USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and its centennial celebration, Volume I > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63
"My dear brother :- I communicated to you last fall the news from this country much abridged. I could have enlarged more on the victory we gained on the Ohio over General Braddock's army, but sufficient for you to know, that with his life he has lost more than 1, 800 men and an immense booty with scarcely any loss on our side, except the Commander of our detachment, named M. de Beaujeu, an officer generally regretted You will learn, first, that our Indians have waged the most cruel war against the English; that they continued it throughout the spring and are still so exasperated as to be beyond con- trol; Georgia, Marrelande, Pensilvania, are wholly laid waste. The farmers have been forced to quit their abodes and to retire into the town. They have neither ploughed nor planted, and on their complaining of the circumstance to the Governor of Boston, he answered them that people were ploughing and planting for them in Canada. The Indians do not make any prisoners; they kill all they meet, men women and children. Every day they have some in their kettle, and after having abused the women and maidens, they slaughter or burn them. On the 29th of January we received letters from M. Dumas, Commandant of Fort Duquesne, on the Ohio, stating that the Indians in December had more than 500 English scalps, and he more than 200 prisoners."-Penna. Arch .. Second Series, vol. vi., p. 459.
53
History of Beaver County
skirmish of Major Grant, ended with the retirement of the French before the advancing forces of Gen. John Forbes, and the establishment, in perpetuity, of the Anglo-Saxon race in the Ohio valley. Fort Duquesne was burnt by the French on its evacuation, and the garrison, about five hundred in number, went, a part of them down the river, and the remainder, under Governor M. De Lignery, to Presque Isle and Venango. The success of this expedition was attended also by the submission of the Indian allies of the French, the Delawares immediately suing for peace. General Forbes, having left a garrison of two hundred and eighty men of Washington's command to repair and occupy the ruined fort, marched with the rest of his army to the other side of the mountains, and, during the following summer (1759), General Stanwix, his successor as commander- in-chief in the middle colonies, commenced the erection near the site of the French fort of a strong works that was named "Fort Pitt," in honor of William Pitt, Earl Chatham, the great British statesman, to whose energy and talents the brilliant successes of the English arms were due.
In the year 1759 all the campaigns against the French ended with the triumph of the British. Ticonderoga was abandoned before the advance of the formidable force under General Am- herst, Crown Point was likewise given up, Sir William Johnson was victorious at the battle of Niagara, and the dying Wolfe had conquered on the plains of Abraham, and, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the "vast but frail fabric of French empire in America crumbled into dust." The contest that had thus ended had been one of races; the Norman had sought to divide this continent, leaving to the Saxon the lands between the Atlantic and the Alleghenies, but placing the lilies of France above the banner of St. George in all the vast inland empire of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. It is well, we think, that he failed-that the arbitrament of arms was so decisive that the whole country was given into the control of one power, and that power England; for the great Union of States which makes the glorious American Republic could never have been created, if, to adapt the figure of bluff King Harry, there had been com- pounded here between St. Denis and St. George a race half French, half English. It is of interest to note, we repeat, that this great struggle for supremacy between the Norman and the
54
History of Beaver County
Saxon was begun in the region lying between what is now Beaver and Pittsburg, and we may add that this same region was the theatre in which were enacted some of its closing scenes.I
1 We trust our readers will enjoy seeing what the great Scotch historian, Thomas Carlyle, has to say about some of the matters with which our text has been concerned. Here are a few of his characteristic comments on the Ohio Company and the rivalry between the French and English for the possession of the Mississippi valley and its tributaries:
"The exuberant intention of the French is, 'To restrict those aspiring English Colonies,' mere Ploughers and Traders, hardly numbering above one million 'to the Space eastward of the Alleghany Mountains,' over which they are beginning to climb. The Commandant at Detroit had received orders, 'To oppose peremptorily every English Establishment not only thereabouts, but on the Ohio or its tributaries; by monition first; and then by force, if monition do not serve.'
