USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > The history and topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry counties [Pennsylvania] > Part 10
USA > Pennsylvania > Bedford County > The history and topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry counties [Pennsylvania] > Part 10
USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > The history and topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry counties [Pennsylvania] > Part 10
USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > The history and topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry counties [Pennsylvania] > Part 10
USA > Pennsylvania > Franklin County > The history and topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry counties [Pennsylvania] > Part 10
USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > The history and topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry counties [Pennsylvania] > Part 10
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The Indians persevered in their depredations and works of destruction. On Wednesday, the 26th May, 1756, they came to the plantation of John Wasson, in Peters' township,
· Loudon's Narrative, Vol. ii., p. 190-'92.
·
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Cumberland county, (now Franklin,) whom they killed and mangled in so horrid and cruel a manner, that a regard to de- cency forbids describing it ; and afterwards burnt his house, and carried off his wife. A party of Peters' and Steel's men went out after the enemy, but to no purpose.
Some time in June, Fort Bigham, in Tuscarora valley, about twelve miles from Mifflin, was destroyed by the Indi- ans. A number were carried off and some killed. George Woods, Nathaniel Bigham, Robert Taylor, his wife and one child, and John McDonnel were missing. Some of these, it was supposed, were burnt, as a number of bones were found. Susan Giles was found dead and scalped ; Alexander McAl- lister and his wife, James Adams, Jane Cochran, and two children were missed. McAllister's house had been burnt, and a number of cattle and horses had been driven off. The enemy was supposed to be numerous, as they did eat and car- ry off a great deal of the beef they had killed-Pa. Gazette.
George Woods was the father-in-law of James Ross, who ran for Governor, and raised some fifteen years ago in Bradford.
Hance, or John Gray, afterwards joined a volunteer company, and went against the Indians in Kittaning, with the hopes of finding his wife and child. Shortly after the Kittaning expedition, he died in Bucks county.
Francis Innis remained a prisoner or captive, till the Indian treaty. Har. Reg. 192.
July 26th, 1756, they killed Joseph Martin, and took cap- tive John McCullough and James McCullough, in the Conoco- cheague settlement .* August 27th there was a great slaugh- ter or massacre, wherein the Indians killed thirty-nine persons. This happened on the Salisbury plain, near the mouth of Co- nococheague creek, as a number of men, women and children were attending a funeral, they were fired on by the Indians, who killed and scalped fifteen persons, and wounded many of the others. The same day six men went from Isaac Baker's upon the scout ; one returned wounded ; four were killed, and the other was captured. And six others, going to one Er- win's, to haul grain were attacked ; one wounded in the hand, who, together with a companion, escaped ; the rest were kill- ed. Four more, who went from Shirley's fort, were also masacred or made prisoners. On the same day, two families
* See Appendix, D, Mccullough's Narrative.
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on Salisbury plain, consisting of nine persons, were most inhu- manly butchered and mangled.
Upon the following day, as Captain Emmet and a scouting party were crossing the South mountain, they were fired on, and three of their number killed and two wounded. A few days after this, one William Morrison went to his place in Conococheague settlement, where he was discovered by five Indians, and, finding he could not escape by running, he put himself in an active position, beckoning and making signs, first to one side, then to the other, as if a party of his friends were at hand, trying to surround the Indians, which they per- ceiving, retreated into the woods, and he got off safe .*
August 28, 1756, Betty Ramsey, her son and the cropper . killed, and her daughter taken captive.
Some time in the month of July, 1756, the Indians appear- ed again in Shearman's valley, and abducted Hugh Robinson.
I was, says Robinson, taken captive by the Indians, from Robin's fort in Shearman's valley, in July, 1756, at which time my mother was killed ; I was taken back to their towns, where I suffered much from hunger and abuse; many times they beat me most severely, and once they sent me to gather wood to burn myself, but I cannot tell whether they intended to do it or to frighten me; however, I did not remain long before I was adopted into an Indian family, and then I lived as they did, though the living was very poor. I was then about fourteen years of age: my Indian father's name was Busqueetam; he was lame in consequence of a wound received by his knife in skinning a deer, and being unable to walk, he ordered me to drive forks in the ground and cover it with bark to make a lodge for him to lie in, but the forks not be- ing secure they gave way, and the bark fell down upon him and hurt him very much, which put him in a great rage, and calling for his knife, ordered us to carry him upon a blanket into the hut, and I must be one that helps to carry him in ; while we were carrying him I saw him hunting for the knife, but my Indian mother had taken care to convey it away, and when we had got him again fixed in his bed, my mother or- dered me to conceal myself, which I did ; I afterwards heard him reproving her for putting away the knife; for by this time I had learned to understand a little of their language.
