USA > Pennsylvania > Mifflin County > History of Mifflin County : its physical peculiarities, soil, climate, &c. ; including an early sketch of the state of Pennsylvania Volume I > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
55
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
sell, on the anction block in the Nation's capitol, the innocent off- spring of the poor African, and separate these brothers and sisters from each other and from their parents never to meet or perhaps hear of each other again.
This has been the practice of our land and Nation till within a very brief period, and the parties who commit these crimes are sending missionaries to poor heathen lands. Did they not need the mote taken from their own eye to see clearly the sins of others ? Know thyself.
Jack's Mountain.
There are various traditions as to the origin of the name of Jack's Mountain that is so conspicuous an object, and holds so prominent a position in Mifflin county. The tradition of Captain Jack has been repeated at many firesides for the last two or three generations, the picturesqueness of which is sufficient to invest even a fable with an air of probability. It is this, that about 140 years ago and subsequently, there flourished in this vicinity a mysterious individual, of swarthy complexion and herculean pro- portions, whose name and whose history was in himself alone. He was supposed by some to be a half-breed, by others to be a quadroon, but he was probably a white man. He built a cabin near a spring and sought there a solitude and repose unbroken, except by the society of his family, that was a harmless man rais- ing his hand against none except the beast and fishes over which a dominion had given him, and he engaged in no other pursuit than hunting and fishing.
But, as the story runs, the place he had selected was an unsafc retreat for one of his peaceful disposition and habits. After a short absence from his cabin, on a certain occasion, he returned to find it burned, and his family murdered. At once he became a changed man, taking a solemn vow to devote the rest of his life to the destruction of the savages who had murdered his family. So relentlessly did he carry out his purposes that he made himself a terror to the race that had incurred his enmity, and gained for himself the expressive cognomens of "Black Rifle," "Black Hunter," " Wild Hunter of the Juniata," and others that might serve as titles to the most improbable tales of adventure. But he is best known in tradition as " Captain Jack." His bitter and unre- lenting warfare against the Indians was beneficial to the white set- tlers in affording them protection. The latter formed a company
It was now for Lad aring a haben
C
56
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
of scouts or rangers and placed themselves under his command, and called themselves "Captain Jack's Hunters," and fighting the Indians in their own way and with their own weapons. Their commander's exploits, if they could be correctly described, would be proper subjects for this history, but so much has been written concerning them that is fictitious, that it is impossible to separate the false from the true.
It seems, however, that Captain Jack has impressed his name upon the mountain and the narrows and the creek bearing his cog- nomen. "The present generation, however," says the author from whom I quote, "knows but little of Captain Jack," the wild hunter.
Still, though he has long been asleep, and no human being that ever saw him is above the sod now, the high towering mountain one hundred miles long, bearing his name, will stand as an indes- tructible monument to his memory till time shall be no more. It is because so little is known about him that some have even doubted his existence at all. But he undoubtedly lived as tradition states, and left his name on creek, gorge and mountain.
Treaty and Purchase at Albany in 1754.
Mifflin county is included in the purchase made from the Six Na- tions, at Albany, New York, on the sixth of July, 1754. The deed bearing that date, executed by sachems or chiefs of each of the Six Nations belonging to that confederacy, conveyed to Thomas and Richard Penn "all the land laying within the province of Pennsyl- vania, 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 river, a mile above the mouth of a certain creek called Kayarondinhagh ; thence north-westerly west as far as said province of Pennsylvania extends to its western lines or 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 ; thencely by the south side of said hills to place of beginning."
The spirit of amity manifested by the founders of this province: in their intercourse with the Indians established a peace and friend- ship that were uninterrupted for a period of seventy years. It is true that the fidelity of the latter could only be retained by the utmost exertions on the part of the Government. That treaty was the turning point between the province and the natives, and why it was so will appear more intelligibly by detailing a brief portion of
.
57
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
the 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 such eventful times within our borders. The Indian's policy and statesmanship is, in some respects, similar to that of civilized peo- ple. The Six Nations, though not occupants of the soil of Penn- sylvania, claimed to be the owners of it, and out of this fact grew the importance of their connection with our early annals. They exercised jurisdiction over a very great extent of territory ; their sovereign limits extending to northern New York, and the borders of Carolina. They had been warriors and conquerors; but at what. period they had reduced so many of the inhabitants of North America to subjection, is shrouded in impenetrable obscurity. This, as well as all the rest of their history, before their acquaintance with Europeans, is involved in the darkness of antiquity. It is supposed that their first, or early residence, was in the vicinity of 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 this country was taken possession of by the whites.
