History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 119

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 119

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The spot which he selected was that which has al- ready been described on the left bank of the Youghio- gheny, near the place where the army of Gen. Brad- dock crossed the river, on its way to Fort du Quesne, ten years before. Here he built a log cabin, and began clearing land. He was joined in the same summer by his half-brother, Hugh Stephenson, who worked here with William Crawford for two years, during which time he made a clearing and built a cabin for himself, and in the year 1769 brought his family, which up to this time had remained at the Virginia home. The family of William Crawford, when he came to the Youghiogheny, consisted of his wife and four children,-Sarah, John, Effie, and Ann, the first named of whom became the wife of William Harrison ; Effie, the wife of William McCormick ; and Ann, the wife of Zachariah Connell.

In the year 1770, Col. George Washington visited Crawford's home on the Youghiogheny, and the latter accompanied him in an extended tour down the Ohio to the Kanawha for the selection of large bodies of land, in which Washington desired to make invest- ment. In the same year Crawford was appointed one of the justices of peace for the county of Cumberland (which then embraced the present county of Fayette), and on the 11th of March, 1771, Governor Penn ap- pointed him, with Arthur St. Clair, Dorsey Pentecost, Robert Hanna, and others, justices of the peace of the then newly-erected county of Bedford. Upon the erection of Westmoreland County, in 1773, his commission was renewed for that county, and he was made presiding justice in its courts.

On the breaking out of " Dunmore's war," in 1774, being anxious to take part in the conflict,.Crawford was indiscreet enough to accept a captain's commis- sion from the Governor of Virginia. Up to this time, through the dispute which had existed between Penn- sylvania and Virginia (in which both States claimed jurisdiction over the region west of Laurel Hill), he had remained true to the State under which he held commission as justice of the peace, but now that his military ardor had been reawakened he allowed it to outweigh his loyalty to Pennsylvania, and to induce him to recognize the claims of her adversary by taking service under the Virginia Governor, Dun- more. He raised a company of men, and in June of the year named marched them to "Fort Dunmore," as the Virginians had now named the fortification at the present site of Pittsburgh. IIe was made major by Dunmore, and took quite a part in the "war" of that year, being sent in command of a detachment to destroy one of the Mingo towns, and performed that duty thoroughly, taking some prisoners, whom he sent to Fort Dunmore. He also did some service with his command at Wheeling. At the close of the Indian hostilities in November he returned from that station to his home on the Youghiogheny.

While he was absent on the campaign Arthur St. Clair (afterwards major-general in the war of the

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Revolution), one of his associate justices of West- moreland County, feeling aggrieved at the course which Crawford had pursued in accepting a military office under Virginia and engaging in a war against the Indians, which the Pennsylvania government disapproved of, wrote to Governor Penn on the 22d of July, saying, "Capt. Crawford, the president of our court, seems to be the most active Virginia officer in their service. He is now down the river at the head of a number of men, which is his second expe- dition. . . . How is it possible for a man to serve two colonies in direct antagonism to each other at the same time ?" He proceeded to argue that as Crawford had "joined with the government of Virginia in op- posing the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania," he should be removed from the offices which he held by appoint- ment in the county of Westmoreland. The argument was held to be sound, and the reasons sufficient. He was accordingly so removed on the 25th of January, 1775, and never again held office under the State of Pennsylvania.

He now became fully identified with the Virginia partisans as opposed to the jurisdiction of Pennsyl- vania. Upon the erection of the Virginia county of Yohogania, Capt. Crawford was appointed deputy surveyor and one of the justices for that county, and occasionally sat on the bench as one of the justices of its courts in 1777 and 1778. He continued to hold these offices during the existence of the county,- that is, until Virginia surrendered her claim to juris- dietion in the territory between Laurel Hill and the present western boundary of Pennsylvania.

