History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 44

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 44

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).

2 IV. Penn. Archives, 586; I. St. Clair Papers, 347.

8 This is the interview mentioned by John J. Jacobs, who was present. See ante, p. 177.

4 IV. Penn. Archives, 589 ; I. St. Clair Papers, 351.

5 X. Col. Records, 227.

179

CIVIL AND LEGAL-THE REVOLUTION.

" Westmoreland, 88 :

" Before us, Robert Hanna and Arthur St. Clair, Esquires, two of his Majesty's Justices for Westmoreland County, personally appeared Samuel Whiteside, keeper of the Goal of the saidl County, and being duly sworn according to Law, deposeth and saith : that on this instant, the twenty- fourth of December, a number of armed Men came to the Goal of said County, and ordered bim to open the Prison Doors, and turn out a cer- tain William Thomas, then in his custody on sundry executions; that he believes a certain William Christy and Simon Girty, who seemed to be Officers from their Dress, were at the Head of their Party ; That he, this Deponent, refused to deliver his Prisoner, or open the Door where he was confined . that they then talked of throwing down the House, when a certain Major Connolly came up, enquired who resisted the re- leasement of the Prisoners, threatened to tie and carry off him, this Deponent; ordered the party to fire their Pieces against the House, and strip off the Roof, on which he, this Deponent, being afraid of ill Con- sequences, both to his Person and Property, did open the door to allow the Prisoner to speak to the Party, and one of them rushed in, seized him, and dragged him out, and also turned out a certain William Daw- son, who was likewise in his custody on Execution, and that it was Con- nolly himself who laid hands on Thomas and dragged him out; and further saith not.

" SAMUEL WHITESIDE.

"Sworn to and subscribed, etc."

" WHEREAS, I am well informed that certain Persons, by written In- structions, directed to different people throughout this Country, break open doors, Cupboards, &c., and do commit certain other acts of Violence in order to extort money from the Inhabitants, under the Appellation of Taxes; These are, therefore, to acquaint all His Majesty's Subjects, that as there can be no Authority legally invested in any Persons for such acts at this Juncture, that such Attempts to abuse public Liberty are unwarrantable, and that all Persons have an undoubted natural as well as lawful Right to repel such Violences; and all his Majesty's Sub- jects are hereby required to apprehend any Person, whatever, who may attempt a seizure of their Effects in Consequences of such imaginary Authority, to be dealt with as the Law directs.

" Given under my Hand, at Fort Dunmore, this 30th Day of December, 1774.

" JOHN CONNOLLY."

The Augusta County Court .- The Augusta County court had not been opened at Fort Dunmore on December 20th, as had been determined, but on the 12th of December, 1774, a writ had been issued by Lord Dunmore, tested in the name of his Majesty, adjourning the county court of Augusta County from Staunton to Fort Dunmore, accompanied with a new commission of the peace, embracing, with the old justices of the parent county, the names of such of the adherents in the Monongahela valley as were re- garded as proper persons for Virginia magistrates.1 Their first term of court was held at Fort Dunmore on Feb. 21, 1775, at which time George Croghan, John Campbell, John Connolly, Thomas 1775. Smallman, Dorsey Pentecost, John Gibson, George Vallandigham, and William Goe appeared, took the qualifying oaths, and occupied their seats as justices. And see the policy observed even here. Croghan, during the Dunmore war, had become quite a Pennsylvanian; he is now made the presiding justice, and this brought him back among the Virginia partisans. And from this date there were not only two different sets of magistrates, with their subordinate officers, assessors, and commissioners, over the same people in the Monongahela Valley,

but within a few miles of each other had been estab- lished two different courts, regularly (or irregularly) administering justice under the laws of two different governments !

