Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 74

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192

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From the 6th to the Ioth the Indians remained very quiet, and were, undoubtedly hatching some deviltry. Despite the proximity of danger, the inhabitants, on the Ioth, went all over the gardens and the surrounding fields of grain as if no danger was lurking near. From the IIth to the 13th the ominous quiet still prevailed. On the 14th a militiaman, who had gone out 200 yards after cattle, was shot in three places, and on the 17th died. On the 18th of July, the grain being ripe and in need of reaping, a party of men went out to cut it, and, as had been customary, they were protected by a force of riflemen, which had gone out previously and found that no Indians were in the immediate vicinity. While this scouting party was on Grant's Hill an Indian was discovered and shot and scalped by Mr. Calhoun. Mr. Fleming had command of the scouting party of which Mr. Calhoun was a member. No sooner was the Indian killed than many others appeared across the Monon- gahela near the mouth of Sawmill Run, which fact, upon being announced, brought the covering and working parties to the fort in a hurry. John Will- son, an Indian of notorious reputation, came boldly down to the fort unarmed, and for a considerable time talked with Mr. McKee and others, apparently with the intention of gaining some advantage if possible. He proposed a treaty, but this was refused until the arrival of Colonel Bouquet.

During this period the white inhabitants continued to carry on their gar- dening and harvesting, so far as was possible, under the protection of armed and resolute covering parties. It was necessary to protect the bullock pens, and this was successfully done before a general attack was made, although, doubtless, numbers of cattle were killed. On the 20th large numbers of men, women and children (Indians) were seen passing back and forth across the Allegheny some distance above the fort. On the 21st three Shawnees waded across the Allegheny to the fort and said that the Indian chiefs were then holding a general council. On the 22d the well-known chiefs, Gray Eyes, Wingenum, Turtle Heart and Mamaulter, came across and announced that a general council was being held. On this day many horses loaded with corn, and with leather, from Anthony Thompson's tanyard probably, were seen going back and forth across the Allegheny. The Indians were forbidden, upon pain of being fired upon, from passing up and down the rivers in canoes. On the 24th Custaloga, for whom the Indians had delayed the council, arrived. On the 25th four Indians in a canoe, while passing up the Monongahela against the commands of the white commander, were fired upon from the fort from a six-pounder loaded with grape. Neither was hurt, but they scattered and left their canoe and equipments, which were captured by soldiers, sent across, and proved the hostile designs of the savages. Captain Ecuyer, in writing

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of the state of affairs at this time, stated that the Indians were doing their best to lull the whites into a sense of security in order to gain some advantage, "but they will be disappointed." During this period death halloos were often heard from the savages, betokening the murder of some settler in the surround- ing country. On the 26th Shingiss, Wingenum, Gray Eyes (called Sir William Johnson) and others came across the river and talked with Mr. McKee and the commander. On the 27th fifty-seven mounted Indians and a number on foot were seen across the Allegheny. Several appeared in Huling's field and cut down a quantity of wheat with knives and a scythe. The Indians last named, who had the day before requested the withdrawal of the garrison and whites from this vicinity, were answered by Captain Ecuyer to the effect that this property belonged to the English, having been taken from the French; that he could defend it against all the Indians in the woods, and had ammuni- tion and provisions in sufficient quantity for three years ("I wish we had for three months"-Captain Ecuyer); that the Indians had pretended to be friends, but had stolen the cattle and horses of the inhabitants and killed the traders and taken their goods; and that the death halloos heard every day told of the continued murder of white settlers. Yellow Bird, a Shawnee, then asked to have returned to the owners the four rifle guns taken from the canoe of the Indians on the 25th, but was answered by Captain Ecuyer that he would not at present deliver them, though he would do so as soon as the peaceable intention of the Indians was discovered. This answer from the commander to the request of the Indians to evacuate the fort and to return the guns enraged them to such a degree that they changed countenance and looked savagely and significantly at the whites. They sullenly returned to the other side of the river. On the 28th all the Indians were seen crossing the Allegheny at Shan- nopins Town, and several of the inhabitants who had gone outside to the gardens, against the warnings of the commander, came near being killed by concealed Indians on Grant's Hill. On this day Captain Ecuyer himself was wounded in the leg with an arrow, and several others were wounded, one mor- tally.

