History of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens 20th century, Part 15

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1474

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Ten days later Col. Marshall advertised two battalion elections for selecting military officers for Washington County, but soon found that the efforts of Gen. Clark's expedition by Clark and the old Virginia officers were greatly in his way, and his notices of the elections were pulled down and the people dissuaded from attending the elections. President Reed had written to Christopher Hays, prominent in Westmoreland County, with a view that it should be communicated to Marshall, that it was his wish to have Gen. Clark assisted so far as to encour- age volunteers to go with him. Hays had not given this information to Marshall, and this newly made colonel conceived he "had no right so much as to say any of the people of this county had a right to go with Gen. Clark" without President Reed's order as chief executive of Pennsylvania. He was charged with shielding persons from the draft. President Reed in reply to some of the letters above mentioned wrote: "We have heartily repro- bated the general's standing over these two counties (Washington and Westmoreland) with armed force, in order to dragoon the inhabitants into obedience to a draft under the laws of Virginia or rather under the arbi- trary orders of the officers of that government without any orders from Virginia for that purpose, and this is really the part the general has acted, or rather the use that has been made of him in this country."

Col. Broadhead, at Fort Pitt, expressed alarm and jealousy in contemplating Col. Clark's project and feared that Clark's purchase of supplies for his campaign and that which would be consumed by the multitudes of emi- grants arrived and expected in the district (chiefly to avoid military duty and taxes) would scarcely leave a pound of flour for the regular or other troops. "It seems the state of Virginia is now prepared to acquire more extensive territory by sending a great body of men under Col. Clark (whom they intend to raise to brigadier) to attempt the reduction of Detroit. I have hitherto been encouraged to flatter myself that I should sooner or later be enabled to reduce that place. But it seems the United States cannot furnish either troops or re- sources for the purpose, but the state of Virginia can."

Vexed by this treatment and by unsustained charges against his military conduct, Broadhead was removed about September 24, 1781, and Brig. Gen. William Irvine

was placed by Congress in command at Fort Pitt for our protection. Just at this time Gen. Broadhead, with cer- tain prominent Pennsylvanians, were working for a cam- paign against the Indians at Sandusky. Several men from Washington County had enlisted, but the project failed for want of money and supplies and the complica- tions arising from the charges against Gen. Broadhead.

Virginia, through her governor, Thomas Jefferson, had furnished Col. Clark with £300,000 and a promise of any further sum necessary, so that if provision and men could be had here the Indians would have been severely dealt with and the English driven from Detroit. But failure resulted for want of a state line. Col. Marshall's conduct was adversely but delicately commented upon by President Reed, for those east of the mountains could not enter truly into the spirit of contest for supremacy in this rough and tumble west. Westmoreland County held a public meeting, and although opposed by Thomas Scott and Christopher Hays, Esquires, resolved to sup- port Clark. Their lieutenant, Col. Archibald Lochry, was directed to raise 300 men by volunteer or draft and to counsel with the Virginia officers respecting the method to be used to draft those of the Virginia faction. Penn- sylvanians wanted to punish the border Indians rather than to join Clark's intended 2,000 men in boating down the Ohio and up the Wabash River in an effort to attack Detroit. This sentiment and the "Virginia raiding parties scouring the country on both sides of the Monon- gahela, seizing and beating men, fighting, and abusing women, breaking houses and barns, plundering cellars, impressing grain and live stock and causing a general reign of terror" caused a revulsion.

Col. Lochry, as we are told by Hassler in "Old West- moreland County," started August 3, 1781, from near West Newton with only eighty-three men. These were joined by others, making the command about 100. They marched across Washington County, passing over the Monongahela at Devore's Ferry, now Monongahela City. After five days spent on the trail they reached Fort Henry (Wheeling) the evening of the day Col. Clark had started on by boats. The necessary delay was fatal and Col. Lochry and nearly all his troops were destroyed August 24 on the river's side at Lochry's Run, at the southeastern corner of Indiana, where they had stopped for horse pasture and to relieve their starvation by feast- ing on a buffalo shot by one of his men.

