History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 24

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 24

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Something more than a passing notice should be taken of the family of Butler, of which two brought such honorable distinction to Westmoreland County. The name of the family has been greatly honored in

its representatives in every section of the Union, and in every era of its history. The annals of the military history of the nation from the Revolution to the civil war could not be written without mention of the name and services of some of the members of the family.

Thomas Butler, the father of five " fighting" But- lers, was born in Kilkenny, Ireland.' Three of bis sons-Richard, William, and Thomas-were born abroad. The eldest, Richard, was, as we know, lieu- tenant-colonel of Morgan's rifle regiment, and to him it owed much of the high character that gave it a fame of its own. He devoted himself to the drill of his men, and the cool disciplined valor which gave direction to the rifles of the regiment wan derived principally from him. As the colonel of a regiment he served with Wayne at Stony Point, and took a prominent part in the closing scenes at Yorktown. In 1790 he was appointed major-general. On the 4th of November, 1791, in Gen. St. Clair's battle with the Indians, there was such a peculiar interest in his fate and in the circumstances attending his death, that a representation of himself and the group surrounding him was exhibited throughout the Union in wax figures. The warmest friendship existed between bim and St. Clair, and indeed between all his family and St. Clair. In this battle St. Clair refused to take Butler's advice on the eve of the fatal 4th of Novem- ber, 1791. "I have some good wine, general ; let us eat, drink, and be merry," said Butler, who knew more of Indian warfare than his chief, " for to morrow we die.""

William Butler, the second son, who accompanied St. Clair to Canada and Ticonderoga, was an officer throughout the Revolutionary war, rose to the rank of colonel, and was in many of the severest battles. He was the favorite of the family, and was boasted of by this race of heroes as the coolest and boldest man in battle they had ever known. When the army ' was greatly reduced in rank and file, and there were more officers than men, they organized themselves into a separate corps, and elected him to the com- mand. Washington declined receiving this novel corps of commissioned soldiers, but in a proud testi- monial did honor to their devoted patriotism.

Thomas Butler, the third son, was a student of law in the office of Judge Wilson, of Philadelphia, when, in 1776, he joined the army as a subaltern. He soon obtained the command of a company, in which he continued to the close of the war. He was in almost every battle fought in the Middle States. At the battle of Brandywine he received the thanks of Washington, through his aide-de-camp, Gen. Hamil- ton, for his conduct in rallying a detachment of re-

1 Some of these statements are drawn from Francis P. Blair's Bio- graphical Sketch of Gen. W. O. Butler.

" This anecdote is related by many historians, and there appears to be not the least doubt about its being enbatantially correct, and it well die- plays the singular bravery and devotion of that officer.

Digitized by Google

WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION.

eating troops. At the battle of Monmouth he re- ived the thanks of Gen. Wayne for defending a file while Col. Richard Butler's regiment made good retreat. He .commanded a battalion under St. air in 1791 in the battle in which his brother fell. ders were given by St. Clair to charge with the yonet, and Maj. Butler, though his leg had been oken by a ball, yet on horseback led his battalion the charge. It was with difficulty his surviving other, Capt. Edward Butler, removed him from the ld. He died Sept. 7, 1805.

Percival Butler, the fourth son, born at Carlisle, 1., entered the army as a lieutenant at the age of ghteen; was with Washington at Valley Forge, is in the battle of Monmouth and at the taking of orktown, being through the whole series of struggles the Middle States with the troops under the com- ander-in-chief, except for a short period when he as attached to a light corps commanded by La- yette. He emigrated to Kentucky in 1784, and was jutant-general of Kentucky during the war of 1812. Edward Butler was too young to join the Revolu- nary army at first, but joined it towards the close. e was a captain in St. Clair's army (1791), and jutant-general of Wayne's army.

Of these five brothers, four had sons, all of whom, th one exception, were engaged in the military or val service of the country in the war of 1812 or the exican war.

Capt. James Butler, of the Pittsburgh Blues, in the mpaign of the Northwest under Harrison in 1812, as a son of Col. Richard Butler. Another son, Wil- m Butler, died a lieutenant in the navy early in e same war. Mrs. Meason, of Uniontown, Fayette ., who died but a few years ago at the age of nety-six, was a daughter of Col. Richard.

