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 14

Author: Hain, Harry Harrison, 1873- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Harrisburg, Pa., Hain-Moore company
Number of Pages: 1102


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 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).


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While in western Pennsylvania encroachments were made on his lands in what is now Watts Township, Perry County, and he protested, as the following letter still in existence, shows:


"FORT PITT, May the 7th, 1762.


"To William Peters, Esq., Secretary to the Propriatories in land office in Philadelphia, &c .:


"The petitioner hereof humbly sheweth his grievance in a piece of un- cultivated land, laying in Cumberland County (now Perry), on the North- west side of Juneadey, laying in the very Forks and Point between the two rivers, Susquehanna and Juneadey, a place that I Improved and lived on one Year and a half on the said place till the enemeyes in the beginning of the last Warrs drove me away from it, and I have had no opertunity yet to take out a Warrant for it; my next neighbor wass one Joseph Greenwood, who sold his improvement to Mr. Neaves, a merchant in Philadelphia, who took out a warrant for the S'd place, and gave it into the hands of Collonel John Armstrong, who is Surveyor for Cumberland county ; and while I was absent from them parts last summer, Mr. Arm- strong runed out that place Joyning me, for Mr. Neaves; and as my place layes in the verry point, have encroached too much on me and Take away part of Improvements; the line Disided between me and Joseph Greenwood was up to the first short small brook that emptyed into Sus- quehanna above the point, and if I should have a strait line run'd from the one river to the other with equal front on each River from that brook, I shall not have 300 acres in that survey ; the land above my house upon Juneadey is much broken and stoney. I have made a rough draft of the place and lines, and if Your Honor will be pleased to see me righted, the Petitioner hereof is in Duty bound ever for you to pray; from verry humble serv't. MARCUS HULINGS."


Accompanying the above was a note to Mr. Peters, which shows that Hulings also had a claim on the south (west) side of the Juniata. The note:


"May ye 17th, 1762.


"Sir: I have left orders for Mr. Mathias Holston, living in Upper Merrion of Philadelphia county, to take out two warrants for me, one for the Point between the two Rivers, and one for the Improvements I have in the place called the Onion bottom on the south side of Juneadey right opposite to the other, where I lived six months before I moved to the other place; from your humble servant, MARCUS HULINGS."


"Accompanying these letters was the rough draft spoken of in the first letter, an attempted description of which follows: Three islands are marked. The one now known as Duncan's is marked "Island" and the house upon it as "Widow Baskins." The large island in the Susquehanna known as Haldeman's is marked "Is- land" and three houses located, the lower one being marked "Fran- cis Baskins," the next a third up on the east side, "George Clark." and a little above the centre, "Francis Ellis." On the east bank ' of the Susquehanna, almost opposite, is a house marked "James Reed," while between the centre of the island and the western shore is a small triangular island.


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On the point between the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers is Hulings' residence. Some distance from the point is a straight line running from river to river, marked "this is the way I want iny line," while above, on the west bank of the Susquehanna, nearly opposite the James Reed house, is "Mr. Neave's house." Farther up the river, opposite a small island, is another house also marked "Francis Ellis." A circuitous line shows where Neave's line crossed that of Hulings. On the south side of the Juniata, below the mouth thereof, is a house marked "William Kerl," and opposite the points of Duncan's Island is "James Baskins'." Farther up, in the plot called the "Onion bottom," is another house marked "Marcus Hulings." Beyond this, on the south side of the Juniata, is a house marked "Cornelius Acheson," who is also credited with encroaching on Hulings' "Onion bottom" property. On the east side of the Susquehanna River Peters' Mountain and "the nar- roughs" are marked. As Hulings likely came to these fertile lands with provincial sanction and probably insistence to induce settle- ment it is believed that his claims, which also appear to be founded on prior right, were adjusted to his satisfaction.


