History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 38

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 38

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This Mamachtaga,' the first person hung at Hannas- towar, was an Indian of the Delawares. While his tribe under Killbuck had for the most part remained friendly to the Americans, this Indian and a few more were known to have been engaged in war against the

1 Brodhead's letter of Sept. 23, 1780.

" The Indian Mamaughtaquie killed John Smith, 11th May, 1785.

(Huffnagle to Gen. Armstrong.)-Arch., x., 464.

The following has been unearthed among the recurde :

" Accompl of the Gaol Keeper of Westmoreland County.

" Dr. The County of Westmoreland to John Hanen, gaoler.

"To my sustaining the Prisoner Joseph Ross 306 days at 6d.

per day .......

" To my sustaining the Prisoner Mamaghtaguin, an Indian, 30 days ... 0 18

" To Gaol Fees for the above ... 0 50

"To Bolting and Unbolting the Indian ..... 7 6 "Sworn Jan'y, 1786, before John Moore."

....

£7 18 9

The following letter would indicate a disposition to bang " Hurricane" first and try him afterwards:

Robert Galbraith to Prest. Dickinson, from Pittsburgh, May 25, 1786, says, "The Indian who is now confined in the garrison at this place ta anxious to be tried as Speedily as may be, and receive the doom be so justly deserves. The Milltia of Washington County have made two attempts to break the Dungeon where he is confined and Tommihawk him."

[He then relates of two different attempts as having been made to get at the prisoner, which were frustrated by the coming of officers and some of the people, and then finishes as follows :]

" Iu this situation I earnestiy request your Excellency to Commis- sionate two more Gentlemen of this place to try the Indian without delay, and if your Excellency and the Honorable Council would think proper to send his Death warrant at the same time by way of Dispatch, it would sooner ease the minds of the people. There can be no doubt of his conviction. I was one of the Inquest held upon the Body of John Smith, and heard all the evidence. The Indian's name is Ma- machtagwin, in English the Hurricane, the most violent and Bloody Catif of the Delaware T"_Archives, vol. x., 467.

" This name is also mes called and spelled " Mamaghtaguin."

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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

settlements. At the termination of the war and after the peace these Indians came back, and were stopping at Killbuck's Island, under the guns of the fort. While they were here some men, one of them named Smith, went over to the Indians one night, and while three of the men were in the cabin where the murder occurred, Mamachtaga, in liquor, ran in without warning, stabbed Smith so that he died, and fell upon another man named Evans, whom he also stabbed, but who catching him and struggling made a kind of meles, in which he also was killed, and the third wounded before the drunken man could be secured.

The Indian, Mamachtaga, made no attempt to es- cape, but being sober, gave himself up to the guard, affecting not to know what had occurred. Killbuck himself sat upon a log silent, and appeared cast down on the next morning at the time of the visit. The prisoner,, on account of the insecurity of the jail or lock-up at Pittsburgh, was taken to the guard-house . till the next Court of Oyer and Terminer should be holden at Hannastown for the county.

Brackenridge, then a young attorney, moved by the novelty of having an Indian for a client, was re- tained as his counsel, under the promise of receiving some beaver-skin for his fee. The account he has left of the whole business transaction is the one we follow. When the Indian gave him an order on another, who held some furs of his, which order he signed with his mark in the shape of a turkey-foot, he was under the notion that it was a kind of satis- faction for his crime, and could not understand how that he should say he was not guilty of the killing of the white man. When Brackenridge had seen the squalid appearance of the wretched man, as he was confined in the black hole, he exchanged the beaver- skin for blankets and food, which he gave the man. But being of a curious and inquiring turn of mind, and always fond of novelties, he got an Indian woman to interpret for him while he questioned the Indian, trying to observe the analogy between the sentiment of a savage and that of a civilized person, or, as he chose to express it, the force of opinion over pain. The woman was loth to broach the subject of death ; she was, however, prevailed on, and when at last he was asked what death he preferred, he said he would rather be shot than tomahawked.

