Chapter XXXII: Section 8: provided minute directions for the distribution of the tracts (20)

A year later Mr. Secord took Betsy on a trip to Niagara, and there she saw six of her relatives, most of whom had been released and were preparing to leave for Montreal, perhaps never again to see the others. The sight of their beloved little sister roused every energy to effect her release, which desire was generously seconded by John Secord and the Tory leader, Colonel John Butler, who, soon after her visit to Niagara sent for the Indian who claimed Elizabeth as his child and made overtures for her ransom. At first he declared that he “would not sell his own flesh and blood,” but, attacked through his interest, or in other words, his necessities, the negotiation succeeded and her youngest child was among the treasures first restored to the mother at Montreal.

Eventually they were all released and collected at Montreal and on August 22, 1782, they took leave of their friends there and returned to Byberry, after a captivity of two years and five months.

The premises where stood the dwelling and improvements of the Gilbert family were on the north side of Mahoning Creek, on an elevated bank about forty perches from the main road leading from Lehighton and Weissport to Tamaqua, and about four miles from the former. Benjamin Peart lived about a mile farther up the creek, and about a quarter of a mile from it on the south side.

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Alexander Wilson, the Great American
Ornithologist, Died at Philadelphia,
August 23, 1813

Alexander Wilson, the great American ornithologist, was born in Paisley, Scotland, July 6, 1766, and died in Philadelphia, August 23, 1813. He was the son of a distiller, but at the age of thirteen was apprenticed to a weaver, and after seven years abandoned the loom and adopted the life of a peddler.

Three years were thus spent and in 1789, having prepared a volume of poems for publication, he offered his muslins and solicited subscriptions for this work. It was published in 1790, but had little success; and he again returned to the loom.

In 1792 he published “Watty and Meg,” which having appeared anonymously, was ascribed to Robert Burns though the style is very different. It is said to have had a sale of 100,000 copies in a few weeks. He wrote a severe satire upon a person in Paisley and was thrown into prison, and was afterwards compelled to burn the libel with his own hand at Paisley Cross. Upon his release, he resolved to emigrate, and arrived at New Castle, Delaware, July 14, 1794, with only a few borrowed shillings, without an acquaintance, and with no decided purpose.

After working at various trades, sometimes as a copperplate printer under Alexander Lawson, in which he showed both ambition and talent, he went through New Jersey as a peddler and during this journey seems to have first paid minute attention to the habits and appearance of birds.

He afterward taught school at various places in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, finally settling in 1802 at Kingsessing on the Schuylkill.

One of the schools he taught was situated on the Darby Road, a short distance west of the intersection with Gray’s Ferry Road. His home was near the celebrated botanical garden of William Bartram, and he became acquainted with the famous naturalist, who, by his own love of birds, deeply interested young Wilson in that branch of nature. It was at this time that Alexander Wilson resolved to form a collection of all the birds of America.

His first excursion, October, 1804, was to Niagara Falls. He walked from Philadelphia through the unopened wilderness of western New York, and wrote a metrical description of his journey in the “Port Folio” under the title of “The Foresters, a Poem.”

Elsewhere Wilson wrote:

“Sweet flows the Schuylkill’s winding tide,
By Bartram’s green emblossomed bowers,
Where nature sports in all her pride,
Of choicest plants and fruits and flowers.”

Wilson learned drawing, coloring, and etching from Alexander Lawson, the celebrated engraver, whose tastes and instructions stimulated his own talents.

He persuaded Bradford, a Philadelphia publisher, who had employed him in 1806, in editing the American edition of Rees’s Cyclopedia, to furnish funds for an American ornithology on an adequate scale. The first volume of this work appeared in September, 1808, but it was too expensive to be very successful. The seventh volume appeared in 1813.

The interval had been passed in exploring different parts of the country for the purpose of extending his observations, collecting specimens and watching the habits of birds in their native haunts.

In January, 1810, the second volume appeared, but before the next was prepared Wilson sailed down the Ohio River in a small boat as far as Louisville, he set out on horseback from Nashville for New Orleans in May, 1811, and arrived June 6. Sailing from there he arrived back in Philadelphia in August, and began the third volume.

In September, 1812, he started on another tour of the eastern States. He completed the publication of seven volumes.

In 1813 the literary materials for the eighth volume of the “Ornithology” were ready, but its progress was greatly retarded for want of proper assistants to color the plates. Wilson was therefore obliged to undertake the whole of this department himself in addition to his other duties. He employed himself so unceasingly in the preparation of his work that he impaired his already weakened condition and hastened death. It is said that in his eagerness to obtain a rare bird, he swam across a river and caught cold from which he never recovered.

All the plates for the remainder of his work having been completed under Wilson’s own eye the letter press work on the ninth volume was supplied by his friend, George Ord, his companion in several of his expeditions, who also wrote a memoir of Wilson to accompany the last volume, and edited the eighth. Four supplementary volumes were afterwards added by Charles Lincoln Bonaparte.

An edition of Alexander Wilson’s poems was published at Paisley in 1816, and another at Belfast in 1857. A statue of him was erected at Paisley in October, 1874.

Wilson was followed by another Pennsylvanian, John James Audubon, who lived for many years on the Perkiomen near its mouth. He published an immense work upon the “Birds of America,” which brought him lasting fame. Thus the two greatest ornithologists of America are claimed as residents of our state.

In the quiet retreat of the churchyard of the old Swedes Church, or “Gloria Dei,” at Weccacoe, where he delighted to worship, repose the remains of Alexander Wilson. The distinguished ornithologist requested to be laid to rest there, as it was “a silent, shady place where the birds would be apt to come and sing over his grave.”

