History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 40

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 40

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).

Dr. John Connolly .- From 1764 to 1774, however, there was peace with the tribes, the pioneers being disturbed only at times by the occasional depreda- tions of savages intent upon plunder more than moved by the havoc of war. Col. George Washington, then unemployed in military affairs, turned his attention to the acquisition of lands west of the mountains, with Capt. William Crawford to aid him in their selection. In October, 1770, he went 1770. upon a journey by way of Capt. Crawford's

settlement on the Youghioghena River, and the latter accompanied him down the Ohio to the Kanawha for the purpose of examining lands in which he was in- terested at that place. On the 17th of that month, with Dr. Craik,5 who had been his companion in arms at the battles of the Great Meadows and of the Mo- nongahela, Capt. Crawford, and others, he arrived at Fort Pitt. "We lodged," he says in his journal,6 " in what is called the town, distant about three hun- dred yards from the fort, at one Semple's,7 who keeps a very good house of public entertainment. The houses, which are built of logs and ranged in streets, are on the Monongahela, and I suppose may be about twenty in number, and inhabited by Indian traders." On the 21st of November, Washington on his return left the Ohio at the Mingo town, just below where Steubenville now is, and came across the country over the lands he soon afterwards owned in Mount Pleasant township to Fort Pitt again. "22d. Stayed at Pitts- burgh all day," his journal continues; "invited the officers and some other men to dinner with me at Semple's, among whom was Dr. Connolly, nephew to Col. Croghan, a very sensible and intelligent man, who had traveled over a'good deal of this western

& The same Dr. Craik in whose company he came to Washington County in 1784 to meet with the settlers, the Reeds and others, upon his lands in what is now Mount Pleasant and Cecil townships. For his journal on this occasion see the history of Mount Pleasant township.

6 Published in many places. but see I. Olden Time, 416.

7 The house of Samuel Semple, this landlord, is said to have been built by Col. George Morgan, the grandfather of D. T. Morgan, Esq., of Washington, and was the first shingle-roof house in Pittsburgh ; I. Olden Time, 418; Craig's History of Pittsburgh, 107.

166

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

country both by land and water." This Dr. Connolly, now introduced to the reader by no less a personage than George Washington, is soon to play an im- portant part in the civil history of the country west of the mountains. Though born in Lancaster County, therefore in interest and relationship a Pennsylva- nian, he seems early to have become an adventurer upon the waters of the lower Ohio, and at last ap- peared at Fort Pitt, as stated. In a subsequent page will be given a sketch of him from the pen of one who knew him well. He remained, as will be seen, at Fort Pitt until 1775, during which period he was probably the most noted man of the western border.

Controversy Opened .- Upon the erection of Bed- ford County, March 9, 1771, Fort Pitt still being a post garrisoned by the king's soldiers, the residents in the Monongahela valley were called upon to con- tribute their shares of the taxes necessary to main- tain the county government, whereupon, the mass of them having come from Maryland and Virginia, and being doubtful in the absence of an established west- ern boundary under which government they dwelt, resistance to the collection of these taxes followed of course. Indicating this condition of feeling and es- tablishing the fact that the very first active opposi- tion to the Pennsylvania jurisdiction of which we have any account came from the settlers in the Mo- nongahela valley, and that, giving Dunmore and Connolly their just dues, the Virginia usurpation of 1774 was not a sudden inspiration, but, on the con- trary, was suggested by the attitude, if not the peti- tions, of our early settlers themselves, contemporary letters written at the scene of conflict will now be produced.1

One George Wilson, Esq., a justice of the Bedford County court, residing at the mouth of Georges Creek, now Fayette County, near New Geneva, then 1771. in Springhill township of Bedford County, i wrote the following letter to Arthur St. Clair, then also a justice of the same court, and as well the prothonotary of the Common Pleas, clerk of the Orphans' Court, recorder of deeds, and register of wills of the same county ; 2

"SPRINGHILL TOWNSHIP, August 4, 1771.

