USA > Pennsylvania > Columbia County > History of Columbia County, Pennsylvania. Sponsored by the Columbia County Historical Society and Commissioners of Columbia County. [2d ed.] > Part 3
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Effects of Speculation - Good and Bad
There were cases of sharp dealing and in some cases there was outright cheating3. Not all speculators by any means were scoundrels or persons endeavoring to gain undue profits. Their efforts in many cases, probably a majority of cases, would class them as community builders. By learning where the good lands were, having them explored, paying the initial costs, and spreading the knowledge of them, settlers were induced to come. Some of these services were necessary and deserved compensation, to some extent, at least. Many of the early settlers bought land from such speculators, some of whom will be mentioned later. Speculation with all of its good and bad aspects seems to have been a necessary part in bringing about the settlement of frontier lands.
The First Settlers
Who were the first settlers in our region? Very probably they were squatters, although this has not been definitely proved. There is a family tradition that a William Hartman, coming direct from Germany, settled on a farm near Catawissa about 1760. Note that this date was before the area was open to settlement by Indian pur- chase. Tradition states further that he was a tanner by trade, and that he tanned hides for the Indians. We have no sure records to prove this. In August, 1770, a traveler reported several settle- ments along the river above Fishing Creek, "chiefly German". This same traveler noted many sections of land marked on trees with numbers, taken to be the numbers of "Lotts". In the available records of the next few years there are references to families near Catawissa, Nescopeck, Knob Mountain, varying distances up Fishing Creek, across the river from Fort Jenkins, in one case referred to as a compact settlement. The numbers of settlers to be inferred from such references in reports of military commanders and other statements must have been considerably larger than the recorded land holders. We do not know the names. Such people were almost surely squatters.
The Scotch-Irish
James McClure is known to have been at the mouth of Fishing Creek on Wednesday, May 10, 1769. At this place he notified a representative of Governor Penn, then traveling up the river, that he and four others were an advance group of a hundred going to join the New England men in settling and defending the Wyoming Valley. This shows that James McClure was to some degree joining with the "Paxtang Boys". These "Paxtang Boys" were not boys at all, but Scotch-Irish men from Lancaster County, near Harrisburg. They had become openly rebellious against the Pennsylvania govern- ing class in Philadelphia because the government had not given the settlements along the frontier adequate defense against the Indians during the previous wars. These "Paxtang Boys" had murdered peaceful Conestoga Indians, in defiance of the government, on suspicion that these Indians had been guilty of certain outrages against the white settlers. Many of these Scotch-Irish were glad to join the Connecticut settlers. Under their leader, Lazarus Stewart, they took a leading part in defending the Connecticut set- tlements against the Pennsylvania authorities.
-See page 8 for reference to Samuel Wallis
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Lazarus Stewart had married a daughter of Josiah Espy residing in Lebanon county and James McClure had married another daughter. McClure had acquired an extensive tract of land near the mouth of Fishing Creek under the authority of Connecticut.
Northumberland County
On March 21, 1772, the county of Northumberland was set up with Sunbury, formerly named Shamokin, as the county seat. This county then comprised a vast extent of land north and west of the junction of the two great branches of the Susquehanna river. The increasing population of the frontier regions required a county seat closer than Reading or Easton, the previous county seats for this area. The governing authorities probably also reasoned that the attempts of the Connecticut settlers could be resisted better at a base of operations nearer to the area in dispute. McClure must have been impressed with this change for he then re-purchased his land under Pennsylvania authority in 1772. This tract first called "Beauchamp" (beautiful field) was renamed "Mcclure's Choice". Mcclure immediately built a log cabin for his wife and family. Here in 1772 was born James McClure, Jr., the first known white person to have been born in our county as established by records.4 Pioneer life seemed to be too harsh, for McClure, Sr. died only a few years after his settlement. The Quakers, Little Fishing Creek
The Quakers were a second most influential group in settling our region. There were three especially important leaders in the Quaker settlements.
