History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 23

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372

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Says an able writer, "no more gratified and impressive powers of sacred eloquence have been heard in America or England than those which proceeded from the lips of Jesse Kersey."

CHAPTER IX SCOTCH-IRISH

Immigration to America-Customs and Habits-Scotch-Irish in Lower End- Migration Westward-Marsh Creek Set- tlement.

The Scotch-Irish were Scotch and English people who had gone to Ireland to take up the estates of Irish rebels confis- cated under Queen Elizabeth and James I. This same James, who was King of Scot- land as James VI., encouraged his Presby- terian subjects to emigrate to Ireland and occupy the confiscated lands. The migra- tion was numerous, and began in the early part of the seventeenth century, about seventy-five years before the founding of Pennsylvania. Towards the middle of the same century the confiscation of Irish lands by Cromwell increased the emigration to still greater proportions, and after this many Englishmen joined the movement.

These people, English and Scotch, who occupied Ireland in this way have usually been known in England as Ulstermen, and in America as Scotch-Irish, and are, of course, totally different in character as well as in religion from the native Irish. Even those who came to Ireland from Scotland were not Celtic Scotch, but people of English stock who had been living for many generations in Scotland, so that neither the name Ulstermen nor the name Scotch-Irish is at all descriptive of them.

They became famous in history for their heroic defence of Londonderry against James II. They were more thrifty and in- telligent than the native Irish. They took the land on long leases, and began to make it blossom like a garden. They were, how- ever, soon put to a severe test by the perse- cutions of Charles I., who, after coming to the English throne in 1625, attempted to force the Scotch people in Scotland and Ire- land to conform to the Church of England. At the same time the native Irish rose to expel the Scotch, and succeeded in killing a few thousand. So between their two per- secutors these settlers,. already sturdy from their race and religion, were not without the additional discipline of suffering and martyrdom.

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Many of them immigrated to America, especially when the Immigration to America. long leases on which they held the Irish land began to expire. The movement began about the year 1700 and continued for forty or fifty years. Some of them went to Maryland and a great many went to Virginia, where they still constitute a distinct element in the population. In Virginia, as elsewhere, most of them sought the frontier. In fact, in colonial times, they could be found on the whole American frontier from New Hamp- shire to Georgia. They did not. however, all settle along the frontier of Pennsylvania. Many of them remained in the southeastern portion of the province, settling in Phila- delphia and the southern parts of Chester and Lancaster Counties, where they soon took position among the leading citizens of that region. A colony of Scotch-Irish took up the valuable lands at Donegal, north of Columbia, in Lancaster County. Another body of bold frontiersmen settled at Paxton, below the site of Harrisburg.

When the land west of the Susquehanna was purchased from the Indians by a treaty made with the Five Nations in 1736, the Scotch-Irish migrated across the river in vast numbers. As early as 1742 many of them located in the western part of York County, now included in the County of Adams. This was known as the "Marsh Creek settlement," and its people were among the most enterprising west of the river. Meantime, as will be mentioned in the succeeding pages of this chapter, many Scotch-Irish crossed the Susquehanna at the Peach Bottom ferry and took up lands in the southeastern section of York County, beginning as early as 1733. The

hanna at Harris's Ferry and took up the fertile lands then known in the Colonial Records as "The Valley of the Kittatin- ney," and later as the Cumberland Valley. Within a few years this productive region was populated almost exclusively by intelli- gent Presbyterians, who had come to Penn- sylvania from the north of Ireland. Some of these extended their settlements into the northwestern part of York County, where they formed the Monaghan settlement around the site of Dillsburg.

Being asked by the proprietaries of Penn-

sylvania to occupy the frontier, the Scotch- Irish eagerly accepted the invitation. They were not quick to follow the precepts of William Penn or practice his method of treating with the Indians. They preferred the musket to the pipe of peace, and as a result of their bold antagonism to the red men, they helped to bring on the border warfare, which caused considerable blood- shed among the settlers in central Pennsyl- vania, even before the French and Indian war, which spread consternation through all the interior parts of the province. Even James Logan, a Scotch-Irishman himself, while serving as secretary of the province, made the declaration that "there are too many Scotch-Irish on the frontier already, who incite the Indians to warfare, and cause abundant troubles to the authorities of the province." The stream of migration passed through Cumberland County and the west- ern part of York County into Virginia, where many Germans and Scotch-Irish early in its settlement occupied that long and fertile region known as the Shenandoah Valley.

