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 22
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 22
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 22
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 22
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 22
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A few days before the capture Robert Coven- hoven went up as far as Ralston (now), where he discovered Colonel MeDonald's party in camp. He returned to Fort Muncy (Fort Penn) and gave the alarm. The women and children then were put in boats and sent down, under his charge, to Fort Augusta. He took with him the families at Fort. Meminger, at the mouth of Warrior Run ; but Freeland's Fort
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being four and a half miles distant, they had no time to wait for the families there, but sent a messenger to alarm them.
The following account of the fall of Fort Free- land is given by Mrs. Mary V. Derrickson, born the year of this calamity, and a daughter of Cornelius Vincent, one of the occupants of the fort :1
Nothing serious occurred until the 21st of July, when a party at work in the corn-field were attacked by Indians, about nine A.M. Isaac Vincent, Elias Freeland and Jacob Freeland, junior, were killed ; Benjamin Vincent and Michael Free- land taken prisoners. Daniel Vincent outran the Indians, and, leaping a high log fence, escaped. Ben- jamin Vincent, then only ten years old, hid himself in a furrow ; he left it to climb a tree and was seen and captured. He knew nothing about the fate of the others until in the afternoon, when an Indian thrust the bloody scalp of his brother Isaac into his face. At daybreak, on the 28th, Jacob Freeland, senior, was shot as he was going out of the gate and fell inside. The fort was surrounded. There were twenty-one men in it and very littleammunition, Mary Kirk and Phæbe Vincent commenced immediately and ran all their spoons and plates into bullets. About nine a flag was raised, and John Lytle and John Vincent went out to capitulate, but could not agree, and one half hour was given to consult those within. It was finally agreed that all who could bear arms should go as prisoners, the old men, with the women and children, to be set free and the fort given to plunder. The latter left the fort at twelve. Not one ate a bite that day, and not a child was heard to cry or ask for bread. They reached Northumberland, eighteen miles distant, that night. Mrs. Kirk put girl's clothes on her son William, a lad of sixteen, and he escaped with the women. Elizabeth Vincent was a cripple and could not walk. Her husband, John Vincent, went to Captain McDonald and told him her situation, and asked for the horse the Indians had taken from his son Peter a week before. He carried his wife to the lower end of the meadow, where they lay and saw the fort burned. It rained hard that night and she lay partly in the water. In the morning the horse came to them. Vincent plaited a halter out of the bark of a hickory tree, set his wife on and led it to Northumberland, where wagons were pressed to take the people down the country."
Those killed at the fort were James Watt, . John McClintock, William MeClung, James Miles and Henry Gilfillen. Colonel Hunter's
1 It is here taken from Linn's " Annals of the Buffalo Valley."
account says that the firing at Freeland's was heard at Boone's mill,2 about seven miles off.
Captains Hawkins Boone, Kemplen and Daugherty marched with thirty-four men, but were met by the Indians in large force before they reached the fort. Captain Kemplen, who observed the first Indian, shot him dead. The men behaved with great bravery, but were over- powered and fifteen were killed and two wounded. Among the dead were Captain Boone and Captain Samuel Daugherty.
This engagement took place at McClung's place, above Milton. William Miles, who was taken prisoner at the fort, and afterwards re- sided in Erie County, said that, in Canada, Captain McDonald spoke in the highest terms of the desperate bravery of Hawkins Boone.3 His scalp, with that of Daugherty, was brought into Fort Freeland.4
Of Boone's party, Samuel Brady (uncle of Captain Samuel), James Dougherty and James Hammond, made their escape. Of those made captives in this party, as well as those at the fort, nearly all ultimately returned.5 Colonel Hunter, writing to General Potter several years
? This mill was on Muddy Run, six hundred yards from its mouth, the site of what is now Kemmerer's mill, two miles above Milton.
3 Linn
+ Boone came originally from Exeter, Berks County, and was a cousin of the celebrated Daniel Boone, of Kentucky. His grandfather, George Boone, had a large family of sons : William, Joseph, James, Benjamin, John, Hezekiah, Squire and Josiah Boone. Hawkins was a son of Squire, who moved to North Carolina in 1752. Hawkins was a sur- veyor and lived on the place, just above New Columbia, now owned by Samuel Gemberling. He owned, also, the Jacob Rees place, northwest of the latter place, the Earnest Book tract, etc. He was commissioned a captain in the Twelfth Pennsylvania Regiment, and selected to accompany a de- tachment of riflemen from the regiment, sent under Mor- gan to Saratoga. In a return of Morgan's command, dated at. Lowdon's Ferry, on the Mohawk, September 3, 1777, he is marked "absent ; wounded." In February, 1779, the State Council allowed him clothes out of the State stores, "in consideration of his situation and spirited intrepidity of his conduct in the campaign under Colonel Hartley, when his situation might have justified him in remaining at home," He left a widow, Jane, and two daughters. Some years after his death his widow married a Mr. Fortenbaugh and moved to Halifax, Dauphin County, where she resided many years.
