Daily stories of Pennsylvania (part 4 of 6)

Daily stories of Pennsylvania (part 4 of 6)

“‘Brother Corlear and War-ragh-i-ya-ghey: I am sent here by the Five Nations with a piece of writing which the Seneca, our brethren, got by some artifice from Jean Coeur, earnestly beseeching you will let us know what it means and as we put all confidence in you, we hope you will explain it ingeniously to us.’

“Colonel Johnson replied to the sachem and through him to the Five Nations, returning a belt of wampum, and explaining the inscription on the plate. He told them that, ‘it was a matter of the greatest consequence, involving the possession of their lands and hunting grounds and that Jean Coeur and the French ought immediately to be expelled from the Ohio and Niagara.’ In reply, the sachem said that ‘he heard with great attention and surprise the substance of the devilish writing he had brought, and that Colonel Johnson’s remarks were fully approved.’ He promised that belts from each of the Five Nations should be sent from the Seneca’s castle to the Indians at the Ohio, to warn and strengthen them against the French encroachments in that direction.”

On January 29, 1751, Governor Clinton sent a copy of this inscription to Governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania.

The French followed up this formal act of possession by laying out a line of military posts, on substantially the same line as that pursued by the Celeron expedition, but instead of crossing over to Lake Chautauqua, they kept on down to Presqu’ Isle, now Erie, where there was a good harbor, with a fort established, and then up to Le Boeuf, now Waterford, where another post was placed; thence down the Venango River, now called French Creek, to its mouth at Franklin, establishing Fort Venango there; thence by the Allegheny to Pittsburgh, where Fort Duquesne was seated, and so on down the Ohio.

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Penns Secure First Manor West of Susquehanna June 16, 1722

Governor Sir William Keith’s visit to the Indians at Conestoga in June, 1721, produced a strong impression upon the minds of the aborigines whom he met. The chiefs of the Six Nations who had been present at this conference, told of its success to their people.

The Conestoga and other tribes of Indians along the Susquehanna River seemed to look upon Lieutenant-Governor Keith with almost the same favor and regard which they entertained for William Penn.

Keith determined to secure a right and title to the lands in Pennsylvania upon which Maryland settlers had encroached. He laid his plan for this purpose before he went to attend the conference at Albany, N. Y. where he was to meet Cayuga chiefs, who had offered some objection to the conclusion of the conference he had held with the Indians at Conestoga in 1721.

The trouble along the border line between Maryland and Pennsylvania had begun in Chester County, soon after the earliest settlements. The boundary continued to be a bone of contention until a temporary line was run in 1739, and even this did not fully settle the difficulty, for there was dispute until Mason and Dixon’s line was run 1767–8.

Governor Keith had frequent controversies with Governor Ogle, of Maryland, concerning encroachments in the southern part of Lancaster County.

The Marylanders were attempting to make settlements west of the Susquehanna, in the present York County.

Governor Keith conceived the idea of obtaining permission of the Indians along the Susquehanna to lay off a large manor, as the proprietor’s one-tenth, and he proceeded to Conestoga, early in June, 1722, for this purpose.

Here he called together the Conestoga, Shawnee, who lived farther up the river, and the Ganawese, afterwards known as the Canoy, who lived at the present site of Columbia.

Keith had authority from the heirs of William Penn to lay off a manor west of the river for the benefit of Springett Penn, the favorite grandson of the founder of Pennsylvania and son of Richard Penn.

This conference was first assembled June 15. Here Governor Keith, with persuasive eloquence, commended the Indians for their virtues, praised them for what they had already done for William Penn and his heirs, and obtained their consent to cross the river and make a survey of 70,000 acres.

Governor Keith spoke at great length and earnestness. He began by saying:

“Friends and Brothers: You say you love me because I come from your father, William Penn. You call me William Penn, and I am very proud of the name you give me; but if we have a true love for the memory of William Penn, we must show it to his family and his children that are grown to be men in England, and will soon come over to represent him here.”

He then referred to the previous treaty where they showed him the parchment received from William Penn, and he then told the Indians of the encroachments of the Marylanders.

Keith then said he came to consult with them how they could prevent such settlements and suggested the plan to take up a large tract of land on the other side of the Susquehanna River for Springett Penn.

He told the Indians that Penn’s grandson was now a man as tall as he; that the land should be marked with Springett’s name upon the trees, so that the Marylanders would then keep off and it would also warn every other person from settling near enough to the Indians to disturb them. He added that the grandson bore the same kind of a heart as his grandfather did, and he would be glad to give the Indians part of the land for their use and convenience. With these and similar phrases Keith won his point.

At a council held June 16, 1722, with Governor Keith, Colonel John French, Francis Worley, Esq., the chief of several tribes, and Smith and Le Tort, as interpreters, present, the Indians made reply through Chief Tawena, and agreed to give up the land, but suggested that the Governor take up the matter further with the Cayuga when he attended a treaty at Albany.

The Indians requested that the surveyor begin his work immediately and not wait until the Governor was absent at Albany.

The warrant was made out, and the surveyors, John French, Francis Worley and James Mitchell made a report of their survey, June 21.

This tract contained 75,500 acres and began opposite the mouth of Conestoga Creek, at Lockport Run and ran south by west ten miles, thence northwest twelve miles to a point north of the present city of York. Thence northeast eight miles to the Susquehanna River again, and from thence along the river to the place of beginning.

The exact positions and boundary lines of the original Springettsbury Manor were never thoroughly understood, and there resulted much controversy about the survey.

The warrant and survey were not returned into the land office, but the entire transaction appeared to have been done under the private seal of Governor Keith, and no actual purchase was ever made from the Indians, June 15 or 16.

The origin of the Penn Manors began with the charter to William Penn, which contained several powers to erect manors.

On July 11, 1681, Penn agreed with the purchasers in England, who were interested in his grant on certain conditions and concessions. The ninth of these was, that “in every one hundred thousand acres, the Governor and Proprietary, by lot, reserveth ten to himself which shall lie but in one place.” The name of “Manor” was given to these portions of reserved land in its genuine legal sense.

There were eighty-two Proprietary manors set apart, fourteen in Northumberland, twelve in Northampton, nine in Chester, seven each in Philadelphia, Bucks, Lancaster, and Bedford, six in Westmoreland, four in Cumberland, and three each in York and Berks Counties. Three of the manors were not located.

The largest in territory was Springettsbury, with Manor of Maske, in York (now Adams) County, next in size with 43,500 acres. Fagg Manor in Chester County, contained 39,250 acres. The smallest was Lake Paupunauming Manor, in Northampton County, which contained only 215 acres.

When the Revolution changed the form of government for Pennsylvania all the confiscations by which lesser men were punished are cast into the shade by the great Divesting Act. The Proprietary family were deprived of their lordship of the soil of Pennsylvania, their unlocated and unappropriated lands and the quit rents which had been reserved outside of their manors. This was the destruction of the greatest private estate in the world, but it was necessary.

There were saved to the Penns all manors which had been surveyed for them prior to July 4, 1776.

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British and Tory Refugees Evacuate Philadelphia June 17, 1778

Sir William Howe had found the occupation of Philadelphia a barren conquest, and the evacuation of the city was felt by General Washington to be so certain only a question of time that as early as March, 1778, he began to collect wagons and organize teams for the transportation service of his army, when it should be required to march after the enemy.

Howe’s proper point for operations was New York, and Washington felt sure he would return thither. Instead of that, however, Howe yielded to the complaints at his supineness in England and, being desirous to return home, resigned.

Sir Henry Clinton, successor to General Howe, arrived in Philadelphia May 8, and took formal command of the British Army May 11. Before Howe’s departure a fete was arranged May 18 in his honor called the Meschianza, and it comprised a regatta, tournament, feast and ball.

Lord Howe embarked for England May 24, and the same day Clinton held a council of war. They were fearful that the French fleet would cut off their communication with England, also the knowledge that the American capital was not of much importance to them after all, the fact that Congress had fled on wheels, and that Pennsylvania had remained loyal, they resolved to evacuate Philadelphia.

Not the least fear was for Washington’s army, now thoroughly drilled by Baron Steuben, a Prussian officer, who had come to Valley Forge in February. This army now became a source of real danger to the British.

But the movement of the British troops was delayed, as on June 6 three commissioners to effect peace, the Earl of Carlisle, William Eden and George Johnston, arrived in Philadelphia. They were willing to gratify every wish that America had expressed. But it was too late. Franklin and his associates had secured an alliance with France and the American Congress refused to entertain such propositions.

It is said that Joseph Reed, one of Pennsylvania’s delegates in Congress, was offered £10,000 and the best office in the colonies if he would promote the plans for peace; but he promptly replied: “I am not worth purchasing; but such as I am, the King of Great Britain is not rich enough to do it.”

Clinton’s army, accompanied by Tory refugees, evacuated Philadelphia June 17, crossed the Delaware at Camden and Gloucester in great haste, while the fleet floated slowly down the bay.

Washington learned of the retreat of the enemy and moved his army out of Valley Forge, followed Clinton, and on Sunday, June 28, fought the Battle of Monmouth, which resulted in the precipitate flight of Clinton, with the wreck of his army, to New York. About 800 of Clinton’s men deserted, of whom seventy came to Philadelphia in one day.

An incident occurred following the Battle of Monmouth which exerted a greater effect upon the American Army than many a skirmish between brigades, for it ended the unfortunate “Conway’s Cabal.” Certain remarks upon General Conway’s behavior at the Battle of Germantown brought a challenge from General Conway to General Cadwallader, who of all the American high officers remained the most loyal friend, supporter and admirer of General Washington.

A duel was fought, in which Conway was severely wounded, and, believing himself to be dying, repented and expressed to General Washington his grief, adding, “My career will soon be over, therefore justice and truth prompt me to declare my last sentiments—May you long enjoy the love, veneration and esteem of these States whose liberties you have asserted by your virtues.”

Upon the re-occupation of Philadelphia by the Continental Army, Major General Benedict Arnold was ordered by General Washington to take command of the city and “prevent the disorders which were expected upon the evacuation of the place and the return of the Whigs, after being so long kept out of their property.”

Arnold occupied, during part of his stay, a handsome country estate, which is now in Fairmount Park, lived most extravagantly and married Margaret, popularly known as “Peggy” Shippen, daughter of one of Governor Penn’s councillors, afterward Chief Justice of the State.

On June 25 the Supreme Executive Council took into consideration the case of John Gilfray, boatswain of the ship Montgomery, found guilty of deserting to the enemy and under sentence of death. It being the first conviction of an offense of this kind in the State fleet, he was pardoned, and Commodore Hazelwood was authorized to offer full pardon to all deserters who returned before September 1.

Beginning of this month, however, Lieutenant Lyon, of the “Dickinson,” and Lieutenant Ford, of the “Effingham,” who deserted during the attack upon Fort Mifflin, were executed on board of one of the guard boats on the Delaware. Lieutenant Wilson, of the Rangers, and John Lawrence, one of the gunners of the fleet, who deserted at the same time and were under sentence of death, were reprieved.

Active measures were taken for the speedy trial of all persons accused of high treason, and the conviction of quite a number excited an intense sensation and much alarm among the Tories and Quakers. Several were executed, notwithstanding every exertion to save them. The Whigs had suffered too severely at the hands of the disaffected, and some victims were necessary to mollify the animosities.

Congress closed its business at York and went back to Philadelphia, June 25, and the State government left Lancaster the following day and again resumed their duties at Philadelphia.

President Wharton died suddenly at Lancaster, May 23, and George Bryan was made President of the Supreme Executive Council.

The Whigs now began to punish the Tories. The Assembly passed an “act for the attainder of divers traitors,” among whom were Joseph Galloway, Reverend Jacob Duché and the Allens. The Quakers and the German sects were special objects of suspicion, because they thought it wrong to take up arms.

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Provincial Conference Meets at Carpenters’ Hall June 18, 1776

In April, 1776, the Assembly renewed its instructions to the Pennsylvania delegates in Congress not to give their consent to a separation or a change of the Proprietary Government. But Congress, May 15, recommended State governments in the colonies, and declared that all authority under the Crown should be totally suppressed.

On June 8, the day after Richard Henry Lee, in Congress, had proposed the independence of the colonies, the Pennsylvania Assembly gave instructions which neither advised nor forbade a declaration of independence, but left the question to the “ability, prudence and integrity” of the delegates. This doubtful action proved the end of the Proprietary Assembly. Only once did it again have a quorum of its members.

Instead of allowing the State Government, as suggested by Congress, to be formed by members of the Assembly sworn to support the King, the people of Pennsylvania took the matter in their own hands and issued a call for a provincial convention for that purpose.

This was the death blow to Proprietary authority. A public meeting held in Philadelphia sent a protest against the Assembly of the Province undertaking to frame a new government, as it derived its power from a royal charter, and did not truly represent the people. The meeting called for a convention. Opposed to this was a remonstrance against amending the constitution except by the authority provided in the charter itself.

The Declaration of Independence had given the old State Government a mortal blow, and it soon expired without a sigh—thus ending forever the Proprietary and royal authority in Pennsylvania.

In the meantime, the Committee of Correspondence for Philadelphia issued a circular to all the county committees for a conference in that city on Tuesday, June 18.

On the day appointed there was a meeting of the deputies at Carpenters’ Hall, which organized by electing Colonel Thomas McKean, president; Colonel Joseph Hart, of Bucks County, vice president, and Jonathan B. Smith and Samuel C. Morris, both of Philadelphia, secretaries.

The conference was composed of twenty-five delegates from the city of Philadelphia; eleven from the county of Philadelphia; five from Bucks; thirteen from Chester; nine from Lancaster; ten from Berks; five from Northampton; nine from York; ten from Cumberland; three from Bedford; five from Northumberland, and two from Westmoreland; a total of 107 of the most representative and patriotic citizens to be found in the Province.

The conference at once unanimously resolved: “That the present government of this Province is not competent to the exigencies of our affairs, and

“That it is necessary that a Provincial Convention be called by this Conference for the purpose of forming a new government in the Province on the authority of the people only.”

Preparations were taken immediately to secure a proper representation in the convention. The qualifications of an elector were defined. Every voter was obliged to take an oath of renunciation of the authority of George the Third, and one of allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania, and a religious test as prescribed for the members of the convention.

The following declaration was signed by all the deputies on June 24, and presented to Congress:

“We, the deputies of the people of Pennsylvania, assembled in full Provincial Conference, for forming a plan for executing the resolve of Congress of the 15th day of May last, for suppressing all authority in this Province derived from the Crown of Great Britain, and for establishing a Government upon the authority of the people only, now in this public manner, in behalf of ourselves, and with the approbation, consent and authority of our constituents, unanimously declare our willingness to concur in a vote of the Congress, declaring the United Colonies free and independent States:

“Provided, The forming the government and the regulation of internal police of this Colony be always reserved to the people of the said Colony; and we further call upon the nations of Europe, and appeal to the Great Arbiter and Governor of the empires of the world, to witness for us, that this declaration did not originate in ambition or in an impatience of lawful authority, but that we were driven to it in obedience to the first principle of nature by the oppressions and cruelties of the aforesaid King and Parliament of Great Britain, as the only possible measure that was left us to preserve and establish our liberties, and to transmit them inviolate to posterity.”

The Conference prepared an address to the Associators of Pennsylvania, which was adopted unanimously. This address issued particular instructions to associators to exercise great care in the election of delegates, charging them to select only the best men and to eschew all such as were in the proprietary interest.

It is obvious that the adoption of the Declaration of Independence was assumed as a fixed fact, for they expressed much greater anxiety in regard to the complexion of the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, which was to meet in Philadelphia July 15.

After the adjournment of the Conference, on June 25, a dinner was given to the members at the Indian Queen Tavern, on Fourth Street. The toasts were drunk to “The Congress,” “The Free and Independent States of America,” “Washington,” “The Army and Navy,” “A Wise and Patriotic Convention to Pennsylvania on the 15th of July,” “Lasting dependence to the enemies of independence,” etc.

Pennsylvania was truly on the brink of a crisis, and Congress was face to face with the question of independence and the expediency of an immediate declaration of it and the instant severing of all ties binding the united colonies to the mother country.

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Massacre at Indian Town of Standing Stone on June 19, 1777

As an Indian post of ancient date, few are better known than Standing Stone, the present site of the beautiful borough of Huntingdon, on the Juniata. It was here where two of the great Indian paths crossed, one leading on to Kittanning and the west, the other to Bedford and the Potomac. The earliest maps of which we have any record indicate that an important Indian village was situated at this point.

Standing Stone was known to the Indians by the name of Achsinnink, meaning original stone. The word alludes to a large rock, standing separate and where there is no other rock.

Conrad Weiser has left us the oldest record of Standing Stone, August 18, 1748, then seemingly already a well-known name of the place.

John Harris, in 1753, wrote of Standing Stone as “about fourteen feet high and six inches square.” It stood on the right bank of Stone Creek, near its mouth, and in such a position as to enable persons to see it at considerable distance, either up or down the river.

The Reverend Philip Fithian, in 1755, says it was “a tall stone column or pillar nearly square and seven feet above the ground.”

There have been conflicting opinions whether any of this original Standing Stone still exists or not, some holding to the belief that it was used not only as a finger board at the crossing of the great Indian paths, but also contained the official record of the tribe.

There is no doubt that the stone was carved with names and Indian characters, which depicted important epochs in the tribe’s history, its wars, mighty deeds, its prowess in battle, and, perhaps, its skill in the chase. It also is quite possible that the stone was a sacred tablet to the memory of one or more noble chiefs who fell in battle. The stone contained many hieroglyphics and each may have told a story in the Indian language.

This stone was once the cause of a war, when the Tuscarora tribe, living about thirty or forty miles below on the river, declared war on the tribe at Standing Stone for some real or fancied insult, and for this purpose sent them repeated messages which the Standing Stone Indians failed to heed. The Tuscarora awaited a time when their enemy warriors were on a hunt, when they fell on the village with a great force, driving away those who were at home, and carried the stone away. Upon the return of the hunters the entire war force was immediately sent after their enemy, who were soon overtaken, when a bloody conflict ensued, and the stone was recaptured and carried back in triumph.

It seems to be an undisputed fact that the original stone was removed by the Indians and carried away by them about 1755, at the time the Indians in that valley joined the French.

A few white settlers seated themselves at Standing Stone in 1762 and began the erection of a stockade fort, but in the following spring were forced to abandon it, as well as their houses and other improvements, and fly to Carlisle for protection from the Indians.

Standing Stone was laid out as a town in 1767 by the Reverend William Smith, D. D., the proprietor at that time and for many years afterward provost of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Smith called the town Huntingdon, in honor of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, in England, a lady of remarkable liberality and piety, who, at the solicitation of Dr. Smith, had made a handsome donation to the funds of the University.

The old name Standing Stone, however, clung to the place for many years. Nearly all the traders and military officers of the eighteenth century used the old name, and it is marked Standing Stone on the Lewis Evans map of 1755 and 1770; it is “Standing Stone, Huntingdon,” on the Powell map of 1776.

On the second stone erected at this place were found the names of John and Charles Lukens, Thomas Smith and a number of others, with dates varying from 1768 to 1770, cut or chiseled in the stone. This stone seems to have been erected by one or other of the men whose names it bore, on the same spot where the original stone stood. This stone was subsequently removed to a spot near the present court house in Huntingdon and forms the most valuable and interesting historic relic in the Juniata county seat.

The only massacre to take place at Standing Stone occurred June 19, 1777, at what was known as Big Spring, several miles west of the fort. The Indians had infested the plantations and the inhabitants fled to the fort. Felix Donnelly and his son, Francis, and Bartholomew Maguire and his daughter, residing near the mouth of Shaver’s Creek, placed their effects upon horses and, with a cow, started for the fort.

Jane Maguire was driving the cow ahead of the party, the Donnellys and Maguire bringing up the rear on the horses. When nearly opposite the Big Spring, an Indian fired from ambuscade and killed young Donnelly. His father, who was close to him, caught him as he was falling from his horse. Maguire rode to his side and the two men held the dead body of Francis upon the horse.

The Indians rushed from their hiding place with terrific yells, and fired a volley at the party, one bullet struck Felix Donnelly, and another grazed Maguire’s ear. Donnelly fell to the ground as did the body of his dead son. The Indians rushed forward, scalped Francis and followed Jane, who succeeded in escaping, but not until she lost her dress when an Indian attempted to make her captive.

Some men on the opposite bank of the stream, hearing the Indian yells and shooting, rushed to the scene. The Indians, not knowing their strength, disappeared in the woods. Maguire and his daughter reached the fort and alarmed the garrison, which started in hot pursuit of the savages but did not overtake them. The dead body of Francis Donnelly was buried in a vacant spot which now is a garden in the heart of the borough of Huntingdon.

Among those who figured in the thrilling drama about Standing Stone were the Bradys, who later moved to the West Branch of the Susquehanna; Colonel Fee, who gained renown in Captain Blair’s expedition against the Tories, and the Cryder family, consisting of father, mother and seven sons, every one a hero.

At the organization of the new county in 1787, it took the name of Huntingdon, and Standing Stone became even more only a historic memory.

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Moravians Dedicate First Church West of Alleghenies June 20, 1771

The first church building dedicated to the worship of God west of the Allegheny Mountains was the chapel built by Reverend David Zeisberger, at Friedenstadt, on the Big Beaver, in now Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

In 1743 Zeisberger was at Shamokin laboring as a Moravian missionary among the Indians, with the approbation and support of the great Shikellamy. This mission was broken up in 1756, and for several years Zeisberger assisted in ministering to the Christian Indians, for whom the Provincial Government had provided a refuge in the barracks at Philadelphia.

Peace having been concluded at the end of the Pontiac War, Zeisberger led the remnant of these Indians to Wyalusing, on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River, in Bradford County. Here Zeisberger established the mission of Friedenschuetten, “tents of peace.” This mission prospered greatly, and much good was done among the Indians.

In October, 1767, he traversed the solitude of the forest and reached the Munsee Indians, who were then living in what is now Forest County. This pious missionary remained with these savages but seven days. They were good listeners to his sermons, but every day he was in danger of being murdered. Of these Indians he wrote:

“I have never found such heathenism in any other part of the Indian country. Here Satan has a stronghold. Here he sits upon his throne. Here he is worshipped by true savages, and carries on his work in the hearts of the children of darkness.”

He returned to Friedenschuetten and labored there until the Six Nations sold the land in that part of the State, November 5, 1768.

The Six Nations had by this treaty sold the land from “under the feet” of the Wyalusing converts and the Reverend Zeisberger was compelled to take measures for the removal of these Christian Indians, with their horses and cattle, to some other field.

This company penetrated through the wilderness to the Allegheny River, and established a church at a Delaware town of three villages called Goschgoschunk, near the mouth of Tionesta Creek in which is now Venango County. Here they built a log chapel, planted corn and commenced the work of evangelization.

They were soon rewarded by gaining a number of converts, among whom was the blind old chief Allemewi, who was baptized with the name of Solomon.

As usual, however, their success excited opposition and their lives were threatened by the hostile Indians, who called the converts “Sunday Indians” or “Swannocks,” a name of great opprobrium.

Wangomen, an Indian prophet, declared that he had a vision in which he was shown by the Great Spirit that the white man had displeased him by coming among the Indians; and the old squaws went about complaining that since their arrival the corn was devoured by worms, that the game was leaving the country, and that neither chestnuts nor bilberries ripened any more.

Some said, “The white men ought to be killed,” and, others agreeing, said, “Yes, and all the baptized Indians with them and their bodies thrown into the river.”

The name of the town, Goschgoschunk, meant “the place of the hogs,” and the missionaries believed it was well named.

In 1769 they removed their converts to Lawunakhanna, on the opposite side of the river about three miles above Goschgoschunk. A strange thing occurred here in the friendly attitude of their old enemy, Wangomen. He carried news of their success to Kuskuskee, a celebrated Delaware town on the Beaver, in the present Lawrence County. From this place Chief Pakanke sent Glikhickan, a celebrated Delaware warrior and orator, to refute the teachings of the missionaries.

Glikhickan listened to the preaching of Zeisberger, and received private instructions in the Gospel, and was completely won by them.

On his return to Kuskuskee Glikhickan made a favorable report to Pakanke, who invited the missionaries and their converts to remove to Beaver, where a tract of land was promised them for their exclusive use.

Zeisberger asked and received the consent of the Mission Board at Bethlehem to accept the invitation, and he promptly prepared to remove thither.

April 17, 1770, the congregation at Lawunakhanna, set out in sixteen canoes, passed down the river to Fort Pitt, and on to the mouth of the Big Beaver, where they arrived in the forenoon of April 23 and paddled up the stream to the falls. At this point a portage was necessary and it took four days to carry their baggage and canoes around the rapids. Here they were met by Glikhickan and others with horses, who assisted them in this labor.

Five days later Zeisberger tarried at New Kuskuskee to visit with Pakanke, who received him with a genuine welcome.

The site of their new encampment was reached May 7. Corn was planted, a large hut for meetings of the congregation and smaller ones of bark for dwellings were put up and all were happy in their new home. This town was called Friedenstadt, or “town of peace.”

Glikhickan became a devoted friend of the Christians, and when he removed to Friedenstadt old Pakanke attacked him publicly. Colonel George Croghan used his influence to appease Pakanke and secure a fair hearing for the missionaries, and the labors of the brethren began to bear fruit.

On June 12 the wife of the blind chief Solomon was baptized. Six months later Glikhickan and Genaskund were baptized. Glikhickan took the name of Isaac and became an assistant in the work of the Gospel.

On July 14 Zeisberger was adopted into the Munsee tribe and Pakanke was present at the ceremony.

July 23, Zeisberger laid out a new and larger town on the west side of the Beaver, near the present Moravia. This was a more permanent settlement. The houses were built of logs, with stone foundations and chimneys and the church was much larger. Here, too, they built a blacksmith shop and stockades.

Other missionaries came from Bethlehem. On the one hand, they enjoyed success in their work, and, on the other, they were subjected to much disagreeable treatment by those still unfavorable to them, their lives being more than once seriously imperiled by visits of hostile and drunken savages. But they continued their labors undaunted by trials and persecutions.

May 27, 1771, the foundation stone of the chapel was laid, and June 20 the house was dedicated with great rejoicings. In all probability this was the first church building dedicated to the worship of God west of the Allegheny Mountains.

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Revolutionary Forces Threaten Executive Council June 21, 1783

A change in the British Ministry had encouraged Dr. Benjamin Franklin to renew his efforts for a peaceful adjustment, and after working with the utmost industry and skill throughout the summer and most of the autumn of 1782, he had the satisfaction of seeing his labors crowned with success.

A preliminary treaty of peace between the Colonies and Great Britain was signed at Paris, November 30, 1782, but the news did not reach this country until March 12, 1783, when the packet George Washington, Captain Joshua Barney, arrived at Philadelphia with the joyful intelligence that a treaty had been concluded, acknowledging the independence of the United States. This was the initial step necessary in the negotiations for peace between all belligerents.

On March 23 the French cutter Triumph arrived at Philadelphia from Cadiz, bringing the news that a preliminary treaty of peace had been signed January 20, 1783.

M. de Luzerne, the French Minister, at once issued an official notification of the fact, directing French cruisers to cease hostilities. Intelligence of the state of affairs was also communicated to Sir Guy Carleton, who had succeeded Sir Henry Clinton as the British commander-in-chief at New York.

On April 11, the British officers received official notice from home that peace had been concluded, and the same day Congress issued a proclamation enjoining a cessation of hostilities.

On April 16 the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania made public announcement of the happy event at the Court House, where the official document was read by the Sheriff in the presence of an immense concourse of people. The State flag was hoisted as usual on such occasions, at Market Street wharf; church bells were rung amid general demonstrations of joy at the termination of the war. In the evening Charles Wilson Peale exhibited the patriotic transparencies which had done good service on previous occasions, and one week later Thomas Paine published the last number of the Crisis, in which he declared that “the times that tried men’s souls were over.”

The definite treaty of peace was signed at Versailles, September 3, 1783, in which the United States was formally acknowledged to be sovereign, free and independent.

One of the first measures made necessary by the cessation of the war was the exchange of prisoners. The soldiers of Burgoyne’s army were principally at Lancaster, and they were put in motion before the proclamation, and arrived in Philadelphia on their way to New York a day or two previous to the official announcement. The obstructions that had been placed in the Delaware River were removed and commerce resumed.

In June, 1783, a number of the non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line wearied, and exasperated by the delay in the settlement of their claims, resolved to demand a redress of their grievances and a prompt settlement of their accounts.

A body of them accordingly marched from Lancaster toward the city of Philadelphia, and although the Supreme Executive Council and Congress were informed of their coming, no measures were taken to check the advance of the malcontents.

A committee of Congress requested the Executive Council to call out the militia in order to prevent the progress of the rioters, but the State authorities took no action, in the belief apparently that the troops could be conciliated.

Orders were issued from the War Office that the soldiers be received into the barracks and supplied with rations. On reaching the city they marched to those quarters in good order and without creating any disturbance.

Congress and the Executive Council both held their sessions in the State House at this time.

On Saturday, June 21, Congress not being in session, having adjourned from Friday until Monday, about thirty of the soldiers marched from the barracks to the State House, where the Executive Council was in regular meeting.

They sent to that body a memorial in writing stating that as their general officers had left them, they should have authority to appoint commissioned officers to command them and redress their grievances. With this demand went a threatening message that in case they refused, the soldiers would be let in upon the Council, who must then abide by the consequences. Only twenty minutes were given for the deliberation, but so insolent were the terms that the Council at once unanimously rejected the proposition.

This action created a widespread alarm. Other bodies of soldiers joined the mutineers, who now numbered 300. The president of Congress assembled that body in special session and demanded that the militia of the State should be immediately called forth in sufficient force to reduce the soldiers to obedience, disarm them and put them in the power of Congress. Prior to the assembling of Congress at Carpenters’ Hall the soldiers were at their barracks and all was quiet.

A session of the Supreme Executive Council was held the following day, Sunday, at the house of President Dickinson. That body did not agree on the extreme measures of Congress. The result was that the latter, dissatisfied with the indisposition of the Council, adjourned to meet at Princeton, N. J. This action of Congress was neither necessary nor prudent. It was prompted by pride and a disposition to construe an undesigned affront into the wanton insult, or it was in consequence of fear that was unjustifiable by the succession of events.

The promoters of this meeting escaped, but several of the ringleaders were arrested and court-martialed. Two of the sergeants of the Third Pennsylvania were sentenced to be shot, while several others were to receive corporal punishment, but all were subsequently pardoned by Congress.

Congress remained during the summer at Princeton. The Assembly of Pennsylvania, the Council, and prominent citizens of the State invited it to return to Philadelphia, and although Congress seemed pleased and satisfied at the measures taken, yet they were ashamed to go back to a city they had deserted so precipitately and carelessly, and they adjourned at Princeton to meet at Annapolis, Md.

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Colonel Turbutt Francis Marches Provincial Troops to Wyoming June 22, 1769

The Connecticut people had gained complete possession of the Wyoming Valley at the conclusion of the so-called first Pennanite-Yankee War, in 1769.

These Yankees entered with enthusiasm upon their agricultural pursuit, while their surveyors were employed in running out the five townships which had been allotted to the actual settlers by the Connecticut authorities. But no one supposed that peace and security were finally yielded them by their alert and powerful Pennsylvania opponents.

Captain Amos Ogden with the civil magistrate, Sheriff John Jennings, of Northampton County, of which county the Wyoming Valley was then a part, appeared at the head of an armed party in the plains May 20. They found the Yankees too strongly entrenched and returned to Easton.

Sheriff Jennings informed Governor John Penn that the intruders mustered three hundred able bodied men, and it was not in his power to collect sufficient force in Northampton County to dislodge them.

At the same time that the Governor sent Sheriff Jennings to Wyoming, he sent instructions to Colonel Turbutt Francis, who was then commandant of the garrison at Fort Augusta, to extend such aid as was necessary to secure the Proprietary settlements at Wyoming, and to hold his troops in readiness for any emergency or call that he might make for them.

The records of Fort Augusta, or those published in the Archives do not give much detailed information of the instructions which Colonel Francis received, but in a long report of the committee of the Susquehanna Company, written from Windham, Connecticut, and signed by four members, is this paragraph:

“June 22nd, 1769, Colonel Francis, with sixty armed men in a hostile manner demanded a surrender of our houses and possessions. He embodied his forces within thirty or forty rods of their dwellings, threatened to fire their houses and kill our people, unless they surrendered and quitted their possessions, which they refused to do, and after many terrible threatenings by him, he withdrew. Our people went on peaceably with their business.”

Miner, in his History of Wyoming, says of this event: “Col. Turbutt Francis, commanding a fine company from the city, in full military array, with colors streaming, and martial music, descended into the plain, and sat down before Fort Durkee about the 20th of June; but finding the Yankees too strongly fortified, returned to await reinforcements below the mountains.”

On June 15 Major Durkee, and others of the New England adherents went to Easton to attend the Northampton County Court, but the case against the Yankees was continued to the September term, and the defendants returned with Major Durkee to Wyoming.

It was during Major Durkee’s absence that the exciting events took place.

Colonel Francis was a native of Philadelphia and a distinguished officer of the French and Indian War, since which service he had spent the greater part of his life in and about Fort Augusta. He was in command of the garrison at that fortress when Governor Penn sent him to Wyoming, and his troops were in the provincial service.

A Yankee report of this event says: “The 22d of June our spies gave fresh information, that the mob was on their way, and they judged their number consisted of between 60 and 70, and in the evening they came and strung along the opposite side of the River for more than a mile, judging by their whooping, yelling and hideous noise and firing of guns.

“The 23d, in the morning, one Captain Ogden, with two more, came to know if our committee could be spoke with by Colonel Francis, which was consented to. About 8 in the morning the Colonel came, seemingly in an angry frame by his looks and behavior. He told us he had orders from the Governor of Pennsylvania to remove us off (which he in a short time contradicted), and demanded entrance into our town, which was refused; and continued he—'You have lost your case at Easton, and I have 300 men here with me, and 100 more coming, and my men are so unruly and ungoverned that it is hardly in my power to keep them from you; and they will kill your cattle and horses, and destroy your corn, and block up the way so as to cut you off from all communication for provisions, and your Government will not own you.'

“We told him that we had a good right to the land by Charter from the Crown, and Deed from the Indians, and that we could not, consistent with the votes of the Susquehanna Company, give it up, and should not. He then made proposals of agreement that we should possess the land on the East Branch, except that what Ogden and some others of them improved, and they enjoy the West Branch, till decided by law; and he would give us an hour to consider, and give him an answer. We sent him word that we would not comply with his terms, for it was not in our power.

“Finally he concluded to move off with his mob to Shamokin (which is about 60 miles) and wait there about ten days for the committee to send our proposals, which, if he liked, it was well; if not, he could come again. And further, he desired our men might be kept in the Fort till his men should be gone, lest they should hurt us. Towards night they moved off, seemingly well pleased with their Conquest. As near as we could learn their number did not exceed 50 men, and a considerable part of them in our favor.”

Colonel Francis was called to Philadelphia in July and gave a full verbal report of his expedition to the Governor and Council.

In September thirteen of the Connecticut settlers in three canoes loaded with flour were halted at Fort Augusta. They were on their way up the river with the cargo which they had purchased at Harris’ Ferry for the Wyoming settlement.

The Yankees were detained by armed troops for three hours, but their cargoes were confiscated, even in spite of the fact they agreed to pay for the food.

Thus the trouble between the Connecticut and Pennsylvania claimants continued for many years.

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Pennsylvanian Makes First Report in Congress for Railway to Pacific June 23, 1848

James Pollock had exhibited unusual personal and political strength in carrying at three consecutive elections his Democratic congressional district. He was first chosen to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of Congressman General Henry Frick, then again in 1844 and 1846 he won his re-election. He was one of the younger members, but during his nearly six sessions of service he exhibited not only great efficiency, but he was in advance of most of his older associates in heartily sustaining all progressive movements.

Pollock was one of the few members of Congress who took kindly to Professor S. B. Morse, when he went to Washington and was shunned by nearly every Government official as a crank or lunatic because he proposed to utilize the lightning for the transmission of messages.

Pollock also was one of the earliest public men to accept Benton’s idea of the great destiny of the West after the extension of our territory to the Pacific by Mexican annexation. He served on the Committees of Claims, Territories, and in the Thirtieth Congress he was on the important Committee of Ways and Means.

On June 23, 1848, Pollock offered a resolution for the appointment of a special committee to inquire into the necessity and practicability of constructing a railroad to the Pacific Coast. As chairman of that committee he made a report to the House in favor of the construction of such a road which was the first favorable official act on the subject on the part of the Congress of the United States.

The report discussed the question in its international and domestic aspects, its feasibility and probable results. The opening paragraph is in these words:

“The proposition at first view is a startling one. The magnitude of the work itself, and the still greater and more magnificent results promised by its accomplishment—that of revolutionizing morally and commercially, if not politically, a greater part of the habitable globe, and making the vast commerce of the world tributary to us—almost overwhelm the mind. But your committee, on examination, finds it a subject as simple as it is vast and magnificent, and sees no insurmountable difficulties in the way of its successful accomplishment.”

A bill accompanied the report, and was referred to the Committee of the Whole, but no further action was taken on it at that time, and Pollock soon after left Congress. In the fall of 1848, however, he delivered a lecture on the Pacific Railroad, by invitation to a crowded house at Lewisburg, Union County, closing with the following remark:

“At the risk of being insane, I will venture the prediction, that in less than twenty-five years from this evening a railroad will be completed and in operation between New York and San Francisco, Calif.; that a line of steamships will be established between San Francisco, Japan and China; and there are now in my audience, ladies who will, before the expiration of the period named, drink tea brought from China and Japan by this route, to their own doors.”

That prophetic announcement was received by the audience with a smile of good-natured incredulity, but some of those very ladies, during the year 1869, were able to sip their favorite beverage in exact accordance with the terms of the speaker’s prediction. On May 10, 1869, the last rail was laid, the last spike driven, and the great Pacific Railway, so long in embryo, became an accomplished fact.

Pollock gave special interest during his Congressional service to the annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, the acquisition of California, the repeal of the Tariff Act of 1842, and the “Wilmot Proviso,” in its application to the newly acquired territories of the United States. In all the discussions on those exciting topics he was the leading factor. His speeches and votes demonstrated the consistency of his views, and the breadth and soundness of his understanding.

In 1850 he became President-Judge of the eighth judicial district, then composed of the counties of Northumberland, Montour, Columbia, Sullivan and Lycoming.

In 1854 he was nominated and elected by a large majority Governor of Pennsylvania.

It was during his administration, May 16, 1857, that the main line of the public works of the State was directed to be sold. On July 25 following Governor Pollock caused the same to be done, and on July 31 the whole line of the public works between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was transferred to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, at the price of $7,500,000.

In the summer of 1857 a serious financial revulsion occurred, resulting in the suspension of specie payments by the banks of Pennsylvania and other States of the Union, followed by the failure of many long-established commercial houses, leading to the destruction of confidence and to the general depression of trade, and threatening to affect disastrously the credit of the Commonwealth and the great industrial interests of the people.

In order to release the banks from the penalties incurred by a suspension of specie payments, Governor Pollock convened the Legislature in “extraordinary session” October 6.

On October 13 an act was passed “providing for the resumption of specie payments by the banks and for the relief of debtors,” to go into immediate effect. The law had the desired result, the different branches of industry revived and the community saved from bankruptcy and ruin. He declined a renomination for a second term.

While serving in Congress, Pollock became intimately acquainted with Abraham Lincoln, who was then also a member, and they boarded at the same house.

This friendship was renewed after Lincoln became President, when he called Pollock to Washington to consult with him upon the grave questions confronting the country and to consult with him regarding certain men he was considering for his Cabinet. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed his Director of the Mint at Philadelphia, and it was through his efforts, while so serving, that the motto, “In God We Trust,” was placed upon our coins.

Governor Pollock died at Lock Haven April 19, 1890, and his body was interred in the cemetery at Milton.

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John Binns, English Politician and Editor, Died June 24, 1860

Editor John Binns died in Philadelphia June 24, 1860, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years, each one of which was one of prominence, either in England or America.

In 1854 he wrote the “Recollections of the Life of John Binns; Twenty-nine Years in Europe and Fifty-three in the United States.” In the introduction he says:

“Soon after my arrival in the United States, which was on the first day of September, 1801, I was urged by the late Dr. Joseph Priestley, his son Joseph, and Thomas Cooper, Esq., to write my life. They were among my earliest American acquaintances, and continued my zealous and faithful friends to their death. Some few American gentlemen who have subsequently, in Philadelphia, read the account of my arrest and examination before the Privy Council in London, and my trials for sedition and high treason in 1797 and 1798, have also urged me to publish my Recollections. Let these facts be received as an apology for this publication.”

John Binns was born in Dublin, Ireland, son of John and Mary Pemberton Binns. His father’s family were Moravians; his mother’s Episcopalians. His father was drowned at sea when John was two years old. He left a comfortable estate, and John and his brother and sister received a liberal education. His mother married again when John was yet in school.

When fourteen years old John Binns was apprenticed to a soap boiler, but on the death of his grandfather he purchased his apprentice fee and took a deep interest in politics. He left Dublin April, 1794, and went to London. Then his troubles began.

John Binns was first arrested March 11, 1796, at Birmingham, and confined in the dungeon, but his trial was postponed until August. In the interim he returned to Dublin, but returned for his trial, when he was acquitted.

He was soon again arrested together with two celebrated politicians at Margate and imprisoned at London. He was discharged and again rearrested on a charge of high treason, then sent to the Tower of London, from which he was removed to Maidstone Jail. He was again tried and acquitted, following a serious riot in court, May 24, 1798. He was next arrested and imprisoned in Gloucester, where he was frequently visited by many persons of distinction.

During this imprisonment Binns determined he would go to the United States as soon as liberated. July 1, 1801, he embarked for Baltimore, arriving there September 1 after a stormy and perilous voyage.

Upon his arrival he loaded his goods on three wagons and set out on foot for Northumberland, Pa., where he purposed to reside. At Harrisburg he hired a boat to take his goods and himself as a passenger up the river to Northumberland.

Binns was given a hearty welcome by Dr. Priestley and Judge Cooper, and soon became a most prominent resident. He was invited to deliver the oration on July 4, 1802, and his effort stamped him as a most learned and eloquent speaker.

Binns established the Republican Argus at Northumberland, and his success exceeded his fondest expectations. It soon became one of the prominent papers of the State. He was a bold and determined man and wielded a severe pen.

December 14, 1805, Binns fought a duel with Samuel Stewart, of Williamsport, a member of the Legislature.

In January, 1807, friends in Philadelphia urged him to remove to that city and establish a Democratic newspaper. He sounded members of the Quid Party and found them willing to support Snyder, but they would not do so under the leadership of William Duane, editor of the Aurora.

Binns removed to Philadelphia and established the Democratic Press, March 27, 1807. This was the first paper which used the word “Democratic” in its title.

May 15 Binns delivered the “Long Talk” before the Tammany Society, which caused him in September to be dismissed from the society. Then the fight between the Aurora and Democratic Press opened in all its fury, and the battle for the leadership between Duane and Dr. Leib on one side and John Binns on the other was commenced.

Binns came out against Dr. Leib for Assembly and Duane for the Senate. The former was elected, but Duane was badly beaten. This was the Aurora’s first defeat and it groaned aloud.

Binns was powerful in the election of Snyder in 1808. He had brought back the Constitutional Republicans into the fold and was able to control the party against both Duane and Leib.

Dr. Leib was elected to the United States Senate early in 1809, but Governor Snyder’s course was by no means pleasing to Duane. The Press defended him, while the Aurora criticized everything he did. The Aurora threatened to impeach the Governor, and Binns called the Aurora and its supporters “The Philadelphia Junto.”

Binns and his party favored war with England, and here again he came into opposition with “Leib, Duane & Co.,” as the Press called them.

Duane and Leib lost all control of the Legislature. In 1811 the Federalists were successful, and Snyder was overwhelmingly re-elected. The Aurora published nothing about the impending war, the Press supported every movement which forwarded its progress, and this was the popular side. Governor Snyder appointed his friend Binns as aide-de-camp, and he was active throughout the war.

Leib was appointed Postmaster at Philadelphia in February, 1814, but Binns succeeded in having Postmaster General Granger removed, and his successor immediately removed Leib, who then disappeared from the political field.

Duane soon followed Leib into political obscurity and Binns was in the zenith of his power. Had Binns not quarreled with Findlay soon as his election he would have held his power for many more years. It was particularly unfortunate that he opposed the election of Andrew Jackson in 1824 and afterward.

He was appointed an alderman by Governor Hiester in 1822, a position he held for many years.

The Democratic Press was issued for the last time on November 14, 1829, it having been absorbed by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In 1840 Binns published “A Digest of the Laws and Judicial Decisions of Pennsylvania Touching of Authority of Justices of the Peace,” which was revised and republished under the title “Magistrate’s Manual,” a book popularly known as “Binns’ Justice.”

Binns held a number of positions of honor and trust, among which was directorship of the Pennsylvania Bank.

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First Deed for Chester County Conveyed to William Penn, June 25, 1683

The territory now included in Chester County was honorably purchased of the Indians by William Penn and conveyed in several distinct deeds. The first, bearing date June 25, 1683, and signed by an Indian called Wingebone, conveys to William Penn all his lands on the west side of the Schuylkill, beginning at the first falls and extending along and back from that river, in the language of the instrument, “so far as my right goeth.”

By another deed of July 14, 1683, two chiefs granted to the Proprietary the land lying between the Chester and Schuylkill Rivers. From Kekelappan and Machaloa, the Conestoga chiefs, he purchased half the land between the Susquehanna and the Delaware in September, and from Malchaloa all the lands from the Delaware to Chesapeake Bay up to the falls of the Susquehanna in October.

These were all the land transactions Penn had with the Indians in 1683 of which the conveyances have been recorded.

By a deed of July 30, 1684, Shakhoppoh, Secane and Malibor conveyed the land between the Chester and Pennypack Creeks. Another conveyance was made on October 2, 1685, for the greater portion of the lands constituting the present county of Chester. This last instrument is a quaint piece of conveyancing and shows the value attached by the natives to their lands.

“This indenture witnesseth that we, Packenah, Jackham, Sikals, Portquesott, Jervis, Essepenaick, Felkstrug, Porvey, Indian kings, sachemmakers, right owners of all lands from Quing Quingus, called Duck cr., unto Upland, called Chester cr., all along said west side of Delaware River, and so between the said creeks backwards as far as man can ride in two days with a horse, for in consideration of these following goods to us in hand paid, and secured to be paid by William Penn, Proprietary of Pennsylvania and the territories thereof, viz.; 20 guns, 20 fathoms match coat, 20 fathoms stroud water, 20 blankets, 20 kettles, 20 pounds of powder, 100 bars of lead, 40 tomahawks, 100 knives, 40 pairs of stockings, 1 barrel of beer, 20 pounds of red lead, 100 fathoms of wampum, 30 glass bottles, 30 pewter spoons, 100 awl blades, 300 tobacco pipes, 100 hands tobacco, 20 tobacco tongs, 20 steels, 300 flints, 30 pair of scissors, 30 combs, 60 looking glasses, 200 needles, 1 skipple of salt, 30 pounds of sugar, 5 gallons of molasses, 20 tobacco boxes, 100 jews harps, 20 hoes, 30 gimlets, 30 wooden screw boxes, 103 strings of beads—do hereby acknowledge, &c., &c. Given under our hands and seals, at New Castle, 2d of the 8th month, 1685.”

The Quing Quingus Creek referred to Duck Creek, in present Delaware County, or to Appoquinimink Creek, which runs some distance north of Duck Creek.

In June, 1692, Kings Tamment, Tangorus, Swampes and Hickoqueon gave a confirmatory deed of their former conveyances of land lying between Neshaminey and Poquessing Creeks, “upon the Delaware, and extending backwards to the utmost bounds of the Province.” Taminy, his brother, and his three sons executed a second deed in confirmation of his former ones, July 5, 1697, for lands between Neshaminy and Pennypack, extending backward from the Delaware “so far as a horse can travel in two summer days.”

In this last deed the grantors are described as: “Taminy, sachem, and Weheelam, my brother, and Weheequeckhon (alias Andrew), who is to be king after my death; Yaqueekhon (alias Nicholas), and Quenameckquid (alias Charles), my sons.” Weheequekhon was none other than the celebrated Sassoonan, or Allummapees, head chief of the Delaware from 1715 to 1747.

The title of the particular Indian chiefs to the lands claimed by them was not always very clear, but it was the policy of the Proprietary Government to quiet all claims which might be made by purchasing them. Accordingly, purchases were made from time to time of claims made by chiefs which they alleged had not been extinguished by purchase.

The Indians, after the sale of their lands, continued to occupy them until needed by the settlers, and gradually abandoned them as the whites advanced and took possession.

They were an amiable race, and when they left the burial places of their fathers, in search of new homes, it was without a stain on their honor. Considerable numbers, however, remained in Chester County, inhabiting the woods and unoccupied places, until the breaking out of the French and Indian War in 1755; about which time they generally removed beyond the limits of the county and took up their abode in the valley of Wyoming, at the Forks of the Susquehanna, and at Wyalusing in the North Branch of the Susquehanna.

At the making of the treaty of St. Mary’s, in 1720, there were present some chiefs of the Nanticoke, one of whom had withstood the storms of ninety winters, who told the commissioners that he and his people had once roamed through their own domains along the Brandywine.

At the close of the Revolutionary War, the number of Indians resident in the county was reduced to four who dwelt in wigwams in Marlborough Township. After the death of three of them, the remaining one known as Indian Hannah, took up her abode in a wigwam near the Brandywine, or as she considered it, her own lands. During the summer she traveled through different parts of the county, selling willow baskets of her own production and visiting those who would receive her kindly.

As she grew old she quitted her wigwam and dwelt in friendly families. Though a long time domesticated with the whites, she retained her Indian character to the last. She had a proud haughty spirit, hated the blacks and did not even deign to associate with the lower order of the whites.

Without a companion of her race—without kindred—she felt her situation desolate, and often spoke of the wrongs and misfortunes of her people. She died in the year 1803, at the age of nearly one hundred years—the last of the Lenni Lenape resident in Chester County.

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Colonel Timothy Pickering Abducted by Yankees at Wyoming June 26, 1787

The County of Luzerne was erected from parts of Northumberland County by act of September 26, 1786.

The act of December 27, 1786, provided, “That Timothy Pickering, Zebulon Butler and John Franklin notify the electors that an election would be holden to choose a Counsellor, member of the Assembly, Sheriff, Coroner, and Commissioners on the first day of February.”

Colonel Pickering was one of the eminent men in the Union. He had the confidence of Washington and Congress, having executed with fidelity the office of Quartermaster General of the Continental Army. A native of Massachusetts, after the peace he settled in Philadelphia, becoming a citizen of Pennsylvania. He was selected, in addition to his great abilities and weight of character, for the reason that he was a New England man, to organize the new county and introduce the laws of the State among the Wyoming people.

Colonel Zebulon Butler was a hero of the French and Indian War, a colonel in the Revolution and an honored and respected citizen among the Connecticut people in the Wyoming Valley. He was now old and desired peace.

Colonel John Franklin, except in education and polish, was in no respect the inferior of Pickering. It was a wise stroke of policy to endeavor to conciliate the great Yankee leader by naming him as one of the deputies.

When Colonel Pickering arrived at Wyoming, January, 1787, he assured the Connecticut settlers that he had strong reasons to believe the Legislature would pass a law to quiet them in their possessions. Major John Jenkins, a leader of the Yankees, replied they had too often experienced the bad faith of Pennsylvania. Colonel Franklin at that moment was consulting with the Susquehanna Company on means of defeating the pacific measures of Pennsylvania.

Colonel Pickering was soon brought into collision with Franklin and Jenkins and their followers. Franklin became so aggressive in opposing the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania that Chief Justice McKean ordered his arrest by four resolute men. A scuffle ensued, in which Colonel Pickering interfered and advised them to place Colonel Franklin on a horse, with his legs tied together, and in this condition he was carried to Philadelphia. This act, of course, exposed Colonel Pickering to the vengeful resentment of Franklin’s adherents.

Colonel Pickering had taken up his abode in the Wyoming Valley, near Wilkes-Barre, to show the confidence he had that quiet would soon be restored. On June 26, 1788, at the dead of night, a party of armed men, with their faces blackened, broke into his bedroom, where he and his wife were asleep. His arms were secured with cords, and he was led off up the Susquehanna River.

Immediately on the abduction of Colonel Pickering being known, vigorous measures were adopted for his rescue. Four companies of militia were ordered out, and a thorough search for him was pursued.

It was evident from many circumstances that their object was merely to make reprisals for Colonel Franklin’s imprisonment and to endeavor to procure his release. No attempt was made upon Colonel Pickering’s life; even certain instances of respect were shown for his person and rank in society.

The party crossed Lackawannock Creek and camped in the wild glens. The Colonel endured much suffering, incident to a march through a wilderness and on account of heavy rains.

The fifth day of his captivity Colonel Pickering discovered that two of his captors were Gideon and Joseph Dudley, near neighbors of his; also two Earle brothers, two more by the name of Kilborn, and one Cady, all neighbors.

The next day they formed an iron band, with a chain attached to it, round the Colonel’s ankle and fastened the chain to a tree. They told him their “great men” said that is the way Colonel Franklin is held in Philadelphia. At night the chain was fastened to one of the party, so the Colonel could not escape without awakening him.

Colonel Pickering had no thought of escape, for he expected them to weary of their enterprise, as well as to come to an understanding of the seriousness of their crime. He also realized they could easily capture him at any time they determined.