"Establishments of any solidity or regularity the English have not in those parts; beyond the Alleghanies all is desert: 'from the Canada Lakes to the Carolinas, mere hunting- grounds of the Six Nations; dotted with here and there an English trading-house, or adventurous Squatter's farm' :- to whom now the French are to say: 'Home, you, in- stantly, and leave the Desert alone!' The French have distinct Orders from Court, and energetically obey the same; the English have indistinct Orders from Nature, and do not want energy, or mind to obey these: confusions and collisions are manifold, ubiquitous, continual. An 'Ohio Company' has got together in Virginia; Governor there encouraging; Britannic Majesty giving Charter (March, 1749), and what is still easier, '500,000 Acres of Land' in those Ohio regions, since you are minded to colonize there in a fixed manner. Britannic Majesty thinks the Country 'between the Monongahela and the Kanahawy' (southern feeders of Ohio) will do best; but is not particular. Ohio Company, we shall find chose at last, as the eligible spot, the topmost fork or very Head of the Ohio,-where stands, in our day, the big sooty Town of Pittsburg and its industries. Ohio Company was laudably eager on this matter; Land-Surveyor in it (nay, at length, 'Colonel of a Regiment of 150 men raised by the Ohio Company') was Mr. George Wash- ington, whose Family had much promoted the Enterprise; and who was indeed a steady-go- ing, considerate, close-mouthed Young Gentleman; who came to great distinction in the end. "French Governor getting wind of this Ohio Company still in embryo, anticipates the birth and where the Ohio Company venture on planting a Stockade, tears it tragically out!
"In 1753 (28th August of that Year), goes message from the Home Government,'Stand on your defence, over there! Repel by force any Foreign encroachments on British Domin- ions.' And directly on the heel of this, November 1753, the Virginia Governor,-urged, I can believe, by the Ohio Company, who are lying wind-bound so long,-despatches Mr. George Washington to inquire officially of the French Commandant in those parts, 'What he means, then, by invading the British Territories, while a solid Peace subsists?' Mr. George had a long ride up those desert ranges, and down on the other side; waters all out, ground in a swash with December rains, no help or direction but from wampums and wigwams: Mr. George got to Ohio Head (two big Rivers, Monongahela from South, Alle- ghany from North, coalescing to form a double-big Ohio for the Far West); and thought to himself, 'What an admirable three-legged place: might be Chief Post of those regions,- nest-egg of a diligent Ohio Company!' Mr. George, some way down the Ohio River, found a strongish French Fort, log-barracks, '200 river boats, with more building,' and a French Commandant, who cannot enter into questions of a diplomatic nature about Peace and War: 'My orders are, To keep this Fort and Territory against all comers; one must do one's orders, Monsieur, Adieu!' And the steadfast Washington had to return; without result,-except that of the admirable three-legged Place for dropping your Nest-egg, in a commanding and defenceful way!
"Ohio Company, painfully restrained so long in that operation took the hint at once, Despatched, early in 1754, a Party of some Forty or Thirty-three stout fellows, with arms about them, as well as tools. 'Go build us straightway, a Stockade in the place indicated; you are warranted to smite down, by shot or otherwise, any gainsayer!' And further- more, directly go on foot, and on the road thither, a 'regiment of 150 men,' Washington as Colonel to it, For perfecting said Stockade and maintaining it against all comers.
"Washington and his Hundred-and-fifty,-wagonage, provender, and a piece or two of cannon, all well attended to,-vigorously climbed the Mountains; got to the top, 27th May, 1754; and there met the Thirty-three in retreat homewards! Stockade had been torn out, six weeks ago (17th April last); by overwhelming French Force, from the Gentleman who said Adieu, and had the river boats, last Fall. And, instead of our Stockade, they are now building a regular French Fort, Fort Duquesne, they call it, in honor of their Governor Duquesne :- against which, Washington and his regiment, what are they? Washington strictly surveying, girds himself up for the retreat; descends diligently homewards again, French and Indians rather harassing his rear. Entrenches himself, Ist July, at what he calls, 'Fort Necessity,' some way down; and the second day after, 3d July, 1754, is at- tacked in vigorous military manner. Defends himself what he can, through nine hours of heavy rain; has lost thirty, the French only three; and is obliged to capitulate: 'Free Withdrawal' the terms given. This is the last I heard of the Ohio Company; not the last of Washington, by any means. Ohio Company,-its judicious Nest-egg squelched in this manner, nay, become a fiery Cockatrice or ' Fort Duquesne:' need not be mentioned farther." -Frederick the Great, vol. v., p. 417.
