History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 41

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
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But it was often that the hunter had other use for his gun. The greatest scourge of the farmer in early times was the wolf. When met singly the wolf is a | great coward, and as a species they are so averse to mankind that they recede before the appearance of civilization in all directions. The wolf common to Pennsylvania is said to be of a browner color than the species found elsewhere. He hunts by scent, after the manner of the dog; is shy, wary, and cunning. But when the wants of hunger press, gathering to- gether in packs, as they raise their noses from the ground over their heads, they begin a long, continuous howl, the most desolate and terror-striking of sounds to the mountaineer. Becoming bolder they emerge from their retreats in the thick woods along the moun- tain-sides and in droves rush along the edges of the forests. At such times, coming in the wintry season, the hunter and the family in the cabin heard the sounds with such terror as only the war-whoop of the red men aroused. Nothing living was safe from their fangs. A loose horse or a solitary man benighted, if in their way, was certain to be attacked by the brutes now grown bold. Their long paws, gaunt and sinewy, dragged the prey to the ground in their midst, when their ragged jaws soon tore the flesh in pieces, and while the unsatisfied ones were crunching at the bones and licking their chops, the ravenous herd, now frantic with the taste and smell of blood, with voraciousness fell upon each other.

It is related of Joseph Moorhead and James Kelly, two among the first who attempted to settle within the present limits of Indiana County, about 1772, that one morning after they had erected their cabins, not far from where now is the town of Indiana, Moor- head went over to see Kelly and was astonished at not finding him at the cabin, but seeing near it traces of blood and tufts of human hair, Moor- head believed his neighbor had been killed by the wolves, which with rattlesnakes abounded in that region. In looking for his mangled body he found I matter of course, he could blame no one but himself.

him sitting by a spring washing the blood from his bair. He had lain down in his cabin at night, and, being asleep, a wolf reached its paws through the cracks between the logs and seized him by the head. The disadvantage under which the wolf labored saved Kelly, for he had time to get awake before the wolf had seriously injured him, but not before he had snatched him partly bald-headed. In our own county, Christian Shockey, an early settler on the Chestnut Ridge in Unity township, at one time about the close of the century was benighted on his way home from hunting. The wolves getting upon his track and surrounding him he had recourse to a large tree which he climbed. The night was bitter cold, and he was all but frozen. The wolves stayed at the foot of the tree, and in their desperation leaped over each other, and with their teeth snapped the tree till its bark long after bore their marks. In the morning they skulked back to their burrows among the rocks. This old settler trapped scores of wolves at a spring not far from his house, which to this day is known by the name of the " Wolf Spring," and was till lately, perhaps, the largest and finest spring of fresh water in the country. Be- fore the spring was disturbed it was near thirty feet across, and is not known to have ever been frozen over. In winter the vapor exhales off its surface; in the summer the water is limpid and icy cold.1

There is, therefore, no doubt that wolves in .great numbers infested all this country when it was yet a wilderness, but as it is their nature to live in a kind of society together, being a gregarious animal, their roving limits were always subject to be changed. With all the war of extermination waged upon them they existed in great numbers about the Laurel Hill at the beginning of the century. There was a standing reward offered by law, which from time to time was increased and diminished, sometimes taken off and again renewed. In 1782 the offer was twenty- five shillings for the scalp or skin of a puppy or whelp, and fifteen dollars for the scalp or skin of a full-grown wolf. This was of course on the standard of the de- preciated currency, and so in 1806, to encourage the killing of these, eight dollars was allowed for every wolf killed, and this, by a subsequent law, was further

1 The following anecdote of the hero of this adventure is " founded on fact :"

Christian Shockey, whose father, by the way, was a Revolutioner, and who was wounded at Brandywine, went, about the year 1807, down to Hagerstown with his two horses laden with pelts and ginseng. When in Hagerstown he, of course, inquired for Mrs. Gruber's Hagerstown Al- manack,-the almanac which was currently believed to in some way control the weather. He, having an eye to a business speculation, pro- posed to get as many as would supply the neighborhood, and as they were offered at a price considerably below the regular price the invest- ment offered profit. He got such a large quantity at such a small figure that he himself was astonished. He thereupon invested a large share of the proceeds of his supplies in almanacs, half of them German and half English. He, however, was more astonished when, on arriving at home and opening his package, he discovered the contents to be the almanacs for the current year, which was then fast waning. He had neglected to bargain for the year approaching, and as the transaction was made, as a