During breakfast one of the party, who had gone for provisions, returned in great haste and told his comrades that their militia had met in battle and Captain William Ross had been seriously wounded. This battle occurred near Black Walnut Bottom, about sixteen miles above Tunkhannock.

The next day they crossed the river and went to the home of the Kilborn boys, where they kept Colonel Pickering overnight. Then they pushed back into the woods about four miles from the river. Here the party wearied of their enterprise and began to make overtures to the Colonel, suggesting they would liberate him if he would intercede with the Supreme Executive Council for the discharge of Colonel Franklin. The Colonel would make no promises, which enraged them, and once he feared they might tomahawk him.

Colonel Pickering agreed to endeavor to obtain their pardon, if they would name their “great men,” who had deceived them in planning his abduction. This they would not do.

After an imprisonment of nineteen days, during ten of which he had worn the chain, and sleeping night after night in the woods, with stones for pillows, living on scanty rations of salt pork, venison, corn bread and wintergreen tea, and without change of clothing, the Colonel was released on his own terms—which were merely that he would write a petition for them to the Executive Council, take it in person to Wilkes-Barre, and send it to Philadelphia.

In 1787 Colonel Pickering represented Luzerne County in the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the Federal constitution, but did not sign the ratification. At that period he was prothonotary, for that county, and was subsequently a member of the convention called to revise the Constitution of 1776.

President Washington appointed him Postmaster General November 7, 1791, which he held until January 2, 1795, when on the resignation of General Knox he was appointed Secretary of War. December 10, 1795, Washington made him Secretary of State, which position he held until May 12, 1800.

He was poor on leaving office, and, building a log house for his family upon some wild land that he owned in Pennsylvania, he commenced clearing it for cultivation, until discovered by some friends who enabled him to return to Salem, Mass., in 1801. He became Judge in 1802, and United States Senator from 1803 to 1811, when he was made a member of the Council. During the War of 1812 he was a member of Board of War, and then served as a member of Congress from 1815 to 1817. He died at Salem, Mass., January 29, 1829.

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Ewell’s Force of Rebels Made Raid on Carlisle June 27, 1863

General A. G. Jenkins, of the Southern Confederacy, with nearly 1000 cavalry, entered Chambersburg June 16, 1863. On June 23 his advance force re-entered the town when the Union troops fell back. On June 27 this advance force moved eastward toward Carlisle.

General Knipe, commanding the Union troops, abandoned Carlisle on the approach of the enemy, considering it a folly to offer resistance to so formidable an invader. Accordingly, the rebels were met by Colonel W. M. Penrose and Robert Allison, assistant burgess, and informed that the town was without troops and that no resistance would be made. The cavalrymen entered the town from the west about 10 o’clock Saturday morning, June 27, and rode their horses at a walk, but with their carbines in position to be used at a moment’s warning.

This force consisted of nearly 500 mounted cavalry. They passed down Main Street to the junction of the Trindle Spring and Dillsburg roads, where some of them proceeded to the garrison and the rest rode back and halted in the public square. The hotels were soon filled with officers and the streets with soldiers.

General Jenkins made a requisition on the borough authorities for 1500 rations, to be furnished in one hour and to be deposited in the market house. The demand was complied with, but not within the specified time. Soon as the troops were refreshed and their horses fed and watered the troopers remounted and rode through the streets of the town, visiting the garrison and other places of interest.

At 2 o’clock in the afternoon General Ewell’s corps marched into Carlisle, Early’s division having crossed the mountains via Fayetteville to York. The soldiers moved along shouting and laughing. The Confederate army was at this time in high spirits. The bands played “Dixie” as they swung through the town to the garrison. The condition of the troops was pitiable. The men were miserably clad, many without shoes or hats, many really ragged and dirty.

A brigade encamped upon the grounds of Dickinson College, and others at the United States garrison; guards were immediately posted and strict orders issued that no violence or outrage would be permitted. Most of the troops behaved like gentlemen, and so well did they obey their commander that but little trace of occupation by a hostile force was visible after their departure.

General Ewell and his staff, numbering thirty officers, established headquarters at the barracks. The General then dispatched one of his aides to town, with an extravagant demand on the authorities of the borough for supplies. The general wanted 1500 barrels of flour, large supplies of medicines and several cases of amputating instruments. Especially urgent was his demand for a large quantity of quinine and chloroform. The authorities could not have complied with the demand, because the articles were not to be had in Carlisle.

Strict orders were issued against the selling of intoxicating drinks to soldiers and the pillaging of private property by them.

All communication with the outside world was cut off Sunday. Services were conducted in the churches as usual and the army chaplains of the rebel regiments encamped on the campus and at the garrison conducted services for their troops. All conversations with Southern officers and soldiers led the people to believe that their movement was directed toward Harrisburg and Philadelphia.

On Monday, however, the railroad bridge was destroyed. A sigh of relief was had toward evening when rumors spread that the troops had orders to leave.

Early Tuesday morning, June 30, the trains of Rode’s division began to move, then brigade after brigade passed until the main army had disappeared by 9 o’clock, leaving less than 200 cavalrymen on provost duty in the town. These left toward evening.

Rebel pickets thronged the turnpike and the Trindle Spring road, some being very near Carlisle. Two o’clock in the afternoon about 400 cavalrymen under Colonel Cochran, entered the town from the Dillsburg road, and were soon dashing wildly through the streets, shouting, screaming and acting like madmen. During the night the entire Confederate force left Carlisle and the town was clear of rebels.

At sunrise on Wednesday Captain Boyd’s efficient command of Union troops entered Carlisle, and after a hearty meal he started in pursuit of the departing enemy. During all of this day regiment after regiment arrived and took position along the streets and in the public square. A battery of artillery arrived toward evening.

After 6 o’clock General Smith arrived, bringing three regiments of infantry and about one hundred cavalry. The General posted his artillery for action. This had hardly been done, when, at 7 o’clock, a body of rebel cavalry under command of General Fitzhugh Lee, made its appearance at the junction of the Trindle Spring and Dillsburg roads. These troops at first were supposed to be a portion of our own forces. Their boldness was well calculated to produce such an impression.

The call to arms brought the infantry into position. Members of the local militia companies, commanded by Captains Low, Kuhn, Black and Smiley, each on his own account, hurried to the eastern section of the town and, selecting secure positions, opened a very effective fire on the invading cavalry, which compelled them to fall back.

Soon the shelling of the town commenced, which was kept up nearly an hour. This was followed by raking Main Street with grape and canister until nearly dark, when a rebel officer came in with a flag of truce to General Smith’s headquarters, demanding an unconditional surrender of the town. General Smith refused and the officer, bearing the flag of truce, returned to his command.

Then began a second shelling of the town, more terrific than the first. To add to the general consternation the rebels applied the torch; the gas works, barracks, dwellings, stores, etc., were fired. Again an officer interviewed General Smith and again he refused to surrender.

A third bombardment commenced, which, however, did not last long. By 3 o’clock Thursday morning the rebel command left by way of Boiling Spring road, thence across South Mountain for Gettysburg, to join General Robert E. Lee’s forces in the great battle which had opened there the previous day.

During the bombardment of Carlisle not one citizen was killed, neither was a Union soldier, but fifteen of the latter were wounded.

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British Flag Captured by Pennsylvanians in Battle of Monmouth June 28, 1778

Just before dawn June 18, 1778, the British began their evacuation of Philadelphia. They crossed the Delaware, and that evening encamped around Haddonfield, N. J.

The news of this evacuation reached Washington, at Valley Forge, before morning. He immediately sent General Maxwell, with his brigade, to co-operate with the New Jersey militia, under General Dickinson, in retarding the march of the British.

They were 17,000 strong, marching in two divisions, one under Cornwallis and the other led by Knyphausen.

General Arnold, whose wounds kept him from the field, entered Philadelphia with a detachment before the rear guard of the British had left it. The remainder of the army, under the immediate command of Washington, crossed the Delaware above Trenton and pursued.

General Clinton had intended to march to New Brunswick and embark his army for New York, but, finding Washington’s army in his path, he turned toward Monmouth Court House. Washington followed him in a parallel line, prepared to strike him whenever an opportunity should offer. But Clinton wished to avoid a battle, for he was encumbered with baggage, wagons and a host of camp followers, which made his line twelve miles in length. He encamped in Freehold on the night of June 27, and there Washington resolved to strike him if he should move the next morning.

General Lee was in command of the advanced corps. Washington ordered him to form a plan of attack, but he failed to do so, or to forward any orders to Generals Wayne, Lafayette or Maxwell, who called upon him.

On the morning of June 28, a hot Sabbath, Washington was told Clinton was about to move, and he ordered Lee to fall upon the British rear, but he was so tardy that the enemy had ample time to prepare for battle. When Lee did move he had no plan for battle, and his orders so perplexed his generals that they requested Washington to appear on the field with the main army immediately.

Wayne attacked with vigor, with a sure prospect of victory, Lee ordered him only to make a feint. Clinton, at that moment changed front, and sent a large force against Wayne; Lafayette sensed the situation and asked Lee for permission to gain the rear of the British. At first he refused, then ordered him to attack Clinton’s left. At the same time he weakened Wayne’s detachment by taking three regiments from it to support the right. While Wayne was in a desperate struggle Lee’s courage weakened and he withdrew, saying that the temerity of Wayne had brought against him the whole flower of the British army.

Washington was pressing forward to the support of Lee, when he learned that his division was in full retreat. Washington, angered at the actions of Lee, ordered Wayne with three Pennsylvania regiments and two others from Virginia and Maryland to stop the British pursuit.

The British, about 7000 strong, attempted to turn the American left flank, but were repulsed and disappointed. A severe battle ensued, in which the Americans did great execution. For a while the result seemed doubtful, when General Wayne came up with his troops and gave victory to the Americans.

Colonel Henry Monckton tried to drive Wayne from his position, leading his troops in a bayonet charge. So terrible was Wayne’s storm of bullets that almost every British officer was slain, Colonel Monckton being among the killed.

The battle ended at twilight, when both armies rested on their weapons, prepared for another conflict at dawn. But Clinton withdrew his army so silently, that he was far away when the American sentinels discovered his flight in the morning. Washington did not pursue.

The British lost 1000 by desertion while crossing New Jersey, and they left 245 on the field. The Americans lost 228 killed, wounded and missing.

It was during part of this action that Molly McKolly, wife of an artilleryman in Proctor’s regiment, carried water for the thirsty soldiers, and when her husband was wounded, an officer ordered the piece to be withdrawn.

Molly dropped her pitcher, seized the rammer and, displaying great courage and presence of mind, kept the gun in action. She performed the duty with a skill and daring that attracted the attention of all who saw her. On the following morning, covered with dirt and blood, General Greene presented her to Washington, who, admiring her bravery, conferred upon her the commission of sergeant.

She was called Captain Molly, and became a heroine, always afterward known as “Molly Pitcher.” A monument on the battlefield at Monmouth attests to her act, and her grave in the Carlisle, Pa., cemetery is marked by a stone and cannon.

John Blair Linn, in his Annals of Buffalo Valley, says that the flag of the Royal Grenadiers and the sword of Colonel Monckton were captured on the field of Monmouth by Captain William Wilson, of Northumberland County.

The flag is five feet four inches by four feet eight, lemon color ground, heavy corded silk; the device at upper right corner is twenty inches square, British Union, consisting of the cross of St. George and St. Andrew’s Cross. The field of the device is blue, the central stripes red, the marginal ones white.

When Monckton waved his sword and ordered his grenadiers to charge and Wayne met them with a deadly fire, the colors were in advance, to the right, with the colonel, and they went down with him. Captain Wilson and his company, who were on the right of the First Pennsylvania, made a rush for the colors and the body of the brave colonel.

Captain Wilson gave Monckton’s sword to General Wayne, who presented it to General Lafayette, who took it with him to Europe. When he returned to the United States in 1824, he brought the sword with him, intending to restore it in person to Captain Wilson.

Captain Wilson having died in 1813, General Lafayette handed the sword to Colonel Samuel Hunter, who turned it over to Judge A. S. Wilson, a son of Captain William Wilson.

The flag has frequently been brought into requisition in patriotic demonstrations in subsequent years. It is still in the possession of descendants of Captain Wilson, now residents of Bellefonte.

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Duke of York Receives New Patent for His Grant, June 29, 1674

The English claimed the right to the country upon the South, or Delaware River, because of the fact that John Cabot sailed up and down the Atlantic coast.

Captain Thomas Young and his nephew, Robert Evelin, under a commission from King Charles “to go forth and discover lands in America,” arrived in the South River July 24, 1634. They remained at the mouth of the Schuylkill five days, and made two attempts to pass beyond the falls near Trenton. They built a fort at a place called Eriwoneck, probably the site of Philadelphia.

In 1635 the governor of Virginia sent fifteen armed men, under command of Captain George Holmes, to the South River, and they took possession of Fort Nassau and the contiguous country. The Dutch governor of New Netherland promptly sent a force which recaptured the fort and made prisoners of Holmes and his invaders.

In 1641 New Haven merchants and planters sent George Lamberton and Nathaniel Turner to make land purchases on the South River. They bought from the Indians and built a block house, to which place about sixty persons from Connecticut settled. The venture proved profitable, and soon other colonists arrived, and many houses were built near the mouth of the Schuylkill.

The Swedes and Dutch both protested and in May, 1642, two sloops arrived from Manhattan with instructions to expel the English quietly, if possible, but by force, if necessary. The Dutch were compelled to use force, sent the English prisoners to Manhattan and burned their improvements.

Charles II having been restored to the throne of Great Britain, he granted to his brother, James, Duke of York, later King of England, the lands lying between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers. The duke fitted out an expedition, sailed to the mouth of the Hudson, and demanded the surrender, which was made August 27, 1664.

This expedition then proceeded to the Delaware and November 3 forced the surrender of that colony. Colonel Robert Carr was appointed Deputy Governor.

This conquest caused a war between Great Britain and Holland, which ended in favor of the former. The City of New Amsterdam became City of New York; Fort Orange became Albany; the South River became Delaware River, and New Amstel became New Castle.

Colonel Richard Nicholls governed the territory with justice and good sense until August, 1668, when he was succeeded by Colonel Francis Lovelace.

The first rebellion in the country was stirred up about this time, 1669, when Konigsmark, known as the “Long Finn,” with another Finn, named Henry Coleman, who understood the Indian language, went about preaching sedition and creating disturbances among settlers and Indians.

Madame Papegoja, daughter of former Governor Printz, and Carolus Lock, the Swedish preacher, were said to have been adherents. Konigsmark was finally captured, put in irons, publicly whipped, branded with the letter “R” (for Rebellion), and sold into slavery in Barbados.

George Fox, the founder of the sect of Quakers, arrived from England and rode through New Jersey, crossed the Delaware where is now Burlington by swimming his horse. He then rode thirty miles that day and slept on some straw in the house of a Swede. This was in 1672, and the coming of this visitor had great significance for the future of Pennsylvania.

The Maryland Government sent a surveyor in April, 1672, to survey lands in the Delaware Colony for Lord Baltimore. In a few months a more warlike demonstration was made, when a detail of thirty, commanded by one Jones, rode into the Horekill and “bound the magistrates and inhabitants, despitefully treated them, rifled and plundered them of their goods,” and when it was demanded “by what authority were these proceedings,” it was answered with a “cock’t pistol to the breast of the impudent questioner.” Jones seized all the Indian goods and skins, drove a spike into the touch-hole of the great gun, and seized all the small arms and mill stones.

War again broke out between Great Britain and Holland in March, 1672, and had its consequent effect on the affairs along the Delaware.

In August Governor Lovelace declared that the war included those in America. The blow fell suddenly at New York, and Lovelace was taken while on a visit in Connecticut.

A Dutch fleet appeared before New York, July 30, 1673, of such superior strength that effective resistance was impossible. The fort capitulated and New York again became a Dutch city.

The Delaware colony made no resistance; the English were too few in numbers, the Dutch too willing, and the Swedes too indifferent. Peter Alricks again became the commander of the Delaware River.

The renewed Dutch Government lasted only a year, when, by the treaty of Westminster, February 19, 1674, New Netherland was finally ceded to Great Britain.

On June 29, 1674, King Charles gave a new grant to the Duke of York, who appointed Major Edmund Andros governor.

Andros set up a court at Upland in which were settled the controversies of the settlers. He reinstated in office those who had been magistrates at the time of the Dutch conquest, Peter Alricks excepted.

The administration of Andros continued quite seven years, during which the only courts in what is now Pennsylvania were held at Upland. Nearly always the justices were Swedes.

The settlers above Christina Creek formed what later became the Pennsylvania Community. The settlers above the creek attended court at Upland, those below obtained justice at New Castle. This marked division was made November 12, 1678, and from that date the designation “county” became commonly employed.

Swedes’ Mill on Cobb’s Creek set up by Printz, in 1643, continued in use, but another was now built below New Castle. Others were built afterward.

At this time there were no roads, simply paths for man or horse, and cartways where merchandise was to be transported. Such were indicated by blazed trees. November, 1678, the court ordered “that every person should within the space of two months, as far as his land reaches, make good and passable ways from neighbor to neighbor, with bridges where needed, to the end that neighbors on occasion may come together.”

The time now approached when the lands along the shores of the Delaware became a place of refuge for all the sect of Quakers, and March 4, 1681, William Penn received a patent for the lands in America, to which the King gave the name Pennsylvania.

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Provincial Government and Indians Open Conference June 30, 1742

In September, 1737, occurred the so-called “Walking Purchase,” by which there passed from the lands of the Delaware Indians into those of the Proprietaries, the upper portion of Bucks County, a large slice of Carbon County, and one-fourth each of Monroe and Pike counties, an area of 1200 square miles. The “walk” upon which the purchase was made was a deception and as a consequence caused trouble for the Proprietaries for many years.

The lands at the “Forks” of the Delaware were still in the occupancy of the Delaware in 1741, although the Six Nations had ordered the Delaware to remove to the Susquehanna.

In October, 1741, a Cayuga deputation returned to their county from Philadelphia bearing with them to the “Long House” of the Six Nations a message from the Lieutenant Governor urging the Six Nations “to come down and force the Delaware to quit the 'Forks’.”

In response to this appeal 230 Indians from the Six Nations, including the principal chiefs and sachems, arrived at Philadelphia June 30, 1742, and found awaiting them a number of Pennsylvania Indians, including Shikellamy, the vicegerent of the Six Nations; Allummapees, King of the Delaware, also from Shamokin, and a large delegation from the Forks of the Susquehanna, representing the different clans. All the tribes of the Six Nations were represented except the Mohawk.

In a message to the Provincial Assembly, Governor Thomas stated the coming of the Six Nations at this time “was not necessary for the present peace of the province, but for the province’s future security, likewise, in case of a rupture with the French, who will leave no methods unessayed to corrupt the Six Nations’ fidelity and to persuade them to turn their arms against us.” At this time declaration of war between England and France was daily expected.

The conference between the Governor and the Council on the one side and the Six Nations on the other lasted until July 12, during which time eight sessions were held. The Council opened in the house of James Logan, then met at “the Great Meeting House,” where the last meeting was held in the presence of “a great number of the inhabitants of Philadelphia.” Conrad Weiser was present as interpreter for the Government and the Six Nations and Cornelius Spring and Nicholas Scull appeared for the Delaware.

In opening the conference the Governor referred to the fact that the Six Nations, at the time they had released their claim to all the lands on both sides of the Susquehanna as far north as the Kittatinny Mountains, had declined to take their pay for the lands on the west side of the river, preferring to receive the same at some future time. He then announced that the goods to be given in payment for those lands were ready for delivery to the Indians.

In reply to the Governor, Canassatego, chief of the Onondaga and principal speaker of the Indians at the conference, said, among other things: “The Six Nations have obligated themselves to sell none of the land that falls within the province of Pennsylvania to any but our Brother Onas, and that to sell lands to any other is an high breach of the league of friendship.”

The Governor replied that they were correct in their position.

On the seventh day the Governor referred to the trouble with the “Forks” Indians, to which Canassatego replied that the deputies would take the matter into consideration and give an answer in a few days. Three days later Canassatego arose and said:

“The other day you informed us of the misbehavior of our Cousins the Delawares, with respect to their continuing to claim and refusing to remove from some land on the Delaware notwithstanding their ancestors had sold it by deed upwards of fifty years ago, and notwithstanding they themselves had about five years ago ratified that deed and given a fresh one. We have concluded to remove them and oblige them to go over the river Delaware and to quit all claim to any lands on this side for the future, since they have received pay for them and it has gone through their guts long ago.”

Then turning toward the Delaware and holding a belt of wampum in his hand, Canassatego continued: “Cousins—Let this belt of wampum serve to chastise you. You ought to be taken by the hair of the head and shaked severely till you recover your senses and become sober. You don’t know what ground you stand on, nor what you are doing. Our Brother Onas’ case is very just and plain * * * on the other hand your cause is bad.

“But how came you to take upon you to sell land at all? We conquered you! We made women of you! You know you are women and can no more sell land than women. Nor is it fit you should have the power of selling lands, since you would abuse it.” The old chief concluded his cutting arraignment as follows:

“We don’t give you the liberty to think about it. You are women. Take the advice of a wise man and remove immediately. We therefore assign you two places to go—either to Wyoming or Shamokin. You may go to either of these places and then we shall have you more under our eye and shall see how you behave. Don’t deliberate, but remove away and take this belt of wampum.”

The old chief handed them the wampum and told the Delaware that, as there was other business to transact, they should depart from the council. There was no diplomatic mincing of words in the speech of the Onondaga chief. He spoke with the air of one having authority. This speech scattered seed which in time caused more bloodshed in peaceful Pennsylvania than the “Walking Purchase” ever did.

In 1815, John Watson, of Bucks County, wrote of this speech: “When this terrible sentence was ended, it is said that the unfeeling political philosopher (Canassatego) walked forward, and, taking strong hold of the long hair of King Nutimus, of the Delaware, led him to the door and forcibly sent him out of the room, and stood there while all the trembling inferiors followed him. He then walked back to his place like another Cato, and calmly proceeded to another subject as if nothing had happened. The poor fellows (Nutimus and his company), in great and silent grief, went directly home, collected their families and goods, and, burning their cabins to signify they were never to return, marched reluctantly to their new homes.”

Leaving their wigwams on the banks of their favorite Delaware, the once powerful Lenni Lenape commenced their march westward. A portion went to Shamokin, a few settled on the Juniata, near Lewistown, but the greater part of them, under their chief Tadame, went to Wyoming.

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Decisive Battle of Gettysburg Opened Wednesday, July 1, 1863

The Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 2 and 3, 1863, marked the high tide of the Civil War. Here General Robert E. Lee hoped to win a victory which would compel the withdrawal of Union troops from other parts of the country, secure recognition of the Confederacy by foreign Governments, carry panic into the North and furnish supplies for his hungry troops.

Fresh from his brilliant victory at Chancellorsville, he moved north until his van was within sight of Harrisburg, and there, learning that General George G. Meade was in close pursuit, Lee turned his army to meet him, and Gettysburg became the scene of the decisive battle.

The battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest of the Civil War and the most terrible battle in the world’s history previous to the World’s War, and probably greater than any single action in that gigantic conflict.

The Union losses in the three days’ battle were 23,000, and the Confederate losses were probably as high in killed, wounded, captured and missing, as 29,000.

At Gettysburg was concentrated Lee’s magnificent and confident army of Confederate troops, which had invaded Pennsylvania through the Cumberland Valley, and was then on its way to Philadelphia, and then to Baltimore and Washington. The advance of Ewell’s corps marched as far as Wrightsville, seventy-five miles from Philadelphia, or only four days’ march and had watered their horses in the Susquehanna River. There the mile-long Columbia-Wrightsville bridge was burned to prevent the rebels from crossing the river.

The concentration of his forces at Gettysburg was forced upon General Lee by the rapid movement of General Hooker with the Federal army, who hurried northward, as soon as Washington was uncovered, to intercept the invading host, and so to loosen the grip it had upon the fair valleys, rich with ripe grain and teeming with money, horses, cattle, clothing, shoes and provisions. Curiously, the Southern army came into Gettysburg from the North and the Northern army came in from the South.

Lee’s army was in fine condition and Hooker’s was recently reorganized into a great machine. The two armies were well matched. Each had approximately 80,000 men, including 10,000 cavalry to each; the Union had 327 pieces of artillery, and the Southern army only forty less pieces. The main difference was in commanders, for the Federal army had at Gettysburg, a new and untried commander, General Meade, who only three days before the battle had superseded General Hooker, and had with him two new corps commanders, Sykes and Newton, while the Confederate army under Lee had their able and accomplished Longstreet as well as the competent A. P. Hill and renowned Ewell in command of their three corps.

Excluding the ground of the great cavalry fight between Gregg and Stuart on the afternoon of July 3, on the Rommel farm three miles east of Gettysburg, where for hours these skillful generals fought for possession of the field in the immediate rear of the Union army, the area of the battlefield was about twenty square miles.

Lee’s intention had been to have Stuart’s cavalry strike the Union army from the rear the same moment Pickett was carrying the line in the front. The first skirmish in the great battle occurred June 27, when part of Early’s command, on their way to the Susquehanna, drove the Twenty-fifth Pennsylvania Emergency Regiment out of the borough.

On June 30, Buford’s cavalrymen, reconnoitering out on the Cashtown road, one of the seven prominent roads which converge at Gettysburg, ran into some of Pettigrew’s infantry and in the evening of that day, Colonel Gamble stationed his pickets along Marsh Creek.

Early in the following morning, July 1, Pettigrew’s Division advanced toward the town, and at Willoughby Run, with his whole brigade dismounted, Gamble held back the Confederates for two hours. Buford had advised General John F. Reynolds of this expected encounter; he placed the first division of his First Army Corps upon the road, and he then hurried forward the few miles to meet General Buford.

The two rode out the Cashtown Pike, where a conference was held at 9 o’clock. Reynolds then hurried back to his advancing troops to spur them forward and as he was leading the foremost regiment into the woods he was struck in the head and instantly killed. So passed away the greatest soldier in the Army of the Potomac.

An hour later Archer’s Brigade was captured by the Federals near Willoughby Run. Then followed two hours’ lull, during which the Confederates were preparing their lines to sweep the Union troops off Seminary Ridge. General Doubleday skillfully met this attack by throwing his two Pennsylvania brigades (of the Third Division, First Corps) into the front line, Biddle’s on the north of the woods and Stone’s on the south, both in open ground; the Second Division to the woods on the road toward Carlisle.

For three hours these fresh troops received the assaults of the enemy ten times their number, and when night came it was learned that Doubleday’s Corps had been reduced from 9403 officers and men to 2400, the 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers out of 380 men and seventeen officers brought back eighty men and only one officer not wounded. The 121st, 142d, 143d, 149th and 151st Pennsylvania all lost quite as heavily.

While the First Corps was thus engaged, General Howard with the Eleventh Corps came down the Emmetsburg road onto the field. Three divisions were started for Oak Hill, that they might hold it against Ewell’s Corps, coming back from near Harrisburg. Unfortunately the enemy had already seized the hill and Howard was forced into the open, but his two divisions were skillfully placed, and for two hours he sustained an unequal and hopeless fight, being forced back to Cemetery Hill, just as Doubleday had been, and at about the same time.

Among the incidents of the first day’s fight was the appearance on the field of John Burns, citizen, who came out from town dressed in a swallow tail coat with brass buttons on it, wearing a tall hat and his pockets full of powder and balls and a musket which he had used in the Mexican War. He approached the firing line, where Major Thomas Chamberlin, of the 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers was standing, and begged to be allowed to fight with that regiment. While discussing the matter, he was advised to go into the woods and fight from behind a tree, which the old man did, receiving three wounds, for which Pennsylvania has erected to his memory a handsome statue, located on the ground where the 150th fought.

One civilian killed was Jennie Wade, eighteen years old, who was struck by a stray shot as she was baking bread in her home.

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Sickles’ Corps Holds Confederates Off Both Round Tops at Gettysburg July 2, 1863

During the night of July 1 the two army commanders hurried up their troops to Gettysburg, but it was on the night of July 2 before the last of Sedgwick’s Sixth Corps and the last of Longstreet’s First Corps came into position. Meantime, at Hanover Junction, twelve miles east of Gettysburg, Kilpatrick was fighting Stuart, and, having whipped him and forced the enemy cavalry around to the left and rear of the Confederate Army, he took his position on the west of the Emmetsburg road, a mile and a half from Peach Orchard, on the left flank of the Union Army.

On July 2 General Daniel E. Sickles, with his Third Corps, came up. He was assigned to a position on the “left of Hancock,” and occupied the Emmetsburg road as far as the Peach Orchard, throwing his left toward Round Top. He was hardly in position before Longstreet enveloped the Union line, where, for five hours, from 3 until 8 o’clock, the battle raged furiously, the scene changing from the Peach Orchard to the Wheatfield and from there to the valley between Round Top and back again to the Devil’s Den and again back to the Wheatfield.

The interposition of Sickles’ corps between the Confederate Army and Round Top was what Longstreet least desired, for he intended to make a vigorous attack upon that strategic position, but the Union forces obtained the eminence just as the enemy was ascending the western slope.

In the desperate struggle for Little Round Top four Union generals were killed. On the Wheatfield two colonels were killed, and near the Peach Orchard General Sickles lost his leg.

In the second day’s fight Hood was wounded, but, minus a leg and an arm, he commanded the Western Confederate Army and fought Sherman near Atlanta.

The Confederate forces had pushed the Federal line back half a mile, but had failed to seize either Big or Little Round Top, and each side had suffered frightfully in killed and wounded.

When Longstreet opened his battle behind Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill it was expected that Ewell would attack the Union lines in front. He did not hear Longstreet’s guns and failed to attack until 7 o’clock in the evening, when, supported by numerous guns in a hot artillery fire, the Louisiana Tigers and North Carolina brigade of Early’s division stormed East Cemetery Hill, carrying everything before them, even to clubbing Wiedrich’s artillerymen in their hastily thrown up intrenchments. But Carroll’s brigade of infantrymen was back of the guns across the Baltimore pike, and this brigade Hancock personally led against the foe, with the result that the Union guns and positions were saved and the Louisiana Tigers as an organization went out of existence.

Ewell, failing to win East Cemetery Hill, at 7 o’clock pushed Johnson’s troops against the enemy on the east side of Culp’s Hill, and, after an hour’s fighting, gained a lodgment in part of the works of the Twelfth Corps, which had been vacated by troops called to aid in defending the line on the extreme left against the attack of Longstreet.

Johnson’s troops pushed their advance by 9 o’clock as far as the Baltimore road; but on account of darkness and fearful of being led into a trap, did not go farther. In this contest the Confederates secured Spangler’s Spring, but all through the long night boys of both sides filled their canteens at the gurgling fountain.

At daybreak on the morning of July 3 General Slocum, of the Twelfth Corps, made a successful attempt to drive the Confederates from the Union breastworks they had gained the previous night, and for six hours the woods howled with shot and shell, as this was one of the most desperate battles. Slowly, but surely, foot by foot, the Union troops advanced until the breastworks were wrested from the enemy, who was forced back across Rock Creek. This ended the Battle of Gettysburg, so far as Ewell’s and Slocum’s corps of the two sides were considered.

From 10 until 1 there was an ominous silence over the whole field in both armies. Then came the shot and shell from 150 Confederate guns posted along Seminary Ridge, directed upon the center of the Union line, and immediately 150 guns on the Union side responded, and for nearly two hours the earth trembled.

General Hunt ordered the Federal pieces to cease firing to cool off, while he replaced disabled guns with fresh ones and replenished his supply of ammunition for the assault which was sure to come.

Lee thought the Union guns were silenced from exhaustion and promptly gave orders for 15,000 of Longstreet’s and A. P. Hill’s choicest troops to force the Federal line. Pickett was in front with his 5500 men, and bravely they marched on and on when the charge commenced. From there it was a rush, until on and beyond the stone wall, at the Angle, both sides mingled in wildest disorder, shooting and clubbing each other in a hand-to-hand struggle that seemed to have no end. One by one the Confederates threw down their arms and sought retreat.

Of Pickett’s 5500 men, 224 had been killed, 1140 wounded and 1499 surrendered. Out of fifteen Confederate flags, twelve were left with the Federals, only three with the few brave troops making their way back to the Southland.

On this third day of the battle General Hancock was carried off the field badly wounded.

While Pickett was making his charge, Stuart, with the Rebel cavalry, endeavored to break the Union line in the center of the rear, but there he met General David McMurtrie Gregg, of Berks county, in command of the Union cavalry, and was defeated in the most important cavalry battle of the war.

All night long after the battle, Lee pushed his trains to the river through Fairfield Gap, and on July 4 he commenced to move his army; by the 14th he had carried it safely across the Potomac into Virginia.

Gettysburg was a drawn battle, yet, strange to state, was the decisive battle of the war and was treated by both sides and by the world as a great Union victory. The Gettysburg campaign was the last of several incursions upon Northern soil. Lee was afterward on the defensive.

While all the Northern states contributed their courage and manhood, Gettysburg, in its location, its leadership, and its incidents, was essentially a Pennsylvania battle.

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British and Indians Massacre Hundreds at Wyoming July 3, 1778

The year 1778 brought great distress and fear to the frontier generally, but particularly to Wyoming. The defeat and surrender of Burgoyne, at Saratoga, in October, 1777, had left the British without sufficient available force in America to carry on a regular campaign for this year, and as the war was to be continued, the only resource left to the British commanders was to employ the Indians and Tories almost exclusively in carrying on a war of desolation on the frontier.

Late in June Colonel John Butler, with his own Tory rangers, a detachment of Sir John Johnson’s Royal Greens, and a large body of Indians, chiefly Seneca, descended the Susquehanna. This force numbered about 400 British and Tories, and 700 Indians.

At Fort Jenkins, the uppermost in the valley, were gathered the families of John Jenkins, Hardings, Gardners and others. This fort capitulated July 2, to a force under Captain Caldwell. Four defenders were killed and three taken prisoners.

Wintermoot’s Fort was one mile below Fort Jenkins, with a view, as afterward appeared, to aiding the Tories. Soon as the enemy appeared Wintermoot’s Fort at once threw open its gates, and here the British and Tories assembled.

There were several stockades at Wyoming, but no other means of defense than small arms. No one of the forts was able to hold out an hour against such a force as the enemy mustered. Some of the old men formed themselves into companies to garrison these forts and yield such protection as they could.

Colonel Zebulon Butler happened to be home from the Continental Army, and assumed command of the settlers. History does not record an instance of more courage displayed or more gallant devotion. There was no alternative but to fight and conquer, or die, for to retreat with their families was impossible.

On July 3 they marched out to meet the enemy. Colonel Butler commanded the right wing, aided by Major Garrett. Colonel Dennison commanded the left, assisted by Lieutenant Colonel George Dorrance. The field of fight was a plain only partly cleared. Opposed to Colonel Zebulon Butler, of Wyoming, was Colonel John Butler, with his Tory rangers, in their green uniforms.

It was between 4 and 5 o’clock when the engagement began, but the enemy outnumbered the defenders nearly three to one, and they were soon able to outflank them, especially on the left, where was a swamp exactly suited for savage warfare.

The Wyoming men fell rapidly, and it became impossible to maintain the position. Colonel Dennison gave an order to fall back, so as to present a better front to the enemy, but the command was mistaken as a signal for retreat.

The fiendish enemy sprang forward, raised horrid yells, rushed in with tomahawk and spear, and slaughtered the Americans.

There are related many instances of personal and heroic bravery on part of both officers and men. They deserved a better fate, but the battle was lost.

Then followed the most dreadful massacre in the annals of Pennsylvania—the most heart-rending tortures. The brave soldiers were slaughtered without mercy, principally in the flight, and after surrendering themselves prisoners of war.

Prisoners taken under solemn promise of quarter were gathered together, and placed in circles. Sixteen men were arranged around one large stone, since known as the bloody rock. Surrounded by a body of powerful Indians, Queen Esther Montour, a fury in the form of a woman, assumed the office of executioner, and with the death maul or tomahawk, she passed round the circle and dashed out the brains of each prisoner.

Three strong men named Hammond, Lebbens and Joseph Elliott escaped by a desperate effort. In another similar ring nine persons were slain in the same manner. Many were shot swimming the river and hunted out and killed in their hiding places. Only sixty of those who went into the battle survived. The forts were filled with widows and orphans. It is said that 150 widows and six orphans were the result of the battle.[3]

Footnote 3:

It is believed that the Indians secured 227 scalps in this battle. The poet, Campbell, has told this dread tale in his “Gertrude of Wyoming.”

About two-thirds of those who went out fell. Naked, panting and bloody, a few who had escaped, rushed into Wilkes-Barre Fort where they told the dreadful news that all was lost. Mr. Hollenback, who swam the river amid the shots of the enemy, was the first to spread the appalling news. They fled to the mountains and down the river. Their sufferings were terrible, and they were almost famished for want of bread. In one party of nearly a hundred there was but a single man.

In Forty Fort they heard the firing distinctly, and their spirits were high, until they learned the dreadful news. The first fugitives reached the fort in the evening, and then a few others arrived during the night. Colonel Dennison also came in, and rallied the little band for defense. He succeeded the next day in entering into a capitulation for the settlement with Colonel John Butler, by which doubtless many lives were saved.

The enemy marched in, six abreast, the British and Tories at the northern gate, the Indians at the southern. On paper the terms of capitulation were fair, but the Indians immediately began to rob and burn, plunder and destroy. Even when appealed to, Tory Butler did not put a stop to it. But the Indians did not take life within the fort, only confined themselves to wanton plunder and insult.

When night fell the blaze of twenty dwellings lighted up the valley. In almost every house and field the murderous work was performed.

When the moon rose, the terrified survivors of the massacre fled to the Poconos and beyond to Stroudsburg. In the morasses of the dreadful wilderness many women and children perished, these places are still called “Shades of Death.”

In a few days Colonel Butler led the chief part of his army away, but the Indians continued in the valley burning and plundering, until nearly every building was consumed and it was clearly shown that the articles of capitulation afforded no security.

Soon after the battle Captain Spalding, with a company from Stroudsburg, took possession of the desolate valley, and rebuilt the fort at Wilkes-Barre. Colonel Thomas Hartley marched from Fort Muncy, on the West Branch, along the Sheshequin trail up into what is now Bradford County, and burned the Indian villages at Wyalusing, Sheshequin and Tioga, and cut off a part of the enemy who were taking a boat-load of plunder from Wyoming.

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Declaration of Independence Adopted by Congress July 4, 1776

Continental Congress was confronted with a serious situation when it convened in the early winter of 1775.

John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, continued to be one of the most important members. He was placed on the committee to correspond with foreign Powers and was intrusted with the framing of the Articles of Confederation.

The majority of Congress were now determined to destroy the authority of the British King, and, although Dickinson held the Pennsylvania delegation, with the exception of Benjamin Franklin, to his own views, the progress of events changed the public sentiment in the province. Many were to be found who, while they regretted the cruel necessity, were now ready to give up the name Englishmen. The Assembly sensed this growing feeling and at length released the delegates from former instruction and left the matter to their own judgment.

A committee with John Dickinson, the author of the Farmer’s Letters, at its head, reported:

“The happiness of these Colonies has during the whole course of this fatal controversy been our first wish; their reconciliation with Great Britain our next. Ardently have we prayed for the accomplishment of both. But if we must renounce the one or the other we humbly trust in the mercies of the Supreme Governor of the universe that we shall not stand condemned before His throne if our choice is determined by the overruling law of self-preservation which His divine wisdom has thought proper to implant in the hearts of His creatures.”

Congress now resolved itself into a committee of the whole on the question of independence. Many of the illustrious members of Congress advocated it with great warmth, principally John Adams, of Massachusetts; R. R. Livingstone, of New York, and Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, while James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, joined with John Dickinson in opposing it.

Wilson avowed, that notwithstanding the recall of the instructions against independence by the Assembly, his own sentiments remained the same. Dickinson declared that America could be wisely governed by the King and Parliament, not as independent, but as subject States. He believed the restraining power of the King and Parliament was indispensable to protect the Colonies from disunion and civil war. The debate was adjourned until July 1, and when Congress again took up the question James Wilson had turned for independence.

Adams led the debate in favor, and Dickinson on the side opposing it. The time had not come for independence; he feared disunion among the Colonies. He pointed out that foreign aid would not be obtained without success in battle. He believed the Colonies ought at least have agreed upon the terms of their own confederation, as had been begun, and it would have been well to have fixed the bounds of each colony. Dickinson’s argument was sound and proved he had a correct grasp on public affairs, for even after the long war for independence the Colonies were divided.

Pennsylvania had been maintaining a border war with Virginia for the possession of the lands west of the Allegheny Mountains, and another and more serious war with Connecticut because of the conflicting or misunderstood boundaries.

New York had a similar dispute with Connecticut and New Hampshire, the latter contesting the region which has since become the State of Vermont. Further trouble was also to be expected as population pushed toward the West, the older colonies claiming under their original charters as far as the Pacific Ocean.

In committee, when Richard Henry Lee’s resolution declaring independence was up for vote, Dickinson, Morris, Willing and Humphreys voted against it, making a majority of the delegation from Pennsylvania, but every other colony, excepting Delaware, voted in favor of the resolution. Franklin, Wilson and Morton voted in favor of independence.

As far-seeing a man as John Dickinson was, he could not fully comprehend the idea of a separate existence of the Colonies from the mother country, and yet no purer patriot breathed the air of freedom. A zealous advocate of liberty, it was his words that startled the Colonies and struck the keynote which aroused the energies of the provincialists and made them contend for independence. Notwithstanding his overcautiousness, the declaration having been determined on, Dickinson entered heartily into its support and took an active part in all the affairs transpiring in the Colonies—even wielding his sword in the cause.

On July 2, 1776, the resolution being reported by the Committee of the Whole, came before the House. Dickinson and Morris made no further opposition, but by absenting themselves allowed the Keystone State, which Pennsylvania’s population and geographical position made her, to be put into the national arch then being erected.

John Morton is credited with casting the decisive vote. He felt the great responsibility and with it odium which he incurred in the locality which he lived. His health broke and he died the following year. From his deathbed he sent this protest to the friends who had turned from him: “Tell them they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge my signing of the Declaration of Independence to have been the most glorious service that I ever rendered my country.”

Pending the consideration of this important question of independence, a committee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and R. R. Livingstone, was appointed to prepare a Declaration of Independence. Jefferson and Adams were named a subcommittee, and the original draft of this eloquent manifesto was made by Jefferson. It was adopted by the committee without amendment and reported to Congress on June 28.

On July 4, having received some alterations, it was sanctioned by the vote of every Colony. Of the Pennsylvania delegation, Dickinson and Morris were absent when the vote was taken; Franklin, Wilson and Morton voted for, and Willing and Humphreys voted against it.

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Massacre at Wyoming Followed by “The Great Runaway” on July 5, 1778

The great massacre at Wyoming occurred on July 3, 1778, and as the news passed down the North Branch of the Susquehanna and spread over the hills and valleys leading to the West Branch Valley it caused a general stampede, a wild, precipitate flight of the settlers from the upper region which has ever since been known as the “Great Runaway.”

The history of Pennsylvania has failed to record any flight of its inhabitants, either in numbers or the harrowing details of its movement, comparable with this catastrophe.

Within two days following the massacre the news had penetrated the entire North Branch Valley and had reached as far up the West Branch Valley as Fort Antes, now Jersey Shore.

On July 9 Colonel Samuel Hunter, the county lieutenant and commandant of the garrison at Fort Augusta (Sunbury), wrote to the Governor:

“Nothing but a firm reliance upon Divine Providence and the virtue of our neighbors induces the few to stand that remain; and if they are not speedily re-enforced they must give way; but will have this consolation, that they have stood in defense of their liberty and country as long as they could. In justice to this county (Northumberland) I must bear testimony that the States never applied to it for men in vain.

“I am sure the State must know that we have reduced ourselves to our present feeble condition by our readiness to turn out upon all occasions when called for in defense of the common cause. Should we now fall for want of assistance, let the neighboring counties reconcile themselves, if they can, the breach of brotherly love, charity and every other virtue which adorns and advances the human species above the brute creation. I will not attempt to point out the particular cruelties or barbarities that have been practiced on our unhappy inhabitants, but assure you that for the number history affords no instance of more heathenish cruelty or savage barbarity than has been exhibited in this county.”

Colonel Matthew Smith wrote from Paxtang July 12 that he “had just arrived at Harris’ Ferry and beheld the greatest scenes of distress I ever saw. It was crowded with people who had come down the river, leaving everything.”

If the distress was the worst this old patriot ever beheld, it was truly a sad scene, for Colonel Smith had suffered in both the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars. He was in command of a company in the Arnold expedition to Quebec, when the troops for long months experienced nothing but suffering and distress.

On the same day Peter DeHaven wrote from Hummelstown: “This day there were twenty or thirty passed through this town from Buffalo Valley (Union County) and Sunbury, and the people inform me that there are 200 wagons on the road coming down.”

Another letter, written by William Maclay, later the first United States Senator from Pennsylvania, dated Paxtang, July 12: “I left Sunbury and almost my whole property on Wednesday last. I will not trouble you with a recital of the inconveniences I suffered while I brought my family by water to this place. I never in my life saw such scenes of distress. The river and roads leading down it were covered with men, women and children flying for their lives. In short, Northumberland County is broken up.

“Colonel Hunter only remained, using his utmost endeavors to rally the inhabitants to make a stand. I left him with a few—I cannot speak confidently as to numbers—but he had not 100 men on whom he could depend. Mrs. Hunter came down with me. As he is now disencumbered of his family, I am convinced he will do everything that can be expected from a brave and determined man. Something in the way of charity ought to be done for the miserable objects that crowd the banks of this river, especially those who fled from Wyoming. You know I did not use to love them, but I now sincerely pity their distress.”

Colonel Hunter the same day sent a most pathetic appeal to the president of the Supreme Executive Council, dated Fort Augusta, July 12:

“The calamities so long dreaded and of which you have been more than once informed must fall upon this country, if not assisted by Continental troops or the militia of the neighboring counties. At this date the towns of Sunbury and Northumberland are the frontiers where a few virtuous inhabitants and fugitives seem determined to stand, though doubtful whether tomorrow’s sun shall rise on them free men, captives or in eternity.”

Robert Covenhoven wrote: “I took my own family safely to Sunbury, and came back in a keel-boat to secure my furniture. Just as I rounded a point above Derrstown (now Lewisburg) I met the whole convoy from all the forts above. Such a sight I never saw in all my life. Boats, canoes, hogtroughs, rafts, hastily made of dry sticks, every sort of floating article had been put in requisition, and was crowded with women, children and plunder. There were several hundred people in all.

“Whenever an obstruction occurred at any shoal or ripple, the women would leap out into the water and put their shoulders to the boat or raft, and launch it again into deep water. The men of the settlement came down in single file, on each side of the river to guard the women and children. The whole convoy arrived safely at Sunbury, leaving the entire range of farms along the West Branch to the ravages of the Indians.”

Several persons are known to have been killed by the Indians during the “Great Runaway,” but it remains a most remarkable fact that almost the entire population moved from the settlements and for several days were in the open along the river and yet but few were killed.

In answer to the appeal from Colonel Hunter and those who really knew the situation, Colonel Daniel Brodhead with his Eighth Regiment, then on a march to Fort Pitt, was suddenly ordered to the West Branch. He arrived at Fort Muncy, July 24.

Colonel Thomas Hartley, with a small regiment, was ordered to the Susquehanna and arrived at Fort Augusta August 1, and marched to the relief of Colonel Brodhead at Fort Muncy, reaching there a week later.

Colonel Hartley was the master of the situation and using the good advice of General Potter, Colonel John Kelly, Colonel Samuel Hunter and others, who knew how to fight Indians, led a successful expedition against them, which allowed the more venturesome of the settlers to return to their fields and reap their harvests.

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John Conrad Beissel, Founder of Ephrata Society, Died There July 6, 1768

The founder of the German religious society of Seventh Day Baptists at Ephrata was Reverend John Conrad Beissel, who died there July 6, 1768.

Beissel was born in Eberbach, Germany, in 1690, learned the trade of a baker, and came to America in 1720. He embraced the religious views of Alexander Mock, lived as a recluse for several years and at different points, and finally located on the banks of the Cocalico Creek in Lancaster County, February 4, 1732. Here he continued to live as a hermit and advocated the doctrine of celibacy and the seventh day of the week as the proper day of rest and religious worship.

He was well versed in New Testament theology; possessed a commanding appearance, a fluent talker, and in most respects was well calculated to gather around him a large class of both sexes.

He was soon joined in his new home by Martin Brener, Samuel Eckerline, and another whose religious name was “Brother Jethro.” These were soon followed by Anna and Maria Eicher, from the Conestoga Church, two of Beissel’s former converts, who could not endure the pangs of separation from their spiritual teacher.

This nucleus of a church was joined in 1733 by Israel and Gabriel Eckerline, and in the following year by a large number from Oley and Coventry, in Chester County, as well as a large congregation of Germans who came from Schoharie County, N. Y., and placed themselves under the spiritual guidance of Beissel. Soon the congregation at Falkner Swamp joined them and Beissel had suddenly become the teacher of a large settlement named Lager, meaning an encampment, but the name of which was subsequently changed to Ephrata, by which the place is still known.

Peter Miller came to America in 1730, and soon became pastor of a small Reformed congregation at Tulpehocken. He was a classical scholar and a good theologian, and after an interview with Beissel, he became one of his apostles, casting his lot with the Brotherhood of Ephrata.

Within five years the people of this religious community had accumulated a large area of landed property which was held as common stock.

Soon after the founding of this society the monastic system was inaugurated, and Beissel invested with the title of father, and assumed the name of “Friedsam,” to which was added the suffix “Gottrecht,” together meaning Peaceable, God-right.

The first building erected under the monastic system, in 1735, was on “Mount Zion,” and named Kedar. It contained one principal room for religious worship, love-feasts, and the ceremony of feet-washing. Besides this there were other rooms, very small, for the use of the brethren and sisters, those of the latter being in the upper story. Another building larger in dimensions, and called “Zion,” was built on the same hill in 1738. These, as well as several buildings of a later erection, were covered with shingles on the roof and outside walls, and remain thus covered to the present time.

In the year 1740 there were in the Ephrata cloisters thirty-six single brethren and thirty-five sisters; and at one time in later years, when the society was at the height of its prosperity, the whole congregation, including those living outside the principal buildings, but in the immediate neighborhood, numbered about three hundred.

The buildings in this cloister afforded but rude and poor accommodations to the inmates. With ceilings barely seven feet in height, passages so narrow that two persons could not pass each other in them, with very low and narrow doors, swinging on wooden hinges and fastened by wooden latches, with cells hardly large enough to hold a cot, and each having only the light and ventilation afforded by a single window, eighteen by twenty-four inches in size, and containing only the most indispensable articles of furniture, and that of the rudest description, these houses were certainly anything else than abodes of luxury for those who inhabited them.

It is stated that the brethren slept on wooden benches, with wooden blocks for pillows. Probably the dormitories of the sisters were a little better furnished in that particular.

In each cell was an hour-glass, and the walls were covered with German text passages of scripture, and verses of original poetry by Beissel.

These people wore a cowl and gown of white—linen in summer, woolen in winter. The cowl of the sisters differed but little from that of the brethren. The difference between monk and nun could scarcely be discovered at a little distance. Both sexes went barefooted, except in extreme weather. They lived on food of the plainest kind, consisting almost entirely of bread, vegetables, and mush. No animal food was on their tables, and even butter, cheese, and milk were discountenanced.

All their vessels for communion and ordinary drinking purposes, also their trays, plates and other articles for table service, and even their candle-sticks, were of wood, and manufactured by the brethren.

In the beginning of Ephrata the plow was drawn by the brethren, ranged in a long line on each side of a rope, and even the sisters often assisted in this labor. But in a short time oxen and horses were procured to perform this work.

A paper mill was built and paper manufactured for use on their own printing presses, which had been introduced as early as 1742, the first book being printed for Israel Eckerline in 1744. Many very fine publications came from these presses.

A saw mill, a flour mill, a fulling mill, and a mill for making oil from flaxseed were put in operation. All these served the outside community and the workmen were renowned for scrupulous honesty.

Singing schools were begun in 1742 and a Sabbath school was started as early as 1740. This was the first Sabbath School in America. The building for the latter was used in the fall of 1777 as a hospital for the wounded from the Battle of Brandywine.

After more than forty years of spiritual leadership Beissel died in 1768, and Peter Miller succeeded him, but the society steadily declined, until the year 1875, when disputes divided them into two factions, and consequently into legal entanglements and the effect of the community as a religious enterprise became inconsequential.

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Riots in Philadelphia Brought to an End on July 7, 1844

Between the years 1843 and 1844 a spirit of turbulence, riot and disorder seemed prevalent throughout the United States. Philadelphia felt the influence, which first manifested itself in 1834.

On August 12, 1834, a riot took place which was much more serious than any occurrence of that character previously known. A meeting house, near the Wharton Market, was torn down and many colored people assaulted and badly beaten and their houses ransacked.

In October following occurred the Robb’s Row riot, in the Moyamensing district. A row of houses on Christian Street, west of Ninth, was burned by the mob and many persons injured. This disturbance was created by heated political antagonism, and was fought between rival partisans.

Another riot in which the blacks suffered, and many of their houses burned, occurred in July, 1835.

On May 17, 1838, occurred the Pennsylvania Hall riot, during which a large and elegant building dedicated three days before, to the purpose of public discussion by the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, was broken into, set on fire and totally destroyed.