" Meginness' " West Branch Valley," p. 257, et xeq.
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after the affair at Fort Freeland, gave a list of the men taken prisoners there, as follows :
"Captain's company, John Neely, sergeant; George Baily, George Armitage, Aaron Martin (died at Fort Chambly, January 8, 1780), Thomas Smith, Isaac Wilson and John Forney. The following persons be- ing those of the militia that enrolled themselves for the defense of the garrison: John Lytle, adjutant; Cornelius Vincent, quartermaster ; sergeant, Samuel Gould; Henry Townley, Peter Williams, Isaac Wil- liams, Elias Williams, Henry Gilfillan, James Dur- ham, Daniel Vincent, John Watts, William Miles, John Dough, Thomas Taggart (died 16th January, 1780); Francis Watts made his escape on the same day he was taken; Peter Vincent likewise made his escape the same day."
Fifty-two women and children and four old men were permitted by Captain McDonald to depart for Sunbury.
Colonel Kelly went over with a party from the Buffalo Valley and buried the dead at the fort.
Great consternation prevailed throughout the region after the capture of Fort Freeland ; the inhabitants fled, and the road down to Fort Augusta was again thronged with terrified wo- men and children. The Indians and British retreated toward the Tioga. They had un- doubtedly intended to attack Fort Augusta, and were only deterred from their purpose, in all probability, by meeting Boone's party, and ap- prehending that it was the advance detachment of a larger one.
Preparations were made as quickly as possi- ble to follow the enemy, partly for the purpose of recovering some of the cattle, as they had driven off all they could find. On the 3d of August, Captain (or Colonel) Matthew Smith arrived at Sunbury, with sixty " Paxton Boys," and was joined by detachments from other re- gions, in all numbering five hundred. They marched for Muncy, but the enemy had retired far into the wilderness, beyond reach of all pur- suit. General Sullivan had now commenced his march into their country, and his destruc- tion of their towns, which they abandoned as they flew before him, as leaves of the forest fly before a gale of wind, so disconcerted them that for a year or so only a few predatory bands came down upon the branches of the Susque- hanna. They were temporarily dispersed, and 8
never fully recovered from the blow given them by Sullivan.
Nevertheless, grave fears were felt by the ex- perienced men in authority. In old Northum- berland, William Maclay, writing to President Reed, of the Executive Council, April 2, 1780, says,-
"I will not trouble you with the distress of this county. It will, no doubt, be painted to the Council in lively colors, and, indeed, the picture cannot be overcharged ; nor should I, at this time, write to you but for a strong belief and persuasion that a body of Indians are lodged about the head of Fishing and Muney creek. They were with us to the very begin- ning of the deep snow last year; they are with us now before that snow is quite gone. Many of our hunters who went up late last fall into that country wereso alarmed with the constant report of guns, which they could not believe to be those of white men, that they returned suddenly back. We are not strong enough to spare men to examine this country and dislodge them. The German regiment are under their own officers, and, for my part, I expect no ser- vice from them. I cannot help uttering a wish that what troops we have might be all Pennsylvanians. . . . Help us if you can, and much oblige a dis- tressed country."
Colonel Samuel Hunter writes on the same day,-
" The savages have made their appearance on the frontiers in a hostile manner. Day before yesterday they took seven or eight prisoners about two miles above Fort Jenkins, and two days before they carried off several people from about Wyoming. The Ger- man regiment that is stationed here is no ways ade- quate to grant us the necessary relief. The case is quite altered from this time twelve months ago. We then had a pretty good garrison at Muncy, Brady's fort, Freeland's, with our own inhabitants. Now we have but forty or fifty at Montgomery's, and thirty at Fort Jenkins. I have seen the time within three years that we could turn out some hundred of good woodsmen, but the country is quite drained of our best men."
