History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 157

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 157

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On the 19th of December, 1845, this report was ap- proved and confirmed by the court, and by this ac- tion Nicholson was erected a township with the above- described boundaries.

In the December session of court, 1846, a petition was presented " to change part of the boundary line between George and Nicholson townships." An order was issued and viewers appointed, viz .: John Robinson, Isaac Core, and Jeremiah Kendall, who made a report on the 26th of February, 1847, favora- ble to a change in the line between Nicholson and Georges townships, the effect of which was to include the petitioners, John Harris, James Abram, and Henry Bowell, in the township of Nicholson. The report was approved and confirmed by the court June 12, 1847, making the change of boundary as prayed for by the petitioners.

The name Nicholson was given to the township in honor of James Witter Nicholson, a noted citizen of New Geneva. He was the second son of Commo- dore James Nicholson, U.S.N., who became senior officer in the navy October, 1776, and who died in New York, Sept. 2, 1804. His mother was Frances Witter, a native of Maryland, as was also her husband. James W. Nicholson was born April 20, 1773, his parents residing on Nicholson manor, near Nicholson Gap, Md. His wife was Ann Griffin. He was em- ployed by Albert Gallatin to manage the financial affairs of his glass-factory on Georges Creek, one mile east of New Geneva, which he established in 1794. Nicholson died at his residence, Oct. 6, 1851, aged seventy-eight years. His property was known in the early land titles as " Elk Hill ;" title dated June 26, 1770. He was a brother of Albert Gallatin's second wife. Charles N. Nicholson is his grandson.

One of the earliest settlers within the territory now Nicholson township was George Wilson, who came to this section about the year 1765, and settled on Georges Creek. From the time of his first settlement here he appears to have been a notable man among the pioneers of the Monongahela Valley, and he, with Thomas Scott, of Dunlap's Creek, were marked by Lord Dunmore, and arrested by his order, in 1774, as chief among the Pennsylvania adherents in the terri- torial controversy between this State and Virginia, which was then at its height. It was at the house of George Wilson that the Rev. John McMillen stopped when he first preached to the Mount Moriah congrega- tion in 1775. On the breaking out of the Revolution Wilson entered the Revolutionary army in the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, and became its lieutenant- colonel. Referring to him, and to his honorable career, Judge Veech says,-

" Col. George Wilson is a historic character. He was a Virginian, from Augusta County, where he had been

an officer in the French and Indian war of 1755-62. He came to the West about 1768-69 | Mr. Veech has the date about three years too late], and settled on the land where New Geneva now is, owning the land on the river on both sides of Georges Creek, to which it is believed he gave the name, and being from a locality in Au- gusta called Spring Hill, he cansed that name to be given to the township in which he resided.1 He was a Pennsylvania justice of the peace there while it was a part of Bedford County, and his commission was renewed for Westmoreland. Pennsylvania had no more resolute officer than he was in all the boundary troubles. . . . He died in the service of his country as lieutenant-colonel of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regi- ment, Col. Enos Mckay, at Quibbletown, N. J., in April, 1777."

His family received the first intelligence of his death from his black servant, who returned from New Jersey with the colonel's horse. Of the children of Col. George Wilson little is known with certainty, except that William George, John, and Jane were three of them. Jane married, for her first husband, a man named Bullitt, who proved a spendthrift and ran through his wife's patrimony. She was at one time the owner of the farms now owned by Jason Woolsey and Daniel Sharpnack, as also of many acres of other lands. After Bullitt's death she married Mr. Hawkins, an excellent man of the Friends' Society. By him she had children, among whom the most widely known was the Hon. William George Haw- kins, of Pittsburgh. After a few years Mr. Hawkins died, and his widow married, for her third husband, Gen. John Minor, of Greene County, by whom she had two children,-Lawrence L. Minor, Esq., of Greensboro', Greene Co., and Minerva, who married John Crawford, of Greensboro', and who died in 1864, aged about fifty-six years. Her son, Lieut. John Minor Crawford, served in the war of the Rebellion in the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania Regiment, and is now a resident of Greensboro', Greene Co., Pa.