It would be too much for us to recount the names d services of the different members of the family as ey relate to the war of 1812 and the Mexican war. This glance at the family, as Francis P. Blair re- arks in a biographical sketch of W. O. Butler, shows e character of the race. An anecdote, derived from letter of an old Pennsylvania friend of the parents, o transplanted it from Ireland, shows that its mil- ry instinct was an inheritance:

While the fire sons were absent from home In the service of the ntry the old father took it into his head to go also. The neighbors lected to remonstrate against it, but his wife said, ' Let him go, I can along without him, and raise something to feed the army in the bar- n, and the country wauts every man who can shoulder a musket.'"

It was doubtless this extraordinary zeal of the But- family which induced Gen. Washington to give e toast "The Butlers and their five sons" at his in table, whilst surrounded by a large party of icers. This anecdote rests on the authority of the te Gen. Findlay, of Cincinnati. A similar tribute respect was paid to this devoted house of soldiers Gen. Lafayette in a letter now extant, and in the ssession of a lady connected with it by marriage.

Lafayette says, " When I wanted a thing well done, I ordered a Butler to do it."

Col. Richard Butler was at Arnold's side when he was wounded in the terrific assault upon the camp of the Brunswickers.

His name was brought prominently forward in the army at the surrender of Cornwallis. In the last days, Steuben commanded in the trenches when the flag came out with proposals of capitulation. La- fayette's tour of duty arrived while the negotiations were going on, and it was a point of honor who had the right to plant our flag on the captured citadel. Lafayette marched with his division to relieve Steu- ben, but the latter would not be relieved. Ensign Ebenezer Denny, afterwards of Pittsburgh, was de- tailed to erect the flag. While he was in the act of planting it Steuben galloped up, took the flag, and planted it himself. Col. Richard Butler resented the supposed affront to the Pennsylvania troops, and sent a challenge to Steuben, and it required all the influ- ence of Washington on one side and Rochambeau on the other to prevent a duel.

COL. JAMES SMITH .- The readers of the history of our part of the State and of the West will often meet with the name of Col. James Smith. We mention him here as one of the defenders of Westmoreland, although his reputation is destined some day to be as lasting as the annals of the republic, for the future historian will, without doubt, draw liberally from his narrative, which already within the time allotted for canonization has, in the simplicity of its style, the purity of the narrative, and the interesting descrip- tion of a peculiar people, been regarded second only to the master-piece of De Foe. At eighteen years of age Smith was taken this side of Bedford by the In- dians, in the year 1755. He was at Fort Duquesne when the French and Indians defeated Braddock, and heard the painted warriors boasting as they went out to meet the English that they would "shoot him down like one pidgen." He was with them, as an adopted hunter, to 1760, and it is the narrative of this captivity which, in our opinion, is one of the most valuable contributions to our literature. When he was free again he went to the settlements of Franklin County, and remained there for some time. In the war of 1763 he was an ensign, and in .1764 a lieuten- ant, in the militia of the State. In 1766 he explored the Holstein River and the Kentucky country, and traveled through the Carolinas. After the opening of the land office he purchased some lands along the Youghiogheny and Jacobs Creek. In 1774, the time of Dunmore, he was a captain in the Pennsylvania line, and with St. Clair and Proctor organized the rangers of that date. In 1776 he was a major in the association, and it is only to infer how much he had to do with the resolutions of May the 16th, 1775. When independence was declared he was elected a member from Westmoreland for the Convention, and of the Assembly, as he says as long as he wished to

Digitized by

Google

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

serve. While attending the Assembly in 1777 he saw on the streets of Philadelphia some of his "old boys," on their way to the Jerseys, who desired him to go along. The House granted him leave of ab- sence to lead a scouting-party. He preceded Wash- ington's army with his " boys," and did service worthy of the highest notice. In 1778 he received a colonel'a commission and returned to the West, where he headed an expedition carried on under his own super- vision and direction, which we shall notice in its proper place. He was a foremost citizen of our own and Fayette County till 1788, when he removed to Bourbon County, Ky. He was a member of the As- sembly of that State nearly continuously from a few years after that date to 1799. He died in the State of his adoption.

