HISTORY: Warner Beers, 1886, Part 2, Chapter 3, Cumberland County, PA
Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages,
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc. Illustrated. Chicago: Warner, Beers
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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PART II.
HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER III.
INDIAN HISTORY - FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR - PONTIAC'S WAR.
IN this connection it will not be necessary to enter into an extended
history of the Indian nations who at various periods claimed power over
this region. It will be sufficient to state that when the Cumberland
Valley first became known to the European races, and was looked upon as
a place of future colonization, it was virtually in possession of the
aggregation of tribes known as the Six Nations. It has been said that
at the opening of the seventeenth century "the lower valley of the
Susquehanna appears to have been a vast, uninhabited highway, through
which hordes of hostile savages were constantly roaming between the
northern and southern waters, and where they often met in bloody
encounters. The Six Nations were acknowledged as the sovereigns of the
Susquehanna, and they regarded with jealousy and permitted with
reluctance the settlement of other tribes upon its margin."*
The Six Nations - originally the Five Nations until the Tuscaroras of
North Carolina joined them in 1712 - were the Onondagas, Cayugas,
Oneidas, Senecas, Mohawks and Tuscaroras. They were termed the
"Iroquois" by the French. The "Lenni Lenape," or the "original
people," commonly called the Delaware Nation, were divided into three
grand divisions - the Unamis, or Turtle tribes; the Unalachtgos, or
Turkeys, and the Monseys, or Wolf tribes. The first two occupied the
territory along the coast and between the sea and the Kittatinny or
Blue Mountains, with settlements reaching from the Hudson on the east
to the Potomac on the west. The Monseys, a fierce, active and warlike
people, occupied the mountainous country between the Kittatinny and the
sources of the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers. These three divisions
were subdivided into various subordinate classes bearing distinguishing
names. The Lenni Lenape tribes occupying this region soon after the
first settlement of Pennsylvania were the Tuteloes and Nantecokes,
formerly in Maryland and Virginia. The Shawanos, or Shawauese, a
fierce and restless tribe which was threatened with extermination by a
more powerful tribe in the south, sought protection from the northern
tribes whose language was similar to their own, and a portion of them
settled near the forks of the Delaware and on the flats below
Philadelphia. Becoming troublesome they were removed by either the
Delawares or Six Nations to the Susquehanna Valley, and during the
Revolution and the war of 1812 their terrible deeds became matters of
historic record. From them sprang the renowned chieftain Tecumseh (or
Tecumthe). The historian Bancroft, in speaking of the Shawanese, says:
"It was about the year 1698 that three or four score of their families,
with the consent of the government of Pennsylvania, removed from
Carolina and planted themselves on the Susquehanna. Sad were the
fruits of that hospitality. Others followed; and when, in 1732, the
number of Indian fighting men in Pennsylvania was estimated to be 700,
one-half of them were Shawanee emigrants. So desolate was the
wilderness that a vagabond tribe could wander undisturbed from
Cumberland down to the Alabama, from the head waters of the Santee to
the Susquehanna." Some historians believe the Shawanese came north in
1678. They
*Day's Historical Collection of Pennsylvania, pp. 388, 389.
42 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
had a village in Lancaster County, at the mouth of Pequea (or Pequehan)
Creek, and their chief's name was Opessah, and there were several
Indian towns along both sides of the Susquehanna. Those who had
settled at Pequea removed a quarter of a century later to lands on the
Conodoquinet, within the present limits of Cumberland County, with also
a village at the mouth of the Yellow Breeches Creek. They deserted the
villages about 1725, when the whites began to look to it for homes, and
removed westward to the Ohio. The lands on the Conodoquinet were
surveyed for the use of the Indians upon a treaty of purchase being
made by the proprietaries for their lands on the Susquehanna, at the
mouth of the Conestoga and elsewhere. "The intrusion of the white
settlers upon their hunting ground," says Conyngham, "proved a fresh
source of grievance; they remonstrated to the governor and to the
Assembly, and finally withdrew and placed themselves under the
protection of the French. Big Beaver, a Shawanee chief, at the treaty
of Carlisle in 1753, referred to a promise made by William Penn, at
Shackamaxon, of hunting grounds forever." The treaty mentioned was one
"of amity and friendship," made at Carlisle in October, 1753, with the
Ohio Indians, by Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Morris and William Peters,
commissioners. The expense there of, including presents to the
Indians, was 1,400L.
Treaties. - Says Dr. Wing (pp. 14-15 History of Cumberland County):
"For one or two generations at least the land of Penn was never stained
by an Indian with the blood of a white man. Deeds were obtained on
several different occasions during the years 1682-1700 for lands lying
between the Delaware and the Potomac, and south of the South Mountain.
In 1696 a purchase was effected through Gov. Dongan, of New York, in
consideration of one hundred pounds sterling, 'of all that tract of
land lying on both sides of the river Susquehanna and the lakes
adjacent in or near the province of Pennsylvania.' As the right of the
Six Nations to sell this territory was not acknowledged by the various
tribes living on the Susquehanna, Conestoga and Potomac Rivers, other
treaties were entered into with the sachem of these tribes (September
30, 1700, and April 23, 1701), by which their sale was expressly
confirmed. So vague, however, was the language used in these deeds
that a question arose whether the phrases 'lands on both sides of the
Susquehanna and adjoining the same,' would give any rights beyond that
river, and it was thought best to effect another purchase before any
settlement should be allowed on that territory. Accordingly the chiefs
of the Six Nations met October 11, 1736, in Philadelphia, when they
revived all past treaties of friendship and executed a deed conveying
to John, Thomas and Richard Penn and their heirs 'all the said river
Susquehanna, with the lands lying on both sides thereof, to extend
eastward as far as the heads of the branches or springs which run into
the said Susquehanna, and all the land lying on the west side of the
said river to the setting of the sun, and to extend from the mouth of
the said river northward up the same to the hills or mountains called
in the language of said nations Tayamentasachta, and by the Delaware
Indians the Kekachtannin* hills.' This deed included all the lands
comprised in the present county of Cumberland, but was not executed
until a few years after settlements had been commenced there."
Previous to the purchase of 1736, a number of unauthorized
settlements had been made upon the Conodoguinet and Conococheague,
mostly by persons from the north of Ireland, and after the purchase,
but before the lands were surveyed, these settlements were encouraged
for the purpose of preventing intruders coming in under Lord
Baltimore's title. "These settlements," says Day, "gave rise to the
complaints of the Shawanese."
*By other authority Kekachtanamin.
43 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Portrait of A. Bosler
44 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Blank Page
45 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
After Franklin's treaty with the Indians at Carlisle, in 1753, a
dispute arose between the governor and Council, and the Assembly, over
a complaint made by the Shawanese, "that the proprietary government had
surveyed all the land on the Conodoguinet into a manor, and driven them
from their hunting ground without a purchase and contrary to treaty."
The remarks made by Big Beaver at said treaty have been mentioned.
They were mentioned by the Assembly in the dispute, but "by the
governor and Council it was alleged that no such thing had occurred,
and that a treaty held in 1754, the same Shawanee chiefs who were at
Carlisle the year before made the strongest professions of their
friendship, without any complaint on account of the same tract of land.
They alleged, too, that the Shawanese never had any claim to the
Conodoguinet lands; for that they were southern Indians who, being
rendered uneasy by their neighbors, had settled on these lands in 1698,
with the permission of the Susquehanna Indians and the proprietary,
William Penn." However, no compensation being made to the Shawanese,
they removed as stated and put themselves under the protection of the
French and became a source of terror to the colonists because of their
hostility during the great French and Indian war of 1753-60.
Indians belonging to various tribes were met with by the early
settlers. Among them were the Shawanese, Delawares, Susquehannas (of
which people but a remnant was left, the tribe having been swept away
by wars and small-pox), Manticokes, Mingoes, Tuteloes, etc. A Mingo
village is said to have existed on Letort Run, in the neighborhood of
Carlisle and the famous Logan, whose residences were many, if all
tradition be true, is said to have once occupied a cabin on the Beaver
Pond, at the head of Letort Spring. The Shawanees were not so numerous
as in former years, as many of them had removed westward. They had
professed that the lands, being barren, or devoid of large trees were
not suitable for a hunting ground, and for that reason they had left,
but indiscretion on the part of some of their young men, who had in
drunken frolics given offense to the Delawares, had undoubtedly been a
greater reason, although both the Delawares and the Six Nations made
investigations, forgave their offenses, and invited them to return,
which they would not do. Even the proprietary, Thomas Penn, upon his
arrival in 1732, extended the same invitation and assigned them a large
tract of the land they had previously occupied provided they would
return. A few of them did so, and lived peaceably with the settlers.
