USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and its centennial celebration, Volume I > Part 5
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2 Volney's View of the United States, p. 470.
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History of Beaver County
English colonies. All their proceedings were conducted with great de- liberation, and were distinguished for order, decorum and solemnity. In eloquence, in dignity, and in all the characteristics of profound policy, they surpassed an assembly of feudal barons, and were perhaps not far inferior to the great Amphyctionic Council of Greece. I
As the same writer remarks, the Confederates were not only like the Romans in their martial spirit and rage for conquest, but also in their practice of adopting both individuals and tribes of the vanquished into their own nation, in order to recruit their population exhausted by endless and wasting wars, and to en- able them to continue their career of victory and desolation. They maintained a terrific ascendancy over all the tribes east of the Mississippi, as illustrated in the way in which they had driven the Shawanese and the Delawares from their homes back- ward to the Ohio. An instance in connection with the removal of the latter will show the extreme rigor and haughtiness with which they treated these vassal tribes. In 1737,2 the Dela- wares had been cheated, as they believed, in the celebrated "Walking Purchase," and in 1742, they were invited to attend a great treaty council with the Penn proprietaries in Philadelphia. Two hundred and thirty of the Six Nations warriors were also in attendance at this council by invitation of the proprietaries. On this occasion the Delawares presented their case through their chief, The Beaver, and then a great chief of the Iroquois, named Canassatego, arose, and addressing Governor Thomas, said; "That they saw that the Delawares had been an unruly people, and were altogether in the wrong; that they had determined to remove them from their lands, for which they had already re- ceived pay which had gone through their guts long ago." Then, seizing Sassoonan, a Delaware chief, by the hair, he pushed him out of the door, and ordered the others to follow him, saying, "You deserve to be taken by the hair of the head and shaken until you recover your senses. We conquered you and made women of you, and you know you can no more sell lands than women.3 We charge you to remove instantly; we don't give
1 Life and Writings of De Witt Clinton. p. 215.
2 Hist. of Penna. Egle, p. 443; Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac, vol. i., p. 84.
3 Among the Indians it was esteemed the deepest disgrace to treat for peace, the office of mediator being assigned to women. When the Iroquois conquered the Delawares they compelled them to acknowledge themselves women, and forced them, metaphorically, at least, to put on petticoats. The Delawares tried to escape the ignominy of their condition by claiming that they had been deceived into accepting the position of mediators by fraud :
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History of Beaver County
you liberty to think about it. You are women. Don't deliber- ate, but remove away." I And the Delawares stood not upon the order of their going, but went; many of them coming, as we have said, to the banks of the Ohio.
It is difficult to arrive at an accurate estimate of the numbers of these various Indian tribes in the Ohio country. According to Conrad Weiser, who was sent in 1748 on a mission to the Indians living about the head of the Ohio, the number of the fighting men of the Delawares there was one hundred and sixty-five; that of the Shawanese, one hundred and sixty-two and of other tribes there were four hundred and sixty-two more, making a total of seven hundred and eighty- nine.2 Many of the Delawares, however, had at this time not yet removed westward from the Susquehanna. The Deputy Indian Agent, George Croghan, in his report to General Stanwix in 1759, says "The Delawares residing on the Ohio, Beaver Creek, and other branches of the Ohio, and on the Susquehanna, their fighting men are six hundred." 3 He said also in this report that the strength of the Shawanese on the Scioto was three hundred warriors. These figures do not show a very formidable number of Indians as living in this region, and indeed, the Indian popu- lation throughout the country was, in general, not much denser than it was here in the Ohio valley. "So thin and scattered was the native population," says Parkman, "that even in those parts which were thought well peopled, one might sometimes journey for days together through the twilight forest, and meet no human form. Broad tracts were left in solitude. All but that they bore this character they did not attempt to deny. Their recognition of their vassal and degraded position is shown in the message sent by them from the Ohio to the Onondaga Council, at a time when they were threatened by an attack from the French. It ran as follows:
"Uncles, the United Nations, -- We expect to be killed by the French, your father. We desire therefore, that you will take off our Petticoat that we may fight for ourselves, our wives and children. In the condition we are in, you know we can do nothing."-(Col. Rec., vol. vi., p. 37.) See also Heckewelder's Indian Nations, pp. 56-68.
