Maj. McCully had taken all his men away from Green's and Reed's stations, except a few to keep up Green's. He suggested that as Smith's and Guthrie's companies were to be stationed at the mouth of the Puckety-Fort Crawford-he would have to give up the settlements near these stations, or, as requested by McCully, send the militia thither. He insisted that both of these stations should be supplied or manned by conti- nental troops, as it was distressing to call on the mi- litia of the one connty to guard so extensive a front- ier, to stand as a barrier to the interior, but that, if a sufficient number of men were not kept out, those settlements would break up, as they could not support themselves without raising some crops. In a postscript he stated that he had just received a dispatch by express, that 100 Indians had crossed the Allegheny river, and fifty others had been seen the day before in the inhabited parts, and one man had been killed. William Findley, in his letter

RES. OF W. ROSS, ROSSTON, PA.

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MANOR TOWNSHIP.

June 1, to Secretary Dallas, after relating the at- tack at Reed's station, stated that the alarm caused by it spread rapidly. The Indians heralded their approach by burning some of the houses which they first reached. There were only about forty of them, but they created so great a panic that the people fled before them. They went out in squads of from five to seven, keeping nearly the course of the Kiskiminetas. They did not seem to be so anxious to kill as to plunder. Their eager desire to capture horses seemed to divert their attention from shedding blood. A scout pursued one of these squads up the north side of the Kiskiminetas to the mouth of Black Leg's creek and down to the Allegheny, but could not get a shot at them, on account of the unfavorable character of the ground, but succeeded in recapturing ten horses. The scarcity of arms among the whites was a distress- ing circumstance. Thus voluntary exertions were prevented and many families were compelled to flee. The white settlers had become so confident that the Indians would not wage war again and the need of money was so imminent, to repair their desolated homes, that they had sold their guns to the people going down the river. On the 18th he wrote that Col. John Pomeroy, one of the best and most trustworthy officers on this side of the mountains, was then out with six companies of militia.

In his letter of the 18th he stated that the neg- lect and disobedience of the officers and scouting parties along the Allegheny river had obliged Maj. McCully to keep two companies - mentioned by Col. Campbell-embodied at one station where he could enforce the execution of his own orders; that the small scouting parties, sent out by Capt. Guthrie, never went the length of their appointed tours ; Cooper did not send out any scouts ; and there was excessive drunkenness.

The secretary of war, July 1I, informed Gov. Mifflin that the troops of the United States, in considerable numbers, would soon arrive on the frontiers of this state, and that a sufficient portion of them would remain there until the effect of cer- tain pacific overtures to the Indians should be known. In that condition of affairs, and as the time for which the state troops were raised would soon expire, he asked whether it would be compati- ble with the views and arrangements of his excellency to permit the continental officers, recruit- ing in this state, to endeavor to enlist such non- commissioned officers and privates of those com- panies as would be inclined thereto.

Whereupon A. J. Dallas, secretary of this com- monwealth, presuming that the proposals in the

communication of the secretary of war were satis- factory to Gov. Mifflin, proposed:

That instructions should be transmitted to the lieutenants of the exposed counties, that they should keep up the same number of spies, drafted from the militia, that had been authorized to be employed before the organization of the three companies; that any surplus in the appropriations of the 1791-2 should be used for bounties to engage the best woodsmen in that service; that the spies should be engaged to commence their services at the expiration of the term of service of these com- panies; that so much of the arms and ammunition of those companies as were necessary should be supplied to the spies, and the rest given into the custody of the county lieutenants; that it should be stipulated that the spies should be in constant motion on the exposed parts of the frontiers, and keep up a constant communication with the federal camp on the upper part of the Ohio and at Fort Franklin, giving all the information possible; and that a copy of these instructions should be sent to Maj. McCully, inclosed in a letter of thanks to him and his corps. He deemed it imprudent to enter into that arrangement or suggest it to the officers for some time, because a delay of two or three weeks might obviate its necessity, either by the receipt of the news of peace, or some unexpected and untoward event might render a more powerful exertion unavoidable.