During the first part of his career as deputy sur- veyor under Virginia, when his surveys caused many persons to be temporarily dispossessed and some im - prisoned, Crawford became exceedingly unpopular among the people of his section, in whose favor and estimation he had previously stood high. But he soon after regained his popularity by the patriotic course which he took in the Revolution, sinking all his par- tisanship in an ardent zeal for the cause of liberty. At the convention which met at Pittsburgh on the 16th of May, 1775, to express their views as to the aggressions of the mother-country, and to concert measures for the general good, William Crawford took a prominent part in the proceedings, and was made a member of the "Committee of Defense." It has been said that about this time he offered his services in a military capacity to the Council of Safety, then sitting in Philadelphia, but that, "in view of his conduct in setting at defiance the laws of Pennsylva- nia, and the bitter feeling engendered on account of the transactions of other Virginians with whom he had associated, his patriotic offer was rejected ;" but there is doubt of the authenticity of this statement.

In the fall of 1775 he offered his services to Vir- ginia to raise a regiment for the general defense, and the offer was accepted. He then at once commenced recruiting, and it was not long before a full regiment

was raised almost entirely by his own exertions. He, however, did not then obtain the colonelcy, which he expected and which he had so well earned, for the reason that Congress had determined to receive only six Virginia regiments into the Continental army, and as the number of regiments raised in Virginia exceeded this quota all the expectant officers could not be provided for. On the 12th of January, 1776, however, Crawford was commissioned lieutenant- colonel of the Fifth Virginia Regiment, and on the 11th of October received from Congress the appoint- ment of colonel of the Seventh Virginia Regiment in the Continental service, his commission dating the 14th of August preceding.

During the year 1776, Col. Crawford served with his command in the campaign and battle of Long Island, and in the later operations north of the city of New York. He was with the dispirited army of Washington in the dreary retreat through New Jer- sey and across the Delaware River, and was one of the heroes who, recrossing that stream in the night of the 25th of December, fought the battle and won the victory at Trenton on the morning of the 26th. On the 3d of January, 1777, he was present at the battle of Princeton, and marched from that field by way of Pluckamin to the winter-quarters at Morris- town. In the fall of the same year he took part in the campaigns of the Brandywine and Germantown.

Col. Crawford having represented to the com- mander-in-chief that there was serious danger of Indian attacks in the country bordering the Monon- gahela, Allegheny, and Ohio Rivers, his views were taken into consideration, and it was ordered that two regiments of men be raised-one in Virginia and one in Pennsylvania-for the protection of their frontiers ; and it was by Congress "Resolved, That General Washington be requested to send Colonel William Crawford to Pittsburgh to take the command, under Brigadier-General Hand, of the Continental troops and militia in the Western Department." In pursuance of this resolution the order was issued, and Col. Crawford having received his instructions from Con- gress at York, l'a., proceeded to Fort Pitt to assume his new command.1 The regiment which Virginia

1 When Col. Crawford bade farewell to his regiment-the Seventh Virginia-preparatory to leaving for his new command in the West, he received from the officers of the Seventh the following address, which is indicative of the high esteem iu which he was held by them as a com- mander and as a man :

"We beg leave to take this method of expressing our sense of the warmest attachment to you, and at the same time our sorrow in the loss of a commander who has always been influenced by motives that de- servedly gain the unfeigned esteem and respect of all those who have the honor of serving under him. Both officers and soldiers retain the strongest remembrance of the regard and affection you have ever dis- covered toward them; but ns we are well assured that you have the best interests of your country in view, we should not regret, however sensibly we may feel the loss of you, that you have chosen another field for the display of your military talents. Pernut us, therefore, to ex- press our most cord al wish that you may find a regiment no less nt- tached to you than the Seventh, and that your servires may ever be productive of benefit to your country aud honor to yourself."

5-5

DUNBAR TOWNSHIP.

had been required to furnish had been raised by that State to the maximum ; that of Pennsylvania was considerably deficient in numbers. Both reported at Fort Pitt in the spring of 1778.

One of the first duties assigned to Col. Crawford in his new command was the erection of a fort at a fording- place on the Allegheny, sixteen miles above Pitts- burgh, as a check to marauding Indians who were in the habit of crossing the river at that place. This work was performed successfully and to the entire satisfaction of Gen. McIntosh,1 who named it " Fort Crawford," in compliment to the colonel who super- intended its construction, and who was the com- mandant of its garrison a considerable part of the time during 1778 and the following year.

