USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > Old Westmoreland : a history of western Pennsylvania during the Revolution > Part 10
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It was fortunate for Brodhead that he was able to pro- tect these Indians, for he found use for them after the failure of Brady's cattle impressment. He made arrangement for
12 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. viii., p. 584.
13 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. viii., p. 596.
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THE SUMMER OF THE BIG HARVEST.
a considerable body of them, as well as some of the best hunters among his soldiers, to go to the Great Kanawha valley, to spend the winter there hunting buffaloes and to bring the meat to Fort Pitt as soon as the river should open in the spring.14 It was to such measures that he was driven to feed his soldiers. During the winter, however, some meat and flour were procured from the eastern counties, and the garrison managed to live without leaving any record of a death from actual starvation. The number of the garrison during the winter of 1780-81 was about 300.
14 Olden Time, voi. ii., pp. 377, 378.
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE DERRY SETTLEMENT.
The afflictions and daring deeds of the pioneers of the Derry settlement during the Revolution will illustrate the experiences of other districts in the Westmoreland country. Derry was a long, triangular territory near the northern border of the county, bounded on the east by Chestnut Ridge, on the north by Conemaugh river, and on the south- west by Loyalhanna creek. Its first settlers were from the Cumberland Valley, and were either natives of Derry, in Ireland, or their immediate descendants. The circum- stances under which these pioneers went to the border show that they were bold and self-reliant. The time was a year or two prior to the purchase of the land from the Indians, and the settlers were trespassers. Yet they fearlessly pene- trated the forest, built their cabins and hewed out their clearings, taking their chances of withstanding the savages on the one hand and the colonial authorities on the other. When the land office opened, in the spring of 1769, most of these Derry "squatters" were successful in obtaining warrants for their holdings.
The leaders in this Derry settlement were Robert Barr, James Wilson, John Pomeroy, William Guthrie, John Shields, Samuel Craig and Richard Wallace. A few of their compatriots, among them Charles Campbell and George Findley, ventured to settle north of the Conemaugh river, in the valley of Blacklick creek, where they were in the most exposed situation in all the border region.
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THE DERRY SETTLEMENT.
The cabins of the Derry men were of logs, and, being furnished with loop-holes for rifles, were capable of stout defense against the Indians. Richard Wallace built on a hill near the Conemaugh, about a mile and a half south of the site of Blairsville. He erected a grist mill which ground the grain of the entire settlement. When Dun- more's war began, in the spring of 1774, he constructed a strong stockade around his house, which afforded a refuge for the neighborhood. This stockade became known as Fort Wallace.
About five and a half miles to the southwest, on a tributary of the Loyalhanna, settled Robert Barr and his sons, and when the Revolution began a stockade was con- structed there, known as Fort Barr. A mile farther south, immediately overlooking the Loyalhanna, was the log house of John Shields, and it also was surrounded by a stockade. These three stockades were the strong places of the Derry settlement, frequently assailed but never overcome by the savages. Robert Barr's two sons-in-law, James Wilson and John Pomeroy, dwelt in isolated clearings between Fort Barr and Fort Wallace.
The official records of Pennsylvania contain only occa- sional references to the perils of the Derry settlement dur- ing the Revolution. Details of the adventures of the pio- neers have been preserved in family traditions, and some of these have been collected in print. These traditions are far from trustworthy, save as corroborated or corrected by contemporary records. Two events are sometimes min- gled into one, circumstances are distorted or exaggerated, and dates are often far out of the way. The men who cleared the woods and fought the savages were either un- lettered or too busy with deeds to find time for writing. The human memory is very fallible, and tradition is a fragile support for the historian; yet it serves to give life and color to the dull statements of official reports.
