USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and Its Centennial Celebration, Volume II > Part 64
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recollected having some thirty years ago, heard it stated that a distin- guished officer had been drowned at the place before mentioned. Under these circumstances we had almost abandoned the subject in despair; when, in looking over the papers of Gen. Irvine, we came across one which removed all doubt as to the correctness of Judge Gibson's belief that such an accident had happened. The sufferer, however, was not a British officer, but Gen. Samuel H. Parsons, of Connecticut, a Revolu- tionary officer, and one of the commissioners who held the Treaty with the Indians at the mouth of the Miami. It excited in our mind some painful thoughts, that a man who had faithfully served his country during our long struggle for Independence, should miserably perish, and yet that catastrophe be utterly forgotten within a half a century.
The editor then gives an extract from a letter of Gen. Richard Butler to Irvine, which is in substance the same as that which he wrote to Enoch Parsons, a son of the General, and which will be seen below.
The correspondence herein published is in the hands of Charles S. Hall, Esq., an attorney of Binghamton, N. Y., and a great-grandson of Gen. Parsons. Mr. Hall is now preparing for publication Parson's Life and Letters, and has been in communication with W. B. Cuthbertson, Esq., and Major Thomas Henry of New Brighton, and others, in the effort to obtain all the particulars, possible of discovery, bearing upon the death and place of burial of his ancestor, and copies of certain of the letters he has given us for our present use. The death, under such sad circum- stances of such a distinguished man, at our very doors, seems to warrant us in giving space to an account of it so far as it is obtainable.
In 1788-89 General Parsons had been commissioned by Connecticut to procure a survey of the Western Reserve, and to prepare the way for a treaty extinguishing the title of the Wyandot Indians in the Reserve. He had also formed a land company for the purchase of lands in the same region, and through Captain Hart, or Heart, mentioned below, who ex- plored the country east of the Cuyahoga, he had located 24,000 acres at the Salt Springs on the Meander in Mahoning County. He had also located a quarter of a township in what is now Cleveland, Captain Hart and Gen. Richard Butler being both interested with him in the deal. In 1788 he commenced the survey in the Reserve, but desisted on ac- count of an uneasy feeling among the Indians. The letter to his wife immediately following, and which is dated " Pittsburgh, Nov. 1, 1789." shows that he was then about starting to the Reserve to finish this sur- vey, and doubtless to carry out his other plans:
MY DEAR :- Two days ago I arrived at this place which Enoch had left the same day for Wheeling. to which place I have sent for him back, being totally in the dark respecting everything in the East. On Wednes- day, the 4th, I expect to set off for Lake Erie in company with Captain Heart to finish the survey of the Connecticut lands: it will be a long and arduous tour, but I hope to be able to endure it. I have no time to add a word-the conveyance is now waiting.
Yours aff. SAML. H. PARSONS.
The Enoch named in this letter was a son of the General living at Marietta, which was also at that time the residence of the latter. He
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was later Register and Clerk of Probate of Washington County, Ohio. Six days later the General wrote to him at Marietta as follows:
BLOCK HOUSE ON BIG BEAVER, November 7, 1789.
MY DEAR SON :- I am thus far on my way to the Lake. My health is more favorable to my view than for some days before I left Pittsburgh, but I am not entirely free from my cold. However, if I find the pursuit will be attended with too great fatigue. I shall endeavor to return from the Springs. This day is too bad to travel, I shall therefore stay until morning. I was much disappointed in your not returning from Wheeling or sending me some message in answer to my letter. I have left my papers and about $400 with General Butler with orders to deliver to you if any misfortune befalls me. Perhaps it may be best for you to come to Fort Pitt with Dr. Scott. Of this, however, you must judge as all things over the mountains are unknown to me. I, at present, apprehend no danger of consequence in my route, and, if good weather, I think I can be at Pittsburgh again by the first of December. From this to Salt Springs is about forty-five miles; from thence to Mahoning twelve; to the Standing Stone on the Cuyahoga, eighteen; to the Lake thirty, in the whole about one hundred and five miles to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, from thence to the Pennsylvania line about sixty, to Venango about forty, where we shall take a boat to Pittsburgh. We expect to go about twenty miles a day, except when we run lines, when we can make only about half that distance.