On the 29th the heaviest firing of the siege occurred. The Indians poured an incessant fire from the river banks and from Grant's Hill upon the fort, and 1,500 small arms and many shells were sent against them. On this day Markus Huling's leg was broken, and several others were wounded. Sev- eral Indians also were killed and wounded. The roofs of the Governor's house and barracks were riddled with rifle-balls, and at night attempts were made to fire the buildings with fire-arrows. The firing continued on the 30th and 3Ist, but with no great intensity, and on the latter day the Indians were shelled out of Huling's field. During these few days the Indians had resorted to various artifices to entrap the commander, by representations that they had letters from Colonel Bouquet and George Croghan, and in other ways. On August Ist all the Indians crossed back to the western side of the Allegheny, and on a stick, which they planted in the bank opposite the fort, fixed a paper. On the 2d a white man and two Indians came down to the bank opposite the fort, and said that they were expresses from Colonel Bouquet and George Croghan, then at Bedford; that they had been captured by the Indians, their letters taken, opened and read by a white prisoner under threats of the tomahawk. Several of the letters were kept by the Indians, but the others were in possession of the expresses. The letters contained information of the approach of Colonel Bouquet to relieve Fort Pitt. On the 3d it was stated by Captain Ecuyer in his report that the garrison had been under arms six nights in succession, with two reliefs. At this time the most of the Indians has left this neighborhood and gone out to intercept and crush Colonel Bouquet,

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as they had previously crushed General Braddock. On the 5th three expresses arrived from Colonel Bouquet with the information that he was on the point of starting from Bedford to the relief of Fort Pitt. The expresses stated that when near Turtle Creek they had heard many guns, cheers, bells and had seen many Indians, all of which implied that the Indians were concentrating there to resist the approach of the troops under Colonel Bouquet. The 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th passed quietly, without news from the troops or an attack from the Indians. On the Ioth Miller, an express, reached Fort Pitt with the intelligence that Colonel Bouquet had been attacked by the combined force of the Indians at Bushy Run; that the battle had lasted for two days; but that Colonel Bouquet had succeeded in defeating them. Captain Ecuyer imme- diately detached a body of men under Captain Phillips, with orders to march out to meet and assist Colonel Bouquet, should he need it. The defeat of the savages at Bushy Run and the arrival of Colonel Bouquet raised the siege at Fort Pitt and crushed the designs and hopes of the Indians, who retired into the wilderness. Immediately succeeding this the time was devoted to reaping the ripened grain. On the 22d Major Campbell arrived with a convoy in charge of provisions.

From this time until Dunmore's War Pittsburg passed a quiet existence, interrupted only by the laying out of four blocks by Colonel Campbell in 1764, the cession of the soil by the Indians in 1768, the survey of the Manor of Pittsburg by the Penns the next year, and the treaties held here with the representatives of the Indian tribes.

Previous to 1768 all settlers upon the site of Pittsburg were squatters, as the territory belonged to the Indians. In that year, however, the Iroquois nation sold to the Penns all that tract of country lying between the eastern side of the Alleghanies and the Allegheny, or Ohio, River, as it was then called, and the Monongahela River. In 1769 the Penns ordered a survey of the Manor of Pittsburg which was completed March 27, 1769, and contained 5,766 acres. The platting of a town by Colonel Campbell in 1764 was wholly an act of usurpation and an infringement of the rights and an unlawful occu- pation of the territory of the Indians. It is probable that Colonel Campbell had no authority from the Penns to lay out a town upon land which they did not own. He seems, therefore, not to have been connected in any way with the Penns. As a matter of fact, he was a Virginian, and received authority from that colony to lay out a town here in order to give color to the claims of the latter. It must be borne in mind that from this time forward both Pennsylvania and Virginia claimed this territory. The ambition and the aggres- sions of Virginia are well-known matters of history.

The first four blocks were laid out on the Monongahela close to Fort Pitt, and comprised the tract lying between Water and Second streets, and between Ferry and Market streets, and consisted of four squares, if Chancery Lane may be counted as dividing the blocks. Upon the survey of the tract by the Penns in 1769 the lots laid out by Colonel Campbell and the claims of the squat- ter owners were duly recognized, so that there seems to have been no con- tention on that score. The town, no doubt, revived immediately after the siege of Fort Pitt was raised and the Indians were dispersed, and there seems to have been kept here to garrison the fort and hold the Indians in subjection a force varying from 150 to 300 men. Independent of the soldiers there seems to have been, according to the most reliable accounts, from twenty to thirty houses occupied by Indian traders, pioneer settlers and their families. This statement will cover the history of Pittsburg from 1764 until the close of the Revolutionary War, a period of from fifteen to eighteen years.