In the fall of 1778, Col. Crawford (who was then in command of a brigade formed of the militia of Yoho- gania, Monongalia, and Ohio Counties, Va.) took part in the expedition under Gen. McIntosh for the capture of the British post of Detroit. Nothing came of it, however, except the erection of Forts Lau- rens and McIntosh: At the close of the expedition he returned with his command to Fort Pitt. In 1779 he commanded several minor expeditions against the Indians, and was generally successful. In 1780 he appeared before Congress to urge a more energetic defense of the frontier against Indian depredations, and his representations caused that body to grant aid in money and munitions of war, which latter were forwarded to Fort Pitt and other Western posts. In 1781 he gave powerful aid to the unfortunate Col. Lochry in raising men in Westmoreland County for the expedition under Gen. Clarke, in which Lochry and his men all lost their lives. It was the intention of Crawford to accompany this expedition, but he was prevented by the necessity of his presence at Fort Pitt and on the Allegheny outposts.

In the autumn of 1781 he was retired from active military duty, but without resigning his commission. The war was evidently drawing towards a close, and he resolved to pass the remainder of his life in peace at his home on the Youghiogheny. For a time it seemed as if this earnest wish might be gratified, but it was not to be so. The surrender of Cornwallis was clearly the end of the conflict, so far as the movements of armies were concerned, but the Indian depreda- tions on the Western frontier were not only continued, but were becoming more frequent and daring. Fi- nally, in the spring of 1782, the Sandusky expedition was proposed, to inflict a decisive blow on the savages by the destruction of their town. The proposition met with favor, the campaign was decided on, and preparations for it were pushed rapidly forward. Col. Crawford approved of but did not purpose joining it. " His advice was frequently and freely given, and al- though resolved to draw the sword no more, yet his

martial spirit was fully aroused as reports came in from the frontiers of the early appearance of the Indians, and their andacity and horrible barbarity. He could hardly restrain himself from hurrying away with his neighbors in pursuit of the merciless foc. . . . Many eyes were turned upon Crawford as the proper per- son to lead the expedition, but he refused. His pa- triotism, however, pleaded powerfully against his set- tled determination, as he saw the probability of a vol- unteer force, respectable in numbers, being raised for the enterprise. To add to the plea his son John and his son-in-law, William Harrison, determined to vol- unteer for the campaign. Pentecost" was urgent that he should once more take command. Irvine himself thought it would be expedient for him to accept.

" Crawford could no longer refuse. Ile still held his commission as colonel in the regular army, and the commanding officer of the Western Department desired him to lead the expedition ; 'hence,' he rea- soned, 'it is now my duty to go. I will volunteer with the rest, and if elected to command, shall do all in my power for the success of the expedition.' It is the testimony of a grandson of Crawford ( Uriah Springer) that he had often heard his grandmother say it was against the will of his grandfather to go out on the Sandusky expedition ; but as he held a commission under the government, he yielded to the wishes of the volunteers." 3

Having arrived at this decision, he at once set about making arrangements for his departure. On the 16th of May he made his will,4 and in the morning of the 18th he took leave of his children, relatives, and friends, and departed. His wife accompanied him across the Youghiogheny to its right bank, where, bathed in tears and weighed down with the darkest forebodings, she bade him a sorrowful and, as it proved, a final farewell. The colonel mounted his horse" and rode to Fort Pitt, where he held an ex- tended conference with Gen. Irvine in regard to the expedition. On the 20th he left the fort and pro- ceeded down the river to the rendezvous at Mingo Bottom, and was elected to the command of the forces. The events which occurred in the few remaining days of his life, and of his dreadful death at the stake in the afternoon of the 11th of June, 1782, have already been narrated in the account of the disastrous San- dusky expedition.

Crawford's farm and primitive residence at the cross- ing of the Yonghiogheny was called by him "Spring Garden," but it was widely known by nearly all

2 Dorsey Pentecost, of Washington County, a particular friend of Col. Crawford's

& Butter field's " Expedition against Sandusky."

