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 15

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 15


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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Then, there began strange disappearances of tories and Indians and coincident there was always a fire of brush in the same vicin- ity in which might have been found their ashes. The remaining renegades and savages took the hint and left the community.


Timothy Murphy became a wonderful stump speaker and a political power in Schoharie County. He brought William C. Bouck into public life and later to the gubernatorial chair of New York. His mother, the widow of William Baskins, the first set- tler of Dunean's Island, remarried, her second husband being Francis Ellis. He established a ferry across the Susquehanna dur- ing the Revolution and carried on the business for many years.


After the Baskins boy's capture by the Indians he was first heard of through Alexander Stephens, grandfather of Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, and father of the late James Stephens, of Juniata Township, by a peculiar mark on the head. He later visited Perry County and the island and James Smith, his nephew, when in Canada during the War of 1812, vis-


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ited him near a place called Malden, and found him to be the owner of a large estate.


The original Clark's Ferry crossed the Susquehanna at a point about the centre of Duncannon, its western landing being at the point where Clark's run empties into the river. The Indians had a place in the vicinity where they forded the river, which they knew as "Queenashawakee." The Juniata they knew as "Choini- ata," or "Juneauta." In 1733 John Harris, who had a lust for land, had erected a cabin and cleared some fields on the island near "the white rock on the riverside." This caused a complaint by the Indians. This was on Haldeman's Island.


At a Council held at Philadelphia Shikellamy. the Indian chief, through Conrad Weiser, the interpreter, asked whether the pro- prietary government had heard of a letter which he and Sassoonan had sent to Harris, asking him to desist from making a plantation at the mouth of the "Choinata," where he had built a house and was clearing fields. They were informed that Harris had only built that house for carrying on trade; that his plantation on which were houses and barns was Pextang (now Harrisburg), where he dwelt and from which he was not supposed to remove, and that he had no order or permit to make a settlement on the "Choinata." Even if he had built his house for trading purposes Shikellamy said "he ought not to have cleared fields." He was informed that Harris had probably only cleared as much land as was needed for raising corn for his horses, to which Shikellamy rejoined that he "had no ill will to John Harris, in fact it was not his custom to bear ill will, but he is afraid that the warriors of the Six Nations, when they pass that way, may take it ill to see a settle- ment made on lands which they had always desired to be kept free from settlement." He was further informed that care would be taken to issue the necessary orders.


In 1806 Robert C. Duncan, a son of the celebrated jurist. Thomas Duncan, of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (having married Rebecca Hulings), moved to Duncan's Island, where he spent the remainder of his days. It is from him that the island takes its name. His brother Stephen resided in what is now Perry County, near the mouth of Sherman's Creek, and was the founder of the Duncannon Forges, the forerunner of the Duncannon Iron Company. He subsequently removed to Washington, D. C., where he died. Robert C. Duncan had two sons, one of whom was Dr. Thomas Duncan, born in 1814, a celebrated physician and a promi- nent member of the Pennsylvania Legislature. The other was . Benjamin Stiles, born in 1816, who went to Arkansas in his boy- hood, where he resided until 1858. He was a real estate operator and laid out a section of Arkadelphia, which is known to this day as "the Duncan Addition," He returned to Duncan's Island and


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engaged in farming, residing in the house in which he was born until his death, which occurred in 1870.


Sherman Day, in his Historical Collections of Pennsylvania (1843) pays to Mrs. Duncan, widow of the late proprietor of Duncan's Island, the following tribute :


"About half a mile above the village ( Benvenue), Mrs. Duncan, the accomplished widow of Robert C. Duncan, still resides in the family mansion, where the traveler who chooses to tarry in this delightful region may find accommodations-not a hotel, with its bar and bottles, and blustering loafers; but in a comfortable, well- furnished gentleman's home, with its quiet fireside, and books, and intelligent society and amiable tea table."


The old register of this hotel, beginning with February 6, 1841, is in the possession of Mr. P. F. Duncan, her grandson, and is a matter of much curiosity to the present day generation. Travel was then either overland or by packet. One entry reads thus : "Rev. Thomas C. Thornton and lady ;" also four children, "all the family on the way to Clinton College, Mississippi." On an- other line is "Dr. D. L. N. Reutter, residence, Breach at Dun- can's Island." Susan Ickes Harding, a daughter of Dr. Jonas Ickes, was one of the travelers. Mrs. Harding later became a noted philanthropist in Central Illinois. Another name of interest is that of Lucretia Mott, a pioneer in woman's suffrage, "on her way to Clearfield."


Among the earlier residents of the island during the past cen- tury were the Garmans, who settled there in 1828, Samuel Gar- man, long ticket agent and telegrapher for the Northern Central Railway at Clark's Ferry and now living retired at Millersburg, being a descendant. A man by the name of Updegraff built the "point house" in 1834. This was the house where the late J. L. Clugston lived, he who long kept a general store at the inlet lock. The Carpenter family came from Newport in "the forties," and of some of that family more appears in the chapter devoted to "River and Canal Transportation." Their sons who grew to man- hood were James, John, Thomas and George, and their daughter, Elizabeth, became the first wife of Stiles Duncan, owner at that time of Duncan's Island. She died September 25, 1857, aged twenty-four years.


The channel between the two islands once was deep and swift, but years of constant deposit of silt has left it far less deep and its waters seem not nearly so swift as in the days of yore. Dun- can's Island has gone through some famous flood experiences, of which there is an account in the chapter devoted to Rivers and Streams, elsewhere in this book.


Both Duncan's and Haldeman's Islands are a part of Reed Township, Dauphin County, which was created by an act of the


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Legislature on April 6, 1849. It was named in honor of William Reed, who resided midway between Clark's Ferry and Halifax. Historically there appears to be little relating separately to Halde- man's Island. It was named for one of the early owners. It is separated from Duncan's Island by a narrow channel and unlike Duncan's Island it is not of alluvial origin, but is elevated high above the neighboring low-lying lands. It comprises 775 acres, which is divided into five farms each of 155 acres, the ownership of which remains in P. F. Duncan (two farms) and Mrs. Mary Haldeman Armstrong (three farms). A. Stephen Duncan once


LOWER END OF HALDEMAN'S ISLAND, NEAR DUNCANNON.


owned the Haldeman Island also, but sold it to John Haldeman for $11.775. It was then known as Baskins' Island. It was first surveyed in 1760.


In the latter part of the eighteenth and the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, before the era of internal improvements in the state, which destroyed our fisheries, these islands were noted for their shad fisheries, where great catches were made.


The assessment list of 1751 describes everything above Peters' Mountain as "Narrows of Paxtang." Those on and around the islands at that time were Widow Murray, Robert Armstrong, Thomas Gaston. William Forster, Thomas Clark, John McKen- nedy, Robert Clark, Thomas Adams, Albert Adams, John Watt, William Baskins, George Wells, Francis Glass, George Clark, John Mecheltree, Francis Baskins (trader), John Clark, James Reed, James English, John Gevins, John Baskins, Thomas McKee, and


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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


John Kelton. Charles Williams and John Lee (trader) are desig- nated as "Freemen." John Kelton was the collector.


The dam across the Susquehanna, at the mouth of the Juniata, generally known as the Clark's Ferry Dam, was originally known as Green's Dam, by reason of the contractor's name having been Abbott Green. Mr. Green was born at Penn's Creek, Snyder County, and there grew to manhood. During the spring seasons he floated rafts down the river and thus became familiar with river traffic. He moved to Lewisburg and engaged in contracting upon the public works then under construction by the state. The con- struction of this dam-in that period a noted undertaking-was the crowning work of his life.


Duncan's Island Methodist Church. Rebecca Duncan, a resi- dent of Duncan's Island, at a very early day of Methodism, opened her home for the preaching of that faith. Through her efforts and at her expense the school board later added a second story to the public school building, which she donated to the cause for the use of the Methodists. In it regular services were conducted until the great flood of 1865, when, on March 16th, it was destroyed by the onrushing waters. The word was preached by the pastors of the Duncannon charge. At various times, and sometimes for long continuous periods, there have been Sunday school sessions of an undenominational character held in the public school building on Duncan's Island.


The Clark's Ferry Bridge. The building of the Clark's Ferry bridge was, in that day. a considerable undertaking. It was to span the Susquehanna at a point above the location of the ferry conducted by the Clarks, and, as it was to be a part of a great highway across the state, men from five counties composed the commission which was organized for its erection. The commis- sioners appointed for that purpose were as follows: Christian Gleim, Archibald M'Allister, Innis Green and Abraham Gross, of Dauphin County ; Robert Clark, John Boden, and Dr. Samuel Mealy, of Cumberland County ( then including Perry, from which section these three men came) : William Bell, Lewis Evans, David Hulings, Robert Robinson, and John Irwin, of Mifflin County (then including Juniata) : William Steel, Patrick Gwinn, and Maxwell Kinkead, of Huntingdon County, and James Potter, John Rankin, and John Irwin ( Penn's Valley), of Centre County. The commission organized on Wednesday, May 22, 1818, by electing John Boden, chairman, and Christian Gliem, secretary. They began their duties by holding their first view of a site on June 3. 1818. On April 17, 1837, a span of the bridge gave way and one end lodged upon a pier and could not easily be removed. It was then set on fire and floated down the river as it fell, a mass


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of flaming timber. Destruction of parts of the bridge by fire and flood at various times is told in the chapter devoted to "Rivers and Streams."


While to the present generation it is a very, very ordinary struc- ture, yet it is described in a noted State History of 1844 as "a wooden bridge on the Barr plan, resting upon many piers, the whole constructed with an elegance and strength equal to if not surpassing any public work in the country." Harry McKee long kept a hotel at the east end of the bridge and also owned the first farm below the point of Peters' Mountain, which had descended from his ancestor, Thomas McKee, the trader, spoken of in our Indian chapters.


When the Clark's Ferry bridge burned on May 14, 1846, the de- struction being credited to incendiarism, an arrest was made and the verdict of guilty in the Dauphin County courts-for both land- ings of the bridge are in Dauphin County-doomed the defendant to a term of years in the Eastern penitentiary, although he then and in after years protested his innocence. According to two men who have long resided in Perry County, one (Jesse M. Pines) re- cently passing away, his contention may have been right. The inci- dent is printed here for that reason and also as showing methods of travel, etc.


Many years afterwards, over forty years ago, in the later seven- ties, George Boyer, now an associate judge of Perry County, and Jesse Pines took an extensive horseback ride over parts of central and northen Pennsylvania. In the upper part of the state in a mountainous section known as Seven Mountains, above Towanda, they came upon a mountain tavern near a place known as Unity- ville, where they stopped for lodging. In a forlorn, forsaken sec- tion of the forest they took turns at sleeping, as the proprietor and the Negro porter's appearance seemed to forbode anything but good. They were the only occupants of the hotel. During the eve- ning one of the travelers chanced to refer in some way to Clark's Ferry. The colored fellow became agitated and, when asked if he had ever been there, replied that he had, but that he left the night that the bridge burned. Further questioning was of no avail, as all efforts to get him to say another word about Clark's Ferry were futile. Why did he leave the night the bridge burned ?


THE MINING OF RIVER COAL.


Farther up the Susquehanna lay the rich anthracite coal beds. From them for generations down the river with the tide drifted ' deposits of the very smaller sizes of coal, which settled in various places where the current was not swift, forming coal beds upon the river's bottom. When coal from the mines was selling very


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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


cheaply and when the canals were hauling it at a very low rate the mining or digging of this coal by pumping from the river bed would have been unprofitable and was not even considered, but with coal prices going up annually about 1890 there sprang up a business of pumping this coal by suction, and several outfits followed it for years. The coal is from the Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming districts, principally. In the early days of coal mining, sizes smaller than pea were thrown to the huge dumps until they became virtual mountains, containing millions of tons. Many of them were lo- cated along the Susquehanna and contributary streams, and from these immense culm banks spring freshets and rainy seasons car- ried the deposits of coal, which rivermen say exist clear to the Chesapeake Bay and at some places have been found to be five feet in depth.


The coal operations at Green's Dam, commonly known as the Clark's Ferry Dam, commenced in the vicinity of Benvenue in 1890. Like many other industries it began in a small way, the coal being taken out by hand scoops and canoes, followed by small flats of three-ton capacity, for stove use. Shortly after Santo & Pease, of Harrisburg, arrived with a steam outfit, with which they loaded canal boats for transportation to Harrisburg. This was followed by others and, in 1894, a Mr. Squires, a Wilkes-Barre machinist, built and put in operation the largest plant on the river, with the late George B. Lukens as foreman. This plant was bought in June, 1897, by B. F. Demaree, a Newport business man, who retained Mr. Lukens, and added four fifty-ton flats to the plant. With these and two canal boats the coal was conveyed to Harris- burg, where it was largely sold to the public utility plants. Rail shipments followed in 1902, and the orders were at times for amounts from 500 to 5,000 tons. This coal found its way to such buyers as Dickinson College, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Com- pany, the Arbuckle Coffee Company, etc. The beginning of the erection of the stone arch railroad bridge across the Susquehanna near Marysville necessitated the closing of the canal and the end of that method of shipping. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company then put in a siding near Clark's Ferry, where the coal was loaded by derricks, operated by both horse-power and steam. With in- creased automobile traffic the State Highway Department stopped the swinging of derricks over the highway, and it became necessary to introduce the hydraulic system of loading, which has materially increased the output. The ice flood of 1919 made a breach in the dam and injured the coal business materially, which for thirty years flourished there, and may, eventually mean its ending. There has been an annual increase in the production; in 1897 it was as little as 8,000 tons, while in 1920 it totaled 150,000 tons. An


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average of thirty men have been employed by the various firms operating. The Demaree plant is now owned by Harry V. Lukens, who purchased it in 1908. Another operator is H. E. Lnkens, his father, who, about 1899, purchased the outfit started by a Mr. Seiler, of Dalmatia, in 1893. The third plant still in the business is that of Hicks Brothers, of Auburn, Pennsylvania, who pur- chased out the plant of John Zeigler, about 1912, which he had operated as early as 1901. In fact, Mr. Zeigler and John Briner had converted an old river steamer, known as the "Shad Fly," into a coal dredge, the previous year, but had dissolved partnership, Mr. Briner retaining the outfit, but retiring from the business about 1904.


BALD EAGLE ISLAND.


While Bald Eagle Island is a part of Dauphin County, yet its location in the Susquehanna River at Montgomery's Ferry is but a few hundred feet from the Perry County shore line. That it is a part of Dauphin County comes from the fact that the county line is stated in the act creating the county as "to the westward of the Susquehanna." The order of survey dated October 23, 1809, to George Eckert, "of Strasburgh Township, and county of Lancas- ter," and John Shura, "of the township of Upper Paxton, and county of Dauphin," describes it as "Bare Island, opposite the lands of John Huggins, on the Cumberland County shore and about a quarter mile below Berry's Falls or riffles." It is signed by Gov- ernor Snyder, the third governor of Pennsylvania. Through this earliest of records one learns the fact that it was once known as Bare Island. It is now owned by Mr. James D. Bowman, of Mil- lersburg, who has a fishing lodge there, which was erected by Mr. Christian S. Albright, about 1902, and which he remodeled and enlarged in 1909. Mr. Bowman is an adept fisherman and seldom fails to furnish to the many large and joyous gatherings assembled there at his command, a luncheon of black bass.


Bald Eagle Island has long been a source for finding many In- dian relics, which would imply that it was probably an Indian camping ground. From an Indian standpoint it possessed two distinct advantages; one being the lookout both up and down the river, and the other that it was an ideal fishing ground, which it still is. There was also an early fording here, the width of the river at this point during low water being not over five-eighths of a mile. The island contains approximately five acres, not includ- ing the sand bar at the north end. A third of a century ago the Harrisburg Young Men's Christian Association used it as their annual camping ground. The name Bald Eagle was given to the island by reason of the fact that there once stood on it a large and high pine tree, on which for many years the eagles had their nests


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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


and hatched their young. The tree was blown down, but the stump of it remained as late as 1899. There and at Mt. Patrick, that high and steep end of Berry Mountain-about a mile north-these birds bred and reared their young for many years. Since the pine tree is no more they still have their habitat at Mt. Patrick, and during the summer of 1919 Mr. Bowman, the owner of the island, ob- served six of them, while during 1920 he could locate but one pair. He has often seen them dart from the air at great speed and dive for fish, almost always with success, coming up with a large fish in their talons. One of the largest of the eagles in the Zoological Gardens at Philadelphia for many years was captured at Berry's Falls, above the island and below Mt. Patrick, having hurt its wing in diving for fish. Just below this point is where William Mont- gomery established his ferry, soon after 1827, the village there still bearing that name. On the Dauphin County side this ferry was known as Morehead's.