COL. JOHN GIBBON .- In the notices of these men, to whom we are indebted for a share of our independ- ence, we cannot pass over the services of Col. John Gibson. It is true that during the early part of the Revolution he was not on the frontier, but in the latter part he wa, and his great influence was cf much advantage at a most critical time. He was a man of most tenacious purpose, and although he was a Pennsylvanian, born in Lancaster County, yet be took strong sides with Virginia, as we will recollect, in the boundary troubles. He had received a good education. At the age of eighteen he accompanied Forbes' expedition. Settling at Fort Pitt as an In- dian trader at the peace, he was subsequently taken prisoner by the Indians, and was saved from burning at the stake by an aged squaw, who adopted bim in place of her son, who had been slain in battle. He remained with the Indians a number of years. At the close of hostilities he again settled at Fort Pitt. In 1774 he assisted in negotiating the peace which fol- lowed Dunmore's expedition to the Shawanese towns. At the outset of the Revolution he was appointed to the command of a Continental regiment, where he served with the army in New York and in the retreat through the Jerseys. During the latter part of the war he was in command along the western frontier. A controversy arising between him and Brodhead, growing from the claims of each to precedence, was finally settled by the government interposing and superseding both by Gen. Irvine, 1781. Gibson was then known as colonel of the Ninth Virginia. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1790, and subsequently a judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas of Allegheny County. He commanded a regiment in St. Clair's expedition in the West, and was major-general of the militia during the Whiskey Insurrection. In 1800 he was appointed by Jefferson Secretary of Indiana, which office he held until it became a State, and in 1811, 1812, and 1813 was its acting Governor. He was the uncle of Chief Justice John B. Gibson.

These lists and rolls which we give in the text and in the appendices do not contain the names of all those

who saw service from our county, either whose bomes were here during the time of the war, or who subee- quently came into the county. Those who fell in the battle-fields all over the country are not there. Those who dragged their torn limbe home to die in their native valleys are not there. The beathe of New Jersey from Paramus to Freehold, by a line encircling Morristown and Bound Brook, were in the sommer of 1777 dotted with graves of the Eighth and Twelfth Pennsylvania Regiments. An historical note touch- ing on this subject says,-

" Theen regimento from the frontiers of the State, Westmoreland and Northumberland, was the first of the line in the fold, though they had come from the Mosongabels ced the bead-waters of the Busquekenes. At Brandywine the PenseyIvealene lost besvily to odlecco and men, co at Germantown."!

So there were frontier settlers of Westmoreland who could to their children recount the disastrous march from Long Island, the glories of Princeton and Germantown, and the sufferings of Valley Forge; and there were Westmorelanders as well who had a life-long recollection of the sufferings of the Jersey prison-chips.

Such were the men and their services that West- moreland furnished to the cause of American inde- pendence. But unfortunately the student of our local history will have lees data to work from when be in- quires into the history of the services of those men, and tries to arrange in order their achievements, who took upon themselves the defense of the cabins and posts, the women and children of those others who from necessity were compelled to remain upon the frontier in their homes and abiding-places. No books or writings contain a continuous narrative of services, or even to any great extent record their names. Their services are ouly to be gathered from the incidents which are preserved in our local reminiscences, per- sonal recollections, and State archives; and their memories have been held sacred and inviolate for the most part by traditions and episodic narratives. In the treatment of this subject we shall, in another place, so far as we are able, do justice to their patri- otism and devotion. In the Appendix' will be found some rolls of some of the militia who served on the frontier in the early days of the war.

1 For an example: George Frederick Shelbler, of Hempdeld township, who died Feb. 28, 1848, aged seventy-nine years seven months and one day, and who had been a resident of the county for fifty years, hud en- listed in the Continental army when only fifteen years old. He was Inken prisoner by the British at Charlestown, Mass., and shipped on board a British frigate to the West Indies. Ile escaped from this vessel while it was lying nt Kingston, Jamaica, but was recaptured; but after again escaping, with many adventures he regained the United States. " See Appendix "M."

Digitized by

Google

BORDER WARFARE AND CIVIL DISSENSIONS.

CHAPTER XIX.

