History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 26

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1280

USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc > Part 26

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From the same and other authorities we learn that it was the original pur- puse to establish the base of supplies at the mouth of Chautauqua Creek, but

James Chambery

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

that when Marin reached there he did not like the position. He accordingly ordered Mercier, who was the engineer of the expedition, to proceed to Presque Isle and report upon its merits. The latter was gone three days, and gave such a glowing account of the advantages of the location that the army was immediately ordered forward. Among the members of the expedition was one Stephen Coffin, an Englishman, who had been taken prisoner by the French and Indians in 1747, and carried to Canada. When the expedition left Que- bec he enlisted in it, and accompanied his command to Presque Isle. After a military experience of less than a year he deserted to the English, and on the 10th of January, 1754, made a deposition in which he alleges that the army reached Presque Isle over 800 strong, a statement that does not corre- spond with the report of DuQuesne. The following is an abstract of his story :

COFFIN'S STATEMENT.

When they arrived at Presque Isle, work was almost immediately com- menced on the fort. It was of chestnut logs, squared, and lapped over each other to the height of fifteen feet, about 120 feet on the sides, with a log house in each corner, and had gates in the north and south sides. When the fort was finished, they began cutting a wagon road to LeBoeuf, where they commenced getting out boards and timber for another fort. Presque Isle was left in command of Capt. Deponteney, while Marin, with the rest of the troops, encamped at LeBœuf. From the latter point a detachment of fifty men was sent to the mouth of French Creek, but finding the Indians hostile to the erection of a fort, it returned, capturing two English traders on the way, who were sent to Canada in irons. A few days later, 100 Indians "called by the French Loos," visited LeBoeuf and arranged to carry some stores to the Alle- gheny, which they never delivered, greatly to the disappointment of the French. This and other causes, including the failure to build the third fort at the mouth of French Creek, disheartened Marin, who feared that he might for- feit the favor of the Governor General in consequence. He had been sick for some time, and had to be moved about in a carriage. Rather than return to Canada in disgrace, he begged his officers to seat him in the center of the fort, eet it on fire, and let him perish in the flames, which they of course, refused to do. Marin, according to the deponent, was of a peevish and disagreeable disposition, and extremely unpopular among his brother officers. Late in the fall, Chevalier Le Crake arrived at Presque Isle in a birch canoe worked by ten men, bearing, among other things, a cross of St. Louis for Marin, which the other officers would not allow him to take until the Governor General had been acquainted with his conduct. Near the close of October, all but 300 men to garrison the forts, were ordered back to Canada. The first detachment went down the lake in twenty-two batteaux, each containing twenty men, and were followed in a few days by the balance-760 in number. A halt was made at the month of Chautauqua Creek, where, with 200 men, a road was cut in four days to Lake Chautauqua. in the expectation that it might be a more feasible route to the Allegheny than the one by LeBoeuf. Reaching Niagara, fifty men were left there to build batteaux for the army in the spring, and to erect a building for storing provisions. Coffin places the total number of men who reached Presque Isle during the year at 1,500.

WASHINGTON'S VISIT.

Marin died at Le Bœuf soon after the main body of the troops departed, leaving the forts at Presque Isle and Le Boeuf respectively in charge of Capt. Riparti and Commander St. Pierre. The latter was visited during the winter

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by a gentleman who afterward rose to the first place in American love and history. This was no less a personage than George Washington, then in his twenty-first year, who was accompanied by Christopher Gist, an experienced white frontiersman, and one Indian interpreter. They reached Le Bœuf on the 11th of December and remained till the 16th, during which time Capt. Riparti was called over from Presque Isle to confer with Washington and St. Pierre. Washington's treatment, though formal, was courteous and kind, and he has left on record in his journal a warm compliment to the gentlemanly character of the French officers. The object and result of Washington's mis- sion are given in the following letters, the first being the one he was charged with delivering to the Commander-in-chief of the French forces by Gov. Din- widdie, of Virginia, aud the second the reply of St. Pierre:

OCTOBER 31, 1753.

