History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 13

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 13

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Information having come to the king of England that settlements were being made quite rapidly west of the mountains in defiance of his prohibition, he, in October, 1765, sent the following instructions to Governor Penn : " Whereas it hath been represented unto us that several persons from Pennsylvania and the back settlements of Virginia have immigrated to the westward of the Allegheny Mountains, and have there seated themselves on lands contiguous to the river Ohio, in express disobedience to our royal proclama- tion of Oct. 7, 1763, it is therefore our will and pleas- ure, and you are enjoined and required to put a stop to all these and all other like eneroachments for the future by causing all persons who have irregularly seated themselves on lands to the westward of the Allegheny Mountains immediately to evacuate those premises." Instructions of the same purport had been sent to the Governor of Virginia in 1754, and a proclamation had been issued by the Governor, but without having the desired effect. The dissatisfaction among the Indians increased rapidly, and to a degree which awakened the authorities to the necessity for some action to allay it. The chiefs of the Six Na- tions were invited to a treaty council, which was accordingly held at Fort Pitt in May, 1766, at which no little dissatisfaction was expressed by the Indians

at the unwarranted encroachments being made by the whites. In a letter dated at the fort on the 24th of the month mentioned, George Croghan, deputy Indian agent, said, " As soon as the peace was made last year [meaning the peace that followed Bouquet's victory of 1764], contrary to our engagements to them [the Indians], a number of our people came over the Great Mountain and settled at Redstone Creek and upon the Monongahela, before they had given the country to the king, their father." He also addressed Gen. Gage, commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, saying, " If some effectual measures are not speedily taken to remove those people settled on Red- stone Creek till a boundary can be properly settled or proposed, and the Governors pursue vigorous meas- ures, the consequences may be dreadful, and we be involved in all the calamities of another general war."

This resulted in the ordering of Capt. Alexander Mackay, with a detachment of the Forty-second Regi- ment of Foot, to Fort Burd, where he issued a proc- lamation, dated at Redstone Creek," June 22, 1766, which proclamation was as follows: "To all people now inhabiting to the westward of the Allegheny Mountains : In consequence of several complaints made by the savages against the people who have presumed to inhabit some parts of the country west of the Allegheny Mountains, which by treaty belong to them, and had never been purchased, and which is contrary to his Majesty's royal proclamation, his Excellency, the commander-in-chief, out of compas- sion to your ignorance, before he proceeds to extrem- ity, has been pleased to order me, with a detachment from the garrison at Fort Pitt, to come here and col- lect you together, to inform you of the lawless and licentious manner in which you behave, and to order you also to return to your several provinces without delay, which I am to do in the presence of some In- dian chiefs now along with me. I therefore desire you will all come to this place along with the bearer, whom I have sent on purpose to collect you together.

"His Excellency, the commander-in-chief, has or- dered, in case you should remain after this notice, to seize and make prize of all goods and merchandise brought on this side the Allegheny Mountains, or exposed to sale to Indians at any place except at his Majesty's garrison ; that goods thus seized will be a lawful prize, and become the property of the captors. The Indians will be encouraged in this way of doing themselves justice, and if accidents should happen, you lawless people must look upon yourselves as the cause of whatever may be the consequence hurtful to your persons and estates ; and if this should not be sufficient to make you return to your several provinces, his Excellency, the commander-in-chief, will order an armed force to drive you from the lands you have.

1 Judge Veech says, " The documentary history of 1765, '66, '67, and indeed of all that decade, speaks of no other settlements in Western Pennsylvania, or the West generally, than those within or imme- diately bordering upon the Monongahela, upon Cheat, upon the Yongh, the Turkey Fout, and Redstone, the first and last being the most prominent, and the last the most extensive, covering all the inte- rivr settlements about Uniontown. Georges Creek settlers were re- ferred to Cheat, those abont Gist's to the Yongh, while Turkey Foot took in all the mountain districts. All these settlements seem to have been nearly contemporanvous, those on the Redstone and the Monon- gahela border being perhaps the earliest, those on the Yongh and Tur- key Foot the latest, while those of Georges Creek and Cheat occupy an intermediate date, blending with all the others. They all range from 176 1 to 1768, inclusive."

