History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Part 10

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- ed; John, J. J., 1829-
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Brown, Runk
Number of Pages: 1424

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Tuesday, July 4 .- Mrs. Scull entertained me with many good, agreeable songs. She moved my head toward my charming Laura when she sang the following :--

CONSTANCY. Oh! lovely Delia, virtuous, fair, Believe me now thy only dear, I'd not exchange my happy state, For all the wealth of all the great, etc., etc.

A rainy afternoon; I spent it with Mr. Barker in-doors. I was introduced to one Mr. Freeman, a young gentleman who has been a trader at Fort Pitt. He beats the drum and we had a good fifer, so we spent the evening in martial amusement.

Wednesday, July 5 .- A very wet morning. Last Sunday some Northumberland saint stole my surtout from my saddle. It was hid for security in a woodpile in the neighborhood, where it was found the next morning, advertised, and this day returned. If this be the "New Purchase " manners, I had rather chosen to own some other kind of impudence. I agreed to-day to preach in this town on the day of the public fast, and began my sermon for that purpose. I had some proposals made me for staying in this town, but I can not yet answer them. I dined with the kind and entertaining Mrs. Scull. She took me, with Mr. Barker, into Mr. Scull's library. It is charming to see books in the infancy of this remote land. I borrowed; for my amusement, the following from her: The Critical Review, No. 44. Our evening spent nightly tete-a-tete in honor and friendship; in bed by three-much too late.

Thursday, July 6 .- I opened my eyes, by the continued mercy of our Bountiful

HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

Overseer, at half an hour after eight, when a most serene, lovely morning, more so after so much dark and unharvestable weather. I was called in to see Mrs. Boyd, to visit and pray with a sick yonng man, Mr. Thompson. I found him lying very ill with an intermittent fever and a great uneasiness of mind. I conversed with him as well as my abilities would allow, and commended him to God in prayer and withdrew. Break- fasted with Mrs. Scull and Mr. Barker, and with great reluctance I took my leave of both. The young gentleman who has been preaching in the English church at Salem, New Jersey, is this Mr. Barker's brother. By ten I left town. The road lies along the river, and after leaving the town about a mile, such a fertile, level, goodly country I have perhaps never seen. Wheat and rye, thick and very tall; oats I saw in many places, yet green, and full as high in general through the field as a six-railed fence. Pokes and elders, higher than my head as I sat upon my horse, and the country is thickly inhabited and grows to be a little open. All this pine tract on the north side of the West Branch belongs, I am told, to Colonel Francis, and is now leased for a term of years. After riding eight miles on the bank of the river I crossed over. The river is near a half-mile broad, and since the rain it has risen so that I had near been floated. Stopped at Captain William Gray's.

Mr. Fithian remained in Buffalo valley until the following Wednesday; during this time he was principally engaged in preparing for his part in the observances of the "Solemn Continental Fast." The following is the text of the journal from the time he left Captain Gray's until his final departure from the present territory of this county :-

Wednesday, July 12 .- A violent thundergnst last night. Soon after breakfast I left. Mr. Gray's; rode to Mr. Fruit's, and must breakfast again. Mr. Fruit very civilly gallanted me on my road. We forded the river and rode np the bank on the north side. The country on both sides of this water very inviting and admirably fertile. Mr. Fruit left me, and I jogged along alone. A narrow bridle road, logs fallen across it, bushes spread over it, but I came at last to Captain Piper's at Warrior run, twelve miles. The Captain was out reaping; Mrs. Piper received me very kindly. She is an amiable woman by character; she appears to be so by trial. At three after dinner the Captain came in. He stood at the door; "I am," said he, "William Piper. Now, sir, in my turn, who are you?" "My name is Fithian, sir." "What is it?" "Fithian, sir!" "Oh," says he, "Fiffen." "No, it is Fithian." "What, Pithin? Damu the name, let me have it in black and white. But who are you? Are you a regular orderly preacher? We are often imposed upon and curse the man who imposes on us next." "I come, sir, by the appointment of Donegal Presbytery from an order of Synod." "Then God bless you, you are welcome to Warrior Run -- You are welcome to my house. But can you reap?" He was full "half seas over." He spoke to his wife: "Come, Sally, be kind and make a bowl of toddy." Poor, unhappy, hard-conditioned, patient woman! Like us neglected and forsaken "Sons of Levi," you should fix on a state of happiness beyond this world. I was in the evening introduced to Captain Hays, a gentleman of civility and seriousness. He begged me to preach a week-day lecture before I leave the neighborhood. At Mr. Hays's I saw a large gourd; it held nine gallons. I saw in the bottom near the bank of the river a sycamore or buttonwood tree, which measured, eighteen inches'from the ground, fifteen feet in circumference.