When the French and Indian

Their war opened, the people of this

Patriotism. race in Pennsylvania were quick to respond to the call

for troops. These American soldiers having had experience with Indian warfare, even taught the British regulars how to fight the aborigines. There were two com- panies of York County troops in the battle near Fort Duquesne, where Braddock was defeated, in 1756, and another company of sixty men from York County were among the bravest of the soldiers who, under Gen- eral Armstrong, defeated the French and Indians at Kittanning, a short distance Scotch-Irish also flocked across the Susque- northeast of Pittsburg, on the Allegheny River.

When the Revolution opened in 1775, the Scotch-Irish from the Marsh Creek settle- ment, southeastern and other sections of York County, were among the first to offer their services to establish a new country, " conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." They came to York, organized themselves into military companies and marched to Boston immediately after hearing of the Battle of Bunker Hill. In the picturesque costume of their hunting dress, these

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courageous frontiersmen attracted the at- civilization. These frolics were the delight tention of all the American soldiers around of young and old, and were the only gather- Boston, and they were the first to offer their services to Washington in order to find out the position of the British redoubts on Breed's Hill, near where the battle had just been fought. Two companies of Scotch- Irish from York County, in 1775, joined the expedition to Canada, and during the whole period of the Revolution their patriotism and their valor were shown in all the cam- paigns that won triumph to the American cause and gained the freedom of the United States. ings at which there was not the labor of reaping, log-rolling, building a cabin, or planning some scout or campaign. The wedding company assembled at the house of the groom's father prepared to march, so as to reach the house of the bride by noon. They were dressed without the aid of a store or tailor within many miles, and their horses were also unaided by either black- smiths or saddlers. As they marched in double file along the narrow trail they were apt to be ambuscaded by surprise parties. who sprang out and fired to alarm the horses. As the cavalcade neared the bride's house, two of the young men usually started on a race to bring back the whiskey bottle, which was standing ready for them. The victor seized it and returned to pass it around among the company.

It is not easy to describe in detail the home life of the early Scotch-Irish in Penn- sylvania or in any part of the new world. They did not leave behind them church records so exact and carefully prepared as did the Quakers or Germans, but their suc- cess and their achievements in the broad field of American enterprise and develop- ment shine brightly on the pages of Ameri- can history. So far as their home life can be portrayed from traditions which have come down from several generations, and from such eminent authorities as Dr. Joseph Doddridge, who spent most of his life in central and western Pennsylvania, many of the settlers of this race were a rollicking. roystering class of people.

Sydney George Fisher, of Phila-

Customs delphia, who has written much

and of interest relating to the history

Habits. of Pennsylvania, has the follow- ing to say in reference to some of the customs and habits of the Scotch- Irish in colonial days :

" The settlers dressed in what was called a hunting shirt, a garment something like a frock coat, reaching half down the thighs and belted around the waist. The bosom was made large, and lapped over a foot or more, so as to be used as a sort of knapsack for carrying provisions. There was a cape on the shoulders, which was usually fringed. The belt carried a hatchet. scalp- ing knife and bullet-pouch. Moccasins were worn instead of shoes. Some of the men dressed their legs, like the Indians, in a breech clout, which left the thighs and hips bare, and in this costume they often went to church.

" Their wedding ceremonies were char- acteristic. and show the state of their

" The wedding dinner was beef, pork, venison, and bear's meat, and if table knives were scarce, the scalping knives were drawn from the belt and used. Immedi- ately after the dinner, the dancing com- menced, and was kept up until the next morning. As soon as one became tired an- other stepped in to take his place. Who- ever stole off to get some sleep was hunted up, dragged out on the floor, and the fiddler ordered to play 'hang on till to-morrow morning.'

" Among such people a word was quickly followed by a blow, and quarrels and fight- ings were frequent. But in these en- counters no weapons were used. They set- tled all their difficulties with their fists ; and a man who was clearly no match for his an- tagonist was allowed to employ a friend to fight for him. There was no assassination, none of that murderous shooting at sight, which has become so common on the frontiers of modern times.