The Kensington railroad riots took place in 1840, and were a manifestation of opposition to an attempt by the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad Company to lay their tracks on Front Street, in the business and builtup section of the city. In this disturbance the rails were torn up, houses burned and many persons injured.

Another riot in which Negroes were the victims, took place on August 1, 1842, during which Smith’s Beneficial Hall was destroyed by fire. This building was erected by Stephen Smith, a prominent colored man, to be used for the meetings of the literary and beneficial societies of colored people.

The Negro riots ceased at midnight, but on the next day the Irish laborers in the coal yards on the Schuylkill got mixed up with a band of colored laborers and the ensuing riot required militia to quell it.

Then came the weavers’ riots in Kensington, early in 1843. This was in consequence of disputes in regard to wages.

But the most terrible riots known in the history of Philadelphia took place in 1844, and resulted from political and sectarian prejudices which were aroused into activity by the formation of the Native American Party.

The movement for the organization of this party took place early in 1844. On May 6 a meeting was called, which was intended to be held on an open lot at the southeast corner of Second and Master Streets. Before the proceedings were concluded some difficulty arose between the persons holding the meeting and outsiders, who had gathered on the edge of the crowd, and assumed a rather menacing attitude.

Soon there was an attack made upon those in meeting and with such force that the participants were dispersed. They soon rallied their numbers and proceeded to a market house nearby, on Washington Street above Master. The meeting was reorganized, but the disturbances were as promptly renewed, and at this time firearms were brought into play by the assailants.

This unfortunate affair took place in a locality where the majority of the inhabitants were of the Roman Catholic faith, and although there was nothing to show that the latter were combined for purposes of breaking up the meeting, the feelings of the persons assailed led them to a bitter extremity. They soon obtained firearms and an attack was made on the buildings in the neighborhood. Seven persons were killed. The Native Americans being victors set fire to the houses attacked.

Other outrages were perpetrated and other buildings burned, including a female seminary under charge of the sisters of a religious order.

Troops were called out and quelled the rioting.

The Native Americans celebrated July 4 with a large and showy procession and ended the day’s program of festivities with a grand display of fireworks. All dispersed in good order.

On the evening of July 6 persons were discovered carrying muskets into the church of St. Philip de Neri, on Queen Street. Crowds soon assembled, but a Sheriff’s posse promptly appeared upon the scene.

An unfortunate arrest of a member of the posse, who was kept under military guard in the church through the night, caused a mob on the morning of July 7 to assemble determined to release the prisoner. A cannon loaded with slugs was fired against the rear of the church. Then it was brought to the front, but further trouble was prevented by the citizens and the prisoner was released.

Those in the church marched out and were chased and dispersed. The city was thoroughly excited with these proceedings and the people gathered in great crowds, many intent on destroying the church.

A committee, many of whom were Native Americans, organized to protect the church property and it seemed as if the trouble was at an end. But at this moment the military marched upon the scene, followed by a crowd of Sunday idlers. The soldiers attempted to clear the streets with fixed bayonets, when some one hurled a brick, striking a soldier. The captain gave orders to fire, and two volleys were sent into the crowd of men, women and children. Several were killed and many wounded.

The crowd now procured artillery and small arms and the most sanguinary street battle ensued, which continued through the night of the 7th and the morning of July 8. Two soldiers were killed and many wounded. Seven citizens were killed and several wounded.

The militia were withdrawn, the trouble subsided, and the most serious riot in the history of Philadelphia brought to an end.

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Widow Smith’s Mill Destroyed by Indians on July 8, 1779

During the year 1774 Catherine Smith, widow of Peter Smith, commenced building a large grist mill near the mouth of White Deer Creek, in the present Union County, which she completed the following year.

When Peter Smith died in the fall of 1773, he left his widow and ten children with no estate to support his family, except a location for three hundred acres of land, including the mouth of White Deer Creek, whereon was an excellent mill seat. His widow was of the type who did not sit idly by and let her neighbors help support her family, but realizing that a grist and saw mill were both much wanted in that new country at that time, and being urged to erect these mills, she set about the task.

The widow Smith was able to borrow some money and by June, 1775, she had both mills in operation. They served the inhabitants in the White Deer Valley and for many miles on the east side of the West Branch of the Susquehanna.

During the summer of 1776, there was an urgent demand for rifles for the Continental Army and for the use of the old men and boys who remained at home to protect the women and children from the sudden attacks of the Indians, while they were doing the work about the farm and the fireside. So Catherine Smith installed a boring mill, and the records show that a great number of gun barrels were bored in this mill. She also added a hemp mill.

Her eldest son went to the army and this made her work the heavier, as he was her best help. He was killed in the service.

The Indians became active following the great Wyoming massacre, July 3, 1778, and after Colonel Thomas Hartley had chastised them during his successful expedition in the late autumn of 1778, they again became bolder when the soldiers were withdrawn and the year 1779 was one of the most terrible along the frontier of the Susquehanna Valleys.

Nearly all the inhabitants had left during the “Great Runaway,” in July, 1778, and only the most venturesome had returned. The militia were recruited locally and were under the command of Colonel John Kelly.

In May a band of nearly a score of Indians killed John Sample and wife in White Deer. Christian Van Gundy and Henry Vandyke with four others learned of the murder and went to the scene to bring away any who survived the massacre. Six more men were to follow the next day.

When Van Gundy arrived at Sample’s he had slabs put up against the door and water carried up in the loft. After dark an Indian approached the house, barking like a dog, and rubbing against the door, but no attention was paid to him. The party inside lay down and slept until three o’clock, when Van Gundy got up to light a fire. The Indians surrounded the house, and mounting a log on their shoulders, tried to beat in the door. Those inside fired, wounding two, whom the Indians carried off, but not before they set fire to the house.

Van Gundy mounted the roof, and knocked off enough boards to reach the fire, which he extinguished. An Indian shot him in the leg and one of the others was shot in the face.

At daybreak they voted whether to remain and fight or attempt escape.

Two voted to stay, four to go. On opening the door they discovered the Indian chief lying dead in front of it. Van Grundy secured his rifle and Vandyke his powder horn.

The Indians came from ambush and the men separated. Van Grundy, with his two guns, took into a ravine, and tried to get the others to follow him. They refused. The Indians killed the old people, who were scalped.

Colonel Kelly pursued these Indians and came upon five of them sitting on a log. He placed his men and at a signal four of the Indians were killed at one volley, the fifth escaped.

The Widow Smith’s mills were now the frontier and the only place of refuge, except a small stockade, named Fort Meninger, which was built about eighty rods from the river, on the north bank of White Deer Creek, covering Widow Smith’s mills. The fort was situated west of the mills forming an apex of an irregular triangle of which the mills formed one base, and a small stone house, the home of Widow Smith, the other. This stone house, with a modern addition, is still standing.

The fort and mills were abandoned at the time of the Great Runaway, July, 1778, and the fort and mills were burned by the Indians, July 8, 1779. One man was killed in the attack.

Widow Smith returned to the ruins in 1783, and was urged to rebuild the grist and saw mills, which she accomplished with much difficulty. Ejectments were brought against her by Messrs. Claypoole and Morris, and she did not have the means to support actions at law and lost her improvements.

She petitioned the Legislature, which, of course, could grant no relief under the circumstances and her petition was dismissed. The facts set forth in her petition were certified to by William Blythe, Charles Gillespie, Colonel John Kelly, General James Potter and many prominent citizens of Northumberland County.

She is said to have walked to Philadelphia and back thirteen times in this business.[4]

Footnote 4:

The distance she traveled was no less than 160 miles each way.

How long the litigation continued is not a matter of record, but in 1801, Seth Iredell took possession of the premises as tenant of Claypoole & Morris.

She died there and is buried in the old settlers’ graveyard. Her bones were disturbed when a barn was erected many years later, being identified by a venerable neighbor, by her peculiar protruding teeth.

A few years after this incident a man came to the place, having traveled from Ohio to see the old mill site. He said he was a son of Catherine Smith, and that if justice had been done her, they would still own the place.

A part of the foundation of the second mill, built by Widow Smith, serves the same purpose in a fine modern mill of today.

When soldiers were sent into that vicinity they used the Widow Smith’s stone house. General James Potter, under date of September 18, 1780, says: “I marched the remainder, consisting of 170 men up the West Branch to Fort Swartz. I then went to Colonel Kelly, who lay at the mouth of White Deer Creek, with eighty men.” This was the Widow Smith’s Mill.

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General Braddock Defeated by French and Indians July 9, 1755

General Edward Braddock arrived in March, 1755, at Alexandria, Virginia, and at the head of two Irish regiments, under Colonels Dunbar and Halket, marched to Fredericksburg, Maryland.

This distinguished officer was sent to command an expedition against the French at Fort Duquesne. He commenced his march from Wills Creek, now called Cumberland, Md., June 10, 1755, with 2000 men, regulars and provincials.

Braddock was haughty and egotistical and entertained no doubt of his success. He advised the Governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, that soon as he captured Fort Duquesne he would leave there the guns, ammunition and stores he captured in it, but if the enemy first destroyed the fort, he would build another.

By forced marches he reached Little Meadows June 18, when 1200 men were chosen to continue the expedition, the balance remained in camp under command of Colonel Dunbar. A halt of two days was made twenty-five miles from their objective, to await reports of the Indian scouts. That was fatal.

On the morning of July 9 the little army forded the Monongahela River and advanced in solid platoons along the southern shore of that stream. Colonel Washington saw the perilous arrangement of the troops after the fashion of European tactics, and he ventured to advise Braddock to disperse his men in open order and employ the Indian mode of fighting in the forests.

The haughty General angrily replied: “What! a provincial colonel teach a British General how to fight!”

The army moved forward, recrossing the river. Meantime the French commander Contrecœur had decided to withdraw, but Captain Beaujeu gained his permission to resist Braddock’s passage at the second ford. Beaujeu’s command was reinforced by several hundred savages.

When Captain Beaujeu came in sight of the English they had already crossed the river, and had advanced so that both flanks would be exposed about two hundred yards to an enemy occupying the deep ravines, thick with tangled forest growth and vines.

Braddock marched directly into the worst ambuscade known in American history. Into these ravines the Indians glided while their white comrades blocked the English path in front and the head of the marching column went down under a storm of lead. Shaken for a moment, the vanguard moved against the concentric ring and, after another terrible discharge, returned the fire with such deadly effect that every enemy in sight was swept before it. Beaujeu and dozens of others fell victims.

The Indians turned to flee, but rallied by other French officers, they returned to cover and under their unerring fire the English advance broke and retreated. Mixing with the rear in the narrow path, both became mingled in a mob which Braddock could not restore to order. Huddled in a twelve-foot roadway, shut in by a forest alive with yells and filled with invisible fire, they lost all sense or perception, and twice shot down bodies of their own men who had gained slight vantage points, mistaking their smoke for that of the enemy. Fifty Virginians were thus slain at one blow.

The regulars refused to charge, though Braddock, with four horses successively shot from under him, and other officers strove to hearten them to invade the woods. The Provincials fought Indian fashion from behind trees and fallen logs, but Braddock with furious threats and blows drove them back again into the ranks, where they fell in scores. Washington and Halket both pleaded to have them allowed to leave the ranks and fight the Indians in their own way, but Braddock still refused.

At this point the supply of ammunition failed; the baggage train was attacked; all Braddock’s aides excepting Washington were shot down; three-fourths of the officers and three-fifths of the entire army were killed or wounded, and only then would the ill-judging but heroic Braddock give the signal for retreat. Shortly afterward Braddock received a ball through his lungs, and not one English soldier remained to carry him off the field. He was picked up by one English and two American officers and carried to a spot across the river a half mile distant.

The dying commander tried to rally his troops, by establishing a camp to care for the wounded. Here he waited for Washington to return from Dunbar’s camp, where he had been sent by Braddock. The French and Indians did not follow Braddock across the river, yet the hundred or more English soldiers he had induced to halt there, stole away and fled.

On the 10th the officers who remained with General Braddock marched with him until 10 o’clock at night, when they halted and met the convoy sent by Dunbar. Braddock never ceased to give calm, skillful and humane orders. He reached Dunbar’s camp on the 11th, where the news of his rout had already reached the soldiers under Dunbar, and they were fleeing in wild panic.

Braddock by this time realized that any further attempt to pursue the expedition was futile, and he must have known his wounds were fatal, for he ordered the stores destroyed lest they fall into the enemy’s hands, saving only sufficient for a flying march. He then proceeded with the remnant of his army toward Great Meadows, where he died and was buried in the center of the road. The entire army marched over the spot in order that the remains of the unfortunate general might not be desecrated by the savages. In 1802, his body was reinterred at the foot of a large white oak tree.

After the retreat of Braddock’s army, the savages, unwilling to follow the French in pursuit, fell upon the field and preyed on the rich plunder which lay before them. Three years later (1758) by direction of General Forbes, the remains of many of the slain in Braddock’s army were gathered up and buried.

Of 1460 men in the battle, 456 were killed and 421 wounded; 63 of the 89 commissioned officers, and every field officer, were killed or wounded. The enemy’s casualties were only about sixty.

The entire borders were left defenseless and this defeat was not only a fatal termination of a campaign which had been expected would inflict a decisive blow upon the French and their Indian allies, but it gave the signal to the disaffected Indians to make the frontiers of the Province the scene of a predatory warfare in which every section was severely scourged.

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“Sawdust War” in Williamsport Lumber Regions Began July 10, 1872

In the decade from 1870 to 1880, Williamsport was the largest lumbering center in the United States. Everywhere Williamsport was known as “The Lumber City.”

It was customary to send gangs into the woods in winter to cut down the trees, saw them into logs and pile them on the banks of small streams and afterward, when the water was at flood height in the spring, to roll them into the streams whence they floated down the river to Williamsport, where they were caught in the big boom and rafted to the various mills to be sawed and manufactured into lumber.

After the men were through their work in the woods it was customary to bring them to Williamsport and place them in the mills to help saw up the logs. As the season was short and it was important to clean up the work of sawing before the next winter, the mills operated twelve hours a day.

The “sawdust war,” as it was called, was a strike on the part of the workmen in the mills for a ten-hour day instead of twelve. There was no question of wages involved, and the principal advocates for the change were men who were not employed in the lumber industry, but were simply labor agitators.

The move for the ten-hour day began in June, 1872, and was characterized by frequent public meetings at which the speakers urged the men to go on strike. This finally culminated in a large number of men walking out, July 1, 1872, and adopting as their slogan, “ten-hour day or no sawdust.”

The strike reached to Lock Haven, where the men followed the lead of their Williamsport fellow-workmen.

Many of the mills were compelled to shut down on account of a depleted force until July 10, when an attempt was made to start up the mills, but without success. This precipitated the “Sawdust War.”

Parades and marches were held every day, the strikers going to the several mills and endeavoring to induce the workers still on the job to quit. Meetings were held every night. Thomas H. Greevy, by reason of being secretary of the local union and secretary of the State Labor Organization, was a prominent figure and always addressed these meetings.

After the strike had been in progress for a few weeks some of the men were induced to go back to work, but others, who were not willing to return, interfered, when a number of breaches of the peace took place.

The marches to the mills finally resulted in assaults being made upon the loyal workmen, and several attacks were made on mill owners on the streets of the city. These assaults finally became so frequent and so serious that Mayor S. W. Starkweather and Samuel Van Buskirk, sheriff of the county, called upon Governor John W. Geary for militia to be sent to Williamsport.

This request was complied with, and on July 22 troops were ordered to the city. They arrived the next day, July 23, and consisted of the following units: City Grays, Harrisburg, Captain Thomas Maloney; City Zouaves, Harrisburg, Captain Robert V. Vaughn; Middletown Zouaves, Middletown, Captain James Stanley; Washington Zouaves, Lebanon, Captain B. Y. Hean; Coleman Guards, Lebanon, Captain J. P. S. Gobin; City Grays, Williamsport, Captain A. H. Stead; Taylor Guards, Williamsport, Captain John H. White.

Williamsport was placed under martial law. On the same day, July 23, Thomas H. Greevy, James M. Birmingham, A. J. Whitten, Thomas F. Blake, Henry Crook and Alem Tate were arrested on charge of inciting to riot and at a hearing on July 25, before the City Recorder, were held in $10,000 bail for their appearance at the September term of court. Bail was promptly furnished, but an hour later Greevy was rearrested and $15,000 additional bail demanded. As other charges were pending, the men were taken to jail to await trial. On July 27 motion was made for a writ of habeas corpus and reduction of the amount of bail, which, on July 29, was refused by the court.

Subsequent arrests were made on the same charge and all held for the next term of court, but those above mentioned were the principals. On July 31 all defendants were released on bail.

On July 25 the troops on duty in the city went into camp at Herdic Park under command of Brigadier General Jesse Merrill, of Lock Haven. On July 27 the troops were reinforced by the Packer Guards, Sunbury; Sanderson Guards, Mill Hall; Langlon Fencibles, Shamokin. On July 30 five companies on duty were relieved and sent home. The others were relieved a few days later.

At the September term of court for Lycoming County, on September 7, all the twenty-nine defendants were brought to trial before Judge James Gamble. James M. Birmingham, Thomas H. Greevy, A. J. Whitten, Thomas H. Blake, Patrick Conlin, Jacob Wolf, Timothy Shannon, Jr., Henry Crook, Patrick Dugan, Louis Plant, Michael Eustice, John Benway, William Iam, Daniel McMullen, David Deauchamp, Thomas Hackett, Joseph Ludget, James Spulong, James Sladen, John Bezel and Joseph Shear were found guilty and sentenced to jail for periods of thirty, sixty and ninety days, pay a fine of one dollar and the costs of prosecution, except James M. Birmingham, A. J. Whitten, Thomas H. Greevy and Thomas F. Blake, who, because they were outsiders and in no way connected with the lumber industry, were sentenced to one year in the penitentiary and costs of the prosecution.

They were sentenced on September 14; and on September 16 Peter Herdic who was then one of the leading and most influential men in the State, went to Harrisburg and induced Governor Geary to pardon them all.

The parties soon after left Williamsport, and except for two of them, all other records are lost. James M. Birmingham became a prominent citizen of Kansas City, Mo., as did his son. Thomas H. Greevy removed to Altoona, and became a prominent citizen of the State.

Greevy was engaged in journalism and edited the Labor Reform Journal of Williamsport. He also held important offices in the local and State organizations.

The first labor convention in Pennsylvania was held at Danville, in 1871, and Greevy was elected secretary, a position he held at the time of the Sawdust War. John Siney, of Schuylkill County, was State president.

After taking up his residence in Altoona, Mr. Greevy studied law, was admitted to the bar and since has become one of the leading attorneys of the State. He is a prominent adviser of the Democratic State Committee, and was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor. In every walk of life he is one of the leading citizens of the country.

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Moravians Visit Indian Town of Great Island, July 11, 1748

Great Island, situated on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, a short distance east of Lock Haven and opposite the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek, was a favorite camping place and council grounds for the Indians. An Indian village was situated on this island, which is frequently mentioned in the early records of the Province.

In the year 1745 David Brainerd, a missionary stationed at Shamokin, tells in his journal of a journey which he took up the West Branch. In this he speaks of extending his journey to Great Island and of the sufferings he endured.

In the summer of 1748 David Zeisberger and John Martin Mack made a missionary trip up the West Branch for the purpose of visiting the Indians, who were undergoing terrible hardships as a result of a famine. On July 11, 1748, two days after their start from Shamokin, we find the following entry in Mack’s journal:

“July 11. Toward evening reached Great Island and found Indians at home residing on this side of the island. They asked us whence we came and whether we had ought to sell. When told that we were not traders, but had only come to visit them, it was incomprehensible to them. But a few old squaws were living on the island; the men had been driven away by famine. We consequently remained on this side of the island and asked an Indian whether we could lodge in his hut. He took us in cordially and spread a bear skin for us to sleep on, but he had nothing for us to eat. Ascertained that he was a Five Nation Indian and his wife a Shawnese. Whereupon Brother Zeisberger conversed with him. His father, who is upward of seventy years, was dying of smallpox and was a most pitiful object. His care and that of the Indians here enlisted our sympathies and silent prayers.

“In the evening we were visited by a number of Indians—Shawnese and Cayugas. Here dwell in three houses Shawnese, Maquas and Delaware; among the latter an Indian from Albany, who spoke Low Dutch. In all three houses were cases of smallpox. In one hut hung a kettle in which grass was being stewed, which they ate with avidity.

“July 12. Brother Zeisberger learned from our host that many Indians passed and repassed his hut. Today he brought out some dried venison and gave us some, and we in turn gave his child some of our bread, for which they were very thankful.

“In the afternoon told our host we desired to visit the island to see the Indians there, and he, unasked, went with us, and led us to all the huts.

“We found some clever people here who had just returned from the woods and who shared with us grapes, green and hard, which they ate with avidity. We prayed silently to the Lord to have mercy on this people.

“Returned to our lodgings, and our host again asked us why we had come so far and had we not come in search of land? He said there was fine land in the neighborhood. We explained that was not our object.

“July 13. We found an opportunity to speak to our host of the Saviour. He had heard somewhat of God, and said he believed what we had told him was good and true. He then gave us some dried venison and we in turn some needles and thread to his wife.

“Set out on our return down the Susquehanna. At night camped on a large flat by a creek, ate some mouldy bread, the last of our stock and built four fires to keep off the vermin.”

In the year 1758 Christian Frederic Post, another Moravian missionary, was sent by the Government of Pennsylvania to the Delaware, Shawnee and Mingo Indians settled on the Ohio. In his journal under the date of July 29 we find the following entry:

“29th. We crossed the Susquehanna over the Big Island. My companions were now very fearful and this night went a great way out of the road, to sleep without fire, but could not sleep on account of the mosquitoes and vermin.”

On his return from his mission under the date of September 18, he records:

“Came to the Big Island, where having nothing to live on, we were obliged to stay and hunt.

“19th. We met twenty warriors, who were returning from the habitations with five prisoners and one scalp; six of them were Delaware and the rest Mingo. We sat down all in one ring together. I informed them where I had been and what was done; they asked me to go back a little and so I did, and slept all night with them. I informed them of the particulars of the peace proposed; they said if they had known so much before they would not have gone to war. They killed two deer and gave us one.”

Post’s mission had been undertaken with the object of making peace with the Indians, for, following Braddock’s disastrous campaign against Fort Duquesne, the Indians had attacked the settlements, and the entire West Branch Valley as far down as Sunbury was in complete control of the French and their Indian allies.

In 1755 Andrew Montour, who had been employed on various occasions as interpreter for the province, and who at this time was captain of a company of Indians in the English service, following an attack upon settlers on Penn’s Creek, in which a number of the settlers were killed, was summoned to the Great Island by the friendly Delaware living there. Here he was informed that the French had made overtures to the Indians to go on the war path against the English settlers in Pennsylvania.

In November these Indians also sent word that two messengers had come from Ohio to Great Island; and seeing an Englishman who happened to be there at the time, said “Kill him.” “No,” said the Indians of the Great Island, “we will not kill him nor suffer him to be killed. We have lived in peace many years with the English; if you are so bloodthirsty go somewhere else for blood. We will have no blood spilt here.”

At this period as well as at the time of Post’s mission, three years later, Great Island was being visited by both French and English in their desires to secure the Indians as their allies. It was at this period also that the Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania issued a proclamation which encouraged the whites to scalp the Indians by the offer of a bounty for every Indian scalp brought in.

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Riots in Philadelphia Caused by Boy Assaulting Master, July 12, 1835

Feelings of animosity against people of color had been manifested in Philadelphia for several years, and were again brought forth conspicuously through a most unfortunate circumstance July 12, 1835.

Robert E. Stewart, a prominent citizen of Philadelphia, who had been United States Consul to Trinidad, resided on the east side of Sixth Street, between Prune and Walnut.

He had in his service an African boy, called Juan, who was a native of the Eboe nation, the representatives of which bore the character of being vindictive, revengeful and easily moved to anger. Juan had been brought to the United States from the West Indies by Mr. Stewart.

For some reason not known Juan determined to take the life of his master. The attack was made upon Mr. Stewart while he was sleeping in the afternoon in his chamber. The butt end of a hatchet was used in a shocking manner upon his head. He was frightfully mutilated and injured, and it was supposed that he could never recover. He died several years afterward.

The brutal attack upon Stewart was made July 12. A statement of the circumstances in the newspapers of the next day created intense excitement, and soon as the story was read crowds began to assemble, and by evening a large crowd had gathered in the neighborhood of Sixth and Locust Streets.

By this time the city authorities had learned something from the events of former years, when the racial hatred had caused many fatal clashes, and a large body of watchmen and police were dispatched to that section of the city.

Crowds began to join those already in that neighborhood, and they were made up of men and half-grown boys, usually in an angry mood. The citizens soon dispersed about the neighborhood, talking together, in small groups.

The presence of the police rendered any outburst impossible so they carried their destructive propensities into an adjoining district, and there commenced an attack upon houses occupied by colored people in Small Street between Sixth and Seventh. The inmates were beaten and put to flight, and their furniture destroyed.

From that place their ravages were resumed upon the colored residents in Seventh and Shippen Streets. Thence the destruction was transferred to “Red Row”—a block of eight houses on Eighth Street below Shippen.

The mob here made a discrimination. All the young colored men who could be found were brutally assaulted, because the colored youth were generally saucy and impudent, but the old men and women of color were not molested or in any manner injured.

During the proceedings “Red Row” was set on fire and all the houses destroyed. The mob had now become so infuriated that they were unrestrained even by the presence of police, and from the burning homes in “Red Row” they proceeded to Christian and Ninth Streets, where several brick and frame houses occupied by colored people were attacked.

Several of those houses were defended by the owners, and others who had sought refuge in them. Several shots were fired from behind doors and windows, and two persons in the mob were wounded. By the time the houses were finally entered the residents had escaped.

The houses in flames in “Red Row” had brought the firemen to the scene, but when they set up their apparatus, they were opposed by the mob. The hose was cut and no water could be brought into play. The firemen, however, fought their way and succeeded in saving from total destruction all the houses, except the one in which the fire was started. The mob became even more determined and attacked houses which had been passed by at the beginning of the attack.

By these occurrences the colored people in the lower part of the city were frightened to a degree of terror which had not affected them in previous years.

On the day after this riot hundreds of families moved out of the neighborhood, or, locking up their houses, sought refuge where they could find it. Numbers of men, women and children bivouacked in the woods and fields, and not a few fugitives were given shelter in barns and outbuildings.

On Tuesday evening, July 14, crowds again began to assemble in the vicinity of Sixth and South Streets, on the rumor that a house on St. Mary Street was garrisoned by armed Negroes.

The mob proceeded to this house and upon their arrival found that the statement was true. Fifty or sixty colored men were in the building, armed with knives, razors, bludgeons and pistols, besides a great stock of bricks and paving stones, which were stored on the third floor, where they could be hurled with effect upon an attacking party. These men were desperate and were rendered savage by the occurrences of the two previous days.

The city police force was promptly upon the scene and prepared to prevent the assault intended to be made by the whites upon the house. The police, at the same time, had the difficult task of getting the colored men away from the building in safety. This they were able to do.

With this attack frustrated, the trouble was finally quieted and there were no further racial disturbances.

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Hannastown, Seat of Justice for Westmoreland County, Burned by Indians July 13, 1782

The county of Westmoreland was established by the Provincial Assembly, February 26, 1773, and the courts directed to be held at Hannastown. This was the first place west of the Allegheny Mountains where justice was dispensed according to the legal forms by the white man.

Hannastown contained about thirty habitations and a few crude cabins. Most of the former were two stories high and built of hewn logs. There was also a wooden court house, a jail and a stockade, both built of logs.

Robert Hanna, the first presiding Judge, was a member of the family from whom the town derived its name. Arthur St. Clair, afterward the distinguished general in the Continental Army, was the first prothonotary and clerk of the courts.

On the morning of July 13, 1782, a party of townsfolk went to O'Connor’s fields, about a mile north of the village, to cut wheat. The reapers had completed one field when one of their number reported that he had seen a number of Indians approaching. Every one rushed for town, each intent upon his own safety, each seeking his own wife and children, to hurry them into the stockade.

After a period of frightful suspense, it was agreed that some one should reconnoiter and relieve the balance from uncertainty. David Shaw, James Brison and two other young men, armed with rifles, started on foot through the highlands between the fort and Crabtree Creek, pursuing a direct course toward O'Conner’s fields.

An officer who had been on duty in the town pursued a more circuitous route on horseback, and no sooner arrived at the fields than he beheld the whole force of the savages there assembled. He turned his horse to escape, but was followed. He met the four others who were on foot and warned them to fly for their lives.

The four young men were hotly pursued by the Indians, who did not fire upon them, for they expected to take the inhabitants by a surprise attack. Shaw rushed into the town to learn if his kindred had gone into the fort. As he reached his father’s threshold he saw all within desolate and, as he turned, discovered the savages rushing toward him with their brandished tomahawks, and yelling the fearful warwhoop. He counted upon making one give the death halloo, and raising his rifle, the bullet sped true, for the savage at whom he aimed bounded in the air and fell dead. Shaw then darted for the fort, which he reached in safety.

The Indians were exasperated when they found the village deserted, pillaged the houses and then set them on fire.

An Indian who had donned a military coat of one of the inhabitants and paraded himself in the open was shot down. Except this one and the Indian killed by Shaw, it is not believed any others were killed.

Only fourteen or fifteen rifles were in the fort, and but few of the men of military experience, as a company had been recruited there but a short time before and marched away with Lochry’s ill-fated campaign, leaving not more than a score of men in the village. A maiden, Janet Shaw, and a child were killed in the fort.

Soon after the Indians had set fire to the buildings of the village some of them were observed to break away from the main body and go towards Miller’s Station.

Unfortunately there had been a wedding at that place the day before and many guests were still at the scene of the festivities. Among them was John Brownlee, known along the frontier for his courage in scouting against the savage marauder. The bridal party was in the midst of their happy games, when, like a lightning flash, came the dreaded warwhoop.

Those in the cabins and the men in the fields made their escape. In the house, where all was merriment, the scene was instantly changed by the cries of women and children mingled with the yell of the savage. Few escaped.

Among those who got away are two incidents of intense interest. A man was carrying his child and assisting his aged mother in the flight, the savages were gaining on them, the son and father put down and abandoned the child, the better to assist his mother. The next morning the father returned to his cabin and found his little innocent curled up in his bed, sound asleep, the only human thing left amidst the desolation.

The other incident occurred when a powerful young man grasped a child, who stood near him and made his escape, reaching a rye field and taking advantage of some large bushes, he mounted a fence and leaped far into the tall rye, where he lay down with the child. He heard the quick tread of the savages as they rushed by and their slower steps as they returned, voicing their disappointment.

The wedding party were made prisoners, including the bride and groom, and several of the Miller family.

When the Indians were all assembled and the prisoners secured, the latter were loaded with plunder and the march commenced. They had proceeded less than a mile when one of the Indians recognized Brownlee and communicated it to the others. As he stooped to readjust the child on his back, who he carried in addition to the luggage they had put on him, an Indian buried a tomahawk in his head. When he fell the child was killed by the same Indian.

One woman screamed at the sight of this butchery and the same tomahawk ended her agony. These bodies were found next day and decently buried.

At nightfall thirty men assembled and determined to give succor to those in the fort. They armed themselves and hastened with great caution, knowing that if the Indians intended to attack the fort at dawn that they had retired to the low land at Crabtree Creek.

Fifty rifles were too few to attack 300 Indians and sixty white savages, so they put in action strategy which won. They mounted all the horses they had and trotted back and forth across a bridge of plank, near the stockade, two drums and a fife completed the deception that re-enforcements were arriving in great numbers. The ruse had the desired effect. The cowardly Indians, fearing the retribution they deserved, stealthily fled during the night.

The prisoners were surrendered by the Indians to the British and taken to Canada. After the peace eighty-three prisoners who survived were freed and returned to their homes.

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George Ross, Lawyer, Iron Manufacturer, Soldier, Statesman, Patriot, Signer of Declaration of Independence, Died July 14, 1779

The Philadelphia Packet, July 15, 1779, contained this item:

“Yesterday died at his seat near this city, the Honorable George Ross, Judge of Admiralty of this State.” He was interred in the churchyard of Christ’s Church, Philadelphia, the day following his death. The Supreme Executive Council attended the obsequies in a body.

George Ross, the son of Reverend George Ross, minister of the Established Church, and Catherine Van Gezel Ross, was born in New Castle, Lower Counties, May 10, 1730. He was of excellent Scotch stock, his family traced their descent from the Earls of Ross.

George received an excellent education, with special instruction in the classics; studied law in Philadelphia, with his half brother, John, and was admitted to the bar at Lancaster in 1750. He rose rapidly in his profession, and was interested in the manufacture of iron, which he continued to the time of his death.

Soon after settling at Lancaster, in 1751, he married Miss Anne Lawlor.

He was made prosecutor for the Crown and took a deep interest in the welfare of the growing town of Lancaster, which was soon recognized by his neighbors and he was elected to the Assembly of Pennsylvania in 1768. From this time on his short life of forty-nine years was crowded with civic and patriotic duties; while the State and Federal Governments honored him with many positions of trust.

He immediately became a leader in the Assembly where he was a most pronounced Whig. By successive elections he was continued in that body until 1774, when he was a member of the Provincial Conference and then a member of the first Continental Congress.

George Ross was one of a committee to whom was referred the patriotic communication of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, recommending a Congress of the colonies for the purpose of resisting British arbitrary enactments, and in Congress he consistently furthered those measures which finally led to American Independence.

In 1775, Governor John Penn having written a message disapproving any protective measures on the part of the colonies, Mr. Ross drew up a strong and convincing reply.

He was a true friend of the Indians, and served as one of the Commissioners to Fort Pitt in 1776.

Mr. Ross was made a member of the Committee of Safety for Pennsylvania; vice president of the Constitutional Convention of 1776; colonel of the First Battalion of Associators for Lancaster County; and as a fitting climax, he signed the Declaration of Independence.

During his service as a member of the Continental Congress he was named on the committee with General George Washington and Robert Morris to prepare a design for a new flag. It was through his suggestion that the committee called on his niece, Betsy Ross, and with her help the beautiful flag of the United States was designed and adopted.

Ill health forced Colonel Ross to resign from Congress and on leaving office the citizens of Lancaster voted him a piece of silver to cost £150, which he declined to receive.

After varied and valuable labors in the service of the colonies and of Pennsylvania he was appointed a judge of the Court of Admiralty, as a minute of the Supreme Executive Council for March 1, 1779, records the following:

“Resolved, That the Honorable George Ross, Esquire, be commissioned Judge of the Admiralty of this State, under the Act of Assembly; that this Board highly approve the firmness and ability he has hitherto shown in the discharge of his said office.”

During his incumbency, which lasted but a brief period, he was regarded as learned and prompt, a happy combination.

Judge Ross probably knew the standing of every merchant in Philadelphia.

His house in Lancaster stood on the site of the present Court House, and his country home was a farm in what was then a suburb of Lancaster, now a part of the city, called in his honor, Rossmere.

He was interested in several iron furnaces, the most important of which was the Mary Ann furnace of York County. This was the first blast furnace west of the Susquehanna. His partners were George Stephenson, one of the first lawyers in York County, and William Thompson, the latter’s brother-in-law, later distinguished as a general in the Revolution. George Ross also owned Spring Forge III, also in York County, and he was a partner with George Taylor, of Easton, another signer of the Declaration of Independence, in a furnace in New Jersey called Bloomsbury Forge.

His half brother John Ross, was also much interested in the iron business, and seems to have been a rather picturesque character. He was an officer of the King, and Graydon says of him: “Mr. John Ross, who loved ease and Madeira much better than liberty and strife, declared for neutrality, saying, that let who would be king, he well knew that he would be a subject.”

His health seems to have been poor for some time before his death as a letter from Edward Burd to Jasper Yeates, July 16, 1779, says:

“Poor Mr. Ross is gone at last. I was one of his Carriers. He said he was going to a cooler climate, and behaved in the same cheerful way at his exit as he did all thro the different trying scenes of life.”

He was a Churchman by inheritance, and was vestryman and warden of St. James’ Church, Lancaster, contributing liberally to its varied interests. Genial, kind and considerate, his sense of humor evidently lightened the cares of his strenuous life.

A memorial pillar was erected in 1897, on the site of his house in Lancaster.

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Provincial Convention Ends Proprietary Government July 15, 1776

During the debate in the Continental Congress upon the Declaration of Independence, the old Provincial Government of Pennsylvania received such a mortal blow, that it soon expired without a sigh, ending forever the proprietary and royal authority in Pennsylvania.

In the meantime the Committee of Correspondence for Philadelphia issued a circular to all the county committees calling for a conference in that city on June 18, 1776. This conference unanimously resolved “that the present Government of this Province is not competent to the exigencies of our affairs, and that it is necessary that a Provincial Convention be called by this Conference for the express purpose of forming a new Government in this Province on the authority of the people only.”

The delegates to this convention to frame a constitution for the proposed new Government consisted of the representative men of the Province. It is only natural that in time of excitement the men chosen for such important duty should be those most active in the military organizations, or local committeemen, men whose ability, patriotism and personal popularity was unquestioned. It was to be expected that the old statesmen would be crowded out unless they were leaders in the revolutionary movement.

As such they met in Philadelphia, July 15, each taking without hesitancy the prescribed test oath and then organized by the selection of Benjamin Franklin, president; George Ross, of Lancaster, vice president, and John Morris and Jacob Garrigues, secretaries.

On July 18, Owen Biddle, Colonel John Bull, the Reverend William Vanhorn, John Jacobs, Colonel George Ross, Colonel James Smith, Jonathan Hoge, Colonel Jacob Morgan, Colonel Jacob Stroud, Colonel Thomas Smith and Robert Martin were appointed members of a committee to “make an essay for a declaration of rights for this State.”

On July 24 the same persons were directed to draw up an essay for a frame or system of Government, and John Lesher was appointed in place of Colonel Morgan, who was absent with leave.

The same day the convention established a Council of Safety to exercise authority of the Government until the new Constitution went into effect. At the head of the Council was Thomas Wharton, Jr.

During the convention the delegates not only discussed and perfected the measures for the adoption of a Constitution, but assumed the supreme authority of the State, and legislated upon matters foreign to the object for which it was convened. Not only did it form the Council of Safety, but it approved of the Declaration of Independence, recently adopted by the Continental Congress, and also it appointed justices of the peace, who were required, before assuming their functions, to each take an oath of renunciation from the authority of King George III, and one of allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania.

July 25, Colonel Timothy Matlack, James Cannon, Colonel James Potter, David Rittenhouse, Robert Whitehall and Colonel Bertram Galbraith were added to the Committee on the Frame of Government.

The convention completed its labors on September 28, by adopting the first State Constitution, which went into immediate effect, without a vote of the people.

The Constitution as finally adopted vested all legislative power in the General Assembly of the Representatives of the freemen to be composed for three years of six persons annually chosen from the City of Philadelphia and six from each county of the State including Philadelphia, outside the city, afterwards the representation to be apportioned every seven years to the number of taxable inhabitants.

Laws, except in sudden necessity, were not to be passed until the next session after proposal. The executive power was vested in a Supreme Executive Council of twelve elected members, one from the City of Philadelphia, and one from each of the counties, including Philadelphia, so chosen that one-third would retire each year and no member, after serving three years, should be eligible within four years.

A president and vice president were to be annually chosen from this body, by the joint ballot of the Councillors and Assemblymen. New counties were each to have a councillor. The president and the Council, five of whom constituted a quorum, were to appoint all Judges, the Attorney General, etc.

The right to vote was given to all freemen over twenty-one years of age who had resided within the State a year before the election and paid taxes, but the sons, twenty-one years old, of Freeholders were not required to pay taxes. The freemen and their sons should be trained and armed for defense of the State under regulations and with exceptions according to law, but with the right to choose their own colonels and officers under that rank.

A debtor, except for fraud, should not be kept in prison, after giving up his real and personal estate for the benefit of his creditors. A foreigner having taken the oath of allegiance could purchase and transfer real estate and after a year’s residence have all the rights of a natural-born subject, but be ineligible as a member of Assembly until after two years’ residence.

A Council of Censors of two members chosen from each city and county every seven years beginning with 1783 should inquire into the violation of the Constitution and whether the legislative and executive branches of the Government had exercised greater powers than they were entitled to, and could impeach or, by a two-thirds vote of those elected, call a convention to amend the Constitution.

Articles to be amended were to be published six months before election, in order that the people might have opportunity of instructing their delegates concerning them.

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Gibson’s Lambs Start on Expedition for Powder, July 16, 1776

Powder has always been an essential product in every epoch of the stirring history of our country. The situation was always serious, but on the western side of the Allegheny Mountains there were many times when the settlers were in desperate situation on account of little or no powder.

In times of peace the powder used in these western counties was purchased with furs, and every farmer had a quantity in his home for both hunting and defense, but when the Revolution broke out the demand was greater than the supply, and the Indian hostilities stopped the fur trade.

Companies of rangers were organized and a patrol maintained along the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, so that the Indian marauders could be detected and pursued. The work of the frontiersmen was of no use without gunpowder, and in their desperation these hardy pioneers planned an exploit to New Orleans, where they could purchase a quantity from the Spanish Government.

The band of volunteers was under the leadership of Captain George Gibson and Lieutenant William Linn. The former, the son of a Lancaster tavern keeper, was a trapper and had gone to Pittsburgh with his brother John, where they engaged in the fur trade. In his youth he had made several voyages at sea and nearly all his life had traveled through the Indian country. William Linn was from Maryland, a farmer and skilled hunter. He had fought under Braddock and had been used as a scout along the Monongahela River.

Captain Gibson selected fifteen of the hardiest and bravest of his command. These came to be known as Gibson’s Lambs, on account of their fearlessness. Flatboats were built in Pittsburgh and the expedition started from that place Tuesday, July 16, 1776. A trip down the Ohio was extremely dangerous, as all along the river and especially the lower part, the Indians kept a constant watch.

The “Lambs” left behind them every evidence that they were soldiers. They retained rifles, tomahawks and knives, but were clad in coarse clothes resembling boatmen or traders. So clever was their disguise that even when in Pittsburgh their errand remained a secret. The impression was that they were venturing on a trading trip. The expedition successfully passed the British posts at Natchez and reached New Orleans in safety after five weeks on the water.

Louisiana was then a Spanish province, under the governorship of Don Luis de Ungaza, to whom Captain Gibson bore letters of commendation and credit, as well as to Oliver Pollock and other American merchants, then resident in New Orleans. Pollock was a wealthy Philadelphian and exercised great influence with the Spanish authorities. He assisted in negotiating for the powder. Spain was at peace with Great Britain, but willing to give secret aid to the Americans.

The British agents in New Orleans soon learned of the arrival of the Gibson party and, sensing their mission, made complaint to the Spanish authorities that rebels against the British Government were in the city.

Captain Gibson was arrested and lodged in a Spanish prison, where he was treated with the greatest consideration. While he was confined, Oliver Pollock obtained the powder and secreted it in his warehouse. The purchase amounted to 12,000 pounds and cost $1800.

The powder was divided into two portions. Three thousand pounds of it was packed in boxes, falsely marked as merchandise of various kinds, and quietly conveyed to a sailing vessel bound for Philadelphia by way of the gulf and ocean.

There was a coincidence in the fact that on the very night the ship sailed Captain Gibson “escaped” from prison, got on board the vessel and accompanied the precious powder to its destination.

The balance of the powder was turned over to Lieutenant Linn, as this was to be used on the Western frontier. This was in half casks, each containing about sixty pounds. These were smuggled during the night to the barges which were tied up in a secluded place above the city.

Lieutenant Linn hired a score of extra boatmen, mostly Americans, and on September 22, 1776, the little flotilla made a fine getaway without discovery and began its long journey up the Mississippi. The work was hard and the trip took seven months.

At the falls of the Ohio it was necessary to unload the cargoes and carry the heavy casks to the head of the rapids, when the barges were dragged over the shallow stream and reladen. Several times the expedition was forced to tie up by ice and many hardships were experienced before the return of the spring weather.

May 2, 1777, the expedition reached the little settlement of Wheeling, where Fort Henry had been erected. There Lieutenant Linn turned over his precious cargo to David Shepherd, county lieutenant of the newly erected Ohio County, Virginia.

Linn’s responsibility ended at Wheeling. County Lieutenant Shepherd sent the powder to Fort Pitt, under heavy guard, where it was turned over to Colonel William Crawford and safely stored in the brick magazine of the fort. The safe arrival of this powder was the cause of great rejoicing and nothing was too good for Lieutenant Linn and the fearless “Lambs.”

Virginia paid for the powder, but it was turned over for “the use of the continent.” Portions were distributed to the frontier rangers and to the two regiments then being mustered in Southern Pennsylvania for continental service. It was from this powder that Colonel George Rogers Clark drew his supply, in the spring of 1778, for his famous and successful expedition to the Illinois country.

George Gibson was promoted to rank of lieutenant colonel in the Virginia service and Lieutenant Linn was made a captain and placed in command of the “Lambs.” To each of these officers the Virginia Legislature made a grant of money in addition to their regular pay.

Both these brave men performed other acts of heroism during the Revolution and both were killed by the Indians. Linn made a settlement ten miles from Louisville. While riding alone, March 5, 1781, on his way to attend court, he was surprised by a small party of Indians in the forest. Next morning his mutilated body was found, with his horse standing guard over it. Colonel Gibson was mortally wounded at St. Clair’s defeat in Northwestern Ohio, November 4, 1791.

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Virginia Sends Captain John Neville to Command Fort Pitt, July 17, 1775

By the original charter of Virginia the northern boundary of that colony was supposed to be at the end of the fortieth degree, which was as far north as Philadelphia. This charter was dissolved in 1624, and instead of narrowing the limits of Virginia it apparently increased them.

Virginia became a royal province without any definite boundaries, and she considered herself as a keeper or trustee for the King of England of all contiguous territory not lawfully granted to another colony.

The Maryland grant to Lord Baltimore was taken out of the domain of Virginia, and she acquiesced in it. But west of Maryland she insisted that her ownership extended for an indefinite distance northward and westward, and she had made it good by occupation as far north as Pittsburgh.

This was certainly a broad claim of title, and the only remnant of it now is that curious narrow strip of land, called the Pan-Handle, which extends northward between Pennsylvania and Ohio for some distance above the fortieth degree.

The Indian trade at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela had always been an object of Virginia’s desire. In 1752 Virginia determined to erect a fort there, and Pennsylvania was willing because the fort would stop the advance of the French, their common enemy, but she reminded Virginia that the land belonged to the Penns.

The French, in 1754, had seated themselves at Logstown, and the Governor of Virginia began to construct a fort on the site of Pittsburgh, but the French surprised the little garrison, captured the works, finished it, and named it Fort Duquesne.

The French held the fort until English forces, under General John Forbes, invested it November 25, 1758. It was abandoned in 1771.

Some time prior to 1756 Virginia erected the District of West Augusta, covering the territory of Pennsylvania west of the Laurel Hills and south of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers, and in that year divided it into three counties, viz: Monongalia, Yohogania and Ohio.

Pennsylvania also erected upon this disputed territory Bedford County, in 1771, and Westmoreland County, in 1773 Penn’s Manor of Pittsburgh, too, was surveyed for the proprietaries early in 1769, and in the beginning of 1771 magistrates were appointed by Pennsylvania and for some time discharged the duties of their offices without having their authority questioned.

The new Governor of Virginia was John, Earl of Dunmore, or Lord Dunmore, of whom Bancroft says: “No royal governor ever showed more rapacity in the use of royal power.” He at once determined on seizing control of the “Forks of the Ohio,” for Virginia and for himself. He appointed Dr. John Connolly, a man of much energy and talent, but without principle, to be “captain commandant of Pittsburgh and its dependencies.”

Connolly arrived in Pittsburgh late in December, 1773, and early in January, 1774, took possession of the dismantled fort, which he renamed, calling it “Fort Dunmore,” required and commanded the people to assemble themselves there as a militia.

He mustered the militia under Virginia law, intimidated the Pennsylvania magistrates, marched some of them off to prison and established the authority of Virginia throughout all the region between the Monongahela and the Ohio.

While a large part of the inhabitants of that region were Virginians by birth and predilection, there were some fearless and loyal Pennsylvania adherents who did all in their power to resist Connolly’s high-handed proceedings.

One of these, Arthur St. Clair (afterward General St. Clair), then prothonotary of the new county of Westmoreland, issued a warrant against Connolly and had him committed to jail at Hannastown, from which he was soon released on giving bail for court appearance there.

Connolly returned to Virginia, was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace for Augusta County, and when court met at Hannastown, he appeared with his militia, armed and with colors flying, and refused to admit the Pennsylvania magistrates. He arrested three of the magistrates and sent them to Staunton, where they were confined in jail.

Subsequently, Simon Girty led a mob to Hannastown, stormed the jail and released such prisoners as were Virginia partisans.

The Tory conduct of Connolly at Pittsburgh became so bold and obnoxious that in June, 1775, he was seized by twenty men, under orders of Captain St. Clair, and carried to Ligonier, with the intention of delivering him to the Continental Government at Philadelphia. He was released, however, and fled from Pittsburgh by night and made his way to Portsmouth, Virginia, where he joined Lord Dunmore on a man-of-war, taking refuge in Canada.

Virginia had revolted from Dunmore’s tyranny at home, but showed no disposition to repudiate his aggressions in Pennsylvania nor the machinations of Connolly.

The boundary dispute was maintained, although, in view of the troubles with the mother country fast approaching, the Virginia and Pennsylvania delegates in Congress, including such men as Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin, had united in a circular urging the people in the disturbed region to mutual forbearance.

This action of Congress and the constant fear of an Indian uprising persuaded the Virginia Provincial Convention, in session at Williamsburg, July 17, 1775, to pass a resolution which sent Captain John Neville with one hundred men from the Shenandoah Valley to take possession of Fort Pitt.

The following year the Virginia counties in the disputed territory were organized with their loyal and administrative machinery, but the rancor of the contest had, however, somewhat diminished and there were no such acts of violence committed as during the regime of Connolly and his master.

Captain John Neville continued to command until the Continental Congress determined to take Fort Pitt under its care and provide a garrison at the continental expense. The offer was accepted by Virginia and General Washington selected Brigadier General Edward Hand to relieve Captain Neville of his command.

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Susquehanna Company Organized in Connecticut, July 18, 1753

Early charters granted to Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia and the Carolinas made the Pacific Ocean the nominal western boundary of those colonies. Prior occupancy by the Dutch and the settlement of the boundaries had created an exception in favor of New York and New Jersey, but all the country west of the Delaware River within the same parallel of latitude with Connecticut was still claimed by that colony as part of her domain.

The southern boundary was to be a straight line beginning at the mouth of Narragansett Bay. The line extended west would have entered Pennsylvania near Stroudsburg and crossed the North Branch of the Susquehanna at Bloomsburg, the West Branch at Milton, and passing through Clearfield and Newcastle would cut the State nearly through the middle. Penn’s charter fixed the northern boundary of his province at the forty-second degree of latitude. A large strip of territory was thus granted to both Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

On July 18, 1753, about 250 men, mostly from Connecticut, met at Windham, that State, and organized “The Susquehanna Company.” Then, with the consent of the Connecticut Assembly, application was made to the Crown for leave to plant a new colony west of the Delaware. It was granted, and the company sent agents to the Indian treaty at Albany, June, 1754, who succeeded in obtaining from representatives of the Six Nations the cession of a tract of land on the northern branch of the Susquehanna River, where eleven years before King Tedyuskung and his tribe had built the town of Wyoming.

The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania protested against this purchase, and claimed that this land was within the limits of their charter. They also claimed that the purchase had not been made in open council, but had been effected after making the Indians drunk.

As this council at Albany had been called to form a union of the Colonies with the Six Nations as their allies against the French, the purchase was not then seriously opposed. Besides, Pennsylvania bought a large tract of land from the Six Nations at the same treaty, and in a way not satisfactory to the Indians.

The French and Indian War prevented any attempt at settlement of the Wyoming Valley until 1762, when about 200 colonists and their families entered the valley and commenced building and planting near the site of the present Wilkes-Barre. Before winter set in, extensive fields of wheat had been sown upon lands covered with forest trees in August. But owing to the scantiness of provisions, the settlers returned to Connecticut for the winter.

About the same time another Connecticut association, called the “Delaware Company,” had begun a settlement on the Delaware River. Proclamations were issued and writs of ejectment were placed in the hands of the Sheriff of Northampton County.

Early in the month of May, 1763, the settlers returned, accompanied by many others. Notwithstanding the remonstrances of Northampton County, to which the Wyoming Valley then belonged, settlements were made at Wilkes-Barre, Kingston, Plymouth and Hanover.

Several hundred acres were improved with corn and other grain, and a large quantity of hay cut and gathered, and everything was moving forward in a prosperous and happy manner when, without the least warning, on October 15, the settlers were attacked while dispersed and engaged in their work, and about twenty of them slain.

Men, women and children fled to the mountains, from which they saw their homes plundered and burned and their cattle taken away. They abandoned their settlement and made their way back to Connecticut or to Orange County, New York. This is known in the history of Pennsylvania as the first massacre of Wyoming. It was the work of the Delaware Indians, led by Captain Bull, son of King Tedyuskung.

Some believe the Iroquois convinced the Delaware that the white settlers had murdered Tedyuskung and that this massacre was committed in retribution.

For six years after this assault no settlement was attempted. The Indians, anticipating revenge for the massacre, left the valley.

Meanwhile the Penn family made every effort to prove that the title given to the Susquehanna Company was not complete and that their charter was valid. Finally some chiefs, assisted by Sir William Johnson, openly disclaimed the sale to the Susquehanna Company. Then the Six Nations assembled in council at Fort Stanwix and on November 5, 1768, gave a deed of the disputed lands to the Penns.