John Wilkins, Jr., December 2I, informed the quartermaster-general that he had advertised in the Pittsburgh Gazette that he would be at Wash- ington on the 4th, at Uniontown on the 7th, and at Denniston's mill on the 17th of January, 1793, to pay the officers and men of the six months state militia. Captain Guthrie's company was of course paid off at the last-mentioned place.

Col. Charles Campbell, from Black Lick, February 27, wrote to Gov. Mifflin that although there had not been any damage done for some time, the peo- ple on the frontiers of his county were apprehen- sive that they would receive a stroke from the Indians in the spring, as the winter had been very open and clear of snow. In the same letter he stated that there were then about thirty of the continental soldiers stationed "at the Cattannian " and at Coe's station. The latter was on the west side of the Allegheny river, about a mile below a point opposite Fort Crawford, or the mouth of Poketas. The former must have been Green's, as it was called "the Kittanning" for several miles along the river above Crooked creek. Kittanning was pronounced and spelled varionsly in those times by those who knew not its correct orthogra-

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

phy and orthoepy. That station became and was called a fort-Fort Green-on being occupied by United States troops.

The secretary of war informed Gov. Mifflin, Sep- tember 3, 1793, that information had that day been received that, notwithstanding the utmost efforts of the commissioners, the pacific overtures to the Indians north of the Ohio had been rendered abortive by their insisting upon the Ohio as the boundary. The majority of the Indians of various tribes determined on war, notwithstanding Capt. Brandt and his Mohawks, who were among them, strongly urged the hostile ones to make peace with the United States. Gen. Knox thought that the sword only, under the circumstances, could afford ample protection to the frontiers, and although it was believed that the militia collected on the frontiers and the scouts, under the governor's orders, were sufficient for their defense, he deemed it proper to caution the people immediately that every measure necessary to guard against surprise should be adopted.

A few weeks later an Indian runner, sent by Cornplanter, raised an alarm by informing the peo- ple that a party of Indians was about to attack some part of the frontiers, which caused Col. Campbell and others at a meeting, held in reference thereto, to recommend that a company should be raised and stationed on the frontiers. Gen. Will- iam Jack wrote the governor from Greensburgh, November 19, that he had consulted with Gen. John Gibson, several militia officers and “respectable characters of this county," and he and they were of the opinion that there was reasonable canse for continuing in service the additional company un- der Capt. Murray, which had for some time been stationed on the Westmoreland frontier. Gov. Mifflin, February 28, 1794, requested the secretary of war to loan four brass nine-pounders to be used in defense of the frontiers. An act of assembly was passed the same day providing for that de- fense, and on the Ist of March the governor issued his circulars to the lientenants and ensigns of the three defensive companies, who were therein di- rected to apply immediately to their respective captains for instructions to raise their respective complements of non-commissioned officers and men. One of them was directed to Samuel Murphey, lien- tenant, Allegheny county; James Patterson, ensign, Allegheny county, and Stephen McHuffy, ensign, Westmoreland county.

The secretary of war, May 19, transmitted to Gov. Mifflin the act of congress directing a detachment from the militia of the United States, and stated that in pursuance thereof the president desired the gov-

ernor to take effectual measures as soon as might be to organize, arm and equip according to law, and hold in readiness to march at a moment's warning, 10,768 of the militia of Pennsylvania, in- cluding the officers, who were to be either the militia officers or others at the option of the con- stitutional authority of this state, and the organiza- tion of the corps or detachment was to be conform- able to the act of congress, May 8, 1792, which provided for establishing a uniform militia through- out the United States.

At that time, the present territory of Armstrong county lay partly in Allegheny, Northumberland and Westmoreland counties. It appears, from the roll designating the several brigades which were to constitute that detachment, that the quota of Alle- gheny county was 297; of Northumberland county, 456, and of Westmoreland county, 410. Brig .- Gen. Wilkins was assigned to the command of the bri- gade, which consisted of the quotas from Allegheny and Westmoreland connties.

Military discipline must have been very lax, for John Adlum wrote to Gov. Mifflin from Fort Franklin, August 31, 1794:

" The posts along the Allegheny river kept by the eight-monthis' men are a burlesque on the mili- tary art, at least those of them that I have seen, for the officers and men are generally jack fellows alike, and I have passed them when the men have been lolling about without either gnard or sentry, and, from inquiry, find it to be too generally the case, and I am certain they might be surprised any day or night by an inferior number."