" The laws passed by the colonial Legis- lature, sitting in Philadelphia, of course ap- plied to the frontier. But the distance made it difficult to administer them, and in most cases impossible. The people became a law unto themselves. had their own customs. and administered their own punishments, which usually consisted of a flogging, ad- ministered with a hickory stick by the per- son aggrieved or by the neighbors who knew about the offense. Whipping was

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also resorted to as a torture to force con- fessions of guilt.

" Besides that relic of the Middle Ages, the people showed their nearness to the old civilization of Europe by their songs and tales. Lore-telling was popular, and Jack the Giant-Killer and romances of knight errantry were favorite stories. Their songs were mostly ballads of Robin Hood. They enjoyed themselves through their hospi- tality, which was boundless, and their friendships, which were ardent. They were fond of sports, running, wrestling, and jumping, and when they had enough am- munition they shot at mark.

" After the year 1755, all these people, men, women and children, lived in a con- tinual state of war with the Indians. There were few boys so young that they could not fire a rifle through a port hole, and few women who could not cut bullet patches and carry water. It was a wild life and a rough one, but it had its compensations. The people were hardy, vigorous and full of strong animal enjoyment. They were mas- ters of their own destinies. Every one was a Jack-of-all-trades, his own blacksmith, his own carpenter, his own cooper, his own gunsmith. He himself, as well as his wife, wove the linsey cloth which they wore. Nor was it altogether a monotonous life. The continual excitement of forty years of war, and the rapid development of the interests of the Keystone state.

frontier, the growth of new settlements, the varied exertion required, left little room for sameness. Men grew old early from the privations and hardships, but they never complained that life seemed dull."

It has been too much the Distinguished Men. custom of the orators of the Scotch-Irish Congress of the United States to laud the virtues and achievements of their an- cestors. This fault might also be attributed to the members of the Pennsylvania Ger- man Society in relation to their ancestry. The conservative writer of history there- fore is more reserved in his words of com- mendation, but the marks of the progress of this race and of her representatives in York County are evident, to any one who studies in detail the annals of the past. There were three United States Senators born in York County, all of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Down by the borough of Delta, John Bannister Gibson, one of the greatest

James Ross was born in 1762. After his re- moval to western Pennsylvania he became an eminent lawyer and distinguished states- man, serving nearly eight years in the United States Senate. James Monroe, President of the United States, delivered a · speech in Pittsburg, at a meeting presided over by Senator James Ross, in 1817. Turning toward the presiding officer, while facing a large audience, the president gave credit to James Ross for having made an eloquent speech before the United States Senate, in 1802, which caused President Jefferson to favor the purchase of Louis- iana.

Somewhere in Hopewell or Fawn, Sena- tor John Rowan, who became one of the early settlers of Kentucky, first saw the light of day, in the year 1773. He won fame and distinction in his adopted state, which he twice represented in the United States Senate. In a small home in the village of Dillsburg, Matthew Stanley Quay was born in 1833, the son of a Presbyterian clergy- man. He was a man of brilliant intellect and remarkable mental vigor. Few men in American history ever equalled him as a political leader. The achievement which won him most success as a statesman was his strong advocacy of a protective tariff, which is claimed by most writers of eco- nomics, aided in building up the industrial

In the sphere of the law, few men in Pennsylvania equalled James Ross and Hugh Henry Brackenridge. The last named was born in the lower end of York County, and became a distinguished jurist, and one of the Supreme Court judges of Pennsylvania. Ellis Lewis, born at Lewis- berry, York County, who became chief jus- tice of this state, was descended from a ma -. ternal ancestor of Scotch-Irish birth.

A brief reference to three great Pennsyl- vanians of Scotch-Irish birth may seem en- tirely appropriate. Their work and their achievements have given lustre to the pages of history. These men were Thomas Mc- Kean, John Bannister Gibson and Jeremiah S. Black, each of whom became a chief . justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsyl- vania. For a quarter of a century, Judge Black was a citizen of York County. He died near York in 1884 at the age of 73.

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of American jurists, was born in Perry County and was a lifelong friend and associ- ate of Jeremiah S. Black. They served to- gether on the Supreme bench of Pennsyl- vania. Their decisions rank high in the legal literature of this country.