SIR: The lands upon the River Ohio, in the western part of the colony of Virginia, are so notoriously known to be the property of the crown of Great Britain that it is a matter of equal concern and surprise to me to hear that a body of French forces are erect- ing fortresses and making settlements upon that river within His Majesty's dominions. The many and repeated complaints I have received of these acts of hostility lay me under the necessity of sending in the name of the King, my master, the bearer hereof, George Washington, Esq., one of the Adjutants General of the forces of this dominion, to com- plain to you of the encroachments thus made, and of the injuries done to the subjects of Great Britain, in violation of the law of nations and the treaties subsisting between the two crowns. If these facts are true and you think fit to justify your proceedings, I must desire you to acquaint me by whose authority and instructions you have lately marched from Canada with an armed force and invaded the King of Great Britain's territory, in the manner complained of; that, according to the purport and resolution of your answer, I may act agreeahly to the commission I am honored with from the King, my master. However, sir, in obedience to my instructions, it becomes my duty to require your peace- able departure; and that you would forbear prosecuting a purpose so interruptive of the harmony and good understanding which His Majesty is desirous to continue and cultivate with the most Christian King, etc. ROBERT DINWIDDIE.

FROM THE FORT ON THE RIVER AU BOEUF, December 15, 1753.

SIR: As I have the honor of commanding here as chief, Mr. Washington delivered to me the letter which you wrote to the commander of the French troops. I should have been glad that you had given him orders, or that he had been inclined to proceed to Canada to see our General, to whom it better belongs than to me to set forth the evidence and the reality of the rights of the King, my master, to the lands situate along the River Ohio, and to contest the pretensions of the King of Great Britain thereto. I shall transmit your letter to the Marquis Du Quesne. His answer will be a law to me. And if he shall order me to communicate it to you, sir, you may be assured I shall not fail to dispatch it fortli- with to you. As to the summons you send me to retire, I do not think myself obliged to obey it. Whatever may be your intentions, I am here by virtue of the orders of my Gen- eral, and I entreat you, sir, not to doubt one moment but that I am determined to conform myself to them with all the exactness and resolution which can be expected from the best officer. I do not know that in the progress of this campaign anything has passed which can be reputed an act of hostility, or that is contrary to the treaties which subsist between the two crowns; the continuance whereof interests and pleases us as much as it does the English. Had you been pleased, sir, to descend to particularize the facts which occa- sioned your complaint, I should have had the honor of answering you in the fullest, and, I am persuaded, the most satisfactory manner, etc. LEGARDEUR DE ST. PIERRE.

Washington did not extend his journey to Presque Isle, feeling, perhaps, that duty compelled him to report the French answer as speedily as could be done. Both sides were busily engaged during the winter in preparing for the war which was now inevitable. The French plan was to establish a chain of fortifications from Quebec along Lakes Ontario and Erie and the waters of French Creek and the Allegheny to the junction of the last-named stream with the Monongahela, where Pittsburgh now stands, and from there along the Ohio and Mississippi, to the Gulf of Mexico. Of these, we have already described the progress at Presque Isle and Le Bœuf. The forts at Niagara, the mouth of French Creek and the head of the Ohio were constructed early in 1754.

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

The one at the junction of French Creek and the Allegheny was known as Fort Machault or Venango, and the one at Pittsburgh as Fort DuQuesne. Pro- visions and ammunition were sent from Quebec to Presque Isle, and from there distributed to the lower forts.

PROGRESS OF THE FRENCH.

As soon as the weather would permit in the spring of 1754, troops were moved by both sides in the direction of the Ohio. The first French detach- ment to reach Pittsburgh, then known as the "Forks of the Ohio," was on the 17th of April. It was commanded by Contreceur, and consisted of 1,000 French and Indians, with eighteen cannon. Their voyage from Le Bœuf down French Creek and the Allegheny was made in sixty batteaux and 300 canoes. The English had put up a stockade at the Forks, during the winter, which was unfinished and guarded only by an ensign and forty-one men. This small body, seeing the hopelessness of defense, immediately surrendered. On the 3d or 4th of July, 500 English capitulated to the French at Fort Necessity, in Fayette County, after an engagement of about ten hours. The French seem to have been uniformly successful in the campaign of 1754. Deserters from their ranks reported that the number of French and Indians in the country during the year was about 2,000, of whom five or six hundred had become unfit for duty.

