USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and its centennial celebration, Volume I > Part 14
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2 This map is in the Department of Internal Affairs of Pennsylvania. It has never before been published. We are indebted to Mr. J. Sutton Wall for the transcript of it given in this work.
3 Arthur Lee was born in Stratford. Virginia, December 20, 1740, and died in Urbana, in the same State, December 12, 1792. He was educated at Eton and obtained the degree of M.D. at Edinburgh. He settled for the practice of his profession at Williamsburg, Va. On the passage of the Stamp-Act, he went to London, studied law, and won fame as an advocate of the constitutional rights of America. He was associated in Europe with some of the most eminent men of his age, and was appointed by the Continental Congress joint
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History of Beaver County
who made a treaty with the Indians there in 1785, thus describes in his journal Fort McIntosh and its surroundings:
The next place is Loggstown, which was formerly a settlement on both sides of the Ohio, and the place where the treaty of Lancaster was con- firmed by the Western Indians. From Loggstown to the mouth of Beaver creek is - miles, and from thence to Fort McIntosh one mile. This fort is built of well-hewn logs, with four bastions; its figure an irregular square, the face to the river being longer than the side to the land. It is about equal to a square of fifty yards, is well built, and strong against musketry; but the opposite side of the river commands it entirely, and a single piece of artillery from thence would reduce it. This fort was built by us during the war, and is not therefore noted in Hutchin's map. The place was formerly a large Indian settlement, and French trading place. There are peach trees still remaining. It is a beautiful plain, extending about two miles along the river, and one to the hills; surrounded on the east by Beaver creek, and on the west by a small run, which meanders through a most excellent piece of meadow ground, full of shell-bark, hickory, black walnut and oak. About one mile and a half up the Beaver creek, there enters a small, but permanent stream, very fit for a mill seat; so that the possession of the land from there to the western stream would include a fine meadow, a mill seat, a beautiful plain for small grain, and rich, well-timbered uplands. It falls just within the western boundary of Pennsylvania; and is reserved by the State out of the sale of the land, as a precious morsel for some favorite of the legislature.I
The italics in the last line are ours. We note the sneer it contains for the behoof of those who think that the former days were better than these and innocent of legislative corruption and "graft." How strange, but pleasing, to hear this voice, after the lapse of more than a hundred years, speaking to us of scenes so changed, and yet in natural features so familiar to our eyes!
In the spring of 1779, as we have stated, Col. Daniel commissioner with Dr. Franklin and Silas Deane to secure a treaty of alliance with France. He served also on special missions to the courts of Spain and Prussia. In 1781, he was elected a member of the Virginia Assembly, and from 1782 till 1785 was a member of the Continental Congress .- See Appleton's Cyclo. of Amn. Biog., vol. iii., p. 666.
Two of Lee's brothers, Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, were signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Franklin had a poor opinion of Arthur Lee. Writing from France to Joseph Reed, President of Congress, he speaks of him as a "calumniator," and after describing some parts of his conduct, says: "I caution you to beware of him; for in sowing suspicions and jealousies, in creating misunderstandings and quarrels among friends, in malice, subtlety and indefatigable industry, he has, I think, no equal" (Quoted in Life and Reminiscences of Wm. G. Johnston, p. 22).
1 Life of Arthur Lee, LL.D., by Richard Henry Lee, vol. ii., pp. 383-4. Lee's journal is also quoted at length in The Olden Time (Craig), vol. ii., pp. 334-44.
