History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 70

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 70

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Gen. Neville had found it almost impossible to ob- tain the use of a building in which to open an in- spection office in Washington County; but, in the early part of August, 1792, he finally succeeded in renting from Capt. William Faulkner, of the United States army, a part of his house in the town of Wash- ington, and gave public notice that the inspection office would be opened there on a certain day. But

this action aroused the indignation of the people to such a pitch, and threats were so openly and freely made against the inspector's life, in case he should come to Washington for the purpose named, that, although he was a man not easily intimidated, he had the discretion to absent himself from the county- seat, and the office remained unopened. In reference to this affair, John Wilkins, Jr., said in a letter ad- dressed to Gen. William Irvine, dated Aug. 31, 1792,1 "They have frightened Gen. Neville lately very much at Washington. He had advertised his office in that town, and was to attend on certain days. On the day he was to come the road was waylaid by a number of armed men disguised ; he heard of it and did not go; and a day or two ago these came to the town of Washington, disguised as before, broke into the place where the office of inspection was kept, and made search for him in expectation of finding him there. It is hard to tell to what lengths they might have gone had they found him."

The rage of the insurgents was also visited upon Capt. Faulkner for the offense of having rented his house to Neville for an inspection office. Being out in pursuit of some deserters near Pigeon Creek, in the same neighborhood where Robert Johnson was maltreated in the previous autumn, he was encoun- tered by a number of disguised men, who reproached him with having let his house to the government officers, drew a knife on him, threatened to scalp him, tar and feather him, and burn his house if he did not solemnly promise to prevent all further use of it as an inspection office.2 He was induced by their threats to make the promise demanded, and on the 21st of August gave public notice in the Pitts- burgh Gazette that the office of the inspector should no longer be kept at his house.

On receiving intelligence of these occurrences, as also of the proceedings of the Pittsburgh meeting, the Secretary of the Treasury reported the facts to Presi- dent Washington, who thereupon, on the 15th of Sep- tember, 1792, issued a proclamation admonishing all persons to refrain and desist from all unlawful combi- nations and proceedings whatsoever having for their object or tending to obstruct the operation of the laws, declaring it to be the determination of the government to bring to justice all infractors of the law, to prosecute delinquents, to seize all unexcised spirits on their way to market, and to make no pur- chases of spirits for the army except of such as had paid the duty.

1 Niles' Register, II. 54.

§ "I can learn," wrote Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treas- ury, "of no instance of the conviction and punishment of any person for a violence committed upon officers or private citizens, clearly on account of their agency under or friendly disposition towards the laws ; which is the more remarkable, as the rioters in Faulkner's case are asserted to have passed in open day through the town of Washington, to have parleyed there with the inhabitants of the town, and to have been afterwards entertained at two or three houses."-Pean. Archives, 2d Series, vol. iv., 293.

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

A supervisor of the revenue (George Clymer) was sent into the western counties immediately afterwards to gain accurate information of and report on the true state of affairs ; but his mission " had no other fruit than that of obtaining evidence of the persons who composed the meeting at Pittsburgh, and two of those who were understood to be concerned in the riot [against Capt. Faulkner], and a confirmation of the enmity which certain active and designing leaders had industriously infused into a large proportion of the inhabitants, not against the particular laws in ques- tion only, but of a more ancient date against the govern- ment of the United States itself." 1

On the 1st of June, 1793, the inspector, Gen. Neville, gave notice in the Pittsburgh Gazette that offices of inspection and entry were opened at his own house at Bower Hill, at the house of Robert Johnson in Allegheny County, at Philip Reagan's, in West- moreland, and at Benjamin Wells', in Fayette. This Robert Johnson was the same who had been attacked at Pigeon Creek in September, 1791, and compelled to resign his commission as deputy inspector. Evi- dently he had again accepted the commission and re- opened the office. Benjamin Wells, although he re- opened his office as advertised by Neville, was not permitted to do any business in it. His house on the

1 Report of Secretary Hamilton, Penna. Archives, 2d Series, vol. iv. p. 93.

The Secretary also said, in a communication to President Washington, dated Sept. 2, 1794, in reference to this visit of the revenue officer, --

