History of Greene County, Pennsylvania, Part 41

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

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One of the early families in this township was that of Thomas Harvey. The head of the family originally emigrated from France to Ireland, thence to England, and finally to Philadelphia. On the 1st of January, 1807, the family left Philadelphia for the Mononga- hela country, and were three months in getting through. William, an elder brother, had come on before, and had located in this valley, where he taught school and had pupils from a distance of six and seven miles around. There were three sons, Thomas, Joseph and Samuel. They built a camp or shed the first season, and made maple sugar, and here they lived until fall, when they built a log house. - Afterwards they erected a more pretentions house, two stories in height, of hewed logs, where they kept a hotel. The mail carrier from Morgantown to Wheeling made this one of his points, and frequently had not a single letter in his pouch. The family was originally Presbyterian, but became Baptist. Daniel Throckmorton and wife were the first Baptists in that section. They were very devout, and were accustomed to go once a month to attend service at Goshen Baptist Church, the oldest in the county, twenty miles away. Tiring of these long journeys to worship, which he was accustomed

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to take with his wife on horseback, and moved with the desire to proselyte, he joined with his neighbors in organizing a church in that neighborhood, which was known as the South Ten-Mile Baptist . Church. The church was organized and the first services were held in a barn. In 1841 a comfortable frame house was erected, and in 1883 a fine new edifice. Rutan, a small village, named for State Senator and Congressman James S. Rutan, is located in the Ten-Mile Creek valley, and from its favorable location where leading thorough- fares meet, is likely to become a place of considerable business im- portance. In 1872 William Hendershot opened a small store here. In the following year W. T. Hays bought the establishment and built up a prosperous trade. In 1887 he sold the store and good will to the Goodwin Brothers. On Pursley Creek, in the southeast corner of the township, there has sprung up a highly prosperous village known by the suggestive name of Oak Forest. It has a flouring mill provided with machinery for reducing the grain by the improved roller process, two stores, and the usual concomitants of a country town. By the official statement in 1855, Centre Township is reported to have fifteen schools and 576 pupils. Great improvement in the qualifications of teachers, grade of school-houses, and devotion of directors and parents to the best interests of the schools, is percepti- ble since that day. The board of directors is constituted as follows: William Arndoff, President; Jesse Patterson, Secretary; Joseph Mc- Neely, Thomas Scott, S. B. Huffman and Henry Church.

About the year 1775, three German families emigrated and set- tled near the mouth of Pursley Creek. Two of these, by the name of Sellers, appropriated the lands since owned by John Buchanan and Fordyce Thomas. The other family bore the name of Povator, and improved the tract where Edward Wood and Doc. Huffman live. A year later came Benjamin Pursley, and located the land now owned by George Hoge, Jr., and from him Pursley Creek was named. The family of the elder Sellers consisted of himself, wife, and four sons, Leonard, Jacob, George and John, the latter being demented. They lived in a cabin built for defense, located near a spring below the house of Mr. Buchanan, still standing. Leonard Sellers married Mary, the only child of Gasper Povator, with whom the young couple lived. One afternoon in the fall of 1780, or thereabouts, Leonard shouldered his gun, and journeyed into the forest for game. Molly, the wife, with her twin children, and her sister-in-law, went out to gather grapes. Molly spread her apron upon the ground, and sat the two children upon it, and while busily engaged gathering clusters, Indians, creeping stealthily, fired or rushed suddenly upon them. Molly instinctively and instantly bounded away, oblivious to every- thing except the terrible vision of the inhuman savages rushing upon her, and firing after her. Having escaped their deadly clutch, she

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ran at her utmost speed, not halting till she had reached her own cabin, when some one exclaimed, " Why, Molly, where are your children?" This was the first thought that the terror-stricken mother had, that her babes had been with her in the woods. With a shriek and a bound she flew back over the ground by which she had come, to meet death if she must, only intent on rescuing her little ones. When she reached the spot, she found the children sit- ting upon the apron as she had left them, but horrible to behold, both scalped. Fearing pursuit the Indians had fled. On approach- ing the children, one of them looked up and smiled, when it recog- nized its mother. Folding them to her bosom in the apron as they sat, she hurried home, and upon her arrival, found a huge butcher knife in the folds of the apron, that the savage had dropped. One of the children died, and the other lived to become the wife of Joseph Ankram, and the mother of a family. The sister-in-law, who was with her, was carried away, and was never heard of more.