Remember me to my friends and do not let anyone into the particu- lars of my route. Perhaps it may be best for me to go over the moun- tains before I return to Marietta. Of this you can better judge. Yours affec. SAML. H. PARSONS.
Parsons expected to make the trip with Capt. Heart to the Lake and around by Erie to Venango and Pittsburgh, but evidently did not feel equal to it, and parted with Heart at the Salt Springs, as he said he should, "if he found the pursuit attended with too great fatigue." It is probable that the severe cold which he had when he left the Block House made it unsafe for him to proceed. Heart made the route laid out, and as appears was at the Block House again in January. On his way back, Parsons was drowned somewhere above the Block House, at what is now New Brighton, probably in the upper falls, or, as they were at that time, rapids, of the Big Beaver. The waters were high at the time, and the rapids very dangerous. All that is known of the accident is related in the letters which follow.
The same day that Butler wrote to Gen. Irvine of Parsons's death, he wrote the following to Enoch Parsons, the General's son, at Marietta:
PITTSBURGH, NOV. 25, 1789.
SIR :- It is with great regret that I find myself under the distressing and disagreeable necessity of informing you of my fears on your worthy father's account. Licut. McDowell informs me that on Tuesday, the 17th in the evening, a man whom Gen Parsons had sent from their en- campment with his horses that morning arrived and informed him that the Genl. had set out in a canoe to come down Beaver Creek, with a single man whose leg was broken, and that he directed him to tell Lieut. McDowell that he intended dining with him the same day. A snow that had fallen prevented the man getting in as soon as he expected, but that about mid day the canoe came past the Block House broken to pieces
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and some of the things were seen afloat. Lieut McDowell had every possible scarch made to find Gen. Parsons but without effect. He re- newed the search the next day and more extensively, but was still un- successful. In truth, Sir, it is his opinion that both the General and the poor man with him have ventured rather imprudently, and in all prob- ability have fallen victims to the rapidity and roughness of the rapids. I shall send a man or two to morrow to make search for the body of your worthy father, though I confess I have doubts of finding it, the waters have been so high since the disaster. If it is to be found, you may depend on every respect being paid should you not arrive in time, but I really fear he has been carried out into the Ohio. If so, there can be little hope of his being found. Your presence, I should suppose, will be immediately necessary, as he left his papers with me and desired me to give you both advice and assistance which you may depend on as far as is in my power.
I am Sir, your aff. servt. RICHARD BUTLER.
Governor Wolcott and Mr. Davenport, co-commissioners with General Parsons for the extinguishing of the Indian title were at Marietta await- ing his return, and they and Enoch, the General's son, were at dinner when the news of the sad accident was received.
A month later Butler writes as follows:
PITTSBURGH Dec. 26 1789
To ENOCH PARSONS.
DEAR SIR :- A few days since I received your favor from Lieut Mc- Dowell dated the 28th of Nov. The loss of your parent and my friend is great and I regret in addition to that loss, that there is no hopes of the recovery of the body, although Lieut McDowell assures me every search has been made and is still continued. Should he be so fortunate as to recover it, you may depend on every attention in my power to the decency of the interment. The matters left in my hands are safe and shall be untouched until you arrive; and as my worthy friend left it a charge on me to give you both advice and assistance in case of any mis- fortune happening to him, you may depend on anything in my power. I send by Mr. Allison the deed of sale of my proportion of the Salt Springs, land &c. to Col Meigs to be recorded. This I request you to do as soon as possible and transmit the original to me. Capt. Heart, I believe can give you some information of matters relative to the country in which your interests now lay that may be useful to your interests, which I have no doubt he will do. As the season is likely to come on hard. it may be inconvenient for you to come up, but nothing will be neglected in search for the body that could be done by you. I know of no business that can be attempted in that country until spring and some other arrangement of the troops takes place that might cover our people, so that you can judge of the propriety and utility of coming at your own time.
I am, Sir, your friend, RICHARD BUTLER.