April 8th the Indians made a descent on White Deer Creek ; on May 16th, attacked " French Jacob's" (Jacob Grosboug's) Mills, in Buffalo Valley, killing a number of people, and on July 14th committed murders at the mouth of Buffalo Creek.1
Colonel Kelly was still active in the defense of the frontier, and an old pay-roll found
! See local chapters.
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among his papers shows who were his follow- ers in the summer of 1780 ;
"A pay-roll of my company in the first battalion, Northumberland county militia, commencing 16th of July, 1780. Enrolled July 16, 1783. Discharged August 15.
"Colonel : John Kelly.
"Captain : James Thompson.
" Lieutenant : Joseph Poak.
" Ensign : Alexander Ewing.
" William Black, Thomas Black, Joseph Brindage, Hance Fleming, Joseph Green, James Hamersley, Jonathan Iddings, John Poak, Thomas Poak, James Smith Poak, Hugh Rodman, Peter Wilson, John Wil- son, John Young."
TORIES AND TORY SCHEMES .- During the early years of the Revolution the settlers on the frontier in these parts of Cumberland and Northumberland Counties which are now Mif- flin, Juniata, Perry, Snyder and Union, had not only to suffer the general apprehension which filled the whole country, and the especial and intense anxiety and distress which their savage enemies caused, but they were also in great fear of internal dissension-of a social enemy in their very midst-the Tories.
The earliest mention of a Tory within the limits of the territory of which this work treats occurs in 1776, and applies to that region of Cumber- land County which is now Perry, in the form of an affidavit against Edwin Erwin, charging lan- guage inimical to the cause of the colonists, viz. :
" CUMBERLAND COUNTY, SS. :
" Before me, George Robinson, one of His Majesty's Justices for said county, personally appeared Clefton Bowen, who, being examined and sworn, doth depose and say : that some time in the month of January last, he, this deponent, was in the house of John Mont- gomery, in Tyrone township, in company with a cer- tain Edward Erwin, of Rye township, and this deponent says he then and there heard said Erwin drink damnation and confusion to the Continental Congress, and damn their proceedings, saying they were all a parcel of damned rebels, and against spring would be cut off like a parcel of snowbirds, and more such stuff.
"Sworn and subscribed before George Robinson, 19th February, 1776. "CLEFTON BOWEN."
In Northumberland County, in the spring of 1777, the Committee of Safety, " in consequence of' sundry accounts from different parts of the
county of a dangerous plot being on foot by some of our enemies to bring on an Indian war, and in particular by an intercepted letter, wrote by a certain Nicholas Pickard, directed to a certain John Pickard, at the house of Cas- par Read, in Penn's township, with all speed, a copy of which was transmitted to us by Na- thaniel Landon, of Wyoming, and is now before this committee," commanded Captain Espy to bring before them those two men-John and Nicholas Pickard. The former took the oath of allegiance, in the following form :
"I do swear to be true to the United States of America, and do renounce and disclaim all allegiance to the King of Great Britain, and promise that I will not, either directly or indirectly, speak or aet any- thing in prejudice to the cause or safety of the States, or lift arms against them, or be any way as- sistant to their declared enemies, in any case, what- svever. So help me God."
Nicholas Pickard, the writer of the letter in question, on being examined, was unanimously believed by the committee " to be an enemy to the States," and was sent under guard to the Supreme Executive Council, " to be dealt with as their superior judgments shall direct them in this case."
By far the greatest scare over the Tories was in the Juniata region of our territory, and will presently be related. The following, upon the laws relating to treason in the Revolutionary period, and the incidents just alluded to, is by a student of the subject :1
"The act of February 11, 1777, defined treason and misprision of treason, and provided for the conviction and punishment of these crimes. Under this Act Thomas Kerr, of Lack township, Tuscarora valley, was found guilty at a trial in the court at Carlisle in October, 1778. He seems at the time to have been one of the leading farmers in that region.
"The Council of Safety, which was a kind of spon- taneous revolutionary body combining the functions of governor, legislature and court, as early as Octo- ber 21, 1777, selected the three gentlemen hereafter named, for Cumberland County, to seize the property of traitors and make reports to the Council.2
"The Act of March 6, 1778, provided the most stringent measures against the Tories; and the Su- preme Executive Council was given great power in confiscating the estates of those who adhered to Great Britain, and for the appointment of Agents through-
! Prof. A. L. Guss. % Col. Rec. xi. 330.
