USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 7
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So in the case of Gutchell vs. Quilkin, at July sessions of 1773, wherein Andrew Gutchell sets forth that his servant, Joseph Quilkin, will not do his duty, but on the contrary is negligent and idle. and prays for relief against those from whom he purchased Quilkin. The court took Quilkin into its custody and issued a summons against Robert Meek, Alexander Bowling and William Bashers, to appear at the next session of the court and give sufficient reasons for selling Quilkin as a servant.
In April sessions of 1779, George Godfrey sets forth by petition that he had been bought as a servant by Edward Lindsey, and by Lindsey sold to Edmund Price, and by Price sold to William Newell, and that the term of his servitude had expired, etc. The court heard the testimony, and where- as William Newell, the last purchaser, was not in court to defend his claim to a longer service, they discharged Godfrey from further services.
After the destruction of Hannastown there were two men tried, con-
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victed and hanged there. The one was an Indian named Mamachtaga, who was defended by Hugh Henry Brackenridge, then a young lawyer. Bracken- ridge has left a complete account of the trial. The Indian was a Delaware, and, though his tribe had generally been friends to the white settlers, he was always hostile. There was a camp of Delawares on Kilbuck Island, near Pittsburgh. Mamachtaga was among them, and badly intoxicated. A man named John Smith visited the tribe, whereupon the drunken Indian fell on him with a knife and killed him. Another man named Evans was also killed before the infuriated Mamachtaga could be overpowered. The Indian was confined in the guard house, the lock-up of Pittsburg being in- secure, and it was considered unsafe to transport him to Hannastown. Our ordinary judges, competent to try other cases, had no jurisdiction in capital cases, and there was considerable delay in sending a supreme court jadge here. There were several attempts in the meantime on the part of the citizens to secure the Indian and shoot him. Our people scarcely thought that an Indian had any rights before the law. Failing in this, they tried to force Brackenridge to take an oath not to defend him. They were also afraid that his tribe would release him by force, or that he would break jail. So Robert Galbraith wrote to President Dickinson, urging him to send the properly qualified judges at once that the Indian might have a speedy trial. He also asked that the president send the death warrant along with them, to save time as he said, for there was no doubt about his conviction. The Indian gave his attorney an order on another Indian for a beaver skin as a fee and signed the order by his mark, which was the shape of a turkey-foot. His attorney exchanged the beaver skin for a blanket and some food, which he gave to the client, for his confinement was very uncomfortable. But the Indian now thought that this beaver skin satisfied the law for his crime; a good beaver skin, he reasoned, was a high price to pay for killing a white man. Judge Mckean came to Han- nastown to try him and they had great difficulty to get him to plead "not guilty"; to deny the killing was foreign to his ideas of the dignity of an Indian warrior, and moreover he had paid for the dead man with a beaver skin and how could he deny the killing? According to his belief, the killing of a white man was a badge of honor, that a warrior should boast of rather than deny. The court, however, entered his plea of "not guilty," and the case went on. The Indian challenged jurors, rejecting the cross, sour-look- ing ones, and accepting the cheerful pleasant faced men to try his case. Brackenridge defended him on the plea of drunkenness, and that he did not know what he was doing when he committed the act. This was over- ruled by the court, but when the savage was told through his interpreter that the judge would not excuse him on that account, he said he hoped the Great Spirit above would do so. The jury convicted him at once, as was predicted by Galbraith. When the interpreter told him he must die, he
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asked that sheriff Orr should shoot him instead of tomahawking him, as he expected. When about to be sentenced, he asked that the court would allow him to hunt and trap and said he would give the proceeds of his work to the family of the man he had killed. At the same time a man named Brady was sentenced to be branded on the hand with a red hot iron. To do this it was necessary to tie the hand and arm with a rope, so that a good letter could be made. The sheriff accordingly went out and brought in the rope, branding tools, etc. The Indian, not having this part interpreted, thought that he was to suffer immediately and made a great ado about it. But when he saw Brady being tied and branded he calmed down and rather enjoyed it. The judges, as was the custom then in capital cases, wore scarlet robes, and the Indian said he thought they were in some way closely connected with the Great Spirit. When in jail awaiting his sentence, the jailor's child was taken sick. The Indian said he could dig roots in the woods to cure it. So, on promising not to try to escape, he was taken to the woods, where he procured the necessary herbs from which a medicine was brewed and given to the child, which recovered. The Indian did not try to escape. When the day of the execution arrived, the Indian wanted to die like a warrior. So he was again taken to the woods, when he procured herbs and with the juice painted his face red. A simple minded white man was to be hanged on the same day, though not for murder. The gallows was erected on the hill west of Hannastown, known to this day as Gallows Hill. It was made of two logs planted in the ground and a third log for a cross piece. A rope hung from the center of the cross-piece, and a ladder leaned against it. The prisoner to be hanged was taken up the ladder, the rope adjusted and then the ladder removed. The hands of the prisoner were tied so he could not grasp the ladder. The white man was hanged first, and the execution passed off all right. But the Indian, being a large heavy man, broke the rope and fell to the ground. As soon as he recovered he rose to his feet with a smile on his face. Another rope was pro- cured and both ropes were used. So he was strangled to death. With his last words he asked that his tribe should not go to war to avenge his death. The white man should have been sent to an insane asylum, but there were none such to send him to.
