USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and its centennial celebration, Volume I > Part 15
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Sergeant Buell remarks that this "order and shooting was the most inhuman act he ever saw, all three were young, and the finest soldiers in the company." He says, moreover, that Fitch was ordered to shoot them all to death the moment he came up with them, but being a humane man he disobeyed the order, for which he was reduced. The shooting was reported to the Secre- tary of War, and Major Wyllis was tried by a court-martial at Fort Pitt, and acquitted. In the campaign under General Harmar, in 1790, Major Wyllis was killed by the Indians, who had ambushed him with a part of the volunteers.I
There were times of famine at Fort McIntosh, but there must also have been times of plenty, at least for the officers, as the following will show; it is an extract from a letter from Colonel Harmar (afterwards General Harmar, the same who suffered defeat at Maumee) to Col. Francis Johnston, and dated at Fort McIntosh, June 21, 1785. 2
I wish you were here to view the beauties of Fort McIntosh. What
1 General Harmar's letter to the Secretary of War, giving a report of the expedition, which is dated "Head Quarters, Fort Washington [Cincinnati], November 23, 1790," has this reference to Major Wyllis, or Wyllys, as he spells the name:
" The centre, consisting of the federal troops, under Major Wyllys, having passed the Omee at the French Village, moved up the east bank of the St. Joseph, at some distance from the river, while Major McMillan led the right column over the heights on Wyllys's right. The enemy now appeared in different quarters, and the columns were soon and severally engaged with various success. A body of the savages having appeared in Wyllys's front, and cherished the idea of an attack there, suddenly gained the unoccupied heights on the right, and turned his flank. At this crisis fell Major Wyllys, an officer whose long and meritorious services claim the grateful remembrances of his country. With the talents of a cultivated mind, he united the best virtues of the heart."-(Hist. West. Penna., Appendix, p. 231.)
2 Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny, Lippincott & Co., 1859, p. 213.
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think you of pike of 25 pounds, perch 15 to 20 pounds, catfish 40 pounds, bass, pickerel, sturgeon, &c. You would certainly enjoy yourself. It is very fortunate there is such an abundance of fish, as the contractor for this place sometime past has failed in his supplies of beef.
This would be a glorious season for Col. Wood, or any extravagant lover of strawberries, the earth is most abundantly covered with them; we have them in such plenty that I am almost surfeited with them. The addition of fine rich cream is not lacking.1
We insert here also an extract from the Archives which we have not seen reproduced anywhere, which shows that, notwith- standing the dangers and hardships of their situation, the officers had found means to recreate themselves, building themselves a bower in the solitude of the wilderness. It is from a communica- tion from Michael Huffnagle and others to President of the Council Benjamin Franklin, in 1786, and reads as follows:
About ten days ago Capt'n Strong was riding a little distance from M'Intosh up to where the officers had erected a Bower, near to a spring that issues from a large Rock upon an Eminence commanding a view of the Fort. He was alarmed by discovering a number of Indians who had been sculking behind the Rocks reconoitering the Fort, they ran a little distance to where there were a number more with their Guns, to the
1 In reading of the frequent complaints of the commandants at the posts in western Pennsylvania of a lack of meat, the query arises why did not they depend more upon game for subsistence. The game, small and big,-turkeys, geese, ducks, deer, elk and buffalo,-was very abundant. Of course the garrisons were sometimes subsisted upon wild meat, but it was generally secured by hired hunters, not by the soldiers themselves. One of the western officers wrote that he had to keep his troops practising steadily at a target, for "they were incompetent to meet an enemy with the musket; they could not kill in a week enough game to last them a day." Besides it was dangerous for the soldiers of the garrisons to go out hunting-the woods were full of redskins who were hunting them. This is hinted at in a letter from Brodhead to Colonel Ephraim Blaine, dated Fort Pitt, December 16, 1780, when he says, "The troops have not tasted meat at this post for six days past I hope some means are devised for supplying this department, if not, I shall be under the disagreeable necessity of risking my men in most dangerous situations to kill wild meat " (The Olden Time, vol. ii., p. 380).
