History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 34

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
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USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 34

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136

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

prior to the raid on Hannastown is also evidenced in the meagre records of the courts.

In 1778 and 1779 it appears there were no constables for many of the townships. Vacancies were frequently noted, and these were at times filled by appointment by the county justices.

At the January sessions, 1780, the constables being called, and none attending, the fines, on account of the severity of the weather, were remitted. At this terni there was no grand jury in attendance and no business done.

At the October sessions of 1781 there was only one constable present, and he was from Pittsburgh.

At the January sessions of 1781 here is a jury of the vicinage : William Love, John Guthrey, Joseph Brownlee, William Jack, William Guthrey, Adam Hatfield, Matthew Miller, Samuel Beatty, Lawrence Irwin, William Shaw, Conrad Hawk, and William Maxwell. One is led to exclaim "Injuns!"

That persons who were so unfortunate then as to be in debt should be harassed would be natural to sup- pose, and this is evidenced by the number of execu- tions issued. In the July term of 1782, being held when the town was raided, there were ninety-two, an excessive number. In the January sessions of 1784 is the following :

"The court having considered the application of David Rankin, be living on the frontiera, excuse him from paying license in the year 1781, and at the same time rule that the several people having culd or continue to sell spirituous liqnors living on the frontiers, and may be entitled to the favour of the Court, are discharged from paying licener until July Sersions last, agreeable to the directions of the Honorable the Supreme Executive Council."

On the 10th of March, 1780, the Legislature passed an act of a temporary nature, empowering the county commissioners and assessors to obtain the best estimate that they could of the property of such of the inhabit- ants as had been driven from their habitations, and to exonerate those from taxes who had bona fide suf- fered by the incursions of the enemy.

In the call for troops in 1780 there was none asked for from Westmoreland. Neither was there an account kept of the supplies from the county, as there was no commissioner; David Duncan, the late commissioner, not having rendered any account, he being unable to purchase anything worth returning.

This is not much to wonder at, for Col. John Boyn- ton, deputy paymaster-general, in a letter to Presi- dent Reed the year previous, says that he " has served for nearly three years in that remote country [the border of Western Pennsylvania and Virginia], and it has been wholly impracticable to procure such neces- Baries as decency requires."1

By the act of 3d April, 1781, directing the mode of adjusting and settling the payment of debts and con- tracts previously entered into, etc., and which fixed a scale of depreciation as a rule to determine the value of the several debts, contracts, etc., it was en-

acted that the act entitled an act for limitation of so- tions, which had been passed the 27th day of March, 1718, "should not run or operate during the time the courts of justice were shut in this State, nor during the time of any suspension act of this State, in any action or distress prohibited to be made or brought by. such act, under the penalty of taking depreciated money in full payment."?

These acts of the Assembly indicate the poverty and inability of the western country, arising from and due to their border sufferings and consequent distress.

During 1779 the frontier posts west of Fort Pitt, which were garrisoned by the forces under the control of the commandant of the Western Department, had been abandoned by reason of inability to hold them by inadequate forces against a much stronger force of British and Indians. Of these forts the most im- portant were Fort Laurens, in the Ohio country, and Fort McIntosh (Beaver).

The withdrawal of all forces from the Indian coun- try caused great alarm and indignation in the settle- ments on the border. Early in 1780 s meeting of citizens was held in Westmoreland County, and resolu- tions passed requesting the reoccupation of the aban- doned forts.' Hence the co-operation of Lochry with Clark in hisexpedition before narrated. When Clark was compelled to abandon the expedition the whole western frontier was menaced with a British and In- dian invasion from Canada. Fully conversant with and appreciating the terrible situation of affairs, both military and civil, about this region, the commander- in-chief, with great care and concern, and after due deliberation, chose Brig .- Gen. William Irvine to take conimand at Fort Pitt, Sept. 24, 1780. Congress re- quested the executives of Pennsylvania and Virginia to co-operate with him by supplying militia upon his requisition.

Of the complications which arose out of the divided authority between the commandant at Fort Pitt and the county lieutenant of Westmoreland we have had occasion to refer to, and one inquiring further is re- ferred to the correspondence relating to Westmore- land County, which will be found in the Appendix and in various notes in the preceding part of this book.

