History of Butler County, Pennsylvania, Part 4

Author: Brown, Robert C., ed; Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.); Meagher, John, jt. comp; Meginness, John Franklin, 1827-1899, jt. comp
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago : R. C. Brown
Number of Pages: 1658

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Brothers, as for my part, I have not one foot of land, nor do I desire to have any; and if I had any land, I had rather give it to you than take any from you. Yes, brothers,

3 1

ABORIGINES AND EXPLORERS.

if I die you will get a little more land from me, for I shall then no longer walk on that ground which God has made. * My brothers, I know you have been wrongly persuaded by many wicked people, for you must know there are a great many Papists in the country, who appear fike gentlemen and have sent many Irish among you, who have put bad notions in your heads and strengthened you against your brothers, the English.

Post said many things that September day which the Indian chiefs knew to be without foundation, but which they overlooked in their desire to be able to deceive the English, as they had been and were then deceiving the French. On September 3rd, a treaty of friendship with the English was signed by the following named councillors and captains : King Beaver, Captain Peter, Awakanomin, Delaware George, Macomal, Cushawmekwy, Pisquetumen, Killbuck, Keyhey- napalin, Tasueamin, Popauce, John Hickomen, Washaocautaut, and Coch- quacaukehlton.

The astute ambassador of the English left Kushkushkee in the afternoon of September 8th, Post, Pisquetumen and Tom Hickman, making ten miles before night fell upon the forest. On the 9th," the Lord " helped them out of a mire, but in other respects it was disagreeable for the travelers. Post reported at Fort Augusta, September 22, 1758, with a long story of Indian treachery, narrow escapes, etc., etc. He called Pisquetumen " a perfidious scoundrel," who was a source of trouble to the ambassador himself, as well as to the French soldiers and Indians.

CAPTAIN BRADY.

The adventures of Captain Brady, so well described in 1532 by McCabe, of Indiana, cover a large territory, embracing Butler county. Some story-tellers have made this county the scene of one of his daring exploits, though the site of Kent, Ohio, was the point where he made his great leap for life. That he was often in the forests of Butler in 1780 and 1781, must be conceded, for during the period that General Brodhead commanded at Fort Pitt, Brady was the great scout of that period, who was depended upon to undertake hazardous enterprises against the Indians. The affair on the Allegheny river, at the mouth of the Mahoning, near Orrsville, was one of such enterprises. It appears that Brodhead dispatched a force, under competent officers, to punish the Indians who massacred the settlers at Sewiekly. Brady, at the request of the officers, was not permitted to accompany the troops ; but he craved permission to go in another direction, with a small party, in search of the marauders.

Taking five men and his favorite Indian, and crossing the Allegheny, at Fort Pitt, this little party proceeded up the river to the mouth of the Big Mahoning, where he discovered the canoes of a war party drawn up on its western bank. Retiring down the river, where in the darkness he made a raft, he crossed to the Kittanning side, then went up the creek and found that the savages had crossed to the northeastern bank. Three or four miles up the stream, Brady and his scouts waded to that side, kindled a fire, dried their clothes, and inspected their arms. This done. they proceeded toward the Indian camp, which they found on the second terrace. A stallion captured at Sewickly, which grazed quietly near the camp and near the position of the scouts, was visited at short intervals by his

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.

captor, but the visits soon ceased and the Indians settled down to pass the night in rest. Before darkness fell upon the scene, Brady advanced cautiously, approaching the wary savages so closely, that one rose up suspecting danger near; but the alarm was not given and the band now rested in seeming security.

When the sun peeped in among the trees next morning the Indians were alert, some calculating the number of scalps taken at Sewickly, others the goods and pro- visions taken from the settlement. In the midst of their enjoyment seven rifle shots rung out on the morning air, five Indians bit the dust, and Brady's war cry drove the others to flight. One, who was wounded, left a trace of blood to lead the victors for a time, but the trail was lost until Brady's Indian gave the cry of a young wolf twice, when the unfortunate savage answered it. He soon learned it was a decoy and fled into a windfall, where pursuit was useless. He died there, for three weeks later the fearless Brady was led to the spot by the ravens which were feeding on the dead Indian.

The scouts returned to Pittsburg with the canoes and property of the savages and the stallion. The party of soldiers also returned with the story that the Indians escaped from them. Brady's prowess was vindicated, and the jealous officers and soldiers never again pretended that they could play the same part as the scouts.

