History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 33

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 33

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History has not recorded when the Ohio was first explored and made known to white men, but it does not do violence to the judgment to assume that the French, full of adventure, were the first Europeans to become acquainted with its beautiful shores.

" It is known that the French were particularly fond of pur-ning dis- coveries in every direction in which their light boats might be rowed. And it has been supposed that the Ohio and its tributaries had been as- cended to their spring-heads at a much earlier date than either history or tradition now informs us." €

The first notice taken by Pennsylvania, so far as we are informed, of the claims of France as em- bracing any part of her western territory was at a meeting of the Provincial Council held on Aug. 4, 1731, Patrick Gordon, Esq., Governor. The Governor laid before the Council a message prepared for the House of Representatives, then in session, which being read was approved. The first part related to the Sugar Islands. The Governor then proceeded to inform the board that the matter mentioned in the close of his intended message related to Indian affairs, and would be found to be of great consequence to the whole province, the details whereof he would leave to Mr. Logan, to whom the information had first been given, and who from his long experience and knowl- edge in those affairs could give the best account of it.

Mr. Logan "then producing the Map of Louisiana, as inserted in a Book called a New General Atlas, published at London, in the year 1721, first observed from thence how exorbitant the French Claims were on the Continent of America ; that by the description in the said Map they claimed a great part of Carolina and Virginia, and laid down Susque- hanna as a Boundary of Pennsylvania. Then he proceeded to observe that by virtue of some Treaty, as they allege, the French pretend a Right to all Lands lying on Rivers of the Mouths of which they are possessed ; That the River Ohio (a branch of the Mississippi, comes close to those mountains which lye about 120 or 130 miles back of Susquehanna, within the Boundaries of this Province, as Granted by the King's Letters Pat- ent ; that adjoining thereto is a fine tract of land called Allegheny, on which several Shawnese Indians had seated themselves. And that by

1 It is believed that this French map was made up, partly at least, from the map of Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson, published at London in 1754, of the " Most Inhabited Part of Virginia, &c.," which was con- structed, as appears upon its face, from surveys of Christopher Gist, made in 1751.

1 2 I. Bancroft, 17-18.

3 II. Bancroft, 297. 4 Ilid .. 329.

5 Albach's Western Annals, 61; II. Bancroft, 338.

6 Patterson's History of the Backwoods, 10.

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

the Advices lately brought to him by several Traders in those parts, it appears that the French have been using Endeavors to gain over those Indians to their Interest,"1 etc.

Whereupon recommendations were at once made to the House of Representatives to prepare for a treaty to be made with the Five Nations.

Pennsylvania was thus warned as early as 1731 that a powerful continental nation, with which the parent kingdom was then at peace, was threatening a foothold upon fertile lands within her own charter limits, yet, Jacobs Creek, in Fayette County,4 not far from New disturbed for many years by a controversy with Lord Geneva. Then followed Christopher Gist, in 1753; William Jacobs, in 1761, at the mouth of Redstone Creek ; William Colvin, in 1764, where Brownsville now stands ; Lemuel Barrett, in 1763, where Bridge- port now is;5 William Crawford, on the Youghio- gheny, opposite Connellsville, in 1765.6 It is thus seen that the beginning of the settlements west of the Alleghanies was prior to the commencement of the French and Indian war in 1754, and they continued until that war terminated, and was followed by Pon- tiac's conspiracy in 1764; but not until the period of the peace which followed Bouquet's expedition in the year last named were there any settlements made west of the Monongahela River. Baltimore concerning her southern boundary, and also by disagreements between the proprietary Gov- ernors and the provincial Assemblies, as well as by continually embarrassing relations in her Indian affairs in her undoubted possessions and settlements east of the mountains, for many years she made no effort to repel the French intrusion ; indeed, not until Virginia, in 1748 and 1749, had taken the initiative in the establishment of the Ohio Company in the vicinity of the Pittsburgh of to-day, for the purpose of displacing the French enlodgment, did Pennsylva- nia manifest an interest in the subject; where her western boundary might lie she seemed to know little and care less. It was the Virginia occupation in 1748-49, resulting in the French and Indian war, the history whereof and of the French expulsion will be elsewhere related, which brought to Pennsylvania a - suggestion of watchfulness to her western boundary.