Wolves, bears and deer were numerous. Samuel Green, Sr., killed a very large bear with a club. He shot and killed a panther on Green's, now Ross' island, which is said to have been the largest one ever killed in this county. It measured eleven feet from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail.

William Green and his sons removed, prior to 1804, to the west side of the river, and Judge Ross became thereafter the first permanent white settler in this southwestern portion of the Manor, probably in 1807, as he is first assessed in Kittanning town- ship in 1808. He and his family occupied for awhile one of the cabins near Fort Green. In the course of a few years he built the stone house now owned and occupied by his son, Washington Ross, which was the first one of that material erected in this region, and probably one of the first within the present limits of that part of this county which is on the east side of the Allegheny river, except the one in Kittanning borough. He was then (1808) assessed with 100 acres, valued at $4 per acre. He was first assessed with a gristmill and sawmill in

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MANOR TOWNSHIP.

1820, so that they were probably erected in 1819. They were situated on the right bank of Crooked creek, about 200 rods above its mouth, having been since known as "Ross' mills." In the former were two runs of stone. Grists were brought to it at times from a distance of from twenty to thirty miles. It is said that this portion of the Manor tract was once called "Egypt," on account of the abundant quantity of grain which it yielded.

The island opposite the mouth of Crooked creek became the property of William Green by virtue of his "improvement right." His application therefor in writing to the secretary of the land office is dated March 17, 1807, and an order was issued the same day to James Sloan, James Matthews and James McCormick to appraise it. Green conveyed it to Ross, February 18, 1808, for $100. The quantity of land in it, as specified in the deed, was 21 acres and 59 perches. The latter conveyed it to his son Washington, March 17, 1848, containing, as specified in the deed, 38 acres and 6 perches, showing its quantity, as ascertained by a later and more accurate survey, to be 16 acres and 107 perches greater than that ascertained by the original and less accurate survey. It is assessed this year (1876) as containing 30 acres, at $40 per acre. The diminution of its quantity has probably been caused by the action of the ice and water in the floods and freshets that have occurred in the Allegheny river during the last quarter of a century.

Crooked creck was declared to be a public high- way from its mouth to Jacob Frantz's mill, by act of March 19, 1816.

The small island next above the last-mentioned one contains about seven acres, and is called " Cast- Off" in the records, probably because it has been separated from the other. It formerly belonged to the estate of Samuel Cochran. By the act of March 9, 1847, for the settlement of that estate, P. Fraizer Smith, the present reporter of the cases in the supreme court of this state, was appointed trustee for that purpose. He conveyed this island to Patrick Black, December 14, 1854, for $75, that being the highest and best price bidden for it, who conveyed the undivided half part of it, April 11, 1861, to Simon Truby, Jr., for $200, who conveyed two-thirds of that undivided half to J. B. Finley and Thos. McConnell, on the 15th of that month, for $133.34, showing an appreciation in value of that one-half part of 1661% per cent in a little over six years. The last-named purchasers and Darwin Phelps conveyed the entire island, November 9, 1863, to George C. King for $225.