During the first run home the mother saw the bark knocked off a sapling before her by the ball from the Indian's gun, which passed between her body and her arm, but fortunately did not harm her, and when she jumped off the creek bank into the sand she made a greater leap than any man in the settlement was able to do. But the powerful exertion required for the leap, and the running back and forth, together with the shock produced by seeing her poor scalped babes, proved nearly fatal. She was completely broken down, and for over a year was in a very feeble and critical condition, never re- gaining her natural vigor. So violent was her hatred of the savages ever after, that she not only became much excited whenever she related these incidents, but usually added, " If ever I should see an Indian, no difference where he was, or who, or how friendly he pre- tended to be, I know I should try to kill him-I know I could not help it." The husband returned at evening, but so horror and grief stricken that he soon sickened and died. Thomas Hoge, who fur- nishes many of the particulars related above, says: " My parents when first married, sixty years ago, settled on Pursley, where John Hoge now lives, on the improvement made by Ben Pursley, from whon both the creek and Ben's Run took their names. Old Molly was a practicing midwife, and my mother thinks she was a daughter of old Molly Hoffman who lived about the mouth of Pursley Creek, and was also a midwife. She also adds that when they settled on Pursley there were but two or three families above them on all the waters of that stream. There were in places two miles or more together of solid woods, without a stick amiss, where deer, wolves and wild turkeys were very plenty, with a sprinkling of bears and rattle-snakes. The deer were very troublesome in pasturing off the young wheat in winter and early spring, and wolves were so bold that it was difficult to raise poultry, lambs, or pigs."

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CHAPTER XXXV.

CUMBERLAND TOWNSHIP.

BOUNDARIES-FORT SWAN AND VANMETER -- RATTLE SNAKE MEAT JOHN SWAN -- WATERED -- WIFE LOADS GUNS-CARMICHAELS- JOHN MCMILLAN-SCHOOLS.

UMBERLAND TOWNSHIP was probably one of the first settled C

townships in Greene County. John Swan, as early as 1767, looked upon the stately forests that encumbered all the valley of Pumpkin Run with an eye of satisfaction, and to give notice that he had ehosen this location for himself procceded to put his mark upon it by blaz- ing the trees around a goodly cireuit, a warning to all intruders to stand clear of this traet. This method of marking a traet was called a tomahawk improvement, and though it secured no legal right either from the State or the Indians, yet it gave title which it was not safe for a rival settler to disturb, and many a bloody fight was the result when a daring pioneer was bold enough to intrude upon se- lected lands thus blazed. In 1768-'69 he returned and made here a fixed habitation. He was accompanied by Thomas Hughes and Jesse Vanmeter, who united their strengths for mutual protection. As the treacherous savages were stealing upon their victims by night and by day, and murdering and scalping those whom they had perhaps never scen before, sparing neither age, sex, nor condition, these early pio- neers determined to provide for the safety of their families, and ac- cordingly built a strong stockade, which has ever since been known as old Fort Swan and Vanmeter. It was situated near the border of Cumberland Township, on the spot where the house of Andrew J. Young stands, and was a noted rallying point in its day for the ven- turesome pioneers and their families. This fort was erected in the years 1770-'71. John Swan was the great-grandfather of Mrs. Young, whose home is on this ground, originally inclosed by the strong stockade, and which was hallowed by many sighs and tears of the early pioneers. These were the very earliest permanent settle- ments within the limits of Greene County.

This was one of the original townships and embraced all the southwestern portion of the county. It possessed the most fertile soil and most attractive natural scenery of any part of this beautiful stretch of country bordering on the Ohio and its tributaries. The

2.2 N.M. Parry

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farms here are under a high state of cultivation, the residences and out-buildings are commodious and in good repair, and the whole seetion breathes an air of prosperity, contentment and happiness. This imperial township has been despoiled, as slice after slice has been taken from it to form other townships, until it is now reduced to little more than the valley of Muddy Creek, which is among the best improved parts of the county. Pumpkin Run drains a portion of it on the north, and little Whiteley on the south. It has a goodly frontage upon the Monongahela River, and is crossed by five ferries, Davidson's lower ferry, Flenniken's, near the mouth of Muddy Creek, Brown's, which meets the road from Carmichaels and the Green woolen mills, Parker's Landing and McCann's ferry, a little below the mouth of the Little Whiteley Creek. Its present limits are formed by the Monongahela on the east, Jefferson Township on the north and west, and Greene and Monongahela townships on the south.