MASSY HARBISON'S STORY.

The story of Massy Harbison's abduction by the Indians and her escape from their camp, at the salt lick, two miles above the present town of Butler, is one which has been and ever will be interesting and instructive. The hatred inculcated in the Indian by the English colonists, returned upon the teachers, and led the savages to perpetrate upon the Caucasian invaders cruelties more horrible, because less refined, than the Caucasian heaped upon the Indian. The lex talionis was applied by the aborigines and the invaders alike ; so that it is not a matter for surprise to learn that women and children, of each race, fell victims to the marauders of the red and white tribes. The story is summarized from the graphic narrative of John Winter, as given in a history of Western Pennsylvania, published at Pittsburg in 1850, which was compiled by " A Gentleman of the- Bar." Massy Harbison was born in Somerset county, New Jersey, and was a daughter of Edward White, a soldier of the Revolution. Her husband, John Harbison, served under St. Clair, and was present in Ohio when the Indians defeated the Americans in November, 1791. Returning to his home on the Kiskim- inetas, near Freeport, and not far from the southeast corner of Butler county, he nursed his wounds until March 22, 1792, when he was detailed on the spy service. The Indians did not take kindly to this system, and evidently resolved to take such action as would confine the male settlers to their villages beyond or east of the Allegheny. In May, 1792, this resolution was put into effect, when bands of Indians were detailed to make reprisals and scare the settlers. On May 15, while the heroine of this story was at the spring. she heard a sound like the bleating of a lamb or fawn, and felt that the savages were in the neighborhood of the block-house on the Kiskiminetas. On May 22nd, at dawn, two spies-Davis and Sutton-who were staying at the Harbison cabin, went over to the fort : but return- ing and finding the woman and her children asleep, fastened the door and retired.

fri Regly

ABORIGINES AND EXPLORERS.

ller awakening was rude in the extreme. The cabin was full of savages, each carrying a gun in the left and a tomahawk in the right hand. They were pulling her out of the bed by the feet, when she embraced her infant and freeing herself, jumped to the floor. A petticoat, which she was about putting on, was taken from her, and the two feather beds, on which her two children slept, were taken out and emptied by the visitors. The work of plunder was then commenced; but the woman, holding the infant in her arms and leading one little toddler of five years, left the cabin, leaving a third child of three summers among the Indians.

Once outside, she looked toward the fort for help, but seeing a man named Wolf in danger of being cut-off from the fort by the savages, she shouted an aların and Wolf escaped with a shattered arm. An Indian approached to kill her, another covered her mouth with his hand, while a third was about to strike, when the first parried the blow and claimed the woman as his squaw. The com- missary and his servant, who slept in the store, near the fort, hearing the firing, appeared; but seeing the Indians, fled, leaving the servant to be killed. The fire opened upon the savages drove them to cover, while those round the Harbison cabin, finding out from their captive the strength of the white force, counseled retreat. She thought to conciliate her captors by giving this information, but instead she aggravated them and they flogged her with their wiping sticks, driv- ing her along with her infant and eldest child. The other boy, crying within the cabin, refused to leave, when a merciless savage caught him by the feet, beat the child's head against the threshhold, then stabbed and scalped him. The mother, witnessing this tragedy, cried out in anguish, but the Indians struck her on the head and face until she was silenced. Proceeding forty to sixty rods, they halted to divide the plunder taken that moning, there being thirty-two in the party, two of them being white men. Forty rods farther on, they caught two of John Cur- ry's horses, and detailed two of the party to lead the captives into the wilderness, while thirty of them went in the direction of Puckety. At the brow of the bank, leading down to the Allegheny, the woman, still carrying her infant, threw her- self from the horse and walked down; while the Indian, who had her boy in charge kept on his way until the horse fell, when the Indian, boy and horse rolled pell- mell to the foot of the hill. The boy was picked up by the Indian, who had Mrs. Harbison in charge, and carried to the bank of the river. There, being unable to make the animals swim across, they abandoned the idea, and placing the captives in canoes, pushed off for the island between the Kiskiminetas and the Buffalo. Landing on the point of that island, the boy complained of being hurt and also lamented for his brother, whose murder he witnessed. The Indians determined on his death, and ordering the mother forward, carried this determination into execution. Mrs. Harbison describing this second murder, says :

The other then took his tomahawk from his side and, with this instrument of death, killed and scalped him. When I beheld this second scene of inhuman butchery. I fell to the ground senseless, with my infant in my arms, it being under, and its little hands in the hair of my head. How long I remained in this state, I know not. The first thing I remember was my raising my head from the ground and feeling myself exceedingly overcome with sleep. I cast my eyes around and saw the scalp of my dear little boy, fresh and bleeding from his head, in the hand of one of the savages, and sunk down to earth again, upon my infant. The first thing I remembered after witnessing this spec- 3

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.

tacle of woe, was the severe blows I was receiving from the hands of the savages, though I was unconscious of the injury I was receiving. After a severe castigation they assisted me in getting up and supported me when up.