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165

BEARS, DEER, WOLVES, ETC.

increased to twelve dollars. In addition to all this there were some localities in which, it being more at their mercy, the inhabitants subscribed to a separate fund, or by districts allowed an extra assessment. Thus it was that in some counties the premium was higher than in others ; for instance, in Westmoreland the re- ward was somewhat higher than it was at the same time in Somerset, and the wolves were plentier across the line in Somerset than on this side. This gave occasion to some of the old hunters of the valley to play a game on the wolves and on the commissioners. They would draw the former to this side by baiting them, and one old hand at the business by the name of Dumbold is said to have secured ten wolves drawn to the carrion of a worthless old horse. Besides the scalp-bounty he got one dollar each for the skins.1

Great inconvenience was suffered by the husband- man from, squirrels and crows. When the country was almost a dense wilderness these mischievous pests gathered around, the patches of corn and rye and fat- tened on the labor of the farmer. Numerous devices were conceived of to ward the birds off, and a price was put upon the heads of each of these offenders. By one law Westmoreland and Fayette were allowed to assess any sum not exceeding three hundred dollars in each county to be applied to the squirrel fund. By one of the laws the premium was one cent and a half, which by another act was raised to two cents for the scalp of a squirrel, and three cents for each crow's

1 The diversion of a later generation in their famous fox-bunts was nearly akin to the hunting and trapping of wolves by their grandfathers. Something of this diversion deserves to be recorded, however much out of place here, ce it is one so foreign to any of the diversions of the present day. Hunting bas well been called the image of war, and a knowledge of the old-time fox-hunts will awaredly lead to a discovery of many points of similarity between it as a diversion and the militia trainings as & diversion.

These circular hunts were a source of much amusement during the long winter months, and in great part answered to the militia musters in mummer, and were to that generation what the county fair and the camp-meeting are to this generation.

When a fox-bunt was projected a meeting was called in the neighbor- hood, at which the principal inhabitants-men and boys-usually at- tended. An organisation wee bad, certain resolutions were passed, and committees for sandry purposes appointed. The duties of these com- mittees were to select a suitable region of country over which to scour for foxes, to nominate certain of the foremost men from various locall- ties to lead in the chase, and to prescribe the rules by which all par- ticipants were to be governed in the hunt. There are, for example, in the county papers of 1846 notices of a fox-hunt, the lines of which began at Greensburg and ran along the road to Weaver's old stand, through Pleasant Unity to Peter Walters'; thence along the Ridge road to Youngs- town; thence down the Nine-Mile Run to the Loyalhanna, along the Loyalhanna to Brady's mill, and on to New Alexandria; thence along the old road to George Dickie's, and from Dickie's along the road to Greensburg.

For every one of these, sections or divisions were marked off, and cap- tains appointed by name to the number of twelve or fifteen, and mar- shals eight or ten. These were of the very foremost men in their neigh- borhood, and indeed of the county. A committee was appointed to stake off the grounds the day previous to the hunt. The marshals had power to supply vacancies when they occurred. Persons taking dogs were to lead them until the ring was formed, when the signal was given to let them louse. The marshals wore badges on their arms. No fire- arms were to be carried, except pistols by the marshals. The line was to move at nine o'clock in the forenoon of Saturday, the 14th of Feb- ruary. Horn to sound from Peter Waltery.

scalp, which were to be delivered before the 1st of November yearly.

