History of Greene County, Pennsylvania, Part 2

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago : Nelson, Rishforth
Number of Pages: 908

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We have thus far considered only the general aspects of the county. Its location and topographical features can be briefly stated. Greene County is situated in the extreme southwest corner of Pennsylvania, and is bounded on the north by Washington County, on the east by the Monongahela River which separates it from Fayette County, on the south by West Virginia, the western extremity of Mason and Dixon's line forming the dividing boundary, and on the west by West Virginia, known as the Panhandle, the western merid- ian line of five degrees measuring the length of the State constitut- ing the line of demarkation. It contains within these limits three hundred and eighty-nine thousand, one hundred and twenty square acres (389,120) of surface, or about six hundred and eight square

miles (608). Were it in the form of an absolute square it would be nearly twenty-five miles on each side, or a hundred miles in circuit ; but as the length is to the breadth as five to three, the average length may be set down as thirty-two miles and breadth nineteen. The surface is drained by the Monongahela River, which unites with the Allegheny at Pittsburg and forms the Ohio proper, and by the Wheeling River which also falls into the Ohio, and forms part of the great Mississippi system. The water-shed which separates the waters of the Monongahela from the Wheeling system, commences at a point on the Washington County line a little north and east of the Baptist church, near the northern extremity of Morris Township, and pursues a southwesterly course cutting a small section of the eastern portion of Richhill Township, striking Jackson Township at a point near the intersection of Jackson with Centre, dividing Jackson

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

from north to south very nearly at its center, cutting off the north- west corner of Gilmore, and the southwest corner of Springhill Town- ships, and passes on into West Virginia near the center of the southern boundary of the latter township, thus forming as it were, the back-bone of the county, and sending the waters on its eastern slope through innumerable and devious channels to the on-moving waters of the Monongahela, and those upon the western slope to the Wheeling.

Of the streams which drain the eastern slope, Ten Mile Creek is the most considerable, draining with its tributaries a full third of the entire territory ; the second in magnitude, and nearly the equal of the former, though receiving a considerable portion of its volume from West Virginia, is Dunkard Creek. Of lesser magnitude are Muddy Creek, Little Whiteley and Whiteley. On the western slope are Ens- low's and North Forks of Wheeling Creek and Pennsylvania Fork of Fish Creek.

Ten Mile Creek, which forms the northern boundary of Jefferson Township, and the northern limit of the county and is something less than four miles in length, is formed by the junction of the North and South Forks. The North Fork is forthe most part in Washing- ton County, draining its southeastern section. The South Fork which drains the central and northeastern portion of Greene County, has for its tributaries on the left bank, Casteel Run, Ruff"'s Creek, Wylies Run, Brown's Fork, Bates' Fork, Brushy Fork, Gray Run and Miranda Run, and upon the right bank, McCourtney's Run, Hargus Creek, Pursley Creek, Smith Creek, Laurel Run and Coal Lick Run. Pumpkin Run is the next stream south of Ten Mile Creek and empties into the Monongahela at the point where is located the village of Patton and Hughe's Ferry. Muddy Creek drains for the most part Cumberland Township, passes through the village of Carmichaels and enters the river where has been established Flenniken's Ferry. Whiteley Creek which is fed by Frosty, Lantz and Dyer's Runs from the north, drains Whiteley, Greene and Monongahela Townships, passes through the villages of Kirby, Lone Tree, Whiteley and Mapletown, and falls into the Monongahela River at Ross' Ferry. Dunkard Creek, which has for tributaries West's, Culvin's, Shannon's, Randolph's Robert's, Rush's Hoover's, Fordyce's, Tom's and Blockhouse Runs from the north, and numberless confluents from West Virginia from the sonth, has upon its banks the villages of Mt. Morris, Fair Chance and Taylortown and is the last of the considerable streams that flow into the Monongahela River on the south in Pennsylvania. The North Fork of Wheeling Creek, which drains the western slope of the county is fed upon the left bank by Whorton's, Hewitt's, Chamber's and White's Runs, and on the right bank by Stonecoal, Crabapple, Laurel, Kent's, Wright's and White Thorn Runs, and has

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

the villages of Bristoria, Ryerson and Crow's Mills, located upon its banks. Fish Creek is fed by Hart's, Waggon-road, Laurel and Hlerod's Runs, and has the villages of Freeport and Deep Valley.

