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 4

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 4

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).

Sulphur springs abound at various places in Perry County. notably in Wheatfield, Juniata, and Toboyne Townships.

According to Prof. E. W. Claypole, an authority on geology, of the Second State Geological Survey, the earliest fish fossils and the

LOCATION, PHYSICAL, FEATURES, GEOLOGY, ETC.

earliest vertebrates found in any part of the world were discoy- ered in Perry County, about 1883, in the Catskill rock formation. He describes these little prehistoric fish as not more than six inches in length, with thin shields protecting their vital organs. He says: "In every link the chain of argument is complete, and Perry County now has the honor of contributing to geology the oldest indisputable vertebrate animals which the world has yet seen." Further on in his report, he says:

"It is a long, long vista through which we look back, by the help of geology's telescope, to see these tiny ancestors of our fishes sporting in the Silurian seas. The Tertiary and Secondary rocks abound with fish. Even in our coal measures we find numerous species. The Devonian seas, as I have already mentioned, swarmed with great armor-clad monsters, some of which I have found in Perry County. These lived millions of years ago, and few can realize what a million means. But earlier than all these swam the little hard-shelled Pennsylvania Pakaspis, as I have called it, in the seas of long ago, before Tuscarora and the Blue Mountains had raised their heads above the waters. To these queer, antiquated forms we must look as the ancestors of some at least of our existing fish, devel- oped by the slow process of nature, by change of environment, by compe- tition in the struggle for existence, and by the inexorable law of the sur- vival of the fittest. The condition of life must then have varied rapidly. for these and every nearly allied form became extinct in Mid-Devonian days; and when our coal measures were laid down they were already as mnuch out of date and as nearly forgotten as are the armor-clad knights of the Middle Ages at the present time. But the mud of the sea bottom received their carcasses, buried them carefully, and has ever since faith- fully preserved them, if not perfect, yet in a condition capable of being recognized. And to the geologist that same sea bottom, long since dried and turned to stone, now returns these precious remains. The day of their resurrection has come, and the hammer has brought to light from the rocks of Perry County the identical bones entombed, perhaps, twenty million years ago, when its wearer turned on its back, gave up the ghost and sank to the bottom."

Prof. Gilbert Van Ingen, of the Geological Department of Princeton University, assisted by H. Justin Roddy, has been mak- ing geological investigations throughout Perry County in recent years, and the following extract from a personal letter from him in 1921 is self-explanatory :

Referring to your inquiry regarding the salina beds of Perry County. There is only one item that is worthy of mention in a county history, namely, that the salina beds of Perry County contain remains of the most primitive types of fish known in North America. These were discovered by E. W. Claypole, who described them about 1880, in the vicinity of New Bloomfield, and have since been found by me at a certain horizon in the salina group at several different localities scattered throughout the county.

Perry County has practically no minerals. Coal has been found in small quantities on Cove Mountain and on Berry's Mountain in what is known as Pocono sandstone formation, but not in suffi- cient quantities to pay for mining and marketing.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

There have been mines in years past of Clinton fossil ore at Tuscarora Mountain, Millerstown; of Marcellus iron ore in small basins of Oriskany sandstone in Limestone Ridge at a place locally known as "Ore Bank Hill," south of Newport, in Miller Township; on Iron Ridge, south and west of the old Perry Fur- nace; on Mahanoy Ridge, north and west of New Bloomfield ; at Bell's Hill, north and west of "Little Germany"; on Pisgah Mountain, near Oak Grove Furnace ; at old Juniata Furnace, west of Newport ; at Girty's Notch, on the Susquehanna, and at various points along the south side of Mahanoy, Crawley's and Dick's Ilills, and back from the Susquehanna River at Marysville.