In the early annals of the Province, according to Kalm, who has written on the subject, the common blackbirds of Pennsylvania were so plentiful that in order to somewhat lessen their number a bounty was put up for their destruction. The inducement of three pence per dozen was so effective in its result that the birds here were nearly entirely destroyed. This, however, was when only the eastern part of the Province was settled. But it is narrated that, owing to their almost total extermination, the summer of the succeeding year being unusually dry, the insects and grubs so ravaged the growing crops that in some portions the inhabitants were well-nigh starving,-no grase, no grain, no fruit. The law was then allowed to be repealed, and the birds came back again. For years after that the blackbirds as well as the crows, who bobbed in slyly under the credit of their brothers, were allowed to be the friends of man, till they in- creasing again became a nuisance, and another law was passed which again allowed a small amount per capita for the crows as well as for the squirrels.

At the time when ammunition was scarce and high in price it did not pay to expend powder and shot upon them for the premium. Thence scarecrows of hideous proportions were erected on the stumps about the gardens, pieces of glass or tin were hung on bended sticks, so that when the wind disturbed them they made a gingling noise, the ravelled thread of a woolen stocking was stretched from one stake of the fence to another around the field, while the tat- tered boys kept up a racket all the days. So that from one cause or the other, or from many or all, they managed to save their garden stuff and the little corn which was to do them through the winter.

Farming, or the working of the fields, was the busi- ness upon which all relied, upon which all leaned for support. But how different was the culture of the fields then compared with now. Every branch of the. business (if it was susceptible of being divided into branches) was carried on after the most primitive fashion. What they were after was a living, and thus-and it seems almost incredible-the vast body of these lands could scarcely maintain the few in- habitants. The land was merely scratched over, and around the stumps, the deadened trees, the piles of brush and heaps of stones, the scattered grains grew and were cut and harvested by the hardest of manual labor. Grass was cut with scythes and hooks, and wheat, rye, and buckwheat with sickles. The girls helped in the fields. When grain-cradles were intro- duced they were as great a curiosity and met with as unfavorable a reception as the McCormick reaper afterwards. They were in use for years in cutting buckwheat before the most advanced farmers allowed them to enter their wheat-fields. Their farming im- plements were mostly home-made. The irons for the plow, the grubbing-hoes, the .tines of the manure

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166 HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

forks were made by the bungling blacksmith; the beams for the plow, axles for the wagon, hoe and fork handles, yokes and double-trees were made by the farmer himself.

A man who worked a farm must of necessity under- stand how to handle the axe and the draw-knife ; nor need he be sparing of timber. Means were resorted to to hasten the destruction of the forest. Monster trees of the finest varieties were burnt in order that their ashes might enrich the ground, which modern science says is fallacious; and this wantonnees and carelessness continued down to our own time, in which valuable trees were thoughtlessly destroyed and hundreds of acres but half tilled. But in the first settlers it was not reprehensible. To them it was not the golden age when the husbandman had merely to scatter abroad the grains and at his leisure take the harvest in under favoring skies. Taking care of the harvest was indeed often the greatest toil. The bay and grain when cut were brought in on sleds and by drags of long grapevines. Nor was the labor at any time undivided, for women made their hand in the field at all times, and helped to do the labor pow done entirely by men. The product-corn, grass, and sheaves-was piled in stacks about the log stables, for there were then no such barns to house it in as there are now. The thrashing was done with flails, and this began in the fall after the harvest, and lasted through the winter season. A day's work at all kinds of farm-work was from the time the stars shone in the morning till they shone in the evening. Day's . work were seldom charged for among those of the farming community according to set prices or wages. When a neighbor wanted help he was at no loes to get it, provided always he had neighbors, and any one living within three or four miles was considered a neighbor. No account was kept of odd days, for the work was usually given and repaid when needed.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

SALT, WHISKEY, EARLY MILLS, AND FURNACES.

Some of their Chief Wants-Salt-First brought from the East, then from Big Beaver, Kentucky, Onondaga-Prices-Methods of bringing it over the Mountains-Its Discovery on the, Sewickley and on the Conemaugh-Process of its First Manufacture-Reduction in Price -. Scarcences of Money-The Rates as fixed by some of the Early Courts -Prices of other Commodities-Cheapness of Land-Paying their Preachers and Taxes-Rates allowed per Bushel for Wheat, Rye, and Oats-Whiskey-Stills-Manufacture of Whiskey-What they kept in their Stores or Shops-Manner of doing Business-Whiskey the Me- dium of Exchange-Its Universal Use-Exported and Imported-Tub and Grist-Mills-List of First Mills in the County-Iron-Turnbull & Marmie's Foundry and Furnace-The Westmoreland Furnace- Gen. St. Clair builds Hermitage Furnace-Mount Hope and Ross Furnaces-John Henry Hopkins-The Baldwin Furnace-Other Fur- naces-Axe and Nail Manufacture, etc.