It was in harvest time of 1777 that the Indians first raided the northern border of Westmoreland. North of the Kiskiminetas a few men were killed or captured, and
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
the Blacklick settlers fled away to Fort Wallace with their wives and cattle. Among the fugitives was Randall Laugh- lin, whose horses escaped from the pasture at Fort Wallace and returned to the Blacklick farm. Laughlin determined to venture back after them, and was accompanied by four of his neighbors, Charles Campbell, a major of the militia; two brothers Gibson, and a man of the name of Dixon. In safety they reached Laughlin's cabin, and while resting there on Sept. 25, they were surprised and surrounded by a band of savages, probably Wyandots, led by a French- man. On the promise that their lives would be spared, the settlers surrendered. They were permitted to write a note, describing their capture, and to tack it on the cabin door. Then they were hurried away, through the wilderness, to Detroit. Rangers who went in search of the missing men, found the note on the door and within the cabin four printed proclamations, from Governor Hamilton, of Detroit, offer- ing reward to all who would desert the American cause. Along the Blacklick valley the rangers discovered the scalped bodies of four settlers, whose lives had been the forfeit of their temerity.1
Major Campbell and his companions were taken to Quebec, where they were liberated on exchange in the fall of 1778. Dixon and one of the Gibsons died on shipboard during the voyage to Boston, but the three others returned to the Westmoreland frontier, where Campbell subsequently attained high position.
Several small parties of savages prowled through the Derry settlement during the autumn of 1777, stealing and killing live stock and burning deserted cabins. The settlers kept close in the three forts and suffered little personal in- jury. On November I Lieutenant Samuel Craig, who lived near Shields's fort, was riding toward Ligonier for salt, when he was waylaid and killed or captured at the western base of Chestnut Ridge. Rangers found his beautiful mare
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. v., p. 741; Caldwell's History of In- diana County, p. 140; Thomas Galbraith's Journal, in Frontier Forts, vol. Il., p. 237.
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THE DERRY SETTLEMENT.
lying dead near the trail, with eight bullets in her, but not the slightest trace of the rider was ever discovered.3
Three days after the taking of Craig, the Indians at- tacked Fort Wallace. The savages opened fire from the edge of the woods on one side of the fort, while on the other side a white man appeared, wading in the shallow water up the tail race of the mill and waving a red flag. His action was a mystery to the defenders of the stockade, but their curiosity did not restrain their triggers. As the flag bearer approached the palisade, he received a volley and fell dead with seven bullets in his body. In a bag sus- pended from a cord around his neck were found two proc- lamations like those left in Randall Laughlin's cabin on the Blacklick. He was one of Hamilton's emissaries from De- troit, and when he fell his savage followers glided away into the woods.3
The Indians did not leave the settlement. Major James Wilson, working about his farm, heard the firing of guns at the cabin of a neighbor. Wilson got his rifle and went to investigate. He found his neighbor's body, the head being severed and lying near. Wilson then hurried his wife and children to Fort Barr, and a party of the bor- derers, led by Robert Barr, was soon gathered to pursue the marauders. This party included two of the most expe- rienced Indian trailers on the frontier, Major James Smith and Captain John Hinkston. The Indians were followed across the Kiskiminetas toward the Allegheny river, and were overtaken near Kittanning. A sharp conflict ensued, five of the savages were killed and the others were dispersed. The dead savages were scalped, and the ghastly trophies were sent to Philadelphia for reward .*
In the spring of 1778 the Indians came down again, across the Kiskiminetas and the Conemaugh. On April 28 a score of rangers, under the command of Captain Hop- kins, who had gone out from Fort Wallace, were surprised
2 Galbraith's Journal, Frontier Forts, vol. ii., pp. 244, 287.
3 Frontier Forts, vol. ii., p. 244.
4 Greensburg Herald, November 23, 1870; Pennsylvania Archives, vol. vi., p. 69.
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
by a superior force of savages in the forest and were de- feated after a hard fight. Nine of the rangers were slain and their bodies left behind; Captain Hopkins was slightly wounded, and four of the Indians fell.5
This is probably the combat in which Ebenezer Finley took part, described in Dr. Joseph Smith's "Old Redstone."" Ebenezer was the son of the celebrated pioneer preacher, Rev. James Finley, and, according to the story related of him, was serving a tour at Fort Wallace as a member of a small militia company from the Monongahela valley. A horseman dashed into the fort, with an alarm that Indians were in the vicinity, that he had left two men and a woman coming in through the woods afoot, and that they must be overtaken if not rapidly succored. Eighteen or twenty militiamen sallied forth, and, at a distance of about a mile and a half from the fort, fell into an Indian ambush. After the first exchange of shots, the militiamen retreated, and a running fight took place nearly to the gate of the fort. Many of the white men "were shot down or tomahawked." Finley fell behind while trying to prime his gun, and was in imminent danger of being overtaken. Putting forth extra effort, he succeeded in passing a comrade by striking the other man on the shoulder with his elbow, and a moment later this comrade was felled with a tomahawk. Thus young Finley saved himself by sacrificing the life of an- other, and the pious author would have it that Finley es- caped by the interposition of Providence. Rev. James Fin- ley was in Philadelphia at the time, and at the very hour of the ambuscade was affected by a strong impression that his son was in danger. He betook himself to intense prayer, and after a short period was relieved by a feeling that the danger had passsed. It was not until several weeks later that he learned the nature of his son's peril and the manner of his escape.