The First Settlements. - The jurisdiction of France had not yet been determined in the valley of the Ohio when Englishmen began to settle upon the waters of the Monongahela. In 1751, at a council | River.7 This is certainly incorrect.

with the Six Nations, Delawares, and Shaw- 1751. anese, held by George Croghan, then the deputy Indian agent, at Logstown,2 an Indian village on the Ohio about eighteen miles below Pitts-

1 III. Col. Records, 401.

? Where was Logstown? On March 10, 1777, depositions were taken at the house of John Ormsby, in Pittsburgh, in relation to the claim of the Indiana Company to lands conveyed by the Six Nations at the treaty at Fort Stanwix in November, 1768. The deposition of Edward Ward was as follows:

"Major Edward Ward Deposeth and saith that at the beginning of the year 1754, William Trent, Esquire, was appointed by Governor Dinwid- die, of Virginia, Captain of a company to be raised, of which this depo- nent was appointed Ensign by the said Trent, who assembled the Chiefs & Deputies of the Six Nations, and requested of them permission to erect A Trading-House at the Junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, to carry on a Free and Open Trade with the Six Nations and their dependants, which was granted by the said Deputies, with this re- striction that he was to found no Settlement or Improvements on the said Land, but on the Contrary to Evacuate the same when required by the Six Nations, after which the said Captain Trent inlisted a number of men not exceeding thirty-three, and proceeded to erect a Fort at the place before mentioned. That on the 17th of April following, and before the Fort was nearly completed, this Deponent, who commanded in the absence of Capt Trent, was put to the necessity of surrendering the pos- session to a Superior number of Troops, Commanded by a French officer, who demanded it in the name of the King of France, at which time the Half-King and a number of the Six Nations in the English Interests were present. This deponent further saith that in the year 1752, and before his surrender to the French, there was a small Village Inhabited

burgh, a Dunkard came from Virginia and requested leave to settle on the "Yogh-yo-gaine River, a branch of the Ohio," when he was told that he must apply to the Onondaga Council, and be recommended by the Governor of Pennsylvania.8 But the first actual white settlers west of the Laurel Hill mountains were doubtless Wendell Brown and his two sons, Maunus and Adam, and perhaps another son, Thomas. They came in 1751, and settled below the mouth of Little

711

Books and papers heretofore printed upon the his- tory of the country lying between the Monongahela and Ohio inform us that the settlements within our limits began about 1770, and increased very rapidly in 1771, 1772, and 1773. Dr. Doddridge states that the settlements on this side of the mountains com- menced along the Monongahela, and between that river and the Laurel Ridge, in the year 1772, and that in the succeeding year they reached the Ohio

Before it is shown, however, when our earliest set-

by the Delawares on the Southeast side of the Allegheny River, in the neighborhood of that place, and that old Kittaning, on the same side of the said river, was then Inhabited by the Delawares; that about one- third of the Shawanese Inhabited Loggstown, on the west side of the Ohio, and tended corn on the East side of the River, and the other part of the Nation lived on the Scioto River. That the Deputies of the Six Nations, after the surrender, joined the Virginia Forces, Commanded by Colonel George Washington, who was then on his march, at the Little Meadows, and continued with him in the service of Virginia till 'after the defeat of Monsieur La Force and a party of French Troops under his Command." See this affidavit in full in I. Calendar of Va. State Papers, 278. At the time it was made Edward Ward was a justice in the Yo- hogania County Court, of which more hereafter.

8 V. Col. Records, 531.

4 Veech's The Monongahela of Old, 79.

5 Ibid., 80, 81.

6 I. Cal. Va. State Papers, 280.

7 " Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars of the Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania," by Dr. Joseph Doddridge, page 129. Dr. Doddridge was the eldest son of John Doddridge, of Maryland, who first immigrated to Friend's Cove, a few miles south of Bedford, but in 1773 removed with his family to a place a short distance from West Middle- town in this county. The author of the work referred to was born at the settlement near Bedford in 1769, and was with his father when the removal referred to was made. A younger brother was Philip Dodd- ridge, who became celebrated in early times as an able and eloquent lawyer. The notes on the settlements were written in 1824, and the anthor died in 1826, at Wellsburg, where he is buried. The brother, Philip, died in 1832, at Washington, D. C., while a member of Congress.