" At that time the name of " Redstone" was also given to the vicinity of Fort Burd and the valley of Dunlap's Creek.

SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY.

taken possession of to the westward of the Allegheny Mountains, the property of the Indians, till such time as his Majesty may be pleased to fix a farther bound- ary. Such people as will not come to this place are to send their names and the province they belong to, and what they are to do, by the bearer, that his Ex- cellency, the commander-in-chief, may be acquainted with their intentions."

On the 31st of July next following the publication of Mackay's manifesto, Governor Fauquier, of Vir- ginin, issued a proclamation to the people who had presumed to settle to the westward of the Alleghenies in defiance of his previous warning and prohibition (which had been regarded by the people as a merely formal compliance with the king's order, and not in- tended to be enforced), and requiring all such to im- mediately evacuate their settlements, which if they failed to do promptly they must expect no protection or mercy from the government, but would be left to the revenge and retribution of the exasperated In- dians.

In October, 1766, Governor Penn, at the request of the Assembly, addressed Governor Fauquier, saying that, without any authority whatever from Pennsyl- vania, settlements had been made near the Redstone Creek and the Monongahela, and that he had no doubt this had been done also without the consent of the government of Virginia, and in violation of the rights of the Indian nations. Ile desired Governor Fauquier to unite with him in removing the settlers from the lands in the Monongahela Valley, and prom- ised, in case of necessity, to furnish a military force to effect the object. Governor Fauquier replied to this that he had already issued three proclamations to the settlers without effect, but that the commander- in-chief had taken a more effectual method to remove them by ordering an officer and a detachment of sol- diers to summon the settlers on Redstone Creek, on the Monongahela, and in other parts west of the Alle- gheny Mountains to quit their illegal settlements, and in case of a refusal to threaten forcible expulsion and seizure of their movable property.

All these proclamations, with the show of military force, had the effect to territy a few of the settlers into removal; but by far the greater part remained and were not disturbed by the military, which, after a short stay at Fort Burd, returned to garrison at Fort Pitt. In the summer of 1767, however, troops were again sent here to expel non-complying settlers, many of whom were then actually driven away ; but they all made haste to return as soon as the force was withdrawu, and not a few of those who had thus been expelled came back accompanied by new settlers from the east of the mountains.

Finally all efforts to prevent settlements in this re- gion and to expel those who had already located here failed. The extension of Mason and Dixon's line to the second crossing of Dunkard Creek, in 1767, showed that nearly all the settlements made were un-

questionably in the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania, and in January, 1768, Governor Penn called the attention of the Assembly to this then recently discovered fact, narrated the ineffectual efforts made to that time to remove the settlers, mentioned the exasperation of the savages, which might not improbably result in a bloody war, and advised the enactment of a law severe enough to effect the desired result, and thus avert the horrors of a savage outbraak. Accordingly, on the 3d of February, 1768, an act was passed providing and declaring,-

" That if any person or persons settle upon any lands within this province not purchased of the Indians by the proprietors thereof, and shall neglect or refuse to remove themselves and families off and from the said land within the space of thirty days after he or they shall be required to do so, either by such per- sons as the Governor of this province shall appoint for that purpose, or by his proclamation, to be set up in the most public places of the settlements on such unpurchased lands, or if any person or persons being so removed shall afterwards return to his or their set- tlements, or the settlement of any other person, with his or their family, or without any family, to remain and settle on any such lands, or if any person shall, after the said notice, to be given as aforesaid, reside and settle on such lands, every such person or persons so neglecting or refusing to move with his or their family, or returning to settle as aforesaid, or that shall settle on any such lands after the requisition or notice aforesaid, being thereof legally convicted by their own confessions or the verdict of a jury, shall suffer death without the benefit of clergy.

" Provided always, nevertheless, that nothing here- in contained shall be deemed or construed to extend to any person or persons who now are or hereafter may be settled on the main roads or communications leading through this province to Fort Pitt, under the approbation and permission of the commander-in- chief of his Majesty's forces in North America, or of the chief officer commanding in the Western District to the Ohio for the time being, for the more con- venient accommodation of the soldiers and others, or to such person or persons as are or shall be settled in the neighborhood of Port Pitt, under the approba- tion and permission, or to a settlement made by George Croghan, deputy superintendent of Indian affairs under Sir William Johnson, on the Ohio River above said fort, anything herein contained to the con- trary notwithstanding."

