USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and its centennial celebration, Volume I > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63
"For the Scalp of every Male Indian Enemy above the age of 10 Years produced as evidence of their being killed, 134 pieces of Eight.
"And for the Scalp of every female Indian Enemy above the Age of 10 Years produced as evidence as aforesd, 50 pieces of Eight.
"And that there shall be paid to every Officer or Officers, Soldier or Soldiers, in the pay of this Province, one-half of the above rewards.
And that the Six Nations, or any other Indians in Amity with the Crown of Great Britain, be excepted out of the said Proclamation."-(Col Rec., vol. ix., p. 189.)
On the 5th of December, 1792, General Wayne wrote from his camp at Legionville to the county lieutenants of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties requesting them to give a safe conduct through their respective territories to the sixteen King's chiefs of the Wabash and Illinois Indians and other warriors who were being escorted by Captain Prior to Phila- delphia. In his reply to this circular letter Presley Neville says:
"I rec'd your Excellency's Letter respecting the Indian chiefs-I can send no escort with them for these reasons-Volunteers will not offer, and to draught a party of Militia to run on foot and guard those Savages on Horse-back would be I fear to raise their Indignation, and the very Escort would I think be likely to encourage if not perpetrate the Violence they are intended to prevent. But, Sir, I will go with them myself and anticipate no difficulty in delivering them safe to Colo. Campbell at Greensburg."-Extract from manu- script letter in the Wayne Collection belonging to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
1 Logan took his name from the Provincial Secretary, James Logan. (See p. 44.) American Pioneer, vol. ii., p. 87; Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, Watson, vol. i. P. 525.
61
History of Beaver County
mouth of Yellow Creek, about fifty-five miles below Pittsburg, and thirty above Wheeling, where he established a hunting camp. At this time the whole western border was alarmed in anticipation of a war with the Indians, a feeling which was due in part to the murders referred to and in part to the machina- tions of Dr. John Connolly, the turbulent agent of the Tory Dunmore, who was giving the Pennsylvanians so much trouble about the Virginia claims in this region. Parties of the settlers had gathered at several points ready to repel any incursions of the savages, and one or two Indians had been taken for hostiles and killed. Proposals had been several times made to attack Logan's camp, but had been overruled by wiser heads, especially by Captain Michael Cresap. At length, however, during the absence of Logan, on the 30th of April, part of his people were enticed across the river to the house of Joshua Baker, by the promise of rum. Here a party under the leadership of Daniel Greathouse, a settler near the mouth of King's Creek, lay con- cealed, and after sufficient liquor had been served them to render them partially intoxicated, they were set upon and all but an infant child killed. Judge Henry Jolly, at one time a resident of Beaver County, was, at the time of the killing of Logan's people at Baker's Bottom, living on the frontier, and in the year 1836 he published in Silliman's Journal a full account of the occurrence. He describes Logan's earnest efforts to restrain the Indians from declaring war at a council held to consider the aggressions of the Virginians, and his success in this direction, and then goes on to speak of the effect produced when news was brought to Logan of the crime that had robbed him of all his family. He says:
Everything wore a tranquil aspect, when, behold! the fugitives arrived from Yellow Creek and reported that Logan's mother, brother and sister were murdered. Three of the nearest and dearest relations of Logan had been massacred by white men. The consequence was that this same Logan, who a few days before was so pacific, raised the hatchet with a declaration that he would not ground it until he had taken ten for one, which I believe he completely fulfilled by taking thirty scalps and prisoners in the summer of 1774. It was the belief of the inhabitants who were capable of reasoning on the subject that all the depredations committed on the frontiers by Logan and his party in 1774 were as retaliation for the murder of Logan's friends at Yellow Creek.
