Chapter XIV: Section 8: provided minute directions for the distribution of the tracts (2)

It was not until 1729, therefore, that the extension of the settlements and the purchase of new lands from the Indians led to the erection of Lancaster County. At that time the Susquehanna River marked the western limit of the land purchased from the Indians in the province. But the purchase of October 11, 1736, opened a triangular area west of the river, which was attached to Lancaster until the convenience of the increasing settlements in this region in 1749 demanded the erection of York County, and a year later for the erection of Cumberland County.

The northern extension of these counties was limited by the Indian boundary line, marked by the Kittatinny Range.

Again the extension of settlements and the treaty of August 22, 1749, demanded new county organizations, and in 1752 Berks and Northampton were formed to include in their jurisdiction the northern portions of the older counties and the newly acquired territory between the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers. Berks embraced the larger area.

Additional territory west of the Susquehanna was acquired from the Indians by the treaties of 1754 and 1758, which made the outlying county of Cumberland too large for the convenience of its inhabitants, and in 1771 Bedford County was erected.

A similar development was rapidly taking place east of the Susquehanna, occasioned by the activity about Fort Augusta, at the Forks of the Susquehanna, and the Pennamite-Yankee War, which was being waged for possession of the territory in the Wyoming Valley and elsewhere, claimed by the Susquehanna Company of Connecticut, and the treaty of November 5, 1768, added much new territory.

By an act passed March 21, 1772, the County of Northumberland was erected out of parts of the counties of Lancaster, Cumberland, Berks, Bedford and Northampton. The bounds of the new county stretched to the New York-Pennsylvania boundary line on the north and to the Allegheny River on the west, including in its extensive territory the present-day counties of Susquehanna, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wyoming, Bradford, Sullivan, Columbia, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, Union, Lycoming, Tioga, Potter, Clinton, Cameron, Elk, McKean, Forest, Jefferson, Clarion and parts of Schuylkill, Center, Mifflin, Juniata, Clearfield, Indiana, Armstrong, Venango and Warren.

It is with eminent propriety this tenth county of Pennsylvania has been frequently styled “Old Mother Northumberland,” and each of her twenty-nine children refer back to her for their earliest political history.

Its greatest proportions were attained in 1785, when, by the Act of April 9, all that part of the purchase of October 22, 1784, east of the Conewango Creek and Allegheny River was placed within its limits. The county thus extended along the northern line of the State as far west as the Conewango Creek, which crosses the New York-Pennsylvania boundary line in Warren County, and from the Lehigh River to the Allegheny River, with a maximum width of nearly two-thirds that of the State. The extent of this region exceeds that of several States of the Union.

By the Act of September 24, 1788, Allegheny County was created, including all the territory in the State north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers, and from this territory, by act of March 12, 1800, the counties of Beaver, Butler, Mercer, Crawford, Erie, Warren, Venango and Armstrong were erected. Thus it would seem that the first five of these should be added with the offspring of Old Northumberland, for three years at least. If this be the case her children would number thirty-four of the sixty-seven counties of the State.

The first curtailment of this generous domain resulted from the erection of Luzerne County, September 25, 1786. West of the Susquehanna the first county to which Northumberland contributed was Mifflin, erected September 19, 1789, but the part taken from Northumberland with additional territory from Northumberland and other counties, was erected into Center, February 13, 1800. The formation of Lycoming County, April 13, 1795, deprived Northumberland of the large extent of territory it had acquired under the purchase of 1784, with a considerable part of its original area.

Northumberland was thus reduced to the position of an interior county. With this reduced territory the statesmen of Pennsylvania were not fully satisfied, and March 22, 1813, the townships of Chillisquaque and Turbot were detached to form part of the new Columbia County, but this was an unpopular move and the greater part of these townships were re-annexed to Northumberland, February 21, 1815.

On June 16, 1772, the surveyor general was directed to “lay out a town for the county of Northumberland, to be called by the name of Sunbury, at the most commodious place between the fort (Augusta) and the mouth of Shamokin Creek.”

Until the court house was built the courts were held at Fort Augusta, the first session being held April 9, 1772.

The first jail in the county was the dungeon beneath the magazine of Fort Augusta. This is the only part of the early county buildings now in existence, and this particular dungeon and the old well which supplied water for the garrison are now the property of the Commonwealth.

When the county was erected the Governor appointed William Plunket, Turbut Francis, Samuel Hunter, James Potter, William Maclay, Caleb Graydon, Benjamin Allison, Robert Moodie, John Lowdon, Thomas Lemon, Ellis Hughes and Benjamin Weiser to be justices. William Plunket was the president of the court and served as such four years.

William Maclay was the Prothonotary and Register and Recorder, and served until March 22, 1777; George Nagel, Sheriff of Berks County, served in a similar capacity in the new county; Edward Burd was the State’s attorney, and the Coroner was James Parr. The original County Commissioners were William Gray, Thomas Hewitt and John Weitzel. Alexander Hunter was Treasurer, and Walter Clark, Jonathan Lodge, Peter Hosterman, James Harrison, Nicholas Miller, Jacob Heverling and Samuel Weiser, Assessors; Thomas Lemon, Collector of Excise; Joshua Elder, James Potter, Jesse Lukens and William Scull were appointed to run the boundary line; Samuel Hunter was the first member of the Assembly.

----------

Peter Pence, Indian Fighter, Captured

March 22, 1780

One of the conspicuous characters along the Susquehanna Valleys during the period of the Revolutionary War, and afterwards, was a Pennsylvania Dutchman by the name of Peter Pence. It is generally believed that his proper name was Bentz, a name which occurs frequently in Lancaster County, from which place he went to Shamokin. The well-known aptitude of the Dutchman to incorrectly sound his letters is given as the reason that his name was pronounced and spelled Pence.