In 1788 Marcus Hulings died. During the earliest years of their life in that vicinity Mrs. Hulings on more than one occasion forded the Susquehanna on horseback with a bag of grain which she took to the mill at Fort Hunter. Marcus, the eldest Hulings' son, did not return with the family to this vicinity, but remained in Pittsburgh, where he established a ferry at what is now the foot of Liberty Street, over the Monongahela River. It was aft- erwards known as Jones' Ferry. He was later employed in mov- ing military stores on the rivers in that vicinity and in other work in behalf of the government and pioneers. Another son located in the western part of the province and was the owner of Hulings' Island, in the Allegheny River.


Thomas Hulings, the youngest son, became the owner of the estate in the East. He died in Buffalo Township in 1808. His first wife was a daughter of General Frederick Watts, of Revolu- tionary fame. Their oldest daughter, Rebecca, married Robert Callendar Duncan, a son of Judge Duncan, of Carlisle and it is through him that Duncan's Island gets its name, he eing the grandfather of Mr. P. F. Duncan, cashier of the Duncan non Na- tional Bank; Mrs. William Wills and Mrs. Frank McMorris, of Duncannan, the line of descent coming through Benjamin Stiles Duncan.


As previously stated, Duncan's Island was the seat of an Indian village, known as "Juneauta." in fact the island was known by that name among the Indian tribes. There is a tradition which is strongly substantiated that at one time the Cayugas and the Dela- wares fought a battle here. To David Brainerd, a graduate of


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Yale College and a distinguished missionary, posterity is indebted for a glimpse into the utter debauchery and dissoluteness of the tribe of Indians located here, and in all probability a counterpart of the lives of Indians generally in those days. It is the first record of the Shawnees in these islands.


He became so devoted to the gospel that he consecrated his whole life to the evangelizing of the savages. He came down the Susquehanna afoot and on May 19. 1745, he landed at the Indian town of Juneauta. In his diary he says, evidently discouraged :


"Was much discouraged with the temper and behavior of the Indians here : although they appeared friendly when I was with them last spring, and then gave me encouragement to come and see them again. But they now seem resolved to retain their pagan notions, and persist in their idolatrous practices."


On September 20 he again visited the island and while his descriptions as recorded in his diary are rather long they are reproduced here in full. He says :


"Found them almost universally very busy in making preparations for a great sacrifice and dance. Had no opportunity to get them together, in order to discourse with them about Christianity, by reason of their being so much engaged about their sacrifice. My spirits were much sunk with a prospect so very discouraging; and especially seeing I had this day no interpreter but a pagan, who was as much attached to idolatry as any of them, and who could neither speak nor understand the language of these Indians; so that I was under the greatest disadvantages imaginable. How- ever I attempted to discourse privately with some of them, but without any appearance of success; notwithstanding, I still tarried with them,


"In the evening they met together, nearly roo of them, and danced around a large fire, having prepared ten fat deer for the sacrifice. The fat of the inwards they burnt in the fire while they were dancing, which sometimes raised the fire to a prodigious height; at the same time yelling and shouting in such a manner that they might easily have been heard two miles or more. They continued their sacred dance nearly all night, after which they ate the flesh of the sacrifice, and so retired, each one to his own lodging.


"I enjoyed little satisfaction, being entirely alone on the island, as to Christian company, and in the midst of this idolatrous revel; and having walked to and fro till body and mind were pained and much oppressed, I at length crept into a little crib made for corn and there slept on the poles."


The next entry is dated Lord's day. Sept. 21, and continues :


"Spent the day with the Indians on the island. As soon as they were well up in the morning I attempted to instruct them, and labored for that purpose to get them together, but soon found they had something else to do, for near noon they gathered together all of their conjurors and set about half a dozen of them playing their juggling tricks and acting their frantic, distracted postures, in order to find out why they were then so sickly upon the island, numbers of them at that time being disordered with a fever and bloody flux. In this exercise they were engaged for several hours, making all the wild, ridiculous and distracted motions imaginable, sometimes singing, sometimes howling, sometimes extending


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their hands to the utmost stretch, spreading their fingers; they seemed to push with them as if they designed to push something away, or at least keep it off at arm's end; sometimes stroking their faces with their hands, then spurting water as fine mist; sometimes sitting flat on the earth, then bowing their faces to the ground; then wringing their sides as if in pain or anguish, twisting their faces, turning up their eyes, grunting, puffing, &c.