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History of Beaver County
Brodhead, of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, succeeded McIntosh in command of the Western Department, with his headquarters at Fort Pitt. At the same time the Indians had again begun their work of destruction in the frontier settlements and the new commander had enough to do.1 In a postscript to a letter to Washington, dated Fort Pitt, July 31, 1779, he wrote :
I have just learned that two soldiers have lately been killed at Fort Laurens, two boys on Wheeling Creek, two boys taken on Raccoon Creek, and one man slightly wounded, and a soldier last evening killed at Fort McIntosh, and a soldier slightly wounded. 2
In a letter to President Reed, dated from the same place, April 27, 1780, he says:
The Enemy are remarkably hostile. Between forty and fifty men women and Children have been killed and taken from what are now called the Counties of Yohogania, Monongalia and Ohio, since the first of March. 3
In a communication to the same, March 18th, of the same year, he said :
I am sorry to inform you that the Savages have already begun their hostilities. Last Sunday morning at a Sugar Camp upon Raccoon Creek five men were killed & three lads & three girls taken prisoners.4
In this year, 1780, Brodhead resolved to send an expedition against the Indian towns west of the Ohio, but was compelled to abandon it for want of men and provisions. In the spring of the following year, however, he led in person an expedition against the unfriendly Delaware Indians on the Muskingum, and severely chastised them.
1 The following extract from a letter which he wrote from Fort Pitt to the Hon. Timothy Pickering on July 21, 1780, refers to an incident which occurred a few miles down the Ohio from Beaver, probably close to the mouth of Raccoon Creek:
"A few days ago I received intelligence of a party of thirty odd Wyandot Indians having crossed the Ohio River, five miles below fort McIntosh and that they had hid their Canoes upon the shore, I immediately ordered out two parties of the nearest militia to go in search of them and cover the Harvesters. At the same time Capt. McIntyre was detached with a party to form an ambuscade opposite to the Enemy's craft. Five Men who were reaping in a field, discovered the Indians and presuming their number was small went out to attack them but four of them were immediately killed and the other taken before the militia were collected. But they were attacked by Capt. McIntyre's party on the River and many of them were killed and wounded. two Canoes were sunk and the prisoner retaken, but the water was so deep our men could not find the Bodies of the savages, therefore the number of killed cannot be ascertained. The Indians left in their Craft two Guns, six blankets, eleven Tomhawks, eleven paint Bags, eight Ear wheels, a large brass kettle and many other articles. The Indians informed the Prisoner that fifteen Wyandots were detached towards Hanna's Town, upon receiving this information, another party was immediately detached up the Alleghany River with two Delaware Indians to take their Tracts & make pursuit, but as this party is not yet returned I cannot inform you of its success."-(Penna. Arch., vol. xii., p. 248.)
2 Penna. Arch., vol. xii., p. 146. : Id., vol. viii., p. 210. 4 Id., p. 140.
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From the time Brodhead assumed command of the Western Department until he resigned it, he was beset with difficulties in obtaining supplies for his troops, whose condition was at times deplorable. He became involved also in difficulties with his subordinates, and charges of speculating with public money, etc., were brought against him, from which he was finally honor- ably acquitted.1 While these charges were pending he was re- lieved of the command of the Department by Col. John Gibson, his chief opponent, and on September 24, 1781, Brig .- Gen. William Irvine was appointed by Congress commandant at Fort Pitt.
IRVINE IN COMMAND.2
General Irvine assumed command in the West early in No- vember of that year, and in a letter to Washington, dated Fort Pitt, December 2, 1781, he gives a very gloomy account of the condition of affairs at that post. He writes:
I have been trying to economize; but everything is in so wretched a state, that there is very little in my power. I never saw troops cut so truly a deplorable, and at the same time despicable a figure. Indeed, when I arrived, no man would believe from their appearance that they were soldiers; nay, it would be difficult to determine whether they were white men. Though they do not yet come up to my wishes, yet they are some better.3
In the spring of 1782, the people of western Pennsylvania were in a frenzy of excitement on account of Indian raids. In a
1 Penna Arch., vol. ix., pp. 97, 306.
2 William Irvine was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, November 3, 1741, of Scotch ancestry. He was educated at Enniskillen and the College of Dublin. Having entered the army as a cornet, he quarrelled with his colonel, and left it, then turning to the study of medicine and surgery. A few months after the close of the old French War he came to America, settling in the interior of Pennsylvania, where he married Anne, daughter of Robert Callender. Irvine took a leading part in the movement for the independence of the colonies, and in January, 1776, he was appointed to raise and command a regiment. With his regiment he served in the war in Canada, where he was taken prisoner.