Thursday, July 13 .- "There is not one in this society but my little wain," said the Captain to me quite full of whiskey, "not one of them all but my little wain that can tell you what is effectual calling." Indeed, his "wain" is a lovely girl. She is an only child, just now ten years old. She seems to be remarkably intelligent, reads very

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THE COLONIAL PERIOD.

clear, attends well to the quantity of words, has a sweet, nervous quo-he accent. Indeed, I have not lately been so highly pleased as with this rosy-cheeked Miss Peggy Piper. Mrs. Piper keeps a clean house; well-fixed beds-here I have not seen a bug or a flea.

Friday, July 14 .- Last evening after sunset I walked with Mrs. Piper to four neighbors' houses, all within a half a mile. She was looking for harvest hands, while her ill-conditioned husband was asleep perspiring off the fumes of whiskey. It is now seven o'clock. There are two reapers. Miss Piper is out carrying drink to the reap- ers. Her father is yet asleep. Tim is about the house as a kind of waiting man. There is also a close-set young Irish widow who, on her passage, lost her husband and two children at sea. She came in Captain McCulloch's ship with six hundred pas- sengers, of which oue hundred five died at sea, and many more on landing. Mrs. Piper is taken this morning after breakfast with a violent fever and palpitation of the heart, which continues very threatening. The young Irish widow is lame with a cold in her shoulder and has this morning scalded her hand most sorely. Dear Peggy went out early and is overheated, so that she is laid up with the headache. The Captain himself is ut semper full of whiskey. A house full of impotence. We are relieved, however, by a young woman of this neighborhood. Doctor Sprigg,a gentleman in the practice who is settling in the neighborhood, by accident came in, and made some application of some medicine to Mrs. Piper. Towards evening I took a ramble with Peggy to find and bring in the cows. She showed me their sugar tree bottom, out of which Mrs. Piper says she makes plenty of sugar for her family use. I am charmed with each calm evening. The people here are all cordial and inveterate enemies of the Yankees, who are settling about in this Province on the land in dispute between Connecticut and Pennsylvania. It is said they are intending to come down into this neighborhood and fix down upon the unsettled land, which exasperates the people generally.

Saturday, July 15 .- I had my horse belled to-day and put in a proper lawu. I would rather call it a park. He wears the bell, contrary to my expectation, with per- fect resignation. To-day Mrs. Piper is better, and walks the house. There came ten reapers before breakfast; the Captain was in bed, supinus stertieus. It was something remarkable-after he awaked he would drink no more, and before evening was per- fectly sober. I am told he is always sober and devout on Sabbath. There came on a great rain before ten, and reaping was done. I took a walk after the rain on the bank of the river. My wonder ceases that the Indians fought for this happy valley.

Sunday, July 16 .- Warrior Run-this meeting house is on the bank of the river, eighteen miles from Northumberland. It is not yet covered. A large assembly gath- ered; I preached from a wagon, the only one present. The people sat upon a rising ground before me. It looked odd to see the people sitting among the bushes. All were attentive, and there were many present. I spoke the loudest and with more ease than I have ever done any day before. After service I rode down to Mr. Fruitt's, and spent the evening reading and examining Mr. Lusk's piece against the Seceders.

Monday, July 17 .- After breakfast and prayer I took my leave, crossed over the river, and rode down to town. The day was bright and very hot; the inhabitants yet busy with their harvest.

Northumberland-in town by eleven, much fatigued. I spoke with Mr. Barker. He was busy but soon came in, and we spent an hour very pleasantly. I walked down to Mr. Martin's to see the newspapers. Doctor Plunket and three other gentlemen were in the next room. Mr. Carmichael's sermon, preached lately before the Carlisle company, was in contemplation. "Damn the sermons, Smith's and all," said one of them; "gunpowder and lead shall form text and sermon both." The Doctor, how- ever, gave him a severe reproof. The Honorable Conference is yet sitting, and have

HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

published to the world reasons for our taking up arms. By a letter lately from Prince- ton to a gentleman here, I am told that James Armstrong and John Witherspoon have gone to Boston with General Washington; I am told that Mr. Smith, our tutor, was lately married to Miss Aun Witherspoon. Probably in this conflict I may be called to the field, and such a connection would make me less willing to answer so responsible a call. I will not, therefore, marry until our American glory be fixed on a permanent foundation, or is entirely taken from us. An alarming report: eight horse-loads of powder went up the country this day, carried by a number of Indians; it is shrewdly guessed they have in view some infernal stratagem.