The general trend of the hills throughout the county of Greene is from northwest to southeast, and the roads which follow the val- leys by which the hills are bordered, follow the same general direc- tion, being for the most part parallel to each other and connected at intervals by cross roads leading over the hills, or through intersecting valleys. The only exception to this general law is the tract embracing the three western townships, comprising the valley of Wheeling Creek, where the course is from north to south or bearing some- what from northeast to southwest. Every part of the surface is well watered by abundant springs and streams, and the soil is deep and fertile, being tillable even to the very summits of the highest hills. In many portions the hillsides, though very abrupt, are capable of being cultivated, and yield good returns for the labor bestowed. In the western section of the county are beds of limestone, which, on being reduced and applied to the soil, stimulates it to great fertility. When first visited by the white man, this whole stretch of country was covered with one vast forest, the trees of giant growth, consist- ing of white oak, red oak, black oak, and in many sections of sugar maple, chestnut, black walnut, hickory, butternut, ash, poplar, locust, cherry, ironwood, laurel and bay. In the rich bottoms, along the Monongahela River, in the southeastern section of the county, were. originally, vast tracts of pine and hemlock and spruce. These have been swept away for use in building, and the arts, until scarcely a vestige remains of the pristine forests, and few if any of a new growth have been permitted to spring up in their places. As a consequence. all the rough timber and sheeting boards used in building, are of the different varieties of oak. Poplar and hard-woods have now to be used as a finishing wood, or if pine is employed it has to be imported.

The observation may be permitted in this connection, though not strictly in place here, that the subject of forestry has been too much overlooked by the inhabitants of Greene County. In a former generation the deep, dense forest was looked upon as the worst enemy of the settler, standing in the way of his improvements, and shutting out the sunlight from his vegetables and growing crops. Hence, to get the heavy growths out of his way, and prevent future growths was his greatest care. In what way this could be ac- complished with the least labor and most speedily, was his chief concern. Hence the hardy axmen went forth at the first breaking of the rosy tinted morn, and we can realize as he attacks,

some stately growth of oak or pine,

Which nods aloft and proudly spreads her shade, The sun's defiance and the flock's defence ;

How by strong strokes tough fibers yield at length,

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

Loud groans her last, and rushing from her height, In cumbrous ruin thunders to the ground. The concious forest trembles at the shock, And hill, and stream, and distant dale resound. "

This is but the history of what was transpiring in every portion of the county, day after day, and year after year, through all the early generations. It was too laborious and troublesome to chop the monster trunks into sections fit for handling, so, fire was brought into requisition, and at convenient intervals burnings were made. when the dissevered parts could then be swung around into piles and the toreh applied. All through the dry season vast volumes of smoke would ascend heavenward, and at night the sky would be illumined by the flames leaping upward and standing like beacon lights on every hill-top and down every valley. And when the settler was in too much haste to cut and burn the cumbersome forest, he would rob the innocent trees of their life by girdling the sap, thus cutting off" the health giving eurrents. By this process the foliage was forever broken, and the light and genial warmth of the sun was let in upon the virgin mould of centuries, which was quickened into life as the linsbandman dropped his cherished seed. But there stood the giant forest still, torn and wrenched by lightning and storm, stretching out its massive arms to heaven, bleached and whitened by sun and shower, like the ghosts of their departed greatness, and as if implor- ing mercy still. One can scarcely pass one of these lifeless forests, without a sigh of pity for the decaying monarchs.

But they subserve a purpose. The constant droppings from their deeaying limbs engender moisture, and give nourishment to the rich pasturage which springs, like tufts of velvet, beneath them; and, when at length they yield to the blows of the elements, and the cor- oding tooth of time, they are reduced to ashes, and finally disappear from sight. They were sometimes fired while still standing, and scarcely can a more sublime sight be imagined than a forest of lifeless. trees in full blaze. The ashes from a burned forest were some- times gathered up and converted into potash, which always com- manded ready sale in the eastern market, and was exchanged for salt 'and other necessaries of life not produced in the vicinage.