In accord with the resolution adopted by Congress, June 14, 1775, directing the formation of six companies of expert riflemen in Pennsylvania to be employed as light infantry, one of the companies was recruited in Northumberland County, June 25, 1775, under the command of Captain John Lowdon.

Captain Lowdon then resided on a farm called Silver Spring, adjoining the present town of Mifflinburg, Union County, where he died in February, 1798, aged sixty-eight years.

The company formed part of the battalion of riflemen commanded by Colonel William Thompson, of Carlisle. This company boarded boats on the Susquehanna River and were conveyed to Harris’ Ferry, then marched overland to Reading, where they arrived July 13, and received knapsacks, blankets and other equipment. This battalion was composed of nine companies, two from Cumberland County, two from Lancaster, and one each from York and Northumberland, Berks, Bedford and Northampton.

The battalion arrived at Cambridge August 7, and soon became the picketguard of the 2000 provincials there. It also became the First Regiment of the Continental Line, Colonel Thompson being promoted to brigadier general, March 1, 1776. He was succeeded by Colonel Edward Hand, of Lancaster, who also became a brigadier, September 17, 1778.

This battalion participated in the Battle of Trenton, was at the taking of Burgoyne, was with Sullivan in his expedition against the Six Nation Indians, was at Stony Point under General Wayne and finally served in the campaign of South Carolina during the latter days of the war.

The first record of Peter Pence is as a private soldier in Lowdon’s company, and the further fact that he served faithfully is sufficient introduction to the thrilling life he led in the frontiers of Pennsylvania.

On March 22, 1780, the Indians made an attack on some settlers in the vicinity of Fort Wheeler, on the banks of Fishing Creek, about three miles above the present town of Bloomsburg, Columbia County. The Indians killed and scalped Cornelius Van Campen and his brother, and a son was tomahawked, scalped and thrown into the fire. Lieutenant Moses Van Campen, another son, was taken captive, as was his cousin, a young lad, and Peter Pence. Soon after this, at another place, the Indians took a lad named Jonah Rogers and a man named Abram Pike.

With their captives the Indians made their way over the mountains, into what is now Bradford County. The savage warriors were ten in number.

One evening, while the prisoners were being bound for the night, an Indian accidentally dropped his knife close to Van Campen’s feet, and he covered the knife unobserved.

About midnight, when the warriors were all asleep, Van Campen got the knife and released Peter Pence, who in turn released the others. Cautiously and quickly the weapons were obtained and a plan of action determined. The prisoners had been placed in the midst of the warriors. Van Campen and Pike were to use the tomahawk on one group, while Peter Pence opened fire on the other with the rifles.

The work was well done, Van Campen and Pike dispatched four while Pence, with unerring aim speedily killed his group. A hand to hand fight between the remaining Indian, John, a Mohawk sachem, and Van Campen, resulted in the Indian making his escape.

The liberated captives scalped the Indians, picked up their plunder and hastily constructed a raft, and, after a series of adventures, reached Wyoming, April 4, 1780, where Pike and young Rogers left the party. Peter Pence and the Van Campens reached Fort Jenkins on the morning of April 6, where they found Colonel John Kelly, with 100 frontiersmen who had hurried there from the West Branch. The following day Pence and Van Campen reached Fort Augusta, where they were received in a regular frontier triumph.

The next exploit in which we find Pence engaged is in the year 1781, when one of the most atrocious murders was committed near Selinsgrove.

Three brothers by the name of Stock were at work in the field when a party of about thirty Indians appeared. They did not attack the boys, but passed on to the house, which they entered. On the way they found another son plowing, whom they killed. Mrs. Stock and a daughter-in-law were found in the house. The mother defended herself with a canoe pole, as she retreated toward the field where her husband was working. She was tomahawked, however, the house plundered and the young woman carried into the woods nearby and killed and scalped. When Stock returned and found his wife, son and daughter-in-law inhumanly butchered he gave an alarm.

Three experienced Indian fighters, Michael Grove, John Stroh and Peter Pence went in pursuit of the enemy. They found them encamped on the North Branch, on the side of a hill covered with fern. Grove crept close enough to discover that their rifles were stacked around a tree and that all but three were asleep.

One of the Indians was narrating in high glee how Mrs. Stock defended herself with the pole. Grove lay quiet until all the Indians fell asleep. He then returned to his companions, Stroh and Pence. They decided to attack, and crept up close to the camp, when they dashed among the sleeping savages. Grove plied his deadly tomahawk, while Stroh and Pence seized the rifles and fired among the sleepers. Several Indians were killed; the others, believing they were attacked by a large party fled to the woods.

A captive white boy was liberated and the three brave men brought home a number of scalps and the best rifles.

March 10, 1810, the Legislature passed an act granting an annuity to Peter Pence, in consideration of his services, of $40 per annum. He died in the Nippenose Valley, in 1812. He left several sons and daughters. Robert Hamilton, of Pine Creek Township, Clinton County, was the executor of his estate. He left a will which is recorded in Lycoming County.

----------

John Bartram, First Great American Botanist
and Founder of Bartram Gardens, Born
at Darby, March 23, 1699

It is not generally known, at least outside of Pennsylvania, that that State was the birth place of a man whom the celebrated Linnaeus pronounced the greatest natural botanist in the world. This man was John Bartram, a native of Delaware County.