" It is mentioned in my Report that the Supervisor of the Revenue, in September, 1792, was sent into the refractory country, among other things to collect evidence of the persons concerned in the Riot in Faulk- ner's case. When at Pittsburgh he applied by letter to Alexander Ad- dison, President of the court of Common Pleas, who resided in the town of Washington, to engage his assistance in taking the Depositions of per- sons who were named to him by the Supervisor, as able to testify con- cerning infractions of the Laws, and in causing some of the best informed Witnesses to attend a Circuit Court of the United States about to be holden at York Town. The Judge, not content with declining an agency in the business, in answer to the application digresses into a Censure on the Judiciary System of the United States, which he represents as ' im- practicable, unless it be intended to sacrifice to it the essential principles of the liberty of the Citizens, and the Just authority of the State Courts,' and afterwards declares, that were it his duty to do what was requested of him (which, however, he states in a manner different from what the Su- pervisor seems to have intended), ' he should do it with reluctance, because he should be serving a cause which he thought unfavorable to the liberty and Just authority of the State Courts.'

" Without examining the sufficiency of the reasons which led to de- clining the agency proposed to him, without commenting upon the ob- servations which seek to derive a part of the Justification for it from the resentment of the people against the Laws, and the danger of losing their confidence by a compliance with what was desired of him, the pro- priety of which in the mouth of a Magistrate might well be contested, it cannot admit of a doubt that there was great unfitness in a Judge of Pennsylvania indulging himself with gratuitous invectives against the Judiciary System of the Government of the Union. . . . It is difficult to perceive in such a digression the evidence of a temper cordial to the in- stitutions and arrangements of the United States. The particulars of this affair have been long since in possession of the Governor." In ad- dition to the above, the Secretary writes (as showing that Judge Addi- Bon was a sympathizer with the insurrection in the days of its popular- ity), that " Mr. Stokely, a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature for Washington, states that Judge Addison wrote a letter or letters in oppo- Bition to his election to the Legislature, and among other objections to him, mentioned his having applied for, or having had an intention to obtain, an office in the excise."-Penn. Archives, iv. 290, 292.

Youghiogheny was repeatedly attacked, and was finally fired by a mob and destroyed, with all its con- tents, about the 1st of July in the following year. Philip Reagan's house, in Westmoreland (in which Wells had also opened an office for that county), was attacked, and the officers who occupied it were com- pelled to surrender their books and close the office. At about the time when Neville published the above- mentioned notice of the opening of the several inspec- tion offices, he " was burned in effigy at the place, and on the day of the public election, with much display, and in the presence of and without interruption from magistrates and other public officers."

In the early part of 1794 numerous outrages were committed by the opponents of the law in Washington and Allegheny Counties. In January of that year William Richmond had his barn burned, with all his hay and grain, in revenge for his having given infor- mation against the rioters who committed the outrage on Robert Wilson, the half-demented school-teacher. Robert Strawhan, a distiller, who had been among the first to comply with the law by entering his still, also had his barn burned. Both these outrages were com- mitted in Allegheny County.

Gen. Neville, the inspector, in a letter addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury, dated February 27th, said he had received information that persons living near the dividing line of Allegheny and Washington had thrown out threats of tarring and feathering one William Coughran, a complying distiller, and of burn- ing his distillery ; and that it had also been given out that in three weeks there would not be a house stand- ing in Allegheny County of any person who had com- plied with the laws; in consequence of which he (Neville) had been induced to pay a visit to several leading individuals in that quarter, as well as to as- certain the truth of the information as to endeavor to avert the attempt to execute such threats. It appeared afterwards that on Neville's return home he had been pursued by a body of men threatening vengeance against him. On their way these men called at the house of James Kiddoe, who had recently complied with the laws, broke into his still-house, fired several balls under his still, and scattered fire over and about the house. In March, Neville reported an increased activity in promoting opposition to the law, and that frequent meetings were being held to strengthen and extend the combination for that purpose; also that he was cognizant of a plan having been formed to col- lect a force to capture him, force him to resign his commission, and hold him prisoner, probably as a hostage.

