USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men > Part 10
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overrun by these western Indians and fortunately records exist which show some of the horrors, but many of them were in such exposed places that no one was left to tell the tale.
In correspondence to the Pennsylvania Gazette, dated Carlisle, July 12, 1763, is the following, which covers the horrible situa- tion, not only of what is now Perry, but of Juniata and of Cum- berland :
"I embrace this first leisure since yesterday morning to transmit you a brief account of our present state of affairs here, which indeed is very distressing; every day almost affording some fresh object to awaken the compassion, alarm the fears or kindle into resentment and vengeance every sensible breast, while flying families obliged to abandon house and pos- session, to save their lives by a hasty escape; mourning widows, bewail- ing their husbands surprised and massacred by savage rage; tender par- ents lamenting the fruit of their own bodies, cropt in the very bloom of life by a barbarous hand; with relations and acquaintances pouring out sorrow for murdered neighbors and friends, present a varied scene of mingled distress.
"When, for some time, after striking at Bedford, the Indians appeared quiet, nor struck any other part of our frontiers, it became the prevailing opinion, that our forts and communication, were so peculiarly the object of their attention, that, till at least after harvest, there was little prospect of danger over the hills, and to dissent from the generally received senti- ment was political heresy, and attributed to timidity rather than judg- ment, till too early conviction has decided the point in the following manner.
"On Sunday morning, the roth inst., about nine or ten o'clock, at the house of one William White, on Juniata, between thirty and forty miles hence, there being in said house four men and a lad, the Indians came rushing upon them, and shot White at the door, just stepping out to see what the noise meant. Our people then pulled in White and shut the door; but observing through a window the Indians setting fire to the house, they attempted to force their way out at the door; but the first that stept out being shot down, they drew him in and again shut the door ; after which one attempting an escape out of the window on the loft, was shot through the head and the lad wounded in the arm. The only one now remaining, William Riddle, broke a hole through the roof of the house, and an Indian who saw him looking out, alleged he was about to fire on him, withdrew, which afforded Riddle an opportunity to make his escape. The house, with the other four in it, was burned down, as one McMachen informs, who was coming to it, not suspecting Indians, and was then fired at and shot through the shoulder, but made his escape.
"The same day, about dinner time, at about a mile and a half from said White's, at the house of Robert Campbell, six men being in the house, as they were dining, three Indians rushed in at the door, and after firing among them and wounding some, they tomahawked in an instant one of the men; whereupon one George Dodds, one of the company, sprang back into the room, took down a rifle, shot an Indian through the body, who was just presenting his piece to shoot him. The Indian being mortally wounded, staggered, and letting his gun fall, was carried off by three more. Dodds, with one or two more, getting upon the loft, broke the `roof in order to escape, and looking out saw one of the company, Stephen Jeffries, running, but very slowly, by reason of a wound in the breast, and an Indian pursuing; and it is thought he could not escape, nor have
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we heard of him since, so that it is past dispute, he also is murdered. The first that attempted getting out of the loft was fired at and drew back; another attempting was shot dead; and of the six, Dodds, the only one, made his escape. The same day about dusk, about six or seven miles up Tuscarora, and about twenty-eight or thirty miles hence, they murdered one William Anderson,* together with a boy and girl all in one house. At White's were seen at least five, some say eight or ten, Indians, and at Campbell's about the same number. On Monday, the 11th, a party of about twenty-four went over from the upper part of Shearman's Valley, to see how matters were. Another party of twelve or thirteen went over from the upper part of said valley; and Col. John Armstrong, with Thomas Wilson, Esq., and a party of between thirty and forty from this town, to reconnoitre and assist in bringing in the dead.
