History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania, Part 10

Author: Waterman, Watkins & Co.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 967

USA > Pennsylvania > Bedford County > History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania > Part 10
USA > Pennsylvania > Fulton County > History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania > Part 10
USA > Pennsylvania > Somerset County > History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania > Part 10

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).

matter rested until July 4, 1760, when a new agreement was made and seven commissioners appointed for each proprietary to establish the line. These commissioners chose four survey- ors to execute the work, namely : John Lukens and Archibald McClean for Pennsylvania, and John F. A. Priggs and John Hall for Mary- land. They immediately commenced opera- tions, but by reason of the great natural diffi- culties to be overcome and the imperfection of their instruments and appliances, their progress was so slow that in 1763 the proprietaries residing in London became impatient, and in August of that year employed Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, "London astronomers and surveyors," to complete the work.

These surveyors came to America at once and commenced operations, but it was nearly two years before they had finished the prelimi- nary work at the eastern end and fairly started on the due east and west line which has been since known by their names - Mason and Dixon's line. By the end of that year they had advanced as far west as the end of the tempo- rary line of 1739. In the spring of 1766 they again commenced work, and on June 4th had reached the top of Little Allegheny Mountain,* but dared not proceed farther for fear of the Indians.

After that no progress was made until June, 1767, when the surveying party again took up the work, being then escorted by a party of warriors of the Six Nations to hold the threat- ening Shawnees and Delawares in check. The point where Braddock's road crosses from Mary- land into Somerset county, Pennsylvania, was reached on August 24th, and there the Iroquois escort left them ; but they pushed on, crossing the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers, and in October came to the broad Indian trail known as the Warrior Branch, near the second cross- ing of Dunkard creek. The Delawares and Shawnees had been growing more and more threatening since the departure of the Six Nations' warriors, and they now positively for- bade any advance by the surveyors west of the crossing of the trail. The party deemed it not prudent to proceed in defiance of this prohibi- tion, and consequently the line stopped at that point, beyond which it was not extended until about fifteen years later.

. The point of division between Bedford and Somerset coun- ties, on the Southern border.

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THE WHITE MEN AS SETTLERS.

Messrs. Mason and Dixon returned to Phila- delphia and reported the facts to the commis- sioners, when they received an honorable discharge (dated December 26, 1767), having been engaged in the service about four years. They were allowed twenty-one shillings each per day for one month, from June 21, of the last year ; the rest of the time and until their arrival in England they were paid ten shillings and sixpence each per day. From 1760 to 1768, the Penns paid out for these surveys the sum of £34,200.

We add, in this connection, that much diffi- culty was likewise experienced by the Peuns in establishing a boundary line between their province and Virginia, the latter claiming the region west of Laurel Hill and northward to and including Fort Pitt. Yet, as that was a matter which intimately concerned the early inhabitants of Bedford county for but a brief period -from the time Bedford county was formed until the organization of the county of Westmoreland-it will be alluded to in a few words, only, in the chapter entitled " Organiza- tion, etc., of the Ninth County of the Province."

CHAPTER VIII. THE WHITE MEN AS SETTLERS.

Indian Traders - Their Mode of Life - Ray and Pendergrass at Raystown - An Indian Document -John Fraser at Raystown in 1758- Barnard Dougherty and Other Scotch-Irishmen come a Few Years Later - Daring White Men Settle on Indian Lands West of the Alleghenies - Detailed Account of Their Troubles - Extracts from Colonial Records - The Turkey- Foot Settlement - Indian Treaties - The Purchase of 1768- Manner of Establishing Claims - Price of Wild Lands under the Penns and the Commonwealth -The Taxables of the Two Counties in 1772 -Colonial Mills - National Character- istics-Scotch-Irish -The Brethren or Dunkards.

U NDOUBTEDLY the first white explorers of the region now embraced by the coun- ties of Bedford and Somerset were Indian trad- ers, French and English. The date of their first appearance here is not known, but it was certainly as early as 1732, when the attention of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania was called to the fact that Frenchmen were known to be among the Indians within the supposed western limits of the territory claimed by the Penns under the royal grant. This announce- ment caused considerable discussion and some vague action on the part of the council, and

there is no doubt that the fact, which then be- came publicly known, had the effect to bring in the English-speaking traders (if, indeed, they were not already here) to gather their share of profits from a lucrative Indian trade.