Proceeding across the island to the shallows in the river, they drove the woman before them into the water and led her across, the water then being up to to her breast. In crossing Big Buffalo creek, they also assisted her, and on their march across the country, via the present village of Sarversville and borough of Butler, treated her with more care than they were accustomed to bestow on women,-the three attempts to make her carry a large powder-horn, and the terrible grimaces of one of the savages, when she cast it away for the third time, being the only incidents of the journey. The first Indian, who claimed her as his squaw, now formed the rear guard, as if he suspected his brother savage would kill the determined woman, and in this order the party proceeded to a canon a short distance above the present site of Butler, where they arrived before dark. At this point was an Indian cabin, constructed of chestnut bark, sup- ported on stakes. From it pathways led in every direction and it had all the appearances of being a regular camping-ground of the warriors. The woman and infant were not permitted to share its shelter, but were led a short distance up a rivulet, where a blanket was spread and she was ordered to rest. Then pinioning her, so as to permit the care of the infant, they stood by like sentinels until the weary creature slept.

Her first night in captivity ended on the morning of May 23, 1792. She saw one Indian leave to keep watch on their trail of the 22nd and the other ( who claimed her) preparing a hoop on which to stretch the scalp of her murdered boy. At noon the sentry reappeared, and he who remained with the captive woman and infant went out on the trail. The new guard examined his share of the plunder in presence of the woman, and she saw him take from her pocket-book ten dollars in silver and a half-guinea in gold. He repeated his kindness of the day before by giving her some dry venison, which she broke and gave to her child, being herself unable to eat, owing to the soreness of her cheeks from the blows received on the 22nd. The next night they moved their prisoners to another place in the canon, and, on the morning of the 24th, with great caution, began guard on the trail as on the previous day. The Indian watch now fell asleep, and, a little after noon, seeing a chance to escape, Mrs. Harbison grasped a pillow-case, a short gown, a handkerchief and a child's frock, lying among the plunder, and fled with her infant into the forest.

Knowing, as she did, the character of her new guardians, she traveled away from the Kiskiminetas country, crossed a hill and then followed a course south- east. Two miles from the place where she first crossed the Connoquenessing, she struck the river, and followed the stream until about two o'clock in the afternoon, when she changed her course toward the Big Buffalo. On the summit of a hill she rested until sunset, and there made a bed of leaves on which to sleep. The 25th of May witnessed her progress toward the Allegheny river, and when night came on, hope inspired her. She tried to gather leaves for her bed ; but each time she laid her infant down he would cry, and knowing what this would convey to the quick Indian ear, she held the child and listened. She heard

ABORIGINES AND EXPLORERS.

the steps of a man on her trail and looked around for a hiding place. \ fallen tree rewarded her search and into its branches she crept, finding shelter under its spreading limbs. Immediately, in the dim light, she beheld an Indian, who advanced to the spot where the infant cried, halted, grounded his gun and listened. She heard the wiping stick strike against the gun and feared that her infant would give the signal for her recapture. For two hours she saw that say- age and heard the beating of her own heart, and then the ting-a-ling of a bell and the cry of a night-owl. They were signals to retire, which the savage answered by a piercing yell and then ran forward to join his friends.

No one who has not experienced a hair-breadth escape can conjure up the solid wall of hope for safety which this scene engendered in the mother's heart. She waited not for the morning to leave that spot ; but set out, exhausted as she was. to gain the fort or die. A mile or two away she halted until the morning of the 26th, when she resumed the journey and crossed Pine creek. Some new-made moccasin tracks alarmed her, but as the travelers were in advance of her, she held the trail for three miles, to a hunters' camp, where the fires were still burning. Leaving the path, she crossed a ridge and came upon another trail. when she beheld three deer approaching her in full chase. The animals turned to look back, when there was a gun-shot and a stampede of deer hounds. In this emer- gency, Mrs. Harbison sought a hiding-place behind a log, and even while there, was threatened with death as sure as that of the Indian ; for, as she placed her hand on the ground to raise herself, there was a bed of rattlesnakes, with a huge rattler capping the pile, ready to strike the innocent and unwilling intruder on their domain. She ventured forth again. this time changing her course to the left : arrived at the headwaters of Squaw run, and traveled down that stream until night compelled her to halt. The rain now poured down, and to protect her child she placed him on her lap, and, then bending forward until her head touched the tree, guarded off the rain from the little one.