So long as St. Clair remained prothonotary, with James Brison as office deputy, the records are well kept. Had they continued it would have been well for the early history of the county. But St. Clair resigned and entered the Revolution in 1775, and after him came Michael Huffnagle. During his encumbency the records are very poorly kept, and many of them are lost. This may have, in part, resulted from the exigencies of the times, for they were often secreted from the maranding Indians. St. Clair took them to Ligonier for safe keeping at his home several times. During the Revolutionary period the records are the most meager. There is noth- ing to show, for instance, that Hannastown, the county seat, was destroyed,
.
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
nor that the county seat was removed to Greensburg. After some two years of service Huffnagle went to war as captain of the Eighth Battalion, and took the records with him, regarding them as private property. It is probable that he based this claim on the theory that with his own and not the public money, he had purchased the journals, dockets, etc. Many de- mands were made of him for them, but he refused to deliver them up. Finally the matter was carried to Thomas Wharton, president of the Su- preme Executive Council, for the urgent needs of the Westmoreland people demanded their immediate restitution. President Wharton laid the matter before Gen. Washington in a letter urging its necessity, and asking that Washington order Huffnagle to appear before the council to give the reason for their detention. (See Pa. Archives). Huffnagle then, to save his good name with Gen. Washington, delivered them up. The idea of an officer of a county retaining his records was not entirely uncommon. The abuse grew until 1804. when a law was passed making it obligatory, under a heavy pen- alty for disobedience, for the outgoing officer to deliver all records to his successor.
By the Act of March Ist, 1780, African slavery, the third species of ser- vitude to which we referred, was to be abolished gradually in Pennsylvania. "Those who care to read the text of this act will find much to admire in it, for it is indeed a model in its expression of humane principles, and in its diction it is surpassed by nothing in our legislative enactments. It pro- vided, among other things, that any one who held negroes or mulattoes as slaves, should file in the office of the clerk of the quarter sessions court his own name, residence, etc., and a list of the names of all his slaves, and give the age and sex of each slave. The clerk entered these lists on the journal, and they are therefore well preserved. There were two hundred three slave holders who filed lists, but some of them owned only one slave. The entire number of slaves then reported was six hundred ninety-five of whom three hundred forty-two were male negroes, three hundred forty-nine were females, and four whose sex is not given. Eleven were listed as mulattos. The names of the slave-owners comprise our wealthiest and best people, and among others, are two clergymen. They lived mostly in the southern part of the country. When the law was passed many of the slaveholders who owned larger numbers moved to Maryland, or Virginia, and took their slaves with them. for this they had a right to do.
