History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 37

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1 The following extracts and observations will illustrate the subject- matter given in the body of this chapter :

Michael Hufnagle to President Moors, 1783.

"JORT REED, July, 1782.

"Sim,-I am sorry to inform your Excellency, that last Saturday at two o'clock in the afternoon, Hanne's Town wes attack'd by about one hundred Whites and Blacks. We found several Jackets, the buttons marked with the King's eighth Regiment. At the same time this Town was attack'd, asother party attack'd Fort Miller, about four Miles from this Place. Hanna's Town and Fort Miller in a short time were reduced to Ashes, about twenty of the Inhabitants kill'd and taken, about one hundred head of Cattle, a number of borses and hogs killed. Such wanton destruction I never bebeld, burning and destroying as they went. The People of this Place behaved brave, retired to the Fort, left their all a prey to the Enemy, and with twenty men only, and nine guns In good order, we stood the attack till dark. At first some of the Enemy

CHAPTER XXIX.

LAST DAYS OF HANNASTOWN-EXECUTION OF MAMACHTAGA.

End of the Reveleties-Formation of new Counties, Washington and Fayette-Now Stato Project-Who were at the head of it-Causes of tto Incepriee-Its Prospective Lisette-It falls-Act of Congress role- tive thereto-1700-04-The Last Days of Boneestown-Trial of Memechinga, an Indian, for Murder -- And also of comse ether Press- ces at the same Court-Ho te defended by Breckenridge-The Indien's Department-His Optales of the Court-His Trisi-Is found Gelity of Murder, and wishes to.be Chet lastend of Benged-The Prissecre ta the Jefl want him to küll another Priseser under Sentence of Death- He refuses to do co-The Jefler's Child takes Nick, when Memach tags goes out and gets Herte to care it-He returns to the Jen, and goes tato Velsatary Condaemsent -- The Day of the Execution arrives-A great Crowd of People assemble-The White Man kung, and then Memachtaga hong-Ho dies Hke o Warrior, after having fret pointed himest! for the Oceanles.

AT length the war was over. The definite treaty of peace with England was ratified by Congress on the 14th of January, 1784, and on the 22d of that month a proclamation to that effect was published.

come close to the Fioketa, but were esca obliged to retire farther of. I cannot inform you what Member of the Boomy may be killed, co wro cso them from the fort carrying of coverals.

" The situation of the Inhabitnate ie deplorabis, o member of theme not baring a Blanket to lye on, nor a Becend cuit to pat on their Becks. Affaire are strangely managed here; where the fait lice I will not pro- came to my. This Place being of the greatest consequence to the From- tiera, to be left destitute of Men, Arme, and ammunition is carpricing to me, sithough freqsent applications bave been made. Your Izcelkenny, I hope, will not be offended my mentioning that I think it would not be amiss that proper inquiry cheald be made about the management of the Public affairs in this County, and also to recommend to the Legisle- tive Body to bave come provision made for the Poor distressed People here. Your knowa humanity convinces me that you will do everything In your power to ceslet me in our distress'd situation.

" I have the Honor to be your Excellency's

" Mest obt. Hble. Bervt.,

Indoroad, July 30, 1783 .- Fans. Arak, vol. Iz.

This event wes narrated in a letter" written by Ephraim Douglass to Gen. James Irvine, dated July 28, 1782, as follows:

" My last contained comse account of the destruction of Haans's Town, bet it was an imperfect one; the damage was greater than we then knew, and attended with circumstances different from my representation of them. There were nine killed and twelve carried off prisoners, and instead of comse of the bouses without the fort being defended by our people, they all retired within the miserable stockade, and the cnomy possessed themselves of the forsaken houses, from whence they kept up a continual fire upon the fort from about twelve o'clock till night with- out doing any other damage than wounding one little girl within the walls. They carried away a great number of horses and everything of value in the deserted houses, destroyed all the cattle, hogy, and poultry within their resch, and burned all the boness in the village except two; these they also set fire to, bet fortunately it did not extend itself to fer as to conenme these; several howses round the country were destroyed in the same manner, and a number of unhappy families either murdered or carried off captivee; some have since suffered a similar fate in differ- ent parts; hardly a day but they have been discovered in some quarter of the country, and the poor inhabitants struck with terror through the whole extent of our frontier. Where this party set ont from is not oor- tainly known; several circumstances induce the belief of their coming from the head of the Allegheny, or towards Niagara, rather than from Sandusky or the neighborhood of Lake Erie. The great number of whites, known by their language to have been in the party, the direc- tion of their retreat when they left the country, which was towards the

* Now in existence, with the "Irvine Papers," in possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.