"Their monstrous actions tended to excite ideas of horror, and seemed to have something in them, as I thought, peculiarly suited to raise the devil, if he could be raised by anything odd, ridiculous and frightful. Some of them, I could observe, were much more fervent and devout in the business than others, and seemed to chant and mutter with a great degree of warmth and vigor, as if determined to awaken and engage the powers below. I sat at a small distance, not more than thirty feet from them, though undiscovered, with my Bible in my hand, resolving, if pos- sible, to spoil their sport, and prevent their receiving any answers from the infernal world, and there viewed the whole scene. They continued their horrid charms and incantations for more than three hours, until they had all wearied themselves out, although they had in that space of time taken several intervals of rest, and at length broke up, I apprehended, without receiving any answer at all.


"After they had done powwowing I attempted to discourse with them about Christianity, but they soon scattered and gave me no opportunity for anything of that nature. A view of these things, while I was entirely alone in the wilderness, destitute of the society of any one who so much as 'named the name of Christ' greatly sunk my spirits and gave me the most gloomy turn of mind imaginable, almost stripped me of all resolu- tion and hope respecting further attempts for propagating the gospel and converting the pagans, and rendered this the most burdensome and dis- agreeable Sabbath which I ever saw. But nothing, I can truly say, sunk and distressed me like the loss of my hope respecting their conversion. This concern seemed to be so great and seemed to be so much my own, that I seemed to have nothing to do on earth if this failed. A prospect of the greatest success in the saving conversion of souls under gospel light would have done little or nothing towards compensating for the loss of my hope in this respect; and my spirits were so damp and depressed that I had no heart nor power to make any further attempts among them for that purpose, and could not possible recover my hope, resolution and courage by the utmost of my endeavors.


"The Indians of this island can, many of them, understand the English language considerably well, having formerly lived in some part of Mary- land, among or near the white people, but are very drunken, vicious and profane, although not so savage as those who have less acquaintance with the English. Their customs, in various respects, differ from those of the other Indians upon this river. They do not bury their dead in a common form, but let their flesh consume above the ground, in closed cribs made for that purpose. At the end of a year, or sometimes a longer space of time, they take the bones when the flesh is all consumed and wash and scrape them and afterwards bury them with some ceremony. Their method of charming or conjuring over the sick, seems somewhat different from that of the other Indians, though in substance the same. The whole of it among these and others, perhaps, is an imitation of what seems, by Naa- man's expression (Kings 2-11) to have been the custom of the ancient heathen. It seems chiefly to consist in their 'striking their hands over the diseased, repeatedly stroking them, and calling upon their god;' except


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the spurting of water like a mist and some of the other frantic ceremonies common to the other conjurations which I have already mentioned.


"When I was in this region in May last I had an opportunity of learning of the notions and customs of the Indians, as well as of observing many of their practices. I then traveled more than 130 miles upon the river, above the English settlements, and in that journey met with individuals of seven or eight distinct tribes, speaking as many different languages. But of all the sights I ever saw among them, or indeed anywhere else, none appeared so frightful, or so near akin to what is usually imagined of infernal powers, none ever excited such images of terror in my mind as the appearance of one who was a devout or zealous reformer, or rather restorer of what he supposed was the ancient religion of the Indians. He made his appearance in his 'pontificial' garb, which was a coat of bear skins, dressed with the hair on and hanging down to his toes; a pair of bear-skin stockings and a great wooden face painted, the one-half black, the other half tawney, about the color of the Indians' skin, with an ex- travagant mouth cut very much awry; the face fastened to a bear-skin cap, which was drawn over his head.