In the year 1768 John Swan, Jacob Vanmeter, Thomas Hughes and Thomas Guesse, came from the neighborhood of Redstone Fork, which seems to have been the first stopping place of the immigrants to this new country, and charmed by the rich bottom lands along Muddy Creek settled in the neighborhood of Carmichaels, in Cum- berland Township, and opened the forest and let in the sunlight for the first time in the vicinity of this ancient village, destined to be the seat of the oldest institution of learning in Greene County.

Mr. Evans in his thirty-first article gives an amusing account of the origin of the name of Muddy Creek. On one occasion when Swan and Hughes. who were among the first settlers, were crossing this stream, Swan's horse stumbled and threw its rider into the water. Gathering himself up and shaking the turbid water from his gar- ments, he remarked in some temper, “ its a muddy little brook any- how." He was often rallied upon this adventure, and the name Muddy Creek has stuck to this stream ever since and is likely to as long as it continues to flow. In 1768 these two men brought their families, Swan taking his negro slaves, a goodly number, which were probably the first human chattels brought into the county. Subse- quently a number of families from Maryland and Virginia brought thither slaves. Along with these two came also Henry and Jacob Vanmeter, with wagons and paek-horses, altogether a train of over fifty persons. They followed Braddock's road in the main. Henry Vanmeter occupied the tract now known as the Randolph settle- ment. Old trees near the house of Michael Price mark the spot where his first cabin stood. An Indian burying ground was on the crest of the high bluff overlooking Pumpkin Run upon the south. Until the massacre by Logan and his band, in 1774, there was no trouble with the Indians. Though for safety it had become necessary to

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have a place of refuge, and a fort was built on John Swan's farm, known as Swan and Vanmeter's fort.

" My informant," says Evans, " spent much of her time in the family of her grandfather, with whom her great-grandmother, Mar- tha Vanmeter, lived. Being twelve years old when the great-grand- mother died, she has a very distinet recollection of many incidents related to her of the early settlers. Their flour, salt, and ammuni- tion, and all farming and household utensils were transported on pack-horses from Cumberland, Md. Their corn was ground on hand mills. Granny Vanmeter told of a young girl, her niece, who was captured by the Indians, and who, after being carried many miles away managed to make her escape; that while wandering in the woods alone she subsisted on roots and wild berries; how when she had found a dead rattlesnake, she cooked and ate it, and ever after- wards persisted in pronouncing it the sweetest bit she ever tasted; and how she finally made her way home and made glad the hearts of her friends."

An oath of allegiance to the State by Henry Vanmeter, a war- rant to Charles Swan for a thousand acres of land on the payment of £400, a receipt for $1 subscription to the Pittsburg Gazette, dated July 15, 1795, to Charles Swan, notification to Col. Charles Swan, dated 1810, of the passage of an act granting $2,000 for Greens- burg Academy, at Carmichaels, provided that the Episcopal Church, of which Swan was an active member, would allow the use of its church edifice, are all given by Evans entire, copied from the origi- nal papers. The son of John Swan emigrated to Kentucky with his family, and while lying asleep on the craft that was taking him down the Ohio, with his little daughter in his arms, was shot and instantly killed by the Indians. " So fatal was the shot that those on the boat were not aware that anything serious had happened till the little girl exclaimed, ' Oh, papa is shot, for I feel his warm blood running down over me!' There was now but one man, Hughes, left on the boat, whilst the Indians, several in number, kept up a continuous fire. The dead man's wife bravely aided in the defense of the craft by loading the guns and handing them to Hughes."

Colonel Charles Swan married Sarah, daughter of Henry Van- meter, who, as a girl of ten, had ridden all the way from Maryland, on horseback, with Swan. He built a cabin in 1772 near the creek in the Carmichaels Valley, now owned by John Hathaway.

