History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 16

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out for buildings on the old Pennsylvania State road.

The reasons why the report of the first trustees was not acted upon immediately are apparent, not count- ing upon the superior influence of St. Clair. The proprietary government existed under its regular Governors for only three years after the erection of the county in 1773, after which, the troublous times of the Revolution intervening, those in authority did not have occasion for interference in such local affairs.

Along in 1773 and 1774 Hannastown was a collec- tion of about a dozen cabins, built of hewed logs and roofed with clapboards, most of them of one story in height, but a few of two, claiming the name of houses. During the troubles of 1774, under the advice and supervision of St. Clair, a stockade for the pro- tection of the people was here erected; for from such divergent points the settlements extended out, and as early as this year Hempfield township, sur- rounding Hanna's, was well covered with people, as appears from the petitions of this date, addressed at Hanna's. From the best accessible authority we now have, it would appear that Hannastown never at any time consisted of more than twenty to thirty such cabins. Its most prosperous era must have been from the time of the first court in 1778 to 1776. During.this time the emigration to the West was comparatively large, and that through Middle Pennsylvania restricted to this one route. Here, besides the courts, were held the militia musters, the greatest inducement, next to the courts themselves, in drawing the widely scattered people together. But when the war for independence commenced, not only was emigration lese regular, but many of the military characters were in arms either in the Continental armies or in the service of Congress in the Western department. Some, indeed, quitted their settlements altogether. The early settlers did not congregate in towns or cities, but the population since the close of the Revolutionary war has gone on ever since increasing in favor of the cities. There was no inducement for them to gather in towns, and every inducement for them to go into the country. Money was scarce indeed ; it was hardly in circulation at all among a certain class, and was only absolutely need- ful to those engaged in a mercantile calling. The Province of Pennsylvania was famous for its paper currency, and too often for its consequent deprecia- tion.

In the old Hannastown there were only one or two shops, where, besides whiskey and gin sold under license by measure, there were kept such commodities as gunpowder and lead, camphor and spice, jack- knives and dye-stuffs, but no fabrics or wares such as we see in country stores at road-crossings now; salt, flour, bacon, and linen were about all traded for. A weaver, a shoemaker, a blacksmith, or a joiner could make perhaps, on the whole, a better living than the great majority of such shop-keepers in the early times.

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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Tavern-keeping was the only business that brought a corresponding return in money. But as we may reasonably infer that its most prosperous time was just before the civil troubles of 1776, yet it is pre- sumable that towards the end of the war, and immedi- ately before the burning in 1782, it contained more buildings and probably more inhabitants than at any other time. Through fear and necessity consequent on long border commotions, they flocked together in stations, in forts, and in block-houses. These two statements will harmonize, although they appear to conflict.

In a letter dated Pittsburgh, March 8, 1778, from Æneas Mackay to Arthur St. Clair, there are some very disparaging remarks upon the selection of Hanna's as the place for holding the courts of the new county then lately erected. Mackay was a resi- dent of Pittsburgh, and of course was personally interested in' having that place the seat of justice. So also, as we said, was St. Clair. In this letter he says,-

"Everybody up this way are well satisfied there is a county granted this skle of the hilla, althu' I find everybody else, co well mn myself, ob- serves with infinite concern that the point in question to not attended with to favorable circumstances as we at this place had reneun to expect from the nature of things. I cannot but express my surprise at the puint determined in favor of the courts of law first sitting at Hanna's. Pray, may I ask you the question, where is the conveuleucy for trane- acting business on these occasione, as there is neither houses, tables, nor chairs? Urrtajuly the people must sit at the route of trees sud stumps, and iu case of raiu the lawyers' books and papers must be exposed to the wenther; yet to no purpose, as they cannot presume to write. Couse- queutly, nothing cau be done but that of resising [reoriving ?] fees, by which wenns everybody (the lawyers only excepted) guing to or attend- ing court must be sufferers. No doubt but Mr. Irwin [he means Joseph Erwin, a reskleut of the Hanna settlement, and ion-keeper there] and a few more of his party may Bud their interest in this glaring stretch of partiality : yet we, at this place in particular, are too much interested to look over such proceeding in silence. The whole inhabitants excluim ngminst the steps nirendy taken to the injury of the county yet in ito infancy, and that too before it got its eyes or tongue to speak for itself. . . . My dear friend, if I had as much to my among the great ne you, I wonldl declare it as my opinion that it would be absolutely necessary that the commissioners [he means the trustees soon to be appointed] should be nominated in Philada., by which means I think we could not fail to have the point iu question carried in our favor; whereas should they be appointed up this way it is ten to une if Joe Erwine aud bis associates will not prevail."