" MY DEAR CAPT. :

"I am sorry that the first Letter I ever undertook to write you should contain a Detail of a Grievance so

disagreeable to me ; Wars of any Cind are not agree- able to any Person Posesed of ye proper feelings of Humanity, But more Especially intestin Broyls. I no sooner Returned Home from Court than I Found papers containing the Resolves, as they Called them, of ye inhabitants to ye Westward of ye Laurel hills, were handing fast about amongst ye people, in which / amongst ye rest Was one that the Were Resolved to oppose Every of Pens Laws as they Called them, Except Felonious actions, at ye Risque of Life, & under the panelty of fiftey pounds, to be Recovered or Leveyed By themselves off ye Estates of ye failure. The first of them I found hardey anugh to offer it in publick, I emediately ordered into Custotey, on which a large number Ware assembled as Was seposed to Resque the Prisonar. I indavoured, By all ye Rea- son I was Capable of, to convince them of the ill Consequences that would of Consequence attend such a Rebellion, & Hapily Gained on the people to Con- sent to relinquish their Resolves & to Burn the Paper they signed-When their Forman saw that the Arms of his Centrie, that as hee said Hee had thrown him- self into would not Resque him By force, hee catched up his Rifle, Which Was Well Loaded, jumped out of Dors & swore if any man Cam nigh him he Would put what Was in his throo them; the Person that Had him in Custody Called for assistance in ye Kings name, and in pirtickelaur Commanded my self. I told him I was a Subject & was not fit to Comand if not willing to obey, on which I watched his eye untill I saw a chance Sprang in on him & Seized the Rifle by ye Muzzle and held him, So as he Could not Shoot me, untill more help Gott in to my assistance, on which I Disarmed him & Broke his Rifle to peses. I Res'd a Sore Bruse on one of my arms By a punch of y® Gun in ye Strugle-Then put him under a Strong Guard, Told them the Laws of their Contrie was stronger then the Hardist Ruffin amongst them. I found it necesery on their Complyance & altering their Resolves,3 and his promising to Give himself no more trouble in the affair, as hee found that the people Ware not as hardey as hee Expected them to be, to Relece him on his promise of Good Behavior.

"I am affraid Sum Who Have Been to much Countenanced By their King & ye province of Pen- sallvania are Grate accessoreys to those factions, & God Knows where they may Eind. I have, in my Little time in Life, taken the oath of Alegence to His Majestie seven times, & allways did it with ye Consent of my Whole Heart & am Determined in my proper place to Seport the Contests there of to ye outmost of my power. As I look on it as my Duty to Let those things be known to Government & my ac-

1 See foot-note to page 176, post.

" George Wilson, known generally as Col, Wilson, had come from old Augusta County, Va., into Pennsylvania in 1768 or 1769. Notwithstand- ing the place of his immigration, he was always loyal to Pennsylvania in the "intestin Broyls" which are to be narrated. In 1775, as will hereafter appear, he was arrested by the Virginia authorities for aiding the "capture" of Dr. Connolly. He died as the lieutenant-colonel of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment in the war of the Revolution at Quibbletown, N. J., in February, 1777. "See X. Penn. Arch., 2d S. 648. He was the grandfather of Lawrence L. Minor, of Waynesburg, Greene Co., and the great-grandfather of Hon. W. G. Hawkins, now judge of the Orphans' Court of Allegheny County. Is not his character set out unintentionally in the letter quoted ?

8 " I understand by Capt. John Harden, the bearer of this, that there is an agreement entered into by a number of the inhabitants of Mononga- hela and Redstone. They have entered into a bond or article of agree- ment to join and keep off all officers of the law, under a penalty of fifty pounds, to be forfeited by the party refusing to join against all officers whatsoever."-Letter from Wm. Crawford to James Tilghman, Aug. 9, 1771. IV. Pa. Arch., 424.

167

CIVIL AND LEGAL-CONTROVERSY OPENED.

quaintance at Philladelphia is none; I Expect you will Communicat those things to them that the Wis- dom of Government may provide Remedies in time, as there are numbers in the Lower parts of ower Set- tlements still increasing ye faction.

" It gives mee Grate Pleasure that my nighbors are Determined not to Joyn in the faction, & I Hope the Difient Majestrits in this side yo Mountains will use their influence to Discorage it.

"I understand Grate thrates are made against mee in partickolaur, if possible to intimidate mee With fear, & allso against the Sherifs & Constables, & all Ministers of Justice, But I hope the Laws, ye Bul- works of ower nation will be Seported in Spight of those Low Lifed trifling Raskells. Give my Comple- ments to Mr. George Wood, Mr. Doherty & Mr. Fra- zor, and Except of myne to your self." 1

On September 24th, Arthur St. Clair, writing from Bedford to Joseph Shippen, Jr., the secretary of the Provincial Council, says : 2

" I am sorry the papers I now enclose will contradict the favorable account I have given of our country : indeed, I am apprehensive there will be a good deal of trouble in our frontier.

