History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc, Part 25

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Publisher: W. Taylor
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USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 25
USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 25

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*By Dr. Wing, from Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. II, p. 875.

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY'

always at a distance on some other depredations before the pursuers reached any point where they had been. James Smith (a brother-in-law of William Smith, the justice and commissioner on the road), a youth of eighteen, had lwen captured with several others while engaged in conveying provisions along the road. and a still larger number up the river Susquehanna was slain and driven in. Twenty-seven plantations were reported as utterly desolated in the southwestern part of this valley and vicinity, and no prospect seemed to be before the people but that of being given up to the will of the savages."

When Gov. Morris learned in Carlisle of Braddock's defeat he was im portuned by the people to take some steps for their protection. Ho issued writs to summon to a meeting on the 23d of July at Philadelphia, to devise means to defend the frontier and provide for the expense: und upon request of the people laid out ground for wooden forts at Carlisle and Shippensburg, and gave orders to have them built and supplied with arms and ammunition. He at the same time eneonraged the inhabitants to form associations for their own defense, and they seareely needed a second bidding. Four companies of militia were formed and supplied with powder and lead. John Armstrong and William Buchanan, of Carlisle. Justice William Maxwell, of Peters, Alexander Culbertson. of Lurgan, and Joseph Armstrong, of Hamilton Townships, received supplies to distribute among the inhabitants. There was great danger from the enemy at the upper end of the valley, though no locality was safe. Petitions were sent to the governor by numerous citizens in the valley, showing their in- ability to provide adequate protection for themselves, and calling upon him for assistance. The people at Shippensburg offered to finish a fort begun nn- der the late governor if they might be allowed men and ammunition to de- fond it.

Dr. Egle in his History of Pennsylvania (pp. 89-90), says: "The conster- nation at Braddock's defeat was very great in Pennsylvania. The retreat of Dunbar left the whole frontier uncovered; whilst the inhabitants. unarmed and undisciplined, were compelled hastily to seek the means of defense or of flight. In deseribing the exposed state of the province and the miseries which threatened it, the governor had occasion to be entirely satisfied with his own eloquence; and had his resolution to defend it equaled the carnest- ness of his appeal to the Assembly, the people might have been spared much suffering. The Assembly immediately voted £50,000 to the King's use, to be raised by a tax of 12 pence per pound, and 20 shillings per head, yearly, for two years, on all estates, real und personal, throughout the province, the proprie- tary estate not excepted. This was not in accordance with the proprietary in- strnetions, and therefore returned by the governor. In the long discussions which ensued between the two branches of government, the people began to be- come alarmed. as they beheld with dread the procrastination of the measures for defense, and earnestly demanded arms and ammunition. The enemy, long restrained by fear of another attack, and scarcely erediting his senses when he discovered the defenseless state of the frontiers, now roamed unmolested and fearlessly along the western lines of Virginia. Maryland and Pennsylvania, committing the most appalling outrages and wanton cruelties which the eupidity and ferocity of the savage could dictate. The first inroads into Pennsylvania were in Cumberland County, whence they were soon extended to the Susque- hanna. The inhabitants, dwelling at the distance of from one to three miles apart. fell unresistingly, were captured or fled in terror to the interior settle- ments. The main body of the enemy encamped on the Susquehanna, thirty miles above Harris' ferry, whence they extended themselves on both sides the river, below the Kittatinny Mountains. The settlements at the Great Cove

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

in Cumberland County, now Fulton, were destroyed, and many of the inhabi- tants slaughtered or made captives, and the same fate fell upon Tulpehocken, upon Mahanoy and Gnadenhutten."