As will be seen from one of the foregoing lists of pioneers the settlement

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outside of the fort early took the form of an upper and a lower town. This distinction commenced as early as 1761, and continued after the laying out of the four squares in 1764. The lower town nestled close to the fort, as if for protection, while the upper town lay on the bank of the Monongahela several hundred yards up-stream. In time these sections were united by a line of houses. The second census may be said to have been taken by George Washington in 1770, when he reported that the number of houses outside of the fort was about twenty. They comprised twelve two-story log houses and about eight small log cabins. If the number of inhabitants to each house is set at six persons, there would have been a population here then of 120. This is a smaller number than the town first started out with in 1760, although it must be admitted that at the latter date many of those who were counted as inhabitants outside of the fort were workmen who had come here to assist in the erection of Fort Pitt.

Immediately after the extinguishment of the Indian title, in 1768, a steady stream of emigration poured through the notches of the Alleghanies, and sought permanent location, not only in this vicinity, but in the distant region of Kentucky. This gave the first invigorating impulse to the town of Pitts- burg. Residences sprang up along the Allegheny and Monongahela, and busi- ness houses increased to meet the new demand. It is stated that in 1770 all the inhabitants of the town, with a single exception, were traders, and that the exception was Samuel Semple, who kept a tavern at the corner of Water and Ferry streets. This building was erected in 1764 by Colonel George Morgan, was a double log house, and was the first here to have a shingle roof. Instead of interfering with the settlement of Pittsburg, Lord Dunmore's War may be said to have attracted inhabitants, owing to the extensive advertisement the controversy received in the Atlantic towns. The friends of each side naturally endeavored to induce others to espouse their cause, and the heralding of events gave an impetus to emigration. The period of Lord Dunmore's War, therefore, was the most prosperous era from the laying out of the town in 1764 until the close of the Revolution.

In October, 1772, orders were received from General Gage by Major Charles Edmondstone, in command of the garrison, to abandon Fort Pitt and sell the material-bricks, stones, pickets, timbers, iron, etc., which he did to Captains Ward and Smallman for £50, New York currency. The buildings were not torn down. Within a month the inhabitants became so alarmed . over their exposed and helpless situation that they begged General Gage to regarrison the fort. It does not appear that he answered the prayer, and in consequence Lord Dunmore, probably at the suggestion of Dr. John Connolly and others, resolved on an attempt to wrest Western Pennsylvania from the Penns and constitute it a colony of Virginia. This was one of the boldest and most brilliant political schemes ever instituted in this country, and will be found fully set forth in one of the chapters on political events.

. In a petition, dated June 14, 1774, the inhabitants of Pittsburg, becoming seriously apprehensive of an Indian war, prayed John Penn, Governor of Pennsylvania, to afford them "such protection and relief as to your honor shall seem meet." As the names signed to this petition no doubt represented the heads of almost, or quite, every family residing in this vicinity at the time, they are here given for reference: Ensign Mckay, Devereux Smith, William Butler, James O'Hara, Samuel Mckenzie, John Ormsby, John McAllister, - Andrew Robinson, Edward Thompson, William Evans, William McClellan, William Lea, Frederick Henry, John Henry, Christopher Miller, John Stewart, Richard Carson, James Carnahan, John Chilton, John Carnahan, Peter Eckley, Edward Murray, William McConnell, James Kyle, Benjamin Coc, Joseph

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Kyle, John Worf, Robert Patterson, Reuben Powell, Peter Coe, William Elliott, John Emerson, Adam McClintock, James Neely, Leaven Cooper, Nathaniel Field, Aldrich Allen, David Watson, John Cleghorn, Stephen Lowry, Silas Miller, John Carnahan, William Stuart, Clarence Findley, John Findley, Andrew Findley, Robert Thompson, Samuel McGomery, Thomas Carroll, James Patterson, Arthur St. Clair, James Pollock, David Sample, Michael Huffnagle, Samuel Shannon, Samuel Smith, James Dugan, George Hutcheson, George McDowell, Nathan Young, Michael Coffman, William Piper, George Glenn, David McCann, Alexander Johnston, John Cavenaugh, Robert Mickey, David Mickey, Alexander McDowell, Robert Nox (Knox?), James McDowell, Thomas Bleack, David Thompson, Jacob Meens, John Smith, John McNaghar, Hugh Lorrimer (Larimer?), Benamin Sitten (Sutton?), Thomas Sutton, H. Slatten, David Loveger, James McCurdy, Abel Fisher, Robert Porter, John Livingston, Robert Laughlin, Charles Kille, Dudley Daugherty, Hugh Hamill, Richard Shannon, John Weesnor (Wisnor?), John Shannon, Joseph Gaskins, Robert McDowell, John Jordan, John Smith, Thomas Galbraith, Samuel Evans, Henry Fitzgerald, Edmund Mullaly, James Thompson and William McKenzie.