The correspondence of Col. Lochry, and his actions as lieutenant of the county, evidence the great danger constantly threatening the frontier of Westmoreland, and also the inability of the people to protect them- selves.

Capt. Thomas Campbell's ranging company, under pay of Congress, and subject to Lochry's orders, was stationed in December of 1779 about Hannastown.

" The Courts of Justices were "shut" in Westmoreland during a por tion of the Revolutionary war.

" Col. Brodhead, in a letter to Maj. Slanghter, May 11, 1780, Mayo, "The county of Westmoreland is again infested with the cursed Min- gues. The inhabitants are flying from every quarter, and it will be no- cessary for you to keep a lookout where you are [Slaughter was then at a post down the Ohio]."-Brodhead's Letter- Book; Archives, xiL. p. 982.

1 Archives, N. 8., Ill. 300.

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CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE IN 1:80-81.

This had been allowed by the concurrence of Brod- head. This company, shortly after this, was ordered by Col. Lochry to Wallace's Fort (near the Cone- maugh), but on Campbell's making application to Col. Brodhead for horses and provisions needful for the transportation of his men to that post he was refused both; whereupon he wrote a very caustic letter to Brodhead, who had him arrested for insubordination.1

It was during this time, as we have seen, that Lochry insisted that the companies of Erwin and Campbell should be kept in Westmoreland for the protection of the posts here, being more needed here than farther on the frontier.'

Upon Erwin, who was father-in-law of Lochry, refusing to let his company go under Brodhead's or- der to join the Eighth Regiment, Brodhead ordered him as well as Campbell under arrest, and to be tried by & court-martial.' Brodhead said that when these two companies had been ordered by Lochry to Han- nastown and Wallace's Fort, he had to withdraw the garrisons from Fort Armstrong (Kittanning) and Fort Crawford.

Brodhead was certainly not much prepossessed in favor of the officers of the militia of the county. The duplex system of management was unfortunate and led to mischief, which of itself was aggravated when a suspicion was enkindled in the breasts of both par- ties that the acts of opposition were the result of pre- meditated and studied malignity.‘

The correspondence of Col. Brodhead during the time he was in command, at Pittsburgh, in 1780 and part of 1781, is of much interest to Westmorelanders inquiring into the history of that time. In May, 1780, he writes to President Reed, " For heaven's sake hurry up the companies voted by the Honorable Assembly, or Westmoreland County will soon be a wilderness."5

The ranging companies to which we have referred were raised by the Assembly at the instance of Con- gress, and were enlisted into the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, whose colonel was Brodhead; but while so enlisted and drawing pay in the Continental service, they were allowed to be under the direction and com- mand of the county lieutenant, as they were pri- marily intended for the protection of the county. This, we have seen, was the source of much trouble.

1 Archives, vil., p. 36, 0. 8.

* Ibid., viil., p. 42, 0. 8.

· Ibid., p. 79.

Col. Daniel Brodhead to President Reed, April 27, 1780.

" I am much at a loes to guess, the cause of prepossession in the As- sembly to favor former appointments. They minst conceive a menn opluion of my judgment in regard to officers if they know my opinion of these, and they must be sensible that many excellent officers of the State are supernumerary. I will ouly take the liberty to mention Capt. Stokely, Cupt. Hoffnagle, Capt. Swearingen, and Capt. Jack, either Erwin or Campbell. But were I at liberty to recommend officers, I should pre- fer such who are altogether unconnected with the leading people of the counties, and have ueither families por farms to support or cultivate at an expense they do not chouse to pay. The late Capt. Moorhead and others considered their men as their servants, and employed them to labor upon their farms Instead of the service for which they were intended by the public."-Archiers, vill., p. 210.

' Archives, vill. 246.

Reports from both the Continental and the county officers were continually reaching the ears of the presi- dent of the State. In a letter in 1781 from President Reed to Col. Lochry he says that the former quarter- ing of these rangers about Hannastown did not ex- actly meet the concurrence of the Board, but that he, Lochry, should use his own discretion in bestowing them in the coming campaign.

