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

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

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

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ting an adjournment of delegates and the interested spectators. They all wished to see the representatives of the government and preferred remaining even under the greatest inconveniences. Where the 226 delegates had slept on the night of the 14th can not now be even surmised, but we know that the leading member of the western bar slept that night in a farm house with his saddle for a pillow, surrounded by 100 or more men whose whole conversation was in favor of war with the United States, whose President had already called out an army.

The Committee of Twelve met the United States com- missioners at Pittsburg on the 20th. A liberty pole was erected in front of the lodging place of these three representatives of the government by some persons who did not fear these high officials, but who were argued into placing on it the Nation's flag instead of a daring inscription. A plan of reconciliation or amnesty was proposed, and as it was the best the commissioners could obtain, was referred by them to the committee of dele- gates from whom they had obtained their power. Owing to uneasiness expressed in some of the eastern counties of the State, the government commissioners refused to delay until September 2. The committee of twelve called the committe of sixty together at Redstone on August 28. Wild excitement seized the people, some favoring a new State, some resistance to government, and some reconcilliation by submission. On their way riding from Pittsburg to this meeting at Brownsville, some of the most peaceful leaders were much worried by the great number of liberty poles they saw on their journey. Ar- riving at the meeting place, they found a liberty pole erected that morning by the instructions of Bradford and some others of the war leaders. Of the sixty mem- bers of the standing committee, fifty-seven arrived, twenty-three from Washington County, thirty from West- moreland, Allegheny and Fayette, three from Bedford and one from Ohio County, Virginia. Bradford pre- sented a motion favoring war and refusing the amnesty proposition of the government commissioners. James Edgar of Smith Township, moved for more time to deliberate and an adjournment was made until the fol- lowing morning. A heated discussion was engaged in by the Washington delegation among themselves. Some who attended these meeting crossed the river over night to the Washington County side and lay in a farm house fearing an outbreak of violence. A hundred men had been that day in this meeting, one-fourth or more of them on horseback, all dressed in their hunting shirts and with their rifles, and these and others were dom- inated by the general demand for war. The next day, almost ten hours of public argument endeavoring to in- fluence and persuade, held the audience as they were entertained by Gallatin, Brackenridge, Edgar and Brad-

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ford, the latter opposing peace propositions. When a vote was taken two trials were made and nobody arose but the committee of twelve. A proposition was then submitted that the secretary write, "yes" and "no" on sixty slips of paper, thus allowing each delegate to tear his paper and privately destroy one part and vote the other. This was done through fear of the multitude which surrounded and far outnumbered the committee. The private vote resulted in 34 for, and 23 against. Six afterwards stated that they had voted "Nay" by mis- take, and the vote then stood, 40 against 17.

Bradford stood appalled, his power and influence were at an end and he withdrew from the place almost im- mediately. The outsiders manifested the most decided disapproval of the vote and also withdrew, leaving the committee almost alone to finish its business. A new com- mittee of conference was appointed, consisting of John Probst, Robert Dickey, John Nesbit, David Phillips, John McClelland, George Wallace, Samuel Wilson and John Marshall. These met the United States commossioners and Pennsylvania's commissioners at Pittsburg Septem- ber 1, and unfortunately the correspondence did not indi- cate a ready and complete submission to the govern- ment's proposition. The commissioners now, instead of dealing through the representatives of these western peo- ple and offering to accept assurances of submission com- ing from the standing committee, which the people had selected, which standing committee adjourned without providing any day of future meeting, required assur- ances from the individual residents in this section. They demanded that all male citizens of the age of 18 years and upwards, should be required to assemble on the 11th of September, in their respective polling places, and vote upon the question of their individual willingness to sub- mit to the laws.

They were expected to sign an obligation and to prove submissive later. Hurried arrangements were made within the following ten days to take this vote and the result was what might have been expected after such short notice in this wilderness frontier-very unsatis- factory. Some districts in the upper part of Washington County were not even notified. One or two, not under- standing the situation or what was required, tore up the papers when presented for signing. The great majority had not understood why they should agree to and sign a submission when they never had committed any offence.