On the very next day after the first sitting of the Fort Dunmore court, on Feb. 22, 1775, Robert Hanna and James Caveat, justices, were both arrested for the performance of their duties as Pennsylvania magis- trates and confined at Pittsburgh, where they re- mained for about three months, vainly endeavoring to obtain a release.2 After fruitless efforts to obtain relief from the Governor and Council, then probably employed with affairs of a most auspicious nature, the sheriff of Westmoreland County aided by a posse of an effective strength proceeded to the place of their incarceration the latter part of June, and set them at large, carrying Dr. Connolly along with them. Just when they were released does not appear, but to July term, 1775, of the Court of Common Pleas of West- moreland County there is found an action of Capias in Case indicating an arrest for damages, brought by Robert Hanna, Esq., v. John Connolly. The writ is returned, C. C., that defendant is arrested. This cause, the only one in the records of Westmoreland County having a reference to the Virginia contro- versy, is marked, " October, ended, says Plff.," which is probably explained by a letter from Valentine Crawford to George Washington, dated June 24, 1775,8 from which is extracted as follows :

" We have chosen committees out here, and are raising an independ- ent company, regulating matters the best we can; but an unhappy confusion happened the other day. The Pennsylvanians came to Fort Pitt with the Sheriff and about twenty men, and took Major Connolly about midnight, and carried him as fur as Ligonier, the very night be- fure we were to have the talk with the Indians. . . . On Major Connolly being taken, the people of Chartiers came in a company and seized three of the Pennsylvania magistrates, who were concerned in taking off Connolly,-George Wilson, Joseph Spear, and Devereux Su ith. They were sent in an old leaky boat down to Fort Fincastle 4 under guard. Our court, however, had no hand in this. It was done by a mob or set of Connolly's friends on Chartiers Creek. The members of our committee wrote a very spirited letter to the gentlemen of the Pennsylvania com- mittee,5 demanding Connolly back. All signed it and sent it with an express. On its receipt they immediately sent Major Connolly back."

The Revolution .- In the foregoing letter there are references to a new condition of things. A crisis in the affairs of the colonies had been reached. The 19th of April, Lexington and Concord had become famous as the places where the first struggles for independ- ence were made, and it is now to be seen what effect the new order was to have upon the boundary con- troversy. The astounding news had scarcely reached the Monongahela River when, on the same day, the 16th day of May, 1775, meetings of citizens were held both at Hanna's Town and Pittsburgh, at which sep- arate meetings the two committees-the Virginia and

1 For the record of this writ, and the new commission of the peace, see the records of the Augusta County Court, hereafter.

IV. Penn. Archives, 625; and see 1. St. Clair Papers, 351, 353, 355. 3 Washingtou-Crawford Lettors, 102.

4 A title in honor of Lord Dunmore; at the present Wheeling. By "our court" Crawford means the Furt Dunmore court.

6 These committees were Committees of Safety formed to further the Revolution just begun, and even in this were they divided.

180

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

the Pennsylvania committees-referred to by Valen- tine Crawford were constituted. Extracts from the rec- ord of the proceedings of these two meetings are now given :

" COMMITTEE OF AUGUSTA COUNTY, VA.

" At a meeting of the inhabitants of that part of Augusta county that lies on the west side of Laurel Hill, at Pittsburgh, the 16th day of May, 1775, the following gentlemen were chosen a committee for the said dis- trict, viz .: George Croghan, John Campbell, Edward Ward, Thomas Smallman, John Cannon, John McCullough, William Goe, George Val- landigham, John Gibson, Dorsey Pentecost, Edward Cook, William Craw- ford, Devereux Smith, John Anderson, David Rodgers, Jacob Vanmetre, Henry Enoch, James Ennis, George Wilson, William Vance, David Shep- herd, William Elliot, Richmond Willis, Samuel Semple, John Ormsby, Richard McMahon, John Neville, and John Swearingen.1

" The foregoing gentlemen met in committee and . . .

" Resolved, unanimously, That this committee have the highest sense of the spirited behavior of their brethren in New England, and do most cordially approve of their opposing the invaders of American rights and privileges to the utmost extreme, and that each member of this committee, respectively, will animate and encourage their neighbor- hood to follow the brave example.

" The imminent danger that threatens America in general, from min- isterial and parliamentary denunciations of our ruin, and is now carrying into execution by open acts of unprovoked hostilities in our sister col- ony of Massachusetts, as well as the danger to be apprehended to this colony in particular from a domestic enemy, said to be prompted by the wicked minions of power to execute our ruin, added to the menaces of an Indian war, likewise said to be in contemplation, thereby think to engage our attention, and divert it from that still more interesting ob- ject of liberty and freedom, that deeply and with so much Justice hatlı called forth the attention of all America; for the prevention of all or any of these impending evils, &c." 2

Measures were taken to collect from the people, in a manner the most agreeable to them, so much money as would be sufficient to purchase half a pound of gunpowder and one pound of lead, flints, and car- tridge-paper from every tithable person in the county, which sum was fixed at two shillings and sixpence for each tithable. The resolutions, only a small portion of which are given above, are full of energy and directness :

" COMMITTEE OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PA.

