USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > Old Westmoreland : a history of western Pennsylvania during the Revolution > Part 3
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23
WILLIAM WILSON'S INDIAN TOUR.
Hamilton thereupon tore the speech, cut the belt into pieces and scattered the fragments about the council house. He then harangued the Wyandots on a tomahawk or war belt, but as he spoke to the interpreter in French, Wilson did not understand. Hamilton chided Montour for aiding the Americans and unsparingly denounced White Eyes, whom he ordered to leave Detroit within twenty-four hours, as he valued his life. Hamilton, notwithstanding his anger, respected Wilson's character as an ambassador and gave him safe conduct through the Indian country. The trader returned to Ft. Pitt much discouraged by the outlook and reported to Morgan that many of the Wyandots were likely to go upon the warpath in a few weeks. The Mingoes or Ohio Iroquois were already committed to hostilities.8
In spite of Hamilton's opposition, Indians of four tribes did attend a council with the "rebels" at Ft. Pitt in the latter part of October. The Delawares were represented by all their ruling chiefs, the Wyandots by the Half-King, the Shawnees by the great Cornstalk and a few companions, and the distant Ottawas by one sachem. Costly presents were given by the commissioners, and effusive peace speeches were made by the savages; but only the Dela- wares were sincere. The commissioners were persuaded that an Indian war had been averted, but they were de- ceived. At the conclusion of the treaty, George Morgan wrote to the president of the Congress, "The cloud which threatened to break over this part of the country appears now to be entirely dissipated."" While the council was being held, Indian bands were raiding the Ohio river fron- tier, and early in the following year all the tribes repre- sented at the treaty, except the Delawares, were on the warpath.
8 Wilson's report to George Morgan is given in the American Ar- chives, Fifth Series, vol. ii., pp. 514-518.
9 American Archives, Fifth Series, vol. iii., pp. 599-600.
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
CHAPTER IV.
CAPTURE OF ANDREW M'FARLANE.
The first depredations, in the fall of 1776, were along the eastern shore of the Ohio river, between Yellow creek and the Big Kanawha, by small parties of Mingoes from Plug- gystown. It was in 1777 that the frontier war really began, with fury, on the part of the Indian tribes in general. The first outrage on the frontier of Westmoreland was the cap- ture of Andrew McFarlane, at the outpost of Kittanning.
McFarlane, who was of Scotch descent, came from the County Tyrone, in Ireland, to Philadelphia, soon after the close of the French and Indian war, and made his way to Pittsburg. There he was employed in the Indian trade and was joined by his brother James. When the territorial dis- pute with Virginia became acute, in January, 1774, Andrew McFarlane was one of the additional justices of the peace appointed by Governor Penn, and he was vigorous in his efforts to uphold the Pennsylvania authority in the neigh- borhood of Pittsburg.2
In April, 1774, Captain Connolly, with his Virginia militia, interrupted the sessions of the Pennsylvania court at Hannastown and arrested the three Pennsylvania justices who lived in Pittsburg. These were Andrew McFarlane, Devereux Smith and Captain Aeneas Mackay. They were taken as prisoners to Staunton, Va., and there detained four
1 Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, vol. x., under date of January 19, 1774.
.
25,
CAPTURE OF ANDREW M'FARLANE.
weeks, until released by the order of Governor Dunmore .?
On the evening of his arrest in Pittsburg, McFarlane managed to send a letter to Governor Penn, in which he said : "I am taken at a great inconvenience, as my business is suffering much on account of my absence, but I am will- ing to suffer a great deal more rather than bring a disgrace upon the commission which I bear under your honor." One result of his arrest indicates that McFarlane did not really suffer much during his captivity at Staunton. In that town the young trader formed the acquaintance of Margaret Lynn Lewis, the daughter of William Lewis, one of five brothers famous in the military history of Virginia. It must have been a case of love on sight, for Andrew McFarlane and Miss Lewis were married that summer and she went with her husband to his log home at the frontier post at the forks of the Ohio.
To escape from the exactions and persecutions of the Virginia militia officers, Andrew and his brother removed their store, in the autumn of 1774, from Fort Pitt to Kit- tanning, on the Allegheny, the extreme limit of white settle- ment toward the north. At that time probably not more than half a dozen huts existed there. Joseph Speer, an- - other Pennsylvania trader, established a branch store at Kittanning, and the two houses soon built up a vigorous fur trade with the Indians on the tributaries of the upper Allegheny. When the Revolution came the McFarlanes were prospering.