Another interesting query is, whether the bison (improperly the buffalo) was found in this immediate region? We think it must have been. Brodhead, in 1780, writes to Washington that he is "sending hunters to the Little Kenawha to kill buffaloes," and Washington, in his Journal of 1770 (November 2d) speaks as follows, "We proceeded up the river [the Big Kanawha] with the canoe about four miles farther, and then encamped, and went a hunting; killed five buffaloes and wounded some others, three deer, &c. This country abounds in buffaloes and wild game of all kinds." We can see no reason why this animal would not be found in western Pennsylvania as well as in the country between the Kanawhas. Schoolcraft says (Hist. of the Indians, Part. I., p. 433), "There was added for all the region west of the Alleghenies, the bison of the West (Bos Americanus), the prominent object and glory of the chase for the tribes of these latitudes." Loskiel, in his account of the removal of the Moravian Indians from the Susquehanna in 1772 says: "Tuesday, July 14-Reached Clearfield Creek, where the buffaloes formerly cleared large tracts of under- growth, so as to give them the appearance of cleared fields. Hence the Indians called the creek, Clearfield Creek." For full discussion of the question how far east the range of the bison extended, see The Historical Magazine, vol. vii., pp. 227-30, 262-3, 292.
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amount of twenty-two, he called to them to come and speak with him, but they ran away and would not. The Day after one Indian was seen by Daybreak sculking about the fort, who also ran off when discovered.I
DECAY OF FORT MCINTOSH
Fort McIntosh was alternately occupied and abandoned during the decade following its erection. The Revolution having closed, and the several expeditions against the Indians in the West having pretty effectually quieted them, and removed the danger of their forays, the occupation of this post had come to be of less importance, and it was decided by the United States Government to give it into the charge of Pennsylvania, which had at this time a reservation of 3000 acres of land at the mouth of the Beaver, including the site of the fort. The following letter was therefore written by General Irvine on the 23d of September, 1783, containing "Instructions for Wm. Lee, Ser- geant, and John McClure," who were to take charge of the property 2 :
You are to take immediate charge of the fort, buildings and public property now remaining at Fort McIntosh, for and in behalf of the State of Pennsylvania, (except two pieces of iron cannon, and some water casks, the property of the United States,) and three thousand acres of land reserved for the use of the State: when the tract is surveyed you will attend and make yourselves acquainted with the lines; in the meantime you will consider it extending two miles up and down the river, and two miles back; you will take care that no waste is committed, or timber cut down or carried off the premises, and prohibit buildings to be made or any persons making settlements or to reside thereon, or from even hunting encampments; nor are any more families to be permitted than your own to live in the barracks, or on any part of the tract. In case of necessity for re-occupying the post for the United States, you are to give up the fort to the orders of the commanding Continental officer at this place, retaining only such part of the building as may be necessary for you to live in. But if the troops should be so numerous as not to afford room for you, you will, in that case, occupy the buildings without the works, or build for yourselves in some convenient place, but you will on
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. xii., page 300.
2 Irvine had written from Fort Pitt, June 3, 1783, to Governor Dickinson recommending some action in this regard, as follows:
"I am of opinion that the tracts reserved for the state at Forts Pitt and McIntosh should be laid off and some person appointed to take care of them, particularly at Fort Pitt, pre- vious to the troops at this point being discharged; otherwise, the timber will be destroyed and land abused. I presume some person may be got to take charge of it for such privileges as will not injure the place."-(Wash .- Irvine Cor., p. 261.)
Dickinson replied July 3, 1783, authorizing Irvine to secure some one to take care of the tracts. whereupon the parties named above, viz., Lee and McClure, were appointed for Fort McIntosh. (Penna. Arch., vol. x., p. 109.)
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no account whatever quit the place without orders from the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, or their agents, so to do, whose directions you will thereafter obey in all matters relative to said post, and tract of land. In case of lawless violence or persons attempting to settle by force, or presuming to destroy anything on the premises, you will apply to Michael Hoofnagle, Esq., or some other justice of the Peace for Westmoreland county.
For your care and trouble in performing in the several matters herein required, you may put in grain and labor any quantity of ground not exceeding one hundred acres, and keep and raise stock to the number of fifty head of horned cattle and eight horses. You will govern yourselves by these instructions, until the pleasure of the Honorable Council is signified to you, and you will give up peaceable possession to them or their order, whenever they think proper.