Certain family traditions of the Derry settlement relate
5 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. vi., pp. 469, 495.
6 Old Redstone, or Historieal Sketches of Western Presbyterianism, Philadelphia, 1854, p. 284.
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THE DERRY SETTLEMENT.
to another bitter combat with the savages in the immediate neighborhood of Fort Wallace, at an uncertain period dur- ing the Revolution. This affair may have taken place dur- ing the summer of 1778, for it is known that desperate inroads were made by the Indians at that time into the northern precincts of Westmoreland." The story goes that signs of Indians were seen near Fort Barr, and the settlers throughout the southern part of Derry took refuge there. They were preparing to withstand an attack, when brisk firing was heard in the direction of Fort Wallace. Major James Wilson, at the head of about forty men, promptly set out from Barr's to the relief of the other post. They arrived within sight of Fort Wallace, which they found heavily besieged, but as soon as Wilson's company ap- peared, the savages turned upon it and assailed it in over- whelming force. The principal conflict took place on a bridge over a deep gully, about 500 yards from the fort. Several Indians were there slain and others were thrown over the bridge; but Wilson's party was forced to retreat and fought desperately all the way back to Fort Barr. During this retreat two of Robert Barr's sons, Alexander and Robert, were killed, but their bodies were saved from the scalping knife. All others gained the stockade in safety, and the Indians soon afterward disappeared from the settlement.8
No record has been found of further Indian attacks on the Derry district until the spring of 1781. On the first day of April, while Colonel John Pomeroy and at least three hired men were at work in a field, they were fired upon by Indians and one of the men was killed. Pomeroy fled to his cabin, while the two hired men ran for Fort Barr, about a mile away. Only one of them reached the fort, where he related what had occurred. Very few men were in the fort, but James Wilson and James Barr mounted horses and rode away to Pomeroy's assistance. From a hilltop near
7 Fort Pitt, pp. 232, 238.
8 Greensburg Herald, November 23, 1870; Frontier Forts, vol. ii., p. 347.
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
the house they saw several Indians skulking about Pome- roy's barn, but no sound came from the cabin. Wilson called out, "Pomeroy, are you alive?" From the cabin came the lusty response, "Yes; come on and we'll kill all the rascals yet." Wilson and Barr left their horses, made a dash for the dwelling and entered it unharmed. There they found that the owner and his wife Hannah had been making a gallant defense for nearly three hours. They had hidden their children under the heavy oak floor and had betaken themselves to the loft, from whose port holes Pom- eroy had been firing. He had two good rifles, and, while he was handling one, Hannah loaded the other, taking, meanwhile, frequent liberal pinches of snuff.
Upon the arrival of Wilson and Barr, the Indians, wlio were few in number, ran to the woods. The children were drawn from their hiding place and Pomeroy's family was conducted, without molestation, to Fort Barr.º On the following day Colonel Archibald Lochry, the county lieu- tenant, arrived in the settlement with a company of militia and visited Pomeroy's farm. The dwelling had been broken open by the Indians, and nearly all the contents carried away. In the field the body of the scalped laborer was found and buried. A second hired man, who had fled, was never found.1º
9 Greensburg Herald, November 23, 1870.
10 Pennsylvania Archives, First Series, vol. ix., p. 51.
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THE DESTRUCTION OF COSHOCTON.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE DESTRUCTION OF COSHOCTON.
Colonel Brodhead was never able to execute his de- sign to lead a force against the Wyandot or the Shawnee towns in Ohio. He had expected to get help, for such an expedition, from the Delaware warriors at Coshocton, but in the spring of 1781 a change in the situation impelled him to strike the Delawares themselves. Until the be- ginning of that year the Delawares took no part, as a tribe, in the war against the frontier. The alliance with the United States, made by their three principal chiefs in the autumn of 1778, was outwardly observed for more than two years. The death of White Eyes had been followed by the election of Killbuck, a famous medicine man and war- rior, to the office of chief sachem, and he proved himself to be an unswerving friend to the Americans. It was soon developed, however, that he represented a minority of his tribe. His influence was sufficient merely to delay the union of the Delawares with the other hostile nations.