In July, 1776, when it began to appear probable that the Iroquois were going to war, the Continental Congress ordered the raising of a Western Pennsylvania regiment, consisting of seven companies from Westmoreland and one company from Bedford, to build and garrison forts at Kit- tanning, Le Boeuf and Erie, to protect that region from British and Iroquois attacks by way of Lake Erie. This battalion of frontier riflemen was raised rapidly, largely out of the ranks of the Associators, and the following officers
2 Warner's History of Allegheny County, chapter iv. Pennsylvania Archives, First Series, vol. iv., pp. 487, 488. American Archives, Fourth Series, vol. i., p. 264.
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
were appointed to its command : colonel, Aeneas Mackay ; lieutenant colonel, George Wilson; major, Richard But- ler.3 After its formation it went into camp at Kittanning and was there preparing for an advance up the Allegheny, to build the two other forts, when a call was received for it to march eastward, across the State of Pennsylvania, to join the hard-pressed army of General Washington on or near the Delaware.
This call raised a storm of protest on the frontier but it was not to be disobeyed, and early in January, 1777, Colonel Mackay's regiment, afterward known as the gal- lant Eighth Pennsylvania, set out on its long and disastrous march across the mountains.
At that time many persons, not well informed, thought the frontier was not in danger, but this was not the belief of Andrew McFarlane and his neighbors living at the ex- posed settlement of Kittanning. Immediately after the de- parture of Colonel Mackay's regiment, Magistrate McFar- lane wrote to the commissioners of Westmoreland county, begging that a company of armed men be sent to Kittan- ning. He feared that the Iroquois would attack the little set- tlement. His neighbors were uneasy and he said that he remained only to keep them from running away.4 It seems, however, that most of the other settlers at Kittanning did run away during the winter, for in February, when McFarlane was taken, the only other men at the place were two ser- vants in charge of Joseph Speer's store.
It appears that no soldiers were at once available to occupy Kittanning and guard the stores left there by Colonel Mackay. In this emergency Samuel Moorhead, who lived at Black Lick creek, north of the Kiskiminetas, began the formation of a company of volunteer rangers for frontier protection. He chose McFarlane as his lieutenant and these two men were at work during the winter trying to embody the scattered settlers into a small company.
3 American Archives, Fifth Series, vol. i., pp. 1300, 1574, 1578, 1583, 1586.
4 Notes and Queries, W. H. Egle, Fourth Series, vol. i., p. 19.
27
CAPTURE OF ANDREW M'FARLANE.
The story of McFarlane's capture is preserved in two forms. One is gathered from letters written at the time, while the other is a tradition handed down in the Lewis family of Virginia. These two accounts illustrate the frailty of tradition as a source of historical narrative. No tale transmitted by word of mouth for two or three generations is to be relied upon unless corroborated by contemporary documents, though the tradition often forms the more in- teresting story. The Lewis story is now preserved in a history of Lynchburg, Va., and runs thus :
"When Margaret Lynn Lewis married Mr. McFar- lane, of Pittsburg, and left the parental roof, she traveled through a wilderness infested with hostile Indians till she reached that place, where they did not consider themselves safe, constantly expecting attacks from Indians. Once, when they least apprehended danger, a warwhoop was heard, her husband taken prisoner, the tomahawk raised and she averted her eyes to avoid witnessing the fatal stroke. The river was between them, and she, with her infant and maid servant, of course, endeavored to fly, knowing the inevitable consequences of delay. After starting the ser- vant reminded Mrs. McFarlane of her husband's money and valuable papers, but she desired the girl not to mention anything of that sort at such a moment; but, regardless of the commands of her mistress, the servant returned to the dwelling, bringing all of the money and as many of the papers as she could hold in her apron, overtaking, in a short time, her mistress, as the snow was three feet deep. On looking back she saw the house in flames, and pursuing their journey, they, with incredible fatigue, reached the house of Colonel Crawford, a distance of fourteen miles.
"Through the space of three years the brave heart of this remarkable woman was buoyed up with the firm hope and belief that she should again behold her beloved husband alive, and at length she received intelligence that he had been carried captive to Quebec, where he had encountered in- credible hardships; but the chiefs had agreed that for a heavy ransom he might be restored to his friends. Of
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
course, this ransom was paid with the greatest alacrity, his. brother going on and returning with Mr. McFarlane to Staunton. In a short time the husband and wife returned to their desolated home at Pittsburg, where they literally found nothing left, the Indians having destroyed house, stock and everything pertaining to their establishment. They rebuilt their dwelling in the same spot and for many years they happily and peacefully resided there, leaving a large family, all respectably settled about Pittsburg, with the ex- ception of two sons, who engaged in the fur trade.""