The other original tracts which and parts of

which were within what are now the limits of Manor township, were: The Samuel Findley tract, 2022 acres, seated by Michael Ritchards, and ad- joined the southeastern part of the Manor, the sur- vey of which was made June 2, 1770, by order dated April 3, 1769, a part of which now belongs to the estate of John Williams, deceased ; the Thomas Burd tract, 180 acres, scated by Samuel Simmeral; the John Roberts tract, called "Roberts- burgh," 2373 acres, partly in Kittanning township seated by John Hartman; the Clement Biddle tract, called "Biddlesburgh," 317 acres, seated by James Kilgore and Joshua Spencer; the John Bid- dle tract, called " Biddleton," 319.3 acres, became vested in Jonathan Paul, of New Castle, Delaware, who conveyed it to Thomas Newlin, May 2, 1808, for $620; the Simon Herman tract, 295 acres, part- ly in Kittanning township, seated by Jacob Wolf ; the Peter Ehinger tract, 400 acres, partly in Kit- tanning township, seated by himself ; the William Betts, Sr., tract, 401 acres, seated by John Howser; the William Betts, Jr., tract, 3782 acres, seated by Henry Hartman; the Alexander Hunter tract, called " Mahogany," seated by Jacob Hileman ; the John Smith tract, called "Maria's Choice," " situate on the Kittanning path," 4114 acres, partly in Kittan- ning township, seated by Joseph and Tobias Stive- son; the Michael Mechling tract, called " Mechling- burgh," 105 acres and 59 perches, seated by Jacob Wilyard; the John Gray tract, 280 acres, seated by Jacob Wilyard ; the Rebecca Smith tract, 390.9 acres, seated by Thomas McMasters ; the James Glentworth tract, called "Glentworth Park," 415 acres, seated by David McKelvy; and the Robert Davidson tract, 430.9 acres, seated by James Dougherty and John Truby.

" Glentworth Park " is skirted by the Allegheny river from the southwestern corner of "Victory " to the northwestern corner of "Rebecca's Hope," or the Rebecca Smith tract, and from which there is an extended view of the beautiful scenery np and down and on both sides of that river. To show the advance in the value of the land in the northern part of Manor township in the lapse of thirty or forty years, the transfers of "Glentworth Park" and the Robert Davidson tract are given. The warrant for the former is dated September 13, 1784. Glentworth conveyed his interest therein January 7, 1788, to John Ashley, the consideration expressed in the deed being $1. Ashley conveyed this tract to Thomas Skelly April 29, 1808, for $605, and the latter to Mrs. Rebecca McKelvy, wife of David McKelvy, " by and with the consent and approba- tion of her said husband," the undivided one-half part thereof, December 8, 1808, for $310.45, and

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

the residue to David McKelvy, August 10, 1818, for $415, aggregating $725.45. The Robert Davi- son tract, adjoining it partly on the north, was pur- chased by the late Judge Buffington from the heirs of Robert Davidson in 1846-7, for $2,170.

The Rebecca Smith tract lay between " Glent- worth Park " on the north, "Mahogany" on the east, the manor on the south and the Allegheny river on the west. The mouth of Garrett's run is near its northwestern corner. One branch of this run rises on that part of the John Schenck tract now owned by Peter Heilman, in Kittanning township. It was probably named after Garrett Pendergrass, who established a trading post near its mouth, about where Patterson's store now is, prior to 1800, with whom Jacob Waltenbough occasionally traded. His stock consisted chiefly of dry goods, which he sold to the whites, and traded with the Indians for skins. He must have left there before 1805, as his name does not appear on the assess- ment list of Allegheny township for that year, or afterward on that of Kittanning township. The Pullen path, which it is said the Indians traveled when they went east to commit depredations, ex- tended from this point eastward to where it inter- sected the Kittanning or Ohio path; on the John Schenck tract. Its route, in part, was probably past the front of George Bovard & Sons' store, and thence over the hill a little north of his dwelling- house, for Alexander Cunningham and William McKelvy found a line of trees along there, which appeared to have been blazed by the Indians many years before they cleared the land there, some forty years ago. In the trunk of one of the trees, which they cut down, was a bullet, between which and the surface the concentric circles indicated that it must have been there eighty or more years. When George Bovard took possession of that part of " Rebecca's Hope," in 1853-4, there were on it three or four circular mounds, ten or twelve feet in diameter, and five or six feet high, and about ten feet apart, made of the sandstone which was abun- dant near them. The warrant for this tract is dated September 13, 1784. Rebecca Smith became Rebecca Bakewell, and this entire tract continued in the ownership of William G. Bakewell and others of her descendants, until they conveyed it to Robert Speer, Jannary 10, 1846, for $1,173, who has since then, at divers times since 1853, sold about two hundred and forty-five acres in twenty different parcels, varying in quantity from about the sixteenth of an acre to one hundred and thirty- seven acres, for $8,210.71. It was formerly thought that a vein of lead existed within what is now the territory of this township ; such an idea has crept

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History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 71

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