USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and its centennial celebration, Volume I > Part 4
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" The public works on Beaver creek have sustained little or no injury.
"Notwithstanding the uncommon rapid rise of the water and the distress produced by it, it is with gratitude we have the pleasure of stating that there were no lives lost."
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History of Beaver County
1884 was also very destructive, more so, perhaps, than that of 1832, on account of there being much more improved land and a larger number of buildings in existence at the later date. As stated in another place, the Fallston and Bridgewater bridges were destroyed at this time (1884), and being hurled against the great Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad bridge across the Ohio, partially wrecked it.
CLIMATE
The climate of Beaver County partakes of the general charac- teristics of that of western Pennsylvania, being subject to sudden changes and great extremes of heat and cold. A variation of temperature of 10, 20, 30°, or even 40° in a few hours is not un- common. In almost every summer there are a few days when 96º Fahrenheit in the shade is registered, and in winter the mer- cury always sinks at some time below zero. In the months of January and February it occasionally falls to 15° or 20° below, as it did in 1899 and in 1904.1 It is doubtful if there has been any great change in the climate of the region in the last hundred years, despite the declarations often heard from old people that such a change has taken place. Observations reported from the earliest times would indicate as great variability in tem- perature as that witnessed in the present period, with no greater extremes of heat and cold than those which we now experience. We subjoin a few notes in support of this statement. February II, 1780, Colonel Brodhead wrote from Fort Pitt to Washington as follows: "Such a deep snow and such ice has not been known at this place in the memory of the eldest natives; Deer & Tur- kies die by hundreds for want of food, the snow on Alleghany & Laurel hills is four feet deep." 2 An old record says that De- cember and January of the winter of 1781-82 "were excessively cold, but the beginning of February ushered in a very mild
1 The winter of 1903-04 was very remarkable. From the latter part of November until March the cold was constant, with heavy snows. For several weeks the temperature frequently fell below zero, the ordinary cheap mercury thermometers registering in the Beaver valley as low as 10, 15, 20, and even 26 degrees below. At Pittsburg there were no such low temperatures reported, the lowest for the winter being, according to the report of the United States Weather Bureau, 5 degrees below on February 16th. The great difference thus shown is partly accounted for, perhaps, by the fact that the cheap mercury thermometers generally in use are not reliable, and may also be due in part to there having really been higher temperatures at Pittsburg on the same days owing to the overhanging clouds of smoke there and the retention of heat in the great buildings surrounding the point of observation.
2 Penna. Arch., vol. xii., p. 206.
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spring." Of the winter of 1787-88 we have the following, taken from a letter from David Redick, Esq., to Benjamin Franklin, dated Washington, Pa., Feb. 19, 1788:
The country has never experienced a Winter more severe. The Mercury has been at this place 12° below the extreme cold point; at Moskingum 20°, and at Pittsburgh within the bulb or bottle. The dif- ference may be accounted for, in part, by the inland situation of this place, and greater or less quantities of ice at the others. It has been altogether impossible for me until within these few days past, to stir from the Fireside. I
One hundred years ago Henry Jolly, Esq., of Beaver and Washington counties, afterwards a judge in Jefferson County, Ohio, kept a record, from which we learn that December, 1799, was "very severe cold, all the small streams being frozen over." In February, 1800, it was very cold, with snowtwo feet deep. The spring opened early, so that planting of Indian corn was largely finished by the 7th of April. Peach trees were in bloom on the 20th day of April and apple trees on the 5th day of May. The summer of 1800 was wet, thunder-storms were frequent in mid- summer, corn-fields not worked, and the heavy crops of wheat were grown and sprouted. The distillers found their grains half malted by nature, and housewives could hardly keep their loaves from running. Crops were generally good, with abundance of fruits. Mr. Jolly reports a fall of snow four inches deep all along the Ohio valley on the 5th of May, 1803, which was fol- lowed by three hard frosts, killing the corn and all the fruits.