Tuesday, July 18 .- I rose by seven, studying at my sermon for the fast. There is a rupture in the other town [Sunbury]; they have two men in prison who were seized on suspicion of selling what they call the Yankee rights of land. They are apprehen- sive of a mob who may rise to release them, and keep every night a strict guard. Mr. Scull, who is captain for this town, goes with a party for a guard from hence to-night. I am invited to a party this afternoon. South of this town the bank of the river is a high, stony precipice, three hundred fifty feet at least, and almost perpendicular. There is a way, by going a small distance up the river, of ascending to the top, which is level and covered with shrubby pines. Here I am invited by a number of ladies to gather huckleberries. The call of women is invincible, and I must gallant them over the river. Perhaps my Eliza is in the same exercise in the back parts of Deerfield [Cum- berland county, New Jersey]. We dined and walked down to Mr. Martin's, on the West Way street. Ladies: Mrs. Boyd, a matron, Mrs. Martin, Mrs. McCartney, Miss Carothers, Miss Martin, Miss Lusk, and a strange young woman, Miss Manning, and my- self. Horrible, fearful! It is so high and so steep. Look at yon man in his small canoe; how diminutive he seems groveling down there, paddling a tottering boat! The water itself looks to be very remote, just as I have often seen the sky in a still, clear brook.

Wednesday July 19 .- Mr. Barker called on me this morning to walk. We strolled up the North Branch of the river two miles. Good land, but less cultivated. I can not but much esteem this young gentlemen. He is not forward in conversation, not by any means dull, makes many just and pleasant remarks on the state of America. Two wagons, with goods, cattle, women, tools, etc., went through the town to-day from East Jersey, on their way to Fishing creek, up the river, where they are to settle. Rapid, most rapid, is the growth of this country.

At the invitation of Mr. Scull and Mr. Barker I went, after dinner, over the river to Captain Hunter's. I was formally introduced by these gentlemen to him. He talks but little, yet with great authority. I felt little in his presence, from a consciousness of inferiority. We drank with him one bowl of toddy, and passed on to Sunbury. The town lies near a half-mile below the fort, on the east side of the main branch. It may contain an hundred houses. All the buildings are of logs but Mr. Maclay's, which is of stone and large and elegant. The ground is low and level, and on the back part moorish. Northumberland at the point has a good appearance from this town. The inhabitants were mustering arms-blood and death, how these go in a file! As we were returning in our slim canoes I could not help thinking with myself how the sav- age tribes, while they were in possession of these enchanting wilds, have floated over this very spot. My heart feels for the wandering natives. I make no doubt but multi- tudes of them, when they were forced away, left these long possessed and delightsome banks with swimming eyes. Evening, between nine and ten, came into Mr. McCart- ney's Doctor Allison, Doctor Kearsley, Mr. Barker, and Mr. Freeman. "I am the very man and no other," said Doctor Allison, "who was appointed to carry on the building of our meeting house here, and I am for having it done with brick. Let us at once make a convenient place for worship and an ornament to the town."

THE COLONIAL PERIOD.

Thursday, July 20 .- I rose by six; the town quiet; all seems dull and mournful; stores shut and all business laid aside. By ten many were in town from the country. Half after eleven we began. I preached in Mr. Chattam's house, in the North Way street. It is a new house, just covered, without partitions. It was thronged. Many were in the chamber; many in the cellar; many were without the house. There were two Jews present-Mrs. Levy and her nephew. I spoke in great fear and dread. I was never before so nice an audience; I never spoke on so solemn a day. In spite of all my fortitude and practice, when I began my lips quivered; my flesh shrank; my hair rose up; my knees trembled. I was wholly confused until I had almost closed my sermon. Perhaps this feeling was caused by entirely fasting, as I had taken noth- ing. I was to-day, by Mr. Barker, introduced to Mr. Chambers, a young gentleman of Sunbury, a lawyer. He appears to be serious, civil, and sociable. I was also introduced to Mr. James Hunter, of Philadelphia. In the afternoon service felt much better, but was under the necessity of reading both sermons. Several in the neighborhood gave me warm invitations to call and see them, but I must now away up this long river, sixty miles higher, among quarrelsome Yankees, insidious Indians, and, at best, lonely wilds. Mrs. Boyd, an aged, motherly, religious, chatty neighbor, Mr. Barker's land- lady, drank coffee with us; Miss Nellie Carothers, also, and several strangers. Even- ing, two villains-runaways and thieves-were brought into town and committed to prison. One of them took my coat the other day. Justice, do thy office!