William Parsons, an older son, was residing in Connecticut, and on learning of the accident wrote to Enoch at Marietta, Dec. 17. 1789, say- ing: "Should the body of our parent be found, let it be interred at Fort Pitt-of this don't fail. I will cause a monument to be erected. If he should have been found and buried, don't fail to have him removed to Pittsburgh. I shall never forgive you if you do."
From the following letter it would appear as if Enoch Parsons had
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requested to have what property the General had left at the Block House, or had been recovered from the creek, sent to him. It is as follows:
BEAVER January 25, 1790.
DEAR SIR :- I received your letter of December 31st, last night and embraced the first opportunity of complying with your request. By Mr. Loget's boat you will receive a small box, coat, hat and a tea-kettle. The hat is the only article that was last with him. When Capt. Heart returned, he told me all his papers were in the box and he could not do without them. Upon which I suffered him to open it and take out a packet marked "Capt. Heart's papers" and two small pieces of parch- ment which I suppose he informed you of. You are under no obliga- tions for what I have done. The esteem which I had for your father was a sufficient inducement to do anything in my power. Believe me, I am truly sorry for the melancholy accident by which I lost one of my best friends
I am with esteem your very humble servant
N. McDOWELL.
To ENOCH PARSONS.
Enoch remained in the Territory for six months for the purpose of continuing the search, and the body having been recovered, he resigned his offices and returned to Middletown, Conn. The evidence that the body was found rests upon the testimony of Mrs. Judge Turrill, who saw much of Enoch Parsons, and who says that he often told her of the cir- cumstances of his father's death and the long search for his body, and of its being found six months after the accident in such an advanced state of decomposition that it had to be buried where found. In addi- tion to her testimony we have documentary proof in the memorandum of articles found with the remains, made by Lieutenant McDowell and sent to Enoch Parsons. That memorandum is as follows:
Articles found with the remains of the late Judge Parsons, deceased, on the 14th of May, 1790
A silver watch with a silver seal.
A small compass.
A pocket book with several papers.
A silver shoe buckle and knee buckle.
A pair of mitts and gaiters.
A silk handkerchief.
An ink stand.
A pen-knife and pair of spectacles.
Most of the above articles were too far gone to be saved. I have taken all the pains with the papers I possibly could.
N. McDOWELL. I
There should apparently be a letter accompanying this memorandum describing the finding of the body and the place and manner of its inter- ment, but it is not among the Parsons' papers so far as known. The testimony of the next two letters which we give is explicit, however, both as to the fact of the finding of the body and the place of its interment:
NEW YORK June 11. 1790
DR SIR :- I hoped the pleasure of seeing you at this place to con- verse on and try to close some matters. In this I am disappointed for " For data concerning McDowell see vol. i., pp. 114-15.
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the present, as I am just setting out for Fort Pitt. I hope you will not pass through without seeing Gen. Irvine and closing his business satis- factorily to him. I also wish you to succeed in some matters we talked over, as they may be of use to the parties. I can say no more on business at present. Let me now tell you that the body of your late and worthy Father and my friend, was found and his remains laid in the ground by William Wilson about the 16th of last month. This acct. was given me the very moment I mounted my horse to come this way, by Mr. David Duncan. When you come to Pitt, I hope we shall be able to have his remains moved to Pittsburgh. It will be a mitigation of his loss even to have that in the power of his friends.
Compliments to your mother and the family
I am Dear Sir, your friend R. BUTLER.
To ENOCH PARSONS.
PITTSBURGH August 2, 1790
DEAR SIR :- I received your favor 29th June three days since and note the contents, which shall do all in my power to comply with. I wish I had a copy of the surveys which your late father returned, for reasons. I have not yet seen Mr. Duncan. He is busy with his harvest since he returned from Philadelphia, but have no doubt of his compli- ance with your order. Should the appointment you hint at take place, it may be of use to you as well as --. I wish you had the appointment I mentioned to you &c. I have seen Lieut McDowell. He was at the depositing the remains of your worthy father and has sent under sealed covers to my care a bundle of papers which he dried carefully, a watch, one silver buckle and a few other trifling things. There was no money found with the body, but since it was found there has two F. Crowns and some coppers been picked up. If I recollect right, Captain Heart told me there was money in the portmanteau or saddle-bags. The body was found just below the mouth of Beaver where it is deposited. You shall hear from me again soon. Please present me respectfully to your mother and family and be assured that I am
Dear Sir,
Your friend RICH BUTLER
To ENOCH PARSONS.