"Of the first and third parties we have heard nothing yet; but of the party of twelve, six are come in, and inform that they passed through the several places in Tuscarora, and saw the houses in flames, or burnt en- tirely down. That the grain that had been reaped the Indians burnt in shocks and had set the fences on fire where the grain was unreaped; that the hogs had fallen upon and mangled several of the dead bodies; that the said company of twelve, suspecting danger, durst not stay to bury the dead; that after they had returned over the Tuscarora Mountain, about one or two miles on this side of it, and about eighteen or twenty from hence, they were fired on by a large party of Indians, supposed about thirty, and were obliged to fly ; that two, viz: William Robinson and John Graham, are certainly killed, and four more are missing, who it is thought, have fallen into the hands of the enemy, as they appeared slow in flight, most probably wounded, and the savages pursued with violence. What farther mischief has been done we have not heard, but expect every day and hour, some more messages of melancholy news.
"In hearing of the above defeat, we sent out another party of thirty or upwards, commanded by our high sheriff, Mr. Dunning, and Mr. William Lyon, to go in quest of the enemy, or fall in with and reinforce our other parties. There are also a number gone out from about three miles below this, so that we now have over the hills upwards of eighty or ninety volunteers scouring the woods. The inhabitants of Shearman's Valley, Tuscarora, &c., are all come over, and the people of this valley, near the mountain, are beginning to move in, so that in a few days there will be scarcely a house inhabited north of Carlisle. Many of our people are greatly dis- tressed, through want of arms and ammunition; and numbers of those beat off their places have hardly money enough to purchase a pound of powder.
"Our women and children, I suppose must move downwards, if the enemy proceed. To-day a British vengeance begins to rise in the breasts of our men. One of them that fell from among the twelve, as he was just expiring, said to one of his fellows: 'Here, take my gun and kill the first Indian you see, and all shall be well.'"
The following is an extract from a letter dated the next day, July 13, 1763, to the same paper, and continuing the report of the relief forces sent north of the Kittatinnies :
"Last night Colonel Armstrong returned. He left the party, who pur- sued further and found several dead, whom they buried in the best man- ner they could, and are now all returned in. From what appears the In- dians are traveling from one place to another, along the valley, burning
*William Anderson was killed without warning, while reading the Bible.
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the farms, and destroying all the people they meet with. This day gives an account of six more being killed in the valley, so that since last Sunday morning, to this day, twelve o'clock, we have a pretty authentic account of the number slain, being twenty-five, and four or five wounded. The Colonel, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Alricks are now on the parade, endeavoring to raise another party, to go out and succor the sheriff and his party con- sisting of fifty men, which marched yesterday, and I hope they will be able to send off immediately twenty good men. The people here, I assure you, want nothing but a good leader and a little encouragement, to make a very good defense."
The result of these marauding expeditions is best summed up by the Pennsylvania Gasette of July 28, 1763, in which is the fol- lowing statement :
"Our advices from Carlisle are that the party under the sheriff, Mr. Dunning, mentioned in our last, fell in with the enemy, at the house of one Alexander Logan, in Shearman's Valley, supposed to be about fifteen, or upwards, who had murdered the said Logan, his son, and another man about two miles from said house, and mortally wounded a fourth, who is since dead; and that at the time of their being discovered they were rifling the house and shooting down the cattle, and it is thought, about to return home with the spoil they had got. That our men, on seeing them, immediately spread themselves from right to left, with a design to sur- round them, and engaged the savages with great courage, but from their eagerness rather too soon, as some of the party had not got up when the skirmish began; that the enemy returned our first fire very briskly; but our people, regardless of that, rushed upon them, when they fled, and were pursued a considerable way, till thickets secured their escape, four or five of them it was thought being mortally wounded; that our parties had brought in with them what cattle they could collect, but that great numbers were killed by the Indians, and many of the horses that were in the val- leys carried off ; that since the ioth inst. there was an account of fifty- four persons being killed by the enemy.
