Chapter IX: Introduction (8)

The Indians immediately struck across the country, reaching the West Branch of the Susquehanna near the mouth of the Sinnemahoning Creek. They also had another prisoner named Ross, who was wounded even more severely than Boyd, and could travel no farther. He was fastened to a stake, with his arms tied behind his back; his body was cut with sharp points and pitch-pine splinters stuck into the incisions; the fire was lighted and the savages danced around him in fiendish glee. His tortures were terrible before death relieved him.

During this tragic scene Captain Boyd, faint from the loss of blood, was tied to a small oak sapling, in such a position that he could not refrain from being a silent spectator of the horrible scene; realizing that he was soon to suffer the same tortures.

He summoned up all his courage and resigned himself to his fate. Certainly his thoughts must have reminded him of the sufferings of his heroic brother only two years before, almost in the same manner.

While the incarnate fiends were making preparations to torture him to death by inches, he sang a pretty Masonic song, with a plaintive air which attracted their attention and they listened to it closely until it was finished. At this critical moment an old squaw came up and claimed him for her son. The Indians did not interfere and she immediately dressed his wounds and attended to his comfort, carefully guarding him during their journey to Canada.

This old squaw accompanied Captain Boyd to Quebec, where he was placed in a hospital and attended by an English surgeon. When he recovered he was turned out on the street without a penny or a friend.

He found a Masonic Inn and made himself known to the proprietor who cared for him until he was exchanged.

The old squaw who befriended him belonged to the Oneida tribe. Captain Boyd remembered her kindly as one of his best friends and frequently sent her presents of money and trinkets. On one occasion he made a journey north to visit her in her aboriginal home and personally thank her for saving his life.

Captain Boyd, in partnership with Colonel William Wilson, operated a mill on Chillisquaque Creek, Northumberland County, for many years.

He was one of the surviving officers who enjoyed the provisions of the act of Congress, May, 1828.

He was a delegate to the convention which ratified the Federal Constitution December 12, 1787.

He was an elector of President and Vice President in 1792, when he voted for Washington and Adams. He was appointed by President Washington Inspector of Internal Revenue for Pennsylvania. He also served as Register and Recorder of Northumberland County.

Captain Boyd married May 13, 1794, Rebecca, daughter of Colonel John Bull, famous Revolutionary officer. They were the parents of five daughters and two sons. He died February 23, 1831.

----------

Simon Girty, the Renegade, and Indians
Attacked Fort Laurens, February
23,1779

Brigadier General Lachlan McIntosh, who had been sent by Congress and General Washington to restore peace on the harried western frontier of Pennsylvania, relieved General Edward Hand of his command at Fort Pitt.

A treaty of peace with the Delaware Indians was concluded September 17, 1778, and General McIntosh immediately prepared an expedition against the British post at Detroit.

On October 1, the army, consisting of 1300 troops, of whom 500 were regulars of the Eighth Pennsylvania and Thirteenth Virginia, marched from Fort Pitt down the Ohio, to the mouth of the Beaver.

Four weeks were occupied in building a fort within the present town of Beaver, which was named Fort McIntosh, in honor of the commanding officer.

A herd of lean cattle arrived at Fort McIntosh November 3, and on the 5th the army began its march, but they did not reach the Tuscarawas River until November 19.

In accord with a provision in the treaty with the Delaware, General McIntosh was pledged to erect a protection for the Indian women and children. During the march to the Tuscarawas a Delaware chief was shot by a Virginia militiaman, and many Indians deserted the American force.

General McIntosh, with great reluctance, determined not to continue the campaign so late in the year, and to employ the troops and make a show of enterprise, he began the construction of a stockade fort at Tuscarawas, where the army then encamped and from which place it would again set out in the spring on another attempt against Detroit.

The fort was named Fort Laurens, in honor of the President of the Continental Congress.

Before this fort was finished General McIntosh realized he could not get forward a sufficient quantity of provisions to maintain his large force in the Indian country long enough even for an expedition against the Sandusky towns.

The Virginians were enlisted only until the end of the year, the weather became intensely cold, starvation and deep snows threatened, which seemed enough to discourage any commander and the general was forced to march his army to the Ohio.

He left 150 men of the Thirteenth Virginia, under command of Colonel John Gibson, one of the stoutest-hearted of the frontiersmen. Colonel Daniel Brodhead, of Northampton County, with a detachment of the Eighth Pennsylvania, formed the winter garrison at Fort McIntosh, while General McIntosh took up his quarters at Fort Pitt much chagrined over his disappointments.

The little garrison at Fort Laurens experienced a terrible winter. They were short of food and clothing. The troops hunted until driven out of the woods by the hostile Indians.

The erection of this fort in the very heart of the Indian country greatly provoked the Wyandot, Miami and Mingo tribes, and they plotted its destruction. Early in January, 1779, they began to prowl about the post.

General McIntosh promised to send provisions to the post by the middle of January, and Captain John Clark, of the Eighth Pennsylvania, was sent from McIntosh with fifteen men to convoy the pack horses loaded with flour and meat to the relief of the post on the Tuscarawas.

This detail reached the fort January 21, and two days later set out on their return to the Ohio. Three miles from the fort the party was attacked from ambush by seventeen Mingo Indians, under the leadership of Simon Girty, the renegade and Tory, and two soldiers were killed, four wounded and one captured.

Captain Clark was forced back to Fort Laurens, but a few days afterward he again started and led his little detail through without molestation. Girty led his captive soldier to Detroit, and while there raised a much larger force and returned to the vicinity of Fort Laurens, where he arrived about the middle of February.

