USA > Pennsylvania > Huntingdon County > History of Huntingdon County, in the state of Pennsylvania : from the earliest times to the centennial anniversary of American independence, July 4, 1876 > Part 3
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the horse to James Berry. After Musemeelin came from hunting, his wife told him that Armstrong was gone by, and that she demanded the horse from him, but did not get him; and, as is thought, pressed him to pursue and take revenge of Armstrong. The third day, in the morning, after Arm- strong was gone by, Musemeelin said to the two young men that hunted with him, 'come, let us go toward the Great Hills to hunt bears ;' accordingly they went all three in com- pany. After they had gone a good way, Musemeelin, who was foremost, was told by the two young men that they were out of their course. 'Come you along,' said Musemee- lin ; and they accordingly followed him till they came to the path that leads to Ohio. Then Musemeelin told them he had a good mind to go and fetch his horse back from Armstrong, and desired the two young men to come along. Accordingly they went. It was then almost night, and they traveled till next morning. Musemeelin said, 'Now they are not far off. We will make ourselves black; then they will be frightened, and will deliver up the horse immedi- ately ; and I will tell Jack that if he don't give me the horse, I will kill him;' and when he said so, he laughed. The young men thought he joked, as he used to do. They did not blacken themselves, but he did. When the sun was above the trees, or about an hour high, they all came to the fire, where they found James Smith sitting; and they also sat down. Musemeelin asked where Jack was. Smith told him that he was gone to clear the road a little. Musemeelin said he wanted to speak with him, and went that way, and after he had gone a little distance from the fire, he said something, and looked back laughing, but, he having a thick throat, and his speech being very bad, and their talk- ing with Smith hindering them from understanding what he said, they did not mind him. They being hungry, Smith I told them to kill some turtles, of which there were plenty, /. and they would make some bread by and-bye, and would all eat together. While they were talking, they heard a gun go off' not far off, at which Woodward Arnold was killed, as they learned afterwards. Soon after, Musemeelin came back
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and said, ' Why did you not kill that white man, according as I bid you ? I have laid the other two down.' At this they were surprised, and one of the young men, commonly called Jimmy, ran away to the river-side. Musemeelin said to the other, 'How will you do to kill Catawbas, if you can- not kill white men ?. You cowards ! I'll show you how you must do;' and then taking up the English axe that lay there, he struck it three times into Smith's head before he died. Smith never stirred. Then he told the young Indian to call the other, but he was so terrified he could not call. Mu- semeelin then went and fetched him, and said that two of the white men were killed, he must now go and kill the third; then each of them would have killed one. But neither of them dared venture to talk anything about it. Then he pressed them to go along with him; he went foremost. Then one of the young men told the other as they went along, 'My friend, don't you kill any of the white people, let him do what he will; I have not killed Smith; he has done it himself; we have no need to do such a barbarous thing.' Musemeelin being then a good way before them, in a hurry, they soon saw John Armstrong sitting on a log. Musemeelin spoke to him and said, 'Where is my horse ?' Armstrong made answer and said, ' He will come by-and-by; you shall have him.' 'I want him now,' said Musemeelin. Armstrong answered, ' You shall have him. Come, let us go to the fire,' (which was at some distance from the place where Armstrong sat), and let us talk and smoke together.' 'Go along, then,' said Musemeelin. 'I am coming,' said Armstrong, 'do you go before, Musemeelin ; do you go fore- most.' Armstrong looked then like a dead man, and went toward the fire, and was immediately shot in the back by Musemeelin, and fell. Musemeelin then took his hatchet and struck it into Armstrong's head and said, 'Give me my horse, I tell you.' By this time one of the young men had fled again that had gone away before, but he returned in a short time. Musemeelin then told the young men they must not offer to discover or tell a word about what had been
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done for their lives, but they must help to bury Jack, and the other two were to be thrown into the river."
Shickalamy also relates, with great minuteness, the dispo- sition that was made by Musemeelin, of Armstrong's goods, the latter having been a trader, on his way to the Ohio, the discovery that the murder had been committed, the efforts taken to arrest the guilty parties, and their delivery to the whites. There is no statement as to whether Musemeelin was tried, convicted or punished.