· Gordon's His. Pa. 620.
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However his passion wore off and we did very well for the future.
Some time after this all the prisoners in the neighborhood were collected to be spectators of the cruel death of a poor, unhappy woman, a prisoner, amongst which number I was. The particulars is as follows: When Col. Armstrong destroy- ed the Kittaning this woman fled to the white men, but by somne means lost thern and fell into the hands of the Indians, who stripping her naked, bound her to a post, and applying hot irons to her whilst the skin stuck to the iron at every touch, she screamning in the most pitiful manner, and crying for mercy, but these ruthless barbarians were deaf to her agonizing shrieks and prayers; and continued their cruelty till death released her from the torture of those hellish fiends. Of this shocking seene at which human nature shudders, the prisoners were all brought to be spectators.
I shall omit giving any particular account of our encamping and decamping, and our moving from place to place, as every one knows this is the constant employment of Indians. I had now become pretty well acquainted with their manners and customs, had learned their language, and was become a tolerable good hunter-was admitted to their dances, to their sacrifices, and religious ceremonies. Some of them have a tolerable good idea of the Supreme Being ; and I have heard some of them very devoutly thanking their Maker, that they had seen an- other spring, and had seen the flowers upon the earth. I ob- served that their prayers and praises, was for temporal things. They have one bad custom amongst them; that if one man kill another, the friends of the deceased, if they cannot get the murderer, they will kill the nearest akin. I once saw an instance of this; two of them quarrelled, and the one killed the other, upon which the friends of the deceased rose in pur- suit of the murderer, but he having made his escape, his friends were all hiding themselves; but the pursuers happened to find a brother of the murderers, a boy, concealed under a log, they immediately pulled him out from his concealment, he plead strongly that it was not him that killed the man ; this had no weight with the avengers of blood, they instantly sunk their tomahawks into his body and despatched him. But they have some rules and regulations among them that is good; their ordinary way of living is miserable and poor, of- ten without food. They are amazing dirty in their cookery,
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sometimes they catch a number of frogs, and hang them up to dry, when a deer is killed they will split up the guts and give them a plunge or two in the water, and then dry them, and when they run out of provisions, they will take some of the dried frogs, and some of the deers guts and boil them, till the flesh of the frogs is dissolved, then they sup the broth.
Having now been with them a considerable time, a favora- ble opportunity offered for me to regain my liberty, my old father Busquetum, lost a horse and he sent me to hunt for him, after searching some time I came home and told him that I had discovered his tracks at some considerable dis- tance, and that I thought I could find him, that I would take my gun and provision, and would hunt for three or four days and if I could kill a bear or deer I would pack home the meat on the horse; accordingly I packed up some provision, and started towards the white settlements, not fearing pur- suit for some days, and by that time I would be out of the reach of the pursuers. But before I was aware, I was almost at a large camp of Indians, by a creek side ; this was in the evening and I had to conceal myself in a thicket till it was dark, and then passed the camp, and crossed the creek in one of their canoes; I was much afraid that their dogs would give the alarm, but happily got safe past. I travelled on for several days, and on my way I spied a bear, shot at and wounded him, so that he could not run ; but being too hasty ran up to him with my tomahawk, before I could give a blow, he gave me a severe stroke on the leg, which pained me very much, and retarded my journey much longer than it otherwise would have been ; however I travelled on as well as I could till I got to the Alleghany river, where I collected some poles, with which I made a raft, and bound it together with elm bark and grape-vines, by which means I got over the river, but in crossing which I lost my gun. I arrived at fort Pitt in fourteen days from the time of my start, after a captivity of five years and four months .- Loudon's Narrative vol. ii. 190-'94.
In July the savages murdered some persons in Shearman's valley. The Indians, says Robert Robison, way-laid the fort in harvest time and kept quiet until the reapers were gone ; James Wilson remaining some time behind the rest, and I not being gone to my business, which was hunting deer, for the use of the company, Wilson standing at the fort gate, I
+
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desired liberty to shoot his gun at a mark, upon which he gave me the gun, and I shot; the Indian on the upper side of the fort, thinking they were discovered, rushed on a daughter of Robert Miller, and instantly killed her, and shot at John Simmeson, they then made the best of it that they could, and killed the wife of Jmaes Wilson,* and the widow Gibson, and took Hugh Gibson and Betsey Henry prisoners; the reapers being forty in number returned to the fort and the Indians made off.