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people of our parts and all west of the moun- were then left to rebuild their homes and start rom a new position, somewhat, it is true, in ad- e of the early colonists. By this time, when the e of battle had rolled away, Westmoreland was

ning, and no appearance of their tracks either coming or going been discovered by the officer and party which the general * d on that service beyond the river, all conspire to support this be- d I think it is sincerely to be wished, on account of the unfortu- ptives who have fallen into their hands, that it may be true, for raged Delawares renounce the idea of taking any prisoners but el purposes of torture."

. express," wrote Irvine to Moore on the 16th of July, 1782, by Mr. Hoofnagle, through timidity and other misconduct, did not here until this moment (Tuesday, 10 o'clock), though he left Han- n Sunday evening, which I fear will put it out of my power to p with the enemy, they will have got so far away. However, I ent several reconnoitering parties to try to discover whether they ft the settlements, and what route they have taken. I fear," he nes, " this stroke will intimidate the inhabitants so much that it be possible to rally them or persuade them to make a stand."

Gen. Ww. Irvine to President Moore.

"FORT PITT, July 25, 1782.

. destruction of Hannastown put the people generally into great lon for some days. The alarm is partly over, and some who fled urning again to their places; others went entirely off. I have lieutenant of the county and others prevailed on to encourage { the inhabitants to reoccupy Hannas Town, by keeping & post Il guard there." -- Poun. Arch., vol. x.

Duncan to Mr. Cunningham, Member of Council from Lancaster, 1782. " PITTSBURGH, July 30, 1782.

sve taken the Liberty of Writing you the Situation of our Un- Country at present. In the first place I make no doubt But you card of the Bad success of our Campaign against the Indian Towns, e Late Stroke the savages have gave to Hannastown, which was duced to ashes except two Houses, exclusive of a small fort, happily saved all that were so fortunate to get to it. There were ds of twenty killed and taken, the most of whom were Women dren. At the same time a small fort four miles from thence Was supposed to be by a detachment of the same Party. I assure at the situation of the frontiers of our County is truly alarming ent, and worthy our most serious Consideration. . . . " -Penn. vol. ix., 606.

following letter from Gen. Washington to President Reed is of Igaificance in this connection :

" HEADQUARTERS, NEW WINDSOR, April 25, 1781.

ce my letter of the 14th to your Excellency on the subject of an jate supply of provision for Fort Pitt, I have received the follow- elligence through a good channel which makes the measure more nesbly necessary. 'Col. Connolly with his corps to proceed to as soon as possible, to be joined in Canada by Sir John Johnson, number of Tories and Indians said to amount to three thousand. ate to be by Buck Island, Lake Ontario, and Venango. And his is Fort Pitt and all the adjacent posts. Connolly takes with him ber of Commissions for persons now residing at Pittsburgh, and hundred men at that place have agreed to join to make pris- f Col. Brodhead and all friends of America. His great influence country will, It is said, enable him to prevail upon the Indians habitants to assist the British in any measure.' The latter part intelligence agrees exactly with a discovery which Col. Brodhead ely made of a correspondence between prisoners at Fort Pitt . Commandant at Detroit, some of whom have been seized by . . "

anqua Lake, in New York, had been long before the harboring- Jr hostile Indians. As early as 1752 the French Governor of Can- i begun the erection of a fort there, which was to be the rendez- r the French and the Indians in their excursions against the en-

. Irvine.

circumscribed in its limits and impoverished in purse. From March 28, 1781, the county of Washington had been in successful operation, and from the 17th of February, 1784, the county of Fayette took care of the people as far up as her limits at Jacobs Creek.

croachment of the British along the Allegheny River, then claimed by the French. They then changed their location to one farther to the south west, viz., Presque Isle, and here they built a permanent fort of large dimensions and great strength, but in 1753 they finished the fort at Chatauqua. The portage road which the French cut from Chatau qua to Presque Isle (Erie) was one of the earliest works of civilization in the West, made more than twenty years before the battle of Lex- ington.