" A ridiculous story that Mr. Cresap3 has spread with much industry that this Province did not extend beyond the Allegheny mountains, but that all to the west of it was the King's Land, and together with Mr. Croghan's claims and surveys 4 has put numbers in a doubtful situation,

1 I. St. Clair Papers, 257.

2 Ibid., 260.

3 Michael Cresap here mentioned was the son of Thomas Cresap, who lived at Old Town, on the Potomac, south of Cumberland, and who, in the boundary controversy between Pennsylvania and Maryland in ear- lier years, was famous as a bold partisan of the latter province. As early probably as 1770, Michael Cresap became a trader at Redstone Old Fort, and in the spring of 1774, while with a party of land-jobbers on the Ohio looking after lands, became involved in the killing of the Indians, fol- lowed by Dunmore's war. On his way home after the skirmish at Grave Creek he stopped a while with William Huston, then living at Catfish Camp; he was at Catfish Camp later in the summer with a body of militia. On the breaking out of the Revolution he led his company of militia into the Continental service at Boston, but soon after, on Oct. 18, 1775, died in New York City at the early age of thirty-three years. He was the Col. Cresap charged by Logan with the murder of his kindred, but the authenticity of that celebrated speech has for many years been seriously questioned.

4 George Croghan (pronounced Crobon) is said to have been a native of Ireland. He first settled upon the Susquehanna and engaged in the Indian trade. He built a fort at what is now Shirleysburg, Huntingdon Co .; was at first captain in the provincial service, but subsequently be- came deputy superintendent of Indian affairs under Sir William John- sou, and established himself near Lawrenceville, above Pittsburgh, where he afterward lived and died. On Aug. 2, 1749, Croghan had ob- tained a deed executed by Iohonorissa, Scarrooyaddy, and Cossowantine- cea, chiefs of the Six Nations, conveying to him in fee "a certain tract or parcel of land situate lying and being on the South side of the Monon- gahela River, Beginning at the mouth of a Run nearly opposite to Tur- tle creek, and then down the said Monongahela River to its Junction with the River Ohio, Computed to be Ten Miles; then Running down the Eastern Bank or side of the said River to where Raccoon creek emp- ties itself into the said River; Thence up the said Creek ten miles, and from thence on a direct line to the Place of beginning ; Containing by Estimation One hundred thousand acres, be the same more or less." On the 4th of November, 1768, as Croghan recited in his grants out of this land to purchasers from him, this deed was confirmed by the Six Nations " unto his most sacred Majesty George the Third by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, & bis heirs and successors, for the Use benefit and behoof of the said George Croghan, . . . a8 by the said Deed Pole Recorded in the Office for recording of Deeds in the City of Philadelphia, in Book 1, Volume the fifth, Page 239, &c., may

and will probably make it very difficult to carry the lawn into extention. . . . You will see by Col. Wilson's letter that he has been active in mj- pressing a commotion in his neighborhood, and I hope you will be to good as to represent it to the Council in its proper light."

In a letter dated at Fort Pitt, June 4, 1772, George Croghan wrote to Arthur St. Clair,5 inclosing him a copy of a letter from "Col. Cresap to the Inhabi- tance" at Redstone, in which an argument is made that "the Western bounds of Pennsyl- 1772. vania Could Not Come Any Distance on this Side ye Hills," and "I may venture to say you will be of opinion that if any objections be made to the Laws and Taxes it will be Intirely owing to ye meshurs Taken by Pennsylvania in not ascertaining the true limits of thire Durediction, and publishing it to the people." On July 18th of the same month, St. Clair wrote to Mr. Shippen from Bedford :6 " A day or two ago a petition in the name of the people living to the westward of Laurel Hill ; signed by two hundred and twenty persons, was presented to our court. It charged the Government and the officers of the court with great oppression and injustice, and prayed that directions might be given to the sheriff's to serve no more process in that country, as they apprehended it was not in Pennsylvania." Alarm was expressed at the consequences impending. It was stated that "Col. Cresap" appeared openly as a prime mover in the matter, and Mr. Croghan was strongly suspected of giving it much encouragement privately. The letter proceeds,-

