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 19

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 19

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).

Ryan, John.

German, Henry.

Shockey, Patrick.

Giles, Thomas.

Simonton, James.

Gilmore, Michael.

Simonton, Thomas.

Hall, David.

Taylor, John.

On March 15, 1777, the battalion was reorganized at Carlisle, and became the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Army. The men composing it were paid and mustered out, at Carlisle, during April, 1781. Captain Bratton was wounded at the Battle of Germantown, and a township in Mifflin County was named in his honor.

In several other companies there were a few men from what is now Perry County territory, but how to distinguish them is a question. In the above roster, however, any one familiar with the names of Perry County families will easily distinguish many of them.

After January 1. 1776, this company became a part of the First Regiment of the Army of the United Colonies, commanded by General George Washington, later to become first President of the United States.

Thacher's Military Journal described the men of this battalion as follows :

"Several companies of riflemen have arrived here from Pennsylvania and Maryland, a distance of from five hundred to seven hundred miles. They are remarkably stout and hardy men, many of them exceeding six feet in height. They are dressed in rifle shirts and round hats. These mien are remarkable for the accuracy of their aim, striking a mark with great certainty at two hundred yards' distance. At a review a company of them, while on a quick advance, fired their balls into objects of seven- inch diameter, at a distance of two hundred and fifty yards. They are now stationed on our lines and their shot have frequently proved fatal to British officers and soldiers."

McDonald, Patrick.

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PERRY COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

Colonel William Thompson, of Carlisle, was in command. The Continental Congress had determined to reënlist the regiment, but General Washington, unaware of their intentions, wrote: "They are indeed a very useful corps; but I need not mention this, as their importance is already well known to the Congress." On the following July i the entire regiment reënlisted and became the First Regiment of the Pennsylvania line in the Continental service.

Almost every Perry County school boy and girl is familiar with the historical facts relating to Benedict Arnold's treason and the attending execution of Major Andre, the British officer who was apprehended while engaged in the nefarious project, yet how many of even the grown people know that he was once imprisoned at

THE OLD STATE HOUSE AT PHILADELPHIA.

Jlere sat Gen. Frederick Watts, whose home was in what is now Wheatfield Township, Perry County, as a Member of the Supreme Executive Council, which governed the new State until the Union was formed.

Carlisle and that a company of soldiers from what is now Perry County, under command of an officer from the same territory, threatened to take his life? The facts are these :

During the Revolution Carlisle was made an important post for American troops, and, by reason of its being far from the line of actual hostilities, British prisoners were frequently confined there. Among such were two officers, Major Andre and Lieutenant Despard, who had been captured by Montgomery at Lake Cham- plain. While there in 1776 they occupied a stone house on the corner of South Hanover Street and Locust Alley, and were on parole of honor with a six-mile limit, but required to wear military dress.

In the same neighborhood lived Mrs. Ramsey, an unflinching Whig and even a greater American, who detected two tories in . conversation with them and made information to the authorities. The tories were pursued and arrested near South Mountain, brought back, tried at once and imprisoned. Letters written in

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"HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

French were found upon them, but no one was able to read them. Arnold and Despard had been in the habit of going hunting within the limits of their parole, but were now barred from leaving town. Accordingly they broke their fowling pieces, declaring that no d- rebel should ever burn powder in them. During their con- finement there a man named Thompson, from what is now Perry County, enlisted a company of militia in that district and marched them to Carlisle. Whether eager to display his recruits or not we know not, but at night he drew his company up in front of this stone house and "swore lustily," records tell us, "that he would have their lives, as Americans who were prisoners in hands of the British were dying of starvation."

Through the entreaties of this same Mrs. Ramsey, Captain 'l'hompson, who had formerly been an apprentice to her husband, was induced to leave. He departed, with a menacing nod of his head, and the exclamation, "You may thank my old mistress for your lives." The next morning she received a very polite note from the British officers thanking her for saving them from the valiant Captain Thompson. They were later removed to York, and before leaving sent to Mrs. Ramsey a box of spermacetti candles, a rare article in those days, with a note thanking her for her many kind favors. She returned them with a polite note to the effect that she was too staunch a Whig to accept a gratuity from a British officer. Despard was executed in London in 1803 for high treason, and with Arnold's fate the reader is familiar.