" At a general meeting of the inhabitants of the county of Westmore- land, held at Hanna's Town the 16th day of May, 1775, for taking into consideration the very alarming situation of the country, occasioned by the dispute with Great Britain :

" Resolved, unanimously, That the Parliament of Great Britain, by sev- eral late acts, have declared the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay to be in rebellion, and the ministry, by endeavoring to enforce those acts, have attempted to reduce the said inhabitants to a more wretched state of slavery than ever before existed in any State or country, not con- tent with violating the constitutional and chartered rights of humanity, exposing their lives to the licentious soldiery, and depriving them of the very means of subsistence.

" Resolved, unanimously, That there is no reason to doubt but the same system of tyranny and oppression will (should it meet with success in Massachusetts Bay) be extended to other parts of America: it is there- fore become the indispensable duty of every American, of every man who has any public virtue or love for his country, or any bowels for posterity, by every means which God has put in his power to resist and oppose the execution of it; that for us we will be ready to oppose it with our lives and fortunes. And the better to enable us to accomplish it, we will im- -

1 Quite a number of these committeemen were sound Pennsylvanians. Devereux Smith, George Wilson, William Elliott, John Ormsby, and John Swearingen are known to have been, and probably others were. John Swearingen was the father of Van Swearingen, and lived on the Monongahela, below Georges Creek.

2 Craig's History of Pittsburgh, 128.

mediately form ourselves into a military body, to consist of companies to be made up out of the several townships under the following associa- tion, which is declared to be the Association of Westmoreland County."

Then follow the Articles of Association, which pro- vided that the people should form themselves into a regiment or regiments and choose officers to com- mand them, in such proportions as should be thought necessary, and they ended with " No licensed murder ! no famine introduced by law !"

End of Dr. Connolly's Power .- The spirit of the Revolution being abroad, the Monongahela valley is soon rid of Dr. John Connolly. His royal chief, Lord Dunmore, had early become alarmed and re- moved his family on board the "Fowey," a British man-of-war in the Chesapeake, having previously taken away the powder from the magazine in Wil- liamsburg. Patrick Henry, afterwards the illustri- ous, at the head of a body of armed volunteers, forced him to surrender the powder, and soon afterwards the news of Lexington having come, the last British Gov- ernor of Virginia, on the 8th day of June, 1775, fol- lows his family to their refuge, and hereafter is the enemy of his late subjects.3 As to Connolly himself, it has already been seen from the letter of Valentine Crawford that he had been arrested and carried to Ligonier, where, on the application of the Revolu- tionary Committee at Pitsburgh, he had been released. Arthur St. Clair wrote to Joseph Shippen, Jr., July 12, 1775: 4 " Whilst Connolly was at my house en- deavoring to procure bail, I treated him with a good deal of civility, by which, with the help of a cheerful glass, I got at some of his designs. He is immediately to go to England with White Eyes and some other Delaware chiefs, to solicit for them a confirmation of the country which they now live in, a great part of which is within the bounds of this Province, and Lord Dunmore is to back it with all his interest." But St. Clair's wine was not quite so successful in uncovering. Connolly's intentions.

Immediately upon his release, Dr. Connolly pro- ceeded from Pittsburgh to Lord Dunmore, who sent him to Gen. Gage, commanding the British forces at Boston. He left Boston on the 14th or 15th September, and reached Lord Dunmore about the middle of Oc- tober with instructions from Gen. Gage to Dunmore, who granted him a commission of lieutenant-colonel of a regiment to be raised in the "back parts" and Canada, with power to nominate his subordinate officers. On Nov. 22, 1775, when the new lieu- tenant-colonel was on his way to Detroit, where he was to meet his commission and instructions as an officer of the British troops to operate against his late fellow-citizens, he was captured at Hagerstown, in Maryland, and amongst the papers found in his pos- session was the following in his own handwriting,

3 A History of Virginia, by J. W. Campbell (1813), 154.

4 IV. Penn. Archives, 637; I. St. Clair Papers, 358.

181

CIVIL AND LEGAL-ADDRESS OF DELEGATES IN CONGRESS.

evidently a copy of the proposals he had laid before Gen. Gage in the previous September :1