When the Rev. John Steele and other commis- sioners were sent to the Monongahela country, in 1768, to ascertain what settlements had been made here, they reported to the Governor the names of those found settled in this region, and among them were mentioned as living "near Redstone," "John Wiseman, Henry Prisser, William Linn, William Col- vin, John Vervalson, Abraham Teagard, Thomas Brown, Richard Rodgers, Henry Swatz, James Mc- Clean, Jesse Martin, Adam Hatton, John Verval, Jr., James Waller, Thomas Donter, Capt. Coburn, John Delong, Gabriel Conn, George Martin, Thomas Down, Andrew Gudgeon, Philip Sute, James Crawford, John Peters, Michael Hooter, Daniel MeCay, Josiah Craw- ford, one Provence." Of these, several can be lo- cated. Gabriel Conn was an early settler in the Mo- nongahela Valley, where many of the descendants are

1 The place where he settled being in Springhill township until the erection of Nicholson.

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found to-day. The Crawfords were located in what is now Southwestern Luzerne; Abraham Teagard, on Big Whiteley Creek, in Greene County, where the name is common, several residing in Jefferson and other places in the same county. The "One Pro- vence" evidently means John W. Provance, who re- sided on the river bottom between Jacob's Creek and Catt's Run, in Nicholson township, and who settled there in 1767.

William Yard Provance was also one of the very early settlers on the Monongahela in the same section. + In the early years of their residence here an old In- dian chief named Bald Eagle lived in or frequented the valley of the Monongahela. He was on the most friendly terms with the white settlers, and in passing up and down the river on his hunting and fishing ex- peditions never failed to stop to visit the Provances. Finally, while hunting at some point up the river (supposed to be near the mouth of Cheat), lie was murdered in cold blood by three white men named Jacob Scott, William Hacker, and Elijah Runer, who after doing the deed thrust a piece of corn- bread into the mouth of the dead chief, and placed the lifeless body in an upright position in the canoe, which was then sent adrift on the river. It floated slowly down the stream, and finally came close in shore opposite the residence of Mrs. Sarah Provance, who saw it, and wondered that the Bald Eagle main- tained his motionless position in the canoe, making no movement to land. Going down to the bank she made a closer observation and learned the truth, that he was dead. She procured assistance, had the body brought ashore, and buried in a Christian way. The Indians were greatly enraged when they learned of the unprovoked murder, but they were as deeply grateful to Mrs. Provance and her family for the re- spect they had shown to the remains of the murdered chief. The bones of Bald Eagle still rest in an un- marked and unknown grave by the Monongahela, near the place where the old Provance house stood more than a century ago. The Provances were noted for their size and muscular powers as well as for their love of all athletic sports. Many of the descendants of the family still reside in Fayette County. By some of them the name has been changed to Provins, one of them being Jacob Provins, of Masontown, who is a representative in the State Legislature from Fayette County.

The brothers John Hardin and Martin Hardin have already been mentioned as among the first set- tlers in the Monongahela Valley. All of Martin Hardin's family afterwards removed to Kentucky, and became prominent citizens of that State. They are mentioned in Marshall's " History of Kentucky," in which it is stated that Martin Hardin, who was the father of the somewhat famous Col. John Hardin, of Kentucky, emigrated from Fauquier County, Va., to Georges Creek, in Fayette County, Pa., within what is now Nicholson township, when his son John was .

twelve years old. That was in 1765. Not long after their arrival on Georges Creek there came Indian troubles, and the situation of the settlers became pre- carious and alarming, but they held their position and did not abandon their possessions, as was the case with many other settlers.

The location of John Hardin, Sr., was upon a tract of land which he called "Choice," containing three hundred and nineteen and a quarter acres and allow- ance. The warrant for this tract was dated April 17, 1769. It was surveyed May 22d of the same year. On this tract he made his residence, and lived on it until his death. Martin Hardin located a tract named "Harbout," of three hundred and seventeen and a quarter acres and allowance, warranted April 17, 1769, and surveyed on the 22d of May, 1770. He emigrated to Kentucky in or soon after the year 1780. His son John (afterwards Col. John Hardin) went to Kentucky in that year, and took up lands for himself and friends in Nelson County, afterwards Washing- ton County, in that State, but returned to Fayette County, and remained here six years longer before he finally removed to Kentucky. In Dunmore's war of 1774 he (John Hardin, Jr.) served with a militia company as an ensign. In the Revolution, in the year 1776, he joined the Eighth Pennsylvania Regi- ment, and became a lieutenant in one of the compa- nie». In December, 1779, he resigned, and returned home to Georges Creek, declining the proffered pro- motion to the rank of major in a new regiment. In 1784 he received the nomination for sheriff of Fay - ette County, and was returned to the Executive Coun- cil as one of the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes. On that occasion and under those circumstances Gen. James Wilkinson asked the Coun- cil to commission Hardin as sheriff in a letter ad- dressed to President Dickinson, of the Council,1 dated" November, 1784, and running as follows :