Tradition says that the French traders, after passing down the valley of the Allegheny, pene- trated from the mouth of that stream southeast- ward into the country drained by the Mononga- hela and Youghiogheny, and that some of them came many years before the campaigns of Wash- ington and Braddock, intermarried with the Indians (a common occurrence with French traders of that date), settled and formed a village on the waters of George's creek, in the present county of Fayette.

Of the English-speaking traders some were Pennsylvanians, who came in by way of the Juniata river and the pack-horse trail leading westward through the present towns of Carlisle, Shippensburg, Chambersburg, McConnellsburg and Bedford, while others were from the prov- inces of Maryland and Virginia, who passed over the Indian trail leading from Old Town, Maryland, to the Youghiogheny. These trad- ers, both French and English, were daring, ad- venturous men, ever ready and willing to brave the perils of the wilderness and risk their lives among the savages for the purpose of gain, but they were in no sense settlers-only wanderers from point to point, according to the require- ments or inducements of their location. And as regards the region embraced in this work, few, if any, of their names have been preserved, other than those of Ray and Garrett Pender- grass.

Early local writers have asserted that the first settlement on the Raystown branch of the Juniata was made by a man named Ray in 1751, who built three cabins on or near the site of the town of Bedford; that this branch of the river derived its name from him, and that the locality was known for a decade or so of years as Raystown. The state archives prove the latter assertion to be correct, but here all knowledge or trace of Ray ends ; we know not how long he remained here, or what occupation he pursued. We conjecture, however, that he was here for the purpose of trading with the Indians, that he was a cotemporary of George Croghan at Aughwick ; of the old German Indian trader Stephen Franks at Frankstown ; of John Hart at "Hart's Log" or "Sleeping

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HISTORY OF BEDFORD, SOMERSET AND FULTON COUNTIES.

Place," and that he died or removed from the banks of the stream which still perpetuates his name, before the beginning of the French and Indian war.

On July 6, 1754, the chiefs of the Six Nations granted to the proprietaries of the province a vast body of land, now forming the counties of Bedford, Fulton, Perry, Huntingdon, Blair, Mifflin and Juniata, and parts of Franklin, Somerset, Snyder, Union and Centre. This grant caused widespread dissatisfaction among many of the Indians, and in consequence was not confirmed until October 23, 1758. Prior to the first date, however, and before the be- ginning of the French and Indian war, the chiefs and deputies of the Six Nations gave leave to one Garrett Pendergrass to occupy and improve three hundred acres of land now largely em- braced within the borough limits of Bedford. Doubtless, Pendergrass, too, was a trader, and as compensation for the three hundred acres he dis- tributed among his savage friends sundry kegs of rum, belts of wampum, etc., etc. On Septem- ber 19, 1772, Capt. (afterward Maj .- Gen.) Arthur St. Clair, as the first prothonotary, register, re- corder, etc., of the county of Bedford, recorded the following document, which, besides explain- ing the above-mentioned transaction between Pendergrass and the Indians, shows also how and when Pendergrass became the first individ- ual owner of the site of Allegheny City :

KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that Whereas a certain Garret Pendergrass, sen., of Bedford Settle- ment, in the Province of Pennsylvania, and County of Cumberland, was settled some number of years past by leave of the Chiefs or Deputy's of the Six Nations of Indians, on a tract of Land * where Bed- ford is now situate, while the said Land was yet the property of us and our said Chiefs and Depu- ties, said Pendergrass being dispossessed of said land In time of the War between the French and English, and before the Said Pendergrass Could saifly return to live on said Land it was Entered upon by people who have from time to time and yet Continues to keep said Pendergrass from the Enjoy- ment of said Tract of Land. Said Pendergrass at the last Treaty Held at Fort Pitt with the Represent- atives of the Said Six Nations, informed our said

Chiefs or their Representatives or deputy's that he was deprived of the above Tract of Land as above mentioned. Whereupon, us and our said deputy's did then at the said Treaty give him, the said Pender- grass, our leave in writing under our hands, to settle on a Tract of Land called the Long Reach, near the mouth of the Yanghyagain [ meaning the Youghio- gheny]. but the said last mentioned Tract being at the time of the said Treaty, or before it, Improved by some other person or persons Contrary to our Expectation, for which Reason, he, the said Pendergrass, has not obtained Possession of the Latter mentioned Tract and can not Quiatly Enjoy neither of the two above men- tioned Tracts.