The first of these Quakers was John Eves. A Quaker, born in John Eves Ireland, he emigrated to America in 1738 and settled at Mill Creek, on Little near Newcastle, in Delaware. He early won respect of his neighbors and was chosen for several offices in which he showed great ability. According to family traditions, he journeyed to Little Fishing Creek in 1769. Having come up the West Branch to a small settlement near the present site of Milton, no one was able to direct him to land of the McMeans, for which he was looking. Finally two Indians guided him along the trail between Great Island, on the West Branch, and Nescopeck on the North Branch, through the valley of the Chillisquaque. When he reached the high hill overlooking modern Millville, now called Fairview, Eves recognized the land that had been described to him. After examining the timber and soil, he returned to his Delaware home. The next summer he returned with his oldest son and built a log cabin. In the third summer, 1772, he brought his family. At this time he did not own the land and would therefore have been considered a squatter. We can surmise, however, that there was some understanding with the owners about his intentions to buy the land. This is borne out by the fact that in 1774, according to a deed on record in the Court House, he purchased 1200 acres. These acres took in the present site of Millville, as well as a very considerable area around it. This pur- chase was made from Reuben Haines, a prosperous Philadelphia brewer and manufacturer who went into land speculation.5
4The site of the Mcclure homestead and the later fort is maintained as a park and museum by the Fort McClure Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, River Road, west of Town Park, Bloomsburg.
Haines bought up thousands of acres of land. At one time he owned all of what is now the borough of Northumberland .
Fishing Creek 1772
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Haines was a Quaker. This may explain how Eves came to purchase from him. Haines had bought four tracts of about 300 acres each from four different persons, one of them being McMeans, just mentioned. The costs for the 1200 acres from these persons combined, at five pounds sterling per hundred acres, can he assumed to have been sixty pounds. Eves paid 145 pounds sterling. The difference between these amounts, making due allowances for other expenses should, give some idea of the amount of profit that a land speculator might be able to secure in these frontier lands.
The Quakers at Catawissa
A second of the important Quakers in settling our region was Moses Roberts. Land speculation had much to do with his coming. Samuel Wallis was a speculator in the lands up the West Branch, although he dealt somewhat with lands in our region also. He was one of the less honest speculators. He secured, or tried to secure, lands in the vicinity of modern Muncy. These were lands the Proprietors, the Penns, claimed for themselves. Needing some representative to investigate the situation, the Proprietors selected. a young Quaker of Exeter who had attracted attention as an able man, as a speaker in Quaker Meeting, and in other ways. This man was Moses Roberts. He journeyed to the disputed lands in 1772. He reported that Wallis had no right to the lands. What is of most interest to us is that he went by the way of Catawissa. He wrote in his journal in part:
Moses Roberts
"I went with the sheriff and others to view the land at Muncy. And when we came among the inhabitants of the New Purchase, I lamented the loose and unreligious lives and conversation of the people. Yet there was something that attracted my mind to that country and some time after I returned home, I felt the drawings of love in my heart to visit some friendly people about Catowesey and to have a meeting amongst them for the worship of God .... " 6 Permission to have a weekly meeting was granted in 1775.
Ellis Hughes
After Roberts had made several additional visits, he purchased land from Ellis Hughes and built his log house in 1774. But he was not the first because in his journal, quoted above, he observed people already settled there in 1772.
The Ellis Hughes, from whom Roberts bought his land, had purchased a large tract around the mouth of Catawissa Creek from Edward and Joseph Shippen, who were engaged in very extensive land speculations in other sections of Pennsylvania, as well as in our own region. Since Hughes bought land which he planned to sell to others, he was also a speculator. Hughes and Roberts persuaded other Quakers from the vicinity of Oley, Exeter, and Maiden Creek, all near Reading, to migrate to Catawissa. Most of these settlers purchased their land from Hughes. There is no record that Hughes, although a speculator, secured unreasonably high prices for the land. Quakers at Other Places
Evan Owen A third important Quaker can merely be introduced at this place. Evan Owen in 1771 was living in a dwelling house, almost surely of logs, on the point of land at the mouth of Fishing Creek.