". . . On the present return of the Election for Fayette County, Major John Harden stands second for the Sheriff's Office ; permit me briefly to state to your Excellency this man's merit without detracting from that of his competitor. Mr. Harden served in the alert of the Army under Generals (then Colonels) Morgan & Butler, in the Northern Campaign 1777. His rank was that of a Lieutenant, aud I can, as the Adjutant General of the Army of (fates, assert that he was exposed to more danger, encountered greater Fatigue, and pertormed more real service than any other officer of his Station. With Parties never exceeding 20 men, he ia the Course of the Campaign made up- wards of sixty Prisoners, and at a Personal Rencounter in the rear of the Enemie's position, he killed a Mohawk express, & brought in the dispatches which he was conveying from Geal. Burgoyne to the Commanding Officer at Ticonderoga with the loss only (indeed) of a Lock of Hair, which the Indian's Fire carried away. It is sufficient for me Sir to testify his merits ; the Justice which characterizes your administration will do the rest."

In 1786 he removed his family to the new settle- ment in Kentucky, where his father and brothers had

1 Pa. Arch., x. 610.

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

preceded him. In the same year he volunteered under George Rogers Clarke for the expedition against the Indians on the Wabash, and was appointed quar- termaster. He was afterwards engaged in the suc- eeeding Indian campaigns in Ohio and Indiana, and rose to the rank of colonel. He was killed in the eam- paign against the Miami villages in the fall of 1792. A son of his was killed Feb. 23, 1847, at the battle of Buena Vista, under Gen. Taylor, in Mexico.

Miss Martha Hardin, a granddaughter of John Hardin, Sr., now living in Nicholson township in her eighty-sixth year, gives the following account of the family of which she is a member : The Hardins, she says, eame originally from France. John Hardin, Sr., Martin Hardin, and Lydia Hardin (who became Mrs. Tobin ) were brothers and sister. John Hardin, Sr., married Isabella Shubranch, by whom he had eleven children, viz. : John, Absalom, Henry, Nestor. George, Cato, Heetor, Mary Ann, Miriam, Matilda, and Alice. He died in Fayette County, and his wife survived him many years. Martin Hardin married Elizabeth Hoagland, by whom he had seven children besides Col. John. He (Martin ) emigrated from Fay- ette County, as before mentioned, to Kentucky, and lived in the latter State until his death, though he revisited his old home in (then) Springhill town- ship, and the narrator recolleets that when she was a little girl she saw him here on one of those visits. All the Hardins of Kentucky, she says, are his de- seendants.

Lydia Hardin, sister of John and Martin, married Thomas Tobin, from which marriage eame the family of Tobins of Fayette County.

Robert MeLain was a Scotchman who settled in Nicholson township, south of the mouth of Catt's Run, on the bank of the Monongahela River. He .was an elder of the Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church of Springhill, which was organized by the Rev. James Power in 1774. Among the early set- thers he was highly esteemed and respected. He was so unfortunate as to be compelled to kill a fellow- being to save himself and family from being burned to death. The region along the Monongahela was infested by a band of robbers, called " Bainbridge's Gang," with headquarters at a high bluff of the river, now owned by Jesse E. McWilliams, and known as the Robbers' Den. McLain was the owner of a very valnable stallion, which they resolved to take. Me- Lain having been notified of their intention, stabled his horse in the kitchen of his house. When they arrived they soon discovered the whereabouts of the horse, and commander MeLain to bring him out. Receiving no reply, they warned him that unless he did as they bade him his house would be fired. Still receiving no answer, Bainbridge commanded some of his men to get straw, and he would show the d-d Scotchman whether his commands were to be disre- garded. Seizing the straw and advancing to execute his threat, MeLain fired, killing him instantly. He .

was then carried off by some of the gang, who wrapped the body in a bed eoverlet, with stones, and sunk it in the Monongahela. Mr. McLain, in the later years of his life, was greatly troubled in mind by the recollection of this justifiable homicide. Mr. John Bowman (deceased), grandfather of Morgan H. Bowman, Esq., of Uniontown, told the writer that Robert MeLain frequently visited his father's house, and that he had often heard him express his deep re- gret for having killed the desperado Bainbridge. The date of Mr. McLain's death has not been ascertained. llis remains lie in the MeLain burial-ground, in Nicholson.