August 30, 1685 John Bartram bought three hundred acres of land from Thomas Brassey, which land was situated along Darby Creek, in now Delaware County. Here John Bartram was born March 23, 1699.

His early attention was first directed to botanical studies by one of those accidents which seem to shape the destinies of all great men.

When a mere lad and helping his father with the work about the farm he plowed up a daisy. Despite everything the modest little flower kept intruding itself on his consideration, until after several days he hired a man to plow while he rode to Philadelphia to procure a treatise on botany and a Latin grammar.

Fortunately for himself and the world he inherited a farm from a bachelor uncle, which gave him the means to marry early, and purchase the land where he afterwards established the noted “Botanical Gardens.” His wife was Mary, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Maris; they were married April 25, 1723. Mrs. Bartram died within a few years, and he then married Ann Mendenhall, February 11, 1729.

Bartram bought his piece of ground at Gray’s Ferry in 1728. On this estate he built with his own hands a stone house, and on one of the stones in the gable was cut “John * Ann Bartram, 1731.”

Here he pursued his studious habits, his reputation spreading abroad until correspondence was solicited by the leading botanists of the Old World,—Linnaeus, Dr. Fothergill, and others,—while in the colonies, all scientific men in the same line of study sought his favor, advice and opinions. Dr. Benjamin Franklin was his earnest friend, and constantly urged Bartram to authorship.

His fame had so extended that in 1765 King George III appointed him botanist to the King.

He transmitted both his talents and tastes to his son William, and their joint labors during a period of nearly one hundred years were the most valuable contributions that this country has made to the science in whose behalf they were devoted.

They were pious Quakers, admired and loved by their acquaintances.

James Logan was probably the first person who directed the mind of John Bartram seriously to botany as the pursuit of a lifetime.

Logan was a lover of plants and flowers and enjoyed a wonderful garden at “Stenton,” and Bartram was a welcome guest.

Logan, in 1729, sent to England for a copy of “Parkinson’s Herbal,” saying he wanted to present it to John Bartram, who was a person worthier of a heavier purse than fortune had yet allowed him, and had “a genius perfectly well turned for botany.”

A subscription was started in 1742 to enable Bartram to travel in search of botanical specimens. It was proposed to raise enough for him to continue his travels for three years, he being described as a person who “has had a propensity to Botanicks from his infancy,” and “an accurate observer, of great industry and temperance, and of unquestionable veracity.”

The result of these travels was the publication of two very delightful books by this earliest of American botanists.

The specimens he collected were sent to Europe, where they attracted Kahn and many other naturalists to this country.

In 1751 he published his work, “Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Divers Productions, Animals, etc., made in his Travels from Pennsylvania to Onondaga, Oswego, and the Lake Ontario.” In 1766 appeared “An Account of East Florida, by William Stork, with a Journal kept by John Bartram, of Philadelphia, upon a Journey from St. Augustine, Fla., up the River St. John’s.”

He also contributed numerous papers to the Philosophical Transactions from 1740 to 1763.

He was the first in this country to form a botanical garden.

On the outside of his house, over the front window of his study, was a stone with the inscription, carved by his own hand:

“’Tis God alone, Almighty God,
The Holy One, by me Adored.
John Bartram, 1770;”

and an inscription over the door of his greenhouse was:

“Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
But looks through nature up to Nature’s God.”

As the British soldiers were approaching Philadelphia from the Battle of Brandywine, John Bartram greatly feared they would destroy his “beloved garden,” the work of a lifetime. He became very much excited, and said, “I want to die!” and expired half an hour later, September 22, 1777. His remains lie buried in the Friends’ burying ground, Darby.

His son William went to Florida to study and collect botanical specimens, returning home in 1771. In 1773, at the instance of the distinguished Quaker physician, Dr. John Fothergill, of London, William spent five years in the study of the natural productions of the Southern States. The results of these investigations were published by Dr. Fothergill.

In 1782 he was elected Professor of Botany in the University of Pennsylvania, but declined the appointment on the score of ill health.

Besides his discoveries and publications on botany, he prepared the most complete table of American ornithology prior to Wilson’s great work, and he was an assistant of the latter in a portion of his work.

He died suddenly, July 22, 1823, just a moment after he had completed writing a sketch of a new specimen of a plant.

This first botanical garden in America is situated in West Philadelphia, near Fifty-fourth Street and Woodland Avenue. There is a cider mill, and close by the grave of an old and faithful slave.

The house is sufficient to attract any visitor, and it was here where the illustrious visitors from various parts of the world were received by the Bartrams.

The city authorities assumed control of this property in 1891.

----------

Proposal for Second Constitution for Pennsylvania
Adopted March 24, 1789

The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 proving inadequate for the requirements of a useful and effective Government, its revision was demanded. On March 24, 1789, the Assembly adopted resolutions recommending the election of delegates to form a new Constitution.

The struggle for independence had been fought and won, but with the triumph of the Revolution even those who had been opposed to the movement speedily acquiesced, though many years elapsed before all the bitter memories engendered by the strife could pass away. Time was healing the wounds of war, and others were growing up who had not suffered.

The adoption of the Federal Constitution had rendered the institution of measures necessary for the election of members of Congress and electors of President and Vice President of the United States. In order to avail themselves as fully as possible of the privileges afforded, the Anti-Federalists were early at work.

A few of the leading men of this party assembled in convention at Harrisburg in September, 1788, ostensibly for the purpose of recommending revision of the new Constitution. Blair McClenachen was chosen as the chairman of this small assembly, and General John A. Hanna, secretary. They resolved that it was expedient to recommend an acquiescence in the Constitution but that a revision of the instrument was necessary. They debated among other topics, a reform in the ratio of congressional representation, and a referendum on the term of a Senator. Several other changes were advocated, but the body contented itself by nominating a general ticket for Congress.