Meanwhile Pennsylvanians took possession of the Wyoming Valley and built a fortified trading house there. They laid out two manors, one on each side of the river, and extending over the farms abandoned by the New Englanders.

In February, 1769, the Susquehanna Company sent forty men into the valley, to be followed shortly by 200 more. They were given land and 200 pounds Connecticut currency to provide themselves with farming tools and weapons, on condition that they would stay in the valley and defend it against Pennsylvania. They built a blockhouse called, from their numbers, Forty Fort. Their leader was Colonel Zebulon Butler, a hero of the French and Indian War, a brave partisan commander.

A civil war prevailed for some years known as the “Pennamite and Yankee War.” Forts were constructed and many sieges and skirmishes followed. Both parties led men to prison, drove women and children away and committed other outrages.

The Connecticut men were generally successful in this strife. They organized a separate State, but could not maintain it. So in 1774 they attached themselves to Connecticut, as the town of Westmoreland, in the County of Litchfield.

During the Revolution there was a lull in the strife in Wyoming. However, as soon as the war ended the old feud broke out in all its former fury.

Pennsylvania having, in 1779, succeeded the heirs of William Penn, now appealed to Congress to settle the dispute. A commission met at Trenton in 1782 and, after five weeks of deliberation, decided that Connecticut had no right to the land, and that the jurisdiction of the same belonged to Pennsylvania.

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Tom Quick, the Indian Killer and Picturesque Character, Born July 19, 1734

Early in the year 1733 a Hollander, named Thomas Quick, came to the colony of New York, a few months later located on the Delaware River, on what afterward became known as Upper Smithfield, near where Milford, Pike County, now stands. He appears to have been the pioneer settler on the Pennsylvania side; here he cleared lands, erected a log cabin and barns, and raised wheat and maize. A son was born July 19, 1734, named Thomas, and he was familiarly known in after years as Tom Quick, the Indian killer.

He was the pet of the household, and even the Indians who roamed over that region frequently visited Quick’s place and much admired the fine looking, stout lad, and often made him presents of plumes, feathers, skins and other articles.

Tom grew up among these Indians, learned their language, and was taught by them how to hunt wild animals, and fish after the manner of the Indians. He grew fond of the Indian life, and became such an expert hunter, trapper and fisherman, that his father could never induce him to follow any other occupation. He even refused to attend school with his sisters, and in fact became almost an Indian by nature.

In the meantime Thomas Quick, Sr., had become the prosperous owner of a grist and saw mill on a small stream entering the Delaware near Milford, called the Vandemark. But Tom, Jr., never became an employe, but did learn much of the beautiful Minisink Valley, with its high cliffs on the Pennsylvania side and receding hills on the New Jersey side, as it extends from Port Jervis to the Delaware Water Gap. The romantic water falls and rocky glens were his hunting and fishing grounds. This knowledge afterward served his purpose in waylaying and murdering Indians.

The Delaware Indians viewed with alarm the steady encroachments of the whites, and many had already taken up arms against the English. The Quick family, however, had always lived on friendly terms with them, but the Indians were not unmindful of the fact that this sturdy Hollander had been the very first to push that far into their favorite hunting grounds.

The prospect of plundering an opulent man like Quick overcame any feelings of gratitude that might linger in the savage breast.

When the French and Indian War commenced, the Quicks were uneasy and their alarm increased as the Indians grew less sociable, and finally withdrew altogether from the Delaware River.

Quiet reigned until the Quicks became careless and one day the father crossed the river to grind grist, accompanied by Tom and his brother-in-law, all unarmed. As they rounded a point near the river they were fired upon from ambush, and the old man fell mortally wounded.

The young men endeavored to carry him across the frozen river but as they stepped on the ice they were fired on and Tom was hit in the foot. They soon got out of danger, but not before they saw the savages take Tom Quick’s scalp.

Young Tom was frantic with rage and grief, and that moment swore that he would never make peace with the Indians as long as one remained upon the banks of the river.

From this time forth the demon of unrelenting savage hatred entered Tom’s heart and he became more like the savages he pursued than like a civilized man. He never entered the army but took Indians at all times, whether in peace or war, and without regard to age or sex.

He seems to have operated about the close of the Indian War, at a time when they began to again visit their former haunts, supposing they would be well received.

Among the Indians who returned was a drunken vagabond named Muskwink, one who had assisted in murdering Tom’s father.

Tom met Muskwink at Decker’s Tavern, on the Neversink, where he had become very bold and abusive, claiming Tom’s acquaintance and desiring him to drink with him. Tom refused and cursed him, which caused a heated exchange of words, during which Muskwink boasted of the part he played in the murder of Tom Quick, Sr. He bragged that he scalped him with his own hands, and at the same time mimicked the grimaces of the dying man, to corroborate his assertion, exhibited the sleeve buttons worn by his victim at the time.

Tom seized a musket, which was hanging in the bar room, and ordered Muskwink to leave the place. He arose slowly and departed, pursued by Tom until they had gone about a mile, when Tom overtook the savage and shot him dead. Tom returned to the tavern, gave up the musket, drank a glass of rum, and left the neighborhood.

His next exploit was when he espied an Indian family in a canoe near Butler’s Rift. Tom concealed himself in the tall grass and as the canoe glided nearer he recognized the Indian as one who had committed many outrages on the frontier.

Only a few words were exchanged when Quick shot the man and tomahawked the woman and three children. He sank the bodies and destroyed the canoe, and did not tell of this crime for years, when he was asked why he killed the children. He replied, “Nits make lice.”

There are many stories told of Tom Quick, which have been preserved by tradition and which are firmly believed by descendants of the older families of Pike County.

One story is told in which several Indians caught him splitting rails and told him to go along with them. Tom asked them to assist him split open the last log and as they put their fingers in the crack to help pull it apart Tom knocked out the wedge and caught them all. He then killed each one at his leisure.

He went on a hunting trip with an Indian and they killed seven deer. He took the meat but gave the Indian the skins. He threw them across his shoulder, Tom fell behind and shot the Indian and took the skins as well as the meat, saying he had shot a buck with seven skins.

He was hunting with another Indian and pushed him off of the high rocks.

Tradition says that on his death bed he claimed to have killed ninety-nine Indians, and that he begged them to bring an old Indian, who lived near, in order that he might bring his record to an even hundred.

In his old age he was regarded as a hero by the pioneer hunters and trappers. He died at James Rosencrantz’s in 1795, and was buried on his farm.

The time has long since passed when such a revengeful murderer can be exalted to the rank of a hero, yet Tom Quick, the Indian slayer, weather-beaten, and with wornout accoutrements and costume in keeping, presented a picturesque and Rip Van Winkle-like appearance that would have formed no bad subject for an artist’s pencil.

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William Maclay, First United States Senator, Born in Chester, July 20, 1737

William Maclay, son of Charles and Eleanor Query Maclay, was born July 20, 1737, in New Garden Township, Chester County, Pa. He attended the classical school of the Reverend John Blair, in Chester County. He studied law and was admitted to practice at the York County bar in 1760. During the French and Indian War he served as a lieutenant in Colonel Hugh Mercer’s battalion, and distinguished himself during General Forbes expedition in 1758. In 1763 he participated at the Battle of Bushy Run, and during the subsequent progress of Colonel Bouquet’s campaign was stationed in command of a company at one of the stockades on the route of the expedition.

On account of this service he never practiced his profession. Much of his time was taken up in surveying lands allotted to officers, but at a later period Governor John Penn was instrumental in having him admitted to the Cumberland County bar, and for a short time he acted as Prothonotary.

At the close of the French and Indian War he visited England and had an interview with Thomas Penn, one of the Proprietaries, relative to surveys in parts of the Province, and on his return became an assistant of Surveyor General Lukens on the frontier.

In April, 1769, he married Mary McClure Harris, daughter of John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg.

On the organization of Northumberland County March 21, 1772, he was appointed Prothonotary and Clerk of the Courts.

In July, 1772, he laid out the town of Sunbury and erected for himself a fine stone house, which, with modern improvements, is still standing.[5]

Footnote 5:

For many years the residence of Hon. Simon P. Wolverton, and now that of his widow.

At the outset of the Revolution, although an officer of the Proprietary Government, William Maclay took a prominent and active part in favor of independence, not only assisting in equipping and forwarding troops to the Continental Army, but marched with the associators which participated in the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. He held the position of assistant commissary of purchases.

During the “Great Runaway,” following the Wyoming massacre, July 3, 1778, William Maclay fled with his family from Sunbury to Harris’ Ferry, and in a letter to the president of the Executive Council he gave a very graphic picture of the distress. Again after the attack and destruction of Fort Freeland by the British, Tories and Indians, July 28, 1779, Maclay again wrote to the seat of government in which he described the forlorn situation of the frontiers. In a later letter he deplored the removal of soldiers from the West Branch Valley, where the Indians had committed such terrible depredations.

In 1781 he was elected to the Assembly, and from that time forward he filled the various offices of member of the Supreme Executive Council, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, deputy surveyor, etc. After the Revolution he made a visit to England in the interest of the Penn family.

In January, 1789, he was elected to the United States Senate, taking his seat there as the first Senator from Pennsylvania. He drew the short term, and his position terminated March 3, 1791, his colleague, Robert Morris, securing the long term.

Maclay’s election to this body raised him upon a higher plane of political activity, but contact with the Federal chiefs of the young Republic only strengthened his political convictions, which, formed by long intercourse with the people of Central Pennsylvania, were intensely democratic.

Maclay differed with the opinions of President Washington; he did not approve of the state and ceremony attendant upon the intercourse of the President with Congress, he flatly objected to the presence of the President in the Senate while business was being transacted, and in that chamber boldly spoke against his policy in the immediate presence of President Washington.

Maclay was the original promoter and later the actual founder of the Democratic Party. Long before Thomas Jefferson’s return from Europe, William Maclay assumed an independent position, and in his short career of only two years in the Senate propounded ideas and gathered about him elements to form the opposition which developed with the meeting of Congress at Philadelphia, October 24, 1791, in a division of the people into two great parties, the Federalists and Democrats, when, for the first time, appeared an open and organized opposition to the Administration.

The funding of the public debt and chartering the United States Bank were opposed by Maclay, even at a sacrifice of personal popularity, for he was succeeded in the Senate by James Ross, a pronounced Federalist.

While in the Senate Maclay preserved notes of his discussions, both in open and executive sessions, with observations upon the social customs of the statesmen of the Republic, which have since been published.

On his retirement from the Senate William Maclay resided on his farm adjoining Harrisburg, where he erected a fine stone mansion, afterward, for many years, occupied by the Harrisburg Academy.

In 1795 he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and was again elected in 1803. He was a presidential candidate in 1796, and from 1801 to 1803 was one of the Associate Judges of Dauphin County.

William Maclay’s brother, Samuel, was almost as distinguished a citizen as his older brother. He, too, was a soldier in the Continental Army, a surveyor and statesman. He served as Associate Judge, was in the Fourth Congress, State Senate and Speaker of that body, and December 14, 1802, he was elected to the United States Senate. William and Samuel Maclay are the only brothers to sit in that body.

William Maclay was the father of nine children. He died at his home at Harrisburg April 16, 1804, and was interred in the old Paxton Presbyterian Church graveyard at Paxtang. An elegant stone marks the final resting place of this distinguished Pennsylvanian.

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Colonel James Cameron, First Pennsylvania Officer Killed in Civil War July 21, 1861

It may not be generally known that the first officer of his rank to be killed in the Civil War was none other than Colonel James Cameron, who commanded the Seventy-ninth New York Highlanders, yet was a native of Lancaster County, Pa., a resident of this State, and a brother of the distinguished General Simon Cameron.

The Cameron family in America is of fighting stock, descendants of the Camerons of Scotland, who shared their fortunes with the disastrous Charles Edward, whose star of hope went down on the bloody field of Culloden. Donald Cameron, their great-grandfather, was a participant in that memorable battle, and having escaped the carnage made his way to America, arriving here about 1746. He afterward fought under the gallant Wolfe upon the heights of Abraham at Quebec.

On his mother’s side, Colonel James Cameron was descended from Conrad Pfoutz, one of those sturdy German Protestants, whose faith no terrors could conquer. An exile from his native land for conscience sake, he sought the western wilds, and was for a time the companion of that famous Indian fighter, Captain Samuel Brady, the history of whose life is more captivating than romance.

James Cameron was born at Maytown, Lancaster County, March 1, 1801, and spent his boyhood there. He was apprenticed to his older brother, Simon, in the printing trade, and as early as 1827 he became associated with John Brandon in the publication of the “Lycoming Gazette,” at Williamsport, but only for a short time, as the business was not successful, and in December of that year the paper was sold to William F. Packer, who later became Governor of Pennsylvania.

James Cameron returned to Lancaster County and in 1829 obtained control of “The Political Sentinel,” which he published for a few years only. In 1839 he was appointed superintendent of motive power on the Columbia Railroad, succeeding Andrew Mehaffy. In 1843 he was appointed Deputy Attorney General of the Mayor’s Court, at Lancaster, succeeding S. Humes Porter.

Thus we find he worked his way through various steps from an orphan in poverty to a position of distinction in business and society.

When the Northern Central Railroad was constructed he held an official position under the management with headquarters at Sunbury. It was about this time that he purchased a magnificent farm along the beautiful Susquehanna River, just below the borough of Milton.

James Cameron was also stung with the political bee which seemed to hunt Cameron victims for many years in Pennsylvania. In 1856 he sought a seat in Congress, but was defeated for the Democratic nomination.

When the Civil War broke out he was called to the command of the Seventy-ninth New York Regiment of Volunteers, known as the “Highlanders,” and he marched at the head of his command on the ever-memorable advance on Bull Run.

He repeatedly rallied his men, who seemed paralyzed at the reverse, and none of his men felt this more than the brave colonel. He dropped his sword from his hand as he stared at the retreating mass of troops. Some of his command were still firing, when one of his lieutenants rushed forward to receive orders about the wounded soldiers. The colonel turned suddenly towards him, when at that instant a minnie bullet pierced his heart and he fell without uttering a word.

After the death of Colonel Cameron the rout became complete and the army fell back in great confusion on Washington.

Colonel Cameron’s body with hundreds of others, was left on the field and afterwards buried in a trench. Through the efforts of his brother, General Simon Cameron, then Secretary of War in President Lincoln’s Cabinet, his grave was located and his body identified by the peculiar buckskin shirt he wore, and was removed from the place of its rude burial. The remains were taken to Lewisburg and reinterred with the military honors due such a hero. Colonel Cameron left a wife, but no issue.

Colonel Cameron was the first soldier from Northumberland County to lose his life in the war. He was the first officer of his rank in the Union Army and the first officer from Pennsylvania to fall in battle in the Civil War.

The Northumberland County Soldiers’ Monument Memorial Association was organized May 25, 1872, and incorporated August 5, following.

On July 4, 1872, a site at the eastern end of Market square in Sunbury, was marked out by Judge Alexander Jordan and General Simon Cameron, and from that time plans were perfected for the erection of a memorial which should do justice to the boys from “Old Mother Northumberland” who had made the supreme sacrifice in that greatest of all civil wars in the world’s history.

The cornerstone was laid May 30, 1874, with a great Masonic ceremony. Robert L. Muench, of Harrisburg, district deputy grand master, acting for the grand master, was in charge of the exercises, assisted by Maclay C. Gearhart, Henry Y. Fryling, James M. McDevitt, Jacob R. Cressinger and William Hoover, the elective officers of Lodge No. 22, Free and Accepted Masons, of Sunbury.

There were many distinguished members of the order in attendance, hundreds of veterans of the Civil War, including a large delegation of the Seventy-ninth New York Cameronian Volunteers and thousands of citizens from Sunbury and the nearby towns.

The monument itself is an imposing shaft, resting upon a pedestal elevated upon a mound. At the outer edge are mounted four cannon used in the Civil War.

This shaft is surmounted by a lifesize statue in granite, of the gallant Colonel Cameron. It represents him clad in his military uniform and standing “at ease.” A tablet in one of the panels bears this inscription:

“James Cameron, of Northumberland County, Colonel of the Seventy-ninth New York Cameronian Volunteers. Fell at the head of his regiment at the Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, aged sixty-one years.

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Battle of Minisink Fought Opposite Lackawaxen July 22, 1779

On July 22, 1779, near what is now the little town of Lackawaxen, Pike County, Pa., was fought one of the fiercest Indian battles on record. This massacre actually took place in the State of New York at Minisink, where the town of Port Jervis, Orange County, now is. Only the Delaware River separated the battleground from Pike County, in this State.

The Shawnee at Minisink are said to have built a town on the east side of the Delaware, three miles south of the mouth of Flat Brook, which was called Pechoquealin. They also had a town on the Pennsylvania side of the river which had the same name, and probably stood near the site of the present town of Shawnee, at the mouth of Shawnee Run, in what is now Lower Smithfield Township, Monroe County.

Secretary James Logan stated in a letter to Governor Clark, of New York, dated August 4, 1737, that when the Shawnee came from the South in 1692 one party of them “was placed at Pechoquealin, near Durham, to take care of the iron mines.” Their village was probably on the high ground back of the lower end of Rieglesville, and near the furnace, where traces of an Indian town still are to be seen.

The territory known as the Minisinks was often the scene of strife with the red men, and almost every dell, in what is now Pike County, Pa., and Orange County, N. Y., has its local tradition.

Count Pulaski and his legion of cavalry were stationed at Minisink, during part of the winter of 1778–79. In February he was ordered to South Carolina to join the army under Lincoln. The settlement was thus left wholly unprotected, which being perceived by Joseph Brant, the accomplished Indian warrior, he resolved to make a descent upon it.

Early in July, Joseph Brant, the daring and treacherous Mohawk chief, left the Susquehanna with some 400 warriors. The settlers had received timely warning and threw out scouts to watch the approach of the invaders.

On the night of July 19 the Indians, with Tories disguised as savages, stole upon the little town of Minisink, where Port Jervis now stands, and before the people were aroused from their slumbers several dwellings were set on fire. Without means of defense, the inhabitants sought safety in flight to the mountains. Their small stockade fort, a mill and twelve houses and barns were burned, several persons killed, some taken prisoners, cattle driven away and the booty carried to Grassy Brook, where Brant had left the main body of his warriors.

While these events were being enacted a call for volunteers was responded to and 150 men met the following morning, determined to pursue the savages.

Colonel Tusten, who knew the craftiness of Brant, opposed pursuit, but was overruled. Major Meeker, mounting his horse, shouted, “Let the brave men follow me; the cowards may stay behind.” The line of march was formed, and they traveled seventeen miles, then encamped for the night.

The march was resumed the morning of July 22, and at Half-Way Brook came upon the Indian encampment of the previous night. The number of smoldering fires indicated a large savage force, and the two colonels, with the more prudent, advocated a return rather than further pursuit. The majority determined to pursue.

A scouting party was sent forward, but was discovered and the captain slain. The volunteers pressed onward, and at 9 o’clock the enemy could be seen marching in the direction of the fording place. Brant had already deposited a large part of his plunder in Pike County. The commander of the volunteers determined to intercept them at the ford, but Brant had been watching the movements of his pursuers and, comprehending their designs, he wheeled his column and by a strategic movement brought his whole force in the rear of the Americans. Here he formed an ambuscade and deliberately selected his battleground.

The volunteers were surprised and disappointed at not finding the enemy where they expected him to be, and were marching back when they discovered some of the Indians. One of them, mounted on a horse stolen at Minisink, was shot. This was a signal for action, and the firing soon became general. It was a long and bloody conflict.

The Indians greatly outnumbered the whites, and as the ammunition of the latter was limited, they were careful not to fire at random, but to make every shot count. The fight began at 11 o’clock and at twilight was yet undecided. The ammunition of the militia was expended and the enemy attacked and broke through their line.

The survivors attempted to retreat. Behind a ledge of rocks, Doctor Tusten was dressing the wounds of seventeen who were injured. The Indians fell upon them furiously, and all, including the doctor, were slain.

Some attempted escape by swimming the river; the Indians killed many, but a few reached the wilds of Pike County. A few more escaped under the cover of darkness. Of the whole number that went forth, only thirty returned to relate the dreadful scenes of that day.

This massacre of the wounded is one of the darkest stains upon the memory of Brant, whose honor and humanity were often more conspicuous than that of his Tory allies.

He made a weak defense of his conduct by asserting he had offered good treatment if they would surrender and that his humane proposition was answered by a bullet from an American musket, which pierced his belt.

In the year 1822, the bones of friend and foe were picked up, put in boxes, taken to Goshen, in Orange County, and given a decent burial, and a beautiful monument marks the spot where the mortal remains of the heroes lay who fought what is known as the battle of Minisink.

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General Howe Sails From New York to Capture Philadelphia, July 23, 1777

General Howe, commander of the British forces in America, sailed with his army from New York, July 23, 1777, to make a mighty effort to end the Revolution by capturing Philadelphia, the seat of government of the Continental Congress. His intentions were to approach the city by the Delaware.

Soon as this became known every effort was made for the defense of the river. Howe experienced much difficulty, therefore, in navigating his immense naval armament and meeting these obstructions in the Delaware Bay, he decided to make his approach by way of the Chesapeake, where he anchored at the head of the bay, in Elk River, August 25.

Howe disembarked with 18,000 troops, well equipped, except for horses. The movement was delayed by heavy rains, but when they reached Elkton the Philadelphia Light Horse, under Colonel Patterson retired, but annoyed the enemy by skirmishing.

On September 3, the militia and light horse with 720 Continentals, under General Maxwell, kept up an attack which checked somewhat the progress towards Philadelphia of two divisions of British, under Cornwallis and Knyphausen.

Washington marched his army through Philadelphia to encourage the partisans of independence and overawe the disaffected, and took up a position between Chester and Wilmington.

On hearing of the actual invasion of Pennsylvania the Supreme Executive Council issued a proclamation entreating all persons to march instantly to the assistance of General Washington, to enable him to demolish the only British army that remained formidable in America or in the world.

Those addressed were asked to consider the wanton ravages, the rapes, the butcheries perpetrated in New Jersey, and on the frontier of New York, and the prospect of Americans being “like the wretched inhabitants of India, stripped of their freedom, robbed of their property, degraded beneath brutes, and left to starve amid plenty at the will of their lordly masters.”

Washington had moved from White Clay Creek, leaving only the riflemen in camp, and with the main body of his army retired behind the Red Clay Creek, occupying with his right wing the town of Newport, upon the great road to Philadelphia; his left was at Hockhesson.

When Howe brought the army to attack the right flank on September 9, the Americans had slipped away and crossed the Brandywine at Chadd’s Ford in Chester County, where they awaited the enemy. General Sullivan commanded the right, General Armstrong the left. The riflemen of Maxwell scoured the right bank of the Brandywine, in order to harass and retard the enemy. Stephen’s and Lord Sterling’s divisions were under General Sullivan.

The British reached Kennett Square September 10. The next morning half the British army, led by Howe and Cornwallis, moved up the valley road to cross at the forks of the creek. At 10 o’clock Knyphausen began a cannonade at Chadd’s Ford.

Sullivan crossed the creek above, while Washington with Greene’s division was to attack Knyphausen, but Sullivan was too late and had not made the crossing when the attack began, for Cornwallis had made the crossing as intended and came down upon the Americans. Sterling and Stephen faced his attack southwest of the Birmingham meeting house. Sullivan should have taken his division to their right, and when he started to change his position, he was put to flight and lost his artillery.

The story of the Battle of the Brandywine will not be repeated, except to state that after a terrible day’s battle the Americans retreated at nightfall, having lost 1000 killed and wounded, Lafayette among the latter. Howe’s army did not pursue in the darkness, and Washington reached Chester. Thence it went to Germantown and collected provisions and ammunition. Battalions of militia joined the main body at the Falls of the Schuylkill and at Darby.

The public money of Pennsylvania was sent to Easton, the Liberty Bell and church bells at Philadelphia were sent to Bethlehem and Allentown, the Market Street bridge was removed and the boats at the ferries of the Schuylkill brought to the city side.

Washington advanced to the Lancaster road, and Howe and Cornwallis left the vicinity of Chester and marched toward the road through what is now West Chester and by Goshen Meeting, and the Sign of the Boot Inn, which General Howe occupied and made his headquarters.

The two armies on September 16, were drawn in battle array near the White Horse Inn on the Lancaster Road, where a fight occurred between Count Donop and his Hessians and “Mad Anthony” Wayne without much result. A violent and incessant rain storm prevented any general action.

During this storm the American army suffered a heavy loss in ammunition, which got wet; so it turned aside until a new supply could be obtained. The enemy moved toward Philadelphia.

The day after the battle of Brandywine, toward evening, the British dispatched a detachment of light troops to Wilmington. There they took prisoner the Governor of the State of Delaware, and seized a considerable quantity of coined money, as well as other property, both public and private, and some papers of importance.

General Mifflin was too ill to take command of the defense of Philadelphia, and all was confusion, when at 1 o’clock in the morning of September 19, the alarm was given that the British had crossed the Schuylkill.

Lord Cornwallis entered Philadelphia September 26, at the head of British and Hessian grenadiers. The rest of the army remained in camp at Germantown.

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Captain John Smith Sails From Jamestown, July 24, 1608, to Explore Chesapeake Bay

Two Indian messengers hurried to the Susquehannock Indian town situated on the banks of the Susquehanna River, in what is now Lancaster County, in midsummer, 1608, and brought the tidings that there were strangers arrived in the great bay who wished to see them. The Susquehanna Indians, or Susquehannocks, as they are usually called, went to meet these white men, whom they believed to be gods worthy of worship.

The strangers were thirteen in number, and under the leadership of Captain John Smith, who had effected a settlement at Jamestown, Va., the preceding year. They had sailed away from Jamestown, July 24, on a voyage of discovery in an open boat of less than three tons burden.

The party had a tedious voyage. The vessel entered Chesapeake Bay, and the party spent seven weeks exploring its shores, returning to Jamestown September 7.

It was after Smith reached the head of the bay, on the Tockwogh (Sassafras) River, that he first met Indians. Here he found “many hatchets, knives and peeces of yron and brasse, which they reported to have from the Sasquesahanockes, a mighty people, and mortal enemies with the Massawomeckes.”

Smith approached these Indians warily, for he had already heard of them as a ferocious tribe. Smith “prevailed with the Interpreter to take with him another interpreter, to perswade the Sasquesahoncks to come to visit us, for their language are different.”

Smith made a visit to the tribe on the east side of the Chesapeake the following morning, and they received him in friendship.

He navigated his boats as far up the Susquehanna as was possible on account of the rocks, and there awaited the return of the two Indian messengers. In four days they arrived, and with them came the Indians. Captain Smith’s own story says:

“Sixty Susquehannocks came to us, with skins, bows, arrowes, targets, beeds, swords & tobacco pipes for presents. Such great and well proportioned men are seldom seen, for they seemed like giants to the English, yea, and to the neighbors, yet seemed of an honest and simple disposition. They were with much adoe restrained from adoring us as gods.

“These are the strangest people of all these countries, both in language and attire; for their language may well become their proportions; sounding from them as a voyce in the vault. Their attire is the skinnes of bears, and wolves, some have cossacks made of beares heads and skinnes, that a man’s head goes through the skinnes neck, and the eares of the beare fastened to his shoulders, the nose and teeth hanging down his breast, another beares face split behind him, and at the end of the nose hung a paw, the half sleeves coming to the elbowes were the necks of the beares, and the arms through the mouth with the pawes hanging at their noses. One had the head of a wolfe hanging in a chain for a jewell, his tobacco-pipe three-quarters of a yard long, prettily carved with a bird, a deare, or some such devise at the great end, sufficient to beat out ones braines; with bowes, arrowes, and clubs, sutable to their greatness. Five of their chiefe warriors came aboord us and crossed the bay in the barge. The picture of the greatest of them is signified in the mappe.

“The calf of whose leg was three quarters of a yard about, and all the rest of his limbs so answerable to that proportion that he seemed the goodliest man we ever beheld. His hayre, the one side was long, the other shore close with a ridge over his crowne like a cocks combe. His arrowes were five quarters long, headed with the splinters of a white christall-like stone, in form of a heart, an inch broad, an inch and a halfe or more long. These he wore in a woolves skinne at his backe for his quiver, his bow in the one hand and his clubbe in the other, as is described.

“They can make neere 600 able and mighty men, and are pallisadoed in their townes to defend them from the Massawomekes, their mortal enemies * * * They are seated (on the Susquehanna River) 2 daies higher than was passage for the discoverer’s barge.”

Smith further describes the Susquehannocks, and very much exaggerates their strength of numbers and other qualifications, but there can be no doubt that the great adventurer was thoroughly impressed with this powerful tribe. This was the first contact of white men with the native people of Pennsylvania. Smith almost reached Pennsylvania on this voyage.

His map of Virginia made in 1612 also shows a number of Indian villages in the interior of Pennsylvania. Besides the town of Sasquesahanough, he locates on the east bank of the Susquehanna, near its head, Tesinigh, and about midway between these two, Quadroque, which is also on the east bank. Near the heads of two tributaries of the same river he locates Attaock, and some distance north, Utchowig. Mr. A. L. Guss places Attaock as on the Juniata; Quadroque at or near the forks of the North and West Branches; Tesinigh on the North Branch, towards Wyoming; and Utchowig, Mr. Guss suggests might have been a town of the Erie, or Cat Nation.

During another voyage in December, 1607, Captain Smith was taken prisoner by the Indians, but afterwards released on promise to furnish a ransom of two great guns and a grindstone. Tradition says that he was saved from death during this captivity by Pocahontas.

Smith made maps of his exploration and, in 1614, explored the New England coast and made a map of that shore from the Penobscot to Cape Cod.

Captain Smith served as president of the colony of Jamestown, but he was too strict a disciplinarian. When his successor was elected, September 29, 1609, Smith sailed for England and never returned to Jamestown.

He had achieved much for Virginia, he was a good example of Elizabethian versatility, “bookman, penman, swordsman, diplomat, sailor, courtier, orator, explorer.” His works have been published.

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Colonel Thompson’s Battalion of Riflemen Among First to Reach Boston, July 25, 1775

Colonel Thompson’s Battalion of Riflemen, so styled in General Washington’s general orders, was one of the Pennsylvania regiments in the Revolutionary War of which every citizen has pardonable right to be proud.

This command was enlisted in the latter part of June, and in the beginning of July, 1775, in pursuance of a resolution of Congress, dated June 14, for raising six companies of expert riflemen in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia, which, as soon as completed, were to join the army near Boston.

By a resolution adopted June 22, the “Colony of Pennsylvania” was directed to raise two more companies, which with the six, were to be formed into a battalion, and be commanded by such officers as the Assembly or Convention should recommend.

This resolution having been communicated to the Assembly of Pennsylvania, it resolved, June 24, “that the members of Congress deputed by this Assembly be a committee to consider of, and recommend proper officers of the said battalion.”

This committee performed the duty thus delegated them and William Thompson, of Carlisle, was commissioned colonel; Edward Hand, of Lancaster, lieutenant colonel; Robert Magaw, of Carlisle, major; and William Magaw, Carlisle, surgeon.

Each company in this battalion consisted of one captain, three lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and sixty-eight privates.

On July 11 Congress was informed that two companies had been raised in Lancaster instead of one, and it resolved that both companies be taken into the Continental service. The battalion, therefore, consisted of nine companies, enlisted as follows:

James Chambers and William Hendricks in Cumberland County; Michael Doudel in York County; James Ross and Matthew Smith in Lancaster County; John Lowden in Northumberland County; Robert Cluggage in Bedford County; George Nagel in Berks County; and Abraham Miller in Northampton County.

The pay of the officers and privates was as follows: Captain, twenty dollars per month; a lieutenant, thirteen and one-third dollars; sergeant, eight; corporal, seven and one-third; drummer, the same; privates, six and two-thirds, and to find their own arms and clothes.

The patriotism of Pennsylvania was still further evinced in the haste with which these companies of Colonel Thompson’s battalion were filled to overflowing and the promptitude with which they took up their march.

Eight of the companies arrived at Boston by July 25, which may properly be the date the activities of these riflemen actually began.

A large number of gentlemen went along as independent volunteers. Their names were not entered on the rolls, and they claimed the privilege of paying their own expenses and returning at their pleasure. Among them were Edward Burd, afterwards prothonotary of the Supreme Court, Jesse Lukens and Matthew Duncan.

The command got into action almost upon its arrival at Cambridge.

The Military Journal of the Revolution described this battalion as “remarkably stout and hardy men; many of them exceeding six feet in height. They are dressed in white frocks or rifle shirts and round hats. These men are remarkable for the accuracy of their aim; striking a mark with great certainty at 200 yards distance. At a review, a company of them, while on a quick advance, fired their balls into objects of seven inches diameter, at a distance of 250 yards. They are now stationed in our lines, and their shot have frequently proved fatal to British officers and soldiers who expose themselves to view, even at more than double the distance of common musket shot.”

The battalion became the Second regiment (after January 1, 1776, the First regiment) of the army of the United Colonies.

This regiment formed the picket guard of the 2,000 provincials, who, on the evening of August 26, took possession of and threw up intrenchments on Ploughed Hill, and on the following morning met with its first loss, Private William Simpson, of Paxtang, a member of Captain Matthew Smith’s company, who was wounded in the leg in front of Boston. A cannon ball shattered his leg, which was amputated but the lad died three days later.

The first soldier to make the supreme sacrifice was a brother of Lieutenant, afterward General Michael Simpson, and of John Simpson, for years recorder of Northumberland County.

On September 5 the companies of Captain Matthew Smith and Captain William Hendricks were ordered to join the expedition against Quebec, commanded by General Benedict Arnold.

An interesting account of the hardships and sufferings of these two companies was written by Judge John Joseph Henry, of Lancaster, a private in Smith’s company. At the attack on Quebec, December 31, Captain Hendricks was killed, and those who did not fall were taken prisoners, and held until paroled August 7, 1776.

The balance of Colonel Thompson’s command earned the public thanks of General Washington for services rendered at Lechmere’s Point, November 9, 1775. In this action the men waded through the tide up to their armpits and drove the British from their cover and into their boats. Colonel Thompson lost only one killed and three wounded. British loss was seventeen killed and one wounded.

January 1, 1776, the new army organization was commenced and this battalion became the First Regiment of the Continental Army. Colonel Thompson was promoted to brigadier general, March 1, 1776, and Edward Hand became colonel. He was later promoted to brigadier. The First Pennsylvania participated with General Sullivan in New York and Long Island.

Washington wrote to Congress, on April 22, 1776:

“The time for which the riflemen enlisted will expire on the 1st of July next, and as the loss of such a valuable and brave body of men will be of great injury to the service, I would submit it to the consideration of Congress whether it would not be best to adopt some method to induce them to continue. They are, indeed, a very useful corps; but I need not mention this, as their importance is already well known to the Congress.”

On July 1 the battalion entered upon another term of service.

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Indians Massacre Inhabitants in the Conococheague Valley on July 26, 1756

July 26 is a date which recalls to the minds of many inhabitants of the present Franklin County two atrocities committed by Indians, either of which is horrible in its every detail.

On July 26, 1756, the Indians killed Joseph Martin, and took captive two brothers, named John and James McCullough, all residents of the Conococheague settlement. This was followed, August 27, with a great slaughter, wherein the Indians killed thirty-nine persons, near the mouth of the Conococheague Creek.

Early in November following, the Indians discovered some soldiers of the garrison at Fort McDowell, a few miles distant, ambushed them and killed and scalped Privates James McDonald, William McDonald, Bartholemew McCafferty, and Anthony McQuoid; and carried off Captain James Corken and Private William Cornwall. The following inhabitants were killed: John Culbertson, Samuel Perry, Hugh Kerrel, John Woods and his mother-in-law, and Elizabeth Archer; and carried off four children belonging to John Archer; and two lads named Samuel Neily and James McQuoid.

To return to the first atrocity. James McCullough had but a few years before removed from Delaware to what is now Montgomery Township, Franklin County, where he immediately began to clear the land and till the soil.

The McCullough family had been temporarily living in a cabin three miles distant from their home, and the parents and their daughter, Mary, went home to pull flax. A neighbor, John Allen, who had business at Fort Loudon accompanied them, and promised to come that way in the evening and go along back to the cabin.

Allen had proceeded about two miles when he learned that the Indians had that morning killed a man, a short distance from the McCullough home. Allen failed to keep his promise and returned by a circuitous route.

When he reached the McCulloughs he told the lads to hide, that Indians were near at hand, and added, at the same time, that he supposed they had killed their parents.

John McCullough was eight years old and James but five. They alarmed their neighbors, but all hurried to make preparations to go to the fort, a mile distant. None would volunteer to warn Mr. and Mrs. McCullough of their danger, so the lads determined to do it themselves. They left their little sister, Elizabeth, aged two years sleeping in bed.

The brave lads reached a point where they could see their house and began to halloo. They were happy to reach their parents in safety. When about sixty yards from the house, five Indians and one Frenchman came rushing out of the thicket and took the lads captive. The Indians missed capturing the parents by the mere accident that the father had heard the lads and left his work to meet them and thus the Indians missed him, and failed to notice the mother and daughter in a field at work.

The lads were taken to the forks of the Ohio, whence James, the younger, was carried into Canada and all trace of him lost. John remained with the Indians for nine years, when he and hundreds of other captives were released. They eventually were able to find their way back to their homes in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.

John lived in the community from which he had been taken for nearly sixty years and left a written record of what he suffered during this long captivity.

The other Indian massacres, which inhabitants of the Conococheague Valley will ever relate, began with the appearance of savages on Sunday, July 22, 1764, when several were discovered near Fort Loudon.

On Wednesday Susan King Cunningham left her home and started through the woods to call on a neighbor. As she did not return when expected a search was made, and soon her body was found lying near her home. The fiends had not been content to murder and scalp this good woman, but had performed a Caesarian operation and had placed her child on the ground beside her.

The next day, July 26, occurred the murder of Enoch Brown, schoolmaster, and ten of his pupils. A tragedy unique in the long story of Indian atrocities.

This terrible massacre occurred about three miles north of Greencastle, Franklin County. Brown and each of the ten small children were killed and scalped, and a lad, Archibald McCullough, was scalped and left for dead among the other victims, but he recovered and lived for many years.

With few exceptions the scholars were much averse to going to school that morning. And the account afterward given by McCullough is that two of the scholars informed Mr. Brown that on their way to school they had seen Indians. The master paid no attention to what had been told him, and ordered them to their books.

Soon after school had opened three Indians rushed up to the door. The schoolmaster, seeing them, prayed the Indians only to take his life and spare the children, but they refused. The Indians stood at the door, whilst the third entered the school room, and with a piece of wood in the shape of a maul, killed the master and the scholars, after which all of them were scalped.

Young McCollough, left for dead, dragged himself to a spring a short distance from the school house where he slaked his burning thirst and washed his wound.

This Archie was a cousin of John and James McCullough, taken by the Indians in that same place exactly eight years before. John was at that time a captive and living with the Indians. In his interesting narrative he says that he knew the three Indians who murdered Brown and the children, and that he was present when they returned to their chief.

They were young Indians, not over twenty years of age. Old Night Walker, the chief, called them cowards for having so many children’s scalps.

Thus it is a singular coincidence that these two crimes should be committed on July 26, that McCulloughs should figure in them both, and that the only accurate details of each massacre are given by the only two survivors, John and Archie McCullough, yet they occurred eight years apart.

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Ruffians Mob Pastor and Cause Organization of First Moravian Church July 27, 1742

An affair occurred in Philadelphia July 27, 1742, which, disgraceful as were the proceedings, was the means of establishing a separate Moravian Church in that city.

Count Nicholas Ludwig Zinzindorf arrived in Philadelphia, December 10, 1741. He came with the hope of uniting all Protestant Christians into a confederacy or league.

Almost immediately upon his arrival Henry Antes, a pious wheel-wright and farmer in Falkner’s Swamp, now Frederick Township, Montgomery County, invited Zinzindorf to attend a synod or conference at Germantown, which had for its object a movement similar to that of the distinguished visitor.

Zinzindorf accepted the invitation and attended the Synod, January 12, 1742. Indeed he went there before that date, and preached in the German Reformed Church, January 1, his first sermon in America. He got acquainted with the people and earnestly began his great work.

This Synod was the first of seven. It was held in the house of Theobold Endt, a Germantown clockmaker. Zinzindorf was made moderator.

The delegates of the different sects met and discussed the best way of bringing about a more perfect union of all Protestant denominations. There were a number of Moravians present, but not as delegates, for no settled congregation of that sect as yet existed.

No definite results were reached though Zinzindorf’s ideas impressed the assemblies.

During the earlier months of 1742 Zinzindorf preached at Oley, Falkner’s Swamp, Germantown, and other places, and gathered the nuclei of subsequent Moravian congregations.

A house was rented in Germantown for Count Zinzindorf and his assistants, which was opened as a school May 4, of that year. The Countess Benigna assisted as a teacher, as did also Anna Nitschmann, who subsequently became the second wife of Zinzindorf. The school opened with twenty-five girls as pupils.

In Philadelphia Zinzindorf began ministrations in a barn on Arch Street below Fifth, then fitted up with seats and used in partnership by the German Reformed and the Lutherans.

His Lutheran tendencies and training fitted him to take charge of a Lutheran Church, and May 30, 1742, this congregation called him to take its charge. Indeed, it is said that he claimed to be inspector-general of the Lutherans, and had for some months supplied a Lutheran Church in Germantown.

Zinzindorf accepted the call of the Philadelphia Lutherans, but wishing to do a certain amount of missionary work elsewhere, associated John Christopher Pyrlaeus, a Saxony Presbyter, with him as assistant, and left matters much in his charge.

Reverend Henry Jacobson, in his “History of the Moravian Church in Philadelphia,” proceeds to tell what the consequence was.

Pyrlaeus, though evidently a hard worker, gave offense to a strong faction, and on July 27, 1742, while in the pulpit and officiating, a gang of his opponents dragged him down from his place, trampled upon him, and roughly handled him, as they ejected him from the building.

The only accounts left do not enable us to identify the cowardly assailants, except that there seems to have been serious trouble between the growing Moravian faction and the conservative Lutheran element.

The affair was the prime cause of the establishment of a separate Moravian Church as soon as Count Zinzindorf returned from his preaching tour. Without this event to crystallize the tendencies of things, separation might have been long delayed.

Another view of this movement is that Zinzindorf built the church for the Lutheran congregation over which he claimed authority, upon his first arrival in the country, but that the arrival of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, with direct authority from the University at Halle, in the latter part of 1742, changed the tactics of Zinzindorf, and so he made arrangements to transfer the church to the Moravians.

The congregation organized by Zinzindorf consisted of thirty-four persons. They took up a lot on the east side of Bread Street and south of Sassafras (now Race) Street, which on August 20, 1742, was transferred by William Allen and wife to Samuel Powell, Joseph Powell, Edward Evans, William Rice, John Okley, and Owen Rice, for another lot on Sassafras Street.

The parties named were not all Moravians, but the deed was made to them in trust for “a certain congregation of Christian people, as well German as English, residing in the City of Philadelphia, belonging to the church of the Evangelical Brethren, who have caused to be erected thereon a new building for and to their use and service as a church and school house to S. Lewis Zinzindorf, David Nitschmann, Joseph Spangenberg, Henry Antes, John Bloomfield, and Charles Brockden.”

Additional real estate was acquired and the church building was commenced immediately. The corner stone was laid September 10, 1742, by Count Zinzindorf, and the work proceeded so rapidly that it was dedicated by him on November 25, following.

This building was set back from Sassafras Street thirty-five feet. It had a front of forty-five feet on Bread Street, afterward called Moravian Alley.

The edifice was two stories high, the first story being used as the church proper. This room was twenty feet in height from the floor, wainscoted about five feet, and whitewashed above to the ceiling. The roof was of the hip-roof design. There were large windows in each side. The congregation used this church for more than fifty years without a stove in winter.

The first Moravian congregation in Philadelphia contained those who had left the Lutherans when the Pyrlaeus affair occurred, and a number of Moravians who had been awhile at Nazareth and Bethlehem.

On the evening of his departure from America Count Zinzindorf organized these members into the First Moravian Church.

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British and Seneca Indian Allies Destroy Fort Freeland, July 28, 1779

Many Pennsylvanians may not know that a definite, well-planned battle of the Revolution was fought far up in old Northumberland County. This is a fact and until now this battle has only been known of as an ordinary Indian incursion. Such was not the case.

True there were Indians in the battle of Fort Freeland, July 28, 1779, and they were the ferocious Seneca, 300 of them under the command of Hiokatoo, the most bloodthirsty and cruel Indian of whom we have any direct evidence.

After Colonel Thomas Hartley led his successful expedition against the Indians in 1778, the savages did not long remain subdued, but the year following again became so vicious that the settlers, who had returned after the Great Runaway, lived in such constant fear of attack that General Washington ordered General John Sullivan to rendezvous his troops at Wyoming and wipe out every Indian town from that point to Elmira in New York State.

The troops were supplied with rations and stores from Fort Augusta. This fort was defended by a line of forts, or blockhouses extending in an almost straight line from Fort Jenkins near Berwick, on the North Branch, to Fort Wheeler, at Fishing Creek, to Fort Bostley, at Washingtonville, to Fort Montgomery, to Fort Freeland, two miles above McEwensville, to Fort Muncy, where the line of defense touched the West Branch.

No sooner had General Sullivan started his march from Easton toward Wyoming than the Indians learned of his plans and put into operation a series of movements which were intended to defeat the design of the Continental troops.

Captain John MacDonald, of the British Army, a Tory of New York State, was in command of a large detachment of British who had employed 300 Seneca Indians as allies. They made a forced march from the vicinity of Wyalusing, and arrived near Fort Muncy on the morning of July 28, 1779, and immediately started down, over what is now the Susquehanna Trail, toward Fort Augusta. The Continental troops had unfortunately been withdrawn from Fort Muncy.

Less than six miles march brought the British and their Indian allies in contact with the garrison at Fort Freeland, where, in addition to the troops, all the inhabitants of the valley below Muncy Hill and as far south as Chillisquaque Creek, had fled for protection.

When the battle for possession of the fort began, the firing could be heard at Fort Boone, about four miles south, a mile above the present site of Milton. Captain Hawkins Boone, cousin of Daniel Boone, and himself one of the bravest soldiers in the Continental army, with a detail, consisting of thirty-two as brave men as ever fired a gun, rushed to the relief of the unfortunate defenders of Fort Freeland.

But in a few terrible hours the most advanced haven of refuge for the frontier settlers in the West Branch Valley was a mass of ruins; its defenders either victims of the tomahawk or prisoners of war; and the women and children objects of charity.

The defenders of Fort Freeland did their utmost in this trying hour. Their resistance was so stubborn that the articles of capitulation were not accepted until the third proposal, and not then until all their ammunition was expended. The women even melted the pewter into bullets, while the men fired them at the besiegers. No further relief was believed possible.

After Captain MacDonald had sent the third demand for surrender, the defenders, under a flag of truce, agreed with the victors upon the terms which were as follows:

“Articles of Capitulation Entd into Between Captain John McDonald on his Majesties part & John Little on that of the Continental Congress.

“Article 1st. The Men in Garrison to March out & Ground their Arms in the Green, in Front of the Fort which is to be taken in possession of Immediately by his Majesty’s Troops. Agreed to.

“2ndly. All Men Bearing Arms are to Surrender themselves Prisoners of War & to be Sent to Niagara. Agd. to.

“3d. The Women and Children not to be Stript of their Clothing nor Molested by the Indians and to be at Liberty to move down the Country where they please. Agd. to.

John Mac Donald Capt. of Rangers. John Little.”

As soon as the fort capitulated, the Indians took possession of it, and their squaws became mischievous and destructive. Having completed the pillage of the fort, both Indians and British gathered together all the provisions they could find and proceeded to the creek, where they made preparations for a feast, but did not long enjoy it.

Captain Boone’s party soon arrived on opposite bank of creek, within less than one hundred yards of the feast. Not knowing the fort had been surrendered, they fired upon the British and Indians. We are advised thirty fell dead at the first volley. It was but a brief triumph, however, for the others rallied and surrounded the handful of Continentals, killing thirteen men, among the slain being Captain Boone himself.

When this party found itself caught in an ambuscade, word was quickly passed for each man to save himself, thus enabling a few to escape.

Every male in the fort had been taken prisoner and started toward Niagara where the few who survived the hardship of the forced march and the privations of the long imprisonment, remained until after the close of the war, when they rejoined the surviving members of their families.

In and about Fort Freeland, as a result of the attack 108 settlers were killed or led away as prisoners of war, not by Indians, but by the organized militia of Great Britain.

Fifty-two women and children, and four old men, were permitted to depart for Fort Augusta. Among the latter was John Vincent, who was permitted to care for his crippled wife. But Bethuel, Cornelius and Daniel Vincent were taken prisoners. Among others taken to Canada, who also lived to return to their families, were Captain John Little, James Daugherty, Moses Kirk, James Durham, Samuel Gould and two of the Freelands.

The enemy ravaged the country in the vicinity of the fort and burned and destroyed everything they could find. They advanced as far as Milton, where they burned Marcus Huling’s blacksmith shop, mill and dwelling house. The country presented a scene of desolation, and it remained in this condition for several years, the settlers being afraid to return.

This heavy toll of human life, to which should also be added the killed and wounded among the British and their Indian allies, numbering possibly as many more, marks a definite battle of the Revolution; with the magazines and stores at Fort Augusta and the cutting off of the rear of General Sullivan’s army, as the object of the attack.

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First Newspaper West of the Allegheny Mountains, the Gazette, of Pittsburgh, Established July 29, 1786

The first newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains was the Pittsburgh Gazette which made its initial bow to the public, July 29, 1786, and today, one hundred and thirty-eight years later, it is the largest paper published in the world’s greatest industrial district.

When the United States were yet very young, in fact, before the Federal Constitution was even proposed, before Washington was elected president, when the small cluster of log huts, protected by a stockade called Fort Pitt, was all that constituted Pittsburgh, is the time this old newspaper began its long and honorable career.

Early in the year 1786, John Scull and Joseph Hall rode into that western frontier post on the backs of heavy pack horses, over a long and rough trail, all the way from Philadelphia. They brought with them a small printing press, some type and a small supply of paper.

The pioneer printers established a printing office in a log cabin, along the bank of the Monongahela River, at the end of Chancery Lane. This primitive office soon attracted the attention of the more progressive citizens, among whom was Hugh H. Brackenridge, a lawyer, and an acknowledged leader of the Federal party in that section of Pennsylvania. Through his earnest solicitation and promise of patronage, Scull and Hall determined to establish a weekly newspaper. Brackenridge had agreed to edit the publication; and the first issue of the Pittsburgh Gazette appeared July 29.

The original subscription price was seventeen shillings and six pence per year. Advertising was paid for at the rate of four shillings a square. In lieu of cash, the publishers made known the fact that they would accept furs and skins and various kinds of country produce.

There was no postoffice in Pittsburgh at this time, nor for twenty years after the Gazette was established. The paper found its way east by means of the weekly mail service between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. When Pittsburgh was considered a place of sufficient importance to have a postoffice, John Scull, one of the publishers of the Gazette, was appointed Postmaster.

It is rather fortunate that the duties of the government position were not too exacting, for Postmaster Scull was the practical printer and performed the principal part of the actual publication. He even acted as carrier and tramped about town each week with the paper.

The story is told of Scull that when the pack trains from Philadelphia failed to arrive on time, or no white paper came when expected, that he used his close friendship for the commandant at Fort Pitt to his advantage by borrowing sufficient quantity of cartridge paper on which to print that week’s issue of the Gazette.

On November 10, 1786, the Gazette, in three lines announced the death of Joseph Hall, aged 22 years. Hall’s interest was acquired by John Boyd, but Scull as before, continued to be the real spirit behind the enterprise.

In June, 1789, a paper mill was built on Redstone Creek, in what is now Fayette County, by Jackson and Sharpless. This mill supplied the Gazette with cheaper paper, which enabled the owners to increase its size and reduce the subscription price to $2 a year.

Lawyer Brackenridge, in 1799, left the Federal party and threw all his influence with the Antifederalists, but Scull refused to go along with his editor, and Morgan Neville became the editorial writer.

Brackenridge and some of his adherents set up an opposition paper called the “Tree of Life.” Soon both papers were busy with libel suits, assaults and challenges to fight duels.

When the conflict of 1812 was precipitated the Gazette, like the other Federal organs, was adverse to war and urged a pacific settlement of difficulties with England. But when the war broke the Gazette supported the Federal Government with all its power. Its extra editions, containing the news brought in two days from Washington, were then looked upon as “prodigious feats of journalism.”

After full thirty years as the guiding spirit of the Gazette, August 1, 1816, John Scull transferred his interest in the paper to his son, John I. Scull. The editor, Morgan Neville, also became a partner.

Even with two other papers in Pittsburgh, the “Commonwealth” and the “Mercury,” the Gazette retained its leadership and now appeared semi-weekly.

In March, 1820, Eichbaum and Johnson purchased the Gazette and changed its name to “The Gazette and Manufacturer and Mercantile Advertiser.” Two years later David M. MacLean purchased the property and re-established the original title. In September, 1829, Neville B. Craig, became the owner and four years later the Gazette appeared as a daily. It strongly supported the Anti-Masonic party. In September, 1856, Russell Errett, and D. L. Eaton became joint owners of the Gazette and under their editorial management the paper made unusual progress.

Errett was one of the organizers of the Republican party and the Gazette became one of the first organs of that party in the country.