Under date of Oct. 8, 1773, George Wilson, one of the trustees, in a letter to Governor Penn, says that the trustees had met twice to consult on some things relative to their trust, and that he, apprehending that it was the sense of the Governor and Assembly at the time that the courts should be held at Hanna's house until the unsettled state of the boundary would be perfectly settled, could not join with the other trustees in making their former report.1

The following is such a characteristic letter from Saint Clair to Joseph Shippen, President of the Council, that we give it entire. It is dated Ligonier, Jan. 15, 1774:

"SIR,-This will be delivered by Mr. Hanna, one of the trustees of Westmoreland County. To some manouvres of his, I believe, the op-

prettine to fixing the Ceenty Towa et Pittsburgh le chiefly owing, co Nt to bie leterest that it chuaid contiene where the low be zed ti- orerto pro tempore; he livre there, need to koop a pablo hanno there, and has www on that Expectation reated his house at an extravagant price, and Erwin, another Trustes, ofjules, and to ales paldie-bosse keeper. A third trustee [Shima] lives to the neighborhood, which always make a mujerity for continuing the courts at the present pies. A prego in the law for erecting the cusety is that Carte cheil bo bold at the fore- ping Place [the home of Hesse] till a Court House and Quel are built ; this pois k in their pourer to contiene them ce long co they please, fer . Moule Manegement weight prevent a Overt Beuse and Soul beleg telit these twenty years. 1 beg you will creuse inaccuracies, co I write to the greatest hurry, Mr. Heans holding the Morse while I write. I will we you carly in the Spring.""

The next report is of the &d of October, 1774, and is as follows :

"W. being appointed Tructess fer the Coenty of Westmoreland to make report for a proper pier, cte., cts., having accurately ccemslard and considered the same, de report that 'tie car opinion that Hesees Town trome to be the most ceutrical & fit to answer the perpcere ia- tended We are further of option that should your Humor and the Honorable Cuencii think the Bruch Run Manor a more proper place, It annnot be of mach disadvantage to the County. We pray your Mener's Sentiments on this Head, which will be thankfully acknowledged by

Signed by Robert Hanna, Joseph Erwin, John Cavet, and Samuel Sloan.'

On the 7th of February, 1775, in the morning, be- fore the people of the town were out of bed, a party headed by Benjamin Harrison, son-in-law of William Crawford, and oue Samuel Wilson, by order of Craw- ford, broke open the doors of the jail with a sledge, which they got out of the blacksmith-shop near by, and let out the prisoners therein confined, three in number, telling them to clear the way. On that oc- casion Mr. Hanna poked his head out of the cock- loft window of his mansion-house, which, never to be forgotten, was also the temple of justice, and made the remark, " Boys, you are up early to-day to buy a rope to hang yourselves." Hanna appeared on the ground, and Sheriff John Carnahan, also there, had the riot act read to the crowd, who jeered at him and made mouths, grimaces, and very disparaging remarks, in- tended for the Governor's province in general, and the magistrates there present in particular. Hanns had a musket pointed at his head. On the 25th of the month Hanna and Cavet were taken into custody and confined in the guard-room at Fort Pitt, and were there detained in confinement above three months."

In 1775, Pittsburgh, according to the most authen- tic authorities, did not contain more than twenty-five or thirty houses, so that Hannastown was about as large.

The courts continued to be held at Hannastown, or rather at the house of Robert Hanna after the town was burnt in 1782, until the January term. of 1787, when the first court was held at Greensburg.

By act of 10th of April, 1781, the care and custody of the lots appurtenant to Hannastown was vested in

* Ibid., 471. " Ibid., 579.