As soon as it was suspected that Armstrong, Smith and Arnold had been murdered, a party, consisting of Alexan- der Armstrong, Thomas McKee, Francis Ellis, John Flors- ter, William Baskins, James Berry, John Watt, James Armstrong, David Denny, and eight Indians, went in search of the traders. Before they had proceeded very far, three of the Indians deserted. The white men and the remaining five Indians went to the last supposed sleeping-place of Armstrong and his men, and there dispersed themselves to find the corpses. At a short distance from the sleeping place, was found a white-oak tree with three notches on it, and near it a shoulder bone, which was supposed to be Arm- strong's. The white men of the party say in their desposi- tion, that this bone was handed around to the five Indians, and that when it was placed in the hands of the one who was suspected of having committed the murder, 'his nose gushed out with blood, and he directly handed it to an- other.'" But they were mistaken in the supposition that the bone was part of the remains of Armstrong, for it was not found at the place where Armstrong had been killed, and besides, according to Schickalamy's statement, he had been buried by Musemeelin and the two other Indians. From thence they followed the course of the creek toward the "Narrows of the Juniata," but before reaching the river the five Indians had also disappeared. The first corpse found, that of James Smith, had been attacked by bald eagles and other fowls, and it was the presence of these birds that at- tracted attention to it. About a quarter of a mile from Smith, they found the body of Woodward Arnold lying on a rock, C
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
The next morning, they say in their report, they went back to the corpses, which were "barbarously and inhumanly mur- dered by very gashed, deep cuts on their heads, with a toma- hawk, or such like weapon, which had sunk into their skulls and brains, and in one of the corpses there appeared a hole in his skull near the cut, which was supposed to be with a tomahawk, which hole these deponents do believe to be a bullet hole."
In the light of these facts, much of the grandiloquence concerning Captain Jack sinks into insignificance. It is Jack Armstrong who, at the base of the towering mountain, "sleeps the sleep that knows no waking." It is to his name and memory that the everlasting pile, thrown up by nature, is an indestructible monument. Let the oft-repeated and gen- erally accepted fable be forgotten.
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CHAPTER IV.
AGGRESSIONS UPON UNPURCHASED LANDS-FIRST SETTLERS IN HUNTINGDON COUNTY-MEASURES TAKEN TO EXPEL THEM-BURNING OF THEIR DWELL- INGS-AUGHIWICK-BURNT CABINS-DISCONTENT OF THE INDIANS-INEF- FECTUAL WORK.
The presence of traders and interpreters on the frontier was but temporary. Their visits were transient. From the Tuscarora to the Tussey mountains was but a two days' journey, and. previous to 1749 there could have been noth- ing in the nature of private or public business to detain the traveler between them. No white men were to be met with, excepting those who were hurrying across these hills and valleys to and from the Ohio. All the lands north and west of the Kittatinny or Blue Ridge, belonged to the Indians, and had not been invaded west of the Tuscarora. But sturdy adventurers soon followed with the intention of remaining permanently. We cannot ascertain whether it was in 1748. or '49 that they crossed that mountain. If it was not in the former year, it was quite early in the latter. They had reached Tuscarora Path before Conrad Weiser was there, for part of his mission was in connection with these intru- sions on the Indian lands. He was the bearer of a procla- mation from the government warning the "squatters" to re- move, and was accompanied to that place by the sheriff and magistrates of the county, who had come with him for the purpose of ejecting the settlers. In his letter to Secretary Peters, he reported the situation of affairs there and the partial execution of his instructions by having the procla- mation read. Scarroyady, the chief who subsequently suc- ceeded the Half King at Aughwick, had been assured that the "people would be turned off." When Weiser informed the Indians at Tuscarora of the measures that were to be taken, they requested that two certain families might be permitted to stay, claiming the right to give such liberty to those whom they desired should remain. The settlers, al-
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though not ready to comply with the requirements of the government at that time, expressed a willingness to go off the next spring, and Weiser consented to postpone their com- pulsory removal until his return from Ohio. They were suf- fered to remain, however, without interference, much longer than that, and in all probability would never have been dis- turbed by the authorities had not the complaints and pressure of the Indians become so great that they could not go unheed- ed. But the proclamation of the government and the oppo- sition of the Indians did not deter these trespassers. Instead of leaving in 1748, they advanced still further westward upon the unpurchased lands. Weiser, who was looking after them again the next year, found them within the present limits of Huntingdon county. In the spring of 1749, as early as the month of April, more than thirty families had settled west of the Kittatinny, and more were coming daily, some of them to the head waters of the Juniata, along the path that led to Ohio In February, 1750, according to the state- ment of Governor Hamilton, they had reached the foot of the Allegheny mountains.
