USA > Pennsylvania > Mifflin County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 15
USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 15
USA > Pennsylvania > Union County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 15
USA > Pennsylvania > Juniata County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 15
USA > Pennsylvania > Snyder County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 15
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myself. They then went to Alexander Logan's, where they emptied some beds and passed on to George McCord's.
" A party of forty men came from Carlisle in order to bury the dead of Juniata. When they saw the dead at Buffalo Creek, they returned home. Then a party of men came with Captain Dunning; but before they came to Alexander Logan's, his son John, Charles Coyle, William Hamilton, with Bartholomew Davis, followed the Indians to George MeCord's, where they were in the barn. Logan and those with him were all killed except Davis, who made his escape. The Indians then returned to Logan's house again, when Captain Dunning and his party came on them, and they fired some time at each other. Dun- ning had one man wounded."
Interesting cotemporary accounts of the oc-
him off, who excused himself by telling him of his ina- bility to do so, and also of the danger they were in. Hle said he knew it, but desired him to take his gun with him, and. peace or war, if ever he had an opportunity of an Indian to shoot him for his sake. Elliot brought away the gun, and Robison was not found by the Indians. Thomas Robison stood on the ground until the whole of his people had fled ; nor did the Indians offer to pursue until the last men left the field. Thomas having fired and charged the second time the Indians were prepared for him, and when he took aim past the tree a number fired at the same time and one of his arms was broken ; he took his gun in the other and fled. Going up a hill he came to a high log and clapped his hand, in which was his gun, on the log to as- sist in leaping over it ; while in the attitude of stooping, a bullet entered his side, going in a triangular course through his body ; he sunk down across the log The In- dians sunk the cock of his gun into his brains and mangled him very much. John Graham was seen by David Miller sitting on a log, not far from the place of at- tack, with his hands on his face and the blood running through his fingers. Charles Elliot and Edward MeCon- nell took a cirele round where the Indians were laying and made the best of their way to Buffalo Creek; but they were pursued by the Indians, and where they crossed the creek there was a high bank, and, as they were ascending the bank, they were both shot and fell back into the water. Thus ended this unfortunate affair to those engaged; but, at the same time, it appears as if the hand of Providence had been in the whole transaction, for there is every reason to believe that spies had been view- ing the place the night before and the Indians were within three-quarters of a mile of the place from which the men had started, when there would have been from Iwenty to thirty men perhaps in the field reaping, and all the guns that could be depended on were in this small company except one, so that they might have become an easy prey, and instead of those five brave men who lost their lives three times that number might have sufficed.
The two Christys were about a week before they could make their escape The Indians one night passed so near them they could have touched them with their guns.
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JUNIATA AND SUSQUEHANNA VALLEYS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
currences of this period and the condition of the country, especially in old Cumberland County (which contained much of the territory here under consideration), are given in letters to the Pennsylvania Gazette, written from Car- lisle in July and August, 1763 :
" CARLISLE, July 12, 1763.
"I embrace this first leisure, since yesterday morn- ing, to transmit you a brief account of our present state of affairs here, which indeed is very distressing; every day almost affording some fresh object to awa- ken the compassion, alarm the fears or kindle into resentment and vengeance every sensible breast, while flying families, obliged to abandon house and possession, to save their lives by a hasty escape ; mourning widows bewailing their husbands, surprised and massacred by savage rage; tender parents lam- enting the fruit of their own bodies, cropt in the very bloom of life by a barbarous hand; with relations and acquaintances pouring out sorrow for murdered neighbors and friends, present a scene of mingled distress.
