USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > History of Washington County : from its first settlement to the present time, first under Virginia as Yohogania, Ohio, or Augusta County until 1781, and subsequently under Pennsylvania > Part 48
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
46
APPENDIX TO
MILLER'S BLOCK-HOUSE.
After I had consented to write the history of Washington County, I learned that my friend John C. Hupp, M. D., of Wheeling, Vir- ginia, had in his possession notes of the attack on Miller's block- house ; also of the capture, escape, and trials of Captain Jacob Miller in 1781, as well as the murder of five of Miller's friends, which he procured from the lips of his aged and venerable father. I accordingly addressed Dr. Hupp a letter, and he kindly furnished to me the following communication on the subject of Miller's block- house.
Wheeling, Va., March 31, 1861
DR. ALFRED CREIGH :-
Dear Sir : I have, at your request, elicited the following facts in rela- tion to the siege of Miller's block-house, from the lips of my aged father. He received them from those who, on this day seventy-nine years ago, were its courageous and heroie defenders.
They are are as follows: In the spring of 1782 Indian hostilities com- menced much earlier than usual along the western frontier. As early as the month of March hordes of savages were ascertaincd to have crossed the Ohio, and were making their way into the settlements.
The settlers thus threatened with the massacres, plunderings, burnings, and captivities, with which they had already become so familiar, were filled with spirit-stirring excitement, commingled with alarm.
In this predicament of apprehension and danger, the settlers along the Buffalo Valley betook themselves with their families to the forts and block- houses.
About three miles northeast of West Alexandria, on the right bank of the "Dutch Fork of Buffalo," is a peninsula formed by the meandering creek on the one side and " Miller's Run" on the other. The isthmus next to the run is skirted by a narrow strip of bottom land, which expands to many acres towards the creek and its confluence with the run. The side of the isthmus washed by the creek has a bold and precipitons bluff. On this isthmus was located "Miller's block-house,"* which was besieged by a party of about seventy Shawanese on Easter Sunday, 1782.
With their characteristic cunning and caution, the savages arrived in the vicinity the night previous, distributing themselves in ambush around the block-house and along the paths leading thercto. Thus lying concealed among the bushes or "pea vines," behind trees or fallen timber, they awaited the operation of circumstances.
The most of the men were absent from the block-house on this occasion, some of them being at Rice's Fort, which was about two miles further down the creek. Of this fact the Indians most likely were apprised, and on this account the attack on the block-house is supposed to have been deferred, and the ambush protracted, in order to destroy the men on their return to the block-house.
Of those who were in this rude shelter on that fatal Sabbath morning were John Hupp, Sr., wife and four children, Margaret, Mary, John, and Eliza-
* The block-house was located about midway between William Miller's spring and the graveyard-from this limpid fount the block-house received its supply of water.
47
, HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY.
beth ; Jacob Miller, Sr., and several of his family ; the family of Edward Gaither, and an old man named Matthias Ault.
The sun had appeared above the eastern hills, tinging with his feeble rays the summits of the lofty trees of the dense forest that surrounded this primitive place of defence. The quietude of the woods was undisturbed save by the ocasional chirp of the wooded songster, carolling his morning anthem.
One of the matrons of the block-house had fearful forebodings that some awful calamity was about to befall her husband, and followed him to the door, entreating him not to carry into execution his determination to ac- company his friend on that morning in search of a colt that had estrayed. The night previous she had dreamed that a "coppersnake" struck its fangs into the palm of her husband's hand, and that all her efforts to detach the venomous reptile were unavailing. This vision she interpreted as ominous of evil to her husband. But despite the entreaties and importunities of his wife, John Hupp, Sr., set out in company with his friend, Jacob Miller, Sr., in search of the estray.
They entered the path leading across the run and through the woods in a northeasterly direction from the block-house, and were soon out of view. Soon the quietude of the woods was disturbed by the crack of a rifle, quickly followed by a savage warwhoop issuing from that portion of the forest into which Hupp and Miller had just entered.
This alarm filled the minds of the women with consternation and appre- hensions as to their fate. But Hupp being in the prime and vigor of man- hood, fleet and athletic (if not merely overpowered with numbers), his quick return to the block-house was confidently expected by the inmates. But he had fallen a victim to the foe that lay concealed patiently awaiting the approach of some ill-fated person.