Some time after Braddock's defeat, Fort Granville was erected at a place called Old Town, on the bank of the Ju- niata, some distance from the present site of Lewistown, then Cumberland, now Mifflin county, where a company of en- listed soldiers were kept, under the command of Lieutenant Armstrong. The position of the fort was not the most fa- vorable. The Indians who had been lurking about there for some time and knowing that Armstrong's men were few in number, sixty of them appeared, July 22, before the fort, and challenged the garrison to combat ; but this was declin- ed by the commander, in consequence of the weakness of his force. The Indians fired at and wounded one man belonging to the fort, who had been a short way from it-yet, he got in safe ; after which they divided themselves into small par- ties, one of which attacked the plantation of one Baskins, near Juniata, whom they murdered, burnt his house and car- ried off his wife and children ; and another made Hugh Car- roll and his family prisoners.
On the 30th of July, Captain Ward left the fort with all his men, except twenty-four under the command of Lieut. Armstrong, to guard some reapers in Shearman's valley .- Soon after the Captain's departure, the fort was attacked by about one hundred Indians and French, who having assailed it in vain during the afternoon and night of that day, took to the Juniata creek, and, protected by its bank, attained a deep ravine, by which they were enabled to approach, with- out fear of injury, to within ten or twelve yards of the fort, to which they succeeded in setting it on fire. Through a hole thus made they killed the Lieutenant and private, and wound- ed three others while endeavoring to extinguish the fire .-
* While the Indian was scalping Mrs. Wilson, the relator shot at and wounded him but he made his escape .- A. LOUDON, EDITOR.
10*
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The enemy then offering quarters to the besieged, if they would surrender, one Turner immediately opened the gate to them. They took prisoners, twenty-two soldiers, three wo- men, and seven children, whom they loaded with burdens and drove them off. The fort was burnt by Captain Jacobs, pursuant to the order of the French commander. When the Indians reached Kittaning, they put Turner to death with the most horrid tortures. They tied him to a post, danced around him, made a great fire, and having heated gun-barrels red- hot, ran them through his body. Having tormented him for three hours, they scalped him alive, and at last held up a boy with a hatchet in his hand, to give him the finishing stroke .- Gordon's His. Pa. p. 619.
Before leaving Fort Granville, they posted up a paper, which was afterwards found there, and was sent to the Gov- ernor and council ; and has since been carefully kept among other papers and letters in the Secretary's office. The fol- lowing is a literal transcript of the original, copied by the writer in December, 1844.
The paper appears to be a mere fragment of a letter. It is incoherent-has many omissions, which are not easily sup- plied, without knowing the particular circumstances unde- which it was written.
Il nece poin duxe peu ne pase pas que Jamay je nous Regarde de bon Coeur Et nesperce jamay auqueune grase de mapare Car jene auqueune an vie de vous voyr apre le Chagrien que vous mave Cau- sez ain si Char Cher allteur pour moy nefaitte poin defou non plus sur un in Conseten qui ne panse Cason ple sir Croye moy Char Che fore tune allieurs pour moy je ri ne panse arien moy Case la il nez rien qui puise me De tou ne de nest santi man adie bon soir el nes pa tar je par de mein vous mouve toujoure dixetros vous il nes pa Conve- nable que vous Restier isci Cela ne vous Convenien pas Cinon je prandre plu vous prandre des Mesure pour y me ditour ner plu je serai rustique ne panse pa que serve devous percequitte vous panserie malle Car je sivous voulle netre poin tenu retire vous demoy Car je ne sour- ois re sis ter
Vostre Servette Pinella Ciere.
The following is also copied from the same paper of the original. It is an interlineal, rothographical correction of the original "spelling :"
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August the 18th, 1756.
To Hance Hamilton : Sir-
I have sent express to you with the French letter, and one from Lieu- tenant Thompson, and a copy of that I have sent per Captain Hamilton and Ensign Scott, and the remainder I will send by Potter and Steel's men. Lieutenant Holiday sent to me last night for blankets, and says that his men are all going to leave him for want of the same, as the in- habitants have all left the fort. Capt. Potter has forty-seven men ; and how many Captain Steel has I cannot tell; I believe about thirty or upwards.