4 Depositions of Carnahan, Hanna, « al., in Archives, vol. iv., 00%;

1 Archives, iv. 406.

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THE BORDER TROUBLES OF 1774 BEGIN.

the justices of the peace residing in and within two miles of the town, to the end that the lots should be preserved from encroachment and private use, and for the benefit of common to the inhabitants of the town or place, until the same should be appropriated, under the authority of the Legislature, for building, improvement, or other use.

CHAPTER XIII. THE BORDER TROUBLES OF 1774 BEGIN.

Virginia claims part of the Territory of Pennsylvania-Dunmore occu- ples Fort Pitt-The Claims of Virginia and Pennsylvania ennmarized -Virginia Colonists willing to fight for the Demands of Virginia- Lord Dunmore, Governor of Wirginia-England's Colonial Policy-Vir- ginia's relation to the Ministry-Charges against Dunmore-His Character-Beal Causes of Dunmore's or Crecenp's War of 1774-How the Indinus regarded Western Virginia-Jolin Connolly-He takes possession of Fort Pitt-Issues a Proclamation-Apprehended by &c. Clair, and committed to Jail at Hannastown-He returns to Pittsburgh -Is opposed by Penn's Magistrates-He returns with Authority from Dunmore, aud appears with Sinon Girty and a Rabble at llannastown -Refuses to allow the Justices to hold Court-The Justices persist, and hold Court to preserve order till the Lines are adjusted.

SUCH is an outline of the character of the people and the institutions of our county at the date when it came into existence. The stream of emigration was kept unabated, and while many passed on to seat themselves farther west, many others were stopping here. So it was not long till nearly all the land had a determinate owner, but of course it was sparsely settled even in those spots which could be called the centres of population. The settlers got along tolerably well through 1773, and were to all outward prospects in a fair way of becoming a thriving colony ; but just as the vigor of this new emigration was being felt unforeseen causes intervened which made trouble and commotion all over Western Pennsylvania, which delayed that natural advancement which it was rea- sonable to look for, and which, after very nearly involving the people in civil war, did in truth leave them in a state of anxiety and dread and constant alarms.

We have now reached the time when one who chronicles the events of our local history must enter upon a subject not at all attractive, but which fills up a large space in our history. Those who have com- piled accounts of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County have dwelt at large upon this subject, but we do not know of any Westmorelander having done the same for his own county. To have a clear conception of the actual state of Westmoreland during the Revo- lution we must enter more into details than we should wish to, and study it in connection with subsequent events.1

1 Bee Grabam's "History of Virginia," and Campbell's " History of Virginia."

As we have had no thread to follow for the narrative as it is in the

In the beginning of 1774 the question of disputed territory, and conflicting claims which had agitated the two colonies for nearly twenty years in regard to the boundary lines of the respective colonies, was now brought forward, and culminated in open dissension. Virginia, it is recollected, claimed that the fort at the Forks of the Ohio was within their charter limits, and in some of her demands she judged, indeed, that Penn's charter government did not extend farther west than Laurel Hill. The actual possession of this point was now' by occupancy, and by the bounds drawn by Penn's agent within the claim and under the jurisdiction and control of the proprietaries. Virginia was compelled, therefore, to take the aggres- sive.

It must be admitted that, with the imperfect knowl- edge of the Western territory which was then pos- sessed, Virginia's claim to this western territory was consistently founded. Under her early Governor, Spottswood, she had been the first to surmount the Blue Ridge and lay claim to the valley of the Missis- sippi. Under Dinwiddie, in the person of Washing- ton, she first asserted her claim to that unoccupied region which gave rise to the war which terminated so advantageously for the British in the acquisition of Canada; for this she battled long and courageously. She had held and maintained actual possession of the greater portion of this region south of the Ohio, and was the first to colonize the wild lands of Kentucky, -a region to which no Indian tribe asserted its right.

