Chapter VII

FORT GRANVILLE--OLD INDIAN TOWN--THE EARLY SETTLERS--CAPTAIN JACOBS--ASSAULT ON AND CAPTURE OF THE FORT.

Previous to the settlement by the whites, the flat on which the eastern part of Lewistown now stands was an Indian town of considerable importance. It was the outlet of a large and fertile valley, through which ran a north-western Indian path, and in which dwelt five or six tribes, who found this the natural outlet to the Juniata. The council-house stood upon the east side of the creek, near its mouth, and the line of wigwams stretched toward the north.

The first white settlers in this neighborhood came from the Conecocheague, by way of Aughwick. They consisted of Arthur Buchanan and his two sons, and three other families, all Scotch-Irish. Buchanan was a man of great energy, and very fond of roving in the woods, far from the haunts of men. He was the master-spirit of the party, and with great self-reliance pitched his tent opposite the Indian village, on the west bank of the creek. He then called upon the Indians, and signified his intention to purchase land. They were at first unwilling to sell; but Captain Jacobs, (as Buchanan christened the chief, in consequence of his close resemblance to a burly German in Cumberland county,) who was the head chief, having been liberally plied with liquor, decided that Buchanan should have the much-coveted land. What was paid for it never transpired, but it is more than probable that the remainder of the contents of Buchanan's rum-keg, a few trinkets, and some tobacco, made him owner of the soil. This was in 1754.

Captain Jacobs had always professed great friendship toward the British colonists; but he was among the very first won over by the French. He became very much dissatisfied with Buchanan, more especially as the latter had induced a number of his friends and acquaintances to come there and settle. By this means the lands of Jacobs were encroached upon, which greatly roused his temper; and one day, without deigning to give an explanation of any kind, the Indians destroyed their town and left. This was a movement the settlers did not understand; neither did they like it, for it seemed to forebode no good. After a very brief consultation among them, they resolved forthwith to build a fort for protection. They had for a time noticed a growing coldness on the part of Jacobs and his warriors, and, fearful that they might come down the valley, joined by other bands, and massacre the people, Fort Granville was erected with as much despatch as possible. It was located about a mile above Lewistown, in order to be near a large spring. Contrary to expectations, the Indians did not come, and things generally prospered about Fort Granville settlement during the summer and winter of 1755. In the spring of 1756 the Indians made their appearance in Kishicoquillas Valley, in considerable numbers; and parties of roving tribes in search of scalps and plunder, emboldened by the success of the French and Indians the year previous, sometimes came down to the mouth of the creek, but, unable to ascertain the power of resistance concentrated within the fort, they never made an attack upon it. These incursions, however, became so frequent, that in the summer of 1756 the settlers only left the fort when necessity demanded it. Finally, succor reached them in July. The government despatched Lieutenant Armstrong from Cumberland county with a militia force to protect them while engaged in taking in their harvest, and, directly after his arrival, hearing of the exposed condition of the people in Tuscarora, Armstrong sent a portion of his command, with Lieutenant Faulkner, in order to guard them while reaping their grain.

In the absence of the latter, on or about the 22d of July, (the Indians having ascertained the strength of the garrison,) some sixty or seventy warriors, painted and equipped for battle, appeared before the fort and insolently challenged the settlers to combat. The commander pretended to treat the challenge with contempt, though in truth he was considerably alarmed at the prospect of an attack. The Indians fired at one man, and wounded him. He happened to be outside, but got into the fort without sustaining any serious injury. The Indians divided themselves into small parties and started off in different directions. One of these parties killed a man named Baskins, a short distance from the river, burnt his house, and carried his wife and children into captivity. Another party took Hugh Carrol and his family prisoners.