"That the Indians had set fire to houses, barns, corn, wheat and rye, hay; in short, to everything combustible; so that the whole country seemed to be in one general blaze; that the miseries and distresses of the poor people were really shocking to humanity, and beyond the power of language to describe; that Carlisle was become the barrier, not a single inhabitant being beyond it; that every stable and hovel in the town was crowded with miserable refugees, who were reduced to a state of beggary and despair; their houses, cattle and harvest destroyed; and from a plentiful, independent people, they were become real objects of charity and comiseration ; that it was most dismal to see the streets filled with people, in whose countenances must be discovered a mixture of grief, madness and despair; and to hear, now and then, the sighs and groans of men; the disconsolate lamentations of women, and the screams of children, who had lost their nearest and dearest relatives; and that on both sides of the Susquehanna, for some miles, the woods were filled with poor families, and their cattle, who made fires, and lived like sav- ages, exposed to the inclemencies of the weather."
From a letter dated July 30, 1763, at Carlisle, the following account is taken. It relates of the efforts made to save a part of the harvests :
"On the 25th, a considerable number of the inhabitants of Shearman's Valley went over, with a party of soldiers to guard them, to attempt
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saving as much of their grain as might be standing, and it is hoped a considerable quantity will yet be preserved. A party of volunteers, be- tween twenty and thirty, went to the farther side of the valley, next to the Tuscarora Mountain, to see what appearance there might be of the Indians, as it was thought they would most probably be there, if any- where in the settlement; to search for, and bury the dead at Buffalo Creek, and to assist the inhabitants that lived along, or near the foot of the mountain, in bringing off what they could, which services they accord- ingly performed, burying the remains of three persons; but saw no marks of Indians having lately been there, excepting one track, supposed about two or three days old, near the narrows of Buffalo Creek hill; and heard some hallooing and firing of a gun at another place."
The murders at the home of William White, previously men- tioned in this chapter, were in harvest time and the reapers, as the harvest hands were then termed, were all in the house, it being the Sabbath day, when the redskins surprised them. Robert Rob- inson's account of many of these murders is almost parallel with that of the accounts printed on the foregoing pages, but he goes farther. He tells of receiving the news at Edward Elliott's, where he and others were harvesting; how John Graham, John Christy and James Christy heard the firing of guns at the William Ander- son home early in the evening, and of their investigation and carry- ing the news to Elliott's. His account further says :
"Graham and the Christys came about midnight. We, hearing the In- dians had got so far up the Tuscarora Valley, and knowing Collins' famliy and James Scott's were there about harvest, twelve of us concluded to go over Bigham's Gap (the entrance to Liberty Valley) and give those word that were there; when we came to Collins' we saw that the Indians had been there, had broke a wheel, emptied a bed and taken flour, of which they made some water gruel; we counted thirteen spoons made of bark; we followed the tracks made down to James Scott's, where we found the Indians had killed some fowls; we pursued on to Graham's ; there the house was on fire and burned down to the joists. We divided our men into two parties, six in each; my brother with his party came in behind the barn, and myself with the other party came down through an oats field : I was to shoot first; the Indians had hung a coat upon a post on the other side of the fire from us; I looked at it and saw it inimovable, and therefore walked down to it and found that the Indians had just left it; they had killed four hogs and had eaten at pleasure. Our company took their track, and found that two companies had met at Graham's and had gone over the Tuscarora Mountain. We took the run gap, the two roads meeting at Nicholsons; they were there first, heard us coming and lay in ambush for us; they had first fire; being twenty-five in number and only twelve of us-they killed five and wounded myself. They then went to Alexander Logan's, where they emptied some beds and passed on to George McCord's.
"The names of the twelve were William Robison, who acted as cap- tain : Robert Robison, the relator of this narrative; Thomas Robison, being three brothers; John Graham, Charles Elliott, William Christy, James Christy, David Miller, John Elliott, Edward McConnel, William McAlister, and John Nicholas. The persons killed were William Robi- son, who was shot in the belly with buckshot and got about half a mile from the ground; John Elliott, then a boy about seventeen years of age,
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having emptied his gun, was pursued by an Indian with his tomahawk, who was within a few perches of him when Elliott had poured some powder into his gum by random, out of his powder horn, and having a bullet in his mouth, put it in the muzzle, but had no time to ram it down; he turned and fired at his pursuer, who clapped his hand on his stomach and cried 'och,' then turned and fled. Elliott had run a few perches fur- ther, when he overtook William Robison, weltering in his blood, in his last agonies; he requested Elliott to carry him off, who excused himself by telling of his inability to do so, and also of the danger they were in; he said he knew it, but desired him to take his gun with him, and, peace or war, if ever he had an opportunity of killing an Indian, to shoot him for his sake. Elliott brought away the gun and Robison was not found by the Indians.