Fort Laurens was now surrounded by a band of 200 Miami and Mingo Indians led by Girty and Captain Henry Bird. Colonel Gibson succeeded in sending a messenger through the savage lines, who carried the distressing news to General McIntosh.

On February 23, 1779, a wagon was sent out from the fort under an escort of eighteen soldiers to haul some firewood which had been cut by the troops. About a half a mile from the fort the little party passed an ancient Indian mound behind which a band of Indians lay hidden. The Indians burst upon them, both front and rear, and every man in the detail was killed and scalped except two, who were taken prisoners.

The Indians then planned a regular siege upon the fort and endeavored to starve the garrison into surrender.

Colonel Gibson dispatched another messenger, who eluded the watchful Indians and reached Fort McCord March 3.

In the interim the condition in the garrison became desperate. A sortie in force was contemplated but the strength of the savages caused this plan to be abandoned. The Indians paraded over the crest of the hill within plain sight, and about 850 warriors were counted. It was afterward learned that 200 had been marched to make a show, four times the strength.

Captain Bird after this stratagem, sent in a demand for surrender, promising safe passage for the soldiers to Fort McIntosh, but Gibson sternly refused. The Indians then promised to withdraw if Gibson would furnish them with a barrel of flour and a barrel of meat.

Bird believed the garrison was reduced to its last ration and would, of necessity, refuse the request, and therefore he felt certain that in a few days the garrison must surrender.

Gibson had but a few barrels of food, and that in bad condition; but he quickly complied with the demand, sent out two barrels and said he had plenty yet inside. They enjoyed a feast on the flour and meat, and on the following day left that vicinity and returned to their towns in Northwestern Ohio.

On March 23, General McIntosh appeared with his relieving force of 300 regulars and 200 militia escorting a train of pack horses with provisions. For more than a week the men had subsisted on roots and soup made by boiling raw hides.

The famished troops sallied forth, and fired a volley to express their joy. The shooting frightened the pack horses, causing them to stampede through the woods, scattering food in every direction. Many of the horses were never recovered and the food lost.

By the middle of May the garrison was compelled to return to Fort McIntosh to escape actual starvation. The fort was finally dismantled and the men returned to Fort Pitt.

----------

General Jacob Brown, Hero of War of 1812,
Died February 24, 1828; Native of
Pennsylvania

When General Jacob Brown died in Washington, D. C., February 24, 1828, a monument was erected over his remains in the historic Congressional burial ground, which bore the following inscription:

“Sacred to the memory of General Jacob Brown. He was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of May, 1775, and died in the city of Washington, commanding-general of the army, on the 24th of February, 1828.

“Let him who e’er in after days
Shall view this monument of praise,
For honor heave the patriot sigh
And for his country learn to die.”

Then this surely was an unusual man and such is the fact.

He was born of Quaker parentage, in the house long since known as the Warner mansion, about three and a half miles below Morrisville, on the banks of the Delaware River, where his father lived until the son Jacob was grown, and they removed to New York toward the close of the century.

From his eighteenth to his twenty-first year Jacob Brown taught school at Crosswicks, N. J., and passed the next two years in surveying lands in Ohio.

In 1798 he opened a select school in New York City, and at the same time studied law.

Some of his newspaper essays attracted the attention of General Alexander Hamilton, to whom he became secretary while that officer was acting General-in-Chief of the army raised in anticipation of a war with France.

When those war clouds disappeared Brown went to northern New York, purchased lands on the banks of the Black River, not far distant from Sackett’s Harbor, and founded the flourishing settlement of Brownsville, where he erected the first building within thirty miles of Lake Ontario.

There Brown became county judge; colonel of the local militia in 1809; brigadier general in 1810; and, in 1812, received the appointment of commander of the frontier from Oswego to Lake St. Francis, a line two hundred miles in extent.

During the War of 1812–14, he performed most conspicuous service, receiving two severe wounds in battle.

At the second attack upon Sackett’s Harbor, May 27, 1813, when the news of the approach of the British squadron reached there Colonel Backus was in command. General Jacob Brown was at his home, a few miles distant. He was notified and arrived before dawn of the 28th. He sent expresses in all directions to summon the militia to the field, and fired guns to arouse the inhabitants.

As rapidly as the militia came in they were armed and sent to Horse Island, where it was expected the enemy would attempt to land. On the appearance of some American gun boats the British squadron went out on the open lake. But when the enemy discovered the real weakness of the defenders, the squadron returned on the morning of the 29th and landed a large force on Horse Island.

The militia had been withdrawn from the island to the mainland, and fled at the first fire of the invaders.

This disgraceful conduct astonished General Brown, who rallied his troops, when he discovered the store houses and a ship in flames, set on fire by Americans who believed their militia was in full retreat. This caused General Brown to redouble his exertions to rally the militia. He succeeded, and so turned the fortunes of the day in favor of his country.

When Sir George Prevost, mounted on a high stump, saw the rallying militia on his flank and rear, he believed them to be American reinforcements and sounded a retreat.

For his conduct in the defense of Sackett’s Harbor, Brown was made a brigadier in the United States Army.

General Brown made the only redeeming movement in Wilkinson’s disgraceful expedition down the St. Lawrence River against Montreal, November, 1813. Brown captured and held the post at the foot of the rapids, which movement permitted the union of the several armies, or the defeat would have been even more disastrous.

General Brown was severely wounded at the repulse of the British at Fort Erie, August 15, 1814.