The records of the campaign show that Presque Isle was regarded by both the French and English as a post of much importance. DuQuesne, in a letter from Quebec of July 6, 1755, says: "The fort at Presque Isle serves as a depot for all others on the Ohio. *

* The effects are put on board pirogues at Fort Le Boeuf. *

* At the latter fort the prairies, which are extensive, furnish only bad hay, but it is easy to get rid of it. * * At Presque Isle the hay is very abundant and good. The quantity of pirogues constructed on the River AuBoeuf has exhausted all the large trees in the neighborhood." It was on the 9th of July, 1755, that Braddock's defeat took place near Pittsburgh, an event which raised the French hopes to a pitch of the utmost exultation, and seemed for the time to destroy all prospect of English ascen- dency in the West. From 2,000 to 3,000 French and Indians are supposed to have passed through Presque Isle during the season.

FRENCH VILLAGE AT PRESQUE ISLE.

An official letter dated at Montreal, August 8, 1756, says: " The domi- ciliated Mississaugues of Presque Isle have been out to the number of ten against the English. They have taken one prisoner and two scalps, and gave them to cover the loss of M. de St. Pierre." This officer had been ordered East in the winter of 1753, and was killed in battle near Lake George the ensuing summer. The same letter reports the small-pox as having prevailed at Presque Isle. A prisoner who escaped from the Indians during this year described Fort Le Boeuf as " garrisoned with 150 men, and a few straggling Indians. Presque Isle is huilt of square logs filled up with earth; the barracks are within the fort, and garrisoned with 150 men, supported chiefly from a French settlement begun near it. The settlement consists of about one hun- dred families. The Indian families about the settlement are pretty numerous; they have a priest and schoolmaster, and some grist mills and stills in the settlement." The village here referred to was on the east bank of Mill Creek, a little back from the lake, almost on a line with Parade street.

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

EVENTS IN 1757 AND 1758.

No events of importance occurred in this section in 1757. The only chron - icle we find relates that some of the Indian warriors aiding the French sent their families to the neighborhood of Presque Isle for the purpose of planting corn. A captured French ensign reported in his examination on the 20th of June that 100 men were in garrison at Presque Isle, and that apprehensions were felt by them of an attack by the English and Indians. The transportation from Canada for the troops was mainly by canoes, which were obliged to keep close to the south shore of the lake. Fort LeBoeuf was in charge of an ensign of foot. There were from 800 to 900, and sometimes 1,000 men between the forts, 150 of whom were regulars and the rest Canadian Indians, who worked at the forts and built boats. There were no settlements nor improve- ments near the forts, which would indicate that the village at Presque Isle had been abandoned. The French planted corn about them for the Indians, whose wives and children came to the forts for it, and were also furnished with clothing at the King's expense. Traders resided iu the forts who bought peltries of them. Several houses were outside the forts, but people did not care to occupy them for fear of being scalped. One of the French batteaux usually carried sixty bags of flour and three or four men; when unloaded they would carry twelve men.

A journal written in November, 1758, gives this description of the two forts, on the authority of an Indian who had just come in: "Presque Isle has been a strong stockaded fort, but is so much out of repair that a strong man might pull up any log out of the earth. There are two officers and thirty-five men in garrison there, and not above ten Indians, which they keep constantly hunting for the support of the garrison. The fort on LeBœuf River is in much the same condition, with an officer and thirty men, and a few hunting Indians, who said they would leave there in a few days."

THE ENGLISH GAINING.

During the year 1758, the English made sufficient progress in the direction of the Ohio to compel the French to evacuate Fort DuQuesne on the 22d of November, their artillery being sent down the river, and the larger part of the garrison retiring up the Allegheny. A letter dated Montreal, March 30, 1759, announces that the French troops at Detroit had been ordered to rendezvous at Presque Isle, in order to be ready to aid Fort Machault if necessary, the commander at the latter being required, if too hard pressed, to fall back on Le Bœuf. The Indians, by this time, had lost confidence in the triumph of the French, and many were either siding with the English or pretending to be neutral. One of them, employed by the English as a spy at the lakes, reached Pittsburgh during March, and gave some additional particulare of the fort at Presque Isle. "It is," he said, " square, with four bastions. * The

wall is only of single logs, with no bank within-a ditch without. * * * The magazine is a stone house covered with shingles, and not sunk in the ground, standing in the right bastion, next the lake. * The other houses are of square logs." Fort Le Boeuf he described as of "the same plan, but very small-the logs mostly rotten. Platforms are erected in the bastions, and loopholes properly cut; one gun is mounted in a bastion, and looks down the river. It has only one gate, and that faces the side opposite the creek. The magazine is on the right of the gate, going in, partly sunk in the ground, and above are some casks of powder to serve the Indians. Here are two officers, a storekeeper, clerk, priest, and 150 soldiers, who have no employment. *