The Six Nations and the Delawares joined in complaints against these aggressions. The representatives of the former said that the council at Onondaga had the matter exceedingly at heart, demanded the expulsion of the people from their settlements, and suggested that two or three faithful persons be placed west of the Blue Hills, with com- missions from the Governor, empowering them to imme- diately remove every one who might presume to settle in that region, until the Six Nations should consent to sell the lands.
To prevent a breach between the province and the In- dians, it became necessary to take decisive action. The power of the government had to be exerted to dispossess the intruding occupants. Richard Peters and Conrad Weiser were ordered to give information against them to the proper magistrates, and in the month of May, 1750, the under- sheriff and justices of the newly established county of Cum- berland went to enforce the commands of the proclamation
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
which had been disobeyed. Their operations were fully re- ported by Secretary Peters to the Governor in the following July. Destruction and conflagration were spread from the Juniata, within twenty miles of its mouth and ten miles of the Blue Hills, through the valley of Sherman's Creek, Tus- carora Valley, Aughwick and the Coves. The reasoning by which they justified the burning of dwellings was as follows :
" The Cabbin being quite empty, I took Possession thereof for the Proprietaries, and then a conference was held what should be done with the empty Cabbins, and, after a great Deliberation, all agreed that if some cabins were not destroyed they would tempt the Trespassers to return again, or encourage others to come there should these Trespassers go away, and so what was doing would signify nothing, since the Possession of them at such a Distance from the In- habitants could not be kept for the Proprietaries; and Mr. Weiser also giving it as his firm Opinion, that if all the Cabbins were left standing the Indians would conceive such a contemptible Opinion of the Government that they would come themselves in the Winter, murder the People, and set the Houses on fire. On these conditions the Cabbin, by my Order, was burnt by the Under-Sheriff and Company.""
At Aughwick, (now Shirleysburg) Peter Falconer, Nicho- las DeLong, Samuel Perry and John Charleton were con- victed on the view of the magistrates, entered into recogni- zances for their appearance at the next county court at Ship- pensburg, and gave bonds to remove with their families, servants, cattle and effects. Charleton's cabin was burned, and another in the course of erection, consisting of only a few logs piled and fastened together, was set on fire.
One of the places where this destruction occurred, near the line between Huntingdon and Fulton counties, is called Burnt Cabins, a name it will probably retain until the his- tory of these events becomes as obscure as the history of the savage race.
The protection of all lands from encroachment that had
*Secretary Peters' Report.
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
not been bought by the proprietaries from the Indians, was a part of the policy instituted at the founding of the prov- ince, a policy which secured harmony and good feeling be- tween the whites and natives as long as it was not interfered with by extraneous influences, but the success of which was coming to an end. The driving back of the daring and courageous men who had established their households in the forests of central Pennsylvania, did not restore satisfac- tion aud contentment to the Indian. He began to think that his interests lay in another direction than in an alliance with the English. For years he had had intercourse with the French, who had fortified themselves on the Ohio, and was gradually yielding to their persuasions, allurements and blandishments. He pretended for a time to waver between the French and the English, accepting from the latter the presen's given him for the purpose of drawing him back to their side, and when he had almost exhausted the provincial resources, went over completely to the enemy. Five years after the white men's habitations had been burned, at his so- licitation, he went over the same ground, with fire, and tomahawk, and scalping-knife, filled the heavens with flame and smoke, and mingled the blood of his victims with the ashes of their dwellings.