There were several other changes in ownership until June 1, 1900, when the late United States Senator George T. Oliver purchased the plant. May 1, 1906, the Pittsburgh Times was absorbed and the title changed to The Pittsburgh Gazette-Times.

On February 7, 1915, the Gazette-Times moved into the eight-story publication building on Gazette Square, where the paper is now published.

Since December 4, 1917, George S. Oliver has served as president and Charles W. Danziger, secretary and managing editor.

Even as Pittsburgh has grown from a village of log houses when the Gazette was established there, to one of the world’s most important cities, so the Gazette has evolved into one of the greatest newspapers published in America.

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Chambersburg Sacked and Burned by McCausland’s Rebel Force July 30, 1864

Three times during the Civil War the rebel horde rode into Pennsylvania, but two occasions stand out as conspicuous. First when Lee, with nearly 90,000 troops, in personal command, marched to his Waterloo at Gettysburg, the other was when three thousand Confederates were sent by General Early into Pennsylvania to burn Chambersburg in retaliation for General Hunter’s disgraceful and disastrous raid into Virginia.

General Darius N. Couch was in command of the Union forces at Chambersburg. Although a department he had but one hundred and fourteen men under his command and they were scattered over the country as scouts.

The startling news came to General Couch’s headquarters on the evening of July 29, 1864, that a Confederate force had entered Mercersburg and was marching toward Chambersburg. This was untimely news for less than twenty-four hours earlier a sufficient number of troops had passed through Chambersburg on their way to join General Hunter, to have repelled this rebel invasion.

The rebels reached the outskirts of Chambersburg before daylight, and employed their time in planting two batteries in commanding positions, and getting up the whole column, fully three thousand strong.

At 6 o’clock Saturday morning they opened with their batteries and fired six shots into the town. Immediately thereafter their skirmishers entered by almost every street and alley, and finding the way clear, their cavalry, to the number of 831, came in under the immediate command of General McCausland. General Bradley Johnson and the notorious Major Harry Gilmore were also with him.

McCausland and Gilmore demanded of the citizens, who were on the street, that they collect some of the prominent inhabitants with a view of entering into negotiations; the court house bell was rung, but only a few responded. To the few citizens who did come together, Captain Fitzhugh, of McCausland’s staff, produced and read a written order, signed by General Jubal Early, directing the command to proceed to Chambersburg, to demand a tribute of $100,000 in gold or $500,000 in greenbacks, and on failure to secure the sum, to proceed to burn the town in retaliation of the burning of six or eight houses specified as having been burned in certain counties in Virginia, by General Hunter. He was promptly answered that Chambersburg could not and would not pay the ransom.

Infuriated at the determination of the people to do nothing, Major Gilmore rode up to a group of citizens, consisting of Thomas B. Kennedy, William McLellan, J. McDowell Sharpe, Dr. J. C. Richards, William H. McDowell, W. S. Everett, Edward G. Etter and M. A. Faltz, and ordered them under arrest. He said that they would be held for the payment of the money, and if not paid he would take them to Richmond as hostages and also burn every house in the town.

While the officer was endeavoring to force them into an effort to raise the money, his men commenced the work of firing, and they were liberated when it was found that intimidation would effect nothing.

The main part of the town was enveloped in flames in ten minutes. No time was given to remove women or children, the aged and infirm, or sick, or even the dead. They divided into squads, beat down the doors, smashed furniture, rifled drawers, appropriated money, jewelry, watches and valuables, then threw kerosene upon the combustible articles and plied the match. They invariably demanded ransom, before burning, but even when it was paid the property was burned. The people escaped with only the clothes on their backs, and some even then with difficulty.

The work of demolition continued two hours, more than half the town on fire at once. Three million dollars worth of property was destroyed, three thousand rendered homeless and many penniless, and not one of the innocent victims had violated any accepted rule of civilized warfare.

There were many incidents of the burning but only a few can be related. The house of James Watson, an old and feeble man past eighty, was entered, and because his wife remonstrated, they fired the room, hurled her into it and locked the door on the outside. Her daughters rescued her by bursting in the door before her clothing took fire. The widow of a Union soldier, pleading on her knees, was robbed of her last ten dollars and her little home fired. An aged invalid, unable to be out of his bed, pleaded to be spared a horrible death in the flames, but they laughed at him as they fired his home. Father McCullom, the Catholic priest, was robbed of his watch.

Colonel Stumbaugh was arrested near his home early in the morning, and with a pistol presented to his head ordered to procure some whiskey. He refused, for he had none, and was released. But afterwards was rearrested by another squad, the officer of which referred to him by name, when he was insulted in every possible way. He informed the officer that he had been in the service, and that if General Battles was present, they would not dare to insult him. When asked why, he answered: “I captured him at Shiloh, and treated him like a soldier.” A rebel major present, who had been under Battles, upon inquiry, was satisfied that Colonel Stumbaugh’s statement was correct, ordered his release and withdrew the entire rebel force from that part of Second Street, and no buildings were burned.

Soon after the work of destruction had commenced, a squad was detailed to burn “Norland,” the beautiful residence of Colonel Alexander K. McClure afterwards for many years the editor of the Philadelphia “Times.” “Norland” was a mile from the center of the town, and no other building was fired within a half mile of it, although fifty houses intervened. They would not allow Mrs. McClure or any servant to save anything belonging to the Colonel.

Several of the rebel thieves perpetrated their last pillage. Major Bowen, of the 8th Virginia Cavalry, got too far ahead of the firing in his greed for plunder and he was captured by several citizens and, slightly wounded, he took refuge in a burning cellar, where the intense heat blistered him. He begged to be spared, but he burned to death. Another demon, caught in an atrocious act of vandalism, was shot dead. A Captain Cochran, quartermaster of 11th Virginia Cavalry, was caught by Thomas H. Doyle, of Loudon, and at the point of his pistol was given just fifteen minutes to live. Cochran begged piteously for his life, but Doyle, on the very second, shot the thief dead, and found on his person $815 in greenbacks, all stolen from citizens, and $1750 of rebel currency.

Scores of McCausland’s command were killed on the retreat by General Averill’s forces. Many of them were intoxicated and so demoralized by their plunder they became an easy prey to the Federal troops who passed through Chambersburg in pursuit of the barbarians.

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Carlisle Indian School Established by Congress, July 31, 1882

The first non-reservation school established by the Government was at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and was only recently discontinued.

This school had its inception in the untiring efforts of General R. H. Pratt, U. S. A., when a lieutenant in charge of Indian prisoners of war at old Fort San Marco, St. Augustine, Florida, from May 11, 1875, to April 14, 1878.

When the release of these prisoners was ordered twenty-two of the young men were led to ask for further education, agreeing to remain in the east three years longer if they could attend school. These were sent to Hampton, Virginia, and several other places where they could attend a government school.

On September 6, 1879, an order was issued transferring the Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, comprising 27 acres, from the War Department to the Department of the Interior for Indian school purposes, pending action by Congress on a bill to establish such an institution. This bill became a law July 31, 1882.

Lieutenant Pratt was, on September 6, 1879, ordered to report to the Secretary of the Interior, and by him was directed to proceed to Carlisle and there establish an Indian school. He was ordered to then proceed to Dakota and Indian territory for the purpose of obtaining pupils for the new school. So successful was the young officer that by the end of October, he had gathered together one hundred and thirty-six Indians from the Rosebud, Pine Ridge, and other agencies, and with eleven of the former Florida prisoners, then at school at Hampton, the new institution was opened at Carlisle Barracks, November 1, 1879, with an enrollment of one hundred and fifty-seven original Americans.

The school steadily progressed until more than a thousand pupils were enrolled and during its existence nearly every tribe in the United States had representatives on its rolls and at one period one hundred Alaskan Indians were in attendance.

The aim of the school was to teach English and give a primary education; and a knowledge of some common and practical industry, and means of self-support among civilized people.

To this end regular shops and farms were provided, the principal mechanical arts and farming were taught the boys, and the girls, cooking, sewing, laundry and housework. The instruction was made interesting so that the young Indians would not desire to return to reservation life, but would prefer to make for themselves a place among the people of the East.

During the summer vacation months, the young Indians would be placed in the homes of prosperous citizens, where they could do certain work and at the same time learn by direct example and association the ways of higher civilization. This was known as the “outing system,” and was a distinct feature not only of the Carlisle school, but of the Indian school service generally.

The literary curriculum of Carlisle stopped at that point where the student might enter the higher grades of the public schools. The pupil was left to his own resources for any further development of his intellectual faculties.

Many of the graduates of the Carlisle school are today filling responsible positions in the business world, and especially in the Indian service, in which they are employed as teachers, clerks and all the way to laborers.

Many of the Indians are musical and the school band was one of the features. The late Joel B. Ettinger, of Seattle, Wash., but formerly of Chester, Pa., where he conducted the famous old Sixth Regiment Band, organized the first band from among the various tribes represented in the school and soon developed a band which won the acclaim of the people wherever it played. Dennison and James Wheelock, Oneida Indians, became great leaders and succeeded Ettinger as instructors. The former was a successful composer of band music.

The Carlisle school produced the first paper printed by Indian boys. The printery was early established and became a potent factor in the industrial development of the students. The Indian Helper, a small leaflet, was first produced, and afterwards a larger magazine, The Red Man, was published, these being merged into Red Man and Helper, and creditably reflected the life and policies of the school.

Many prominent writers and educators frequently contributed to this magazine, thus helping the deserving wards of our government to make their effort a representative publication. Among those who sent valuable contributions to this paper was Reverend George P. Donehoo, then secretary of the Pennsylvania State Historical Society, late State Librarian, and one of the most eminent authorities on Indian history in the United States. The doctor is the proud possessor of a complete file of this valuable and interesting publication, which has become a very rare possession.

The physical training, both indoors and out, was a most important part of the life of the school. Indians take naturally to many of our popular sports, and many athletes of national and even international reputation have been developed at the school. Most conspicuous of these is Jim Thorpe, the world’s champion all-around athlete, winner of the pentathlon event in the Olympic games; Chief Charles A. Bender, the celebrated pitcher, a close second to Thorpe, while mention may also be made of Hudson, the Pierce brothers, Johnson, Metoxen and many others who have excelled above the average.

General Pratt remained in charge of the school from its organization until his retirement from the superintendency, June 30, 1904, when he was succeeded by Major (then Captain) William A. Mercer, U. S. A.

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French and Indians Attack and Burn Fort Granville, August 1,1756

Fort Granville was about one mile west of the present town of Lewistown, immediately on the north bank of the Juniata River and westward of the mouth of the Kishcoquillas Creek about one mile. There was a spring in the enclosure of the fort which was destroyed when the canal was dug at that place. No other evidences of this fort are seen today.

This was one of a chain of forts erected on the west side of the Susquehanna. Fort Shirley, at Aughwick, was fifteen miles southwest, and Fort Patterson, at Mexico, was fifteen miles northeast.

The site commanded a narrow pass where the Juniata falls through the mountains; where a few men could hold it against a stronger enemy, as the rocks were high on each bank and extended six miles, so that the enemy could be easily detected advancing from either direction.

When the stockade was completed it was garrisoned by a company of enlisted men, under regularly commissioned officers. George Croghan, the Indian trader, was directed to build the fort as is shown by a letter written by Captain Elisha Salter, dated Carlisle, April 4, 1756.

The attack was made upon Fort Granville during the harvest of 1756. The garrison at that time was commanded by Lieutenant Edward Armstrong, brother of General John Armstrong, who destroyed Kittanning. The Indians had been lurking about the stockade some time and knowing that the garrison was not strong, sixty of them appeared before the fort, July 22, and challenged the garrison to fight, which was declined by the commander on account of the weakness of his force. The Indians fired at one of the soldiers who was outside the stockade, but he succeeded in getting safely inside.

The Indians divided their force into smaller parties, one attacked the Baskins plantation, near the Juniata, where they murdered Baskins, burned his house, and carried off his wife and children; another party made Hugh Cornell and his family prisoners.

On the morning of July 30, Captain Edward Ward marched from Fort Granville, with a detachment destined for Tuscarora Valley, where they were needed to protect the settlers while harvesting their grain. The few remaining in defense of the post were commanded by Lieutenant Armstrong.

Soon after the departure of Captain Ward’s detail, the fort was suddenly surrounded by a hostile force of fifty French and a hundred Indians, who immediately began a fierce attack, which they continued in their skulking Indian manner through the afternoon and night, but without inflicting much damage. About midnight the enemy got below the bank of the river, and by a deep ravine reached to within twelve or fifteen yards of the fort, and from that secure position were able to set fire to the logs of the fort, burning out a large hole, through which the Indians fired on the defenders as they fought the flames. Lieutenant Armstrong and one private soldier were killed and three wounded.

The French commander ordered a suspension of hostilities, and demanded the surrender of the fort and garrison, promising to spare their lives if the demands was accepted. Upon promise of quarter, a man named John Turner, previously a resident of Buffalo Valley, opened the gates and the besiegers at once entered and took possession. There was no commissioned officer to assume command and Turner acted on his own initiative, as was afterwards explained by a prisoner who survived.

The French and Indians captured twenty-two men, three women and a number of children. The fort was then burned by Chief Jacobs, on the order of the French officer in command. The prisoners were lined up and driven by the Indians, each soldier carrying a heavy portion of the plunder secured in the fort, and in the several raids made on the settlers’ homes.

The march to Kittanning was most terrible, the prisoners were horribly whipped and punished when fatigue caused any to lag behind. When the party arrived at Kittanning, all the prisoners were cruelly treated, and Turner, the man who opened the gates of the fort to the savages, suffered the torture of being burned to death at the stake. He endured the most horrible torment for more than three hours, during which time red hot gun barrels were forced through parts of his body, his scalp was torn from his head and burning splinters of pine were stuck in his flesh until at last an Indian boy, who was held up for the purpose, sunk a tomahawk into his brain and released him from his misery.

General Armstrong in a letter sent to Governor Morris, dated at Carlisle, August 20, 1756, said: “Captains Armstrong and Ward, whom I ordered on the march to Fort Shirley to examine everything at Fort Granville and send me a list of what remained among the ruins, assure me that they found some parts of eight of the enemy burnt in two different places, and part of their shirts through which there were bullet holes. To secrete these from the prisoners was doubtless the reason why the French officer marched our people some distance from the fort before he gave orders to burn the barracks, &c.

“Walker says that some of the Germans flagged very much on the second day, and that the lieutenant (Armstrong) 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 without water, but little ammunition, 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 first attacked.

“A Frenchman, in our service, fearful of being burned up, asked leave of the lieutenant to treat with his countrymen in the French language. The Lieutenant answered, '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 would soon have it extinguished, but he soon after received the fatal ball.”

The destruction of Fort Granville spread terror among the settlers west of the Susquehanna and they abandoned their settlements and fled in great haste to Fort Augusta and Carlisle. This attack on Fort Granville resulted in the successful expedition of Col. John Armstrong against the Indians at Kittanning, where the English not only gained a signal victory, but the savages were taught a lesson which they ever remembered.

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Colonel Lochry Musters Westmoreland County Troops August 2, 1781

In 1781, General George Rogers Clark, of Virginia, raised an expedition, ostensibly to destroy the Indian towns of the Shawnee, Delaware, and Wyandot, which were situated on the Scioto, Muskingum and Sandusky Rivers, in what is now the State of Ohio, but his real and earnest purpose was the reduction of the British post at Detroit, and the winning by conquest of another empire for the Dominion of Virginia.

At this time Virginia claimed ownership to that part of Pennsylvania, which laid west of the Laurel Hill range including what is now Fayette, Westmoreland, Green, Washington, Allegheny and part of Beaver Counties. In spite of the fact that the boundary line had been settled in 1779, many of the inhabitants and officials still acknowledged allegiance to the Old Dominion.

A force of volunteers to the number of one hundred was raised in Westmoreland County and placed under the command of that intrepid soldier, Colonel Archibald Lochry.

Colonel Lochry’s command was composed of a company raised and commanded by Captain Thomas Stokely, another under Captain Samuel Shannon; a small company of riflemen under Captain Robert Orr, was raised in Hannastown, now Greensburg; and Captain William Campbell commanded a squad of horsemen.

The men recruited for this service remained on their settlements until harvest was finished in July, and on August 1, rendezvoused at Carnaghan’s blockhouse, eleven miles northwest of Hannastown. Here they mustered August 2, and on the following day Colonel Lochry began his march to join General Clark at Wheeling.

The determined little band crossed the Youghiogheny at the site of West Newton, then crossed the Monongahela at Devore’s Ferry, where Monongahela City now stands; went overland by the settlements on the headwaters of Chartiers and Raccoon Creeks, and reached Fort Henry in the evening of Wednesday, August 8.

Here was a disappointment. General Clark had left by boats early that morning, and he left a message that he would wait for Colonel Lochry at the mouth of Little Kanawha. But no boats were provided for Lochry’s command, and he waited at Wheeling four days, while seven boats were being built, but these four days were fatal.

On August 13, Colonel Lochry embarked in the seven boats, the horses following along the shores of the river. At this time the Ohio was the dividing line between the white man’s country and that of the Indians. The boats kept near the southern shore and all encampments were made on the left bank. Although Colonel Lochry did not know it, his men and their movements were watched by Indian spies who followed them through the forests and thickets on the opposite shore of the Ohio.

Colonel Lochry met seventeen men at Fishing Creek, who had deserted from Clark, who were making their way back to Fort Pitt. These he forced to join his party. At the Three Islands, Lochry found Major Charles Crascraft and six men who had been left by Clark in charge of a large house boat, intended for Lochry’s horses, which were put aboard, and this enabled the force to move with increased speed.

On the following day, August 16, Colonel Lochry sent Captain Shannon and seven men in a small boat to endeavor to overtake Clark and beg him to leave some provisions for his command. Lochry’s flour was about exhausted, and food could only be secured by sending out hunters, whose excursions delayed progress. On August 17, the two men sent out for food failed to return, and were never heard from again.

Three days later two of Captain Shannon’s men, half starved, were picked up from the southern shore. They told the story of the first disaster to Lochry’s command. This little detail had landed on the Kentucky shore to prepare a meal and the two survivors, with a sergeant, had gone off to hunt. When they had gone a half mile into the woods, they heard the firing of guns in the direction of their camp. Fearing Indians had attacked the rest of Captain Shannon’s little party, these three were afraid to return to investigate and started to join Lochry. In scrambling through the thick underbrush the sergeant’s knife fell from its sheath, and, sticking point upward, the sergeant trod upon it, the blade passing through his foot, and the young man died in great agony in a few hours.

The expedition suffered not only the death of Captain Shannon and his men but the Indians captured the letter from Colonel Lochry to General Clark, revealing the distressed condition of his men, through which information their doom was sealed.

Lochry now realized that his movement down the stream was being watched by the savages from both shores, and for two days and nights no landing or halt was made. The little flotilla glided swiftly down the stream, until necessity compelled landing, to graze the horses and seek meat for the men.

The boats approached the mouth of a small creek, in the forenoon of August 24. This creek has since been called Lochry’s Run. A buffalo was drinking at the river’s edge and a soldier brought it down, when Colonel Lochry ordered a landing, for here was meat and fine grass for the horses.

No sooner had a landing been made than a hundred rifles cracked from the wooded bank, many white men were killed and many wounded.

The men made for the boats and shoved off for the opposite shore. Painted savages then appeared, shrieking and firing, and a fleet of canoes filled with other savages shot out from the Kentucky shore, completely cutting off the escape of Lochry’s men. The volunteers returned the fire for a few moments, but were entrapped, and Colonel Lochry offered to surrender. The fight ceased, the boats poled back to shore and the force again landed.

The Westmorelanders found themselves the prisoners of Joseph Brant, the most famous Mohawk Chief, who commanded a large force of Iroquois, Shawnee and Wyandot. George Girty, brother of the notorious Simon, also commanded an Indian force. The Shawnee could not be controlled and killed the prisoners they claimed as their share. While Colonel Lochry was sitting on a log a Shawnee warrior slipped up behind him and sank a tomahawk into his skull, tearing off his scalp before life was extinct. It was with great difficulty Brant was able to prevent the massacre of the men assigned to the Mohawk and Wyandot.

In this massacre forty Westmoreland volunteers were slain, and sixty-four taken captives. Among those who escaped death were Captains Stokely and Orr, the latter being severely wounded. The dead were left unburied and the prisoners hurried away to Detroit, where most of them were turned over to the British, and afterward transferred to Montreal. Only nineteen of the men ever returned to Westmoreland County.

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Civil Government in Pennsylvania Established at Meeting of Council August 3, 1681

When William Penn was granted the charter for Pennsylvania, he and his heirs were constituted the true and absolute Proprietary of the country. Penn was empowered to establish laws, appoint officers, and to do other acts and things necessary to govern the country, including the right to erect manors.

The first act of William Penn was to write a letter to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, dated April 8, 1681. Two days later he appointed his cousin Captain William Markham deputy governor and commander-in-chief of the province, whom he clothed with full powers to put the machinery of the new government into motion.

At what time Captain Markham sailed for America is not known, but we find him in New York, with the King’s letter in June, which, with his commission, he laid before the council and commander in the absence of Governor Andros.

On June 21, the authorities at New York addressed a letter to the justice and other magistrates on the Delaware notifying them of the change of government.

Markham departed from New York a few days later and repaired to Pennsylvania to enter upon his duties, bearing with him Penn’s letter to the inhabitants, which assured them that they should be governed by laws of their own making, and would receive the most ample protection to person and property.

Markham was authorized to call a council of nine, which met and organized August 3, from which time we may date the establishment of a civil government in Pennsylvania.

There was very little interference in the established order of things, and the people found a mild ruler in the deputy governor.

The seat of government was fixed at Upland, the present Chester. The old court closed its session September 13, and the new court opened the next day.

Among the business transacted at the opening of the new court was the appointment of William Biles and Robert Lucas, who lived at the falls, justices of the peace. Pounds, shillings, and pence were declared to be the currency of the country. But it was difficult to get rid of the guilders after they had been so long in circulation.

Markham was instructed by William Penn to select a site, and build for him a dwelling, and he chose the spot whereon Pennsbury house was erected, in Falls Township, Bucks County.

On September 30, William Penn appointed William Crispin, John Bezar, and Christopher Allen, commissioners, to go to Pennsylvania with power to purchase land of the Indians and to select site for, and lay out a great city. About this same time he appointed James Harrison his “lawful agent,” to sell for him any parcel of land in Pennsylvania of not less than 250 acres.

Silas Crispen was appointed surveyor-general, and sailed with this commission but, dying on the voyage, Captain Thomas Holme was appointed in his place and commissioned April 18, 1682.

Among the earliest acts of Markham and the commissioners was the selection of a site for a great city, which resulted in the founding of Philadelphia. Soundings along the west side of the Delaware River were made to ascertain “where most ships may best ride of deepest draft of water.”

The growth of the new “city” was remarkable from its very inception. Within a few months Philadelphia contained eighty houses, and more than 300 farms were laid out and partly cleared.

In the summer of 1684 the city contained 357 houses, many of them large and well-built, with cellars. A year later the number of houses had increased to 600. There were nearly 3000 souls in the city at this time.

William Penn sailed for Pennsylvania in the ship Welcome, of 300 tons burden, Captain Robert Greenway, September 1, 1682, accompanied by 100 emigrants, mostly Friends.

He first landed at New Castle October 27, and then at Upland on the 29th. On November 9, Penn visited Philadelphia.

Penn was very favorably impressed with virgin Pennsylvania. Pastorius writes that Penn found the air so perfumed that it seemed to him like an orchard in full bloom; that the trees and shrubs were everywhere covered with leaves, and filled with birds, which, by their beautiful colors and delightful notes proclaimed the praise of their Creator.

Penn’s policy from the beginning of his province was to extinguish the Indian title to his grant of Pennsylvania by purchase. This he did in fact, and the several treaty purchases made by him were executed fairly and honorably.

At the first provincial assembly held at Philadelphia, in March, 1683, a number of acts were passed necessary to put Penn’s government in operation. The country was divided into three counties, Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks, and their boundaries fixed. A house of correction was ordered for each county, 24 x 16 feet, in size.

The poor, who received relief from the county, with their families, were obliged to wear the letter P made of red or blue cloth, with the first letter of the name of the place they inhabited, in a conspicuous place upon the shoulder of the right sleeve.

The county court was authorized to fix a price on linen and woolen cloth, justices were to regulate wages of servants and women; a meal of victuals was fixed at seven pence half-penny, and beer at a penny a quart.

The products of the farms were to be received in payment of debts. Each settler of three years was to sow a bushel of barley, and persons were to be punished who put water in rum.

The civil government as established August 3, 1681, was soon functioning.

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Saturday Evening Post Launched from Gazette, August 4, 1821

In his excellent and interesting “A Man from Maine,” Edward W. Bok devotes a chapter to the story of the purchase and development of The Saturday Evening Post by Cyrus H. K. Curtis. This chapter is styled “The Story of the 'Singed Cat.'”

Mr. Curtis was born in Portland, Maine, June 18, 1850. He went to Philadelphia in 1876, and seven years later started The Ladies’ Home Journal.

Mr. Curtis first developed the Ladies Home Journal and then turned his energy and wonderful organization to a magazine for men.

Somehow he fixed his mind upon The Saturday Evening Post as the medium through which he was to realize his pet dream. Mr. Bok is authority for the statement that Mr. Curtis himself does not remember how he came to fix up this old paper, but says that the publication had always attracted him as he met it each week in his exchanges as a legacy left to Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin, who, in 1728, founded the paper under the title of The Pennsylvania Gazette.

Franklin edited and published this paper for a number of years, and then sold it to his grandson. Meanwhile six other papers of all sorts had been born in Philadelphia, all having as part of their title the word Gazette. So in 1821, to avoid a constant confusion of names, the name was changed to The Saturday Evening Post, August 4, 1821.

The spirit of enterprise of that early day must have been put into the venture, for in 1839, it had a circulation of thirty-five thousand copies, the largest circulation of that day of any weekly in the United States. The most famous statesmen and writers of the time were among its contributors, and it ranked as the most important publication of the time.

The Saturday Evening Post, like other old newspapers, frequently passed into various ownerships, nearly all of whom were Philadelphians, but a resident of Brooklyn, N. Y., owned it for a time, although the place of publication remained at Philadelphia, and finally it passed into the possession of Albert Smyth, of Philadelphia, whose publication it was when Mr. Curtis went to Philadelphia in 1876, to begin the career which has made him the most successful and most beloved of all publishers in all the world.

During the time that Philadelphia was in possession of the British, under Lord Howe, the publication was suspended, but after the last British “Tommy” marched away, the paper was revived and from that time to this day it has never missed an issue. With this record of over a century Mr. Smyth was justly proud and its ownership was a matter of pride, as well as the distinguished record of long service. He was fond of its history and tradition, and as he and Mr. Curtis were friends, it is not improbable that the latter’s interest in this old paper was fostered during these chats, and he began a little search on his own account for the intimate history of the paper, and before long, Mr. Curtis knew quite as much about it as did its proud owner.

Yet the paper was losing out, the circulation was steadily and surely diminishing, no one seemed to care. The editorship was entrusted to a reporter of the Philadelphia Times, who devoted his odd moments upon The Saturday Evening Post, at the elegant salary of ten dollars a week, and the articles published were just what a ten dollar editor would be expected to use.

A man with the vision and patriotism of Mr. Curtis could not help feeling regret that a paper with such traditions was allowed to run down, and he began to bargain with Mr. Smyth.

True it was only a name, but it had a long history and valuable heritage. Best of all, Benjamin Franklin had founded it, and that was an asset upon which Mr. Curtis could build.

Mr. Smyth went to Chicago, where he was interested in a gas project, and left The Saturday Evening Post in charge of a friend named Brady, but in 1897 Smyth died, leaving a sister as his only heir. She could not or would not finance the publication, and Brady turned to Mr. Curtis for the money to get out that week’s issue.

To Brady’s surprise Mr. Curtis told him that the name of the paper was not protected with a copyright, and that if the sister did not put up the money and an issue was missed anyone could take up the name.

Brady’s lawyer confirmed the statement. Mr. Curtis said he would not do anything like that, but told Brady he had nothing to sell. “However, I'll give you one thousand dollars for the paper, type and all.”

Mr. Curtis became the owner of the paper, and sent a young man in his establishment with a wagon to the printing office to bring away the battered type, and as soon as it arrived, that week’s issue was printed, so as to save the right to the title by continuous publication.

At this time the subscription list was about two thousand and soon as Mr. Curtis improved the paper these few subscribers cancelled their subscriptions, when it was learned that the new owner had in fact purchased only the title and name of Benjamin Franklin.

The outlook for the future for this new venture was so gloomy that men in his employ called it “the singed cat.”

Mr. Curtis selected George Horace Lorimer, of Boston, as the editor and he got behind him, even in the face of the most discouraging criticism, but neither Mr. Curtis nor Mr. Lorimer ever for a single moment doubted that the project would make good. A half million dollars were spent upon advertising the periodical, and at one time the loss totalled nearly a million dollars, but during all this period there was being developed just the kind of a paper that Mr. Curtis wanted The Saturday Evening Post to be.

Then the circulation grew and when it reached five hundred thousand copies the advertisers began to use its pages, and Mr. Curtis had now put into the paper a million and a quarter dollars. Then the paper appeared with a “circulation of one million copies” printed on the cover, and the fight was won.

The circulation is now in excess of two million, and is, without a doubt, the greatest publication in the history of journalism.

The Curtis Publishing Company publish The Ladies Home Journal, The Saturday Evening Post, The Country Gentleman, The Public Ledger and The Evening Public Ledger and the output of this plant is six hundred and fifty thousand complete magazines, each working day, and all this in addition to seventy-three million newspapers each year.

More than one hundred railroad cars each month are required to circulate the magazines, as the Ladies Home Journal goes to one out of every ten women in the United States and The Saturday Evening Post goes into more than one out of every ten homes in this country. Such is the story of not only Pennsylvania’s oldest and best magazine, but the largest and most successful in the world.

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Patrick Gordon, Administrator of Penn’s Will, Died August 5, 1736

William Penn was financially involved when stricken and during the six years he suffered until relieved by death, July 30, 1718, did not place his affairs in more favorable condition.

The Province of Pennsylvania was encumbered by Proprietary’s mortgage given in 1708, and by his contract with the Crown for the sale of the government. His will, which was drawn in 1712, was in contemplation of this contract.

To his only surviving son, William, by his first marriage, he bequeathed all his estates in England and Ireland, which, producing fifteen hundred pounds sterling per annum, were estimated of greater value than his American possessions.

By his first wife, Gulielma Maria Springett, he had issue of three sons, William, Springett and William, and four daughters, Gulielma, Margaret, Gulielma and Letitia. From his American possession he made provision for the payment of his debts, and for his widow, Hannah Callowhill and four sons, John, Thomas, Richard and Dennis. To his wife, Hannah, whom he made the sole executrix of his estate, he gave for the equal benefit of herself and her children, all his personal estate in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, after paying all debts, and allotting ten thousand acres of land in the Province to his daughter Letitia, by his first marriage, and each of the three children of his son William, and to convey the remainder at the discretion of his widow, to her children, subject to an annuity to herself of £300 sterling per annum.

Doubts having arisen as to the force of the provisions of this will, it was finally determined to institute a suit in chancery for its determination. Before a decision was reached in March, 1720, William Penn, Jr., died, and while it was still pending, his son, Springett, died.

During the more than nine years of litigation, Hannah Penn, as executrix of the will, assumed the Proprietary power, issued instructions to her Lieutenant-Governor, heard complaints and settled differences with the skill and assurance of a veteran diplomat. In 1727 a decision was reached that, upon the death of William Penn, Jr., and his son Springett, the proprietary rights in Pennsylvania descended to the three surviving sons, John, Thomas and Richard, issue by the second marriage.

The Province now entered upon a period of great prosperity. The almost unbounded confidence of the Province in Governor Keith enabled him, in 1720, to establish two measures hitherto repugnant to the Assembly, and equity court, dependent on the Governor’s will, of which he was chancellor, and a militia organized by like authority.

The great influx of foreigners alarmed the Assembly, who feared their settlement on the frontier. Attempts to naturalize them were treated with coldness. Even the Governor, whose industry and utility were proverbial, could not remove the jealousy.

Many Palatines, long resident in the Province, applied for naturalization in 1721, but not until 1724 was leave granted to bring in a bill, and then conditioned upon the proviso that they should individually obtain from the justice of the peace a certificate of the value of their property, and nature of their religious faith. A bill to that effect reached the Governor the following year, but he returned it on the ground that in a country where English liberty and law prevailed, a scrutiny into the private conversation and faith of the citizens, and particularly into their estates, was unjust and dangerous in precedent. The House yielded, but it was not for some time that the privilege of subjects were granted to the Palatines.

Following the death of Springett Penn and Mrs. Hannah Penn, the Assembly conceived that the authority of Governor Patrick Gordon was determined, and accordingly refused to act upon a message which he had sent them, and adjourned themselves to the last day of their term.

A new commission, signed by John, Thomas and Richard Penn, in whom the government was now vested, was received by Governor Gordon in October. When the King gave his approbation to this new commission he reserved as the right of the Crown, the government of the Lower Counties on the Delaware.

Patrick Gordon who served as Deputy Governor from July 26, 1726, to his death had been a soldier in the regular army, serving from his youth to near the close of Queen Anne’s reign, with a high reputation. He was appointed successor of Governor Keith by the family, and formally proposed to the Crown by Springett Penn, their heir-at-law.

He arrived in the Province with his family in the summer of 1726, and met the Assembly during the first week of August. In his first address he alluded to the fact of his having been a soldier, that he consequently knew nothing of the crooked ways of professed politicians and must rely upon a blunt, straightforward course in his communications with them in his administration of the government. His whole public career seems to have been characterized by this same frankness and integrity.

Governor Gordon took prompt measures to apprehend and punish worthless drunken Indians who committed outrages. He concluded several very important treaties with the Six Nations, and attended these in person. He published “Two Indians Treaties at Conestogoe,” in 1728.

Governor Gordon died August 5, 1736. His administration was in all respects a happy one. The unanimity of the Assembly, the Council and the Governor, gave an uninterrupted course to the prosperity of the Province. The wisdom which guided her counsels was strongly portrayed in her internal peace, increased population, improved morals and thriving commerce. The death of Governor Gordon was equally lamented by the Proprietaries and the people.

Upon the death of Governor Gordon, the administration of the government again devolved on the Council, of which James Logan was president. He so governed until August, 1738, when Sir George Thomas, a wealthy planter, of the island of Antigua, was appointed by the Proprietaries. Governor Thomas immediately devoted his energies toward the settlement of the boundary dispute, by which it was mutually agreed, that matters should rest along the border, until final settlement of the boundary lines.

The famous “Indian Walk” was performed by Edward Marshall, and others on September 19, 1737. This walk, according to Charles Thomson, was the cause of jealousies and heart burnings among the Indians, which eventually broke out in loud complaints of injustice and atrocious acts of savage vengeance. The very first murder committed by them after this deception was on the very land from which they believed themselves cheated.

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Colonel Bouquet Defeats Indians by Stratagem at Bushy Run, August 6, 1763

In 1763 the savages, angered by the losses of the French and by finding the English settlers pressing upon them, organized what has been called a conspiracy under Pontiac. It nearly succeeded and many English forts were captured.

In Pennsylvania there were many murders and burnings all around Forts Pitt, Le Boeuf, Presque Isle and Ligonier; many were killed at Bedford and Carlisle, and even Fort Augusta, on the Susquehanna at Sunbury, was seriously threatened.

Colonel Henry Bouquet, an energetic and capable officer, took a battalion of the Royal American Regiment and two companies of Highlanders and English and started from Philadelphia for Fort Pitt.

Upon his arrival he found Carlisle crowded with fugitives, and learned that Presque Isle, Le Boeuf and Venango, now English forts, had fallen. Homes were burning all through the neighboring valleys.

With five hundred men Bouquet pushed over the mountain to Bedford and Fort Ligonier, which he relieved from a siege just in time. At Bedford thirty hunters with rifles joined him. He heard from Fort Pitt that the commander and nine others had been wounded.

Bouquet resolved to leave behind the oxen and wagons, which formed the most cumbersome part of the convoy. Thus relieved, the army resumed its march August 4, taking with them 350 pack horses and a few cattle, and at nightfall encamped at no great distance from Ligonier.

Within less than a day’s march lay the dangerous defiles of Turtle Creek. Fearing that the enemy would lay in ambuscade at this place, Bouquet determined to march on the following day as far as a small stream called Bushy Run, to rest there until night and then, by a forced march, to cross Turtle Creek under cover of the darkness.

On the morning of August 5, the tents were struck at an early hour, and the troops began their march through a rough country, everywhere covered with a tall, dense forest.

By noon they had advanced to within less than a mile of Bushy Run. Suddenly the report of rifles from the front sent a thrill along the ranks. The firing became terrific, while the shouts and whoops showed that the advance guard was hotly engaged. The two foremost companies were sent to support it, but far from abating, the fire grew so furious that it revealed the presence of an enemy at once numerous and resolute.

The convoy was halted, the troops formed into line, and a general charge ordered. Bearing down through the forest with fixed bayonets, they drove the yelping savages before them, and swept the ground clear.

At this very moment of success, a fresh burst of whoops and firing was heard from either flank, while noise from the rear showed that the convoy was attacked. The column fell back for its support, drove off the assailants, and formed in a circle around the terrified horses. No man lost his composure, but each displayed implicit confidence in their commander.

Now ensued a combat most discouraging. Again and again, now one side and now on the other, a crowd of Indians rushed up, pouring in a heavy fire, in their effort to break into the circle. A well directed volley met them, followed by a charge of the bayonet. The Indians fled behind trees, few of them were hurt, while the English suffered severely.

Thus the fight went on without intermission for seven hours, until approaching night, when the Indian fire slackened, and the exhausted soldiers found time to rest.

It was impossible to change their ground in the enemy’s presence, and the troops were obliged to encamp where the combat had taken place, though not a drop of water was to be found there.

Bouquet, doubtful of surviving the battle of the morrow, wrote to Sir Jeffrey Amherst, in a few, clear, concise words, an account of the day’s events.

The condition of the troops was deplorable. About sixty soldiers, besides several officers, had been killed or disabled. A space in the center of the camp was prepared for the care of the wounded, and surrounded by a wall built of bags of flour. Here they lay upon the ground, enduring agonies of thirst, as well as of pain.

The situation of those who hitherto escaped was not an enviable one. In event of defeat, a fate inexpressibly horrible waited them, while even victory did not assure their safety, since so many wounded comrades made it difficult to transport them. On the other side the enemy were exulting in the fullest confidence of success.

With the earliest dawn of day there broke out a general burst of those horrid yells which form the prelude of an Indian battle. Instantly from every side the fire poured in with deadly aim.

At each furious rush the savages were repulsed. The English, maddened more by the torments of thirst than the fire of the enemy, fought furiously. But the enemy saw their distress and pressed them closer and more desperately.

The center of the camp was all confusion. The horses broke away a dozen at a time and stampeded through the wounded troops. At ten o’clock the circle was yet unbroken, but there had been many killed. If the day was to be saved, the effort must be made at once and Bouquet was equal to the emergency.

In the midst of the confusion he conceived a masterly stratagem. Could the Indians be brought together in a body and made to stand their ground, there could be little doubt of the result. Bouquet instructed the men who were in the most exposed place to give way. The Indians mistook this movement for a retreat. Confident that their victory was sure, they leaped up on all sides and rushed headlong towards the spot.

Here they found themselves between two deadly fires and with the reserve troops blocking their retreat they were utterly routed. The Highlanders, with yells as wild as their own, fell on them with bayonet. The shock was irresistible and they fled before the charging ranks, not a living Indian remained near the spot. Among the dead were found several prominent chiefs.

The battle of Bushy Run was the best contested battle ever fought between white men and Indians. It was the most serious defeat ever inflicted upon the savages down to that time.

With the loss of eight officers and 115 men, Bouquet reached Fort Pitt August 10. It was a joyous moment both to the troops and the garrison, which had been surrounded and hotly pressed by the Indians since July 28.

The next year Bouquet led an expedition beyond the Ohio, but the Indians sued for peace and he compelled them to bring all their captives to Fort Pitt, where their friends could identify them.

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Indian Council Between Governor Denny and Tedyuskung Ended at Easton August 7, 1757

The fact that the great Delaware King Tedyuskung was not present at the important council at Lancaster in April, 1757, caused much more concern in the Provincial Government than is usually the case when one person of importance fails to attend. The Delaware Indians were still chafing under the rebuke they received at the hands of Canassetoga, the great Onondaga Chief Sachem, and the Six Nations, who ordered them from the lands at the Forks of the Delaware River to the Wyoming and Shamokin Valleys.

Soon as the Lancaster council was concluded, messengers were dispatched to Tedyuskung and to the Seneca and Shawnee, inviting them to hold a treaty with the English.

On June 16, Sir Wm. Johnson held a general conference with the Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca, of the Six Nations, at his estate “Fort Johnson,” in which he strongly urged these tribes to come to the support of the English in their warfare against the French. He severely censured Tedyuskung and the Seneca for their conduct.

The Indian messengers, Nathanial and Zacharias, failed to find Tedyuskung at Wyoming, and journeyed to the Seneca villages in New York where they found the King and delivered the Governor’s message. Tedyuskung and the messengers immediately set out for Pennsylvania, and on their way met Joe Peepy, Shikellamy’s son, and Tapescawen, the two messengers sent out by the Lancaster Council in quest of Tedyuskung. Nathanial and Zacharias hastened on to advise the Governor that Tedyuskung and his followers would set out from Tioga for Easton the middle of June.

Tedyuskung and his retinue arrived at Fort Allen July 3, 200 strong and waited there for the arrival of 100 Seneca. On July 8, 155 men, women and children followed Tedyuskung out of Fort Allen toward Easton, and a few days later 117 Seneca and other Six Nations’ Indians arrived at Easton, via Wyoming; among the Seneca delegation were old King Nutimus and “French Margaret.”

Governor Denny, accompanied by members of the Council, Board of Indian Commissioners and a large number of citizens, including many Quakers, arrived at Easton, July 20, and the next day the conference with the Indians was formally begun. Colonel Conrad Weiser and Colonel George Croghan were in attendance as interpreters and agents; there were more than 300 Indians representing ten nations, and Tedyuskung claimed authority over them all.

Tedyuskung demanded a clerk and refused to participate until furnished one, when a long debate ensued, but the old king won his point and chose Charles Thomson. Thomson exercised great influence over Tedyuskung and was his counsel as well as clerk.

The conference proceeded in peace. Tedyuskung declared it was time to declare mutual friendship and gave the Governor a belt of wampum. The Governor rejoiced in this expression of alliance and gave the Delaware a fine belt of wampum. This was a large belt with the figures of three men worked in the wampum, representing King George, taking hold of the King of the Five Nations with one hand, and Tedyuskung with the other, and marked “G. R., 5 N and D. K.,” for King George, Five Nations and Delaware King.

On Saturday, August 6, Paxinosa, with Abraham, the Mohegan Chief, arrived at Easton, with about sixty of their people. The Governor personally welcomed the newcomers to the council.

The most important matter broached by Tedyuskung touched on the future home of the Delaware. He then asked that persons be sent to instruct them to build permanent houses of a better class, and that other persons be sent “to instruct us in Christian religion, and instruct our children in reading and writing.”

Tedyuskung then expressed a desire that the Governor would send people to Wyoming during the coming fall or nearly next Spring, that a little fort might be built. The Indians would then move down from Tioga, about the beginning of May.

The conference came to an end on Sunday, August 7. The Governor and his attendants left for Bethlehem, enroute to Philadelphia. The following day many Indians were escorted by Conrad Weiser and a detachment of Provincials under Captain Jacob Arndt, towards Bethlehem.

The “Memorials of the Moravian Church” says, “Some of these unwelcome visitors halted for a few days and some proceeded as far as Fort Allen and then returned, undecided as to where to go and what to do. During the month full 200 were counted—men, women and children—among them lawless crowds who annoyed the Brethren by depredations, molested the Indians at Manakasy, and wrangled with each other over their cup at “The Crown.”

Tedyuskung, Abraham and Paxinosa set out from Fort Allen for Tioga, August 17, the former with a new saddle and bridle, and a supply of snuff, gingerbread, soap and other luxuries—in addition to the gifts he had received at the treaty.

When near Tunkhannock, this company was met by three Indian messengers, with a Peace Belt and four-fold string of wampum, for Tedyuskung from the two principal chiefs in the Ohio region. The King gave the Peace Belt he had received at Easton into the hands of one of his sons and messengers, directing them to carry it with a message which he dictated to the Ohio chiefs. Then he left his companions and started back to Bethlehem, where he arrived August 25. Five days later he arrived in Philadelphia and delivered the message from the Ohio Indians to the Governor and Council.

Tedyuskung urged the prompt assistance of the government in helping them locate at Wyoming, and a week later the Governor and Council decided to send proper persons to build a fort and houses for the Delaware. After much discussion it was decided to send John Hughes, one of the Indian Commissioners, Edward Shippen, prothonotary of the Lancaster County courts, and James Galbraith, also of Lancaster, and a prominent citizen to undertake the journey to Wyoming. On October 5, 1757, they set out and satisfactorily fulfilled the mission on which they were sent.

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Indians Surprise Reapers and Mortally Wound James Brady August 8, 1778

During the first several years of the Revolution no section of Pennsylvania suffered more from the incursions of the hostile Indians than along both branches of the Susquehanna River, where nearly every man capable of bearing arms responded to the call and left his home and fireside in the care of aged men or young men of his family.

The Indians had taken a heavy toll along the West Branch, so small numbers of local militia and a few provincials garrisoned the several stockades erected as places of refuge for the inhabitants, when the Indians were reported by the scouts to be approaching.

August 8, 1778, a party of Indians fell upon a number of reapers and cruelly murdered young James Brady. The circumstances of the tragic affair, and the prominence of the victim and his illustrious family make the story one of value.

Colonel Thomas Hartley had been sent by General Washington to guard the West Branch Valley, and after arriving at Fort Augusta with his command, it was determined he should proceed to Muncy, erect a stockade, and from that place distribute his soldiers to points where they were most needed.

On the fatal day a corporal and three militiamen were ordered to go to Loyalsock and protect fourteen reapers and cradlers who were assisting Peter Smith, the unfortunate man who lost his wife and four children in the massacre, at what is now Williamsport, June 10. Smith’s farm was on Bull Run, nearly three miles east of Williamsport, and on the north side of the river.

It was the custom in those days of unusual peril, when no commissioned officer was present, for the company to select a leader, who was called “Captain,” and to obey him accordingly. Young James Brady, on account of his shrewdness, dash and well known bravery, was selected to take command of the party.

“Captain” Brady stationed a few sentinels and the rest proceeded to the work at hand on Friday, August 7. At sundown four of the party left and returned to Fort Muncy. The balance of the detail commenced work early the next day; the morning was foggy.

Not an hour had passed before the workers were surprised by the stealthy approach of a large band of Indians, who were able to draw near under the cover of the fog before being discovered.

The sentinels discharged their rifles at the savages and ran towards the reapers. A panic ensued and they all fled with the exception of young Brady, who ran for his rifle, closely pursued by three Indians. When almost within reach of his gun, an Indian shot at Brady, who was probably saved by his timely fall over a sheaf of wheat. When he grasped for his rifle he was shot in the arm, but succeeded in killing the Indian who fired at him.

Brady grabbed a second rifle and as quickly dispatched another Indian, but the savages now closed in on him, and he fought bravely until a warrior struck him with his tomahawk and another pierced him with a spear, which felled him to the ground. Brady had no sooner fallen than his scalp was torn from his head, and a young Indian was called upon to strike him with his tomahawk. The Indians then fled in great haste.

Brady recovered consciousness, and succeeded by walking and creeping, in reaching the cabin of an old man, named Jerome Vanness, near the bank of the river, who had been employed to cook for Brady and his companions while on this tour of duty.

Vanness heard the firing and had concealed himself, but on seeing Brady approach, rushed to his assistance. Brady urged the aged man to fly for his own safety, but he refused to leave his “captain,” and dressed his terrible wounds as best he could.

Brady requested to be assisted down to the river, where he drank much water, and lay until Vanness went back for his gun.

When the terrified reapers and militiamen reached Fort Muncy, Captain Andrew Walker hurried a detail to Smith’s farm. On approaching the spot where the gallant Brady lay weltering in his blood, he heard the relief party, and supposing them to be Indians, immediately jumped to his feet, cocked his rifle, and prepared to defend himself.

When Brady found the party to be friends, he requested to be taken to his mother, who was visiting among relatives at Sunbury.

He was tenderly cared for, placed in a canoe, and taken rapidly down the river. During the trip of nearly thirty miles he became delirious.

When the party arrived at Sunbury, although it was nearly midnight, his mother met the canoe at the landing and assisted to convey her wounded son to the house.

Brady presented a frightful appearance and the grief of his mother was pitiable. He lived five days, dying in the arms of his devoted mother, August 13, 1778.

On the day of his death his reason returned and he related with much detail the bloody scene through which he had passed.

Some writers have stated that Chief Bald Eagle scalped him, and that his brother, Captain Samuel Brady, afterwards avenged his death by shooting Bald Eagle through the heart.

The unfortunate young hero was buried near Fort Augusta. He was mourned by all who knew him.

James Brady was the second son of Captain John and Mary Brady, and a younger brother of Captain Samuel Brady, the famous scout and Indian killer. He was born in 1758, while his parents lived at Shippensburg, Cumberland County, and was in his twenty-first year at the time of his tragic death.

Many anecdotes of the Brady family have been handed down, and one relating to James is interesting. The men of that time wore their hair long, plaited and cued behind the head. James had a remarkably fine head of fiery red hair. A neighbor remarked that she feared the Indians would get this red scalp. James replied: “If they do, it will make them a bright light of a dark night.” In less than a week the noble youth fell beneath the cruel tomahawk and the savages had his red scalp.

His father, Captain John Brady, was murdered near Muncy by the Indians, April 11, 1779, while home on a leave of absence from the Continental Army.

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General John Bull, Distinguished Officer of Revolutionary War, Died August 9, 1824

Among the early patriots of the Revolution was Colonel John Bull, and he was quite as much a distinguished citizen and statesman. John Bull was born in 1730, in Providence Township, now Montgomery County. He was appointed captain in the Provincial service, May 12, 1758, and the following month was in command of the garrison at Fort Allen.

In October the same year he accompanied General John Forbes’ expedition for the reduction of Fort Duquesne, and rendered important service in the negotiations with the Indians. The instructions to Captain Bull were dated Easton, October 21, 1758, and are most specific. He and William Hayes had volunteered to carry important messages to the Indians on the Ohio.

Pesquetomen and Thomas Hickman, two Delaware Indians from the Ohio, accompanied the provincial messengers, who set out in October, going by way of Reading and Fort Henry to Fort Augusta, where they were equipped and supplied with such articles as they needed. They carried belts of wampum and even the outlines of the speeches they were to make to the western Indians when in council. This mission was performed to the entire satisfaction of the Provincial Government and John Bull became at once a trusted official on important occasions.

In 1771 Captain Bull owned the Norris plantation and mill, and was residing there at the opening of the Revolution. This is on the present site of Norristown. He was a delegate to the Provincial Conferences of January 23, 1775, and of June 18, 1775, and a member of the Provincial Convention of July 15, 1776.

The First Pennsylvania Battalion was raised in pursuance of a resolution of Congress, October 12, 1775. The field officers were elected by Congress, November 25, and John Bull was commissioned a colonel.

On January 20, 1776, the Colonel resigned in a communication to Congress setting forth that he was ill-treated by many of the officers and that nearly one-half of them threatened to resign if he continued in command. He also stated that this circumstance would not alter his conduct or abate his zeal, and whenever called upon again to serve his country, he would, with the greatest pleasure, obey the summons. Colonel Bull was succeeded by Colonel John Philip DeHaas, of Lebanon, who was commissioned two days later.

Colonel Bull served as one of the Commissioners at the important Indian treaty held at Easton, January 30, 1777; in February he was in command of the works at Billingsport.

The Supreme Executive Council created the Board of War, March 13, 1777, and named Colonel John Bull as one of the original members. They organized the following day.

On May 2, he was commissioned colonel of the State Regiment of Foot, which was organized with the residue of the battalions of Colonels Samuel Miles and Samuel J. Atlee, as a nucleus. June 2 this regiment was stationed at Fort Mercer, under command of Colonel Bull, its strength being four hundred and sixty-three.

As Colonel Bull was not an officer of either battalion, the other officers claimed his appointment ruined their rank, and as the regiment was put in the Continental service, June 10, 1777, the Supreme Executive Council appointed Colonel Bull adjutant general of the militia of Pennsylvania, and appointed Walter Stewart to the command of the regiment, which participated at Brandywine and Germantown.

He was also colonel of the Sixth Battalion of Associators, of Philadelphia, during 1777. During October of this year, Colonel Bull’s barns, barracks, grain and hay were burned by the British, and his wagons, horses, sheep and Negroes carried off, although General Howe had given his word to Mrs. Bull that they would not be disturbed.

In December, Brigadier General James Irvine was wounded and captured in the attempted surprise by the British at Whitemarsh, and Colonel Bull succeeded to the command of the Second Brigade Pennsylvania Militia, under command of General John Armstrong.

During Christmas week, 1777, the British crossed the Delaware and made a raid into New Jersey, another detachment at the same time crossed at Gray’s Ferry and took the road to Chester and Darby, with three hundred wagons. Howe and Erskine were with them; they made a demonstration towards Chester. Several pickets and detachments skirmished on their front and flank, under Captain Potterfield.