KNOW YE, THEREFORE, That we the under or within bound subscribers who have hereunto caused our names to be set and have put our marks, the first of us assigning being one of the Chiefs, and the other two deputy's, off the said Six Nations, do give and grant to the said Garret Pendergrass, his heirs and trustees forever, our full leave and liberty of us and for and in behalf of the said Six Nations, to settle on a Tract of Land on the north side of the Aligaina River opposite to Fort Pitt, to joyn the said River on the one side and to extend one Mile and a half from the Land- ing on the North side of the said Aligaina River op- posite to Fort Pitt, in form of a Cemi-Circle from said Landing, hereby granting to him and his heirs, trustees and assigns full liberty to build houses, make im- provements, and cultivate the said Tract of Land, or any part thereof, and that the said Pendergrass may the more Quiatly Enjoy the said Land and any benefit that him, his heirs or assigns shall make or can make thereby, we do for ourselves and in behalf of the said Six Nations, discharge all people whatsoever from mo lesting or disturbing him, the said Pendergrass, his heirs, Trustees or assigns, in the Possession or Quiat Enjoyment of the said land or any part thereof, and we do by these presents firmly engage and promise to answer all objections that any Indian tribe or tribes may have to the making of the above settlement.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, we have caused our names hereunto to be Subscribed and have hercunto set our marks, in the Month of February, in the year of our Lord God one thousand seven hundred and seventy.

ANONQUIT X [Mark ]. ENISHSHERA, OR CAPTY. HENRY MOUNTARE, H. M. CONNEHRACAHECAT, OR THE WHITE MINGO X [ Mark ].

Chief Anonguit's mark was a turtle. Cupt. Mountare attached to his name the initial letters H. M., while the White Mingo's sign was a circle within a circle. This queer instru- ment was acknowledged in the presence of James Elliott, " one of His Majesty's justices of the peace" for Cumberland county, during the same month and year in which it was written.

We thus ascertain the facts that although Ray and Pendergrass were at one time ocen-

* Regarding Pendergrass' claim to the site of the town of Bed- ford, the records still further inform us that on June 17, 1772, Garret Pendergrass, Sr., in consideration of the sum of £300 sterling, transferred to Garret Pendergrass, Jr., "all that Improve- ment and Tract of Land which is situate on both sides of the Ray's Town Branch of the Juniata, including the springs known by the name of the Three Springs. Bounded westward with land formerly claimed by William Fredrigal [see history of Bed- ford Borough for account of Fredregill], and in Bedford township in the county of Bedford aforesaid, being the same land on which the Town called Bedford now stands, and containing by Esti- mate, three hundred acres, be the same more or less."

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THE WHITE MEN AS SETTLERS.

pants of the region now known as the central part of the county of Bedford, neither remained permanently, and that both removed just prior to or during the French and Indian war on the borders, which was inaugurated in Pennsyl- vania by Washington and his Virginia riflemen in the summer of 1754. Thereafter, it is quite apparent, none of the English-speaking whites attempted to locate in the territory now em- braced by the two counties, until its occupation by Gen. Forbes' army in 1758.

With Forbes, as indicated in a previous chapter, came many wagoners, camp-followers, artisans, etc. Stockade forts were built at Raystown (soon afterward termed Bedford) and at Juniata Crossings, and around either work of defense remained permanently a small number of people, not soldiers, who thereby became the first permanent residents of Bedford county. It is an impracticable task, at this time, to determine who they were, but among them was John Fraser*, who established an inn and trading post at Fort Bedford. Near the fort at Juniata Crossings settled at an early date the Pipers and others, who, during Indian forays and alarms, sought safety within its wooden walls. Barnard t Dougherty was also one of the very early residents at Bedford, and we believe its first justice of the peace, as wit- ness the following excerpt from the " Minutes of the Provincial Council" under date of May 9, 1767. "It having been several times repre- sented to the Governor that the inhabitants in and about Fort Bedford, and in Sherman's valley, were in great necessity for justices of the peace to reside among them, and James Elliott, Bernard Dougherty and George Robin- son being well recommended as the most proper and best qualified persons in those parts of the country to execute the duty of magistrates, the Governor, with the advice of the board, or- dered special commissions to be issued, appoint- ing them justices of the peace and of the county court of common pleas for the county of Cumberland."