In order to prevent whites from locating upon the land given to the
Shawanese, a tract containing 7,551 acres was surveyed in 1732 and
erected into a manor called Paxton. The Indians were finally found
unwilling to occupy this land, and it was surveyed December 26, 1764,
and given the name "Louther Manor," in honor of a sister of William
Penn, who married a nobleman of that name. The order for the resurvey
was given December 6, 1764, and returned May 16, 1765, the quantity
being found as above - 7,551 acres. The bounds are described as
follows: "Bounded on the east by the Susquehanna, opposite John
Harris' ferry; north by the Conodoguinet; south by the Yellow Breeches
Creek, and on the west by a line drawn a little westerly from the said
Yellow Breeches to Conodoguinet Creek, containing 7,507 acres or
upward."
The state of mind the Shawanese were in over their pretended wrongs,
and the bargaining away of their land by the Six Nations with little
regard for their welfare, rendered them easy to win from their
friendship to the English. "More than once," says Dr. Wing, "when
messengers were sent to them by the Governor and the Six Nations, they
confessed that they had been mistaken and promised that they would
return, or at least live in peace where they were;
46 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
but every year it became more and more evident that their friendship
was forced, and lasted only while they were in expectation of some
benefits, and that their hostility might be counted upon whenever an
opportunity of vengeance should occur. The Delawares had not as
extensively gone beyond the mountains; the main body adhered to their
chiefs, and were almost supported by the government, but an increasing
number of them were wandering off and were making common cause with the
Shawanees. The 'Indian Walk,' by which a portion of their lands had
been acquired, seemed at least sharp practice, but the injustice had
been more than compensated by subsequent dealings."
The use of liquor among the Indians was the cause of much trouble
between themselves, and to a certain extent between them and the
whites. They knew not how to govern their appetites, and more than
once Indian murders occurred which could be directly traced as the
effects of the liquor the perpetrators had swallowed. It burned any
humanity out of them and made their naturally savage dispositions
wilder and fiercer. It is known that Sassoonan, king of the Delawares,
in 1731 killed his nephew while in a drunken frenzy, and was overcome
with remorse and shame when he became sober, and yet he could not bring
himself to ask that the sale of the poison to the Indians be entirely
prohibited, but only that it might be kept from his people, except as
it was asked for by themselves.
The French began their work of alienating the Shawanese from the
English as early as 1730, desiring to secure their influence in the
furtherance of their own purposes. The following, from a message by
Gov. Gordon to the Provincial Assembly, August 4, 1731, as given in the
provincial record, shows "that by advices lately brought to him by
several traders (from Ohio) in those parts, it appears that the French
have been using endeavors to gain over those Indians (Shawanese) to
their interest, and for this end a French gentleman had come among them
some years since, sent, as it was believed, from the governor of
Montreal, and at his departure last year carried with him some of the
Shawanese chiefs to that government, with whom they at their return
appeared to be highly pleased. That the same French gentleman, with
five or six others in company with him, had this last spring again come
among the said Indians and brought with him a Shawanese interpreter,
and was well received by them." [Rupp's History of Cumberland and
other counties, page 351. The same authority says that
"Hotaquantagechty, a distinguished chief, said, in a council held at
Philadelphia, August 25, 1732, that last fall (1731) the French
interpreter, Cahichtodo, came to the Ohio River (or Allegheny) to build
houses there, and to supply the Indians with goods, etc."]
Settlements by the Scotch-Irish upon unpurchased lands about the
Juniata assisted in fanning the flame of Indian hostility. Yet, in
what is now Cumberland County, these settlements must have been as
stated by Mr. Rupp, made "by permission from the Indians, whom the
first settlers conciliated," for there were no outbreaks here for more
than thirty years after the pioneer locations had been made. Yet it
was evident that a crisis was impending. The provincial government was
hard pressed to provide presents for the Indians, in order to keep them
peaceable and to maintain a line of frontier defense against French
incursions. Finally war was declared between France and England,* and
the storm, which had for so many years been gathering force, broke with
deadly fury upon the mountain region, and sad were the experiences of
the colonists before morning dawned upon a peaceful horizon.
Matters began to look dark for the settlers upon this declaration of
hostil-
*Open hostility was declared in March, 1744, although the actual
strife in Pennsylvania did not break out until 1758, when the French
established posts to connect the lakes with the Ohio.
47 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
ities. The French had encroached upon territory claimed by the
English, and the Six Nations were silent when messages were sent them
concerning the other tribes they had previously held in check.
Chartier, the Indian trader, formerly located at the mouth of the
Yellow Breeches, had made his home with the Shawanese and accepted a
commission in the French Army. He was a half-breed with Shawanese
blood in his veins, and had great influence over that tribe. A
conference was held with the Six Nations at Lancaster June 24, 1744,
when the latter pledged themselves to remain at pence and to do all in
their power to prevent the tribes which owed them allegiance from
indulging in hostile forays. But as a large portion of the Shawanees
and Delawares had gone beyond their jurisdiction, the treaty could not
reach them, and it became the inhabitants to cast about for means of
security and defense. The foolish differences between the governor and
the Assembly for years prevented steps being taken sufficient to allay
fear. Finally, through the sagacity of Benjamin Franklin, aided by
James Logan, 10,000 volunteer militiamen were formed into 120 companies
throughout the provinces, and the expense was met by voluntary
subscriptions. The regiments thus raised were called "Association
regiments," and this was the beginning of a system which continued on
into the Revolutionary war. Bancroft states on the authority of Logan
that "the women were so zealous that they furnished ten pairs of silk
colors wrought with various mottoes." The inhabitants of Lancaster
County, for Cumberland was not yet formed, being largely Scotch-Irish
and naturally warlike and aggressive, entered heartily into the
military spirit. A number of companies was formed in the valley, the
officers being chosen by the soldiers and commissioned by the governor.
The several militia captains in the county were sent letters, dated
December 15, 1745, stating that news had been received that "the French
and their Indian allies were preparing to march during the winter to
the frontiers of Pennsylvania under the conduct of Peter Chartier, who
would not fail to do them all the mischief in his power. The news
served to stir up the people, as may well be imagined, but the alarm
proved groundless. March 29, 1748, a list of officers in an Associated
regiment, raised in "that part of Lancaster which lay between the river
Susquehanna and the lines of this province," was presented to the
provincial council. The officers had been chosen by the men in their
commands and commissioned by the governor, and were as follows:
Colonel - Benjamin Chambers, of Chambersburg; lieutenant colonel -
Robert Dunning, of East Pennsborough; major - William Maxwell, of
Peters; captains - Richard O'Cain, Robert Chambers, of Hopewell; James
Carnaghan, of Hopewell; John Chambers, of Middleton; James Silvers, of
East Pennsborough; Charles Morrow, of Hopewell; George Brown, of West
Pennsborough; James Woods, of Middleton; James McTeer, of East
Pennsborough, and Matthew Dill; lieutenants - William Smith, of Peters;
Andrew Finley, of Lurgan; James Jack, of Hopewell; Jonathan Holmes of
Middleton; Tobias Hendricks, of East Pennsborough; James Dysart, of
Hopewell; John Potter, of Antrim; John McCormick, of East Pennsborough;
William Trindle, of East Pennsborough; Andrew Miller, of East
Pennsborough; Charles McGill, of Guilford; John Winton, of Peters; John
Mitchell, of East Pennsborough; ensigns - John Lesan, John Thompson, of
Hopewell; Walter Davis, of Middleton; Joseph Irwin, of Hopewell; John
Anderson, of East Pennsborough; John Randalls, of Antrim; Samuel
Fisher, of East Pennsborough; Moses Starr, of East Pennsborough; George
Brenan, Robert Meek, of Hopewell; James Wilkey, of Peters, and Adam
Hayes, of West Pennsborough. No invasions of what is now Cumberland
County occurred, and no murders of citizens of this immediate valley
are recorded during this period.