He who would write a full history of the destruction of Hannastown and incorporate therein all the traditions and memorabilia of that war would fill a book much larger than this, for the destruction of Hannas- town was to the inhabitants of that section what Noah's flood was to the inhabitants of the ancient world. If all reports were to be credited touching the individual claims of those whose ancestors were reported to have been in the fort when the town was burnt, the number would reach such a magnitude that it would cease to be credible.

Of the Shaw family, some members of which bore such a conspicuous part there, much has been preserved and much related. Moses Shaw and Margaret, his wife, had there three sons-David, a young man perhaps twenty years old, Alexander, about eight years, and John, quite young, not above one year-and two daughters, Sarah, about sixteen, and Marga- ret, or Peggy, about fourteen, who was wounded in the fort and who died about two weeks thereafter. John Shaw was the father of David Shaw Atkinson, Esq., of the Greensburg bar. The family have preserved aniong themselves the incidents which we now relate. On the day in which Hannastown was burnt, Sarah Shaw, whose descendants now reside be- low Trees' Mill, on Beaver Run, was washing, and when the attack was made she fled with her parents and the other children into the fort, leav- ing the pot full of clothes on the fire and the smoothing-iron before the fire. Although the house was burnt, the pot and the iron withstood the fire and are yet in the possession of the Shaw family.

. They say also that it was Mrs. Moore's child that Margaret Shaw was carrying when she was shot. Mr. Moore's presence as a child at the fort has been noticed before, of which fact there can be no doubt.

Charles Sterret was killed on the Shaw farm, in Salem township, now owned by a Mr. Longsdorf. David Shaw and William Hays buried him. His grave is pointed out at this day. The graves of two men of the Ourry family, who were buried on their own farm, now owned by Mr. John Kepple, in Salem township, may also be seen, and they are reported to have been killed on that day by the Indians.

It would be very natural for the descendants of the old settlers about the Hannastown region, and even farther away, to connect their ances- tors of that date in some particular with the Hannastown era, the sub- ject of, conversation about the fireside of two generations in the days of profound peace. To make mention of all the reputed facts touching this subject which have come to our ears would be too much of a work ; to profess to believe all would be exhibiting too much credulity.

Of those who took part in the pursuit of the Indians on the next day or the day subsequent to that were doubtless the Craigs, the Sloans, and others from the neighborhood of the fort, and Capt. David Kilgore, with two of his sons, and some of their neighbors from the Upper Sewickley settlement (near Pleasant Unity). These, of course, by name are in ad- dition to those whom we have before mentioned as taking a more early and active part.

Of those within the fort at the time of the incursion and not mentioned was Capt. Ourry. So also was James Moore, of Salem township, who died in .1846, aged seventy-three years. He was a mere child, and was at Hannastown with his widowed mother, who lived there. Their house with all its contents was burnt. His father had died a short time before by disease brought on by hardship and exposure on the frontiers.

At the time the attack was made on " Miller's Station," one of the children of Capt. Samuel Miller, then deceased, was taken captive and detained by the Indians some time. This was the daughter, Dorcas. She at that time was about eight years old, and was at the time of the fray on the hills back of the station gathering berries with her younger brother, Isaac. She heard the noise and saw the Indians depart from the station up over the hill for Hannastown, but did not suspect them to be warful Indians, for in d of hiding herself and her brother she went back towards the İste and the Indians seeing her at a distance

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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

The Commonwealth did not claim for the purposes of settlement any territory north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers, nor from her line of the par- chase of 1768, which ran from above Kittanning to the southwest corner of Clearfield County, as we have the map, thence through the middle of Clearfield in . meandering line nearly at right angles to the limit of the State at Bradford County. This remaining part1 was secured by the last treaty at Fort Stanwix with the Indians on October the 28d, 1784. This is what is called distinctly, and being the latest is now officially thus designated, the New Purchase, out of which have been formed the northwestern counties, ranging from Beaver to Tioga.