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Governor Snyder Calls on Pennsylvania
When British Burn National Capitol
August 24, 1814

During the summer of 1813 the shores of the Chesapeake and its tributary rivers were made a general scene of ruin and distress. The British forces assumed the character of the incendiary in retaliation for the burning of the town of York, in Upper Canada, which had been taken by the American army under General Dearborn in April of that year. The burning of York was accidental, but its destruction served as a pretext for the general pillage and conflagration which followed the marching of the British army.

The enemy took possession of Washington August 24, 1814, and the commanders of the invading force, General Ross and Admiral Blackburn, proceeded in person to direct and superintend the business of burning the Capitol and city.

On August 26, Governor Simon Snyder issued a strong appeal for a call to arms: “The landing upon our shores, by the enemy, of hordes of marauders, for the purpose avowedly to create by plunder, burning and general devastation, all possible individual and public distress, gives scope for action to the militia of Pennsylvania by repelling that foe, and with just indignation seek to avenge the unprovoked wrongs heaped on our unoffending country.

“The militia generally within the counties of Dauphin, Lebannon, Berks, Schuylkill, York, Adams and Lancaster, and that part of Chester County which constitutes the Second Brigade of the Third Division, and those corps particularly, who, when danger first threatened, patriotically tendered their services in the field, are earnestly invited to rise (as on many occasions Pennsylvania has heretofore done) superior to local feeling and evasives that might possibly be drawn from an imperfect military system, and to repair with that alacrity which duty commands, and it is fondly hoped inclination will prompt, to the several places of brigade or regimental rendezvous that shall respectively be designated by the proper officer, and thence to march to the place of general rendezvous.

“Pennsylvanians, whose hearts must be gladdened at the recital of the deeds of heroism achieved by their fellow citizens, soldiers now in arms on the Lake frontier, and within the enemy’s country, now the occasion has occurred, will with order seek and punish that same implacable foe, now marauding on the Atlantic shore of two of our sister States.”

Camps were established at Marcus Hook, on the Delaware, and at York. At the latter place 5,000 men were soon under the command of Major General Nathaniel Watson, and Brigadier Generals John Forster and John Adams.

When General Ross attempted the capture of Baltimore, these Pennsylvania militia marched thither and had the high honor to aid in repelling the enemy. In the same year other of the State’s military forces rendered excellent services at Chippewa and Bridgewater, and thereby won the gratitude of the people of the entire country.

During the entire war the soil of Pennsylvania had never been trodden by a hostile foot, yet it had at one time a greater number of militia and volunteers in the service of the United States than were at any time in the field from any other state in the Union, and as she furnished more men, so did she furnish more money to carry on the war.

The treaty of Ghent was concluded December 24, 1814, but the closing acts in the tragedy of the war were the battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815, and the gallant capture of the British warships “Cyane” and “Levant,” by Captain Charles Stewart’s grand old frigate, “Constitution,” February 20, 1815.

On February 17, 1815, the treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain was ratified by the Senate.

Pennsylvania’s finances were in such sound condition that only one small temporary loan was required to pay all expenditures incurred during the war. Business did not suffer, yet during the war period a cloud was gathering which soon was to have a serious effect on the financial situation in the State. The United States Bank, after twenty years of honorable and useful life, came to an end in 1811, and at a time when its services were needed by the government and the people.

The State banks were envious of the power of the larger institution, and in the failure to renew its charter their officers saw the opportunity to advance their personal ends.

The Legislature chartered State banks over the Governor’s veto, and again the State was flooded with paper money, as it had been during the Revolution, but the terrible consequences of that deluge had long since been forgotten. The excess of issue and lack of faith in them was soon reflected by rising prices. The banks had little or no specie for redeeming their notes. Soon many banks were without funds, hence were compelled to close their doors, and both the promoters and their victims were led into financial ruin.

Governor Snyder’s great friend, Editor John Binns, had the courage to maintain that, although individuals were thus made bankrupt, the State was benefited by the results of the banking acts, for, says he: “The titles to lands became more clear, settled and certain; strangers were induced to purchase and come to Pennsylvania and settle.” Quite a costly way to clear titles.

The downfall of the banking system was followed by general depression, and many men and business institutions were forced into involuntary bankruptcy. This was an unfortunate period in Pennsylvania history, and was not a condition single to this State alone.

Normal conditions were eventually restored and then followed an era of progress which was not marred for many years.

Throughout all this trying period Governor Snyder exhibited many splendid traits of character, and met every emergency with determined courage. He was not always able to control the Legislature, and his conduct in trying to stay the deluge of paper money was one of the most noteworthy of his three successful administrations.

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British Destroy Moravian Indian Town on
Order of De Peyster, August 25,1781

Colonel Daniel Brodhead had been sent with his Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment to the Western frontier, and as most of the soldiers in this renowned command had been recruited in that part of the State this assignment was gladly received. The men could do double duty by serving their country and at the same time assist in protecting their own homes.

But all did not go well for Brodhead. He was a great soldier and knew how to fight Indians, but was remiss in other matters and soon got into trouble with the Supreme Executive Council, on account of becoming involved in quarrels with officers and civilians.

Congress selected Brigadier General William Irvine, of Carlisle, to succeed Colonel Brodhead in the command of the Western Department, September 24, 1781, and he repaired to that post of duty.