Both parties prepared to renew the contest, and General Brown remained in command. On September 17, he stormed the attacking forces by a sortie from the fort, and won a brilliant victory. This saved Fort Erie with Buffalo, and the stores on the Niagara frontier.

Public honors were bestowed upon Generals Brown, Porter and Ripley. Congress presented each with a gold medal.

To the chief commander, General Brown, it was said, “no enterprise which he undertook ever failed,” and the city of New York gave him the freedom of the city in a beautiful gold box. The Governor of New York presented him with an elegant sword.

At the function in New York City, held February 4, 1815, Mayor DeWitt Clinton presided, and the aldermen and principal citizens hailed him as the hero of Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane.

The citizens of Philadelphia gave him a great public banquet at Washington Hall, Chief Justice Tilghman presiding, and Major Jackson, vice president.

The sanguinary battle near the cataract of the Niagara is known in history as the battle of Lundy’s Lane.

The British had just been defeated (July 5, 1814), at Chippewa, and were smarting under the disgrace of having their veteran troops defeated by raw Americans.

General Brown was ably supported by General Scott in this action and both were severely wounded. The command devolved upon General Ripley who disobeyed General Brown’s orders, lost the advantage of a brilliant victory, and was soon replaced by General E. P. Gaines.

At the close of the war, General Brown was retained in command of the northern division of the army, and was made general-in-chief, March 10, 1821, which exalted position he held with honor and credit till his death.

----------

Andrew McFarlane Captured by Indians at

Kittanning February 25, 1777

The Indian depredations along the Ohio River in the fall of 1776 began along its eastern shore, when small parties of the Mingo tribe made incursions among the settlements, inflicting only slight damage. But in the spring of 1777, the outrages became general and more destructive. The first outrage was on the frontier of Westmoreland County when Andrew McFarlane was captured at an outpost of Kittanning.

McFarlane soon after the close of the French and Indian War, made his way west to Fort Pitt, where he engaged in the Indian trade with his brother James. When the territorial dispute with Virginia became acute, in January, 1774, Andrew McFarlane was appointed a justice of the peace by Governor Penn and he vigorously upheld the Pennsylvania authority.

Captain John Connolly, at the head of his Virginia militia, interrupted the sessions of the Pennsylvania court at Hannastown, April, 1774, and arrested three Pennsylvania justices, who resided in Pittsburgh; Andrew McFarlane, Devereux Smith and Captain Aeneas Mackay. They were taken as prisoners to Staunton, Va., and there detained four weeks, until released by order of Governor Dunmore.

On the evening of his arrest in Pittsburgh, McFarlane managed to send a letter to Governor Penn, in which he said: “I am taken at a great inconvenience, as my business is suffering much on account of my absence, but I am willing to suffer a great deal more rather than bring a disgrace upon the commission which I bear under your honor.” One result of his arrest indicates that McFarlane did not really suffer much during his captivity at Staunton for there he met and married Margaret Lynn Lewis, daughter of William Lewis, famed in the military history of Virginia.

Andrew and James McFarlane, to escape exactions and persecutions of Virginia military authority, removed their store, in the autumn of 1774, to Kittanning, at that time the extreme limit of white settlements toward the North. Here they prospered.

When the Iroquois tribe began to give concern to the settlers on the western frontier, after the Revolution opened, the Continental Congress in July 1776, ordered the raising of a regiment consisting of seven companies from Westmoreland and one from Bedford, to build and garrison forts at Kittanning, Le Boeuf and Erie and protect that region from British and Iroquois.

These troops were promptly raised under command of Colonel Aeneas Mackay, with George Wilson, lieutenant colonel, and Richard Butler, as major. This regiment rendezvoused at Kittanning preparatory to an advance up the Allegheny, to build two other forts.

A call was received for the regiment to march eastward, across the State, and join the hard-pressed army of General Washington, then near the Delaware. This regiment obeyed the call, in spite of a storm of protest on the frontier, and became known as the Eighth Pennsylvania. The long march began early in January, 1777.

Many settlers believed the western frontier was not in imminent danger but Andrew McFarlane was not one of these. As soon as Mackay’s regiment departed Justice McFarlane begged of the Westmoreland Commissioners that a company of militia be sent to Kittanning. He could hardly restrain his neighbors from running away, and during the late winter many did flee, leaving McFarlane and two clerks the only men at the place.

There were many stores left at Kittanning by Colonel Mackay but no soldiers could be spared to guard them. In this emergency Samuel Moorhead, who lived at Black Lick Creek, undertook the formation of a company of volunteer rangers. He chose McFarlane as his lieutenant, and these two spent much time trying to recruit a small company from the scattered settlers.

The story of the capture of Andrew McFarlane is preserved in two forms: One is gathered from letters written at the time, while the other is a tradition handed down in the Lewis family of Virginia. The Lewis story is now preserved in a history of Lynchburg, Va., and is in part as follows:

“When Margaret Lynn Lewis married Mr. McFarlane, of Pittsburgh, and left the parental roof, she traveled through a wilderness infested with hostile Indians till she reached that place. Once, when they least apprehended danger, a war whoop was heard, her husband taken prisoner, the tomahawk raised and she averted her eyes to avoid witnessing the fatal stroke.

The river was between them and she, with her infant and maid servant, of course endeavored to fly, knowing the inevitable consequences of delay. After starting, the servant reminded Mrs. McFarlane of her husband’s money and valuable papers, but she desired the girl not to mention anything of that sort at such a moment; but, regardless of the commands of her mistress, the servant returned to the dwelling, bringing with her all of the money and as many of the papers as she could hold in her apron, overtaking, in a short time, her mistress, as the snow was three feet deep. On looking back she saw the house in flames, and pursuing their journey with incredible fatigue, reached the house of Colonel Crawford, a distance of fourteen miles.

