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 9

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 9


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The prominent Bell families of the past and the present gen- erations located in Rye Township are, however, not descendants of this same family.


In a letter by James Young dated July 18, 1756, at Carlisle, to "the Hon. Gov. Morris," among other things is another reference to Sherman's Valley, as follows :


I left Shamokin early on Friday morning in a battoe; we rowed her down to Harris' Ferry before night, with four oars. There is but one fall above those you saw, not so bad as those at Hunter's; it is about four miles from Fort Halifax. I came here yesterday noon hoping to find money sent by the commissioners to pay the forces on this side of the river as they promised, but as yet none is come. Neither is Colonel Armstrong come, and I find but sixteen of his men here, the rest having gone to Shearman's Valley to protect the farmers at the harvest, so when the money comes I shall be at a loss for an escort. I am informed that a number of men at the forts whose three months is expired agreeable to their enlistments have left their posts and expect their pay when I go there. This may be of bad consequence and I heartily wish there were none enlisted for less than twelve months. I am persuaded the officers would find men enough for that time.


The distress of the frontier settlements at this time had became a tragedy and any attempt to portray their sufferings and fears would prove a failure. In the fall of 1755 the country west of the Susquehanna and north of the Blue or Kittatinny Mountain had three thousand men fit to bear arms, and in August, 1756, exclu- sive of the provincial forces, there were not one hundred, fear having driven the greater part from their homes into the more settled part of the province. Governor Morris, in his message to the Assembly, August 16, 1756, said : "The people to the west of the Susquehanna, distressed by the frequent incursions of the enemy and weakened by their great losses, are moving into the interior parts of the province, and I am fearful that the whole county will be evacuated, if timely and vigorous measures are not taken to prevent it."


The Assembly were inclined to disregard the appeals, but the frequent reports of additional outrages impelled them to pass a measure providing for the appropriation of forty thousand pounds which was to be raised by taxing the proprietary estates. The governor, being indebted to the proprietaries for his position, vetoed the bill. The proprietary, however, made a contribution of five thousand pounds, which was applied to the defence of the frontier. Governor Morris and the Assembly not being able to agree on the matter of protecting the frontier from the ravages of the Indians the entire matter, including the petitions from citi-


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zens, was laid before the King of Great Britain, who ordered a hearing before a committee of the Privy Council. At this hearing Cumberland County (which included Perry) and the Assembly were represented by counsel and the Assembly was criticized for its conduct in relation to the public defense dating as far back as 1742.


Upon consideration of the report of the committee the Privy Council went upon record that the Legislature of Pennsylvania, as of every other county, was bound to support its government and its subjects; that the measures heretofore adopted by the Assembly for that purpose were improper, inadequate and inef- fectual; and that there was no cause to hope for other measures while the majority of the Assembly consisted of persons whose avowed principles were against military service; who, though not a sixth part of the inhabitants of the province, were admitted to hold offices of trust and profit, and to sit in the Assembly without their allegiance being secured by the sanction of an oath.


The massacres which followed Braddock's defeat were princi- pally laid to King Shingas (Shingask), the greatest Delaware warrior of his period. Among the settlements that fell prey to him was Sherman's Valley, says Rupp, the historian. He was a small personage but his savagery is said to have been unrelenting.


Those who had not fled or whose interests lay in the desolated territory petitioned the governor, council, and assembly for pro- tection against the relentless foe, the same being read in Council, August 21, 1756. Among the signatures are the ancestors of many Perry Countians. The petition :


To the Honorable Robert Hunter Morris, Esq., Lieut. Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania:


The address of part of the remaining inhabitants of Cumberland County, most humbly showeth, that the French and their savage allies, have from time to time made several incursions into this county, have in the most inhuman and barbarous manner murdered great numbers of our people and carried others into captivity, and being greatly emboldened by a series of success, not only attempted but also took Fort Granville on the 30th of July last, then commanded by the late Lieutenant Edward Arm- strong, and carried off the greater part of the garrison, prisoners, from whom doubtless the enemy will be informed of the weakness of this frontier, and how incapable we are of defending ourselves against their incursions, which will be a great inducement for them to redouble their attacks, and in all probability force the remaining inhabitants of this county to evacuate it. Great numbers of the inhabitants are already fled, and others preparing to go off ; finding that it is not in the power of the troops in the pay of the government (were we certain of their being con- tinued) to prevent the ravages of our restless, barbarous and merciless enemy. It is therefore greatly to be doubted that (without a further pro- tection ) the inhabitants of this county will shortly endeavor to save them- selves and their effects by flight, which must consequently be productive 'of considerable inconveniences to his majesty's interest in general, and to the welfare of the people of this province in particular.