Friday, July 21 .- The weather these two days is extraordinary, so that I have slept under a sheet, blankets, coarse rug, and in my own clothes, and I am to-day wish- ing for a thicker coat than this sieve-like crape. I dined with Doctor Allison and Mr. Barker, at Mr. Scull's. Oh! we have had a most agreeable afternoon. It has been an entertainment worthy of royalty. If this pompous declaration is thought strange and a secret, too, I will explain its meaning. I have been in the company of gentlemen where there is no reserve. Books and literary improvement were the subjects. Every sentence was a sentiment. Mr. Chambers and Sheriff Cooke joined us. The gloomy, heavy thoughts of war were a while suspended.

Saturday, July 22 .- I slept but little last night; a sick Irish girl in the next room, by her continual moaning, kept me awake. Indeed, the poor Irish maid was extremely ill. I am to take my leave of acquaintances and soon leave this town. It is probable I shall never see it again. I wish, however, it may thrive and prosper in all its inter- ests. I left the town and took a long, narrow bridle road to Mr. James Morrow's [Murray's] at Chillisquaque. He lives on the creek, five miles from the mouth. I was more bewildered in finding this road-which for more than six miles, at least, was nothing more than a dull, brush-covered hog-road, with a log across it almost every rod-than I have been before. I received of Mr. Gibson for my fast-day supply, seven shillings six pence. He lives in a small log hamlet; is, himself, a man of business. He was in the last war, and is very garrulous, and, indeed, intelligent, on military subjects. On the bank of this creek I walked among the white walnuts, ash, buttonwood, birch, hazels, etc., rambling along. At last I stopped, stripped off my stockings, and waded up and down. One thing here I don't like. In almost all these rural cots I am under the necessity of sleeping in the same room with all the family. It seems indelicate, at least, for men to strip surrounded by different ages and sexes, and rise in the morning, in the blaze of day, with the eyes of at least one blushing Irish female searching out subjects for remark.

Sunday, July 23 .- We have a still, dark, rainy morning. The people met at Mr. Morrow's [Murray's]. His little house was filled. Many came from a funeral, in all probably sixty. Three days ago, when one of the neighbors was carting in his rye, his young and only child, not yet four years old, drew into its mouth one of the beards.

HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

It stopped in his throat, fixed, and soon inflamed, and yesterday, in spite of all help, about noon he died.

Monday, July 24 .- One of the elders gave me for yesterday's supply fifteen shill- ings three pence. Yesterday and this morning we breakfasted on tea. It is boiled in a common dinner-pot of ten or fifteen gallons and poured out in tin cups. We have with it boiled potatoes and huckleberry pie, all in love, peace, and great welcome. My horse, however, now feeds upon the fat of the earth. He is in a large field of fine grass, generally timothy, high as his head. He has not fared so well since we left Mr. Gray's on the Juniata. Mrs. Morrow [Murray] wears three golden rings, two on her second finger of the left hand and one on the middle finger of the right. They are all plain. Her daughter Jenny, or, as they call her, Jensy, wears only two. Jensy is a name most common here; Mr. Fruit, Mr. Allen of Buffalo, Mr. Hays of Warrior run, and the women here all have daughters whom they call Jensy. Salt here is a great price, the best selling at ten shillings and ten shillings six pence, and the lowest at eight shillings. Half after nine I left Mr. Morrow's [Murray's] and rode to Mr. Mc- Candlish's on the river. Here I fed my horse with a sheaf of wheat. Thence to Freeland's mill, thence over Muncy's hills and Muncy's beautiful creek to Mr. Crown- over's.

The Connecticut claim, which received so large a share of public attention at the time of Mr. Fithian's visit, was based upon the royal charter granted to that Colony in 1662; this instrument described its territory as extending "to the South sea on the west," and under this clause all that part of Pennsyl- vania north of the forty-first parallel of north latitude was claimed to be within its jurisdiction. The Connecticut Susquehanna Company was formed in 1753, and at the Albany conference in the following year purchased from certain chiefs of the Six Nations the territory between the forty-first and forty-second parallels of north latitude, bounded on the east by a line ten miles distant from the North Branch of Susquehanna and extending westward one hundred twenty miles. The forty-first parallel crosses Northumberland 'county a short distance below Milton, and thus a large part of its original area was included in the territory purchased. A number of emigrants from Con- necticut arrived at Wyoming in 1762, but in the following year many of them were killed by the Indians; the settlement was abandoned, but in 1769 it was again established. In 1771 two townships, Charleston and Judea, were sur- veyed at Muncy on the West Branch and allotted to prospective settlers. In January, 1774, the Connecticut legislature passed an act erecting all the ter- ritory within its jurisdiction between the Delaware river and a line fifteen miles west of the North Branch into the "Town of Westmoreland," which was attached to Litchfield county; in May, 1775, its western limits were so extended as to include the townships on the West Branch, the actual settle- ment of which had been begun. The authorities of Northumberland county, unable to prevent the occupation of its territory by Connecticut claimants, joined in a petition to the Governor in which the following statements occur :-