Carmichaels, a village of some thousand inhabitants, is situated on Muddy Creek, at nearly the centre of the township. At an early day it became the favored location of [the County Academy, which attained a well merited reputation for excellence. An Episcopal church was early established here, and in its place of worship the County Academy for many years held its sessions. The New Provi-

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dence Presbyterian Church is located near the village. The Rev. John MeMillan preached here as early as August, 1775. The Rev. John McClintock commenced his ministry here in 1838, and for a period of full fifty years he has been pastor of this flock,-the semi- centennial of his settlement having recently been celebrated,-a venerable service scarcely matched in the history of churches. The usual business and manufacturing establishments are found here, and from its favored location in the midst of a rich farming country it is destined to hold an important place as the second town in the county. It is about thirteen miles east of Waynesburg, and four from the Monongahela River. The ferries of Davidson, Fleniken, Brown, Parker and McCann connect the township with Fayette County. By the earliest records under the revised school law Cum- berland is shown to have twelve schools and 581 pupils. A good graded school has taken the place of the Academy in Carmichaels, which, as an incorporated borough, is independent of the township, having three schools with 120 pupils. The report of 1859 credits this township with " quite a number of right minded school men." The progress in common school education for the past few years has been commendable. The board of directors for Carmichaels for the current year is J. A. Gilbert, President; L. B. Laidley, Secretary ; F. W. Rodgers. J. F. Gwynn, James Clawson and Ed. Stillwell, and for the township A. J. Young, President; T. H. Hawkins, Secretary; G. W. Daugherty, W. H. Barclay, Arch Grooms, and George Kerr.

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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

DUNKARD TOWNSHIP.

EARLY VISITANTS-DUNKARD RELIGION-ECKERLIN BROTHERS --- FATE OF CHRISTINA SYCKS-ENIX -- DOGS EXCITED -- TWENTY- TWO AND A HALF YEARS A CAPTIVE-SATISFIED WITH THE RED MEN-DR. W. GREENE-MARTIN'S FORT-ATTACK ON HARRI SON'S FORT -- MASSACRE-SCHOOLS.

INTHE valley of Dunkard Creek, embracing the townships of Dun- 1 kard, Monongahela and Perry, was the earliest occupied of any part of Greene County, and was the scene of some of the most excit- ing events in its history. As early as 1754 Wendell Brown and his two sons and Frederick Waltzer took up their abode in this neigh- borhood. At about the same time David Tygart and one Files got a foothold in Tygart's Valley; but the Files family having fallen a prey to Indian savagery, Files himself and the Tygarts left the country. At about this time Dr. Thomas Eckerlin and two brothers made a lodgment near the month of Dunkard Creek, which took its name from the designation of the religion they professed. Whether from a desire to insure themselves greater safety, or a wish to obtain better lands, they removed to what have been known as the Dunkard Bottoms, on Cheat River, West Virginia. They are reported to have applied to the chief's of the Six Nations in May, 1771, at Logs- town, for permission to settle on the Youghiogheny, but were refused. Their supply of ammunition, and other necessaries, hav- ing become exhausted, Dr. Eckerlin, with a stock of rich furs, went to Winchester to barter them for the articles which they most needed. On his way back he stopped over night at Fort Pleasant, where he was detained on suspicion of being a spy in collusion with the savages. Asserting his innocence so strongly, he was permitted to go under guard to his home, on condition that he would return with them if his assertions should prove untrue. To his grief and amazement, on arriving at his home he found his cabin burned, and his two brothers inhumanly murdered and scalped. His truthful- ness was acknowledged by his captors, and, touched with pity, they assisted at the burial. Thus ended, in sadness, the first attempt at permanent settlement in this valley.

