USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > The history and topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry counties [Pennsylvania] > Part 32
USA > Pennsylvania > Bedford County > The history and topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry counties [Pennsylvania] > Part 32
USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > The history and topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry counties [Pennsylvania] > Part 32
USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > The history and topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry counties [Pennsylvania] > Part 32
USA > Pennsylvania > Franklin County > The history and topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry counties [Pennsylvania] > Part 32
USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > The history and topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry counties [Pennsylvania] > Part 32
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The townships in the southern and eastern portion of the county, (then Chester county) were settled prior to 1719 or 1720; Pextang, or Harris's, at an earlier period, and Mc- Callister's, then Chambers's, prior to 1729 or 1730.
The first settlers, with few exceptions, were from the north of Ireland; some from Scotland, and were usually called " The Scotch Irish." They possessed all the indispensable qualities requisite to make good pioneer settlers. Dauntless and valorous were they. Educated as Presbyterians, they had strong hopes of becoming the undisturbed possessors of the lands still, to some extent occupied by the tawny sons of the woods; this they did, but at the cost of many a helpless child, an endeared bosom companion, a father, a mother, or some friend or relative; for during the French and Indian war, from 1755 to 1763, many fell victims to the cruel sav- ages then marauding the frontier settlements, as the attentive reader will have observed from Chap. vii .- xi., pp. 85, 88, 95, 100, 102, 103, 118, 123, 126, 128, 130, 133, 141.
Owing to the want of fire arms, ammunition, &c., and not living as contiguous as people in older settled countries, they were obliged to abandon their houses and farms.
Perhaps all would have left this region of country, had it not been for some bold and daring men amongst them, of this number none was more conspicuous than Rev. JOHN ELDER,
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who shared in the sufferings of the settlers. At that event- ful time, " he collected around him the aged, and the women fled to him for succor. Here by day and night, under the wide canopy of heaven, with true confiding faith in God, with rifle in hand, he poured forth his eloquent aspirations for the safety of his congregational charge. To attack him was not even attempted by the hostile and merciless savages, who that day made a descent down the Susquehanna, and fell upon the unsuspicious, murdering and scalping with savage butch- ery, the exposed settlers.
" On Sunday he preached to his congregation ; every man had his loaded rifle-two rifles were in the pulpit. As was expected, the Indians approached them, laying in ambush, sent a spy to reconnoitre, who reported that two rifles were in his desk; they then hastened away, committing many mur- ders on their return."
The Revd. Elder, as well as other pastors of congrega- tions in various parts of the frontiers, animated the people to manfully resist the hostile foe.
Richard Peters, in writing under date of Philadelphia, May 3d, 1758, to George Stevenson, of York, Pa., says, "The ministers should be desired, in different and proper parts of the county, and at proper distances, as their congregations may be seated, to appoint meetings, and animate the people to raise levees with all possible despatch, as they are design- ed, by one vigorous effort to dispossess the enemy, regain the Indians, and establish a durable and advantageous peace."
Mr. Stevenson, in answer to Mr. Peters, under date of York, May 21st, 1758, says, " The Revd. Mr. Craddock gave me the pleasure of a visit, and preached an excellent war sermon from Mr. Lishy's* pulpit, on Friday last, in the hearing of the Revd. Barton, Bay and Lishy; he went with Mr. Barton yesterday ; is to deliver another sermon to the same purpose to-day, from Mr. Barton's pulpit."
This contracted war and its concomitant scenes, infused a military and adventurous spirit into the young men, and we find them ready, at any moment, to repel the enemy, protect at imminent hazard of their lives, fathers, mothers, brothers,
* The Rev'd. Lishy had charge of several German Reformed con- gregations, in York county at the time, viz : Yorktown, Kreutz creek, Codorus, and at Bermudian creek .- His. York co. p. 694.
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sisters and relations; for that purpose ranging along the bor- ders of the exposed frontiers, watching the clandestine or se- cret movements of the enemy, (who, they knew would steal upon them in the dead of night, in the unguarded hour of re- pose-while at meal, at work in the field; and that the in- nocent and helpless, would alike, without respect to sex or age, fall victims to the savages)-cutting off occasional sav- age parties, and breaking up their secret haunts.