Promoted to the command of the Second Pennsylvania Brigade, Irvine was commis- sioned Brigadier-General, May 12, 1779, and fought with honor in the battle of Monmouth, and in the northern campaigns until 1781. In November of that year he assumed com- mand, by order of Congress, upon the recommendation of Washington, of the Western Department, with headquarters at Pittsburg. In this command he was a faithful and efficient officer, as the history here given will show.
After the close of the Revolutionary War Irvine held many honorable posts, being elected a member of Congress from the Cumberland district (1786-8), member of the Con- stitutional Convention of Pennsylvania (1790), again in Congress (1793-5), Major-General, commanding the Pennsylvania forces under Governor Mifflin during the "Whisky Insur- rection," a Presidential elector from his State in 1797, etc. General Irvine resided in Carlisle, but later removed to Philadelphia, where he died, July 29, 1804.
3 Wash .- Irvine Cor., p. 75.
VOL. 1 .- 7.
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letter to his wife, dated Fort Pitt, April 12, 1782, General Irvine writes:
Some people are killed and some taken, by the Indians, in almost every quarter. I lost five of my men, a few days since, who were wood- cutting and carelessly laid down their arms to load the wagon, when a party rushed on them. This was at a fort [McIntosh] we have thirty miles down the river.I
May Ist, following, he writes to her: "I am heartily tired and almost worn down with people coming daily for protection and assistance." 2
July 4, 1782, James Marshel, Lieutenant of Washington County, wrote from Catfish (now Washington, Pa.), to Irvine, as follows:
Repeated application has been made to me by the inhabitants on the south line of this county, namely: from Jackson's fort to Buffalo creek, and I am at a loss to know what to do. The people declare they must immediately abandon their habitations unless a few men are sent to them during harvest.3
Petitions were also sent in to Irvine at Fort Pitt from many parts of Washington and Westmoreland counties, setting forth the distress of the inhabitants, and requesting him to furnish men to protect them during harvest time and at their mills. One of these petitions may be given, as showing in a vivid light the dangers and distress of mind in which the borderers felt themselves at this period. It is one of several petitions sent to Irvine from the same neighborhood, viz., that of Alexander Wells's mill and fort, on the waters of Cross Creek, near the junction of North and South Forks, in Cross Creek township, Washington County. The petition is dated May 2, 1782, and is signed by James Edgar,4 Henry Graham, David Vance, Arthur Campbell, and Joseph Vance. It reads as follows:
To his excellency, General Irvine, commander-in-chief of the western depart- ment :
DEAR SIR :- We, the inhabitants, who live near Mr. Alex. Wells's mill, being very unhandy to any other mill, and daily open and exposed to the rage of a savage and merciless enemy, notwithstanding the great attention paid by the general to our frontiers, and ordering men to be placed on the
1 Wash .- Irvine Cor., p. 345. 2 Id., p. 346. 3 Id., p. 298.
4 Hon. James Edgar, an associate justice of Washington County, and a man eminent in the civil and religious history of the region.
Brig .- Gen. William Irvine. From steel plate in Butterfield's Washington-Irvine Correspondence.