The two unsuspecting men had been allowed to follow the ambushed path as far as the second little ravine on land, now owned by William Miller. Here, from his concealment behind fallen timber, a savage fired upon Hupp, wounding him mortally ; he, however, after he was shot, ran some sixty or seventy yards and sank to rise no more. Miller, being an elderly man, was boldly rushed upon by the merciless wretches, with loud and exultant yells, and tomahawked on the spot.
Flushed with success, the savages now left their hapless victims, scalped and pilfered of all clothing, to join in the beleaguerment of the block-house.
While this tragic scene was being enacted, the wild excitement and con- fusion among the women and children at the block-house, with no male defender but the old man Ault, can be better imagined than described.
But at this trying moment Providence panoplied a female hero with a courage sufficiently unfaltering for the dire emergency, in the person of Ann Hupp. Having now realized the dread forebodings of her vision, and shaking off the shackles of despondency, she now turned to calm the moral whirlwind that was raging amongst the frantic women and children-to inspire them with hope, and to rally the only and infirm male defender.
She in the mean time had deputed Frederick Miller, an active lad aged about eleven years, as messenger to Rice's fort for aid. But in this strategy she was foiled ; for the lad had gone willingly and heroically only a few hun- dred yards down the peninsula on his dangerous embassy, when he was intercepted by the Indians. Retracing his steps, he was pursued by two savages with hideous yells and uplifted tomahawks. This frightful race for life was witnessed from the block-house with anxiety the most intense. Every moment it seemed as though the lad would certainly fall beneath the
48
APPENDIX TO
deadly stroke of one of the two bloodthirsty pursuers, each vieing with the other which should strike the first and fatal blow.
A fence was to be scaled by the boy without a blunder, or death-cer- tain, instant death-was his doom. Summoning all his boyhood and failing strength he leaped the barrier fence, touching it merely with his hand as the foremost Indian's tomahawk struck the rail, accompanied with a yell of disappointment, when both savages fired at him.
In his struggle to escape, his arm being flexed, one of the balls took effect, passing through his flexed arm both above the elbow and between that joint and the wrist, whirling him around several times.
Now subdued shrieks, commingled with joy and terror, were heard in the block-house as the female hero who sent out the boy ambassador received him in her arms as he bounded to the door exhausted from the race and loss of blood.
At this moment the Indians, leaping from their concealment, appeared in every direction around the block-house, and a hot and continuous firing commenced. The female band, with Ault as their counsellor, in despair and anguish were forced to the conclusion that the block-house would now soon be taken by storm, or envelop them in its flames, and with no hope of a successful resistance were about to " give up."
Again, in this crisis of terrible trial, Ann Hupp proved equal to the emergency. Encouraging the trembling Ault and the weeping women with the consoling language of hope-nerving her arm and steeling her heart to the severe duties of the moment, she, with true Spartanism, snatching up a rifle fired at the approaching savages, aud then " ran from porthole to port- hole," protruding its muzzle in different directions-to convey the idea of great forces in the house-at each presentation causing the savages to cower behind trees or other objects for protection. This happily conceived and promptly executed strategy of this pioneer heroine, without doubt, saved the inmates from what was otherwise inevitable-an immediate and horrible death.
A number of Indians had taken shelter behind a stable that stood not far from the block-house; emboldened by their firing not being promptly returned from the block-house, one of them would occasionally step out to view, holding up before himself as a shield a " clap-board," and then quickly retreat again to his shelter. He at length stepped out boldly into an open space, defiantly stretching his savage frame high in air, at which Ault was prevailed upon to fire; but palpably without doing any harm. This exas- perated the savages, causing the assault to become still more terrible.
At this stage of the siege the women saw and recognized three of their men approaching in great haste from the direction of Rice's Fort, when they commenced screaming at the top of their voices, and beckoning the men in the direction they supposed to be the safest point to pass the Indians in gaining the block-house.
While the Indians stood in confusion and wonderment, not comprehend- ing the meaning of the screams, the men rushed forward, passing very near to where some of the savages stood, and before the Indians sufficiently recovered from their surprise to fire upon them, they, with faces red and turgid from the race, bounded into the block-house unscathed.