48 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
The home government were in doubt about the legality and expediency
of those associated organizations, but their doubts were easily
removed, and the council, in a letter to the proprietaries dated July
30, 1748, said: "The zeal and industry, the skill and regularity of
the officers have surprised every one, _____ it has been for them a
hard service. The whole has been attended by s___ expense, care and
fatigue as would not have been borne or undertaken by any who were not
warm and sincere friends of the government, and true lovers of their
country. In short, we have by this means, in the opinion of most
strangers, the best militia in America; so that, had the war continued,
we should have been in little pain about any future enterprises of our
enemies. Whatever opinion lawyers or others not fully acquainted with
our unhappy circumstances may entertain of it, it is in our opinion one
of the wisest and most useful measures that was ever undertaken in any
country." The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in October, 1748, did not
affect the American colonies, for the French continued to erect forts
and take other steps until war was precipitated in 1753.
In what is at present Cumberland County, forts - in some instances
mere trading-houses-were erected at various times from 1753 to 1764,
and so far as now known were as follows: Fort Le Tort, a trading-
house, eight miles up the Conodoguinet from Harris' ferry, where the
veteran trader, George Croghan, resided: Fort Franklin, at
Shippensburg, said to have been commenced in 1755; Fort Morris, at
Shippensburg, 1755; Forts Dickey, Ferguson and McAllister, all in 1764.
(These are on authority of an historical map of Pennsylvania issued by
the Pennsylvania Historical Society.) The defeat of Gen. Braddock on
the Monongahela, July 9, 1755, left the frontier in a greatly exposed
condition, and the people were quick to apprehend their dan-
[MISSING LINE]
Gov. Morris visited Carlisle July 10, 1755, for the purpose of sending
on supplies to Braddock and encouraging the people in the midst of
their panic over various Indian depredations and the removal of troops
for their protection from the valley, and while there learned of the
disastrous end of Braddock's expedition. The troops in Pennsylvania
were sent north, and the province was left to take care of itself as
best it could. Large quantities of provisions had been accumulated at
Shippensburg, Carlisle and other points, which the retreating army had
no pressing need for, and it was well for the inhabitants of the
valley. Work on the military road, elsewhere described, was abandoned,
and the people looked to the future with dire forebodings. "News of
contemplated attacks upon the settlements along the frontier from the
Delaware to the Maryland and Virginia line came upon the people in
quick succession, and some actual massacres, burnings and captivities
were reported from the south, west and north. Even before Braddock's
defeat, and when that general with his army had gone only thirty miles
from Fort Cumberland, a party of 100 Indians, under the notorious
Shingas, came to the Big Cove and to the Conoloways (creeks on the
border of Maryland in what is now Fulton County) and killed and took
prisoners about thirty people, and drove the remainder from their
homes."* The fugitives spread the news, and terror and consternation
resulted among the inhabitants of the region, not lessened when warning
was given that an attack had been planned against Shearman's Valley and
the settlements here. "John Potter," says Wing, "the sheriff of
Cumberland County, who resided in the vicinity which had been ravaged,
gathered some companies to resist the assailants, but it was only to
witness the burning buildings, bury the dead and form a gathering of
the fugitives; the nimble foe was
*By Dr. Wing, from Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. II, p. 875.
49 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
always at a distance on some other depredations before the pursuers
reached any point where they had been. James Smith (a brother-in-law
of William Smith, the justice and commissioner on the road), a youth of
eighteen, had been captured with several others while engaged in
conveying provisions along the road, and still larger number up the
river Susquehanna was slain and driven in. Twenty-seven plantations
were reported as utterly desolated in the southwestern part of this
valley and vicinity, and no prospect seemed to be before the people but
that of being given up to the will of the savages."
When Gov. Morris learned in Carlisle of Braddock's defeat he was
importuned by the people to take some steps for their protection. He
issued writs to summon to a meeting on the 23d of July at Philadelphia,
to devise means to defend the frontier and provide for the expense; and
upon request of the people laid out ground for wooden forts at Carlisle
and Shippensburg, and gave orders to have them built and supplied with
arms and ammunition. He at the same time encouraged the inhabitants to
form associations for their own defense, and they scarcely needed a
second bidding. Four companies of militia were formed and supplied
with powder and lead. John Armstrong and William Buchanan, of
Carlisle, Justice William Maxwell, of Peters, Alexander Culbertson, of
Lurgan, and Joseph Armstrong, of Hamilton Townships, received supplies
to distribute among the inhabitants. There was great danger from the
enemy at the upper end of the valley, though no locality was safe.
Petitions were sent to the governor by numerous citizens in the valley,
showing their inability to provide adequate protection for themselves,
and calling upon him for assistance. The people at Shippensburg
offered to finish a fort begun under the late governor if they might be
allowed men and ammunition to defend it.
Dr. Egle in his History of Pennsylvania (pp. 89-90), says: "The
consternation at Braddock's defeat was very great in Pennsylvania. The
retreat of Dunbar left the whole frontier uncovered; whilst the
inhabitants, unarmed and undisciplined, were compelled hastily to seek
the means of defense or of flight. In describing the exposed state of
the province and the miseries which threatened it, the governor had
occasion to be entirely satisfied with his own eloquence; and had his
resolution to defend it equaled the earnestness of his appeal to the
Assembly, the people might have been spared much suffering. The
Assembly immediately voted 50,000L. to the King's use, to be raised by
a tax of 12 pence per pound, and 20 shillings per head, yearly, for two
years, on all estates, real and personal, throughout the province, the
proprietaries estate not excepted. This was not in accordance with the
proprietary instructions, and therefore returned by the governor. In
the long discussions which ensued between the two branches of
government, the people began to become alarmed, as they beheld with
dread the procrastination of the measures for defense, and earnestly
demanded arms and ammunition. The enemy, long restrained by fear of
another attack, and scarcely crediting his senses when he discovered
the defenseless state of the frontiers, now roamed unmolested and
fearlessly along the western lines of Virginia, Maryland and
Pennsylvania, committing the most appalling outrages and wanton
cruelties which the cupidity and ferocity of the savage could dictate.
The first inroads into Pennsylvania were in Cumberland County, whence
they were soon extended to the Susquehanna. The inhabitants, dwelling
at the distance of from one to three miles apart, fell unresistingly,
were captured or fled in terror to the interior settlements. The main
body of the enemy encamped on the Susquehanna, thirty miles above
Harris' ferry, whence they extended themselves on both sides the river,
below the Kittatinny Mountains. The settlements at the Great Cove
50 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
in Cumberland County, now Fulton, were destroyed, and many of the
inhabitants slaughtered or made captives, and the same fate fell upon
Tulpehocken, upon Mahanoy and Gnadenhutten."
As an illustration of the desperate strait the people were in, the
following letter, written to the governor by John Harris, of Harris'
ferry, October 29, 1755, is quoted: "We expect the enemy upon us every
day, and the inhabitants are abandoning their plantations, being
greatly discouraged at the approach of such a number of cruel savages,
and no sign of assistance. The Indians are cutting us off every day,
and I had a certain account of about 1,500 Indians, besides French,
being on their march against us and Virginia, and now close on our
borders, their scouts scalping our families on our frontiers daily.
Andrew Montour and others at Shamokin desired me to take care; that
there was forty Indians out many days, and intended to burn my house
and destroy my family. I have this day cut holes in my house, and it
is determined to hold out to the last extremity if I can get some men
to stand by me, few of which I yet can at present, every one being in
fear of their own families being cut off every hour; such is our
situation. I am informed that a French officer was expected at
Shamokin this week with a party of Delawares and Shawnese, no doubt to
take possession of our river; and, as to the state of the Susquehanna
Indians, a great part of them are actually in the French interest; but
if we should raise such a number of men immediately as would be able to
take possession of some convenient place up the Susquehanna, and build
a strong fort in spite of French or Indians, perhaps some Indians may
join us, but it is trusting to uncertainty to depend upon them, in my
opinion. We ought to insist on the Indians declaring either for or
against us. As soon as we are prepared for them, we must bid up for
scalps and keep the woods full of our own people hunting them, or they
will ruin our province, for they are a dreadful enemy. We impatiently
look for assistance. I have sent out two Indian spies to Shamokin.
They are Mohawks, and I expect they will return in a day or two.