If you have any blankets send them by the bearer. I believe I will make up near twenty strays, and the remainder I sent by Potter' and Steel's men, which I hope you will receive at your arrival there.
I have nothing more, that I remember, but my compliments to Mrs. Armstrong, and my earnest desire of your welfare and success.
I am, with much esteem, your most humble servant,
ADAM HOOPS.
N. B. I have got 39 pair of horse shoes, and 15 pair which are put on the horses.
Since I wrote, the Courier (carrier) has come to me to let me know that near John Lindsay's, five or six Indians were seen, and that one was shot down at the Grindstone Hill; and he says that they cannot carry out the flour which they had agreed for with them : there are not five families in all those parts, but what are now fled ; the settlement is full of Indians, and are seen in many places.
A. H.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, 5 o'clock, August 19, 1756.
Dear Sir-
I have last night received a letter by express from my Lieutenant which I have enclosed, with the original of the French letter, left at Fort Granville (near Lewistown, Mifflin county). We are all scarce of powder and lead at our forts. I am obliged to get a little from Mr. Hoops, and to give my receipt as for the expedition.
There is a party of Captain Mercer's company here ; and on our re- ceiving this letter we marched directly, taking with us twelve beef cat- tle, and the packhorses which belong to the two forts. The rest are to be brought up by Captain Potter's and Steel's men.
Sir, there were five of my men who were free, about the 7th of July, and they continued in the service. until they heard of Fort Granville being taken (and not be qualified they went off) as it is reported for want of ammunition ; and we being so scarce, they openly refused to serve longer under such circumstances.
Sir, I am your affectionate, humble servant, HANCE HAMILTON.
To Col. John Armstrong, at Carlisle.
Shortly after Fort Granville had been destroyed, Colonel
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Armstrong entered upon what is well known as the Kittaning expedition. He advanced with three hundred men, till he reached the Beaver Dams, near Fronkstown, where he was joined by an advanced party, on Sept. 2d. On the 7th in the evening he reached Kittaning, and routed the enemy. (Par- ticulars of the expedition will be noticed in the sequel.)
Letter from Col. Armstrong to the Hon. R. H. Morris, Esq. late Governor.
CARLISLE, 20th August, 1756.
May it please your Honor-
To-morrow, God willing, the men march from McDowell's for Fort Shirley, and this afternoon some part of my own company, with the provisions here, set out for Shearman's valley, there to halt till the residue come up. This night I expected to have been at Fort Shir- ley, but am much disappointed in getting in of the strays, for collec- ting whereof we shall not wait longer than this day. Hunter has got about half a score, and commissary Hoops about a dozen. The com- missioners (for which your Honor will please to make them my sincere compliments) have sent every thing necessary except the canteens wrote for by Mr. Buchannan, which I am persuaded they have forgot, and which we must supply by tin quarts. They were probably right in keeping back the tents, as they might have proven an incumbrance, and there is not one shilling laid out on this occasion that does not give me sensible uneasiness. but through the want of experience, and few- ness of our numbers, the good end proposed should fail of being ob- tained.
I am not yet determined whether to wait twenty-four hours longer on the answer of a letter sent to Colonel Clapham for the intelligence of John Cox, who has been some time with, and now made his escape from the Indians, which I think would be very material, and which, if waited for until to-morrow, or Sunday night, will make it Tuesday before we can reach Fort Shirley. I dare not venture any thing of consequence now with a single messenger, so many Indians being in the woods.
The harvest season, with the two attacks on Fort Granville (Lew - istown) has left us bare of ammunition, that I shall be obliged to apply to the stores here for some quantity, for the expedition. The Captains, Hamilton and Mercer, having broken open the part I sent to McDowell's for Fort Shirley, and given them receipts as for the expedition, though I know it for the particular defence of those two posts : nor will it be in my power to prevail with double the number of men, and a double quantity of ammunition to keep a Fort, that would have done it before the taking of Fort Granville. I hope the first opportunity of conveying ammunition to this town will be ta- ken. For farther proofs of the numbers of Indians among us and waste of this country, I shall enclose your Honor some letters lately received.