Committees of Observation were appointed throughout the colo- nies, the committees representing the home county being composed of James Wilson, John Montgomery, Robert Callendar, William Thompson, John Calhoun, Jonathan Hoge, Robert Magaw, Eph- raim Blaine, John Allison, John Harris, Robert Miller, John Arm- strong, and William Irvine.

Throughout the colonies there appeared here and there sympa- thizers with the mother country, known in their day as "tories," and the prototype of their ilk known as "copperheads" during the war between the States and as "German-Americans" and "paci- fists" during the recent great World War. The English language does not contain words loathsome enough to describe men of that class, who gladly enjoy the pleasures, advantages and protection which their land affords, and yet are traitors of the foulest stripe. That such an one had settled north of the Kittatinny Mountain, in the territory which later became Perry County, is recorded with deep regret, but from the public records his infamy passes to pos- terity. The affidavit is self-explanatory :

"Cumberland County, ss. :

"Before me, George Robinson, one of His Majesty's Justices, for said county, personally appeared Clefton Bowen, who, being duly exam-

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PERRY COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

ined and sworn, doth depose and say: that some time in the month of January last, he, this deponent, was in the house of John Montgomery, in Tryone Township, in company with a certain Edward Erwin, of Ryc Township, and this deponent says he then and there heard said Erwin drink damnation and confusion to the Continental Congress, and damn their proceedings, saying they were all a parcel of damned rebels, and against spring would be cut off like a parcel of snowbirds, and more such stuff.

"Sworn and subscribed before George Robinson, 19th February, 1776. "CLEFTON BOWEN."

In addition to Erwin there were a number of others of the same ilk who left the territory soon after the British gained possession of Philadelphia and joined them there. The list includes, accord- ing to the Pennsylvania Archives, Alexander McDonald, Kennet Mckenzie, and Edward Erwin, all of Rye Township, farmers on small farms, and William McPherson, William Smith, and Hugh Gwin, of Tyrone Township. The latter was a laborer and Mc- Pherson and Smith, blacksmiths. Their property was confiscated.

A citizen by the name of Job Stretch, who had taken up lands in what is now Juniata Township, was an intense loyalist during the Revolution, but began finding things getting "too warm" for him and left for Canada, where he settled.

LEADS CORNWALLIS' ARMY INTO CAPTIVITY.

To one from within the limits of what now comprises Perry County was accorded one of the greatest honors of the entire Revolution. When the army of the mighty Cornwallis, the British general, laid down their arms, at Yorktown, the entire army, save the officers, was placed in charge of the command of Colonel George Gibson (father of the late Chief Justice Gibson), under whose command they were marched to York, Pennsylvania, where they were prisoners of war. Imagine, if you can, the army of that great empire, prisoners, in the hands of a native of the soil which comprises our little county of Perry.

*Almost seventy years after the ending of the Revolution, on March 2, 1856, the last funeral in Perry County of a soldier of the Revolution occurred. It was that of William Heim, of Jackson Township, father of Rev. John W. Heim, who was the last sur- vivor. He was aged about ninety-five years and could relate from memory many of the incidents which resulted in the declaration of war. The funeral of Andrew Losh, of Wheatfield Township,

*William Heim was not recruited from this territory, however, but inoved here from Northumberland County in 1815 and became a citizen. He was ninety-five years of age, and 150 horsemen escorted his funeral cortege, this being the only instance of this kind on record here. He is said to have asked the national government for a pension in his later years. but being unable to furnish other evidence than the existence of his name on the company roll, he never received it. The state rewarded his services with a small annuity.

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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

occurring after his death on April 12, 1849, at the age of ninety- eight, was the next last of Revolutionary veterans.

Another prominent name connected with the Revolution from the local territory was that of Capt. Alexander Stephens, who had located near the Baskins' Ferry (now northern Duncannon). He wed a daughter of James Baskins and became the grandfather of Alexander H. Stephens. Vice-President of the Confederacy, to whom a chapter in this book is devoted. The head of this par- ticular Stephens clan in America was an intelligent man, as evi- denced by various documents from his pen which we have been privileged to read. He entered the war as a private in the Fourth Company of the Fifth Battalion of the Cumberland County con- tingent. He was also in the French and Indian War, being present at Braddock's defeat as a member of Capt. Joseph Shippen's com- pany of Col. William Clapham's regiment.

SOME OF THE PATRIOTS.