4 " He did not expect to traverse the Indian country as far as Sandusky without encountering many obstacles, and perhaps fighting bard battles so, calculating all the chances, he thought fit to prepare for the wol-1, not, however, from any presentiment of disaster, na bas so often been alleged, but simply from the dictates of prudence."- Butterfield.)

5 The horse which Col. Crawford rode on the expedition to Sandu-ky was a very fine animal, which he had purchased expressly for this ser- vice from Col. Isaac Meason, of Mount Braddock.

1 Who had succeeded Gen. Hand in command of the Western De- partment.

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

travelers to and from the Monongahela country as " Crawford's Place," and it was made a halting-point by great numbers of those (particularly Virginians) who came to or through this region on land-seeking tours or other business. Crawford was a man of re- markably open and generous nature, free-hearted, and hospitable to a degree that was ruinous to his own interest. The result was that his house at the Youghiogheny crossing became a noted resort for pioneers, and there was seldom a day or night when his roof did not shelter others besides the mem- bers of his own family. Under these circumstances he found that to escape being reduced to poverty he must do one of two things,-leave the country or open a tavern at his house. He chose the latter, and announced his determination to Col. George Wash- ington, in a letter dated "Spring Garden, Jan. 15, 1774," in which he said to his illustrious friend, "I intend public housekeeping, and I am prepared for it now, as I can live no longer without that or ruining myself, such numbers constantly travel the road, and nobody keeping anything for horses but myself. Some days, now, if I had rum, I could make three pounds. I have sent for some by Valentine Craw- ford, and can supply you with what you want as cheap as you can bring it here if you carry it your- self." This last part of the extract has reference to Washington's supposed need of rum for the use of the men he had employed about that time in improve- ments on his lands in what is now the township of Perry. The Valentine Crawford mentioned in the letter was William Crawford's brother, who came to this region and settled on Jacob's Creek not long after William settled on the Yonghiogheny. Both the brothers were to some extent engaged in trade with the Indians after their settlement here, and both at different times acted as Washington's agent for the care and supervision of his large tracts of land in Fayette County and west of the Monongahela.

The widow of Col. Crawford was left in embarrass- ment as to property. Crawford's private affairs had come to be in a very unsettled condition on account of his military and other duties having called him so frequently from home, his absence sometimes being greatly prolonged. The excitements and vicissitudes of the later years of his life had called his attention from them necessarily. The result was that his es- tate was swept away, most of it, by a flood of claims, some of them having, doubtless, no just foundation. For losses sustained upon the Sandusky expedition the State afterwards reimbursed his estate. Hannah Crawford afterwards drew a pension from the State on account of the military services of her husband. In November, 1804, a petition to Congress for her relief was presented to Congress. It recited that her husband, William Crawford, was at the time of his death on the Continental establishment as colonel of the Virginia line; that in the spring of 1782, in the hour of imminent danger and the defenseless situation

of the Western frontier, by the directions and under the instructions of Gen. William Irvine, who then had the command of the militia and Continental troops in the Western country, he took the command as colonel of and marched with a detachment of Western militia volunteers and some Continental officers against the savage enemy, the Indians; and that in the month of June of that year he was de- feated by the savages and fell in the defense of his country. The prayer of the petition was, in view of the fact that the petitioner was aged, infirm, and indigent, that " your honorable body will grant such relief and support as in your wisdom, justice, and discretion for the services and loss of her said husband your peti- tioner may be justly entitled to." Congress, how- ever, refused to grant the relief sought for. For thirty-five years after her husband's tragic death Mrs. Crawford lived upon the old place at Braddock's Ford, and in the old log house that Col. Crawford built in 1765. After the departure of her son John for his new home in Kentucky, she was left to the care of an old slave named Daniel, and a man named Ladd, who had long been one of the Crawford ser- vants. These two, as well as all of the old Crawford servants, she outlived, dying in New Haven in 1817, at the age of ninety-three years and eleven months.