Consider our situation, and rouse your people downward, and do not let
about 1,500 villains distress such a number of inhabitants as is in
Pennsylvania, which actually they will, if they possess our provisions
and frontier long, as they now have many thousands of bushels of our
corn and wheat in possession already, for the inhabitants goes off and
leaves all."*
Gov. Morris, moved by the sad tidings from the frontier, summoned the
Assembly to meet November 3, (1755), when he demanded money and a
militia law, after laying before the body an account of the proceedings
of the enemy. Petitions were constantly coming in for arms and
ammunition, and asking for the taking of such steps as should carry out
the Governor's ideas and afford protection to the inhabitants. With
the Indians committing depredations on the south side of the Blue
Mountains, the obstinate Assembly "fooled along" as if there were no
necessity for action. The proprietaries made a donation of 5,000L.,
and the Assembly finally passed a bill for the issuance of 30,000L. in
bills of credit, based upon the excise, which was approved by the
Governor. The people held public meetings in various places to devise
means to bring the Assembly to its senses, and the dead and mangled
bodies of some of the victims of savage cruelty were sent to
Philadelphia and hauled about the streets, with placards announcing
that they were victims of the "Quaker policy of non-resistance." The
province of Pennsylvania erected a chain of forts and block-houses
along the Kittatinny Hills, from the Delaware to the Maryland line, and
garrisoned them with twenty to seventy-five men each. The whole
expense was 85,000L., and the principal mountain
*Egle's History of Pennsylvania, pp. 90-91.
51 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
passes were guarded by them. Benjamin Franklin and his son William
were leading spirits and raised 500 men, with whom they marched to the
frontier and assisted in garrisoning the forts.
October 30, 1755, about eighteen citizens met at the residence of Mr.
Shippen, of Shippensburg, pursuant to a call by Sheriff John Potter,
and resolved to build five forts: one at Carlisle, Shippensburg,
Benjamin Chambers', Steel's meeting-house and William Allison's,
respectively. Fort Louther at Carlisle, had existed in an uncompleted
state since 1753, and Fort Franklin, which stood in the northeastern
part of Shippensburg, was begun as early as 1740. The latter was a log
structure, and its ruins were torn down about 1790. Fort Morris,
commenced after the meeting of citizens above alluded to, was not
finished until the 17th of December following, although 100 men worked
upon it "with heart and hand" every day. It was built on a rocky hill
at the western end of town, of small stones, the walls being two feet
thick and laid in mortar. A portion of this fort was in existence
until 1886, when it was town down. Its construction was carried on
during an exciting period. Fort Franklin, the log structure, was
enlarged by the addition of several sections, and in 1755 had a
garrison of fifty men. Edward Shippen, writing to William Allen June
30, 1755, tells of murders committed by the Indians "near our fort."
Twenty-five companies of militia, numbering altogether 1,400 men,
were raised and equipped for the defense of the frontier. The second
battalion, comprising 700 men, and stationed west of the Susquehanna,
was commanded by Col. John Armstrong, of Carlisle. His subordinates
were, captains, Hans Hamilton, John Potter, Hugh Mercer, George
Armstrong, Edward Ward, Joseph Armstrong and Robert Callender;
lieutenants, William Thompson, James Hayes, James Hogg, William
Armstrong and James Holliday; ensigns, James Potter, John Prentice,
Thomas Smallman, William Lyon and Nathaniel Cartland.
Four forts were built by the province west of the Susquehanna, viz.:
Fort Lyttleton, in the northern part of what is now Fulton County; Fort
Shirley at Augharich, the residence of George Croghan, where
Shirleysburg now is, in Huntingdon County; Fort Granville, near the
confluence of the Juniata and Kishicoquillas, in Mifflin County, and
Pomfret Castle on the Mahantango Creek, near midway between Fort
Granville and Fort Augusta (Sunbury), on the south line of Snyder
County. Capt. Hans Hamilton commanded Fort Lyttleton; Capt. Hugh
Mercer, Fort Shirley, subsequent to the resignation of Capt. George
Croghan; Col. James Burd, Fort Granville, and Col. James Patterson,
Pomfret Castle. These forts were too far from considerable settlements
to be effectual, and in 1756 John Armstrong advised the building of
another line along the Cumberland Valley, with one at Carlisle. The
old fort (Fort Louther) at Carlisle was simply a stockade of logs, with
loop-holes for muskets, and swivel guns at each corner of the fort. In
1755 it was garrisoned by fifty men; it probably received its name in
1756. Other forts were erected in the valley outside of what is now
Cumberland County, and Col. John Armstrong was at the head of the
military operations. In 1757 breast-works were erected by Col.
Stanwix, northeast of Carlisle, near the present Indian school (old
United States barracks). Col. Stanwix wrote to Secretary Peters, July
25, 1757, as follows: "Am at work at my intrenchment, but as I send
out such large and frequent parties, with other necessary duties, can
only spare about seventy workingmen a day, and these have very often
been interrupted by frequent and violent guests, so that we make but a
small figure yet; and the first month was entirely taken up in clearing
the ground, which was
52 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
full of monstrous stumps. Have built myself a hut in camp, where the
captains and I live together."*
An early writer (1757) upon the mode of warfare adopted by the
Indians thus describes their maneuvers: "They come within a little way
of that part they intend to strike, and encamp in the most remote place
they can find to be quite free from discovery; the next day they send
one, or sometimes two, of their nimble young fellows down to different
places to view the situation of the town, the number of people at each
house, the places the people most frequent, and to observe at each
house whether there are most men or women. They will lie about a house
several days and nights watching like a wolf. As soon as these spies
return they march in the night in small parties of two, three, four or
five, each party having a house for attack, and each being more than
sufficient for the purpose intended. They arrive at their different
destinations long before day, and make their attack about day-break,
and seldom fail to kill or make prisoners of the whole family, as the
people know nothing of the matter until they are thus labyrinthed. It
is agreed that the moment each party has executed its part they shall
retreat with their prisoners and scalps to the remote place of
rendezvous which they left the night before. As soon as they are thus
assembled they march all that day (and perhaps the next night, in a
body if apprehensive of being pursued) directly for the Ohio. Perhaps
at some of these houses thus attacked some of the people may be
fortunate enough to escape; these as soon as the Indians are gone,
alarm the forts and the country around, when a detachment, if possible,
propose to pursue the enemy. But as the whole or the chief part of the
day is spent in assembling, taking counsel, and settling out on the
expedition, the Indians, having eight or ten hours the start, cannot be
overtaken, and they return much fatigued and obliged to put up with
their loss. Upon this the chief part of inhabitants adjacent to the
place fly, leaving their habitations and all they have, while perhaps a
few determine to stay, choosing rather to take the chance of dying by
the enemy than to starve by leaving their all. These must be
constantly on the watch, and cannot apply themselves to any industry,
but live as long as they can upon what they have got. The Indians
avoid coming nigh that place for some time, and will make their next
attack at a considerable distance, where the people are not thinking of
danger. By and by the people who had fled from the first place,
hearing of no encroachments in that quarter, are obliged, through
necessity, to return to their habitations again and live in their
former security. Then in due time the Indians will give them a second
stroke with as much success as the first."
The autumn of 1755 was fraught with terror to the citizens of
Carlisle and vicinity. November 2, John Armstrong wrote Gov. Morris:
"I am of the opinion that no other means than a chain of block-houses
along or near the south side of the Kittatinny Mountain, from
Susquehanna to the temporary line, can secure the lives and properties
of the old inhabitants of this county; the new settlements being all
fled except those in Shearman's Valley, who, if God do not preserve
them, we fear will suffer very soon." Armstrong wrote the same day to
Richard Peters as follows:
CARLISLE, Sunday night, November 2, 1755.
Dear Sir: - Inclosed to Mr. Allen, by the last p__t, I send you a
letter from Harris'; but I believe forgot, through that day's
confusion, to direct it.
You will see our melancholy circumstances by the Governor's letter,
and my opinion of the method of keeping the inhabitants in this
country, which will require all possible dispatch. If we had immediate
assurance of relief a great number would stay, and the inhabitants
should be advertised not to drive off nor waste their beef cattle, etc.
I have
*By a letter from Col. Armstrong dated June 30, 1757, it is known
that Col. Stanwix had begun these intrenchments shortly previous to
that date.
53 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Portrait of S. P. Gorgas
54 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Blank Page
55 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
not so much as sent off my wife, fearing an ill precedent, but must do
it now, I believe, together with the public papers and your own.
There are no inhabitants on Juniata nor on Tuscarora by this time, by
brother William being just come in. Montour and Monaghatootha are
going to the Governor. The former is greatly suspected of being an
enemy in his heart - 'tis hard to tell - you can compare what they say
to the Governor with what I have wrote. I have no notion of a large
army, but of great danger from scouting parties.