The contemporary account of this event is found in let- ters from the frontier, written to the officers of the Penn- sylvania government at Philadelphia and made public in recent years.5 The British authorities, in Canada, who were preparing to send rangers and Indians against the Western Pennsylvania border, wished to get a reliable account of the situation in the neighborhood of Fort Pitt and decided to send down a small party to take a prisoner and carry him to Canada, that he might be examined.
Two British subalterns, two Chippewas and two Iro- quois were sent out by the commandment at Fort Niagara, to descend the Allegheny. At a Delaware town not far from the site of the present Franklin the white men were ex- hausted and stopped to rest, but the four Indians con- tinued their journey down the west bank of the river. On February 14, 1777, they arrived opposite the little settle- ment of Kittanning. Standing on the shore, they shouted over, calling for a canoe. Thinking that the Indians might have come to trade or to bring important news, McFarlane decided to venture. across. The instant he stepped front his boat he was seized by the savages and told that he was a prisoner.
His capture was undoubtedly seen by his wife and by two other men at the settlement, but it is not likely that a tomahawk was brandished over his head. The Indians had
5 Historical Register, September, 1884; Notes and Queries, Third Series, vol. ii., p. 281; Hildreth's Pioneer History, Cincinnati, 1848, p. 114. 1
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CAPTURE OF ANDREW M'FARLANE.
orders from the officer who sent them to treat their captive kindly and to return with him as quickly as possible to Niagara. To that point McFarlane was hurried, through the deep snow, and there he was subjected to the most rigid examination concerning the condition of the frontier de- fenses. He was then taken to Quebec. His capture caused great alarm on the border and stimulated the frontiersmen to the enrolling of the militia. Captain Moorhead hurried with his recruits to Kittanning and took charge of the houses and stores there, and all along the border prepara- tions were made to repel the expected attacks of the savages, which came quickly with the opening of spring.
It is probable that Mrs. McFarlane did flee from Kittanning after the capture of her husband, for there was every reason to expect an Indian attack; but the place where she took refuge could not have been the house of Colonel Crawford. That gentleman lived at New Haven, on the Youghiogheny river, nearly sixty miles away, in a straight line. At the time of the capture Crawford was in Maryland, on a journey to Philadelphia. Fourteen miles would have taken the fugitives to a little settlement of two or three huts at the mouth of the Kiskiminetas river, but the nearest place of real refuge was Carnaghan's blockhouse, not less than 20 miles south of Kittanning. The Lewis tradition knows nothing of Kittanning but locates the event in the immediate vicinity of Pittsburg.
At the time of Andrew's capture his brother James was a lieutenant in the First Pennsylvania, under General Washington. It was through his efforts that Andrew was exchanged, in the fall of 1780. The released man rejoined his wife and child at Staunton, and they soon afterward re- turned to the vicinity of Pittsburg. Kittanning was now de- serted and exposed to frequent Indian raids, and Andrew McFarlane opened a store on Chartiers creek, within the present limits of Scott township, where he lived for many years. During the later years of the Revolution he was a commissioner of purchases for the continental troops serv- ing on the border.
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
His eldest son, Andrew, doubtless the infant whom Mrs. McFarlane carried in her arms when she fled from Kittanning, became one of the pioneer settlers on the She- nango, near the present New Castle, Pa., and his descend- ants are numerous in Lawrence county.
31
GIBSON'S POWDER EXPLOIT.
CHAPTER V.
GIBSON'S POWDER EXPLOIT.
When the Indian outbreak began, in the spring of 1777, the borderers found themselves in a desperate situa- tion, because of the lack of powder. In those days, the few gunpowder factories in the colonies were all near the sea- board, and the supply for the settlers in Western Penn- sylvania was carried by pack horses, in small quantities, over the mountains. It commanded a high price at Ft. Pitt, and was usually paid for with furs. Indian hostilities closed the fur trade, and made it impossible for the traders to buy powder, save on credit. This, however, was not the chief reason for the shortage. The Revolution caused a demand in the East for more powder than the factories could pro- duce, and none could be spared for the country beyond the mountains.