The names of these three daring spirits, who thus perilled their lives to save their helpless mothers, brothers, and sisters from savage fury, or perish with them, were Jacob Rowe, Jacob Miller, Jr., and Philip Hupp. One of these, Jacob Rowe, being about ten years old, in the fall of 1776, when in company with his mother aud three brothers, and his father, Adam- Rowe, on their way to Kentucky, made a hair-breadth escape from the In
49
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY.
dians at a point not far from the mouth of Grave Creck. Here the little caravan was attacked by a party of marauding savages, who killed Mrs. Rowe and her oldest son, and took captive Daniel, the youngest child, aged about seven years. Jacob escaped by running into a thicket of willows near at hand, when closely pursued by a large muscular Indian, who had his little brother Daniel a captive on his back, and this is the last account ever heard of the captive boy. After his escape Jacob, trembling with fear, travelled all the day stealthily through the wild and dense woods, along the deep and dark hollows and over the precipitous hills lying in his way, back to Buffalo, and when nightfall overtook him with all its hideousness, in the midst of the deep woods, he, overcome with fright, fatigue, and hunger, nestled himself down amongst the leaves at the root of a fallen tree for the night. (He died with a throat affection which doubtless was founded on that, to him, cold, dread, and dreary November night.) The next day he arrived at Buffalo and was received into the arms of his sister, Ann Hupp, to whom the weeping lad related the tragic scenes he had witnessed on the previous morning.
Adam Rowe and his son Adam also returned to the neighborhood and afterwards went to Kentucky; but Jacob remained with his sister, and was her survivor some three or four years.
After the arrival of these men in the block-house, the fury and boldness of the savages somewhat abated, and during the rest of the day the firing was less frequent and finally ceased.
Evidently filled with chagrin and disappointment, they skulked about the neighborhood till nightfall, and nothing more was heard of them, they, no doubt, fearing a reinforcement, left during the night, bearing away with them only the scalps of Hupp and Miller. After the loss of her husband, Mrs. Hupp and her children, in accordance with her own wish, were taken by her brother-in-law, P. Hupp, to his cabin, near where the village of Millsborough now stands, where they remained four years, and again returned to Buffalo, where, subsequently, she married John May, whom she survived several years, and on the 23d day of June, 1823, died in the sixty- sixth year of her age. Two of her children, John Hupp and Elizabeth Rodgers, still survive, and are living on Buffalo Creek, having seen the pioneer heroes and heroines of their youth one by one gathered to their fathers, they now stand the last of a race who learned from their lips those thrilling incidents of pioneer life.
The loss of these two men to the neighborhood was severely felt at a time when men were so much needed; but all hearts in that block-house were overflowing with thanks and gratitude to a kind and merciful Pre- server for vouchsafing to them his aid and protection when their great and terror-filling peril was impending, and for saving them from the ruthless hands of the merciless savages.
About noon on Monday the men ventured out from the block-house, going sadly and cautiously in search of Hupp and Miller, with the purpose of performing for them the last sad rites of the dear departed. About three hundred yards from the block-house they found the body of Miller, lying near the bloody path, and following the traces of blood on the leaves and other objects over which Hupp had run, his body was promptly discovered.
'Their mutilated and frozen bodies were borne to the peninsula and laid side by side a few yards from the block-house, in the same grave, with " puncheons" for their coffin, and to-day are lying clustered around the grave of these two pioneers the remains of Jacob Rowe, Jacob Miller, Jr. (Capt.), Frederick Miller, the heroine Ann Hupp, and her daughter Marga- ret Titus. When living, the cement and panoply of affection and good-
50
APPENDIX TO
will bound them together at once in the tender natal, social, and moral ties of domestic kindness, friendship, and love, and the union for defence, and when dead they are not separated.
Frederick and Capt. Jacob were sons of the unfortunate Jacob Miller, Sr. Frederick died on the 27th day of March, 1814, aged forty-three years, and Captain Jacob Miller died August 20, 1830, aged nearly sixty-eight years.
Obediently and truly yours, JOHN C. HUPP, M. D.
Wheeling, Va., December 20, 1862.
DR. ALFRED CREIGH :--
Dear Sir : I have at length been able to comply with the wish ex- pressed in your last letter.