The plan agreed upon by the representatives of the western counties and Gen. Irvine, held at the conven- tion called at his instance, April the 5th, 1781, was to keep flying bodies of men constantly on the fron- tiers, marching to and from the different places. The regular troops were to remain in Fort Pitt and Fort McIntosh, since reoccupied. Westmoreland agreed to keep sixty-five men, formed into two companies, constantly ranging along the frontier from the Alle- gheny to the Laurel Hill. The militia of Washing- ton County was formed into four companies; two of these were placed so as to patrol the Ohio from Pitts- burgh to near Wheeling. Every precaution was taken to guard against surprises of the enemy. Neverthe- less, it was well understood that a defensive policy, with whatever care plans might be laid, would prove ineffectual against occasional inroads of the wily, prowling savages, who in spite of every precaution frequently crossed the Ohio, fell suddenly upon their helpless victims, and then quickly recrossed that river into the wilderness beyond."

It was the wide-spread and unarguable opinion of the people west of the Laurel Hill that the only way of destroying the Indians was to carry the war against them. Hence the expedition to the Sandusky towns which brought so much additional suffering in its unfortunate termination.

A. Lochry to President Reed, April 17, 1781, writes : "The menges have begun their hostilities. Since I came from Phila- delphia they have struck us in four different places, have taken and killed thirteen persons with a number of horses and other effects of the Inhabitants; two of the unhappy people were killed one mile from Hannastown. Our country is worse depopulated than ever it has been."1

James Perry to President Reed, 1781 :

"SEWICKLEY, July 2, 1781.

" Understanding that an express is going to Philadelphia from Col. Lochry, I +ball just informi you our country is in the utmost confusion at present. About three weeks ago one James Chambers was taken pris- oner about two miles from my house, last Friday two young women were killed in Ligonier Valley, and this morning a small garrison at Peter Clingensmith's, about eight miles from this and four or five miles from Hannas Town, consisting of between twenty and thirty women and children, was destroyed ; only three made their escape. The par- ticulars I cannot well inform you, as the party that was sent to bury the dead are not yet returned, and I wait every moment to hear of or perhaps see them strike at some other place. That party was supposed to be about seventeen."s

Col. Lochry to President Reed, July 4, 1781 :

" We have very distressing times here this summer. The enemy are almost constantly in our country, killing and captivating the inbalit- ante."9

" "Crawford's Campaign against Sandusky," Butterfield, p. 8 For much information on the subject in hand the special reader is referred to the valuable publication quoted.

1 Arch., vol. Ix., 79. " Ibid., 240. . Ibid., 247.

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HISTORY OF WE :_ MORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

In August, 1781, the detachment of the Seventh Maryland Regiment, which had been serving under Brodhead, left Fort Pitt, and returned over the moun- tains home.

This season Lochry, the county lieutenant, appre- bending an attack on Hannastown or some untoward event, had erected a block-house on his farm on the Twelve-Mile Run, now near the convent in Unity township, whither he had the records removed for safety, and a magazine built for the powder and arms supply for the county of which he had charge. To this, however, the Council objected, and upon their objection he desisted. Their chief ground of ob- jection was that by the collection of war munitions at one place the attention of the enemy would be drawn to that point, and the interests of a large por- tion of the people be greatly imperiled.

In his letter to Washington of Dec. 3, 1781, Irvine said,-

" At present the people talk of flying, carly in the spring, to the eastern side of the mountain, and are daily flocking to me to inquire what suppurt they may expect."

It was very generally believed, and the commander himself shared in the opinion, that the failure of Clark and Gibson would greatly encourage the sav- ages to fall on the frontiers with double fury in the coming spring.

The month of February, 1782, was one of unusual mildness. War-parties of savages from Sandusky visited the settlements and committed depredations earlier than usual on that account. From the failure of the expeditions against the Western Indians in the previous autumn, there had been a continued fear, a feverish state of feeling, during the winter all along the border; and now that the early melting of the snow had brought the savages at an unwonted season to the settlements, a more than usual excitement upon such an occasion prevailed.

CHAPTER XXVIII. DESTRUCTION OF HANNASTOWN.