141

CIVIL AND LEGAL-ATTEMPTED REMOVAL OF SETTLERS.

tlers began to arrive, it should be stated that all set- tlements made west of the Alleghanies within the present limits of Southwestern Pennsylvania prior to the treaty of Fort Stanwix, on Nov. 5, 1768, were without authority and illegal. The policy observed by both the province of Pennsylvania and the colony of Virginia was not to permit of improvements upon lands until they had been purchased from the Indians ; doubtless, if not in recognition of rightful ownership, at least to avoid hostilities on the part of the red men. Braddock's road, opened for the army of that ill-fated general in 1755, carried to Redstone (now Browns- ville) by Col. Burd in 1759, was the gateway through the mountain barrier, first used and most generally by immigrants from Maryland and Virginia, and later by immigrants from the older counties of Penn- sylvania in the east; and, though the boundary con- test between the two governments had not begun actively for several years yet, still both governments had sought to prevent the occupation of white set- tlers until the Indian title had been extinguished. Capt. Alexander Mackay, with a party of the Forty- second Regiment of the king's forces, was sent from Fort Pitt to Redstone Creek, and on June 1, 1766, he issued a proclamation warning the settlers in that vi- cinity away. Soon afterward, in July of the same year, Governor Fauquier, of Virginia, issued a like proclamation. And so, in the following September, Governor Penn, by proclamation, prohibited " all his Majesty's subjects of this or any other province or colony from making any settlements, or taking any possession of lands, by marking trees or otherwise, beyond the limits of the last Indian purchase (that of 1754) within this province, upon pain of the se- verest penalties of the law, and of being excluded from the privilege of securing such settlements should the lands where they shall be made be hereafter pur- chased of the Indians."1 These prohibitions were but following the proclamation of the king, of a like tenor, made at the termination of the French and English war in 1763, though they were of but little if any effect. The immigrants from "over the moun- tains" still came, singly, or with a few old neighbors or acquaintances. They made friends with the natives by their trade and intercourse, and, though no record has come down to us of their daily life and habits during this period, yet the nature and character of such an existence can be supplied by the imagination. And though there was still peace and a friendship with the individual hunters of the tribes, nevertheless there were threats and warnings from the chiefs of the nations, indicating that the intrusion upon their hunt- ing-grounds was not accepted with equanimity. In the councils with the deputies of the ruling nation complaints were loud and frequent.

Attempted Removal of Settlers .- At length in

1 See The Monongahela of Old, 86 ; IX. Col. Records, 327. 10

' December, 1767, shortly after Mason and Dixon's line had been extended to the second crossing of

Dunkard Creek, near what is now Mount 1767. Morris, in Greene County, where the distin- guished surveying party was stopped by the watchful Indians, Gen. Gage, commanding at New York, wrote to Governor Penn :

"The accounts which I have lately received from all quarters are full of Intelligence of the dissatisfaction of the Indians, and of their ill Disposition towards us. I am now called upon by a letter I have re- ceived from Sir William Johnson," expressive of his apprehensions of an immediate Rupture with the Indians unless some means are fallen up- on to pacify them, to acquaint you that altho' several Causes for their present ill temper are suggested, yet the Insults they have received from the frontier people, chiefly from those of Virginia, and the obstin- acy of the People who persist to settle on their lande, not only without their consent but in contradiction to their warmest Remonstrances, and the endeavors that have been used to remove them, I perceive to be the most immediate cause of their discontent."

The letter recommended the adoption of effectual measures to remove "these Lawless Settlers," and a like letter was addressed to the authorities of the col- ony of Virginia.