To be sure, each settler kept a small stock for his own use in hunting, but in all the region around Fort Pitt there was no supply to meet the emergency of an Indian war.
The savages began to break in at many places, striking the isolated cabins, burning, murdering and pillaging. The best method of defending the scattered settlements was to organize companies of rangers, to patrol the course of the Allegheny and Ohio, and to pursue the bands of Indian marauders. Several such companies were formed, but with- out gunpowder they could render little service.
For a few weeks the frontier was almost helpless, but at the very verge of the crisis it was relieved by a daring
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
exploit accomplished by a band of hardy pioneers, led by Captain George Gibson and Lieutenant William Linn. These bold adventurers descended the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, bought powder from the Spanish government, and successfully returned with it to Fort Pitt. This achievement has received little attention from the his- torians of the frontier days.
George Gibson was the son of a Lancaster tavern keeper. He had been engaged in the fur trade with his brother John at Pittsburg. In his youth he had made sev- eral voyages at sea, and he had traveled much in the Indian country. William Linn was a Marylander, who had served with Braddock as a scout and afterward settled on the Monongahela river, on the site of Fayette City. He was a farmer and a skillful hunter. He served in the Dunmore war under Major Angus McDonald and was wounded in the shoulder in a fight with the Shawnees at Wapatomika. These men were of sterling stock. A son of George Gib- son became chief justice of the Supreme Court of Penn- sylvania, and a grandson of William Linn became United States senator from Missouri.1
At the very beginning of the Revolution Gibson and Linn raised a company of young men about Pittsburg and along the Monongahela valley and entered the service of Virginia. The company marched to the Virginia seaboard, and its members so distinguished themselves for fierce valor in two conflicts with the British and tories under Dunmore that they were called "Gibson's Lambs."
They were soon sent back to the Monongahela valley, for frontier defense, and the alert and vigorous government of Virginia commissioned Gibson and Linn to undertake the hazardous journey to New Orleans.
Fifteen of Gibson's Lambs-the hardiest and the brav- est-were selected to accompany the two officers. Flat- boats were built at Pittsburg and the voyagers set forth on
1 George Bannister Gibson, son of George Gibson, was a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1816 to 1853 and chief justice for 24 years of that time. Lewis Fields Linn, grandson of Wm. Linn, was United States senator for Missouri, 1833 to 1843.
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GIBSON'S POWDER EXPLOIT.
Friday, July 19, 1776. They had barely time, before their departure, to learn of the Declaration of Independence.
At that time a voyage down the Ohio was extremely dangerous. The lower river was closely watched by sav- ages. Shawnees, Miamies and Wabash Indians were al- ready at war with the Kentucky settlements. If informa- tion of the enterprise should reach the British officers at the western posts, special endeavors would be made to in- tercept and destroy or capture the adventurers. The Lambs left behind them all evidences that they were soldiers. They retained their rifles, tomahawks and knives, but they were clad coarsely as boatmen or traders. . Even at Pittsburg the nature of their errand was kept secret, for that frontier post was beset by tory spies. It was given out that the party was going down the river on a trading venture.
Gibson's band was both vigilant and fortunate. It passed several parties of refugees, fleeing to Fort Pitt from the Indian ravages in Kentucky. Bands of savages were all along the river, yet Gibson's barges passed unscathed. At Limestone (now Maysville, Ky.), Lieutenant Linn and Sergeant Lawrence Harrison took to the shore, and made an overland journey through Kentucky to the falls of the Ohio (now Louisville), where the barges waited for them. Both were desirous of spying out good land, and Linn af- terward became a Kentucky settler. In the Kentucky woods they met John Smith, a friend, who had been hunting land, but was then on his homeward journey toward Peter's creek, on the Monongahela. Him they persuaded to ac- company the expedition. The entire river voyage was made in safety, the British post at Natchez was passed in the night, and the powder hunters arrived at New Orleans in about five weeks.
Louisiana was then a Spanish province, under the gov- ernorship of Don Louis de Unzaga. Captain Gibson bore letters of commendation and credit to Oliver Pollock and other American merchants living in New Orleans. Pollock, a Philadelphian of wealth, had great influence with the Spanish authorities, and through him the negotiations for
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
the gunpowder were conducted. Spain was at peace with Great Britain, but was ready to give secret aid to the Amer- icans for the mere sake of weakening her traditional British enemy.