6 Permission to hold monthly meetings was not granted until 1795.
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This land he had purchased from the County Commissioners. It was called McClure's Retreat. At about the same time, two other Quakers, Samuel Boone and John Doan joined Owen, taking out land in the same vicinity, Boone at the "point" and Doan on a tract up a small stream later to be called Snyder's Run. Both adjoined Mcclure's land. Here thus were three neighboring families with strong indication of others nearby, Germans and Scotch-Irish.
Boone stayed, giving his name to the important Fishing Creek dam, constructed later. Owen, presumably fearing floods in the swampy land, explored farther up the river and probably at this time chose the high land opposite the mouth of the Nescopeck Creek as a Letter site for a settlement and town. He returned to Philadelphia about 1774. The original idea of Doan, Boone, and Owen seems to have been to form a Quaker community at the mouth of Fishing Creek.
The American Revolution Occurs.
1765 Stamp Act passed by Parliament of Great Britain, quarrel with Mother Country started
April 19, 1775, the Battles of Lexington and Concord marked the opening of our Revolutionary War for Independence July 4, 1776, our Declaration of Independence
1783 Peace was secured and our independence acknowledge d.
At First, Revolution Had Little Effect on the Frontiers.
During the first years of the Revolution, speculators and immigrants to the frontier seem to have paid little attention to it.7 Families definitely named in records and other records definitely referring to individuals and families but not naming them, show that settlers continued to come during these early years of the war for Independence. By 1778 the previously untamed region of forests end streams, swamps with few meadows, hills and mountains, still supported a few scattered bands of Indians. But little settlements and individual clearings of pioneers, squatters, and legal purchasers, wer to be found at a number of places. At the mouth of the Catauissa Creek there must have been a dozen families or more. Still others were to be found as far up as Beaver and Scotch valleys. Settlers were above the mouth of Fishing Creek on the river, extending, with long gaps of unoccupied land, probably up as far as modern Espy and beyond. Other settlements extended up Fishing Creok with similar interruptions as far as Knob Mountain. A fairly compact settlemont seems to have been just below modern Light Street. On both sides of the river at modern Mifflinville there were settlers, with still others back in the hills, around Cabin Run. There was interest also in settlements on both sides of the river at Nescopeck falls, and quite a settlement on the river flats nearby. The John Evos family was settled up Little Fishing Crock with three or possibly more families near modern Jorsoytown for neighbors. Others were farther west in the Chillisouaque valley. There are indications of families in the Roaring Creek valley at this carly date.
- Not entirely true for a declaration of independence was issued by a group of settlers in the Pine Creek re ion.
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War comes to the Frontier
Forces were at work which were to bring fighting and bloodshed to the whole American frontier while some special causes made the situation especially dangerous in the upper valleys of the Susquehanna.
Which side would the Indians take?
At the outbreak of the Revolution the Americans had endeavored to persuade the powerful Iroquois Confederation of the Six Nations to remain neutral. However, these Indians had been accustomed to the leadership of British agents. These agents remained loyal to the mother country and continued to have great influence with the Indians. The British authorities early planned with the help and leadership of Tories to enlist the help of the Indians in order to quell their rebellious colonias. This meant savage warfare on the frontiers, north and south. What we can learn in detail about this warfare should help us Saratoga understand better what was happening elsewhere in Pennsylvania 1777 and on the Indian frontiers in the rest of the country. But our region, along with that of New York, was among those most exposed. The Iroquois, and especially the Senecas, joined the British in the fighting of 1777 in the Valley of the Mohawk River and with them suffered severe defeats at Herkimer and Fort Stanwix. Their hostility increased when the Americans allied themselves with the French, enemies of the Iroquois for a long time.
French Alliance 1777
Wyoming
The majority of Connecticut's settlers in the Wyoming Valley were strong supporters of the Revolution. But there were Tories here who joined with Tories in New York to plan attacks on Wyoming. Shawnees, and especially Delawares, remembered how they had been tricked out of their lands and compelled to leave. For these reasons, the situation of our region was one of the most critical and dangerous on the whole frontier.