"He advanced toward me with the instrument in his hand which he used for music in his idolatrous worship, which was a dry tortoise shell with some corn in it, the neck of it drawn on to a piece of wood, which made a very convenient handle. As he came forward he beat his tune with the rattle and danced with all his might, but did not suffer any part of his body, even his fingers, to be seen. No one would have imagined from his appearance or actions that he could have been a human creature, if they had not had some intimation of it otherwise. When he came near me I could not but shrink away from him, although it was then noonday, and I knew who it was; his appearance and gestures were so prodigiously frightful. He had a house consecrated to religious uses, with divers images cut upon the several parts of it. I went in and found the ground beat almost as hard as a rock, with their frequent dancing upon it. I discoursed with him about Christianity. Some of my discourse he seemed to like, but some of it he disliked extremely. He told me that God had taught him his religion and that he would never turn from it, but wanted to find some who would join heartily with him in it; for the Indians, he said, were grown very degenerate and corrupt. He had thoughts, he said, of leaving all his friends and traveling abroad in order to find some who would join with him; for he believed that God had some good people somewhere who felt as he did. He had not always, he said, felt as he now did, but had formerly been like the rest of the Indians until about four or five years before that time. Then, he said, his heart was very much distressed, so that he could not live among the Indians, but got away into the woods and lived alone for months. At length, he said, God comforted his heart and showed him what he should do, and since that time he had known God and tried to serve Him; and loved all men, be they who they would, so as he never did before.


"He treated me with uncommon courtesy and seemed to be heart in it. I was told by the Indians that he was opposed to their drinking strong liquor with all his power; and that, if at any time he could not dissuade them from it by all he could say, he would leave them and go crying into the woods. It was manifest that he had a set of religious notions which he had examined for himself and not taken for granted upon bare tradi- 'tion; and he relished or disrelished whatever was spoken of a religious nature, as it either agreed or disagreed with his standard. While I was discoursing he would sometimes say: 'Now, that I like; so God has taught me,' &c., and some of his sentiments seemed very just. Yet he


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utterly denied the existence of a devil and declared there was no such creature known among the Indians of old times, whose religion he sup- posed he was attempting to revive. He likewise told me that departed souls went southward and that the difference between the good and bad was this: that the former were admitted into a beautiful town with spiritual walls and that the latter would forever hover around these walls in vain attempts to get in. He seemed to be sincere, honest and conscien- tious in his own way and according to his own religious notions, which was more than I ever saw in any other pagan. I perceived that he was looked upon and derided among most of the Indians as a precise zealot, who made a needless noise about religious matters, but I must say that there was something in his temper and disposition which looked more like true religion than anything I ever observed among other heathen. But alas! how deplorable is the state of the Indians upon this river! The brief representation which I have here given of their notions and manners is sufficient to show that they are led captive by Satan at his will in the most eminent manner ; and methinks might likewise be sufficient to excite the compassion and engage the prayers of God's children for these, their fellow men, who 'sit in the region of the shadow of death.'"


September 22 the entry is as follows:


"Made some further attempts to instruct and Christianize the Indians on this island, but all to no purpose. They live so near the white people that they are always in the way of strong liquor, as well as the ill example of nominal Christians; which renders it so unspeakably difficult to treat with them about Christianity."


The following summer ( 1746) Brainerd again passed up the Susquehanna valley and made the following notations in his diary :


August 19. Lodged by the side of the Susquehanna. Was weak and disordered both this and the preceding day, and found my spirits consid- erably damped, meeting with none that I thought godly people.


August 21. Rode up the river about 15 miles and lodged there, in a family which appeared quite destitute of God. Labored to discourse with the man about the life of religion, but found him very artful in evading stich conversation. Oh, what a death it is to some, to hear of the things of God! Was out of my element, but was not so dejected as at some times.


August 22. Continued my course up the river, my people now being with me who before were parted from me. Traveled above all the Eng- lish settlements; at night lodged in the open woods, and slept with more comfort than while among an ungodly company of white people. Enjoyed some liberty in secret prayer this evening; and was helped to remember dear friends, as well as my dear flock, and the church of God in general.


Brainerd returned down the river in October, weak and feeble from exposure in the outdoors, never again to return to his be- loved work. He died in New England in the following October.


