USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and its centennial celebration, Volume I > Part 8
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It is not to be supposed, however, that there was no alarm
1 Onas was the Indian name for William Penn and later for the representatives of the Pennsylvania interests. Corlear = the Governor of New York; Assaragoa = the Governor of Virginia.
2 Col. Rec., vol. v., pp. 667-8.
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felt on the subject by the different provincial authorities. Very early, indeed, efforts had been made to induce the governments of Virginia and Pennsylvania to colonize and fortify the coveted region, but nothing definite was determined upon. In 1716, Governor Spottswood of Virginia perceived the designs of the French to keep the English from passing beyond the Alleghenies, and induced the Virginia Assembly to make an appropriation to defray the expenses of a party to explore those mountains. He himself led the expedition, and he afterwards sent a memorial to the government in London, exposing the French scheme of military occupation and advising the building of a chain of forts across to the Ohio, and the formation of settlements to counter- act their scheme. His early recall prevented his suggestions from being carried out.1
In Pennsylvania also far-sighted men were awake to the danger of the situation. In 1719, Governor Keith urged upon the Lords of Trade the erection of a fort on Lake Erie, and, in 1731, the Provincial Secretary, James Logan,2 sent a memorial on the subject to Sir Robert Walpole, and called the attention of the Pennsylvania Council to it. His method of doing so was dramatic, almost sensational. A book that had been published ten years before in London, contained a map of the French ex- plorations in America and of the territory claimed by France. This book had come into Mr. Logan's hands and gave him his opportunity to show the Council the gravity of the crisis that confronted them. A report of his address is given in the Colonial Records, which we will here transcribe. At a session of the Council held in Philadelphia, August 4, 1731, the message of the Governor was presented. Its closing words were as follows:
I have also another Affair of very great importance to the Security of this Colony & all its Inhabitants to lay before you, which shall speedily be communicated to you.
The Governor then proceeded to inform the Board that the Matter mentioned in the close of the preceeding Message related to Indian Affairs, & would be found to be likewise of very great Consequence to
1 Western Annals, p. 95.
2 James Logan, one of the ablest public men of his day, was born at Lurgan, Ireland, October 20, 1674, of Scotch Quaker stock. He was well educated and became a merchant. He removed in 1699, with Penn to Philadelphia. He was long in public life as Provincial Secretary, Chief Justice, etc., of Pennsylvania, and was President of the Council and Acting- Governor from 1736 to 1738. He was the author of several works in Latin and English prose and verse. He died near Germantown, Pa., October 31, 1751.
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the whole Province, the Detail whereof His Honor said he would leave to Mr. Logan, to whom the Information had been first given, and who, from his long experience and knowledge in those affairs could give the best Account of it.
That Gentleman then producing the Map of Louisiana, as inserted in a book called a New General Atlas, published at London in the year 1721, first observed from thence how exorbitant the French Claims were on the Continent of America; that by the Description in the said Map they claimed a great part of Carolina and Virginia, & had laid down Susque- hanna as a boundary of Pennsylvania. Then he proceeded to observe that by Virtue of some Treaty, as they allege, the French pretend a Right to all Lands lying on Rivers, of the Mouths of which they are possessed. That the River Ohio (a branch of the Mississippi) comes close to those mountains which lye about 120 or 130 Miles back of Sasquehanna, within the boundaries of this Province, as granted by the King's Letters Patent; that adjoining thereto is a fine Tract of Land called Allegheny, on which several Shawanese Indians had seated themselves; And that by the Advices lately brought to him by several Traders in those parts it appears that the French have been using Endeavors to gain over those Indians to their interest, & for this End a French Gentleman had come amongst them some years since, sent, as it was believed, from the Gover- nor of Montreal, and at his Departure last year carried with him some of the Shawanese Chiefs to that Governor, with whom they, at their Return, appeared to be highly pleased; That the same French Gentleman, with five or six others in Company with him had this last Spring again come amongst the said Indians, and brought with him a Shawanese In- terpreter, was well received by them, had again carried some of their Chiefs to the said Gov'r, & the better to gain the Affections of the said Indians brought with him a Gunsmith to work for them gratis. Mr. Logan then went on to represent how destructive this Attempt of the French, if attended with success, may prove to the English Interest on this Continent, and how deeply in its consequences it may effect this Province, & after having spoken fully on these two heads, Moved that to prevent or putt a stop to these designs, if possible, a treaty should be sett on foot with the five Nations, who have an absolute authority as well over the Shawanese as all our Indians, that by their means the Shawanese may not only be kept firm to the English Interest, but like- wise be induced to remove from the Allegheny nearer to the English Settlements, and that such a treaty becomes now the more necessary because 'tis several years since any of these Nations have visited us, and no opportunity ought to be lost of cultivating & improving the Friend- ship which has always subsisted between this Government & them. I
This able address made a deep impression, but no active measures were taken, though at a conference with some of the