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

The road from Venango to LeBoeuf is well trodden; from there to Presque Isle is very low and swampy, and bridged most of the way."

EVACUATION OF THE FRENCH.

The tide of battle continued to favor the English, and they finally besieged Fort Niagara below Buffalo, compelling the French to withdraw 1,200 men from Detroit, Presque Isle and Venango for its defense. Its capture by the English astonished and terrified the French in this section. A messenger reached Presque Isle from Sir William Johnson, the victorious English com- mander, notifying the officer in charge that the other posts must surrender in a few days. The French knew that their force was too small to cope with the enemy, and began making hasty preparations for departure. Their principal stores at Presque Isle were sent up the lake August 13, 1759, and the garri- son waited a brief time for their comrades at Le Bœuf and Venango, when the entire army left in batteaux for Detroit. An Indian, who arrived at DnQuesne soon after, reported that they had burned all of the forts, but this is questioned by some of the authorities. Upon taking their departure, they told the abo- rigines that they had been driven away by superior numbers, but would return in sufficient force to hold the country permanently.

ENGLISH DOMINION.

The English did not take formal possession of Forts Presque Isle and Le Bœuf until 1760, when Maj. Rogers was sent out for that purpose. Hostilities between the two nations continued, but the bloody wave of war did not reach Western Pennsylvania. A treaty of peace was signed at Paris in 1763, by which the French ceded Canada and confirmed the Western country to the British Crown. The Indians did not take kindly to the British. They were hopeful of the return of the French, and meditated the driving of their victorious rivals out of the country. In June, 1763, the great Indian uprising known as " Pontiac's Conspiracy " occurred, which resulted in the destruction of all but four of the frontier posts. Fort Le Boeuf fell on the 18th and Fort Presque Isle on the 22d of that month, as will be found more fully described in the chapter devoted to the Indians. Col. Bradstreet, with a small army, arrived at Presque Isle on the 12th of Angust, 1764, and met a band of Shaw- nees and Delawares, who agreed to articles of peace and friendship. From there he marched to Detroit, where another treaty was made with the North- western Indians. These proceedings seem to have been entered into by the savages merely as a deception, for in a short time they renewed hostilities. Another expedition, under Col. Boquet, was fitted out, and punished the troublesome tribes so severely that they were glad to accept the conditions offered them.

The independence of the United States was acknowledged by Great Brit- ain in 1783. By the treaty of peace the mother country abandoned all pre- tensione to the western region. Her officers in Canada, however, still retained a hope of the ultimate return of the colonies to the protection of the British Crown. The English had, by this date, won the confidence of the Indians, who were kept hostile to the Americans by representations that Great Britain would yet resume possession of the country. Ae late as 1785, Mr. Adams, our minister at London, complained to the English Secretary of State, that though two years had elapsed since the definitive treaty, the forts of Presque Isle, Niagara, and elsewhere on the Northern frontier were still held by British garrisons. The actual American occupation dates from 1795.

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH FORTS.

Little remains to be added to the various statements above, descriptive of the French forts. Fort Presque Isle stood ou the bluff overlooking the mouth of Mill Creek, on the western side, about 350 feet back from the shore of the bay. The British put it in repair and occupied it till after our inde- pendence was acknowledged, by which time it had almost gone to ruin. Its site was easily traceable as late as 1863, by mounds and depressions on the bank of the lake near the mouth of the creek.

The fort at LeBoeuf stood within the present limits of Waterford Bor- ough, on the brow of the hill above LeBoeuf Creek, nearly in line with the iron bridge across that stream. A ravine, which has since been partially filled up, extended along its north side, down which flowed a rivulet, leading Washington to describe the fort as standing on "a kind of au island." Practically the same site was successively occupied by the English and Americans.