English agents in New Orleans discovered the arrival of Gibson's party, and, suspecting that their errand was to obtain munitions of war, complained to the Spanish officers that rebels against the British government were in the city. Captain Gibson was therefore arrested and lodged in a Spanish prison, where he was treated with the greatest consideration. While he was locked up Oliver Pollock se- cured the powder and secreted it in his warehouse. The purchase amounted to 12,000 pounds, at a cost of $1,800.
The powder was divided into two portions. Three thousand pounds of it was packed in boxes, marked falsely as merchandise of various kinds, and quietly conveyed to a sailing vessel bound by way of the gulf and ocean to Phila- delphia. On the night when this ship sailed Captain Gib- son "escaped" from his prison, got on board the vessel and accompanied the precious powder safely to its destination.
The greater portion of the gunpowder, 9,000 pounds, being intended for the western frontier, was turned over to the care of Lieutenant Linn. It was in half casks, each containing about sixty pounds. These casks were smuggled by night to the barges, tied up in a secluded place in the river above the city.
Lieutenant Linn hired more than a score of extra boat- men, most of them Americans, and on September 22, 1776, the little flotilla got away without discovery, and began its journey up the Mississippi. The ascent of the rivers was slow and toilsome, occupying more than seven months. At the falls of the Ohio it was necessary to unload the cargoes and to carry the heavy casks to the head of the rapids. The barges were dragged up with heavy ropes and reladen. Sev- eral times ice forced the expedition to tie up, and many hard- ships were endured before the return of the spring weather. On May 2, 1777, Lieutenant Linn arrived at the little set- tlement of Wheeling, where Fort Henry had been erected.
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1441180
GIBSON'S POWDER EXPLOIT.
There he turned over his precious cargo to David Shep- herd, county lieutenant of the newly erected Ohio county, Virginia.2
On the arrival of Gibson at Philadelphia, he communi- cated to the Virginia authorities the information that Linn was returning with his cargo by river. Orders were at once sent to Fort Pitt for the raising of a body of 100 militia to descend the Ohio and meet the expedition. The Ohio was considered the most dangerous part of the journey, and it was feared that Linn might be set upon and overwhelmed by savages. The officers directed to raise the relief force were so tardy in their work, that they were hardly yet ready to start when Linn's arrival at Wheeling was an- nounced. Long as the journey was, it had been made by Linn more quickly than had been reckoned on by the fron- tier officers.
Lieutenant Linn's responsibility ended at Wheeling. County Lieutenant Shepherd there took charge of the pow- der and conveyed it, under heavy guard, to Fort Pitt, where it was given into the care of Colonel William Crawford, of the Thirteenth Virginia, and was stored in the brick- vaulted magazine of the fort. Its safe arrival was the sub- ject of general rejoicing, and nothing was too good for Lieutenant Linn and his fearless Lambs.
The action of Virginia in this affair was liberal and patriotic. The powder had been paid for by her govern- ment and procured by her soldiers, but it was not held for her exclusive use. The receipt for it, given by Colonel Crawford, states that it was "for the use of the continent." Portions of it were distributed to the frontier rangers in the neighborhood of Fort Pitt and to the two regiments being mustered in Southwestern Pennsylvania for the con- tinental service. It was from this stock that Colonel George Rogers Clark drew his supply, in the spring of 1778, for
2 The District of West Augusta, Virginia, was divided, on Novem- ber 8, 1776, into Ohio, Yohogania and Monongalia counties. Yohogania county was wholly within the present limits of Pennsylvania, including Pittsburg and the lower valleys of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers. The northern part of Monongalia and the eastern part of Ohio were in Pennsylvania.
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OLD WESTMORELAND.
his famous and successful expedition to the Illinois coun- try.
George Gibson was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Virginia service and William Linn was made a captain, in command of the gallant Lambs. To each officer the Virginia Legislature made a grant of money in addition to the regular pay.
Both of these men did other gallant service during the Revolution, and both were killed by Indians. Linn made a settlement about ten miles from Louisville. On March 5, 1781, while riding alone on his way to attend court at Louisville, he was surprised by a small party of Indians in the forest. Next day his mutilated body was found near the road, with his horse standing guard over it. Lieutenant Colonel Gibson was mortally wounded at St. Clair's defeat, in Northwestern Ohio, November 4, 1791, and died a few days afterward, during the retreat to the Ohio river.'
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