Some historian has written that of the 400 men who had floated ahead under command of Col. Clark the majority were from Washington County. It is certain they went with reluctance, for the many desertions is the excuse given for Clark's pressing on from Fort Henry and again from the mouth of the Kanawa without wait- ing for the starving Lochry. Nineteen of these deserters were arrested by Col. Lochry at one time, but deserted

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

him again by joining the Indians. The remnant of Clark's command reached Fort Nelson, opposite Louis- ville, but most of these straggled back to their homes be- fore midwinter without having left the Ohio River or made an attack on the Indians.

Dorsey Pentecost may have gone down the Ohio with his drafted soldiers, for on July 27 he wrote: "I am now in Gen. Clark's camp, about three miles below Fort Pitt, and about to leave this county under the expedition under that gentleman's command." He was dissatis- fied with the spring election for justices in Washington County, but took care of himself at the first general election, or fall election, in Washington County, held on the second Tuesday of October. Writing of the spring election he had stated that not one-third of the people knew of or attended the election; the Act of Assembly directed that the election be made on the 15th, the Sabbath, but that he was told that the day following had been the day advertised.

Lack of information of the spring election was caused in part at least by the opposition tearing down the election notices, and because of Indian depredations. These incursions were frequent, and Marshall, in urging the immediate survey of the state line, wrote that "on June 17 a party of about twenty Indians attacked the frontier inhabitants, wounded one man, and took a whole family prisoners, which has occasioned a great part of the frontiers to be evacuated." The spring election and its result had come as a surprise to the Virginia party, who "looked on themselves as bound by their oath of fidelity to the state of Virginia until the line between the states be actually run, or some other Lawful Judicial Proceedings should be taken to relieve them from such fidelity." This oath had been a great lever ever since the war began, but it became a serious difficulty to voters in both that spring and fall election. A complaint made and filed in Philadelphia alleges that the election for justices was held on the day Gen. Clark ordered his rendezvous, and was attended "by a very few, electing new men far inadequate for the task, men who have lived in obscurity." The objecters, Van Swearingen, John Canon, and others, wanted the commissions withheld, or another election to be held, or that a few only of those elected be commissioned; and they suggested James Edgar (of Smith Township) for judge, and six others for justices, three of whom the State Executive Council appointed, but not because of the attempted influence. An attempt was also made by Brig. Gen. Arthur St. Clair, ex-prothonotary of Westmoreland County, to in- fluence the Supreme Executive Council and have Michael Huffnagle, a young man then practicing law in West- moreland County, appointed prothonotary. Thomas Scott, a long time justice of Westmoreland County, residing east of the Monongahela, who was arrested nine years

before by Dr. Connolly for his allegiance to Pennsyl- vania, and now a member of the Supreme Executive Council, was appointed first prothonotary. With his com- mission came that of the first justices, who were: Henry Taylor, of Strabane Township, who, being first named, .

became president judge; William Scott and John Mar- shall, of Hopewell; John White and Daniel Leet, of Strabane; John Douglas, of Peters; Benjamin Parkin- son, of Nottingham; Abner Howell and John Craig, of Arnwell; John Reed and Matthew McConnel, of Cecil; Samuel Johnson, of-Smith, and Samuel Mason, of Done- gal. These men were authorized justices to sit as do our judges now to hear cases in Oyer and Terminer, Quar- ter Session, Common Pleas and the Orphans' Court of Washington County.

This court with thirteen present out of twenty-six grand jurors summoned met at David Hoge's house at Catfish Camp for the first session in Washington County, on October 2, 1781. Great objections were made when the oath of fidelity to Pennsylvania was about to be ad- ministered to the grand jury. The members were pre- vailed upon with considerable difficulty and "business was done in a tolerable manner, but the great question was about the election." The fall election was held the next week, and as there was no test oath of fidelity re- quired the Virginia partisans came out of the bushes this time and got what they wanted. This election for the county offices was held at the court house, or county seat, and Dorsey Pentecost was elected the representative of Washington County in the State Executive Committee. Van Swearingen and John Canon, the recent objectors, got to be sheriff and representative, respectively. The other representative was James Edgar, of Smith Town- ship, whom these two had recently recommended for judge. William McFarlane, of Bethlehem Township, great-grandfather of Owen Underwood, Esq., of the Washington bar, was elected and commissioned coroner, and George Vallandingham, Thomas Crooks and John McDowell, county commissioners.