Towards the close of these disputes, which continued for a great number of years, the confederates gained advantages over the Adi- rondacks, 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 head-waters of the Allegheny, Susquehanna and Delaware. They were first known as the Five Nations, and then consisted of Mo- hawks, 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 Virginia. They were called Confederates by the English, Mingoes by the Dela- wares, and Iroquois by the French. Like the human race generally, they thought themselves superior to the rest of mankind, and care- fully inculcated this belief into the minds of their children, and im- pressed it upon-the neighboring savages. Their courage made them a terror to and compelled the most submissive obedience from all sur- rounding nations. They were a powerful combination, realizing, as did their successors to the ownership of the soil, that " in union there is strength." The Indians dwelling through this region, known.
:58
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
as Delawares among the whites, were called by themselves the Lenni-Lenapes, or "the original people." It seems that they were justly entitled to this appellation, as it was conceded by the sur- rounding 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 particular part of the province, and many tribes, the names of some of which, but a comparative small number, perhaps, have been preserved. We have full and satisfac- tory descriptions prepared by early writers, from personal observa- tion, of their persons, habits, dress, their amusements and employ- ments ; their dwellings and domestic customs, modes of life; their marriages, births and burials; their virtues and vices ; their lan- guage, government and religion; their methods of making and con- ducting wars and concluding peace, but no historical fact has come from the general gloom that surrounds the time when they were the sole inhabitants of the country, except that they were in sub- jection to the Six Nations.
The Shawnees were also a part of the population of that region, but were not natives of the province. They formerly resided in the Span- ish possessions in the south and were almost constantly at war with their neighbors. To avoid extermination they asked to place them- selves under the English and the Five Nations, which was granted them by the treaty of 1701. They settled on the Susquehanna and spread themselves along its territories and over the adjoining country. A new residence was afterwards assigned them on the Ohio, but many of them remained in the central part of the province of Pennsyl- vania, or traveled back and forth between the two rivers. The sway of the Six Nations over the other Indians was so absolute that the Jatter only occupied the lands by sufferance. The sway of the Six Nations is illustrated by the following extract from Cannasettego's speech to the Delawares :
"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 that you should have the power of selling lands, since you would abuse it. The land you claim has gone through your guts. You have been furnished food, clothes and drinks by the goods paid you for it, and now you want it again, like children as you are. 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
·
59
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
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 subjugations to the Six Nations. On one occasion, however, they acknowledged the real origin of the title. At a conference held between them in September, 1754, be- fore they had heard of the purchase at Albany, one of the speakers of the Delawares, addressed the Six Nations, as follows: "I still remember the time you conquered us and made women of us, and told us you took us under your protection, and that we must not meddle with wars, but stay in the house and attend to the affairs of the council. We have hitherto followed your advice, and lived very easy under your protection, and no high wind did blow to make us uneasy, but now things seem to be taking another turn, and a high wind is rising. We desire you, therefore, to have your eyes open and be watchful over us, your consins, as you have always been here- tofore."
This abject condition of the Delawares prevented them from ques- tioning the validity of the sale of 1754. But they complained that the land had been sold from under their feet. They had reasons 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 Juniata River to their cousins, the Delawares, as a hunting ground. Their generosity to their cousins and breth- ren could not withstand the temptation of the sum of four hundred pounds, the price received for the land. The Delawares sought a bloody revenge and a fatal one. They joined the French, laid waste the settlements on the frontiers, and marked their path with fire and desolation.
It is to be regretted that the Indian has no written history of his origin and antiquity. His mental abilities are of a high order, and his feelings of humanity and kindness only equaled by his power of resentment.
The condition of the army and the Indians in this region we may infer from the record kept by a Mr. Peters, from which we make the further extracts. The following are extracts from a letter from Captain Mercer to Governor Morris :
" HONORED SIR :- The Commissary General of the Muster, with your honor's instruction to review and pay off the army at Fort Shirly, arrived in a very lucky time, when the greater part of our men were about to abandon the fort for want of pay. It was with great difficulty I could prevent their doing so for three weeks before;
60
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
that is ever since the enlistment time expired. I am sorry to observe that numbers of our best men have declined the service, and reduced me to the necessity of recruiting anew, through diffidence with re- gard to their pay, and I have been obliged then to engage even such as left us when paid off, should have the same allowance as formerly for their overplus time, depending on my being reimbursed, as without such engagement it was impossible to prevent the fort from falling into the enemy's hands. I am now filling up my company to 60 men, agreeable to your orders, and have drawn upon the com- missaries for thirty pounds for this purpose. A garrison of thirty
men now at Fort Shirly, (this letter was written from Carlisle, 18th April, 1756,) engaged to remain to the first of May, by which time I am in hopes of completing the company, and shall immediately thereupon repair hither. It is to be feared that our communication with the settlement will be cut off unless a greater force is ordered for the garrison. As your Honor is sensible that I can send no detach- ment to escort provisions, equal in force to parties of the enemy who have lately made attempts on our frontiers, and considering how short of provisions we have hitherto been kept, the loss of one. party upon this duty must reduce ns to the last extremity.