In May and June new acts of violence were com- mitted. James Kiddoe and William Coughran, the complying distillers before mentioned, sustained re- peated injuries to their property. At different times Kiddoe had parts of his grist-mill taken away, and Coughran suffered greater injuries, having his still destroyed, his saw-mill rendered useless, and great

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damage done to his grist-mill. On the last visit of the law-breakers to Coughran a written note was left requiring him to publish in the Pittsburgh Gazette an account of the injuries which he had sustained, threatening in mysterious but unmistakable lan- guage that, in case of his refusal or neglect to do so, he would receive another visit, in which his property would be destroyed by fire. The note was signed " Tom the Tinker,"-a name which had its origin on this occasion, but which at once went into popular use as a significant synonym for the ruthless power of the insurgent party,-their battle-cry and watch- word.1

Gen. Neville had, as already mentioned, found the greatest difficulty in obtaining a place in which to open an inspection office in Washington County, but he at last succeeded in renting for that purpose the house of John Lynn, in Canonsburg. This was in May, 1794, in time for the opening of the office for the business of the following month, June being the time for receiving the annual entries of stills. But he was here met by the same trouble which had been experienced previously in the town of Washington. "In the night of the 6th of June," says Secretary Hamilton,2 "about twelve persons, armed and painted black, broke into the house of John Lynn, where the office was kept, and after having treacherously se- duced him to come down-stairs and put himself in

1 TOM THE TINKER was a name which the law-breakers not only used individually for the purposes of disguise, but also applied to the insur- gent body collectively, and to the secret and dreaded power of the or- ganization, if organization it could be called. As to the origin of the name, Brackenridge says, "A certain John Holcroft was thought to have made the first application of it at the time of the masked attack on William Coughran, whose still was cut to pieces. This was humorously called mending his still. The menders of course must be tinkers, and the name collectively became Tom the Tinker." Advertisements were put upon trees and in other conspicuous places with the signature of Tom the Tinker, admonishing or commanding individuals to do or not to do certain things under the penalty of retribution at the hands of the mysterious Tom in case of non-compliance. Menacing letters with the same signature were sent to the Pittsburgh Gazette with orders to pub- lish them, and the editor dared not refuse to comply, though he did so unwillingly. Often the persons to whom these threatening notices were addressed were commanded to see that they were published in the Gazette, and they always complied; for they knew that refusal or neglect to do so would bring upon them the destruction of their property and endanger · their lives.

"This Tom the Tinker," says Judge Lobengier, " was a new god added to the mythology at this time, and was supposed to preside over whiskey- stills and still-houses. Whoever stoutly hurrahed for Tom the Tinker was of unquestionable loyalty with the whiskey-boys; while those who could not were branded as traitors to this new deity and their country." Judge Veech says of the mysterious god that it was supposed "bis Olympus was op some of the hills of Mingo or Peters Creek. But truly he was a multiform deity, or at least he was Briarean in his functions. His mundane recreations were to destroy the stills and naills and burn the barns of complying distillers, and terrify others into non compliance. He sometimes warned before striking, but the warnings and blows were always in the dark and of difficult detection." Findley says it after- wards appeared that the letter left at Coughran's still house was not written by John Holcroft as was first supposed, and that the person who did write it and who thus originated the name " Tom the Tiuker" was never discovered.

2 Papers relating to the Whiskey Insurrection. Report of the Secre- tary of the Treasury, Aug. 5, 1794. Pa. Arch., 2d. Series, vol. iv. pp. 97, 98.

their power, by a promise of safety to himself and his house, they seized and tied him, threatened to hang him, took him to a retired spot in the neighbor- ing wood, and then, after cutting off his hair, tarring and feathering him, swore him never again to allow the use of his house for an office, never to disclose their names, and never again to have any sort of an agency in aid of the excise, having done which they bound him naked to a tree and left him in that situa- tion till morning, when he succeeded in extricating himself. Not content, with this, the malcontents, some days after, made him another visit, pulled down part of his house, and put him in a situation to be obliged to become an exile from his own home, and to find an asylum elsewhere."ª