" Proposals for Raising an Army to the westward, &c., And for effect- ually Obstructing a communication between the Southern and Northern Governments.2

" As I have, by directions from his Excellency, Lord Dunmore, pre- pared the Ohio Indians to act in concert with me against his Majesty's Enemies in that quarter, and have also dispatched intelligence to the different Officers of the militia on the frontiers of Augusta County, in Virginia, giving them Lord Dunmore's assurances that such of them as shall hereafter evince their loyalty to his Majesty, by putting themselves under my command, when I should appear amongst them with proper Authority for that purpose, of a confirmation of title to their lands, and the quantity of three hundred acres to all who should take up Arms in support of the Constitution, when the Present Rebellion is subsided; I will undertake to penetrate through Virginia, and Join his Excellency, Lord Dunmore, at Alexandria, early next spring, on the following con- ditions and authority. . . . [Here followed the several provisions of the plan of his campaign, the supplies, etc., required.] .. . If your Excel- lency judges it expedient for the good of the service to furnish me with the Authority & other requisites I have mentioned, I shall embrace the earliest opportunity of setting off for Canada, and I shall immediately dispatch Lord Dunmore's armed Schooner, (which now awaits my Com- mand,) with an account of what your Excellency has done, and that I shall be ready, if practicable, to Join his Lordship by the 20th of April, at Alexandria, where the troops under my command may fortify them- selves under Cover of the Men of War on that station. . . . "

This paper, found concealed carefully in Connolly's saddle at the time of his arrest, is without date, but is there any further doubt as to the secret purpose of Dunmore and Connolly, by their usurpations within our borders, to handicap the efforts of the colonies in the struggle for independence? But Connolly took none of the leaders of his Virginia forces into the British camp with him. Samuel Semple, his father- in-law; George Croghan, his uncle; Dorsey Pente- cost, the chief of his co-workers, were joining in the Revolutionary arrangements of the Augusta County committee, perhaps at the very time he was prepar- ing the Ohio Indians to act in concert with him against his relatives and friends.3

1 For the papers relating to the arrest of Dr. Connolly, the Proposals and his subsequent fate, see IV. Pennsylvania Archives, 681, 682, 654, 695; II. Olden Time, 93, 104, 112, 348. He was turned over to Congress and held until the winter of 1780-81, when he was exchanged. In the summer of 1782, he with one Johnson was at the head of a body of Brit- sh and Indians at Lake Jadaque (as Chautauqua was then called) threat- ening an attack upon Fort Pitt, but being deterred by a report of the abundant preparation made, a body of his Indians made the raid on Hanna's Town on July 13th. After the Revolution was over and the treaty of peace made with England, Connolly seems to have settled in Canada, and in 1788 he is found at Louisville, intriguing with the people of Kentucky, who were said to have made overtures to Lord Dorchester to be taken under the protection of the British government. (II. St. Clair Papers, 98, 101.) Kentucky was then still within the State of Virginia. (See also concerning him Jacobs' Life of Cresap, 57, 60.)

2 As this paper is long only portions can be given ; the whole is in IV. Penn. Archives, 654.

8 Craig's History of Pittsburgh, 134.

As we are now done with the celebrated Dr. Connolly in the text (and has this illustrious individual received too much consideration?), that the reader may know more about his personal history, the following, found on an interleaf of a ' History of the Civil War in America,' in the handwriting of John Ormsby, one of the Augusta County Committee, is added:

"The above Dr. Connolly was born and bred near Wright's Ferry, in Pennsylvania. His father was a jobber among the farmers on the Sus- quehanna, who found the secret of pleasing an orderly Quaker widow of the name of Ewing, and the jobber was u professed papist. This match,

It might have been supposed that once the colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania were united in a com- mon cause of such magnitude as now was pending, the territorial controversy between them would have ceased. Not so. However, it will now be necessary to avoid details and go to generals, showing how that contest continuing the attention of the Colonial Con- gress as well as the common friends of both peoples became actively involved.