Forts Are Built
The western part of the State, and then the West Branch settlement received the first blows. These came in the forms of ambushes; attacks on isolated homesteads; murders; scalpings; burnings of buildings; and devastation of crops. The years 1775, 1776, and 1777 passed with no attacks on the North Branch.º But the disasters elsewhere led the authorities to strengthen the frontier with a rim of forts. Fort Augusta, built twenty years before became the headquarters for the frontier defense. Forts in our immediate region were Forty Fort and others in Wyoming; Bosley's Mills at the forks of the Chillisquaque, modern Washingtonville; Fort Rice near modern Montgomery ; and Freeland fort near modern Watsontown.
Fort Jenkins
Late in 1777 or early in 1778 the home of a settler named Jenkins across, and a little down-river, from the Mifflin flats was stockaded and thus became Fort Jenkins.9 The garrison ranged from fifty to a hundred men at various times.
- -8A man, Harger, had been captured on Catawissa Creek in 1777, and escaped, after having been carried into New York. 9A marker now indicates the site.
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Moses Van Campen and Fort Wheeler.
The building of our next fort introduces to us a distinguished Revolutionary fighter, Moses Van Campen. He had been brought with his parents to their settlement along Cabin Run, probably in 1773. Moses Van Campen took part in an expedition of Pennamites to expel the Connecticut settlers in 1775. The expedition was defeated, but Van Campen was not hurt. In the Revolution he first served under Washington and then had been on frontier duty on the West Branch. Promoted to a Lieutenant, early in 1778, he was ordered with his command of twenty men, to build a fort on Fishing Crock about three miles above its mouth, at the Wheeler farm. This was in order to protect a compact settlement in. that vicinity. The site of this fort was some little distance below modern Light Street. This fort, as were many others, was a framework of logs, probably upright, to form a stockade. It is recorded that it was covered over with mud and was called the "mud fort". This may mean that it was chinked uith mud. In May, before the fort was completed, a scout warned of an approaching band of Indians. All took refuge in the fort, but their homes and buildings were ransacked and then burned, including those of the Van Campens. The fort was hastily strengthened by surrounding it with a barrier of interwoven brush and sharpened sticks pointed outward, at about sixty feet distance. The Indians soon opened up with fire arms and such a brisk fire was carried on that the powder and bullets of the garrison was almost all used. After nightfall, two soldiers volunteered to sneak through the besiegers to Fort Jenkins, eight miles across country to secure more powder and lead. They were successful. Returning before daybreak, the lead was melted into bullets and the garrison was ready fa fresh attacks. But the Indians having had enough withdrew without any traces except bloodatains.
In June there was another attack. The cows recovered from the previous attack were sheltered in a special stockade. The women were milking them at the close of day. A watchman discovered a stealthy party of Indians advancing to surprise the milkers. Van Campen quickly organized a counter attack. The Indians were the ones surprised. Van Campen shot and killed the leader. A volley from the remaining soldiers drove them off. The milkers, not knowing of the threat, were also severely frightened at the sudden noise of fire arms. In a wild scramble, milk pails rolling hither and yon, they ran at top speed to the fort.
Battle of Wyoming
These attacks, it is thought, may have been to distract attention from an attack gathering up river in New York and thus prevent the forts lower down from sending assistance. Early in 1778 friendly Indians and scouts brought disquieting news. Outrages, attacks, killings, and scalpings occurred far up the river. Six hundred or more Seneca Indians, with 400 or more Tories, with British officers, were reported to be advancing on Wyoming. Many were Tories from Pennsylvania and New York. Early in July outlying points had been attacked and Forty Fort with its hundreds of refugees also faced attack.
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Help was summoned from down the river: from Captain Clingaman at Fort Jenkins, from settlers in Salem and Huntington, and from an advancing company of soldiers for strengthening the forces. This was in the morning of July 3. In the afternoon it was all over before any but slight help could come. Under the rash insistence of Lazarus Stewart, the defenders made up of 300 of militia and briefly trained old men and boys marched out to meet the attackers, not realizing that they were heavily outnumbered. The Americans were quickly out-maneuvered and thrown into confusion. In the massacre that followed almost all were killed or captured. The officers died bravely leading their men. That night most of the soldiers taken prisoner were tortured and killed by the Indians. The failure of the British and Tories to prevent these outrages helped to embitter feelings for the remaining years of the war, and after.