The reply of Governor Penn, at an early date after- ward, promised a reference of the subject to the As- sembly to meet in the next month, and then pro- ceeded :

" With respect to the Insufficiency of the Laws to secure the Indians in their Persons and Properties, I would beg leave to observe that the remote Situation of their Country, and the dispersed and Vagrant man- ner in which the People live, will generally render the best Laws that can be framed for those Ends in a great measure ineffectual. The Civil Officers whose Business it is to see that they are duly enforced, cannot exert their authority in so distant and extensive a wilderness. In the execution, therefore, of the present interesting matter, I am persuaded that notwithstanding all the Legislature can do I shall find it necessary to apply to the Military aid, which you have so readily offered me in sup- port of the Civil Power. Yet I fear that while the Severity of the weather in the Winter Season continues, it will be found extremely difficult if not impracticable to oblige these Lawless people to abandon their present habitations, and to remove with their Families and Effects into the interior part of the Country, and I am of Opinion it would be unadvisable to make any attempts of that kind before Spring."

The Assembly met on the 4th of January, 1768, when the Governor at once laid before that body a

2 Sir William Johnson was the agent for Indian affairs on the part of the crown, and resided in a splendid residence called Jobnson Hall on the Mohawk River, about thirty miles from Albany, N. Y. He came to America in 1734; in 1755 he was in command of the provincial troops of New York in the expedition against Crown Point, and commanded the expedition against Niagara in 1759. In his capacity of Indian agent he had acquired a powerful influence over the Indians, and there is an anecdote related of him which shows that in his intercourse with them he had not failed to learn their cunning. Having sent to Eng- land for a finely laced guit of clothes, on their arrival, Hendrick, the chief of the Mohawks, was dazzled with their splendor. His vanity could not be appeased, and he bit upon an expedient to gratify it. He went to Sir William one morning and demurely told him that in the preceding night he had dreamed that the baronet had generously pre- sented him with a suit of his laced clothes. The bint could not be mis- taken, and the chief went away happy with the result of his ingenuity. In a few days, however, Sir William made known to his Indian majesty a dream he had had, that the chief had given him a tract of land con- taining several thousand acres. "The land is yours," said Hendrick, " but now, Sir William, I never dream with you again; you dream too hard for me." Sir William died on July 11, 1774, at his home. (See I. Olden Time, p. 520; Blake's Biog. Dict., p. 665.)

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

message, accompanied with the correspondence re- ferred to, and stating the causes of the im- 1768. pending Indian hostilities to the settlements made and being made upon their unpurchased lands, and further stating,-

" And I must inform you that those Settlements upon the Indian Lands to the westward of the Alleghany Mountains, now appear by the Line lately Run between Pennsylvania and Maryland, to be within the bounds of this province. . . . I must earnestly recommend to you the framing of a Law not only to remedy the present Evil, but to punish future De- linquencies of the same kind, &c."

The Assembly, while preparing a bill intended to effect the purpose desired, responded to the Governor's message in a long address, showing a full appreciation of the necessity for cautious treatment of the tribes, and soon afterward an anxious letter was received by the Governor direct from Sir William Johnson, in which it was said, --

" There are doubtless amongst the Scattered Tribes living in back parts of that Country, several Idle Indians, who may, from motives of private Interest, be persuaded to give some encouragement to the Settlers; but these are private acts of Persons who would not presume to avow them to the Confederacy, whose sole Right it is, and whose Resentment may have a most fatal Tendency, &c."

The result of this correspondence, necessarily so interesting to the present residents of the Mononga- hela valley,1 was that on Feb. 3, 1768, there was passed "a most terrifying law," the first one enacted at that session. This act, after reciting that " many disorderly people, in violation of his Majesty's procla- mation, have presumed to settle upon lands not yet purchased from the Indians, to their damage and great dissatisfaction, which may be attended with danger- ous and fatal consequences to the peace and safety of this province," enacted,-

" That if any Person or Persons, settled upon any Lands within the Boundaries of this Province, not purchased of the Indians by the Pro- prietaries thereof, shall neglect or refuse to remove themselves and Fam- ilies off and from the same Lands, within the Space of Thirty days after he or they shall be required so to do; . . . or if any Person or Persons being so removed, shall afterwards return to his or their Settlements, or the Settlement of any other Person, with his or their Family, or with- out any Family, to remain and settle on such Lands; or if any Person shall, after the said Notice to be given as aforesaid, reside and settle on such Lands, every such Person and Persons, so neglecting or refusing to remove with his Family, or returning to settle as aforesaid, or that shall settle on such Lands after the Requisition or Notice aforesaid, being thereof legally convicted by their own confession or the Verdict of a Jury, shall suffer death without the Benefit of Clergy." 2