The habit of taking the law in their own hands to punish those who had offended had so completely per- vaded and possessed the minds of the people that a party, fearing that he possibly might escape, either from bonds or through the finesse of the young attorney and the crooks and quirks of the law, came with their guns into the garrison, and demanded that the pris- oner should be given up to them to be shot, and that the attorney should take an oath not to defend him. The officer would not allow this, but prevailed on them to go back, and leave the Indian to the civil authorities.

This Indian was, indeed, when in liquor a bad

man, and had forfeited the good will of his tribe by having killed several of them. He had the appear- ance of great ferocity, but, like all men in the state of nature, bis pensions were in the extreme; for in and by civilization only are the passione harmonised. He was tail, rough in feature, and of fierce aspect. His name in their language signifed "Trees-blown- across," a name given him from the nature of his ungovernable passion.

At the court holden at Hannastown for the county of Westmoreland, Mckean, C. J., and Bryan, J., Ma- machtaga was brought to trial. The usual formali- ties were observed, and an interpreter stood by to translate into the Delaware tongue the words of the indictment, the meaning of it, and to explain to him the privilege he had of denying the charge by plead- ing "not guilty." He could not comprehend the ides in saying he was not guilty, because by this be was telling a lie, a thing unbecoming a warrior. He did not like to say that he had not killed the men, but only that he was drunk, and did not know what he had done; but he " supposed he would know when he was under the ground." The court directed the ples to be entered for him, and he was put upon his trial.

He was then called upon to make his challenge, which was explained to him by the interpreter. This right he exercised by comparing the counte- nances of the jurymen, and challenging according to the sournees or cheerfulnees of their countenances. The jury called to the book, being told in the usual form, "Prisoner, look upon the juror; juror, look upon the prisoner at the bar: are you related to the prisoner?" one of them, a German, the first called, did not take the question aright, and thinking it was a reflection, said, "How in ter teivel might be pe re- lated to ter Hingin ?" thinking it a very uncivil way of treating decent people, as if he, being a Dutchman, could be a brother or cousin of an Indian. But the matter was explained to him by another German, and he, being satisfied, was sworn.

The only defense of the attorney was that the prisoner, at the time of committing the offense, was in liquor, but this was overruled by the court, as the fact of drunkenness would not excuse murder. The Indian said that he hoped the Good Man above would excuse it. The jury gave their verdict of guilty without leaving the box, and the prisoner was remanded to jail.

Near the ending of the court the prisoners were brought up to receive sentence. When the Indian was asked by the interpreter what he had to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon him he said that he would rather "run a while," meaning by this that he ought to be allowed to go free to get some compensation for the man he had killed by way of satisfaction to the relatives of the dead man, as was a custom in his tribe. On the sentence of death being passed upon him he said he would rather be shot.

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man of the name of John Bradly, at the same rt, was tried for homicide, and found guilty of slaughter. He was allowed, as under the old , his benefit of clergy, but being a simple man did understand the technical nicety resulting from pleading of it, and when the first part of the ence was read, and the hanging part mentioned, expressed the most abject terror in his looks and e as he begged for mercy. But when it was ex- ned to him, and the benefit by the common law wed him, he seemed more composed. Sentence burning in the hand was then pronounced against , and the sheriff was sent out for the tools.

so happened that the sentence of this prisoner arred before that of the Indian, and the Indian saying to the court that if it didn't make any erence to them he would rather be shot, when the riff came in with the branding-iron and a bed- to tie up the hand of the convict for man- ghter, the better to put on the hateful letter. Indian getting a side glance of the sheriff com- in imagined that he was coming at that instant nforce the law on his behalf. The idea of horror the dread of instant death which the savage ex- sed must have been frightful, and the narrator ns the distortion of his features, black with un- kable fear and anguish, to the effect of cold water denly poured on the human back.

Then he saw what the sheriff was about to do he ame somewhat calm again. Before he was taken n the bar he wished to say that his trial had been , and that he did not desire his tribe to revenge death or go to war on his account. As the sheriff taking him back to jail some of those about him ed him whom he thought the judges to be. These , as was then the official custom in the trial of ital crimes, in scarlet robes. The Indian said that thought one was God and the other the Saviour of 1, which notion or idea he no doubt got from the ravians who had had missionary services among Delawares.