Circumstanced as they were, they knew of no other course to pursue than to protect themselves against all whom they had reason to suspect as principals of, or accessaries to, the numerous murders committed upon the whites ; and, it may be, it was under the apprehension that the Indians at Cones- togo, in Manor township, Lancaster county, were not "free from the blood of the whites," that induced the Paxton Boys to make that dreadful onslaught, they did, of which some account has been given in a preceding page .- See Chap. vii.
The following, from the pen of Mr. R. C., a gentleman of more than ordinary research, is here introduced, as being to the point.
In 1760 the inhabitants of Lancaster county were in con- stant alarm, from murders and depredations committed by the Indians.
They represented to the Assembly " that large bodies of hunters killed deer and other game upon the Indian Hunt- ing Grounds ; that this land was given to the Indians by treaty ; that the hunters treated the defenceless Indians with great cruelty ; that the resentment of the Indians was roused; they therefore requested the Government to protect them from the Indians, hy the payment of scouting parties, as not only their property but their lives were threatened."
A company of rangers was raised by the settlers, to act as a guard upon the borders of the county, and prevent any in- cursions by the Indians.
1761 general alarm and consternation prevailed among the settlers, from murders committed on the whites, with the burning of the cabins at night ; such were the acts of atro- city committed by the Indians, at the time when their un- suspected victims were asleep. The Indians always appear- ed where the inhabitants were unprotected, or in fancied se- curity ; they showed no mercy.
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HISTORY OF DAUPHIN COUNTY.
Imagination cannot conceive the perils with which the set- tlement of Paxton was surrounded from 1754 to 1756. To portray each scene of horror would be impossible-the heart shrinks from the attempt. The settlers were goaded on to desperation; murder followed murder ; scouts brought in the intelligence that the murderers were traced to Conestogue. Riffles were loaded, horses were in readiness. The mounted; they called on their pastor to lead them. He was then in the 57th year of his age. 'Had you seen him then, you would have beheld a superior being. He had mounted, not to lead them on to the destruction of Conestogue, but to de- ter them from the attempt ; he implored them to return, he urged them to reflect; "pause, pause, before you proceed." It was in vain ; "the blood of the murdered cries aloud for vengenance; we have waited long enough on government : the murderers are within our reach, and they must not es- cape." Mr. Elder, reminded them that the "guilty and the innocent could not be distinguished." "Innocent! can they be called innocent who foster murderers?" Mr. Elder rode up in front, and said, " As your pastor, I command you to relinquish your design." "Give way, then," said Smith, "or your horse dies," presenting his rifle ; to save his horse, to which he was much attached, Mr. E. drew him aside, and the rangers were off on their fatal errand .*
A palliating letter was written by the Rev. Mr. Elder to Gov. Penn, in which the character of Stewart is represented as humane, liberal and religious.
The Rev. Mr. Elder died at the advanced-age of 86 years, in 1792, on his farm adjoining Harrisburg, beloved in life, and in death lamented. He frequently visited the Indians at Conestogue, Pequehan, and the Big Island, and was much re- spected by them. He had frequently represented to the Christian Indians the wrong they were doing to the whites by admitting stranger Indians among them ; conduct which made them suspected of treachery.
Extract of a letter from the Rev. Mr. Elder, to Governor Hamilton, dated September 13, 1763:
. Upon what authority Mr. R. C. makes this statement, I know not; if it is mere tradition, there may be a mistake (see Rev'd Elder's letter p. 163, 164. It is recorded in a very popular work, that the people of Cumberland county, took an active part with the Paxton Boys." 'The following extract shows how far they were concerned.
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HISTORY OF DAUPHIN COUNTY.
"I suggest to you the propriety of an immediate removal of the Indians from Conestogue, and placing a garrison in their room. In case this is done, I pledge myself for the fu- ture security of the frontier."-See p. 164.
Carlisle, Dec. 28, 1763.
I have the pleasure to inform your Honor that not one person of the county of Cumberland, so far as I can learn has either been consulted, or concerned in that inhuman and scandalous piece of butchery-and I should be very sorry that even the people of this county should altempl avenging their injuries on the heads of a few inoffensive superannuated savages, whom nature had already devoted to the dust.
JOHN ARMSTRONG.
Gov. John Penn.
Companies, each consisting of an officer, and fifteen men, were stationed, as late as June, 1764, in various parts of this and adjacent counties east of the Susquehanna river. In Pax- ton township, at Fort Hunter, was Ensign James Foster ; at David Patten's, Capt. S. Hunter. In Hanover township, Manady Gap, was Lieut. J. Lycans ; at John Cameron's, Capt. Timothy Green ; at John McFarling's, was Lieut. Charles Stewart : at Godfried Young's, was Ensign Thomas Cambleton. Farther eastward, in Bethel township (Leba- non,) was Capt. P. De Haas, with eighteen men; at Reh- rer, in Bethel township, (Berks,) was Lieut. J. Seely, with fourteen men.