The friction existing the preceding spring between James Marshall, lieutenant of militia in Washington county, and Dorsey Pentecost, holding the same authority for Yohogania County, was somewhat smothered when Dorsey Pentecost, "councillor-elect from Washington County, appeared in Philadelphia November 19," took the oath of allegiance and oath of office required by the constitution and took his seat at the board as a member thereof. His influence and vote was cast in favor of the resolution "that an additional company is necessary for the defense of Washington County, and to complete the four companies now established, and that it might be proper to make application to Congress for such as- sistance from the United States as would render an in- cursion into the Indian country prudent and practicable."

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

The minutes of the board further show that he became useful at once. He presented a statement of the ac- counts of James Marshall, lieutenant of the County of Washington, and for the defense of the frontiers obtained in a few days 500 weight of gunpowder, 1,000 weight of lead and 1,000 flints, and again in March obtained 1,000 flints, 50 stand of arms and 50 pouches for Lieut. Mar- shall. He received from the state treasurer 12 pounds 12 shillings to be paid to Adam Poe, the celebrated Indian fighter of Smith Township, for taking an Indian scalp in Washington County.

John Canon and Samuel Leet refused to act under Marshall and resigned as sub-lieutenants of his militia. Canon preferred to serve by furnishing supplies of ra- tions in Washington County at 12 pence per ration, con- sisting of one pound of bread, one pound of beef or three-fourths pound of pork, one gill of whisky per day, one quart of salt and two quarts of vinegar to every 100 rations.

The board at Philadelphia on December 27 appointed John Hughes to be captain of a company of rangers to be raised in the County of Washington. Capt. Andrew Swearingen, brother of Van, and afterward one of the four elders at the organization of the Presbyterian con- gregation in Washington in 1793, had been captain of the rangers in this frontier in 1780 and 1781. Capt. Hughes, or Capt. Jack, as he was familiarly called along the border, was relieved from further service as ranger in April, 1783, with the thanks of the Supreme Executive Council. He was with Gen. Anthony Wayne at Pittsburg in April, 1783, with the thanks of the Supreme Executive afterward called Fort Lafayette, which stood within about 100 yards of the Allegheny River and about a quarter-mile higher up than old Fort Pitt. Capt. Hughes was great-grandfather of Mrs. James C. Acheson, now of South Main street, Washington, and one degree fur- ther removed from his descendants, her son, C. L. V. Acheson, Esq., our present district attorney, and the Hughes Brothers, attorneys-at-law, now of South Main street.

The following obituary is copied from the Washington Reporter of September, 1818:

ANOTHER REVOLUTIONARY HERO GONE.

"Died. On Tuesday night last at his residence in Amwell Township, Captain John Hughes in the 68th year of his age. The deceased entered into the service of his country at a very youthful period of his life, as a second lieutenant in the American Revolution under Captain Hendrick and in the year 1775 he marched to Canada and there served in General Arnold's brigade in the attack upon Quebec.

"On the death of his captain he was promoted to the command of a company, and continued through the Revolutionary War a faithful and intrepid soldier. He

continued in Canada during 1776 with Col. Wayne, where his services were many and important, and where he secured the esteem and confidence of his superior offi- cers. He was in the battles of Brandywine, German- town, Monmouth and Princeton and experienced many of the distresses that the American army were obliged to endure-had many honors conferred upon him-and men who think and feel for these characters, who gained for us our precious independence-can best appreciate the worth of the deceased.

"He was brave-he was generous, an inflexible patriot and unappalled by the power of persecution. He was born in New Jersey, but raised and educated in Pennsyl- vania.

"On Thursday Captain McCuney's Infantry from the ...

Borough of Washington and Captain Lacock's Rifle Rangers from Amwell paraded at 11 o'clock to pay the last tribute of respect to the remains of the deceased.

"Prayer by the Rev. Mr. Wheeler.

"Funeral Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Luce.

"Order of procession-

" The Military with muffled drums and arms reversed.

"Physicians and Clergy.

"Pall Bearers.

"Family and Relations of the Deceased.

"Citizens generally.

"Thus the procession moved from the late dwelling of the deceased to the graveyard, a distance of one mile and a half, where the military was performed with solemn order."'

