USA > Pennsylvania > Butler County > History of Butler County, Pennsylvania. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 3
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upon the 4th of December, "without anything re- markable happening but a eontinned season of bad weather." "This is an old town," says Washington in his journal, " situated at the mouth of French Creek upon the Ohio,* and lies near north about sixty miles from Logstown. but more than seventy the way we were oblige.l to go." They found the French colors hoisted at a house from which they had driven John Frazier, an English subjeet, and Washington immediately repaired there to learn where the com- mander resided. There were three officers there, one of whom was said to have command of the Ohio, but they told the English Commissioner that there was a general officer at the near fort (Fort Le Boenf, now Waterford, Erie County), and advised him to apply there for an answer to his inquiries. " They" (the offi- cers at Venango) " told me," writes Washington, " that it was their absolute design to take possession of the Ohio, and by G -- d they would do it; for that, although they were sensible the English eould raise two men for their one, yet they knew their motions were too slow and dilatory to prevent any undertaking of theirs. They pretend," continues the journal, "to have an undoubted right to the river from a discovery made by one La Salle, sixty years ago, and the rise of this expedition is to prevent English settlement on the river or the waters of it."
Washington journeyed on to Fort Le Boeuf; ar- rived there on the 11th of December and remained there until the 16th, holding an unsatisfactory con- ference with the commandant, Legardeur La Pierre. On the 22d he reached Venango. The horses had now become very weak, and it was doubted whether they could perform the journey to " the forks." Wash- inton and all of the others except the drivers, who were oblied to ride, gave up their horses, that they might be made to carry packs. The horses became daily less able to travel, the cold increased, and the trail became much worse because of a heavy fall of snow, and therefore, as Washington was anxious to make report of his proceedings to the Governor as early as possible, ho " determined to prosecute his journey the nearest way through the woods on foot."
Here we will quote literally from his journal:
"I took my necessary papers, pulled off my elothes and tied myself up in a mateh-coat. Then, with gun in hand and pack upon my back, in which were my papers and provisions, I set out with Mr. Gist, fitted in the same manner, on Wednesday, the 16th. The day following, just after we had passed a place called Murdering Town (where we intended to quit the path and steer across the country for Shannapin's Townt).
*Christopher Gist was a very prominent character of his time, and his life was crowded with adventure. lle was a native of England, and first became knowo in North Carolina as a good surveyor, a bold and skillful woodsman, and an intrepid explorer. As agent for the Ohio Company, he made a journey to the wilderness west of the Alleghanies in 1750, penetrated Ohio to the Scioto and the Miamis, and went down the Oblo River nearly to the site of Louisville. lle was the first explorer of Kentucky. In 1754, he was again with Washing. ton in the Fort Necessity campigo, and was chosen by Braddock as chief guide for his expedition. In 1756, he was sent South, and succeeded in enlist- ing the Cherokees in the English interests. Ile was appointed Indian agent for the South, and indorsed by Washington who said : " I know of no person to well qualified for the position." Hle died somewhere in the South, but the place and time of his death are unknown. He had three sons who were men of note, one of them a Colonel in the Revolutionary army.
+The Half King was a good friend of the English, but unfortunately be died at llarris Ferry, (Harrisburg) in October, 1754. Had it not been for his untimely death, it is conjectured by Craig and some other historians, Brad- docks' overwhelming defeat might possibly have been averted.
It appears from this that the Allegheny was then called the Ohio.
fshannapin's Town was an Indian village, situated on the east side of the Allegheny, extendio; from the two-mile run down towards the forks .- N B Craig.
14
IIISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
wo fell in with a party of French Indians who had lain in wait for us. One of them fired at Mr. Gist or me, not fifteen stops off, but fortunately missed. We took this fellow into custody and kept him until about 9 o'clock at night, then let him go and walked all of the remaining part of the night without making any stop, that we might get the start so far as to be out. of reach of their pursuit the next day."
The incident to which Washington casually alludes is narrated at length by his companion. Gist, who also kept a journal. As it relates to an occurrence the seene of which was undoubtedly in Butler Coun- ty, and throws much light upon the character of Washington, we reproduce the entire paragraph:
.