Given under my hand at Fort Pitt, September 23rd, 1783.
WM. IRVINE, B .- Gen'l.
We severally engage to conform to the foregoing instructions to us by Gen'l Irvine.
H. LEE, JOHN MCCLURE.I
Witness:
JOHN ROSE.
TREATY OF 1785
But Fort McIntosh was still to be the scene of interesting and important events. In 1784, the contingency of which the letter just given had spoken as a possible one, arose, and the fort was again occupied by troops of the United States. The neces- sity for this arose in the following manner. In October, 1784, a treaty had been made at Fort Stanwix (now Rome), New York, between the representatives of the Six Nations and the Commis- sioners of Pennsylvania for the sale of all the Indian lands within the then acknowledged limits of the State not included in the former purchases, and with Commissioners of the United States for their lands west of those limits. While the Six Na- tions were the overlords of the western Indians-the Dela- wares, Wyandots, etc .- and the claims of the latter might have been ignored, it was deemed advisable by government to quiet their claims also. In pursuance of this policy it had been de- cided to hold a treaty with them at Cuyahoga (now Cleveland), but the place was changed to Fort McIntosh. The reasons for the change appear in the following letter from Col. Josiah Harmar to President Dickinson :
1 Penna. Arch., vol. x., p. 109.
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Camp near Fort Pitt, on the Indian shore, the western side of the Allegheny River, December 5th, 1784.
SIR :- I have the honor to inform your Excellency and the Hon. Council, of the arrival of the first detachment of Pennsylvania troops composed of Capt. Douglass's company of artillery and Capt. Finney's company of infantry at this place on the 18th of October last.
The second detachment, composed of Capt. Zeigler and Capt. Mc- Curdy's companies of infantry arrived here on the 29th of the same month.
We have remained in this position till this day, in hourly expectation of the Commissioners; they are just arrived, and upon a consultation, considering the advanced season of the year, the difficulties of supplies, etc., they have resolved to hold the treaty at Fort McIntosh, thirty miles distant from Fort Pitt, down the Ohio river. In consequence of their resolve, the troops marched this morning from this encampment for Fort McIntosh, the tents, baggage, &c., are to go by water. Mr. Alexander Lowrey, messenger to the Commissioners, was dispatched this day to Cuyahoga, with an invitation to the Indians to assemble at Fort McIntosh. The fort is in very bad order and will require considerable repairs before the troops can have comfortable quarters.I
Another letter of Colonel Harmar's, which will be of interest in connection with this important event, reads as follows:
FORT MCINTOSH, January 15, 1785.
SIR :- A few days since the treaty commenced, and I believe will be satisfactorily concluded against the latter end of this month; although the chiefs of the Wyandots, Chippewas, Delawares and Ottawas (which are the nations assembled here), in a speech which they delivered at the council-fire yesterday, held out an idea to the continental commissioners, that they still looked upon the lands which the United States held by the treaty with Great Britain, as their own. But the commissioners have answered them in a high tone; the purport of which was, that as they had adhered during the war to the King of Great Britain, they were con- sidered by us as a conquered people, and therefore had nothing to expect from the United States, but must depend altogether upon their lenity and generosity. This spirited answer, it is supposed, will have the desired effect.
The State commissioners will not have the least difficulty in transact- ing their business, which lays with the Wyandot and Delaware nations.
I have the honor, &c.
Jos. HARMAR, Lt .- Col. Com'g Ist Am. Reg't
His Excellency JOHN DICKINSON, EsQ., President the Honorable the Supreme Executive Council. 2
1 Penna. Arch., vol. x., p. 391; xi., p. 510. The officers named in this letter were Thomas Douglas, Walter Finney, David Zeigler, and William McCurdy.
" The Military Journal of Major Denny, p. 211.
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The following extract from the journal of Major Ebenezer Denny will also be in place here:
Fort McIntosh, Sept., 1784-Marched through Lancaster by Carlisle &c. to Pittsburgh. Waited for the arrival of commissioners appointed to hold a treaty with the Indians. Treaty expected to be holden at Cuyahoga. Commissioners late getting out, season advanced, plan changed, and Indians invited to attend at Fort McIntosh, about thirty miles below Fort Pitt, on bank of Ohio; to which place we repaired, and found exceeding good quarters.