It was with difficulty she arose on the morning of the 27th to resume her journey. A mile away she arrived before an untenanted cabin and thought of entering it to die ; but the sound of a cow-bell arrested her attention and this sound she followed until she halted opposite the fort on Six Mile island. Three men stood on the river bank, to whom she called for help. Not knowing who the woman was, and fearing a decoy, they wished to learn more and she telling them, they sent James Crosier over in a canoe, while they covered his advance with their rifles. Crosier, landing on the right bank of the river, did not know his old neighbor, and asked, "Who in the name of God are you?" Ile soon learned and hastened to transport the wretched woman to the settlement. She was car- ried from the canoe to the Cortus cabin, while her infant was placed in equally friendly hands. The arrival of Major McCollough on the scene saved the woman's life at the hands of her friends. The heat of a great fire for the famished and the mountains of food for the starving,-all provided with the best intentions,-were set aside by the Major, who ordered her removal to a cooler place, and insisted that only whey of buttermilk be given to her. He was the physician and attend- ant, while Sarah Carter and Mary Ann Crozier acted as surgeons on the occasion, removing the thorns from her feet and limbs. Six days in the wilderness, as a

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.

captive of the Indians first and then as a refugee, changed the young mother into a haggard, aged woman. Naked, starving and hunted, she was truly a daughter of a Revolutionary hero, for she met and braved Indian vengeance and suffered everything but death at the hands of her captors. The hunters who were after the deer, seen by the woman, were James Anderson and John Thompson, belong- ing to the detail known as spies. IFad her thoughts not been disturbed by the rattlesnakes, she would have discovered them to be friends and escaped a day which felt like eternity. Mrs. Harbison subsequently settled in Buffalo town- ship, Butler county, where some of her descendants still live.

CHAPTER III.

PUBLIC LANDS AND SURVEYS.

GRANT OF PENNSYLVANIA TO WILLIAM PENN -- PENN'S PURCHASE FROM THE INDIANS -INDIAN WARS-ATTACK ON KITTANNING-THE STATE ACQUIRES TITLE-FORT STANWIX TREATIES-DEPRECIATION LANDS-DONATION LANDS-STRUCK LANDS - EARLY SURVEYS-LAND LAWS-SYSTEMS OF SELECTION-INDIAN UPRISING-DEFEAT AND SUBMISSION-PIONEER SETTLERS-LAND TITLE DISPUTES ATTEMPTED EVIC- TIONS-SHOOTING OF ABRAHAM MAXWELL-RESORT TO ARBITRATION-COURT DE- CISIONS - REMEDIAL LEGISLATION.

T IIE grant of Pennsylvania to William Penn, made March 4, 1681, by Charles H1., King of England, was a new way of paying old debts. It ap- pears that in 1674 Penn became trustee of the western half of New Jersey. Dur- ing his incumbency of that office he filed a claim against the King for 16,000 pounds due to the estate of his father, Admiral Penn, and received, in lieu of sterling money, the territory now forming Pennsylvania. While receiving this grant from Charles II .. Penn felt that the donor and the grantee were acting unjustly, and, particularly, that Charles had no more right to make such a present to the son of his creditor than would the Indians had they sailed across the ocean, occupied England, driven her inhabitants into the sea, and made a partition of the lands of Great Britain. The commercial conscience, however, swallowed remorse, and the founder of this great commonwealth bought from the aborigines in 1686 a tract of their most valued hunting grounds for a tritte.

Red Jacket, in his speech at Masonic Ilall, Philadelphia, in 1829, outlined very clearly the manner in which the lands were taken possession of by the Cau- casian.

Brothers, said he, as soon as the war with Great Britain was over, the United States began to part the Indians' land among themselves. Pennsylvania took a good slice, and so with the rest. I acknowledge that Pennsylvania acted more fair toward us than any of the other States. Brethren. permit me to kneel down and beseech you

PUBLIC LANDS AND SURVEYS.

to let nis remain on our own land,-have a little patience-the Great Spirit is removing us out of your way very fast; wait yet a little while and we shall all be dead! Then you can get the Indians' land for nothing, -- nobody will be here to dispute it with you.