But what will be the consequence of this indiscriminate war upon the forests ? In a few generations the hills, being entirely denuded of shade, will be parched by the burning suns of summer, and the streams will become less copious in the heated term and will eventual- ly become entirely dry. On the other hand, in the spring time, with no forests to hold the moisture, and yield it up gradually through the burning months when needed, the rains and melting snows will descend in torrents, and flood the valleys. The fertility of the soil will be soaked and drained out of it, the hillsides will be gashed and

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

seamed by the descending torrents, and thus all the hills, burned in summer and flooded in winter, will become barren. The tiller of the soil will wonder at the scantiness of his crops, and his flocks and herds will bleat and call in hopeless starvation.

Of late years an attempt has been made to excite an interest in forestry. Mr. Northup, in Connecticut, has secured some legislation upon the subject in that State and by lecturing before teachers' in- stitutes, and on public occasions, has called attention to the subject, so that we have our forestry day in this State, to which the governor annually calls attention by a special proclamation. But the manner in which it is acted upon, instead of resulting in a public good. will be a positive injury. In the appeals of Mr. Northup and others, the call is to have trees planted about school-houses and dwellings. Now what will be the consequence ? In a few years. when the trees have become grown, there will be excessive shade and moisture. Moss will accumulate upon the roofs, the sunlight will be entirely shut ont, and the children will be pale and sickly in consequence. The school-room will become unhealthy for lack of sunlight, and the dwelling will be damp and gloomy. One tree for a school ground not exceeding one acre, is ample shade. Excessive shade must always prove injurious to health, while sun light is a better medicine for failing strength than ever hunan ingenuity com- pounded.

But what is the remedy for the evil complained of? The forester should commence his work upon the far-off hill tops, and with dili- gent hand should crown them with forests most useful and valuable to man,-the fine maple, comely in shape, challenging the painter's most gaudy pigments for color, close-grained and unyielding in fiber for lumber: the walnut, cherry and ash, unrivalled for furniture and finishing; the chestnut, valuable for its nuts and for fencing. and pine and birch and hemlock, useful all. For holding moisture, and tempering the heats of summer, none are more useful than the ever- greens. All the waste places, the ravines and rugged hill-sides. unsuitable for cultivation, should be planted. The sugar from a thousand good trees will bring to any farmer a bigger income than the whole produce of his farm in other ways. The price of a good black walnut log is almost fabulous. A white ash of twenty years' growth will yield a timber unsurpassed for carriages; and pine of fifteen years' growth will produce lumber which will be much sought for, and is year by year becoming more and more scarce. A good field of planted trees, or spront land, should be fenced and protected from the browsing of cattle, as carefully as a field of corn. It may seem an unpalatable doctrine to preach, that the forests, which our fathers worked themselves lean to banish, should be protected, and nurtured, and brought back to their old places. But it is a true

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

gospel, and if we look carefully at it in all its bearings, we shall re- ceive it and recognize it as possessing saving grace.

Along the hills of southern Italy may be seen, to-day, an aspect which, in a few years, will be presented in the now fertile lands of Greene County. The Italian hills for centuries have been swept bare of forests. As a consequence, the soil is parched in summer time, and has become bare and barren; the streams, which in other days were deep and ran in full volume to the sea, and were the theme of extravagant praises by the Latin poets, are now for months together entirely dry, not a gush of water gladdening their baked and parched beds. Of the innumerable streams which fall into the Mediterranean on the western coast, from Genoa to the Straits of Messina, there are only a very few, like the Anio and the Tiber, that do not, in July and Angust, cease to flow, the husbandman being obliged to resort to artesian wells to feed his vegetables and growing erops.

We have now considered the general features of the territory known as Greene County. But before entering upon a more particu- lar description of the settlement, and growth of its civil and religious institutions, it will be proper to consider several very interesting questions vitally touching its early occupation. The manner in which the original inhabitants became dispossessed of the inheritance of their fathers, and were driven towards the setting sun; why the dwellers in this valley are English, and not a French-speaking peo- ple; how it has transpired that we are the subjects of Pennsylvania rule, and not of Virginia or Maryland, and, finally, why we are not the constituent parts of a new State formed ont of western Pennsyl- vania and portions of West Virginia and eastern Ohio,-these were living questions which plagued our fathers, and were not settled without desperate struggles, marked with slaughter, which may justly give to this county of Greene the title of the "dark and bloody ground."