FOREMOST of the wants was the want of salt. The want arising from the scarceness of this needful com-

modity, a necessary ingredient as it is in the living of civilized people, has been the prolific subject of much comment; and a want no generally felt, and so often commented on, could not but have been of the highest consequence. In early times it was so scarce, even in the marketable districts, and these districts were so remote, and the means of getting to and returning from them so filled with dangers, that there were times when whole communities were without any at all.

The scarcity of salt made it at all times of a high merchantable value, subject to change in proportion to its availablenees. In general transactions a bushel of salt was an integer of value, and had its nominal por- chasing power, just as at other times a whiskey-ctill, a rifle, or a flask of powder, and as at the present day along the Ridge a cord of bark or a dozen of axe- handles. Col. Brodhead, about the year 1780, writ- ing to President Reed,' states that salt will buy mest when money will not, and in the same letter he tells him that he cannot send too much salt. At this time salt was very high, for in the midst of the complicated troubles of Western Pennsylvania the people drove their cattle to the mountains, and meat was so scarce that the soldiers of the garrison at Pittsburgh were sent out to kill game, and the wild meat was salted down for winter use. Ten years later, in the Youghio- gheny region, twenty bushels of wheat was not thought an unfair exchange for one bushel of salt.' In the earliest times, and at all times when salt was carried on the backs of pack-horses, it was brought in bags, and the first knowledge we have of its being brought in barrels or in bulk was about the beginning of the century, when Kentucky salt was brought to Pitts- burgh in boats, and from thence carried in wagons These barrels in size were about one-third larger that our common barrels. The price about 1806 was about fourteen dollars per barrel, net, of which two dollars went to the wagon-carriage. It retailed at twelve and a half cents to eighteen cents the quart. But still, from the times of the earliest date down until it was manufactured along the Sewickley and the Conemaugh, salt, as well as iron and merchandise, was: brought from the vicinity of Hagerstown and from Winchester and Chambersburg. From the deer-licks along the Big Beaver a deposit of salt was known to exist, and as early as 1779 an effort was made to get enough to supply the wants of those about Pittsburgh and the frontier settlements along the rivers. The re- sult was successful only in part, for, the location being on the hostile border, there was not sufficient pro- duced to in anywise relieve the general want, or to effect a rivalry with the distant market. During the Revolution the salt from the Beaver Springs was not known to our eastern settlers, and when the war was over the means of getting it across the mountains were greatly improved, and there a better market was opened for furs, for ginseng, and for snake-root.

1 Craig, " History of Pittsburgh."

? Old Redstone.

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SALT, WHISKEY, EARLY MILLS, AND FURNACES.

There are many instances all through the old records of the State, and even among the archives of Congress during the Revolution, of the consideration of this subject by the various executive and legisla- tive bodies. Measures calculated to give relief to the people were passed by the Assembly of the State, by the Committee of Safety, and by Congress.

In 1776 (September 2d), in the distribution of salt taken as confiscated property from the Tories, in com- pliance with the resolves of the Council sitting at Philadelphia, Westmoreland was given two hundred and thirty-six bushels of fine and eighty-three bushels of coarse salt.

About 1778, owing to the scarcity' of salt, the Con- tinental Congress passed a resolution directing against the monopoly of salt, and the Committee of Safety for Pennsylvania purchased a quantity for distribu- tion through the State. Congress even established works in New Jersey, but for some time these works were not remunerative.