The action of this body was immediately denounced and as the nominees were Anti-Federalists, it was said that power to enforce the new constitutional system ought not to be granted to its opponents.

A new convention was to meet at Lancaster, which selected candidates for Congress and electors for President. The election took place in November, and in the State six of the nominees on the Federal ticket were elected and two (David Muhlenberg, of Montgomery, and Daniel Hiester, of Berks), who, although Federalists, had with two others of the same politics, been placed as a matter of policy with the opposition ticket.

The political condition of Pennsylvania had undergone a great change, and now the three original counties had multiplied by 1790 to twenty-one. Immigration was strongly flowing into the State. The abundance of fertile lands formed an attraction to the immigrant almost without parallel in the county.

Then the Constitution of 1776 had been rather hastily prepared amid great excitement and was adopted with the determined spirit that characterized all public measures during the Revolutionary period.

Even though the instrument had become somewhat antiquated, it might have been improved by regular methods, and the amended Constitution would have been acceptable to a large number of people, but such action would not have served the personal ambitions of the leaders.

The chief objections to the Constitution were the single legislative body, and a Council of Censors whose functions were of such an unusual character, the latter body being the real bone of contention.

When the people had grown discontented with the old Constitution, believing they had suffered long enough through lack of action and authority, they were willing to adopt another Constitution containing the principles of enduring life.

The same movement that led to the ratification of the Federal Constitution by Pennsylvania stirred the waters in another direction. If the Federal Constitution could be ratified by a convention, why could not a convention be called to make and adopt another Constitution for Pennsylvania?

A petition was addressed to the Legislature, which adopted a resolution March 24, 1789, but the Supreme Executive Council refused to promulgate this action of the Assembly.

September 15, 1789, the Assembly adopted another resolution calling for a convention by a vote of 39 to 17.

At the election in October delegates were chosen, and on Tuesday, November 24, 1789, the convention assembled in Philadelphia, but a quorum not being present, the organization was effected the following day with sixty-four delegates in attendance. No returns had been received from the counties of Northumberland and Allegheny, and Mifflin had sent a double delegation.

Thomas Mifflin was chosen president; Joseph Redman, secretary; Frederick Snyder, messenger, and Joseph Fry, doorkeeper.

On the Republican side, those in favor of a new constitution were James Wilson, Thomas McKean and Thomas Mifflin, all of Philadelphia; Timothy Pickering, of Luzerne; Edward Hand, of Lancaster. Among the Constitutionalists were William Findley, of Westmoreland; John Smilie and Albert Gallatin, of Fayette; Robert Whitehill and William Irvine, of Cumberland.

After a long session the convention adjourned Friday, February 26, 1790, to meet Monday, August 9.

The second session of the convention met pursuant to adjournment and got down to business the third day, and concluded its work by the final adoption of a new instrument September 2, 1790, the final vote being sixty-one to one, Mr. George Roberts, of Philadelphia, voting against its adoption.

The most radical changes were made in the executive and legislative branches of government. The Assembly ceased to have the sole right to make laws, a Senate being created. The Supreme Executive Council was abolished. A Governor was directed to be elected to whom the administration of affairs was to be entrusted.

The former judicial system was continued, excepting that the judges of the higher courts were to be appointed during good behavior, instead of seven years. The Bill of Rights re-enacted the old Provincial provision copied into the first Constitution, respecting freedom of worship and the rights of conscience. The Council of Censors ceased to have authority and Pennsylvania conformed in all important matters to the system upon which the new Federal Government was to be administered.

The first election held under the Constitution of the Commonwealth, that of 1790, resulted in the choice of Thomas Mifflin, the president of the convention, which made, adopted and proclaimed the Constitution, for Governor. He served three terms.

----------

David Lewis, Robber and Counterfeiter,
Born March 25, 1790

David Lewis was the most notorious robber and counterfeiter in this country a little more than a century ago.

He was born at Carlisle, March 25, 1790, of poor, but respectable parents, being one of a large family of children. The father died when David was less than ten years old, and the widow had a hard struggle to raise her family. Be it said to the credit of David that he remained with her and assisted in raising the family until he was seventeen years old. Then he worked at different occupations in and about Bellefonte until he enlisted in the army.

During this service he was punished by a sergeant for some offense and deserted, only to re-enlist a few months later, as a private in Captain William N. Irvine’s company of light artillery, under an assumed name.

By this time he had formed vicious habits and he immediately planned to decamp with his bounty money, but he was discovered as a former deserter. The War of 1812 was imminent and discipline rigid, so that the sentence of his court martial was death. Through the efforts of his distressed mother, his sentence was commuted to imprisonment in a guard house, secured by ball and chain.

He served only one week of this sentence, for he then made his escape and safely reached a cave on the banks of the Conodoguinet Creek, less than two miles from Carlisle. The very night he arrived in this favorite haunt Lewis began his long and varied career of robbery and lawlessness. This cave and another on Little Chickies Creek near Mount Joy, Lancaster County, were the storehouses for the major portion of the ill-gotten loot of Lewis and his gang.

The first victims of Lewis were the country banks, but recently established and whose bank notes were easy to counterfeit. Lewis was quick to make the most of this condition. He journeyed to Vermont and there made enormous quantities of spurious bank bills, purporting to have been issued from banks in Philadelphia and various Pennsylvania towns. These were successfully passed in New York.