LIBRARY

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IIISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

CHAPTER II.

WHY CALLED INDIANS-THE GRANDFATHERS, OR DELAWARES-SHAW- ... NEES-SIX NATIONS OR IROQUOIS, OR MINGOES-THE TUSCARORAS DELAWARES VASSALS-INDIANS' SHEMITIC ORIGIN-APPLICA - TION OF BIBLE PROPHECY -- THE INDIAN SUI GENERIS-CHARAC- TERISTICS-INDOLENT-POSITION OF WOMAN -- THE INDIAN A LAW TO HIMSELF -- ILIS OCCUPATIONS -THEVISH -- PATIENT OF TOIL TO FEED REVENGE-VIEW OF COLUMBUS -- AMIDA'S AND BAR- LOW'S EXPERIENCE-PENN'S TESTIMONY-BANCROFT'S VIEW -- THE STEALTH PRACTICED IN HUNTING SERVED THEM IN SEEKING THE VICTIMS OF THEIR SAVAGE CRUELTY -- BREBEUF DESCRIBES AN INSTANCE OF THEIR BARBARITY WHICH HE BEHELD-CRUELTY A DELIGHT-GREENE COUNTY THE SCENE OF THIS SAVAGE BAR- BARITY.

THEN Columbus, after having demonstrated the rotundity of the earth in his scholar's cell, had verified the truth of his theory by sailing westward in search of the farthest east, and had actually reached and discovered the shores of the New World, he believed that he had found the famed Cathay. Though he made several voy- ages, and lived a number of years, he still thought that it was the Indies he had found, and died in ignorance of the grandeur of his discovery. To the inhabitants whom he found in the new country he gave the name of Indians, and, though wholly inappropriate in view of the historical facts, it has clung to them through every vicis- situde of fortune, and when the last of their race shall have disap- peared forever from the earth, they will be recorded as Indians.

The natives who occupied the greater portion of that part of the North American continent now designated Pennsylvania, were known as the Lenni Lenape, the original people, or grandfathers. They were by nature fieree and warlike, and there was a tradition among them that the Lenapes, in ages quite remote, had emigrated from be- yond the Mississippi, exterminating or driving out, as they came eastward, a race far more civilized than themselves, numerous, and skilled in the arts of peace. That this country was once the abode of a more or less civilized people, accustomed to many of the coni- forts of enlightened communities, that they knew the use of tools. and were numerous, is attested by remains, thickly studding western Pennsylvania and the entire Ohio valley; but whether their extermi-

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

nation was the work of fiercer tribes than themselves, or whether they were swept off by epidemie diseases, or gradually wasted as the fate of a decaying nation, remains an unsolved problem. The three principal tribes of which the Lenapes were composed, -- the Turtles or Unamis, the Turkeys or Unalachtgos, the Wolf's or Monseys,-oecu- pied the eastern portion of Pennsylvania, and claimed the territory from the Hudson to the Potomac. They were known to the English as the Delawares. The Shawnees, a restless tribe which had come up from the south, had been received and assigned places of habita- tion on the Susquehanna, by the Delawares, and finally become a constituent part of the Delaware nation.

But the Indian nationality which more nearly concerns the see- tion of country of which we are treating, is the Six Nations, or as they were designated by the French, the Iroquois. They called themselves Aquannschioni or United Tribes, or in our own parlance, United States, and the Lenapes called them Mingoes. They origi- nally consisted of five tribes, and hence were known as the Five Nations, viz: the Senecas, who were the most vigorous, stalwart and numerous; the Mohawks, who were the first in numbers and in rank, and to whom it was reserved to lead in war; the Onondagas, who gnarded the council fire, and from among whom the Sachem or civil head of the confederacy was taken; the Oneidas, and the Cayugas. Near the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Tuscaroras, a large tribe from central North Carolina and Virginia, having been expelled from their former dwelling place, were adopted by the Five Nations, and thenceforward were known as the Six Nations. They occupied the country stretching from Lake Champlain to Lake Erie, and from Lake Ontario and the river St. Lawrence on the north, to the head waters of the Delaware, the Susquehanna and the Allegheny rivers on the south. It was a country well suited for defence in savage warfare, being guarded on three sides by great bodies of water. They were quick to learn the methods of civilized warfare, and securing fire-arms from the Dutch on the Iludson, they easily over- came neighboring hostile tribes whom they held in a condition of vassalage, exacting an annual tribute, but protected them, in return, in the possession of their rightful hunting grounds. The Lenapes, or Delawares, were held under subjection in this manner, which gave to the Six Nations semi-authority over the whole territory of the State of Pennsylvania, and reaching out into Ohio. This humili- ating vassalage to which the Lenapes or Delawares were subjected, had been imposed upon them by conquest of the Iroquois; but the former claimed that it was assumed by them voluntarily, that "they had agreed to aet as mediators and peace-makers among the other great nations, and to this end they had consented to lay aside entirely the implements of war, and to hold and to keep bright the chain of