As an illustration of the desperate strait the people were in, the follow- ing letter, written to the governor by John Harris, of Harris' ferry, October 29, 1755, is quoted: "We expect the enemy upon us every day, and the in- habitants are abandoning their plantations, being greatly discouraged at the approach of such a number of cruel savages, and no sign of assistance. The Indians are cutting us off every day, and I had a certain account of about 1.500 Indians, besides French, being on their march against us and Virginia, and now close on our borders, their scouts scalping our families on our fron- tiers daily. Andrew Montour and others at Shamokin desired me to take care; that there was forty Indians out many days, and intended to burn my house and destroy my family. I have this day cut holes in my house, and it is de- termined to hold out to the last extremity if I can get some men to stand by me, few of which I yet can at present, every one being in fear of their own families being cut off every hour; such is our situation. I am informed that a French officer was expected at Shamokin this week with a party of Delawares and Shawnese, no doubt to take possession of our river; and, as to the state of the Susquehanna Indians, a great part of them are actually in the French in- terest; but if we should raise such a number of men immediately as would be able to take possession of some convenient place up the Susquehanna, and build a strong fort in spite of French or Indians, perhaps some Indians may join us, but it is trusting to uncertainty to depend upon them, in my opinion. We ought to insist on the Indians declaring either for or against us. As soon as we are prepared for them, we must bid up for scalps and keep the woods full of our own people hunting them, or they will ruin our province, for they are a dreadful enemy. We impatiently look for assistance. I have sent out two Indian spies to Shamokin. They are Mohawks, and I expect they will return in a day or two. Consider our situation, and rouse your people downward, and do not let about 1,500 villains distress such a number of inhabitants as is in Pennsylvania, which actually they will, if they possess our provisions and frontier long, as they now have many thousands of bushels of our corn and wheat in possession already, for the inhabitants goes off and leaves all."*

Gov. Morris, moved by the sad tidings from the frontier, summoned the Assembly to meet November 3, (1755), when he demanded money and a militia law, after laying before the body an account of the proceedings of the enemy. Petitions were constantly coming in for arms and ammunition, and asking for the taking of such steps as should carry out the Governor's ideas and afford protection to the inhabitants. With the Indians committing depredations on the south side of the Blue Mountains, the obstinate Assembly "fooled along" as if there were no necessity for action. The proprietaries made a donation of £5,000, and the Assembly finally passed a bill for the is- suance of £30,000 in bills of credit, based upon the excise, which was approved by the Governor. The people held public meetings in various places to de- vise means to bring the Assembly to its senses, and the dead and mangled bodies of some of the victims of savage cruelty were sent to Philadelphia and hauled about the streets, with placards announcing that they were victims of the "Quaker policy of non-resistance." The province of Pennsylvania erect- ed a chain of forts and block-houses along the Kittatinny Hills. from the Delaware to the Maryland line, and garrisoned them with twenty to seventy- five men each. The whole expense was £85,000, and the principal mountain

*Egle's History of Pennsylvania, pp. 90-91.

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

passes were guarded by them. Benjamin Franklin and his son William were leading spirits and raised 500 men. with whom they marched to the frontier and assisted in garrisoning the forts.

October 30, 1755, about eighteen citizens met at the residence of Mr. Shippen, of Shippensburg, pursuant to a call by Sheriff John Potter, and re- solved to build five forts: one at Carlisle, Shippensburg, Benjamin Chambers', Steel's meeting-house and William Allison's, respectively. Fort Louthor at Carlisle, had existed in an nucompleted state since 1753, and Fort Franklin, which stood in the northeastern part of Shippensburg, was begun as early as 1740. The latter was a log structure, and its ruins were torn down about 1790. Fort Morris, commenced after the meeting of citizens above alluded to, was not finished until the 17th of December following. although 100 men worked npon it "with heart and hand " every day. It was built on a rocky hill at the western end of town, of small stones, the walls being two feet thick und laid in mortar. A portion of this fort was in existence until 1836, when it was torn down. Its construction was carried on during an exciting period. Fort Franklin, the log structure, was enlarged by the addition of several sec- tions, and in 1755 had a garrison of fifty men. Edward Shippen, writing to William Allen June 30, 1755, tells of murders committed by the Indians "near our fort."

Twenty-five companies of militia, numbering altogether 1,400 men, were raised and equipped for the defense of the frontier. The second battalion. comprising 700 men, and stationed west of the Susquehanna, was commanded by Col. John Armstrong, of Carlisle. His subordinates were, captains, Hans Hamilton, John Potter, Hugh Mercer. George Armstrong. Edward Ward, Joseph Armstrong and Robert Callender; lieutenants, William Thompson, James Hayes, James Hogg, William Armstrong and James Holliday; en- signs. James Potter, John Prentice, Thomas Smallman, William Lyon and Nathaniel Cartland.