January, 1810, was remarkably cold, with great suffering and loss of cattle by freezing. Wild animals also perished in great numbers. The winter of 1817 was severe, the snow in February reaching a depth on the levels of from three to four feet. Other very severe winters reported were those of 1829-30 and 1855-56. But very mild winters are also of such frequent mention as to indicate that the climate of Pennsylvania, ever since it was first known to the white people, has been as change- able as at present. Dr. Benjamin Rush, in his Memoir on the Climate of Pennsylvania, states that on the 22d of March, 1779, the orchards were in full bloom, and the meadows as green as ordinarily in June. In prior years he had seen vegetation grow- ing in all the winter months, and in the month of December in
1 Penna. Arch., vol. xi., p. 244.
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one year he had seen an apple orchard in full bloom and small apples on many of the trees. These observations were, of course, about the city of Philadelphia, but the difference between that point and our own region would not be very great.I
This brief survey of Beaver County's physical features will be sufficient to show that the region is well adapted to the vari- ous wants of its inhabitants, and will prepare us to enter upon the task of unfolding the long history of its settlement and devel- opment. We believe that the following chapters will show that history to have been one well worthy of study and of protection
'Gainst the tooth of time, And razure of oblivion.
1 Morden's Geography Rectified, 1688, has the following:
"IV. For the Seasons of the Year. First, Of the Fall, I found it from the 24th of October, to the beginning of December, as we have it usually in England in September, or rather like an English mild spring. From December to the beginning of the Month called March, we had sharp Weather; not foul, thick black Weather, as our North East Winds bring with them in England; but a Skie as clear as in Summer and the Air dry, cold, piercing and hungry. The reason for this cold is given from the great Lakes that are fed by the Fountains of Canada. The Winter before was as mild, scarce any Ice at all; while this for a few days Froze up our great River Delaware. From that Month to the Month called fune, we enjoyed a sweet Spring, no Gusts, but gentle showers, and a fine Skie. From thence to this present Month, which endeth Summer (commonly speaking) we have had extraordinary Heats, yet mitigated sometimes by cool Breezes. And whatever Mists, Fogs, or Vapors foul [there are in] the Heavens by Easterly or Southerly Winds, in two hours' time are blown away by the North West; the one is always followed by the other: A Remedy that seems to have peculiar Providence in it to the Inhabitants."
See also " Pennsylvania Weather Records from 1644 to 1835," Penna. Mag. of History, vol. xv., p. 109; a valuable compilation of the variability of the winters in Pennsylvania for nearly two centuries.
CHAPTER II
THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
Indian Occupation-French and English Claims-Explorers and Traders -The Ohio Company-Celeron's Expedition-Alarm of Pesnnyl- vania and Virginia Authorities-Washington Sent to Fort Le Bœuf -Military Measures-Fort at "Forks of the Ohio"-Ward's Sur- render -- Beginning of French and Indian War-Fort Necessity- Braddock's Defeat-Forbes's Expedition and Fall of Fort Duquesne -End of French Empire in America-Conspiracy of Pontiac-Relief of Fort Pitt-Colonel Bouquet-Battle of Bushy Run-Bouquet's Expedition against the Ohio Indians-Dunmore's War-Mixed Character of Settlers-Murder of Logan's Family-Battle of Point Pleasant.
Land of the West !- where naught is old Or fading, but tradition hoary- Thy yet unwritten annals hold, Of many a daring deed, the story! Man's might of arm hath here been tried, And woman's glorious strength of soul.
THE story of the settling of western Pennsylvania is a stir- ring epic, and no part of it exceeds in interest that which belongs to Beaver County. Lying directly in the course of the great movement of population from the Atlantic coast to the Missis- sippi valley, the region which it embraces witnessed some of the earliest and most important events in the mighty drama of the building of the West. Its annals claim their full share of Indian life and legend, and of hardship and suffering and heroic endur- ance and achievement on the part of its white settlers.
THE INDIAN OCCUPATION
When the English first entered the valley of the upper Ohio they found a few settlements of Indians, composed of various
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tribes, located at different points from the mouth of the Beaver up to the confluence of the Monongahela and the Allegheny rivers, and for some miles above on the latter stream. These Indians were principally of the Delaware and Shawanese tribes, belonging to the great Algonquin family, together with some small but influential bands of the Iroquois or Six Nations, men- tioned below by their Indian name of Mengwe.