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river-yet those inhabitants who live near enough the mill to fort there, find ourselves unable to guard the mill and carry on labor for the support of our families; and so, of consequence, cannot continue to make a stand without some assistance. And it is clear that if this mill is evacuated many of the adjacent forts, at least seven or eight, that now hope to make a stand, must give up; as their whole dependence is on said mill for bread as well as every expedition from these parts. And scouting parties that turn out on alarms are supplied from here. Therefore, we, your humble petitioners, pray you would order us a few men to guard the mill-so valuable to many in these parts in particular and the country in general.I
In addition to these actual and anticipated troubles from the enemy, the garrisons at Fort Pitt and Fort McIntosh were them- selves enduring hardship from insufficient supplies, and many of the men were in a mutinous condition as a consequence. Gen- eral Irvine had to exercise the severest measures to maintain discipline. Writing to Major-General Benjamin Lincoln, Secre- tary of War, from Fort Pitt, May 2, 1782, he says :
The few troops here are the most licentious men and worst behaved I ever saw, owing, I presume, in a great measure, to their not being hitherto kept under any subordination, or tolerable degree of discipline. I will try what effect a few prompt and exemplary punishments will have. Two are now under sentence and shall be executed to-morrow. They not only disobeyed their officer (who commanded at Fort McIntosh), but actually struck him, and it is supposed would have killed him, had he not been rescued by two other soldiers. 2
The following letter to Irvine, from Lieutenant Samuel Bryson, of the Second Pennsylvania Regiment, the officer men- tioned above as having been attacked, will be given in full, as throwing light upon the particular incident, and more upon the character of the times and the history of Fort McIntosh :
FORT MCINTOSH, April 29, 1782.
SIR :- I send you under guard, John Phillips and Thomas Steed, for behaving in a mutinous manner. I shall not, at this time, enter into a description of the manner in which they behaved, as the two men who guards them can give you particular information, they being the only ones who spiritedly took my part.
Phillips, who was sober, I cannot think myself justifiable in ever letting him out of the garrison with his life. But not having arms im- mediately in my power when I got rescued from him and observing a general sourness amongst the men-with his extraordinary conduct-
1 Frontier Forts of Penna., p. 422.
2 Wash .- Irvine Cor., p. 172.
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History of Beaver County
induced me to suspect a premeditated design against me. Certain it is, from everything I can learn, with the manner in which they embodied, that three-fourths of them were ready to join the mutineers; for which reason, I thought it most prudent for the safety of myself and the garrison to apply moderate measures first.
There was a rascally boat's crew lying under cover of the fort a night and a part of a day, who found means to convey seven quarts of whisky to the men after roll-call yesterday morning: which for some time gave me an amazing trouble. Had it not been want of men I would have sent the crew to you, particularly from my being informed they were under guard at Fort Pitt for the same crime. I had them searched; and to prevent any such trouble in future will suffer none to lay here longer than I examine them.
I wish to have two good men to replace the prisoners-and have nothing to fear in future; though the duty is much harder, it is done without a syllable of grumbling. I have experienced more insolence and grumbling for barely obliging them to do their duty consistent with the post since here, than I have met with in the army before. There is not any appearance of an enemy yet. The plan of sending out patrols from the large plain which surrounds the fort might, I think, be fatal to the men; as the enemy, from an adjacent hill, can see every man who leaves the fort. Of course, they can concert a plan to ambuscade them under the cover of large trees bordering the plain. In place of that, I have four or five active woodsmen, whom I think of sending out with rifles, two of a night, and limit them to bounds of five or six miles, on a hunting cruise and make their hours of coming in, the next day. They will have an equal chance with any scouting parties. If you disapprove of this plan, I shall hope to be informed by the bearer. I did not look upon your orders concerning the patrols as peremptory but discretionary.I
The sentence of the court-martial in the case of these men was only carried out against Thomas Steed; Phillips, though he was the one most severely arraigned in Bryson's letter, being pardoned just on the eve of execution.2
We cannot blame the severity of the commanders who in those dark and bloody times exercised a stern discipline over their men; necessity perhaps compelled it, but when we learn of the sufferings of the soldiers from want of supplies, verging often on starvation, paid, as they were, in an almost worthless Continental scrip,3 and sometimes not paid at all for months, we
1 Wash .- Irvine Cor., p. 360.
2Id., p. III.
3 As showing the extent to which the currency had depreciated, note the following from the Records of the Court of Yohogania County, Virginia (now Pennsylvania territory):
"June 26, 1780-Ordered that Paul Mathews be allowed two Thousand Dollars for Erect- ing a Whipping Post, stocks and Pillory."