January, 1785-About four hundred of the Senecas, Delawares and Wyandots come in. After considerable difficulty, a treaty is agreed to, but with much reluctance on the part of the savages. Amongst the Indians are a number of women and children. The whole a very motley crew-an ugly set of devils all-very few handsome men or women. Colonel Harmar did not join us until we reached Fort Pitt at which place I was appointed to do the duty of adjutant; this had always been favorite duty of mine.I
The Indians seem to have been held in a pretty tight leash at the treaty at McIntosh. Denny, who was shortly afterwards at the treaty making at the Great Miami, writes:
Much more indulgence is allowed the Indians here than was at Mc- Intosh. Dancing, playing common, &c. (for which they are well supplied with materials to make their hearts merry), are frequent amusements here. Major Finney is determined they shan't act Pontiac with him, for every precaution is taken at that time. 2
We may give here, also, the following quotations from the journal of Arthur Lee, one of the United States Commissioners at this treaty :
24th (Dec., 1784.) Mr. Lowrey informed us that the Western In- dians were both discontented and angry with the Six Nations for having made a treaty with us without consulting them. This was the object of the general confederation which they mentioned at Fort Stanwix; and these Indians charge the Six Nations with a breach of faith, plighted in this confederacy. It is certain this was the wish of the Six Nations and the intent of this speech; but the decided language we held obliged them
1 Denny's fournal, p. 54, foll. A later entry reads:
"Fort McIntosh, 1785-Winter passed away-no orders for marching; did expect, as soon as the season would permit, to march for Detroit. April and May delightful season -frequent excursions into the country-fishing and hunting. Officers visit Fort Pitt, where we left a lieutenant and thirty men. Fort Pitt and Fort McIntosh both handsome places Cornplanter, chief of the Senecas, arrived at Fort Pitt. He had signed the treaty of McIntosh; was dissatisfied-his people reflected on him; came to revoke. Colonel Harmar was informed of this, and invited up to Fort Pitt-I accompanied him. Meeting appointed in the King's Orchard. Speeches on both sides taken down. Corn- planter dismissed with assurances, &c., but no revoking."
2 Id., p. 64.
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to an immediate determination, which bids fair to prostrate their con- federation and its diabolical objects.
25th (Dec., 1784.) Mr. Evans, agent, and the Pennsylvania Com- missioners [Francis Johnston and Samuel J. Atlee] arrived. The boat in which they embarked with stores, having run aground, and being nearly overwhelmed with ice, they and the crew,-almost frozen to death before the ice became hard enough to bear them,-got on shore, landed the goods, and brought them forward on pack horses.
27th (Dec., 1784.) Mr. [John] Boggs, another of our Indian messen- gers, arrived at Fort McIntosh and reported the Indians were on their way, and that some of them would be in the next day.
28th (Dec., 1784.) Several Indians arrived. Orders were issued by the Commissioners against selling or giving them rum. Mr. Boggs was desired to make a Return, day by day, of the number present from the different tribes, to Mr. Lowrey, who was directed to order them pro- visions, agreeably to that Return. This was done not only that they might be duly supplied with provisions, but that we might have a check upon the commissary.
29th (Dec., 1784.) Some chiefs of the Chippeways and Ottawas only have arrived. They came this morning requesting some spirits, two kettles, a tent, a blanket for an old man, some powder and lead for their young men to hunt with, and some paint. The Commissioners ordered them some spirits, a blanket, the kettles, paint and ammunition. The tent was refused because every tribe would have expected the same; and as they never return what they once get into their hands, it would be too expensive.I
The treaty conferences were held at intervals during the month of January, 1785, and the treaties were formally signed
1 Life of Arthur Lee, LL.D., by Richard Henry Lee, vol. ii., p. 383, et seq. The character here given to the Indians by Lee was doubtless true, at least so far as their dealing with the whites was concerned. But the old missionary, John Heckewelder, represents them more indulgently (although it is to be remembered that he loved his Delawares, and always shows their best side.) He says:
"The Indians observe that the white people must have a great many thieves among them, since they put locks to their doors, which shows great apprehension that their prop- erty otherwise would not be safe: 'As to us,' say they, 'we entertain no such fear; thieves are very rare among us, and we have no instance of any one breaking into a house. Our Indian lock is, when we go out, to set the corn pounder or a billet of wood against the door, so that it may be seen that nobody is within, and there is no danger that any Indian would presume to enter a house thus secured.' Let me be permitted to illustrate this by an anecdote.