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Your petitioners being fully convinced of your honor's concern for a strict attention to his majesty's interest, have presumed to request that your honor would be pleased to take our case into consideration, and, if agreeable to your honor's judgment, to make application to his excellency, General Loudon, that part of the troops now raising for his excellency's regiment may be sent to, and for some time, continued in some of the most important and advantageous posts in this county, by whose assistance we may be able to continue a frontier if possible, and thereby induce the remaining inhabitants to secure, at least, a part of the immense quantity of grain which now lies exposed to the enemy and subject to be destroyed or taken away by them; and also enable the provincial troops to make incursions into the enemy's country, which would contribute greatly to the safety and satisfaction of your honor's petitioners- and your petitioners, as in duty bound shall ever pray, &c.


The signatures: Francis West, John Welch, James Dickson, Robert Erwin, Samuel Smith, Win. Buchanan, Daniel Williams, John Montgomery, Thomas Barker, John Lindsay, Thomas Urie, James Buchanan, Wm. Spear, James Pollock, Andrew McIntyre, Robert Gibson, Garret McDaniel, Arthur Foster, James Brandon, John Houston, Patrick McCollom, James Reed, Thomas Lockertt, Andrew Dalton, John Irwin, Wm. Blyth, Robert Miller, Wm. Miller, James Young, John Davis, John Mitchell, John Pat- tison, Samuel Stevens, John Fox, Charles Pattison, John Foster, Wm. McCaskey, Andrew Calhoun, Jas. Stackpole, Wm. Sebbe, Jas. Robb, Samuel Anderson, Robert Robb, Samuel Hunter, A. Forster, Nath. Smyth.


ATTACK OF FORT ROBINSON.


Of the attack on Fort Robinson during harvest time in 1756 there is record, as the narrative of Robert Robinson, of that hardy pioneer family of Robinsons, was preserved for posterity by Loudon, the historian, in his work known as Loudon's Narratives The Indians had murdered some persons in Sherman's Valley in July and waylaid the fort in harvest time. They kept quiet until the reapers had gone into the clearing's to harvest, when a chance shot at a mark by Robert Robinson caused them to imagine they were discovered. But let us listen to his story, just as related :


"The Indians murdered some persons in the Shearman's Valley in July and waylaid the fort in harvest time, and kept quiet until the reapers were gone ; James Wilson remaining some time behind the rest and I not being gone to my business, which was hunting deer, for the use of the company. Wilson standing at the Fort gate I desired liberty to shoot his gun at a mark, upon which he gave me the gun and I shot. The Indians on the upper side of the fort, thinking they were discovered, rushed on a daughter of Robert Miller and instantly killed her and shot at John Simmeson. They then made the best of it that they could and killed the wife of James Wilson, and the widow Gibson and took Hugh Gibson and Betsy Henry prisoners. The reapers being forty in number, returned to the fort and the Indians dispersed.'


While the Indian was scalping Mrs. Wilson, Robert Robinson took a shot at him, wounding him, but he escaped.


The story of Hugh Gibson, who was carried away by the In- dians at that time, reads like romance. It is recorded by Archibald Loudon, that first historian from Perry County territory, in his book, Loudon's Narratives, as follows :