George Albright, one of the first settlers of Buck's Valley, went to serve his country, his wife, a servant girl and several small boys doing the farming. Mrs. Albright and the servant girl carried bags of grain to the river on horseback. Leaving their horses there they placed the grain bags in canoes and went down the river to the nearest mill, then at Dauphin. While they waited until the grain was ground and they rowed the precious load of flour up the river, the distance being about fifteen miles. Albright returned home at the close of the war and was a respected citizen of the little valley the balance of his days.

Benjamin Bonsall, Sr., of Greenwood Township, served at Valley Forge with Washington during the dark days when they had little to wear and little to eat. Aged eighty-nine years, he died in 1845.

Thomas Brown, of Tyrone Township, patriot to the core, provided in his will for the reading of the Declaration of Independence over his open grave, after which the minister was to pray for him and his beloved country.

Andrew Burd, a fourteen-year-old boy from Greenwood Township, en- tered the army as a fifer and served seven years, being mustered out in time to get his first vote.

Edward Donelly, of Buckwheat Valley, was a member of the Colonial militia.

The Smiley family, of Carroll Township, had five members in the Revo- lution, as follows: Thomas Smiley, an ensign in Colonel Watts' battalion ; John, George, William, and Samuel Smiley.

William Wallis, who was a resident of what is now Juniata Township, Perry County, served through the Revolution and received for pay a cer- tificate of service, which he exchanged for a set of blacksmith tools later on.

David Focht, one of Perry County's first settlers, a resident of Jackson Township, was in the army.

NOTE .- According to information given to Mrs. Lelia Dromgold Emig, author of the Hench-Dromgold genealogy, a number of Revolutionary sol- diers are interred in the following cemeteries: Loysville cemetery, John Hench, Michael Loy, John Hench II, and John Yohn; Donnally's Mills, Edward Donally and George Hench; cemetery on ridge near Elliottsburg, Frederick Shull; George Hench, Duncannon.

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PERRY COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

Benjamin Essick, of Liverpool Township, served in the militia and lived to be ninety-three.

Alexander Gaily, a resident of the Cove, Penn Township, served in the Revolution and lived until 1842, being then 102 years old.

Andrew Lynch, of Tuscarora Township, was in the service of his coun- try during the Revolution.

*William Patterson, of Petersburg, Rye Township (Duncannon), was in the service a year, and in later years used to tell of "the tories" mustering on Young's Hill.

Frederick Watt, later general in the patriot army, whose biography ap- pears elsewhere in this book, was wounded in the mouth at the Wyoming massacre, where he served with Colonel Zebulon Butler, who fought Brit- ish, tory, and Indian forces of thrice his strength.

Englehart Wormley, one of the first settlers, was in the battle of Long Island. He died in 1827.

Greenwood Township also furnished John Buchanan, whose descendants long lived in the same vicinity ; Robert Moody, William Rodgers, William Philips, and others.

The state pensioned disabled Revolutionary soldiers, and among the documents in the Bureau of Public Records at Harrisburg, is a deposition, No. 317, relating to Robert Pendergrass, a sergeant, pensioned April 12, 1821, at $48 per annum. The oath of Hugh Sweeny is executed before Jacob Fritz, a Perry County justice, which makes it practically certain that Sweeny was from Perry. Pendergrass was likely from Cumberland. Part of the deposition verifieth "that he (Sweeny) was well acquainted with Pendergrass, that he enlisted in Capt. John Hays' company, that they both marched from Carlisle on the sixth of April, 1776, on their way to Kenedy (Canada), that Pendergrass remained in the service four years, all of which time they were acquainted and part of the time messmates."

Capt. Jonathon Robison, of Sherman's Valley, was a son of George Robinson, and suffered much in the Indian wars. Although above fifty years of age he entered the Colonial Army. With his company he was in the battle of Princeton, being stationed there for some time to guard against the British and to act as scouts and intercept foraging parties.

Joseph Martin, a resident of what is now Howe Township, who became a captain in the Revolution, sold a house on the south bank of the Juniata, March 26, 1776, for fifty pounds, with which to purchase his horse and equipment for the army. After spending that bitter winter with Washing- ton's army at Valley Forge, he was taken with camp fever, and started for home, but never arrived. Whether he perished in the wilderness or was captured and tortured to death by the British, as tradition says, will never be known.