Lewis was captured and committed to jail at Troy, from which he soon escaped, with the assistance of the jailer’s daughter, who fled with him and became his wife. His devotion to her was so genuine that it is strange her influence did not prove sufficient for him to have become a valuable member of society instead of one of the worst criminals on record.

Lewis was a man of unusual physical strength, handsome, and possessed a most pleasing personality. He was conscious of that fact, and made many friends, not in crime, but those who would aid him in making escape or give him timely warning. The story is told of Nicholas Howard, a prominent landlord near Doubling Gap, who would display a flag from a certain upper window when the coast was clear, and Lewis was thus advised of the movements of the officers seeking his apprehension. Food was often carried to him in his hiding place by those who never suspected they were befriending an outlaw.

A Mr. Black, of Cumberland, Md., related a personal adventure with Lewis in the Allegheny Mountains. Black had crossed the mountain on horseback to Brownsville, where he collected a large sum of money. He rode a speedy black horse. While in Brownsville he won another horse in a race and the following day started home, riding the new horse, leading his own “Blacky.”

In a lonely ravine a man suddenly appeared and jumped on Blacky’s back and rode alongside Black and began to barter for the horse. The horse was not for sale and they rode together until a spring was reached, where they dismounted and quenched their thirst and ate a bite and drank some peach brandy. By the time a second spring was reached Black and his new-found companion were on intimate terms. The stranger asked Black if he had ever seen Lewis, about whom there was so much fear and excitement. He replied that he had not.

“Well, sir,” replied the stranger, jumping to his feet, “here is Lewis—I am the man.”

Black further stated that Lewis told him he had seen the race in Brownsville and knew he had collected much money there, and that he had preceded him to waylay and rob him, but that Black had treated him like a gentleman and he would not harm him or take a cent from his pocket.

At another time when a large searching party in Adams County in pursuit of Lewis met a well-dressed stranger on horseback, they asked him if he had “seen or heard anything of Lewis, the robber.” He replied that he had not and joined in the pursuit. Later he had the audacity to send a letter stating that they had been riding with Lewis, and he was anxious to learn if they had thought him an agreeable companion.

One of the best of his exploits took place in Mifflin County. Having failed in the execution of some plots to rob several wealthy farmers, his ready cash uncomfortably low, he set out to replenish his finances. Coming across a fine, large house that stood back from the highway, he knocked at the door, which was opened by an elderly woman of respectable appearance. Lewis, to ascertain where her money was kept, asked her to change a five dollar note.

“That I am not able to do,” replied the woman, “for I am unfortunate and have not a dollar in the house, and what is worse,” she added despondently, as she caught sight of a man coming through the woods toward the house, “there comes the constable to take my cow for the last half-year’s rent. I don’t know what to do without her.”

“How much do you owe?” inquired Lewis, hurriedly.

“Twenty dollars, sir,” answered the woman.

“Have you no one to help you?” inquired Lewis.

“No one,” she replied.

“Then I will,” said the robber, as he drew from his pocket the exact sum. “Pay that fellow his demand and be sure to take his receipt, but don’t say anything about me.”

Lewis had just time to make his escape, unobserved, when the constable arrived and proceeded to drive away the widow’s cow, but she rushed forward, paid him the money and took his receipt.

He immediately set out upon his return, but had not proceeded far, when Lewis bounded into the road and greeted him as follows:

“How d’ye do, stranger? Got any spare change about you?”

“No,” answered the frightened constable.

“Come, shell out, old fellow, or I’ll save you the trouble,” retorted Lewis, as he presented his pistol. This argument convinced the worthy official that the stranger meant business and he quickly handed over his money.

Lewis got back his twenty dollars and forty dollars in addition. He often afterward boasted that the loan of that twenty to the widow was one of the best investments he ever made.

----------

More Exploits of Lewis, the Robber—Conclusion

of Yesterday’s Story, March 26

Yesterday’s story was a brief outline of the early life of David Lewis, the robber and counterfeiter, and in this will be told those events which followed and ended in his death.

In 1818, Dr. Peter Shoenberger, owner of the Huntingdon Furnace, in Huntingdon County, had made extensive shipments of iron to Harper’s Ferry and prepared to cross the mountains to receive his pay. Lewis and his band knew of this proposed trip and determined to waylay and rob him. The sum to be collected amounted to more than $13,000, and the ironmaster’s credit would be ruined if this sum was not in deposit in Bellefonte by a certain date.

While they were scheming to rob Shoenberger news reached them that their victim was returning home by way of the Cumberland Valley and Harrisburg.

When Lewis and his gang arrived at Harrisburg they learned that the doctor, warned of their designs, had again changed his route, but the highwaymen knew the country and soon got in advance of their victim. In the early hours of the morning, a few miles east of Bellefonte, the doctor was confronted by a large man on horseback, who, with a pistol in hand, ordered him to “stand and deliver.”

The doctor was in a dilemma; he faced financial ruin or loss of life. As he reached for his saddlebag he heard a shout and at the same time saw the top of a Conestoga wagon reaching the top of the hill. The wagoners were encouraging their horses as the doctor yelled in desperation, “Men, I am being robbed. Help! Help!”

Lewis snapped his pistol, but it failed to discharge. Connelly, a mate of Lewis, rode up and would have killed the doctor, but for Lewis. A shot by one of the wagoners struck Connelly in the shoulder, but he and Lewis escaped in the woods.

During his operations in New York City Lewis formed a partnership with other noted crooks. Each one signed an ironclad compact with blood drawn from the veins of each member as they formed in a circle, while Lewis held a basin to receive the blood of each, which was used as ink.

