History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Part 14

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Northumberland County > History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania > Part 14

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).

In March, 1779, General Edward Hand* was ordered to the frontier of Northampton and Northumberland counties with a detachment of Continental troops. "As the principal object of my command lies above Wyoming," he wrote President Reed on the 16th of April, " I am apprehensive that I can't pay much attention to Sunbury or the contiguous settlements," and in pur- suance of this declaration he devoted his first efforts to the strengthening of the post at Wyoming. Three companies of forty men each were raised in Northumberland county and employed in scouting duty, but with such inad- equate protection its territory again became an inviting field for Indian in- cursions. On the 25th of April an attack was made upon the settlement near Fort Jenkins and several families were taken prisoners; the garrison effected their rescue, but was driven to the fort with some loss. On the 26th thirteen men were fired upon five miles from Fort Muncy, and all but one were killed or captured. On the same day thirty or forty Indians attacked a small party of militia near Fort Freeland; among those killed on this occasion was Michael Lepley, whose widow applied for a pension in 1786. The following certificate appears in the minutes of the orphans' court of Northumberland county as part of the evidence in her case :-

I, the subscriber, do hereby certify that on the 26th of April, 1779, I was stationed at Freeland's fort with a party of militia whom I had the honor to have the command

*General Hand's correspondence relating to affairs in Northumberland county is published in the Pennsylvania Archives, as follows: 1779-Vol. VII. pp. 321, 344, 408.

126

HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

of, and, at the request of Mr. McKnight*, I ordered a guard of six men to go with Mc- Knight to his plantation, as they were but a small distance from Freeland's fort. The party was attacked by a number of Indians, and Michael Lepley, one of my soldiers, was killed and scalped. Witness my hand this 27th day of June, 1786. JACOB SPEES, Lieutenant.

The depredations continued. "Almost every hour for three days past," wrote William Maclay on the 27th of April, " we have fresh alarms of the enemy. Massacres and depredations have been committed at Wyoming, Fort Jenkins, Fishing creek, Freeland's mill, Fort Muncy, and Loyalsock, almost at one and the same time. We expect every moment to hear of their nearer approach. The whole force of the Six Nations seems to be poured down upon us." He thought that a single troop of light horse, attended by blood- hounds, would destroy more Indians than five thousand troops stationed in forts along the frontier. While it does not appear that Council adopted this suggestion, General Hand was at length brought to realize that Northumber- land connty had some claim upon his protection, and on the 15th of May he reported a garrison of one hundred men at Fort Jenkins, one hundred at Fort Muncy, and seventy at Sunbury, all Continental troops from the Elev- enth Pennsylvania regiment (formerly Colonel Hartley's), while a local company of nine-months men under Captain John Kemplen was stationed at Bossley's mills and detachments of militia at Fort Freeland and other minor posts. During the months of May and June the county enjoyed almost entire im- munity from Indian ravages, the prelude, unfortunately, to the most serious reverses experienced within her present limits during the Revolutionary period.

In the latter part of June the Eleventh regiment was ordered to Wyom- ing for service in Sullivan's expedition, for which the supplies were trans- ported principally up the Susquehanna by boat, and in this work nearly all the able-bodied men in the county engaged. On the 26th of June Colonel Hun- ter wrote that, exclusive of the militia at Fort Freeland and at General Potter's (in Penn's township), he had been able to collect only thirty men, who were stationed at Sunbury to guard the stores. The term for which the two- months companies enlisted had expired, thus leaving him with the entire frontier to defend and practically no forces at his command. The enemy was not slow to take advantage of the situation. Their movements were thus summarized by Colonel Hunter on the 23d of July: "Immediately after the evacuation of Fort Muncy the Indians began their cruel murders again; the 3d instant they killed three men and took two prisoners at Lycoming; the 8th instant they burned the Widow Smith's mill and killed one man; 17th instant they killed two men and took three prisoners from Fort Brady; the

*James McKnight, member of Assembly from this county at that time. Colonel Hunter states that he was taken prisoner; in Gift's narrative (Linn's Annals of Buffalo Valley, p. 170) he is repre- sented as having been killed.