Little noteworthy transpired during the Revolution to change the character of Pittsburg as a town. Previous to the Revolution the fort remained in possession of Captain Edward Ward, one of the purchasers, and later passed to the control of Captain John Neville, acting under orders of the Governor of Virginia; but soon after the Declaration of Independence the Colonial forces took possession and assumed military control, and so continued until the end of the nearly eight years of war. The families located here were sup- ported by money which they received from the soldiers and from the Indians, in exchange for goods or services. The town was wild, and little or no attempt at orderly government was to be seen except such as was exercised by the officer in charge of the garrison. The population remained about the same- from 150 to 200. Little occurred to arouse any display of military force or kindle the indignation or lethargy of the few settlers. As the news was received of the various successes or reverses to the Colonial arms, joy or grief was displayed. Nothing transpired to disturb the monotony-not even an attack upon the fort by the Indians; although many murders were committed and the Tories endeavored to capture the fort, and late in the war, after a pre- tentious display, Colonel Brodhead, at the head of a body of troops, sallied forth on a visionary chase up the Allegheny River after a few Indians.

As soon as the news was received of the outbreak of the Revolution the inhabitants of Pittsburg assembled and passed resolutions favoring the cause of the colonists. It is noteworthy to remark that this action was taken by the Virginians residing here, and that, with but two or three exceptions, all the participants had been associated with Dr. Connolly in the attempt to place this colony under the control of the government of Virginia. When the war with the mother country became a certainty the Continental authorities imme- diately placed a small but adequate force in charge of Fort Pitt. All the resi- dents, knowing the nature of the savages, feared a general Indian war. The leading residents, accordingly, urged upon Congress the importance of gaining the good will and friendship of the Western tribes; whereupon a treaty of friendship was held in July, 1776, in Pittsburg, with representatives of the Six Nations, on which occasion Guyasutha, head chief of the Senecas, announced · in an eloquent address that the Indians desired to remain neutral during the war, and declared that armed forces of either side would not be permitted to march through their country. In April, 1776, Colonel George Morgan was appointed Indian agent, with headquarters in Pittsburg. In September, 1776, war with the Western Indians seemed certain, but for the time was averted.

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In February, 1777, there arrived here from Philadelphia boat carpenters sent out by the Government to build bateaux for use on the Western waters. They established a boatyard on the Monongahela a number of miles above Pitts- burg. The year 1777 passed with many Indian alarms and much privation from the want of the necessary supplies. In January, 1778, flour in Pittsburg was $16 per barrel, and other things equally high.

In the spring of 1779 the Western country was in a continuous state of alarm from the threats of the British to come down from Canada, and from many bloody incursions of predatory Indian bands. Colonel Brodhead's let- ters to the authorities in the East were filled with complaints. His troops had little to eat and less to wear, and the inhabitants, who depended upon the soldiers for subsistence, suffered intensely. He praised Captains Findley and Stokely, and also spoke of Captains Dawson and Carnahan. He said: "You will readily conceive that the command of the department, left in great con- fusion, will naturally involve me in much trouble to extricate it and put things in a regular train for the necessary operations of a campaign." He stated that the murders committed in the Western country by the Indians were so numerous that it was supposed they had formed a camp on the waste lands of the inhabitants. He said: "We have not even three days' meat to subsist the troops of the garrison, to enable us to attack some of their towns." At this time 100 of his men were at Fort Laurens, 25 at Wheeling, the same number at Holliday's Cove, and squads were detailed to assist the boatmen, wagoners, etc. From his letters it would seem that Brodhead intended to conduct a most destructive campaign against the 'Indians. His principal complaint was against his predecessor of whom he said, "Had he taken the necessary steps we might now be ready to check the caitiffs who kept the inhabitants in one continual alarm." In May, 1779, he asked the authorities at Bedford to send him a big net with which to catch fish, so that his troops could be provided

with fresh meat. He said at this time: "The cursed spirit of monopoly and speculation is too prevalent, and accordingly injures the soldiery and indeed the service generally. The high wages given these boatbuilders has greatly raised the wages of other artificers, but the poor soldiers are kept to the old rates without a murmur." At this time he was apprehensive of an attack from the British and Indians, who were known to be in force on the Sandusky and the Coshocking. It was learned that the enemy expected to strike the settle- ment "when the strawberries were ripe."