BORDER WARFARE AND CIVIL DISSENSIONS.

dians in 1776 and 1777-Effect of Savage Warfare on the Whites- White Renegades and Deserters : Girty, Mckee, Elliott-Depravity of omne Whites on the Frontier-Murder of Corustalk-List of Com- mandauts at Fort Pitt-McIntosh's Expedition from Fort Pitt to Beaver-Brodhead's Expedition to Conewago-Other Expeditions Trum Western Pennsylvania and the West-Clark's Westeru Expedi- tion and his Westmorelanders-Dates of these Noted. Expeditions- Nature of the Indian Warfare in the West-Border Settlement of Westmoreland most Exposed-The County during the Troublons Times divided, one part North and one part South of the Youghio- gheny-Prople along the Youghiogheny acknowledge no Law-Vir- Finia establishes three Counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania- Boundaries and County-seats of Monongalia, Ohio, and Yohogania Counties-Extracts from Yohogania County Records-Their first Elec- tion-Primitive Court-House and Jail-Curious Fines and Seutences- When their Jurisdiction ended-Boundaries ruu and Difficulties set- tled-Mason and Dixon's Line-Limits of the Actual Jurisdiction of Westmoreland County through the Revolutionary War-Date of the erection of other Counties which have been stricken off from West- moreland.

OWING in part to the showing of force, the general dian war which had been feared by the Congres- onal Committee at Pittsburgh in 1776 had not as yet oken out, and later in the fall this fear appeared to dissipated when some of the neighboring tribes Tered assurances of friendship at a council held near e town. But yet more or less during all the time eville commanded at that point -- that is, in 1776 ad 1777-small parties of Indians and Virginians ere brought in contact, and these collisions be- me more frequent in 1778.1 In 1777 boats were ilt on the Monongahela to transport troops into the dian country, and during this year and the next ose outlaws continued to harass the frontiers along e rivers below Pittsburgh,2 and many small parties llowed each other as far as the Sewickley settlements ad drove the settlers off or chased them into their ock-houses.'

It is not to be forgotten that during the seven years' ar the Indians had more assistance than that which me direct'y from the British. Their strongest allies ere those debased whites who, leaving the civiliza- on of their own race, like uncaged beasts, ran to the ilds, and there associated with wretches more of eir own instincts. At no other period was this omaly so visible as during this war. Many reasons ve been given for this, and some, clothing the miser- le lives of these abortions with extenuating favor, ve tried to cover their sins and their shames with the uzy mantle of romance. But whatever causes first pelled these men to forsake their color and their in, and to embrace the savagery of the half-naked d men at a time when they were debasing their rn race, and were bringing into contempt all the umane traditions of their progenitors, there is one

1 Craig, " History of Pittsburgh."

" Withers" Chronicles.

' Reports Supreme Court Pennsylvania.

thing certain, that they became more savage than the. veriest savage. To all time will the example of these men remain a subject for the moralist and the phi- losopher, and their lives a plausible argument that the baseness of man's nature and his innate depravity will and do easily and readily assert themselves. The truth will appear to be that some left the society of the whites from individual quarrels, some through desertion from the American army, and the consequent fear of re- turning, but most were drawn to such an invidious manner of life by the money and the promises of the British agents. These men fought with the Indians after their mode; they fell into their habits and spoke their language. They became their leaders, and di- rected the movements of the squads which they ac- companied ; they were the first to plan a foray, and the most careful in an attack. They could liberate a prisoner at the stake when the fagots were already set on fire, or they could tie up a refractory warrior to a sapling and lash him with a thong till his skin was flayed open. They knew where the colonists were weakest, and the points most desirable to attack ; when in command they were implicitly obeyed, and followed with a recklessness which their own leaders could not have commanded. They received the bounty offered for scalps, and gave to the Indians in return their fire-water or their glass beads. They got from the whites the most opprobrious nicknames, and their names were held in abhorrence by those whom they had deserted, and execrated by the wailing households that mourned the death of fathers, or sons, or brothers. They were called renegades, deserters, white savages, cut-throats, dogs. To these renegades the settlers of Westmoreland traced the great source of their trouble.

The three most conspicuous of these renegades were Simon Girty, Alexander McKee, and Matthew Elliott. Girty passed his time mostly with the Mingoes, al- though he was a privileged character, and wherever he went he was allowed to command. He knew the western part of Pennsylvania well, having been an Indian agent along the Ohio River as early as 1749. He had also been connected with Dunmore's army, as the people of these parts knew to their sorrow, he being in the regular line of promotion after Connolly. He knew all about Hannastown, and it was he who got the blacksmith tools and battered down the door of the jail when the rabble took possession of the public buildings. McKee had also been an Indian agent, and had taken up some of the first land about Pittsburgh. He was something of a shrewd business man, but as a warrior was not to be compared with his illustrious brother, the Coriolanus who swore to "plow Rome and harrow Italy." In 1779, McKee was created agent in the room of Mr. Hays, and lived at Detroit." There were others of lesser light,

4 Letter to Col. Brodhead, June 292 17.9; A

Archives, vol. iii., N. S., page 306.