Eng.by James R. R.n & Sons Phila

William Fagety

129

THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.

same day they burned Starret's mill and all the principal houses in Muncy township; the 20th instant they killed three men at Freeland's fort and took two prisoners." "Stripped of the whole of the standing army," wrote Will- iam Maclay July 26th, " and without a single man save the militia of the county and fourteen men under the command of a Captain Kemplen, and almost every young man on the frontier engaged in the boat service, they suf- fer more than ever from the savage depredations of a horrid enemy. Every- thing above Muncy Hill is abandoned; a large body of above forty savages had penetrated as far as Freeland's mills. . . . I have spoken to Colonel Hunter for a guard for the magazine, but in vain; he is not able to protect the flying inhabitants. The stores at Sunbury are deposited in my late dwelling house, which is large and conveniently situated, both for defense and the reception and delivery of stores. The back part of it was stockaded last year by Colonel Hartley; a small expense would complete the stockade and mount a. few swivels, several of which lie there dismounted. ... I have had the charge of the magazine at Sunbury for some time past."

The party that devastated Muncy and appeared at Fort Freeland July 20th was somewhat in advance of the main body of the enemy, which was com- posed of one hundred British rangers under Captain John McDonald and two hundred Indians under Hiokoto, a Seneca chief. Their approach was reconnoitered by Robert Crownover, and upon receiving his intelligence the people at Fort Muncy at once evacuated that post. In their journey down the West Branch they were joined by the families at Fort Meminger, near the mouth of Warrior run, but, although warned of the impending danger, the people at Fort Boone and Fort Freeland preferred to remain. The former was a small stockade at the mouth of Muddy run, constructed under the- supervision of Captain Hawkins Boone; Mrs. Mary V. Derickson gives the following account of Fort Freeland in a letter dated Delaware Run, December 17, 1855 :-

The fort was situated on the Warrior run about four and one half miles above where it empties into the Susquehanna river.

In the year 1772 Jacob Freeland, Samuel Gould, Peter Vincent, John Vincent and his son Cornelius Vincent, and Timothy Williams, with their respective families, cut. their way through and settled within some two miles of where the fort was after- ward built. They were from Essex county, New Jersey. Jacob Freeland brought the irons for a grist mill, and in the years 1773 and 1774 he built one on the Warrior run.

There were several more families moved up from the same place, and they lived on friendly terms with the Indians until 1777, when they began to be troublesome and to remove their own families. In the summer of 1778 they had to leave the country, and when they returned in the fall they picketed around a large two-story log house which had been built by Jacob Freeland for his family, inclosing half an acre of ground. The timbers were set close and were about twelve feet high; the gate was fastened with bars inside. Into this fort or house the families of Jacob Freeland, Sr., Jacob Freeland, Jr., John Lytle, Michael Freeland, John Vincent, Peter Vincent, George Pack, Cornelius Vincent, Moses Kirk, James Durham, Samuel Gould, Isaac 8

130

HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

Vincent, and Daniel Vincent all gathered and lived that winter. In November, George Pack, son of George Pack, was born, and on the 10th of February, 1779, I was born. My father was Cornelius Vincent; and on the 20th of May, George, son of Isaac Vin- cent, was born.

In the fall of 1778, as a company of the settlers was leaving the country on account of the Indians, they were fired at, and Mrs. Durham's infant was killed in her arms; she fell with it, and they came and tomahawked and scalped her, and when the men went to count the dead, she raised up and asked for a drink of water. Elias Williams, one of the men, ran to the river and brought his hat full of water and gave her a drink; they then put her in a canoe and took her to Northumberland, where Doctor Plunket dressed her head; she recovered and lived about fifty years. Her body was afterward laid in Warrior Run burying ground, ahout a half-mile off where the fort stood.

In the spring of 1779 the men planted corn but were occasionally surprised by the Indians, but nothing serious occurred until the 21st day of July; as some of them were at work in a cornfield back of the fort they were attacked by a party of Indians about nine o'clock A. M., and Isaac Vincent, Elias Freeland, and Jacob Freeland, Jr., were killed, and Benjamin Vincent and Michael Freeland were taken prisoners. Daniel Vincent was chased by them, but he out-ran them, and escaped by leaping a very high log fence. When the Indians surprised them, Benjamin Vincent (then ten years of age) hid himself in a furrow, but he thought he would be more secure by climbing a tree, as there was a woods near, but they saw him and took him prisoner; he was ignorant of the fate of the others until about two o'clock P. M., when an Indian thrust a bloody scalp in his face, and he knew it was his (and my) brother Isaac's hair.

