History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania, Part 13

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Bedford County > History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania > Part 13
USA > Pennsylvania > Fulton County > History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania > Part 13
USA > Pennsylvania > Somerset County > History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania > Part 13

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).

The term "Scotch-Irish " is one so frequently used, and so little understood, that it is con- sidered appropriate in this place to explain its derivation. It appears that in the time of James I, of England, the Irish Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell conspired against his government, fled from Ireland, were proclaimed outlaws, and their estates, consisting of about five hundred

thousand acres of land, were seized by the crown. The king divided these lands into small tracts and gave them to persons from his own country (Scotland) because they were Protestants, on the sole condition that they should cross over into Ireland within four years and reside upon them permanently. A second insurrection soon after gave occasion for another large forfeiture. and nearly six counties in the province of Ulster were confiscated, and taken possession of by the officers of the government. King James was a zealous sectarian, and his primary object was to root out the native Irish, who were all Catholics, hostile to his government, and almost constantly plotting against it, and to re-people the country with those whom he knew would be loyal. The distance from Scotland to County Antrim, in Ireland, was but twenty miles. The lands thus offered free of cost were among the best and most productive in the Emerald Isle, though blasted and made barren by the troubles of the times and the indolence of a degraded peasantry. Having the power of the government to encour- age and protect them, the inducements offered to the industrious Scotch could not be resisted. Thousands went over. Many of them, though not lords, were lairds, and all were men of enterprise and energy, and above the average in intelligence. They went to work to restore the land to fruitfulness and to show the superiority of their habits and belief to those of the natives among whom they settled. They soon made the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Caven, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan and Tyrone - names familiar to Pennsylvanians - to blossom as the rose.

These, the first Protestants introduced into Ireland, at once secured the ascendancy in the counties which they settled, and their descend- ants have maintained that ascendancy to the present day against the efforts of the govern- ment church on the one hand and the Roman- ists on the other. They did not intermarry with the Irish who surrounded them. The Scotch were Saxon in blood, and Presbyterian in re- ligion, while the Irish were Celtic in blood and Roman Catholic in religion, and these were elements that would not readily coalesce. Hence the races are as distinct in Ireland today, after a lapse of more than two hundred and fifty years, as when the Scotch first crossed over. The term "Scotch-Irish " is purely American. It is not used in Ireland, and here it was given to the

* A complete list'of all the grist and saw mills in the south west quarter of Pennsylvania, in 1772, was as follows: Richard Pitt- man, sawmill, Daniel Royer, gristmill, and Moses Reed, grist and saw mill, in Air township; John Bird, gristmill, and Bartholomew Davis, sawmill, in Dublin township. now part of Huntingdon county ; Robt. Moore, gristmill, and Abraham Miley, Sr., grist and saw mill, in Colerain township; Andrew Steel. sawmill, in Bed- ford township; Capt. Arthur St. Clair, gristmill at Fort Ligonier, Fairfield township, now part of Westmoreland county ; Joseph Irwin, gristmill, in Hempfield township, now part of West- moreland county ; John Cavet, gristmill, Conrad Windmiller. grist and saw mill, and William Teagarden, gristmill, in Pitt township, which then included large portions of the present counties of Allegheny, Beaver and Washington ; Adam Hat- field, gristmill in Mt. Pleasant township, now part of Westmore- land county ; Paul Froman, tub gristmill in "Ross Straver " township, now part of Westmoreland county ; Henry Beeson, a Quaker from Virginia, who had a gristmill in Springhill township, or the point now known as Uniontown, Fayette county. The gristmills of Abraham Sills, John Hardin, Jr., George Wilson, Esq., and Jonathan Jones were also located in Springhill township as then bounded. John Waller, sawmill, and Providence Mounts, gristmill, in Tyrone township, which then included portions of the present counties of Fayette and Westmoreland.

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HISTORY OF BEDFORD, SOMERSET AND FULTON COUNTIES.

Protestant emigrants from the north of Ireland, simply because they were the descendants of the Scots who had in former times taken up their residence there.