This law was doubtless as severe as Governor Penn had desired, but its folly exceeded its severity, for the evident brutality of its provisions barred the pos- sibility of their execution, and it is by no means cer- tain that this was not had in view by many of the mem- bers who voted for its enactment. A show was to be made, however, of carrying the law into effect, and soon after its passage the Governor appointed the Reverend Captain John Steele, of the Presbyterian

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Church of Carlisle, John Allison, Christopher Lemes, and Capt. James Potter, of Cumberland County, to visit the Monongahela, Youghiogheny, and Redstone Valleys, as well as any other places west of the Alle- gheny Mountains where settlements might have been made within the supposed territory of Pennsylvania, to promulgate and explain the law, and induce the settlers to comply with its requirements. The com- missioners took with them copies of a proclamation by the Governor, which, after a preamble reciting the provisions of the law, proceeded, "In pursuance, therefore, of the said act, I have thought proper, by the advice of the Council, to issue this my proclama- tion, hereby giving notice to all persons to remove themselves and families off and from said lands on or before the first day of May, 1768. And I do hereby strictly charge and command such person or persons, under the pains and penalties by it the said act imposed, that they do not, on any pretense what- ever, remain or continue on the said lands longer than thirty days after the first day of May next." Besides this proclamation, the commissioners also had the Governor's instructions to call together at each of the settlements as many of the people as they could, and at such gatherings to read and explain the proclama- tion, to remonstrate with the settlers against their continuing on lands which still belonged to the In- dians, and to warn them of the terrible danger which they, as well as other settlers, were incurring by their persistent refusal to remove. Finally, they were in- structed to procure, if possible, the names of all the settlers at the several points, and report the list to the Governor on their return.

The commissioners, with the Reverend Captain Steele at their head, left Carlisle on the 2d of March, and proceeded to Fort Cumberland, from which place they traveled over the route pursued by Braddock's army to the Youghiogheny and to Gist's, thence by Burd's road to the Monongahela. What they did at the various settlements visited was related in their report to the Governor, as follows :

" We arrived at the settlement on Redstone on the 23d day of March. The people having heard of our coming had appointed a meeting among themselves on the 24th, to consult what measures to take. We took advantage of this meeting, read the act of As- sembly and proclamation explaining the law, and giving the reasons of it as well as we could, and used our endeavors to persuade them to comply, alleging to them that it was the most probable method to en- title them to favor with the honorable proprietors when the land was purchased.

" After lamenting their distressed condition, they told us the people were not fully collected; but they expected all would attend on the Sabbath following, and then they would give us an answer. They, how- ever, affirmed that the Indians were very peaceable, and seemed sorry that they were to be removed, and

said they apprehended the English intended to make war upon the Indians, as they were moving off their people from the neighborhood. We labored to per- suade them that they were imposed upon by a few straggling Indians; that Sir William Johnson, who had informed our government, must be better ac- quainted with the mind of the Six Nations, and that they were displeased with the white people's settling on their unpurchased lands.

"On Sabbath, the 27th of March, a considerable number attended (their names are subjoined), and most of them told us they were resolved to move off, and would petition your Honor for a preference in ob- taining their improvements when a purchase was made. While we were conversing we were informed that a number of Indians were come to Indian Peter's.1 We, judging it might be subservient to our main de- sign that the Indians should be present while we were advising the people to obey the law, sent for them. They came, and after sermon delivered a speech, with a string of wampum, to be transmitted to your Honor. Their speech was: 'Ye are come, sent by your great men, to tell these people to go away from the land which ye say is ours; and we are sent by our great men, and are glad we have met here this day. We tell you the white people must stop, and we stop them till the treaty, and when George Croghan and our great men talk together we will tell them what to do.' The names of the Indians are subjoined .? They were from the Mingo town, about eighty miles from Red- stone (on the Ohio, below Steubenville).