Four forts were built by the province west of the Susquehanna, viz. : Fort Lyttleton, in the northern part of what is now Fulton County; Fort Shirley at Angharich, the residence of George Croghan, where Shirleysburg now is, in Huntingdon County; Fort Granville, near the confluence of the Juniata and Kishicoquillas, in Mifflin County, and Pomfret Castle on the Mahantango Creek, nearly midway between Fort Granville and Fort Augusta (Sunbury), on the south line of Snyder County. Capt. Hans Hamilton commanded Fort Lyttleton: Capt. Hugh Mercer. Fort Shirley, subsequent to the resignation of Capt. George Croghan; Col. James Burd. Fort Granville, and Col. James Patterson, Pomfret Castle. These forts were too far from considerable settle- ments to be effectnal, and in 1756 John Armstrong advised the building of another line along the Cumberland Valley, with one at Carlisle. The old fort Fort Lonther) at Carlisle was simply a stockade of logs, with loop-holes for muskets, and swivel guns at each corner of the fort. In 1755 it was garris. oned by fifty men: it probably received its name in 1756. Other forts were erected in the valley outside of what is now Cumberland County, and Col. John Armstrong was at the head of the military operations. In 1757 breast- works were erected by Col. Stanwix, northeast of Carlisle, near the present Indian school (old United States barracks). Col. Stanwix wrote to Secretary Peters, July 25, 1757, as follows: "Am at work at my intrenchment, but as I send out such large and frequent parties, with other neccessary duties, can only spare abont seventy workingmen a day, and these have very often been inter- 'rupted by frequent and violent gusts, so that we make but a small figure yet; and the first month was entirely taken up in clearing the ground, which was

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

full of monstrous stumps. Have built myself a hut in camp, where the cap- tains and I live together." *

An early writer (1757) upon the mode of warfare adopted by the Indians thus describes their maneuvres: "They come within a little way of that part they intend to strike, and encamp in the most remote place they can find to be quite free from discovery; the next day they send one, or sometimes two, of their nimble young fellows down to different places to view the situation of the town, the number of people at each house, the places the people most fre- quent, and to observe at each house whether there are most men or women. They will lie about a house several days and nights watching like a wolf. As soon as these spies return they march in the night in small parties of two, three, four or five, each party having a house for attack, and each being more than sufficient for the purpose intended. They arrive at their different desti- nations long before day, and make their attack about day-break, and seldom fail to kill or make prisoners of the whole family, as the people know noth- ing of the matter until they are thus labyrinthed. It is agreed that the moment each party has executed its part they shall retreat with their prisoners and scalps to the remote place of rendezvous which they left the night before. As soon as they are thus assembled they march all that day (and perhaps the next night, in a body if apprehensive of being pursued) directly for the Ohio. Per- haps at some of these houses thus attacked some of the people may be fortu- nate enough to escape; these as soon as the Indians are gone, alarm the forts and the country around, when a detachment, if possible, propose to pursue the enemy. But as the whole or the chief part of the day is spent in assembling, taking counsel, and setting out on the expedition, the Indians, having eight or ten hours the start, cannot be overtaken, and they return much fatigued and obliged to put up with their loss. Upon this the chief part of inhabitants ad- jacent to the place fly, leaving their habitations and all they have, while per- haps a few determine to stay, choosing rather to take the chance of dying by the enemy than to starve by leaving their all. These must be constantly on the watch, and cannot apply themselves to any industry, but live as long as they can upon what they have got. The Indians avoid coming nigh that place for some time, and will make their next attack at a considerable distance, where the people are not thinking of danger. By and by the people who had fled from the first place, hearing of no encroachments in that quarter, are obliged, through necessity, to return to their habitations again and live in their former security. Then in due time the Indians will give them a second stroke with as much success as the first."

The autumn of 1755 was fraught with terror to the citizens of Carlisle and vicinity. November 2, John Armstrong wrote Gov. Morris: "I am of the opinion that no other means than a chain of block-houses along or near the south side of the Kittatinny Mountain, from Susquehanna to the temporary line, can secure the lives and properties of the old inhabitants of this county; the new settlements being all fled except those in Shearman's Valley, who, if God do not preserve them, we fear will suffer very soon."