62
History of Beaver County
The blame for the crime committed at Baker's was for long attached to Captain Cresap, but it is now well known that he was innocent of any part in it, had even, as we have said, ad- vised against its commission previously, but he is justly blam- able for other murders of Indians committed at about the same period. On the news of these various murders, especially that of Logan's relatives, spreading through the settlements of south- western Pennsylvania, the people were panic-stricken, realizing that war would be the inevitable consequence. And their fears were soon justified, as the Indians at once took the war-path and swept the whole country between the Ohio and Monongahela rivers with tomahawk and torch. The settlers fled by scores across the Monongahela, abandoning their possessions to the in- vaders. Valentine Crawford, George Washington's agent, then living on Jacob's Creek, in Westmoreland County, wrote to Washington on the 6th of May, 1774, saying:
This alarm has caused the people to move from over the Mononga- hela, off Chartier's and Raccoon creeks, as fast as you ever saw them in the year 1756 or 1757 down in Frederick County, Virginia. There were more than one thousand people crossed the Monongahela in one day at three ferries that are not one mile apart.
Intelligence of the depredations being committed, and of the exodus of the inhabitants, being transmitted by an express to Lord Dunmore, he at once took active measures to organize a campaign against the offending Indians, which was speedily commenced, and lasted three months. This was the last war in which the colonists took part with the mother country as her subjects. Its decisive engagement was fought by General An- drew Lewis, who, in a desperate battle at Point Pleasant on the Ohio, on the 10th of October, 1774, defeated the Indians under the famous Cornstalk, a chief who was peaceful in disposition and design, but who, when he was aroused, was the very thunder- bolt of war. Dunmore was not present in this engagement, but he came in afterwards for the lion's share of the glory, and con- cluded the peace with the Indians at Chillicothe in the following November. This was six months previous to the commence- ment at Lexington of the Revolutionary conflict. Many parts of Dunmore's conduct in this brief campaign which bears his name are ambiguous. It was the general belief among the
63
History of Beaver County
officers of the army of the colonists, that he had already received from England advices of the coming Revolution, and that in all his succeeding movements he was aiming to secure the savages as allies of England against the colonists in the long conflict now impending. To this great struggle we turn now in the chapter which follows.
CHAPTER III
THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD, AND AFTER, TO 1800
Origin of Revolutionary Spirit-Causes of the Conflict-Training of Colonists for it-Part of Western Settlers in Revolution-General Clark's Expedition-General Hand's Expedition-Girty and Other Renegades-Conduct of British at Detroit-General McIntosh's Ex- pedition-Building of Fort McIntosh-"Brodhead's Road"-Fort Laurens-Distress of its Garrison-Relations of McIntosh and Brod- head-Descriptions of Fort McIntosh-Brodhead in Command- Indian Troubles-Irvine in Command-Mutinous Troops-Their Hardships-Military Executions at Fort McIntosh-Decay of that Post-Indian Treaty There-Surrender of Prisoners-Visit to Fort McIntosh of Boundary Commissioners-Evacuation-Demolition- Blockhouse at New Brighton-Sam. Brady-Defeats of Harmar and St. Clair-Wayne's Camp at Legionville-His Victory at Maumee- Its Results-Boundary Controversy between Penna. and Virginia: Its Origin, Progress, and Settlement-The "New State" Movement.
What heroes from the woodland sprung, When, through the fresh-awakened land, The thrilling cry of freedom rung, And to the work of warfare strung The yeoman's iron hand!
BRYANT, Seventy-six.
THE echoes of Dunmore's War had hardly died away, when there was fired at Lexington the shot heard round the world. All preceding local struggles were dwarfed in importance by the mighty conflict which now began,-a conflict which was to dye the blood-stained soil of America a yet deeper crimson, to give to the history of human heroism and nobility another glorious chapter, and to issue in the creation of a new form of government, a new order of civilization, and a new opportunity for liberty, fraternity, and equality to be transformed from what had been the dream of political philosophers and the hope of patriots into
64
65
History of Beaver County
solid reality. This splendid epoch-making conflict was the American Revolution.