Two Pennsylvania commissioners, when the result of the vote reached them expressed their satisfaction with the vote from the three counties, but indicated their belief that Washington County preferred war to peace. In fact Washington County did not report the votes as required. The United States commissioners seemed not so well satisfied, for the whole proceeding was a hurried

bungle. One or two adjoining counties failed to comply also.

The news of what was going on and rumors that an eastern army was about to come west, finally reached the minds of the people in this region and stubbornness began to give place to fear. A meeting of township delegates was held at Washington on the 17th of Septem- ber for the purpose of expressing their submission. This seemed necessary, because many persons were willing to sign the paper, but the decision day had passed and they did not have the privilege. Two days before this meeting a liberty pole, which had been erected at Wash- ington was cut down without any one remonstrating or interfering. At this September term of court Judge Addison delivered a long charge to the grand jury, urg- ing submission. As a result of this meeting at Wash- ington, a meeting of the original delegates or committee of sixty was arranged for at Parkinson's Ferry. In the report of the meeting, which was held October 2, at which John Canon was chairman (nominated by Brad- ford) and Judge Addison secretary, it is stated that a considerable number of inhabitants of Washington and other counties on the western side of the mountains met to consider the present state of the country, and "It appeared to them that the country was progressing, if not in fact wholly arrived at a state of general sub- mission to the laws so as to render it unnecessary for any advance force on the part of the government for the purpose of assisting the civil authorities." William Findley, congressman of Fayette County, and David Redick, prothonotary of Washington County, were then appointed commissioners to the President to give these assurances of submission. These two commossioners met the President at Carlisle, but were too late, as he in- formed them. A second committee of four, appointed at a citizens' mass meeting attended by 1,000 men Oc- tober 24, at Parkinson's Ferry, had no better success.

After the Braddock-Pittsburg parade, Washington had called out about 13,000 troops. Of these 11,000 were infantry, 1,500 cavalry and 450 artillery. This large army afterwards increased to 15,000 men, came west by two different routes and early in November was encamped on the eastern banks of the Monongahela River near Park- inson's Ferry, now Monongahela City. The approaching troops were vindictive and apparently angered at being called out, and proud of their power, which enabled them to domineer. They had already killed a man and a lame boy an the east side of the mountains and fear was spread over this western region. A large number, some say about 2,000 riflemen, of these western counties, left their homes, some retiring to the wilderness, others descending the Ohio. Death was then the penalty for some acts which had been committed. David Bradford,

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attorney, had fled about October 25, and orders were out to kill him rather than let him escape.

The entire army remained in the neighborhood of Parkinson's Ferry for about ten days, after which the main part of the troops marched down the Monongahela River to the farm of Benjamin Bentley, where they en- camped. Troops had already been riding over the coun- try and their spirit was anything but peaceful. Men were placed under arrest by the militia without showing any papers or alleging any cause. Gen. Henry Lee, gov- ernor of Virginia, in charge of the troops, issued secret orders to the officers in charge of the companies which had been distributed in different parts of Washington and Allegheny Counties, arranging for a general raid and arrest in the dead hour of the frosty night, or morn- ing of November 13, not only of parties claimed to be guilty of violent acts, but of witnesses. About 300 pris- oners were taken that night, all except three being taken in Washington and Allegheny Counties. That no soldier was shot must be attributed to the urgent advice given the committee by George Washington and not to the cowardice of the western inhabitants. The distressed people called this "The Dreadful Night."