During the time he lay in jail under sentence a Id of the jailer had taken sick with a fever. The ian said he could cure it if he could get some ts from the woods. The jailer made him promise the would not attempt to make his escape, saying t if he got off, himself would be taken and suffer his stead. The Indian promised him, and the er, taking the irons from his feet, went with him he woods, where he got the roots which were used he curing of the child.

Il the prisoners were confined in the one room of jail. Besides these there was a young man who convicted of larceny, but who being respectably nected was recommended to pardon by the jury convicted him and by many others. Yet he ears to have been a bad boy. There was also ther convicted of an unspeakable crime. This an extremely simple-minded creature. The young

fellow insisted on this creature to allow the Indian to kill him, as he had only to die once, and to die this way would be better than to die on the scaffold. The poor creature, being at last prevailed upon, agreed to do this. The young one had prepared a knife, but when he offered it to the Indian the Indian would not take it, although he was offered whiskey and insisted on still more. He said he had killed white men enough.

The warrant for the execution of the Indian and this white man came together. On the morning of the day set for the hanging the Indian wished to go to the woods to gather roots to paint himself and die as a warrior. The jailer allowed him and went with him. When they returned he painted his face red.

The gallows was made of two stout logs and a cross- piece at the top. The rope hung in the middle, and a ladder rested against the top piece. The prisoner to be hung was taken up the ladder, the rope was adjusted, and he was swung off. The hands were tied that they could not grasp at the ladder. The white man was hanged first. This was done success- fully, but when they came to hang the Indian the rope broke when they shook him off and he fell to the ground. He swooned somewhat from the violent change in the circulation of his blood, but rose with a kind of smile. Another rope was procured, and this one with the other was put about his neck, making two, when he went up again. The strength of the ropes supported his body, and, being strangled, he was literally hanged to death.

On the day of the execution a great crowd of set- tlers had congregated at Hannastown. It was a big day, but the remembrance of it has long ago been dispelled. Men seldom boast of having seen an exe- cution. These men were the first and the last hung at Hannastown. The unhappy, misshapen creature who suffered with the Indian under the inspiration of medieval superstition, preserved in black letter as part of the common law, ought to have been sent to an asylum for the insane. And for an Indian who got his notion of white men from such as Wetzel it turns tragedy into farce to strangle him like a tooth- less dog to vindicate the majesty of outraged law.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE PIONEERS-THEIR HOUSES, FURNITURE, ETC.

The Pioneers-How the Early Settlers came in-Their Object in Emi- grating and in Removing-First Settlers near the Forts-How they Built their Houses-House-Raisings-Appearance of their Cabins out- side-How they were Furnished-Home-Made Furniture-Description of Ancient Hannastown-The First Frame and Stone Houses in differ- ent parts of the County-Dr. Schoepf's visit to Western Pennsylvania after the War.

IT is now time that we should notice the manner of life of the early settlers as it is seen in their customs, their manners, their amusements ; give a description of their furniture and apparel, and make such other

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observations as distinguish them in their habits and tion. Our colonists did not come to trade and biggle with the Indians, or to follow the wild and daring ambition of roving undisturbed through dangers in- numerable, in slaying beasts of the forest and akulk- ing through the woods for red men. They were not impelled by the strange instinct which moved Daniel Boone, Byron's " great backwoodsman, hero of Ken- in their intercourse, for they sometimes differ so much from us that they appear a different people altogether. There is, however, one great difficulty in the way, and this, with us, is in our trouble to discriminate times and places. We cannot get at any particular time more than by a passing glimpse, so fast in our country have changes followed each other. But | tucky," and Samuel Brady, and Simon Kenton, and sometimes even such a glimpse may give us a correct idea. We shall, therefore, not attempt to restrict our wandering remarks to any particular era, nor confine them to a set order. And as nearly all the early set- tiers throughout this region of country lived com- monly alike, we have, in pursuance of our plan, col- lected some of our description from the hasty notes of those men who noticed it from their own observation and experiences, but we have relied chiefly on the testimony of the oldest inhabitants and on the testi- mony of their descendants.