PRESENT POPULATION. Though, at present, the majority of the inhabitants are Germans, but few had settled within the limits of it prior to 1745 or 1750. Among the earliest German settlers, are found the names of Gabriel, Schultz, Stern, Musser, Rosebaum, Ricker, Schwar, Boor, Lichty, Roth, Schitz, Hailman, Sues, and others. Shortly prior to, and immediately after the revolution of '76, the Germans were numerous. At the opening of the revolution, most of the Paxton, Derry, and other carly settlers, sought the ranks of the army, from which but few returned to live in Paxton, &c. Consequently, comparatively few of the Scotch Irish's descendants are to be found in this county. Not less than two-thirds are Germans ; and of those, nearly all speak the language of their Vaterland-and nearly all speak, or at least understand English; and these reside most numerously on the borders of Lebanon and Schuylkill, and in the upper part of the county. In several parts of the county, some French
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HISTORY OF DAUPHIN COUNTY.
descendants, principally Huguenots, are to be found. In the upper part of the county, near and about David's church, are several families of Huguenot descendants.
EDUCATION is on the advance since the introduction of the Common School system, which is now (1845)almost general- ly adopted in the county. Lykens and Bush townships have not accepted the provisions of the law. Nineteen school dis- tricts have adopted the system, in which ninety-eight schools are kept open about five months and a half in the county, and twelve months in the borough of Harrisburg. Teachers receive from $13 to $15 per month.
The RELIGIOUS Denominations are Presbyterian, German Reformed, Lutheran, Methodist, United Brethren in Christ, Mennonites, Episcopalian, Baptist, Evangelical Association, Dunkard, German Baptist, or Taeufer, Univeralist, Church of God, Roman Catholic.
POOR HOUSE. Ample provision is made for the support of the unfortunate poor. There is a poor house, to which a well improved farm is attached, about two miles east of Har- risburg, near to, and south of the turnpike road leading to Reading. It is said the affairs of the establishment are well managed.
HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
CHAPTER XXIII.
CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Cumberland county, Act erecting it, &c. ; Trustees to define the boun- - dary between York and Cumberland, appointed ; The Trustees disa- . greed ; Boundary determined; Petition touching it ; Chambers' letter . in relation thereto ; Shawanese, and other Indians in Cumberland, . their villages, &c. They complain, &c .; report relative thereto ; . Paxton or Louther Manor, resurveyed ; Influx of immigrants ; Pe- tition for, and, a road laid ont, &c. ; Pennsboro, and Hopewell town -. . ship erected ; Antrim township erected ; Extracts from the Commis- sioners' book of Lancaster county ; Early settlers, and taxables in 1751.
Cumberland county, named after a maratime county of England, on the borders of Scotland, was erected in 1750. It was then the sixth county in the State : Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester having been established in 1682, Lancas- ter in 1729, and York in 1749. This county was separated from Lancaster county, upon the representation by a petition presented to the Assembly by James Silver and William Magaw of the inhabitants of the North Valley, then so call- ed, residing in the western part of Lancaster county, west of the Susquehanna, of the great hardships they laid under, by being very remote from Lancaster, where the courts were held-some of them one hundred miles distant-and the pub- lic officers kept ; and how hard and difficult it was for the " sober and quiet part " of the North Valley to secure them- selves against thefts and other abuses, frequently committed by idle and dissolute persons, who, to escape punishment, re-
HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 347
sorted to the more remote parts of the province, and owing to the great distance from the court or prison, frequently es- caped-considering all these things, it was provided by the Assembly, January 27, 1750, to remedy the inconveniencies complained of, as set forth in the petition; and a county was erected-bounded as follows, " That, all and singular lands lying within the Province of Pennsylvania, to the westward of Susquehanna, and northward and westward of the county of York, be erected into a county, to be called Cum- berland; bounded northward and westward with the line of the Province, eastward partly with the river Susque- hanna, and partly with said county of York; and south- ward in part by the line dividing the said Province from that of Maryland. The ample limits of Cumberland were at different periods, subsequently reduced.