The contemporary account of this event is found in letters from the frontier, written to the officers of the Pennsylvania Government at Philadelphia and made public in later years. “Two British subalterns, two Chippewa and two Iroquois Indians were sent by the commandant of Fort Niagara, to descend to Allegheny.

“On February 25, 1777, they arrived opposite the little settlement of Kittanning. Standing on the shore, they shouted toward the far shore, calling for a canoe. Thinking the Indians had come to trade or to bring important news McFarlane decided to venture across. The instant he stepped from his boat he was seized by the savages and told he was their prisoner. His capture was witnessed by his wife and some men at the settlement.”

At the time Andrew McFarlane was captured, his brother James was a lieutenant in the First Pennsylvania of the Continental Line. It was through his personal efforts that Andrew was exchanged, in the fall of 1780. The released man immediately rejoined his wife and child at Staunton, and they soon afterward returned to the vicinity of Pittsburgh. Kittanning being deserted and exposed, Andrew McFarlane opened a store on Chartier’s Creek, where he lived for many years.

His eldest son, Andrew, doubtless the infant whom Mrs. McFarlane carried in her arms when she fled from Kittanning, became one of the pioneer settlers on the Shenango, near the present New Castle, Pa., and his descendants are numerous in Lawrence County.

----------

Westmoreland County, Last Under Proprietary,

Erected February 26, 1773

The county of Westmoreland was erected by the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania by an act of February 26, 1773. It was the eleventh county in Pennsylvania and the last erected under the Proprietary Government. Like all the other counties, except Philadelphia, it received its name from a county in England.

In 1771 this wide region was included in the county of Bedford, but settlements grew so rapidly west of the mountains during the year 1772 that a new frontier county was demanded. The evacuation of Fort Pitt by the British troops in the fall of 1772 also led the frontiersmen to demand a stronger civil government.

When Westmoreland was erected it included all the Province west of Laurel Hill, being what is broadly known as Southwestern Pennsylvania and included what is now Westmoreland, Fayette, Washington, Greene, and the parts of Allegheny and Beaver Counties south of the Ohio River and about two-thirds of Indiana and one-third of Armstrong County, a total area of 4,700 square miles.

While this was the area of Westmoreland County in the intent of the Provincial Government, it was restricted in fact by Virginia’s seizure and government of a large portion of the territory.

A general settlement of the country west of the Allegheny Mountains did not begin until after the land office was opened in April, 1769.

The settlers flocked into this new region from two directions. The Scots from the Cumberland Valley and other settled posts of the Province made their way westward along the Forbes military road and planted their cabins along its course. These men were loyal Pennsylvanians, and they held their lands under the Provincial Government. Other Scots came from the South, principally from the Old Dominion; they crossed the mountains by the Braddock road and occupied the fertile lands along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers and Chartiers Creek. These men were Virginians and believed their settlements were still within that territory.

A lively contest was carried on between Pennsylvania and Virginia for control of this region, and the organization of Westmoreland County had signal influence in strengthening the Pennsylvania authority, especially when sixteen magistrates were commissioned to administer justice within its boundaries.

The county seat was established at Robert Hanna’s little settlement on Forbes Road, about thirty-five miles east of Fort Pitt, and here at Hannastown, the first Pennsylvania court, west of the mountains, was held April 13, 1773. It was a Court of Quarter Sessions and William Crawford presided. These proceedings stirred up the Virginia authorities.

The Earl of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, took forcible possession of the disputed territory. He appointed John Connolly, of Pittsburgh, “captain commandant of Pittsburgh and its dependencies.”

Connolly mustered the militia under the Virginia law, seized and garrisoned Fort Pitt, intimidated the Pennsylvania magistrates, marched some of them off to prison, and established the authority of Virginia throughout all the region between the Monongahela and the Ohio. Pennsylvania had no militia law at that time and was powerless to resist the usurpation.

By this action upon the part of Virginia the territory of Westmoreland County, during the period of the Revolution, was limited to about half its actual area. It was not until the summer of 1780 that Virginia finally agreed to accept the results of a joint survey which would extend the southern boundary line of Pennsylvania to a distance of 5 degrees of longitude west of the Delaware River.

Ligonier Valley, which extends along the eastern border of the county, was well settled by 1775, the largest settlement being Ligonier, where the British had built a fort in 1758. The principal citizen here was Captain, afterwards General Arthur St. Clair, a Scotchman who served under Wolfe at Quebec and afterwards became the agent of the Penn family in Western Pennsylvania.

Settlements also became numerous west of Chestnut Ridge, along the Loyalhanna and its tributaries, as far as Hannastown on the Forbes Road. Derry settlement was to the north of the road, between the Loyalhanna and the Conemaugh. Nearly all the settlers were Scots from Ulster, or their immediate descendants, with a sprinkling of Irish of Presbyterian faith. There was another Ulster settlement at the Braddock road crossing of Big Sewickley Creek, while lower down that stream were cabins and blockhouses of German emigrants from the Rhine Palatinate.

The Virginia settlers along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny were a generation or more removed from the old country, but were nearly all of Scotch stock. The richest of these brought their slaves with them from Virginia, who were held in bondage long after the Revolution.