By their own account the Delawares were the oldest of all the aboriginal nations,-Lenni Lenape, the name they gave themselves, meaning "original people." They said that, ages before, their ancestors had come from a far country to the west- ward, where they had dwelt by a great salt sea. After long and weary journeyings during hundreds of moons, they arrived at length at the Namæsi Sipu (the Mississippi), where they met an- other tribe, the Mengwe, who had likewise just arrived from a land in the far West, and who, like the Delawares, were seeking a more favorable location in the country toward the sun-rising. On the east of the Mississippi these tribes encountered a mighty nation of people, many of whom were giants, and who bore the name of Tallegewi or Allegewi. Their name, according to those who accept the Delaware tradition, still survives in the name Allegheny, as applied to the river and mountains so called. To these Allegewi the Delawares sent messengers asking leave to settle in their land, and were refused, but were told that they could cross the river and settle farther to the eastward. The Delawares accepted this offer, and set forward. But the Alle- gewi, becoming alarmed at their numbers, determined to drive them back, and furiously attacked those who had already crossed. The Delawares and the Mengwe now united their forces, and after many years of warfare defeated the Allegewi, and divided the country between themselves; the Delawares finally reaching the beautiful valleys of what is now eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, where they settled along the river which bears the name afterwards given to it and to them by the white people, while the Mengwe made choice of the country about the Great Lakes to the northward, and then moved eastward along the river known now as the St. Lawrence. Here they ultimately developed into the great league of the Iroquois, of which we shall presently speak. This account of the origin of the Delawares comes to us from the charming
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narrative of Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary, who la- bored among them faithfully for many years.1 It is doubtless a faithful rendering of the Delaware tradition (perhaps slightly tinged with coloring from the Biblical account of the exodus), but the tradition itself is more than doubtful.
What is certain is that when the whites first came to America, they found these nations or tribes, the Delawares and Mengwe (Iroquois), seated relatively to each other as stated above, the Delawares in the south along the Delaware River and its tribu- taries, and the Mengwe in the north, below the St. Lawrence River, in what is now New York; that the Delawares were con- quered and humbled by the Mengwe, and that finally, by the enmity of these powerful people, by the pressure of the whites upon them, and by the decrease of game, they were compelled to move backward step by step to the Ohio River country. It is believed that as early as 1725 a large number of the Dela- wares had settled on the Allegheny, then called the Ohio, at what was known as "Old Kittanning," at or near the present town of Kittanning, and that later, about the middle of the eighteenth century, the principal part of their tribe followed them, and built their towns along the streams of western Penn- sylvania, one large settlement called "Shingoe's town," or Saw- kunk, being located, as was previously shown, at the mouth of the Big Beaver, and another some fifteen or twenty miles above it called Kuskuskee.2
1 History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations, by the Rev. John Heckewelder, reprint of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1881, p. 47 et seq.
2 Kuskuskee. This was a celebrated Delaware town, or group of towns. The name is spelled Kuskuskee, Kuskusky, Kuskuskies, Kushkushkee, Kaskaskie, Gosgosgee, etc., there being fifteen or twenty variants, according to the way in which attempts were made to anglicize the guttural Indian original. Post's first journal (Aug. 17, 1748) says: "Kush- kushkee is divided into four different towns, each at a distance from the others and the whole consists of about ninety houses, and two hundred able warriors." Conrad Weiser mentions the place in his journal. Writing at Logstown, August 29, 1748, he says: "This day my companions went off to Coscosky, a large Indian town, about thirty miles off." The early maps differ considerably in the location which they give to Kuskuskee, possibly for the reason that there were four towns, as Post informs us. A map of West Pennsylvania and Virginia in 1753, which is in the British Museum (copied into Gist's Journals, Darling- ton) shows "Cuscusca Town" in the triangular point at the forks of the Beaver, i. e., where the Mahoning and Shenango unite to form the Big Beaver proper. Lewis Evans's map of 1755 places "Kishkuskees" on the east side of the Beaver just below the forks, and Thomas Hutchins's puts it on the west side about one mile below them.