The only mineral of value ever mined to any considerable ex- tent was iron ore, and that was principally in the vicinity of Mil- lerstown. Ore was first discovered on lands of Abram Addams, by Peter Wertz, in small quantities. Later the farm descended to Mr. Adams' daughter, Mrs. McDonald, and George Maus began actual operations. They were not worked extensively until 1867, when Beaver, Marsh & Co. operated them and shipped the ore by boat to their furnace at Winfield, Union County. In 1877 James Rounsley, an experienced miner, bought the mines and shipped much ore to that firm as long as their furnace was in operation, or until 1892. They had built the furnace in 1853. The last ore shipped from these mines was in 1903, by Mr. Rounsley. There was another mine located near Millerstown, on the west side of the river. James Lannigan began operations there in 1868 and continued until 1875. James Rounsley purchased these mines also in 1879 and continued their operation until 1901, his continuous mining lasting for twenty-six years. About 1868 the Reading Iron Company operated mines on the Thomas P. Cochran farin, near Millerstown, but did not operate regularly. The Duncannon Iron Company opened the mines on the Perry Kremer farm, on the west side of the river, near Millerstown, in 1868, and operated for about three years. The Reading Company also opened mines on the Jonathan Black farm about 1868 and mined until 1877. Other marts to which this ore was shipped was Lochiel, Reading, and Harrisburg. When the Perry Furnace was in operation the mines on the Dum farm in "Little Germany," Spring Township, employed twelve men. With the blowing out of the charcoal fur- naces throughout Perry County, about the middle of the last cen- tury, these smaller operations ceased. The substitution of coal and coke for charcoal in the iron industry spelled their end, as coal was too far away and the product insufficient to pay.

An effort to mine coal in Berry Mountain, near Mt. Patrick, was made by Baltimore capitalists, the McDonald-Downing Co .. around the period of the Sectional War. A drift of three hundred feet was made and at that point it was claimed a three-foot vein

LOCATION, PHYSICAL, FEATURES, GEOLOGY, ETC.

of coal was discovered, said to be too small to operate upon a paying basis. The mouth of the drift is plainly to be seen. An- other statement is that the firm offered a Mr. Matchett, a pros- pector, $10,000 for a three-foot vein.

An old legend is that the Indians once came to a blacksmith shop on what is now the James R. Showaker place, on Shaffer Run, in Toboyne Township, and wanted a horse shod, but were in- formed by the smith that he had no coal, whereupon they left and in a short time returned with the necessary coal. As coal was not then yet in use the story must be only a legend. Coal was dis- covered on the Cove Mountain twenty-five years ago, but not in sufficient quantities. The Perry Forester of May 24, 1827, said "a very extensive bed of stone coal has been discovered near the mouth of Sherman's Creek, on land belonging to Stephen Dun- can." In 1857 the county press reported "a large vein of coal" discovered on the land of D. Lupfer, one and a half miles west of New Bloomfield. A small vein was once discovered in "Little Germany," Spring Township, but it was only three inches thick, soft and easily crumbled.

The great length of the zigzag beds of Lower Heidelberg lime- stone, aggregating 150 miles, which underlie the surface, makes the burning and marketing of lime an industry worth while, at the same time supplying a fertilizer for the soil. Many of these lime kilns date back to the time of the pioneer.

While Perry County is practically destitute of minerals, yet there have been several cases of great excitement over their re- ported discovery. Immediately after the close of the Sectional War, in 1865, it was reported that oil had been discovered in Sa- ville Township and two companies were formed for development of the industry. The Snyder Spring Oil Company, with a capital of $50,000, the shares being one dollar each, was formed and leased the farms then owned by Godfrey Burket and William Sny- der. The Coller Oil Company leased the lands at the headwaters of Buffalo Creek. It had a capital of $100,000, the shares being of a par value of five dollars. Of course, oil was never found. During 1920 another company was organized, principally by per- sons from outside the county, to prospect for oil in Perry and Cumberland Counties. They are now sinking their first well near Landisburg.

Crossing Perry County to the south is a remarkable geological trap-dyke formation known as Ironstone Ridge. Nine miles west of Marysville it makes a watershed across Rye Township and its outcroppings continue clear across Cumberland County and are visible in York County. It is probably two hundred feet wide. Three others cross Rye and Penn Townships. Of these a much smaller one than the one described runs about five hundred yards

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

east. Two others cross the Cove slightly northeast. one of which, passing Duncannon, runs across Wheatfield and Watts Townships. They cut mountains and valleys at right angles. Local tradition would have this most prominent trap-dyke, crossing Rye Town- ship, as extending clear south to Tennessee, but Claypole, the geolo- gist, whose position as an authority has never been questioned, has it end in York County. Samuel J. Tritt, for twenty years county surveyor of Cumberland County, who did much surveying in Perry County, also recognized it as first becoming conspicuous in Rye Township, and as extending across Cumberland to the Susque- hanna River in York County. Claypole tells us :

"Trap-dykes are ancient cracks in the earth, filled from below by lava, which has hardened into rock. They must be of great (lepth, for they can be traced along the present surface of the earth for a great distance. The trap-dyke described by Dr. Frazer, in his report on Lancaster County, runs in a straight line (N. E.) forty miles. Many others exist in Adams, York, Lancaster, Dauphin, Lebanon, Berks. Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Bucks Counties, and in middle and northern New Jersey, southern New York, and New England.