At a later period, however (by 1755), the Delawares had to a great extent thrown off the yoke of the Iroquois. The Pennsylvania authorities, after long years of bloody warfare, finally awoke to the fact that they had become an independent people, able to manage their own affairs. See Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy of Colonial Pennsylvania, by Joseph S. Walton
" Before the summer of 1755 was over they had declared themselves no longer subjects of the Six Nations, no longer women, but men. When they were women Pennsylvania lived in peace with the Indians, when they became men the tomahawk and scalping knife stained with blood the peaceful soil of the Province."-p. 276.
1 Col. Rec., vol. iv., p. 580.
2 Journal, September 8, 1748.
3 Crumrine's History of Washington County, p. 17.
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History of Beaver County
Kentucky was a vacant waste, a mere skirmishing ground for the hostile war-parties of the north and south. A great part of Upper Canada, of Michigan, and of Illinois, besides other por- tions of the west, were tenanted by wild beasts alone."1 The emptiness of much of the country is strikingly shown in the ex- perience of John Howard and his men, who, in the year 1742, received a commission from the Governor of Virginia to make discoveries westward. They set out from the branches of the James River March 16th, came to the Ohio May the 6th, and to the Mississippi June the 7th, and were taken captive by some French and Indians July the 2d. In all this time and in travel- ling through that vast tract of country, they had seen nobody till they were taken, but about fifteen Indians in several bands, and they were chiefly, if not all, of the Northern tribes.2 In a paper on the present state of the Northern Indians prepared by Sir William Johnson in the fall of 1763, he gives the number at 11,980, not including the Illinois, Sioux, and some other western tribes,3 and in a memorandum entered in his letter-book (MS.) by Colonel George Morgan, Indian Agent of the United States for the Middle Department, the number of warriors in the same tribes at the date of the Revolutionary War is given at 10,060.4
1 Conspiracy of Pontiac, vol. i., p. 21.
2 Report of Joshua Fry to the Hon. Lewis Burwell, Christopher Gist's Journals, by Wil- liam M. Darlington, p. 224.
3 Pouchot's Memoires (Roxbury Ed., 1866), vol. ii., p. 260.
4 The memorandum in full is as follows:
" The Six Nations consist of:
Mohawks.
100 Men
Oneidas & Tuscarawas.
400
Cayugas.
220
Onondagoes
230
Senecas
650
Total.
1,600
The Delawares & Munsies.
600
The Shawnese.
Scioto.
400
Wiandots.
Sandusky & Detroit.
300
Ottawas.
Detroit & Lake Michigan.
600
Chipwas. All the Lakes, said to be.
5,000
Pottewatamies .. . Detroit & Lake Michigan
400
Piankashas, Kickapoos, Muscoutons, Vermillions, Wiot- tonons, &c, on Ouabache.
800
Miamis or Picts. . .
300
Mingos of Pluggy's Town
60
Total Men. 10,060 "
The estimates of the number of the Indians who, when the whites came, were living within the limits of what is now the United States vary enormously. Some have adopted the absurd figure of sixteen millions, others think that there were never more than there are now, namely, about three hundred thousand. The latter estimate is probably nearer the truth than the former or any other very large figure. At no period which may be selected did the number of souls upon the Indian territory bear any very considerable ratio to the number of square miles of country which they occupied in the shape of villages
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History of Beaver County
Even in the days of their greatest strength the united cantons of the dreaded Iroquois could not have mustered an army equal in numbers to the population of some of the smaller towns that now lie thickly scattered over their lost domain,' and it is well known that the whole of the region from the Ohio River east- ward to the Allegheny Mountains was, properly speaking, nothing but a hunting ground of the Six Nations, in which the Delawares and other tribes dwelt merely by their sufferance.2
In 1770, as elsewhere related, a mission of the Moravians was established among the Indians living within what afterwards became Beaver County territory, the teachers and their Indian converts having removed hither from their station on the Alle- gheny. They built the town known as Friedenstadt, near the Delaware town called Kuskuskee. As late as 1772 some of the converted Delaware Indians were living on the western branch of the Susquehanna, and in that year they removed thence on the invitation of their Indian brethren into the Muskingum country, stopping on their way at Friedenstadt. In the fall of the same year a minister named David McClure from New Eng- land paid a visit to the Ohio Indians, and visited the Moravian settlement. His diary contains so much of interest concerning the then state of the wilderness and its inhabitants, that, al- though it treats of a somewhat later period than that of which we have been speaking, we shall permit ourselves to give sev- eral extracts from it here. Mr. McClure had been some time at Fort Pitt, where he left Mr. Frisbie, a brother minister, sick, and whence he set out for the Indian country as he thus relates:
Sept. 5 1772 Saturday, left Mr. Frisbie, who purposed, God willing, to come forward as soon as his health would permit, & set out with Robert [his servant], expecting to meet my Interpreter, Joseph, returning
or hunting grounds. On this subject see Schoolcraft's History of the Indians, vol. i., p. 433; Incidents of Border Life, J. Pritts (Lancaster, 1841), p. 468; The Universal Cyclopedia (new Johnson's), Article: "Indians of North America "; and The Winning of the West, Theodore Roosevelt, Part I., pp. 36, 103-5.