"Thomas Robison stood on the ground until the whole of his people were fled, nor did the Indians offer to pursue, until the last man left the field; Thomas having fired and charged a second time, the Indians were prepared for him, and when he took aim past the tree, a number fired at him at the same time; one of his arms was broken; he took his gun in the other and fled; going up a hill he came to a high log, and clapped his hand, in which was his gun, on the log to assist in leaping over it; while in the attitude of stooping a bullet entered his side, going in a tri- angular course through his body; he sunk down across the log; the In- dians sunk the cock of his gun into his brains and mangled him very much. John Graham was seen by David Miller sitting on a log, not far from the place of attack, with his hands on his face, and blood running through his fingers. Charles Elliott and Edward McConnel took a circle round where the Indians were laying, and made the best of their way to Buffalo Creek; but they were pursued by the Indians; and where they crossed the creek there was a high bank, and as they were endeavoring to ascend the bank, they were both shot and fell back into the water.
"Thus ended the unfortunate affair ; but at the same time it appears as if the hand of Providence had been in the whole transaction, for there is every reason to believe that spies had been viewing the place the night before, and the Indians were within three quarters of a mile from the place from which the men had started, when there would have been from twenty to thirty men perhaps in the field reaping, and all the guns that could be depended upon were in this small company, except one, so that they might have become an easy prey, and instead of those five brave men who lost their lives three times that number might have done so.
"A party of forty men came from Carlisle to bury the dead at Juniata ; when they saw the dead at Buffalo Creek they returned home. Then a party of men came with Captain Dunning; but before they came to Alex- ander Logan's his son John, Charles Coyle, William Hamilton, with Bartholomew Davis, followed the Indians to George McCord's, where they were in the barn; Logan and those with him were all killed, except Davis, who made his escape and joined Captain Dunning. The Indians then re- turned to Logan's house again, when Captain Dunning and his party came on them, and they fired some time at each other; Dunning had one man wounded.
"The relief parties took back with them what cattle they could secure, but the Indians had killed a large number and had taken all the horses upon which they could lay hands."
By the latter part of July, 1763, there were 1,384 refugees from north of the Kittatinny Mountain domiciled in barns, sheds or other temporary place of refuge at Shippensburg, having fled from their homes.
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
The victory of Colonel Henry Bouquet over the Indians in west- ern Pennsylavnia, in 1764, gave the settlers new courage and they gradually returned to Sherman's Valley and the territory east of the Juniata River, and by 1767 many of the best locations in the county had been warranted.
*There is record of the heirs of Robert Campbell, mentioned in this chapter as being cruelly murdered by the Indians, warranting lands in Tuscarora Township in 1767, four years after his death.
¡The Alexander Logan, whose death at the hands of the Indians is here described, was the owner of lands near Kistler, later long owned by the McMillens.
COUNTY CITIZENS RECIPIENTS OF CHARITY.