Address of Delegates in Congress .- On July 25, 1775, the date when Connolly reached Lord Dunmore from Gen. Gage at Boston, an address was sent to our people from the delegates from Pennsylvania and Vir- ginia in the Continental Congress. As this paper has been preserved in but few, if in more than one, of the publications in which it is referred to, it is here copied entire :

"TO THE INHABITANTS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND VIRGINIA ON THE WEST SIDE OF LAUREL HILL :

" Friends and Countrymen : It gives us much concern to find that dis- turbances have arisen and still continue among you, concerning the boundaries of our colonies. In the character in which we now address you, it is unnecessary to inquire into the origin of these unhappy dis- putes, and it would be improper for us to express our approbation or

as might be expected, proved very disagreeable, so that he left nothing to commemorate his memory but the villanous doctor. This fellow bad traversed the Illinois country till he could subsist there no longer, so that he appeared at Pittsburgh a few years before the commencement of the Revolution. Here he was introduced to Lord Dunmore, who traveled through the western country to sound the inclination of the inhabitants as well as the Indians. Connolly, like a hungry wolf, closed with Dunmore a bargain that he would secure a considerable interest among the white inhabitants and the Indians on the frontier. Iu con- sequence of this agreement my lord made him a deed of gift of 2000 acres of land at the Falls of the Ohio, and 2000 more to Mr. John Camp- bell, late of Kentucky, both of which grants are now owned by the heirs of Col. Campbell. Connolly immediately set himself to work in dis- seminating his hellish insinuations among the people. He employed an adjutant to drill the militia, and had the audacity to engage artificers to repair the old fort, and in every respect acted the part of a tyrant. He sent runners among the Indians far and near, with large promises of soon supplying them with goods and money. Having thus far paved the way for his atrocious designs, he met Lord Duumore at Alexandria, where they concerted the infernal scheme of massacring all those on the frontiers who would not join in their work. Matters thus progressed and Lord Dunmore sent Connolly to General Clinton at New York [this should be General Gage, at Boston,-ED.], who approved the scheme, appointed Connolly a lieutenant colonel aud commander of two or three regiments of whites and Indians, with authority to draw on the pay- master-general for cash. Upon this exaltation, the great and mighty Connolly set out for Baltimore, where he joined the persons who were taken (captured) along with him, and who were no doubt as sanguinary villains as himself. A report was whispered among the minute-men at Hagerstown, etc., of Connolly's schemes, so that they had a sharp look- out for him, and happily succeeded in arresting him and his comrades, and all the commissions for the new regiments, with the general plan of their operations, were found upon him, upon which he was committed to prison. This news, you may be sure, was joyfully received on the frontier and especially at Pittsburgh, where the writer of these lines resided with his family.

" When Lord Dunmore arrived in Pittsburgh (in 1773 or 1774) he lodged at my house, and often closeted me, as he said, for information respecting the disposition of the inhabitants. He threw out some dark insinuations as to my usefulness, in case I would be concerned, but as he found I kept aloof he divulged his plans to Connolly, and I suppose to Campbell, else why give him the aforeskid grant of land which he enjoys and is very valuable? . . . Connolly and Arnold, both of whom merited a halter, are now ou half-pay on the British establish- ment." From II. Olden Time, 93.

182

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

censure on either side; but as representatives of two of the colonies united among many others for the defence of the liberties of America, we think it our duty to remove, as far as lies in our power, every obsta- cle that may prevent her sons from co operating as vigorously as they would wish to do toward the attainment of this great and important end. Influenced solely by this motive, our joint and earnest request to you is that all animosities which have heretofore subsisted among you as in- habitants of distinct colonies may now give place to generous and con- curring efforts for the preservation of everything that can make our common country dear to us.

" We are fully persuaded that you, as well as we, wish to see your dif- ferences terminate in this happy issue. For this desirable use we recom- mend it to you, that all bodies of armed men kept up under either prov- ince be dismissed, that all those on either side who are in confinement or under bail for taking a part in the contest be discharged, and that until the dispute be decided every person be permitted to retain his pos- sessions unmolested.

" By observing these directions the public tranquillity will be secured without injury to the titles on either side; the period, we flatter our- selves, will soon arrive when this unfortunate dispute, which has pro- duced much mischief, and, as far as we can learn, no good, will be peace- ably and constitutionally determined.

" We are your friends and countrymen.

" P. HENRY.

" RICHARD HENRY LEE.

" BENJAMIN HARRISON.

" THOMAS JEFFERSON. " JOHN DICKINSON.

" GEORGE ROSS.

" B. FRANKLIN.

" JAMES WILSON.

" CHAS. HUMPHREYS.

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 44

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