Jones' History of the Juniata Valley, in speaking of Indian hos- tilities, says :


"That they had many fierce and sanguinary struggles among themselves is well authenticated. A battle almost of extermination was once fought between two tribes at Juniata-now known as Duncan's Island-within the memory of many Indians who were living when the whites settled among them. This island must have been a famous battleground-a very Waterloo-in its day. When the canal was in progress of construction,


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hundreds of skeletons were exhumed; and to this day stone arrowheads can be found upon almost any part of the island."


Rupp, in his history, recites an early Indian story of the Bas- kins family having been furnished the information by Mitchell Steever, Esq., of Newport, Pa. The William Baskins referred to was a granduncle to the late Cornelius and James Baskins, who will be remembered by many readers of this volume and whose descendants yet reside in various parts of the county.


It appears that at one time Baskins had a crop of grain matur- ing on Duncan's Island while the Indians were on a rampage. He had previously removed his family to Fort Hunter for security, what was known as Fort Hunter in those days, being an outpost opposite to the present town of Marysville. With part of his family Baskins had returned to cut his grain. While engaged in reaping they were startled by a war whoop close by, but seeing neighboring Indians they were not alarmed. But they were de- ceived, as the savages soon gave them to understand that they were after scalps. They all fled, hotly pursued, toward the house, but Mr. Baskins, caught in the act of getting his gun, was shot dead and scalped. His wife, a son of three, and a daughter of seven years were abducted. A man named McClean was also in the field, but plunged into the Juniata and swam to "Sheep Island" (above the iron bridge on the Juniata) and concealed himself in the cleft of some rocks on the far side and thus eluded capture.


As a captive nearing Carlisle Mrs. Baskins escaped from the In- dians. The daughter was taken to the Miami country, west of the Ohio, then an unbroken wilderness, where she was held in cap- tivity for more than six years, when, in conformity with a treaty made with the Indians, as mentioned in a previous chapter of this book, she was returned. She later married a man named John Smith, whose descendants lived in Newport, Pa., during the middle of the last century. The lad, who was captured at the same time, was taken to Canada, where he was raised by Sir William John- ston, who didn't know his name and who had him baptized "Timo- thy Murphy."


This Baskins lad ("Timothy Murphy") had a venturesome life. He was one of the chief riflemen of Morgan's celebrated sharp- shooters. At the battle of Bemis Heights Morgan selected a few . of his best marksmen and directed them to make General Fraser. of the British troops, their especial target. A number fired with no effect, but at the crack of Murphy's gun Fraser fell.


Shortly after the battle of Monmouth, three companies of Mor- gan's troops were sent into Schoharie, New York. Among these was Murphy, and the tories set an extra price upon his scalp, which it was never necessary to pay, although many Indians tried for it. He had grown into a stout, well-built man, with jet-black hair and


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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


eyes and was handsome. While the tories failed to get him here he had many hairbreadth escapes, but usually in the nick of time something turned up to save him. At one time he possessed a double-barreled rifle, an unknown weapon to the Indians. He was being chased by a party, and, although he could usually get away, now they were gaining on him. He turned and shot one and succeeded in getting behind a tree where he quickly reloaded the empty chamber. As they again gained on him he stopped and shot another, but they resumed the chase, desiring to capture him alive and torture him before a slow fire. They were again gaining and in despair he jumped behind a tree, and as they advanced shot a third one. They immediately fled and in after years "Murphy" learned that they had seen him fire three times without reloading and that they thought he had "a great medicine of a gun that would shoot forever."


When the war was over, "Murphy," true to the characteristics of his forbears, became a farmer. Records tell of his death occur- ring from a disease contracted while saving the children of a neigh- bor during a winter flood.


When peace was declared and the independence of the colonies became a fact many of the Schoharie Indians returned to settle among the people whose buildings they had burned and whose relatives they had killed and scalped. Of the worst of his tribe was an Indian named Seths Henry, who had killed more than any other and who would sometimes leave upon a dead body a war club containing many notches cut therefrom. He too came back and one day started to call on the different settlers. Not un- strangely "Murphy" followed him and there is no record to show that the Indian arrived anywhere in this world.




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