1 Col. Rec., vol. iii., pp. 401, 402.
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Indians of the Six Nations, on August 25th the following year, further information of the movements of "the French gentle- man " was gained.I
Celeron's expedition to the Ohio eighteen years later, already mentioned, brought fresh alarm to both the Indians and the provincial authorities. One of the buried plates having come into the hands of Governor Clinton of New York, a letter was sent by him to Governor Hamilton of Pennsylvania, giving a copy of the inscription.2 Intelligence of the French expedition was immediately sent to London, whence the proprietaries wrote a letter to Governor Hamilton, which was received in January, 1750, advising certain measures of defence, such as the building of a fort and settlements within the region threatened. The Pennsylvania Assembly did not, however, make any move in the matter. The provincial purse having been already heavily drawn upon in the maintenance of a militia force and in making presents to the Indians, they were unwilling to incur any further expense. They felt also that the proprietaries were not bearing their equitable share of the burdens of support and defence of the province. In their attitude in this matter there was a mani- festation of the same spirit that was to show itself in the Revolu- tion twenty years later-the spirit of revolt against what they deemed unjust taxation. Dissension between these two par- ties as to the finances and administration of affairs in the prov- ince prevailed throughout the colonial period. The Assembly was the popular branch of the government, while the pro- prietaries represented in some degree royal prerogative and the "divine right." The former wanted the estates of the owners taxed equally with those of the common people of the province; the latter, through their deputies, refused. "The proprietaries pleaded prerogative, charter, and law; the Assembly, in turn, pleaded equity, common danger, and common benefit, requiring a common expense. The proprietaries offered bounties in land yet to be conquered from the Indians, and the privilege of issuing more paper money: the Assembly wanted something more tangible. The Assembly, passed laws laying taxes and granting supplies, but annexing conditions: the governors op- posed the conditions, but were willing to aid the Assembly in
1 Col. Rec., vol. iii., pp. 439-40.
2 Id., vol. v., p. 507, et seq.
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taxing the people, but not the proprietaries." I Thus the mat- ter was tossed from one to the other in fruitless controversy as to where the chief responsibility rested, while meantime the French advances were being made, and later, the frontiers were left exposed to the incursions of savage foes.2 One man there was whose influence at this critical period was important. This was the sturdy German, Conrad Weiser, previously mentioned as the bearer of Pennsylvania's gifts to the Ohio Indians, and who was indefatigable in his efforts to win the West for the English. His keen perception of the gravity of the situation and his zeal to awaken the authorities of Pennsylvania and Virginia to active opposition to the French is constantly mani- fested in the letters which he wrote to them. In the manu- script letters of Weiser in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania are two fragments, without date or ad- dress, which we find of sufficient interest and relevancy to our present topic to insert here. The first reads as follows:
In short we have been imposed upon by the said Indians and our own people. They cost this Government about a tousand pounds and after all they forewarned our people to Come away from the other side the Allegheny hills, Charged you Commissioners that they gave occasion in the 1752 by asking leave of the ohio Indians to Build a ford [fort] on ohio for the french to Come & take possession of the land. I was very angry and told the Indians in the presence of And. Montour and others that if the Virginians asked such leave of the ohio Indians it was a Weak- ness in them for that the Government of Virginia had bought all the land in their charter at treaty of lancaster from the chiefs of the six nation and for that reason had no need to ask leave of the Indians on ohio to Build forts on their own land. Andrew Montour denied that and said the Indians never sold nor released it-If they did they were imposed upon by the Interpreter. This he said in the presence of our Commissioners I told him in plan words that he was an Impudent fellow to say so in short he wants your Government to puy the land from the ohio Indians and yet not settle it. I am sorry that ever I recommended him to this and to your Government in the least thing.