On the 30th of July, Captain Edward Ward had command of Fort Granville, with a company regularly enlisted and in the pay of the province. He went, with all of his men but twenty-four, to Sherman's Valley, to protect the settlers while harvesting. The enemy soon ascertained this, and on the first of August, according to the affidavit of John Hogan, then and there taken prisoner, (Colonial Records, vol. vii. p. 561,) one hundred Indians and fifty Frenchmen made an attack upon the fort. They assaulted the works during the entire afternoon and part of the night without gaining any advantage. About midnight the enemy got below the bank of the river, and by a deep ravine they approached close enough to the fort to set fire to it before they were observed. The fire soon spread, and through an aperture made the Indians shot Lieutenant Armstrong, and wounded some two or three others who were endeavoring to put out the fire. The French commander ordered a suspension of hostilities, and offered quarter to all who would surrender, on several occasions; but Armstrong would not surrender on any condition. He was certainly a brave man, and held out nobly almost against hope. Peter Walker, who was in the fort at the time and taken prisoner, after his escape from Kittaning gave an account of the capture of the fort to General John Armstrong. He said that "of the enemy not less than one hundred and twenty returned, all in health, except one Frenchman, shot through the shoulder by Lieutenant Armstrong, a little before his death, as the Frenchman was erecting his body out of the hollow to throw pine-knots on the fire made against the fort; and of this number there were about a dozen of French, who had for their interpreter one McDowell, a Scotchman."

There appears to be a discrepancy between the statements of Hogan and Walker in regard to the number engaged in the assault, but it is quite likely that the latter's estimate is correct.

General Armstrong, in his letter to Robert Hunter Morris, goes on to say:--

This McDowell told Walker they designed very soon to attack Fort
Shirley with four hundred men. Captain Jacobs said he could take
any fort that would catch fire, and would make peace with the
English when they had learned him to make gunpowder. McDowell told
Walker they had two Indians killed in the engagement; but Captains
Armstrong and Ward, whom I ordered on their march to Fort Shirley
to examine every thing at Granville and send a list of what
remained among the ruins, assure me that they found some parts of
eight of the enemy burnt, in two different places, the joints of
them being scarcely separated; and part of their shirts found,
through which there were bullet-holes. To secrete these from the
prisoners was doubtless the reason why the French officer marched
our people some distance from the fort before he gave orders to
burn the barracks, &c. Walker says that some of the Germans flagged
very much on the second day, and that the lieutenant behaved with
the greatest bravery to the last, despising all the terrors and
threats of the enemy whereby they often urged him to surrender.
Though he had been near two days without water, but little
ammunition left, the fort on fire, and the enemy situate within
twelve or fourteen yards of the fort, under the natural bank, he
was as far from yielding as when at first attacked. A Frenchman in
our service, fearful of being burned up, asked leave of the
lieutenant to treat with his countrymen in the French language. The
lieutenant answered, "The first word of French you speak in this
engagement, I'll blow your brains out!" telling his men to hold out
bravely, for the flame was falling, and he would soon have it
extinguished; but he soon after received the fatal ball. Col. Rec.,
vol. vii. p. 232.

Directly after Armstrong fell, a man named Turner opened the gates and admitted the enemy. A soldier named Brandon, who had been shot through the knee, approached the French, told them he was a Roman Catholic, and would go with them. His faith, however, availed him little; for, as soon as it was discovered that he was not in marching condition, one of the Indians clove his skull with a tomahawk.

The soldiers, who loved their lieutenant, asked permission to bury him; but the inhuman French officer refused, although they offered to do it in a very few minutes where they had raised clay to stay the progress of the flames.

The Indians were under the command of Captain Jacobs and Shingas, but the name of the gallant French officer has not been preserved.

The prisoners taken were twenty-two soldiers, three women, and several children. For fear of being overtaken by the provincial forces, they made forced marches to Kittaning. When they arrived there, they pitched upon Turner to make a terrible example of. In front of the council-house they planted a stake painted black, and to this they tied him; and, after having heated several old gun-barrels red-hot, they danced around him, and, every minute or two, seared and burned his flesh. Without knowing but what such might be their own fate, the prisoners were compelled to look at the heart-rending sight, and listen to the shrieks and groans of the victim, without daring to utter a word. After tormenting him almost to death, the Indians scalped him, and then held up an Indian lad, who ended his sufferings by laying open his skull with a hatchet.

Some of the prisoners made their escape, and others were restored to their friends; but some few of the soldiers were never heard of again, having probably shared the fate of Turner.

One of the prisoners, named Girty, returned in a wounded condition. When he escaped, he was followed by two Indians to the head-waters of Blacklick, where they attempted to re-capture him; but in the fight that followed he slew one of the Indians, and the other ran. He scalped the one he killed, and took his scalp to Aughwick. The women and children were recovered, by the first exchange of prisoners that took place, in 1757.