Lewis knew that Mrs. John Jacob Astor was to attend a well-advertised auction sale, where she made many purchases of rare laces and jewelry, placing them in a reticule, which she kept on a bench close by her side. While she was engaged in conversation, Lewis stole the bag and made his escape. He failed to divide the plunder with the gang, but gave it all to his wife, barely escaping their wrath.

Lewis headed for Princeton, where, he said, he found “empty heads and full purses.” He succeeded in fleecing many of the students of all the money they had or could obtain.

His next exploits were in Philadelphia, where he was the leader of a band which attempted to decoy Stephen Girard out of the city into the country, to keep him in confinement until forced to purchase his freedom. They also planned to dig a tunnel from the Dock Street sewer to Girard’s banking house, where they intended to reach the bank vaults from below. The dangerous illness of Lewis’ daughter caused a delay in these plans, his gang drifted apart, and the scheme was abandoned.

He then drove a team in the United States Army, where he robbed officers and men. When he received his pay for his services and for his employer’s teams and wagons, he stole the entire proceeds and left for Western Pennsylvania, where he was most active and successful in his nefarious pursuit.

His wife died about this time and his grief was so genuine that he almost changed his mode of life, but soon fell in with another gang and for some time devoted his attention to making and circulating spurious money. He was caught passing bad money and arrested at Bedford and sentenced to the penitentiary, from which he was pardoned by Governor Findlay.

Lewis and his band robbed a Mr. McClelland, who was riding from Pittsburgh to Bedford. Lewis saved McClelland’s life when Connelly insisted on shooting him, saying “Dead men tell no tales.” Lewis was again caught and confined in the Bedford jail. He not only escaped, but he set free all the convicts who entered in the plan with him, leaving behind “an ordinary thief who had robbed a poor widow. Such a thief should remain in jail and pay the price,” wrote Lewis in his confession.

Lewis and Connelly made a trip through York and Cumberland Counties robbing wealthy German farmers. A well-laid plot to rob a wealthy Mr. Bashore was frustrated through the presence of mind and bravery of his wife, who blew a horn to alarm the neighborhood, as Lewis confessed, “displaying as much courage as any man and more resolution than any woman I had met with.”

On several occasions he was known to have risked capture, and even his life, just to spend a few hours with his mother, whom he dearly loved.

Lewis learned that a wagon load of merchandise belonging to Hamilton and Page, of Bellefonte, was expected to pass through the Seven Mountains. He and his gang quickly planned and successfully executed this robbery, and immediately thereafter made a rich haul from the store of General James Potter, in Penn’s Valley near the Old Fort.

Lewis was a shrewd mountaineer and smart as a steel trap, but like all such criminals of his daring was sure to meet his fate. Even though frequently arrested and confined in jail, none was strong enough to hold him. He never served a sentence in a single institution.

After the robbery of General Potter’s store, Lewis and Connelly started for Sinnemahoning, meeting at the house of Samuel Smith, where they participated in shooting at a mark, and mingled in the crowd. Lewis and Connelly were recognized and their surrender demanded as rewards were everywhere offered for their arrest. Connelly opened fire, killing one of the captors.

Lewis, never having taken life, snapped his pistol in the air, but the fire was returned in earnest, Lewis being shot in the right arm and Connelly in the hip. The latter was found hiding in a tree top. Lewis and Connelly were loaded in canoes and taken down the river to Great Island, now Lock Haven, where three physicians attended them. Connelly died that night. Lewis was removed, as soon as his wounds would permit to Bellefonte jail, where he died a month later, July 13, 1820.

Thus a sad commentary in the life of Lewis, the Robber, that the only jail from which he failed to escape was the Bellefonte bastile, and while there his wounds were of such a nature he could not plan nor did he desire to escape, but he often told his jailer he could easily get away any hour he pleased.

----------

Bethlehem Hospital Base During Revolution,
Moved March 27, 1777

Bethlehem was the seat of a general hospital twice during the Revolution and during the six years from 1775 to 1781, it was a thoroughfare for Continental troops. Heavy baggage and munitions of war and General Washington’s private baggage were stored in the town and guarded by 200 Continentals under command of Colonel William Polk, of North Carolina, while many houses were occupied by American troops and British prisoners of war. The Continental Congress found refuge there when on its flight from Philadelphia.

The inhabitants of Bethlehem, therefore, witnessed not only the horrors and experienced the discomforts of war, but also its “pomp and circumstance,” for at times there were sojourning among them Generals Washington, Lafayette, Greene, Knox, Sterling, Schuyler, Gates, Sullivan, De Kalb, Steuben, Pulaski and Arnold, with members of their staffs, and General Charles Lee’s division of the army in command of General Sullivan was encamped opposite the town.

The population of Bethlehem in those stirring days was about 500 souls, principally Moravians. The “Church Store,” on Market Street, was well stocked and spacious; in its cellars were stored supplies for the hospital and in the dwelling part sick and wounded soldiers found desirable quarters.

The dwelling of Thomas Horsfield was nearby. He was a hero of the French and Indian War, a colonel of the Provincial forces and a magistrate. Many refugees from Philadelphia and New York were provided a temporary home by the old veteran. Beyond, to the west, resided William Boehler, where Captain Thomas Webb, the founder of Methodism in America, and a British prisoner of war with his family of seven persons, were comfortably accommodated.

On what is now Main Street, and north of the “Brethren House,” stood the “Family House,” for married people, in which were confined more than 200 British prisoners, whose guard of 100 Continentals were quartered in the water works building. When they marched for Reading and Lancaster, the surgeons of the hospital occupied the building.