At this time George Washington owned land in the county near Jacob's creek, and his agent, Valentine Crawford, worked it, in part at least, with slaves or redemptioners owned by Washington. In a letter to Washington dated at Jacob's creek, July 27, 1774, he says :
"Dear Colonel: On Sunday evening or Monday morning, one of the most orderly men I thought I had ran away and has taken a horse and other things. I have sent you an advertisement of him. * I have sold all the men but two and I believe
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I should have sold them but the man who is run away had a very sore foot, which was cut with an axe and John Smith was not well of the old disorder he had when he left your house. I sold Peter Miller and John Wood to Mr. Edward Cook for 45 pounds, the money to be applied to building your mill. I sold Thomas McPherson and his wife and James Howe to Major John McCulloch and Jones Ennis for 65 pounds, payable in six months from date. To my brother I sold William Luke, Thomas White and the boy John Knight. He is to pay you for them or if you open up your plantation down the Ohio, below Wheeling, he is to return them to you. * *
* I should have sold all of the servants agreeable to your letter if I could have got cash or good pay for them, but the confusion of the times put it out of my power. I went down to Fort Pitt a day or two and two of my own servants ran away. I followed them and caught them at Bedford and brought them back. While I was gone two of your servants stole a quantity of bacon and so I sold them at once."
The following is a copy of the advertisement referred to in the above letter from Crawford to Washington :
FIVE POUNDS REWARD.
Run away from the subscriber, living on Jacob's creek near Stewart's Crossing, in Westmoreland County, Pa., on Sunday night the 24th instant, a convict servant man named William Orr, the property of Col. George Washington. He is a well made man, about five feet ten inches high, and about twenty-four years of age. He was born in Scotland and speaks that dialect pretty much. He is of a red complexion and very full- taced with short sandy colored hair, and very remarkable thumbs, they both being crooked. He had on and took with him, an old felt hat bound with black binding, one white cotton- coat and jacket with black horn buttons, one old brown jacket, one pair of snuff colored breeches, one pair of trousers made in sailor fashion and they are made of sail duck, and have not been washed, a pair of red leggins, and shoes tied with strings, two Osnabary shirts and one Holland shirt marked V. C. which he stole, and a blanket.
He stole likewise black horse about fourteen hands high, branded on the near shoulder and buttock R. W. and shod before. He had neither bridle nor saddle that we know of. I expect he will make to some sca-port town as he has been much used to the seas. Who- ever takes up said servant and secures him so that he and horse may be had again, shall receive the above reward, or three pounds for the man alone and reasonable charges if brought home paid by me.
All masters of vessels are forbid taking him out of the country on their peril.
July 25, 1774.
VAL. CRAWFORD. For Col. George Washington
By the Act of March 1, 1780, and its supplements, children born to slaves owned in Pennsylvania were to be free when they arrived at the age of twenty-eight years. Likewise, slaves brought into Pennsylvania from other states under covenant could not be held after they reached the age of twenty-eight. It provided also that if the master refused or neglected
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
to register his slaves, the slaves should go free. In 1798 there were twelve slaves in Hempfield township, which then embraced Greensburg. In 1801 the number of slaves in the county was one hundred thirty six, but part of this reduction was due to the fact that Allegheny and Fayette counties had been carved out of our former territory, but were with us when the registration was made. In 1810 there were twenty-one slaves, and in 1820 only seven. One slave, a female, was reported in 1840, she being the last in the county.
Slaves were often sold at public outcry in the streets of Greensburg. There was a regular auction block on the court house square, and from it the negroes were "knocked down" to the highest bidder. Sheriff Perry sold a number of slaves which had been seized for debt, selling them from this auction block. As late as 1817 George Armstrong, Greensburg's first chief burgess, auctioned off a negro girl who belonged to a client of his.
White men and women known as Redemptioners were also sold from the auction block in Greensburg. The last sale of this kind of which we have any record occurred March 5, 1819.
CHAPTER V
The Boundary between Virginia and Pennsylvania .- Dunmore's War.
It would be unprofitable to go further into our county's history without some further knowledge of the Virginia and Pennsylvania boundary trou- bles. To refresh the memory of the reader, we will say that Virginia claimed all territory west of the Monongahela river, at least, and many claimed that the crest of Laurel Hill was the line. The latter claim would have thrown all of our present county in Virginia, and the former a large part of the territory as it then existed. This boundary question had been agitated almost constantly for twenty years. As long as the territory lay unsettled or was not being sold by the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, the boundary question did not demand. an immediate adjustment. But when Westmoreland county was erected, that part which Virginia most coveted, the land at the forks of the rivers and Fort Pitt, was included in Westmore- land county, and under the dominion of the Proprietary government. Vir- ginia must therefore assert her claims and defend them or retire from the field.