In September, 1899, the people of York County celebrated the Sesqui-Centennial. At a meeting held in the York Opera House on this occasion, Robert C. Bair, of York, delivered an address on the "Scotch-Irish," of which the following is a part :

Scotch-Irish are said to have been in the southern part of York County as early as 1732, but there is no record to show just where they were or who they were. Sam- uel Blunston, Penn's agent at Wright's Ferry, wrote in 1732, " there are about 400 inhabitants in the Barrens," a name then given to the southeastern section of York County. Some of these were Marylanders. A singular fact is noticeable in the oldest drafts and surveys in the Chancefords, Peach Bottom and Fawn. They indicate a prior right in some other man, but the land warrants under Penn are silent on that point. So that it would seem the former occupant had acknowledged Lord Balti- more. The oldest warrant under the Penns yet found bears the date " October 16, 1741, to Daniel McConnell, on Indian Rock Run, by Widow McMurray's, near Muddy Creek, over the Susquehanna." On part of this tract, the John Scott part, Rev. Eleazer Whittlesey, in 1750, erected the first Pres- byterian church west of the river and from it almost immediately sprang Chanceford and the Slate Ridge churches. Chanceford church was founded by Eleazer Whittlesey. March 1, 1752, but never had a title to its lands until May 25, 1767, when James Leeper. John Findley, Rowland Hughes, Ephraim Farr, and William Morrison, as trustees, secured a grant for four acres from John Penn.

"Guinston Scotch Presbyterian church, founded in 1754. has the same record. In the year 1750 Patrick McGee settled on a tract which he called 'Gwin's Town.' On March I, 1755. James Cooper took up an adjoining tract, which he called ' Hopewell.' and on which tract a new log church had been erected. The church had no title to the land on which it stood, nor had Cooper until twelve years thereafter. May 20, 1767,

when a warrant was issued to him at Phila- delphia. Guinston never took title from Pennsylvania, and in order to put the mat- ter forever at rest " James Cooper, by a cer- tain deed-poll, bearing date April 23, 1773, did grant and convey to the trustees, Thomas Curry, James Wallace, Guin Alli- son, Andrew Fulton, Alexander Moore, John McClurg, John McNeary, George Campbell, John McCay, and John Stewart, two acres on which the old Scotch meeting house stood."

It is not possible to name all

Scotch-Irish the Scotch-Irish who came

in the into the lower end of York

Lower End. County, but many can be enumerated, and the approx- imate time indicated at which they crossed over from Lancaster County.

Among the families settled in Chanceford prior to 1759, were Hugh Ross, John McCall, William Mc- Carthy, John Campbell, William, George and John Buchanan, Robert Morton, Robert Smith, John Howard, William Smart, James Anderson, William Douglass, William Wilson, William Thompson, Thomas Carson, Edward McMachon, Joseph Wasson, Finley Gray, Na- thaniel and David Morgan, Patrick McGee, William McComb. Guin Allison, John McNeary, David McKin- ley, ancestor of the president, and John and Stephen McKinley, John Finley, William Morrison, John Mitchell, Elias Alexander, David Jones, William Fuller- ton, Henry Robinson, John Matthews, James Evans, Francis Houlton, Rowland Hughes, Robert Whitley, John Nelson, Alexander Fulton, Lawrence McNamara and Charles Coulston.

Those arriving before 1770, as follows : John Andrew, William Adams, Charles Bradshaw, Robert Blaine, Ezekiel Barnett, George Crist, Elias Cowan, William Dougherty, John Dougherty, Alexander Downing, James Duncan, James Elder, John Fullerton, James Forsythe, William Gabby, James Hamilton, John Hilt, Charles Humes, John Hooper, Robert Hooper, George Henry, Thomas Johnston, Matthew Kilgore, Thomas Kelley, Walter Little, Dr. Isaac Lidley, John McMullin, Alex- ander McAllister, John McDowell, Richard McNulty. William Marlin, John Marlin, John Morrow, James Martin, John Mccullough, Henry McWhorer, John Mc- Nulty, John McClurg, Robert Marlin, Robert Maughlin, William Nichol, Samuel Nelson, Samuel Parker, Samuel Poak, James Proter, James Patterson, Nicholas Quig- ley, Thomas Ramsay, John Reed, Joseph Reed, William Reed, James Spear, Daniel Sinclair, Charles Stewart, John Stewart, Gavin Scott, James Sprout, Robert Shaw, Allen Scott, William Steel, Moses Wallace, Thomas Wilson.