Soon after the Lynn affair in Canonsburg, Maj. David Lenox, a United States marshal, was sent West with a large number of writs to be served on non-complying distillers in Allegheny, Washington, and Fayette Counties, and a few against certain per- sons in the last-named county who had been concerned in the riots at the house of the excise officer, Benjamin Wells. "The marshal of the district," said Secretary Hamilton, "went in person to serve these processes. He executed his trust without interruption, though under many discouraging circumstances, in Fayette County. He then proceeded to Washington and Allegheny Counties, where he served all but one, which was against a distiller named William Miller, who lived on Peters Creek, in Allegheny County, on the road from Pittsburgh to Washington, and about fourteen miles from the former place. For some cause which does not appear he delayed serving this last process, and went to Pittsburgh. On the follow- ing day (July 15th), in company with Gen. Neville, he rode out to serve the writ on Miller, and did so, but on their return towards Neville's house he was beset on the road by a party of from thirty to forty armed men, who, after much irregularity of conduct, finally fired on him, but, as it happened, without injury either to him or the inspector." This is Secretary Hamilton's account of the affair. Findley says of the same oc- currence that "On leaving the place [ Miller's] a number of men were observed as if in pursuit of them,

3 Dr. Carnahan gives a different account of this affair .. He says, " The first acts of violence were done to the deputy inspectors, men gen- erally of low character, who had very little seusibility, and who were willing, for the paltry emolument of the office, to incur the censure and contempt of their fellow-citizens. These sub-excise men were seized by thoughtless young men and received a coat of tar and feathers, more through sport than from deliberate design to oppose the law. Of several cases of this kind which occurred I shall mention one, which in part fell under my notice. About the last of June or first of July, 1794, John Lynn, a deputy inspector residing in Canonsburg, Washington Co., was taken from his bed, carried into the woods, and received a coat of tar and feathers, and he was left tied to a tree, but so loosely that he could easily extricate himself. He returned to his house, and after undergoing an ablution with grease and soap and sand and water, be exhibited him- self to the boys in the academy and others, and laughed and made sport of the whole matter." This account of Cartaban's, however, omits, an will be noticed, all reference to the assault which, the secretary says, was made on Lynn's house several days afterwards.

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

and one gun was discharged, not, however, it is be- lieved, with a design to do execution." Findley, and other apologists for the acts of the insurgents on this and other occasions, carries the idea that the sole cause of the firing on the marshal was that he was accompanied by Gen. Neville. Miller, it is said, afterwards told H. H. Brackenridge that "he was mad with passion when he reflected that being obliged to pay two hundred and fifty dollars and the expenses of going to Philadelphia would ruin him, and his blood boiled at seeing Gen. Neville along to pilot the officer to his very door." After being fired on by the party of men, who were from a harvest-field near by, the marshal and Gen. Neville pursued their way unmolested, the former going to Pittsburgh, and the latter to his home at Bower Hill.

This attack proved to be but the prelude to one of the most daring outrages committed during the con- tinuance of the insurrection. The service of the writs by the marshal had greatly incensed the disaffected people ; and the feeling against Gen. Neville had been increased threefold in its bitterness by his appearance with Maj. Lenox at William Miller's. At the time when the two United States officers came to Miller's house there was some kind of a military gathering being held not far away, at the Mingo Creek Meeting- house. Precisely what was the nature and object of this gathering does not appear. One account says it was a rendezvous of the Mingo Creek regiment, which had met there "in order to form a select corps of militia as their quota of the eighty thousand men required by the Government by act of Congress." Findley says, "Doctor Beard [Dr. Absalom. Baird], the brigade inspector for Washington County, was there hearing appeals made by some of a battalion which had been called upon for its proportion of the eighty thousand men required." But the cause of the meet- ing is immaterial. There were present at the Mingo Creek Meeting-house at the time mentioned a large number of militiamen belonging to Col. Hamilton's "Mingo Creek Battalion," of whom more than fifty had their firearms with them. While they were so gathered, but just as they were about to separate and return to their homes, the announcement was made to them (probably by William Miller, on whom the process had been served that afternoon) "that the Federal sheriff (as they styled the marshal) had been serving writs in Allegheny County and carrying the people to Philadelphia for not complying with the excise laws, and that he was then at Gen. Neville's house." This announcement created among the mi- litiamen an intense excitement, and a determination to take vengeance on the marshal and the inspector. During the night a party was made up, numbering thirty-seven 1 armed men, including their leader, John