Science no longer accepts the theory of catastrophes in the geological development of the globe: all is seen to have gone for- ward under law, with close connection of cause and consequence. Nor has history any place for it. There are epochs, but no catastrophes in the progress of men in their political and social life. With the eye of the poet we may see the scenes of this vast drama moving before us as in a theatre; but the student of his- tory finds the seeds of every action in the events which had gone before. The spirit and principles of the American patriots were their inheritance from the sturdy burghers of Holland, who, under William of Orange, the prototype of our own Washington, had overthrown the tyranny of Spain in the Netherlands; from the brave Huguenots of France, from the Cromwellians of Eng- land, and from the followers of Knox in Scotland. Lexington and Bunker Hill, Trenton and Valley Forge were prophesied in Leyden and La Rochelle, in Marston Moor and the battle of the Boyne. Planted in the soil of the New World, the offshoots of the sturdy stock of these old liberty-loving, tyrant-hating men toughened their fibre in the winds of adversity, and grew into trees that would no longer bear the "rule of the bramble." For a hundred years the causes had been at work that were to create the revolt against the authority of the mother country, viz., political and religious tyranny and commercial greed, extending their baleful influence more and more from the home govern- ment against the colonies, and, in those colonies, a growing sense of strength and self-sufficiency, and of independent interests.1
1 In the manuscript letter-book of Colonel George Morgan (purchased from Mr. George Woodbridge of Marietta, Ohio, by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburg, and preserved by that institution), we came upon a letter which we may give here as showing the state of feeling among the people of the colonies toward the mother country.
The letter is from a Philadelphia firm of which Colonel Morgan was a member, to a Mr. Edward Farmer Taylor, of London, Eng., and bears date Philadelphia, June 12, 1775, It reads as follows:
" Sir :-
"Last Week Mrs. Falconer, Wife of the worthy Captain Nathan Falconer put in our Hands for Sale a Variety of Pontipool and Plated Ware with some Pistols, and a small Sword, as it was very inconvenient for her to dispose of them.
"The Articles sold by her she will give you an Acct of-they do not we believe exceed £30 sterling-and these were principally in the Military Way. Indeed had your Adventure been to ever so great an Amount in Guns, Swords, Hangers &c, they would command a very ready sale and instant Pay. But from the very cruel unjust Oppressions of our Mother Country we are endeavoring to act like wise Children by cutting off all Superfluities and to live within Ourselves. The Military Spirit with which our Lord North's Proceedings have inspired our Peaceable Inhabitants will scarcely be believed on your side the Water. Whilst this lasts, or until our Liberties are secured to Us, you must expect to VOL. 1 .- 5
66
History of Beaver County
So long as the colonists were unable to cope with the strength of the native tribes and the French in the West they leaned for help upon the home country, but with the defeat of France they no longer felt themselves blocked in their efforts to extend their trade and emigration westward, and the desire for independence at once received a mighty impetus. England's victory over France in the defence of the colonies was thus for herself in reality a defeat. The lion had conquered, but the lion's whelps had learned their strength and soon were eager to try it against their dam. Fourteen years after the Treaty of Paris had assured the withdrawal of France from the New World, the Declaration of Independence was signed at Philadelphia, and the old Liberty Bell rang the death-knell of British rule in America.I
The builders of empire must always be disciplined into hard- ness. This is the truth at the bottom of the fable of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. For all her strong ones Nature seems to issue this command:
Cast the bantling on the rocks, Suckle him with the she-wolf's teat, Wintered with the hawk and fox, Power and speed be hands and feet.
The pioneer settlers of this region had had, as we have seen, such a discipline. In subduing the mighty forests and the savage foes who lurked within them, these men had supped full of hor- rors, but the hardships they endured only made them the hardier; the strength of the enemies they conquered entered into them and augmented their own. Their knowledge of war-
hear of little Progress in the Sales of your Tea Wares &c. Indeed anything which relates to Tea, we now begin to dislike as much as ever we were fond of them. You may however rely on our doing everything in our Power to serve you in the speedy Sale of every Article committed to our Charge. And the Remittances shall be made as agreeable to your desire as possible, though, as America will never submit to the Tyrannical Acts of the British Parliment, the only Channel will soon be by the King's Ships or Packets.
" We are Sir Respectfully Sir ' Your most Obt. Servts., "B. & M." *
1 This result of England's triumph over France was foreseen by many in Europe and in America, and was predicted by several eminent Frenchmen immediately upon the cession of Canada. "We have caught them at last," were the words of Choiseul, and when Vergennes heard of it, he said:
" The consequences of the entire cession of Canada are obvious. I am persuaded England will erelong repent of having removed the only check that could keep her colonies in awe. They stand no longer in need of her protection; she will call on them to contribute toward supporting the burdens they have helped to bring on her, and they will answer by striking off all dependence."
* This firm was Baynton & Morgan, formerly Wharton, Baynton & Morgan.