"The most remarkable of them all starts in the South Moun- tains, and runs in a nearly straight line across Cumberland County (between Mechanicsburg and Carlisle), crossing the Blue Moun- tain two miles east of Sterrett's Gap." This is the "Ironstone Ridge" spoken of above.

Claypole further says: "At the earliest date to which geology can point back with tolerable certainty in the history of what is now Perry County, the interior of the North American continent was an ocean of unknown extent into which was borne the sand and mud of neighboring lands, swept down by the rivers of that distant age to make the beds of rock which to-day compose the solid land of the United States. The history of this process is written in the rocks."

At another place the noted geologist, speaking of an unusual feature, says: "The volcanic rocks of Perry County may seem strange, but it has long been known that in the southeast of the county occur some rocks of very peculiar nature, totally different from any others. They cut across the line of the bedded rocks quite regardless of their direction. They are very heavy, intensely tough, and highly charged with iron. They are in effect what the geologist calls 'trap-rocks,' what the miner calls 'elvans.' They are composed of material that has been fused, and forced in a fused condition into and between the other rocks, filling up cracks and cavities and baking and hardening by its heat and strata through which it flowed. When cooled the fluid matter became hard, and is now known as intrusive or trap-rock."

CHAPTER 11.

EARLIEST RECORDS OF INDIAN INHABITANTS.

W HEN Christopher Columbus, in October. 1492, discovered the Western Continent, which was the preliminary act in the development of this great nation, the lands which now comprise the county of Perry-in Pennsylvania-were, according to all traditions, inhabited by the swarthy, copper-colored race, from that day to be generally spoken of as Indians, on account of the discoverer's mistaken idea that he had crossed the world to the eastern shores of India.

When the first settlements were made in Pennsylvania by the Dutch (not to be misconstrued as referring to the Germans) in 1623, when it was later occupied by the Swedes, the Dutch again, the English, and eventually in 1682 by William Penn and the Quakers, the outlying sections of which Perry was naturally a part, were evidently overrun by these wild tribes, although almost two hundred years had elapsed since the discovery of America.

Then for another period of a half century little is known, ex- cept that which comes to us through the misty veil of years and which for want of a better name is known as tradition. About that time, however, the outlying settlements had pushed west to the Susquehanna, and an occasional manuscript, a diary, a letter or a record of one kind or another has been found and preserved. so that one can get a glimpse into the lives of the Indians and the hardy pioneers on the lands which were later to become the county of Perry.

If any other nationality than the English under Penn had set- tled in Pennsylvania, Perry County would probably not have ad- vanced nearly as rapidly as it did, as the English-speaking people were then as now. the advance agents of civilization. It is signifi- cant that those old English charters gave title to the land straight

*The chapters of this book relating to the Indians have been passed upon by Dr. George P. Donehoo, of Coudersport, Pennsylvania, noted authority upon Indian History and secretary of the Pennsylvania Historical Com- mission, and later, November, 1921, appointed State Librarian of Pennsyl- vania, by Governor Sproul.

Common or popular usage adds the "s" to Indian names, thus Dela- wares, Tuscaroras, although the names Delaware, Tuscarora, etc., as ap- plied to Indian tribes, is already plural, being applied to a tribe, according to scientific writers. Not belonging to the latter class of writers it has been thought best to add the "s" in this book, as do even many noted writers.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

across the continent from ocean to ocean. The following para- graph from George Sydney Fisher's "The Making of Pennsylva- nia," well illustrates this:

"In nothing is the difference in nationality so distinctly shown. The Dutchman builds trading posts and lies in his ship off shore to collect the furs. The gentle Swede settles on the soft, richi meadow lands, and his cattle wax fat and his barns are full of hay. The Frenchman enters the forest, sympathizes with its inhabitants, and turns half savage to please them. All alike bow before the wilderness and accept it as a fact. But the Englishman destroys it. Ile grasped at the continent from the beginning, and but for him the oak and the pine would have triumphed and the prairies still be in possession of the Indian and the buffalo." No lands in the world advance and prosper as do those of the English-speaking nations, and be it remembered that among the English-speaking people the American is always in the van.