Our early settlers were, in the true sense, pioneern. And when a pioneer, invited by the boundless ex- panse of a rich territory in prospect, took a notion to migrate, he was generally young or in middle age. The early settler came into a new country not encum- bered by his aged parents or by a numerous family of young and dependent children. If he was unmarried, he first came to inspect the country and to locate some spot to which he removed after going back to the set- tlement to marry. Then when all things were ready he set out. He mostly had a horse of a poor and un- developed breed, upon which he set his wife and such household goods as he wished to carry with him into the wilderness. Along each side of the pack-saddle, curiously hung on frames of wicker-work, were a few pots and pans, a rasher of bacon, a small quantity of garden tea, and a few simples which answered for a dispensary, in which were curatives for all ailments, for a griping colic and a cut leg. Every man had a rifle and the accompanying ammunition. In the bul- let-pouch a few hard-baked biscuit of wheat or rye- flour, or a johnny-cake1 of corn-meal, were for his fare till he reached the outposts at some block-house, or till he came in contiguity with some foremost settler ; for nearly all the settlements were commenced either in colonies of a few families, or near some post where the government watched over its territory with a small detachment of soldiers. These block-houses or forts, such as Bedford and Ligonier, were made to answer the purposes of the government at first, but were also the places of resort and the citadel of de- fense for the people in time of danger. Few of these pioneers in such troublous times were hardy enough to venture far away to places almost inaccessible, and far from contact with kindred men. The really iso- lated ones were those who were isolated in every re- spect, and those were impelled by far different motives than were those men who loved an embryo civiliza-

1 " Johnny-cake" is a corruption from "journey-cake."

such to fly, as it were, from the company of other men to pass a life of continual excitement and adven- ture merely for its own pleasure. They had other ties which bound them to the place they had fixed upon, and to change the rifle for the axe; for when a settler came in he came with the intention of staying. He had left, figuratively, servitude for liberty ; he had come from where he could not get along with becom- ing case to where he might, in time, have abundance. Here, henceforth, was to be his home. Naturally from this fact he made a virtue of necessity, and grow to love bis spot of land with a love not less sincere and intense than the Mantuan loved his hut of bar- dles, or the Rhinelander loves his cottage by the river. He was sensitive to one of the finest feelings which ennoble human nature, the feeling when, looking out on a tract of land, however barren and unfruitful, of knowing that it was his own, that it was secured, for the greatest part, by the earliest and most simple of titles, that of occupancy, and that all he possessed or might acquire was owing to his energy and his strong arm. Hence were all his feelings and his pred- ilections of a local nature. The longer he stayed, the older he became, the more intensely local did those feelings become.

So near to the forts were the very earliest settle- ments made, that when a settler began to rear s house he rested at night under the shadow of their walls. In the day he worked with his gun near him, leaning against a tree; at noon, sitting down beside it, he ate his cold dinner. If he was far off, and alone, he made his bed of leaves under rocks or against fallen logs. Then his shelter was the labor of his own hands, but if he had neighbors within three or four miles he could count on them. When his trees were down the neighbors helped to raise it. Often, if circumstances were favorable, the neighbors, meeting together, felled the trees, and raised and finished the skeleton of the house from sunrise to sunset. Such was no uncom- mon occurrence, and after the settlements were well advanced the building a house was no such difficult affair as to those earlier, for to work hard by day, and sleep hard indeed by night, with no covering over him and only a log on either side, was such an undertaking as but few can now appreciate, and which not many even then but cared to forego.