The Scotch-Irish in Fawn Township prior to 1770 were : William Adams, Thomas Allen, James Buchanan, James Blair, William Blaine, Henry Cowgel, William Clark, Benjamin Cunnyngham, Archibald Cooper, John Carson, Richard Cord, Patrick Caldwell, John Day, Robert Duncan, Robert Donnal, George Elder, Samuel Eakins, Alexander Ewing, Robert Gib- son, James Gordon, Jacob Gibson, Robert Hazlet, Samuel Leeper, John McComb, Thomas Matson, Wil- liam Mckinley, James McKinley, Matthew McCall, Alexander McCandless, James McMullin, Edward Mani- fold, John McComb, William McConnell, Thomas Neel,

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

George Nichol, John Payne, George Payne, James Parker, Robert Rowland, Joseph Ross, Patrick Scott, William Reed, Cunningham Sample, Thomas Steel, John Taylor, John Wilson, William Wallace, Archibald Wright, Robert Modral.

The Scotch-Irish in Hopewell Township prior to 1770 : Guin Allison, John Anderson, James Anderson, Robert Aikens, Andrew Boyd, Alexander Creighton, Henry Craig. James Criswell, John Duncan, Samuel Dixon, Samuel Ellit, William Edie, William Edgar, Andrew Findley, Archibald Gillen, William Gemmill, John Gem- mill, John Gibson, William Giffen, Samuel Harper, Robert Jamison, William Ligget, James Mitchell, Joseph Manifold, James McKissock, James McElroy, John Mc- Cleary, John Maxwell, James Maffet, Richard McDon- ald, Thomas McKee, John McAllister, Hugh Nelson, Archibald Purdy, Alexander Ramsay, Thomas Ray, David Stone, Andrew Thompson, Elconer Torbert, William Vance, James Wallace, John Wilson, James Wilson, William Wilson.

The list has been expanded, Migration Westward. though all are not included, of the early people in the sections named, because they have left land marks in the place of their settlement that will never perish as long as the in- fluences of their early churches and their multiplying children uphold on the old homesteads the principles and faith of their ancestors. From these settlements project footpaths to the wider world into the boundless wilderness. The main direction is plain by which they came, as if it were this migration that put the Scotch-Irish stamp on at least five states. The first movement was toward the southwest, which halted at Marsh Creek in Adams County. The other routes diverged, one leading into North Carolina and Tennessee; another into the Genesee valley, New York : the third into western Pennsylvania, and Grier Hersh, of York, at the Scotch-Irish Congress, held at Harrisburg, read a paper from all these a converging set of lines touching in central Ohio. Wherever the on "The Manor of the Maske." The fol- Scotch-Irish went they laid long founda- lowing is an extract from that paper: tions for state government.

There seems to have been a close bond between the Scotch-Irish of Harford County, Maryland, clans in New York state and those of York County. The Rev. John Cuthbertson, one of the most noted Presby- terian preachers the early history of the church had in Lancaster and York Counties, would make from Octoraro, and the log church in Chanceford, trips to Walkill, Ul- ster County, New York, where he would preach for three or four weeks at a time. His journeys led him to visit and preach among those who had left the east and gone as far west as Pittsburg. The diary

of this early preacher is preserved in the Allegheny city library.

In the year 1755, when King George transported the French Canadians from Nova Scotia, the provincial Assembly of Pennsylvania voted sixty thousand pounds for the purpose of distributing the poor Canadians among the people of the several counties. When debarked at Philadelphia, they were assigned, according to the popu- lation, to the different townships. The Germans received their quota, but it seems the Scotch-Irish eitlter did not receive, or else would not accept any of the Nova Scotians. What was the cause of this is not clear. It is probable the spirit of liberty among the Scotch-Irish, which abhorred white bondage, had much to do with it. The Scotch-Irishman never submitted to servitude himself or held the seven year claim on any man's labor. With all this, however, he believed in negro slavery. The wealthy among them had slaves. They tenaciously held on to them. After Penn- sylvania had abolished slavery, the Scotch- Irish of the lower end and those in Adams County held on to their property. The archives of York court contain many writs of habeas corpus, together with interesting depositions, by which it appears the slave holders among the Scotch-Irish held on until the law released the slave. They had from two to three black servants, and it is a striking fact that the masters invariably fixed their own given names upon their negroes.

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 23

Author: Prowell, George R. Publication date: 1907 Publisher: J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1372

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372