1 This is the number given by Brackenridge. N. B. Craig says the party was nearly one hundred strong. Findley says, " Between thirty and forty flew instantly to their arms and marched towards Mr. Neville's, about twelve miles distant, where they appeared early the next morning."

Holcroft (the reputed original Tom the Tinker), and before daylight on the following morning they marched from Mingo, taking the road leading to Neville's house, which was about twelve miles dis- tant.

Gen. Neville's "Bower Hill" estate was on Char- tiers Creek, about seven miles in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh. The mansion, situated on the highlands which rise from the creek bottoms, was large, and for those days an exceedingly elegant and aristocratic one. In its rear and upon one of its flanks were the outhouses, and several small build- ings occupied by the negroes of the Neville family. Taken together, the " Bower Hill" establishment was the finest and most imposing to be found at that time in Pennsylvania south of the Monongahela. Before this mansion, at an early hour in the morning of the 16th of July, appeared the armed party from Mingo Creek, with John Holcroft at their head. Marshal Lenox was not at Neville's, as they supposed, having gone to Pittsburgh the previous evening, as before mentioned. Gen. Neville had intended to ride to town that morning, but when nearly ready to set out he espied the approaching party, and surmising their purpose he postponed the journey and immediately made preparations for defense. When Holcroft's party came up they found the house closed and bolted against them; but Gen. Neville boldly appeared at an upper window and demanded to know the purpose of their visit. An evasive and "suspicious" answer being given by the party outside, "they were without further provocation fired on from the house, and after returning the fire they were fired on by the negroes from the adjoining buildings." This quotation is from Findley, who in this instance, as in all others, did his best to show that the insurgents were the injured party rather than aggressors. Another ac- count is to the effect that Holcroft's party having demanded the surrender of Neville's commission and official papers, and being answered by a peremptory refusal, first fired on the house and received in return from the inmates (including the negroes) so prompt and vigorous a volley that they became intimidated and withdrew to reorganize, gather reinforcements, and return with augmented numbers to carry out their original design.

In this first attack on Neville's house no one was killed on either side. After the departure of Hol- croft's party, Gen. Neville rode to Pittsburgh, and there communicated the events of the morning to his brother-in-law, Maj. Kirkpatrick, who, in view of the probability of another attack, advised him to obtain assistance from the garrison of the fort at Pittsburgh. Application to that effect was made to Maj. Butler, the commandant, who thereupon de- tailed a subordinate officer and ten men for the pur- pose. Neville then returned to his house, and did what was practicable to put it in a condition of defense against the expected attack. Kirkpatrick came up

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afterwards with the eleven soldiers from the garri- son.

When Holcroft's party retired from Neville's they returned to Mingo Creek, narrating to all whom they saw (doubtless with much exaggeration) the events of their visit to Neville's. The indignation of the insurgents and their sympathizers was great, and a large force was raised without delay to rendezvous during the succeeding night at Couch's fort, a few miles from Neville's house. At that place, on the morning of the 17th of July, there were assembled nearly five hundred men, most of them fully armed and prepared for that which all understood to be the object of the gathering, an attack on Neville. The greater part of these men were from Mingo Creek and that vicinity, but there were also many from the set- tlements farther north and west.1 It is related that in the midst of the excitement there appeared upon the scene a venerable clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Clark, who made an earnest appeal to the infuriated multi- tude, imploring them not to become law-breakers and criminals, and using all the power of his eloquence to dissuade them from their purpose, but in vain. After such slight organization as was thought neces- sary the insurgent force moved from the rendezvous towards Bower Hill. Its leader was James McFar- lane, who was then a major of militia, and who had previously done honorable service as a lieutenant in the war of the Revolution.

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 70

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