Colonel J. W. de Peyster, the British commandant at Detroit, who believed the presence of the Moravian missionaries along the Tuscarawas River had seriously interfered with prosecution of the war, ordered their removal to the Sandusky Valley, where they were planted amid the villages of the hostile Wyandot and Shawnee.

On August 25, 1781, he sent Captain Matthew Elliott, the Tory officer, with a small party of Tories and French-Canadians, and 250 savages, including Wyandot under Dunquat, Delaware under Captain Pipe, and a few Shawnee to carry his order into effect. Elliott performed his errand with unnecessary brutality.

The missionaries and their converts claimed a strict neutrality, but did not observe it. Bishop Zeisberger and Reverend Heckewelder were secretly the friends of the Americans and conducted a regular clandestine correspondence with the officers at Fort Pitt, giving valuable information of the movements of the British and hostile savages. This was suspected by Colonel de Peyster and he ordered the Moravians to move nearer Detroit. The hostile Indians threatened the converts with destruction because they would not join in the war, while many borderers believed these Indians did occasionally participate in raids upon the settlements. The settlers did not take much stock in the Christianity of the Moravian Indians.

To save the Moravians from dangers on both sides, Colonel Brodhead advised them to take up their residence near Fort Pitt, but they refused to heed his warning. These converts remained between the two fires, but Zeisberger and Heckewelder were blind to their imminent peril.

The Moravian Indians numbered about one hundred families in their three villages of Schoenbrun, Gnadenhuetten, and Salem. Their homes were log cabins, with vegetable gardens and cultivated fields, and fine herds of cattle, hogs and many horses.

Elliott seized and confined the missionaries and their families and gathered them and all the converted Indians at Gnadenhuetten. They were marched from there September 11, leaving behind their great stock of corn and many effects. The sad procession descended the Tuscarawas to its junction with the Walhonding and passed up the latter stream to its source, thence over the dividing ridge to the Sandusky.

By the time the Moravians had reached the Sandusky they had been robbed of their best blankets and cooking vessels and their food was about exhausted. On the east side of the stream, about two miles above the site of Upper Sandusky, they settled down in poverty and privation, built rude shelters of logs and bark and spent the winter in great distress.

In March the missionaries were again taken to Detroit and closely examined by de Peyster, and nothing detrimental could be proved against them, yet de Peyster would not allow them to return to the Sandusky, and they made a new settlement on the Huron River.

During the forcible removal of the Moravians seven Wyandot warriors left the party and went on a raid across the Ohio River. Among the seven were three sons of Dunquat, the half-king; the eldest son, Scotosh, was the leader of the party. They visited the farm of Philip Jackson, on Harman’s Creek, and captured Jackson, who was a carpenter about 60 years of age. This capture was witnessed by Jackson’s son, who ran nine miles to Fort Cherry, on Little Raccoon Creek, and gave the alarm, but a heavy rain that night prevented immediate pursuit.

Bright and early next morning seventeen stout young men, all mounted, gathered at Jackson’s farm, and John Jack, a professional scout, declared he knew where the Indians had hidden their canoes. But only six would follow him, John Cherry, Andrew Poe, Adam Poe, William Castleman, William Rankin and James Whitacre, and they started on a gallop for the mouth of Tomlinson’s Run. Jack’s surmise was a shrewd one, based on a thorough knowledge of the Ohio River and the habits of the Indians.

After dismounting the borderers descended cautiously, and at the mouth of the run were five Indians, with their prisoner, ready to shove off. John Cherry fired and killed an Indian and was himself killed by the return fire. Four of the five Indians were killed, and Philip Jackson rescued unharmed, and Scotosh escaped up the river with a wound in his arm.

Andrew Poe in a hand to hand scuffle with two sons of the half-king, succeeded in killing one of them, who had first wounded him. The other Indian escaped and was in the act of firing at Poe when he was shot and killed. Andrew Poe fell into the stream and was mistaken for an Indian and shot in the shoulder by mistake.

The triumphant return of the party to Fort Cherry was saddened by the death of John Cherry, a great and popular leader. Scotosh was the only Indian who escaped, and he made his way back to the Upper Sandusky, with a sad message for his father and the tribe.

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Volunteers Fight Two Battles in Hills Along
West Branch August 26, 1763

For boldness of attempt and depth of design the Pontiac War was perhaps unsurpassed in the annals of border warfare.

Soon as the English had been able to push past the French line of forts, which reached from Presqu’ Isle to the Monongahela, and had gained such a strong foothold in Canada, the Indians planned to destroy them at one stroke.

The renowned chiefs, Kiyasuta, of the Seneca, and Pontiac, of the Ottawa, conceived the gigantic plan of uniting all the northwestern tribes in a simultaneous attack upon the whole frontier. Utter extermination was their object.

The forts were to be taken by stratagem by separate parties, all on the same day. The border settlements were to be attacked during harvest and men, women, children, crops, cattle and cabins, were to be destroyed.

The English traders among the Indians were the first victims; out of a total of 120, only a few escaped. The frontier settlements among or near the mountains were overrun with scalping parties, marking their pathway with blood and fire.

The forts in Pennsylvania at Presqu’ Isle, Le Boeuf and Venango were taken with great slaughter. Those at Fort Pitt, Bedford and Ligonier were preserved with great difficulty. Carlisle and Fort Augusta were threatened.

General Amherst promptly dispatched Colonel Henry Bouquet to the relief of Fort Pitt, and he defeated the Indians and saved the garrison.

It was during this distressing period that the Indians planned to attack the interior settlements of Pennsylvania as far as Tulpehocken, and their great object was the capture of Fort Augusta, which had been built at the suggestion of the Indians themselves.