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out the State to report guilty and suspected persons. Under this Act George Stephenson, John Boggs and Joseph Brady became ' Agents for Forfeited Estates,' May 6, 1778, and Alexander McGechan, a year later, for Cumberland County. In a proclamation by the Supreme Executive Council, dated October 30, 1778, it is stated that John Campbell, William Campbell, James Little, Edward Gibbons and James De Long, yeomen, all now or late of Amberson Valley ; and Andrew Smith and Robert Nixon, yeomen, both now or late of the township of Lack; and Joseph King, yroman, and William Wright, dyer, both now or late of the township of Path Valley; and Dominick Mc- Neal and John Stillwell, yeomen, both now or late of the township of Tuscarora; all now or late of the county of Cumberland; and Richard Weston, yeo- man, now or late of the township of Frankstown; and Jacob Hare, Michael Hare and Samuel Barrow, yeo- men, all now or late of the township of Barree; all now or late of the county of Bedford; beside many others, have severally adhered to and knowingly and willingly aided and assisted the enemies of this State and of the United States of America by having joined their armies within this State. It was provided that unless they surrendered themselves for trial, they should, after the 15th day of December next, stand and be attainted of High Treason, to all intents and purposes, and shall suffer such pains and penalties, and undergo all such forfeitures as persons attainted of High Treason ought to do.1
"In a letter from George Stephenson,2 dated at Carlisle, December 10, 1779, he says: 'I do not find mentioned the names of Six Men, who left this County some time after the British Army got Posses- sion of the City of Philadelphia, and joined them there; soon after my Appointment as an Agent, I wrote to his Excellency, Thomas Wharton, Esq'r., all I knew concerning those Men; as this was about two Years ago, and before the Act of Assembly for the Attainder of Traitors was made, 'tis probable my Letter might have been mislaid or forgot, or I may not have seen their Proscription; their names are Alexander McDonald, Kennet MeKinzie and Edward Erwin, all of Rye township, Farmers; also William Simpson, William McPherson, blacksmiths, and Hugh Gwin, labourer, Single Men, all of Tyrone Township. Thomas McCahan, of Tuscarora Valley, went off, af- terwards, to New York, as I am informed; he was an unmarried Man, rented out his Farm, and I think he ought to be proscribed.'
"It has been said that the Scotch-Irish 'was, per- haps, the only race of all that settled in the Western world that never produced one Tory.'' No doubt,
' Col. Rec. vol. xi 610.
2 Pa. Arch., N. S. vol. ill. 337.
3 J. Smith Futhey, West Chester, in Pa. Meg., vol. i. p. 280.
they were generally very patriotic; but, like other people, there were exceptions among them also.
"In the spring of 1778, there was formed one of the most depraved and dastardly conspiracies that ever disgraced this region of the country. The plan was to gather a large force of Tories and Indians at Kittanning, then cross the mountain, and at Burgoon's Gap divide, one party to march through the Cove and the Cumberland Valley, the other to follow the Juniata Valley, and form a junction at Lancaster, killing all the inhabitants on their march. The Tories were to have for their share in this wholesale massacre all the fine farms on the routes and the movable property was to be divided among the Indians. The leaders of this conspiracy were Cap- tain John Weston, living above Water Street, the headquarters and starting-point of the expedition being at his house; Jacob Hare, living at Mapleton ; a man named McKee from Amberson Valley. The company numbered thirty-one members. When near the Indian town they halted, and Weston and Hare proceeded with a flag to inform the savages of their arrival. The Indians were pleased, but exer- cising that caution for which they are ever noted, proceeded to meet the rest of the company and escort them to the town, having mounted a few of their warriors on horse-back with cocked guns, and placing Weston and Hare in the advance. McKee and his men, instead of meeting them without arms in their hands, as military courtesy among the Indians re- quired, rose with guns in their hands and made a salutation with a forward quickstep. The Indians, supposing by this movement that they had been betrayed by spies, shot and sealped Weston and fled to the town. Hare and his comrades fled in great alarm and in destitution made haste to reach the Juniata region, which had thus been providentially saved from the savage and brutal allies. This con- spiracy extended from Path, through Amberson and Tuscarora Valleys, and up the Juniata Valley into Sinking Valley. The houses of favored families in this region were to be saved by the display of a Tory flag. Some of the good ladies helped to keep the secret by advising their neighbors to display the token of safety. Thus the secret was disclosed and the settlers everywhere gathered to watch the mountain gaps for the expected invaders. They came not as defiant leaders escorting bloodthirsty savages, but as scattered, half-starved and broken-hearted. Some escaped to the eastern counties, some were captured and taken to Bedford, and some to Carlisle and placed in jail. Lieutenant Hare, in his flight to the lower counties, stopped for the night three miles from Concord, in Path Valley. The news soon spread, and the neighbors gathered, when, after various methods of punishment were proposed, William Darlington, taking a case-knife with a hacked blade, executed the sentence by sawing off both of his ears close to his head. It is probable that all in the first