January 15-22, 1756, another Indian treaty of amity was held at
Carlisle, when Gov. Morris, Richard Peters, James Hamilton, William
Logan, Joseph Fox (a commissioner from the Assembly) and George Croghan
(interpreter) were present. But seven Indians only were present,
including one chief from the Six Nations and one or two from a portion
of the Delawares. Nevertheless, it was found that the hostile savages
were confined to the Delawares and Shawanese tribes, and even among
them there was a considerable minority opposed to the war. After
taking all matters into consideration it was decided by the Governor to
issue a declaration of war against the Delawares, the Shawanese not
being included, because it was hoped they might be brought back to
their former homes. Therefore, on the 14th of April, 1756, a
proclamation of war was published against the Delaware Indians and all
who were in confederacy with them, excepting a few who had come within
the border and were living in peace. By advice of the Assembly's
commissioners, who deemed any steps, however extreme, wise when the
punishment of the savages and the cessation of hostilities was the
object, rewards were offered as follows, as shown by the colonial
records: "For every male Indian enemy above twelve years of age, who
shall be taken prisoner and be delivered at any fort garrisoned by the
troops in the pay of this province, or at any of the county towns to
the keepers of the common jails, there shall be paid the sum of one
hundred and fifty Spanish dollars or pieces of eight; for the scalp of
every male Indian enemy above the age of twelve years, produced as
evidence of their being killed, the sum of one hundred and thirty
pieces of eight; for every female Indian taken prisoner and brought in
as aforesaid, and for every male Indian prisoner under the age of
twelve years, taken and brought in as aforesaid, one hundred and thirty
pieces of eight; for the scalp of every Indian woman, produced as
evidence of their being killed, the sum of fifty pieces of eight, and
for every English subject that has been taken and carried from this
province into captivity that shall be recovered and brought in, and
delivered at the city of Philadelphia to the governor of this province,
the sum of one hundred and fifty pieces of eight, but nothing for their
scalps, and that there shall be paid to every officer or soldier as are
or shall be in the pay of this province, who shall redeem and deliver
any English subject carried into captivity as aforesaid, or shall take,
bring in and produce any enemy, prisoner or scalp as aforesaid, one-
half of the said several and respective premiums and bounties." Very
few rewards were claimed under this proclamation, and it was not
considered probable that any Indians were killed for the sake of
procuring the bounty.
The proclamation issued in May, 1756, subsequent to that against the
Delawares, declaring war against France, was hardly necessary so far as
the American territory was concerned, for, notwithstanding the treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, the French had kept up their movements in
this country, building forts and inciting the Indians to commit
outrages upon the English settlements, and winning the savages over to
their own standards by arts well plied.
The year 1756 was a dark one for the colonists, to whom the terrible
experiences of Indian warfare were nothing new. Murders were committed
in what was then Cumberland County but now Bedford, Union, Franklin,
Dauph-
56 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
in, Perry and others, the leading spirits among the Indians being
Shingas and Capt. Jacobs. Samuel Bell, residing on the Stony Ridge,
five miles below Carlisle, had a lively experience, which is thus told
by Loudon: "Some time after Gen. Braddock's defeat, he and his
brother, James Bell, agreed to go into Shearman's Valley to hunt for
deer, and were to meet at Croghan's (now Sterret's) Gap, on the Blue
Mountain. By some means or other they did not meet, and Samuel slept
all night in a cabin belonging to Mr. Patton, on Shearman's Creek. In
the morning he had not traveled far before he spied three Indians who
at the same time saw him. They all fired at each other; he wounded one
of the Indians, but received no damage except through his clothes by
the balls. Several shots were fired on both sides, as each took a
tree. He took out his tomahawk and stuck it into the tree behind which
he stood, so that should they approach he might be prepared; the tree
was grazed with the Indians' balls, and he had thoughts of making his
escape by flight, but on reflection had doubts of his being able to out
run them. After some time the two Indians took the wounded one and put
him over a fence, and one took one course and the other another, taking
a compass, so that he could no longer screen himself by the tree; but
by trying to ensnare him they had to expose themselves, by which means
he had the good fortune to shoot one of them dead. The other ran and
took the dead Indian on his back, one leg over each shoulder. By this
time Bell's gun was again loaded. He then ran after the Indian until
he came within about four yards from him, fired and shot through the
dead Indian and lodged his ball in the other, who dropped the dead man
and ran off. On his return, coming past the fence where the wounded
Indian was, he dispatched him but did not know that he had killed the
third Indian until his bones were found afterward."
February 15, 1756, William Trent, in writing from Carlisle, stated
that "several murders or captures and house burnings had taken place
under Parnell's Knob, and that all the people between Carlisle and the
North Mountain had fled from their homes and come to town, or were
gathered into the little forts, that the people in Shippensburg were
moving their families and effects, and that everybody was preparing to
fly."* Shingas kept the upper end of the county in a state of terror,
and fresh outrages were reported daily. The Indians killed,
indiscriminately, men women and children, and received rewards from the
French for their scalps; they boasted that they killed fifty white
people for each Indian slain by the English. Inhabitants of the Great
Cove fled from their homes in November, with the crackling of their
burning roofs and the yells of the Indians ringing in their ears. John
Potter, formerly sheriff, sheltered at his house one night 100 fleeing
women and children. The cries of the widows and fatherless children
were pitiful, and those who had fortunately escaped with their lives
had neither food, bedding nor clothing to cover their nakedness,
everything having been consumed in their burning dwellings. "Fifty
persons," so it is recorded, "were killed or taken prisoners. One
woman, over ninety years of age, was found lying dead with her breasts
torn off and a stake driven through her body. The infuriated savages
caught up little children and dashed their brains out against the door-
posts in presence of their shrieking mothers, or cut off their heads
and drank their warm blood. Wives and mothers were tied to trees that
they might witness the tortures and death of their husbands and
children, and then were carried into a captivity from which few ever
returned. Twenty-seven houses were burned, a great number of cattle
were killed or driven off, and out of the ninety-three families settled
in the two coves and by the Conolloway's, members of forty-seven fam-
*Dr. Wing, from Pennsylvania Archives.
57 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
ilies were either killed or captured and the remainder fled, so that
these settlements were entirely broken up." Small wonder that such
circumstances excited the people of the Cumberland Valley!
Preparations were made at Shippensburg and Carlisle, where the people
flocked in such numbers as to crowd the houses, to give the enemy a
warm reception, and 400 men (of whom 200 were from this part of the
valley) marched under the command of Hans Hamilton, sheriff of York
County, to McDowell's Mill, in Franklin County, a few miles from the
scene of the slaughter, but the Indians had retreated. Rev. John
Steel, pastor of the "Old White Church," of Upper West Conococheague,
raised a company among his parishioners for defense of their church and
individual property in 1755, and was commissioned captain. The church
was afterward burned, the congregation scattered, and Mr. Steel removed
to Carlisle in 1758.
April 2, 1756, a body of Indians attacked and burned McCord's fort,
on the Conococheague, in what is now Franklin County, killing and
capturing a total of twenty-seven persons. The alarm extended to
Shippensburg, and three companies were raised in various parts of the
valley, for the pursuit and punishment of the marauders, commanded
respectively by Capts. Culbertson, Chambers and Hamilton. Capt. Alex
Culbertson's company with nineteen men from the other two, overtook the
Indians west of Sideling Hill and a fight ensued which lasted two
hours. The Indians, from the report made by one of their number who
was captured, lost seventeen killed and twenty-one wounded. The whites
suffered severely. Among those killed were Capt. Culbertson, John
Reynolds (ensign of Capt. Chambers' company), William Kerr, James
Blair, John Leason, William Denny, Francis Scott, William Boyd, James
Paynter, Jacob Jones, Robert Kerr and William Chambers; wounded,
Francis Campbell, Abraham Jones, William Reynolds, John Barnet,
Benjamin Blyth, John McDonald and Isaac Miller.
Another party, commanded by Ensign Jamison, from Fort Granville,
under Capt. Hamilton, in pursuit of the same Indians, had about the
same experiences, losing Daniel McCoy, James Robinson, James Peace,
John Blair, Henry Jones, John McCarty and John Kelly, killed; and
Ensign Jamison, James Robinson, William Hunter, Matthias Ganshorn,
William Swails and James Louder, wounded - the latter afterward died of
his wounds. Most of those men were from the oldest and most
respectable families in Cumberland County.