In after times, under Catholic governments, the descendants of the Scots in Ireland were bitterly persecuted, and prior to 1764, large numbers had immigrated and settled in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina. In September, 1736, alone, one thou- sand families sailed from Belfast because of their inability to renew their leases upon satis- factory terms, and the most of them settled in the eastern and middle counties of Pennsyl- vania. They hoped, by a change of residence to find an unrestrained field for the exercise of their industry and skill, and for the enjoyment of their religious opinions. They brought with them a hatred of oppression, and a love of free- dom in its fullest measure, that served much to give that independent tone to the sentiments of the people of the province which prevailed in their controversies with the home government years before they seriously thought of inde- pendence.

They settled the Cumberland valley and brought its fair lands under cultivation. They fought the savages and stood as a wall of fire against their further forays eastward. It is said that between 1771 and 1773 over twenty- five thousand of them, driven from the places of their birth by the rapacity of their landlords, located in that valley and to the westward. This was just before the revolutionary war began, and while the angry controversies that preceded it were taking place between the colonists and the English government. Hence, these immigrants were in just the right frame of mind needed to make them espouse, to a man, the side of the patriots. A tory was unheard of among them. They were found as military leaders in all times of danger, and were among the most prominent law-makers, through and after the long struggle for freedom and human rights. They have furnished presidents, United States senators, congressmen, judges, and many others prominent in all the stations of life. In short, the names of these patriots and wise men, as well as the names of their descendants, are familiar words, not only in Pennsylvania, but throughout the Union.

Regarding the inhabitants termed Brethren, or German Baptists, people who are quite

numerous in these counties, especially in Somer- set, we learn from a church record and directory prepared by Howard Miller, of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1882, that the sect originated at Schwardzenau, Germany, in 1708, under the leadership of Alexander Mack. "He," says Mr. Miller, " with John Kipin, George Grevy, Andreas Bloney, Mrs. Mack, Mrs. Kipin and Joanna Nethigeim, his neighbors, met, from time to time, at their dwellings for the purpose of Bible reading and mutual improvement spiritually. They were all of Presbyterian descent except John Kipin and, possibly, Mrs. Kipin, who were Lutherans. It does not appear that they intended a separate organization, but met for the purpose of Bible reading and ex- planation. It soon occurred to them that they had not hitherto rendered that implicit obedi- ence which the word of God requires, and they determined upon a fuller compliance with the divine commands. They had not, at the time of their change of views, known of the existence of any Baptist organizations, but determined that true baptism consisted in trine immersion as the external form. They desired such immer- sion at the hands of Alexander Mack, who re- fused on the grounds of his not being himself baptized according to believers' baptism. They, accordingly, drew lots as to who should per- form the ceremony, but the name of him to whom the lot fell has been concealed, and is not now known.

"They baptized each other in the little river Elder running by the town of Schwardzenau, and the denominational existence of the Breth- ren began. Presently there were branches organized in the adjoining towns of Merrien- born, where Bro. John Naass was the minister, and at Epstien, under the oversight of Bro. Christian Levy. At that age of the world, the custom was to persecute those who ventured to differ in belief from the recognized forms of worship, and our early Brethren did not escape. Some of them were driven to Holland, and some to Creyfelt.

" In 1719, the Schwardzenau church emigrated bodily to America, where the utmost religious freedom has ever been tolerated. There landed about twenty families in the fall of that year at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and dispersed them- selves over the eastern part of the state, mainly to Conestoga, Skippack and Oley. Four years later, or in 1722, Brethren Baker, Gomery,

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THE WHITE MEN AS SETTLERS.

Gantz and Trautes began a systematic tour of evangelism with the most satisfactory results, and what we would now call 'arms' of the church were founded in a great many places. Those who remained in Europe, influenced by their American friends, with whom they kept up a correspondence, came to America in 1729. Some who remained, and others who were almost persuaded, were lost, denominationally speaking, and the Brethren were no longer a fact in the old world."

Having shown the origin and the date of settlement of the Brethren in America, it is only necessary to add here, that from the south- eastern part of Pennsylvania the members of this sect have gradually migrated southward and westward, until their present membership of about sixty thousand is found scattered in the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mary- land, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, California, Oregon, Ar- kansas and Texas. They were among what may be termed the original settlers of Somerset county. Brother's Valley, the first township formed in the region lying between the Alle- ghenies and Laurel Hill, derived its name from them, and today, in no place in the universe are there so many Brethren in so circumscribed an area as in the county named. It contains eleven congregations, twenty-seven meeting- houses, and about nineteen hundred members ; while Bedford county has five congregations, sixteen meeting-houses, and about one thousand members.