Two things, however, seem to conflict with the statement made by Butler in this letter as to the place of interment, or at least with the supposition that that was the final resting-place of the body. First, the inscription on the monument that was erected to Parsons at Middletown, probably by his son Enoch or his grandson, Samuel Holden Parsons, says that he was "drowned in the Great Beaver Creek in the State of Ohio, the 17th of November, 1789, aged 52 years," and that "his body is interred on the south bank of Beaver Creek near its confluence with the Ohio." In this inscription there are, of course, two errors. The Beaver is not in Ohio and it has no south bank, but any one writing from memory, or with only a general knowledge of the western country. might easily err in these details, and yet be correct in the main fact as to the location of the grave, which is said on another part of the monument to be New Brighton. Second, there is confirmation of the statement made in the inscription on the monument in the word of a reliable citizen of our own neighborhood, namely, Joseph T. Pugh of New Brighton, lately deceased in his ninety-fourth year, who used to relate that he had it
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from his father, John Pugh, that the body of Parsons was buried in the Block House graveyard, on ground now known as the John C. Whitla lot. According to John Pugh, also, the body was found by William Wilson, the Indian trader, at whose post it was that Captain Sam. Brady and his party killed the Indians supposed to have been concerned in some depre- dations on the south side of the Ohio.
There is, we think, no improbability in the theory that reconciles both stories by supposing that the body was, on account of its offensive con- dition, buried where found, just below the mouth of the Beaver, on the north bank of the Ohio, and that afterwards it was removed from this place to the neighborhood of the Block House. In what letters remain there is nothing more definite than the statements we have already given. Some letters belonging to Parsons are known to have been lost, and the two principal correspondents of Enoch, Gen. Butler and Captain Hart, were both killed at St. Clair's disastrous defeat, Nov. 4, 1791. There is no reason to suppose that the wish of William, the older son, to have the body buried at Fort Pitt, was ever gratified, although that purpose was kept in mind. June 11, 1790, Butler writes to Enoch at Middletown: "When you come to Pittsburgh, I hope we shall be able to have his remains removed to Pittsburgh." And again, Dec. 18, 1790: "The request you make respecting your worthy parent should have been com- plied with had your letter arrived at a season that was practicable. This cannot be done until spring."
We are inclined from all the evidence to believe that General Parsons was buried finally at New Brighton, and in the Block House graveyard, but wherever he may lie-
The knight's bones are dust, And his good sword rust, His soul is with the saints, we trust.
Since writing the above we have found in our reading the following references to this incident:
"In November, the Honorable S. H. Parsons, one of the judges of the territory, and a director of the Ohio Company, lost his life by drown- ing in the Big Beaver creek. He was descending that stream in a canoe with Captain Joseph Rogers, as an assistant, and being a fearless man, insisted on passing over a rapid or fall, not usually attempted by the navigators of that stream. In this experiment the canoe upset and he was drowned. His companion was more fortunate and escaped with his life at that time, to be killed by the Indians a year or two afterwards.
Judge Parsons was a citizen of Connecticut at the time of his appoint- ment, and took an active part in the carly transactions of the Ohio Com- pany."-Pioneer History, by S. P. Hildreth, Cincinnati, 1848, p. 258.
This is the only place we have seen Parsons's companion named. Butler's letter says the man in the boat with Parsons had a broken leg and was drowned. This does not agree with Hildreth's account, but it is in accord with what is said in the following extracts from Denny's journal:
" 16th .- The river continued to rise. With hard work we made Daw- son's, opposite the mouth of Little Braver, about eight o'clock at night.
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"17th .- As we turned up Beaver creek, to go to the block-house two miles up, where an officer and party is stationed, we met General Parsons's canoe, with some property, floating down. Found the old gentleman, in attempting to pass the Falls, about five miles up, was cast out and drowned, with one man who accompanied him. Judge Parsons was esteemed a useful, enterprising citizen. He had an interest in Salt Spring tract, on the Mahoning, and anxious to prove the navigation of the Falls practi- cable, the experiment cost him his life. It is said that his life was insured in New York."-Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1859, page 135.