All around the settlements in this county outrages were frequent and
the number of lives taken was appalling, considering the sparsely
settled condition of the country. Bands of Indians even ventured
within a few miles of Carlisle. The military were employed in
protecting men harvesting their crops in 1756, and it was necessary for
all persons to be ever on the alert to guard against surprise and
attack. In June, 1756, a Mr. Dean, living about a mile east of
Shippensburg, was found murdered in his cabin, his skull cleft with a
tomahawk. It was supposed a couple of Indians seen in the neighborhood
the day before had committed the deed. On the 6th of the same month, a
short distance east of where Burd's Run crosses the road leading from
Shippensburg to the Middlespring church, a party of Indians killed John
McKean and John Agnew and captured Hugh Black, William Carson, Andrew
Brown, James Ellis and Alex McBride. A party of citizens from
Shippensburg pursued the Indians through McAllister's Gap into Path
Valley, and on the morning of the third day out met all the prisoners
except James Ellis, and on their return home, they having escaped.
Ellis was never afterward heard from. The pursuers returned with the
men who had escaped, further pursuit being useless.
58 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Many other instances of murders and kindred outrages by the Indians
might be mentioned, for the history of that dread time teems with them,
but it is not necessary to recount them. Enough has been said to show
the terrible state the region was in, and the horrid tales are dropped
to tell of an expedition in which the whites took the initiative.*
Gov. Morris was superseded on the 20th of August, 1756, by Gov.
William Denny, but before the latter's arrival he (Morris), in view of
the constant cries for help from the frontier, and especially from East
Pennsborough Township, Cumberland County, and the upper portion of the
county, whose inhabitants sent in urgent petitions for aid, had
arranged with Col. Armstrong for a movement against the Indian town of
Kittanning, on the Allegheny River, about twenty miles above Fort
DuQuesne, in what is now Armstrong County. The place was the chief
stronghold of the red men, was the base of their operations eastward
and toward the Ohio, and was the home of both Shingas and Capt.
Jacobs.** There were also held a considerable number of white
prisoners. A small army was organized under the command of Lieut. Col.
John Armstrong, consisting of seven companies, *** whose captains were
John Armstrong, Hans Hamilton, Dr. Hugh Mercer, Edward Ward, Joseph
Armstrong, John Potter, and Rev. John Steel. The command set out in
August, 1756, and at the dawn of the 7th (8th?) of September made the
attack on the Indian town, which was totally destroyed, together with
large quantities of ammunition. Capt. Jacobs and his nephew were
killed, and few, if any, escaped the avenging hand of the officer,
whose rapid march and well executed plans won for him the approval of
his people. The corporation of Philadelphia voted him a medal for his
exploit.**** This disaster to the Indians led them to remove to the
Muskingum, in Ohio, but served only for a short time to check their
operations in Pennsylvania. The year 1757 was fraught with unabated
horrors. Cumberland County, with others, was kept in a state of
continual alarm, although in May of that year another conference was
held with the Indians at Lancaster to try and bring about peace. The
western Indians
*At one period (1750-55) there was a noted person in the valley who
figured conspicuously in movements against the Indians. He was known
as "Captain Jack," "the black hunter," "the black rifle," "the wild
hunter of the Juniata," "the black hunter of the forest," etc. He was
a white man, an early comer to the region, and happy and contented in
his occupations of fishing and hunting, until the Indians, one day when
he was absent, burned his cabin and murdered his wife and children.
Then he became imbued with a spirit of revenge, and his exploits
rendered him famous. He was a dead shot with the rifle, a terror to
the Indians, and greatly respected and appreciated by the scattered
settlers, whose lives and property he was more than once the means of
saving. It is said of him that "he never shot without good cause. His
look was as unerring as his aim. He formed an association to defend
the settlers against savage aggressions. On a given signal they would
unite. Their exploits were heard of in 1756 on the Conococheague and
Juniata." - [Egle's Hist. Of Pa., p. 616.] He was also sometimes
called the "Half Indian." Through Col. Croghan he proffered his aid to
Gen. Braddock, in the latter's disastrous campaign, and Croghan, in
recommending him to the General, said; "He will march with his
hunters; they are dressed in hunting shirts, moccasins, etc., are well
armed, and are equally regardless of heat or cold. They require no
shelter for the night, they ask no pay." This character, it appears,
in a letter written from Carlisle in 1754, as well as one the previous
year by John O'Neal to Gov. Hamilton, was also known as "Captain Joel."
He was given a captain's commission in 1758. The movements of himself
and his band of rangers were very rapid, and the mention of his name,
like those of Brady, Boone, Logston, Kenton and others, struck terror
to the hearts of his painted foemen.
**Capt. Jacobs was a large man, very powerful and exceedingly cruel.
Shingas was not as large, but made up for his stature in ferocity.
Capt. Jacobs' nephew, who with him was killed in Armstrong's attack
upon Kittanning, was said to be seven feet tall.
***Most authorities place the total number of men at 300; some give
it 280.
****From Col. Armstrong's report of the affair to Gov. Denny it is
learned that the casualties among the volunteers were as follows: From
his own company - Killed, Thos. Power, John McCormick; wounded, Lieut.-
Col. Armstrong (in the shoulder by a musket ball), James Carothers,
James Strickland, Thomas Foster, Capt. Hamilton's company - Killed,
John Kelly. Capt. Mercer's company - Killed, John Baker, John
McCartney, Patrick Mullen, Cornelius McGinnis, Theophilus Thompson,
Dennis Kilpatrick, Bryan Croghan; wounded, Richard Fitzgibbons;
missing, Capt. Hugh Mercer (wounded, but found to have been carried
away safely by his men), Ensign John Scott, Emanuel Menisky, John
Taylor, John _____, Francis Philips, Robert Morrow, Thomas Burke,
Philip Pendergrass. Capt. Armstrong's company - Killed: Lieut. James
Hogg, James Alderson, Holdcraft Siringer, Edward O'Brian, James
Higgins, John Leeson; wounded, William Fridley, Robert Robinson, John
Ferrol, Thomas Camplin, Charles O'Neill; missing, John Lewis, William
Hunter, William Baker, George Appleby, Anthony Grissy, Thomas Swan.
Capt. Ward's company - Killed, William Walsh; wounded, Ephraim Bratton;
missing, Patrick Myers, Laurence Donnahan, Samuel Chambers. Capt.
Potter's company - Wounded, Ensign James Potter, Andrew Douglass.
Capt. Steel's company - Missing, Terrence Cannabery. Total - killed
17; wounded 13; missing 19 - 19 in all. Seven captives were recovered
and a number of Indians taken prisoners. Thirty or forty warriors were
slain,
59 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
however, would hear to nothing, and it became evident that subduing
them by force of arms was the only sure method. Col. Stanwix was at
Carlisle building intrenchments, and Col. Armstrong had two companies,
part stationed at Carlisle and part at Shippensburg. These two
officers did all in their power to protect the citizens and punish the
savages, but they were handicapped in numerous regards. Murders were
frequent in the upper part of Cumberland (now Franklin) County, and the
lower portion was not without its visitations of bloodshed. May 18,
1757, William Walker and another man were killed near a private fort
called McCormick's, on the Conodoguinet, in East Pennsborough; two men
were killed and five taken prisoners near Shippensburg on the 6th of
June; Joseph Mitchell, James Mitchell, William Mitchell, John Finlay,
Robert Steenson, Andrew Enslow, John Wiley, Allen Henderson, William
Gibson and an Indian were killed in a harvest field near Shippensburg,
July 19, and Jane McCommon, Mary Minor, Janet Harper and a son of John
Finlay were captured or missing at the same time; four men were killed
July 11 near Tobias Hendricks', who lived on and had charge of Louther
Manor, six miles from the Susquehanna, in East Pennsborough, and two
men were killed or carried off near the same place September 8, while
out hunting horses, July 18, in a harvest field a mile east of
Shippensburg, belonging to John Cesna, Dennis O'Neiden and John
Kirkpatrick were killed, and Mr. Cesna, his two grandsons, and a son of
Kirkpatrick were made prisoners and carried off. Others working in the
field happened to be concealed from the view of the Indians, and
escaped without injury. There was little rest from anxiety until after
the expeditions of 1758 and the capture of Fort DuQuesne, with the
building upon its ruins of Fort Pitt, which remained under English rule
while the mother country had jurisdiction over the American colonies.
The troops were mostly disbanded in 1759 by act of Assembly, which body
imagined the war was ended. Practically for this region it was so,
although the two powers met in conflict afterward on the northern
frontier.