One of the earliest records of Indian affairs in Pennsylvania is the "Jesuit Relations of 1659," which tells of a tradition of a ten years' war between the Mohawks and the Pennsylvania Indians, in which the latter almost exterminated the Mohawks. This was before either could obtain firearms. To.Captain John Smith, of Virginia, posterity is indebted for the very first description, by a white man, of the Indians of the interior of Pennsylvania. Pow- hatan had told him of a mighty nation which dwelt here which "did eat men." Smith says: "Many kingdoms he described to me to the head of the bay, which seemed to be a mighty river. issuing from mighty mountains betwixt two seas." On the east of the bay Smith found an Indian who understood the language of Pow- hatan, and he was dispatched up the river to bring down some of them. In a few days sixty of these "gyant-like people" ap- peared. Smith called all the country Virginia, and from a descrip- tion by the Indians he drew a map, which is the oldest map of any inland parts of Pennsylvania. He locates five Indian towns, the second lowest down being designated "Attaock," a branch which corresponds to the Juniata. This was probably the Indian village later known as Juniata, on Duncan's Island, further de- scribed in the chapter devoted to that island. He described the river as "cometh three or four days from the head of the bay." These Indians were supposed to be of the Andaste tribes, using dialects of the throat-speaking Iroquois. Smith's description tells of their "hellish voice, sounding from them as a voice in a vault." The Iroquois used no lip sounds, but spoke from the throat with an open mouth. Along the shores of the bay Smith found the natives all fearful of the "great-water men," who principally dwelt along the Potomac and the Susquehanna and "had so many boats and so many men that they made war with all the world." Smith

EARLIEST RECORDS OF INDIAN INHABITANTS

met seven canoeloads of these men at the head of the bay, but failed to understand a word spoken. Early Virginia historians presumed them to be of the Mohawk tribe, the ancestors of the Five Nations, which conclusion is a matter of question and prob- ably wrong.

The first white man to enter what is now the state of Pennsyl- vania was Etienne Brule, a Frenchman associated with Champlain, who was making explorations in Canada even before the English had entered Virginia. Brule went southward through New York to obtain aid from a body of Susquehannocks in an attack against

Susquehanna River and Mountains, Looking Fast at Durr

"A mighty River, Issuing From Mighty Mountains, Betwixt Two Seas." -CAPT. JOHN SMITH. (See page 38.)

a stronghold of the Iroquois. Failing to find Champlain, he re- mained in northern Pennsylvania through the winter. Part of the time he spent in making expeditions to the south. Ile left a description of the Susquehanna River, which he made down to the bay. He accordingly must have crossed Pennsylvania. In that case he traveled through it at least a century before any other white man.

A paper map found at the Hague in 1841 illustrates the travels of three Dutch settlers from Albany in 1614, who came down the Susquehanna and crossed to the Lehigh and the Delaware, being captured by the Minequas. Their map locates a tribe called "Iottecas," west of the Susquehanna, in the vicinity of the Juniata River. In 1655 a man named Visscher published a map, in Am-

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

sterdam, of New Netherlands, in which he almost accurately places the Susquehanna, but without any West Branch or Juniata. Dur- ing the next fifty years about fifteen maps appeared, all having practically the same river outline. On all of them just where the Juniata belongs, there is the name of a tribe called "Onojutta Haga," the first part of the name meaning a projecting stone, and the "Haga" being the Mohawk word for people or tribe. They were a superior race and lived largely by the cultivation of the soil.

When the Dutch began selling firearms to the Iroquois, or Five Nations, about 1640, they started a military conquest which ex- tended as far west as the Mississippi. Among those destroyed or subdued and incorporated into their own tribes were the Andaste tribes in Pennsylvania, which among others included the "Standing Stone" Indians on the Juniata. By 1676 all were exterminated. The Iroquois then claimed all the lands of the Susquehanna and its branches, selling to William Penn and his heirs at different times what they had gained by conquest. While negotiating for the sale of lands as early as 1684 the Iroquois spoke of the entire region as "the Susquehanna River, which we won with the sword." In 1736 Thomas Penn, then governor, acknowledged their right by these words: "The lands on Susquehanna, we believe, belong to the Six Nations by the conquest of the Indian tribes on that river."