Armstrong wrote the same day to Richard Peters as follows:

CARLISLE, Sunday night, November 2, 1755.

Dear Sir :- Inclosed to Mr. Allen, by the last post, I send you a letter from Harris'; but I believe forgot, through that day's confusion, to direct it.

You will see our melancholy circumstances by the Governer's letter, and my opinion of the method of keeping the inhabitants in this country, which will require all possible despatch. If we had immediate assurance of relief a great number would stay, and the inhabitants should be advertised not to drive off nor waste their beef cattle, etc. I have

*By a letter from Col. Armstrong dated June 30, 1757, it is known that Col. Stanwix had begun these in- trenchments shortly previous to that date.

J. P. Scrag6

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

not so much as sent off my wife, fenring an ill precedent, but must do it now, I believe, together with the public papers and your own.

There are no inhabitants on Juninta nor on Tuscarora by this time, my brother Will

iam being just come in. Montour and Monaghatootha are going to the Governor. The former is greatly suspected of being an enemy in his heart-'tis hard to tell-you can com- pure what they say to the Governor with what I have wrote. I have no notion of a large army, but of great danger from scouting parties.

January 15-22. 1756, another Indian treaty of amity was held at Carlisle, when Gov. Morris, Richard Peters, James Hamilton, William Logan, Joseph Fox (a commissioner from the Assembly) and George Croghan (interpreter) were present. But seven Indians only were present, including one chief from the Six Nations and one or two from a portion of the Delawares. Noverthe. less, it was found that the hostile savages were confined to the Delawares and Shawanese tribes, and even among them there was a considerable minority op. posed to the war. After taking all matters into consideration it was decided by the Governor to issno a declaration of war against the Delawares, the Shaw. anese not being included, because it was hoped they might be brought back to their former homes. Therefore, on the 14th of April, 1756, a proclamation of war was published against the Delaware Indians and all who were in con- federacy with them, excepting a few who had come within the border and were living in peace. By advice of the Assembly's commissioners, who deemed any steps, however extreme, wise when the punishment of the savages and the ces- sation of hostilities was the object, rewards were offered as follows, as shown by the colonial records: "For every male Indian enemy above twelve years of age, who shall be taken prisoner and be delivered at any fort garrisoned by the troops in the pay of this province, or ut any of the county towns to the keep- ers of the common jails, there shall be paid the sum of one hundred and fifty Spanish dollars or pieces of eight; for the sealp of every male Indian enemy above the age of twelve years, produced as evidence of their being killed, the sum of one hundred and thirty pieces of eight; for every female Indian taken prisoner and brought in as aforesaid, and for every male Indian prisoner under the age of twelve years, taken and brought in as aforesaid, one hundred and thirty pieces of eight; for the scalp of every Indian woman, produced as evi- dence of their being killed, the sum of fifty pieces of eight, and for every English subject that has been taken and carried from this province into cap- tivity that shall be recovered and brought in, and delivered at the city of Philadelphia to the governor of this province, the sum of one hundred and fifty pieces of eight, but nothing for their sealps, and that there shall be paid to every officer or soldier as are or shall be in the pay of this province, who shall redeem and deliver any English subject carried into captivity as aforesaid, or shall take, bring in and produce any enemy, prisoner or sealp as aforosaid. one-half of the said several and respective premiums and bounties." Very few rewards were elaimed under this proclamation, und it was not considered prob- able that any Indians were killed for the sake of procuring the bounty.

The proclamation issued in May, 1756, subsequent to that against the Del- awares, deelaring war against Franee, was hardly necessary so far as the Amer- ican territory was concerned, for, nothwithstanding the treaty of Aix-la-Cha- pelle in 1745, the French had kept up their movements in this country, build. ing forts and inciting the Indians to commit outrages upon the English set- tlements, and winning the savages over to their own standards by arts well plied.