Alarming intelligence was everywhere received of the contemplated attacks; friendly Indians gave timely warning of each approaching danger. Especially was the situation critical in the vicinity of Paxtang where the treachery of the so-called friendly Indians was several times discovered.

Preparations were carefully made and the utmost vigilance exercised and every available resistance planned by the sturdy frontiersmen. The garrison at Fort Augusta was reinforced by additional troops recruited in the countries nearer the seat of government.

With reports constantly reaching Carlisle and other places that the Indians would attack Fort Augusta in great numbers, and believing that the Moravian Indian converts were treacherously giving information to the enemy, it was determined to check them.

Colonel John Armstrong, with about three hundred volunteers from Cumberland and Bedford Counties marched from Carlisle on an expedition to destroy the Indian town at Great Island, now Lock Haven, Pennsylvania.

When Armstrong’s party arrived at Great Island the Indians had already deserted their village a few days previous. But on his march he fell upon another village near the Big Island, now Jersey Shore. So sudden was his advance that the Indians were scarcely able to escape; they left the food hot upon their bark tables, which was prepared for dinner. The army destroyed Great Island village and a large quantity of grain and provisions.

A part of this little army was returning down the West Branch, Friday, August 26, when they encountered the enemy at Muncy Creek hill, present Lycoming County, and, in a hot skirmish which ensued, four of the volunteers were killed and four wounded. There were quite as many casualties among the savages, but they were able to bear away their dead and wounded.

Captains William Patterson, Sharp, Bedford, Laughlin and Crawford with seventy-six of their commands, arrived at Fort Augusta, Saturday, August 27, 1763. Other stragglers reached the fort during that and the following day.

These soldiers reported details of the sanguinary battle and confirmed the fears of the inhabitants about the treachery of the Moravian Indians. They reported that after the battle a party of Indians returning to Great Island from a mission to Bethlehem, were attacked by them on a hill north of the present borough of Northumberland, in which action the troops believed they had killed all of the Indian party of twelve.

There can be no doubt that these two attacks were made for there are several references to them from different sources, also J. F. Meginness in his “Otzinachson,” says:

“It is to be regretted that so little was left on record concerning the operations of this great expedition. It was the largest that had invaded the West Branch Valley up to that time, but instead of wiping out the savages and rendering them powerless, it only tended to still further enrage and cause them to commit greater deeds of blood as was proved by subsequent events.”

The first great massacre at Wyoming soon followed. A party of Six Nations stealthily murdered Tedyuskung, the Delaware King, by burning him to death in his cabin during a drunken bout. They convinced the Delaware that the crime was perpetrated by whites, who October 15, 1763, suddenly turned on the settlers while at work in the fields, brutally murdered ten of them, and left their scalped bodies in the fields, while they burned their homes, destroyed their crops and drove away the cattle. None escaped but those who fled in time to reach the mountains. This massacre was led by Captain Bull, a son of Tedyuskung.

Only the brilliant success of Colonel Henry Bouquet at Bushy Run checked the Indians, and with this repulse they became disheartened and soon after sued for peace.

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Europeans Explore Waters of Pennsylvania,
Delaware Bay So Named
August 27, 1610

Quite different from all other colonies was Pennsylvania in the fact that many settlements were made within its borders and many races contributed to her people.

In 1608, the famous Captain John Smith, of Virginia, sailed up the Chesapeake Bay to its head, where he was stopped by the rocks.

At this same time the Dutch of Holland, during a lull in their war with Spain, were sending maritime expeditions over the world. They sent Henry Hudson to America. He sailed up the coast, on August 28, 1609, in his ship the “Half Moon,” entered the bay now called Delaware Bay, and cast anchor. Hudson was an Englishman, but in the service now of the Dutch.

The republic of the Netherlands, after a struggle never surpassed for heroism and constancy, had won a truce with King Philip of Spain, and the Dutch merchants had sent the English captain out upon the old quest, a short route to China.

Hudson’s appearance in Delaware Bay was before his discovery of the Hudson River, and, therefore, New Netherlands had its origin on the Delaware, called by the Dutch the Zuyd Revier, or South River.

Hudson navigated his little ship into the bay with great caution. He spent the day in making soundings, and learned that “he who would thoroughly discover this great bay must have a small pinnace to send before him, that must draw but four or five feet to sound before him.”

Hudson then sailed up the New Jersey coast, on the third day of September, anchored his ship within Sandy Hook, and the 12th he entered New York Bay through the Narrows, and discovered the great river that since has borne his name.

So far as the history of Pennsylvania is concerned there is much import in the exploration of Hudson in Delaware Bay. He made known to his employers, the Dutch East India Company, and to the seafaring nations of western Europe, the existence of this wide bay, into which, as he perceived, a great river must discharge. His discovery laid the ground for the claim by the Dutch to the country on the Delaware. Exploration followed, then trade, then occupancy, then a new State, in which the present Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York were united under one government, called New Netherlands.

On August 27, 1610, Captain Samuel Argall, from Jamestown, Va., sailed into the Delaware Bay, and, remaining a few hours, gave it the name of Delaware, in honor of Lord Delaware, then Governor of Virginia. Thus we notice that neither Captain John Smith nor Henry Hudson entered Pennsylvania, they approached the very doorway, but did not come inside.

The first actual visit of a white man seems to have been six years later, when Etienne Brulé, a Frenchman, and a follower of Champlain, the first Governor of New France, came into Pennsylvania via the headwaters of the Susquehanna River and explored its entire length.