" Mr. Hugh Crawford is upon the return as lieutenant, and Mr. Thomas Smallman, who acted before as commissary in the fort, as en- sign of my company. It will be a particular obligation laid upon me to have an exchange of Mr. Hays for lieutenant, and Mr. Smallman continued. And perhaps Mr. Crawford would be satisfied to fill Mr. Hays' place, with Captain Pierson, as members of that com- pany are of his acquaintance. I have given Mr. Croghan a receipt. for what arms and other necessaries belonging to him at the fort, a copy of which, together with my journal and general return, shall be sent to Captain Salter, and find it impossible to arm my men or complete what yet remains of our out-works without them. The guns are preferable to those belonging to the government, and I hope will be purchased for our use. Captain Salter will inform your Honor how unfit the arms are for general use, even after being righted np by a gunsmith, whose account is very considerable, be- sides we have no cartridge boxes, nor any convenient pouches for powder and lead, so that in complying with your instructions or giving a detail of what is wanting for the company, I may mention in general, arms and accoutrements, besides orders to the commis- sary for a supply of provisions at once, and regular pay once a month. It will put me to extreme difficulty if the commissaries do
61
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
not think proper to remit me money to pay my men by the first of May. I have wrote them to this purpose, and beg your Honor, too, will enable me to fulfil my engagements with the company, with- out which I can hope for very little satisfaction in serving the public."
The above letter pictures the condition of the frontier army and the resources of the country as well.
In 1756 the Indians from Kittanning, under their chiefs, Shingas and Jacobs, burned Fort Granville, killing and making prisoners the garrison. The whites in retaliation, nnder Colonel Armstrong, were successful in surprising the Indians at Kittanning at day- break on the morning of the 8th of September, in completely routing them, and destroying their thirty houses of a town, and killing Captain Jacobs, their chief, who had declared that he could take any fort that would burn, and he would make peace with England when they would learn him to make gunpowder. It has ever been a wonder that the whites had furnished the Indians the arms and ammunition they did to be used against them in return in so deadly a manner. The frontiers of this region presented but few lands located in 1755. Among the first are the original papers in the hands of Colonel J. P. Taylor, dated February 4, 1755; then the Alexander tract, February 6, 1755; the MeNitt tract the same year, date not known; and the Naginey property located by Alexander Cochrane in the same year. From 1755 to 1762 there seems to have been no value set on frontier lands, when there was a revival to acquire land titles. In that and the follow- ing year the Indian troubles had somewhat subsided and many warrants were issued from and returns of surveys made to the Land office. These were principally located along the streams, and in the valleys, the earliest purchasers selecting the most fertile lands. But these were not all taken for actnal settlement. Many warrants were taken by eastern men, residents of cities, on specn- lation. This era was also brought to an end. Dangers from the Indians again increased, and early in the spring of 1763, the alarm extended along the Juniata to such an extent that many of the pioneers removed for a time to the east.
Colonel Armstrong, who was then in command of the army west of the Blue Hills, wrote to Governor Penn, in December, 1763 : " The people drove off by the enemy from the north side of the mountains forms the frontier as they are mixed with the settlers .on the south side, where of course the motions of the ranging party
62
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
are required. At the same time those who have been driven from their habitations have some part of their effects yet behind, and their erops staeked in the fields in the different valleys at a eon- siderable distance beyond the mountains.
" To these distressed people we must afford covering parties as often as they request them, or will convene in small bodies to thrash out their grain, and carry it over to their families for their supplies. The last-mentioned service, necessary as it is, greatly obstrnets the uniform course of patroling behind the inhabitants, that otherwise might be performed." Colonel Armstrong does not designate par- tieular localities in the above letter, but from the information we have from other sources, we, may safely infer that it ineluded this entire region, then known as the frontiers. ·
This cheek to the rush of settlement and improvement continued until 1766. In that year, and the one succeeding it, a great many applications were made, warrants were issued and surveys returned, and by the elose of 1767, all the good lands in the valleys and river bottoms had been taken up. Thus things moved along to the beginning of the revolution, which again opened jar and discord, and a two sides in almost every community.