67
History of Beaver County
fare was greatly increased in the struggle against the French, and now, when the camp-fires of the Revolution were lighted through- out the land, they were not found wanting. And as of old Fort Duquesne had been a storm-centre during the French wars, so now its successor, Fort Pitt, looms up in the annals of patriot- ism.
RELATION OF WESTERN SETTLERS TO THE REVOLUTION
The tide of war during the Revolutionary struggles did not, indeed, break over the barriers of the Alleghenies, but west of Fort Pitt, at Detroit and in Illinois, were the English forces, and in the territory between were the hostile tribes under Eng- lish pay. And here in the Ohio valley the settlers stood as heroically as did the embattled farmers of New England, and against still greater odds. For the latter had to deal with the red-coats, a civilized foe; but the former faced one that was merciless, the ruthless redskins, who made repeated raids on the western frontier, laying waste the scattered settlements with the torch, the tomahawk, and the scalping-knife. The pioneers in this region stood, too, almost alone in these struggles. Barely able to cope with their own difficulties, the colonists on the sea- board were in no position to send succor to the western frontiers. The people there had to provide for themselves supplies and munitions of war, to appoint their own officers, build their own forts, and maintain single-handed a struggle against the com- bined forces of the British and the savages, their allies.
Immediately upon the commencement of hostilities with Great Britain the western country was filled with alarms of In- dian incursions, while at the same time the efforts of such men as Captain John Neville, commanding at Fort Pitt, and Col. George Morgan, Indian Agent for the Middle Department,I to cultivate friendly relations with the Delawares, Shawanese, and
1 Colonel George Morgan fills so large a place in the early history of this region that some account of his life will not be foreign to, the scope of this work. He was born in Phil- adelphia in 1742, the son of Evan and Johanna (Byles) Morgan, and was a first lieutenant in the first company that volunteered for service in the Revolutionary War. Subsequently he was promoted to the rank of colonel, served throughout the Valley Forge campaign, and was at the siege of Yorktown. But his active life began long before the Revolutionary struggle. In 1760 he became the junior partner of the trading firm of Wharton, Baynton & Morgan, by whom he was sent west to establish trading-posts among the Indians of the Ohio valley. In the French and Indian wars the firm lost heavily through the depredations committed by the savages, and in the treaty at Fort Stanwix, in 1768, they were com- pensated by the grant from the Six Nations of a vast tract of land in the west. Out of
68
History of Beaver County
other western tribes were constantly being frustrated by the violence shown toward the latter by the whites, who frequently attacked the most peaceable Indians, and even messengers sent to the post to confer with the commanders. The correspondence of Morgan is full of allusions to this mad conduct of the settlers,
this grant arose the famous Indiana Company, whose claim was afterwards successfully disputed by Virginia.
Colonel Morgan was, by appointment of Congress, Indian Agent for the Middle Depart- ment, with headquarters at Pittsburg, from 1776 to 1779. He was the constant friend of the Indians, and did everything in his power to prevent them from being abused by de- signing speculators. The Indians called him Taimenend (pronounced Tammany) after a noted chief of the Delawares, who was esteemed for his virtues, indicating thus that Morgan was a man like-minded. (See Heckewelder's Indian Nations, pages 300-301, for a very interesting account of this chief, and of the origin of the Tammany Societies of the United States; also reference to Morgan's receiving this name as above stated.) On May 12, 1779, the Delaware chiefs in council at Princeton, N. J., made him an offer of a large tract of land as a present in acknowledgment of his kindness to them. The speaker was Kezlezle- ment, and the address reads in part as follows:
" The Delaware Nation have experienced great advantages from your wise Councils and from your Truth and Justice in representing their real sentiments and dispositions to the Congress of the United States. You have at all times studied the good of our Nation and done all in your Power to promote the Happiness of our women and children and of our posterity. You have now entertained a considerable number of us for some time, and you have kindly undertaken the care of some of our children who we have brought here to be educated [see page 32 ante]. We see your own children and we look on them with pleasure as on our own.