Farther up the thoroughfares were the farm buildings and dwelling of Frederick Boeckel, the farmer general of the Moravian estates, where Lafayette, after being wounded at Brandywine, was tenderly nursed to convalescence by Dame Barbara Boeckel and her pretty daughter, Liesel.

The last house overlooking the Valley of the Monocacy was the Sun Inn, a hostelry unsurpassed in the Colonies, and surely none other entertained and sheltered so many of the patriots of the American Revolution.

The Single Brethren’s House now the middle building of the Moravian Seminary and College for Women, which has weathered the storms of more than 175 years, was twice during the Revolution occupied as a general hospital, the first time from December, 1776, to April, 1777, and for the last time from September, 1777, to April, 1778. The cornerstone of this large building was laid April 1, 1748.

The Americans were defeated at Long Island in August, 1776, when Washington withdrew his troops to New York City, which a few days later fell into the hands of the enemy. This loss was quickly followed by that of Fort Washington and Fort Lee, when Washington crossed the North River into New Jersey, and continued his retreat to Trenton, in which he was closely pursued by Cornwallis. It was at this crisis that the general hospital, in which more than 1,000 sick and wounded were living, was removed from Morristown to Bethlehem.

On December 3, 1776, Dr. Cornelius Baldwin rode up to the clergy house and delivered to Reverend John Ettwein an order from General John Warren, general hospital surgeon, which stated that General Washington had ordered the General Hospital to Bethlehem and directed the Moravian brethren to put their buildings in condition for the reception of the invalids and he doubted not “but you will act upon this occasion as becomes men and Christians.”

Toward evening Drs. William Shippen and John Warren arrived and made arrangements with Reverend Ettwein for the reception of 250 of the sick. During the ensuing two days the invalids, in charge of their surgeons, commenced to arrive. Their suffering from exposure and improper transportation made them pitiable objects to behold and two died before they were removed from the wagons. Food was scarce and the Moravians relieved their distress from their own supplies. Some of the sick were taken to Easton and Allentown.

On December 7 two deaths occurred and a site for a cemetery was selected on the bluff on the west bank of the Monocacy Creek.

The Moravians constantly attended the sick and Mr. Ettwein visited the patients daily. In February smallpox was brought to the hospital by some soldiers, but an epidemic was averted. On March 27, 1777, the hospital was transferred to Philadelphia.

During the time the hospital was in Bethlehem more than 100 died, coffins for whom were made by the Moravian carpenters, who also dug the graves and served at the burial of the deceased patriots.

Again when the Continental army failed to defend Philadelphia, the hospital was removed to Bethlehem. On September 13, 1777, Washington ordered all military stores of the army, in 700 wagons to Bethlehem. The Church bells of Philadelphia, with the Liberty Bell, were also transported to Bethlehem en route to Allentown. Again the Moravians were directed to prepare their buildings for hospital use and September 20, the sick and wounded began to arrive, among them Lafayette and Colonel, later General John Armstrong, of Carlisle. On the twenty-second the archives and money of Congress, under an escort, arrived.

On October 7 the wounded from the Battle of Germantown began to arrive and in a fortnight 450 patients were being treated. A rain lasting six days set in and the suffering was indescribable. The Moravians furnished many blankets and much clothing for the destitute soldiers. During December many sick soldiers were brought to Bethlehem from hospitals in New Jersey. The loss was enormous due to lack of proper facilities with which to treat the patients, and the mortality during eight months and ten days was 120.

Among the surgeons from Pennsylvania were William Shippen, Jr., John Morgan, Thomas Bond, Jr., William Smith, Bodo Otto, Aquila Wilmot, James Houston, S. Halling and Francis Allison, Jr.

On August 28, 1778, the remaining sixty-five patients were removed to Lancaster and Yellow Springs, and Bethlehem ceased to be a hospital base during the war.

----------

Flight of Tory Leaders from Pittsburgh,
March 28, 1778

General Edward Hand, the commandant at Fort Pitt, had failed in two expeditions, and the resultant effect was disastrous to the American cause on the border, especially in the spring of 1778. During the previous winter the British, under General Howe, had occupied Philadelphia, the capital of the colonies; the Continental Congress had been driven to York, and Washington’s Army, reduced to half-naked and half-starved condition, had suffered in camp at Valley Forge, so there was not much to win adherents to the cause of liberty among those otherwise inclined.

Governor Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, sent many agents, red and white, to penetrate the border settlements to organize the Tories into effective military units. In February and March, 1778, a daring and shrewd British spy visited Pittsburgh and carried on his plotting against the colonies almost under the nose of General Hand. Most of the Tories of this neighborhood were at the house of Alexander McKee, at what is now called McKees Rocks. Another place of assembly was at Redstone, where a British flag flew nearly all of that winter.

Captain Alexander McKee, the Tory leader at Pittsburgh, was an educated man of wide influence on the frontier. He had been an Indian trader and for twelve years prior to the Revolution had been the King’s deputy agent for Indian affairs at Fort Pitt. For a short time he had been one of the justices of the peace for Westmoreland County, and he was intimately acquainted with most of the Indian chiefs. In 1764 he received a grant of 1,400 acres of land from Colonel Henry Bouquet, at the mouth of Chartier’s Creek, and he divided his time between his house in Pittsburgh and his farm at McKees Rocks.

In the spring of 1776, McKee was discovered to be in correspondence with the British officers in Canada, and he was put on his parole not to give aid or comfort to the enemies of American liberty, and not to leave the vicinity of Pittsburgh without the consent of the Revolutionary Committee.