On the 23d of April, Robert Smith sent the following note to an officer of the Continental army :
"SIR :- Be pleased to send expresses to Lieutenant Carrothers by the first opportunity, to give him some aeeount of the insurrection on South Mountain, and likewise to inspect very closely into who is abroad at this time, and upon what occasion, as there is a suspicion, by information, of other insurrections rising in other parts of Cum- berland county, and in doing so yon will oblige your friend, and serve
ROBERT MORRIS."
The party to whom the above was addressed, took immediate action as suggested, and found many prepared and preparing for the British service, threatening vengeance against all who took the oath of allegianee to the British government. Their strength was greatly exaggerated, by the wild and unfounded rumors that pre- vailed, causing genuine fears to grow out of imaginary dangers.
The following affair occurred adjoining this eounty and will show the feelings and suspicion of whites and Indians at that time.
We copy a letter from Colonel John Piper, May 4, 1778: "An affair of a most alarming nature has just happened in this vicinity, which I could not think myself justifiable in not communicating to the Honorable the Supreme Executive Council of this State. A
63
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
number of evil-minded persons, thirty-five in number, I think, hav- ing actually associated together and marched to the Indian coun- try in order to join the Indians and conduct them into the inhabi- tancy, and thus united, to kill, burn and destroy men, women and children. They came upon a body of Indians, and conferring with them, they, the Indians, suspecting some design of the white people, on which one of the Indian chiefs shot one Weston, who was a ringleader of the tories and scalped him before the rest, and in- mediately the rest fled and dispersed. A very considerable num- ber of the well-affected inhabitants, having, as soon as their combi- nation and march was known, pursued them, and met five of them and brought them under a strong gnard to the county jail. They confessed their crime and intention of destroying both men and property."
Those of Weston's men who escaped capture, never returned to the Juniata Valley. It was supposed that some of them went west to Fort Pitt and thence to the south, and their families after -- wards followed them. The fear of the tories soon passed away from the public mind. The old enemy that remained was the Indian, and against him was protection necessary for years thereafter.
1778 and 1782 Cumberland County Militia.
In June, 1778, Lieutenant Carrothers, who seemed to have been- a very energetic and efficient officer, sent sixty Cumberland county militia to Kishacoquillas and adjoining valleys. The men had not responded very freely to his call, and he could not send a larger force. It was with still greater difficulty that they were armed.
The people of these valleys, and doubtless of other localities ex- posed to the attack, on getting arms into their hands, whether public or private, refused to surrender them, as they did not know . the hour they might have use for them. Every man felt the necessity of being prepared to defend himself and his household, when threatened with danger, especially when the only military protection consisted of a few undisciplined men scattered over an extensive frontier. In the want of confidence and security which prevailed, it is not strange that the pioneer preferred to retain the weapons in his own possession, rather than to give them up to others who might not be within reach to render him assistance when it was needed.
On the 19th of May, 1779, General James Potter wrote from Penn's Valley, that "the small company of 30 men had encour-
64
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
aged the people of Standing Stone Valley to stand, as yet, although. it is too few for that place." If these thirty men were part of the men sent out by Lieutenant Carrothers, then the other thirty had probably remained in Kishacoquillas Valley. In a circular to the county lieutenants, issued by the Council at Philadelphia, July 16, 1778, it is stated that "Colonel Broadhead's regiment is now on a march to Pittsburgh, and ordered by the Board of War to Stone Valley, and we have ordered three hundred militia from Cumberland, and two hundred from York county to join them."
On the 3d of June, Colonel Ashum, in consequence of a report- ed massacre of 30 soldiers between Bedford and Frankstown, .called upon Colonel Buchanan, at Kishacoquillas, to exert himself " in getting men to go up into Stone Valley." Later in the month he exhibited the greatest anxiety concerning the situation of the county, and the furnishing assistance to the people to prevent them from fleeing. Within two days of the time when the Cumberland militia were to be discharged, he was informed that no order had been issned for others to take their places. He became alarmed for the safety of his own family, and determined to remove them to Maryland, as he was convinced that the settlements could not hold ont against the enemy. Whether he carried out this inten- tion, his descendant who gave this information to the writer could not tell.
In the month of May, 1782, General Carlton arrived from Eng- land, and succeeded Sir Henry Clinton in command of the British forces, and entered into negotiations for peace. From a period not long after his arrival, no more parties of Indians were sent out, and messengers were dispatched to recall those who had gone before that time. This was not only the end of Indian hostilities under British influence and in the British interest, but the end of them forever.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.