Spring of 1782-The Outposts deserted-Condition of the Hannastown Settlement-The People gather near to the Stations and work at Har- vest together-A Party go out to take off the Harvest of Michnel Huffnagle, north of Hannastown-One of the Reapers, seeing Indians watching from behind Trees, gives the Alarm, and they flee towards the Fort-The Court at Hannastowu adjourns without & Crier- Records taken to the Fort-General Jail Delivery-They all gather futo the Stockade-Scouts sent out-Brison and Shaw pursued by the Iudians-Capt. Matthew Jack comes upon the Indians and escapes from them-Hle rides round the Country and alarms the People-ile saves the Love Family-Indians come to the Town-They hold a Con- sultation, and are seen to have White Men for Commanders, who aro dressed like Indians-They piunder the Houses, fire on the Stockade, and mock at the Inmates-They send out a Party towards Miller's Station-The People gather at Allen's, at Rugh's, at Unity-Settlers gather into the Houses and get down their Rifles-Indians come on to the Mowers in the Meadow at Miller's-The Number and Class of Per- sons collected there-Women and Children gather into the Milier House-John Brownlee called back from attacking the Indians by

It's WIS-Oires himself up to the Indiane-A Young Man tone Brownlee's Child and runs towards George's-Is paramed by a Pack of Indians and hides in a Bye-Frit-Singular Escape of a Babe loft on the Ground at the Mercy of the Savages- She is found Sleeping in her own Cut the next Morning-She lives to be Married, cad dies In OM Age-The Mousse at Hansertowa bernt dutra-Captain Jack le tue Inte is alarm the People at Miller's-The Rearpadre secure the Is- mates of the House-They burn the House and choes down the Cattle - The the Hands of the Pilsoners and load them with Stuten Goods -Drive the Weeping Women Into Captivity-Brownloo carries a Load on his back and hes his Little Child co his neck-The Indians recog- mise Browales-One crashes a Tumohawk Into his Head and kille ble Little Boy, and also a Woman who faints-Affairs abust the Fort- Peggy Shaw maves a Little Child-A Ball strikes her in the Breast- The barbarous Medical Treatment cho receives while che lingers out her Life-The Two Bodies of Indians unite and go lato Camp in the Crabtree Bottom-People collect at the George Farm-At Nighthall a Crowd with Scouts go Armed to andet those In the Furt-They come to the Smsouidering Town-Are let into the Steeltede and Sound an Alarm-The Indians, listening, are scared, thinking Reinforcements have arrived, and after Midnight they leave for the Wurth-Their Route-They are peresed as far as the Kiskiminetse -- The People look out on Deserted Homers-They bary the Dead where they were found -To keep them from Starving the State allows them to draw Rations - What became of the Prisoners-Who the Invaders were and where they came from-Gen. Irvine's Letter to Washington-Singular Ac- count from an Indien after the War of the Party which bernt Han- Dastown-The Heroes of the " Hoanestown War"-The Towa after Its Destruction.

THE darkest and most gloomy period in the history of Westmoreland County was from the spring of 1781 to the spring of 1783. This was the night of dark- ness, the tenebre nocturnum. After the unchristian murder of the Moravian Indians disaster followed disaster. Crawford walking around the stake in his bare feet on the hot cinders, praying to God to have mercy, and beseeching Girty only to fill him ; the loss of so many brave men who had gone out with Lochry from about Hannastown and who never re- turned; the frontier in war ; the settlers fleeing back to the mountains; the desertion of the soldiers who were guarding the posts along the Allegheny; the untilled fields,-the memory and knowledge of these things haunted them day and night, and the shadows of death and want were across well-nigh every door in the land.

Through the greater part of the year 1782 some of the settlers did not pretend to do anything but watch for the others, ready at an instant's warning to go wherever needed. Those who stayed about the fields and houses gladly worked for the rest, and depended on the fighters guarding the limits of the settlement. Of those in the Hannastown settlement who were looked up to as their foremost men were Capt. Matthew Jack, Col. Campbell, Capt. Love, Lieut. Guthrie, the Brownlees, the Brisons, the Shaws, the Wilsons.

As the times grew darker their sympathies grew closer. At no other time did they live as one family, in a sort of communism, for the fear of apparent death makes all men forget their enmity. Those, in such settlements as this, who worked worked in common. When a patch of rye or wheat was to be cut and gathered in it was a kind of serious frolic. This was so in the region bounded by the old military

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DESTRUCTION OF HANNASTOWN.

road and the block-houses around the Sewickley set- tlement.