She had long since laid claim to it openly under Governor Spotswood, Dinwiddie had sent Washington to look after it in 1753. She had furnished about all the fighting element in Braddock's army. Furthermore, the Pro- prietaries of Pennsylvania, when asked to furnish soldiers to repel the French, replied that they were not certain that the French at Fort Du- quesne were on their territory. Yet in 1752 Governor Thomas Penn in- structed his soldiers to assist Virginia, to construct a fort at the forks of the river, but to do nothing which would injure his claims to the territory.
Christopher Gist, a very bold and enterprising Virginia pioneer, made a survey of the region and assumed that the territory was in Virginia, though he then lived in what is now Fayette county, Pennsylvania.“ On this survey, on February 19, 1754, Governor Dinwiddie granted large bodies of land about the forks of the Ohio. The question might have been easily settled then, for Dinwiddie and Governor Hamilton, who succeeded Penn, were in a friendly correspondence in which both claimed the territory. The French and Indian war required them to unite their strength, and the
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
contention about it was for a time laid aside. When the question finally came up many of our best citizens took sides with Virginia, because they had purchased lands from Virginia, and had come here expecting still to reside in Virginia.
England had been very successful in founding colonies in America, and had fostered them in a most royal manner until 1765, when she passed the Stamp Act. The two colonies which rebelled most violently against this act were Massachusetts and Virginia. So the King of England in 1771 appointed John Murray to be governor of Virginia, a position he had held before in New York. He cared nothing for the interests of the colonists. if they in any way conflicted with the interests of the King. He was a man of strength, but was utterly without character or kindness in his make up. Many are of the opinion that he was appointed to rule Virginia with an iron hand to punish them for opposing the Stamp Act, and for the growing spirit of dissent and independence so common among her people. John Murray has been known in history as the Earl of Dunmore. The early pioneers knew him as the "hair-buyer", because he paid the Indians for scalping mothers and babies of the rebellious colonists. It is said that his heartless design was to give the colonists plenty to do to protect themselves from the Indians, and thus divert them from the growing feeling of opposition to the mother country. There is little doubt but that during the Revolu- tiony many colonists were slaughtered by his orders. There are few names in history more opprobrious in America than Dunmore.
In 1774 Dunmore determined to hold the country surrounding Fort Pitt as a part of Virginia. To represent him properly he sent an agent named John Connolly, who was a relative of his, though born in Pennsyl- vania. Connolly was highly connected by birth and marriage. He had been on terms of real intimacy with Washington, Gage, Johnson, (Sir William), Sir Guy Carleton, etc. In January, 1774, he took possession of Pittsburg, and raised an army along the banks of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers. He at once changed the name of the fort to Fort Dunmore. He called the militia together, ostensibly to fight Indians, but in reality to fight for Virginia. His army was composed only of the worst men in the community. In marching through the country they stole horses, and shot down domestic animals in a wanton spirit of destruction. For these acts. and for his most flagrant usurpation, St. Clair had him arrested and brought before him as a justice at Ligonier, from which place he was sent to the new jail in Hannastown. He gave bail, and when released went to Staunton, Virginia, where Dunmore appointed him a justice, and, on the supposition that Virginia included this territory, he had a right to act under this appointment, either in Pittsburg or Hannastown, that is, that they were both in Augusta county, Virginia. This section was called the West Augusta district. When he returned with this show of authority he was more aggressive and inhuman than ever. Court was to assemble in April
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
in Hannastown, and he came there with one hundred fifty armed men. Some of these he stationed at the door, and refused to allow the justices to enter. He also had a sheriff appointed to keep the peace. His claim was that no one could derive any authority from the Provincial government, this power being lodged in Virginia, the rightful owners of this territory, and that it was now delegated to him. But the justices stood on their rights, and were accordingly arrested by Connolly. They refused to enter bail, whereupon he sent them in irons and under a guard to Staunton, Virginia, the county seat of Augusta county. Justice Mackay gained per- mission to go to Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, to lay the matter before Dunmore. Shortly after this the imprisoned justices were set free, and came home. St. Clair reported these outrages regularly to the Penns, and his correspondence as preserved in the archieves of the state, is the basis of all history that has yet been written on this subject.