55
History of Beaver County
THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC
But this happy issue of the rivalry between England and France did not bring peace to the harried settlers of the West. There was now to burst upon them a storm more dreadful than any which had been felt during the French and Indian War. This was the terrible conspiracy of Pontiac. The Indians saw in the peace settlement of 1763 a threat of utter destruction to their own territorial rights, and the loss of the balance of power which they had in some measure held so long as the contest be- tween England and France was unsettled. Even during that contest their lot had been hard enough. As one of their chiefs, Tanacharison-the Half-King of the Mingoes-had said to Chris- topher Gist, "the English claim all the land on one side of the river and the French all on the other side; where is the Indian's land?" 2 But they were now confronted by a more dangerous crisis. With the French they had sustained fairly amicable re- lations, but they had always distrusted and disliked the Eng- lish, and the English were now become the sole masters of their hunting-grounds. They determined upon resistance, and Pon- tiac, the great Ottawa chief, who had been foremost in con- tributing to the defeat of Braddock in 1755, again came to the front. Under the leadership of this bold and capable chief, the tribes of the Northwest, and the Delawares, Shawanese, and other Ohio tribes, were united in a formidable league with the purpose of attacking simultaneously all the English forts and settlements from the Lakes to the Alleghenies.3 At the decisive moment they failed in securing unanimity of action, but the results of their attacks were sufficiently disastrous to the settlers. Only the forts of Niagara, Detroit, and Fort Pitt remained to the English; all the rest fell, and the country from the frontiers of Pennsylvania to Lake Michigan was laid open to the awful
1 The Iroquois, or Six Nations, leaders, at least, understood the doctrine of European statesmen indicated in this expression, "balance of power." De Witt Clinton says:
"They duly appreciated the policy of averting the total destruction of either European power; and several instances could be pointed out, by which it could be demonstrated that the balance of power, formerly the subject of so much speculation among the states- men of Europe, was thoroughly understood by the Confederates in their negotiations and intercourse with the French and English colonies."-Writings, p. 228.
2 Another Indian said to an Englishman, "You and the French are like the two edges of a pair of shears, and we are the cloth which is cut to pieces between them."-Christian F. Post's First Fournal.
3 Parkman's work, The Conspiracy of Pontiac, is exhaustive in its treatment of this sub- ject.
56
History of Beaver County
fury of the savages, who devastated and depopulated it with fire and slaughter. Fort Niagara, indeed, was not attacked, being considered too strong, and Captain Gladwin foiled the Indians at Detroit, but Fort Pitt, although defended by Captain Ecuyer with great judgment and bravery, was in desperate straits.
RELIEF OF FORT PITT
In this emergency a gallant young Swiss officer named Henry Bouquet, then commanding at Philadelphia, was sent out with a small force to the relief of the beleaguered garrison. His ex- pedition was conducted with remarkable success. Failing in obtaining the supplies of men and provisions which he had ex- pected at Carlisle, owing to the consternation and confusion into which the inhabitants of the Cumberland valley were plunged by the depredations of the Indian war-parties, he yet pushed on, and encountering the enemy at Bushy Run, inflicted upon them a crushing defeat. This engagement was fought on the 5th and 6th of August, 1763. The Indians were completely disheartened by it, raised the siege of Fort Pitt, and retreated to their towns in Ohio. Four days later Bouquet arrived at Fort Pitt with his welcome succor.
BOUQUET'S EXPEDITION AGAINST THE OHIO INDIANS IN 1764
In the following spring fresh trouble with the Indians arose, and the same gallant leader, Bouquet, was selected to carry the war into the enemy's country by marching against the Dela- wares, Shawanese, and other tribes in Ohio, while Colonel Brad- street was to act against the tribes living around the Great Lakes. Leaving Fort Pitt on Wednesday, October 3d, Bouquet followed the course of the Ohio River through Logstown to the fords of the Big Beaver. Then crossing the Little Beaver and Yellow Creek he advanced as far as the forks of the Muskingum. The following notes of his passage through the territory now em- braced in Beaver County cannot fail to be of interest to the reader. They are drawn from the valuable work by Dr. William Smith, entitled An Historical Account of Colonel Bouquet's Ex- pedition against the Ohio Indians,' the material for which was taken direct from the original documents:
1 Original, Philadelphia, 1765. Robert Clarke & Co.'s Reprint, Cincinnati, 1869; copied in The Olden Time, Craig, vol. i., p. 203 et seq.