Hudson’s report of a land rich in furs attracted the attention of the Dutch, and before 1614, five vessels came to Manhattan on the North River. One of them, the “Fortune,” commanded by Captain Cornelius Jacobson Mey, sailed in the Zuyd River, and he named the cape at the east entrance of the bay Cape Mey, and the cape on the west Cape Cornelius.

One of these vessels, the “Tiger,” was burned and her captain, Adrian Block, built a yacht forty-four and a half feet long, eleven and a half feet wide, of sixteen tons burden, to take her place. This boat, the “Onrust,” was the first built within the limits of the United States, and she was destined to fame. Cornelius Hendrickson brought the “Onrust” to the Delaware in 1616, and made the first exploration of the Delaware River, and discovered the mouth of the Schuylkill and first saw the site of Philadelphia. Here he ransomed from the Indians a Dutchman named Kleynties and two companions, who had come down from the North River by land, and who may have been the first Europeans in Pennsylvania.

On June 3, 1621, the Dutch West India Company was formed. The charter by the Dutch Government gave it the exclusive right to trade on the coast of America between Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan. This company, by virtue of its charter, took possession of the country, and dispatched the ship “New Netherland,” with a number of people, under command of Captain Mey, to the Delaware, where, on the eastern bank, fifteen leagues from its mouth, Captain Mey erected Fort Nassau.

The site of this fort was about five miles above Wilmington, and here four married couples and eight seamen lived. This was, probably, the first settlement on the Delaware River. Fort Nassau was a log structure, capable of defense against bows and arrows, sufficient for a depot of furs, but badly situated to command the commerce of the river. It stood for nearly thirty years, until 1651, and in that time was the center on this continent of Dutch authority and trade. It was to this fort that the Indians of Pennsylvania brought their peltries to exchange for articles that served their use or pleased their fancy, or for rum that made them drunk.

Another settlement was made farther north, on the same side of the river, which consisted of three or four families.

The administration of the affairs of New Netherlands was confided by the Dutch West Indian Company to Peter Minuit, who arrived at Manhattan, May 4, 1626. He came from Wesel, and was commissioned as director-general. It was he who soon after his arrival “purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians for sixty guilders, or the sum of twenty-five dollars in real money.”

In spite of the fact that the Dutch West Indian Company in 1629 granted special privileges to all persons who should plant any colony in New Netherland, up until 1631 no white man had made a settlement on the west bank of the Delaware.

On December 30, 1630, David Pieterzoon De Vries, with thirty-two people and a large stock of cattle, sailed from the Texel, in the ship “Walrus,” and arrived at the southern cape, Cornelius, now Henlopen, and made a settlement near the present town of Lewes, and called it Swanendael, or the Valley of the Swans. De Vries is the finest figure among the early pioneer history of the settlement of this part of our country. He was intelligent, energetic and humane.

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World Struggle for Oil Began at Titusville,
August 28, 1859

The gigantic struggle for oil began in Titusville, Pennsylvania, August 28, 1859, when Colonel Edwin L. Drake struck oil in the world’s first well.

This small hole drilled through the rock so peacefully opened the way to wealth hitherto unknown. It yielded about forty barrels per day, but the precious fuel was now produced in commercial quantities. It opened also the most important natural production of Pennsylvania, after iron and coal.

This first well was in Cherry Tree Township, on the Watson Flats, on the bank of Oil Creek, about two miles below the thrifty borough of Titusville.

Venango County seems to have been the native home for petroleum for although it has been found in large quantities in neighboring counties, it was first gathered there and its presence was known from the advent of man in that vast region.

The Indians gathered oil from a stream called Oil Creek, in this vicinity, which they used for medicinal purposes. It became well known all over the country as “Seneca Oil,” “British Oil” and other names. It was collected by digging out the place where it oozed out of the ground, and when oil and water had accumulated, blankets were thrown in, taking up the oil, when it was wrung out, and the process repeated.

A century since the product of Oil Creek Valley amounted to a dozen barrels a year. The first shipment in bulk was made by a man named Cary, who filled two five-gallon kegs and lashed them on either side of the horse he rode to the market at Pittsburgh. This supply stocked the market.

By the year 1865 Venango County shipped 13,000 barrels per day about the only oil produced in this country.

Petroleum was desired as an illuminator, but the small quantity obtainable made it too expensive.

According to the production records more than one billion barrels of oil were produced in 1923 for a world’s record in oil production—and yet the supply is far short of the world demand.

Fish oil is the earliest known illuminant and lubricant. “Coal oil,” however, still used erroneously as the name for kerosene, was discovered less than eighty years ago by Dr. Abraham Gesner, who, in 1846, obtained oil from coal. That was enough to ruin the fish oil industry, and soon more than fifty coal oil works were put in operation, distilling oil from bituminous, or soft coal.

A man named Kier, at Tarentum, Pennsylvania, in 1847, bored for salt water and pumped up oil. He put it in barrels and sold it. A professor at Dartmouth College, using some of the oil, told George H. Bissell that in his opinion it could be used for illuminating purposes. Bissell investigated these claims and organized the Petroleum Oil Company—which was the first of its kind in the United States, and sent a quantity to Benjamin Silliman, Professor of Chemistry in Yale College, who reported that nearly the whole of the raw product could be treated so as to be used for illuminating and other purposes without any waste.

In December, 1857, Colonel Edwin L. Drake, one of the stockholders of this company, rode into Titusville on a mail coach from Erie. He carried with him $1,000 with which to begin boring for oil. He started immediately to his work, but met with many discouragements.