Sorry we are to inform your Honor that our utmost endeavors are likely to fail of the desired effect, through the restless and ambitious designs and enterprises of the Colony of Connecticut; the intruders from that Colony settled at Wyoming are re-en-

THE COLONIAL PERIOD.

forced with fresh numbers; officers, civil and military, are appointed, not only among them but even among us, by the Governor of Connecticut, as well in direct violation of our laws as for the express purpose of overturning the jurisdiction of our courts. Swarms of emissaries from that Colony crowd among our people, seducing the ignor- ant, frightening the timorous, and denouncing the utmost vengeance against any who may be hardy enough to oppose them. . In fine, to such situation are we already reduced from the number of their adherents, spies, and emissaries, as to"be under the hard necessity of keeping constant guards, not only to prevent the destruc- tion of our jail, but for the security of our houses and persons .*

John Vincent appears to have been the most active partisan of the Con- necticut interest who resided within the present limits of Northumberland county. In May, 1775, the Governor of Connecticut appointed him a justice of the peace for Litchfield county; in the following August, accompanied by his son and several others, he went to Wyoming "and requested a number of people to go on the West Branch and make settlements, and extend the juris- diction and authority of Connecticut to that country."+

His mission was successful; an armed force under the command of Major William Judd and Joseph Sluman marched from Wyoming and arrived at Warrior run on the 23d of September. Their purposes were thus set forth in the following letter to William Plunket :- -

Warrior Run, September 25, 1775.

SIR: This acquaints you that we arrived at this place on Saturday evening last with a number of other men, purposing to view the vacant lands on this branch of the Susquehanna river and to make a settlement on the vacant lands if we find any place or places that shall be agreeable. And, as this may be a matter of much conversation among the present inhabitants, we are willing to acquaint you the principles on which we are come. In the first place, we intend no hostilities; we will not disturb, molest, or endeavor to dispossess any person of his property, or in any ways abuse his person by threats or any action that shall tend thereto. And, as we are commissioners of the peace from the Colony of Connecticut, we mean to be governed by the laws of that Col- ony, and shall not refuse the exercise of the law to those of the inhabitants that are now dwellers here on their request, as the Colony of Connecticut extended last May their jurisdiction over the land. Finally, as we are determined to govern ourselves as above mentioned, we expect that those who think the title of this land is not in this Colony will give us no uneasiness or disturbance in our proposed settlement. We are, Sir, with proper respects,

Your humble servants,

JOSEPH SLUMAN, WILLIAM JUDD.Į

If Major Judd and his party really supposed that their movements would meet with no opposition, they were egregiously mistaken. It is quite evident, however, that they anticipated hostilities and prepared for defense. Accord- ing to the deposition of Peter Smith, one detachment was on guard at a

* Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. II. p. 241.

+Miner's History of Wyoming, p. 168. The quotation appears in an extract from the papers of Colonel John Franklin.

#Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. IV. pp. 661-662.

HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

school house at Freeland's mill and another at John Vincent's house; the report reached Sunbury that they had brought intrenching and fortifying tools, which were put to use immediately upon their arrival. The militia of Northumberland county was at once called out, and at one o'clock on the 25th of September fifty men left Sunbury to join companies from other points and proceed to Warrior run. Colonel Franklin places the number of Major Judd's men at eighty and of the militia at five hundred; he states that one man was killed and several wounded, all of the Connecticut party were taken pris- oners, three were detained at Sunbury, Judd and Sluman were sent to Phil- adelphia, and the others were dismissed. That the action of the authorities and militia was approved by the provincial Assembly is evident from the fol- lowing resolution, which was passed on the 27th of October, 1775 :-

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History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Part 10

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- ed; John, J. J., 1829- Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, Brown, Runk Number of Pages: 1424

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- ed; John, J. J., 1829-
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Brown, Runk
Number of Pages: 1424