" When, for some time, after striking at Bedford, the Indians appeared quiet, nor struck any other part of our frontiers, it became the prevailing opin- ion that our forts and communication were so pecu- liarly the object of their attention that, till at least after harvest, there was little prospect of danger to our inhabitants over the hills; and to dissent from this generally-received sentiment was political her- esy, and attributed to timidity rather than judgment, till too early conviction has decided the point in the following manner :
"On Sunday morning, the 10th inst., about nine or ten o'clock, at the house of one William White, on Juniata, between thirty and forty miles hence, there being in said house four men and a lad, the Indians came rushing upon them, and shot White at the door, just stepping out to see what the noise meant. Our people then pulled in White and shut the door ; but observing, through a window, the Indians setting fire to the house, they attempted to force their way out at the door; but the first that stept out being shot down, they drew him in and again' shut the door; after which one, attempting an escape out of a window on the loft, was shot through the head, and the lad wounded in the arm. The only one now re- maining, William Riddle, broke a hole through the roof of the house, and an Indian, who saw him look- ing out, alleged he was about to fire on him, with- drew, which afforded Riddle an opportunity to make his escape. The house, with the other four in it, was burned down, as one MeMachen informs, who was coming to it, not suspecting Indians, and was by them fired at and shot through the shoulder, but made his escape. The same day, about dinner-time, at about a mile and a half from said White's, at the
house of Robert Campbell, six men being in the house, as they were dining, three Indians rushed in at the door, and, after firing among them and wound- ing some, they tomahawked, in an instant, one of the men ; whereupon one George Dodds, one of the com- pany, sprang back into the room, took down a rifle, shot an Indian through the body, who was presenting his piece to shoot him. The Indian, being mortally wounded, staggered, and, letting his gun fall, was carried off by three more. Dodds, with one or two more, getting upon the loft, broke the roof in order to escape, and, looking out, saw one of the company, Stephen Jeffries, running, but very slowly, by reason of a wound in the breast, and an Indian pursuing; and it is thought he could not escape, nor have we heard of him since; so that it is past dispute he also is murdered. The first that attempted getting out of the loft was fired at, and drew back; another, at- tempting, was shot dead, and of the six, Dodds was the only one made his escape. The same day, about dusk, about six or seven miles 'up Tuscarora, and about twenty-eight or thirty miles hence, they mur- dered one William Anderson, together with a boy and girl all in one house. At White's were scen at least five, some say eight or ten Indians, and at Campbell's about same number. On Monday, the 11th, a party of about twenty-four went over from the upper part of Shearman's Valley to see how mat- ters were. Another party of twelve or thirteen went over from the upper part of said valley; and Colonel John Armstrong, with Thomas Wilson, Esq., and a party of between thirty and forty from this town, to reconnoitre and assist in bringing the dead.
"Of the first and third parties we have heard noth- ing yet; but of the party of twelve, six are come in and inform that they have pa-sed through the several places in Tuscarora, and saw the houses in flames or burnt entirely down; that the grain that had been reaped the Indians burnt in shocks, and had set the fences on fire where the grain was unreaped; that the hogs had fallen upon and mangled several of the dead bodies; that the said company of twelve, sus- pecting danger, durst not stay to bury the dead; that after they had returned over the Tuscarora moun- tain, about one or two miles on this side of it, and about eighteen or twenty from hence, they were fired on by a large party of Indians, supposed about thirty, and were obliged to fly; that two, viz., William Rob- inson and John Graham, are certainly killed, and four more are missing, who, it is thought, have fallen into the hands of the enemy, as they appeared slow in flight, most probably wounded, and the savages pursued with violence. What farther mischief has been done we have not heard, but expect every day and hour some more messages of melancholy news.
"In hearing of the above defeat, we sent out an- other party of thirty or upwards, commanded by our high sheriff, Mr. Dunning, and Mr. William Lyon, to go in quest of the enemy, or fall in with and rein-
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INDIAN MASSACRES.
force our other parties. There are also a number zone out from about three miles below this, so that we now have over the hills upwards of eighty or ninety volunteers scouring the woods. The inhabit- ants of Shearman's Valley, Tuscarora, etc., are all come over, and the people of this valley, near the mountain, are beginning to move in, so that in a few days there will be scarcely a house inhabited north of Carlisle. Many of our people are greatly dis- tressed, through want of arms and ammunition; and numbers of those, beat off their places, have hardly money enough to purchase a pound of powder.
"Our women and children must move downwards, if the enemy proceed. To-day a British vengeance begins to rise in the breasts of our men. One of them, that fell from among the twelve, as he was just expiring, said to one of his fellows: 'Here, take my gun and kill the first Indian you see, and all shall be well."
"JULY 13, 1763.