The government of the province is, perhaps, not to be . blamed for the work done by the Cumberland county magis- trates. They were but keeping the public faith. They might have perceived, however, that an estrangement had already taken place on the part of the Indians, that was be- yond their power to remove.
In another respect the work was ineffectual. The lands were open to new intrusions. In fact, some of the first set- tlers were not molested during Richard Peters' incursion, and many who had been ejected returned, accompanied or followed by others. The country was inviting, there was a desire for new homes, and the spirit of adventure was abroad. But underlying all of these, there may have been a scheme to acquire the land and dispossess the Indians, a design to bring about a change of ownership, and to precipi-
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tate a struggle for that purpose. The proprietaries, also, must have had an anxiety to extinguish the Indian title. They could not call the province their own till that was done, and, besides, their obligations to protect the rights of the Indians imposed upon them greater burdens, and in- volved them in more difficulties than they would have to bear should the title become vested in them. The time for a new purchase had arrived.
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CHAPTER V.
TREATY AND PURCHASE AT ALBANY IN 1754-DESCRIPTION OF LANDS CON- VEYED BY THE SIX NATIONS-CONSEQUENCES WHICH FOLLOWED-A TURN- ING POINT-THE SIX NATIONS-THEIR SOVEREIGNTY-HISTORY-RESI- DENCE-CIIARACTER-TIIE DELAWARES-THEIR SUBJECTION TO THE SIX NATIONS-THE SHAWNEES-IMPERIOUS ASSERTION OF AUTIIORITY -- AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT BY THIE DELAWARES-FATAL REVENGE.
Huntingdon county is within the purchase made from the Six Nations, at Albany, N. Y., on the sixth day of July, 1754. The deed bearing that date, executed by sachems or chiefs of each of the nations belonging to that confederacy, conveyed to Thomas and Richard Penn, "all the lands lying within the said province of Pennsylvania, bounded and limited as follows, namely, beginning at the Kittochtinny or Blue Hills, on the west branch of the Susquehanna river, and thence by the said, a mile above the mouth of a certain creek called Kayarondinhagh; thence northwest and by west as far as the said province of Pennsylvania extends, to its western lines and boundaries; thence along the said western line to the south line or boundary of said province; thence by the said south line or boundary to the south side of said Kittochtinny hills ; thence by the south side of said hills to the place of beginning."
I have explained the troubles that preceded this purchase, and the circumstances that rendered the transaction neces- sary in order to avert an impending storm, and will now re- late the fearful consequences, the resentment evinced by the savages towards the whites by which it was followed.
The spirit of amity manifested by the founders of the province in their intercourse with the Indians, established a peace and friendship that were uninterrupted for a period of seventy years. It is true that for a short time before the treaty of Albany, the fidelity of the latter could be retained only by the utmost exertions on the part of the govern- ment. That treaty was the turning point in the relations be- tween the province and the natives, and why it was so will
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
appear more intelligibly by detailing a portion of Indian history, and giving some illustrations of Indian character and diplomacy. There arose from these, complications and embarrassments which it was impossible for the government to avoid, and which led to eventful times within our borders. Indian policy and statesmanship were in some respects sim- ilar to those of civilized people.
The Six Nations, although not the occupants of the soil of Pennsylvania, claimed to be the owners of it, and out of this fact grew the importance of their connection with our early annals. They excerised jurisdiction over a very great ex- tent of territory, their sovereignty extending from the nor- thern limits of the State of New York to the borders of Car- olina. They had been warriors and conquerors, but at what period of time they reduced so many of the inhabitants of North America to subjugation is shrouded in impenetrable obscurity. This, as well as all the rest of their history be- fore their acquaintance with Europeans, is involved in the darkness of antiquity. It is said that their first residence was in the region about Montreal, and that the superior strength of the Adirondacks, Or Algonquins, as they were called by the French, drove them to the south side of the Mohawk river and Lake Ontario, where they were found when the country was taken possession of by the whites. Toward the close of these disputes, which continued for a great number of years, the confederates gained advantages over the Adirondacks, and struck terror into all the Indians.