1 Conspiracy of Pontiac vol. i., p. 21.
2 The Iroquois on every occasion asserted their claim as lords paramount over the country referred to, and their claim was constantly recognized by the provincial authorities. The chiefs of the Six Nations on several occasions informed the Governor of Pennsylvania through Andrew Montour, the Indian interpreter, that
"they did not like the Virginians and Pennsylvanians making treaties with these Indians [the Delawares, etc.], whom they called hunters and young and giddy men and children; that they were their fathers, and if the English wanted anything from these childish people they must speak first to their Father. Said they, 'It is a hunting country they live in, and we would have it reserved for this use only, and desire that no Settlements may be made here, though you may trade there, and so may the French.' "-Col. Rec., vol. v., p. 635.
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History of Beaver County
from Kuskuskoong. Mr. Gibson rode in company to his house in Logs- town, which was the only house there, 18 miles below Pittsburgh.1
Tarried at Mr. Gibson's over Sabbath. Spent the day principally in the solitary woods, in meditation & reading. Monday, my interpreter not arriving, I set out with Robert to find him. Mr. Gibson was kind enough to ride with me to a small town of Mingo Indians on the N. bank of the Ohio, & to send his servant a few miles further to show us the path. The roads through this Indian country are no more than a single horse path, among the trees. For a wilderness the traveling was pleasant, as there was no underbrush & the trees do not grow very closely together. 2 We travelled diligently all day. I was apprehensive that we had missed the path. Robert was a great smoaker of tobacco, & frequently lighted his pipe, by striking fire, as he sat on his horse, & often in the course of the day exclaimed, "Ding me, but this path will take us somewhere."
At sunsetting we arrived at Kuskuskoong [he refers to Friedenstadt, near Kuskuskee], & found my Interpreter Joseph there. He had been detained by the sickness & death of a Grandchild. (pp. 49-50.)
The visit of McClure to this famous Moravian town is very interestingly described in the diary, and is pretty fully quoted in our chapter on the religious history of the county, to which the reader is referred for it.3 Finding that the Delaware Indians
I See note on Gibson, in Chapter IV.
? The explanation of there being no underbrush in the woods is given by the same writer. The reader will be interested in seeing here a picture of the country as it was in Indian times. In the following passage of the diary McClure is speaking of the region now a part of Ohio township, this county:
" The woods were clear from underbrush, & the oaks & black walnut & other timber do not grow very compact, & there is scarcely anything to incommode a traveler in riding, almost in any direction, in the woods of the Ohio. The Indians have been in the practice of burning over the ground, that they may have the advantage of seeing game at a distance among the trees. We saw this day several deer & flocks of Turkies. About an hour before sunsetting we arrived at Little Beaver Creek. On the bank of this stream, which was fordable, we had a wonderful prospect of game. In the middle of the Creek, a small flock of wild geese were swimming, on the bank sat a large flock of Turkies, & the wild pig- eons covered one or two trees; & all being within musket shot, we had our choice for a supper. My Interpreter chose the Turkies, & killed three at one shot Our path had led us along the North bank of the pleasant river Ohio, almost the whole way from Pittsburgh, & frequently within sight of the river. The soil is luxurient, the growth principally white & black oak, Chestnut, Black Walnut, Hickory &c. The sweetest red plums grow in great abundance in this country, & were then in great perfection. Grapes grow spontaneously here & wind around the trees. We have been favored with delightful weather."-Pp. 58-59.