Well drillers were unknown and well drilling machinery almost unheard of in 1858. He built his “pump house” and derrick, and with the assistance of “Uncle Billy” Smith, began drilling.

The beginning was made in quicksand and clay, and as soon as the hole was made it filled up with water and caved in. Drake then hit upon the scheme of driving an iron pipe through to bedrock, and its success made the use of this method the standard practice of today in the oil fields everywhere.

After rock was reached they bored but three feet per day, but by Saturday, August 27, 1859, the well had reached the depth of sixty-nine feet and the drill was working in coarse sand. Smith and his sons, who were helping him, had finished for the week. As they were quitting the drill dropped six inches, apparently into a crevice, as was common in salt wells. No attention was paid to this circumstance, the tools were drawn out and all hands adjourned to Titusville.

Sunday morning Uncle Billy strolled out to the drill, and to his astonishment found the well filled within a few feet of the surface with a dark fluid. It was oil. The news soon spread to the village, and when Colonel-Drake appeared he found Uncle Billy guarding three barrels of petroleum. The pumping apparatus was adjusted, and by noon the well was producing at the rate of twenty barrels per day. The problem of the ages had been solved. The world’s first oil well was in production.

Then began what has been called the “oil fever.” People from all parts of the country flocked to western Pennsylvania. Oil companies were everywhere organized, whose stock was sold on the market. Land which for generations had been regarded as almost barren sold for fabulous prices.

“Coal Oil Johnnie,” an ignorant young man whose paternal acres had long brought only poverty and were now found to be located with wealth, appeared in Philadelphia, scattering ten dollar bills in all directions, and buying teams of horses on one day, only to give them to his coachman on the next. He built an opera house in Cincinnati and ended his career as its doorkeeper.

In 1860, near Rouseville, the oil flowed out of a well without the use of a pump, and other flowing wells in adjacent localities were soon found.

Oil was first transported in wagons and boats. The railroads were laid out to Oil City in 1865. In 1864 Samuel Van Syckel had constructed a pipe line four miles in length, and the result was a change in the entire method of transportation. A refinery was built at Corry in 1862.

The Pennsylvania grade of crude oil is the best lubricant that man has ever found. And since refineries can add nothing to an oil that was not present in its crude state, Pennsylvania grade of crude oil is still supreme.

In recent years the Standard Oil Company has controlled to a great extent the oil production of the country.

The largest individual fortune the world has ever seen is the outcome of the development of the business of securing and distributing coal oil.

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Joseph Galloway, Loyalist Politician, and
Member Continental Congress,
Died August 29, 1803

Joseph Galloway, the Loyalist Politician, was born in the town of West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, in the year 1731. His great-grandfather, Richard Galloway, of London, England, acquired considerable land in Lord Baltimore’s province in 1662, thus indicating that he was a man of good fortune and respectability.

Peter Galloway, father of Joseph, removed with his family in 1740 to Kent, not far from Philadelphia, where he died while Joseph was yet a mere boy. Being possessed of large landed property Joseph chose the study of law, and was admitted to the bar and allowed to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania as early as 1749. In the meantime he had obtained a good social standing, and as early as 1748 had been made a member of the Schuylkill Fishing Company, a club composed of the most prominent and aristocratic men of Philadelphia.

Mr. Galloway still further enhanced his prospects by his marriage in 1753 with Grace Growden, daughter of Lawrence Growden, an influential character and a former Speaker of the Assembly. The Growdens were the owners of the famous iron works at Durham, Pennsylvania, and possessed large means.

Mr. Galloway rapidly acquired a large practice and became one of the eminent lawyers in the province. He and John Dickinson succeeded Andrew Hamilton in the leadership of the Philadelphia bar prior to the Revolution.

Galloway became a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1756, and his legal talents proved of especial service in that body. In recognition of his unusual attainments as a lawyer and public man, Mr. Galloway was given the degree LL.D., by Princeton College in 1769.

Mr. Galloway several times served as an Indian Commissioner and attended important conferences at Easton and on missions to the Indian country.

He became an opponent of the Proprietaries and fought a successful battle with the Governor over the question of preserving to the Assembly the disposal of the money and forbidding the Governor to assist in its expenditure.

When the effort was made to abolish the Proprietorship and make Pennsylvania a royal province, the Assembly passed resolutions rehearsing the tyranny of the Proprietary and a bitter factional struggle ensued among the people. In October, 1764, the Assembly passed the resolution for a change of government by a vote of 27 to 3. Rather than sign the document Isaac Norris resigned as speaker.

In the final debate, Joseph Galloway and John Dickinson made the leading speeches for and against, respectively. Galloway favored the abolition of the Proprietary government, while Dickinson believed its continuance would better serve the province. Benjamin Franklin and Galloway were so closely associated that their leadership was hard to beat.

Galloway was at the head of the committee which considered and reported upon the grievances of the Province in the “Paxtang Riot” affair following the murder of the Conestoga Indians, December, 1763.

The conduct of Galloway during the excitement attending the passage of the Stamp Act was conspicuously loyal. He feared the tyranny of mob rule more than the tyranny of Parliament.

Mr. Galloway gave expression to his views in an article signed “Americanus,” printed in the Pennsylvania Journal, in which he warned his countrymen of the evils to which their seditious conduct would lead. This article aroused great indignation against him. He was called a Tory and went by the name of “Americanus” for some time.