57
History of Beaver County
Friday, October 5th-In this day's march the army passed through Loggstown, situated seventeen miles and an half, fifty-seven perches, by the path, from Fort Pitt. This place was noted before the last war for the great trade carried on there by the English and French; but its inhabit- ants, the Shawanese and Delawares, abandoned it in the year 1750 [1758]. The lower town extended about sixty perches over a rich bottom to the foot of a low steep ridge, on the summit of which, near the declivity, stood the upper town, commanding a most agreeable prospect over the lower, and quite across the Ohio, which is about 500 yards here, and by its majestic easy current adds much to the beauty of the place. Pro- ceeding beyond Loggstown, through a fine country, interspersed with hills and rich valleys, watered by many rivulets, and covered with stately timber, they came to camp No. 4; on a level piece of ground, with a thicket in the rear, a small precipice round the front, with a run of water at the foot, and good food for the cattle. This day's march was nine miles, one half, and fifty-three perches.
Saturday, October 6th, at about three miles distance from this camp, they came again to the Ohio, pursuing its course half a mile farther, and then turning off, over a steep ridge, they crossed Big Beaver-creek, which is twenty perches wide, the ford stony and pretty deep. It runs through a rich vale, with a pretty strong current, its banks high, the upland adjoining it very good, the timber tall and young. About a mile below its confluence with the Ohio, stood formerly a large town, on a steep bank, built by the French of square logs, with stone chimneys, for some of the Shawanese, Delawares and Mingo tribes, who abandoned it in the year 1758, when the French deserted Fort Du Quesne. Near the fording of Beaver-creek also stood about seven houses, which were deserted and destroyed by the Indians, after their defeat at Bushy-run, when they forsook all their remaining settlements in this part of the country, as has been mentioned above. . . I
Two miles beyond Beaver-creek, by two small springs, was seen the scull of a child, that had been fixed on a pole by the Indians. The Tracts of 15 Indians were this day discovered. The camp No. 5 is seven miles one quarter and fifty-seven perches from Big Beaver-creek; the whole march of this day being about twelve miles. 2
Bouquet reached the Muskingum with the loss of but one man, and there, without fighting a battle, he so overawed the savages that they were soon brought to make a treaty of peace, to give hostages for their future good conduct, and to surrender all their prisoners. Two hundred and six captives were given up, and about one hundred more who were held by the Shawa-
1 The army probably crossed the Beaver near where the Bridgewater toll-bridge now stands. The town that is said to have been about a mile below the confluence of the Beaver with the Ohio stood on what is now known as "Groveland," about half a mile below Market Street in Beaver. See note on Sawkunk at page 3.
2 Philada. Ed., p. 10; Clarke's Reprint, p. 65.
58
History of Beaver County
nese at points distant from the camp on the Muskingum, were re- leased the following spring. The scenes here and elsewhere, when relatives and friends were reunited after months or years of separation, were very affecting, though in some cases the prisoners parted from their captors with the greatest reluctance, and the Indians themselves often manifested the greatest grief on parting with their adopted children. The results of this ex- pedition were of immeasurable value to the country. For ten years, at any rate, the land had rest from the sound of the war- whoop, and the settlements began rapidly to increase in num- bers and prosperity.
LORD DUNMORE'S WAR
But the cup of the settlers' woe was not yet full. The shame- ful conflict known as Lord Dunmore's War, which was occasioned by the unbridled passions of a few lawless men, was suddenly precipitated upon a community that had begun to realize for once the blessings of peace. A series of wanton and unprovoked murders of peaceful Indians had been committed by the whites, in some instances with such circumstances of barbarity as would have shamed even the savages, and these outrages speedily brought from the Indians terrible reprisals. We cannot read far in the history of the borders without finding that this was too often the case; the instances being many in which the lawless and murderous whites gave the Indians
Bloody instructions, which being taught, returned To plague the inventors
It may not be pleasant reading, but it is nevertheless in- structive to learn from contemporary sources what the character of a considerable part of the early population of this country was. Since in our succeeding chapters we pay frequent tribute to the worth of its better elements, we may be pardoned for speaking in this connection of a phase of the subject which is not so flattering to our patriotism. Among the pioneer settlers were many of the worst elements of the Old-World population: men who were deported here for their crimes, and who brought with them their criminal instincts and practices. And such men, to the embarrassment and distress of their commanders,
59
History of Beaver County
were found even in the ranks of those who were set to be the defenders of the country. Writing to Colonel Bouquet, from Bedford, November, 1763, Captain Ecuyer says:
I never saw anything equal to it-a gang of mutineers, bandits, cut- throats, especially the grenadiers. I have been obliged, after all the patience imaginable, to have two of them whipped on the spot without court-martial. One of them wanted to kill the sergeant, and the other wanted to kill me. For God's sake, let me go and raise cabbages. You can do it if you will, and I shall thank you eternally for it.I
He says, further, that the settlers, though afraid of the Indians, nevertheless always did their best to shelter deserters.