The council of Pennsylvania now sent two representatives-James Tilghman and Andrew Allen-to Virginia. They were directed to ask that both Virginia and Pennsylvania petition the King of England to determine the boundary in dispute, and that till this was done a temporary line be agreed upon. Dunmore, after hearing them, dismissed them haughtily. and nothing came of the conference except to make Connolly much more impudent and oppressive in his action than before.
All this, as may be supposed, greatly unsettled our people. Moreover, no new settler wanted to locate in such a district, and the price of land was greatly decreased. Then an Indian outbreak was daily feared. This was threatened by the Indians, but the objective point of the proposed raid was Virginia, and not that part of this section which belonged to Pennsylvania, for all of the Proprietaries' territory was included in the new purchase of 1768, and the Indians seemed to intend to keep the treaty. Still, with the boundary in doubt, and the well known treachery of the Indians, there was great fear among the people of even the present Westmoreland territory- the prospect of being subjugated by the outrages of Connolly on the one hand, or cut down in one night by an Indian incursion. Furthermore, if Dunmore and Connolly won, their titles from Pennsylvania would be of no value, they reasoned. Under this state of affairs 'many emigrants passed on through our section, and others left, never to return, or to return only when peace was effected.
The public men of the county did all in their power to induce the citi- zens to remain and fight it out. Many farmers, however, did not put out their spring crops, expecting to be driven from the locality before they would ripen. Many crops when grown were left unharvested in the fields. Connolly's bandit gang, seemingly through a spirit of wanton destruction, had burned fences for miles east of Pittsburg, and live stock had strayed away or was shot down by this lawless band of pretended soldiers. In May and June public meetings were held at various places over the country,
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to make manifest by petitions to the Governor of Pennsylvania the real conditions of affairs, and to ask for his assistance. These petitions, in ad- dition to setting forth the outrageous conduct of Connolly's army, indicated a general fear of an Indian outbreak. They came from Allen's block- house, near the mouth of Crabb Tree, from Fort Shippen, at Sheriff Proctor's, near Latrobe, from Pittsburg, and from other sections of the country. They set forth their troubles and distress as indicated above.
The justices, perhaps, became emboldened by being sent home from the Staunton prison, and at once endeavored to hold court in defiance of Connolly. Then his soldiers by his orders broke into their houses and in- sulted them in every way. This made a demand for a new militia com- posed of our best people, to unite and resist Connolly's forces. It had some good results, but still he and Cressaps, his chief lieutenant, rode roughshod over the country and assaulted men, particularly the justices and other conservators of the law. He waylaid a horse laden with gunpowder sent by William Spear for the use of the settlers. It is hard to overdraw the situation, if we rely on the reports made at that time. Connolly was little else than a drunken outlaw, with considerable shrewdness as a leader of desperadoes. His men were glad to emulate these examples. They had all the whisky they could drink, and their only duty seemed to be to steal enough from day to day to subsist on. Dunmore himself came out in September. He established land offices, though none in this county, set up. courts, etc., and demanded submission on the part of all who resided west of Laurel Hill, as the price of peace.
The Proprietaries recognized Arthur St. Clair as the leader in West- moreland, and left all military defense to him. He at once collected the militia from all directions, and supplied all the ablebodied farmers with firearms. His instructions were that they should be ready at the first out- break to fly to each other's assistance. Stockades and blockhouses were erected in every settlement when there were sufficient people to justify it, The old fort at Ligonier was repaired. Among the new ones built were Fort Shippen, Fort Allen, and one at John Shield's, on the Loyalhanna, about six miles from Hannastown. St. Clair also raised an organization at Fort Ligonier called the Rangers. Of these thirty were posted at Hannastown, twenty at Proctor's, twenty at Ligonier, and the rest, about forty, were sent to what is now Allegheny county.
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