The claim of Pennsylvania was in her original charter, and in her subsequent purchases from the Indians. There was no question, as was afterwards admitted, that Penn's colony in its integrity embraced all the original charter limits granted to the original proprietary. The dispute was to how far the actual bounds extended. Each claimed, and each made ex- ertion to maintain its point: The boundary of West- moreland, the latest and most westerly of the counties, did not extend farther southwest than the most west- erly branch of the Youghiogheny, nor farther west than the Ohio at Fort Pitt; and summarizing, it is seen that Governor Thomas Penn, as early as 1752, in his instructions to his deputies, advised them to assist the Governor of Virginia in erecting a fort at the point of the Ohio, but to take especial pains that nothing be done to the disparagement of his claims. The notes of the first survey, by Gist, the first settle- ments on the tributaries of the Ohio, and the attempt at the erection of a fort by the Ohio Company were under the assumption that this point was within the territory of Virginia; and accordingly in 1754 (Feb. 19th) Governor Dinwiddie, to encourage soldiers and

three following chapters, we have compared, among others, Withers' "Chronicles," Duddridge's "Notes," Craig's " History of Pittsburgh," "History of the Back woods," " Border Warfare," Campbell's " History of Virginia," Rupp's " History of Western Pennsylvania," besides the gen- eral histories and all excerpts that have come before us. But the old series of Pennsylvania Archives and Colonial Records is the one great source of information for those inquiring further.

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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

settlers, granted, by proclamation, large bodies of land about the forks of the river. In March following, Governor Hamilton, on the part of the proprietaries, wrote to Governor Dinwiddie that, as he had given it his attention, he believed the point to be within Pennsylvania. In Dinwiddie's reply he stated that he was much misled by his surveyors if the point was not within the limits of Virginia. This doubt was not settled till the occupancy of the disputed point by the French and the erection of Fort Duquesne. The French and Indian war and the Indian war in West- ern Virginia obliged both parties to be united in a common interest. After this for a time there was a lull in the war of words, and from the time when the turbulent Kyashuta laid down the hatchet to Bouquet, in 1764, on the Muskingum, till the treaty of Stanwix, 1768, the southwestern part of Pennsylvania, below the Youghiogheny, was populated under the laws of Virginia, and mostly by settlers from Virginia and Maryland along with the Irish. The establishing of the territorial government of Westmoreland then led the Virginiaus at this juncture to occupy Fort Pitt and the lands on the northern banks of the Monon- gahela; and it must be borne in mind that these set- tlers were ready to fly to arms if need be rather than suffer a doubt to rest upon their title. For men are ready and willing, so strong is the feeling which at- taches to one's fields and firesides, to fight for their homes, even in preference, when there is a preference, to their government. The agents of Dunmore had, therefore, willing tools to work with.

Although all unprejudiced minds will not deny that Virginia had asserted this claim and screened her own firesides and the frontier of Pennsylvania in fighting for it, yet to understand the motives which actuated Dunmore, her Governor, at this time, and to appreciate that intense hatred felt even now against him by all Americans, there are other circumstances which force themselves to our attention. The con- siderate and patriotic men of Virginia have dis- claimed any participation by the Old Dominion in these overt and high-handed acts and pretensions, and have in their histories loaded his character with shame and infamy. And this character is justly drawn, as it was justly deserved. Some writers, in the exuberance of patriotic fervor, go so far as to say that his actions hastened to bring to'a crisis the troubles between the colonies and the crown, and call them the prelude to the .Revolution. Connected so intimately as they are with this great epoch, we shall, in order to understand the part Westmoreland took in that great event, have to refer back to the colonial history of Virginia.

There had been no country so successful in found- ing foreign colonies as England, and no country that so nurtured and protected them in their infancy. The freedom which they possessed from the time they came into being sprang from the protection of the common law ; for the protecting of these, while they

were in a state of nurture, was but the protecting of the mother-country herself. Under different dy nasties for several generations the colonial policy of Eng- land with her American colonies was founded and exercised in eminent justice. She regarded them as her offspring, and in truth as her dependencies; and they were dutiful in their allegiance. At length this policy was changed. Instead of treating them as her near offspring, she chose to deal with them as if they were conquered provinces.