*Silas Wright, in his History of Perry County, says: "The Tories mustered their troops during the Revolutionary War on Young's Hill," adjoining Duncannon. He probably based the statement upon that of one William Patterson. That fact, often quoted, seems legendary, as Dun- cannon (then known as Clark's Ferry) was not laid out in lots until 1792, and according to a reliable tradition, there were only eight houses from the cabins surrounding the old forge to Clark's Run as late as 1830. When the Revolution was taking place there evidently were very few houses there, and just where these Tories came from would be hard to determine. Furthermore, there are provincial records of all Tory movements and Tories and nothing like that appears in the annals of the province, while even the few British sympathizers within the territory are recorded as will be seen in the foregoing pages.

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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

In the Loysville cemetery also rests Abraham Smith, a Revolutionary soldier, but from what territory is not known. John Ramsey, who resided in the county, was another. Valentine Ritter was in the Revolution from Berks County, and after the war located near Loysville.

Adam Smith, great-grandfather of the late John M. and Alvin Smith, of Newport, served in the Continental Army, but not from what is now Perry County.

Peter Kipp served with the Sixth Company of Second New York Ar- tillery in the patriot army, his name appearing on the rolls until July 10, 1783. At the close of the war he settled in Buck's Valley, Buffalo Town- ship, where he married Margaret Finton. He was a tailor and followed his trade, going from house to house, as was the custom. His brother Jacob, who enlisted in the same unit on the same day, was killed in the battle of the Brandywine.

George Hench, who had settled in Perry County before the Revolution, was a fifer in the army.

John Stewart, a Revolutionary soldier of Carlisle, settled in Perry County prior to 1800, and his descendants live in the county.

In the Millerstown cemetery, besides Benjamin Bonsall, who died in 1845, aged 89 years, are buried two other Revolutionary patriots. Ephraim Williams, a cabinetmaker, died August 15, 1843, aged 86 years, and Robert Porter (grandfather of the late T. P. Cochran), who was 86 at his death and said to have been an officer.

Francis DeLancey, located on a farm near Kistler, after serving in the Revolution under General Lafayette, with whom he came from France. He was first married to a French woman in New York, from whom are descended William and Oliver DeLancey, attorneys, whose father was Bishop DeLancey. Dr. C. E. DeLancey and brothers are his grandsons from the second marriage. He lived to be eighty-three.

David Mitchell, who first resided upon the farm from which the lands for the county seat of Perry County were taken, was in the Provincial Army under Forbes and Bouquet, as a subaltern officer, and served in the Revolution as a major in Colonel Frederick Watts' battalion. He was appointed by Governor Mckean, in May, 1800, as brigadier general of the militia of Perry and Franklin Counties. He represented his county (then Cumberland) continuously in the legislature for twenty years, from 1786 to 1805, and was a presidential elector in 1813 and 1817. He was a son of John and Agnes Mitchell, and was born July 17, 1742, in what later became Cumberland County. He died May 25, 1818, on the Juniata, above Newport.

That the territory which later became Perry County did well in the way of furnishing men who then resided there or had previ- ously been residents, as officers, is not a matter of question. By referring to the chapter in this book devoted to the Blaine family it will be noted that Ephraim Blaine,* once a resident of the vicin- ity of Blain, Perry County, was Commissary General of the Colo- nial Army and the associate of General George Washington. There appears the story of his wonderful saving of the Revolutionary army, which places him second only to Washington himself. Near the close of 1776 or the beginning of 1777, when battalions began

*In the Manuscript Division of the Congressional Library. Washington, there is a valuable collection of Letters of Col. Ephraim Blaine. (See page 629.)

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PERRY COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

to be designated by numerals, we find Col. Ephraim Blaine in charge of the First Battalion. His service must have been brief there as he is soon found to be filling the responsible post of Com- missary General. The Second Battalion was commanded by Col. John Allison, described as "a justice of the peace of Tyrone Town- ship, over the mountain, and a judge of the county, but after his retirement, for he was now past middle life." In 1778 we find the Fourth Battalion commanded by Colonel Jonathon Robison, "of Sherman's Valley." The battalion composed entirely of men "from north of the mountain," was commanded by Col. Frederick Watts, and another by Major David Mitchell.

While the Revolution was waged by the British government, yet it was largely a personal war of the German-speaking George III, who could not get enough of his own people interested to fight their own kinsmen, but had to fall back on hirelings-the Hessians -who fought for pay. Strangely enough, the histories in our public schools are not specific upon that fact, which is largely re- sponsible for the feeling against Great Britain in America, al- though we dwell alongside of one of their great dependencies and not a single fort worthy of the name guards the four thousand- mile border on either side-unlike that of the old German mon- archy, along whose borders frowned huge fortresses on every hand. The writer, however, holds no brief for the British Em- pire, neither has he any patience with those who would give that nation equal rights in the Panama Canal.