The foregoing chapter and all those which precede it have been prepared with the full knowledge that an absurd statement, by some termed a tradition, has for years found listeners around many Somerset county firesides. In- deed, we find that the "tradition" has been repeated so often, that a considerable number of well-meaning people have accepted it ax veri- table truth. In substance it is as follows : That some two hundred and thirty years ago, or about 1650, a half dozen families concluded to branch off from Roger Williams' colony in New England and establish an isolated, sepa- rate community of their own, and that after many days of weary wandering to the south- westward, finally settled down in the Turkey-

Foot region, where they and their descendants remained ever after, or at least within the memory of men now living.

Now, for the sake of an argument, conceding the possibility of a few white men and women surmounting all the dangers and difficulties of such a journey at that time - the crossing of rivers like the Connecticut, Hudson, Delaware and Susquehanna (besides the many minor streams, which of themselves would prove al- most insurmountable at this day without the aid of boats or bridges), the threading of track- less forests, climbing mountain ranges, passing by unheeded broad fertile valleys, and finally locating beyond the Alleghenies, in a rugged, pent-up region, where, surrounded by savages and wild beasts, they were contented to remain far away from friends, kindred and civilized man - granting, we repeat, that such were facts (though we deem the entire statement wholly improbable), and that a settlement of English- speaking whites wax effected at Turkey-Foot, thirty years before Penn's purchase of Pennsyl- vania, and the founding of Philadelphia, doex it not appear strange to the believers of the "tradition," that such an important event in the world's history should have been passed un- noticed by Christopher Gist (who visited this region prior to 1758), by Washington in 1753-4, by Capt. Orme (who was with Gen. Braddock in 1755), and by Rev. Capt. John Steel in his elaborate report of 1768?

Again it is claimed that among the men who settled near Turkey-Foot more than two hundred years ago, were " Henry Abrahams, one named Green, and another named Greathouse." Capt. Steel mentions Abrahams in his report (see pre- ceding pages in this chapter), but apparently had not heard of either Green or Greathouse. However, upon the first assessment rolls of Bed- ford county, made in 1771, for the year 1772, we find the names of Henry Abrahams and several others mentioned by Steel three years earlier, as well as those of William Greathouse and Thomas Green. These rolls likewise inform the reader that at the time of which we write -1771 - Abrahams. had twelve acres of land improved, owned two horses and three cows ; Greathouse had ten acres of improved land, two horses and three cows, while Green owned six acres of im- proved land, two horses and eight head of cattle.

We close this article by propounding a few queries. If these men were more than centen-

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HISTORY OF BEDFORD, SOMERSET AND FULTON COUNTIES.

arians, if they had been here in occupation of the land for the great period intervening be- tween 1650 and 1771, what had they been doing that in the last-mentioned year each respectively could boast of but twelve, ten and six acres of improved land ? How had they drifted so read- ily from an asserted degree of savageness into the ways of civilization? Where had they been during the terrible French and Indian war - 1754-63 - a period during which (many able writers have asserted) not a single English white settler existed west of the Allegheny mountains, and but very few to the westward of the Susquehanna river, and lastly, if there is any foundation whatever for the believers of the " tradition " to stand upon, why cannot a line of descent be shown from the men of Williams' colony down to those who claim to be their descendants ? In a word, we concede that there was an opportunity for the establishment of an English settlement at Turkey-Foot as early as 1763-4, but not prior to that time.

CHAPTER IX. ORGANIZATION, ETC., OF BEDFORD COUNTY.