The inhabitants enjoyed for a brief period immunity from danger and
rejoiced that peace smiled upon the valley. A worthless Delaware
Indian called "Doctor John" who had for two years lived in a cabin near
the Conodoguinet and not far from Carlisle, was killed in February,
1760, together with his wife and two children, by whites; and though he
had talked contemptuously about the soldiers, and boasted of having
killed sixty white people with his own arm the event was looked upon as
untoward by the inhabitants of the region, who feared the vengeance of
the tribe and steps were taken to apprehend and punish the murderers.
Several arrests were made, but the more guilty parties fled and were
not found, while the others were released as they could scarcely be
convicted on hearsay evidence. Very likely the people were glad the
Indians were out of the way, for they had no pleasing recollections of
their fiendish fellows.
Presently, however, came the dread news that a more desperate war was
to be waged under the leadership of the wonderful western chieftain,
Pontiac, and close upon the heels of the alarm followed actual invasion
of the country bordering the valley, with a renewal of the horrid
scenes of previous years. July 5, 1763, a gentleman wrote from
Carlisle to Secretary Peters as follows: "On the morning of yesterday
horsemen were seen rapidly passing through Carlisle. One man rather
fatigued, who stopped to get some water, hastily replied to the
question, 'What news?' 'Bad enough! Presque Isle, Le Beuf and Venango
have been captured, their garrisons massacred, with the exception of
one officer and seven men who fortunately made their escape from Le
Beuf. Fort Pitt was briskly attacked on the 22d of June, but succeeded
in repelling the as-
60 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
sailants.' Thus saying he put spurs to his horse and was soon out of
sight. From others I have accounts that the Bedford militia have
succeeded in saving Fort Ligonier. Nothing could exceed the terror
which prevailed from house to house, from town to town. The road was
nearly covered with women and children flying to Lancaster and
Philadelphia. Rev. Thomson, pastor of the Episcopal Church, went at
the head of his congregation to protect and encourage them on the way.
A few retired to the breastworks for safety. The alarm once given
could not be appeased. We have done all that men can do to prevent
disorder. All our hopes are turned upon Bouquet."
The following extracts of letters written from Carlisle in July,
1763, and published at the time in the Pennsylvania Gazette at
Philadelphia, will also serve to show the condition of affairs then
existing in the valley:*
CARLISLE, July 12, 1763.
I embrace this first leisure since yesterday morning to transmit you
a brief account of our present state of affairs here, which indeed is
very distressing, every day almost affording some fresh object to
awaken the compassion, alarm the fears, or kindle into resentment and
vengeance every sensible breast; while flying families, obliged to
abandon house and possession to save their lives by a hasty escape;
mourning widows, bewailing their husbands, surprised and massacred by
savage rage; tender parents, lamenting the fruit of their own bodies,
cropped in the very bloom of life by a barbarous hand, with relations
and acquaintance pouring out sorrow for murdered neighbors and friends,
present a varied scene of mingled distress.
When, for some time after striking at Bedford the Indians appeared
quiet, nor struck any other part of our frontiers, it became the
prevailing opinion that our forts and communication were so peculiarly
the object of their attention; that, till at lest after harvest, there
was little prospect of danger to our inhabitants over the hills, and to
dissent from this generally received sentiment was political heresy,
and attributed to timidity rather than judgment, till too early
conviction has decided the point in the following manner:
On Sunday morning, the 10th instant, about 9 or 10 o'clock, at the
house of one William White, on Juniata, between thirty and forty miles
hence, there being in said house four men and a lad, the Indians came
rushing upon and shot White at the door, just stepping out to see what
the noise meant. Our people then pulled in White, and shut the door;
but observing through a window the Indians setting fire to the house,
they attempted to force their way out at the door. But the first that
stepped out being shot down, they drew him in and again shut the door,
after which one attempting an escape out of a window on the loft was
shot through the head, and the lad wounded in the arm. The only one
now remaining - William Riddle - broke a hole through the roof of the
house, and an Indian, who saw him looking out, alleged he was about to
fire on him, withdrew, which afforded Riddle an opportunity to make his
escape. The house, with the other four in it, was burned down, as one
McMachon informs, who was coming to it, not suspecting Indians, and was
by them fired at and shot through the shoulder, but made his escape.
The same day about dinner time, at about a mile and a half from said
White's, at the house of Robert Campbell, six men being in the house,
as they were dining three Indians rushed in at the door, and after
firing among them and wounding some they tomahawked in an instant one
of the men, whereupon one George Dodds, one of the company, sprang back
into the room, took down a rifle, shot an Indian through the body who
was just presenting his piece to shoot him. The Indian being mortally
wounded staggered, and letting his gun fall was carried off by three
more. Dodds, with one or two more, getting upon the loft, broke the
roof in order to escape, and looking out saw one of the company,
Stephen Jeffries, running, but very slowly by reason of a wound in the
breast, and an Indian pursuing, and it is thought he could not escape,
nor have we heard of him since, so that it is past dispute he also is
murdered. The first that attempted getting out of the loft was fired
at and drew back. Another attempting was shot dead, and of the six
Dodds was the only one who made his escape. The same day about dusk,
about six or seven miles up Tuscarora and about twenty-eight or thirty
miles hence, they murdered one William Anderson, together with a boy
and a girl, all in one house. At White's were seen at least five, some
say eight or ten Indians, and at Campbell's about the same number. On
Monday, the 11th, a party of about twenty-four went over from the upper
part of Shearman's Valley to see how matters were. Another party of
twelve or thirteen went over from the upper part of said valley, and
Col. John Armstrong, with Thomas Wilson, Esq., and a party of between
thirty and forty from this town, to reconnoiter and assist in bringing
in the dead.
Of the first and third parties we have heard nothing yet, but of the
party of twelve six are coming in, and inform that they passed through
the several places in Tuscarora and saw the houses in flames or burnt
entirely down. That the grain that had been reaped the
*See Rupp's History of Cumberland and other Counties, pp. 130-143.
61 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Indians burnt in shocks, and had set the fences on fire where the grain
was unreaped; that the hogs had fallen upon and mangled several of the
dead bodies; that the said company of twelve, suspecting danger, durst
not stay to bury the dead; that after they had returned over the
Tuscarora Mountain, about one or two miles this side of it and about
eighteen or twenty from hence (Carlisle, Penn.), they were fired on by
a large party of Indians, supposed about thirty, and were obliged to
fly; that two, viz., William Robinson and John Graham, are certainly
killed, and four more are missing, who it is thought have fallen into
the hands of the enemy, as they appeared slow in flight, most probably
wounded, and the savages pursued with violence. What further mischief
has been done we have not heard, but expect every day and hour some
more messages of melancholy news.
In hearing of the above defeat we sent out another party of thirty or
upward, commanded by our high sheriff, Mr. Dunning, and Mr. William
Lyon, to go in quest of the enemy or fall in with and reinforce our
other parties. There are also a number gone out from about three miles
below this, so that we now have over the hills upward of eighty or
ninety volunteers scouring the woods. The inhabitants of Shearman's
Valley, Tuscarora, etc., are all come over, and the people of this
valley, near the mountain, are beginning to move in, so that in a few
days there will be scarcely a house inhabited north of Carlisle. Many
of our people are greatly distressed through want of arms and
ammunition, and numbers of those beat off their places have hardly
money enough to purchase a pound of powder.
Our women and children I suppose must move downward if the enemy
proceeds. Today a British vengeance begins to rise in the breasts of
our men. One of them that fell from among the twelve, as he was just
expiring, said to one of his fellows: "Here, take my gun and kill the
first Indian you see, and all shall be well."
Another letter dated at Carlisle July 13, has the following: "Last
night Col. Armstrong returned. He left the party who pursued further,
and found several dead, whom they buried in the best manner they could,
and are now all returned in. From what appears the Indians are
traveling from one place to another along the valley, burning the farms
and destroying all the people they meet with. This day gives an
account of six more being killed in the valley, so that since last
Sunday morning to this day, twelve o'clock, we have a pretty authentic
account of the number slain being twenty-five, and four or five
wounded. The Colonel, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Alricks are now on the parade
endeavoring to raise another party to go out and succor the sheriff and
his party, consisting of fifty men, which marched yesterday, and I hope
they will be ale to send off immediately twenty good men. The people
here, I assure you, want nothing but a good leader and a little
encouragement to make a very good defense."