On Feb. 24, 1768, Governor John Penn issued his proclamation, embracing the provisions of the act quoted from, and warning all persons offending against it with the penalties therein provided. The same day Rev. John Steel, a fighting parson of Car- lisle, Cumberland Co., John Allison and Christopher Lemes, Esqs., and Capt. James Potter, also of Cum-

berland County, were sent to the Monongahela valley- with printed copies of the proclamation and with full instructions in writing.3

On March 15, 1768, George Croghan, a deputy superintendent of Indian affairs under Sir William Johnson, wrote the Governor that he was about to proceed to Fort Pitt, to hold a council with the Western Indians, whom he expected to meet there on the 25th of that month, and stating that if Pennsyl- vania was to be represented by commissioners at that council they should set off in a few days,4 whereupon John Allen and Joseph Shippen, the latter being the secretary of the Provincial Council, were duly ap- pointed, though the council with the Indians was not held until a later date than that fixed.

The Rev. John Steel and his companions proceeded in due time to their destination, had several confer- ences with the settlers, and when they reached Fort Cumberland (now Cumberland, Md.) on their return they made the following report to the Governor, here printed entire, as throwing so much light upon the early history of the Monongahela valley :5

"FORT CUMBERLAND, April 2, 1768.

" May it please your Honour :

"Having in our return reached Fort Cumberland, and being here to part, We concluded it necessary to prepare an Extract from our Journal of what appeared to us most important, which We Ordered to be trans- mitted to your Honour by Mr. Steel.

" We arrived at the Settlement on Red Stone, on the twenty-third Day of March. The People having heard of our coming had appointed a Meeting among themselves on the twenty-fourth, to consult what meas- ures they should take. We took the advantage of this Meeting, Read the Act of Assembly and Proclamation explaining the law, and giving the Reason of it as well as we could, and used our Endeavors to persuade them to comply, alleging to them that it was the most probable Method to entitle them to favour with the Honourable Proprietaries when the Land was purchased. After Lamenting their distressed Condition, they told us the People were not fully collected, but, as they expected, all would attend on the Sabbath following, and then they would give an ' answer.

"They, however, affirmed that the Indians were very Peaceable, and seemed sorry they were to be removed : and said they apprehended the English intended to make War upon the Indians, as they were moving off their People from their Neighborhood.

" We labored to persuade them that they were imposed on by a few straggling Indians; that Sir William Johnson, who had informed our Government, must be better acquainted with the mind of the Six Na- tions, and that they were displeased with the White People's settling on their unpurchased Lands. On Sabbath, the twenty-seventh day of March, a considerable Number attended, (their Names are Subjoined,) and most of them told us they were resolved to move off, and would Pe- tition your Honour for a Preference in obtaining their Improvements when a Purchase was made.

" While We were conversing we were informed that a number of Indians were come to Indian Peter's ; 6 We judging it might be subser-

1 Published at length in IX. Col. Records, 403 to 412.

3 IX. Col. Records, 483.

4 Ibid., 491.

5 The writer is of the opinion that in the preparation of local history the better method is, first, to observe as closely as possible a chronologi- cal arrangement, and, second, to allow the actors to speak for themselves when letters, papers, or documents of any kind are used. To quote ver- batim from such sources enables the reader to form his own judgment, not only as to the individuality of the person whose words are read, but also as to the subject matter, illuminated sometimes by the quaint and curious speech. In this belief literal copying is observed, even as to spelling of proper names.

" IX. Col. Records, 481. The benefit of clergy was this: By the old English law the clergy, because they were supposed to have more of the good thing of learning than other persons, were exempted from the pun- ishment of death imposed for the commission of certain crimes. Later statutes gave this exemption to all persons who could read and write. " Indian Peter, of whom but little is known save what appears from But the Stat. 7, Geo. IV., c. 28, 8. 6, after our Revolution, abolished this | mere reference to his name in ancient records, had lived just beyoud exemption, and thereafter the learned and the unlearned suffered in the same way for the commission of crime.

where Uniontown now stands, adjoining Philip Shute, a German. He wrote the Governor of Pennsylvania that he couldn't " get along with

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 33

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216