The traders and principal citizens in the vicinity of Fort Pitt were members of the Church of England; it was from among these that the Tory sentiment developed during the Revolution. Old Westmoreland was, however, decidedly a Scotch and Calvinistic settlement.

The Scotch pioneers were bold, stout and industrious men, sharp at bargains, fond of religious and political controversy and not strongly attached to government either of the royal or the proprietary brand. In nearly every cabin could be found three principal articles, the Bible, a rifle and a whiskey jug. Their hatred of the treacherous Indian was a strong characteristic.

In 1775 the most prominent representatives of the Pennsylvania interests, in addition to General Arthur St. Clair, were Colonel John Proctor and Colonel Archibald Lochry, who lived near the Forbes Road, west of Chestnut Ridge; Robert Hanna and Michael Huffnagle, of Hannastown; James Cavet and Christopher Hays, of Sewickley; John Ormsby, Devereux Smith and Aeneas Mackay, traders and storekeepers at Pittsburgh; Edward Cook, near Redstone, and George Wilson, whose plantation was in the very heart of the Virginia sympathizers, on the Monongahela at the mouth of George’s Creek.

----------

Early Days of Witchcraft in Pennsylvania—Two
Women on Trial February 27, 1683

The most conspicuous of the early provincial tribunals and by far the best known to the present-day reader was the Provincial Council. Its duties were at once executive, legislative and judicial.

The judicial functions discharged by the members of the Council were both interesting and important, and the volume of such business was very great. Its members were regarded by all classes as the supreme judges of the land.

The trial of Margaret Mattson, which took place on February 27, 1683, before William Penn himself, is of great interest, both on account of the peculiarity of the accusation and the notoriety it has acquired as illustrating the temper of our ancestors.

The records of the early Provincial Council contain this item:

“1683, 7th, 12th mo., Margaret Mattson and Yethro Hendrickson were examined and about to be proved witches; whereupon this board ordered that Neels Mattson should enter into a recognizance of fifty pounds for his wife’s appearance before this board on the 27th instant. Hendrick Jacobson doth the same for his wife.”

“27th of the 12th mo. Margaret Mattson’s indictment was read, and she pleads not guilty, and will be tryed by ye country.”

It is a matter of historical interest that the Council was then composed of William Penn, Proprietor and Governor, and James Harrison, William Biles, Lasse Cock, William Haigue, Chris Taylor, William Clayton and Thomas Holmes.

The Grand Jury was as follows: Robert Euer, foreman; Samuel Carpenter, Andrew Griscom, Benjamin Whiteman, John Barnes, Samuel Allen, John Parsons, Richard Orne, John Day, John Fisher, John Barnes, Gunner Rambo, Enoch Flower, Henry Drystreet, Thomas Mosse, Thomas Duckett, Dennis Lince, Thomas Phillips, Thomas Millard, John Yattman and Harnaby Wilcox.

The petit jury was composed of John Hastings, foreman; Robert Wade, William Hewes, John Gibbons, Albortus Hendrickson, Nathaniel Evans, Jeremiah Collett, Walter Martin, Robert Piles, Edward Carter, John Kinsman and Edward Bezac.

The evidence adduced against the prisoner was of the most trifling character, and such as now would be scouted from the witness-box of a court of justice.

“Henry Drystreet, one of the Grand Jurors attested, saith he was tould 20 years agoe that the prisoner at the Barr was a witch and that severall cows were bewitcht by her, also that James Sunderling’s mother tould that she bewitcht her cow but afterwards said it was a mistake and that her cow should doe well againe for it was not her cow but another persons that should dye.

“Charles Ashcom attested, saith, that Anthony’s wife being asked why she sould her cattle was because his mother had bewitcht them having taken the witchcraft off of Hendricks cattle and put on their oxen, she might keep but noe other cattle; and also that one night the Daughter of the Prisoner called him up hastily and when he came she sayd there was a great Light but just before and an old woman with a knife in her hand at the Bedd’s feet and therefore shee cryed out and desired Jno. Symcock to take away his calves or else she would send them to Hell.

“Annakey Coolin attested, saith, her husband tooke the heart of a calfe that dyed as they thought by witchcraft and Boyled it whereupon the Prisoner at the Barr came in and asked them what they were doing, they said boyling of flesh, she said they had better they had boyled the bones with severall other unseemly Expressions.

“Margaret Mattson saith that she values not Drystreets Evidence but if Sunderlin’s mother had come she would have answered her also denyeth Charles Ashcoms attestation at her soul and saith where is my daughter lett her come and say so.

“Annakey Coolin’s attestation concerning the Gees she denyeth, saying she was never out of her conoo, and also that she never said any such things concerning the calves heart.

“The Prisoner denyeth all things and saith that ye witnesses speake only by hear say.

“After which the Govr. gave the jury their charge concerning ye Prisoner at ye Barr.

“The jury went forth and upon their Returne brought her in Guilty of having the common fame of a witch but not Guilty in the manner and forme as she stands indicted.

“Neels Mattson and Anthon. Neelson Enters into Recognizance of fifty pounds apiece for the good behavior of Margaret Mattson for six months.”

In 1695 Robert Roman, presented by the grand inquest of Chester County for practicing geomancy according to Hidon, and divining by a stick. He submitted himself to the bench and was fined £5, and his books, Hidon’s Temple of Wisdom, Scott’s Discovery of Witchcraft, and Cornelius Agrippa’s Geomancy, were ordered to be taken from him and brought into Court.