Brodhead had nothing to give to the Indians; British agents from Detroit gave not only promises but presents. Envoys from the Senecas, the Wyandots, the Miamis and tribes farther to the west visited the Delaware towns often, threatening and persuading and using all savage arts to draw the chiefs and warriors into the league against the Americans. Raiding parties going homeward from the frontier flaunted their trophies in the Delaware villages and stirred the envy and ambition of the young bucks. The
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
Indian inclines to war rather than to peace. Captain Pipe became the leader of the war party and soon controlled the tribal council.
In February, 1781, during the absence of Killbuck at Fort Pitt, the council at Coshocton yielded to the pressure, voted to join the hostile league and permitted bands of war- . riors to go out against the Pennsylvania and Virginia bord- er.
Killbuck feared to return to Coshocton, for threats had been boldly uttered against his life. He made his residence with the Moravians or United Brethren and their converted Indians at Salem, on the western bank of the Tuscarawas river, 14 miles below New Philadelphia. He ever. pro- fessed conversion to Christianity, was baptized and received a Christian name, William Henry, in honor of a distin- guished citizen of Lancaster, Pa. Thereafter the Indian sachem, who held a commission from the United States Congress, was proud to call himself "Colonel Henry." He drew to Salem with him his own family, the family of White Eyes and a few other Delawares, including the war captains Big Cat and Nanowland. From Salem Chief Killbuck wrote, by the hand of the Missionary Heckewelder, a long letter to Colonel Brodhead, informing him of the hostile acts of the council at Coshocton.1
This letter was accompanied by one from Heckeweld- er and both were carried to Fort Pitt by John Montour. Heckewelder suggested an expedition against Coshocton, adding : "I trust that your honor will do all that lies in your power to prevent mislisting anybody belonging to our towns; and you may depend, sir, that in case any of your men should have occasion to come by any of our towns, they would meet with much kindness from our people."
Brodhead determined to attack Coshocton and punish the Delawares for their perfidy. Vigorous exertions by the Pennsylvania government had given him a supply of provisions, but his force of regulars at Fort Pitt had been reduced, from various causes, to about 200 men. To the
1 Pennsylvania Archives, First Series, vol. viii., pp. 769-771.
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THE DESTRUCTION OF COSHOCTON.
officers of the border counties he sent a call for militia as- sistance, but this call was fruitless.ª By the help of Col- onel David Shepherd, of Wheeling, who was county lieu- tenant of Ohio county, Pa., Brodhead was able to secure a body of excellent volunteers. There were 134 of them, members of the Virginia militia, arranged in four com- panies, under Captains John Ogle, Benjamin Royce, Jacob Lefler and William Crawford.3 These men were hardy young farmers and hunters from the settlements in Wash- ington county and along the left bank of the Ohio. Most of them rode their own horses and joined in the raid under Colonel Shepherd's command.
Fort Henry, the stockade at Wheeling, was the place of assembly, and to that place Brodhead and his soldiers went down in boats during the first week in April. On Tuesday, April 10, the little army, about 300 strong, was ferried over the Ohio river and took the Indian trail for the Muskingum river. John Montour, Nanowland and three other Delaware braves went with the Americans to fight their own tribesmen.
It was very desirable that the expedition should move rapidly, so that it might take the Indian village by surprise; yet it was ten days before Brodhead's force appeared before Coshocton. The weather was bad, a great deal of rain fell and progress was difficult. The commander paused awhile, when he neared the Tuscarawas, for a conference with Rev. John Heckewelder, the missionary among the Delawares. A messenger sent ahead had summoned the Moravian min- ister from his Huts of Grace on the Tuscarawas river, and he met Brodhead on the trail. Brodhead wished to know if any of the Christian Indians were in the hostile towns. Heckewelder said there was none. Brodhead wished the Moravians to prepare some corn and cattle for the soldiers against their return march. Heckewelder departed to see that it was done. Back to Gnadenhuetten and Salem the missionary bore the news that the Americans were in the
2 Pennsylvania Archives, First Series, vol. ix., pp. 51, 52.
3 Washington-Irvine Correspondence, p. 52.
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
Indian country, and Chief Killbuck and his few warriors put on their paint and went forth to strike a blow for the American cause. Thus the forces of savagery were divid- ed against themselves.