Bedford organized as the Ninth County of the Province, and the -First West of the Tuscarora Mountain - Its Original Bound- aries - Dedimus Potestatem issued by Gov. John Penn - Form of Oaths, etc., administered under ye King - List of First County Officials - The First Session of Court - Erroneous Opinions Regarding the Boundaries of the County in 1771 - Description of the First Townships - A Turbulent Class of Inhabitants West of Laurel Hill - Letters and Deposition Re- lating Thereto - They Refuse to Recognize the Authority of Bedford County Officers - James Piper's Difficulties as County Commissioner - Bedford County well rid of Troubles to fol- low, by tne Erection of Westmoreland - Brief Remarks con- cerning Early and Prominent Bedford County Officials.

B' Y an act of the general assembly of the province, passed on Saturday, March 9, 1771, and entitled " An act for erecting a part of the county of Cumberland into a separate county," was created Bedford, as the ninth county of the province, and the first west of the Tuscarora mountain. "The great hardships the inhabitants of the western parts of the county of Cumberland lie under, from being so remote from the present seat of judicature and the public offices," was one of the reasons assigned by the people, in their petition asking for the formation of a new county. Robert McCrea, William Mil- ler and Robert Moore were the commissioners ap- pointed to "run, mark out and distinguish the

boundary lines between the said counties of Cum- berland and Bedford," and, as a result of their labors, the boundaries of the county of Bedford were declared to be as follows :* "Beginning where the province line crosses the Tuscarora mountain, and running along the summit of that mountain to the gap near the head of Path valley, thence with a north line to the Juniata, thence with the Juniata to the mouth of Sha- ver's creek, thence northeast to the line of Berks county, thence along the Berks county line northwestward to the west boundary of the province, thence southward according to the several courses of the boundary of the province, to the southwest corner of the province, and from thence eastward with the southern line of the province to the place of beginning." In general terms, then, as the reader will perceive, the county of Bedford embraced originally the entire southwest quarter of the state, or, as then termed, the province.

Three days after the passage of the act first referred to, Gov. John Penn affixed his signa- ture to a document of which the following is a copy, and thereby caused the wheels of govern- ment to commence revolving in the recently created county :

[L. s.] The Honourable John Penn, Esquire, Lieu- tenant Governor and Commander in Chief of the Prov- ince of Pennsylvania and Counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex on Delaware. To John Fraser,t Barnard Dougherty,t and Arthur St. Clair,t of the County of Bedford, Esquires, Greeting :

REPOSING special Trust and Confidence in your Loyalty and Integrity I have authorized and im- powered and by these presents do authorize and im- power you the said John Fraser, Barnard Dougherty and Arthur St. Clair, or either of you, to administer to all Judges, Justices, Sheriffs, Coroners and all other officers Civil and Military and all other Person and Persons whatsoever within the said county of Bed- ford, as well the oath of office, as- also the oath of Allegiance and Supremacy, and other the usual Declarations, Tests, and Qualifications required by Law to be taken by the said several officers, Civil and Military, to qualify them, every or any of them for the entering upon and executing their several and re- spective offices to which they are or shall be com- missionated, or as any other Occasion may make it requisite and proper to tender or administer the said

* The original description not being deemed sufficiently clear, an act was passed March 21, 1772, in which the boundaries were explained in less ambiguous terms ; George Woods, William Elliott, Robert Moore and Robert McCrea, being the persons designated to execute the provisions of the act.

t Fraser, Dougherty, and St. Clair were at that time justices of the peace in Cumberland county.

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ORGANIZATION, ETC., OF BEDFORD COUNTY.

Oaths, Tests and Qualifications, or any of them to such officers and other Persons untill my Pleasure shall be further known therein.

GIVEN under my hand and Seal at Arms at Phila- delphia the twelfth day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand Seven hundred and Seventy-one. JOHN PENN.

The form of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, declarations, etc., alluded to by Gov. Penn in the foregoing Dedimus Potestatem continued in use until the declaration of Ameri- can independence. Today these forms furnish strange and novel reading. Hence, in showing, in part, the manner of conducting official busi- ness "in ye good old colony times," a momen- tary digression is here indulged in to reproduce them :

I, A. B., do sincerely promise and swear that I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to his Majesty King George the Third. So help me God.