There was also a town known as New Kuskuskee, where lived the chief of the Wolf tribe of the Delawares, Pakanke. Some historical students think this town stood near or upon the site of the present New Castle, the county-seat of Lawrence County; others, perhaps the majority, think it was a short distance south or southeast of Edenburg, in that county. The latter opinion is supported by Reading Howell's map of 1792, and it
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In their new home in the West the Delawares were joined by remnants of other related tribes, such as the Nanticokes and Conoys 1 from Maryland, the Mohicans from the Hudson, and especially by the Shawanese, one of the most formidable tribes with which the whites had to deal in the border wars which followed later. The Shawanese had originally lived in the south (by some the name is translated "southerners"), in Ten- nessee and Georgia, and in the Floridas.2 They were trouble- some neighbors, and a league was formed against them by the tribes which had suffered from them, when they fled to the north and joined their kindred, the Delawares. This was in 1697 or 1698. A portion of them settled on Montour's island, below Pittsburg, but the main body went farther east to the valleys of the Delaware and the Susquehanna. About 1728,3 the greater part of this main body of the Shawanese, through fear of the powerful Iroquois, or Six Nations Indians, left their homes on the Susquehanna and came to the head of the Ohio, some settling in the Delaware towns on the Big Beaver, and is definitely proved, we think, by the language of General William Irvine, agent of the State to examine the Donation lands. In his report to his Excellency John Dickinson, dated Carlisle, Pa., August 17, 1785, he says: "From the mouth of the Shenango to Cus- kuskey on the west branch [Mahoning], is six or seven miles [italics ours], but it was for- merly called Cuskuskey by the natives along this branch [of the Beaver] as high as the salt spring, which is twenty-five miles from the mouth of Shenango." (See Penna. Arch., vol. xi., p. 513.)
Several of the noted Indian trails converged at the "War Post" west of Kuskuskee, and one, long known and travelled by the early white settlers, passed by the "Scalp Spring," near the forks of the Beaver, through the Moravian town (Friedenstadt) to the mouth of the Beaver, and thence up the Ohio through Logstown to the present site of Pittsburg. (See Western Annals, p. 358.)
See in Massachusetts Historical Collections, new series, vol. vi., p. 144 et sea., interesting narrative of Hugh Gibson's captivity at Kuskuskee and Sawkunk (mouth of Big Beaver).
1 Spelled also Kanawhas. The rivers in West Virginia, the Big and Little Kanawhas were named from this tribe.
2 According to Colonel John Johnson, United States Indian Agent at Piqua, Ohio, the Suwanee River, Florida, derives its name from them. (The Olden Time, vol. i., p. 6.)
3 So it would appear from what is said in the minutes of the treaty council held in August, 1732, at Philadelphia, with the chiefs of the Six Nations, viz .:
"That we had held several treaties with those Shawanese but that some of their young men having, between four and five years since, committed some Disorders tho' we had fully made it up with them, yet being afraid of the Six Nations, they had removed backwards to Ohio, and there had lately putt themselves under the Protection of the French, who had received them as their children."
According to Conrad Weiser, however, the Shawanese came to the Ohio at the same time as the Delawares. In his speech at the council with the Six Nations at Albany in July, 1754, he said:
"The Road to Ohio is no new Road. It is an old and frequented Road; the Shawanese and Delawares removed thither above thirty years ago from Pennsylvania, ever since which that Road has been traveled by our traders at their invitation, and always with safety until within these few years that the French with their usual faithlessness sent armies there."-Col. Rec., vol. vi., p. 84.
This would make the date about 1725.
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others in three towns between that stream and the forks of the Ohio (the present site of Pittsburg). We learn of these towns from Christian Frederick Post, who says in his journal of 1758 (August 27th), that he passed through three Shawanese villages between Fort Duquesne and Sawkunk (Beaver). George Croghan, also, in his journal of 1765 (May 16th), calls Logstown 1 "an old settlement of the Shawanese." These villages were all deserted in the fall of 1758, when the French fled from Fort Duquesne before the advance of General Forbes. In 1776, ac- cording to Thomas Hutchins, the geographer, the Mingo town near what is now Steubenville, Ohio, was the only Indian village on the banks of the Ohio from that point to Fort Pitt; it con- tained at that time sixty families.
Among the Shawanese and the Delawares residing on the Ohio when the white people began to penetrate the western wilderness were also, as we have said, representatives of the Six Nations, or Iroquois, consisting of small bands of warriors under the leadership of eminent chiefs, who were placed there to guard the interests of the confederacy formed by those nations. Sev- eral of these chiefs were located within the present limits of Beaver County. Tanacharison, or the "Half King," was at Logstown, where was also Monakatoocha, or the "Great Arrow." 2 Kachwuckdanionty, or the "Belt of Wampum," who fought bravely under Braddock, was at Beaver.3 Farther north, on the Venango, was the celebrated chief, Guyasutha,4 or the "Big Cross," famous as Pontiac's fellow-conspirator.