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"I was," says Gibson, "taken captive by the Indians, from Robinson's fort, in Shearman's Valley, in July, 1756, at which time my mother was killed; I was taken back to their towns, where I suffered much from hunger and abuse; many times they beat me most severely, and once they sent me to gather wood to burn myself, but I cannot tell whether they intended to do it or to frighten me; however, I did not remain long before I was adopted into an Indian family, and then I lived as they did, though the living was very poor. I was then about fourteen years of age ; my Indian father's name was Busqueetam; he was lame in consequence of a wound received by his knife in skinning a deer, and being unable to walk, he ordered me to drive forks in the ground and cover it with bark to make a lodge for him to lie in, but the forks not being secure they gave way and the bark fell down upon him and hurt him very much, which put him into a great rage and calling his wife, ordered us to carry him on a blanket into the hut and I must be one that helps to carry him in; while we were carrying him I saw him hunting for the knife, but my Indian mother had taken care to convey it away, and when we had got him again fixed in his bed, my mother ordered me to conceal myself, which I did; I afterward heard him reproving her for putting away the knife, for by this time I had learned to understand a little of their language. However, his passion wore off and we did very well for the future.


"Some time after this all the prisoners in the neighborhood were col- lected to be spectators of the cruel death of a poor, unhappy woman, a prisoner, amongst which number I was. When Colonel Armstrong de- stroyed the Kittanning fort this woman fled to the white men, but by some means lost them and fell into the hands of the Indians, who stripped her naked, bound her to a post, and applying hot irons to her whilst the skin stuck to the iron at every touch, she screaming in the most pitiful manner, and crying for mercy, but these ruthless barbarians were deaf to her agonizing shrieks and prayers, and continued their cruelty till death re- leased her from the torture of those hellish fiends. Of this shocking scene at which human nature shudders, the prisoners were all brought to be spectators.


"I shall omit giving any account of our encamping or decamping, or our moving from place to place, as every one knows this is the most constant employment of Indians. I had now become pretty well acquainted with their manners and customs, had learned their language and was become a tolerable good hunter-was admitted to their dances, to their sacrifices and religious ceremonies. Some of them have a tolerable good idea of the Supreme Being ; and I have heard some of them very devoutly thank- ing their Maker, that they had seen another spring and had seen the flowers upon the earth. I observed that their prayers and praises were for temporal things. They had one bad custom amongst them; that if one man kill another, the friends of the deceased, if they cannot get the murderer, they will kill the nearest akin. I once saw an instance of this : two of them quarreled and the one killed the other, upon which the friends of the deceased rose in pursuit of the murderer, but he having made his escape, his friends were all hiding themselves; but the pursuers hap- pened to find a brother of the murderer, a boy concealed under a log ; they immediately pulled him out from his concealment ; he plead strongly that it was not him that killed the man; this had no weight with the avengers of blood; they instantly sunk their tomahawks into his body and despatched him. But they have some rules and regulations among them that are good; their ordinary way of living is miserable and poor, often without food. They were amazingly dirty in their cookery; some- times they catch a number of frogs, and hang them up to dry; when a


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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


deer is killed they will split up the guts and give them a plunge or two in the water and then dry them and when they run out of provisions they will take some of the dried frogs and some of the deer guts and boil them till the flesh of the frogs is dissolved, then they sup the broth.


"Having now been with them a considerable time, a favorable oppor- tunity offered for me to regain my liberty; my old father, Busqueetam, lost a horse, and he sent me to look for him; after searching some time I came home and told him that I had discovered his tracks at some con- siderable distance and that I thought I could find him; that I would take my gun and provisions and would hunt for three or four days and if I could kill a bear or deer I would pack home the meat on my horse; ac- cordingly I packed up some provisions and started towards the white set- tlements, not fearing pursuit for some days, and by that time I would be out of the reach of the pursuers. But before I was aware I was almost at a large camp of Indians, by a creek side; this was in the evening and I had to conceal myself in a thicket till it was dark and then passed the camp, and crossed the creek in one of their canoes. I was much afraid that their dogs would give the alarm, but happily got safe past. I trav- eled on for several days, and on my way I spied a bear, shot at and wounded him, so that he could not run, but being too hasty ran up to him with my tomahawk; but before I could give a blow he gave me a severe stroke on the leg, which pained me very much, and retarded my journey much longer than it otherwise would have been. However I traveled on as well as I could till I got to the Allegheny River, where I collected some poles, with which I made a raft and bound it together with elni bark and grape vines, by which means I got over the river, but in crossing which I lost my gun. I arrived at Fort Pitt in fourteen days from the time of my start, after a captivity of five years and four months."