July 28, 1763, the editor of the Pennsylvania Gazette printed the
following: "Our advices from Carlisle are as follows, viz. That the
party under the sheriff, Mr. Dunning, mentioned in our last, fell in
with the enemy at the house of one Alexander Logan, in Shearman's
Valley, supposed to be about fifteen or upward, who had murdered the
said Logan, his son and another man, about two miles from said house,
and mortally wounded a fourth who is since dead; and that at the time
of their being discovered they were rifling the house and shooting down
the cattle, and it is thought about to return home with the spoil they
had got. That our men, on seeing them, immediately spread themselves
from right to left with a design to surround them, and engaged the
savages with great courage, but from their eagerness rather too soon,
as some of the party had not got up when the skirmish began; that the
enemy returned our first fire very briskly, but our people, regardless
of that, rushed upon them, when they fled and were pursued a
considerable way till thickets secured their escape, four or five of
them, it was thought, being mortally wounded; that our parties had
brought in with them what cattle they could collect, but that great
numbers were killed by the Indians, and many of the horses that were in
the valleys carried off; that on the 21st, the morning, news was
brought of three Indians being seen about 10 o'clock in the morning;
one Pummeroy and his wife, and the wife of one Johnson, were surprised
in a house between Ship-
62 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
pensburg and the North Mountain and left there for dead; but that one
of the women, when found, showing some signs of life, was brought to
Shippensburg, where she lived some hours in a most miserable condition,
being scalped, one of her arms broken, and her skull fractured with the
stroke of a tomahawk; and that since the 10th inst., there was an
account of fifty-four persons being killed by the enemy!
"That the Indians had set fire to houses, barns, corn, wheat, rye,
and hay - in short, to everything combustible - so that the whole
country seemed to be in one general blaze; that the miseries and
distress of the poor people were really shocking to humanity, and
beyond the power of language to describe; that Carlisle was becoming
the barrier, not a single inhabitant being beyond it; that every stable
and hovel in the town was crowded with miserable refugees, who were
reduced to a state of beggary and despair, their houses, cattle and
harvest destroyed, and from a plentiful, independent people they were
become real objects of charity and commiseration; that it was most
dismal to see the streets filled with people in whose countenances
might be discovered a mixture of grief, madness and despair; and to
hear now and then the sighs and groans of men, the disconsolate
lamentations of women, and the screams of children, who had lost their
nearest and dearest relations; and that on both sides of the
Susquehanna, for some miles, the woods were filled with poor families
and their cattle, who made fires and lived like savages, exposed to the
inclemencies of the weather."
Letter dated at Carlisle July 30, 1763: "On the 25th a considerable
number of the inhabitants of Shearman's Valley went over, with a party
of soldiers to guard them, to attempt saving as much of their grain as
might be standing, and it is hoped a considerable quantity will yet be
preserved. A party of volunteers, between twenty and thirty, went to
the farther side of the valley, next to the Tuscarora Mountain, to see
what appearance there might be of the Indians, as it was thought they
would almost probably be there if anywhere in the settlement - to
search for and bury the dead at Buffalo Creek, and to assist the
inhabitants that lived along or near the foot of the mountain in
bringing off what they could, which services they accordingly
performed, burying the remains of three persons, but saw no marks of
Indians having lately been there, excepting one track, supposed to be
about two or three days old, near the narrows of Buffalo Creek Hill,
and heard some hallooing and firing of a gun at another place. A
number of the inhabitants of Tuscarora Valley go over the mountain to-
morrow, with a party of soldiers, to endeavor to save part of the
crops. Five Indians were seen last Sunday, about sixteen or seventeen
miles from Carlisle, up the valley toward the North Mountain, and two
the day before yesterday, about five or six miles from Shippensburg,
who fired at a young man but missed him.
"On the 25th of July there were in Shippensburg 1,384 of our poor,
distressed back inhabitants, viz.: men, 301; women, 345; children,
738, many of whom were obliged to lie in barns, stables, cellars and
under old leaky sheds, the dwelling-houses being all crowded."
Indians were also occasionally seen in the valley after Bouquet had
left, and occasionally some of the inhabitants were fired upon within a
few miles of Carlisle. Where is the wonder that the stricken people
looked so eagerly to Bouquet for deliverance, or that they suspected
and mistrusted every being in the shape of an Indian, whether
professedly friendly or otherwise! Such terrible experiences were
sufficient to foster all the fiendishness of revenge in the breasts of
the afflicted, and the great wonder at the present day is that they did
not resolve upon and enter into a war of extermination of the red race.
63 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Portrait of S. B. Kieffer A. M., M. D.
64 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Blank Page
65 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Upon the outbreak of the savages the Assembly had ordered the raising
of 700 men to protect the frontier during the harvest, but almost
without effect. The safety of the garrison at Fort Pitt was the cause
of anxiety, and finally Col. Henry Bouquet was ordered to march to its
relief. This he did with barely 500 men, the remnants of two shattered
regiments of regulars - the Forty-second and Seventy-second - lately
returned from the West Indies in a debilitated condition, together with
200 rangers (six companies) raised in Lancaster and Cumberland
Counties. Although depending so greatly upon him, the inhabitants of
Carlisle and vicinity were in such a state of terror and utter
consternation that they had taken no steps to prepare provisions for
him and his little army, and they arrived at Carlisle to find matters
there and along the line of march in a desperate condition, though
several quite heavy contributions had been raised by various
congregations in Philadelphia and sent for their relief. Instead,
therefore, of the inhabitants being able to lend him aid, they were
dependent upon him, and he was forced to lie at Carlisle eighteen days
until supplies could be sent for and received. By this time the people
had regained courage and confidence in themselves, although the
appearance of Bouquet's army led them to expect little from its
expedition. Most happily were they disappointed, however, for the
Colonel's successful march, his relief of Fort Ligonier, his terrible
thirty-six hours fight at Bushy Run with the Indians, who were defeated
and driven from the field, his relief of Fort Pitt, and his subsequent
expedition against the Indians in Ohio, with the treaty on terms of his
own dictation, and the release of many white prisoners who were
returned to his own dictation, and the release of many white prisoners
who were returned to their homes, are all matters of history. Bouquet
became the savior of the region, and to his memory let all honor be
accorded. The Indians committed outrages along the frontier in 1764,
but an army of 1,000 men was raised, of which a battalion of eight
companies of 380 men, mostly from Cumberland County - commanded by
Lieut. Col. John Armstrong, with Capts. William Armstrong, Samuel
Lindsey, James Piper, Joseph Armstrong, John Brady, William Piper,
Christopher Line and Timothy Green, with a few under Lieut. Finley -
was sent against them under Col. Bouquet, who pierced to the very heart
of their western stronghold, and compelled them to accede the terms
above mentioned. The battalion of provincial troops from this county
was paid off and mustered out of service, the arms were delivered to
the authorities, and the long and dreadful Indian war, with all its
attendant sickening horrors, was at an end.
The people had little confidence, however, in the Indians, and were
not disposed to place in their hands any weapons or materials which
would give them the slightest advantage over the whites, at least until
their new relations had time to become fixed. It had been agreed that
trade should be opened with the Indians, and large quantities of goods
were gathered in places for the purpose before the governor issued his
proclamation authorizing trading. This led to the destruction of a
large quantity of goods in which Capt. Robert Collender, a flouring-
mill proprietor near Carlisle, was part owner, the goods having been
started westward. A party under James Smith, who had done service
under Braddock, Forbes and Bouquet, waylaid them near Sideling Hill,
killed a number of horses, made the escort turn back, burned sixty-
three loads, and made matters exceedingly lively, when a squad was sent
out to capture the rioters. Smith afterward acknowledged himself too
hasty. He was subsequently arrested on suspicion of murder and lodged
in jail at Carlisle in 1769. An attempt was made to rescue him, but he
dissuaded the party, and upon his trial was acquitted. He became a
distinguished Revolutionary officer and member of the Legislature.
66 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Another occurrence, which might have resulted seriously for the
settlers, was the murder of ten friendly Indians in the lower part of
Shearman's Valley, on Middle Creek, in January, 1768, by Frederick
Stump and an employe of his named Hans Eisenhauer (John Ironcutter).
The authorities captured the murderers and placed them in jail in
Carlisle, although the warrant for their arrest charged that they be
brought before the chief justice at Philadelphia. That step the people
of Cumberland County resisted, claiming it was encroaching upon their
rights to try the men in the county where the crime was committed.
They were detained at Carlisle until the pleasure of the authorities at
Philadelphia could be ascertained, and were rescued by a large armed
party on the morning of the 29th of January, four days after their
arrest. The prisoners were carried away over the mountains and were
never afterward found, though it was the opinion that they got away and
took refuge in Virginia. The matter was finally dropped after the heat
of the affair was over.