Meanwhile, immediately after the conclusion of peace between France and England (which was accomplished at Paris, February 10, 1763) and for the three or four years closely succeed- ing, the sturdy Scotch-Irish, with a few

Germans, began the work of establishing " tomahawk claims" over a wide part of the present county of Bedford. West of the Alle- ghenies a different state of affairs existed. The Indians still owned all of the territory to the westward of the crest of those mountains and north of the grants of 1749 and 1754-8, and the King of Great Britain, desiring to appear to have the welfare of the Indians much at heart, issued a proclamation in October, 1763, declaring that they must not, and should not, be molested in their hunting-grounds by the encroachments of settlers, and forbidding any governor of a colony or any military comman- der to issue any patents, warrants of survey or settlement permits for lands to the westward of the headstreams of rivers flowing into the Atlantic - this, of course, being an interdiction . of all settlements west of the Alleghenies. But the effect was baneful; for while the prohibition was disregarded by daring men and the colonial authorities-particularly of Virginia-it caused the savages to be still more jealous of their rights, and to regard incoming settlers with increased distrust and dislike. This condition of affairs was rendered still more alarming by the Indian troubles in the West, termed the "Pontiac War," which occurred in that year, and by which the passions of the savages - especially those west of the mountains named, were inflamed to such a degree that the few settlers in the trans-Allegheny region again became terrified at the prospect and fled from the country.

Nevertheless the thorough and decisive chas- tisement administered to the savages by Gen. Boquet on the Muskingum in the fall of 1764, brought them to their senses, somewhat, and made the country once more safe, so that the years 1765 and 1766 not only saw the return of the people who had fled, but a considerable in- crease of settlements in the same territory by fresh arrivals of immigrants from the frontiers of Maryland and Virginia. A letter dated Winchester, Virginia, April 30, 1765, said : "The frontier inhabitants of this colony and Maryland are removing fast over the Allegheny mountains, in order to settle and live there." The people here referred to, and others for several succeeding years, settled chiefly in the valley of the Redstone, at Turkey-Foot and some other points below on the Youghiogheny, in the valley of Cheat river, and in Gist's

. No matter how this name has since been written, the pioneer himself wrote it, and in a very legible manner, too, Fruver.

+ He signed his name Barnard, not Bernard.

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HISTORY OF BEDFORD, SOMERSET AND FULTON COUNTIES.

neighborhood just west of Laurel Hill, or the locality now termed Mt. Braddock. These settlements were all made during the years from 1763 to 1768 inclusive, and, with that at Fort Pitt, embraced, until about the year 1770, nearly all the white inhabitants of the province of Pennsylvania west of the Alleghenies.

In October, 1765, he, having learned that settlements were being made quite rapidly west of the mountains in defiance of his inhibition, the king of England sent the following instruc- tions to Gov. Penn : "Whereas, it hath been represented unto us that several persons from Pennsylvania and the back settlements of Vir- ginia have migrated to the westward of the Allegheny mountains, and there have seated themselves on lands contiguous to the river Ohio, in express disobedience to our royal proclamation of the 7th of October, 1763 : It is therefore our will and pleasure, and you are here- by strictly enjoined and required to use your best endeavors, to suppress such unwarrantable pro- ceedings, and to put a stop to these and all other the like encroachments for the future, by caus- ing all persons belonging to the province under your government, who have there irregularly seated themselves on lands to the westward of .

the Allegheny mountains, immediately to evac- uate those settlements, and that you do enforce, as far as you are able, a more strict obedience to our commands, signified in our said royal proclamation, and provide against any future violence thereof."

Instructions of like purport had been sent to the Governor of Virginia in 1764, and a procla- mation had been issued by the Governor, but without having the desired effect. The dixsat- isfaction among the Indians increased rapidly, and to a degree which awakened the authorities to the necessity for some action to allay it. The chiefs of the Six Nations were invited to a treaty council, which was accordingly held at Fort Pitt in May, 1766, at which no little dis- pleasure was expressed by the Indians at the un- warranted trespasses being made by the whites. In a letter dated at the fort on the 24th of the month mentioned, George Croghan, deputy Indian agent, said : " As soon as the peace wax made last year, contrary to our engagements to them [the Indians], a number of our people came over the Great Mountain and settled at Redstone creek and upon the Monongahela, he- fore they had given the country to the king,

their father." He also addressed Gen. Gage, commander-in-chief of the English forces in America, saying : " If some effectual measures are not speedily taken to remove those people settled on Redstone creek till a boundary can be properly settled, as proposed, and the gover- nors pursue vigorous measures to deter the frontier inhabitants from murdering Indians which pass to and from war against their ene- mies, the consequences may be dreadful, and we involved in all the calamities of another general war."