Mrs. Crawford was described as a remarkably active woman in her old age. Provance McCormick, E-q., of Connellsville, remembers that one day, about 1807, Mrs. Crawford, then upwards of eighty years old, came on horseback to visit the McCormicks in Con- nellsville. She rode a good-sized mare, and when ready to return home after her visit was ended went to mount her favorite " Jenny." "Wait, wait," called one of the boys, " wait until I bring your horse to the block." "I don't want a horse-block, my boy, to mount upon Jenny's back," blithely replied the old lady ; "I'm better than fifty horse-blocks," and so saying she moved briskly towards Jenny, placed one hand upon the horn of the saddle, the other upon Jenny's back, and at a single bound was firmly seated in her place. "There," cried she, "what do you suppose I want of horse-blocks?" Whereat every- body applauded and commended her performance, saying but few women could equal it.

Of course the death of Col. Crawford was a terrible blow to the widow. For years her grief was over- whelming. Uriah Springer1 says, "When I was a little boy (long after Col. Crawford's death ) my grand- mother Crawford took me up behind her on horse- back and rode across the Youghiogheny, past the John Reist farm, and into the woods at the left. When we alighted we stood by an old moss-covered white-oak log. " Here," said my grandmother, as she sat down upon the log and cried as if her heart would break, " here I parted with your grandfather."

1 Sou of Col. Crawford's daughter Sarah, whose first husband, William Harrison, was killed in the Crawford expedition, and who afterwards married Capt. Uriah Springer.

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DUNBAR TOWNSHIP.

The old Crawford house contained but one room, and stood upon a round knoll, about fifty yards from the Crawford Spring, now on Mrs. Banning's prop- erty, near the house of Washington Johnson. In the stone house built over the spring is said to be a stick of timber from the Crawford house, while other timbers therefrom are said to have been used in the construction of the buildings known as the Locomo- tive-Works. When the house was demolished a few speculative persons made walking-canes of some of the timber, and sold them at high prices to relie- seekers.

Early in 1770 an occurrence took place at the home of William Crawford which created considerable ex-

cerned in the murder of Indian Stephen," which, from the best information the Governor could obtain, was committed on a spot of ground claimed hy Penn- sylvania.1 " You will find by the paper I have in- closed," adds Botetourt, " that there never was an act of villany more unprovoked or more deliberately undertaken." Crawford took every pains to bring forward the proper evidence against the prisoner, but the latter escaped from custody and was never heard of afterwards.

Contemporaneous with William Crawford as settlers at and in the vicinity of the town of New Haven were Lawrenee Harrison and his sons, one of whom was William Harrison, who became the husband of

WILLIAM CRAWFORD'S HOUSE, BUILT 17GG.

citement in Western Pennsylvania. John Ingham, a Crawford's daughter Sarah, who was said to have young man in his employ, who had been indentured been the most beautiful girl west of the Alleghenies. to him to learn the art of surveying, brutally mur- The Harrisons were settlers here in the spring of 1768, when the Rev. John Stecle and his associates came to inspect the settlements in the Youghiogheny and Monongahela Valleys. The Harrison lands (ad- joining those of Crawford) were entered at the Land Office in that year. Those lands afterwards passed to Daniel Rogers, James Blackstone, and others. Law- rence Harrison's daughter Catharine married Col. Isaac Meason. There are no IIarrisons, descendants dered (while intoxicated) an Indian, a warm friend of the Crawford family. After committing the deed the young apprentice fled to Virginia, pursued, how- ever, by Crawford and a few neighbors, who succeeded in capturing him. He was then turned over to the State authorities for punishment. Lord Botetourt, the Governor of Virginia, after a conference with Crawford, sent Ingham, under guard, to Governor Penn, of Pennsylvania, at the same time explaining to the latter, by a letter written at Williamsburg on 1 The return of this prisoner by Lord Boletourt to Pennsylvania for trial was in the after controversy between the two provinces as to whom the territory belonged urged with great force by Governos Prun against the cla'm of Virginia. the 20th of March, 1770, that he had sent " the body of John Ingham, he having confessed himself as con-