As years grew apace the Indians realized the plans of the invaders and determined to hold in check the advances of the white race. They expressed themselves plainly, but the aggressive people of trade and commerce disregarded the warning, and, in pushing forward their commercial civilization, brought the Indians to bay.

The first organized attack made by the English-speaking colonists on the Indians, in the vicinity of Butler county, was that on Kittanning in September, 1756, by 307 soldiers, under Lieutenant-Colonel Armstrong. The Indian town was burned, and with it many Indian women and children. The colonists lost seventeen killed, thirteen wounded and nineteen missing. The list of killed embraces the following names : John McCormick, John Leason, James Power, John Kelly, Patrick Mullen, Carny Maginnis, John McCartney, Denis Kilpat- rick, Brian Corrigan, Theo. Thompson, John Baker, James Higgins, Edward O'Brien, James Anderson, Holdcraft Stringer, James Hogg and William Walsh. The wounded were James Carrothers, James Strickland, Thomas Foster, Richard Fitzgibbons, W. Findley, Robert Robinson, John Farrell, Thomas Champlin, Charles O'Niel, Ephraim Bratton, James Potter and Andrew Douglass. Among the white captives at Kittanning were Ann McCord, Martha Thorn, Barbara Hicks, Catherine Smith, Margaret Hood, Thomas Girty and Sarah Kelly, to- gether with a woman and three children.

This tragedy is recorded not only to bring the scene of action closer to this county, but also, to point out that the persona dramatis had changed wonder- fully in less than three-quarters of a century. The new-comers from the counties of Northern Ireland, had no thought for the original occupiers, and, as proved by their determined opposition to Penn's surveyors and rent collectors in the Gettys- burg country, did not respect the claims of the Penns, where such claims inter- fered with their own interests. Strong and warlike and without mercy in war, they marched forward to occupy the land and began the commencement of the end at the neighboring town of Kittanning. Then followed treaties, which were broken by the whites whenever it was to their interest to do so, while the Indians were held to a strict compliance with them.

The Fort Stanwix treaty of 1768 was such an affair. The colony or propri- etary then got a show of title eastward to the Allegheny, south of Kittanning. In 1778 the title became vested in the State of Pennsylvania, and from that period to 1794, the war was between her citizens and the Indians. The second treaty of Fort Stanwix, made in 1784, embraced the lands now included in Butler, Venango, Armstrong (in part ), Clarion, Allegheny (in part ), Forest, Jefferson, Elk, Cameron, McKean, Potter, Lawrence, Mercer, Jefferson, Warren, Crawford and parts of Tioga, Indiana, Clearfield, Clinton, Lycoming and Bradford counties.

The Mohawks, Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Tuscaroras, and the Corn- planter band of Senecas, through the chiefs of the Six Nations, were induced to sign the treaty by Oliver Wolcott, Arthur Lee and Richard Butler, the commis- sioners sent to effect the deal. Red Jacket opposed the treaty in a stirring

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.

speech, but Cornplanter espoused the cause of the commissioners, because the power of the Six Nations was not equal to that of the Young Republic, which had just sheathed the sword after winning independence from the mother country.

Prior to that year, however, the State had set its eye on the lands, and actu- ally issued bills of credit, secured by the-e lands, to bankers and soldiers for moneys advanced by the first, and for money- earned on the battle-field by the second. The bills dwindled in value, creating loss and annoyance, until April, 17-1, when the legislature fixed a seale of depreciation, ranging from one and one-half to seventy-five per centum, for each month from 1777 to the date of the act. Certificates were issued according to the new scale, which were negotiable in the land offices of the Commonwealth or transferable, but in all cases the face value was payable in land. The legal title of such evidences ot indebtedness was " Depreciation Certificates."

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History of Butler County, Pennsylvania, Part 4

Author: Brown, Robert C., ed; Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.); Meagher, John, jt. comp; Meginness, John Franklin, 1827-1899, jt. comp Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Chicago : R. C. Brown Number of Pages: 1658

Author: Brown, Robert C., ed; Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.); Meagher, John, jt. comp; Meginness, John Franklin, 1827-1899, jt. comp
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago : R. C. Brown
Number of Pages: 1658