THE FRENCH ROAD.

The French road commenced at the mouth of Mill Creek, where a ware - house stood, extended up that stream a short distance, and then struck off to the higher land, nearly following the line of Parade street, on its west side, through the city limits of Erie. A branch road led from the south gate of the fort, and connected with the main road in the hollow of Mill Creek. From the southern end of Parade street the latter ran across Mill Creek Township to the present Waterford plank road. The road that begins in Marvintown, opposite the old Seib stand, and terminates at the farm of Judge Souther, is almost identical with the French thoroughfare. Leaving the Waterford plank, the French road took across the hills into Summit Township, which it crossed entirely, entering Waterford Township on the Charles Skinner place, and terminating at the gate of Fort LeBoeuf, about where Judson's Hotel stands. The route known as the French road in Summit is understood to be exactly on the line of its historical original. The road was laid out thirty feet wide, and was " corduroyed " throughout most of its length. It was easily traced when the first American settlers came iu, was partially adopted by them, and portions of it, as above stated, are in use to this day.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE TRIANGLE.

TN the charter granted by King Charles II to William Penn, dated the 4th of March, 1681, the limits of Pennsylvania are described as "three degrees of latitude in breadth, and five degrees of longitude in length, the eastern bound- ary being the Delaware River, the northern the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude; on the south a circle drawn at twelve miles distance from New Castle (Delaware) northward and westward unto the beginning of the fortieth degree of northern latitude, and then by a straight line westward to the limits of longitude above mentioned."

Distinctly as these lines are stated, the boundaries of the State were long a subject of earnest and sometimes bitter controversy. Fifty years before the grant to Penn, King James I granted to the Plymouth Company " all the land

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

lying in the same latitude with Connecticut and Massachusetts, as far west as the Pacific Ocean, not previously settled by other Christian powers." Under the construction placed upon this clause by Connecticut, more than one-third of Pennsylvania, including the whole northern part, belonged to that province. The dispute was finally settled by the action of Congress, which appointed Commissioners in 1782 to investigate the subject, who reported that " Connec- ticut has no right to the land in controversy," and that "the jurisdiction and pre-emption of all lands within the charter limits of Pennsylvania do of right belong to that State."

THE WESTERN BOUNDARY.

A contention of almost like character took place with Virginia in regard to the western boundary of Pennsylvania. The former claimed the entire territory embraced in Penn's charter west of a line drawn a little to the east of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. This controversy was settled in 1786, by agreeing that the western boundary of Pennsylvania should commence at a point on Mason and Dixon's line, five degrees west from the Delaware River, and extend from there directly northward to Lake Erie.

The land in the northern and northwestern parts of the State was purchased from the Six Nations by Commissioners appointed by the Legislature, who met in conference with the Indians at Fort Stanwix (now Rome), N. Y., and con- cluded a treaty in October, 1784. The action of the Six Nations was confirmed by a treaty made with the Delawares and Wyandots at Fort McIntosh in Jan- uary, 1785. Neither of these purchases covered the territory known as "The Triangle."

THE NEW YORK LINE.

By mutual agreement between New York and Pennsylvania, Commissioners were appointed in 1785 to determine and establish the east and west boundary line between the two States, being the Forty-second degree of latitude. David Rittenhouse was the Commissioner on the part of Pennsylvania. and Samuel Holland on that of New York. These gentlemen merely took measurements to locate the point in the Delaware River where the line should begin, when cold weather came on and compelled the work to cease. Rittenhouse and Hol- land were succeeded in 1787 by Andrew Ellicott on the part of Pennsylvania, and James Clinton and Simeon DeWitt on that of New York. They surveyed the entire line from the Delaware to Lake Erie, planting a stone every mile, with the distance from the river marked upon it, and marking mile trees in the same manner. The distance from the point of departure to where the north line of Pennsylvania terminated on the shore of Lake Erie in Springfield Town- ship, this county, was found to be 259 miles and 88 perches. The report of the above Commissioners was confirmed by the Legislatures of both States, and has ever since been accepted as the true northern boundary of Pennsylvania.

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History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 26

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1280

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1280