" The petition was presented by a Mr. Brent, a gentleman from Mary- land, who practices in our county. He offered nothing in support of it, but the uncertainty where Pennsylvania ends, and the hardships it was on the people to live under authority that was perhaps usurped. He

more fully and at large appear." In 1771 Croghau was running the lines of his tract, and claimed also to have another one-hundred-thou- sand-acre tract to lie south of the foregoing. He was then also negoti- ating with Col. Washington, through Capt. William Crawford, for the sale of certain parcels (see the Washington and Crawford Letters, 16, 20, etc.). Having run his lines, in 1772 and afterward he made a number of convey- ances, of which the following are recorded in the deed-book of the old Au- gusta County Court : to Bernard Gratz, of Philadelphia, 10,129 a., 2 r., 30 p., on the West Branch of Raccoon Creek ; to same, 14,013 acres on the western side of Chartiers Creek; to same, 31,48512 acres on the waters of Robinson's Run and Raccoon Creek ; to Joseph Simons, of Lancaster, 10,580 acres on Raccoon Creek; to Edward Ward, of Fort Pitt, 3863 acres on the south bank of the Ohio; to Jacob Bausman, of Fort Pitt (în 1770), 308 acres on the west side of Chartiers Creek ; to Benjamin Tate, of Fort Pitt, 384 acres on the east side of Chartiers Creek ; to Thomas Lawrence, of Philadelphia, 18,580 acres on the southwest side of the Ohio,-all of which tracts nearly are described by courses and dis- tances and adjoinders. It is said that our old surveyors were often an- noyed by striking a marked tree ou one of " Geo. Groghan's lines."

Croghan's position iu the boundary controversy was a doubtful one. He was a Pennsylvanian by sympathy, though in interest he was a Vir- ginian, for the apparent reason that he thought that if his "claims" fell within the limits of Pennsylvania his title was invalid as against that province, a result which actually followed when the line was run. All of his immense grant, covering so much of northern Washington County as originally erected, was wiped out of existence.

5 I. St. Clair Papers, 262.

6 Ibid., 265.

7 The reader of the controversy as to the genuineness of the Logan speech will recollect the point made against it, that the Cresap named as "Col. Cresap" was not a colonel, but a captain. Here is seen the fact that Cresap was called colonel in 1772, two years before the speech was delivered.

168

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

was answered by Mr. Wilson, and I assure you the Proprietaries and the people are very much obliged to him. In a very handsome speech of about an hour, be opened the Constitution of the Province, compared it with that of the neighboring colonies, and pointed out where it ex- celled them. .. . I think it was lucky it was spoken 80 publicly, as many people from the doubtful part of the country were present and seemed so pleased with the conduct of the court in rejecting the peti- tion."

Soon afterwards, but without date, another letter was written by Capt. St. Clair to Mr. Shippen,1 in which the good effect of Mr. Wilson's speech was again referred to :

" However, there is still a number of people, abetted chiefly by Mr. Croghan, that refuse to submit to the jurisdiction of this Province, and very lately the sheriff has been very ill treated by a number of them ; about twelve waylaid him and come upon him and one of his deputies stark naked, and threatened to put them both to immediate death, but after much abuse they consented to let them go at that time, but swore in the most dreadful manner, that if ever they returned to attempt to serve process, they would sacrifice them or follow them to their own houses and put them to the most cruel death. The sheriff knew several of them, particularly Abrabam TeaGarden and William Tea- Garden the younger, who are the ringleaders of the gang of villains, John Death, Andrew Gudgell, and Michael Cack : and they were all well armed with guns, tomahawk, pistols, and clubs; and the sheriff is 1 of opinion that only for a pocket pistol which he produced he would certainly have met with extreme ill usage if he had escaped with his life.

" I have said these people are chiefly abetted by Mr. Croghan, and I think I have reason to say so; for no longer ago than Friday last, the collector and the constable, whom he had called to his assistance to levy his (Mr. Croghan's) taxes, were drove off by his people, and that Mr. Croghan himself threatened to put any or all of them to death if they attempted to touch any of his effects, for that he was not within the Province by twenty miles."

If Crogban were assessed with his 100,000-acres tract on the south side, described in the note to a preceding page, his interest would lead him to pro- test vigorously against the payment of the provincial taxes; but to show that the opposition to the juris- diction was not wholly attributable to a dislike of all governmental restraint and burden, there is a letter from Robert Lettis Hooper, Jr., to William Frank- lin, the Governor of New Jersey, dated at Fort Pitt, Sept. 15, 1772 :

" SIR,-A few days ago I was at Redstone, when I had an opportunity of knowing the sentiments of the People of that Part of the Country with Respect to the Western Boundary of Pennsylvania, and find a great Number of them are determined to pay no respect to the Institution of the Court of Bedford. They believe the Western Boundary of Pennsyl- vania will not extend so far as Redstone Settlement, and say it is an imposition to oblige them to pay taxes for Building Court-Houses, &c., in Bedford County when there is the greatest probability of their being obliged to contribute to publick Uses'in the New Colony.º

" These sentiments do not proceed from Licentiousness in the People, nor from a desire to screen themselves from Law as some would repre- sent, but from believing themselves ont of Pennsylvania and being bur- thened with exhorbitant Taxes and Mileage, which they are unwilling to pay till it is absolutely determined whether they are in Pennsylvania or not." 3

There is not at hand any documentary evidence that ' the notice received by the Provincial Council resulted in any immediate action on the part of the government.