Junction of Susquehanna, Juniata and Branch, near Duncannon, Pa.


"WHERE THE RIVERS MEET."


1,andscape showing the junction of the Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers, the Clark's Ferry Dam and Bridge, and Duncan's Island.


CHAPTER VII.


COMING OF THE TRADER.


W HO the first white man was that set foot upon the soils of present Perry County must forever remain a mystery, for there were no records kept of matters of that nature. However, it must have been some trader or adventurer. In the days of the early settlement of the province the Indians even from afar journeyed to the seaboard to trade with the newcomers. The skins and furs they brought became so valuable abroad that, many years before settlements in the interior were even dreamed of, the trader traveled the fastnesses of the mountains and ascended the rivers in quest of gain. Often the worst class of men went into the business of trading and penetrating the forests, built up a business with the Indians.


There is record of James LeTort, a trader who "went out" from Carlisle as early as 1727. As the "Allegheny Path" was the route of travel to "Allegheny on the branch of the Ohio," where he traded, he was evidently among the first white men to travel this territory. LeTort's date of settlement at Carlisle is said to have been in 1720. By 1735 there were over twenty regular traders journeying back and forth across the county to the Ohio


In fact, even earlier-as early as 1704, Joseph Jessup, James LeTort, Peter Bazalion, Martin Chartier and Nocholas Goden, all Frenchmen, were traders with the Indians on the Susquehanna and with those west of the Alleghenies, via the old Indian trail, supposed even then to have been the "Allegheny Path."


That traders even carried on a traffic in rum at that early day is substantiated by a protest made July 23, 1727, at a council held at Philadelphia by the Chiefs of the Five Nations, with Madame Montour as interpreter. It follows :


"They desire that there may be no settlements made up Susquehannah higher than Pextan (now Harrisburg), and that none of the settlers there- abouts be suffered to sell or keep any rum there, for that being the road by which their people go out to war, they are apprehensive of mischief if they meet with liquor in these parts. They desire also, for the same rea- sons, that none of the traders be allowed to carry any rum to the remoter parts where James Letort trades, that is Allegheny, on the branch of the Ohio. And this they desire may be taken notice of, as the minds of the chiefs of all the Five Nations, for it is all those nations that now speak ' by them to all our people."


After considering the matter over night the governor, on the following day, replied, through the same interpreter :


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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


"We have not hitherto allowed any settlement to be made above Pextan, but, as the young people grow up, they will spread, of course, yet it will not be very speedily. The governor, however, will give orders to them all to be civil to those of the Five Nations, as they pass that way, though it would be better if they would pass Susquehannah above the mountains. The sale of rum shall be prohibited both there and at Allegheny; but the woods are so thick and dark we cannot see what is done in them. The Indians may stave any rum they find in the woods, but, as has been said, they must not drink or carry any away."


These old documents are the basis for the inference that pio- neers were even then presuming to settle above the Kittatinny or Blue Mountain ; at least, the Indians were apprehensive and were early going on record as opposed to any such aggression.


More than one of these traders had ulterior motives. The French and the English were contending for the lands of the great West, and to the Quaker-who largely ruled the province-it be- came almost a necessity, owing to religious convictions and per- sonal interests, that traders' licenses be given only to English set- tlers and traders and to those of the Protestant faith, barring the French Papists and with them communication to the French on the Ohio.


The traders carried their goods on packhorses and the Indians were an easy prey to their cupidity and avarice. In fact, many of the early troubles of the province were reaped by reason of seed sown by unprincipled and inconsiderate traders. Among promi- nent early traders were George Croghan, Thomas McKee, Jack Armstrong, Francis Ellis, and William Baskins.


OF THREE PROVINCIALS.


So closely were three early interpreters associated-one the first authorized settler of the territory which now embraces Perry County-with the provincial life of the district that it is deemed expedient to briefly give a few facts about them and their actions during that important epoch of Pennsylvania life, when "the bor- der" was the term used in referring to the lands along the Kitta- tinny or Blue Mountains .. The names of Conrad Weiser, George Croghan, and Andrew Montour are inseparably associated with the pioneer life of the section, as well as of the province in general.




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