At this point it is proper to mention the death of James Watt, to which Mrs. Derickson does not refer. The deposition of his widow, Mrs. Ann Watt, entered in the minutes of the orphans' court of Northumberland county at October term, 1790, states, that he "was stationed at Freeland's fort in the county aforesaid and did actual duty as a sergeant in Captain Taggart's company in the battalion of Colonel James Murray, having served under the commands of Captain Taggart, Lieutenant Atkinson, Ensign Freeland, and Adjutant Lytle (the latter being commander at the time of the death of the said James), each in succession of the said Fort Freeland; that on the morn- ing of the 28th day of July, A. D. 1779, the said James Watt was set upon by the Indians at enmity with this Commonwealth, about one hundred yards from the said fort, and was then and there tomahawked and put to death." It is worthy of remark that the name of Lieutenant Spees is not given among the successive commanders of the fort; possibly he preceded those men- tioned.

The remainder of Mrs. Derickson's narrative is as follows :-

Nothing again occurred until the morning of the 29th; about daybreak, as Jacob Freeland, Sr., was going out of the gate, he was shot, and fell inside of the gate. The fort was surrounded by about three hundred British and Indians, commanded by Cap- tain McDonald; there were but twenty-one men in the fort, and but little ammunition; Mary Kirk aud Phebe Vincent commenced immediately and ran all their spoons and plates into bullets; about nine o'clock there was a flag of truce raised, and John Lytle and John Vincent went out to capitulate, but could not agree. They had half an hour given them to consult with those inside; at length they agreed that all who were able to bear arms should go as prisoners, and the old men and women and children set free,

131

THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.

and the fort given up to plunder; they all left the fort by twelve o'clock M., not one of them having eaten a bite that day, and not a child was heard to cry or ask for bread that day. They reached Northumberland, eighteen miles distant, that night, and there drew their rations, the first they had to eat that day.

When Mrs. Kirk heard the terms on which they were set free she put female's clothes on her son William, a lad of sixteen, and he escaped with the women.

Mrs. Elizabeth Vincent was a cripple; she could not walk. Her husband, John Vincent, went to Captain McDonald and told him of her situation, and said if he had the horse that the Indians had taken from his son Peter the week before that she could ride, and about daylight the next morning the horse came to them; he had carried his wife to the lower end of the meadow where they lay and saw the fort burned, and it rained so hard that night that she lay mid-side in water; when the horse came he stripped the bark off a hickory tree and plaited a halter, set his wife on, and led it to Northumberland, where there were wagons pressed to take them on down the country .*

The following copy of the articles of capitulation was transmitted to President Reed by Colonel Matthew Smith :-

Articles of Capitulation entered into between Captain John McDonald on his Majesty's part and John Lytle on that of the Congress.

Article 1st .- The men in garrison to march out and ground their arms on the green in front of the fort, which is to be taken possession of immediately by his Majesty's troops .- Agreed to.

2d .- All men bearing arms are to surrender themselves prisoners of war and to be sent to Niagara .- Agreed to.

3d .- The women and children not to be stripped of their clothing nor molested by the Indians, and to be at liberty to move down the country where they please .- Agreed to.

JOHN McDONALD, Captain of Rangers.

JOHN LYTLE.

The first intelligence of the attack was received at Sunbury at twelve o'clock on the 28th day of July, when an express arrived from Boone's mill with the information that the fort was surrounded by a party of Indians. A party at once marched from Sunbury and Northumberland to the relief of « the garrison at Boone's. At Colonel Hunter's request Dr. Francis Allison wrote Colonel Elder "that Freeland's fort, the most advanced fort on the frontiers of the West Branch, had on Wednesday last [July 21st] three of the garrison killed and scalped (one only shot) within sixty yards of the fort, and two made prisoners; their number of Indians appeared to be up- wards of thirty in the open view of the garrison. Relief was sent imme- diately from Boone's fort and the two towns, and additional force was left behind to their assistance," notwithstanding which an attack was made on the morning of July 28th, of which intelligence was received by express from Major Smith and Captain Nelson. The following extracts from letters written at Sunbury on the 29th of July convey a graphic idea of the situa- tion :-

* Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. XII. pp. 364-366 .- It is to be observed that Mrs. Derickson says the first attack occurred July 21st-Colonel Hunter, July 20tl; she also says the capitulation occurred July 29th, while contemporary writers without exception give July 28th as the date, and the latter is undoubtedly correct.