The troops from Philadelphia included many hired substitutes, and the troops from New Jersey were espe- cially vindictive because of some newspaper publication. They soon exhibited the most violent hatred toward the insurgents and talked of killing and hanging them. Those arrested were treated by some in a humane man- ner, but the treatment given by other soldiers and espe- cially by those under direction of Brig. Gen. Antony M. White, of New Jersey, was outrageous in the extreme. Amid oaths and violent epithets many prisoners were hustled out of their beds and driven through Washing- ton and Allegheny Counties, often without being per- mitted to fully dress for the march or prepare in a proper manner. A large number of persons from south- western Washington County were collected together at Washington Town, and although Judge Richard Peters of the United States Court and William Rawle, United States attorney for this district, were accompanied by Secretary Hamilton into the town of Washington on November 15, no hearing seems to have taken place here. The arrested persons were marched to Pittsburg to ascer- tain, it was said, which of them should be taken to Phila- delphia for trial. They were attended by horsemen with orders to keep their swords drawn to kill any one who tried to escape and to take his head to Philadelphia. The orders were: Offenders arrested for misdemeanors to be taken to York and Lancaster, but those for capital offences to Philadelphia.

On the 17th of November Gen. Lee issued orders which removed all the military forces eastward to be distributed to their homes, except the corps under Gen. Daniel Mor-

gan, including about 2,500 men, who remained over win- ter in this region. Their general encampment was at Benjamin Bentley's, on the southwest side of the Monongahela River. One detachment spent most of the winter on or near the college grounds in Washington. Some prisoners were released at Pittsburg, some were admitted to bail, but twenty or more were forced to walk from Pittsburg to Philadelphia. This march begun about the 25th of November and extended for about thirty days, for just before noon on Christmas day these prisoners were paraded before the Black Horse Tavern in Philadelphia. With slips of white paper in their hats designating them as persons who were to be despised, they were marched through 20,000 spectators by a circuitous route in the city, and placed in unlighted cells without any food until the next day.

Among the number was the Rev. John Corbly, who was one of the very earliest ministers to take charge of Baptist congregations in Washington County, where he had located long before the County had been organized. He was kept in a miserable jail with others and was not admitted to bail until March 4. Col. John Hamilton, then sheriff of Washington County and colonel of a battalion of militia in the Mingo Settlement, was ad- mitted to bail February 20, but was obliged to cross the mountains to Philadelphia for trial in June, at which time he was acquitted, there being no evidence against him. Some were held for six months in miserable jails. Many in the west were taken east to prison, some were placed under bonds to appear as witnesses in Phila- delphia and there was no community in the southeastern part of Washington County but what sorely felt the pun- ishment. Among those bound over as witnesses was Rev. Joseph Doddridge of Hopewell Township.

Historian Findley says, "Of all that were taken on that 'Dreadful Night,' only eighteen were sent to Phila- delphia, and none of these convicted on trial." This number does not include those taken at other times.

On the 29th day of November at Elizabeth; Gen. Lee issued a proclamation of amnesty and pardon to all persons in Washington, Fayette, Westmoreland and Alle- gheny Counties in Pennsylvania, and of Ohio County, Virginia, except Benjamin Parkinson, Arthur Gardner, Edward Wright, William Miller, Edward Cook, Richard Holcroft, David Bradford, John Holcroft, Daniel Ham- ilton, Thomas Lapsley, John Mitchell, Alexander Fulton, Thomas Spiers, William Bradford, George Parker, Will- iam Hanna, Edward Wagner, Jr., Thomas Hughes, David Lock, Ebenezer Gallagher, William Hay, William McIlhenny, Peter Lyle, John Shield, Thomas Patton, Stephenson Jack, Patrick Jack and Andrew Highlands, of Pennsylvania, and William Sutherland, Robert Stephenson, William McKinley, John Moore and John McCormick, of Virginia. Of course this pardon did not

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include those carried off and then languishing in prison.

For almost a year men were being hunted. Officers were still hunting for Parkinson, a ringleader, as he was called, at late as July 17, 1795. John Mitchell, who robbed the mail, was condemned to be hanged, and so was a man from Westmoreland County who burned the house of Collector Wells. They were both reprieved and then pardoned.

The cost of military display, $669,992.34, was far more than raised by the tax. A collector's office was established in Washington and forty-three stills, nearly all of them in eastern Washington County, were seized by Collector Robert Johnson, the day following the "Dread- ful Night." The owners' names are given in Creigh's History, Appendix, p. 111 and 112, followed by the number then assessed in each township. All unpaid taxes prior to that beginning June, 1793, were remitted.