The year 1756 was a dark one for the colonists, to whom the terrible ex- perienees of Indian warfare were nothing new. Murders were committed in what was then Cumberland County but now Bedford, Union, Franklin, Danph-

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

in, Perry and others, the leading spirits among the Indians being Shingas and Capt. Jacobs. Samuel Bell, residing on the Stony Ridge, five miles below Car- lisle, had a lively experience, which is thus told by London: "Some time after Gen. Braddock's defeat, he and his brother, James Bell, agreed to go into Shearman's Valley to hunt for deer, and were to meet at Croghan's (now Ster- ret's) Gap, on the Blue Mountain. By some means or other they did not meet, and Samuel slept all night in a cabin belonging to Mr. Patton, on Shearman's Creek. In the morning he had not traveled far before he spied three Indians, who at the same time saw him. They all fired at each other; he wounded one of the Indians, but received no damage except through his clothes by the balls. Several shots were fired on both sides, as each took a tree. He took out his tomahawk and stuck it into the tree behind which he stood, so that should they approach he might be prepared; the tree was grazed with the Indians' balls, and he had thoughts of making his escape by flight, but on reflection had doubts of his being able to outrun them. After some time the two Indians took the wounded one and put him over a fence, and one took one course and the other another, taking a compass, so that he could no longer screen himself by the tree; but by trying to ensnare him thay had to expose themselves, by which means he had the good fortune to shoot one of them dead. The other ran and took the dead Indian on his back, one leg over each shoulder. By this time Bell's gun was again loaded. He then ran after the Indian until he came within about four yards from him, fired and shot through the dead Indian and lodged his ball in the other, who dropped the dead man and ran off. On his return, coming past the fence where the wounded Indian was, he dispatched him but did not know that he had killed the third Indian until his bones were found afterward."

February 15, 1756, William Trent, in writing from Carlisle, stated that "several murders or captures and house burnings had taken place under Par- nell's Knob, and that all the people between Carlisle and the North Mountain had fled from their homes and come to town, or were gathered into the little forts, that the people in Shippensburg were moving their families and effects, and that everybody was preparing to fly."* Shingas kept the upper end of the county in a state of terror, and fresh ontrages were reported daily. The Indians killed, indiscriminately, men, women and children, and received rewards from the French for their scalps; they boasted that they killed fifty white peo- ple for each Indian slain by the English. Inhabitants of the Great Cove fled from their homes in November, with the crackling of their burning roofs and the yells of the Indians ringing in their ears. John Potter, formerly sheriff, sheltered at his house one night 100 fleeing women and children. The cries of the widows and fatherless children were pitiful, and those who had for- tunately escaped with their lives had neither food, bedding nor clothing to cover their nakedness, everything having been consumed in their burning dwellings. "Fifty persons," so it is recorded, " were killed or taken prisoners. One woman, over ninety years of age, was found lying dead with her breasts torn off and a stake driven through her body. The infuriated savages caught up little children and dashed their brains out against the door-posts in presence of their shrieking mothers, or cut off their heads and drank their warm blood. Wives and mothers were tied to trees that they might witness the tortures and death of their husbands and children, and then were carried into a captivity from which few ever returned. Twenty-seven houses were burned, a great number of cattle were killed or driven off, and out of the ninety-three families settled in the two coves and by the Conolloway's, members of forty-seven fam-

*Dr. Wing, from Pennsylvania Archives.

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

ilies were either killed or captured and the remainder fled, so that these settle- ments were entirely broken up." Small wonder that such circumstances ex- cited the people of the Cumberland Valley! Preparations were made at Ship- pensburg and Carlisle, where the people flocked in such numbers as to crowd the houses, to give the enemy a warm reception, and 400 men (of whom 200 were from this part of the valley, marched under the command of Hans Ham- ilton, sheriff of York County, to MeDowell's Mill. in Franklin County, a few miles from the scene of the slaughter. but the Indians had retreated. Rov. John Steel, pastor of the " Old White Church," of Upper West Conocochougne, raised a company among bis parishioners for defense of their church and indi- vidual property in 1755, and was commissioned captain. The church was after- ward burned. the congregation scattered, and Mr. Steel removed to Carlisle in 1755.

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Author: Publication date: Publisher: W. Taylor Number of Pages: 1280

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher: W. Taylor
Number of Pages: 1280