Colonel John Bull, with his brigade marched to force the foragers to retire by demonstrating against the enemy’s lines. His forces were distributed on the Frankford, Germantown and Ridge Roads, and caused the enemy to sound a general alarm. Bull planted his cannon, on Christmas Day, and fired several shots at the heart of the city, then withdrew to Frankford.

Marshall says: “Col. Bull, on the twenty-fifth instant, made an excursion into Fourth Street, Philadelphia, with two thousand militia, and alarmed the city by firing some pieces of cannon into the air, whereby some of the ball fell about Christ Church. He then made a good retreat back to his station, without the loss of a man.” The enemy, however, made no more raids.

In 1778 and 1779 he was engaged in erecting the defenses for Philadelphia; in 1779 he put down the chevaux de frize in the Delaware, and in 1780 he was Commissary of Purchases at Philadelphia, and appears to have been one of the busiest and most indefatigable of workers.

After the Revolution General Bull located at Northumberland, this was about 1785. In 1802 he was a candidate for the Legislature, but was defeated by Simon Snyder; in 1803, 1804 and 1805 he was elected to the Legislature, and three years later was defeated for Congress on the Federalist ticket.

General Bull died August 9, 1824, at the extreme age of ninety-four years. His wife, Mary Phillips Bull, died February 23, 1811, aged eighty years. The Northumberland Argus says “she was buried in the Quaker graveyard and General Bull, though much reduced by sickness and old age, previous to the grave being closed addressed the people as follows:

“'The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord; may we who are soon to follow be as well prepared as she was.'”

Truly a soldier to the very end of his eventful life.

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Colonel Bouquet Relieved Garrison at Fort Pitt August 10, 1763

Colonel Henry Bouquet established his rendezvous in Carlisle during the latter part of June, 1763, where he had assembled five hundred troops, selected from his British forces and several companies of Provincial Rangers. He was preparing to rush to the succor of Fort Pitt and other places which were being attacked by Indians under the inspiring leadership of Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawa, who had formed a confederation of the Indians against the English.

Everywhere along the frontier of Pennsylvania was desolation, the settlers had fled in terror and the interior settlements were crowded with refugees. Especially is this true of Carlisle, where the brave Swiss, Colonel Bouquet, was receiving first hand intelligence of the sufferings and devastation caused by the savages.

On July 3, 1763, a courier from Fort Bedford rode into Carlisle, and as he stopped to water his horse, he was surrounded by an anxious crowd, to whom he told a sad tale of woe, and as he hurriedly mounted his horse to ride to Colonel Bouquet’s tent, he shouted, “The Indians will soon be here.”

Terror and excitement spread everywhere, messengers were dispatched in every direction to give the alarm, and the reports, harrowing as they had been, were confirmed by the fugitives who were met on every road and by-path hurrying to Carlisle for refuge.

A party armed themselves and went out to warn the living and bury the dead. They found death and destruction everywhere, and sickened with horror at seeing groups of hogs tearing and devouring the bodies of the dead.

After a delay of eighteen days, Bouquet secured enough wagons, horses and oxen, and began his perilous march towards Fort Pitt. His force was much smaller than General Braddock’s and he had to encounter a foe much more formidable. But Bouquet, the man of iron will and iron hand, had served seven years in American forests and, unlike the unfortunate Braddock, understood his work.

On July 25 Bouquet reached Fort Bedford, where he was fortunate in securing thirty backwoodsmen to accompany him. This little army toiled through the blazing heat of July over the Allegheny Mountains, and reached Fort Ligonier August 2.

The Indians who had besieged that fort for two months disappeared at the approach of the troops. Here Bouquet left his oxen and wagons and resumed his march two days later. At noon on the 5th he encountered the enemy at Bushy Run. A terrible battle raged for two days when the Indians were put to rout. The loss of the British was one hundred and fifteen men and eight officers. The little army was then twenty-five miles distant from Fort Pitt, which place was reached August 10.

The enemy had abandoned the siege on this fort and marched their forces to unite with those engaged in combat with Colonel Bouquet at Bushy Run, so when they were compelled to retreat after that battle, they had not sufficient time, or lacked the courage to attack Fort Pitt with Colonel Bouquet in hot pursuit.

It was at this time that Colonel Bouquet built the little redoubt which is at the present all that remains of Fort Pitt, in fact is the only existing monument of British occupancy in the vicinity of Pittsburgh.

The Indians abandoned all their former settlements, and retreated to the Muskingum; here they formed new settlements, and in the spring of 1764 again began to ravage the frontier. To put an end to these depredations, General Gage planned a campaign into the western wilderness from two points. General Bradstreet was ordered to advance by way of the lakes, and Colonel Bouquet was to go forward from Fort Pitt.

After the usual delays and disappointments in securing troops from Pennsylvania and Virginia to aid in this expedition Colonel Bouquet again arrived at Fort Pitt, September 17, where he was detained until October 3. He led his troops from Fort Pitt following the north bank of the Ohio until he reached the Beaver, where he turned towards central Ohio.

Bouquet refused to listen to either threats or promises from the Indians, and declined to treat with them at all until they should deliver up their prisoners. Although not a single blow was struck the Indians were vanquished.

Bouquet continued his march down the valley of the Muskingum until he reached a spot where some broad meadows offered a suitable place for encampment. Here he received a deputation of principal chiefs, listened to their offers of peace, and demanded the delivery of all the prisoners. Soon band after band of captives arrived, until more than three hundred were brought into the encampment.

The scenes which followed the restoration of these prisoners to their families and friends beggar all description; wives recovering their husbands, husbands their wives, parents regaining children whom they could scarcely recognize, brothers and sisters meeting after long separation and sometimes hardly able to converse in the same language.

The story is told of a woman whose daughter had been carried off nine years before. The mother recognized her child among the prisoners, but the girl, who had almost forgotten her mother tongue, showed no sign of recognition. The mother complained to Colonel Bouquet that the daughter she had so often sung to sleep on her knee had forgotten her. “Sing the song to her that you used to sing when she was a child,” said Colonel Bouquet. She did so, and with a passionate flood of tears the long lost daughter flung herself into her mother’s arms.

Everything being settled the army broke camp November 18, and arrived again at Fort Pitt on the 28th.

Early in January Colonel Bouquet returned to Philadelphia, receiving wherever he went every possible mark of gratitude and esteem from the people. The Assembly of Pennsylvania and the House of Burgesses of Virginia each unanimously voted him addresses of thanks, and on the arrival in England of the first account of this expedition the King promoted him to the rank of Brigadier General, to command the Southern District of North America.

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Colonel Brodhead Wins Thanks of Congress for Raid Started August 11, 1779

Raids on the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier in 1778 were made by the Indians of the Ohio country; those of 1779 by the Seneca and Munsee of the North, from the upper tributaries of the Susquehanna and Allegheny Rivers.

The Seneca tribe of Western New York was the largest of the Six Nations, and its warriors second only to the Mohawk in courage and military prowess. Under Cornplanter, Guyasuta and other war captains they distressed a wide extent of territory in New York and Pennsylvania and decorated their huts with the scalps of hundreds of white persons.

Early in the summer of 1779, Washington directed that General John Sullivan lead a large force against the Iroquois country from the east, and in July Colonel Brodhead received permission to undertake a movement of cooperation up the Allegheny Valley.

The expedition consisting of 615 men under Colonel Brodhead left Pittsburgh August 11, 1779. Small garrisons were left to guard Forts Pitt, McIntosh, Crawford and Armstrong. A small band of Delaware accompanied the expedition, and acted as scouting parties under Captain Samuel Brady and Lieutenant Hardin.

The provisions were conveyed up the river by boats as far as the mouth of the Big Mahoning, where the supplies were taken from the boats, loaded on the horses, and the expedition proceeded under the most unfavorable conditions. The expedition here left the river and followed an Indian trail almost due north, through what is now Clarion county.

A few miles below Brokenstraw Creek occurred a fight with savages, near where Thompson is now situated. Lieutenant Hardin was leading the advance, with fifteen white scouts and eight Delaware, when they discovered more than thirty Seneca warriors coming down the river in seven canoes, under the famous Chief Guyasuta. Each party discovered the other at about the same time. The Seneca paddled for shore, threw off their shirts and prepared for battle, little aware of the number of their opponents.

Both sides took to trees and rocks and began a sharp fusillade, until a few minutes another party of scouts appeared, took the Seneca on the flank and poured a hot fire upon them. At the sound of this firing Colonel Brodhead formed his column so as to protect his pack train and then hurried forward with reinforcements. He arrived just in time to witness the retreat of the Seneca, who now realized the strength of the white force. Five Indians were killed and several wounded. Eight guns and seven canoes containing their blankets, shirts and provisions were prizes. Only three of Brodhead’s men were slightly wounded.

The army went into camp near the scene of the conflict and on the following morning moved to Brokenstraw Creek. Here Colonel Brodhead decided to leave his stores and baggage and march light to Conewago. A rude breastwork was constructed of fallen trees and bundles of faggots, on a high bluff which commanded an extensive view up and down the river. This post was garrisoned by an officer and forty men, while the expedition pushed on for Conewago. Upon arrival the Colonel was disappointed to find the Iroquois town deserted and their huts falling into decay.

After a hard march of twenty miles the army came again within sight of the Allegheny River, and from a hilltop they discovered a number of Indian villages, surrounded by great fields of splendid corn and patches of beans, squashes and melons. This Iroquois settlement extended for eight miles along the fertile bottom land of the Allegheny River, where the great Cornplanter reservation was afterwards established.

The Indian spies had discovered the approach of the American forces, and the warriors had fled so hastily with their women and children that they left behind many deer skins and other articles of value.

The Iroquois had long before this learned to build substantial log houses, even squaring the timbers as was the custom of the white pioneer settlers. In this village there were about 130 houses, some of them large enough to accommodate three or four families.

Colonel Brodhead sent a report to General Washington, saying: “The troops remained on the ground three whole days, destroying the towns and corn fields. I never saw finer corn, although it was planted much thicker than is common with our farmers. The quantity of corn and vegetables destroyed at the several towns, from the best accounts I can collect from the officers employed to destroy it, must certainly exceed 500 acres, which is the lowest estimate and the plunder taken is estimated at $3,000. From the great quantity of corn in the ground and the number of new houses built and building, it appears that the whole Seneca and Muncy nations intended to collect in this settlement.”

On the return march the supplies were picked up at Buckaloons and the troops marched across country to French Creek. At Oil Creek the soldiers rubbed themselves freely with oil which they found floating on the water, and received great relief from their rheumatic pains and stiffness. For many years this petroleum was called Seneca oil, and was supposed to be valuable only for its medicinal qualities.

The army soon reached French Creek, at the mouth of the Conneaut Creek, where the Munsee town of Maghingue-chahocking was found to be deserted. It consisted of 35 large huts, which were burned. The Munsee formed a branch of the Wolf clan of the Delaware, and they enjoyed an unenviable reputation as thieves, murderers and general desperadoes.

The army descended French Creek almost to its mouth and thence returned to Fort Pitt by what is known as the Venango path almost due north and south through the heart of Butler County.

The expedition arrived at Fort Pitt on September 14 without the loss of a man or a horse. Brodhead wrote: “I have a happy presage that the counties of Westmoreland, Bedford and Northumberland, if not the whole western frontier, will experience the good effect of it. Too much praise cannot be given to both officers and soldiers of every corps during the whole expedition. Their perseverance and zeal can scarcely be equaled in history.”

The thanks of Congress were voted to Colonel Brodhead, and in a general order, issued October 18, General Washington said: “The activity, perseverance, and firmness of all the officers and men of every description in this expedition, do them great honor, and their services entitle them to the thanks and to this testimonial of the General’s acknowledgement.”

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Era of Indian Traders to Death of Allummapees, August 12, 1731

At what date and by whom the North and West Branch Valleys of the Susquehanna and the Juniata Valley were first traversed, and the Alleghenies first crossed by Europeans in a journey to the Ohio, is unrecorded, and must forever remain unknown.

The first white men who ventured into the unexplored forests among these mountains were not given to keeping journals of their travels for future historians. No one seems to have thought of immortalizing himself by bequeathing to us a good description giving minute details of the country and its tribes.

At first the natives brought their peltry hundreds of miles to the Delaware River; but, in course of time, these skins and furs became so valuable in Europe that many of the worst class of men were stimulated to penetrate the depths of the forest in order to hasten and monopolize the trade. In this way the entire Juniata and West Branch regions were traversed many years before there was a settlement established in those fertile valleys.

From the days of William Penn’s advent up to 1722 the Indian expenses to the Province were inconsiderable, being limited by law to £50 per annum. In that year the Assembly paid Governor Keith’s expenses for a trip to Albany, where an important council with the Six Nations was held, but in 1727 they refused to pay more than half the amount of an account of Conrad Weiser, who was sent on a similar mission. In 1728, under an alarm, they agreed to pay without limitation the expenses of an Indian conference. After this they sometimes paid half, and sometimes all.

The appetite for presents which the Indians acquired was not easily appeased. Constant disturbances, frequently caused by rum, called for expensive treaties, and the donations allured the Indians and made them more insolent and exacting. The expenses soon rose above £8,000, and the question whether these treaties were more for the benefit of the Proprietaries in buying lands than for the safety of the inhabitants gave rise to heated controversy. The result was that Indian affairs began to take a wider and more public range, and the records of those days begin to throw more light upon the uninhabited interior of the Province.

As early as 1722 we read that “William Wilkins was 150 miles up the Sasquehannah trading for his master.” His master was John Cartlidge, an Indian trader living at Conestoga, and 150 miles farther up the Susquehanna was a venturesome trip at that date. There are also records of several Frenchmen engaged in the trade living among the Indians east of the mountains, extending their travels up the Susquehanna and its branches.

A great council was held in Philadelphia, July 3, 1727, with the chiefs of the Six Nations, but most of those in attendance were Cayuga, Conestoga and Ganawese. Madame Montour, the celebrated interpreter, was present at this conference and exerted her great influence toward an amicable treaty.

In an address made by one of the chiefs to the Governor, he said: “They desire that there may be no settlements made up the Sasquhannah higher than Pextan (Harrisburg), and that none of the settlers thereabouts be suffered to sell or keep any rum there, for that being the road by which their people go out to war, they are apprehensive of mischief if they meet with liquor in these parts. They desire also, for the same reasons, that none of the traders be allowed to carry any rum to the remoter parts where James Le Tort trades,—that is, Allegany on the branch of Ohio. And this they desire may be taken notice of, as the mind of the chiefs of all the Five Nations, for it is all those nations that now speak by them to all our people.”

The following day the Governor made this reply: “We have not hitherto allowed any settlements to be made above Pextan, but, as the young people grow up, they will spread, of course, yet it will not be very speedily. The Governor, however, will give orders to them all to be civil to those of the Five Nations as they pass that way, though it would be better if they would pass the Susquehannah above the mountains. And the sale of rum shall be prohibited both there and at Alegany; but the woods are so thick and dark we cannot see what is done in them. The Indians may stave any rum they find in the Woods, but, as has been said, they must not drink or carry any away.”

The interesting fact ascertained from these two addresses is that James Le Tort, who had settled near Carlisle, as early as 1720, and was a well known trader, had already passed over the Allegheny Mountains and established his trading post on the Ohio River. As he was also known to have lived and traded as early as 1701 on the island at the Forks of the Susquehanna, long known as Packer’s Island, between Sunbury and Northumberland, it may be fairly inferred that Le Tort found his way to the West through the West Branch Valley and thence by the Indian path leading from Great Island through what is now Clearfield and Kittaning to the west.

This is interesting also because it was at this time that the Shawnee began to pass over the mountains, followed by some Delaware, especially those of Conestoga descent, and began to settle on the Ohio. The Shawnee had established a large village at the mouth of Chillisquaque Creek, where it empties into the West Branch, a mile below Lewisburg on the east side of the stream.

The second inference is that at the date of the above conference there were white people already seated on the Juniata and Susquehanna, farther west than Paxtang, or there were already such decided symptoms of danger in that direction that the Iroquois deputies considered it necessary to forbid that anyone should presume to settle beyond the Kittatinny Mountains. A violation of this precautionary restriction led to a series of complaints about intruders into these valleys for the next thirty years.

During the first quarter of the eighteenth century the history of Indian affairs on the Susquehanna and Juniata, and especially the West Branch of the former river, is nearly all connected closely with the Iroquois agency on the northern border of the Province.

The principal representatives of this great Nation were Allummapees, also called Sassoonan, the great Delaware King, and Shikellamy, the great Oneida vicegerent.

Allummapees resided at Paxtang, as early as 1709. He removed from Paxtang to Shamokin about 1718, and there resided among the Munsee, the most belligerent of the Lenape clans. He ruled as king from 1718 till his death. He was a good-hearted chieftain, true to the English and an advocate of peace. When he died he was supposed to be one hundred years of age. His death occurred August 12, 1731, when in a state of helpless intoxication he was stabbed to the heart by his nephew, Shockatawlin, of whom Allummapees was jealous.

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Indians Massacre Major John Lee and Family, August 13, 1782

On the evening of August 13, 1782, John Lee and his family with one or two neighbors were seated at the supper table in their comfortable log home in what is now Winfield, Union County. Without a moment’s warning a band of Indians, supposed to be sixty or seventy in number, rushed in on them, and killed Lee and his family. The events of this crime rank among the most cruel and revolting of those along the frontier.

A young woman, named Katy Stoner, hurried upstairs and concealed herself behind the chimney, where she remained undiscovered and escaped. She related the details of this horrible tragedy.

Lee was tomahawked and scalped, and an old man named John Walker shared the same fate. Mrs. Claudius Boatman and daughter, who were guests of the Lees, were killed and scalped; Mrs. Lee, with her small child, and a larger boy, named Thomas, were led away captives.

The savages fled from the scene along the Great Path, leading up that side of the West Branch Valley, over the White Deer Mountains, and then crossed to the eastern side of the river below Muncy.

One of Lee’s sons, Robert, happened to be absent and thus escaped the fate of his parents. He was returning, however, and came in sight of the house just as the Indians were leaving it, but they did not observe him. He fled to Northumberland and gave the alarm.

A party of about twenty volunteers was organized by Colonel Samuel Hunter, at Fort Augusta, and hastened in pursuit. On arriving at Lee’s house they beheld some of the victims yet alive and writhing in agony. Lee was not dead, and Mrs. Boatman’s daughter also survived. Litters were hastily constructed, and they were carried to Fort Augusta. Lee expired in great agony soon after arrival at the fort. Miss Boatman was nursed back to health and lived many years afterwards.

Colonel Hunter and his party, without delaying to bury the dead, pushed on after the savages as rapidly as possible with a view of overtaking them, and releasing the captives. They came in sight of them above Lycoming Creek.

In crossing White Deer Mountains Mrs. Lee was accidentally bitten on her ankle by a rattlesnake, and her leg became so swollen and pained her so severely, that she traveled with great difficulty. The Indians, finding themselves pursued, urged her along as fast as possible, but she weakened rapidly. When near the mouth of Pine Creek, about four miles below the present Jersey Shore, Mrs. Lee’s strength failed her and she seated herself on the ground.

The whites were rapidly approaching and the Indians were afraid she would fall into their hands. A warrior stealthily slipped up behind her, placed the muzzle of his rifle close to her head and fired. The entire upper portion of her head was blown off. One of the Indians then snatched up her young child and holding it by the feet, dashed it against a tree.

The Indians then fled with renewed speed, crossing the river at Smith’s fording, at Level Corner, and hurried up through Nippenose Valley.

When Colonel Hunter and his men came up to where Mrs. Lee was murdered her body was yet warm. The sight was horrible. The child was but little injured, but was found moaning piteously.

The pursuit was now so hot that near Antes’ Gap, the Indians separated, and ran up both sides of the mountains. Colonel Hunter concluded that further pursuit was imprudent, and the chase was abandoned.

The detail returned, buried the body of Mrs. Lee, and brought back the child. At Lee’s house they halted and buried the dead there.

Young Thomas Lee who was taken prisoner, was not recovered for many years afterwards. The son, Robert, made arrangements with the Indians to bring his brother to Tioga Point, where he was delivered to his friends. Such was the love of Indian life, however, that he was so reluctant to return, they were obliged to bind him and place him in a canoe. When near Wilkes Barre they untied him, but as soon as the canoe touched shore he darted off like a deer. It was several hours before he was retaken. On arriving at Northumberland he evinced all the sullenness of a captive. Indian boys and girls, near his own age were made to play about him for days before he showed any disposition to join with them. At last he began to inquire the names of things, and by degrees he became civilized, obtained a good education, and lived a useful life.

Thomas lived on the home farm for many years, as is proved by a deed which he and his wife, Eliza, executed April 1, 1797, to William Beard and Sarah, his wife. Robert Lee and his descendants lived on part of the property as late as the beginning of the 19th century.

The massacre at Lee’s home resulted in the death of seven persons, and only four of the six taken captive were returned to their kin. The others were two sisters and a brother, liberated in 1785.

Since the beginning of spring in the year 1782, there had been sixty-two inhabitants butchered by the Indians.

Judge John Joseph Henry, in a letter to Secretary of War, says that when his father was returning home from Congress, then sitting in New York (1784–85), he found Rebecca Lee on the road desolate and moneyless. He took her to his own home in Lancaster, and, a few months later, restored her to their brother, Robert, at Northumberland. The sister was recovered at Albany a year later, and Thomas was turned over to his brother in 1788.

Lee was the assessor in the township in which he lived. The Indians hated him because they believed he had cheated them in a trade and they sought an opportunity for revenge.

Lee was a prominent citizen, a major in the Northumberland militia, February 7, 1776, and December 26, following, when a company volunteered for the main army, Lee was chosen captain. The company was attached to Colonel James Potter’s Second Battalion and saw much active service.

Claudius Boatman was a Frenchman and after the massacre of his wife, he took the remainder of his family, in 1786, and settled far up Pine Creek. He had several daughters, one of whom married John English. Claudius died in 1802, and was buried in the village of Waterville.

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Mollie Maguires Commit Murders on Bloody Saturday, August 14, 1875

Such a great number of outrages were committed in the anthracite coal regions by the Mollie Maguires on August 14, 1875, that the day came to be known as “Bloody Saturday.”

Early in the month symptoms of smouldering disorder began to increase in severity and numbers. The situation became so alarming that Superintendent Franklin, of the Philadelphia and Reading Company arranged to hold a meeting with the two great Pinkerton detectives, James McParlan and Captain Linden, who had been working for some time among the members of this outrageous organization of criminals.

This meeting was held at Glen Onoko, in the environs of Mauch Chunk. Here the three men cleverly managed to get together, and in the quiet shadows of the great hills, in that Switzerland of America, they fully discussed the situation and the work being performed.

It so happened that while they were returning from this meeting McParlan, otherwise James McKenna, as he was known to the Mollies, encountered some of the ringleaders of that organization: Alexander Campbell, Hugh McGehan, and others, all under suspicion for murder.

McParlan found himself in the position where it was necessary to accompany the Mollies to their homes, but he never was in their company very many minutes before he learned much of value to his chief, Allan Pinkerton. Captain Linden remained in Mauch Chunk, and Superintendent Franklin returned to Philadelphia.

B. F. Yost, a policeman of Tamaqua, had been cruelly murdered, July 6, and word had reached the detective that John P. Jones, of near Lansford, Carbon County, was marked as the next victim of the Mollies. He was murdered by James Kerrigan, Mike Doyle and Edward Kelly, September 3, following.

The Mollies sat together in the smoking car bound for the Summit. McParlan was under suspicion by the Mollies, and Linden had slipped into the car unobserved, ready at any moment to take the part of his brother detective, should he find himself in trouble. Nothing occurred to require his services and Captain Linden feigned to sleep the time away, until the drunken crowd left the car. Linden continued his journey to Tamaqua, and there awaited McParlan’s arrival.

Reaching Summit, Campbell pressed the detective to remain all night at his house, and he thought it best not to refuse and did so.

Campbell believed McParlan or McKenna as he knew him, had been in Mauch Chunk that day to obtain a new stock of counterfeit money, which he was supposed to be passing. McKenna had exchanged some money for crisp bills, but they were genuine. Campbell arranged with the detective for a supply of the “spurious” bills, to be delivered in the near future.

This tended to restore Campbell’s confidence in McKenna, and they were soon discussing Mollie topics with their former freedom of speech. Campbell was a candidate for the office of body master and McKenna was strongly for his election.

Campbell then told him the plans for killing Jones, and after McKenna sang “Widow Machree” for Mrs. Campbell, he retired to his apartment.

Then came the Bloody Saturday events, which proved a horrible experience for the people of Mahanoy Valley. The crimes for that day were two dastardly assassinations and one case of manslaughter, besides several cases of lesser crimes.

The most heinous crime was the murder of Thomas Gwyther, Justice of the Peace, of Girardville. He was an inoffensive man, of mild disposition and a reputable, public spirited citizen.

The miners of the Mahanoy Valley had this day received the first pay of any consequence since the long strike began and the result was that Girardville, in the evening, was crowded with drunken men.

Gangs of ruffians flourished revolvers, looking for some one to shoot. A fight ensued and an arrest resulted. Application was made of Squire Gwyther for a warrant and as he was in the act of preparing it a man stepped up to him and shot him dead. The assassin fled and escaped.

At Shenandoah, Gomer James, a young Welsh miner, who had defended his friend, Tom Jones, when assaulted by Mollies, August 11, 1873, and had since been marked by them, was killed at a picnic in Hecksher’s Grove, while he was inside a bar, waiting upon his patrons. The assassin escaped in the darkness.

Many disturbances occurred in Mahanoy City, and an innocent citizen lost his life, when a disturbance arose between William M. Thomas and James Dugan. Both drew revolvers and fired at each other. Thomas was shot in the face, but Christian Zimmerman, who was standing across the street, waiting for his wife to complete her shopping, received a bullet through his lungs and died the following afternoon. Thomas was arrested for assault on Dugan, but no one was arrested for killing Zimmerman. Another man was shot through the leg during this wild duel, and a rioter was stabbed during the excitement.

McKenna hurried to Mahanoy City where he found the country in a blaze of excitement, and as the people believed him the worst Mollie Maguire in the regions, he remained but a short time, when he took a train for Shenandoah. He was in Shenandoah four hours when he learned who had fired the shot which killed Gomer James, and Tom Hurley became a refugee from justice.

The result of this unexpected success, was that all the Mollies in Shenandoah engaged in grand bacchanal, and to get rid of them McKenna left the place and went to Girardville. Here Jack Kehoe, one of the notorious Mollie leaders told him in a moment of confidence, that the murder of Squire Gwyther was the result of a drunken spree, and that Thomas Love, he was glad to say, had made his escape.

This was truly Bloody Saturday, but by no means was it the end of the reign of the Mollie Maguires in the coal regions of Pennsylvania.

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Yankees Drive Pennamites from Wyoming Valley in Battle Which Began August 15, 1771

Following the first massacre at Wyoming, October 15, 1763, it was more than five years before the first forty settlers arrived from Connecticut to reclaim their improvements. On their arrival they found Amos Ogden and a few other persons in possession of the lands, occupying them by authority of the Proprietary Government of Pennsylvania.

Now commenced a bitter civil war, which lasted with alternate success of the different parties for upwards of six years. The settlements of both parties were alternately broken up—the men led off to prison, the women and children driven away, and other outrages committed. Blood was often shed in this strange and civil strife.

Ogden and his little band were defeated, April 29, 1770, and the Yankees became the masters of the situation.

The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania raised a force in September, 1770, under Captain Ogden, to recover Wyoming. Governor Penn issued a proclamation, June 28, 1770, directing all intruders to depart from Wyoming.

Ogden planned a surprise attack and marching by way of Fort Allen, traveled the Warrior’s Path, then but little used. The stratagem succeeded, for the Yankees watched for them only along the regular path. Ogden again proved his shrewdness by outwitting the Yankees, and defeated them, capturing Major John Durkee, and others.

Ogden also captured Fort Durkee through a deception, and marched his prisoners off to Easton, where they were confined in jail. Major John Durkee, Major Simeon Draper and Captain Zebulon Butler, were put in irons and sent to Philadelphia.

Fort Durkee remained in possession of the Pennamites until December 18, 1770, when Captain Lazerus Stewart, and the “Paxtang Boys” surprised the garrison, and captured the fort.

The Pennsylvania authorities determined on the arrest of Captain Stewart, and a warrant was placed in the hands of Captain Ogden. He called upon Sheriff Peter Kechlin, of Northampton County, and a posse reached Wyoming, January 18, 1771. Stewart refused to submit to arrest and in the short fight, Nathan Ogden, brother of the Captain, was killed and three others wounded.

During the night Captain Stewart and forty of his men stole out of the fort and fled to the woods; the twelve remaining surrendered themselves to the sheriff. The death of his brother caused Captain Amos Ogden much distress. The coroner’s inquest found that Nathan Ogden had been horridly and wilfully murdered by Lazerus Stewart.

Fort Durkee was garrisoned by thirty Pennamites, when the sheriff, Captain Ogden, Justice Charles Stewart, with their associates, January 23, set out for Easton. Five of the ten prisoners taken at the capture of the fort were sent to Philadelphia and committed to jail, where Major Durkee and Captain Butler were still languishing. Those who escaped with Captain Lazerus Stewart scattered and returned to their homes. Thus was consummated the fifth expulsion of the Yankees from Wyoming.

The Pennamites in the two forts at Wilkes-Barre were reinforced by other Pennsylvanians and Captain Amos Ogden and Charles Stewart, Esq. Fort Wyoming was enlarged and strengthened and all the Pennamite settlers dwelt therein. Fort Durkee was abandoned and dismantled.

During the next four months peace reigned supreme, and the Proprietaries had much land surveyed in the Manors of Stoke and Sunbury, and laid out to various persons, under warrants of the Provincial Land Office.

In the mid-summer seventy men of Connecticut, formerly owners of land at Wyoming, were enlisted under Captain Zebulon Butler to go forward to the much-coveted valley. While preparations were going on in Connecticut for the Wyoming expedition Lazerus Stewart was gathering together a few of the “Paxtang Boys,” who hastened to join Captain Butler on the march to Wyoming.

Colonel Asher Clayton was the chief man among the Pennamites, who now seemed secure and thrifty. On July 6, news reached him that armed forces of Yankees were approaching, and scouts brought him intelligence that the Yankees were determined to secure possession of this country. Clayton went forward and met Butler, but they could not come to terms, and Clayton returned to the fort. Captain Butler and his men invested the block house at Mill Creek and awaited developments.

Captain Amos Ogden again arrived at Wyoming and almost as soon as the Yankees. He found the situation so serious that he determined to be his own messenger to Philadelphia, where he arrived July 16, in three days’ travel. He appeared before Provincial Council and related the story. They agreed to raise 100 men and immediately set about to recruit them, but met with unexpected difficulty.

Captain Butler did not wait for these reinforcements to reach the Pennamites, but, Sunday, July 21, believed the time had come for the offensive. That night he silently marched them to the vicinity of Fort Wyoming, where, before daylight he had entrenched. By Monday these intrenchments were occupied by Yankees and the battle for Fort Wyoming was begun. Other redoubts were erected by which all communication with the outside was cut off from Fort Wyoming, but the Pennamites possessed means of defense so long as their provisions and ammunition would hold out.

Reinforcements under Captains John Dick and Joseph Morris left their rendezvous in the Blue Mountains, Sunday, July 28, and arrived before daybreak on the 30th. Within 200 yards of the block house they were attacked by the Yankees and lost two loads of flour and nine men. The Yankees continued a constant fire, day and night, until August 10, the defenders returning the fire.

Efforts to send volunteers to the relief of the Pennamites were unavailing, until Ogden, Van Campen and others, who had extensive land claims there, induced 62 men to march under command of Dr. Andrew Leslie from Reemeys, they arrived August 15, at “Ten-Mile Run,” where they bivouacked, after sending a messenger to the inmates of the fort.

But before the arrival of this detail and the supplies which they brought, the garrison was nearly starved and on the 15th Colonel Clayton sent out a flag of truce, and after several consultations accepted the best terms he could obtain. By the Articles of Capitulation 23 men were to march out armed, the remainder unarmed, and all to return to their homes unmolested; men who had families could remain two weeks to collect their effects; and the sick and wounded could be cared for until able to leave. The Indian messenger from the relief party arrived just as the fort was surrendered.

Thus Wyoming was again in the possession of the settlers of the Susquehanna Company and Captain Zebulon Butler the hero of the hour.

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Great Land Purchase Made at Indian Council in Philadelphia, August 16, 1749

Early in April, 1749, the Six Nations held a Grand Council at Onondaga Castle, when it was decided to send deputies from each of the nations to Philadelphia, to shake hands with Governor James Hamilton, who had assumed the office in the previous November; to answer a proposal for peace with the Catawba, which had been made by the former Governor of Pennsylvania, and to consider other matters. It was agreed that all the deputies should meet together at Wyoming, and proceed thence in a body to Philadelphia.

About the middle of May the four deputies of the Seneca accompanied by other members of their nation, arrived at Wyoming, where they waited a month for the arrival of the deputies of the other nations, who, however, failed to appear. The Seneca thereupon continued their journey via the North Branch to Shamokin, then the main river, and arrived at Philadelphia, June 26, accompanied by some Tutelo, Nanticoke and Conoy. These Indians were received by the Governor and Council on July 1, when Ogashtash, the Seneca speaker, stated that the Grand Council at Onondaga had heard that the white people had begun to settle on the Indians’ side of the Blue Mountains, in the present Juniata Valley.

Ogashtash further said that during their stay at Wyoming they had heard things which made them believe this was true. They wanted to know if this was done wickedly by bad people or if the new Governor had brought some instructions from the King, or Proprietaries, which the Grand Council did not yet know, but would cause much hurt.

Governor Hamilton informed the Seneca that the settling of the white squatters along the Juniata was contrary to the terms of the treaties made by the Government with the Indians, and that a proclamation would be issued commanding all the white people who had settled north of the Blue Mountains to remove by November 1, 1749.

Presents to the value of £100 were distributed on July 4 to the Indians, and a day or two later Conrad Weiser conducted them out of the city and journeyed with them as far as his house in Heidelberg Township. Here the Indians concluded to remain for a few days to visit with their old friend and brother, and without invitation they camped out near his house and made themselves very much at home. The Tutelo injured and destroyed a large amount of Weiser’s movable property and damaged his plantation generally. Weiser tried in vain to influence them to proceed on their journey. Finally, after an unpleasant experience of a week or ten days with these unruly visitors, Weiser induced the Seneca to take their departure, and they forced the Tutelo to go along.

The Tutelo were from villages on the West Branch of the Susquehanna. Zeisberger speaks of this tribe as a “degenerate remnant of thieves and drunkards”; he says that their village near Shamokin was “the only town on the continent inhabited by Tutelos.”

These Indians loafed and loitered along the way to the Susquehanna, taking along anything which struck their fancy, and when that stream was reached they paddled their canoes up the river, stopped awhile at Shamokin, then at Nescopeck, then at Wyoming, where they arrived August 1.

Two days after these Indians arrived at Wyoming, a large fleet of canoes came unexpectedly down the North Branch bearing the belated deputies of the Onondaga, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga and Tuscarora nations together with many other representatives—chiefs, warriors, squaws and children of these several nations, and many Indians of other tribes.

This large company remained at Wyoming for a day, and then proceeded down the river, accompanied by the Seneca deputies, and their party, who had just returned from Philadelphia, also by Chief Paxinosa and a large number of his Shawnee from their new home in what is now Plymouth, Luzerne County, and by a number of Delaware, Nanticoke and Mohican from the different villages along their route. At Nescopeck they were joined by King Nutimus and a number of his people, and then, without further delay, they floated down the river to Shamokin.

Arriving at this old Indian town at the Forks of the Susquehanna, now Sunbury, a messenger was sent in haste over the mountains to Conrad Weiser to announce the coming of the deputies. Soon as Weiser received this intelligence he dispatched an express to Governor Hamilton, who immediately directed the messenger to hurry back to Weiser, who was instructed by the Governor and Council “to try all ways to divert the Indians from coming to Philadelphia.” This the good old interpreter tried to do, but his efforts were resented by the Indians with so much spirit that he was obliged “to turn his protestations into invitations and make the best of circumstances.”

When this small army of deputies reached Tulpehocken, Conrad Weiser joined them and was the leader of the party from there to Philadelphia, where they arrived August 14, and according to the official records they numbered 280 in all. Governor Hamilton paid a ceremonious visit to the Indians, and appointed August 16 as the date for the conference with them.

Several days time of this conference was consumed in discussing the matters which had brought the Indians to Philadelphia. As a result of the conference the Proprietaries obtained for £500 a deed dated August 22, 1749, for a strip of land northwest and contiguous to the Blue Mountains, and extending from the Susquehanna to the Delaware River, the northwest boundary of this strip being a straight line running in a northeasterly direction from the north side of the mouth of the “Cantagny or Maghonoy Creek,” and now known as Mahanoy Creek, a mile below the present city of Sunbury, “to the north side of the south of the creek called Lechawachsein,” now Lackawaxon, which flows into the Delaware near the northern limit of Pike County; the southern boundary was the mountain range, beginning near Dauphin and running in a northeasterly direction until it falls into the Delaware River at the present Delaware Water Gap.

This new purchase included all or parts of the present counties of Dauphin, Northumberland, Lebanon, Schuylkill, Columbia, Carbon, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike and Wayne.

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Robert Fulton, Native of Lancaster County, Operates First Steamboat, August 17, 1807.

Robert Fulton demonstrated the first successful commercial steam vessel August 17, 1807, when he opened the throttle and the Clermont slowly, but surely, moved against the swift current of the Hudson River.

Robert Fulton was born on a farm in Little Britain Township, Lancaster County, in 1765. His father was a native of Kilkenny, Ireland, and emigrated to Lancaster County in 1735, where he soon became one of the foremost citizens, but did not make a success of farming. A year after Robert’s birth he mortgaged the farm and moved to Lancaster, where he died in 1768.

Mrs. Fulton was left with three daughters and two sons, and but little money and less time to spare to help meet the mortgage. She managed well with her family but the farm was lost.

The boyhood of Robert was filled with a desire to express his feelings through the dual medium of painting and mechanics. He seemed to love both with equal ardor.

His first great thrill came through the acquisition of some discarded paints and brushes brought to school one day by a companion. Fulton accomplished great things with them, and quite forgot he was in school to study.

When Robert was thirteen, the citizens of Lancaster wished to light up the town on the evening of July 4. It was in the midst of the Revolution and candles were as scarce as money. The demonstration was given up until Robert thought out a plan for skyrockets and the lad made possible the celebration.

In Lancaster lived a clever man named William Henry, who had made some experiments with a steamboat. Robert often visited the Henry home, and there saw some pictures painted by Benjamin West, a former Chester County boy, who had gained great fame as an artist. Here was a man who appealed to young Fulton.

Robert placed a paddle wheel on his rowboat after the Henry plan, but propelled it by hand. It is quite possible that he dreamed of the greater speed if steam power could be applied.

When Robert was seventeen his mother apprenticed him to a Philadelphia silversmith. This was a mistake. He showed his character by quitting and establishing himself as a miniature painter—work that he loved. His plain studio was at the corner of Second and Walnut Streets. Here he supported himself for four years. He sketched and painted portraits and landscapes, and made drawings of machinery. So well did he work that at twenty-one he returned to Lancaster with enough money to buy a small farm for his mother.

Following the advice of some friends in 1786, he went to England, where he devoted several years to his profession, under the tuition of Benjamin West, who received him into his own home. Here he became acquainted with the Duke of Bridgewater, the founder of the great canal system of Great Britain, who induced Fulton to abandon art, and take up the study of mechanical science.

Fulton soon invented a double-inclined plane for raising or lowering boats from one level to another. In 1794 he devised a mill for sawing marble. In 1796 he evolved the idea of cast iron aqueducts, and a structure of this kind was built over the River Dee. He designed several bridges; he invented machinery for spinning flax; another for making ropes; one for digging ditches, and a dispatch boat.

In 1796 he published a “Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation,” copies of which were sent to President Washington, and other public officials, accompanied by letters telling of the advantages to be derived by canal navigation in America.

From 1797 to 1804 he resided in Paris with Joel Barlow, the American representative at the French court. During this period Fulton invented a submarine or plunging boat, called a “torpedo” designed to be used in naval warfare. Bonaparte appointed a commission to examine it. Fulton could easily descend to any depth, or rise to the surface. On one occasion he remained below the surface for four hours.

The French Government declined to patronize the project, and Fulton accepted the invitation from the English ministry, but would not agree to sell them a secret which the United States might need.

In 1806, after an absence of nineteen years, Fulton returned to the United States, and devoted his thought to the perfection of a steamboat, a project which he had in his mind for many years.

When in France Fulton met Robert R. Livingston, a rich man from New York, who was much interested in steamboats. Livingston had already built one, which proved a failure. The two men now joined forces. This made a fine association for Fulton’s knowledge of machinery was far greater than Livingston’s, but the latter had the wealth and influence which could bring an invention to the public.

Livingston obtained the sole right for them to navigate the waters of New York State for twenty years, if they could produce a steam vessel capable of a speed of four miles an hour against the current of the Hudson River.

Fulton finished his first steamboat in the Spring of 1807. He called it the Clermont, which was the name of Livingston’s estate near Albany. The first trip from New York to Albany was made on Monday, August 17, 1807—a day that will never be forgotten.

Crowds assembled at the wharf to see the Clermont start. Few believed it would move; most called it “Fulton’s Folly.” The trip was even more successful than Fulton had anticipated; it excited great admiration, and steamboats were rapidly multiplied on American waters. The Clermont made regular trips between New York and Albany, at the rate of five miles per hour, but this speed was soon increased by improvements in the machinery.

The success of the Clermont caused Fulton to construct other and larger boats and ferry boats. He also built the world’s first steam propelled warship, in the War of 1812.

In 1806 he married Harriet, daughter of Walter Livingston, by whom he had four children. He possessed great personal dignity and agreeable manners, and many noble qualities of heart.

In the midst of his triumph and in the height of his prosperity he died.

During the winter of 1814–15 he was building a floating steam battery and visited the works at Paulus Hook, now Jersey City. He stood three hours in the cold, and then tramped through pools of water. He became ill from this exposure, but again visited the construction, and died February 24, 1815. The New York Legislature wore mourning six weeks. His funeral was the largest ever held in New York City up to that time. The body of this distinguished Pennsylvanian rests in Trinity churchyard on Broadway, at the head of Wall Street.

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Anti-Masonic Outbreak in Pennsylvania First Felt at New Berlin, August 18, 1829

From 1826 to 1838 may be termed the Anti-Masonic period, for during those eventful years bigotry ran wild, while superstition and fanaticism, like the demons of old, took possession of the many. They were the halcyon days for broken-down politicians to ride into power and place.

Seizing the opportunity, these demagogues originated a political party, whose platform denounced all secret societies, particularly the Freemasons, as destructive of every principle of religion, justice and good government.

During the years 1823 to 1826 there resided in Western New York one William Morgan, a native of Virginia, by trade a stone mason.

It has been represented that he was a veteran of the War of 1812, but he earned his title of Captain as the owner of a fishing smack, with piratical tendencies, which plied along the gulf coast.

In 1825 “Captain” Morgan was residing in Batavia, N. Y., where a poor printer, named Wilbur, concocted with Morgan to publish a book containing the revelations of Freemasonry, which was in fact the copy of a volume formerly published in England in 1750, under the title “Jachin and Boaz.”

As would be expected, the announcement of the publication of the book in question wrought up members of the Masonic fraternity to fever heat. Efforts to suppress the work were freely discussed, and some even proposed doing so by force if it could not be done otherwise.

The respectable part of the fraternity, supposing that no book of that kind would really be published, and, like a nine days’ wonder, if it was, would soon vanish and wholly disappear, took little or no interest in the matter. While they were folding their arms, an inconsiderate scheme was developed by individuals for suppressing by force the contemplated work.

But at this time Morgan was arrested for debt, September 12, 1826, and placed in a carriage and driven to Rochester. That was the last ever seen of him.

Morgan’s sudden disappearance caused great excitement, and gossips gave out the statement that Freemasons had conveyed him to Fort Niagara, while others claimed they had drowned him in Lake Ontario.

Public meetings were held and finally a reprobate named Edward Giddings spread the sensational story that Freemasons had abducted and foully put Morgan to death.

At this time the body of a man was washed ashore on Lake Ontario, and a week after interment the body was exhumed and a second inquest determined that “William Morgan had come to his death by drowning.” The corpse did not, in any particular, resemble Morgan, but the crowd determined that “it was a good enough Morgan until after election.” This body was identified as that of Timothy Monroe, who had drowned September 26. The remains were buried by his widow.

This should have ended the Morgan excitement but it did no such thing. “A lie well stuck to is more convincing than the truth.” So a most infamous deception was practiced upon the people.

Prosecutions were instituted against those who were supposed to have anything to do with the abduction of Morgan. Many trials resulted, but no murder was ever established.

What had become of Morgan? Was he drowned or murdered?

As early as September 26, 1826, the “Intelligencer,” of Harrisburg, as well as other newspapers, cautioned the Masonic fraternity against “a man calling himself Captain Morgan, as he is a swindler and a dangerous man.”

It has been authentically settled that after the night of the so-called abduction, being threatened with numerous suits for debt and other misdemeanors, Morgan left the country of his own free will, going directly to Australia, the passage money being furnished him. Arriving in that far distant clime, he established a newspaper, but died ten years later. A son, who accompanied him, continued the business, and was living just prior to our Civil War.

The Freemasons of New York State, as a body and individually, disclaimed all knowledge of any abduction of “Captain” Morgan.

By 1828 the Anti-Masonic movement had gained such impetus in New York that a candidate for governor was placed on their ticket. Anti-Masonic tickets were named in Massachusetts, Vermont and Ohio.

In 1829 the storm broke out in Pennsylvania, and was first felt in the little town of New Berlin, Union County, where Lafayette Lodge No. 194 was holding a public procession August 18. The speakers for the occasion were Hon. Jesse Merrill, General Henry Frick, Henry C. Eyer, Reverend Just Henry Fries, Reverend John Kessler and Reverend Henry Piggott. Henry W. and George A. Snyder, distinguished sons of former Governor Simon Snyder, were officers of the lodge and had arranged the program.

The meeting was broken up by the hostile action of a mob. It was these same people who sent Ner Middlesworth, that great exponent of Anti-Masonry to the General Assembly; it was also in New Berlin where the first Anti-Masonic newspapers were established.

Joseph Ritner was placed in nomination for the office of Governor by the Anti-Masonic convention, which met in Harrisburg in 1829, and he received 51,000 votes, only 30,000 less than his successful opponent, George Wolf.

A national convention was held in Baltimore September, 1831, which placed a complete ticket in the field. In 1832 the Anti-Masons of Pennsylvania again placed Joseph Ritner in nomination, but he was again defeated by Governor Wolf, but two years later the Anti-Masons gained control of the Legislature, and under the capable leadership of Thaddeus Stevens, made political history in the Keystone State.

In the election of October, 1835, Joseph Ritner was elected, and with both branches of the General Assembly, the Anti-Masons were determined to carry out their various unlawful measures with a high hand.

The Stevens Legislative investigation held December, 1835, proved to be a fiasco, as the inquisition failed to disclose a single unlawful act upon the part of any member of the order of Freemasons or Odd Fellows.

By 1838 the clouds of ignorant oppression had cleared away, and the people, who cared to do so, could unite with either secret organization without fear of social ostracism or political suicide.

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York County and Its Part in the Revolution, Erected August 19, 1749

York County, erected August 19, 1749, from part of Lancaster County, played a conspicuous part and contributed its full share of troops during the period of the early troubles of our Republic. Indeed York County seems to have been in the struggle from the earliest moment to the end of the conflict and in addition furnished men who assumed a leading role in that stirring drama.

Colonel Thomas Hartley, himself one of the greatest patriots of the Revolutionary times, in a letter to President Reed, of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, says:

“They knew they had been as patriotic as any, that the York district had armed the first in Pennsylvania, and had furnished more men in it than any other district on the continent of the same number of inhabitants.”

As early as December, 1774, James Smith, who was a Provincial statesman and sensed the impending struggle with the Mother Country, employed himself in raising and drilling a volunteer company, of which he was elected captain. This is said to be the very first body of volunteer soldiers organized in Pennsylvania, with a view to oppose the armies of Great Britain. The officers were James Smith, captain; Thomas Hartley, first lieutenant; David Grier, second lieutenant, and Henry Miller, ensign. Each of these officers, thus early attached to the cause of liberty, became distinguished in the subsequent history of the country.

A company of riflemen was recruited in York County under the Resolution of Congress, June 14, 1775, which was attached to Thompson’s Riflemen, the first command to receive commissions after General Washington. This company reached Cambridge, Mass., July 25, 1775, and was the first company to arrive there from any point south of Long Island or west of the Hudson River. It got into action July 29, before all the regiment had arrived.

Another rifle company was recruited in York County for fifteen months’ service, which marched from York early in May, 1776, and at Philadelphia became a part of Colonel Samuel Miles’ rifle regiment. In July five battalions of militia marched from York County to New Jersey. Of these five battalions two were formed and attached to the Flying Corps; Colonel Michael Swope commanded the first battalion, and Colonel Richard McAllister the second. Colonel Swope’s battalion suffered severe losses in battles of Long Island and Fort Washington. One company in this battalion lost all but eighteen men at Long Island. Colonel Swope and fourteen of his officers were taken prisoners when Fort Washington fell into the hands of the enemy November 16, 1776. Ensign Jacob Barnitz, of York, was wounded in this battle and lay fifteen months in prison.

Toward the close of 1777, events occurred which brought York into prominence and made it for a time the capital of the now independent States of America. The Continental Congress sat there for nine months, and at a time when its proceedings were of the greatest importance.

The disastrous Battle of Brandywine, fought September 11, 1777, decided the fate of Philadelphia. On the approach of the British towards the Schuylkill, Congress adjourned to meet in Lancaster on September 27, and on the same day adjourned to York. The Susquehanna was regarded as a safe barrier between them and the enemy, and they began their sessions there September 30, where they continued until the British evacuated Philadelphia. The Congress left York June 27, 1778.

October 17, 1777, Congress passed a Resolve, to procure a printing press so that the intelligence which Congress would receive from time to time could be given to the public. The press of Hall and Sellers, of Philadelphia, was set up in York, and even Continental money printed there. This was the first printing press erected in Pennsylvania west of the Susquehanna.

On November 15, Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation; on November 27, a new Board of War was organized. On December 1, Baron Steuben landed at Portsmouth, N. H., and started for York, where he arrived February 5, 1778, and remained two weeks. He was received by Congress with every mark of distinction, and was appointed Inspector General of the Army.

The treaty with France was ratified by Congress May 4, 1778, which was the occasion for a general celebration.

General Gates resided in York during part of the time Congress met there and when Lafayette called upon him, he was surrounded by friends, seated about the table and it was at this dinner the conspiracy was revealed to supplant Washington and make Gates the Commander in Chief of the Army. It was in York that General Gates and Colonel Wilkinson planned to fight a duel to settle their differences, but before the meeting, their troubles were adjusted.

General Wayne arrived in York February 27, 1781, on his way to assume command of part of the Pennsylvania Line which was to reinforce General Greene, then in the south. On May 20, Wayne’s corps, smaller in number than he anticipated, and by no means well equipped, but reduced to discipline and harmony, marched southward from York.

On April 17, 1777, Congress changed the name of the “Committee of Secret Correspondence,” to “Committee of Foreign Affairs,” and appointed Thomas Paine, secretary of the committee. His “American Crisis,” Number V., addressed to General Sir William Howe, commenced in the house of Hon. William Henry of Lancaster, was finished and printed at York.

Major John André, afterwards executed as a spy, was in York for a short time after he was taken prisoner at St. John’s, September, 1775, and was from there transferred to Carlisle.

General Washington visited York in 1791, when he journeyed from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia. He arrived in York from Hanover at 2 o’clock in the afternoon of Saturday, July 2, 1791, and took lodging at the tavern of Baltzer Spangler. He was met with the Independent Light Infantry, commanded by Captain George Hay, which fired a salute of fifteen rounds. He had dinner with Colonel Thomas Hartley, and walked through the principal streets, and drank tea with his distinguished host.

At night there were illuminations and every other demonstration of joy. The next morning his excellency was waited upon by the Chief Burgess and principal inhabitants, and was given an address, to which the President replied. General Washington attended divine service and then proceeded on his journey, being accompanied as far as Wright’s Ferry by a number of the principal inhabitants, among the latter being his close friend Colonel Thomas Hartley.

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Greatest Victory Over Indians Gained by General Wayne at Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794

After the close of the Revolution the country west of the Ohio was still occupied with Indian tribes ever ready to bring devastation, destruction, and desolation to the homes of the border settlers, and ever incited and aided by the British, who held a number of posts along the lakes. The Indians had determined the Ohio River should be the permanent boundary between them and the United States.

President Washington sent Generals Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair in succession to command troops selected to overawe them, and each in turn experienced bitter defeat by the savages. Washington then sent for General Anthony Wayne and in April, 1782, placed him in command of the Army of the United States.

Wayne understood his mission. He organized his “Legion” in Pittsburgh, June, 1792, consisting of only 2,631 troops recruited from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey. Pennsylvania furnished all but 232 of the command.

Wayne inaugurated strict discipline. Two soldiers were shot down for sleeping on their posts. Whiskey was forbidden in the camp and drunkenness severely punished. He insisted upon cleanliness and regularity of diet. He taught the use of the bayonet and the sword. He dined with his officers, and carefully planned every detail of his expedition with their full knowledge.

Wayne had Chief Cornplanter, ninety Choctaw and twenty-five Chicasaw Indians with him, whom he used to sow dissension among the hostile Indians.