Digitized by

Google

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA.

but these three won a more than ordinary notoriety, and were called the unholy trinity.

While those who affiliated with the Indians were debased, the white settlers, from such intimate con- nection with their enemies, were, from force of cir- cumstances, themselves abased, so that during these times things were done which bare caused their children's children to blush deeply with shame. The common laws of humanity which immemorially have obtained among all people were disregarded. The very temples of hospitality were sacrilegiously profaned. Red men such as Cornstalk, who pos. sessed some of the noblest traits of genuine manhood, and who were known friends of the colonists, were de- coyed into unsuspected places, and in cold blood, with- out passion, by persons calling themselves men, mur- dered.' The culmination of all was when the Mora- vian Indians were massacred in 1781, for after all the sufferings of the people they were shocked at the enormity of that deed. When Neville had come from Virginia to hold Pittsburgh against the machin- ations of Dunmore and Connolly, he was allowed to remain by the sanction of Congress. He beld this point till some time in 1777.

During the Revolutionary war the post of Pitts- burgh was commanded, after Neville, by Gen. Hand, Gen. McIntosh, Col. Brodhead, and Gen. Irvine, suc- cessively, by Continental authority. Their chief duty was to guard the frontiers against the savages, 83 well as to preserve order among those people who were frontiersmen, and who had but little respect for any kind of legal authority.

1 THE MURDER OF CORNSTALK .- This ever memorable action, which helped so much to alieuate the Indians of Southern Ohio, occurred at Point Pleasant, in the fort erected on the site of Dunmore's, or rather Lewis' great battle. In the spring of 1777 a company of militis garri- soned that post. The celebrated Cornstalk, theu in old age, and Red Hawk, a warrior of sume flotoriety among the powerful Shawnanese, and whose tribe had till then kept alouf from the war, visiting the fort in the interest of peace, were under a specious pretezt held as hostages. While detained lu the fort, Corustalk oue day heard his son, Ellinipsiu, calling to him across the river. The young marage, mindful of a Slial affection not wanting in bis wild nature, knowing not what detained his father, and anxtone for him, had auto is the fost to Sud him. He was mimitted. It so unfortunately happened on the next day that two of the meu about the fort going out to bunt were killed. Then it was that those in the fort, in the vain hope to be revenged, fell upon the helpless unarmed Indians who were under their keeping, whom they attackel, and whom they inhumanly mardered. All those in the fort they killed. Eren the school-books tell how Ellinipsico, when he saw the murderers approach, became agitated, and how his father in his death was no less a historically great man than on that day when his voice was heard over the noise of the battle of the Point. When he had seen the inevitable, he drew his blanket as a toga about him, and mid to his son, "The Great Spirit has an willed it, and has sent you to the end that we should die together: let us submit." His words were to this effect; and when the murderers were coming he rose to meet them, and received seven balls iu his body. Ellinipsico was shot npon the seat he occupied when the knowledge of his approaching death was first made sure; Red Hawk was shot trying to escape by climbing a chim- ney; and another Indian with them was killed in a most barbarous manner. This occurrence drove their tribe into open war against the colonists of Virginia, and male themu forever their enemies.

As to scalp bonuty, see uote to Chap. XXX. ; as to Moravian mamacre, see Chap. XXV.

Taken generally, the policy of the commandants at Fort Pitt was an offensive policy, but their forces were inadequate, and to such extent was the country impoverished that no sustained campaign could be carried on. After each foray or expedition had spent its force it fell back again exhausted. The Virginia emigrants down the Obio and along the frontier of Kentucky battled bravely against the bordes which poured out of the woods of Northern Indians and from about the lakes. To give these and our own people some show of public onantenasce the expe- dition under Gen. McIntosh had been planned. Mc- Intosh, with portions of the Eighth Pennsylvania and Thirteenth Virginia Regiments, left Pittsburgh by way of the Big Beaver, built a fort on the present site of the town of Beaver, left there a garrison, and thus beld the tribes in check for a time. Col. Brod- head, the successor of Gen. McIntosh, in 1779 cent a party up the Allegheny, from which direction came those squads that, crossing the Kiskiminetas, overran the country as far down as the Sewickley. In this campaign Brodhead destroyed the Indian cornfields and the town on the site of Conewago.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 24

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

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