Since the escape of the Dutchman, whose deposition I sent your Ho- nor, is also escaped a certain Peter Walker taken from Granville, and saith, that of the enemy not less than one hundred and twenty returned
-
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all in health, except one Frenchman shot through the shoulder by Lieutenant Armstrong a little before his death, as the Frenchman was erecting his body out of the hollow to see through the pine knots on the fire made against the Fort; and of this number there were about a do- zen of French, who had for their interpreter one McDowell, a Scotch- man. This McPowell told Walker they designed very soon to attack Fort Shirley, with four hundred men. Captain Jacobs said he could take any Fort that would catch fire, and would make peace with the English when they had learned him to make gunpowder. McDowell told Walker they had two Indians killed in the engagement, but the Captains, Armstrong and Ward, whom I ordered on their march to Fort Shirley to examine every thing at Granville, and send a list of whom remained among the ruins, assure me they found some parts of eight of the enemy burnt in two different places, the joints of them being scarcely separated, and parts of their shirts found, through which there were bullet holes. To secrete these from our prisoners was doubtless the reason why the French officer marched our people some distance from the Fort before they gave orders to burn the barracks, &c. Walk- er says that some of the Germans flagged very much on the second day, and that the Lieutenant behaved with the greatest bravery to the last, despising all the terrors and threats of the enemy, whereby they often urged him to surrender, though he had been near two days with- out water, but a little ammunition left, the fort on fire, and the enemy situated within twelve or fourteen yards of the fort, under the natural bank, he was as far from yielding as when at first attacked ; a French- man in our service fearful of being, as leave of the Lieutenant to treat with his countrymen, in the French language ; the Lieutenant answer- ed, " The first word of French you speak in this engagement, I'll blow your brains out," telling his men to hold out bravely, for the flame was falling and he would soon have it extinguished, but soon after received the fatal ball.
The French officer refused the soldiers the liberty of interring his corpse, though it was to be done in an instant when they raised the clay to quench the fire.
One Brandon, a soldier who had been shot through the knee, on the approach of the enemy, called out, "I am a Roman Catholic, and will go with you," but the Indians regardless of his faith, observing he could not march, soon despatched him with tomahawk.
As Fort Shirley is not easily defended. and their water may be taken possession of by the enemy, it running at the foot of a high bank east- ward of the fort, and no well dug, I am of opinion, from its remote situ- ation, that it cannot serve the country in the present circumstances, and if attacked, I doubt will be taken if not strongly garrisoned, but (ex- tremities excepted) I cannot evacuate this without your Honor's or- ders.
Lyttleton, Shippensburg and Carlisle (the two last not finished) are the only forts now built that will, in my opinion, be serviceable to the public. McDowell's, or thereabouts, is a necessary post, but the present fort not defencible. The duties of the harvest have not admitted me to finish Carlisle Fort with the soldiers, it should be done, and a barracks erected within the fort, otherwise the soldiers cannot be so well govern-
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ed, and may be absent or without the gates, at a time of the greatest necessity.
I am honored sir, your Honor's most obedient and humble servant,
JOHN ARMSTRONG.
[Prov. Rec. P. p. 10-12].
The Indians at one of their inroads murdered a family of seven persons on Shearman's creek, from there they passed over the mountain at Croghan's, now Sterret's gap, and wounded a man, killed a horse, and captured Mrs. Boyde, her two sons and a daughter, upon Conodoguinet creek.
Another time they came down upon the frontiers of Lan- caster, now Dauphin county ; the first assault was upon a wagon belonging to a German in which he was endeavoring to move off, but being killed a small distance behind the wa- gon, those with the wagon fled to a fort not far distant : the men in the fort being alarmed at the report of the Indian guns, came to see the occasion of it, and met a woman run- ning towards them crying ; they proceeded to where the wa- gon stood, and at some distance behind the man lay, toma- hawked and scalped, and the brains issuing from the wounds, although he was still breathing. The wagon being left standing in the same place, it was pillaged and destroyed in the night.
The next day twelve men were sent to acquaint the men at the next fort about eight miles distant of what had hap- pened, who were fired upon from an ambuscade, and were killed and wounded all but two, who were pursued, but es- caped.
Mrs. Boggs, of the same neighborhood, while riding to a neighbor's house, was fired upon by the Indians, her horse killed, and she with a young child taken prisoner, whom they treated in the most barbarous and cruel manner, not suffering the child to suck, sometimes throwing it in the road, and kicking it before themn ; after three days' marching in this manner, they carried the child into the woods, where they murdered and scalped it, with savage cruelty.
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