Why cannot now be stated, unless that the outbreaks of which information had been given were regarded simply as to be expected in the early period of the establishment of a new county organization over a settlement of pioneers. But Fort Pitt is now to cease as a garrisoned post, and events are to ripen for more trouble upon the western border.

Fort Pitt Abandoned by the British .- Fort Pitt, erected by Gen. Stanwix in 1759, at a cost of £60,000 sterling, was occupied by the British forces thence- forward continuously until the 10th of October, 1772, on which date by order of Gen. Gage, then com- mander-in-chief in North America, Maj. Charles Ed- monstone, in command at Fort Pitt, sold to Alexander Ross and William Thompson " all the pickets, bricks, stones, timber, and iron which are now in the build- ing or walls of the said fort" for fifty pounds, New York currency,4 and soon afterwards withdrew. A corporal and a guard were left in possession for a time, when, as has appeared by the affidavit printed in a note to a previous page, Edward Ward took possession and retained it for some time.5

In the same year in which Fort Pitt was aban- doned there arrived a new Governor over the colony of Virginia in the person of John Murray, the fourth Earl of Dunmore, one of the Peers of Scotland. He had been Governor of New York, and on the, death of Botetourt was sent as his successor to Virginia. Early in the next year, 1773, he made a visit to Fort Pitt, and stopped on his way at the house of

William Crawford, on the Youghiogheny. It 1773. had been the intention of Washington to ac- company Lord Dunmore on his trip over the moun- tains, and the former had made all the necessary ar- rangements to do so, but was prevented by the death of Miss Custis, his step-daughter.6 At Fort Pitt Lord Dunmore met Dr. John Connolly, heretofore intro- duced to us by Col. Washington, who had dined with him at Semple's in 1770.

There is no evidence as to what was the real pur- pose of this visit of the Virginia Governor, but from the fact that soon afterwards began an active out- I break of the boundary controversy, and in the next . year occurred the Indian war known as Dunmore's war, of both of which matters Dr. Connolly was an

1 I. St. Clair Papers, 267.

2 By the "New Colony" in this letter is to be understood a reference to a proposed grant by the king and Council, known at the time as Wal- pole's grant, afterward as Vandalia, to constitute a new colony to be settled back of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

3 From Ellis' History of Fayette County, 115.

4 Equivalent, at eight shillings to the dollar, to one hundred and twenty-five dollars. For the facts concerning this sale see II. Olden Time, 94, 95.

6 There is an unaccountable discrepancy in the accounts of this matter. The official records of the proceedings of the Virginia convention, Jan. 6, 1776, show the fact of the sale Oct. 10, 1772, of the material of the fort to Ross and Thompson, and that a corporal and a few men were left in charge. Edward Ward's affidavit (1 Calendar, Va. State Papers, 278) states that in 1772 the fort was evacuated, and he took possession and kept it till 1774, when it was seized by Connolly. It must be that Ward was in possession as the agent of Ross and Thompson, the former of whom was " agent" for the contractors for victualing his Majesty's forces in North America.

6 See letter, Washington to Dunmore, April 13, 1773; Washington and Crawford Correspondence, 27; letter, Washington to Crawford, Sept. 25, 1773, Ibid., 29,

169

CIVIL AND LEGAL-CONNOLLY'S ASSUMPTION OF GOVERNMENT.

indefatigable promoter, there is no doubt that it was " to sound the inclinations of the inhabitants as well as the Indians."1 Most impartial writers have ex- pressed the opinion, after the examination of all the facts, that Lord Dunmore had early information of transactions presaging the rupture with the mother- country, and that in the controversy instituted over the boundary question, as well as in his management of the Indian war of 1774, he was impelled in both by a wish to put the two governments into antagonism with each other. It is most probable that in 1773, when Lord Dunmore met Dr. Connolly at Fort Pitt, which was about the middle of the summer, he selected him as his agent to extend the jurisdiction of Virginia over the Monongahela and Ohio Valleys. It will be remembered also, that on Feb. 26, 1773, Westmore- land County had been erected, and the seat of jus- tice was at Hannas Town, not far from the present Greensburg. In the formation of a new county, with all the attendant jealousies and diversities of in- terest, when new burdens were imposed upon a people little able to bear them, it was a suitable time suc- cessfully to introduce a rival government to receive the adherence of the disaffected.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 40

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