"In the year 1771, while I was residing on the Big Beaver, I passed by the door of an Indian, who was a trader, and had consequently a quantity of goods in his house. He was going with his wife to Pittsburgh, and they were shutting up the house, as no person remained in it during their absence. This shutting up was nothing else than putting a large hominy pounding block, with a few sticks of wood outside against the door, so as to keep it closed. As I was looking at this man with attention while he was so employed, he addressed me in these words: 'See my friend, this is an Indian lock that I am putting to my door.' I answered 'Well enough; but I see you leave much property in the house, are you not afraid that those articles will be stolen while you are gone?' 'Stolen! by whom ?. '-' Why, by Indians, to be sure.'-' No, no,' replied he, 'no Indian would do such a thing; and unless a white man, or white people should happen to come this way, I shall find all safe on my return.'"-An Account of the History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations, by Rev. John Heckewelder, published by the Hist. Soc. of Penna., Philada., 1876 (Reprint), p. 191.
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on the 21st of that month.' The Commissioners on the part of the United States were the same as at Fort Stanwix, viz., George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee. Those on the part of Pennsylvania were Samuel J. Atlee 2 and Francis John- ston. The first provision of the treaty made with the United States on this occasion provided "That three chiefs, one from the Wyandot and two from among the Delaware nations, shall be delivered up to the Commissioners of the United States, to be
MAP SHOWING THE VARIOUS PURCHASES MADE FROM THE INDIANS &C.
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retained by them, till all the prisoners, white and black, taken by the said nations, or any of them, shall be restored." Among the prisoners delivered at Fort McIntosh in 1785 under this provi- sion of the treaty was a well-known and highly respected citizen of Beaver, some of whose descendants are still living there. We refer to James Lyon, Esq., the story of whose capture by the Indians will be found in a note to our chapter on the borough of Beaver.
This treaty and that at Fort Stanwix in the preceding Octo-
1 See Appendix No. IV. for copies in full of these treaties.
2 "By lying on the damp ground during this journey, Atlee contracted a cold from which he never recovered."-(Historical and Biographical Sketches, by Samuel W. Penny- packer, Governor of Penna., Philadelphia, 1883.)
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ber were the first treaties of the United States with the Indians, as they were the first and last treaties of the State of Pennsyl- vania with them. The large purchase thus confirmed was afterwards known as the "New Purchase." A show of justice was given to the dispossession of the Indians by these transac- tions, and the State could afterwards boast that she never took any of the lands of the Indians without paying for them; but it was a forced sale nevertheless, the natives being left without any choice in the matter, except a kind of "Hobson's choice": they had to accept the trifling compensation that was offered them, or be finally driven off with nothing by the advancing tide of white settlers.
In the following letter reference is made to the treaty by the State, and from what is said about the way in which the "emi- grators" were helping themselves to coveted building material from the fort, it would appear either that Lee and McClure were no longer in charge of the property, or else that they were not very good custodians of it. The letter is from Colonel Harmar,I then commanding at Fort McIntosh, to President Dickinson, and is dated at Fort McIntosh, February 8, 1785 :
SIR :-
I had the honor of addressing your Excellency & the Honorable Council on the 15th ult., inclosing a return of Pennsylvania Troops in the Service of the United States, dated the Ist ult.
Inclosed, your Excellency will be pleased to receive another monthly return of the Troops, dated the Ist inst.
The honorable the State Commissioners, Colonel Atlee & Colonel Johnston, by this time, I imagine, must have arrived at Philadelphia, by whom your Ex'cy & the Honorable Council will hear of the Satisfactory Conclusion of the Treaty with the Indians at this post.
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