Mr. Galloway had an extreme aversion to the Presbyterians. He associated them with rioters, and in their support of the “Paxtang Boys” he was convinced they were dangerous characters.

Although he had taken a rather unpopular stand in the Stamp Act controversy, he was returned to the Assembly in 1766, and elected its Speaker.

Mr. Galloway approved the proposal for a Continental Congress and was one of the eight Pennsylvanians who composed the First Continental Congress. Although Dickinson was the leader, Galloway played a conspicuous but not very honorable part. According to Bancroft, he “acted as a volunteer spy for the British Government.”

It is a fact that he was a conservative in his views, and that his line of argument in his first debates tended towards political independence. He proposed a plan of colonial government, which was rejected. This plan contemplated a government with a president-general appointed by the king, and a Grand Council, chosen every three years by the colonial assemblies, who were to be authorized to act jointly with Parliament in the regulation of affairs of the colonies.

The following year Galloway was permitted to resign and thus be relieved from serving on account of the radical acts against England. He abandoned the Whigs soon as the question of independence had begun to be agitated, and thence forward he was regarded as a zealous Tory.

When the Howes issued their proclamation in 1776, granting amnesty to such Americans as would forsake the Revolutionary cause, Galloway’s courage failed him and he accepted the offer.

“Galloway has fled and joined the venal Howe;
To prove his baseness, see him cringe and bow,
A traitor to his country and its laws,
A friend to tyrants and their cursed cause,” etc.

Galloway accompanied Howe’s expedition against Philadelphia. When the British assumed control he was appointed Superintendent of the Police of the City and Suburbs, of the Port and of the Prohibited Articles. Thus he was for about five months the head of the civil government.

He raised and disciplined troops; and gathered a company of Bucks County refugees, and with these two bodies he carried on military enterprises against Americans.

The Pennsylvania Assembly, March 6, 1778, passed an “act for the attainder of divers traitors,” among whom was Joseph Galloway. His estate was confiscated, and according to his testimony before Parliament, was worth at least £40,000 sterling. His house was appropriated by the State of Pennsylvania as a residence for the President of the Supreme Executive Council, but was afterwards sold to Robert Morris.

Forbidden the privilege of returning to Pennsylvania, Mr. Galloway devoted his leisure time to religious studies. He died at Watford, Herts, England, August 29, 1803.

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Etymology of Pennsylvania Counties Erected
Since Penn Set Sail August 30, 1682

William Penn sailed from England in the ship “Welcome,” August 30, 1682.

Upon his arrival the organization of his province was pushed with dispatch, and today that vast territory is divided into sixty-seven counties, each one of which possesses history worth the telling.

The genealogy of the counties of Pennsylvania is both interesting and historical, and presents some valuable data. The three original counties were Philadelphia, Chester and Bucks, so named by William Penn in the latter part of the year 1682.

It is a singular coincidence that Philadelphia County should be surrounded with counties somewhat similar to those which surround London in England; Buckingham, or Bucks, Chester and Lancashire.

The name Philadelphia means “brotherly love,” the other three were given their names in honor of their English importance. In fact all the counties formed and named prior to the Revolution were named identically and relatively after the counties in England in this chronological order in the Province—Philadelphia, Chester, Bucks, Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Berks, Northampton, Bedford, Northumberland and Westmoreland.

Following the independence of the colonies only three of the counties of Pennsylvania were afterwards given names of English Counties. They were Huntingdon, Somerset and Cambria.

In an interesting paper prepared by the late Dr. Hugh Hamilton, of Harrisburg and read before the Federation of Historical Societies of Pennsylvania, of which he was then president, the sixty-seven counties were grouped etymologically as follows:

“Sentimental—Philadelphia, Columbia, Lebanon and Union.

“Familiar—Bedford, Berks, Bucks, Cambria, Chester, Cumberland, Huntingdon, Lancaster, Northampton, Northumberland, Somerset, York and Westmoreland.

“Gratitude—Armstrong, Bradford, Butler, Clinton, Crawford, Dauphin, Luzerne, Mercer, Mifflin, Montgomery, Fayette, Fulton, Greene, Lawrence, Montour, Perry, Pike, Sullivan, Warren, Washington and Wayne.

“Political—Adams, Blair, Cameron, Franklin, Jefferson, McKean, Monroe and Snyder.

“Aboriginal—Allegheny, Delaware, Erie, Indiana, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Lycoming, Susquehanna, Tioga, Venango and Wyoming.

“Topographical—Center and Clarion.

“Faunal—Beaver, Carbon, Clearfield, Elk, Forest, Schuylkill.”

It would seem as if Schuylkill should be placed with the aboriginal group and a new one placed in the list called possibly natural characteristics, when Carbon, Clearfield and Forest would be placed and taken from the faunal group. However, the grouping is of much interest and value.

Many of these counties were formed and received their names at times of some event in history or when a distinguished person seemed entitled to be thus honored.

Washington County was named in honor of the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1781, before he was even thought of as the first president of the United States. And it is an interesting fact that Washington County was the first one erected after the Declaration of Independence. Thus Washington became first in Pennsylvania, as well as in war, peace and the hearts of his countrymen. And it is equally interesting that the very next county to be formed in the patriotic State of Pennsylvania should be named after General La Fayette, who rendered such conspicuous service to the colonies and was so close to Washington during the trying days of the great war for liberty. Fayette was organized September 26, 1783.

Then the statesmen paid a great tribute to Franklin, who was the great American patriot and statesman. Armstrong was named in honor of Colonel John Armstrong of Carlisle, who led the successful expedition against the Indian town at Kittanning and who afterwards became a general and rendered distinguished service in the Revolution.