" We rose early in the morning and set out about 2 o'clock and got to the Murdering Town, on the Southeast Fork of Beaver Creek .* Here we met an Indian whom I thought I had seen at Joncaire's, at. Venango, when on our journey up to the French fort. This fellow called me by my Indian name, and pre- tended to be glad to see me. I thought very ill of the fellow, but did not care to let the Major know I mistrusted him. But he soon mistrusted him as much as I did. The Indian said he could hear a gun from his cabin, and steered us more northerly. We grew uneasy. and then he said two whoops might be heard from his cabin. We went two miles farther. Then the Major said he would stay at the next water. We came to water: we came to a clear meadow. It was very light, and snow was on the ground. The Indian made a stop and turned about. The Major saw him point his gun toward us. and he fired. Said the Ma- jor, 'Are you shot?' . No.' said I. upon which the Indian ran forward to a big standing white oak and began loading his gun, but we were soon with him. I would have killed him but the Major woud not suffer me. We let him charge his gun; we found he put in a ball: then we took care of him. Either the Major or I always stood by the guns. We made him make a fire for us by a little run. as if we intended sleeping. I said to the major. 'As you will not have him killed, we must get him away, and then we must travel all night,' upon which I said to the Indian, 'I suppose you were lost and fired your gun." He said he knew the way to his cabin, and it was but a little way. . Well.' said I. ' do you go home, and as we are tired, we will follow your track in the morning, and here is a cake of bread for you, and you must give us meat for it in the morning.' He was glad to get away. I followed him and listened until he was out of the way, and then we went about half a mile. when we made our fire, set our compass, fixed our course
' The southeast fork of Beaver Creek," was probably the Convognenessing. Traces of an Indian village were plainly visible upon this stream in the vicinity of Buhl's Mill, Forward Township when the country was settled, and many years later.
and traveled all night. In the morning, we were at the head of Piny Creek."
Washington and Gist, as has been heretofore stated, when they journeyed northward to Venango, started from Logstown. Their route must have led by the site of Zelienople. Upon their return. they di- rected their steps as directly as possible toward " the forks." and must have passed very near the location of Evansburg. Breakneck was undoubtedly the "wa- ter" to which the travelers came just before the Indian treacherously fired at them. The head-waters of Pine Creek (Gist's Piny Creek), which Washington and his companion reached in the morning, are in Franklin Township of Allegheny County, about half a mile west from the Pittsburgh plank roa:l. The distance from Evansburg is just about that which two tired men could walk during the night in snow of considerable depth.
The Indian who shot at Washington may have lived at a village only a short distance from the scene of the occurrence. A cluster of wigwams was dis- covered by Thomas Wilson, a pioneer, in 1796. on the farm now owned by Robert Ash. and situated on the south side of Breakneck Creek, a mile and a half from Harmony, on the Harmony and Evansburg road.
It thus seems a fair inference that it was upon the waters of Breakneck that Washington's life was im- periled upon the 27th of December, 1753. His es- cape was doubtless a narrow one. Upon the 16th of January, 1754, he arrived at Williamsburg and pre- sented to the Governor the letter of the French com- mandant, and so was concluded the first important public service of George Washington.
All doubt as to French claims and intentions were removed by Washington's visit. Gov. Dinwiddie, in order to arouse the colonies. had Washington's jour- nal published far and wide, and reprinted in En- gland. This led to very important and immediate action, since it was the first positive intelligence of the views and designs of the French.
In 1758, another eminent man, whose name is fre quently to be met with in the pages of early Penn- sylvania history, passed through the country, which, forty-two years later, was included in the bounds of Butler County. This was Christian Frederick Post. an unassuming, honest German, a Moravian. who spent the greater part of his life in preaching to the Indians of Pennsylvania and Ohio. While at Bethle- hem. he was prevailed upon to carry an important message from the Government of Pennsylvania to the Delawares, Shawanese and Mingo Indians, settled on the Ohio, the object of which was to prevail upon them to withdraw from the French interest, and thus prevent an attack upon the advancing columns of Gen. Forbes.
15
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
Post's journal possesses a peculiar interest from the fact that it contains the earliest known mention of the Connoquenessing, by name, by a white man. The missionary started from Philadelphia for the Ohio July 15, 1758, and arrived at Fort Venango upon the 7th of August. From Venango, Post and his companion, an Indian chief named Pesquetum, set out for Kosh-kosh-kung (or, as he spells the name, Cusheushkunk). They started southward upon the 8th of August. and upon the 10th discovered that they were lost. They imagined that they were near Cusheushkunk, but met an Indian and an English trader, who informed them that they were within twenty miles of Fort Du Quesne. They " struck out of their road to their right, and slept that night be- tween two mountains." The next day they killed two deer, which Post and Pesquetum roasted, while the Indian and the trader "went to hunt for a road, to know which way we shall go." The journal reads: "One came back and found a road. and the other lost himself." Under date of the 12th of August. Post made the following entry: "We all hunted for him, but in vain. We could not find him, so coneluded to set off, leaving such marks that if he returned he might know which way to follow us, and we left him some meat. We came to the River Conaquanosshan, an old Indian town. We were then fifteen miles from Cushcushkunk."