The prompt action of Gen. Washington, although accompanied with perhaps unnecessary severity, was a great lesson upon obedience to law. His proclamations and the two charges of Judge Addison to successive grand juries during the ordeal, impressed the necessity and duty of the more intelligent and better class of people guiding the minds and conduct of the ignorant, impetuous and un- reasoning. The lesson for each coming generation was clearly stated by Commander-in-Chief Gen. Henry Lee in the following sentence: "The friends of order may also perceive in the perils and evils that have for some time surrounded them, how unwise and even culpable is that carelessness and apathy with which they have permitted the gradual approaches of disorder and anarchy."

The reign of terror increased in the Mingo region be- cause of notices posted at nights demanding money and threatening to destroy property. Public meetings to detect the guilty brought no relief. Many suffered losses until Robert James, after neglecting notice, lost all barns, haystacks, outhouses, cattle, etc. The man he was about to prosecute disappeared and the community was relieved from such perils.

The victory of Wayne over the Indians, which occurred during these troubles, completely changed the face of things in the west. It threw open the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi, enabling the western people to find a market for their produce; it caused the surrender of the western forts, and gave security from a savage enemy. The rapid change of conditions in this county in three years is shown by the following extract from Judge Ad- dison's charge to the grand jury in September, 1794:

"However necessary on these grounds an opposition to the excise law might be three years ago, it is less neces- sary now. Since that period, the progress of this country to wealth has been amazingly rapid. There have been more public and private buildings raised within this period, than for nine years preceding; and fewer sheriff's sales for debt in the whole three, than in any one of the

nine. Three years ago, I believe, there was not a burr mill-stone in this county ; now there are many. The quan- tity of money circulating among us is, since, greatly in- creased, and the value of all property is thereby greatly increased: in other words, the value of money is greatly lessened, and thereby the value of the excise to be paid by us is greatly lessened. Then there was hardly any trade to the Spanish settlements on the Mississippi; it was, at any rate, small, and confined to a few adven- turers; the quantity of grain exported was but little-of course but little was withdrawn from our own consump- tion, and this little was generally bought with goods. Now, a very respectable trade is carried on to the Spanish settlements; our traders are treated with great civility by the Spaniards; the duty on our trade is reduced to a mere trifle, and there is very little difficulty in bringing away dollars in return. We shall soon have the whole supply of that market to ourselves. Last spring our best flour was sold there for a dollar each barrel dearer than flour from New York. None of the traders now depend on goods for the purchase of wheat, but must purchase at a reasonable price in money.

"From this increased exportation of our grain, the necessity of distillation is greatly lessened in degree, and will every day lessen. Government does not now, as for- merly, supply the army with whiskey, through contractors purchasing with goods but employs agents to purchase it with money. Last year 10,000 dollars were laid out in this way by one agent in this county, and the execution of an order for 10,000 more was stopped only by the present troubles. The contractors themselves have, these two last years, purchased their supplies with cash."

To show a tendency to legislate relief he stated that the duty on stills had been reduced from 60 to 54 cents per gallon, and on a gallon of whiskey from nine to seven cents. He remarked that the tax on carriages did not affect the people of Washington County. Evi- dently there were no such luxuries in this County, and very few vehicles except sleds and Yankee-jumpers. The old stone house at No. 175 South Main Street, Wash- ington, is a lasting monument connected in history with this western insurrection. It was built in the year 1787 or 1788. Its proud owner, David Bradford, had come out from Cecil County, Maryland, to join his brothers- in-law, John McDonald and James Allison, who had pre- ceded him in 1773 and 1774, and bought large tracts of land in this County. In it he received the excited rioters after the destruction of Neville's house, demanding that he should show his approval of their acts by openly be- coming their leader, and whose threats to burn his cherished home enforced his consent. His acts afterward showed much daring, bravery and determination. The strong sentiment for a new State and relief from the hardships of this community had led him with many others to believe there was a chance for freedom and success. Had it not been for the adroitness of some who were apparently working with him, who claimed after- wards to be in opposition to his scheme, war would have been inevitable, the mountain passes would have been occupied by the insurrectionists and a serious contest

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would have brought to their assistance the old enemies of the United States, with results which no one could have foretold.