Their houses being such as were demanded by ne- cessity were surely rude. But few tools were used in their construction. With the axe the trees were felled, when the side intended for the inside of the house was hewed smooth. They were then notched at

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each end to let the cross-log lie firmly. When enough logs had been so prepared a day was given out for the raising. Then all the neighbors collected together, expecting a holiday, and such days were enjoyed as much and perhaps better than such conventional holidays as leave but few pleasurable recollections. Such occasions as house-raisings had more than a few attractions. Here the old men generally got their whiskey, an article from the earliest records indispen- sable in every community, and something better than common to eat. Here the young men might show their strength, and ogle and romp with the young women. The very boisterousness of the rough men, half hunters, half farmers, had, to those of a milder nature, something of allurement.1 And such up- roariousness continued from when the first log was laid upon the ground till the whole structure was raised. Soon as the crowd gathered they were divided into two parties, each one of which chose its captain. Thence began an emulation as to which side might excel, an emulation in which strength and determi- nation were as forcibly displayed as emulation has been displayed on the field of battle. These were little Balaklavas and little Waterloos. Every log was pushed up the two long slides and landed home to its place with a cheer; and no sooner was it there than another one was rolling off the hand-spikes of the stal- wart young men below, who, directed by the voice and gestures of the captain on the outer wall, were made to work in system and in regular order. No sooner was the house raised to its square, which was from eight to ten feet from the ground, than a shout re-echoed through the woods. Soon the saplings, an- swering for the rafters, were being laid up. Instead of following the invariable fashion of the houses of the peasantry of Europe in the making of a high and steep roof, the roofs were, on the contrary, made with a low water-shed. One curious to discern the tendency of habit in a people might observe in this a connec- tion with the low huts, covered with bark, built thus in haste and from necessity and without architectural design, which, in the wilds of New England and along the Chesapeake, sheltered the heads of their ancestors a hundred years earlier.

It is, indeed, difficult for us to form an intelligible idea of the appearance of the habitations of our an- cestors. There are, perhaps, not a dozen of these ancient cabins now standing within the limits of our county, and these few are inaccessible to the great majority of the people. Along the rugged hillsides

of the most unfrequented of our mountain ranges they are most likely to be met with. They bear, at a dis- tance, the uninviting appearance of a mud-plastered hovel, with a clap-board roof and a huge clay, turret- shaped chimney at one end. Sometimes the chimney is in the middle of the building, in which instances the houses, being larger, were sometimes occupied by two families. They are dimly lighted by apertures between the logs, which are not infrequently covered with greased paper. In midwinter or on a rainy day objects in them are scarcely discernible. They are such as but few of the common laborers would occupy, and yet they were the castles of our forefathers, a race not wanting in moral, in physical, or in mental quali- fications.

The most of the early houses were intended for only one room, and an apartment atop of it called a cock- loft. Sometimes there was no loft, and the whole in- terior was in one room. On the smoky rafters were hung gammons of meat and small, greasy bags of seeds. The one end, for the height of several feet, was left unclosed till a chimney was built. This was built so that a vacant space large enough to hold a tolerably good-sized saw-log could be dragged up to it and so pried through for a back-log for the fire. The outside wall of the chimney was thus a full step from the end of the house. The openings between the back wall of the chimney and the house were then closed by large flat stones, which could be removed at pleasure. The chimney itself was built of mud and nigger-head stones, and from the point of the roof carried up by mud and fagots. The interstices were filled up with mud, cobble-stones, chips, or straw. The whole of the building on the outside was daubed with mud. In these buildings there was sometimes no wooden floor, but from the abundance of good timber, and the handi- ness of the axemen, to put a floor down was the work of little time. The floor so made was of split logs, which, smoothed on their broadest side, were called puncheons. These, fitted closely together and so laid upon the ground, made a firm and durable floor, which from dint of scrubbing and sanding, and from the incessant wear of the feet, became in time toler- ably even and smooth, and glistened with a polish like varnished oak. The roof and the upper floor were of clap-boards,-broad pieces of timber split with a frow, and sometimes smoothed with a draw-knife. Some- times the roofs were thatched. The one room served for all family purposes. The door was hung on wooden hinges, and no improvement had been made in latches since the days of Little Red Riding-hood, who, it will be remembered, on the occasion of the visit to her grandmother was instructed by the wolf to pull the bobbin and the door would open. The doors were nearly always made double, one above and one below, like our stable-doors. The single long window was cov- ered with some translucent material, usually greased paper. Glass was used only by the best off, and was brought in from the East. The bedstead, and nearly all

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 38

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

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