In 1779 a "Committee of Salt" was appointed by the authorities of the State to regulate the price and to enforce its distribution out of the hands of the monopolists and from those who wrongfully and with mercenary objects held it. In a "Memorial of Mer- chants" relative to the seizure of salt (Philadelphia, 23d October, 1779), it is stated by them that they had lately refused two hundred dollars a bushel, delivered, but that they, the memorialists, having consented to deliver it to the public account, complained that they got only thirty pounds per bushel for it, a very in- adequate compensation.1

It was proposed by President Reed, July 24, 1779, to order a quantity of salt and distribute it among the counties in proportion to the flour received from them.ª

When whiskey became an article of home manu- facture and it was found profitable to export, a market was ready for it in both the East and Southwest. Ventures were sent down the rivers to the Spanish settlements, and in return salt from the exhaustless springs of Kentucky was brought back. During the last decade of the past century and up to the war of 1812, Kentucky salt was sold through Western Penn- sylvania. But its high price did not do away with the first mode of securing it. Even at that late day it was customary for two or three neighbors in the fall to each take a spare horse and go for their yearly supply, down, as they said, into Egypt. As late as 1820 farmers sent their boys and horses in a crowd. Their provisions and feed were carried with them, and as they went down a part of this was left on the mountains to supply them when coming back. These crowds were sometimes of a score of men and boys, and just as'many horses and nags as could be gotten together. On each horse was a pack-saddle, and their rate of speed was restricted, on the average, to from

1 Archives, ilf. 327.

" Ibid., 316.

twenty to thirty miles a day. Some of the men carried their rifles with them, but for a lad to get with a crowd going to Hagerstown was as much as for a young man in the days of steamboating to take pas- sage on a coal-raft for New Orleans. Such an one was the local newspaper for a twelve-month.

Along about 1796, James O'Harra, quartermaster- general of the United States army, found that salt from the Onondaga Works in New York could be brought to the Ohio cheaper than from Baltimore. Salt was thus brought down by way of Lake Erie and Le Bœuf and sold at Pittsburgh. In 1810 salt from the Kanawha began to come in competition, and the war of Eighteen-Twelve cut off the supply from the north, never after restored.

It was about the beginning of the century when the discovery of salt water was made along the Con- emaugh.' Great interest was consequently awakened in that locality, and an enterprising citizen named William Johnston was among the first to engage in its manufacture. He built a house and grist-mill at the confluence of the two rivers and located a vil- lage. This was then called Point Johnson, and by this name it was long known. The place became of some importance, but with the decline of property after the war with Britain, and the subsequent open- ing of flat-boat navigation, the prospective town drooped, and about 1816 vanished away, while a town under more favorable auspices began on the opposite side of the river. This was the beginning of Salts- burg, a name the place received from its proximity to the salt-works then in operation.

Johnston at the depth of two hundred and eighty- seven feet found an abundance of salt water. The boring was done by tramp or treadle, the poles being connected with open mortice and tongue, fastened with little bolts. The salt was manufactured by boiling the water in large kettles or " graimes," using wood for fuel. It is said that from the opening of new and additional wells some fifty or sixty acres of

" The discovery of salt in the Conemaugh Valley is traceable to an old lady, who discovered an oozing of salt at low-water mark of that river on the Indiana Connty side, about two miles above the present town of Saltsburg. This was about 1812 or 1813. With some of this water she made musb which was found to be quite palatable. About 1813, William Johnston, who wasa young man of considerable enterprice, a native of Franklin County, commenced boring at the spot where Mrs. Deemer. the lady mentioned, had first discovered the water.

Since writing the text we have come on an interesting article relative to the manufacture of salt in the early times in Western Pennsylvania in Hasard's Register for Dec. 10, 1831. It does not differ materially from our compilation, derived mostly from inquiry. Johnston made, after bor- ing and tubing his well, about thirty bushels a day. It sold readily at a high price, whence others were induced to venture capital and energy, and being successful the competition reduced the price so rapidly that at one time it'sold for a dollar a barrel at the works. This was too low, and some abandoned their works and others broke up. A reaction took place, salt advanced, and the business then became profitable. We niso find that after the pumpa were inserted they were sometimes worked by horse-power. About thirty gallons were usually evaporated to make one bushel of salt.

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 41

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

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