" After this the people were more confirmed that there was no danger of war. They dropt the design of petitioning, and said they would wait the issue of the treaty. Some, however, declared they would move off.

" We had sent a messenger to Cheat River and to Stewart's Crossings of Yougheganny, with several proclamations, requesting them to meet us at Giesse's [Gist's] place, as most central for both settlements. On the 30th of March about thirty or forty men met us there. We proceeded as at Red Stone, reading the act of Assembly and proclamation, and endeavored to convince them of the necessity and reasonableness of quitting the unpurchased land, but to no purpose. They had heard what the Indians had said at Red Stone, and reasoned in the same manner, declaring that they had no apprehension of war, that they would attend the treaty and take their measures ac- cordingly. Many severe things were said of Mr. Cro- ghan, and one Lawrence Harrison treated the law and our government with too much disrespect.

"On the 31st of March we came to the Great Cross- ings of Yougheghanny, and being informed by one

1 " Indian Peter" was then living in a cabin located on what is now the property of Col. Samuel Evans, three miles cast of Uniontown.

" As follows: "The Indians who came to Redstone, viz : Captains Haven, Hornets, Mygog-Wigo, Nogawach, Strikebelt, Pouch, Gilly, and Slewbells."

SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY.

Speer that eight or ten families lived in a place called the Turkey Foot, we sent some proclamations thither by said Speer, as we did to a few families nigh the crossings of Little Yough, judging it unnecessary to go amongst them. It is our opinion that some will move off, in obedience to the law, that the greater part will wait the treaty, and if they find that the In- dians are indeed dissatisfied, we think the whole will be persuaded to move. The Indians coming to Red Stone and delivering their speeches greatly ob- structed our design."

Appended to the commissioners' report was a list of settlers, as follows :

" The names of inhabitants near Red Stone: John Wiseman, Henry Prisser, William Ling, William Colvia, John Vervalson, Abraham Tygard, Thomas Brown, Richard Rodgers, Henry Swatz [ Swartz], Jo- seph McClean, Jesse Martin, Adam Hatton, John Verwal, Jr., James Waller, Thomas Douter [ Douthet, who owned a part of the site of Uniontown], Captain Coburn, John Delong, Peter Young, George Martin, Thomas Down, Andrew Gudgeon, Philip Sute, James Crawford, John Peters, Michael Hooter, Andrew Linn, Gabriel Conn, John Martio, Hans Cook, Daniel Mckay, Josias Crawford, one Provence.

"Names of some who met us at Giesse's [Gist's] place : One Bloomfield [probably Brownfield], James Lynn, Ezekiel Johnson, Richard Harrison, Phil Sute, Jed Johnson, Thomas Geisse [ Gist ], Charles Lindsay, James Wallace [ Waller?], Henry Burkman, Law- rence Harrison, Ralph Hickenbottom.1

" Names of the people at Turkey Foot: Henry Abrahams, Ezekiel Dewitt, James Spencer, Benjamin Jeanings, John Cooper, Ezekiel Hickman, John Ens- low, Heary Enslow, Benjamin Pursley."

Mr. Steele made a supplemental report to the Gov- ernor, in which, referring to the conferences with the settlers, he said, "The people at Red Stone alleged that the removing of them from the unpurchased lands was a contrivance of the gentlemen and merchants of Philadelphia that they might take rights for their improvements when a purchase was made. In con- firmation of this they said that a gentleman of the name of Harris, and another called Wallace, with one Friggs, a pilot, spent a considerable time last August in viewing the lands and ereeks thereabouts. I am of the opinion, from the appearance the people made, and the best intelligence we could obtain, that there are about an hundred and fifty families in the

different settlements of Red Stone, Youghieganny, and Cheat."

This estimate was intended to include all the set- tlers in what is now Fayette County, and the about eight families on the east side of the Youghiogheny at Turkey Foot. The lists given in the commissioners' report of course omitted a great number of names of settlers, including a number who were somewhat prominent and well known as having been located in this region several years before 1768, as Christopher and Richard Gist, William Cromwell, Stewart of the "Crossings," Capt. William Crawford," who had been settled near Stewart for about three years; Hugh Stevenson, on the Youghiogheny ; Martin Hardin (father of Col. John Hardin), on Georges Creek ; John Mckibben, on Dunlap's Creek, and others.