This resulted in the issuance of a proclamation by Gov. Penn, wherein "all His Majesty's sub- jects of this or any other province or colony " were prohibited " from making any settlements, or taking any possession of lands, by marking trees or otherwise, beyond the limits of the last Indian purchase, within this province, upon pain of the severest penalties of the law, and of being excluded from the privilege of securing such settlements should the lands where they shall be made be hereafter purchased of the Indians." The white trespassers still maintaining their ground in the Indian territory, Capt. Alexander Mackay, with a detachment of the 42d regiment of foot, was ordered to Redstone creek, where, on June 22, 1766, he issued the following :

NOTICE OF ALEX. MACKAY TO ALL PEOPLE NOW IN- HABITING TO THE WESTWARD. OF THE ALLEGANIA MOUNTAINS, 1766:

In consequence of several Complaints made by the Savages against the People who have presumed to In- habit some part of the Country west of the Allegania Mountain, which by Treaty belong to them, and had never been purchased, and which is contrary to his Majesty's Royal Proclamation ; his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, out of Compassion to your ignorance, before he proceeds to Extremity, have been pleased to order me with a detachment from the Garrison of Fort Pitt, to come here and collect you together, to inform you of the Lawless and Licentious manner in which you behave, and to order you all to return to your several Provinces without delay, which I am to do in the presence of some Indian Chiefs now along with me. I therefore desire you will all come to this place along with the Bearer, who I have sent on purpose to collect you together.

His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief has or- dered, in case you should remain after this notice, to seize and make prize of all Goods and Merchandize brought on this side the Allegania Mountain, or ex- posed to sale to Indians, at any place except at his Majesty's Garrison ; that Goods thus seized will be a lawful prize, and become the property of the Captors. The Indians will be encouraged in this way

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THE WHITE MEN AS SETTLERS.

of doing themselves Justice, and if accidence should happen, you lawless people must look upon your- Belves as the Cause of whatever may be the conse- quence hurtful to your Persons and Estates, and if this should not be sufficient to make you return to your several Provinces, his Excellency the Com- mander-in-Chief will order an armed Force to drive you from the lands you have taken possession of to the Westward of the Allegania Mountain, the pro- perty of the Indians, till such time as his Majesty may be pleased to fix a further Boundary.

Such people as won't come to this place are to send their names and the Province they belong to, and what they are to do by the Bearer, that his Excel- lency the Commander-in-Chief may be acquainted with their Intentions.

On July 31 following the issuance of Mac- kay's "Notice," Gov. Fauquier, of Virginia, issued a proclamation to the people who had presumed to settle to the westward of the Alle- ghenies in defiance of his previous warning and prohibition-which had been regarded by the trespassers merely as a formal compliance with the king's order, and not intended to be en- forced -requiring such persons to immediately evacuate their settlements, which if they failed to do promptly, they must expect no protection or mercy from the government, but would be left to the revenge and retribution of the ex- asperated Indians.

At the request of the assembly, Gov. Penn, in October, 1766, addressed the governor of Virginia, saying that, without any authority whatever from Pennsylvania, settlements had been made near the Redstone creek and the Monongahela, and that he had no doubt this had been done also without the consent of the government of Virginia, and in violation of the rights of the Indian nations. He desired Gov. Fauquier to unite with him in remov- ing the settlers from the region west of the mountains, and promised in case of necessity to furnish a military force to effect the object. Gov. Fauquier replied that he had already issued three proclamations to the settlers with- out effect, but that the commander-in-chief had taken a more effectual method to remove them, by ordering an officer and a detachment of sol- diers to summon the settlers in all parts west of the Allegheny mountains to quit their illegal settlements, and in case of a refusal to threaten forcible expulsion and seizure of their movable property.

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History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania, Part 10

Author: Waterman, Watkins & Co. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Number of Pages: 967

Author: Waterman, Watkins & Co.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 967