Isaae Griffin was one of the pioneer settlers, as well as one of the most prominent men in publie and private life for many years in what is now Nicholson township, owning a large amount of land here, a part of which is known as the Morris farm. He was a native of Delaware, being born and reared in Kent County in that State. Although wild and reckless while young, he won the heart of a young Quakeress, named Mary Morris, whose family were striet Friends. She was locked in a room up-stairs to prevent her union with the young worldling. He found out the situation, obtained a ladder, put it to the window, and she climbed down and eloped with him. This bit of romance has been handed down in that neighborhood to this day. A meeting of the Friends was ealled, when she was notified that " If thee will say thee is sorry that thee married Isaac, thee can stay in." But as she would not say it she was expelled from their membership.

Isaac Griffin was a captain in the war of the Rev- olution, and had a great deal of trouble with the Tories, who were very numerous in Delaware. He was mainly instrumental in capturing their leader, Chany Clow, who was executed. When Clow came home from the Tory eamp, Capt. Griffin with his company, and accompanied by Maj. Moore, sur- rounded the house. It was dark, and in attempting to reach the door Griffin stumbled and fell. Maj. Moore got ahead of him and was shot dead by Clow, who said he was sorry it was not Griffin. The adher- ents of Clow hated Griffin intensely, and after the close of the war his personal safety was endangered. This in part caused him to change his residence. He bought his first lands in Springhill (now Nichol- son) township, Fayette Co., Pa., of the Hardins, but the Indians lingering near, his wife feared to move there. He then traded his Western lands to his rel- ative, Charles Griffin, for a farm in Delaware, where the town of Clayton now stands. His wife having lost her health, and his enemies constantly harassing him, she finally consented to go to Western Pennsyl- vania. He again visited the West and bought land of the Evans'. He afterwards bought several farms, and became one of the most successful stock-raisers on the Monongahela.

Mr. Griffin owned a few negro slaves that he brought

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with him to Fayette County. Soon after he became a citizen of Pennsylvania the Governor appointed him justice of the peace, in 1794, in which capacity he served several years. In 1807 he was elected to the Legislature, and re-elected until he served four suc- cessive terms. In 1809 there were six candidates for the office, but Mr. Griffin ran far ahead of all the others, receiving the entire vote of Fayette County with the exception of about two hundred votes. Al- though living in the opposite end of Fayette County from Mr. John Smilie, Mr. Griffin was appointed by that gentleman one of the executors of his will, and at his death in 1812 Mr. Griffin was elected to Con- gress as Mr. Smilie's successor. It is related of him that upon being notified of his election he brought cloth of home manufacture to Thomas Williams, Esq., of New Geneva, for the purpose of having him make him a suit of clothes. He informed the persons pres- ent that "he raised the sheep, carded, spun, dyed, and wove the cloth on his own premises." At a mass- meeting in Uniontown he was nominated for Congress by acclamation. At the election his competitor was Gen. Thomas Meason, a prominent member of the Fayette County bar. He defeated Gen. Meason by a large majority, and was once re-elected without op- position. He served in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Congresses. In 1812 a gloom was cast over him by the death of his favorite son, James Morris Griffin, who was killed in battle in the war with England.

Mr. Griffin voted to sustain Mr. Madison in all his ' war measures, and ever enjoyed his confidence, as well as that of his constituents. For no vote that he gave during the ten years that he was in public life was he censured, but for a vote that he did not give he was blamed. It was said that when the vote was taken to increase the pay of members of Congress he was not in the house. He felt stung by the comments of a writer in his home paper, and would not allow his name used as a candidate for re-election.