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list above given were in this Kittanning expedition, as among the few names composing this party which have come down to us are Samuel Barrow, John and William Campbell and James Little. There was also in the party one James or John Armstrong, of Tuscarora Valley. It was stated by Richard, a brother of John Weston, that when Weston was shot, MeKee (or McGee) pulled a letter out of his pocket which he had got from an English officer in the jail at Carlisle, and with this letter waved a handkerchief, crying 'peace, peace, brothers,' but the savages ran away without giving it any attention. There was at this period and for some time afterwards a vague dread in the publie mind that a Tory force would make its appearance at some unguarded point and in an unexpected moment ; but they soon learned, much to their relief, that these fears were ground- less." 1
LAST YEARS OF THE WAR .- Reverting to the condition of the frontier, we find that there were a number of murders committed and several .people taken captive during the last half of 1780, in spite of the punishment in- flicted upon the Indians by Sullivan's and sev- eral smaller expeditions. In September, Gen- eral Potter marched a body of one hundred and seventy men up to Fort Schwartz and then went up to Colonel Kelly, who lay at the mouth of White Deer Creek.
Early in 1781, Captain James Thompson was taken prisoner while going from the site of Lewisburgh to Colonel Kelly's, but subse- quently made his escape. Captain Thomas
1 Of this affair the following cotemporary account was given in a letter from Colonel John Piper to the Supreme Executive Council, dated May 4, 1778 :
"An affair of the most alarming nature has just hap- pened in this vicinity, which I could not think myself justifiable in not communicating to the Honourable the Supreme Executive Council of the State. A number of evil-minded Persons, thirty-five in number, I think, hav- ing actually associated together and Marched to the Indian Country in order to Join the Indians and conduct them into the Inhabitancy, and thus united, to kill, burn and Destroy men, women and children. They came upon a Body of Indians, and conferring with them, they, the In- dians, suspecting some Design of the white People, on which one of the Indians shot one Weston, who was a ringleader of the Tories, and scalped him before the rest, and immediately the rest fled and dispersed. A very con- siderable number of the well-affected Inhabitants having, as soon as their combination and March was known, pur- gned them and met five of them, and brought them under a strong Guard to the County Gaol. They confessed their Crime and intention of destroying both men and Property."
Campleton (sometimes spelled Kemplin and Kempling) and his son were killed in March, and about the same time several persons were taken prisoners and marched away into the great northern wilderness. General Potter, in a letter of April 12th, says,-
"I have just maid a visite to difrent parts of the frunteers, who I find in great disstress, numbers of them flying for their lives. At this early season of the year the enemy has maid five different strookes on our frunteers since the 22nd of March."
ITe adds that Captain Robinson (Thomas) has got forty men enlisted, " but many of them are so naked for want of all kinds of clothing that they cannot do duty. They have not a blanket among them all." Following is the roster of the ranging company referred to :2
Captain : Thomas Robinson, February 10, 1781. Lieutenant: Moses Van Campen, February 10, 1781. Sergeants : William Doyle, Ebenezer Green (dead), Edward Lee, Jonathan Bey.
Privates.
John Adams. Adam Hempleman.
Jas. Bennett (Banett). James Henderson.
Conrad Bessel. Joshua Knapp.
Claudius Boatman. Michael Lamb.
Jonathan Burnmell. William MeGrady.
James Busler.
William Miller.
Henry Carton (dead). Adam Neible.
Conrad Cutherman. Jonathan Pray.
James Dougherty. John Shilling.
Ephraim Dunbar. William Snell.
John Fox. Richard Stewart.
Ebenezer Green.
Francis Varhelet.
Leonard Groninger.
Charles Haines.
John Wallace (dead). Thomas Wilkinson.
This company had a sharp engagement with the Indians at Bald Eagle Creek.
During the year the detachments 'of Peter Grove and Samuel McGrady were also on duty. They were composed as follows :
Lieutenant : Peter Grove.
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