132

HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

Yesterday morning early there was a party of Indians and regular troops attacked Fort Freeland; the firing was heard at Boone's place, when a party of thirty men turned out from that under the command of Captain Boone, but before he arrived at Fort Freeland the garrison had surrendered and the British troops and savages were paraded around the prisoners, and the fort and houses adjacent set on fire. Cap- tain Boone and his party fired briskly on the enemy, but were soon surrounded by a large party of Indians; there were thirteen killed of our people and Captain Boone himself among the slain .- Colonel Hunter to William Maclay.

Yesterday morning Freeland's fort was attacked by not less than three hundred British troops and Indians; they acted on the defensive as long as they could well, but found it impracticable to hold out any longer after the enemy had sent in three flags desiring them to surrender, the last mentioning if they did not they would put them to the sword, every one .. . The whole killed in the fort was four men. Captain Boone, who went out for their relief, fell in with the enemy; Captain Kem- plen, who observed the first Indian on guard, shot him dead on the spot; then a party rallied out of the mill and defeated Boone's company-killed Boone, Captain Dougherty, Captain Hamilton; .... .Only thirteen escaped. Northumberland is now the frontier .- John Buyers to William Maclay.

We have received particular instructions from Fort Freeland by women who have been in the fort. They say the garrison surrendered after making a noble but short resistance, and after being thrice summoned .. . Of the garrison four were killed, and thirteen scalps were brought into the fort in a pocket handkerchief, among whom were Captain Boone's and Captain Dougherty's, supposed to belong to the party from Boone's fort which attacked the British, Indians, etc., and even got in among the people who were prisoners with them, but were obliged to fly on account of superiority of numbers. Thirteen or fourteen of the party have come in; they and the women of Fort Freeland estimate the number of the enemy at between three and four hundred, one third of whom are regular troops. Boone's fort is evacuated, and Northumber- land-Town is already the frontier .- Dr. Francis Allison to Colonel Joshua Elder.

On the 2d of August a party from Buffalo valley under Colonel John Kelly buried the dead and prepared a list of their names; they gave it to Colonel Matthew Smith, by whom it was transmitted to Council. Of the garrison, James Watt, John McClintock, William McClung, James Miles, and Henry Gilfillan were killed; of Captain Boone's party, Hawkins Boone, Samuel Dougherty, Jeremiah Mclaughlin, Natt'e Smith, John Jones, Ed- ward Costigan, Ezra Green, Samuel Neill, Matthew McClintock, Hugh McGill, and Andrew Woods. Of the garrison, the following were taken prisoners :* Captain's company-John Neely, sergeant, George Bailey, George Armitage, Aaron Martin, Thomas Smith, Isaac Wilson, and John Forney; "of the militia that enrolled themselves for the defense of the garrison"- John Lytle, adjutant, Cornelius Vincent, quartermaster, Samuel Gould, ser- geant, Henry Townley, Peter Williams, Isaac Williams, Elias Williams, Henry Gilfillan, James Durham, Daniel Vincent, John Watt, William Miles, John Dough, Thomas Taggart, Francis Watt, and Peter Vincent; the two last named made their escape on the same day. All the women and chil- dren in the fort, fifty-two in number, according to Colonel Matthew Smith,

*Linn's Annals of Buffalo Valley, p. 179.

133

THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.

arrived safely at Sunbury. Four old men were also permitted to return, as the enemy did not think them strong enough to march to Niagara.

On the 28th of July Colonel Hunter dispatched letters to General Sulli- van, whose army was yet at Wyoming, and Colonel Joshua Elder, of Pax- tang, sub-lieutenant of Lancaster county, urgently soliciting assistance. The former declined to comply with the request, as his entire force was deemed necessary for the success of the expedition, but the appeal to the latter was not made in vain. On the 31st of July the inhabitants of Paxtang township held a meeting at which Colonel Elder, Colonel Matthew Smith, and William Maclay presented the situation in Northumberland county; an appeal was made for volunteers and eight o'clock Sunday morning fixed upon as the time to march. Colonel Smith arrived at Sunbury on Monday evening, August 2d, with sixty Paxtang boys; "Provisions are scarce, but we intend to follow the savages," he wrote on the 3d; " we hope to come at them, as the number of cattle is great they have taken from the country, and must make a slow progress on their return home .... The distress of the people here is great; you may have some conception, but scarcely can be told. The town now composes Northumberland county. The enemy have burnt every- where they have been; houses, barns, rice and wheat in the field, stacks of hay, etc. are all consumed. Such devastation I have not yet seen." The Paxtang boys were the first to arrive; every hour brought fresh accessions from Lancaster and Cumberland counties, and on the morning of Thursday, August 5th, five hundred militia marched from Sunbury under Colonel Smith. Their immediate destination was Muncy. It was thought that the enemy might be overtaken, but a week had elapsed since their departure and it is not probable that the pursuit was long continued. After about two weeks of active service, the volunteers disbanded.