"Last night Colonel Armstrong returned. He left the party, who pursued further and found several dead, whom they buried in the best manner they could, and are now all returned in. From what ap- pears, the Indians are traveling from one place to another, along the valley, burning the farms and de- atroying all the people they meet with. This day gives an account of six more being killed in the val- ley, so that, since last Sunday morning to this day, twelve o'clock, we have a pretty authentic account of the number slain, being twenty-five, and four or five wounded. The Colonel, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Alricks are now on the parade, endeavoring to raise another party to go out and succor the Sheriff and his party, consisting of fifty men, which marched yesterday, and I hope they will be able to send off immediately twenty good men. The people here, I assure you, want nothing but a good leader and a little encour- agement to make a very good defence.
"Our advices from Carlisle [says the editor of the Pennsylvania Gazette of July 28th] are as follows, viz .: That the party under the Sheriff, Mr. Dunning, men- tioned in our last, fell in with the enemy at the house of one Alexander Logan, in Shearman's Val- ley, supposed to be about fifteen, or upwards, who had murdered the said Logan, his son and another man about two miles from said house, and mortally wounded a fourth, who is since dead, and that, at the time of their being discovered, they were rifling the house and shooting down the cattle, and, it is thought, about to return home with the spoil they had got.
"That our men, on seeing them, immediately spread themselves from right to left, with a design to surround them, and engaged the savages with great courage, but, from their eagerness, rather too soon, as some of the party had not got up when the skirmish began ; that the enemy returned our first fire very briskly, but our people, regardless of that, rushed upon them, when they fled and were pursued a con-
siderable way, till thickets secured their escape, four or five of them, it was thought, being mortally wounded ; that our parties had brought in with them what cattle they could collect, but that great num- bers were killed by the Indians, and many of the horses that were in the valleys carried off; that on the 21st inst. (the morning) news was brought of three Indians being seen about ten o'clock in the morning ; one Pummeroy and his wife and the wife of one Johnson were surprised in a house between Ship- pensburg and the North Mountain, and left there for dead, but that one of the women, when found, showed some signs of life, was brought to Shippensburg, where she lived some hours in a most miserable con- dition, being scalped, one of her arms broken and her skull fractured with the stroke of a tomahawk ; and that, since the 10th inst, there was an account of fifty-four persons being killed by the enemy.
"That the Indians had set fire to houses, barns, corn, wheat and rye, hay,-in short, to everything com- bustible,-so that the whole country. seemed to be one blaze; that the miseries and distresses of the poor people were really shocking to humanity and beyond the power of language to describe ; that Carlisle was become the barrier, not a single inhabitant being be- yond it; that every stable and hovel in the town was crowded with miserable refugees, who were reduced to a state of beggary and despair, their houses, cattle and harvest destroyed, and, from a plentiful, inde- pendent people, they were become real objects of charity and commiseration ; that it was most dismal to see the streets filled with people, in whose coun- tenances might be discovered a mixture of grief, mad- ness and despair, and to hear now and then the sighs and groans of men, the disconsolate lamentations of women and the screams of children, who had lost their nearest and dearest relatives; and that, on both sides of the Susquehanna, for some miles, the woods were filled with poor families and their cattle, who made fires and lived like savages, exposed to the in- clemencies of the weather."
"CARLISLE, July 30, 1763.
"On the 25th a considerable number of the inhab- itants of Sherman's Valley went over, with a party of soldiers to guard them, to attempt saving as much of their grain as might be standing, and it is hoped a considerable quantity will be preserved. A party of volunteers (between twenty and thirty) went to the farther side of the valley, next to the Tuscarora Mountain, to see what appearance there might be of the Indians, as it was thought they would most prob- ably be there, if anywhere in the settlement; to search for, and bury the dead at Buffalo Creek, and to assist the inhabitants that lived along the foot of the mountain, in bringing off what they could, which services they accordingly performed, burying the re- mains of three persons, but saw no marks of Indinns having lately been there, excepting one track, sup-
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JUNIATA AND SUSQUEHANNA VALLEYS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
posed about two or three days old, near the narrows of Buffalo creek hill, and heard some hallooing and firing of a gun at another place. A number of the in- habitants of Tuscarora Valley go over the mountain to-morrow, with a party of soldiers, to endeavor to save part of the crops. Five Indians were seen last Sunday, about sixteen or seventeen miles from Car- lisle, up the valley, towards the North mountain, and two the day before yesterday, above five or six miles from Shippensburg, who fired at a young man and missed him.