In 1824, Mr. Griffin was the Crawford electoral can- didate for the Fayette district, but was of course de- feated, as the State went largely for Jackson. Mr. Griffin could never be induced to make a public speech, but his conversational powers were of a high order, and these made him a general favorite. The ablest men of the nation would with pleasure listen to hear him talk. His personal dislike to Gen. Jackson was caused by the hanging of Alexauder Arbuthnot and Robert C. Ambrister in Florida after they were cleared by court-martial. This opposition to Gen. Jackson caused Mr. Griffin to lose his great popularity among his neighbors, where Jackson was a great favorite.

culty with a member from South Carolina, which would have been a serious affair but for the timely interference of other members. At a public dinner in Uniontown an Englishman, who was an officer of the old Uniontown Bank, spoke of Mrs. Madison in the most disgraceful terms, and for this act of ill- breeding Mr. Griffin knocked him down at the table, an act for which he was greatly applauded at the time.

Soon after he settled in his new home in Fayette Connty his wife joined Father Woodbridge's Seventh- Day Baptist Church, and remained a consistent mem- ber until her death, which occurred in her eightieth year, although she had been an invalid for fifty years. Her husband, although not a member, gave his sup- port to the regular Baptist Church. This caused them to have a Sabbath and a Sunday in their house for about forty years, but this occasioned no jar, for everything moved on smoothly, and they traveled life's pathway harmoniously, although differing widely in most things. After Mr. Griffin retired from public life he remained on his farm until his death, at the age of seventy years, occasioned by a fall from a loaded wagon. The Rev. John Patton, of the Baptist Church, who performed the funeral ser- vice, said, " Mr. Griffin did not attach himself to the church for reasons best known to himself, but he was an Israelite indeed in whom there was no guile." His wife survived him several years. They had ten children, four sons and six daughters, all of whom survived their father except the sons James M. and Isaac. One of the daughters, Ann, married James W. Nicholson. She resided during her life near New Geneva. Charles Nicholson is the only representa- tive of this branch of the family remaining. Mary Griffin married Andrew Oliphant. Joseph E. Griffin was formerly a member of the State Legislature from Fayette County, and is now living in Texas. Wil- liam P. Griffin is of the original stock, a descendant of Isaac and Mary Griffin.

Robert Ross was an early settler. It does not ap- pear that in the early part of the Revolutionary war he was reckoned among the adherents of the patriot cause, but in June, 1779, he took the oath of allegi- ance to Pennsylvania, and afterwards served to the end of the war under Gen. Anthony Wayne. At the close of the struggle he, like thousands of others, was paid the arrears due him for services in Conti- nental money, which was depreciated to one-fortieth of its face value. He afterwards served in the vari- ous Indian campaigns in Ohio and Indiana, rising to the rank of captain. In the Whiskey Insurrection of 1794, Capt. Ross was on the side of the insurgents, and commanded a company of about one hundred men of the western and southwestern parts of the county, a part of the (supposed; available force of the insurrectionists to be used in opposition to the government. At the head of this company Capt. Ross

Mr. Griffin had features of the Roman type, with black hair and deep-blue eyes. In height he was six feet two inches, and had a powerful physical organi- zation. Although he was modest and retiring he possessed a chivalric nature, and he was not slow to resent an insult. While in Congress he had a diffi- , marched to Uniontown in August, 1794, to raise the

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

"liberty poles" in the town, and two miles south of it at Gaddis' place. When Gen. Lee came in with his army to suppress the insurrection, a squadron of cavalry was sent towards the Monongahela for the capture of Robert Ross as insurgent leader, but the expedition was unsuccessful. The powder-horn and other Revolutionary accontrements of Capt. Ross are in the possession of his grandsons in Iowa. Another of his grandsons is the Hon. Moses A. Ross, of Som- erset County, Pa.

In Nicholson, on the road leading from Masontown to New Geneva, via the "Goose Neck," is a tract of land on which was the settlement of a Mr. Graham, who came there from Washington County, Pa. On , also filled the office of justice of the peace in Nichol- this he erected a mill and distillery, some vestiges of which are still in existence, located on Jacob's Creek. Graham having become heavily indebted to Jesse Evans ( father of Col. Samuel Evans, now living near Uniontown), sold this property to one Haught. The buildings were destroyed by fire soon afterwards.

From the time when Thomas Williams settled here a few other settlers gathered round him from time to time, until a number of straggling dwellings had clus- tered on the river-bank and on the bluff above it, and in the early days, before the present name had Graham emigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he be- i been given to the village, these little groups of houses came engaged in the manufacture of paper. It has ' had received the names of " Wilson Port" and been said of him that he was a brother-in-law of President William H. Harrison, but this is not known to have been a fact.

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 157

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