While Dorsey Pentecost was laboring for Washington County protection in the Supreme Executive Council of the state he could not keep from saying that the state line would never be run. This and some other actions of his yet showed hostility to Pennsylvania. The council overlooked this and many other expressions and acts of hostility to Pennsylvania. On July 25, 1782, it ap- pointed Hon. Christopher Hays, of Westmoreland County; Dorsey Pentecost and Edward Cooke, Esq., commission- ers with special authority to hold court in Washington County for the trial of divers persons then confined in the gaol of the said county charged with high crimes and misdemeanors. We are left to conjecture what were the facts in these cases and why they could not have been tried by Henry Taylor, president, and his associate jus- tices of the Washington County Court. The outrageous and riotous conduct of the defendant, Gabriel Cox, at the January Sessions, in making an attempt upon the house in which the court was held and throwing part of it down, may have caused the appointment of the three commissioners to try other similar cases growing out of the Virginia draft. The following year Pentecost re- signed as councillor and was appointed by the council president judge of the Common Pleas Court of Wash- ington County, thus dividing the honors with Henry Taylor, who continued to be president of the Quarter Sessions Court.

At this point we may anticipate a little by stating that Col. Pentecost went into Virginia about two years later

OLD BLACK HORSE TAVERN. CANONSBURG

LE MOYNE CREMATORY, WASHINGTON (First Crematory Built in the United States)

HOUSE AT AMITY IN WHICH THE MORMON BIBLE WAS WRITTEN

ONLY REMAINING TOLL-GATE OF NATIONAL PIKE IN PENNSYLVANIA, LOCATED TWO AND A HALF MILES EAST OF WEST ALEXANDER. TO BE PRESERVED AS A RELIC BY U. S. GOVERNMENT. (Mrs. Sarah Jane Noble, last toll-gate keeper, 1867-1905.) Photo taken in 1905.

FIRST LOG CABIN WEST OF THE AL- LEGHENY MOUNTAINS, CA- NONSBURG

PRESENT MINGO CHURCH (Built about 1831)

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

and the Council suspended him from office, giving as a reason that he had "removed from the county afore- said and is now settled in a neighboring state." His strength of purpose had caused great turmoil yet it had been a great help in caring for this frontier. He lived to see the state line finally run and established, but his influence and that of his associates would have been much greater if the two states had in early years settled the division line. His fortune was lost by the complications and financial difficulties of the times which drove Continental currency down to about two cents on the dollar. He died in 1802.

George Rogers Clark also died like other heroes. He lived to see the great states of Ohio and Indiana admitted into the Union and the bill prepared for the admission of Illinois. Many times employed in public services, his efforts brought but little reward or honor. A few years before his death friends called attention to his condition, and the Legislature of Virginia, with a flow of words which would have been more appreciated if it had been accompanied with a draft of money, sent him a jeweled sword. The old gentleman's anger was aroused. "When Virginia needed a sword, I gave her one; she now sends me this toy; I want bread," and he thrust the blade of the costly gift into the ground and broke it. He lived a bachelor and died near Louisville, February 18, 1818.

Another expedition was sent over the Ohio River in November, 1781, while Clark's drafted men were down the Ohio. Col. David Williamson, of Buffalo Township, had charge of these, from 70 to 100 volunteers. They -made a hurried trip to the friendly Moravian Indian settlement on the Muskingum River, their object being to have these people remove further from the Ohio River to prevent them from harboring our enemies.

The Moravian Christians, or Brethren's Unity, have had the chief center of their Brotherhood ever since 1741, at Bethlehem, 75 miles north of Philadelphia. They had been successful in establishing several mis- sion stations among the Indians. One of these Moravian missions had been on the Big Beaver River, above the present town of Beaver Falls, but they had in 1772 accepted an invitation to settle on the Tuscarawas, then called the Muskingum, in what is now Ohio. Unfor- tunately this new location, called Gnadenhutten, was on the line of travel of the hostile Indians. It was an attractive stopping place. The Moravian Indians num- bered about one hundred families and occupied three villages on the Tuscarawas, a few miles apart below the present town of New Philadelphia. The villages were prosperous with churches, schools, log cabins, and the people had cattle, horses, hogs, poultry and large fields of corn. Information had been sent from these villages to Gen. Bradford, just before he resigned his command at

Fort Pitt, of an intended attack upon Fort Henry. The renegade, Elliot, from Pittsburg, with the hostile band whose plans had thus been thwarted, afterward carried away David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder, the two mission teachers, and removed the Moravian Indians to a more western location in order to prevent further communication of plans to the frontier settlers. When Col. Williamson reached the Moravian settlement he found the villages vacated by all but a few who had been permitted to gather in some of the corn, and he brought in these stragglers to Fort Pitt. Gen. Irvine, to whom they were surrendered, and who had just suc- ceeded Gen. Bradford, set them at liberty.