At this date the currency was so depreciated that eighty dollars of paper money
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History of Beaver County
cannot wonder, either, at their frequent murmurings and in- subordination. The isolation which they endured in these frontier posts was in itself enough to madden them, for their situation was such as to make them what Parkman has well called them, viz., "military hermits." Desertions were everywhere com- mon, and at Fort McIntosh several men were shot for this offense against military law. The record of this is furnished in the journal of one who was an eye-witness of the occurrence, which took place two or three years later than the case which we have just cited. Joseph Buell I was an orderly sergeant in Captain Strong's company, and served under Major Wyllis at Fort McIntosh, in the winter of 1785-86. In the journal which he kept are the following entries:
December 25, 1785, we crossed the Allegheny river and marched ten miles into the woods and halted for the night. It snowed and we made a large fire by the side of an oak tree and had jirked beef and two swallows of rum for our Christmas dinner.
Dec. 26, 1785, marched at daybreak for Fort McIntosh and arrived at sunset. Went into the old barracks, which are very ruinous, being
were worth but one of specie. Mathews got only $25. An anonymous writer of about the same period says:
" I had money enough some time ago to buy a hogshead of sugar. I sold the sugar again, and got a great deal more money than it cost me, yet when I went into the market again the money would get me only a tierce. I sold that, too, at a great profit, yet the money received would buy me only a barrel. I have more money now than ever, yet I am not so rich as when I had less."
1 Joseph Buell was a native of Killingworth, Connecticut, and held the post of orderly sergeant in Captain Strong's company and Colonel Harmar's regiment. He had been stationed at West Point since October 6, 1785, when on the 17th of November, Major Wyllis arrived from New York with orders for the troops to march immediately for the western frontiers. On the 20th they left that post, and reached Fort Pitt the 2 1st of Decem- ber, 1785. Buell speaks of that village as very pleasant, but complains of the excessive charges made by the inhabitants for every article needed by the troops. After resting there four days, the detachment marched for Fort McIntosh.
We may add a few other extracts from his diary kept at that post. He says:
"Feb. 1786. This month passed away without any extraordinary events; courts martial still common.
" March 12. Generals Parsons * and Butler arrived here from the treaty at Miami.
" April 1. The snow fell upwards of a foot deep.
" 3d. Major Wyllis and Captain Hamtramck with his company went down the river on command, to disperse the frontier people settling on the Indian shore (or right bank of the Ohio).
" 12th. An express arrived from Fort Pitt, and informed that a number of Indians had come in there the night before; their design unknown. Captain Zeigler set out at once to learn their intentions.
" 14th. Captain Strong discovered a number of Indians with their arms at a little dis- tance from the garrison (McIntosh), but did not speak with them. By their behavior we imagined they designed some mischief. They set the woods on fire in several places, and we expected them to fall on the garrison in the smoke, and were alarmed lest the fort should take fire; the wind, however, became more calm, and we received no damage, Captain Strong ordered out a party to pursue them, but they had disappeared.
"May Ist. This being May day, is kept by all the western and southern people with great glee. A pole is erected and decorated with flowers, around which they dance in a circle with many curious antics, drinking and carousing and firing guns in honor of St. Tam- many, the patron of this festival."-(Hildreth's Pioneer History, pp. 140 et seq. )
* For notice of General Parsons, see Appendix No. IX.
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History of Beaver County
without roof and floors. Here we closed the month of December in re- pairing our barracks, and trying to make ourselves comfortable for the winter. The troops are raw and unacquainted with duty; the officers strict and treatment excessively severe, flogging men with 120 lashes a daily occurence.
Jan. 1, 1786, we began the new year with a desertion. A man by the name of Alger deserted. Courtmartials continually sitting, and the men uneasy, with not much to eat.
Jan. 25, 1786, Corporal Davis, John C. Dittman, Joel Guthrie and Alexander Patterson crossed the river on a pass. The Corporal returned and reported that the three men refused to return with him. Sergeant Fitch and guard were sent after them and they surrendered and were brought prisoners into the garrison. Major Wyllis, who commanded Fort McIntosh, without waiting for the formality of a court martial ordered out a file of soldiers and the three private soldiers above named were shot to death.
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