I give substantially the statement of one of the captains," as received of him by my father, t namely :-
At the dawn of a fine September morning, in the year 1781, Jacob Mil- ler, Frank Hupp, and Jacob Fisher set out from Miller's block-house, on Buffalo Creek, with the double purpose of performing the dangerous duties of spies and looking after estray horses. Each had with him his trusty rifle, and equipments well supplied with powder and ball.
With alert and vigorous steps they pursued a westerly course, which soon led them beyond the reach of the most distant view of their homes and into the nearly unbroken forest lying between "The Three Ridges" (now West Alexander) and the Ohio.
Having spent the day in unsuccessful search and scouting, returning, they were overtaken by nightfall near the cabint of Jonathan Link, on Middle Wheeling Creek.
Here they turned in and were greeted with that hearty kind of welcome peculiar to backwoodsmen.
They were cordially invited to share the comforts of his fireside for the night, which was cheerfully accepted. What, in these perilous times, were their subjects of conversation during the evening, need no exercise of fancy to conjecture.
Having made their supper on Indian Johnny cake and water, with some "jerked venison," which happened to be in the cabin, they retired to their beds on the loft.
It was a bright starlight night, and all nature seemed propitious for security and repose, and had it not been for the fierce barking of their dogs, no danger would have been apprehended. The men conjectured that the disturbance kept up by the dogs augured more than merely the prox- imity of wolves, or the hooting of owls, which could be heard occasionally in different parts of the deep woods that surrounded the cabin.
Link, in his anxiety to render his guests contented in the enjoyment of
* Capt. Jacob Miller, who, in 1782, distinguished himself at the sieges of Rice's fort and Miller's block-house.
John Hupp, who, when about two years of age, was in Miller's block-house dur- ing its siege.
# About three miles south of West Alexander, on the right bank of Middle Whee- Iing Creek, and on land now owned by Robert Erskine, Esq., was the site of Link's cabin. We were recently piloted, by S. M. Bell, Esq., and the venerable William Porter, Sr., to the spot where, eighty-one years ago, this rude cabin stood. Traces of its ruins are still to be seen. It stood just a few feet east of the West Virginia line
.
51
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY.
his hospitality, affected indifference, hoping to allay their apprehensions of danger.
But notwithstanding one or other of the party seemed to employ his time alternately in disturbed rest, and then, with anxious solicitude for their safety, casting watchful glances around the cabin, or gazing around the opening, and on the warlike masses of forest which loomed up dimly against the skylight, seeming to inclose it in far-stretching mountain ramparts. But no visible danger could be discovered.
At length the chirping of the wood birds and the peculiar chill and ruffling of the air, which are always the precursors of approaching day, announced that the dawn was close at hand. The hooting of the owls had ceased, and the dogs lay in slumber curled down near the cabin door.
During the night a band of savages had crept cautiously and inaudibly to places of concealment near the cabin. Here they lay, ambushing the door and the path leading to the spring near by.
The men arose from their restless beds, each cheerfully acknowledging to the other that his fears of danger had been unfounded. But, alas ! how versatile and fleeting are human hopes and joys.
Hupp and Fisher, unsuspectedly opening the door, stepped down to the limpid, gurgling spring, which was but a few paces below, for the purpose of performing their morning ablutions.
Immediately a discharge of rifles issued from the covert of weeds and bushes near by, killing Fisher and mortally wounding Hupp, who ran into the cabin and up on to the loft, and while exhorting his companions not to give up, sank down into the embrace of death.
The bloodthirsty savages now rushed frantically into the cabin, demanding of the men to surrender immediately and hand down their guns, or they would fire the house and envelop them in flames.
In this awful crisis of trepidation and alarm, being overpowered by num- bers, Miller and Link had no alternative but unconditional compliance.
While their hands and arms were being firmly bound, Hupp was precipi- tated from the loft, dragged beyond the threshold, and scalped.
Pickets having been detached, the front Indians of the file facing a northeasterly direction, the noiseless march commenced, leaving the muti- lated remains of their victims to the mercy of the wild beasts.
The prisoners, with painful anxiety for their relatives and friends, now knew with certainty that the Dutch Fork settlement was doomed to speedy scalpings, captivities, and murders. A rapid march was thus continued, in profound silence, till they arrived at the summit of the ridge, now owned by Charles Rodgers, Esq., and immediately east of his present residence.