In the year 1760 Conrad Sycks emigrated from Germany, and

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in process of time made his way to what is now Monongahela Township, Greene County, and built a cabin on Rocky Run, some two miles from the mouth of Dunkard Creek, on land now owned by Mathew Green and Daniel Sycks. Here he took to wife Miss Bonnet, a niece of the famous Indian fighter, Lewis Wetzel, and were blessed with a family of ten children, among them Henry and Christina. When Henry had grown to man's estate, Enoch Enix lived a mile north of the Syckses. A half mile westward was Leonard Garrison. Lane Robinson lived to the south of Dunkard Creek, and the Selsors, at Selsor Fort. Swearengen's Fort across the Monongahela was the only real stronghold in the neighborhood. Rumors of hostile savages in the vicinity induced Garrison to move his family to a place of security; but as the Syekses were to remain, Garrison engaged Christina Sycks, then a maiden of ten, to milk his cows. One evening she was reluctant to go to her task, manifesting a presentiment of impending evil; but at the prompting of her mother, bravely went. While driving the cows homeward through the sugar grove she was suddenly overtaken by two stalwart savages, the one hideous in black paint, the other red. The one in black hurled his tomahawk at the innocent girl with deadly aim; but something in the countenance of the maiden touched the heart of the other, and at the opportune instant he dashed the weapon aside, only cutting her tresses, and seizing her in his arms bore her away into captivity.

Not returning, the household was disturbed, and when darkness began to deepen and still she did not come, grasping his rifle the father started for the cabin of Enix for assistance; but the latter seemed unwilling to go until morning. The father, now with dis- tracted mind, started alone, when the neighbor relented, and mount- ing his horse, joined in the search. As they approached the cabin of Sycks two shots were fired by the lurking foe, and Enix tumbled from his horse mortally wounded. Aroused by the shots, the son, Henry, and a companion, George Selsor, who were in the cabin, were eager to rush out, but were held back by the mother, and the father returning, on the following morning the entire family set out for the strong fort across the Monongahela. In their consternation a sleeping infant was forgotten; but the boys turning back soon brought off the treasure. Again these boys returned to reconnoitre and warn the settlers. At Robinson's the wife with an infant was prevailed on to escape to the fort, which she did, and was saved, But Robinson could not be persuaded to abandon his home. At Fort Selsor, where a number of the settlers had gathered, it was determined to leave all and escape across the river to Fort Swear- ingen. On the way the dogs became terribly excited, and soon started an Indian from his covert, who dashed away; but tripping,

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fell. The dogs were upon him, but could not be induced to grapple him, and he finally made his escape, the party reaching the fort with- ont casuality. On returning to the scene of the massacre Enix was found, scalped, and in a dying condition. Robinson was found mur- dered and scalped, and his body stripped naked. Even the hoop was picked upon which the scalp of Enix had been stretched to dry.

The captive maiden, Christina, was hurried onward, and when tired out her captor would carry her on his shoulders. A piece of a gray colt's leg was given her to eat, which she pretended to do; but she could not bring herself to swallow the unsavory dish. For their next meal a lusty warrior brought in a large fat hog, which he had slit open, and placing himself within the beast, marched in, with its head surmounting his own, and the sides of the hog completely enveloping him. The style of butchering and cooking was still not sufficiently appetizing to tempt her to partake. But on the third day they brought her a nice piece of well cooked wild turkey, and this she devoured with a relish. For twenty two years and six months she was a captive, when, in obedience to treaty engagements, she was released at Detroit and returned. Having lived so long with the savages, she could with difficulty be brought back to civilized customs, being satisfied with her life with the red men, and ever ready to defend them when abused. She lived to a good old age, and was buried near Clarksburg, West Virginia. Captain Enoch Enix, who died a few years since, near Mount Morris, was the babe of four weeks left with the mother on the fatal night when the father was murdered. The only son of Leonard Garrison mar- ried Mary Sycks, the babe which was left sleeping in the cradle at the time of the flight of the family, but was rescued by its brother Henry, who subsequently married Barbary Selser, who had been one of the escaping party when the dogs started the lone Indian. She bore him twelve children, and by a second wife he had twelve more. Daniel Sycks, the latest surviving child, through a nephew, Dr. W. Green, of New Geneva, has detailed the above facts which Mr. L. K. Evans has recorded with partienlarity in his fourth Centennial article.

Near the intersection of the Morgantown State road and Crooked Run, just across the Virginia line, Martin's Fort was located in the immediate vicinity of the present site of Martin's Church. It was in the midst of a table land of several thousand acres. This is prob- ably one of the earliest tracts settled in this part of the Mononga- hela country. Being in the midst of a considerable population, when the Indians became troublesome, it was probably thought necessary to build this fort for mutual protection. Lying near one of the great Indian war-paths, the settlement was particularly exposed to savage depredations. One morning in June, 1779, whilst the women were

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History of Greene County, Pennsylvania, Part 41

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