Their residence was in the State of New York, between the forty-second and forty-third degrees of north latitude, occupying the country from the New England States to Lake Erie, and from Lake Ontario to the headwaters of the Alle- gheny, Susquehanna and Delaware. They were at first known as the Five Nations, and then consisted of the Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, Oneidas and Senecas. The sixth was added in 1712, by the union with them of the Tuscaroras, a nation that had been expelled from North Carolina and Vir- ginia. They were called Confederates, by the English, Min- goes, by the Delawares, and Iroquois, by the French.
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
They thought themselves superior to the rest of mankind, and carefully inculcated this belief into the minds of their children, and impressed it upon the neighboring savages. Their courage made them terrible to, and compelled the most submissive obedience from, all other nations. They were a powerful combination, realizing, as did their white succes- sors in the ownership of the soil, that in union there is strength.
The Indians dwelling in Pennsylvania, and who were known as the Delawares among the whites, called them- selves the Lenni Lenapes, or the original people. It seems that they were justly entitled to this appellation, as it was conceded by surrounding tribes, not belonging to this nation, that they were the oldest residents of the region. There were three principal divisions of them, each occupying a par- ticular part of the province, and many tribes, the names of some of which, but probably of a comparatively small number, have been preserved. We have very full and sat- isfactory descriptions prepared by early writers, from per- sonal observation, of their persons, habits and dress, their amusements and employments, their dwellings, domestic cus- toms and modes of life, their marriages, births and burials, their virtues and vices, their language, government and relig- ion, their methods of making and conducting war and conclud- ing peace, but no historical fact has come from the general gloom that surrounds the time when they were the sole in- habitants of the country, except that they were in subjec- tion to the Six Nations.
The Shawnese also dwelt in considerable numbers in Huntingdon county, but were not natives of the province. They had formerly resided near the Spanish possessions in the South, and were almost constantly at war with their neighbors. To avoid extermination, they asked the privi- lege of placing themselves under the protection of the Eng- lish and Five Nations, which request was granted them by treaty in 1701. They settled on the Susquehanna, and spread themselves along its tributaries and over the adjoining coun- try. A new residence was afterwards assigned to them on
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
the Ohio, but many of them remained in the central part of the province, or traveled backwards and forwards be- tween the two rivers.
The sway of the Six Nations over the other Indians was so absolute, that the latter occupied the lands by sufferance. An idea of the imperious manner in which they sometimes asserted their authority may be obtained from Canassetego's speech to the Delawares, from which the following are extracts :
" We conquered you; we made women of you; you know you are women, and can no more sell lands than women ; nor is it fit you should have the power of selling lands, since you would abuse it. The land that you claim is gone through your guts; you have been furnished with clothes, meat and drink, by the goods paid you for it, and now you want it again, like children as you are." "But we find you none of our blood; you act a dishonest part, not only in this, but in other matters ; your ears are ever open to slanderous reports about your brethren. For all these reasons, we charge you to remove instantly ; we don't give you liberty to think about it." " Don't deliberate, but remove away, and take this belt of wampum."
It displeased the Delawares very much to be called women, and they usually gave some other explanation for it than their subjugation to the Six Nations. On one occa- sion, however, they acknowledged the real origin of the title. At a conference held at Aughwick, in September, 1754, before they had heard of the purchase at Albany, one of their speakers addressed the Six Nations :
"I still remember the time when you first conquered us and made women of us, and told us that you took us under your protection, and that we must not meddle with wars, but stay in the house and mind council affairs. We have hitherto followed your directions, and lived very easy under your protection, and no high wind did blow to make us un- easy ; but now things seem to take another turn, and a high wind is rising. We desire you, therefore, to have your eyes open and be watchful over us, your cousins, as you have always been heretofore."
HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
This abject condition of the Delawares prevented them from questioning the validity of the sale of 1754. But they complained that the lands had been sold from under their feet. They had sufficient reason to be dissatisfied. In 1750 the white settlers had been driven from these same lands at the instance of the Six Nations, who then said that they had .given the river Juniata to their cousins, the Delawares, and their brethren, the Shawnese, as a hunting ground. Their generosity to their cousins and brethren could not withstand the temptation of the paltry sum of four hundred pounds, the price received for the land.
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