The entire region, which of course included what is now Perry County, was then a vast deserted space until such time as the 'T'us- caroras were allowed to settle there. The Delawares and Shaw- nees later were allowed to settle, the Delawares coming in between 1720 and 1730. During this period not even a trader or pioneer had ventured there and through this veil of obscurity comes no record whatsoever of this time. However, the tribal records of the Hurons and the Iroquois tell of vast numbers of prisoners being brought to their New York towns from the South, as many as six hundred at a time, and the inference is that the tribes in- habiting this section were among the captives.

The Tuscaroras had been defeated and driven from their former abode, and they claimed that the colonists were selling their chil- dren into slavery. About 1713 or 1714, they came from the South, and settled, with the consent of the Five Nations, "on the Juniata, in a secluded interior, not far from the Susquehanna River." At a conference with Governor Hunter, of New York. September 20, 1714, a Chief of the Iroquois, said, "We acquaint you that the Tuscarora Indians are come to shelter themselves among the Five Nations."

The great path or trail to the southwest was known as the "Tus- carora Path," when the first traders came, and this tribe's principal settlements were likely responsible for that name, as they were

EARLIEST RECORDS OF INDIAN INHABITANTS

located in Tuscarora Valley, now in Juniata County ; in Path Val- ley, now in Franklin County, and in what is now Perry County, principally in Raccoon Valley. These lands had not been occupied for from a half to three quarters of a century, or since the con- quest by the Five Nations. According to Samuel G. Drake, an Indian antiquarian, "the Tuscaroras from Carolina joined them ( the Five Nations) about 1712, but were not formally admitted into the confederacy until about ten years after that ; this gained them the name of the Six Nations." They were sometimes known as Mingoes. In all the Albany conferences dated from 1714 to 1722 in which the members of the Five Nations participated the Tuscaroras are not mentioned. After this probationary period of probably ten years on the Juniata, where most of them lived, they were formally assigned a portion of the Oneida territory and had their council-house east of Syracuse, New York. However, all the Tuscaroras did not migrate to New York, some choosing to remain on the Juniata. In 1730 there is record of "three Tus- karorows missing at Pechston" ( Paxtang ), now Harrisburg. Even to the time of the Albany purchase of the lands north of the Kittatinny or Blue Mountain, in 1754, some of the tribe still in- habited the district. In a letter from John O'Neal to the governor dated at Carlisle, May 27, 1753, is the statement : "A large number of Delawares, Shawnees and Tuscaroras continue in this vicinity -the greater number having gone to the West." As early as 1725 the Conestogas and the Shawnees had begun working their way westward along the Juniata and the West Branch of the Sus- quehanna.

Among the reports and records of Fort Duquesne was found the following, dated September 15. 1756:

"Two hundred Indians and French left Fort Duquesne to set fire to four hundred houses in a part of Pennsylvania. That prov- ince has suffered but little in consequence of the intrigues of the Five Nations with Taskarosins, a tribe on the lands of that prov- ince, and in alliance with the Five Nations. But now they have declared that they will assist their brethren, the Delawares, and Chouanons (Shawnees), and consequently several have sided with them, so that the above province will be laid waste the same as Virginia and Carolina." According to that, some were still there in 1756.

About 1730 some Scoth-Irish, who had crossed the Susque- hanna, settled in what was then termed the "Kittochtinny or North Valley, near Falling Springs." This was the Cumberland Valley of the present, and the place called Falling Springs was not the settlement by that name in Perry County, but was where the pres- ent town of Chambersburg stands. This is the first settlement

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

west of the Susquehanna of which there is record. The woods were then full of Indians.

As George Croghan, the interpreter, who knew the languages of the Shawnees and the Delawares, located in Cumberland County in 1742, the presence of those tribes here is indicated. The Delawares were known among themselves as the Leni Lenape tribe. According to their tradition they were one of two great peoples who inhabited the entire country, the other being the Mingoes.

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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 4

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