Wyoming Massacre
The remaining forts were surrendered. The non-combatants, women, children, surviving men, what few there were, were to be protected, according to agreement. But the Indians could not be prevented from further plundering and some further killings. The survivors fled their homes in terror. Some made their way on foot overland through rugged mountain and gWampy where an estimated two hundred perished. Others took the river route, some by the rough road along the river. The Flee The widow of Captain Stewart gathered her belongings and Survivors floated down river on a raft supported by two canoes. She reached the home of widow Mcclure, her sister. The accounts of this catastrophe at Wyoming led Mrs. McClure to entrust her family and hastily gathered belongings to a similar craft. They both then floated down the river to the shelter of Fort Augusta. A friendly Indian warned John Eves the day after the battle. He loaded what he could on a wagon and had me de his way with his family to Bosley's Mills by night- fall that same day. From there he returned to his old Delaware home
The "Great Runaway"
The news of the battle and massacre spread far and wide through the entire frontier. The settlers were panic-stricken. They deserted their fields and houses to take refuge at Sunbury, Harrisburg, or even at points farther away. This was the "Great Runaway". We have an eyewitness account.10
"I left Sunbury, and almost my whole property on Wednesday last. I never in my life saw such scenes of distress. The river and the roads leading down were covered with men, women and children, fleeing for their lives, many without any property at all, and none who had not left the greater part behind. In short, Northumberland county is broken up. Colonel Hunter alone remained using his utmost endeavors to rally some of the inhabitants, and to make a stand, however short, against the enemy. I left him with very few, probably not more than a hundred men on whom he can depend. Wyoming is totally abandoned.
10This was written by William McClay, a distinguished man in the history of Pennsylvania, then at Sunbury.
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Scarce a family remained between that place and Sunbury, when I came away. The panic and flight has reached to this place, (Paxtang). Many have moved even out of this township For God's sake, for the sake of the county, let Colonel Hunter be re-inforced at Sunbury. Send him but a single company, if you cannot do more ... The miserable example of the Wyoming people, who have come down absolutely naked among us, has operated strongly and the cry has been, 1Let us move while we may, and let us carry some of our effects along with us' ..... Something ought to be done for the many miserable objects that crowd the banks of the river, especially those who fled from Wyoming. They are the people you know, I did not use to love, but now I most sincerely pity their distress ....
Another word picture, although from the West Branch, gives an idea of the panic conditions over the entire Susquehanna frontier: (History of the Juniata and Susquehanna valleys, vol. 1, p. 108). "I took my family sefoly to Sunbury, and came back in a keel-boat to secure my furniture. Just as I rounded a point above Derrstown (Lewisburg), I met a whole convoy from the forts above. Such a sight I never saw in my life. Boats, canoes, hog troughs, rafts hastily made of dry sticks, every sort of floating article had been put in requisition and were crowded with women, children and plunder.11 Whenever any obstruction occurred at a shoal or ripple, the women would leap out into the water and put their shoulders to the boat or raft and launch it again into deep water. The men came down in single file on each side of the river, to guard the women and children. The whole convoy arrived safely at Sunbury, leaving the entire range of farms on the West Branch to ravages of the Indians."
The American Fights Back: Hartley's Expedition
Upwards of a thousand Continental line troops and militia were immediately ordered to our frontier. Wyoming was re-occupied and some of the settlers returned in August. The frontier was patrolled. Early in September a force of two hundred men under Colonel Thomas Hartley proceeded from Muncy, up Lycoming Creek, across the divide into the North Branch valley. They twice encountered Indians, killing ten or more. Four men of the expedition were killed. Queen Esther's Town and neighboring villages of the Indians were destroyed, in the region of Tioga Point, just south of the New York line. Returning a brief stop was made at Wyoming, the victims of the July Massacre were buried. Half of the force was left as a garrison. The return to Sunbury with the remnant of the force was accomplished October 5.
Plunder in this case means hastily gathered belongings.
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Three hundred miles of frontier country had been traveled in two weeks ! This brought a measure of security to the frontier and allowed some crops to be harvested.
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