Hugh Gibson, mentioned as being taken captive, was the son of David Gibson, who came from County Tyrone, Ireland, about 1740 and settled in Lancaster County, where Hugh was born in 1741. His mother's maiden name was Mary McClelland. The father died while Hugh was quite young and the widowed mother, with her three children, Hugh, Israel, and Mary, removed to the vicinity of Fort Robinson, then Tyrone Township, to be near her brother, William McClelland, who resided near Centre church. During that summer season of 1756, when Indian uprisings were common and the war whoop resounded through the forests, the widow and her children had taken refuge in the stockade at Fort Robinson. With her eldest son Hugh, Mrs. Gibson was out in the woods looking for their cattle, when she was shot down and scalped and her son chased and captured. He was carried away to the Indian town of Kittanning and adopted into an Indian family to take the place of a son killed in battle with the Cherokees. llis initiation into the tribe is said to have been by washing him thoroughly in the river which he was told washed away his white blood. From then on he was called brother by the Indians.


He had been compelled to witness the cruel death of a. captive and when the Indians thought that he entertained thoughts of es- cape he was told that he would be served the same death and was


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INTRUDING SETTLERS EVICTED


treated with extreme cruelty. In one instance he was set to carry- ing wood to be used in his own death by burning at the stake. Happily this threat was never carried out. When Armstrong took the Indian town of Kittanning with his company from Car- lisle, Gibson was kept in the rear in the woods with the old men, squaws and children but he was near enough to hear the sound of the guns as they battled. After the fall of their stronghold they retreated to the region of the Muskingum River in Ohio, where, at the point where its two branches joined, was located a large Delaware town. In fact, that was the extreme western point to which traveled those early missionaries, Rev. Duffield and Rev. Beatty, who were the first advance agents of Christianity in Perry County territory.


After his return to the settled portion of the province he resided with his maternal uncle, William McClelland, near the scene of his capture, later marrying a Miss Mary White, of Lancaster, and rearing a large family. After the Revolutionary War he removed to Crawford County, Pennsylvania, where he died at an advanced age, July 30, 1826. Rev. Dr. George Norcross, the prominent divine so long pastor of the Second Presbyterian church of Car- lisle, was a descendant, being his great-grandson.


BASKINS FAMILY ABDUCTED.


Some time after Braddock's defeat Fort Granville was erected at a place called Old Town, on the bank of the Juniata, some dis- tance from the present site of Lewistown, then Cumberland, now Mifflin County, where a company of enlisted soldiers were kept, under the command of Lieutenant Armstrong. The position of the fort was not favorable. The Indians had been lurking about there for some time and knew that Armstrong's men were few in number, sixty of them appeared July 22, 1756, before the fort, and challenged the garrison to combat; but this was declined by the commander, in consequence of the weakness of his force. The Indians fired at and wounded one man belonging to the fort, who had been a short way from it, yet he got in safe; after which they divided themselves in small parties, one of which attacked the plantation of one Baskins, near Juniata, whom they murdered, burnt his house and carried off his wife and children; and an- other made Hugh Carroll and family prisoners.


The Indians on one occasion murdered a family of seven per- sons on Sherman's Creek; from there they passed over the moun- tain at Croghan's (Sterrett's) Gap, wounded a man, killed a horse and captured a Mrs. Boyde, her two sons and a daughter upon the Conodoguinet Creek.


The Shawnees and Delaware Indians, aided and abetted by the French, continued their hellishness until 1757, when negotiations


6


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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


for peace were begun by the chiefs of these tribes; but the French and the western Indians still kept up a desultory and sanguinary warfare.


BATTLE WITH INDIANS AT PETERS' MOUNTAIN.


At Peters' Mountain, opposite the location of Duncannon, ac- cording to the Pennsylvania Gasette of October 27, 1757, an en- gagement took place. It says: "We have advices from Paxton, that on the 17th inst., as four of our inhabitants, near Hunter's Fort were pulling their Indian corn, when two of them, Alexander Watt and John McKennet, were killed and scalped, their heads


THE CLARK'S FERRY DAM.