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

of this family, now remaining at or in the vicinity of New Haven. John Harrison, the last of his name at New Haven, died there about 1850. In 1815 he moved to New Haven, and opened a tailor- shop in a house now the residence of Leander Dawson. He had five children when he located in the town, and Benjamin Wells, who lived near the William Crawford place in 1790, or before, was an excise officer during the Whiskey Insurrection of 1794, and for that reason was especially obnoxious to the Whiskey Boys. One night they gathered in force and boldly marching to Wells' house set fire to it to show their hatred of his office. Wells and his family were not only left unharmed, but had received timely - warning, so that they moved out before the torch was applied. Considering that his presence was not wel- come on that side of the river, he moved across to Connellsville. His house at New Haven stood very near to the site of the house now occupied by Wasb- ington Johnson. had three born to him afterwards. The only one of the eight now living in New Haven is Robert A. Mc- Ilvaine, who has kindly furnished most of the follow- ing facts and incidents relating to the early history of New Haven. His residence in the village has covered a period of sixty-five years, during which he has for upwards of twenty-five years followed the business of druggist. Of those living in New Haven when he came to the village in 1815 not one has a home there now. At that time Col. Isaac Meason was keeping store in a log house, and lived in a stone house now known as the Giles House. In 1816, Samuel G. Wurts was also a store-keeper in New Haven. James H. White and Samuel Sly had small John Crawford, son of Col. William Crawford, came upon his father's death into actual possession of the property now including the site of New Haven, and Nov. 27, 1786, sold the homestead to Edward Cook. A portion of it included Stewart's Crossing. Cook sold to Col. Isaac Meason. John Crawford removed in 1786 to Kentucky, where he died. There is still extant a story that tells of Col. Meason's acquiring a portion of the Crawford traet on account of a claim he held against Col. Crawford for the horse upon which Col. Crawford rode away from his home when he set out upon his expedition in 1782. The horse was a purchase (so runs the story ) from Col. Meason, and was to be paid for at some future day. Crawford did not return, and Meason brought an action against the estate to recover the value of the animal. The shops in which they made nails and tacks by hand. Levi Atkins, the shoemaker, lived just below, where Mathiott's drug-store is; Charles King was the village blacksmith, and Henry Beason the wheel- wright. James McCoy and his sons had a cooper's shop, and a man named.John Campbell was landlord of a tavern that stood on the ground now occupied by Mathiott's drug-store. Maj. James Rogers, an uncle of Daniel Rogers, kept a hotel in the frame part of what is now known as the Giles House. Little is known of him save that he left a large family. In the frame building nearly opposite to the mill now owned by Kaine & Long, Adam Victor was landlord in 1814. He was the son-in-law of the Rev. John Fell, a Methodist minister. Fell was married to Betsey Meason, a daughter of Col. Isaac result was a protracted litigation on a sale of some of | Meason, Sr. Victor's successor for some years was the Crawford lands to satisfy Meason's and other claims. Under that sale Meason bought in a con- siderable tract. He acquired a large landed estate in Fayette County at about the same time, and be- came a famous iron manufacturer. His son, Col. Isaac Meason, who was associated with him in business, Imilt a store in what is now New Haven borough, near Stewart's Crossing. In 1796 he laid out New Haven village. It is likely that the employés of the iron- works had their homes there, and that he opened the store for the purpose of supplying them with neces- saries, for from all accounts there was not much else at New Haven then save the Meason interests. At best, however, not much is known of the history of the village at that date, beyond what has been related above. John Rogers kept a tavern there in 1797 and 1798, and in 1800 Caleb Squibb was landlord of the house,-the same afterwards carried on by Campbell. In 1815 New Haven had come into the dignity of a village, though with but two streets containing dwell- ings and perhaps a hundred inhabitants. The year " It was at Salters' house," says R. A. Mellvaine, "at an early period, that I first witnessed the still popular performance of ' Punch and Judy.' Old John Green and his wife were the managers. At that time the puppets were brought out on the floor in front of named saw the arrival at Connellsville of Jolin A. MeIlvaine, a tailor, formerly a resident of Washington County. He lived a few months in Connellsville in the house occupied by Zachariah Connell.

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 119

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314