There was little conscience anywhere against killing Indians, whether in peace or war. Writing to Governor Penn from Ligonier, May 29, 1774, after the murder of "Wipey," a friendly Delaware Indian, Arthur St. Clair (afterwards General St. Clair), says :
It is the most astonishing thing in the world, the Disposition of the common people of this Country, actuated by the most savage cruelty, they wantonly perpetrate crimes that are a disgrace to humanity, and seem at the same time to be under a kind of religious enthusiasm whilst they want the daring spirit which that usually inspires. 2
It was almost impossible to convict a white man for the murder of an Indian; people, lawyers, juries, and even judges ignoring alike law and evidence to acquit some of the worst wretches that ever lived in any age or country. The sentiment of the border, in general, sustained the acts of Williamson's Washington County men in their atrocious massacre of the peaceful Moravian Indians at Salem.3 And we even find General Amherst and Colonel Bouquet corresponding about the feasibility of sending the smallpox among the Indians to destroy them, or of hunting them with dogs in the Spanish fashion.4
1 Conspiracy of Pontiac, Parkman, vol. ii., p. 161.
2 Frontier Forts, vol. ii., p. 229.
3 Washington-Irvine Correspondence, pp. 236-242, et seq. and 343-344.
4 See Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac, vol. ii., pp. 39-40. The feeling against the sav- ages overcame even the Quaker teachings of John Penn, grandson of William Penn, for in July, 1764, he offered by proclamation of the provincial authorities the following rewards:
",Whereupon it was agreed by the Board that the following several Premiums be offered by Proclamation for the Prisoners and scalps of the Enemy Indians that shall be taken or killed within the Bounds of this Province, as limited by the Royal Charter, or in pursuit from within the said Bounds, viz't:
"For every Male Indian Enemy above ten Years old taken Prisoner and delivered to the Officer of any Fort garrisoned by the Troops in the pay of this Province, or to the
60
History of Beaver County
Among the outrages which led to the troubles of the spring of 1774 were the murder of three friendly Indians, killed on the Ohio, Monongahela, and Cheat rivers by John Ryan; several at South Branch by two associates, Henry Judah and Nicholas Harpold; that of Bald Eagle, and the massacre of the family of the celebrated Logan. The last two mentioned were particu- larly atrocious. Bald Eagle was well known and well received among the settlers, frequently staying at their houses or hunting with them in the forests. Rupp's History of Western Pennsyl- vania relates the story of his death as follows:
In one of his visits among them [the whites], he was discovered alone and murdered, solely to gratify a most wanton thirst for Indian blood. After the commission of this most outrageous enormity, he was seated in the stern of a canoe, and with a piece of corn-cake thrust into his mouth, set afloat on the Monongahela. In this situation he was seen descending the river by several, who supposed him to be, as usual, returning from a friendly hunt with the whites in the upper settlements, and who ex- pressed some astonishment that he did not stop to see them. The canoe floating near to the shore, below the mouth of George's creek, was ob- served by a Mrs. Province, who had it brought to the bank, and the friendly, but unfortunate old Indian, decently buried .- (P. 180.)
The case of Logan's family is more familiar. In 1772, Logan,1 as related above, was living with his people at the mouth of Big Beaver Creek. The year following he settled at the
keeper of the common Gaol of any County Town within this Government, One hundred and fifty spanish Dollars.
"For every Female Indian Enemy, and for every Male Indian of 10 years old and under, taken & delivered as aforesaid 130 Spanish pieces of Eight.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.