The counties of Butler, Crawford, Mifflin, Pike, Potter and Wayne were named in honor of distinguished Pennsylvania officers of the Revolution; while Greene and Mercer were names suggested by General Washington, both as a tribute to distinguished generals of the Revolution, who were much in Pennsylvania; Sullivan and Perry were named for generals whose great triumphs were enacted here, and Warren County was named in honor of the general who made the supreme sacrifice at Bunker Hill.

Bradford County was originally Ontario in the bill creating it, but the name was changed in honor of former Attorney General William Bradford, of Pennsylvania. Lawrence was so named in honor of the flagship of Commodore Oliver H. Perry; Fulton in honor of Lancaster County’s native son, Robert Fulton, who first successfully ran a steamboat. Clinton was intended to be called Eagle County, but the name was changed to Clinton. Montour was so named in honor of Madame Montour and her two distinguished sons, Henry and Andrew, Indians who were ever loyal to the Provincial Government of Pennsylvania.

Dauphin and Luzerne were so named in thankfulness to France, the former in honor of the eldest son of Louis XVI, and the latter in tribute to the Minister of France then in the United States.

It is rather to be regretted that more of our counties, cities, boroughs and villages do not still retain their original aboriginal names such as have been retained in Allegheny, Delaware, Erie, Indiana, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Lycoming, Susquehanna, Tioga, Venango, Wyoming and Schuylkill Counties.

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Penn Obtains Deed to Province, Then
Obtains Lower Counties
August 31, 1682

Two motives operated in the early colonization of the American Continent; one was the desire of amassing sudden wealth without working for it; this tempted the adventurous to seek gold here, to trade valueless trinkets to the Indians for valuable furs and skins; the other was the desire to escape unjust restrictions of government and the hated ban of society against the worship of God according to the dictates of one’s own conscience, which incited devotees of Christianity to forego the comforts of home in the midst of civilization, and to make for themselves a habitation on the shores of the new world.

William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, had felt the heavy hand of persecution for religious opinion’s sake. As a gentleman commoner at Oxford, he had been fined and finally expelled for nonconformity to the established church; at home he was whipped and turned out of doors by his father; he was sent to prison by the Mayor of Cork, where for seven months he languished in the Tower of London, and, finally, to complete his disgrace, he was cast into Newgate with common felons.

Upon the accession of James II to the throne of England, more than fourteen hundred persons of Quaker faith were immured in prisons for a conscientious adherence to their religious convictions. To escape this persecution Penn and his followers were moved to emigrate to the New World, as they called it.

In 1680 Penn made application to Charles II for a grant of land in America. He based his claim upon moneys due to his father because of losses in the public service, where he was a distinguished officer of the British navy.

The Duke of York gave his consent and the king issued a patent to William Penn, March 4, 1681.

Penn was not prepared to visit his new province during the first year, but he dispatched three shiploads of settlers, and with them sent his cousin, Captain William Markham, to take formal possession of the country and act as deputy governor.

Markham arrived at New York, June 21, 1681, and exhibited his commission, bearing date April 10, 1681. He also presented the king’s charter and proclamation.

Armed with these credentials Markham proceeded to the Delaware, where he was kindly received. He met Lord Baltimore, who happened to be in the province, and the Maryland proprietor discovered by observation that Upland was at least twelve miles south of the fortieth degree of latitude, and believed his province, therefore, extended to the Schuylkill.

This claim by Baltimore induced Penn to obtain additional grants, as without them he feared the loss of his whole peninsula.

Markham was accompanied to Pennsylvania by four commissioners appointed by Penn, who, in conjunction with the Governor, had two chief duties assigned them; the first was to meet and preserve friendly relations with the Indians, and acquire lands by actual purchase, and the second was to select the site of a great city and to make the necessary surveys.

In the beginning of the year following, Penn published his frame of government, and certain laws, agreed on in England by himself and the purchasers under him, entitled: “The frame of the government of the Province of Pennsylvania, in America; together with certain laws, agreed upon in England by the Governor and Divers of the Free-Men of the aforesaid Province. To be further Explained and Confirmed there, by the first Provincial Council and General Assembly that shall be held, if they see meet.”

Lest any trouble might arise in the future from claims founded on the grant of land in America to the Duke of York, of “Long Island and adjacent territories occupied by the Dutch,” the prudent forethought of William Penn prompted him to obtain a deed from the Duke, which he succeeded in doing August 31, 1682.

The deed included the land in Pennsylvania, substantially in the terms cited in the original Royal Charter.

But Penn, even with the new deed, was not quite satisfied. He was cut off from the ocean by the uncertain navigation of some narrow stream. He, therefore, obtained an additional deed from the Duke of York which was for the grant of New Castle and district twelve miles in radius around it, and also a further grant from the Duke of a tract extending to Cape Henlopen, embracing the two counties of Kent and Sussex.

This new grant to Penn was thereafter termed “the territories,” or “the three lower counties,” and for many years remained a part of Pennsylvania, until finally separated, since which time it has formed the State of Delaware.

William Penn was now satisfied with the limits of his province and drew up such a description of the country from his limited knowledge as he was able to give.

This description was published in an attractive booklet, together with the Royal Charter and proclamation; terms of settlement, and other matters pertaining thereto, and broadcast throughout the Kingdom. He took particular pains to have these books fall into the hands of Friends.

The terms of sale of lands were forty shillings for one hundred acres and one shilling per acre annual rental.