In 1765, nine years before the time of which we are now treating, it was that the British ministry, wanting to increase the revenues of the crown, ex- acted a tax of the colonists in the shape of a stamp duty on paper and writings, which act is known as the Stamp Act. Discontent was manifested strongly in Massachusetts and Virginia. Hitherto the Vir- ginians had been considered the most loyal of the colonists. Now the people resisted most strongly this unconstitutional act; but the conciliating dispositions of the Governors fortunately appointed, however, kept the people pacified. Lord Botetourt, from 1768 to 1771, did all in his power to advance the colony and to protect the firesides of the people. He died in 1771, and his successor was John Murray, the kingly Governor of New York, known in history as Earl of Dunmore. And this man was a bitter Tory, preferring the interest of the king to the interest of the people. He proceeded by means the most unjust to bind the colony in an impossible allegiance. If we believe history as it describes him in his public ca- pacity, we must conclude that he was one of the most heartless of men.

It does not, in view of the subsequent acts of Dun- more, appear to be af all improbable when it is as- serted that he was appointed to the governship of Virginia to rule them with severity, thus to make them feel their dependence, and to quiet the growing dissension then arising among the colonists in a com- mon interest. It cannot be said exactly whether the troubles which he helped agitate in the western part of Pennsylvania were in pursuance of a fixed policy, or whether they were instigated by his cruel disposi- tion. All, however, agree that he secretly, through his agents, gave a left-handed instigation to the In- dians in the course of their warfare. It is true that when he became Governor the frontier settlers were fighting for life with famine, with the severity of long and dismal winters, and with their treacherous enemies; not in a long, open, and general war, but in a war no less destructive. And it is asserted that Dunmore found means to supply the Indians with arms to destroy his own blood, and, scarcely to be believed, furnished money to pay for the scalps of mothers and babes. He, by the means of waging such an inhuman war, wanted, so they declare, to draw the attention of the colonists from the rights of civil liberty to the protection of their very homes, their very lives. Such Virginians as take this view

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THE BORDER TROUBLES OF 1774 BEGIN.

regard the blood shed at the battle of Point Pleasant, the great battle of Dunmore's war of 1774, as the first offering on the altar of liberty.

Dunmore was such a man who, clothed with au- thority, could not but use it to his own interest, and therefore use it badly. He was a supercilious aristo- crat, without a redeeming patrician trait. He was hot-headed, stubborn and tyrannical, and was, on the whole, as unfit a man as could have been gotten to govern Virginia at this juncture.

These assertions when sifted closely will not, per- haps, be literally sustained.' But our ancestors, those who suffered and had cause to complain, did not dis- criminate so closely as we do. It is, in truth, not correct to say that Dunmore instigated this war, but one thing is certain, he played it and its consequences into his own hands, and for what he thought was to the interest of the king. The Indians, both before and after, opposed the advance of the whites in every direction. There was a war of the races everywhere. Every foot of ground from the James River to the Mississippi was fought for. With all this, the loss of so many is laid at his door.

We shall not enter at large into the details of the war which opened and continued through 1774, and which is commonly known as Cressap's war, or Dun- more's war, as it does not, only in a general way, con- cern our local history. Happily for our infant colony, it did not do much actual harm. But we must con- sider it in connection with the wide-spread dismay it occasioned among the defenseless inhabitants of the border, the imminent dangers which looked them in the face, and its consequent effect in alternating the relations of the people of Western Pennsylvania with the royalists.

The encroachment of the whites into Kentucky and upon the lands of the Indians along the Ohio, and the influence of the Canadian traders were the general causes of the war. The Indians, from these facts, naturally regarded Western Virginia and West- ern Pennsylvania as the hive from which swarmed forth these emigrants. Redstone and Fort Pitt were the chief points at which these embarked. The first cabin in Kentucky was built by Harrod, who led out a party from the Monongahela. Both of these places had fortifications erected and garrisons kept up from the time of Pontiac's war, in 1764, to nearly this time. The Indians then watched the route which led into Kentucky, and on the little bands led out to reinforce Boone and his confederates they kept up a harassing war. And while these were the general causes, the immediate causes of this war were the instances of single murder committed, sometimes through appre- hension, sometimes in cold blood ; and this on both sides. There are instances in which the savages killed the whites, and instances in which the whites in- humanly murdered the Indians. These murders con- tinuing, both parties claimed that they were in retal- iation for murders committed by the opposite party.

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 16

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: