USA > West Virginia > Monongalia County > History of Monongalia County, West Virginia, from its first settlements to the present time; with numerous biographical and family sketches > Part 5
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MONONGALIA IN THE REVOLUTION.
O. P. Jolliffe says that Thomas Miller (who was his maternal grandfather) and two of his children were attacked by the Indians. To secure him they allowed the children to escape. They caught Miller and tomahawked and scalped him, propping the body up by forks against a large beech tree, said to be still standing with Miller's initials and the date of his death cut in the bark.
The next appearance of the savages was on Dunkand Creek, and near to Statler's Fort. The "Border Warfare's" description of it is as follows :
"They [the Indians] lay in ambush ;on the road-side, awaiting the return of the men who were engaged at work, in some of the neighboring fields. Towards evening the men came on, carrying with them some hogs which they had killed for the use of the fort people, and on approaching where the Indians lay concealed were fired on and several fell. Those who escaped injury from the first fire, returned the shot, and a severe action ensued. But so many of the whites had been killed before the savages exposed then- selves to view, that the remainder were unable long to sustain the unequal contest. Overpowered by numbers, the few who were still unhurt, fled precipitately to the fort, leaving eighteen of their companions dead in the road. These were scalped and mangled by the Indians in a most shocking manner, and lay some time before the men in the fort, assured of the departure of the enemy, went out and buried them."
This brief account is all that we have been able to find of this ambuscade and terrible slaughter.
There was published in the Monongalia Mirror, in 1855, by Joseph H. Powell, an account of an Indian adventure by the Morgans, which he states was related to him by James Morgan, one of the actors. It was as follows: James Mor- gan, a boy 10 years old, and Levi his brother, aged 15, set out from the site of Morgantown to visit Prickett's Fort.
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
Their father, Col. Zackwell Morgan, accompanied them a part of the way. Tying his horse near Booth's Creek, he helped the boys across the stream. Looking back he saw an Indian standing by his horse. Levi shot the Indian, but the discharge of the gun frightened the horse, which broke loose and ran home. Col. Morgan made a raft and de- scended the Monongahela River as the quickest way of getting home. He was fired at by an Indian while on his way, but was not struck. The boys pushed on till near the site of Smithtown, where they came on the body of Thomas Stone, who had been shot and scalped that day. He had come from Redstone Old Fort with Robert Ferrill and James West, to look out lands. On White Day Creek Levi shot a Wyandotte Indian who was in the act of crossing that stream on a log. The boys were now afraid to cross the stream, and worked their way down to the mouth of the creek, where they discovered a canoe with three Indians and two white women and a child in it. They would have fired on the Indians, but their guns had gotten wet in a rain- storm which had been raging for two hours, and would not go off. The Indians afterward took shelter under the cliffs of the creek on the Marion County side, and after inhu- manly abusing their prisoners, lay down to sleep. In the night a large rock over them gave way and fell, crushing into a shapeless mass alike the red demons and their tortured victims.
The next Indian attack of which there is any account, was made in June, 1779, at Martin's Fort on Crooked Run, in the northern part of the county, and on the west side of the Monongahela River. It is related in the "Border Warfare" as follows :
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MONONGALIA IN THE REVOLUTION.
"The greater part of the men having gone forth early to their farins, the women were engaged in milking the cows outside the gate, and the men who had been left behind were loitering around. The Indians (who were lying hid around the fort) rushed forward, and killed and made prisoners of ten of them. James Stewart, James Smalley and Peter Crouse were the only persons who fell, and John Shiver and his wife, two sons of Stewart, two sons of Smalley and a son of Crouse were carried into captivity. According to their statement upon their return, there were thirteen Indians in the party which surprised them. Instead of retreating with their prisoners, they remained at a little distance from the fort till night, when they put the captives in a waste house near, under custody of two of the savages, while the remaining eleven went to see if they could not succeed in forcing an entrance at the gate. The dogs were shut out at night, and the approach of the Indians exciting them to bark freely, gave notice of impending danger, in time for them to avert it. The savages returned to the house in which the prisoners were confined, and moved off with them to their towns."
In August, 1779, some men were mowing for Capt. David Scott, near the site of Granville. Two of his daughters, Phebe and Fanny, started from where he lived, at the mouth of Pike Run, to carry dinner to the men. Capt. Scott had intended to accompany them, but a man came and detained him longer than he expected. He had told the girls to go on, and he would overtake them. Presently he heard the report of a gun. Hastening across the river in the direction whence the sound came, he proceeded rapidly up the path toward the meadow, and when he arrived near where James Hawthorn now lives, about a mile below Hamilton, he found Phebe, not far from the path, murdered and scalped, but Fanny could not be found. The Captain, hoping that she was a prisoner, went to Fort Pitt and engaged a friendly Indian to ascertain where she was and to prevail on the
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
Indians to ransom her. Before his return some of his neighbors were drawn to a spot some distance from the path where the girls were attacked, by buzzards hovering over it, and found the body of Fanny half eaten and too much decayed to be removed ; so a grave was dug and she was buried where she was killed.
The "Border Warfare " states that the girls were captured on the path, but descendants of the family say they fled into the woods and were taken where they were killed.
Not long after this occurrence, James Scott, a son of Capt. David Scott, a boy fifteen or sixteen years old, after trimming some apple trees near the site of Granville, started home on a road or path. When on the top of the steep hill where the Hamilton or "Jimtown" school-house stands, three or four Indians sprang out and grasped the rein of his horse. The horse sprang forward and tore loose, and ran down the hill to the river. The Indians fired at the retreating boy. Several shot (or a bullet according to an- other account) went through his hat and cut the skin off the back of his head. He fell on his horse's neck. The horse swam the river and carried him safely home. In addition to this account by the descendants of the Scott family of James Scott's adventure, William Haymond says :
"Brother John and a man named Lough, with some others, fol- lowed the Indians, probably on Indian Creek above Morgantown. Lost the trail. They returned home, except Lough who went fur- ther in search of a horse he had lost. Some time after, while on his horse, he saw an Indian on horse-back riding towards him. He raised his gun and presented it. Another Indian shot at him and passed a ball through his arm between the wrist and elbow and through the arm between the elbow and shoulder and in the side. The bullet lodged in the skin back of the side. Lough dropped his gun, wheeled his horse, and got safe home."
WILLIAM PRICE. See Page 287.
MONONGALIA IN THE REVOLUTION. 65
In 1779, from a letter from Col. Daniel Broadhead at Fort Pitt to Col. John Evans, it appears that Col. Broad- head had made a requisition for militia from Monongalia to go on a tour to Fort Lauren's on the Tuscarawas, a branch of the Muskingum River, but countermanded the order for want of provisions and because of Col. Evans's statement that the Monongalia frontier was daily threatened by In- dians. On the 11th of March, 1780, Col. Broadhead wrote to Col. Evans that he could furnish him no aid in subsisting or paying the men to be ordered to the stations on the Monongalia frontier by Col. Evans. Col. Broadhead, in a letter of the 9th of May, wrote Col. Evans to hasten "plant- ing and sowing the summer crop," to draft the militia for two months, and have them at Fort Henry by the 4th of June. On the 20th of May he wrote that he could not secure sufficient provisions to subsist the troops, and for the Monongalia militia not to march until further notice. On July 31st, he wrote again postponing his expedition and requesting Col. Evans to meet the lieutenants of the other counties at his quarters on the 16th of August, to consult on measures to be adopted for the defense of the frontier set- tlements.
The Indians again appeared in August, 1780, and Col. Daniel Broadhead, in a letter dated August 18th, wrote to Gen. George Washington, that "the Lieutenant of Monon- galia County informs me that ten men were killed on Friday last above the Forks of Cheat. They were quite off their guard when the Indians attacked them, and made no resis- tance." The "Forks of Cheat " was a term used to designate the junction of Cheat with the Monongahela, and also the country between them for some distance from the junction.
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66 HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
As there is no account of any such slaughter on the east side of the Monongahela, this must have occurred on the west side. The only account that we have of any Indian slaughter near the "Forks of Cheat" on the west side is that of a party of men which was attacked at the mouth of Doll's Run. Several were taken prisoners and four killed by Indians, over thirty strong. John Statler and James Piles were two of the four men killed. All accounts agree in this, but then widely diverge. Zachariah Piles, a boy of 16, swam Doll's Run after being shot in the heel, and escaped. His son, Riley, and his daughter, Mrs. Hannah Sines, say that the white men were engaged in moving some people into Fort Statler, or were on their way to do so, when the Indians captured James Troy and one Hiley and one Shoemaker. Another version of the affair, from trust- worthy persons, is to the effect that the party of white men were going for corn which had been raised up Doll's Run. That they were going for hogs, that they were engaged in making a trough, and that six men were killed instead of four, is the effect of three other accounts. While all the accounts are conflicting as to the number of white men and the object of their trip, they agree upon the locality, and that from four to six were killed and some captured, by twenty-five or thirty Indians, who had surprised them. The " Border Warfare" is silent about this occurrence. It is most likely that this was the fatal surprise that Col. Evans reported to Col. Broadhead, just as he heard it from the first runner who came in from Ft. Statler. Ten men likely being missing when those of the company that escaped got back to the fort, they would report them all killed. Each account of the affair stated is claimed to have been given , by one or more of the survivors of the affair.
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MONONGALIA IN THE REVOLUTION.
On Washington's Birthday, some time between 1830 and 1840, two volunteer military companies-one from Greene County, Pa., and the other from Monongalia County-took up the bones of the murdered men* where they were buried on the run, and re-interred them in Core's graveyard with the honors of war.
A traditional account says that Joseph Statler and a man by the name of Myers were out one day from Statler's Fort, on Jake's Run, and heard a noise which they supposed to be the gobble of a turkey. Some old men with them said the noise proceeded from Indians. Notwithstanding this warning, they determined to go in pursuit, and were shot and scalped.
About this time, William Thomas and another man by the name of Smith were drawing rails on a branch of Dun- kard Creek, when Indians fired on them. Thomas was struck and ran and hid in some bushes, where he was found dead two or three days afterward. Smith ran to the house and called Mrs. Thomas ; and they had fled but a few yards when she thought of her baby in the cradle. Smith ran back to the house and secured it, and they escaped.
During 1780 and 1781, the commander at Fort Pitt sent parties up the Monongahela Valley to buy, if possible, and if not, to take, cattle and supplies for the army.t
* Still other accounts of this fatal surprise are in existence, besides the ones given. Of these accounts not mentioned at all in the above description, some are mixed with the attack on Ft. Martin, and others bear in their statement the stamp of the impossi- bility of their correctness, and others again did not stand the test of a careful exami- nation of being probable or even possible.
t The following receipt was found among the papers of Col. Wm. McCleary : " Rec'd, March the 22d, 1780, of William McCleery, Three thousand Dollars by the Order of Colo. John Evans, which sum was deposited in his hands for Purchasing Provisions for the use of the militia in actual service on the Frontiers of Monongalfa County, WM. MINOR." Minor was the commander of Ft. Statler.
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
In the spring of 1781, Thomas Pindall, who lived a mile or so from Harrison's Fort, went to the fort one day at a time when the larger part of the immediate neighborhood had gathered there for safety, and induced his brother-in- law, John Harrison, and two young surveyors from Eastern Virginia, named Crawford and Wright, to return home with him. Some time after going to bed, the women waked Pin- dall and told him they had heard a noise several times like some one whistling on a charger, and being apprehensive of Indians, wanted to go to the fort. The men listened but heard nothing, and concluded that the women had heard nothing but the blowing of the wind. Nothing more was heard until morning, when the men arose and Pindall went to the woods in search of his horses, and John Harrison and the surveyors went to the spring above the house to wash. Indians concealed behind a pile of logs, fired three shots at them. Crawford and Wright fell dead, and Harrison, who was standing between them, fled and suc- ceeded in reaching the fort. The women, hearing the crack of the guns, sprang out of bed and fled toward the fort. The Indians pursued them, and just a few yards from where John M. Garlow's dwelling-house now stands they overtook Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Pindall, a very beautiful woman possessing a very long and luxurious suit of hair. No plea for mercy was entertained, and she was murdered and scalped upon the spot. Her companion in flight, Rachel Pindall, succeeded in reaching the fort. The Indians immediately retreated, and when Thomas Pindall came in with his horses and saw the two surveyors lying by the spring he thought they had tied red handkerchiefs around their heads and were trying to play a trick on him.
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MONONGALIA IN THE REVOLUTION.
He spoke to them, saying, "Boys, you can't fool me;" but coming nearer, he saw their heads were red with their life- blood .*
William Davies, Secretary of War of Virginia, in a letter written April 12, 1782, to Gen. Irvine at Fort Pitt, asks the loan of 200 or 300 pounds of amunition for the people of Monongalia, and said: "The incursions of the Indians into the county of Monongalia and the number of inhabitants they have killed, have induced the government [Virginia] to order a company from Hampshire [County] to march to their relief. The defense of these people being a Conti- nental as well as a State object, I have desired Col. Evans to maintain a correspondence with you." Gen. Irvine's letter of April 20th to Gov. Harrison of Virginia, stated that he was unable to detach Continental troops to protect the Virginia border, and that Col. Evans had written him that he had only 300 effective men to guard a frontier of eighty miles, and asked assistance in men, arms and ammu- nition. Gov. Harrison ordered a company of militia from Hampshire to march to Monongalia. They were to be relieved by a company formed in Rockingham and Augusta. These, with some other troops ordered to Tygart's Valley, in all seventy men, were to be under Col. Evans's direction, and all the Virginia militia on the Western border were to be under Gen. Irvine. Col. Evans reported to Gen. Irvine on June 30th, as follows :
"The enemy are frequently in our settlements, murdering ; and we are situated in so scattering a manner that we are not able to assist one another in time of need. There are the Horse-shoe, Ty- ger's Valley, West Fork, Dunker's bottom and where I live (near
* The above description of this murder was given the writer by Mrs. Rebecca John, a niece of Mrs. Elizabeth Pindall.
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
Morgantown) to defend ; and in the whole we have not more than 300 militia fit for duty. Those settlements are a very great distance apart, and no one settlement able to furnish men to the relief of the others. And another article we are destitute of is provision. We have it not amongst us. The company from Hampshire I have stationed at Tyger's Valley, Horse-shoe and West Fork. I have got a small supply of ammunition from the government."
Gen. Irvine in his reply, July 16th, stated that he was then "straightened in all respects. As to provision it is not in the country; " but that all provision for the army was furnished by contractors, and that if Col. Evans could find a responsible person willing to supply provisions he (Gen. Irvine) would contract with him. There is nothing to show whether such contract was ever made or not, but the military outposts were kept up for several succeeding years, and Ranger companies and companies of scouts were continually on the frontiers of Monongalia, but the burning of the county records in 1796 destroyed all the muster-rolls of these companies .*
In 1782, in Monongalia 100 pounds of tobacco was paid for the scalp of a wolf under six months old, and 200 pounds for one over that age.
* The following paper is in the possession of the West Virginia Historical Society :
" A pay abstract of Capt. John Whitzell's [Wetzel] company of Rangers Mononga- hala County under command of Col. Daniel McFarland. Ranging in Monongahala and Ohio counties from the 22nd day of April to the 25th July 1778 both days included : "' John Whitzell, Capt .; Wm. Crawford, lieut .; John Madison, ensign ; Peter Miller, sergeant ; Christian Copley, sergeant.
"'John Six, Sam'l Brown, Lewis Bonnell, Jacob Teusbaugh, Joseph, Morris, Benj. Wright, Wm. Hall, Phil. Nicholas, John Nicholas, Henry Yoho, John Duncan, Thos. Hargis, John Province, Jr., Henry Franks, Nicholas Crousber, Jacob Teusbaugh, John Six, Abram Eastwood, Conrad Hur, Martin Whitzell, Enoch Enochs, Jacob Riffie, Val- . entine Lawrence, John Andreuer, John Smith, Wm. Gardiner, David Casto, Joseph Yeager, Phil. Catt, Geo. Catt, Joseph Coone, Matthias Riffle; Jacob Spangler, Peter Goosey, Philip Barker.' "
This company was raised in what is now Washington County, Pennsylvania. In what part of Monongalia they served can not be ascertained.
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MONONGALIA IN THE REVOLUTION.
William Haymond, in his letters* written in 1846, says his father "was preparing to go into the Revolutionary Army when news came that peace was made. They had a great rejoicing meeting on the occasion in Morgantown." . But peace on the seaboard, while it gave them political freedom, was not peace on the western frontier, still men- aced by Indian war-parties.
* We extract from these letters the following :
" I recollect brother John and myself, with Prince and Slider [horses] went to Ruble's mill in Pennsylvania, eleven miles; stayed all night. Next morning when on our horses to start for home, Ruble or some other person brought each of us a piece of light bread spread with butter. This I thought such a great feast that I have it in my mind to this day."
" While living in said fort [Kern's] we had the smallpox in the natural way. Two children I think were all that died. However, my father lost six or seven negroes there. It is said they were poisoned. We boys would go on what was called the hog- back near the fort to hunt. We used the bow and arrow , and were very good at shooting with them. Once all in the [fort] yard, one shot up an arrow nearly straight. It fell and struck through the wrist of either Capt. John Evans or one of the Wilsons. It was hard to draw it out."