In 1701 a petition of Robert Guard and his wife was read before Council, setting forth “That a certain strange woman lately arrived in this town, being seized with a very sudden illness after she had been in their company on the 17th instant, and several pins being taken out of her breasts, one John Richards Butler and his wife Ann charged the petitioners with witchcraft and as being the authors of the said mischief.” A summons was issued accordingly, but the matter, being judged trifling, was dismissed.

Even as late as 1719, the Commissions to the justices of Chester County empowered them to inquire of all “witchcrafts, enchantments, sorceries and magic arts.”

George Shrunk, of Germantown, known as “Old Shrunk,” was a great conjuror and many persons from Philadelphia and elsewhere went to him to learn where stolen goods were secreted and to have him tell their fortunes. They believed he could make any thieves stand still, while they desired to run away. They believed he could tell them where to dig for money and hidden treasures, and this brought “Old Shrunk” much business, for the idea was very prevalent that the pirates of Blackbeard’s day had deposited treasures along the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers.

----------

Towns Laid Out in Erie County by Act of
Assembly, February 28, 1794

The frontiers of Pennsylvania had not been seriously harassed by the Indians since the close of the Revolution, but late in 1793 they again became restive and early in the following year so many depredations had been committed along the western frontier of the State that the Assembly on February 28, 1794, passed an act for enlisting soldiers for the defense of the Delaware River and the western frontiers. At the same time efforts were made toward the laying out of a town at Presqu’ Isle, “in order to facilitate and promote the progress of settlement within the Commonwealth and to afford additional security to the frontiers thereof.”

Governor Mifflin transmitted to the President of the United States a copy of this act, apprehending the difficulties which soon manifested themselves. Prior to this he had sent to Captain Ebenezer Denny a commission, giving him command of the Allegheny Company, which was ordered to protect William Irvine, Andrew Elliott and Albert Gallatin, who had been appointed Commissioners to lay out the town. For the same object a post had been established at Le Boeuf, two miles below the old French fort of the same name.

The three Commissioners were instructed to lay out 1,600 acres for town lots and thirty-four acres for out-lots at Erie, the town lots to contain about one-third of an acre and the out-lots to contain five acres. In addition, sixty acres were reserved for the use of the United States near the entrance of the harbor for forts, etc. Upon completion of the surveys the Governor was authorized to offer at auction one-third of all the lots, conditioned upon the building upon the lots within two years of a house with a stone or brick chimney.

The troops were busily employed to protect the surveyors from the incursions of the Indians. Miss Sanford in her History of Erie County says:

“Thomas Rees, Esq., for more than half a century a citizen of Erie County, made a deposition in 1806 as follows: ‘Thomas Rees of Harbor Creek Township, in Erie County, farmer, being sworn according to law, etc. I was appointed deputy surveyor of District No. 1 north and west of the rivers Ohio, Allegheny and Connewango Creek, now Erie County, in May, 1792, and opened an office in Northumberland County, which was the adjoining. The reason of this was, all the accounts of the country north and west of the rivers, Ohio, Allegheny, and the Connewango Creek, represented it as dangerous to go into the country. In the latter part of said year I received three hundred and ninety warrants, the property of the Penn Population company for land situated in the Triangle and entered the same year in my book of entries. In 1793 I made an attempt to go; went to the mouth of Buffalo Creek to inquire of the Indians there whether they would permit me to go into my district to make surveys. They refused and added that if I went into the country I would be killed. At the same time I received information from different quarters which prevented me from going that year.

“‘In 1794 I went into District No. 1, now Erie County, and made surveys on the three hundred and ninety warrants, mentioned above in the Triangle, except one or two for which no lands could be found. Among the surveys made on the warrants above mentioned, was that on the warrant in the name of John McCullough.

“‘Before I had completed I was frequently alarmed by hearing of Indians killing persons on the Allegheny River, in consequence of which, as soon as the surveys were completed, I moved from the country and went to Franklin, where I was informed that there were a number of Indians belonging to the Six Nations going to Le Boeuf to order the troops off that ground. I immediately returned to Le Boeuf. The Indians had left the place one day before I arrived there. I was told by Major Denny, then commanding at that place, that the Indians had brought General Chapin, the Indian agent, with them to Le Boeuf; that they were very much displeased, and told him not to build a garrison at Presqu’ Isle.

“‘There were no improvements made, nor any person living on any tract of land within my district during the year 1794.

“‘In 1795 I went into the country and took a number of men with me. We kept in a body, as there appeared to be great danger, and continued so for that season. There was no work done of any consequence, nor was any person, to my knowledge, residing on any tract within my district. In the course of the summer the Commissioners came on to lay out the town of Erie, with a company of men to guard them.

“There were two persons killed within one mile of Presqu’ Isle, and others in different parts of the country. Such were the fears that though some did occasionally venture out to view the lands, many would not. We all laid under the protection of the troops. I sold, as agent of the Penn Population Company, during that season, 79,700 acres of land, of which 7,150 acres were a gratuity. The above quantity of land was applied for and sold to 200 persons. That fall we left the country,’”

Captain Martin Strong, of Waterford, who had arrived at Presqu’ Isle the last of July, 1795, said:

“A few days previous to this a company of United States troops had commenced felling the timber on Garrison hill, headed by General Elliott, escorted by a company of Pennsylvania militia commanded by Captain John Grubb, to lay out the town of Erie. We were in some degree under martial law, the two Rutledges having been shot a few days before (July 26 or 27) by the Indians near the present site of the present railway depot.

“In 1795 there were but four families residing in what is now Erie County. These were the names of Reed, Talmadge, Miles and Baird. The first mill built in the Triangle was at the mouth of Walnut Creek; there were two others built about the same time in what is now Erie County; one by William Miles, on the north branch of French Creek, now Union; the other by William Culbertson, at the inlet of Conneautte Lake, near Edinboro.”