A later writer gives a similar picture of the wilderness on the north side of the Ohio, as follows:
"In different wanderings on the other side of the Allegheny [from Fort Pitt] we had the opportunity of observing the fineness and luxuriant fruitfulness of the soil in its primeval and undisturbed condition. The indigenous plants had a rich and rank appearance and grew to a greater height and strength than they do elsewhere. In a newly formed and unfertilized garden stood the stalks of the common sun-flower which measured not less than 20 feet in height and 6 inches in thickness, and which were almost woody. The forest had chestnuts, beeches, sassafras, tuliptrees, wild cherries, red maples, sugar maples, black walnuts, hickories, and their varieties, different kinds of oaks, the liquid-amber (sweet-gum), and others of the best known trees, which here, however, likewise grow finer and stronger. The woods are for the most part entirely free from undergrowth which is very convenient for both the hunter and the traveler."-Reise durch einige der mittlern und südlichen Vereinigten Nordamerikanischen Staaten, 1783-1784, by Johann D. Schoepf, Erlangen, 1788, p. 415.
3 See Chapter XII.
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History of Beaver County
were well supplied with religious teachers by the Moravians, and not wishing to build on other men's foundations, McClure and Frisbie relinquished their purpose of settling here, and the former returned to Fort Pitt.1 The diary continues (p. 52) :
Took leave of the friendly Moravians & set out for Mr. Gibson's, where I had left some baggage.
We came to the mouth of Beaver Creek about sun setting, where was a village of Mingo Indians. Great part of the Indians were drunk: one of the chiefs had sold his horse for 6 cags of rum, & gave a frolic to the people; we avoided the village, & Joseph encamped on the bank of the Ohio, & Robert & I rode on to Mr. Gibson's about 6 miles.
A second trip to the wilderness was soon after undertaken by the intending missionary. His diary continues:
Sept. 15. 1772. Set out with Nickels [an attendant furnished him by the commandant at Fort Pitt], & crossing the Allegany River, came on Indian ground. Arrived at Mr. Gibson's, at Logstown about 18 Miles, & found my Interpreter there.
16th-Came to the Mingo village on Bever Creek. On the green lay an old Indian, who, they said, had been a hard drinker; his limbs were contracted by fits. He told me his disorder was brought on him by witchcraft, that he employed several conjurers to cure him, but in vain. I called his attention to his dependence on God, on death & Judgment. He, however, gave little heed; but in answer told my Interpreter, if he would bring a pint of rum every time he came, he should be glad to see him every day. Awful stupidity! This village is commonly called Logan's town. About half an hour before our arrival, we saw Capt". Logan in the woods, & I was not a little surprised at his appearance. As we were obliged to ride, as it is commonly called, in Indian file, the path not admitting two to ride abreast, I had passed beyond Logan without seeing him. He spoke to my interpreter, who was a little distance be- hind, to desire me to stop. I looked back & saw him a few rods from the path, stand, under a tree, leaning on the muzzle of his gun. A young Indian, with his gun, stood beside him.
I turned back & riding up to him, asked him how he did, & whether he wished to speak with me? (I had seen him at Pittsburgh.) Pointing to his breast, he said, "I feel very bad here. Whereever I go the evil monethoes (Devils) are after me. My house, the trees & the air, are full of Devils, they continually haunt me, & they will kill me. All things tell me how wicked I have been." He stood pale & trembling, apparently in great distress. His eyes were fixed on the ground, & the sweat run down his face like one in agony. It was a strange sight. I had several times seen him at Pittsburgh & thought him the most martial figure of an Indian that I had ever seen. At the conclusion of his awful descrip-
1 The Life and Times of David Zeisberger, by E. de Schweinitz (Phila., 1870), p. 380.
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History of Beaver County
tion of himself, he asked me what he should do? Recollecting to have heard at Pittsburgh, that he had been a bloody enemy against the poor defenceless settlers on the Susquehanna, & the frontiers, in the last french war in 1758 & 9, & it was also reported of him, (though positive proof could not be had) that he had murdered a white man (one Chand- ler) on the Allegheny mountains, I observed to him, perhaps, Capt". Logan, you have been a wicked man, & greatly offended God, & he now allows these Devils, or evil thoughts, which arise in your heart, to trouble you, that you may now see yourself to be a great sinner & repent & pray to God to forgive you
He attended to what I said, & after conversing a little longer, in the same strain, We left him, in the same distress as I found him. After parting from him, various thoughts, but none satisfactory, occurred to me, relative to the cause of the distress & agitation of so renowned a warrior. I sometimes thought (such was his ferocious character) that knowing of my journey, he had placed himself in a convenient spot for robbery or murder. For my interpreter & Nickels had each a loaded piece, the Indian a common musket, & the english man a rifle always loaded, for the purpose of killing game. Perhaps it was some sudden compunction, arising from reflections on his past guilt.