When Perry Countains have been contributing to charity-to flood and famine sufferers everywhere, to India, France, Belgium, Armenia, the Harrisburg and other hospitals-little did many think that in its provincial days, before it arose to the dignity of a "little commonwealth," its people were the objects of charity, owing to their being driven out by the Indians from their homes. Such, however, was the case. The refugees, who were in Carlisle, were relieved to some extent in their great distress by the generosity of the Episcopal churches of Philadelphia. On July 26, 1763, Rich- ard Peters, the rector of Christ church and St. Peters, in Phila- delphia (the same man who was secretary of the province), rep- resented to the vestry "that the back inhabitants of this province are reduced to great distress and necessity, by the present inva- sion" and proposed that some method be formed for collecting charity for their relief. A preamble was drawn up and a sub- scription paper started. At the next meeting the wardens reported that they had collected £662, 35. Of course that amount of money needed systematic distribution and the Philadelphia congregations corresponded with persons in Cumberland to ascertain the extent of the distress. William Thomson, an itinerant missionary for the counties of York and Cumberland, and Francis West and Thomas Donellon, wardens of the Episcopal church at Carlisle, sent a reply in which, among other statements, is this: "We have taken pains to get the number of the distressed, and upon strict inquiry, we find seven hundred and fifty families have abandoned their plantations, the greatest number of which have lost their crops, some their stock and furniture, and besides, we are informed that there are about two hundred women and children coming down from Fort Pitt. We also find that sums of money lately sent up are almost expended, and that each family has not received twenty
*See chapter on Tuscarora Township.
¿See chapter on Madison Township and on "Frontier Forts."
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shillings upon an average." The letter also tells of the great dis- tress and says that smallpox and flux are raging among the home- less. Upwards of two hundred of these families were in Carlisle and the remainder in Shippensburg, Littlestown, York and other places. However, it must be remembered that they were not all from Perry County territory, but from what is now Fulton, Franklin, Bedford and farther west, as well as from the outlying districts of Cumberland County itself.
In recounting the result of this report and appeal Rev. Dorr, in his Historical Account of Christ and St. Peters' Church, says :
"In consequence of this information, a large supply of flour, rice, medi- cine, and other necessaries, were immediately forwarded for the relief of the sufferers. And to enable those, who chose to return to their planta- tions, to defend themselves against future attacks of the Indians, the vestry of Christ church and St. Peters were of opinion that the refugees should be furnished with two chests of arms, and half a barrel of powder, four hundred pounds of lead, two hundred of swan shot, and one thou- sand flints. These were accordingly sent with instructions to sell them to prudent and good people as are in want of them, and will use them for their defense, for the prices charged in the invoice."
PIONEER RUNNERS.
During these trying periods the pioneers employed men who were dispatched as runners to give settlers notice of impending danger. They were accustomed to hunting, immune to hardships and with a thorough knowledge of the country. There were thirty in the territory west of the Susquehanna and south of the Juniata to the Allegheny Mountains. They were a lot of intrepid, resolute fellows, on the order of our present admirable troops of State Constabulary, and were in the command of a man who had been a captive of the Indians for several years and knew their traits, but whose name unfortunately fails to be recorded. According to Votes of the Assembly, Sept. 17, 1763, the Colonial legislators were appealed to for assistance in retaining this body of scouts in existence.
The terror of the citizens subsided but little until Colonel Bou- quet conquered the Indians in 1764 and compelled them to solicit peace. A condition of the peace terms was that the Indians were to give up all the women and children which they held in captivity. Among them were many who had been seized as mere children and had grown up among the savages, learning their language and for- getting their own. Their affections were even with the savages. Some mothers found lost children but others were unable to iden- tify theirs. The separation between the Indians and the captives was heart-rending, the red men shedding many tears and the cap- tives leaving reluctantly. Many of these captives later voluntarily rejoined the Indians. Some had married Indians, but from choice,
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records tell us. A girl who had been captured at the age of four- teen and had married an Indian and was the mother of several children, said: "Can I enter my parents' dwelling? Will they be kind to my children? Will my old companions associate with the wife of an Indian chief ? Will I desert my husband, who has been kind?" During the night she fled to her husband and children.
A great many of these prisoners were brought to Carlisle, among them the captives from Perry County. Colonel Bouquet advertised for those who had lost children to come and look for them. Among those who came was an old lady who had lost a child many years before, but she was unable to identify her. With a break- ing heart the old lady told Colonel Bouquet her sad story, relating how she used to sing to the little one a hymn of which the child was so fond. The colonel requested her to sing it then, in the presence of the captives, and she did, the words being :
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