The point at which Post saw the " Conaquanos- shan " was probably about where Harmony now stands, as this village is just fifteen miles in a straight line from Newport, which occupies the site of Cush- cushkunk, or Kosh-kosh-kung. If this supposition is correct, there must then have been, in the year 1758, " an old Indian town" upon or very near the ground on which Harmony is built.
Subsequent to Washington's visit to the site of Pittsburgh in 1753, and prior to the opening of the Rev- olutionary war, many momentous events occurred there. Great Britain, France, Great Britain again, and the colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania, were successively in possession. The site of Pittsburgh was captured by Contrecœur in 1754, and by Forbes in 1758. In 1763, the town and fort was besieged by Indians, and in 1755, Braddock's terrible defeat occurred upon the Monongahela. Upon the Sth of September. 1756. the Indian village of Kittanning. ou the Allegheny (upon the site of the present town) was destroyed by Col. John Armstrong, after whom Arm- strong County was named. The stroke was one of the severest the Indians received.
But these events, the most important of the period in Western Pennsylvania do not properly belong to the history of the narrower field which is the province of this volume. We simply refer to them to remind
the reader of the history of the times, and hasten on to the chronicling of those affairs which, although less important in themselves, may more appropriately be treated in these pages.
For several years subsequent to 1779, the Upper Allegheny was the scene of strong offensive operations against the Indians. From their villages on the river. the Muncies and Soneeas had made frequent forays in the white settlements, and, by the year above men- tioned, their ontrages had become so alarming that it was decided to retaliate upon them the injuries of war, and to carry into the country occupied by them the same system with which they had visited the set- tlements. An adequate force of men, under the com- mand of Gen. Broadhead, proceeded up the Alleghe- ny, and met a large war party near the locality now known as Brady's Bend. Capt. Samuel Brady and a company of rangers, or scouts, who were in advance, relying upon the ability of the main body. under Gen. Broadhead. to force the Indians to retreat, allowed the enemy to proceed without hindrance, and, making a short detour, reached the river at a point above where there was a narrow pass. Brady reasoned that the Indians would retreat by the same route upon which they had advanced, and that he and his com. panions could pour upon them a deadly fire. It was as he anticipated. The soldiers under Broadhead drove the savages swiftly back They pressed on to gain the pass, that they might there resist and turn the tide of battle, but found it occupied by their re- lentless foe. Brady and his rangers fired volley after volley from their rifles upon the hurrying horde.
" At once there rose so wild a yell Within that dark and narrow dell. As all the fiends from heaven that fell, Had pealed the banner cry of hell! Forth from the pass in tumult driven, Like chaff before the winds of heaven. The Indians appear.
For life! for life! their flight they ply- And shriek, and shout and battle cry Are maddening in the rear."+
The tire was very destructive. Many were killed upon the bank, and many more in the stream, where they plunged to escape. Bald Eagle was of the mum ber slain. Cornplanter, afterward the famous chief of the Seneeas, and the friend of the whites. then a young man. saved himself by swimming.
In 1780, another engagement. in which Brady figured conspicuously. occurred at the site of Mahon- ing. in Armstrong County.
The injuries inflicted by Gen. Broadhead's troops. mieted the country for several years. but spies were kopt out for some time to watch the movements of the Indians
"From "cutts' description of the battle of " Bent An Daine," with a slight change.
16
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
and to guard the settlements from sudden attacks. Foremost among them in wood lore and knowledge of the red man's ways, as well as in coolness and bravery, was Capt. Brady, to whom the French Creek region was assigned as a special field of duty He had com- mand of a small party of rangers, who were constant- ly engaged in scouring the woods,
One of Capt. Brady's characteristic adventures with the Indians occurred within the northern part of Butler County, probably in 1781 or the following year.