From the Ohio river to the forking of the Muskingum was hardly 70 miles, and that this required ten days showed how bad the weather and the way must have been. Yet in spite of this slow toil, the Delawares were really taken by surprise. They had no expectation of such prompt action by the American commander and kept no scouts abroad in the rainy weather. Perhaps most important of all, some of their chief men were at Detroit, attending a great council of all the tribes of the northwest, with DePeyster, the British governor. This embassy probably included the Pipe, who had become chief sachem of the tribe in place of Killbuck, deposed, and the famous war chief called the Beloved. Buckongahelas or He-Who-Fulfils, the next chief in au- thority, was probably away with a raiding band, and thus Coshocton was without a head and unprepared even for de- fensive action.
On Friday, April 20, in the morning, while the rain was pouring, the American advance guard came upon three Indians in the woods, not more than a mile froni Coshoc- ton. One of the savages was captured, but the two others, of whoni one was wounded, escaped to the town and gave the first alarm. The captured Indian said there were not many warriors at home, that a band of 40 had just returned from a raid on the settlements, with scalps and prisoners, but had crossed to the farther side of the river, a few miles above the town, to enjoy a drunken revel.
Brodhead hurried forward and dashed into the Dela- ware capital. But 15 warriors were there, who made as brave a resistance as they could, but every one of them was either shot down or tomahawked to death in the resistless rush of the Americans. The mounted volunteers were naturally first into the town and they neither accepted sur- render by an Indian buck nor suffered any of the wounded to linger long in agony. No harm was done to the old
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THE DESTRUCTION OF COSHOCTON.
men, women or children, of whom more than a score were captured. These were removed, under guard, to a place outside the town, and the log cabins composing Coshocton were then given to the flames.
The colonel said, in his official report, that his men took "great quantities of peltry and other stores" and de- stroyed about 40 head of cattle. Doubtless there was a great feast on beef when the work of killing and burning was over, for the tired troops were not so well provisioned that they would let fresh meat go to waste.
Brodhead desired to cross the river and attack the drunken war party, but the stream was swollen to the tops of its banks and the Indians had all their canoes on the far- ther side. It was the high water which had prevented the escape of all the inhabitants of Coshocton. The com- mander then proposed to send a detail to the Moravian towns, up the Tuscarawas, to procure boats, but against this the volunteers protested. They said they had done enough, had suffered sorely from the weather, had almost worn out their horses and proposed to return home. As they were in no way subjected to military discipline. Colonel Brod- head could not help himself.
On the return journey, the Americans followed the Tuscarawas to Newcomer's Town, where they found about 30 friendly Delawares who had withdrawn from Coshocton, when war was voted. Colonel Brodhead says : "The troops experienced great kindness from the Moravian In- dians and those at Newcomer's Town and obtained a suffi- cient supply of meat and corn to subsist the men and horses to the Ohio river."
If Brodhead was unable to strike the hostile band on the farther side of the river, that work was done by Chief Killbuck and his adherents. While the Americans rested at Newcomer's Town, Killbuck appeared in the camp and threw at the colonel's feet the fresh scalp of "one of the greatest villains" among the hostiles.
The expedition returned to Wheeling about the be- ginning of May, where the furs and other captured goods
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
were sold at vendue, bringing the astonishing sum of So,- 000 pounds. The furs were the product of a winter's hunt- ing.“
Quite a different story of this expedition is to be found in the old histories. Its author was Rev. Joseph Doddridge, of Washington county, who gave it forth in his once popu- lar "Notes on the Settlements and Indian Wars, etc." His story was copied almost word for word in Craig's "History of Pittsburg," and is adhered to in Howe's "Historical Col- lections of Ohio," revised as recently as 1890.5
Doddridge said that the raid took place in the summer of 1780, which was nearly a year out of the way, and that the force consisted of about 800 regulars and "militia." No militia responded as an organization to Brodhead's call, and that officer, in his report, was careful to refer to the Vir- ginians who aided him as "volunteers." The whole force, said Brodhead, was "about 300 men."
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