Three months later another expedition from Wasington County visited the same Moravian villages with results most horrible. The news of the proposed attack upon Fort Henry had spread. The failures during the pre- ceding summer by Clark and the other expeditions, the talk of marauding expeditions including the carrying off of Phillip Jackson and his rescue by Adam and Andrew Poe and others, when John Cherry was killed, had been the subject of conversation at the mills and forts during the winter. Therefore the coming summer was dreaded. Trouble began earlier than was expected. February 8th, 1882, John Fink was killed near Buchanan's Fort on the Upper Monongahela, and almost on the same day John Carpenter was captured in old Hopewell Township and Mary Grant Wallace, wife of Robert Wallace, with her three children, were carried off from one mile east of Cross Roads (Florence) in Hanover Township. There was a band of about 40 Indians at Wallace's. The fol- lowing statement of what occurred is made by Mr. James Simpson in the history of the graveyard connected with the Cross Creek Presbyterian Church, which the aged gentleman published in 1894:

"On the 17th of February, 1782, Robert Wallace, who resided one mile east of Florence, where Samuel McCon- nell now resides, was from home at a mill. In his ab- sence a band of Indians attacked his house, took his wife" and babe and two other boys captive, shot his cows, burned his cabin and left. When Wallace returned he found his home in ruins and his family gone. A party of whites followed the trail till dark, but in the night a snow fell, so that they could follow the trail no longer. The Indians took the north direction to the Ohio River. In the evening Mrs. Wallace gave out and was toma- hawked and scalped, and the little child also shared the same fate. The other two lads were taken on. The remains of Mrs. Wallace were left to the beasts of prey. Wallace, thinking that his wife was held in captivity among the Indians, came to Cross Creek, to Marshall's Fort, to get Col. James Marshall to intercede with Gen. William Irvine at Fort Pitt, and have him inter- cede with Gen. Washington, so that his wife might be

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

exchanged or ransomed. This General Irvine did not do, as he said Cornwallis had now surrendered and we would soon have peace, and giving other reasons, he did not make the request to Washington as Wallace wished him. At this time the settlers were organizing the expedition (the second expedition-Editor) to go to Gnadenhutten and remove the Moravian Indians further west or bring them again to Fort Pitt. Wallace went with them. When the little army, under the command of Col. David Williamson, arrived there, Wallace found among the plunder in the Moravian town the dress that his wife had on when she was taken prisoner. They had got it in trade from the hostile Indians on their return home that way. On Wallace finding this covered with blood, he became, as the others said, a mad man. His rage was terrible and also that of the others with him. The vote was taken and but 16, some say 18, voted to spare the lives of the 96 innocent creatures. Wallace went with the executioners and did not fail to act his part with tomahawk and knife. Thomas Marshall, who was long an elder of Old Cross Creek, and who died near New Athens, Ohio, in 1839, aged 96 years, was along with the militia, but did not take part in the killing. . Wallace came home with the troops, bringing his wife's dress along. It was kept for long years afterward. In 1783 some hunters found what they were sure were the bones of a white person, near Hookstown, Beaver County, Pa. Wallace was told of it, and going to the spot, found them, and recognized them as those of his wife by the teeth. He gathered them up and often went back afterward, still finding some more. After keeping them two years in a salt sack hung at the head of his bed, he brought them to Cross Creek and buried them. An old field stone with "M. W." in large letters was supposed to mark her grave. It stood near the center of the yard but has disappeared. No doubt it was removed by some vandal to make the foundation for some other monument. Mr. Wallace got one of his sons back after peace was restored. The other was never heard of. Robert, the one returned, died in 1855, an aged man, on his farm one mile north of Midway, and is buried at the Covenanter churchyard near Venice, Washington County, Pa." Robert Wallace, the son who was carried off when three years old, was the grandfather of James M. Wallace, now in business at Midway. His father obtained his three-year old son again through an Indian trader to whom he had men- tioned certain marks of identification.

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History of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens 20th century, Part 15

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1474

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1474