Here they were met by the returning pickets, and a halt ensued. At this place leaving a guard with the prisoners, the march was promptly resumed. The grand object now was to make a descent on the cabin of Presley Peak, which stratagetic move was carried into successful operation, and resulted in the capture of Peak, a man by the name of Burnet, and William Hawkins. As the relentless savages rushed with exultant yells around the cabin, Peak essayed to make his escape through a hemp patch in the rear of his cabin, amid a shower of bullets, which literally mowed down the hemp stalks around him in his speedy flight. But bounding over the rude fence unharmed by the leaden missiles, and alighting amongst the bushes that fringed the dense woods, he was intercepted and surrounded by the ubiqui- tous savage warriors at that moment springing from their covert, and he was a captive.
These three prisoners, having been securely bound, were left in charge of a guard, when a detachment of Indians started forthwith down the creek,
52
APPENDIX TO
while another party hastened to the cabin* of William Hawkins, which was about half a mile further up the creek.
Here they captured Miss Elizabeth Hawkins. She being sick at the time prevented her from making good her escape with the rest of the family, who had fled and concealed themselves in the surrounding woods.
Mrs. Hawkins lay concealed amongst the leaves and branches of a fallen tree with an infant t in her arms, which she gagged well nigh to strangula- tion with her apron, lest its cries should betray her, whilst the bloodthirsty captors of her husband and daughter passed within a few feet of where she lay, undiscovered, in agonizing terror and trepidation.
And what is a remarkable fact, her little dog that had followed her to her place of concealment, crouched quietly quivering by her side while the Indians were passing !
The party going down the creek were less successful in their predatory incursion upon the cabin of Edward Gaither, which stood at the forks of the creek, near the spot where now stands the residence of John Cain, Esq.
With their accustomed caution, they approached the cabin in all direc- tions, with an apparent certainty of again having an opportunity of carry- ing into successful execution their murderous and marauding purposes ; but in this instance they were foiled.
At the moment of the attack on Peak and his comrades, it being less than a mile up the bottom from the confluence of the streams and in hear- ing of the guns, the Gaither's family was about to be seated for dinner when, alarmed by the rapid firing, they immediately betook themselves to the Miller block-house.
The Indians, however, did ample justice to the untouched and still smoking edibles left on the table, which to them was an acceptable and bounteous repast. And having pillaged the house of such articles as they wished to carry along with them, set fire to it, aud hastened with their plun- der to the rendezvous on the ridge, where they were soon joined by the other party and its prisoners.
The feelings of the prisoners, father, daughter, and neighbors, brought thus in their distressing helplessness face to face, in the deep and wild woods under such trying circumstances of terror and apprehension, can be much more readily imagined than described.
Some of the exultant savages gave vent to their feelings by grotesque contortions of countenance and gyrations of body. They whooped, and danced, and sung-now chiming the warwhoop in concert, and then utter- ing yells of triumph. Whilst others gave evidence of hatred and malignity of purpose, by derisive looks and gestures towards some of the prisoners, and by jerking from their roots the hairs of their heads.
Hawkins and Burnett were the special sufferers from these demonstra- tions, the former having red hair and the latter having a superabundance of hair about his person, which characteristics are notoriously repulsive to savage taste.
These demonstrations were interpreted by the prisoners as the precursors of untold horrors yet in reservation.
Contrary to savage custom as to the treatment of the generality of pri-
* Hawkins' cabin stood a few feet south of where the National Road is now located, near the foot of what is known as " Hawkins' Hill," on land now owned by John Conner, Esq. The stable on the north of the road, here, was constructed of the logs from the ancient cabin.
t This infant was William Hawkins, who was County Surveyor of Washington County about the year 1820.
53
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY.
soners in such an emergency, though being faint and fecble from fright and sickness, and unable to keep pace with the Indians in their hurried march, the fair Miss Hawkins was retained a prisoner and treated with the utmost indulgence and decorum. Such was her feebleness and trepidation for the moment, that she fell from the horse on which the Indians had seated her; but with their characteristic indulgence and decorous forbearance, with which " they are universally seen to treat captive women," she was kindly reseated on the animal, and hurried forward far in advance of the other prisoners.
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.