In the foreground, waters of the Juniata, the small boats being moored at the eastern landing of the old Baskins Ferry, on Duncan's Island. To the right Clark's Ferry Dam in the Susquehanna, with Peter's Mountain as a Background.


being cut off ; the other two scalped. That Captain Work, of the Augusta regiment, coming down from Fort Halifax, met the sav- ages at Peters' Mountain, about twenty of them; when they fired upon him, at about forty yards' distance, upon which his party returned the fire and put the enemy to flight, leaving behind them five horses, with what plunder they had got; and that one of the Indians was supposed to be wounded, by the blood that was seen in their tracks. None of Captain Work's men were hurt."


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Indians were used as guides and interpreters by the provincial troops and the troops were constantly aided by the pioneers. From a report from Col. John Armstrong dated Carlisle, July 11, 1757, the following extract relating to Sherman's Valley is made: "On Wednesday last Lieutenant Armstrong marched with forty sol- diers, accompanied by Mr. Smith, the Indian interpreter, and ten Indians, into Sherman's Valley, where some of the enemy had been discovered. They were joined by thirty of the country people who wanted to bring over their cattle from that place. On Thurs- day they found the tracks of the enemy and followed them with spirit enough until evening, when the tracks made toward this valley ; next morning the Cherokees discovered some tracks bear- ing off to the westward, upon which they said they were discov- ered and that those bearing towards the westward were going to inform a body of the enemy, which they said was not far off ; upon which the lieutenant told the interpreter that his orders particu- larly led him to make discovery of the enemy's encampment (if any such there was) and to know whether any were drove off for their support. But two or three of the bravest of the Indians freely told the interpreter that their young men were afraid that the enemy discovered them and therefore no advantage could at that time be got; nor could the interpreter prevail on them to stay any longer out. The lieutenant reconnoitered the country towards Juniata, and returned last night without any discovery of a lurking party of the enemy behind us."


Even if a few had remained north of the Kittatinny or Blue Mountain to attend to the stock, or if trips were made across the mountain for that purpose, yet Sherman's Valley was practically abandoned in 1756, in so far as actual residence was concerned. The settlers had gradually gone back, however, until in 1763, as the next chapter will show, they were again driven from their homes by a devastating and relentless Indian warfare.


CHAPTER IV.


TREATY OF PEACE, BUT A DEVASTATING INDIAN WARFARE.


N 1758 the provincial authorities and the Indians made a treaty of peace and friendship at Easton, and, generally speak- ing, the Indian massacres were over; yet unattached bands of marauding savages appeared at times and committed murders. In fact the war between the English and the French still continued until 1762. A secret confederacy had also been formed by the Shawnees and the various tribes along the Ohio and about De- troit for the purpose of attacking simultaneously the English posts and settlements on the frontiers, and the territory which is now Perry County was certainly not only the frontier, but the "front line."


This was termed by the frontier inhabitants, the Pontiac War, by reason of Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawas, being the evil genius who was one of the principals in the inception. The province had dealt leniently-too leniently-with the Indians and a treaty of peace was usually accompanied by expensive and numerous pres- ents, which in reality put a premium on war, as there could be 110 treaties of peace without the necessary preceding war. A cer- tain day was set apart and the frontiers everywhere were to be attacked at the same time. A bundie of small rods had been given to every tribe and one was to be withdrawn on the morning of each day, and on the date of the withdrawal of the final rod the general attack was to have been made. From the bundle going to those who were to attack Fort Pitt, at the present site of Pittsburgh. a squaw, not in sympathy with the movement, drew a few rods. This accounts for the actions of the Indians in attacking that place ahead of the designated day, which news was hurried abroad and which put some settlements on their guard.


Their plan was deliberate and skillful. The border settlements were to be invaded during harvest, the people, corn and cattle de- stroyed and the land thus laid waste. Traders had been invited among them and these were first put out of the way, their goods being plundered. The country was then put at the mercy of scalp- ing parties and desolation followed in their wake. It is said the roads were literally covered with women and children seeking refuge at Lancaster and Philadelphia. The forts at Presque Isle, Lebeuf and Venango had been captured and the garrisons mas- sacred. For Ligonier was barely saved. The soil of Perry was




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