If the french are suffered by the English to take and keep possession of ohio as they now have of some part to wit about 100 miles above
1 Day's Historical Collections, p. 24; see full account of this controversy in Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy of Colonial Pennsylvania, by Joseph S. Walton, p. 303 foll.
2 Nevertheless, the Assembly must be allowed ultimately to have made pretty effective efforts for the protection of the province during the French and Indian wars. According to the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania it would appear that there were erected 0:1 the frontier, during the campaigns of 1755-58, and that of 1763 (Pontiac's War), no less than 207 forts, large and small, by the order and at the expense of the Assembly, and that these were garrisoned by troops in its pay.
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logstown a place called Winineko [Venango] they will be very troublesome neighbors to us they will get settlers out of pensil[vania] in great number for here are a great many of the King of french subjects out of Elsase lorain & if a good many of them would never as yet naturalize under the Crown of England and our people Connives at them. If they should hear that the french King would give them land on ohio for a little or nothing and tollerate them in their Religious persuasion it is my opinion Several hundreds If not tousands would steal away (which they can very eassey do) and go over to the french to ohio and provide them with Cows and Horses and plowman-to say nothing of Rogues and Villains that would fly from Justice and run over the hills to them. what the french and the ohio and other Indians would be to us in time of War I leave to you and other Gentlemen to Judge I can not think on such a time but with Terror. as to their Number the best accounts that I could get of them was that they were about 1,000 men french and Indians but the latter allmost all left them and went back again unwilling to assist the french in taking possession of the ohio. I think it highly necessary for this Colonies to raise about 2,000 men and take possession of ohio by force Build fords and speak Boldly to the Indians but with prudence and if the time of peace will admit knock every french men on ohio that wont run to the head and if we dont do now we never again shall be so able to it and our posterity will Condemn us for our neglect.
This reads as if it were addressed to the Virginia authorities, and the date must have been some time after 1752 and before 1758, when the French were driven from Fort Duquesne. In his reference to the extent of the purchase made in the treaty at Lancaster Weiser seems to contradict what he had himself else- where asserted.1
The second fragment seems to be from a letter addressed to the Pennsylvania authorities, and is probably to be assigned to a date in the period from 1750 to 1753. We meet here one of the earliest indications of the then prevailing uncertainty as to the western bounds of the province of Pennsylvania, foretokening the long contest that was later to be waged over that question. Weiser writes:
The river of ohio is a very fine River and from its rise it begins to be navigable for Canoes & Batoes to its mouth where it runs into the
1 "When the Ohio tribes learned that the Six Nations at the Lancaster treaty of 1744 deeded to Virginia land bounded by the setting sun, they remonstrated with their masters for using such metaphors in fixing a boundary line. The wise men of the Six Nations replied that the setting sun only meant the hills of the Allegheny behind which the sun was lost. . Conrad Weiser was appealed to, and this undisputed authority insisted that no land was sold to Virginia in 1744 beyond the summits of the Alleghenies. Nevertheless Virginia pushed her claims out beyond and along the Ohio river."-Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy of Colonial Pennsylvania, Walton, p. 276.