The war lasted more than two years during which time there were periods of four and five months that he was without communication with the seat of government. The Government viewed this Indian war with alarm, and not without cause, as two previous defeats made the outcome doubtful.

While the hostile Indians were perfecting their combinations the Government sent commissioners to Fort Erie to sue for peace. The result was that the Indians gained the time they needed, then refused to treat at all, and the burden fell upon Wayne to see that the commissioners reached their homes with their scalps on their heads, for which they formally gave him thanks.

On October 13 he had marched to a point on the Miami River, eighty miles north of Cincinnati, where he found a camp which he fortified and called Greenville and remained there through the winter. From this camp he sent out scouts and spies to secure intelligence and scalps. He also sent a force to the field where St. Clair had been defeated to bury the bones of the dead and erect a stockade called Fort Recovery.

In May a lieutenant with a convoy gallantly charged and repulsed an assault. About seventeen hundred of the enemy made a desperate attempt June 13, to capture an escort under the walls of Fort Recovery and to carry the Fort by storm, keeping up a heavy fire and making repeated efforts for two days, but were finally repulsed. Twenty-one soldiers were killed and twenty-nine wounded.

A few days later, after receiving reinforcements of mounted men from Kentucky, General Wayne marched seventy miles in the heart of the Indian country, built Fort Defiance, and then within sight of a British fort on the Miami River made his preparations for the battle which was inevitable.

He had marched nearly four hundred miles through the country of an enemy, both watchful and vindictive; had cut a road through the woods the entire way, upon a route longer, more remote and more surrounded with dangers than that of Braddock; had overcome almost insuperable difficulties in securing supplies; had built three forts, and now had reached a position where the issue must be decided by arms.

On the morning of August 20, 1794, the army advanced five miles, with the Miami on the right, a brigade of mounted volunteers on the left, a light brigade in their rear, and a selected battalion of horsemen in the lead. They came to a place where a tornado had swept through the forest, and thrown down the trees, since called Fallen Timbers, and where the twisted trunks and uprooted trees lay in such profusion as to impede the movements of the cavalry.

Here the Indians, two thousand in number, encouraged by the proximity of the British fort, determined to make a stand. Hidden in the woods and the high grass, they opened fire upon the mounted men in front and succeeded in driving them back to the main army. The enemy were formed in three lines in supporting distance of each other, extending two miles at right angles to the river and were protected and covered by the woods.

Wayne formed his force in two lines. He saw the enemy was strong in numbers and intended to turn his flank, and met this situation by ordering up the rear line to support the first, by sending a force by a circuitous route to turn the right of the enemy; by sending another force at the same time along the river to turn their left, and by a direct charge in the front to drive the Indians from their covert with the bayonet.

The Indians could not stand this attack, broke in confusion, and were driven two miles in the course of an hour through the woods with great loss. Their dead bodies and the British muskets lay scattered in all directions. All of the village, corn fields and houses, including that of Alexander McKee, the British Indian agent, within a scope of one hundred miles were burned and destroyed.

American annals disclose no such other victory over the savage tribes. It secured for civilization the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. It made possible the development of such states as Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

When the news reached London, the British Government, recognizing that the cause of the Indians was hopeless, ordered the evacuation of the posts at Detroit, Oswego and Niagara.

Two weeks later General Wayne was crushed to earth by a falling tree, so much bruised as to cause great pain and hemorrhages, and only the fortunate location of a stump, on which the tree finally rested, saved his life.

After the treaty of cession and peace had been executed, and after an absence in the wilderness for three years, he returned home in 1795, everywhere hailed with loud acclaim as the hero of the time and received in Philadelphia by the City Troop and with salvos from cannon, ringing of bells and fireworks.

His last battle had been fought. His work was done. “Both body and mind were fatigued by the contest,” were his pathetic words. Soon afterwards the President sent him as a commissioner to Detroit and on his return he died at Presque Isle, now Erie, December 15, 1796.

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Chief Tedyuskung Annoys Moravian Brethren; Arrives at Bethlehem August 21, 1756

Tedyuskung, the great king of the Delaware tribe and one of the most powerful of the Indian sachems in Pennsylvania, much enjoyed the prominence he gained by frequent councils and conferences with the Governor and other Provincial dignitaries, even at the expense of causing a great jealousy among Indian chiefs of other nations. He was a skilled diplomat, a good speaker and a friend of the English, yet he was rather crafty in his dealings with both the whites and his own race, and was given over to excessive intemperance.

At the conclusion of the great treaty held at Easton, July 24–31, 1756, the Governor and others in authority doubted the sincerity of Tedyuskung, but he satisfied them on that score, and during August remained almost constantly in or about Fort Allen on a drunken debauch. Finally on August 21, he removed with his retinue to Bethlehem, where his wife, Elizabeth, and her three young children determined to remain, while the King went on an expedition to the Minisinks to put a stop to some Indian depredations.

Tedyuskung went from there to Wyoming and sent word to Major Parsons, at Easton, that he wanted his wife and children sent to him. Major Parsons went immediately to Bethlehem and made known the King’s desire to his wife, but she decided to remain where she was. This then was the cause of frequent visits to Bethlehem, where Tedyuskung much annoyed the Moravian Brethren, who were not in position to control his actions when he was their unwelcome visitor.

July, 1757, he was for some time in and about Fort Allen and then in attendance at the second great conference at Easton, during which time his wife and children were with him. Two days after this conference closed Tedyuskung, his family and others went to Bethlehem. Reichel, in his “Memorials of the Moravian Church,” says:

“Some of these unwelcome visitors halted for a few days, and some proceeded as far as Fort Allen and then returned, undecided as to where to go and what to do. During the month full 200 were counted—men, women and children—among them lawless crowds who annoyed the Brethren by depredations, molested the Indians at the Manakasy, and wrangled with each other over their cups at ‘The Crown’.”

Tedyuskung tarried in Bethlehem several days when he set out on a mission to Tioga, but on the way he was met by messengers from the Ohio Indians, who bore such glad tidings that the King determined he should go to Philadelphia and appraise the Governor and Council of the good news.

At Bethlehem Tedyuskung spent a few days with his wife and family, meantime holding a conference with Bishop Spangenberg, Reverend Mack and other Moravian Brethren—Augustus, the christianized Delaware chief serving as interpreter. Tedyuskung inquired of the Moravians why the converted Indians could not move to Wyoming. Bishop Spangenberg told him they would require a town of their own, where a school and church could be built. The king said these should be built there.

He then surprised the Brethren by telling them that reports had been circulated among the Indians that the Moravians had decapitated the Indians among them, placed their heads in bags and sent them to Philadelphia. These charges had so exasperated the Indians that they conspired to attack the Brethren’s settlements and cut off the inhabitants without regard to age or sex. He and Paxinoso had on one occasion persuaded 200 warriors, who had banded together for this purpose, to desist from their design.

After his interview with the Governor and Council in Philadelphia, Tedyuskung returned to Bethlehem, where he remained with his wife and children until October 7 when he again went to Philadelphia.

During all her sojourn in Bethlehem the King’s wife was maintained by the Moravian Brethren at the expense of the Province. Tedyuskung was back in Bethlehem in about ten days and remained until the 27th, when they set out for Wyoming, where the Commissioners were daily expected to build a fort and some houses for the Delaware.

Having previously signified to the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem his desire to spend the winter at Bethlehem, permission for him and his family to do so was reluctantly granted. Thereupon, upon his return from New Jersey, a lodge was built for him near “The Crown” inn. There he held court and gave audience to the wild embassies that would come from the Indian country.

In addition to Tedyuskung and his family nearly one hundred Indians spent the winter of 1757–58 in the neighborhood of “The Crown.” Reichel says: “Government was imposing an additional burden upon the Brethren when it committed this lawless crowd to their keeping * * * We are at a loss how to act. Furthermore, we are told that some of our neighbors are growing uneasy at our receiving such murdering Indians, as they style them. I fear we shall be obliged to set watches to keep such of them off as are disposed to quarrel with, or may attempt to hurt any of them.”

Tedyuskung attended a long conference in Philadelphia in the early part of 1758, and made trips to and from Bethlehem for this purpose.

He was back in Bethlehem in April, and on the 17th sent a number of the Delaware, who had wintered in the Moravian town, to Fort Allen, there to join Captain Jacob Arndt’s soldiers in ranging the frontiers. He also sent his sons, Captains John Jacob and Amos and three other Delaware over the Allegheny to the Indians towns of the Delaware and Shawnee.

Tedyuskung remained in Bethlehem, and Justice Horsfield wrote on April 18: “I never before was so much convinced of Tedyuskung’s zeal for the English cause.” Five days later, however, a soldier came to Bethlehem from Fort Allen with a letter from Captain Arndt in which he stated that he was having trouble with the Indians sent to the fort by Tedyuskung—the messengers, who were still there, as well as those who were to range being continually drunk, having brought with them some casks of rum from Easton.

Tedyuskung made another trip to Philadelphia in May to urge the Governor to again send the Commissioners to finish the fort and the houses. He returned to Bethlehem about May 8.

Reichel says: “When the swelling of the maple buds and the whitening of the shad-bush on the river’s bank betokened the advent of Spring, there were busy preparations going on in Tedyuskung’s company over the matter of their long-expected removal to the Indian Eldorado on the flats of the Winding River. It was the 16th of cornplanting month (May), the month called Tauwinipen, when the Delaware King, his Queen, his counsellors and his warriors led by the Commissioners, took up the line of march for Fort Allen, beyond there to strike the Indian trail that led over the mountains to Wyoming Valley—and on the going out of these spirits ‘The Crown’ was swept and garnished and Ephriam Colver, the publican, had rest.”

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Gilbert Family in Indian Captivity Twenty-nine Months Released August 22,1782

Benjamin Gilbert and family, living on Mahoning Creek, about five miles from Fort Allen, now Weissport, Carbon County, were carried into a bitterly painful captivity by a party of Indians, who took them to Canada, and there separated them. At the time of this occurrence, April 25, 1780, the event caused intense excitement throughout the State, and from an interesting narrative published shortly after their release from captivity, August 22, 1782, the following facts are ascertained.

Benjamin Gilbert was a Quaker from Byberry, near Philadelphia, and in 1775 removed with his family to a farm on Mahoning Creek, near Fort Allen. They lived comfortably in a good log dwelling house, with barn and saw and grist mill. For five years all was peace and industry.

On the eventful day, about sunrise they were surprised by a party of Indians who took the following prisoners: Benjamin Gilbert, aged 69; Elizabeth, his wife, 55 years; sons, Joseph, aged 41; Jesse, 19; Abner, 14; and daughters, Rebecca, 16; and Elizabeth, 12; and Sarah, wife of Jesse; Thomas Peart, son of Benjamin Gilbert’s wife; Benjamin Gilbert, a nephew of the elder Gilbert; Andrew Harrigar, a German servant and Abigail Dodson, a neighbor’s daughter, the whole number taken being twelve. The Indians then proceeded about half a mile to Benjamin Peart’s and there captured himself and his wife and their nine months’ old child.

The last look the poor captives had of their once comfortable homes was to view the buildings in flames as they were led over Summer Hill, on their way over Mauch Chunk and Broad Mountains into the Nescopeck Path, and then across Quakake Creek to Mahanoy Mountain, where they passed the first night, fastened between notched saplings, with straps around their necks and fastened to a tree.

Their march was resumed soon after dawn and day after day they tramped over the wild and rugged region between the Lehigh and the Chemunk branch of the Susquehanna. Often ready to faint by the way, the cruel threat of instant death urged them again to march. The old man, Benjamin Gilbert, had begun to fail, and was already painted black, the fatal omen among the Indians; but when they were to kill him, the pitiful pleadings of his wife saved him. Subsequently in Canada, Gilbert told the chief he could say what none of the other Indians could, “that he had brought in the oldest man and the youngest child.”

On the fifty-fourth day of their captivity, the Gilbert family had to experience the fearful ordeal of running the gauntlet.

“The prisoners,” says the narrative, “were released from the heavy loads they had heretofore been compelled to carry, and were it not for the treatment they expected on approaching the Indian towns, and the hardship of separation, their situation would have been tolerable; but the horror of their minds, arising from the dreadful yells of the Indians as they approached the hamlets, is easier conceived than described—for they were no strangers to the customary cruelty exercised upon the captives on entering their towns. The Indians, men, women and children, collect together, bringing clubs and stones in order to beat them, which they usually do with great severity. The blows must be borne without complaint. The prisoners are beaten until the Indians weary with the cruel sport.

“Two of the women who were on horseback were much bruised by falling from their horses, which were frightened by the Indians. Elizabeth, the mother, took shelter by the side of a warrior, who sent her away, she then received several violent blows, so that she was almost disabled. The blood trickled from their heads in a stream. Their hair being cropped close and the clothes they had on in rags, made their situation truly piteous. Whilst the Indians were inflicting this revenge upon the captives, the chief came and put a stop to any further cruelty.”

Soon after this torture, a severer trial awaited them, when they were separated. Some were given over to other Indians to be adopted, others were hired out as servants, and the remainder were sent down the lake to Montreal. Among the latter was old Benjamin Gilbert, by this time broken in body and mind, and he there succumbed. His remains were interred near old Fort Coeur du Lac, below Ogdensburg.

Some of the family met with kind treatment from the hands of British officers, who were interested in their story, and exerted themselves to release them from captivity. Sarah Gilbert, wife of Jesse, became a mother, and Elizabeth Gilbert was allowed to give her daughter every necessary attendance. One day while Elizabeth was ironing for the family of Adam Scott, a little girl told her some one wanted to see her and upon entering another room, she found six of her own children. A messenger was sent to inform Jesse and his wife, so that Joseph Gilbert, Benjamin Peart and Elizabeth, his wife, and their young child, and Abner and Elizabeth Gilbert the younger, were with their mother on this occasion.

Elizabeth Gilbert, the younger, only twelve years of age, had been adopted by an Indian family, but was permitted to live with a white family named Secord, by whom she was treated with endearing attention.

A year later Mr. Secord took Betsy on a trip to Niagara, and there she saw six of her relatives, most of whom had been released and were preparing to leave for Montreal, perhaps never again to see the others. The sight of their beloved little sister roused every energy to effect her release, which desire was generously seconded by John Secord and the Tory leader, Colonel John Butler, who, soon after her visit to Niagara sent for the Indian who claimed Elizabeth as his child and made overtures for her ransom. At first he declared that he “would not sell his own flesh and blood,” but, attacked through his interest, or in other words, his necessities, the negotiation succeeded and her youngest child was among the treasures first restored to the mother at Montreal.

Eventually they were all released and collected at Montreal and on August 22, 1782, they took leave of their friends there and returned to Byberry, after a captivity of two years and five months.

The premises where stood the dwelling and improvements of the Gilbert family were on the north side of Mahoning Creek, on an elevated bank about forty perches from the main road leading from Lehighton and Weissport to Tamaqua, and about four miles from the former. Benjamin Peart lived about a mile farther up the creek, and about a quarter of a mile from it on the south side.

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Alexander Wilson, the Great American Ornithologist, Died at Philadelphia, August 23, 1813

Alexander Wilson, the great American ornithologist, was born in Paisley, Scotland, July 6, 1766, and died in Philadelphia, August 23, 1813. He was the son of a distiller, but at the age of thirteen was apprenticed to a weaver, and after seven years abandoned the loom and adopted the life of a peddler.

Three years were thus spent and in 1789, having prepared a volume of poems for publication, he offered his muslins and solicited subscriptions for this work. It was published in 1790, but had little success; and he again returned to the loom.

In 1792 he published “Watty and Meg,” which having appeared anonymously, was ascribed to Robert Burns though the style is very different. It is said to have had a sale of 100,000 copies in a few weeks. He wrote a severe satire upon a person in Paisley and was thrown into prison, and was afterwards compelled to burn the libel with his own hand at Paisley Cross. Upon his release, he resolved to emigrate, and arrived at New Castle, Delaware, July 14, 1794, with only a few borrowed shillings, without an acquaintance, and with no decided purpose.

After working at various trades, sometimes as a copperplate printer under Alexander Lawson, in which he showed both ambition and talent, he went through New Jersey as a peddler and during this journey seems to have first paid minute attention to the habits and appearance of birds.

He afterward taught school at various places in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, finally settling in 1802 at Kingsessing on the Schuylkill.

One of the schools he taught was situated on the Darby Road, a short distance west of the intersection with Gray’s Ferry Road. His home was near the celebrated botanical garden of William Bartram, and he became acquainted with the famous naturalist, who, by his own love of birds, deeply interested young Wilson in that branch of nature. It was at this time that Alexander Wilson resolved to form a collection of all the birds of America.

His first excursion, October, 1804, was to Niagara Falls. He walked from Philadelphia through the unopened wilderness of western New York, and wrote a metrical description of his journey in the “Port Folio” under the title of “The Foresters, a Poem.”

Elsewhere Wilson wrote:

“Sweet flows the Schuylkill’s winding tide, By Bartram’s green emblossomed bowers, Where nature sports in all her pride, Of choicest plants and fruits and flowers.”

Wilson learned drawing, coloring, and etching from Alexander Lawson, the celebrated engraver, whose tastes and instructions stimulated his own talents.

He persuaded Bradford, a Philadelphia publisher, who had employed him in 1806, in editing the American edition of Rees’s Cyclopedia, to furnish funds for an American ornithology on an adequate scale. The first volume of this work appeared in September, 1808, but it was too expensive to be very successful. The seventh volume appeared in 1813.

The interval had been passed in exploring different parts of the country for the purpose of extending his observations, collecting specimens and watching the habits of birds in their native haunts.

In January, 1810, the second volume appeared, but before the next was prepared Wilson sailed down the Ohio River in a small boat as far as Louisville, he set out on horseback from Nashville for New Orleans in May, 1811, and arrived June 6. Sailing from there he arrived back in Philadelphia in August, and began the third volume.

In September, 1812, he started on another tour of the eastern States. He completed the publication of seven volumes.

In 1813 the literary materials for the eighth volume of the “Ornithology” were ready, but its progress was greatly retarded for want of proper assistants to color the plates. Wilson was therefore obliged to undertake the whole of this department himself in addition to his other duties. He employed himself so unceasingly in the preparation of his work that he impaired his already weakened condition and hastened death. It is said that in his eagerness to obtain a rare bird, he swam across a river and caught cold from which he never recovered.

All the plates for the remainder of his work having been completed under Wilson’s own eye the letter press work on the ninth volume was supplied by his friend, George Ord, his companion in several of his expeditions, who also wrote a memoir of Wilson to accompany the last volume, and edited the eighth. Four supplementary volumes were afterwards added by Charles Lincoln Bonaparte.

An edition of Alexander Wilson’s poems was published at Paisley in 1816, and another at Belfast in 1857. A statue of him was erected at Paisley in October, 1874.

Wilson was followed by another Pennsylvanian, John James Audubon, who lived for many years on the Perkiomen near its mouth. He published an immense work upon the “Birds of America,” which brought him lasting fame. Thus the two greatest ornithologists of America are claimed as residents of our state.

In the quiet retreat of the churchyard of the old Swedes Church, or “Gloria Dei,” at Weccacoe, where he delighted to worship, repose the remains of Alexander Wilson. The distinguished ornithologist requested to be laid to rest there, as it was “a silent, shady place where the birds would be apt to come and sing over his grave.”

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Governor Snyder Calls on Pennsylvania When British Burn National Capitol August 24, 1814

During the summer of 1813 the shores of the Chesapeake and its tributary rivers were made a general scene of ruin and distress. The British forces assumed the character of the incendiary in retaliation for the burning of the town of York, in Upper Canada, which had been taken by the American army under General Dearborn in April of that year. The burning of York was accidental, but its destruction served as a pretext for the general pillage and conflagration which followed the marching of the British army.

The enemy took possession of Washington August 24, 1814, and the commanders of the invading force, General Ross and Admiral Blackburn, proceeded in person to direct and superintend the business of burning the Capitol and city.

On August 26, Governor Simon Snyder issued a strong appeal for a call to arms: “The landing upon our shores, by the enemy, of hordes of marauders, for the purpose avowedly to create by plunder, burning and general devastation, all possible individual and public distress, gives scope for action to the militia of Pennsylvania by repelling that foe, and with just indignation seek to avenge the unprovoked wrongs heaped on our unoffending country.

“The militia generally within the counties of Dauphin, Lebannon, Berks, Schuylkill, York, Adams and Lancaster, and that part of Chester County which constitutes the Second Brigade of the Third Division, and those corps particularly, who, when danger first threatened, patriotically tendered their services in the field, are earnestly invited to rise (as on many occasions Pennsylvania has heretofore done) superior to local feeling and evasives that might possibly be drawn from an imperfect military system, and to repair with that alacrity which duty commands, and it is fondly hoped inclination will prompt, to the several places of brigade or regimental rendezvous that shall respectively be designated by the proper officer, and thence to march to the place of general rendezvous.

“Pennsylvanians, whose hearts must be gladdened at the recital of the deeds of heroism achieved by their fellow citizens, soldiers now in arms on the Lake frontier, and within the enemy’s country, now the occasion has occurred, will with order seek and punish that same implacable foe, now marauding on the Atlantic shore of two of our sister States.”

Camps were established at Marcus Hook, on the Delaware, and at York. At the latter place 5,000 men were soon under the command of Major General Nathaniel Watson, and Brigadier Generals John Forster and John Adams.

When General Ross attempted the capture of Baltimore, these Pennsylvania militia marched thither and had the high honor to aid in repelling the enemy. In the same year other of the State’s military forces rendered excellent services at Chippewa and Bridgewater, and thereby won the gratitude of the people of the entire country.

During the entire war the soil of Pennsylvania had never been trodden by a hostile foot, yet it had at one time a greater number of militia and volunteers in the service of the United States than were at any time in the field from any other state in the Union, and as she furnished more men, so did she furnish more money to carry on the war.

The treaty of Ghent was concluded December 24, 1814, but the closing acts in the tragedy of the war were the battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815, and the gallant capture of the British warships “Cyane” and “Levant,” by Captain Charles Stewart’s grand old frigate, “Constitution,” February 20, 1815.

On February 17, 1815, the treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain was ratified by the Senate.

Pennsylvania’s finances were in such sound condition that only one small temporary loan was required to pay all expenditures incurred during the war. Business did not suffer, yet during the war period a cloud was gathering which soon was to have a serious effect on the financial situation in the State. The United States Bank, after twenty years of honorable and useful life, came to an end in 1811, and at a time when its services were needed by the government and the people.

The State banks were envious of the power of the larger institution, and in the failure to renew its charter their officers saw the opportunity to advance their personal ends.

The Legislature chartered State banks over the Governor’s veto, and again the State was flooded with paper money, as it had been during the Revolution, but the terrible consequences of that deluge had long since been forgotten. The excess of issue and lack of faith in them was soon reflected by rising prices. The banks had little or no specie for redeeming their notes. Soon many banks were without funds, hence were compelled to close their doors, and both the promoters and their victims were led into financial ruin.

Governor Snyder’s great friend, Editor John Binns, had the courage to maintain that, although individuals were thus made bankrupt, the State was benefited by the results of the banking acts, for, says he: “The titles to lands became more clear, settled and certain; strangers were induced to purchase and come to Pennsylvania and settle.” Quite a costly way to clear titles.

The downfall of the banking system was followed by general depression, and many men and business institutions were forced into involuntary bankruptcy. This was an unfortunate period in Pennsylvania history, and was not a condition single to this State alone.

Normal conditions were eventually restored and then followed an era of progress which was not marred for many years.

Throughout all this trying period Governor Snyder exhibited many splendid traits of character, and met every emergency with determined courage. He was not always able to control the Legislature, and his conduct in trying to stay the deluge of paper money was one of the most noteworthy of his three successful administrations.

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British Destroy Moravian Indian Town on Order of De Peyster, August 25,1781

Colonel Daniel Brodhead had been sent with his Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment to the Western frontier, and as most of the soldiers in this renowned command had been recruited in that part of the State this assignment was gladly received. The men could do double duty by serving their country and at the same time assist in protecting their own homes.

But all did not go well for Brodhead. He was a great soldier and knew how to fight Indians, but was remiss in other matters and soon got into trouble with the Supreme Executive Council, on account of becoming involved in quarrels with officers and civilians.

Congress selected Brigadier General William Irvine, of Carlisle, to succeed Colonel Brodhead in the command of the Western Department, September 24, 1781, and he repaired to that post of duty.

Colonel J. W. de Peyster, the British commandant at Detroit, who believed the presence of the Moravian missionaries along the Tuscarawas River had seriously interfered with prosecution of the war, ordered their removal to the Sandusky Valley, where they were planted amid the villages of the hostile Wyandot and Shawnee.

On August 25, 1781, he sent Captain Matthew Elliott, the Tory officer, with a small party of Tories and French-Canadians, and 250 savages, including Wyandot under Dunquat, Delaware under Captain Pipe, and a few Shawnee to carry his order into effect. Elliott performed his errand with unnecessary brutality.

The missionaries and their converts claimed a strict neutrality, but did not observe it. Bishop Zeisberger and Reverend Heckewelder were secretly the friends of the Americans and conducted a regular clandestine correspondence with the officers at Fort Pitt, giving valuable information of the movements of the British and hostile savages. This was suspected by Colonel de Peyster and he ordered the Moravians to move nearer Detroit. The hostile Indians threatened the converts with destruction because they would not join in the war, while many borderers believed these Indians did occasionally participate in raids upon the settlements. The settlers did not take much stock in the Christianity of the Moravian Indians.

To save the Moravians from dangers on both sides, Colonel Brodhead advised them to take up their residence near Fort Pitt, but they refused to heed his warning. These converts remained between the two fires, but Zeisberger and Heckewelder were blind to their imminent peril.

The Moravian Indians numbered about one hundred families in their three villages of Schoenbrun, Gnadenhuetten, and Salem. Their homes were log cabins, with vegetable gardens and cultivated fields, and fine herds of cattle, hogs and many horses.

Elliott seized and confined the missionaries and their families and gathered them and all the converted Indians at Gnadenhuetten. They were marched from there September 11, leaving behind their great stock of corn and many effects. The sad procession descended the Tuscarawas to its junction with the Walhonding and passed up the latter stream to its source, thence over the dividing ridge to the Sandusky.

By the time the Moravians had reached the Sandusky they had been robbed of their best blankets and cooking vessels and their food was about exhausted. On the east side of the stream, about two miles above the site of Upper Sandusky, they settled down in poverty and privation, built rude shelters of logs and bark and spent the winter in great distress.

In March the missionaries were again taken to Detroit and closely examined by de Peyster, and nothing detrimental could be proved against them, yet de Peyster would not allow them to return to the Sandusky, and they made a new settlement on the Huron River.

During the forcible removal of the Moravians seven Wyandot warriors left the party and went on a raid across the Ohio River. Among the seven were three sons of Dunquat, the half-king; the eldest son, Scotosh, was the leader of the party. They visited the farm of Philip Jackson, on Harman’s Creek, and captured Jackson, who was a carpenter about 60 years of age. This capture was witnessed by Jackson’s son, who ran nine miles to Fort Cherry, on Little Raccoon Creek, and gave the alarm, but a heavy rain that night prevented immediate pursuit.

Bright and early next morning seventeen stout young men, all mounted, gathered at Jackson’s farm, and John Jack, a professional scout, declared he knew where the Indians had hidden their canoes. But only six would follow him, John Cherry, Andrew Poe, Adam Poe, William Castleman, William Rankin and James Whitacre, and they started on a gallop for the mouth of Tomlinson’s Run. Jack’s surmise was a shrewd one, based on a thorough knowledge of the Ohio River and the habits of the Indians.

After dismounting the borderers descended cautiously, and at the mouth of the run were five Indians, with their prisoner, ready to shove off. John Cherry fired and killed an Indian and was himself killed by the return fire. Four of the five Indians were killed, and Philip Jackson rescued unharmed, and Scotosh escaped up the river with a wound in his arm.

Andrew Poe in a hand to hand scuffle with two sons of the half-king, succeeded in killing one of them, who had first wounded him. The other Indian escaped and was in the act of firing at Poe when he was shot and killed. Andrew Poe fell into the stream and was mistaken for an Indian and shot in the shoulder by mistake.

The triumphant return of the party to Fort Cherry was saddened by the death of John Cherry, a great and popular leader. Scotosh was the only Indian who escaped, and he made his way back to the Upper Sandusky, with a sad message for his father and the tribe.

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Volunteers Fight Two Battles in Hills Along West Branch August 26, 1763

For boldness of attempt and depth of design the Pontiac War was perhaps unsurpassed in the annals of border warfare.

Soon as the English had been able to push past the French line of forts, which reached from Presqu’ Isle to the Monongahela, and had gained such a strong foothold in Canada, the Indians planned to destroy them at one stroke.

The renowned chiefs, Kiyasuta, of the Seneca, and Pontiac, of the Ottawa, conceived the gigantic plan of uniting all the northwestern tribes in a simultaneous attack upon the whole frontier. Utter extermination was their object.

The forts were to be taken by stratagem by separate parties, all on the same day. The border settlements were to be attacked during harvest and men, women, children, crops, cattle and cabins, were to be destroyed.

The English traders among the Indians were the first victims; out of a total of 120, only a few escaped. The frontier settlements among or near the mountains were overrun with scalping parties, marking their pathway with blood and fire.

The forts in Pennsylvania at Presqu’ Isle, Le Boeuf and Venango were taken with great slaughter. Those at Fort Pitt, Bedford and Ligonier were preserved with great difficulty. Carlisle and Fort Augusta were threatened.

General Amherst promptly dispatched Colonel Henry Bouquet to the relief of Fort Pitt, and he defeated the Indians and saved the garrison.

It was during this distressing period that the Indians planned to attack the interior settlements of Pennsylvania as far as Tulpehocken, and their great object was the capture of Fort Augusta, which had been built at the suggestion of the Indians themselves.

Alarming intelligence was everywhere received of the contemplated attacks; friendly Indians gave timely warning of each approaching danger. Especially was the situation critical in the vicinity of Paxtang where the treachery of the so-called friendly Indians was several times discovered.

Preparations were carefully made and the utmost vigilance exercised and every available resistance planned by the sturdy frontiersmen. The garrison at Fort Augusta was reinforced by additional troops recruited in the countries nearer the seat of government.

With reports constantly reaching Carlisle and other places that the Indians would attack Fort Augusta in great numbers, and believing that the Moravian Indian converts were treacherously giving information to the enemy, it was determined to check them.

Colonel John Armstrong, with about three hundred volunteers from Cumberland and Bedford Counties marched from Carlisle on an expedition to destroy the Indian town at Great Island, now Lock Haven, Pennsylvania.

When Armstrong’s party arrived at Great Island the Indians had already deserted their village a few days previous. But on his march he fell upon another village near the Big Island, now Jersey Shore. So sudden was his advance that the Indians were scarcely able to escape; they left the food hot upon their bark tables, which was prepared for dinner. The army destroyed Great Island village and a large quantity of grain and provisions.

A part of this little army was returning down the West Branch, Friday, August 26, when they encountered the enemy at Muncy Creek hill, present Lycoming County, and, in a hot skirmish which ensued, four of the volunteers were killed and four wounded. There were quite as many casualties among the savages, but they were able to bear away their dead and wounded.

Captains William Patterson, Sharp, Bedford, Laughlin and Crawford with seventy-six of their commands, arrived at Fort Augusta, Saturday, August 27, 1763. Other stragglers reached the fort during that and the following day.

These soldiers reported details of the sanguinary battle and confirmed the fears of the inhabitants about the treachery of the Moravian Indians. They reported that after the battle a party of Indians returning to Great Island from a mission to Bethlehem, were attacked by them on a hill north of the present borough of Northumberland, in which action the troops believed they had killed all of the Indian party of twelve.

There can be no doubt that these two attacks were made for there are several references to them from different sources, also J. F. Meginness in his “Otzinachson,” says:

“It is to be regretted that so little was left on record concerning the operations of this great expedition. It was the largest that had invaded the West Branch Valley up to that time, but instead of wiping out the savages and rendering them powerless, it only tended to still further enrage and cause them to commit greater deeds of blood as was proved by subsequent events.”

The first great massacre at Wyoming soon followed. A party of Six Nations stealthily murdered Tedyuskung, the Delaware King, by burning him to death in his cabin during a drunken bout. They convinced the Delaware that the crime was perpetrated by whites, who October 15, 1763, suddenly turned on the settlers while at work in the fields, brutally murdered ten of them, and left their scalped bodies in the fields, while they burned their homes, destroyed their crops and drove away the cattle. None escaped but those who fled in time to reach the mountains. This massacre was led by Captain Bull, a son of Tedyuskung.

Only the brilliant success of Colonel Henry Bouquet at Bushy Run checked the Indians, and with this repulse they became disheartened and soon after sued for peace.

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Europeans Explore Waters of Pennsylvania, Delaware Bay So Named August 27, 1610

Quite different from all other colonies was Pennsylvania in the fact that many settlements were made within its borders and many races contributed to her people.

In 1608, the famous Captain John Smith, of Virginia, sailed up the Chesapeake Bay to its head, where he was stopped by the rocks.

At this same time the Dutch of Holland, during a lull in their war with Spain, were sending maritime expeditions over the world. They sent Henry Hudson to America. He sailed up the coast, on August 28, 1609, in his ship the “Half Moon,” entered the bay now called Delaware Bay, and cast anchor. Hudson was an Englishman, but in the service now of the Dutch.

The republic of the Netherlands, after a struggle never surpassed for heroism and constancy, had won a truce with King Philip of Spain, and the Dutch merchants had sent the English captain out upon the old quest, a short route to China.

Hudson’s appearance in Delaware Bay was before his discovery of the Hudson River, and, therefore, New Netherlands had its origin on the Delaware, called by the Dutch the Zuyd Revier, or South River.

Hudson navigated his little ship into the bay with great caution. He spent the day in making soundings, and learned that “he who would thoroughly discover this great bay must have a small pinnace to send before him, that must draw but four or five feet to sound before him.”

Hudson then sailed up the New Jersey coast, on the third day of September, anchored his ship within Sandy Hook, and the 12th he entered New York Bay through the Narrows, and discovered the great river that since has borne his name.

So far as the history of Pennsylvania is concerned there is much import in the exploration of Hudson in Delaware Bay. He made known to his employers, the Dutch East India Company, and to the seafaring nations of western Europe, the existence of this wide bay, into which, as he perceived, a great river must discharge. His discovery laid the ground for the claim by the Dutch to the country on the Delaware. Exploration followed, then trade, then occupancy, then a new State, in which the present Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York were united under one government, called New Netherlands.

On August 27, 1610, Captain Samuel Argall, from Jamestown, Va., sailed into the Delaware Bay, and, remaining a few hours, gave it the name of Delaware, in honor of Lord Delaware, then Governor of Virginia. Thus we notice that neither Captain John Smith nor Henry Hudson entered Pennsylvania, they approached the very doorway, but did not come inside.

The first actual visit of a white man seems to have been six years later, when Etienne Brulé, a Frenchman, and a follower of Champlain, the first Governor of New France, came into Pennsylvania via the headwaters of the Susquehanna River and explored its entire length.

Hudson’s report of a land rich in furs attracted the attention of the Dutch, and before 1614, five vessels came to Manhattan on the North River. One of them, the “Fortune,” commanded by Captain Cornelius Jacobson Mey, sailed in the Zuyd River, and he named the cape at the east entrance of the bay Cape Mey, and the cape on the west Cape Cornelius.

One of these vessels, the “Tiger,” was burned and her captain, Adrian Block, built a yacht forty-four and a half feet long, eleven and a half feet wide, of sixteen tons burden, to take her place. This boat, the “Onrust,” was the first built within the limits of the United States, and she was destined to fame. Cornelius Hendrickson brought the “Onrust” to the Delaware in 1616, and made the first exploration of the Delaware River, and discovered the mouth of the Schuylkill and first saw the site of Philadelphia. Here he ransomed from the Indians a Dutchman named Kleynties and two companions, who had come down from the North River by land, and who may have been the first Europeans in Pennsylvania.

On June 3, 1621, the Dutch West India Company was formed. The charter by the Dutch Government gave it the exclusive right to trade on the coast of America between Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan. This company, by virtue of its charter, took possession of the country, and dispatched the ship “New Netherland,” with a number of people, under command of Captain Mey, to the Delaware, where, on the eastern bank, fifteen leagues from its mouth, Captain Mey erected Fort Nassau.

The site of this fort was about five miles above Wilmington, and here four married couples and eight seamen lived. This was, probably, the first settlement on the Delaware River. Fort Nassau was a log structure, capable of defense against bows and arrows, sufficient for a depot of furs, but badly situated to command the commerce of the river. It stood for nearly thirty years, until 1651, and in that time was the center on this continent of Dutch authority and trade. It was to this fort that the Indians of Pennsylvania brought their peltries to exchange for articles that served their use or pleased their fancy, or for rum that made them drunk.

Another settlement was made farther north, on the same side of the river, which consisted of three or four families.

The administration of the affairs of New Netherlands was confided by the Dutch West Indian Company to Peter Minuit, who arrived at Manhattan, May 4, 1626. He came from Wesel, and was commissioned as director-general. It was he who soon after his arrival “purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians for sixty guilders, or the sum of twenty-five dollars in real money.”

In spite of the fact that the Dutch West Indian Company in 1629 granted special privileges to all persons who should plant any colony in New Netherland, up until 1631 no white man had made a settlement on the west bank of the Delaware.

On December 30, 1630, David Pieterzoon De Vries, with thirty-two people and a large stock of cattle, sailed from the Texel, in the ship “Walrus,” and arrived at the southern cape, Cornelius, now Henlopen, and made a settlement near the present town of Lewes, and called it Swanendael, or the Valley of the Swans. De Vries is the finest figure among the early pioneer history of the settlement of this part of our country. He was intelligent, energetic and humane.

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World Struggle for Oil Began at Titusville, August 28, 1859

The gigantic struggle for oil began in Titusville, Pennsylvania, August 28, 1859, when Colonel Edwin L. Drake struck oil in the world’s first well.

This small hole drilled through the rock so peacefully opened the way to wealth hitherto unknown. It yielded about forty barrels per day, but the precious fuel was now produced in commercial quantities. It opened also the most important natural production of Pennsylvania, after iron and coal.

This first well was in Cherry Tree Township, on the Watson Flats, on the bank of Oil Creek, about two miles below the thrifty borough of Titusville.

Venango County seems to have been the native home for petroleum for although it has been found in large quantities in neighboring counties, it was first gathered there and its presence was known from the advent of man in that vast region.

The Indians gathered oil from a stream called Oil Creek, in this vicinity, which they used for medicinal purposes. It became well known all over the country as “Seneca Oil,” “British Oil” and other names. It was collected by digging out the place where it oozed out of the ground, and when oil and water had accumulated, blankets were thrown in, taking up the oil, when it was wrung out, and the process repeated.

A century since the product of Oil Creek Valley amounted to a dozen barrels a year. The first shipment in bulk was made by a man named Cary, who filled two five-gallon kegs and lashed them on either side of the horse he rode to the market at Pittsburgh. This supply stocked the market.

By the year 1865 Venango County shipped 13,000 barrels per day about the only oil produced in this country.

Petroleum was desired as an illuminator, but the small quantity obtainable made it too expensive.

According to the production records more than one billion barrels of oil were produced in 1923 for a world’s record in oil production—and yet the supply is far short of the world demand.

Fish oil is the earliest known illuminant and lubricant. “Coal oil,” however, still used erroneously as the name for kerosene, was discovered less than eighty years ago by Dr. Abraham Gesner, who, in 1846, obtained oil from coal. That was enough to ruin the fish oil industry, and soon more than fifty coal oil works were put in operation, distilling oil from bituminous, or soft coal.

A man named Kier, at Tarentum, Pennsylvania, in 1847, bored for salt water and pumped up oil. He put it in barrels and sold it. A professor at Dartmouth College, using some of the oil, told George H. Bissell that in his opinion it could be used for illuminating purposes. Bissell investigated these claims and organized the Petroleum Oil Company—which was the first of its kind in the United States, and sent a quantity to Benjamin Silliman, Professor of Chemistry in Yale College, who reported that nearly the whole of the raw product could be treated so as to be used for illuminating and other purposes without any waste.

In December, 1857, Colonel Edwin L. Drake, one of the stockholders of this company, rode into Titusville on a mail coach from Erie. He carried with him $1,000 with which to begin boring for oil. He started immediately to his work, but met with many discouragements.

Well drillers were unknown and well drilling machinery almost unheard of in 1858. He built his “pump house” and derrick, and with the assistance of “Uncle Billy” Smith, began drilling.

The beginning was made in quicksand and clay, and as soon as the hole was made it filled up with water and caved in. Drake then hit upon the scheme of driving an iron pipe through to bedrock, and its success made the use of this method the standard practice of today in the oil fields everywhere.

After rock was reached they bored but three feet per day, but by Saturday, August 27, 1859, the well had reached the depth of sixty-nine feet and the drill was working in coarse sand. Smith and his sons, who were helping him, had finished for the week. As they were quitting the drill dropped six inches, apparently into a crevice, as was common in salt wells. No attention was paid to this circumstance, the tools were drawn out and all hands adjourned to Titusville.

Sunday morning Uncle Billy strolled out to the drill, and to his astonishment found the well filled within a few feet of the surface with a dark fluid. It was oil. The news soon spread to the village, and when Colonel-Drake appeared he found Uncle Billy guarding three barrels of petroleum. The pumping apparatus was adjusted, and by noon the well was producing at the rate of twenty barrels per day. The problem of the ages had been solved. The world’s first oil well was in production.

Then began what has been called the “oil fever.” People from all parts of the country flocked to western Pennsylvania. Oil companies were everywhere organized, whose stock was sold on the market. Land which for generations had been regarded as almost barren sold for fabulous prices.

“Coal Oil Johnnie,” an ignorant young man whose paternal acres had long brought only poverty and were now found to be located with wealth, appeared in Philadelphia, scattering ten dollar bills in all directions, and buying teams of horses on one day, only to give them to his coachman on the next. He built an opera house in Cincinnati and ended his career as its doorkeeper.

In 1860, near Rouseville, the oil flowed out of a well without the use of a pump, and other flowing wells in adjacent localities were soon found.

Oil was first transported in wagons and boats. The railroads were laid out to Oil City in 1865. In 1864 Samuel Van Syckel had constructed a pipe line four miles in length, and the result was a change in the entire method of transportation. A refinery was built at Corry in 1862.

The Pennsylvania grade of crude oil is the best lubricant that man has ever found. And since refineries can add nothing to an oil that was not present in its crude state, Pennsylvania grade of crude oil is still supreme.

In recent years the Standard Oil Company has controlled to a great extent the oil production of the country.

The largest individual fortune the world has ever seen is the outcome of the development of the business of securing and distributing coal oil.

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Joseph Galloway, Loyalist Politician, and Member Continental Congress, Died August 29, 1803

Joseph Galloway, the Loyalist Politician, was born in the town of West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, in the year 1731. His great-grandfather, Richard Galloway, of London, England, acquired considerable land in Lord Baltimore’s province in 1662, thus indicating that he was a man of good fortune and respectability.

Peter Galloway, father of Joseph, removed with his family in 1740 to Kent, not far from Philadelphia, where he died while Joseph was yet a mere boy. Being possessed of large landed property Joseph chose the study of law, and was admitted to the bar and allowed to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania as early as 1749. In the meantime he had obtained a good social standing, and as early as 1748 had been made a member of the Schuylkill Fishing Company, a club composed of the most prominent and aristocratic men of Philadelphia.

Mr. Galloway still further enhanced his prospects by his marriage in 1753 with Grace Growden, daughter of Lawrence Growden, an influential character and a former Speaker of the Assembly. The Growdens were the owners of the famous iron works at Durham, Pennsylvania, and possessed large means.

Mr. Galloway rapidly acquired a large practice and became one of the eminent lawyers in the province. He and John Dickinson succeeded Andrew Hamilton in the leadership of the Philadelphia bar prior to the Revolution.

Galloway became a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1756, and his legal talents proved of especial service in that body. In recognition of his unusual attainments as a lawyer and public man, Mr. Galloway was given the degree LL.D., by Princeton College in 1769.

Mr. Galloway several times served as an Indian Commissioner and attended important conferences at Easton and on missions to the Indian country.

He became an opponent of the Proprietaries and fought a successful battle with the Governor over the question of preserving to the Assembly the disposal of the money and forbidding the Governor to assist in its expenditure.

When the effort was made to abolish the Proprietorship and make Pennsylvania a royal province, the Assembly passed resolutions rehearsing the tyranny of the Proprietary and a bitter factional struggle ensued among the people. In October, 1764, the Assembly passed the resolution for a change of government by a vote of 27 to 3. Rather than sign the document Isaac Norris resigned as speaker.

In the final debate, Joseph Galloway and John Dickinson made the leading speeches for and against, respectively. Galloway favored the abolition of the Proprietary government, while Dickinson believed its continuance would better serve the province. Benjamin Franklin and Galloway were so closely associated that their leadership was hard to beat.

Galloway was at the head of the committee which considered and reported upon the grievances of the Province in the “Paxtang Riot” affair following the murder of the Conestoga Indians, December, 1763.

The conduct of Galloway during the excitement attending the passage of the Stamp Act was conspicuously loyal. He feared the tyranny of mob rule more than the tyranny of Parliament.

Mr. Galloway gave expression to his views in an article signed “Americanus,” printed in the Pennsylvania Journal, in which he warned his countrymen of the evils to which their seditious conduct would lead. This article aroused great indignation against him. He was called a Tory and went by the name of “Americanus” for some time.

Mr. Galloway had an extreme aversion to the Presbyterians. He associated them with rioters, and in their support of the “Paxtang Boys” he was convinced they were dangerous characters.

Although he had taken a rather unpopular stand in the Stamp Act controversy, he was returned to the Assembly in 1766, and elected its Speaker.

Mr. Galloway approved the proposal for a Continental Congress and was one of the eight Pennsylvanians who composed the First Continental Congress. Although Dickinson was the leader, Galloway played a conspicuous but not very honorable part. According to Bancroft, he “acted as a volunteer spy for the British Government.”

It is a fact that he was a conservative in his views, and that his line of argument in his first debates tended towards political independence. He proposed a plan of colonial government, which was rejected. This plan contemplated a government with a president-general appointed by the king, and a Grand Council, chosen every three years by the colonial assemblies, who were to be authorized to act jointly with Parliament in the regulation of affairs of the colonies.

The following year Galloway was permitted to resign and thus be relieved from serving on account of the radical acts against England. He abandoned the Whigs soon as the question of independence had begun to be agitated, and thence forward he was regarded as a zealous Tory.

When the Howes issued their proclamation in 1776, granting amnesty to such Americans as would forsake the Revolutionary cause, Galloway’s courage failed him and he accepted the offer.

“Galloway has fled and joined the venal Howe; To prove his baseness, see him cringe and bow, A traitor to his country and its laws, A friend to tyrants and their cursed cause,” etc.

Galloway accompanied Howe’s expedition against Philadelphia. When the British assumed control he was appointed Superintendent of the Police of the City and Suburbs, of the Port and of the Prohibited Articles. Thus he was for about five months the head of the civil government.

He raised and disciplined troops; and gathered a company of Bucks County refugees, and with these two bodies he carried on military enterprises against Americans.

The Pennsylvania Assembly, March 6, 1778, passed an “act for the attainder of divers traitors,” among whom was Joseph Galloway. His estate was confiscated, and according to his testimony before Parliament, was worth at least £40,000 sterling. His house was appropriated by the State of Pennsylvania as a residence for the President of the Supreme Executive Council, but was afterwards sold to Robert Morris.

Forbidden the privilege of returning to Pennsylvania, Mr. Galloway devoted his leisure time to religious studies. He died at Watford, Herts, England, August 29, 1803.

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Etymology of Pennsylvania Counties Erected Since Penn Set Sail August 30, 1682

William Penn sailed from England in the ship “Welcome,” August 30, 1682.

Upon his arrival the organization of his province was pushed with dispatch, and today that vast territory is divided into sixty-seven counties, each one of which possesses history worth the telling.

The genealogy of the counties of Pennsylvania is both interesting and historical, and presents some valuable data. The three original counties were Philadelphia, Chester and Bucks, so named by William Penn in the latter part of the year 1682.

It is a singular coincidence that Philadelphia County should be surrounded with counties somewhat similar to those which surround London in England; Buckingham, or Bucks, Chester and Lancashire.

The name Philadelphia means “brotherly love,” the other three were given their names in honor of their English importance. In fact all the counties formed and named prior to the Revolution were named identically and relatively after the counties in England in this chronological order in the Province—Philadelphia, Chester, Bucks, Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Berks, Northampton, Bedford, Northumberland and Westmoreland.

Following the independence of the colonies only three of the counties of Pennsylvania were afterwards given names of English Counties. They were Huntingdon, Somerset and Cambria.

In an interesting paper prepared by the late Dr. Hugh Hamilton, of Harrisburg and read before the Federation of Historical Societies of Pennsylvania, of which he was then president, the sixty-seven counties were grouped etymologically as follows:

“Sentimental—Philadelphia, Columbia, Lebanon and Union.

“Familiar—Bedford, Berks, Bucks, Cambria, Chester, Cumberland, Huntingdon, Lancaster, Northampton, Northumberland, Somerset, York and Westmoreland.

“Gratitude—Armstrong, Bradford, Butler, Clinton, Crawford, Dauphin, Luzerne, Mercer, Mifflin, Montgomery, Fayette, Fulton, Greene, Lawrence, Montour, Perry, Pike, Sullivan, Warren, Washington and Wayne.

“Political—Adams, Blair, Cameron, Franklin, Jefferson, McKean, Monroe and Snyder.

“Aboriginal—Allegheny, Delaware, Erie, Indiana, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Lycoming, Susquehanna, Tioga, Venango and Wyoming.

“Topographical—Center and Clarion.

“Faunal—Beaver, Carbon, Clearfield, Elk, Forest, Schuylkill.”

It would seem as if Schuylkill should be placed with the aboriginal group and a new one placed in the list called possibly natural characteristics, when Carbon, Clearfield and Forest would be placed and taken from the faunal group. However, the grouping is of much interest and value.

Many of these counties were formed and received their names at times of some event in history or when a distinguished person seemed entitled to be thus honored.

Washington County was named in honor of the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1781, before he was even thought of as the first president of the United States. And it is an interesting fact that Washington County was the first one erected after the Declaration of Independence. Thus Washington became first in Pennsylvania, as well as in war, peace and the hearts of his countrymen. And it is equally interesting that the very next county to be formed in the patriotic State of Pennsylvania should be named after General La Fayette, who rendered such conspicuous service to the colonies and was so close to Washington during the trying days of the great war for liberty. Fayette was organized September 26, 1783.

Then the statesmen paid a great tribute to Franklin, who was the great American patriot and statesman. Armstrong was named in honor of Colonel John Armstrong of Carlisle, who led the successful expedition against the Indian town at Kittanning and who afterwards became a general and rendered distinguished service in the Revolution.

The counties of Butler, Crawford, Mifflin, Pike, Potter and Wayne were named in honor of distinguished Pennsylvania officers of the Revolution; while Greene and Mercer were names suggested by General Washington, both as a tribute to distinguished generals of the Revolution, who were much in Pennsylvania; Sullivan and Perry were named for generals whose great triumphs were enacted here, and Warren County was named in honor of the general who made the supreme sacrifice at Bunker Hill.

Bradford County was originally Ontario in the bill creating it, but the name was changed in honor of former Attorney General William Bradford, of Pennsylvania. Lawrence was so named in honor of the flagship of Commodore Oliver H. Perry; Fulton in honor of Lancaster County’s native son, Robert Fulton, who first successfully ran a steamboat. Clinton was intended to be called Eagle County, but the name was changed to Clinton. Montour was so named in honor of Madame Montour and her two distinguished sons, Henry and Andrew, Indians who were ever loyal to the Provincial Government of Pennsylvania.

Dauphin and Luzerne were so named in thankfulness to France, the former in honor of the eldest son of Louis XVI, and the latter in tribute to the Minister of France then in the United States.

It is rather to be regretted that more of our counties, cities, boroughs and villages do not still retain their original aboriginal names such as have been retained in Allegheny, Delaware, Erie, Indiana, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Lycoming, Susquehanna, Tioga, Venango, Wyoming and Schuylkill Counties.

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Penn Obtains Deed to Province, Then Obtains Lower Counties August 31, 1682

Two motives operated in the early colonization of the American Continent; one was the desire of amassing sudden wealth without working for it; this tempted the adventurous to seek gold here, to trade valueless trinkets to the Indians for valuable furs and skins; the other was the desire to escape unjust restrictions of government and the hated ban of society against the worship of God according to the dictates of one’s own conscience, which incited devotees of Christianity to forego the comforts of home in the midst of civilization, and to make for themselves a habitation on the shores of the new world.

William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, had felt the heavy hand of persecution for religious opinion’s sake. As a gentleman commoner at Oxford, he had been fined and finally expelled for nonconformity to the established church; at home he was whipped and turned out of doors by his father; he was sent to prison by the Mayor of Cork, where for seven months he languished in the Tower of London, and, finally, to complete his disgrace, he was cast into Newgate with common felons.

Upon the accession of James II to the throne of England, more than fourteen hundred persons of Quaker faith were immured in prisons for a conscientious adherence to their religious convictions. To escape this persecution Penn and his followers were moved to emigrate to the New World, as they called it.

In 1680 Penn made application to Charles II for a grant of land in America. He based his claim upon moneys due to his father because of losses in the public service, where he was a distinguished officer of the British navy.