No material opposition being offered by the people, now under control of the civil power, the line mark- ing the western divisions of the two States of Penn- sylvania and Virginia was finally fixed. Another question which had been a source of commotion for some time previous was also summarily disposed of. During the latter days of the war there was a project on foot which created no little apprehension. Of this we may say something, so intimately connected is it with some subsequent matters in the history of Southwestern Pennsylvania. About 1780 and 1781 among the people of these parts arose what was called the New State project. This was a plan gotten up by a few ambitious and ill-contented men of some in- fluence, taking advantage of the time and imposing upon the credulity of the distressed inhabitants, to form a more perfect State government for themselves out of the territory for which Pennsylvania and Vir- ginia had been so long contending, as well as more undefined territory presumed to belong to neither. It is doubtful whether such a project could have been realized or accomplished, but being stimulated by se- ditious men in the heat of the war, it became a mat- ter of great consequence. Many causes have been given for the dissatisfaction of these people as evi- denced, and for the movement itself, but none of

motioned for her to come, and going toward her took her and her brother captive. The boy was killed that night, but Dorcas was carried to the vicinity of Niagara, where nearly three years afterward she was recognised and ransomed by Col Butler, a British officer, who had been acquainted with her father. After her restoration to her family she resided, until a few years before her death, upon the farm from which she had been dragged to the horrors of a captivity among savages. She was married to Joseph Russell, and became the mother of a large family, some of which have been of our most highly-esteemed citizens. She died in Greensburg on the 15th of March, 1851, in the seveuty-seventh year of her age. She was one of the few who could recount to persons yet living the recollections of one who had witnessed and felt the anguish of that fearful day and night. She was spared to exchange the priva- tions and toils of the early settler's life for the ense and comfort of a rapidly advancing civilization, and surrounded by her children's chil- dren, after the vicissitudes of a checkered existence, to sink peacefully in the arms of death."

1 Except the Erle Purchase.

* I have got much corroborative information as well as some original facts incorporated into the subject from the descendants of Mrs. Russell, who obtained the facts from her. I am indebted to Wm. Russell, Esq., especially for original aud collected papers.

them of themselves entirely satisfactory. It came perhaps from many causes, and those who favored it were led by different interests.

There were two obvious reasons patent to all : first, the uncertainty and inequality of land purchases not yet determined ; and next, the abolition of slavery. Of the matter of the first we are conversant ; as to the other there were some, indeed a good number of persons of means in the southwestern part of the State, whose chief investment was in human chattels.

In 1780 Pennsylvania abolished slavery within her territory. This was one cause of the emigration at that time into Kentucky. Col. Brodhead wrote on Sept. 28, 1780, from Pittsburgh, that at that time emigration to the new country of Kentucky was in- credible. This he lays to the disaffection of the people towards the country bete at large, and considers it the remaining dregs of the loyalty to the king. We are not inclined to take this assertion in so broad a sense when we recall the fact that this was the time when Col. Brodhead and Col. Gibeon were at variance. For it was to the interest of Col. Brodhead that the cause of this trouble should be credited to the loyalty of the people for the king while Col. Gibson rested under the imputation of disloyalty himself. There were, it is true, many who were proven traitors, and come within our county whose property was confiscated after they themselves had sought safety in flight. The people who entertained the notion of a new com- monwealth were identical with the rabble of Con- nolly, with the murders of the Moravian Indians, and with the boys of the Whiskey war, and cared as little for the king of England as for the Jack of Clubs, and acknowledged at times no government but their own lawlessness.'

It is said by some that the project was much older than of the time we notice it, and that it was in the plan of Dunmore and Connolly to first make the new territorial government, with Pittsburgh as the metrop- olis and seat of empire. Be this as it may, it has nothing to do with the civil affair, which was bol- stered up by another class of men.

Another occurrence favored the plan after it had

" James Marshall to President Rood.

" WASHINGTON COUNTY, June 5, 1781.