Robert McCoy, Benjamin Chambers, David Magaw, Jas. McEntire, and John McCormick, as trustees, all of the coun- ty aforesaid, yeomen, or any three of them, were authorized to purchase and take assurance to them and their heirs of a piece of land, situate in some convenient place in the said county, to be approved of by the Governor, in trust and for the use of the inhabitants of the said county, and thereon to erect and build a court-house and prison, sufficient to ac- commodate the public service of the said county, and for the ease and conveniency of the inhabitants.
The commissioners and assessors were authorized to raise a sum of money, not to exceed three hundred pounds, to purchase the land, and furnishing the court-house and prison.
By the same act, Benjamin Chambers was appointed col- lector of the Excise of the said county.
And, to the end the boundaries of the said counties of York and Cumberland may the better be ascertained, it was further enacted, that it shall be lawful to and for the trustees named in this act, and the act of Assembly by which the said county of York* was erected into a county, or to and for a majority of each of them, and they are hereby requir- ed and firmly enjoined, within the space of six months next after the publication of this act, to assemble themselves together, and with the assistance of one or more surveyors,
* The trustees of York county were Thomas Cox, Michael Tanner, George Swope, Nathan Hussey and John Wright, jr.
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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
by them respectfully to be provided, to run, mark out, and . distinguish, the boundary line between the said counties of York and Cumberland ; and the charges thereof shall be de- frayed equally between the inhabitants of the said counties, , and to that end levied and raised by the said inhabitants, in 1 such manner as other public money, for the use of the said I counties, by law ought to be raised and levied.
When the Commissioners or Trustees of Cumberland and I York county met, to fix the boundary line, they disagreed. . Those of Cumberland wished it, that the dividing line com- . mence opposite the mouth of the Swatara creek, and run i along the ridge of the South mountain, while those of York . county claimed that it should follow up the Yellow Breeches creek. The difficulties were settled by an act, passed Feb- ruary 9th, 1751. The act says, " But for as much as the ridge of mountains, called the South Mountain, along which the lines, dividing the said counties of York and Cumberland, were directed to be run by the several herein before men- tioned acts, before the river Susquehanna, to the mouth of a run of water, called Dogwood Run, is discontinued, much broken, and not easily to be distinguished, whereby great differences have arisen between the trustees of the said coun- ties, concerning the manner of running said line; by which means the boundaries of said counties, between the river : Susquehanna and the mouth of aforesaid run of water called Dogwood Run, are altogether unsettled, and so likely to continue, to the great injury of the said counties, and to the frustrating the good purposes by the herein before mentioned acts of Assembly intended, for the preventing hereof, it is. hereby enacted, That the creek, called Yellow-breeches creek, from the mouth thereof, where it empties into the ri- ver Susquehanna aforesaid, up the several courses thereof, to the mouth of a run of water, called Dogwood Run, and from thence on one continued straight line, to be run to the ridge of mountains, called the South mountain, until it intersect the Maryland line, shall be, and is hereby declared to be, the Boundary line between said counties of York and Cumber- land."
A petition from the commissioners of Cumberland county, appointed with the commissioners of York county to run the division line between the said counties was presented to the Assembly; setting forth that the York commissioners refus-
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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
ing to run the line, agreeable to the act of Assembly, the pe- titioners conceived it their duty to do it themselves, and ac- cordingly began opposite to the mouth of Swahatara, on Sasquehannah river, and then took the courses and distances along the highest ridge of the mountain, without crossing any running water, till they struck the middle of the main body of the South Mountain, at James Caruther's plantation ; a true draught whereof is annexed to the petition. That the draught of the line, and places adjacent, laid before the house by the York commissioners, as far as relates to the waters, and courses, is altogether imaginary, and grounded on no actual survey ; those commissioners having no survey- or with them, nor so much as attempting to chain an part of it. That the petitioners would willingly agree to the pro- posal of making Yellow-breeches creek the boundary, if that draught had any truth in it ; but as it is altogether false, and the making that creek the line would actually cut off a great part of the North Valley, reduce it to a point on Sasque- hannah, and make the county quite irregular ; the petition- ers pray, that the line in the draught to their petition an- nexed may be confirmed, or a straight line granted from the mouth of Swahatara, to the middle of the South Mountain ; was presented to the house and read-ordered to lie on the table .- (Votes Assem. iv. 154. 8th mo. 18th 1750.).