In spite of all these preparations, the Legislature suspended the laying out of a town at Presqu’ Isle, and it was not until April 18, 1795, the difficulties were removed and the Assembly authorized the laying out of the towns at Le Boeuf, at the mouth of Conewango Creek, at the mouth of French Creek and at Presqu’ Isle.

July 25, 1796, the Harrisburg and Presqu’ Isle Company was formed “for the settling, improving and populating the country near and adjoining to Lake Erie.”

Erie County was erected March 12, 1800, and Erie named as the place for holding courts of justice, but it was not organized judicially until April, 1803, when Judge Jesse Moore held the first court near French and Third Streets.

----------

Commissioners Appointed to Purchase Last
Indian Lands, February 29, 1784

William Maclay, Samuel John Atlee and Francis Johnson were appointed February 29, 1784, by the Supreme Executive Council to be Commissioners to treat with the Indians claiming the unpurchased territory within the acknowledged limits of the State.

At the close of the Revolution, in 1783, the ownership of a large area of the territory within the charter boundaries of Pennsylvania was still claimed by the Indians of the several tribes that were commonly known as the Six Nations.

The last purchase of lands from these Indians by the Proprietaries was made at Fort Stanwix, November 5, 1768. The Indian claim, therefore, embraced all that part of the State lying to the northwest of the purchase lines of 1768.

As early as March 12, 1783, the General Assembly had passed an act setting apart certain lands lying north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers and Conewango Creek to be sold for the purpose of redeeming the depreciation certificates given to the officers and soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line, and for the purpose of making donations of land to the same officers and soldiers in compliance with a resolution adopted in 1780.

At the time this resolution was adopted the Indian claim of title to these lands was still in force, but the authorities were fully alive to the necessity of securing the right to all the lands within the State—about five-sixteenths of its area—that remained unpurchased after the treaty of 1768.

September 25, 1783, the General Assembly placed itself on record in the form of a resolution which recommended the appointment of a committee to devise ways and means for this acquisition.

The three persons named as commissioners acknowledged their appointment to the trust May 17, and recommended that Samuel Weiser, a son of Colonel Conrad Weiser, a proper person to notify the Indians of the desire to treat with them, as he was familiar with their language and customs and could also act as interpreter.

The Continental Congress had likewise appointed Commissioners to meet the Six Nations for the purpose of purchasing lands beyond the limits of Pennsylvania, and these arranged for the meeting at Fort Stanwix. The Commissioners of Pennsylvania reached Fort Stanwix early in the month of October, where they found some of the tribes already assembled, and with them the Commissioners of the Continental Congress.

The negotiations continued until the twenty-third of the month, and on that day ended in an agreement by which the Indian title to all the lands within the boundaries of the State that remained after the title of 1768 was extinguished. The consideration agreed upon for this surrender of their rights was $5,000.

This deed, dated October 23, 1784, is signed by all the chiefs of the Six Nations and by the Continental Commissioners as witnesses.

The territory thus acquired included a part of the present Bradford, Tioga, Clinton, Center, Clearfield, Indiana, Armstrong, Allegheny and Beaver Counties, and all of the land within Crawford, Mercer, Lawrence, Butler, Venango, Clarion, Forest, Jefferson, Elk, Warren, McKean, Potter and Cameron Counties and all of Erie County, excepting the small portion of the Erie triangle which did not become a part of Erie County until 1792.

After the Commissioners had accomplished in so satisfactory a manner the object for which they journeyed to Fort Stanwix, it became necessary to appease the Western Indians, the Wyandot and the Delaware, who also claimed rights to the same lands.

The same Commissioners were therefore sent to Fort Mcintosh, on the Ohio River, at the site of the present town of Beaver, where in January, 1785, they were successful in reaching an agreement with those Indians for the same lands. This deed, signed by the chiefs of both tribes, is dated January 21, 1785, and is in the same words (except as to the consideration money, which is $2,000) and recites the same boundaries as the deed signed at Fort Stanwix.

The Indian claim of right to the soil of Pennsylvania, within its charter limits, had thus, in a period of a little more than one hundred years ceased to exist.

This large and important division of our great Commonwealth, now teeming with population and wealth, thriving villages, busy towns and great cities, was, in 1784, largely an uninhabited and untraversed wilderness.

After the purchase of 1768 a disagreement arose between the Proprietary Government and the Indians as to whether the creek flowing into the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and called in the deed “Tyadaghton” was intended for Lycoming Creek or Pine Creek. The Indians said it was the former, the proprietaries claimed the latter stream to be the extent of the purchase, but in order to avoid any trouble that might arise from the dispute, it was wisely determined that no rights should be granted for lands west of Lycoming Creek.

This determination, however, did not deter or prevent adventurous pioneers from making settlements within the disputed territory.

These settlers, being classed as outlaws, were compelled to enter into an agreement for their government and protection. This resulted in an organization known as Fair Play Men.

It is handed down as a tradition that they met when and where the exigencies arose, and on short notice, tried the case at hand.

It is related that when a squatter refused to abide by the decision of the court, he was immediately placed in a canoe, in which was a small quantity of food, then rowed to the mouth of Lycoming Creek, the boundary line of civilization, and there sent adrift down the river.

These Fair Play courts were composed of three commissioners as they were termed, and after hearing a case and making a decision, there was no appeal.