1 Logstown stood on the right bank of the Ohio as one descends the river. The general course of that river from Pittsburg to Beaver is northwesterly, but at this point it runs due north, so that Logstown was, speaking exactly, on the east side. For a full history of this noted Indian town, and a statement of the reasons for saying it was on the right-hand bank of the Ohio, instead of the left-hand bank, where popular belief has supposed it to be, see Chapter XXVIII.
2 Washington's Journal of 1753.
3 History of Western Pennsylvania, Rupp, p. 112.
4 During the latter part of his life Guyasutha lived on the farm in O'Hara township, Allegheny County, Pa., which is now the residence of the family of William M. Darlington. He was buried there in the "Indian Mound," by General O'Hara.
Rev. David McClure, the missionary to the Indians, in his diary, makes the following entry, in which we have a slight sketch of the great chief:
"Aug. 18th [1772] Crossed the Laurel hanning [Loyalhanna], a pleasant stream which runs through Ligonier, & rode to Col. Proctors. Here we found Kiahshutah, Chief of the Senecas, on his way to Philada & from thence Sr. Wm. Johnson's, who, as his interpreter, Simon Girty, informed us, had sent for him, relative to a treaty held some time ago at the Shawaness towns. He was dressed in a scarlet cloth turned up with lace, & a high gold laced hat, & made a martial appearance. He had a very sensible countenance & dignity of manners. His interpreter informed him of the business on which we were going. I asked him his opinion of it. He paused a few moments & replied that he was afraid it would not succeed; for said he, 'the Indians are a roving people, & they will not attend VOL. I .- 2.
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Some account of the character and influence of the con- federacy known as the Six Nations-to which these chiefs be- longed-is necessary to an understanding of the history with which we are dealing, both as regards the Indians themselves and their relations to the whites in all the succeeding years of war and peace. This celebrated confederacy was established some- time before the dawn of the seventeenth century, by the various tribes of the Mengwe, or Iroquois, referred to above. It was at first composed of five tribes, viz., the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas and was known as the Five Nations. In 1712, they were joined by the Tuscarawas, who, on being driven from their home in North Carolina, had asked to be received by them. Henceforth the league was known as the Six Nations. By themselves, and by the Eng- lish after them, they were called Mingoes; by the French, Iro- quois 1; by the Dutch, Maquas, and by the other Indian tribes, Mengwe. The home of this powerful confederacy was in New York, but they had extended their influence from that region to the Carolinas, and from New England to the Mississippi. On account of their strong traits of character they have been called the "Romans of America," 2 and they were certainly like the Romans in their ability to conquer and govern other nations. An eminent writer has thus described them:
Each nation was divided into three tribes-the Tortoise, the Bear and the Wolf; and each village was, like the cities of the United Netherlands, a distinct republic; and its concerns were managed by its particular chiefs. Their exterior relations, general interests and national affairs, were conducted and superintended by a great council, assembled annually in Onondaga, the central canton, composed of the chiefs of each republic; and eighty sachems were frequently convened at this national assembly. It took cognizance of the great questions of war and peace; of the affairs of the tributary nations, and of their negotiations with the French and
to your instructions; but take courage & make trial. The King of the Delawares & the warriors are now at home, & you will see them.' He also mentioned that there was a minister at Kuskuskoong, on Bever Creek, & that one half of the Indians were offended with the other for hearkening to him."-Diary of David McClure, 1748-1820 (privately printed), The Knickerbocker Press, 1899, p. 42.
1 We translate from Charlevoix the following interesting note on the derivation of the name Iroquois:
"The name Iroquois is purely French, and has been formed from the term Hiro, which means 'I have said it;' and by which these savages finish all their discourses, as the Latins did in ancient times by their Dixi; and from Koue, which is a cry, sometimes of sadness when one prolongs its utterance, and sometimes of joy when one pronounces it more quickly. Their proper name is Agonnonsionni, which purports builders of cabins, because they built their dwellings much more substantially than the majority of the other savages."-History of New France, vol. i., p. 270. See also John Gilmary Shea's translation, vol. ii., p. 189.
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