In February, 1778, General Hand had reason to suspect that McKee had resumed his relations and correspondence with the British authorities and ordered the captain to go to York and report himself to the Continental Congress. For a time McKee avoided compliance, on plea of illness, but unable to further delay, he contrived to escape to Detroit and there openly ally himself with the British cause.

About a year before this a young trader, Matthew Elliott, who understood the Shawnee language, had been employed by the Americans to carry messages from Fort Pitt to the Shawnee and other Indian tribes to the westward, in the interest of peace. On one of his missions he was captured by hostile savages and carried to Detroit, where, after a short imprisonment, he had been released on parole.

He returned to Pittsburgh via Quebec, New York and Philadelphia, all then in British possession. He had been impressed by the show of British power in the East, in contrast to the miserable conditions of the American forces, especially along the frontier. He became convinced that the colonists would fail in the Revolution, and on his return to Pittsburgh got into communication with Captain McKee and others of the Tory party.

Elliott was suspected of having poured into McKee’s ears the wild tale that he was to be waylaid and killed on his journey to York. McKee heard such a story and believed it, which decided him to escape from Fort Pitt and go to Detroit.

The flight of the Tories took place from Alexander McKee’s house during the night of March 28, 1778. General Hand received a hint of this move early in the evening and dispatched a squad of soldiers to McKee’s house Sunday morning to remove McKee to Fort Pitt. The soldiers arrived too late. The members of the little party who had fled into Indian land in that rough season were Captain McKee, his cousin, Robert Surphlit; Simon Girty, Matthew Elliott, a man of the name of Higgins, and two Negro slaves belonging to McKee.

Simon Girty was a Pennsylvanian, who had been captured by the Indians when eleven years old, kept in captivity for three years by the Seneca, and afterward employed at Fort Pitt as an interpreter and messenger. He had served the American cause faithfully. He then became the most notorious renegade and Tory in Pennsylvania.

The Tories in their flight made their way through the woods to the Delaware town Coshocton, where they tarried several days endeavoring to incite the tribe to rise against the colonists. Their efforts were thwarted by Chief White Eyes, who declared his friendship for the “buckskins” as he called the Americans, and he proved his sincerity until his death.

Chief White Eyes and Captain Pipe, an influential chief, debated in the Coshocton council on the advocacy of war, White Eyes pleading the cause of peace. The oratory of White Eyes carried the day and the seven Tories departed to the Shawnee towns on the Scioto, where they were welcomed. Many of the Shawnee were already on the warpath, and all were eager to hear the arguments of their friend McKee. James Girty, a brother of Simon, was then with the Shawnee tribe, having been sent from Fort Pitt by General Hand on a futile peace mission. He had been raised among the Shawnee, was a natural savage and at once joined his brother and the other Tories.

When Governor Hamilton heard of the flight of Captain McKee and his companions from Fort Pitt, he dispatched Edward Hazle to the Scioto to conduct the renegades safely through the several Indian tribes to Detroit. Hamilton, as would be expected, received them cordially and gave them commissions in the British service. For sixteen years McKee, Elliott and the Girtys were the merciless scourges of the border. They were the instigators and leaders of many Indian raids, and their intimate knowledge of the frontier rendered their operations especially effective. Long after the close of the Revolution they continued their deadly enmity to the American cause and were largely responsible for the general Indian war of 1790–94.

McKee and his associate renegades left behind them at Fort Pitt a band of Tories who had planned to blow up the fortress and escape in boats at night. In some way the scheme was frustrated just in time, probably by the confession of one of the conspirators, and the disaster averted. A score of the traitors escaped in boats during the night, and fled down the Ohio River. On the following day they were pursued and overtaken near the mouth of the Muskingum. Eight of the runaways escaped to the shore and were lost in the trackless woods; some were killed in the conflict which then occurred and the others were taken back as prisoners to Fort Pitt.

Two were shot, another hanged and two were publicly whipped on the parade ground of the fort. The punishment of these men was almost the last act performed by General Hand before he was relieved by General Lachlan McIntosh, but it put an end to the machinations of the Tories at Pittsburgh.

----------

Colonel Clapham Commissioned to Build

Fort Augusta, March 29, 1756

From the moment Captain John Smith beheld the waters of the Susquehanna to the present, it has been the main artery for the development of Central and Northern Pennsylvania.

The two great branches of the Susquehanna River join at what is now Northumberland, but opposite is a plain, where the old Indian town of Shamokin was located, upon which the present city of Sunbury was laid out July 4, 1772.

It was at Shamokin where the Indians established a vice-regal government and installed the noble Shikellamy, the friend of the English and foe of intemperance and vice. This was the largest and most important Indian town south of Tioga Point. It was visited by the Moravian missionaries and the interpreter, Conrad Weiser, tarried there in 1737 on his way to a council at Onondaga. He and Shikellamy became intimate friends and remained so until the latter’s death, December 17, 1748.

The erection of a fort at Shamokin was repeatedly urged by friendly Indians, especially Andrew Montour and Monakatuatha or the Delaware Half King, at a council at Harris’ Ferry, November 1, 1755. This request was favorably considered by Governor Morris, but refused by the Assembly.

After Braddock’s defeat, when the French and Indians began to attack the settlers along the frontier, occurred the terrible massacre at Penn’s Creek, October 16. Later forty-six terrified settlers fled to Shamokin for protection, but the attitude of the Indians caused them to leave the following day, and as they traveled south they were fired upon from ambush near Mahonoy Creek and four killed.

The Moravians broke up their mission at Shamokin and soon thereafter the Indians abandoned the town.