·
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great River Misisippy. It must be by all accounts near a tousand mile long it differs from all the rivers in North america for its smoothness Considering its length. The lands on both sides are very good and a great deal of it Extraordinary rich and between the said river and the lake Erie the greatest part is good land white oak Black oak & Spanish oak is the timber that grows on it-it is by the timber that the Indians tells me grows on it I judge-The Indians themselves can not Judge of the land itself-only of the low lands & plans of which is so much that one thinks it a tousand pity that such a large and good Country should be unsettled or fall into the hand of the french who have allready made some Settlement below or on the river commonly called Wappash [Wa- bash] a Branch of ohio. This fall the ground about ohio was all Covered with acorns. a middling good Hunter among the Indians of ohio kills for his share in one fall 150-200 dears. The pensilvania traders had all the skins this 2 or 3 years. The Erecting of a good Correspondenz and a Regular trade with the Indians on ohio would secure that fine and large Country to the English nation, a good beginning is made by the last present from the government of pen.[sylvania] that I Caried there. The trade itself If but in Regulation will ans'r all the Cost of Keeping such Correspondenz and Consequently the land will fall at last into the English hands. The westerly bounds of pensilvania must reach some of the Eastern Branches of ohio If not the river itself in some places and the land on the road that leads to ohio from pensilvania is good So that if their Honors the proprietors of pensilvania purchase that part of their province from the Indians I dare say within 10 years after the purchase is made, the land will be settled to within 50 miles of ohio
[The following is a note of Weiser's to the above]:
The traders and Indians in going down the river they Boil their victuals a little before night and go into their Canoes again and they tie 3 or 4 Canoes together and let them drive all night and they lie them- selves down to sleep and there is not the least danger of oversetting. The river will rise in the spring of the year (when the snow to the nord melts by southerly wind & rain) about 25 & 30 foot perpendicularly and so overflows the lowest & richest ground, but as the stream is not very violent it does the low land no hurt and as it is to rich for to plow it will make Extraordinary good medow or Hay land.
The up land so far as I have been is not very rich in springs and here and there the water is scarce but there is fine large Creeks strong enough to errect all sorts of mills and water enough to settle the Country in small vilages as they do in new England which way of Settlement on the frontiers and near the Indians is the best.
The internal jealousies and quarrels, previously alluded to, delayed any decided action on the part of Pennsylvania against the French. Virginia had also her internal difficulties, and had VOL. 1 .- 4
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postponed action, but late in the year 1753, her Governor, the Hon. Robert Dinwiddie, took a step that was to lead to mo- mentous results. Acting under instructions from the English government, Dinwiddie sent on a mission of investigation to the nearest French outpost, a young man who was destined to become finally the most illustrious figure in American history. This was George Washington.I He was ordered to proceed to Logstown, where he was to address himself to the Half-King, to Monakatoocha, and other sachems of the Six Nations, and pro- cure from them a safeguard to the French post, and his further instructions read in part as follows:
You are diligently to inquire into the numbers and force of the French on the Ohio, and the adjacent country; how they are likely to be assisted from Canada; and what are the difficulties and conveniencies of that communication, and the time required for it.
You are to take care to be truly informed what forts the French have erected, and where; how they are garrisoned and appointed, and what is their distance from each other, and from Logstown: and from the best intelligence you can procure, you are to learn what gave occasion to this expedition of the French; how they are likely to be supported, and what their pretensions are.
Following out his instructions, the young envoy proceeded to Logstown, and thence, with the Half-King,2 Jeskakake, White Thunder, and the Hunter,3 he set out on the 30th of November, and on the IIth of the month following reached the French fort "Le Bœuf," which was on the site of what is now Water- ford, Erie County, Pa. Having accomplished the purpose of his mission, and obtained full information of the strength and plans of the French, and an answer to the letter which he had carried from Governor Dinwiddie to the French cominandant, he returned with much hardship to Virginia, reaching Williams- burg on the 16th of January, 1754, where he made his report to the Governor. The journal which he kept on this expedition was immediately published by Dinwiddie at Williamsburg,
1 He had previously sent Captain William Trent for a like purpose. But Trent neg- lected his duty, and went no farther than Logstown. In a letter to the Lords of Trade, Dinwiddie said of him: "He reports the French were then one hundred and fifty miles farther up the river, and, I believe, was afraid to go to them."