Warned of the approach of cavalry scouts coming in from Red Stone Old Fort, he ran to the foot of the gar- den, where for several days he had kept a horse saddled, mounted and escaped down Strawberry Alley. As he rode away the troopers came to the front door. His house was seized and used by the soldiers for a short time while the owner was making his way to his future home at Bayou Sara, Louisiana, from which Spanish dominions he never returned. (A most interesting ac- count of this house is given by Prof. Harding of Lehigh University, and John L. Gow, Esq., in the Christmas number of the "Saturday Evening Supper Table," cop- ied in the "Reporter," December, 18 or 19, 1890.)

Another punishment fell upon these western people by the refusal of the Legislature to permit their repre- sentatives to have a seat in that body, claiming that the election in October was held during a state of insurrec- tion west of the mountains, and therefore the members elected were not the choice of the people. A special election was permitted at the beginning of the following year in which the result was the same as the October election.

Peace settled upon Washington County and there has been no need for armed troops upon her soil for more than a century. No county has furnished braver troops or furnished them more promptly in all the wars in which the United States has been engaged.

CHAPTER XI

DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTY, AND STATISTICS.

Manners and Customs - Agriculture - Sheep - Cattle - Horses-Agricultural Societies - Population - Industries -Slavery-Temperance.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

Peace with the Indians lately subdued by Gen. Anthony Wayne's forces, and with the new government, after the attempt of the Westerners to show contempt for its laws, gave the people their long desired opportunity to work out their existence and shape their future homes in the woods. The ancient warrants for surveys and the survey papers, many of them now 20 years old and upward, had become much more valuable, and money had been obtained by which to pay to Pennsylvania the patent fees necessary to establish a title which would be con- sidered beyond dispute in most instances. The plain folk continued building their own cabins with their few tools and furnished them with benches and hand made stools. There was but little furniture in most cabins. Some pegs on the walls for clothing and a resting place for the flint-lock guns, which had always been kept in view, were the chief decorations. Most houses contained but little more than the actual needs for sleeping and eating. Carpets and rugs were not to be thought of. The Bible was found as almost the sole book in most houses, and this, like other books, could not be obtained unless it had been brought over the mountains with the small personal belongings which had been reduced to the minimum and carried on the pack horses. The religious element in Pennsylvania was very strong, the constitution requiring members of the Assembly to be sworn to the belief in God and in the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. The constitution declared that all religious societies or bodies of men united or incorporated for the advancement of religion or learning or other pious and charitable purposes, should be encouraged. The proof sheets of the American edition of the Bible, prepared by Mr. Collins, had been submitted to the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1789. It is related, however, that during the whole Colonial history, no English Bibles were permitted to be published in the land and when war

arose with the mother county it became difficult to obtain a supply of the Scriptures. During the Revolutionary War, Congress appointed a committee which reported that the proper types for printing the Bible could not be obtained. The right of free discussion both through the press and from the platform, was guaranteed to belief and unbelief alike, and it seemed as if the ques- tion whether this country would be Christian or infidel, was just then up for settlement. The supply of ministers was too small and the training of a sufficient number was impossible.

There were no stores except in one or two embryo villages in the county, no matches to create a fire, none of the many hundred later appliances for our present comfort and intercourse. With no county paper and without books the settlers' life was a continual effort. Work by day, knitting the socks and mittens by night with a wooden peg, running the spinning-wheel and loom, making ax handles, harrows with wooden teeth, and wooden plows and sleds, filled up their life. The forest trees which we now would be so glad to have, · were destroyed as rapidly as possible, by girdling or cutting the bark so that the branches were soon leafless and in a few years, the tree devoid of all outer bark. This work of destruction and robbery of nature, by girdling or burning off timber, continued even as late as the middle of the 19th century.

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

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