The mission of the Rev. Mr. Steele and his asso- ciates ended in failure, for the few people who had promised to remove disregarded that promise and re- mained, for all the settlers were strong in confidence that results favorable to their continued occupation would come from the treaty council which was ap- pointed to be held at Fort Pitt about a month later. At that treaty council there were present nearly two thousand Indians, including, besides chiefs and head men of the dominant Six Nations, representatives of the Delaware, Shawanese, Munsee, and Mohican tribes. On the part of the white men there were present George Croghan, deputy agent for Indian affairs; John Allen and Joseph Shippen, Jr., Esqrs.,

" Captain (afterwards colonel) William Crawford settled on the west bank of the Youghingheny at Stewart's Crossings. A deposition sworn by him, and having reference to his settlement here and some other matters, is found in the "Calendar of Virginia State Papers and other Manuscripts, 1652-1781. Preserved in the Capitol ut Richmond. Ar- ranged and edited by William Palmer, M.D., under authority of the Legislature of Virginia, vol. i. 1875." The deposition, which was taken before the Virginia commissioners, James Wood and Charles Sinuns, "at the house of Juhu Ormsby, in l'ittsburgh," is given in part below as estab- lishing the date of Crawford's first coming to this region, and as explain- ing some other matters connected with the incoming of the settlers after the expulsion of the French and the bullding of the English forts, Fitt and Burd.

" Colonel William Crawford Deposeth and saith that his first acquaint- ance with the Country ou the Ohio was in the year 1758, he then being un Officer in the Virginia Service. That between that time and the year 1763 a number of Settlements were male on the Public Ronds in that Country by Permission of the Several Commanding Officers at Furt Pitt. That in the Fall of the year 1765 he made some Improvements on the West Side of the Allegheny Mountains ; in the Spring of the year fol- lowing he settled, and has continued to live out here ever since, That before that time, and in that year, a Considerable number of Settlements were made, he thinks near three hundred, without permission from any Commanding Officer; some of which settlements were made within the 1.imits of the Indiana Company's Claim, and some others within Col. Croghan's. From that time to the present the people continued to emi- grate to this Country very fast. The Deponent being asked by Mr. Morgan if he knows the names of those who settled on the Tudiana Claim in the year 1766, and on what Waters, answers that Zachel Mor- gao, James Chew, and Jacob Prickett came out in thint yenr, and was in. formed by them that they settled up the Monongahala ; that he has since seen Zachel Morgan's plantation, which is on the South side of the line run by Mason and Dixon, and that he believes that to be the first set- tlement made in this Country. . . . " The "Zchel Morgan's plantation" here mentioned was at Morgantown, W. Y'a.

" Ralph liggenbottom resided on the Waynesburg road, in Menallen township, a little west of the Sandy Ilill Quaker ginveyard" (" Monongi- hela of Old"). Mr. Vecch also sny's of the person named by the commis- slouers that they resided at considerable distances from the places where they were met, ns, for instance, "James McClean, who lived in North U'nion township, near the base of Laurel Hill ; Thomas Donthet, on the tract where I'niontown now is; Captain Coburn, some ten miles south- enst of New Geneva; Gabriel Conn, probably on Georges Creek, near Woodbridgetown. The Provances settled on Provance's Bottom, near Masontown, and on the other side of the river at the month of Big Whitely. The Brownfiekls located south and southeast of Uniontown." 5

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

commissioners for the province of Pennsylvania; Alexander McKee, commissary of Indian affairs; Col. John Reed, commandant of Fort Pitt, and several other military officers. The principal interpreter was Henry Montour, and many of the Monongahela and Redstone settlers were present and among the most anxious of the spectators.

continuing any longer on their settlements, and that you expect they will quit them without delay. If you agree to this, we will send an honest and discreet white man to accompany your messengers. And, brethren, if, after receiving such notice from you, they shall refuse to remove by the time limited them, you may depend upon it the Governor will not fail to put the law into immediate execution against them."

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 13

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