In June, 1779, a large quantity of provisions, carried on the backs of 864 horses, came from Carlisle, to be used in supplying the Western forts with much needed assistance. Colonel Brodhead said at this time that he had ready forty large canoes and that seven bateaux were nearly finished. In July, 1779, he said: "Whilst I am writing I am tormented by at least a dozen drunken Indians, and I shall be obliged to remove my headquarters from hence on account of a cursed, villainous set of inhabitants, who, in spite of every exer- tion, continue to rob the soldiers and cheat them and the Indians out of every- thing they are possessed of." In August, 1779, he said: "I have until very lately been tied to a defensive plan by repeated instructions, but as I am now at liberty to act offensively against the Senecas, I shall set out on an expedition against their towns within a few days." At this time he also wrote: "Destruction of public stores for this department is not confined to Fort Pitt. I believe much of them were destroyed here, too, for want of regularity in the issues and want of virtue in the inhabitants, who did not hesitate to purchase and secrete public stores from the hands of the private soldiers. I have one under guard for such villainy now and hope to make an example of him." In August nearly sixty boats were ready for use. He said "that the depreciation of

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money is lamentable." At this time Brodhead talked boldly of attacking the Senecas, and in a letter to Washington said, "If I lick the Senecas I want you to perinit me to reduce Detroit." Colonel Brodhead was a much better fighter on paper than in the field. He constantly complained, yet vauntingly boasted of his intention to crush the Indians and British under General Butler. He said, also: "At this time the inhabitants are so intent on going to Kentucky and the Falls of the Ohio that I fear I shall have but few volunteers." About the IIth of August his expedition, consisting of 605 men rank and file, with one month's provisions, started out to chastise the Indians. Nothing of impor- tance resulted from this expedition. In October Colonel Brodhead wrote to General Washington that he was in possession of a sufficient quantity of pro- visions to subsist a thousand men for three months, and should he not be per- mitted to march against Detroit he could promise almost any number of volun- teers from Virginia and elsewhere to march against the Indian towns. In February, 1780, he wrote: "Such a deep snow and such ice have not been known at this place in the memory of the oldest native. Deer and turkeys die by thousands for want of food; the snow on the Alleghany and Laurel hills is four feet deep."

With the spring of 1780 came numerous reports that the Mingoes (English for Six Nations; called Iroquois by the French) had taken the war path and had attacked the white settlers, who were fleeing in terror to the Eastern settle- ments for protection. It was at this time that the combined British and Indians meditated an attack on Fort Pitt; and in this extremity, owing to the smallness of the force at his disposal, he armed the inhabitants and made other prepara- tions to give the enemy a warm reception.

In October, 1779, so great was the fluctuation in the prices of all com- modities and so great was the depreciation in Continental and State scrip, the army officers at Pittsburg held a formal meeting and passed resolutions to adopt a price list. A committee was appointed to carry the resolutions into effect. Captains Tannehill and Findley of the committee were appointed to visit the traders and inform them that the sale of their goods was forbidden "until the regulations could be formed with accuracy and transmitted them, under pain and penalty of being held up as inimical to their country, as well as forfeiting the countenance, protection and trade of the army." The reso- lutions asserted that at the existing enormous prices, unless dire and absolute necessity demanded, to buy would be considered as criminal as to sell; and the traders were requested to sell and the inhabitants to buy at prices agreed on by the committee. The traders were required to exhibit their invoices, which they accordingly did, but it was learned from them that, in order to make any profit, the merchants would be forced to sell their goods at such a high price as to place them beyond the reach of the inhabitants. The com- inittee, therefore, refused to permit the sale of any part of the merchandise specified in the invoices at any post or garrison west of the Alleghany Moun- tains. The committee also ordained that traders who should forestall the markets and secure a monopoly of the grain, and thereafter enhance the price, should be punished. Guards were placed over the stores and the traders were not permitted to sell under any circumstances. This embargo, it was stated, would remain in force until the committee had issued their lists regulating the prices. The language used by the committee against speculators was as fol- lows: "All those of different complexions, whatever appellations they may choose to assume, whether monopolizers, forestallers, engrossers or speculators, are hereby cautioned and advised not to cross the Alleghany Mountains, as this committee cannot answer for the conduct of an insulted public nor for the resentment of the army."

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Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 74

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co. Number of Pages: 1192

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192