LIEUTENANT DENNY TO GENERAL HARMAR
PITTSBURGH, November 22, 1789.
DEAR GENERAL-We did not arrive here until the 19th, owing to bad oars, indifferent oarsmen, and meeting two smart floods; however, we got safe, and had the pleasure to find Major Wyllys, Captain Beatty, Captain Mercer, Lieutenant Peters, Ensign Sedam and Doctor Allison in town. They arrived two days before us. The Governor is expected in town to-morrow or next day. His boat is here waiting for him, and Mr. William St. Clair, who came from Detroit to Fort Harmar last winter, accompanies him down the river. I have endeavored to impress Mr. Elliott with a just idea of the condition of the posts below with respect to provisions. He says he feels more concerned than we possibly can. He goes down himself in a few days.
I am very sorry, indeed, that I have to inform you of the loss of one of the most serviceable members of the Western Territory, General Par- sons. He left the old Moravian town up the Beaver early on the 17th, on board a canoe, accompanied only by one man. Sent his horses down by land. About one o'clock that day, as we entered the mouth of the creek, we met the wreck of a canoe, with a good deal of her cargo drifting down, all separately. Part of the loading we took up. When we got to the block-house, Mr. McDowell told us they had taken up a piece of the canoe, a bundle of skins, and had seen a pair of saddle bags, which were well known to be the judge's, and the same evening the man arrived with the horses, and told us he left the judge early that morning about twenty- five miles up the creek, that he intended to dine that day with Mr. Mc- Dowell at the block-house, and the man knew the property which we took up to be part of what was in General Parson's canoe, leaves no doubt of his being lost in attempting the Falls of Beaver. The canoe was very much shattered, and bottom uppermost, when we met her. Mr. Mc- Dowell has made search on both sides the creek, above and below the falls, but can make no further discovery, more than finding part of the canoe at the foot of a remarkably dangerous fall in the creek, which strengthens the belief that there the old gentleman met his fate.
I shall be glad to be affectionately remembered to Mrs. Harmar, while I remain, &c. E. DENNY.
-(Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny, Appendix No. I., page 242.)
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APPENDIX No. X A HUMAN DOCUMENT
BEING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE JOURNAL OF REV. ROBERT DIL- WORTH, D.D., PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF LITTLE BEAVER, BEAVER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
ROBERT DILWORTH, the fifth principal of Greersburg Academy and later pastor of several churches in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, was one of the sturdy, faithful pioneer educators and ministers who did yeoman service for God and men throughout eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and what is now West Virginia. His father, George Dilworth, was born in Little Britain township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, about the year 1765, and, while a child. moved with his father to a settlement near Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, where Robert, the subject of this sketch, the oldest of eight children, was born, November 19, 1790. George Dilworth, in the spring of 1796, removed to Beaver County, and settled in the forest near Greersburg, now Darlington. With his family he camped out in the woods until he had built a small cabin, which they made haste to occupy even before it was roofed over. Several other fami- lies besides Dilworth's had come into this neighborhood at the same time, all having previously resided within the hounds of the Presbyterian Church at Mount Pleasant in Westmoreland County. They therefore soon organized a church in their new location and called it after the old home church, Mount Pleasant. This was in 1797. 1798, or 1799. certainly not earlier than the first date named, nor later than the last. Of this church George Dilworth was a member from its beginning, and under its care, Robert, of whom we write, grew to young manhood, working on his father's farm and receiving such educational advantages as the neighbor- hood afforded.
He was doubtless a student in the academy that was established there at an early date by Thomas Edgar Hughes, the first pastor of Mount Pleasant Church, and became, as stated, its fifth principal.
For many years, i. e., from 1820 to about 1860, he kept a daily journal, in which in a fine hand, on small sheets, of note-paper size, he set down in circumstantial manner the minutest details of his life and of the hap- penings in the communities around him. Through the courtesy of his daughter, Mrs. David E. Lowry of Freedom, we have been permitted to
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read this journal and to cull from it at pleasure. A few extracts may interest the reader, as they show the life of the past and reveal a type of humble, rural heroes to whom the world is debtor.
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