"For these considerations and in order to show our love for you and for your family we now give you a tract of Land in our country that you may call your own and which you and your children may possess and enjoy forever. The Delaware Nation give you this land Brother Taimenend, to show their love for you and your children. We will now describe it. It begins at the mouth of the Run opposite the Foot of Montour's Island (we mean the lower end of the Island) and extending down the River Ohio, to the Run next to Logs Town :- bounded by the said two Runs and the River Ohio and extending back from the River Ohio to the tops of the highest Hills. Being, we suppose, about three miles in general in a direct line from the River to the tops of said Hills and about six miles from Run to Run. This tract contains the whole of the Shewickley Bottom which is very good land and we desire that you and your children may accept and possess it forever."-From Colonel George Morgan's book of the Morgan family-MS.
Part of this land, it will be seen, is within the present limits of Beaver County. The offer was firmly refused by Colonel Morgan, and twice repeated despite his refusal, but Morgan would not take advantage of it. Colonel Morgan later inherited a large body of land in the valley of the Chartiers in Washington County, Pa., where he settled in the fall of 1796. The estate was named by him "Morganza," and it still bears this name. At his house there Aaron Burr paid him a visit in the autumn of 1806, and during his stay adroitly sounded Morgan upon the subject of his (Burr's) scheme for the dismemberment of the Union, an attack upon Mexico, or whatever may have been his real design. Morgan was instrumental in bringing about the discovery of Burr's intended treachery, and with two of his sons, John and Thomas, was called during his trial at Richmond as a witness against him.
In 1766 Morgan made a journey from the mouth of the Kaskaskia to the mouth of the Mississippi, being the first American to perform the journey. He also founded, at New Madrid, the first English colony in the province of Louisiana.
Colonel Morgan was the quartermaster of McIntosh's expedition when the fort bearing the name of the latter was built at the mouth of the Big Beaver. He and McIntosh quar- relled about the delay and wastage of stores, and nearly fought a duel in consequence.
On the 24th of October, 1764, Colonel George Morgan was married by the Rev. George Whitefield at Philadelphia, to Miss Mary Baynton, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Cheva- lier) Baynton. Their children were John, Ann, George, Thomas, and Maria. Ann married General Presley Neville. The well-known attorneys, David T., and William Morgan Watson, of Pittsburg, are great-grandchildren of Colonel George Morgan. Colonel Morgan died in 1810; his wife in 1825. Both are buried in the family ground at Morganza.
1
Colonel George Morgan.
From a silhouette in the possession of Mrs. Helena C. Beatty of Washington, Pa., a great-granddaughter of Colonel Morgan.
69
History of Beaver County
and shows also his conviction that the much-dreaded general In- dian war might be averted by a different spirit on the part of the people and by a pacific policy of government. As illustrating Morgan's wise and humane spirit, we copy from his letter-book the following communication to the then President of Congress:
To the Hon'ble John Hancock, Esq.
FORT PITT, March 15th, 1777. SIR,
Since my last Letter which was by Mr. William Wilson, I have received the within Message from the Chiefs of the Shawnese-this and what I transmitted by Mr. Wilson is the only material News from the Indian Country since my Letter by Mr. Boreman .-
I shall shortly receive more perfect intelligence from the different Nations & I flatter myself that I shall not be obliged to alter my opinion as delivered to Congress in my letter of the - of January, &c. notwith- standing which, I thought it my duty to mention in my Letter by Mr. Wilson the general uneasiness of the Inhabitants here, who (by means of those who take upon them to give Intelligence & to alarm the Country with every piece of Indian News true or false,) have imbibed the Idea of a general War being inevitable .- It is much easier to create those Alarms than to remove them when raised, even from the most idle & ridiculous tales of drunken or dissatisfied Individuals, & I apprehend the most fatal consequences from them-
Parties have even been assembled to massacre our known Friends at their hunting Camps as well Messengers on Business to me, & I have esteemed it necessary to let those Messengers sleep in my own Chamber for their Security .-
It is truly distressing to submit to the injuries we have & are fre- quently receiving along the Frontier settlements & Out Posts from the Mingo Banditti & their Associates, but it must be extremely injurious to the interest of the United States at this critical time, to involve ourselves into a general Indian War which I still believe may be warded off by pursuing the wise measures intended by Congress-It is not uncommon to hear even those who ought to know better, express an ardent desire for an Indian War, on account of the fine Lands those poor people possess.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.