" The Captain." says an early historian. " had reached the waters of Slippery Rock. a branch of Beaver, without seeing signs of Indians. Here, how- ever, he came on an Indian trail in the evening, which he followed till dark without overtaking the Indians. The next morning. he renewed the pursuit. and over- took them while they were engaged at their morning meal. Unfortunately for him, another party of In- dians were in his rear. They had fallen upon his trail and pursued him, doubtless with as much ardor as his pursuit had been characterized by: and at the moment he fired upon the Indians in his front, he was in turn fired upon by those in his rear. He was now between two fires. and vastly ontmunbered. Two of his men fell: his tomahawk was shot from his side. and the battle-yell was given by the party in his rear, and loudly returned and repeated by those in his front. There was no time for hesitation: no safety in delay: no chance for successful defense in their pres- ent position. The brave Captain and his rangers had to flee before their enemies, who pressed upon their flying footsteps with no lagging speed. Brady ran toward the creek. He was known by many, if not all of them, and many and deep were the scores to be settled between him and them. They knew the coun- try well; he did not; and from his running toward the creek they were certain of taking him prisoner. The creek was. for a long distance above and below the point he was approaching, washed in its channel to a great depth. In the certain expectation of catch- ing him there, the private soldiers of his party were disregarded, and, throwing down their guns and drawing their tomahawks, all pressed forward to seize their vietim.
"Quiek of eye, fearless of heart. and determined hover to be a captive to the Indians. Brady compre- hended their object, and his only chance of escape, the moment be saw the creek; and, by one mighty effort of courage and activity, defeated the one and effected the other. He sprang across the abyss of waters, and stood, rifle in hand. on the opposite bank in safety. As quick as; lightning (says my infor- mant) his rifle was primed, for it was his invariable practice in loading to prime first: the next minuter
the powder-horn was at the gun's muzzle, when, as he was in this act, a large Indian, who had been fore- most in pursuit, came to the opposite bank, and, with the manliness of a generous foe, who scorns to un- dervalue the qualities of an enemy, said, in a loud voice and tolerable English, .Blady make good jump! '-It may be doubted whether the compliment was not uttered in derision, for the moment he had said so he took to his heels, and. as if fearful of the return it might merit, ran as crooked as a worm fence .- sometimes leaping high, at others squatting down; he appeared in no way certain that Brady would not answer from the lips of his ritle. But the rifle was not yet loaded. The Captain was at the place after- ward, and ascertained that his leap was about twenty- three feet, and that the water was twenty feet deep. Brady's next effort was to gather up his men. They had a place designated at which to meet in case they should happen to separate, and thither he went, and found the other three there. They immediately con- meneed their homeward march, and returned to Pitts- burgh about half defeated. Three Indians had been seen to fall from the fire they had given them at breakfast. "*
The Indians who had been allies of the British during the Revolutionary war. after its close still con- tinned to harass the white settlers along the Ohio and Allegheny frontier, and so great wore their atrocities and depredations that the Government, in 1790. again inangurated hostilities against them. During the period from this date until Wayne's decisive vietory in 1794, and even after that until the treaty of Green- ville was made in 1795, mmerons murders were com- mitted, and many persons taken prisoners. Along the Allegheny (very near the boundaries of the terri- tory of which it is the especial province of this vol- me to treat), a number of outrages were committed in 1791. In March, a Mr. Thomas Diek and his wife, living on the southeast side of the river, near the mouth of Deer Creek, were captured, and a young man who lived with them was killed and sealped. Four days afterward. at the house of Abraham Russ. about two miles above the mouth of Bull Creek, a band of Indians, who came to the house with protes- tations of friendship, and were given food. massaered four men, a woman and six children. Several por. sons eseaped, and the startling news of the slaughter was quickly carried through the scattered settlements, and the inhabitants, taking with them only such arti- cles as could be hastily gotten together and easily carried, tled to James Paul's. on Pine Run. By sunrise on the 23d. there were between seventy and eighty women and children collected at this retreat,
" History of Western Pennsylvania " ;Appendix", " By a Gentleman of the Bar."
Dates of the PURCHASES.
LAKE ERIE
Showing the various purchases
1682.
EXIE
WARREN
POTTER
TIOGA
BRADFORD
ST'SQUEILINNA
CRAWFORD
Seub: 175 1718 trleasing previous purchases Confirmed (et): 25917.30.
FOREST
DALANGO
EIK
CAMERON
SULLIVAN
(ral19 X 25! 1730.
CLINTON!
LYCOMING
MERCER
1
LUZERNE
Outt 223 1749.
LAWRENCE
CLEARFIELD
UNION
BUTLER
BRAYER
SNYDER
.July tith 17.5-1. Confirmed (apr 23rd 1 7.58
OHIO
A LEHIGH
ER
BLAIR
JPNIAT.1
IUNIATA
DA
LEBANON
MONTGOMERY
.SQUE
HANVA
CHESTER
FÉLIXKLIN
DELAY
ADAMS
GREENE
SOMMERSET
FULTON
YORK
RIVER
-
EXPLANATION OF LAND DIVISIONS.