The Continental Congress, July 18, 1875, recommended that "all able-bodied, effective men between sixteen and fifty years of age should immediately form themselves into companies of militia, to consist of one captain, two lieutenants, one ensign, four ser- geants, four corporals, one clerk, one drummer, one fifer, and about sixty-eight privates ; the companies to be formed into regi- ments or battalions, officered with a colonel, lieutenant colonel, two majors, and an adjutant or quartermaster; all officers above the rank of captain to be appointed by the provincial authorities."

COLONEL FREDERICK WATTS' BATTALION.

Although occupation of the county territory was in its primary stage practically the whole of the Seventh Battalion of Cumber- land County Militia, with Colonel Frederick Watts in command, was recruited here, and the battalion became a unit July 31, 1777, in the patriot army, although many of the men had been in the service at an earlier date. There is record of some of them as early as the beginning of 1776, and Colonel Watts was present at .the surrender of Fort Washington, November 16, 1776. Early in 1776 there is record of the forwarding of an order for funds to cover the expense of forwarding his men to camp.

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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

The Staff .- Colonel. Frederick Watts; Lieutenant Colonel, Samuel Ross ; Major, David Mitchell; Adjutant, Thomas Bolan; Quartermaster, Albert Adam.

First Company .- Captain, James Fisher ; First Lieutenant, Thomas Fisher; Second Lieutenant, Robert Scott; Ensign, Joseph Sharpe.

John Montgomery.

Patrick Cree.

James Baxter.

Hugh Evans.

Francis McGarvey.

Alexander Akins.

William Robertson.

George Brown.

Ross Mitchell.

Robert Boggs.

James Shields.

Thomas Williams.

James Gaudy.

James Rhea.

Benjamin Chambers.

Robert Purdy.

James Roddy.

Robert Walker.

James Menoch.

Robert Chew.

Edward Nicholson.

Robert Heatly.

Thomas MeIntire.

James Ardery.

William Ferguson.

John Piper.

John Black.

George Biddle.

The rank and file of this company is named as fifty-eight, yet the above-named is a copy of the roll of July, 1777, as printed in the State Archives.

Second Company .- Captain, James Power; First Lieutenant, David Marshall; Second Lieutenant, Samuel Shaw; Ensign, John Kirkpatrick.

David Carson.

John Hunter.

Andrew Shaw.

Thomas McKee.

James Smith.

William McCoy.

William Elliott.

John McCoy.

William McConnell.

George MeLeve.

John Crawford.

David Baird.

Samuel Byars.

David McClintock.

Archibald Kinkead.

Samuel Glass.

Andrew Everhart.

James White.

Robert Creigh.

Robert Johnstone.

James Horn.

John Phillips.

John McNaughton.

Benjamin Hillhouse.

Alexander Fullerton.

Patrick Killian.

Daniel Mulhollin.

Richard Taylor.

James Barker.

William Smiley.

The number of this company is named as sixty-seven, yet the above names are all that appear in the State Archives, as of September, 1777.

Third Company .- Captain, William Sanderson; First Lieutenant, George Black; Second Lieutenant, John Simonton; Ensign, Archibald Loudon.

William Murray.

David McClure.

George Dixson.

George Brown.

George Wallace.

Thomas Adams.

Michael Kirkpatrick.

David Hartnis.

Thomas McTee.

Samuel Galbreath.

Robert McKebe.

William Carns.

William Miller.

James Gaily.

William Chain.

John Sedgwick.

John Sanderson.

Robert McCabe.

John McLean.

William Gardner, Jr.

John McCown.

John Neeper.

David Miller.

Alexander MeCaskey.

Thomas Noble.

Thomas Hamilton.

Samuel Hutchinson.

John Campbell.

James Edmondstone.

Isaac Somers.

Mathias Sweezy.

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PERRY COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

Thomas Smiley. John Devlin. Hance Ferguson.

John Ewing. James Maxwell. .

The total enrollment of this company is named as forty-six, but the above are the only names on the State Archives list of October, 1777.

Fourth Company .- Captain, William Blain; First Lieutenant, James Blain; Second Lieutenant, William Murray ; Ensign, Allen Nesbit.

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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 19

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

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