The following letter from Mr. Chambers to Richard Pe- ters, Secretary, bears upon the subject in controversy, and shows his reason why he was opposed to a change or altera- tion in the division line :
Cumberland county, Oct. 8th 1750.
: Sir-I received your letter in which you enclosed the draughts of the line run by the Commissioners of York county and ours; and if the branches of the Yellow Britches and Great Conewago interlocked in the South Mountain, as laid down in the aforesaid draught, I would be of opinion with the Assembly that a line consisting of such a variety of courses could not be a good boundary between two counties. I can assure you that the courses that we, the Commissioners of Cumberland, run, we chained, and have returned by course and distance the Ridge of the mountain, and can send our deposition, that we crossed no run- ning water above ground, and that we have run it past Capt. Dills, till we are in the middle of the mountains as laid down in the red line in their draught, so that our draughts will show you that theirs is but an imaginary of the waters, done by some friend of York county, who had no regard for our country's welfare ; for we sent our return to be laid before the Assembly, at the same time that York county laid this one before them ; that your Honor was pleased to send me, but our mes-
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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
senger did not deliver our return to the House, or if he had, I suppose they would not have troubled, his Honor, the Governor, lo send any further instructions to us, for I humbly suppose that there cannot be any better boundary than the Ridge of the mountain, for were there a line run to cross the heads of the waters of both sides and the marks grown old it would be hard for a hunter to tell which county the wolf was killed in, but he may easily tell whether it was killed on the de- scent of the north or south valley waters. Likewise a sheriff, when he goes to any house, where he is not acquainted, and enquires at the house whether that water falls into the north or south valley, can tell whether they live in his county or not, which he could not tell by a line crossing the heads of the waters of both sides till he made him- self acquainted with said line ; so that if you will give yourself the trouble to enquire at any of the authors of that draft that was laid be- fore the Assembly, you will find that they never chained any part of their line to know the distance, and therefore cannot be capable to lay down the heads of the waters.
Sir, I hope you will send me a few lines to let me know, if our re- turn be confirmed, or we must run it over again ; but you may believe that the Ridge of the mountain, and heads of the waters are as laid down in our return ; and we run it at the time we went with you to Mr. Croghans, and did not expect to have any further trouble ; and I yet think, that his Honor, the governor, will confirm our return, or order them to disapprove of it by course and distance.
Sir, I am your Honor's most humble servant,
BENJAMIN CHAMBERS.
The Six Nations, calling themselves, Aquanuschioni, i. e. The United People, had not yet sold the lands, within the bounds of Cumberland, to the proprietaries, when the Irish' and Scotch Irish, first commenced settling in the North Val- ley, or Cumberland Valley. The Indians were still numer- ous; the Shawanes, called brothers, by the Iriquois or Six Nations, were at one time quite a conspicuous people inhab- iting the woods on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and parts of Cumberland county ; as well as the Valley of Wyoming.
The Shawanese, it would appear, formerly lived in Flori- da, and were reduced to a small number, by their wars with the Moschko nation. The greater part of them retired to the Ohio, and the rest to the Susquehanna, without an fixed habitation at first. Those from Georgia and Carolina came into the province of Pennsylvania about the year 1689, and settled at first, by the consent of the Susquehanna Indians and William Penn, on the flats of Conestogo; but after- wards consented to leave Conestogo and occupy lands west of the Susquehanna on the Conodoguinette creek; and under
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the more immediate protection of the Susquehanna Indians, and were called, by them, nephew, in common with the Mo- hikans.
Owing to some misdeeds of their young men, about the year 1726 or 1727, and fearing the Six Nations, the greater part of them, removed to the river Ohio, about 1728 or 1729, and then afterwards put themselves under the protection of the French; and in common with the Delawares, took up the hatchet against the English.
As early as 1730, the French made efforts to disaffect the Shawanese towards the English and secure their influence themselves. Governor Gordon in a message to the Provin- cial Council, August 4, 1731, says, "That by advices late- ly brought to him by several traders (from Ohio) in those parts, it appears that the French have been using endeavors to gain over those Indians (Shawanese) to their interest, and for this end a French gentleman had come among them some years since, sent as it was believed, from the governor of Montreal, and at his departure last year, carried with him some of the Shawanese chiefs to that government, with whom they at their return appeared to be highly pleased. That the same French gentleman, with five or six others in com- pany with him, had this last spring again come amongst the said Indians and brought with him a Shawanese interpreter, was well received by them .- PROV. REC. iii. 428.
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