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

peace." It was the office, when tribes had weakened themselves by «lesperate conflict, for the women of those tribes, in order to save their kindred from utter extermination, to rush between the contend- ing warriors and implore a cessation of slaughter. It became thus the office of women to be peace-makers. The Delawares claimed that they had assumed this office from principle; but the Iroquois declared that it was a matter of necessity, and applied the epithet "women " as a stigma, thus characterizing them as wanting in the quality of the braves. The pious Moravian missionary, Heckewelder, who spent much time among them, and knew their character well. believed that the Delawares were sincere in their claim, and from the fact that they had a great admiration for William Penn, with whom they associated much, and imbibed his sentiments of peace, it may be that they came to hold those principles, even if they had formerly been conquered in war, and been compelled to accept terms of de- pendence. Gen. Harrison, afterwards President of the United States. in a discourse on the aborigines of the valley of the Ohio, observes: "Even if Mr. Heckewelder has succeeded in making his readers be- lieve that the Delawares, when they submitted to the degradation proposed to them by their enemies, were influenced, not by fear, but by the benevolent desire to put a stop to the calamities of war, he has established for them the reputation of being dupes. This is not often the case with Indian sachems. They are rarely cowards, but still more rarely are they deficient in sagacity or discerment to de- tect any attempt to impose upon them. I sincerely wish I could unite with the worthy German in removing this stigma from the Delawares. A long and intimate knowledge of them in peace and war, as enemies and friends, has left upon my mind the most favor- able impressions of their character for bravery, generosity and fidelity to their engagements." But whatever may have been their original purposes, or their subsequent convictions, after their associations with Penn, they did demand complete independence of the Iroquois in 1756, and had their claims allowed.

Of the origin of the Indian race little is definitely known. The Indians themselves had no tradition and they had no writings, coins or monuments by which their history could be preserved. Ethnolo- gists are, however, well assured that the race came originally from eastern Asia. Without reciting here the arguments which support this theory, it is sufficient for our present purpose to state, that it seems well attested that the race has dwelt upon this continent from a period long anterior to the Christian era, obtaining a foothold here within five hundred years from the dispersion of the race, and that their physical and mental peculiarities have become fixed by ages of subjection to climate and habits of life. Mr. Schoolcraft, who has written much upon Indian history, and has given much study and

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

thought to the subject, adduces the following considerations as proof of the fulfillment of that prophecy of scripture recorded in the ninth chapter of Genesis: "And the sons of Noah that went forth of the Ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. God shall enlarge Japheth [Europeans] and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem [Indians] and Canaan [Negro] shall be his servant."

" Assuming," says Schoolcraft, "the Indian tribes to be of Shem- itic origin, which is generally conceded, they were met on this conti- ment in 1492, by the Japhet-ic race, after the two stocks had passed around the globe by directly different routes. Within a few years subsequent to this event, as is well attested the humane influence of an eminent Spanish ecclesiastic, led to the calling over from the coast of Africa, of the Ham-itic branch. As a mere historical question, and without mingling it in the slightest degree with any other, the result of three centuries of occupancy has been a series of movements in all the colonial stocks, south and north, by which Japhet has been immeasurably enlarged on the continent, while the called and not voluntary sons of Ham, have endured a servitude, in the wide stretching valleys of the tents of Shem."

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History of Greene County, Pennsylvania, Part 2

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Chicago : Nelson, Rishforth Number of Pages: 908

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago : Nelson, Rishforth
Number of Pages: 908