The heavy black line extending east and west across the center of the county is th . dividing line between th . Donation Lands on the north and Depreciation Lands on the south. Each of these divisions, as will be seen, are subdivided In the Depreciation Lands the parallel lines running north and south are the boundaries of surveyors' districts In the Donation Lands, the irregularly formed Districts Nos. I and 2 appear. The Donation Lands, within the county, not included within these subdivisions, belong to what is known as the " Struck District."
FOR FURTHER DESCRIPTION SEE CHAPTER III.
CENTRE
YORTHI VIBERLAND
HONTOUR
MSTRONG
ANAM99771
MIFFLIN
BERKS
LILLEGHENY
WESTMORELAND-
PERRY
WASHINGTON
Ort !! 23 1784
LANCASTER
PHILADELPHIA
March 3rd 1792
NOIHYTO
JEFFERSON
COLUMBIA
WYOMING
PIKE
DELAWARE
MONROE
NORTHAMPTON
SCHUYLKILL
BUCKS
CUMBERLAND
17
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
and all but four of the men had left in pursuit of the Indians.
One of the most remarkable and best anthenti- cated narratives of adventure and suffering among the Indians of Western Pennsylvania is that which has been related by a woman, Massy Harbison .* The story of her captivity and escape, thrillingly in- teresting in itself. has an especial claim to a place in the history of Butler County, from the fact that it was near the present limits of the county that this pioneer wife and mother was made a prisoner by the Indians, and within its limits that she made her wild flight for freedom, with a babe at her breast.
Mrs. Harbison, with her two children, were among the number who sought safety at James Panl's, on Pine Creek. after the perpetration of the murders on the night of March 22. 1791. above the mouth of Bull Creek. From Pine Creek these people proceeded to a point on the left, or eastern bank, of the Allegheny. a mile below the mouth of Kiskiminotas (opposite the site of Freeport), and there erected a block- house, to which all the families who had fled from the neigh- borhood returned within two weeks. Here they re- mained in safety during the summer, although several atrocities were committed along the river, and David McKee and another young man were killed and scalped within seven miles of the block-house. Soon after the several families were provided for at the block-house, which received the name of Reed's Sta- tion, the husband of our herione. John Harbison, en- listed in the six months' service, in Capt. Guthrie's corps, and went out in the expedition against the In- dians, commanded by the unfortunate Gen. Arthur St. Clair. He did not return until the 24th of Decem- ber, and brought home a memento of St. Clair's de- feat in the shape of an ugly wound. On his recovery from this wound, Harbison was appointed a spy, and ordered to the woods on duty in March, 1792. The inhabitants, having great faith in the spy system as a protection against the Indians, moved out of the block-house in which they had been so long confined, and scattered to their own habitations. Mrs. Harbi- son lived in a cabin within sight of the block-house, and not more than two hundred yards distant from it. The spies, in their long detours through the forest, saw no Indian signs. and nothing to alarm them. They frequently came to the Harbison cabin to re- ceive refreshments and lodging. Mr. Harbison came home only once in seven or eight days. On the night of the 21st of May (1792), two of the spies. James Davis and a Mr. Sutton, came to lodge at the Harbison
cabin, and, at daybreak on the following morning. when the horn was blown at the-block-house, they got up and went out. This was the morning when Mrs. Harbison's terrible apprehensions were to be realized. She had long been fearful that the Indians would come upon them, and had entreated her husband to remove her to some more seenre place. She was awake when the spies left the cabin, saw that the door was open, and intended to arise and shut it, but fell asleep again. While she slumbered, Davis and Sutton returned, and, after fastening the door, went to the block-house. The woman awoke to find herself in the hands of a band of savages. She was aroused by their pulling her by the feet from the bed. In her narrative," she says: "I then looked up and saw the house full of Indians, every one having his gun in his left hand and tomahawk in his right. Be- holding the dangerous situation in which I was, I immediately jumped to the floor upon my feet, with the young child in my arms. I then took a petticoat to put on, having only the one in which I slept; but the Indians took it from me, and as many as I at- tempted to put on, they succeeded in taking from me, so that I had to go just as I had been in bed. While I was struggling with some of the savages for cloth- ing, others of them weut and took the two children out of another bed, and immediately took the two feather beds to the door and emptied them. The savages immediately began their work of plunder and devastation. What they were unable to carry with them they destroyed. While they were at their work, I made to the door and succeeded in getting out with one child in my arms and another by my side; but the other little boy was so much displeased at being so early disturbed in the morning that he would not come to the door."
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