General Sullivan was advancing into the Indian country, and for a time the frontier was comparatively undisturbed. On the 28th of August Colonel Hunter wrote that no damage had been sustained since the fall of Freeland; below Muncy Hill many of the inhabitants had returned to their farms; thirty-four militia from Lancaster county had arrived at Sunbury, and he was about to station them in the Warrior run neighborhood.

The disastrous consequences attending the withdrawal of the Eleventh regiment prompted Council to make an urgent application for Continental troops to protect Northumberland county, in compliance with which the German regiment, which had been stationed at Wyoming since its return from Sullivan's expedition, was ordered to Sunbury. This regiment num- bered one hundred twenty effective men, exclusive of officers, and was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig Weltner, who made his head- quarters at Sunbury and retained a detachment at that place to guard the stores. Twenty men were stationed at Fort Jenkins, and Captain Kemplen's rangers, a local company of fourteen men, at Fort Meminger, seventeen

134

HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

miles from Sunbury on the West Branch. As there was not sufficient force to rebuild and garrison Fort Muncy, it became necessary to select some other point equally well adapted for the protection of the frontier in that direction. "McClung's place" (presumably the improvements of a settler of that name near the West Branch above Milton) was accordingly chosen, and a detach- ment of the German regiment took position there on the 5th of November. It was represented that fortifications had been begun at that point, but this proved without foundation, and, as there was insufficient shelter and no timber convenient, the troops removed to "a place called Montgomery's," where barracks and other necessary defenses were erected. This post, variously referred to as Fort Montgomery, Fort Rice, and Fort Bunner, was situated in the extreme southeastern part of Lewis township at a large spring on a tract of land originally warranted under the name of Paradise, which ultimately gained popular currency and is now applied to a large part of Turbut and Lewis townships. The first resident owner of this land was John Montgomery, who built his cabin at the spring; it was fortified when the Indian troubles began, and thus acquired the name of Fort Montgomery. On the morning that Fort Freeland was invested, retreat having become wiser than resistance in view of a probable attack by greatly superior num- bers, Montgomery and his party withdrew in safety to Sunbury. There is reason to suppose that Weltner's troops found his improvements available for occupation, and that the additional works erected rendered this a place of comparative strength. It was given the names of Fort Rice and Fort Bunner in honor of Captains Frederick William Rice and Jacob Bunner, of the German regiment, who had command of the garrison at various times.

During the ensuing winter the regiment appears to have been engaged principally in garrison duty. On the 13th of December, 1779, Colonel Weltner wrote that the detachments at Montgomery's and Jenkins's had left him only enough at Sunbury "to mount a couple of sentries." In a letter dated April 9, 1780, he stated that he had "manned three material outposts," Fort Jenkins, Fort Montgomery, and Bossley's mill, in addition to which a post on the West Branch near Boone's mill was reported on the 8th of May .*

On the 7th of April President Reed wrote Colonel Hunter authorizing the payment of fifteen hundred dollars for a prisoner and one thousand dollars for an Indian scalp; this furnished incentive for the organization of volunteer companies, and as spring opened the Continental troops also engaged in reconnoitering expeditions. On the 20th of June Colonel Welt- ner wrote that the entire frontier from the North to the West Branch had

*It does not appear that the latter was sustained any length of time; the following statements occur in a " Memorial of Inhabitants on the West Branch " dated June 20, 1780: " The German regi- ment, so far as we know, consists of about one hundred men, and are posted nearly as follows: thirty-three at Fort Jenkins, thirty at Bossley's mill, twenty-four at Fort Bunner, and the residue at headquarters In Northumberland-Town."-Pennsylvania Archives (Second Series), Vol. III. p. 416.

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.

History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Part 14

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