This same Logan is represented as making a very eloquent speech at the close of the revolutionary [read Dunmore's] war, on the murder of his family by Colo. Cresap. I
We left Logan's town, & proceeded on about one mile & came to a pleasant stream of water where we encamped.
They supped on chocolate and roast venison, and slept on bear skins, and Mr. McClure records that he could not sleep well on account of the howling of the wolves. The next day he re- sumed his journey toward the Muskingum, and crossed the Little Beaver, beyond which we need not follow him.
A year after McClure passed through this territory some Quaker travelers came through on their way to a council with the Indians at Newcomerstown (then and still so-called), in what is now Ohio, and a record of their journey is extant, en- titled, Extracts from Fohn Parrish's Journal of a Visit performed to the Western Indians in Company with Zebulon Heston & En. Lacey Anno 1773, in about 2 months,2 In this we find also some interesting references to our immediate region, and to Logan, which we may give. Parrish's style shows the Quaker manner of speech, and he relates the events in the journey of his party in the third person, as follows:
1 History has vindicated Cresap and put the guilt of this murder on Daniel Greathouse.
2 Pennsylvania Magazine of History, vol. xvi., p. 443, et seq.
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History of Beaver County
Set out 7 mo. 9 . the 19th they rested [at Pittsburgh], got their Cloaths washed & sent 18 miles down the Ohio for a Guide to New-Comer's-Town one living so far on the way to that place intending to set out the next morng, but to their surprise he came into Pittsburgh that morning, his Life being threatened by an Indian man named Jn.º Logan, whom White Eyes & Cohursater went to appease, by water, leaving them to the care of an Indian Guide who took them by Land near to John Logan's Camp, which under conduct of another Indian they avoided by going round thro' the Woods, & swam their horses over the Ohio to John Gibson's ye Trader, where they were kindly & freely entertained. Here they staid 4th Day 2Ist and Logan being pacified they set out ye 22d accompanied by White Eyes & John Gibson, the former agrees to go with them least they should be under any apprehen- sions of Danger. Rode 9 or 10 miles down the Ohio to Beaver Creek's Mouth where Jn. Logan had his Cabbin. Here along the River were several Cottages & a fine Bottom. Cross'd Beaver Creek & twin'd more Westward, thro' but indifferent Land & lodg'd in a low Place for the sake of the Water. 23d saw a few Indians on their way (Lands hardly fit for Cultivation) & lodg'd at a Bark Shelter.
After a conference with the Indians they set off on the home- ward journey :
3d Set off homeward, dined at Connodenhead, went to the Upper Moravian Town, staid all night, saw the Indians and their Teachers 4th went back to the Lower Town where White Eyes & Thos McKee came to accompany us to Pittsburgh. After dinner put forward about 15 miles & rested comfortably at a fine Spring after taking a dish of coffee. 5th Rode about 30 miles thro' a very poor Soil with little Water-slept in the Woods. 6th John's Beast failed, & the others left him-he at length turn'd her loose & follow'd the Company with his Saddle, Bridle, Bags & Blanket on his Back, overtaking them they got to Jn. Logan's on Beaver Creek, the prospect gloomy, he being expected home drunk, his Mother & Sister were however civil & got them some supper. 7. John went back 7 miles on a hired Beast & brot in his tired mare to Logan's-got to John Gibson's (swam their horses over ye Ohio opposite Logstown). Ist Day (the 8th) rested all Day. 9th pass'd along the English Shore I to Captain McKee's, it raining hard & they much wet, treated kindly & stay'd all night. John chang'd his Beast. roth rode on 4 miles to Pittsburgh.
A fact of interest in local history is disclosed by these old journals, namely that the town of Mingo Indians at the mouth of the Beaver was the home of the famous chief Logan. This
" This is the only instance in which we have seen the south side of the Ohio called "the English shore." The writer thus distinguishes it from the north side, which, as we have frequently said, was known till a late period as the Indian side.
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History of Beaver County
town is marked on Christopher Gist's map of 1753 at the spot which is about the present site of Rochester. He calls it the "Mingo Town." We were familiar with this map, and had also learned from a letter of John Heckewelder I that Logan had at one time lived at the mouth of the Beaver, but the exact place was in doubt. The doubt is removed by the statements of the writers just quoted, since McClure says that the Mingo village "was commonly called Logan's town," and as Parrish came, as he says, to Logan's cabin and the cottages "before crossing the Beaver" (proceeding down the Ohio), it is clear that the village was on the east side of the creek, at its mouth.
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