We will remember that besides the regular forts and those block-house cabins, such as Fort Waltour and Miller's Station, there were in every locality other designated points to flee to which, being the most convenient, a crowd would most likely be col- lected at soonest. Such were George's cabin, to the northeast of Miller's about a mile, and Rugh's block- house, near the Beaver Dam on Jack's Run, about a mile to the south of now Greensburg. These were early settlements, the Miller farm having been in the .possession of that family from the time it was war- ranted. At this time this settlement was rather thickly peopled. Large fields had been cleared about the house, and stake-and-rider fences kept the cattle from trespassing.

The militia in the service of the State had deserted from the posts, because they were not paid and were in rags, and the safety of the inhabitants was in their own exertions. While the gloom from repeated disasters still rested upon the people they gathered into the cabins about Hannastown and nearer the block- houses and stations. The whole country north of the Great Road almost to the rivers northwestward of the Derry line was, so to speak, deserted. Fears were apprehended that the Hannastown settlement would be made an objective point, but there was no apparent danger more than a general fear.

On Saturday, the 13th of July, 1782, the settlers next to Hannastown on the north, and those about the fort and the town itself who could be spared, went out to cut the harvest of Michael Huffnagle. Huff- nagle was the prothonotary and one of the judges of the Common Pleas. He was one of the most active and best known of the inhabitants. He had been an officer in the Westmoreland regiment, the Eighth in the Continental line, had seen service in the cam- paign in the Jerseys, and in one of the battles of the Revolution had been wounded in the leg. The wound allowed him to be exempt from military duty, but on his return he had entered actively into the civil ser- vice, and had gained much influence. He had a farm about a mile and a half north of the town, and while he was engaged in the duties of his office his neigh- bors took their turn at his fields. At this time court was being held at the old house, first built by Robert Hanna and used by him. By the records of the Com- mon Pleas and Quarter Sessions it appears that the July term commenced on the second Tuesday of July, 1782, before Edward Cook and his associates, Cook holding these courts in Westmoreland under a special commission.

From an imperfect narrative and from many con- flicting accounts we have collated the facts which can be taken as authentic, and which we believe are sub- stantially correct.

The reaping-party had cut down one field and were about finishing it, after they had eaten their din- . there was no one ever thought that fear of the In-

ner in the shade, when one of the reapers crossed over to the farther side next the wood. As he neared the opposite edge of the field where the wood feath- ered in he espied some Indians watching the party from behind trees as the party were coming out to take their places. The man ran back and gave the alarm that the Indians were coming. The party hur- ried from the field with all speed, some going towards the place where they had at first collected, others through the woods to alarm the settlers and to reach their homes, but most ran direct for the fort and town. When they came running into the town all was confusion. One, using a familiar form of ex- pression, says that the sudden inroad of the savages that afternoon was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky. The records were taken from the court-house to the stockade; the door of the round-logged jail was opened, and the prisoners confined were allowed to go at large; and while some were running about helping the women and children and decrepit old people, others themselves were hurrying into the fort and making ready to close the big gate cut in the pali- sades. The suddenness of the onslaught can be imag- ined when that none made an effort to secure their household treasures, their clothing, or movable stuff.

Before the Indians had yet made their appearance about the town itself, and soon after the news reached there, a kind of a consultation was informally held by some of the men to decide on a plan of action. The people who had remained at the town were now within the shelter of the stockade. There chanced to be about the town then some who would rather have fought Indians than eat dinner, and who would not have slept knowing that any of the settlers were in danger and the woods full of such vermin. Some of these, it is said, volunteered to go out in the direction of the fields, that they might see where the Indians were collected, to get their strength and to report their objective movements. James Brison and David Shaw were of this party. But before these left, and among the first to go out, was Capt. Matthew Jack, who on his good horse, took a circling route to recon- noitre to find something of the intention of the sav- ages, and to alarm the settlements nearest the town. Capt. Jack, although going in a way not directly to- wards the fields from the fort, was the first to come upon the place where they were collected, not far from where the reapers had left. They were then apparently consulting and agreeing upon a plan of attack. His quick perception took in the whole situation at once. The instant he reined his horse in he was seen. He turned his horse and fled, and they followed. Com- ing back he met the young men who had started out after he had. He yelled to them to run for their lives, that he would circle round before going to the-fort, expecting by the speed of his horse and his knowl- edge of the land to get back before they should ar- rive there, or in case of pursuit to evade them, for

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 34

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

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