Indian alarms were frequent after his father had left the fort. One he describes as follows : " A man reported seeing an Indian ; the men ran out [of a house] with their guns, but no Indian. On examining, it was found that he had seen a dogwood which some person had cut, and a red substance had oozed out of it. Often the Indians killed or took prisoners in three or four miles of us."
CHAPTER VIII. CLOSE OF THE INDIAN WARS.
1783-1792.
The Frontier Cabin-The Early Settlers-A Coward's Courage Tested-Washington's Visit-Capture of Dawson-An Indian Party Killed-Attack on the Cleggs and Murder of the Hand- suckers-Adventures of two Boys and of Col. John Evans- Indian Campaigns-Monongalians in Them-Levi Morgan- List of Taxable Persons in 1786-Murder of the First County Surveyor.
WE come now to consider the closing of the Indian wars with the whites. Before doing this, however, let a glance be taken at the life, habits, customs and manners of the early settlers.
The settlers usually came bringing all their worldly store -consisting of the bare necessities of life-on pack horses. After arriving at their destination, the first thing did was the selection of a cabin-site. This selection was always determined by a good spring of water; and hence the cabin was almost always found in a hollow. Now trees were felled and cut into logs to build the cabin. This done, a day was set for the "raising," and every one within five or six miles was notified. The neighbors turned out en masse; and the round logs (sometimes they were hewn) were rapidly placed in position. At each corner was an expert hand with an ax to saddle and notch down the logs so low that they would come nearly together. The usual height was one story-sometimes a story and a half. The gable was made with logs gradually shortened up to the top. The roof of clap-boards was now placed on and secured by
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CLOSE OF THE INDIAN WARS.
heavy weight-poles. The puncheon door was swung on wooden hinges, and a puncheon floor laid of slabs placed down with the hewed side up, and fastened with wooden pins driven through holes bored at each end and down into the heavy sleepers. At a convenient height in the side of the cabin, an aperture was made by leaving out part of a log, and this space was filled with a few panes of glass placed lengthwise, or paper greased with hog's lard was substituted, to let in the light, while here and there a loop-hole was made so that the cabin might be converted into a fort in case of attack by Indians. A door-way was cut through one of the walls, and split or hewed pieces called door-cheeks, reaching from the bottom to the top of the opening, were pinned to the ends of the logs with wooden pins. A wood latch was placed on the inside of the door. To this latch was attached a leather string, which was placed through a hole in the door four or five inches above the latch. By pulling on this string from the outside, and thus lifting the latch, admittance was gained to the cabin. The inmates made themselves secure in the night season by pulling in the string. The interstices or cracks between the logs were closed with mud. The larger cracks or chinks were first partly closed with split sticks before the mud was applied. The building was generally completed without the use of a single nail. To the cabin was added a stone-chimney, extending nearly across one end of the house, with a hearth of such ample dimensions as to accommodate a back-log of such size, that a horse was often required to draw it into the cabin in front of the fire-place, into which it would be rolled with hand- spikes. The cabin up and floored, the crowd at the "raising" would assemble before the door and while away
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
the time till supper, by indulging in feats of strength and dexterity. Supper would consist of corn-bread and a fine array of venison, bear-meat and wild turkey. The remain- der of the day till nightfall would be passed away with foot-races, trials of skill with the rifle, lifting at a great rock, friendly wrestles, etc. At dusk the settlers would scatter to their homes, carrying with them their trusty rifles-inseparable companions in those days of lurking and blood-thirsty Indians. The furnishing of the cabin was quickly accomplished. Blocks with legs inserted, answered for stools and chairs ; and for wash-tubs, soap-barrels and the like, troughs were used. The table was often two slabs securely fastened on stout pieces driven into the wall, and supported at their other ends by rude legs. Wood plates were to be seen; and the table that could afford a full set of pewter plates and spoons was thought to be something elegant. Their bedstead in many cases was but "rails or poles kept up by forked sticks and cross sticks in the wall." Over the door-way laid the indispensable rifle on two wooden hooks, probably taken from a dogwood bush, and pinned to a log of the wall. Along the wall would hang divers garments. Entering the house, often the first thing that greeted your gaze was the loom upon which the women wove the home-made clothing of that day, called linsey-a warm and lasting cloth made of flax and wool. Beside the loom stood the spinning-wheel. During the day the door of the cabin stood open to afford light; and at night, through the winter, light was emitted from the fire-place, where huge logs were kept burning. Candles and lamps of rude manufacture were used. The candles were usually made of tallow, but sometimes of beeswax and tallow, and occasionally lard was added to the compound. These can-
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