After the purchase of 1784 it was discovered that the trouble was likely to arise with the original squatters and the Legislature passed an act entitling those who had made actual settlement prior to 1780, the benefit of pre-emption to their respective possessions.

----------

First Law to Educate Poor Children Signed

March 1, 1802

The same earnest solicitude for public education which made itself manifest in the settlement of the New England Colonies in an unusual degree does not run through the early history of Pennsylvania, yet, outside of the Puritan settlements, there was no other colony which paid so much attention as Pennsylvania to the mental training of youth.

During the seventeenth century the general character of the province, as regards the intelligence of its people, stood deservedly high. The school-house, with its inevitable concomitant, the printing-press, never at any time ceased to exert its wholesome influence in training up a population which as regards sobriety, thrift, and all the substantial qualities that flow from instructions, has never been surpassed by any other great community.

William Penn, who was one of the most accomplished scholars of his time, never wearied in pointing out to the colony the advantages of public education. The Constitution which he proposed for the infant Commonwealth contains the direction that virtue and wisdom must be propagated by educating the youth, and that after ages would have the benefit of the care and prudence of the founders in this respect.

It was one of the provisions of the great law of April 25, 1683, that “schools should be established for the education of the young” and those in authority did not long delay in carrying it into practical effect.

On December 26, 1683, the subject of education was brought up in the Provincial Council, when it was agreed that there existed a great necessity for a schoolmaster. Accordingly an agreement was entered into with Enoch Flower, who promised that in conducting such an establishment as was needed he would charge only four shillings for teaching English each quarter, six shillings for reading, writing and costing accounts. A scholar who boarded with him would receive his tuition as well as his lodging, meals and washing for £10 a year.

This was the first regular English school in Pennsylvania. There had been schools during the ascendancy of the Swedes and the Dutch. The former are known to have maintained schools at Chester and Tinicum as early as 1642, and the Dutch records show that in 1657 Evert Pieterson came over from Holland, and in the capacity of “schoolmaster, comforter of the sick and setter of Psalms,” sought twenty-five pupils.

In 1689 George Keith was engaged at a salary of £50 a year, the use of a house, and the profits of the school for one year, to open a grammar school in Philadelphia. This institution was a flourishing one for many years. Here the children of the poor were instructed free of charge, the schoolhouse being located on Fourth Street, below Chestnut, and conducted under a charter which had been procured by Edward Shippen, David Lloyd, John Jones, Samuel Carpenter, Anthony Morris, James Fox, William Southby and others.

Darby became the seat of a school in 1692. One was established in Germantown in 1701, with the learned Pastorius at its head.

No church or sect was more active in education than the Moravians, and schools were established at Germantown, Nazareth, Bethlehem and Lititz. Christopher Dock, “the pious schoolmaster of the Skippack,” taught a Moravian school in Germantown, and is the author of the first book on school teaching published in America.

During the sixty years following the establishment of Keith’s school there was no attempt made to start schools that would be free to all and not marked by the distinction between the rich and poor children. This democratic principle was not clearly formulated and advanced until it was taken up by Benjamin Franklin in 1749, when he distributed gratis a pamphlet which soon became productive of important results in the establishment of the future University of Pennsylvania. Prior to that time most of the schools in the province were conducted either under strictly private auspices or under the patronage of religious denominations.

March 1, 1802, Governor Thomas McKean signed the first law for the education of the children of the poor gratis, although both the Constitution of 1776 and that of 1790 provided for the establishment of “a school or schools in every county.” Owing to the lameness of this law, it remained a dead statute so far as some of the counties of the State were concerned.

The City and County of Philadelphia had been erected into “the first school district of Pennsylvania” in 1818, and in 1822 the City and County of Lancaster were erected into “the second school district.” These, termed the Lancasterian methods, were the beginnings of that glorious system of free education which has been a blessing to our great Commonwealth.

Up to 1830, the great free-school system, as we now have it, was still in embryo. The people began to awaken; public meetings were held all over the State, resolutions were adopted, comparisons with other States were made. The result was that on March 15, 1834, “An Act to Establish a General System of Education by Common Schools” was passed. Only a single member of the House and three Senators voted nay.

Late in 1834 the enemies of free schools attacked the measure all over the State, and the Senate voted to repeal the act of 1834, but Thaddeus Stevens saved the measure in the House. By 1848 this school law had grown much in favor, but it was not until 1874 that the last district in the State accepted the law. State Superintendent Wickersham then said in his annual report: “For the first time in our history the door of a public school house stands open to receive every child of proper age within the limits of the State.”

The progress of education after 1850 was very rapid. The crowning acts to make elementary education universal were the free textbook law of 1893 and the compulsory attendance law of 1895.

----------

Pennsylvania on Paper Money Basis When
Bills of Credit Are Issued
March 2, 1722–23

The first bills of credit, or paper-money, issued in the English American colonies were put forth by Massachusetts, in 1690, to pay the troops who went on an expedition against Quebec, under Sir William Phipps.

It was Governor Sir William Keith who first introduced the people of Pennsylvania to the pleasures and benefits of an irredeemable paper currency.

There had been great and long-standing complaint about the deficiency of a circulating medium, for the use of wampum had ceased, and foreign coin had never become plenty. The course of exchange ran heavily against the Province, and those who possessed money made enormous profits by the purchase and sale of bills.

The merchants of England did not ship bank-notes or coin to the Provinces. They paid for the produce which they purchased here with English goods, and settled the balances by shipments of sugar, rum, etc., from Barbadoes and other places in the West Indies, and by Negroes and indentured servants.