The Duke of York gave his consent and the king issued a patent to William Penn, March 4, 1681.

Penn was not prepared to visit his new province during the first year, but he dispatched three shiploads of settlers, and with them sent his cousin, Captain William Markham, to take formal possession of the country and act as deputy governor.

Markham arrived at New York, June 21, 1681, and exhibited his commission, bearing date April 10, 1681. He also presented the king’s charter and proclamation.

Armed with these credentials Markham proceeded to the Delaware, where he was kindly received. He met Lord Baltimore, who happened to be in the province, and the Maryland proprietor discovered by observation that Upland was at least twelve miles south of the fortieth degree of latitude, and believed his province, therefore, extended to the Schuylkill.

This claim by Baltimore induced Penn to obtain additional grants, as without them he feared the loss of his whole peninsula.

Markham was accompanied to Pennsylvania by four commissioners appointed by Penn, who, in conjunction with the Governor, had two chief duties assigned them; the first was to meet and preserve friendly relations with the Indians, and acquire lands by actual purchase, and the second was to select the site of a great city and to make the necessary surveys.

In the beginning of the year following, Penn published his frame of government, and certain laws, agreed on in England by himself and the purchasers under him, entitled: “The frame of the government of the Province of Pennsylvania, in America; together with certain laws, agreed upon in England by the Governor and Divers of the Free-Men of the aforesaid Province. To be further Explained and Confirmed there, by the first Provincial Council and General Assembly that shall be held, if they see meet.”

Lest any trouble might arise in the future from claims founded on the grant of land in America to the Duke of York, of “Long Island and adjacent territories occupied by the Dutch,” the prudent forethought of William Penn prompted him to obtain a deed from the Duke, which he succeeded in doing August 31, 1682.

The deed included the land in Pennsylvania, substantially in the terms cited in the original Royal Charter.

But Penn, even with the new deed, was not quite satisfied. He was cut off from the ocean by the uncertain navigation of some narrow stream. He, therefore, obtained an additional deed from the Duke of York which was for the grant of New Castle and district twelve miles in radius around it, and also a further grant from the Duke of a tract extending to Cape Henlopen, embracing the two counties of Kent and Sussex.

This new grant to Penn was thereafter termed “the territories,” or “the three lower counties,” and for many years remained a part of Pennsylvania, until finally separated, since which time it has formed the State of Delaware.

William Penn was now satisfied with the limits of his province and drew up such a description of the country from his limited knowledge as he was able to give.

This description was published in an attractive booklet, together with the Royal Charter and proclamation; terms of settlement, and other matters pertaining thereto, and broadcast throughout the Kingdom. He took particular pains to have these books fall into the hands of Friends.

The terms of sale of lands were forty shillings for one hundred acres and one shilling per acre annual rental.

The question had been raised regarding the annual rental, but the terms of the grant by the Royal Charter to Penn were made absolute on the “payment therefore to us, our heirs and successors, two beaver skins, to be delivered at our castle on Windsor, on the first day of January in every year, and the contingent payment of one-fifth part of all gold and silver which, from time to time, happened to be found, clear of all charges.” William Penn, therefore, held his title only by the payments of quit-rents. He could in consequence give a valid title only by exacting the quit-rents.

These deeds for the “lower counties” were duly recorded in New York, and, by proclamation of the commander there, November 21, 1682, to the magistrates on the west side of the Delaware, the rights of Penn under them were publicly recognized and allegiance was cheerfully transferred to Penn’s new government.

Penn then completed his arrangements for his voyage to his Province, where he arrived October, 1682.

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Dr. John Cochran, Native of Pennsylvania, Director-General Hospitals, Born September 1, 1730

A century and a half has almost elapsed since the American Revolution, and in the interim much has been written and published concerning it. But comparatively little has ever been accessible to the public concerning the medical department of the army of patriots.

To Pennsylvanians particularly this feature of the war should prove of interest, for the only Directors General of Military Hospitals were none other than Dr. William Shippen and Dr. John Cochran, both of Pennsylvania.

In the year 1570 John Cochran, of kin to the Earl of Dundonald, emigrated from Paisley in Scotland, to the North of Ireland. James, his descendant in the sixth generation, crossed the sea to America, and in the early part of the eighteenth century settled in Pennsylvania. His third son, born at Sadsbury, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1730, was Doctor John Cochran, of the Revolution, who was educated for a surgeon by Dr. Robert Thompson of Lancaster.

Having qualified as a physician at the time of the outbreak of the French and Indian War, he entered the English service as surgeon’s mate, and remained on active duty until the close of hostilities. In the campaigns of this war he acquired the medical proficiency and surgical expertness for which he was afterward celebrated.

On December 4, 1760, he married Gertrude Schuyler, only sister of General Philip Schuyler, of New York.

Dr. Cochran afterward removed to Brunswick, N. J., where he practiced his profession, until the British burned his house in the early part of the Revolutionary War.

At the close of 1776 he volunteered his services in the Continental army and General Washington, remembering his experience and usefulness in the French war, was prompt in recommending his name to the Continental Congress.

Dr. Cochran and Dr. William Shippen had prepared a report on hospitals upon plans modeled after those of the British army, and submitted their efforts to Congress, after they were approved by General Washington. On April 7, 1777, Congress adopted this report, which remained in effect until remodeled by Congress, September 30, 1780.

On April 11, 1777, in pursuance of General Washington’s recommendation, Doctor John Cochran received the appointment of Chief Physician and Surgeon-General of the Army.

After nearly four years of exacting service in this position, he was, on January 17, 1781, on the resignation of Dr. William Shippen, promoted to be Director of the Military Hospitals of the United States, in which capacity he continued until the end of the war.

Fortunately a letter book kept by Doctor Cochran has been preserved. The entries, memorandums and letters partake of the authority of an official record. They also disclose the many distressing difficulties of the situation.

The Medical Department, as re-arranged October 6, 1780, consisted of a Director, stationed at general headquarters, a Chief Physician and Surgeon, stationed with the army, three chief physicians and surgeons of the hospitals stationed variously at the principal hospitals, and other assistants, mates, orderlies, matrons and nurses, as occasion required.

When Doctor Cochran was promoted to be Director, Dr. James Craik was given the place of Chief Physician and Surgeon of the Army, and Dr. William Burnet was made first of the three chief physicians, with Dr. Malichi Treat and Dr. Charles McKnight as the other two chiefs. Dr. Thomas Bond was made purveyor and Dr. Andrew Cragie, the apothecary.

Some estimate may be had of Doctor Cochran’s real worth, when it is known that Dr. Craik was the life-long friend and personal physician of General Washington, yet was his subordinate.

Previous to this time there had been several very important hospitals in Pennsylvania, the base hospital twice being at Bethlehem; first on December 3, 1776, until March 27, 1777, when the hospital was removed to Philadelphia; then after the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, Bethlehem again became the base hospital. The wounded from the battle of Germantown were also treated there. On August 28, 1778, the remaining patients were removed to Lancaster and Yellow Springs. Other hospitals in Pennsylvania were at Ephrata, Lititz and Reading.

The position of Director was always most exacting; not only were his duties the alleviation of the suffering, in the rigors of a Valley Forge, or stimulating its convalescence in the camp at Norristown, but often the finances were expended and the medical stores entirely exhausted. At no time did the army abound in medical stores.

At times hundreds were sick and lame when there were no supplies to relieve them, Untended wounds or languishing disease filled hospitals destitute of medicines. Scarcely was convalescence a boon, when lack of subsistence faced the soldier in the hospital and often compelled him to beg in the streets for the very necessaries of life.

In this appalling crisis Doctor Cochran seemed to be the right man in the right place. He remained almost constantly in the field and purchased supplies as they moved from place to place, and made such strong and insistent appeals to Congress that some better support was given him, but not before his staff had been reduced to eight hospital physicians out of the fifteen established by Congress, and only five of these on actual duty.

Early in 1782 a quantity of medicine was received from France and it arrived none too soon.

But the lack of medicine was not the only hardship of those in the Medical Department. A letter from Dr. Cochran to Abram Clark, President of Congress, dated February 28, 1781, says: “I hope some pay is ordered to be advanced to the officers of the department, without which it cannot much longer exist. Many of us have not received a shilling in near two years, nor can we procure public clothing.”

Many hospital physicians resigned owing to their inability to subsist themselves longer. When Congress at length issued warrants they were as worthless as the credit of Congress, and they afforded no relief.

Dr. Cochran was of stately presence and most genial. He won his high place by real merit and experience.

He pawned his personal credit for the cause; the last sheets from his bed were used on the wounded. He quieted dissensions in the department, composed the difficulties of individuals, presented petitions for his subordinate officers, and performed routine work which should have been done by others. All this various labor was performed with cheerfulness in adversity, and courage amid danger.

He was on terms of intimacy with Washington, Lafayette, Wayne, Paul Jones and many more. Washington presented him with his camp furniture, Lafayette gave him his watch, Wayne gave him his sword, the silver hilt of which was melted into goblets.

Dr. Cochran was a charter member of the Society of the Cincinnati. He died at his country-seat at Palatine, Montgomery County, N. Y., April 6, 1807. His widow survived him until March, 1813.

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Constitution of 1790, the First for the State, Adopted September 2, 1790

The convention to frame a Constitution for the government of Pennsylvania as a State completed its labors September 2, 1790.

On that day the members signed the instrument, after which they went in procession from the State House to the court-house, where the new Constitution was proclaimed.

Provision had been made for the continuance in office, until the new government went into operation, of the Supreme Executive Council and other State officers, but not of the Legislature, and the latter body believing its authority had ceased, did not proceed to the transaction of business on the following day.

At the election held in October, Thomas Mifflin, of Philadelphia, who had been president of the Supreme Executive Council since November 5, 1788, was elected governor over General Arthur St. Clair.

The new Legislature met in the State House December 7, and on December 21 the change of government was formally effected.

A procession was formed at the chamber of the Supreme Executive Council, which moved to the old court-house at Second and Market Streets, where the old government yielded up its powers, and the new government was proclaimed. Governor Mifflin was inaugurated “with much ceremony.”

On January 1, 1791, the City Councils, Mayor, Recorder and a great number of citizens waited on Governor Mifflin and tendered him their congratulations.

The first constitutional convention, whose most conspicuous members were Benjamin Franklin, David Rittenhouse, George Ross and James Smith, met at Philadelphia July 15, 1776, each one taking, without hesitancy, the prescribed test oath, and organized by the selection of Benjamin Franklin, president.

The labors of this convention were completed September 28, when the Constitution was adopted, and went into immediate effect without a vote of the people.

This Constitution vested executive authority in a Council of Safety, presided over by Thomas Wharton, Jr., composed of twelve members, one from Philadelphia and one from each of the counties. The legislative power was vested in a General Assembly of one house elected annually, and consisting of six members from Philadelphia and six from each county. The supreme executive power was vested in a President, chosen annually by the Assembly and Council.

A Council of Censors, consisting of two persons from Philadelphia and two from each county, was to be elected in 1783, and in each seventh year thereafter, whose duty was to supervise the Constitution and the branches of government, with a power to impeach.

The Constitution of 1776 also provided that, “all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities.” This was the first time in America that higher education was made a part of the fundamental law.

Following the successful termination of the Revolution the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 proved inadequate for the requirements of a useful and effective State Government, and its revision was demanded.

On March 24, 1789, the Assembly adopted resolutions recommending the election of delegates to form a new Constitution. The Supreme Executive Council refused to promulgate this action of the Assembly, but acquiesced in September. An election was held in October, when delegates were chosen.

The convention met November 24, 1789, and in it were the first talents that Pennsylvania could boast. Thomas McKean, Thomas Mifflin, Albert Gallatin, William Findlay, James Wilson, William Lewis, James Ross, Alexander Addison, Edward Hand, Samuel Sitgreaves, Joseph Hiester and Thomas Pickering were among the members. Thomas Mifflin was elected President.

After a long session the members adjourned in the ensuing year to meet again, when the subject of the Constitution was again taken up and concluded, and the new instrument adopted September 2, 1790.

The most radical changes were made in the executive and legislative branches of government.

The Supreme Executive Council was abolished, and a single executive called a governor was created. The Assembly ceased to have the sole right to make laws, as the legislative body was divided into two branches, a Senate and a House.

The former judicial system was continued, excepting that a Supreme Court was provided, the judges of which were to be appointed during good behavior, instead of for seven years.

The Bill of Rights re-enacted the old Provincial provision copied into the first Constitution, respecting freedom of worship, rights of conscience, and exemptions from compulsory contributions for the support of any ministry. The recognition of God, and of a future state of rewards and punishments, was still demanded of all holding office, but a belief in the divine inspiration of the Old and New Testaments was not included.

The Council of Censors ceased to have authority, and the veto power was given to the Governor.

This body, with Frederick A. Muhlenberg as president, had met but once, in 1783. It then got itself into such a snarl with the Assembly that it became very unpopular.

Pennsylvania conformed in all important matters to the system upon which the New Federal Government was to be administered.

General Mifflin continued to discharge the duties of the chief executive with great ability, and was re-elected twice, serving in all three terms, the limit allowed by the Constitution.

Governor Mifflin was elected to the Legislature at the end of his service as Governor, and died at Lancaster, January 21, 1800, while serving in that body.

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General Edward Hand, Distinguished Officer of Revolution, Died September 3, 1802

General Edward Hand, M.D., a native of Clyduff, Kings County, Province of Leinster, Ireland, born December 31, 1744, became a resident of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and one of the first distinguished officers of the Revolution. He died at his fine farm “Rockford,” near Lancaster, September 3, 1802.

In 1767 he was appointed by King George III surgeon of the Eighteenth Royal Irish Regiment of Foot, and sailed with the regiment from Cork, May 20 of the same year, arriving at Philadelphia July 11.

Dr. Hand was appointed ensign in the same regiment in 1772, and accompanied the command to Fort Pitt, returning to Philadelphia in 1774, when he resigned his commission and was regularly discharged from the service.

In the same year he went to Lancaster, with recommendations, in order to practice his profession in that place.

The following year he married Catherine, daughter of Captain John Ewing and Sarah Yeates, a sister of Hon. Jasper Yeates.

At the beginning of the American Revolution Dr. Hand gave his allegiance to the colonies, and was commissioned, June 25, 1775, lieutenant-colonel in Colonel William Thompson’s Battalion of Riflemen.

This battalion consisted of nine companies of troops enlisted in the counties of Cumberland, York, Lancaster, Northumberland, Bedford, Berks and Northampton. After January 1, 1776, it became known as the First Regiment of the Army of the United Colonies.

Lieutenant-Colonel Hand accompanied Colonel Thompson and the battalion to Boston, where they arrived August 17, 1775. He was on Prospect Hill, August 20, when the battalion distinguished itself, and participated in the siege of Boston during the following autumn and winter.

The officers and men of the battalion were publicly thanked by General Washington in general orders the day following the skirmish at Lechmere’s Point, November 9, when each man demeaned himself with unusual skill and daring. The British had landed under cover of a fire from their batteries on Bunker, Breed’s and Copp’s Hills, as well as from a frigate which lay three hundred yards off the point, which at high tide was an island. The regiment marched instantly, and, though the day was stormy, regarded not the tide, nor waited for boats, but took to the water, although up to their armpits, for a quarter of a mile and, notwithstanding the regulars’ fire, reached the island and drove the enemy from behind their cover into their boats.

March 7, 1776, Hand was appointed colonel of the regiment he had commanded since February 2, and, with his command, left Cambridge March 15 to join General John Sullivan in New York.

During May and June this regiment was on Long Island. It picketed the shores until August.

Colonel Hand took part, with his regiment, in the battle of Long Island, and assisted to successfully protect the retreat of the American army. This was a skillful maneuver which effected the retreat of twelve thousand men, within sight of a strong enemy, possessed of a mighty fleet, without any loss of troops and saving all the baggage.

Colonel Hand took part in the battles of White Plains, Trenton and Princeton. At the last of these conflicts, says General Wilkinson, “at the time General Mercer engaged the 17th Regiment, Colonel Hand endeavored, by a rapid movement, to turn the enemy’s left flank, and had nearly succeeded when they fled in disorder ... the riflemen were therefore the first in the pursuit, and in fact took the greatest part of the prisoners; they were accompanied by General Washington in person with a squad of the Philadelphia Troop.”

Colonel Hand continued in command of his regiment until April 1, 1777, when he was promoted to be brigadier-general, and was soon thereafter sent to Fort Pitt in command of the western frontiers of Pennsylvania.

A new fort was erected in Westmoreland County, named Fort Hand.

General Hand did not meet with the expected success in fighting Indians and asked to be relieved of his command, which Congress, May 2, 1778, resolved to do. But before leaving Fort Pitt, General Hand conducted a successful treaty with the Indians June 17, 1778.

In October following he succeeded General Stark in command at Albany, and the next spring General Hand was ordered to take part in General Sullivan’s campaign against the Six Nations. Although the youngest of the generals engaged, Hand held the most important position after that of General Sullivan. His experience in fighting Indians gained on the western frontier was of great value in the expedition.

General Hand afterward joined General Washington and encamped at Morristown, N. J., during the winter.

On the formation of the light infantry corps of the army, August, 1780, General Hand was given command of one of the two brigades.

He was a member of the tribunal that tried and convicted Major André.

General Hand was appointed Adjutant-General of the Army of the United States January 8, 1781. He was present at the siege of Yorktown and returned with the troops to Philadelphia.

September 30, 1783, he was commissioned Major-General of the Pennsylvania Line.

Upon the close of the war he resumed his practice of medicine at Lancaster.

He was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1784 and 1785, and a member of the General Assembly 1785, and an Elector for the first election of a President and Vice President of the United States in 1789.

General Hand helped frame the Constitution of Pennsylvania of 1790, and held other positions of honor and trust.

He was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and served as President in 1799. He was the lover of fine horses and was himself an excellent horseman.

As a citizen he was highly esteemed, and as a physician greatly sought after and much beloved. He was a great Pennsylvanian.

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First Permanent Settlement and Earliest Church, Dedicated September 4, 1646

The first European settlement in what is now Pennsylvania was made on Tinicum Island, now Essington, not far distant from the mouth of Darby Creek on the Delaware River. The beautiful buildings of the Corinthian Yacht Club are now located on this historic spot.

A monument was unveiled June 14, 1923, to mark the place where the first permanent settlement in what is now Pennsylvania was made. This shaft was erected by the Swedish Colonial Society and was unveiled by Miss Nancy J. Paxson, tenth in descent from one of the original founders of the colony.

Here it was that Colonel John Printz, a Swedish military officer of note, who had recently been knighted by the Swedish Government for the conspicuous role he enacted in the Thirty Years’ War, accompanied by a few adventurers of the same nationality, located in 1643, erected a fort of green logs and named the settlement he founded New Gottenberg. The fort was mounted with four cannon. Provisions were made for the planting of corn and tobacco.

A short time thereafter Printz built a pretentious mansion on Tinicum Island, “very splendid,” with an orchard and pleasure house, and it bore the name of Printz Hof or Printz Hall. This mansion house was two stories high and built of hewn logs, while two or more fireplaces and ovens were made of bricks imported from Sweden for that purpose. There were even glass windows. The utensils were of copper and tin. Their light was candle. Printz Hall also contained a fine library and every convenience known at that period. This great house stood 160 years, when it was accidentally destroyed by fire.

Printz planted orchards, cleared fields and firmly established himself on the place he determined should be the seat of government for the Swedish colony on the South River, as the Delaware was then known.

Printz sent Maus Kling, the engineer for the colony, to make a settlement on the Schuylkill. Log houses were built there, and Kling built on the east bank of the Schuylkill, near its mouth, probably on what was afterward called Providence Island, a small fort which was called New Korsholm.

These operations of Kling, the plantation and the fort, form the first authenticated occupancy by Europeans of the site of the City of Philadelphia.

On April 17, 1640, the Swedish ship Kalmer Nyckel sailed into the Christiana Creek. Among the immigrants was the Reverend Reorus Torkillus, a clergyman of the Swedish Lutheran Church, who thus became the first minister of the gospel on the Delaware River. Soon after this preacher’s arrival in the colony a meeting house was built, in which the services of the Lutheran Church were conducted.

Governor Printz built a church on Tinicum Island, which had a bell and belfry. It was succeeded by a more imposing and commodious edifice in 1646, built of logs, with a roof of clapboards and an altar with a silver cloth. This church was dedicated by the Reverend John Campanius on September 4, 1646.

Printz reported to his home Government he had the church finished and dedicated, “adorning and decorating it according to our Swedish fashion, so far as our limited means and resources would allow.”

There was a graveyard located adjacent to the church, in which was interred the corpse of Andrew Hanson’s daughter Catherine, who was buried October 28, 1646. This was the first burial of any European in Pennsylvania, certainly the first in any regularly established cemetery.

The marriage of Governor Printz’s daughter, Armegot, to Johan Papegoja, the commandant at Fort Christina, was solemnized in this old church at Tinicum, in 1644, and it is believed to have been the first instance in which a matrimonial ceremony was performed between Europeans within the limits of the present State of Pennsylvania.

The Old Swedes’ Church called the worshippers together with the sound of the first “church-going bell” on the American Continent. But in May, 1673, Armegot Papegoja was in such dire distress for funds that she sold the bell to the congregation of the adherents of the Augsburg Confession, at Laus Deo.

The worshippers believed this bell should be nowhere but in their own Swedes’ Church and they determined to repurchase it, when the members of the congregation gave their labor for two years at harvest time as the consideration. The bell was brought back to Tinicum, but the facts relating to its subsequent history are lacking.[6]

Footnote 6:

Colonel Henry D. Paxon says this original bell was recast, with some additional metal, and now hangs in “Gloria Dei,” Old Swedes’ Church, Philadelphia.

It is quite probable that this Old Swedes’ Church remained the active center for worship long after the Swedes were swept from power on the Delaware.

Peter Stuyvesant, at the head of a large fleet and formidable expedition, September, 1654, captured Fort Cassimer, or Trinity, as the Swedes called it, then after a siege of fourteen days compelled the surrender of Fort Christina, which was defended by Governor Johan Claesson Rysingh.

In the articles of capitulation, which were formally drawn up and signed September 25 by the two commanders on the “parade ground” outside the fort, it was agreed that the Swedish soldiers were to march out with the honors of war.

The “guns, ammunition, implements, victuals and other effects belonging to the Crown of Sweden and to the South Company,” in the fort or its vicinity, were to remain their property. The Swedish settlers might stay or go, as they chose, and for a year and six weeks, if they stayed, need not take the Dutch oath of allegiance. Swedes who remained should enjoy the Lutheran faith, the “liberty of the Augsburg Confession,” and have a minister to instruct them.

When the English came to the South River in the fall of 1664, the Swedes at Tinicum still were worshiping in their Lutheran Church.

After the departure of Governor Rysingh, in 1653, there was only one minister among the Swedes on the river, the man who was variously called Laers, Laurentius Carolus, Lock, Lokenius, etc., was a poor fellow whose missteps and mischances, moral lapses and legal misdemeanors are repeatedly mentioned in the scanty chronicles of the time. He preached in the Swedes’ Church at Tinicum and at Crane Hook, between Christina and New Castle, where a log church was built about 1667. Lock died in 1688.

When Governor Andros visited the Delaware, in 1675, the New Castle Court decreed, when designating places of meeting for worship, “that the church at Tinicum Island do serve for Upland and parts adjacent.”

Great Tinicum Island stands with Jamestown and Plymouth as one of the birthplaces of America.

Lewis, in the history of Chester County, says that the Swedes came from New Castle and places along the Delaware, both above and below, to worship in that building.

About this time the settlement at Upland, now Chester, began to thrive, and it was not long before it became a more important place than Tinicum.

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First Continental Congress Meets in Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia, September 5, 1774

The Assembly of Pennsylvania promptly responded to the “Instructions” of the great meeting of the Provincial deputies held in the State House July 15, 1774, and appointed Joseph Galloway, speaker, Samuel Rhoads, Thomas Mifflin, John Morton, Charles Humphreys, George Ross, Edward Biddle, and, subsequently, John Dickinson as delegates to the Congress to be held in Philadelphia in September.

This body assembled September 5 in Carpenters’ Hall and chose Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, president, and Charles Thomson, of Pennsylvania, secretary, of what proved to be the first Continental Congress.

The Declaration of Rights was agreed upon. This claimed, first, as natural rights, the enjoyment of life, liberty and fortune; secondly, they claimed, as British subjects, to be bound by no law to which they had not consented by their chosen representatives. They denied to Parliament all power of taxation and vested the right of legislation in their own Assemblies.

The common law of England they declared to be their birthright, including the rights of trial by jury of the vicinage, of public meetings and petition. They protested against the maintenance in the Colonies of standing armies without their full consent, and against all legislation by councils depending on the Crown.

Having thus proclaimed their rights, they calmly enumerated the various acts which had been passed in derogation of them. There were eleven in number, passed in as many years—the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, those which provided for the quartering of troops, for the supersedure of the New York Legislature, for the trial in Great Britain of offenses committed in America, for the regulation of the government of Massachusetts, for the closing of the port of Boston, and the last straw, known as the Quebec bill.

On October 18, articles of confederation were adopted, the signing of which, two days afterward, should be regarded as the commencement of the American Union, based upon freedom and equality.

On October 26, an address to the people of Great Britain was adopted, also a memorial to the inhabitants of British America, and a loyal address to His Majesty. The Congress then adjourned to meet in Philadelphia on the 10th of May following.

Dickinson was a powerful member of this first Congress, his master hand being first employed in the “Address to the inhabitants of Quebec,” forwarded under date of October 26. This address set forth the reasons why the people of that province should join with those of the Colonies in their political interests.

Over the Pennsylvania delegation Galloway, with his wealth, education and political prestige, and with some claim on their gratitude as their advocate against the Proprietaries, was both presiding officer and presiding genius. His influence was clearly seen in the selection of delegates, for both Dickinson and Wilson were omitted in the original list. The failure to name Mr. Dickinson was a grave error, but was corrected when Mayor Rhoads could not serve.

As Congress assembled Galloway did the honors, but his conduct soon revealed him acting as a volunteer spy for the British Government, and he did everything in his power to exert a control over the first Congress.

He even went so far as to hold secret meetings with the Governor of New Jersey and the Lieutenant Governor of New York, when he proposed in Congress a government for America to consist of a President General appointed by the King, and holding office during his pleasure, and a Grand Council chosen once in three years by the assemblies of the various colonies, the members thereof to be apportioned according to population.

His celebrated scheme was not popular, but in presenting it to Congress, said: “I am as much a friend to liberty as exists, and no man shall go further in point of fortune or in point of blood than the man who now addresses you.”

The plan was favored by New York and South Carolina and on final vote was rejected by the close vote of six colonies against five. “With this defeat,” says Bancroft, “Galloway lost his mischievous importance.”

At the October election Galloway was re-elected to the Assembly, but the many changes in the membership foretold the decided advancement of the Whigs. Edward Biddle was elected Speaker. Galloway did not attend until after the report of the preceding Congress had been made.

The Assembly of Pennsylvania, which met on December 8, 1774, was the first Provincial Legislature to which report of the congressional proceedings was made. The Assembly unanimously approved them December 15, and recommended them to the inviolable observance of the people. This body then appointed Messrs. Biddle, Dickinson, Mifflin, Galloway, Humphreys, Morton and Ross as delegates to the new Congress. Mr. Samuel Rhoads, who was then the Mayor of Philadelphia, was too occupied with those duties and was omitted from this delegation.

Upon the return of Benjamin Franklin from London, he was immediately added to the congressional delegation, together with Messrs. James Wilson and Thomas Willing. Mr. Galloway, who had repeatedly requested to be excused from serving, was permitted to withdraw. Galloway had become too much alarmed at the length to which the opposition to the mother country was carried.

Hitherto Governor John Penn had looked upon the proceedings of the Assembly without attempting to direct or control them. He was supposed to favor the efforts made in support of American principles; but now a semblance of regard to the instructions of the Crown induced him to remonstrate in mild terms against the continental system of petition and remonstrance.

In England the proceedings of the Americans were viewed with great indignation by the King and his ministry, and the petition of Congress, although declared by the Secretary of State, after a day’s perusal, “to be decent and proper and received graciously by His Majesty, did not receive much favor at the hands of the ministry, which resolved to compel the obedience of the Americans.”

The remonstrances of three millions of people were therefore treated, perhaps believed, as the clamors of an unruly multitude.

Both houses of Parliament joined in an address to the King, declaring “that they find a rebellion actually exists in the Province of Massachusetts.” That was followed by an act for restraining the trade and commerce of the New England Provinces and prohibiting them from carrying on the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, which was subsequently extended to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and the Lower Counties on the Delaware.

Conciliatory measures were introduced in Parliament, which provided a relief from tax or duties for those colonies which would yield strict obedience to the laws of the mother country. This proposition was opposed as an admission of the correctness of the American views. Upon Pennsylvania’s reply to the resolutions of Parliament much depended, and the Assembly acted promptly and with unanimity.

By reason of Edward Biddle’s illness, John Morton was elected Speaker, March 15, 1775.

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Fort Montgomery Withstands Attack of British and Indians, September 6, 1780

In the early days of the Revolution the settlers on the frontiers suffered much at the hands of the Indians, and this was particularly true in the region of the Susquehanna valleys. A chain of forts or blockhouses was established from Fort Jenkins on the North Branch of the Susquehanna, about midway between the present towns of Berwick and Bloomsburg, to Fort Reid, in the present borough of Lock Haven.

Each of these forts was garrisoned by troops from large Fort Augusta at the forks of the Susquehanna, and each in its turn was attacked by Indians or by British and Indians, during the period of the Revolution, and all but one or two of them were destroyed.

The most important attack on any of the above forts occurred July 28, 1779, when the British under Captain John MacDonald and Seneca Indians, under Chief Hiakatoo, defeated the garrison at Fort Freeland, took all the men and boys prisoners and destroyed the fort. This story is told on July 28.

In 1769, William Patterson patented 700 acres of land in what is now Lewis Township, Northumberland County, which he named Paradise. Two years later he sold his Paradise farm to John Montgomery, of Paxtang, and removed to White Deer Creek, to reside with his daughter, Mrs. Hunter. John Montgomery established his family at Paradise, and his descendants still reside in that beautiful valley.

At the time of the battle at Fort Freeland, John Montgomery heard the firing, mounted two of his young sons on horses and sent them to the top of a hill to learn the cause of the shooting. They soon discovered the fort on fire and a fight raging in the timber below them. They hurriedly returned and reported what they had seen, when their father loaded his family in a wagon, with what provisions and clothing they could carry, and rapidly drove across the country to the cabin of Philip Davis, on Chillisquaque Creek, near the present village of Pottsgrove. Davis gathered up his family and together they hurriedly journeyed to Fort Augusta, then down the river to Paxtang, where they remained until after the war was closed.

The precaution of Montgomery was intuitive, for the victorious British and Indians soon reached Paradise and burned his home and buildings.

With Fort Freeland destroyed and Montgomery’s home in ruins, it was necessary that one of these places be immediately rebuilt and fortified.

A detachment of the German Regiment, then in that vicinity, was sent to Paradise under command of Captain John Rice, and in the winter of 1779–80 they built a stockade around a fine spring of water, which forms the headwaters of Muddy Run. This was built permanently out of limestone found in that locality and today is in an excellent state of preservation and used by the tenant of the farm.

After completing this real fort they ably defended it, as an attack took place there early in September, 1780, which is told in a letter written by Colonel Samuel Hunter, county lieutenant, dated Fort Augusta, September 21, 1780, as follows:

“We were alarmed by a large party of the enemy making their appearance in our county on the 6th inst. They came first to a small fort that Colonel Weltner’s troops had erected on the headwaters of the Chillisquaque, calling it Fort Rice, about thirteen miles from Sunbury. (Three errors: Headwaters of Muddy Run; should be Fort Montgomery, the owner and original builder, and not Fort Rice, just because such a soldier was in charge of the detail, and the distance is seventeen miles from Sunbury, or about four from Milton).

“When the German Regiment marched off the enemy attacked the fort about sundown, and fired very smartly. The garrison returned the fire with spirit, which made them withdraw a little off, and in the night they began to set fire to a number of houses and stacks of grain which they consumed.

“In the meantime our militia had collected to the number of one hundred men under command of Colonel John Kelly, who marched to the relief of the garrison, and arrived there next day. The people of the garrison acquainted Colonel Kelly that there must be two hundred and fifty or three Hundred of the Enimy, which he did not think prudent to engage without being Reinforced. The confusion this put the inhabitants in, it was not easy to collect a party equal to fight the savages.

“I immediately sent off an express to Col. Purdy on Juniata whom I heard was marching to the Frontiers of Cumberland County with the militia, he came as quick as possible to our assistance with one Hundred and ten of the militia and about Eighty Volunteers, which was no small Reinforcement to us.

“Genl. Potter just coming home from camp at this critical time came up to Sunbury and took command of the party that went in Quest of the Enimy. But previous to his marching, discharged the Volunteers as he concluded by the information he had received from spyes we had out that the enemy did not exceed one Hundred and fifty and that they had withdrawn from the inhabitants to some Remote place.

“General Potter, However, marched on to Muncy Hills, but was a little baffled by the information to their route and did not come on their track till the 13th and followed on about 50 miles up Fishing Creek, the road the enemy took, but finding they had got too far ahead returned here the 17th inst. The enemy got but one scalp and one prisoner. (Colonel Hunter did not know of the Sugar Loaf Massacre when he wrote.)

“We all concluded the enimy had got off, but on the 18th there was a small party made their appearance on the West Branch about fourteen miles above this place, they killed one man and wounded another, and killed their horses they had in the plow, which plainly shows they have scattered into small parties to Harass the inhabitants, which I am afraid will prevent the people from getting crops put in the ground this fall.

“When the German Regiment marched off from here I gave orders for the Frontier’s Companys to embody and keep one-fourth of the men Constantly Reconnoitering.

“After garrisoning Fort Jenkins, Fort Rice and Fort Swartz with twenty men in each of them, this was the only method I could think of encouraging the people as we were left to our own exertions. Only about thirty of Capt. McCoy’s company of Volunteers from Cumberland County, until the 10 inst., that two companies of militia came here from the same county in the whole about eighty men.

“When I received the intelligence of a large party of savages and tories coming against Fort Rice, I gave orders to evacuate Fort Jenkins as I did not look upon it to be tenable, which is since burned by the Enimy, and would have shared the same had the men staid there on act. of the Buildings, that were adjoining it, etc.”

John Montgomery and his family returned after peace was declared. Finding the buildings of his farm destroyed and a good, strong stone house supplying its place, he at once occupied the fort, which, with additions, made him a comfortable home for years.

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Colonel Hartley Leads Expedition Against Six Nation Indians—Born September 7, 1746

Colonel Thomas Hartley, who was one of the most prominent Pennsylvanians during the period of the Revolution, was born in Colebrookdale Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, September 7, 1746.

He was the son of George Hartley, a well-to-do farmer, who was able to give his son a good classical education at Reading. At the age of eighteen he began to read law in the office of Samuel Johnson, at York, a prominent lawyer and relative of his mother. He was admitted to practice in the courts of York County July 25, 1769, and in the courts of Philadelphia a month later. He rose rapidly in his profession, and was enjoying a lucrative practice when the War for Independence opened.

He served on the Committee of Observation for York County in 1774–75; he represented York County as a deputy in the Provincial Conference held at Philadelphia July 15, 1774, and in the Provincial Convention, January 23, 1775.

In December, 1774, he was chosen first lieutenant of Captain James Smith’s company of Associators and a year later lieutenant colonel of the First Battalion of York County. He was elected by Committee of Safety January 10, 1776, to be lieutenant colonel of the Sixth Battalion, commanded by Colonel William Irvine, of Carlisle, and served with distinction in the Canadian campaign.

In December, 1776, Congress authorized General Washington to raise sixteen battalions of infantry additional to those in service, and the command of one of these was given to Colonel Hartley.

In the campaign for the defense of Philadelphia Hartley’s regiment bore a conspicuous part. At the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown it was attached to the First Philadelphia Brigade, of General Wayne’s division, Colonel Hartley commanding the brigade, and was also at Paoli.

To repel the inroads of the Tories and Indians from New York and for the protection of the frontiers following the “Great Runaway,” Colonel Hartley and his regiment, July 14, 1778, were ordered to Sunbury. The order continues:

“A detachment of Colonel Hartley’s Regiment to march from New Jersey to Easton, there to join Colonel Kowatz, who has under his command a small number of horse. The remainder of Colonel Hartley’s Reg’t, now in Philad’a, to march immediately to Sunbury and join the Two Companies lately raised at Wioming. Col. Brodhead’s Regiment, now on their march to Pittsburgh, to be ordered to the Standing Stone. But it is necessary to add to these Continental troops a considerable body of Militia. Council have therefore determined to order to Sunbury three hundred Militia from the County of Northumberland, four hundred from the County of Lancaster & one hundred and fifty from the County of Berks.”

The troops at Standing Stone and Easton were also to be re-enforced by militia.

This arrangement for the frontier defense was intended to rendezvous at Sunbury 1050 troops, as follows: Part of Hartley’s Regiment at Philadelphia, 100; two companies recruited at Wyoming, 100; militia from Lancaster County, 400; from Berks, 150, and Northumberland, 300.

On July 16 the Board of War advised Council that they learned by letters that General McIntosh, who was at Carlisle, hearing of the Indian incursions, ordered Colonel Brodhead, then on his way to Fort Pitt, to hurry his Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment to the Susquehanna, “to stop the progress of the enemy & encourage the militia to stand in their own defence.”

Then General J. P. DeHaas, who was stationed at Lebanon, sent an express to Colonel Samuel Hunter, at Fort Augusta, to learn the exact situation, when he offered his services to the Board of War.

Colonel Brodhead and the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment arrived at Fort Augusta and soon as the colonel learned he could not be of assistance there, he took up his march and arrived at Fort Muncy July 23, and immediately sent out scouting parties in every direction.

When Colonel Hartley and 300 of his command arrived at Fort Augusta, General John P. DeHaas was already there and had assumed command.

General James Potter wrote from Fort Augusta August 1, 1778: “I came here last week to station the militia. I found General DeHaas here, who said he commanded all the troops. The next day Colonel Hartley came and showed me his orders to command the troops, and politely requested me to take the command, which I declined, as I never was very fond of command, and this is a disagreeable one.”

Colonel Hartley wrote to Council from Fort Augusta August 1, advising the conditions when he arrived, and that General DeHaas, who was in command, had given the command to him. Hartley gave a very correct statement of the distressed situation following the great Wyoming Massacre of July 3.

Soon as Colonel Hartley arrived at Fort Muncy, Colonel Brodhead led his troops off toward Fort Pitt, via Carlisle, and Colonel Hartley settled down to the difficult task of handling the unfortunate conditions on that harassed frontier.

Colonel Hartley’s men built Fort Muncy. It was about a half a mile above the present Hall’s Station, on the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, in Lycoming County, a few hundred yards directly in front of the famous Hall’s Stone House, built in 1769. It was intended to be the most important stronghold, next to Fort Augusta, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna.

Colonel Hartley immediately planned an expedition against the Indians, as he believed the way to successfully combat the savage foe was to carry the war into his own country.

He marched from Fort Muncy, September 18, with two hundred troops and twelve days’ rations. In his report to Congress, the Colonel says: “In our route we met with great rains and prodigious swamps, mountains, defiles and rocks which impeded our march, we had to open and clear the way as we passed.

“We waded or swam the River Lycoming upward of twenty times. In lonely woods and groves we found where the Indians had dressed and dried scalps of the frontier victims. On the morning of the 26th, the advance party met nineteen Indians in a skirmish. An important Indian chief was killed and scalped.” They burnt Tioga, Queen Esther’s Town and other settlements.

Colonel Hartley performed the marvelous feat of marching his small army 300 miles and fighting several severe battles with Indians and Tories in two weeks; bringing in fifty head of cattle, twenty-eight canoes and much plunder and above all else rendered such signal service to the frontiers that the settlers could return to their habitations and harvest their crops in safety.

Both the Provincial Council and the Continental Congress, Nov. 14, 1778, adopted resolutions of commendation to Colonel Hartley for the success of his expedition.

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Colonel John Armstrong Destroyed Indian Town of Kittanning September 8, 1756

Before Governor Robert Morris was superseded by William Denny he concerted with Colonel John Armstrong an expedition against the Indian town of Kittanning, on the Allegheny, the stronghold of Captains Jacobs and Shingas, the most active Indian chiefs, and from which place they distributed their war parties along the frontier.

When Governor Denny assumed the office of Governor his predecessor communicated to him his plans for this expedition, which were favorably received by the Governor and his Council.

The details of this enterprise had been perfected in great secrecy. It is quite likely that Colonel Armstrong was selected for this purpose, not only on account of his well-known military prowess, but for the further fact that his beloved brother, Lieutenant Edward Armstrong, had been killed in the attack and destruction of Fort Granville, and for the many other depredations which the Indians had committed in the Juniata Valley.

Colonel Armstrong collected his forces at Fort Shirley, at Aughwick, now Huntingdon County, consisting of 300 troops, divided into seven companies. Among the captains were James Hamilton, Hugh Mercer, Edward Nord and James Potter, all afterward distinguished officers of the Revolution and leading citizens of the State.

On September 2, 1756, he came up with the advanced party at “Beaver Dams,” a few miles south of Frankstown, on the north branch of the Juniata. Here the little army struck the celebrated Kittanning path, well trodden by Indians in their travels to the westward.

On the 7th, the evening, within six miles of Kittanning, the scouts discovered a fire in the road, and four Indians about it, but these could not be attacked, as one or more might escape and alarm the town. Lieutenant Hogg and twelve men were left to watch them, with orders to fall upon them at daybreak. The main body then made a circuit and proceeded to the village.

Guided by the whooping of the Indians at a dance, the army approached the place by the river, about 100 perches below the town. They arrived at 3 o’clock on the morning of the 8th near a cornfield in which some of the enemy were lodged, sleeping in the open on account of the excessive heat of the weather.

As soon as the dawn of the new day made the town visible the troops attacked it through the cornfield, killing several of the enemy. The men were wearied by a forced march of thirty miles and had been aroused from sound sleep to make the attack, but they fought with great eagerness.

When the firing began Captain Jacobs immediately sounded the war whoop, and with a number of Indians, as the English prisoners afterward told Colonel Armstrong, cried: “The white men are at last come, we will soon have scalps enough,” but at the same time ordered their squaws and children to flee to the woods.

Captain Jacobs defended his house bravely and through loopholes in the logs a deadly fire was poured into the provincial troops.

The Indians refused quarter, saying they were men and would not be prisoners. At this point Colonel Armstrong turned his attention to the houses from which the Indians were making such a stand. He received a bad wound in his shoulder, but continued to direct the attack. He found the houses must be destroyed, and ordered the contiguous buildings set on fire, which was performed by his officers and soldiers with much dispatch.

The Indians fired at every moving object and as their aim was deadly many soldiers were killed or wounded.

Soon as the buildings were set on fire the Indians were given another opportunity to surrender themselves prisoners, but again they refused. One Indian declared he did not care for death; he could kill four or five more before he died, and some began to sing as the flames burned near them. The few who burst from the burning buildings and ran for the river were shot down by the soldiers.

Captain Jacobs was shot as he attempted to get out of an upper window. Armstrong’s soldiers identified the powder horn and pouch he wore as one he had lately received from a French officer in exchange for Lieutenant Edward Armstrong’s boots, which he carried from Fort Granville, where the lieutenant was killed.

The soldiers got the scalp of the great Indian chief, as they also did of his squaw and a young Indian, called the “King’s Son.”

Before this time Captain Hugh Mercer had been severely wounded in the arm and was carried to the top of the hill above the town, where a number of the wounded men gathered. These soon discovered from their elevated position that Indians were passing the river and taking to the hills, they thought with the intention of surrounding and cutting off the troops from any possible retreat. Colonel Armstrong would not believe this their design, but sent men in every direction to keep him posted upon the enemy’s movements. The Indians in their hasty retreat left behind a number of English scalps and not a few white prisoners.

Instead of cutting down the cornfield, the colonel immediately assembled the wounded and loaded them upon the few Indian horses which they had collected.

The return march was slow and tedious, made so by the many wounded and the constant watch necessary to prevent a surprise attack from ambush. Captain Mercer was carried by some of his men over a different road and Colonel Armstrong was alarmed for his safety.

Colonel Armstrong in his report of the action at Kittanning said he could not estimate the loss of the enemy, as many were burned in the buildings, but he could account for thirty or forty killed. They brought back a dozen scalps and eleven English prisoners.

The loss sustained by the provincial forces was seventeen killed, thirteen wounded and nineteen missing. All the wounded recovered and all but two of the missing reached their homes.

In speaking of the horrible Indian massacres which followed Braddock’s defeat, Drake in his Indian history, says:

“Shingas and Captain Jacobs were supposed to have been the principal instigators of them, and a reward of $700 was offered for their heads.“

King Shingas was the greatest Delaware warrior at that time. Heckwelder, who knew him personally, says:

“Were his war exploits all on record they would form an interesting document, though a shocking one.”

King Shingas happened to be at Fort Duquesne when Colonel Armstrong destroyed Kittanning.

The Corporation of Philadelphia, on the occasion of Colonel Armstrong’s victory, addressed a complimentary letter to him, January 5 following, thanking him and his officers for their gallant conduct and presented him with a piece of plate.

Many descendants of the gallant Colonel Armstrong are living today and well may they be proud of such a distinguished ancestor.

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Franklin County Erected from Part of Cumberland County September 9, 1784

On January 27, 1759, Lancaster County was divided by act of Assembly, and the southern division thereof erected into a new county, to which the name of “Cumberland” was given, with the town of Carlisle as the seat of justice.

For a quarter of a century the county of Cumberland thus constituted, remained intact, when the wants of the southwestern part, known as the Conocheague settlement, led them to petition the General Assembly of 1784 that their territory might be set apart as a new county, with concomitant privileges setting forth in glowing terms the hardships they were compelled to endure traveling the long distance from their homes to the seat of justice at Carlisle, etc.

The General Assembly complied therewith and September 9, 1784, erected the new county to be named “Franklin,” in honor of the great Pennsylvanian, Benjamin Franklin.

By 1790 some doubts arose as to the correct boundary, and March 29, in that year, a re-adjustment of the lines was made by running a new line so as to leave the entire tract of land owned by Edward Shippen, of Lancaster, and upon which Shippensburg now stands, in Cumberland County.

On March 29, 1798, a portion of the then county of Bedford, known as the “Little Cove” was detached from that county and annexed to Franklin, and the county thus erected is the Franklin County of today.

By the terms of the act establishing the county of Franklin, James Maxwell, James McCalmont, Josiah Crawford, David Stoner, and John Johnson were appointed trustees on behalf of the county, and were directed to procure two lots of ground in the town of Chambersburg or Chamberstown, for seats of a court house and of a county gaol.

The original court house was a brick building of two stories, surmounted by a tall conical cupola and a spire. In the belfry was suspended a bell of Spanish make, which had rendered service in an old convent.

The first court in Franklin County was held September 15, 1784. As the court house was not yet completed this first session was convened in the stone house on the corner of the “square,” which was built by John Jack in 1770. This historic building stood until July 30, 1864, when the rebel horde burned the town during the Civil War.

The first court was held before Judges Humphrey Fullerton Thomas Johnston and James Findley. Edward Crawford, Jr., was prothonotary. Jeremiah Talbot was commissioned sheriff October 20, 1784.

The following named persons sat as the first grand jury: James Poe, Henry Pawling, William Allison, William McDowell, Robert Wilkins, John McConnell, John McCarny, John Ray, John Jack, Jr., John Dickson, D. McClintock, Joseph Chambers, and Joseph Long.

As late as 1748 there were many Indians within the present limits of Franklin County. The first settlers of Franklin County were Scotch-Irish, many of whose descendants yet remain, but the larger proportion migrated west or south, giving way before the German element coming from the eastern counties of the state.

It is believed that Joseph and Benjamin Chambers located at the Falling Spring earlier than 1730. They had previously built at Fort Hunter, above Harrisburg, on the Susquehanna, but an accidental fire consumed their mill on the Fishing Creek, and they wandered westward, finally located at Falling Spring, where they erected a log house, and eventually a saw and grist mill.

Benjamin Chambers maintained a friendly intercourse with the Indians in his vicinity. They became attached to him; with them he traded, and had so much of their confidence and respect that they did not injure him or offer to molest him.

After Braddock’s defeat July, 1755, the Western Indians became so troublesome, and made so many incursions east of the mountains, that Colonel Chambers, for the security of his family and his neighbors, erected a large stone dwelling house, where Chambersburg now is. This house was surrounded by water from Falling Spring, and, to prevent the Indians from setting it on fire, the roof was made of lead. The dwelling, buildings and mill were surrounded with a stockade.

This fort was provided with a blunderbluss and swivel, and the garrison had an ample supply of smaller firearms. The Indians seldom assaulted this fort and none of its defenders was killed or carried off.

Benjamin Chambers reported the terrible massacre at Great Cove, Sunday morning, November 2, 1755. He wrote: “If you intend to go to the assistance of your neighbors, you need wait no longer for the certainty of the news. The Great Cove is destroyed.”

The Great Cove was burned by the Indians and fifty-seven persons out of ninety-three settlers were killed or taken captive.

A record of the persons killed or taken captive by the Indians during this period until the close of the Revolution reveals a long list of savage cruelty.

In the war of 1812–14, Franklin County played an important part. Eight companies were mustered in the county; Chambersburg furnished four, Greencastle, Mercersburg, Waynesboro and Path Valley, each one.

During the Civil War Franklin County suffered as did no other border county of Pennsylvania.

First came the great Confederate raid in October, 1862, led by Generals J. E. B. Stuart and Wade Hampton; then during General Lee’s invasion, June, 1863; and finally General McCausland’s invasion when the town of Chambersburg was sacked and burned July 30, 1864. The scenes presented on the latter terrible occasion beggar description.

Wilson College is situated in Chambersburg, and Mercersburg Academy is in the borough of Mercersburg, which was also the home of Marshall College, now a part of Franklin and Marshall College, of Lancaster. The Soldiers’ Orphans’ Industrial School of the state is located at Scotland, and the Pennsylvania State Sanitarium for Tuberculosis, No. 1, is beautifully located at Mont Alto.

Green Castle and Waynesboro are the other towns of importance in old Franklin County. James Buchanan, President of the United States, and William Findlay, Governor of Pennsylvania, were both born in Mercersburg.

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Commodore Perry Defeats British Squadron on Lake Erie, September 10, 1813

Foreign nations, who still smiled incredulously at the pretensions of the United States in carrying on an ocean warfare with the proud “Mistress of the Seas,” as England was everywhere acknowledged to be, were not prepared to receive, in addition to the splendid victory of the United States frigate Constitution over the Guerriere, fresh and decisive proof of the naval supremacy of the youthful Republic, in the magnificent triumph achieved by Commodore Oliver H. Perry on the waters of Lake Erie September 10, 1813.

It was here for the first time in the history of the Western World the flag of a British squadron was struck, humiliatingly, to the Americans. Great Britain had already been signally defeated in single naval combats during the War of 1812; she was now beaten in squadron; every one of her ships striking their colors to the Stars and Stripes.

The unexpected and disgraceful surrender of the Northern Army under General Hull to the British rendered a superior force on Lake Erie necessary for the defense of the American territory bordering on the lake, as well as for offensive operations in Canada.

Under those circumstances, Oliver H. Perry, a brave and capable young officer, was designated to the command on Lake Erie. But at this time the United States possessed no naval force on the lake; the only vessels belonging to the Government had been captured at Detroit.

Commodore Perry was directed to locate at Presque Isle, where a peninsula extended a considerable distance into the lake, encircling a harbor, on the borders of which was the port of Erie. He was to build ships, and the only materials at hand were the vast forests—shipbuilders, sailors, naval stores, guns and ammunition were all transported overland by wagons over 400 miles of bad roads from Albany, Buffalo and Philadelphia via Pittsburgh.

In spite of those embarrassments, by August 1, 1813, Perry had provided a flotilla, consisting of the ships Lawrence and Niagara, of twenty guns each, and seven smaller vessels, to wit: One of four guns, one of three, two of two and three of one.

The enemy appeared off the harbor while this navy was being built, but the shallowness of the water prevented their approach where the construction work could be destroyed.

After Perry succeeded in getting his navy into the deep waters of the lake, he proceeded to Put-in Bay, near where the British fleet lay under the guns of the fort. Here he watched the movements of the enemy and awaited a chance to offer battle.

On the morning of September 10, 1813, the enemy was discovered bearing down upon the American force, which immediately prepared to meet them. Perry had nine vessels with fifty-three guns and two swivels. The British fleet consisted of six vessels, carrying sixty-three guns, four howitzers and two swivels.

Perry advised his officers he proposed to bring the enemy to close quarters. As soon, therefore, as the approach of the enemy warranted the display of the signal, every vessel was under sail beating out against the wind with the boats ahead towing the others.

Perry endeavored to beat to the windward of the islands, which interposed between them and the two approaching squadrons, hoping thus to be able to bear down upon the enemy with the wind, but that proved to be too light and baffling, and so much time was lost by tacking that Perry suddenly changed his plans and ordered his ships to run to the leeward of the islands, when his sailing master replied: “Then we’ll have to engage the enemy from the leeward.” “I don’t care,” replied Perry; “to windward or leeward, they will fight today.”

Perry formed his line of battle and the two squadrons slowly approached each other. Realizing they would be in battle by the noon hour, grog and bread were served in advance, and in a moment every man was at quarters. Perry made a round of the deck, from gun to gun, carefully examining each and exchanging cheering words with the men.

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