2 This was Tanacharison.
3 This was the celebrated Guyasutha. See sketch of his life in Gist's fournals (Darling- ton), p. 210.
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copied by the newspapers of the other colonies, and reprinted in the same year by the government in London.I
The information thus received led at once to military meas- ures for the defence of the Ohio. Virginia at this time held that the upper Ohio valley was a part of her territory, and Governor Dinwiddie immediately commenced preparations for raising a force to be sent to the "Forks of the Ohio" (Pittsburg), to occupy that point, and build a defensive work that would enable them to resist the French. This force, a company under command of Captain William Trent, marched from Virginia, in January, 1754, and reached the Forks the 17th of the following month. Work was begun, but proceeded slowly on account of the severity of the weather, and Captain Trent returning to Will's Creek, left in charge a young commissioned officer, an ensign, named Edward Ward.
The French were warned of these proceedings, and were not idle. On the 17th of April, when his fort was still uncompleted, Ensign Ward suddenly found himself surrounded by a force of one thousand men, French and Indians, under the command of Captain Contrecœur, with eighteen pieces of cannon. By Chevalier Le Mercier, captain of the artillery of Canada, Contre- cœur sent a summons to the commanding officer of the English to surrender, informing him that he, Contrecœur, "was come out into this place, charged with orders from his General, to re- quest him [the English commander] to retreat peaceably with his troops from off the lands of the French king, and not to return, or else he would find himself obliged to fulfill his duty, and compel him to it." "I hope," continues Contrecœur, in his summons, "that you will not defer one instant, and that you will not force me to the last extremity. In that case, sir, you may be persuaded that I will give orders that there shall be no dam- age done by my detachment." The friendly Half-King, Tan- acharison, who was present, advised Ward to reply that he was not an officer of rank with power to answer the demand, and to
1 Spark's Life of Washington, 1843, P. 33; also preface to the journal itself. In this journal is a map, probably drawn by Christopher Gist or by Washington himself, on which the symbol of a fort is marked diagonally opposite the mouth of the Big Beaver, a little to the southeast, in what would be the present township of Moon. We never heard of a fort there. This mark may have been meant to indicate the fort which the Ohio Company intended to build at the mouth of the Chartiers Creek, and the map being very small, the location could not be accurately indicated. At this early date (1753-54) there were no settlers, so that not even an ordinary blockhouse could have been there.
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request delay until he could send for his superior officer. But Contrecœur refused to parley, and demanded immediate sur- render. Having less than forty men in a half-finished stockade, Ward was unable to resist the force opposed to him, and therefore prudently yielded to the demand without further hesitation. He was allowed to withdraw his men and take all his tools with him, and on the morning of the 18th, he left the position and started on his return to Virginia. This affair was one of the initial events of the French and Indian War, an epoch-making struggle, which was the American phase of the Seven Years' War in Europe.
Taking possession here, the French erected Fort Duquesne, named in honor of the Marquis Du Quesne, the then Governor- General of Canada, and it was in efforts to dislodge them, that the force surrendered by Washington at Fort Necessity, in 1754, had been sent out, and that Braddock met his appalling defeat, in July, 1755.1 During the years 1755, 1756, and 1757, a series of defeats had thrown a cloud over the prospects of the English in America, but the creation in the latter year of a new ministry in England, with the great Pitt as its head, caused an almost immediate change in the aspect of affairs. In the year 1758 three expeditions against the French were undertaken, the first against Louisburg, in the island of Cape Breton, the second against Ticonderoga and Crown Point; and the third against Fort Duquesne. The first of these expeditions was successful, the second failed, but was partly compensated by the destruc- tion of Fort Frontenac, with its stores, and the third, that against Fort Duquesne, though saddened by the foolish and fatal
1 We do not dwell upon these important events, since they have no close connection with our local history, but we transcribe the following letter on account of the realistic picture it gives of the horrors of Braddock's overthrow.
Letter from the Reverend Claude Godfroy Cocquard to his brother:
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