"Sim,-Since my arrival in this county I have been making what progress I can in organizing the militia, although as yet deprived of the Resistance of the sub-lieutenants by the indefatigable opposition of a certain Mr. Pentecust and a few of his adherents, the old enemies of this government, who immediately on my arrival got together at their court- house in what they call Youghagana County, which is wholly involved in this and Westmoreland Counties, and to which the government of Virginia has sent no orders for some considerable time pest. Notwith- standing they have resolved to go on with the jurisdiction of Virginia, both civil and military, until the line is actually run. Whereupon the said Pentecost swore into an old commission of county lieutenant that he pretended to have by bim for a long time, and thereupon assumed the command of the militia. Mr. Cannon (o civil officer under the gov- ernment of Virginia), one of our sub-lieutenants, publicly declares that government have infringed upon the rights of the people in appointing officers for them before they were represented, 'aud instead of assisting me in organizing the militia, is using all his influence to prevent it. . . . "

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been agitated. New York State proposed (1780) to surrender to the general government some of her western territory, and requested the other States that had any to do so. also, and out of this new territory to make, or cause to be made, new States in the con- federation.

Col. Thomas Scott, a former councilman for West- moreland, and after the Constitution a member of Congress for Washington, in a letter to President Reed, a little later, talking of this subject, says that the movement met with great countenance; and, alluding to a memorial sent to the Assembly, says "that should that memorial be unsuccessful, he does not think there would be ten men on this side of the mountains that would not lift arms against the State."

Gen. Irvine, writing from Pittsburgh in April, 1782, to Governor Harrison, of Virginia, says that an expedition was much talked of to emigrate and set up a new State. A day had been appointed for those so inclined to meet for that purpose. He says that a man by the name of Johnston, who had been to England since the commencement of the war, was at the head of this emigrating party. He says that everything in the way of forming a new government was in readiness; and, so far as he could find out, the seat of government was to be in the Muskingum. Some time during this year he had occasion to be ab- sent from the post, and when he went he directed Maj. Craig to keep an eye on the safety of the place, as there were men inclined to this scheme who were not too good to get possession of it. In 1782 the most active in the scheme were Col. Pentecost and Col. Cannon.

When first broached in 1780, the limits of the new State were to take in as much east of the Monongahela as it could get, and all northwest of it to the Ohio River; to reach southward into Virginia as far as the Kanawha, and westward to the Scioto and Muskingum Rivers. The bounds of the new State were, in truth, never disclosed. One thing is certain, however, the people of Pittsburgh and east of it above the Youg- hiogheny did not ever take much stock in it; it is said they even shunned its embraces.

In December of 1782, Congress passed an act de- claring that every attempt to set up a new State, in whole or in part, upon the territory of Pennsylvania should be treason. The Rev. James Finley, who had frequently been intrusted with missions from the State, was sent out by the authorities in 1783 among these people. He was armed with one hundred copies of the act, and of the proclamation, embodying the decision of the tribunal which adjusted the Connec- ticut claims, which led to the act. In his report he says that, finding the inhabitants east of the Youg- hiogheny mostly opposed to the new State, he passed them by. He found a considerable number between that river and the Monongahela in favor of it, but they were led by a few aspiring and ill-designing men.

The project thenceforth, under the advice of the clergy, by the silencing of the partisans, and by the determination of the government to preserve order, gradually passed off from the tongues of the people, and was a thing of the past, and the uprising of the turbulent people of that region was delayed for some years. It was remarked that the new people who came in and purchased the land which the emigrants left were of & better sort.1

Notwithstanding the village of Hannastown was de- stroyed, yet the courts still continued to sit at the house of Robert Hanna, and the writs were tested as at the shire-town. One of the most remarkable criminal cases that ever was tried in Western Pennsylvania came off here. As it illustrates the ancient method of procedure under the old penal code, as well as be- cause it is a notable case in itself, we may recount it. To Judge Brackenridge, who was of counsel for the defense, we owe the preservation of the incidents of the trial and execution of the first person who suffered capital punishment in the county under the forms of law. The date of the execution is not accurately fixed, although it took place some time in the latter part of 1785.' In our collection we choose to preserve this account for the sake of the many curious cir- cumstances connected with it.

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 37

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

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