"On the 25th July there were in Shippensburg 1384 of our poor, distressed, back inhabitants, viz. : men, 301 ; women, 345 ; children, 738 ; many of whom were obliged to lie in barns, stables, cellars, and under old, leaky sheds, the dwelling-houses being all crowded.
" In a letter dated Carlisle, 13th August, 1763, it is said that some Indians have lately been seen in Shearman's Valley, and that on the 11th the tracts of a party were found there, supposed to consist of eight or ten, coming through Shearman's Valley to- wards Carlisle, about twelve miles' upward. In another letter, dated August 17th, mention is made that one John Martin, in the Great Cove, seeing an Indian coming up to a house where he was, fired at him, upon which the Indian raised a yell and took a tree ; that Martin, imagining there might be more In- dians near him, ran to a company at work and told what had happened, when they went to the place, found some blood and excrements, from which they concluded he was shot through the bowels.
" They followed his track down to a bottom, where they saw the tracks of six or seven more, but, being a small party, pursued no farther. In the same letter, it is also said that a young man, at a plantation about nine miles from Carlisle, near the foot of the moun- tain, saw an Indian and fired at him at about fifty yards' distance, but was not sure that he hit him. The Indian took a tree and the lad went back a little way, in order to load again, but on his return could not see the Indian. He then alarmed the neighbor- hood, and, the soldiers being all out in parties cover- ing the people gathering in grain, upwards of twenty young men turned out immediately, from Carlisle, to scour the woods."
The condition of the people throughout this region at the close of 1763 is described by Colonel Armstrong, then in command of the forces west of the Blue Ridge, in a letter to Governor Penn, dated in December, 1763 :
" The people drove off by the enemy from the north side of the mountains forms the Frontier, as they are mixed with the settlers on the south side, where, of course, the motions of the Ranging Party are re- quired. At the same time, those who have been driven from their habitations have some part of their
Effects yet behind and their Crops stacked in the fields in the different Valleys at a considerable distance beyond the Mountains.
"To these distressed People we must afford cover- ing Parties as often as they request them, or will con- ' vene in small bodies to thrash out their Grain and carry it over to their families for their supplies. The last mentioned Service, necessary as it is, greatly ob- structs the uniform course of patrolling behind the Inhabitants, that otherwise might be performed."
The terror created in 1763 did not subside sufficiently to admit of the resumption of peaceful avocations in any marked degree until 1765. Colonel Henry Bouquet's victory in Ohio, in 1764, in a measure, cowed the Indians, and they were obliged to be peace- able. The settlers gradually returned, and by 1767 all of the best locations were taken up by " squatters." In 1768 the "new pur- chase " (presently to be fully treated) was made, and, in 1769, the Land-Office having been opened, the " squatters " took up lands by war- rant.
From this time on there were no Indian massacres until about 1778, and these were principally confined to the valley of the West Branch.1 The murder of a number of Indians -White Mingo and others, -- by Frederick Stump occurred in 1768, but is not germane to the present subject.2 A general alarm was caused and a wild fright-" The Great Run- away "-ensued in 1778, but this and the nu- merous Indian outrages of 1781 and 1782 are related elsewhere.3
THE " NEW PURCHASE," heretofore alluded to, and containing a portion of the territory which is the especial province of this volume, was made by treaty with the sachems of the Six Nations and the representative of Thomas and Richard Penn, at Fort Stanwix (now Rome, N. Y.) November 5, 1768.
It included an immense belt of territory,
1 They are treated of in the history of the townships of Union and Snyder Counties.
2 A full account of Stump's murders is given in Penn township of Snyder County.
3 The panic of the settlers in 1778 is introduced in the chapter upon the Revolution and of the local atrocities of marauding bands of savages ; necounts will be found in the various towns hip chapters.
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THE "NEW PURCHASE."
northwest of the lands procured by the pur- chase of 1719, and extending entirely across the province from the Delaware River, in the northeastern corner, to the southwest corner.
Of the territory treated in this work, it in- eluded the northeast corner of Snyder and all of Union, except a small southwest corner, to- gether with the whole of Green, Washington, Fayette, Westmoreland, Somerset, Cambria, Montour, Wayne, Sullivan, Susquehanna and Wyoming, and parts of Lackawanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Northumberland, Bradford, Lyco- ming, Clinton, Centre, Clearfield, Indiana, Armstrong, Allegheny and Beaver.
Its territory was thus described in the original treaty document :
" All that part of the Province of Pennsylvania not heretoforo purchased of the Indians, within the said general boundary line, and beginning in the said Boundary line on the east side of the east Branch of the River Susquehanna, at a place called Owegy, and running with the said boundary Line down the said Branch, on the east side thereof, till it comes opposite the mouth of a Creek called by the Indians Awandae (Tawandee) and across the River, and up the said Creek on the South side thereof and along the range of hills called Burnett's Hills by the English and by the Indians 1-on the north side of them, to the head of a ereck which runs into the West Branch of the Susquehanna; then crossing the said River and run- ning up the same on the South side thercof, the several courses thereof, to the forks of the same River which lies nearest to a place on the River Ohio,2 called Kittanning, and from the said fork, by a straight line to Kittanning aforesaid, and then down the Said Ohio by the several courses thereof, to where the western Bounds of the said Province of Pennsylvania crosses the same river, and then with the same western Bounds to the South boundary thereof, and with the South boundary aforesaid to the east side of the Alle- gheny hills, on the east side of them to the west line of a tract of Land purchased by the Said Proprietors from the Six Nations, and confirmed October 23d,
' At a subsequent treaty at Fort Stanwix (October, 1784), the Pennsylvania Commissioners inquired of the Indians what was their name for the range called by the Eng- lish " Burnett's Hills," to which they replied that they Anew them by no other name than the " Long Mountains." As to the creek called by them "Tiadaghton " they ex- plained that it was the same known by the whites as Pine Creek which flows into the West Branch of the Susquehanna from the northward.
3 Meaning the Allegheny, to which the Indians always gave the name Ohio.
1758, and then with the Northern bounds of that Tract to the River Susquehanna and crossing the River Susquehanna to the northern Boundary line of another tract of Land purchased of the Indians by Deed ( August 22, 1749), and then with that northern Line, to the River Delaware at the north side of the mouth of a creek called Lechawachsein, then of the Said River Delaware on the west side thereof to the intersection of it by an east line to be drawn from Owegy aforesaid to the Said River Delaware and then with that east Line, to the beginning, at Owegy aforesaid."
This was the purchase which, by giving the basis of just title, upon which the Land Office could issue warrants, in a large measure, re- lieved the anxiety of the inhabitants in regard to Indian incursions, and enabled them to become actual purchasers by warrant, and therefore actual settlers instead of unauthorized invaders. The region thus released from sav- age ownership soon swarmed with the people of the supplanting race, and few deeds of violence afterward occurred, except during the War of the Revolution, to mar the era of peace thus begun.
The " new purchase" was made partly upon the consideration of securing land to bestow upon the officers of the First and Second Bat- talions who had served under Bouquet and formed an association to ask for such reward. Tracts of three hundred acres cach, upon the West Branch, were granted in 1769 to a large number of these officers, who, settling upon them, formed a strong barrier against Indian incursions.3
As a pendant to this chapter we are enabled to publish some extracts from the journal of Rev. Charles Beatty,4 who passed through the
3 See Chapter I. of Union County.
4 Charles Beatty was the son of an officer in the British army, and was born in Ireland about 1715, and emigrated to America in 1729. He studied theology at the Log. Col- lege, under Wm. Tennent, whom he succeeded as precep- tor in the Neshaminy in 1743. Ou December Ist in that year, he was ordained to the ministry, and spent most of his life in charge of "ye congregation of Warwick, in ye forks of Neshaminy." In 1754 he was on a missionary tour through North Carolina, and was chaplain in several different expeditions, and in 1766 was appointed, with Rev. Geo. Duffield, missionary to the frontier settlements in the new purchase, and to the Indians on the Ohio. He died when on a visit to West Indies, at the Isle of Barbadoes,
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