I, A. B., do swear that I do from my heart abhor, detest and objure as impious and heretical that dam- nable Doctrine and Position that Princes excommuni- cated and deprived by the Pope or any authority of the See of Rome may be deposed or murdered by their subjects or any other whomsoever, and I do de- clare that no foreign Prince, Person, Prelate, State or Potentate hath or ought to have Jurisdiction, Power, Superiority, Preeminence or Authority, Ecclesiastical or Spiritual, within this Realm. So help me God.

I, A. B., do declare that I believe that there is not any transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the consecration thereof by any Person or Per- sons whatsoever. So help me God.

I, A. B., do truly and sincerely acknowledge, pro- fess, testify and declare in my Conscience before God and the World, that our Sovereign Lord King George the Third is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and other His Majesty's Dominions thereunto belong- ing, and I do solemnly and sincerely declare that I do believe in my Conscience that not any of the descend- ants of the Person pretending to be the Prince of Wales, during the life of the late King James the Second, and since his decease Pretending to be and took npon himself the stile and title of King of England by the name of James the Third, and of Scotland by the name of James the Eighth, or the stile and title of King of Great Britain, hath any Right or Title whatsoever to the Crown of this Realm or any other the Dominions thereunto belonging, and I do renounce and abjure Allegiance or obedience to them, and I do swear that I will bear faithful and true allegiance to His Majesty King George the Third, and him will defend to the utmost of my power against all traitorous Conspiracies and attempts what- soever which shall be made against his person, Crown, and Dignity, and I will do my endeavor to disclose and make known to His Majesty and his successors

all treason and traitorous Conspiracies which I shall know to be against him or any of them, and I do faithfully promise to the utmost of my power to sup- port, maintain and defend the succession of the Crown against the Descendants of the said James, and against all other Persons whatsoever, which succes- sion (by an act entitled an act for the further Limita- tion of the Crown and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject) is, and stands limited to the Princess Sophia, late Electress and Dutchess Dowager of Hanover and the heirs of her Body, being Protes- tants, and all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear according to the express words by me spoken and according to the plain and Common Sense view and understanding of the same words without any Equivocation, mental reservation or secret evasion whatsoever, and I do make this Recognition, Acknowledgement, Abjuration, Renunci- ation and Promise heartily, willingly and truly, upon the true faith of a Christian. So help me God."

On Monday, March 11, 1771, John Fraser, Barnard Dougherty, Arthur St. Clair, William Proctor, Jr., Robert Cluggage, Robert Hanna, George Wilson, George Woods, William Lochry, William Crawford, Dorsey Pentecost, William McConnell, Thomas Gist, James Milligan and Alexander McKee "were agreed on to be jus- tices of the court of general quarter sessions of the peace and of the county court of common pleas for the said county of Bedford." Their commissions were issued on the following day, and on the same day, also, three separate com- missions were made out appointing Arthur St. Clair, "prothonotary, or principal clerk of the county court of common pleas, clerk or register of the orphans' court, and recorder of deeds." Subsequently, William Proctor was appointed sheriff, Robert Hanna, Dorsey Pentecost and John Stephenson county commissioners (who afterward appointed Samuel Davidson county treasurer), James Pollock, Samuel Miller, Solo- mon Sheppard, Joseph Bealor, James Cavet and Richard Wells, Jr., county assessors. The above-named officers received their commissions about the 1st of April, whereupon they were sworn into office, and at once entered upon the performance of their respective duties.

Before William Proctor, Jr., Robert Clug- gage, Robert Hanna, George Wilson, William Lochrey and William McConnell, Esqs., "Jus- tices of our Lord the King to hear and de- termine divers felonies and misdemeanors in the said county committed," the first term of the court of general quarter sessions of the peace began at Bedford on Tuesday, April 16,

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HISTORY OF BEDFORD, SOMERSET AND FULTON COUNTIES.

1771. As grand jurors there were also present James Anderson (foreman), Charles Cessna, James McCashlin, Thomas Kenton, Allen Rose, George Milligan, John Moore, Robert Culbert- son, George Funk, John Huff, Rinard Wolfe, Valentine Shadacre, Frederick Nawgel, Thomas Hay, Samuel Drenning, Edward Rose, Samuel Skinner, William Parker, Christopher Miller, Thomas Croyle, Adam Saam, Jacob Fisher and David Rinehart.

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History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania, Part 13

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

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