Jones writes (_op. cit._), that the path is still visible, although
filled with weeds in the summer. “In some places where the ground was
marshy, close to the run, the path is at least twelve inches deep, and
the very stones along the road bear the marks of the iron-shod horses of
the Indian traders. Two years ago we picked up, at the edge of the run,
a mile up the gorge, two gun-flints,—now rated as relics of a past age.”
Clear fields was at the head waters of Clearfield Creek, a branch of the
Susquehanna River, in Clearfield Township, Cambria County. This is not
to be confused with Clearfield (Chinklacamoos), an important Indian town
farther north. See Post’s _Journal_, _post_.—ED.
[13] The Shawnees (Fr., Chaouanons), when first known, appear to have
been living in Western Kentucky; they were greatly harassed by the
Iroquois, and made frequent migrations which are difficult to trace. In
1692, they made peace with the Iroquois and the English, and portions
of the tribe settled in the Ohio country and Western Pennsylvania.
Intriguing with both English and French, they were treacherous toward
both nations. The location of the cabins mentioned here by Weiser is not
positively known—it was in the northern part of Indiana County; somewhere
on the Kittanning trail.—ED.
[14] Weiser turned aside from the regular trail that ended at the
Delaware Indians’ town of Kittanning, and followed a branch of the
path that turned southwest; crossed the Kiskiminitas Creek at the ford
where the town of Saltzburg, Indiana County, now stands; and reached
the Allegheny River (then called the Ohio) at Chartier’s Old Town, now
Chartier’s Station, Westmoreland County. It was at this point that in
1749, the French explorer, Céloron de Blainville, met six traders with
fifty horses laden with peltries, by these sending his famous message to
the governor of Pennsylvania to keep his traders from that country, which
was owned by the French. Weiser calculated the distance of his journey
by land as one hundred and seventy miles, and by deducting twenty miles
for the detour at Black Log, made the distance from the settlements one
hundred and fifty miles.—ED.
[15] This was the Delaware village known as Shannopin’s Town, from a
chief of that name, who died in 1749. It was situated on the Allegheny
River in the present city of Pittsburg, and contained about twenty
wigwams, and fifty or sixty natives. See Darlington, _Gist’s Journals_
(Pittsburg, 1893), pp. 92, 93.—ED.
[16] The reference is to Queen Aliquippa, whose town, directly at the
Forks of the Ohio, was called by Céloron “the written rock village.”
The writings proved on examination to be but names of English traders
scrawled in charcoal on the rocks. See Father Bonnécamps’s Relation,
_Jesuit Relations_ (Thwaites’s ed., Cleveland, 1896-1902), lxix, p. 175.
Céloron says of the Seneca queen: “She regards herself as a sovereign,
and is entirely devoted to the English.” Upon the advent of the French,
she removed her village to the forks of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny,
where she told Gist in 1753 she would never go back to the Allegheny to
live, unless the English built a fort. Céloron says of the site of her
first village: “This place is one of the most beautiful I have seen on
the Beautiful River [la Belle Rivière, the French name for the Ohio].”—ED.
[17] Logstown (French, Chinnigné, Shenango) was the most important
Indian trading village in that part of the country. It was a mixed
village composed of Indians of several tribes—chiefly Iroquois, Mohican,
and Shawnee. When Céloron visited it a year after Weiser’s sojourn, he
spoke of it as “a very bad village, seduced by the desire for the cheap
goods of the English.” He was near being attacked here, being saved by
discovering the plot, and displaying the strength of his forces. Like
Weiser, he was received with a salute of guns, but feared it was more a
sign of enmity than amity. Later, the Indians of this village returned
to the French alliance, and after the founding of Fort Duquesne, houses
were built by the French for its inhabitants. With the restoration of
English interest, the importance of the place diminished, and by 1784
it is spoken of as a “former settlement.” The site of Logstown is about
eighteen miles down the river from Pittsburg, just below the present town
of Economy, Pennsylvania. It was on a high bluff on the north shore. For
the history of this place, see Darlington’s _Gist_, pp. 95-100.—ED.
[18] There were two Indian towns called by this name—one at the mouth
of Chartier’s Creek, Allegheny County, three miles below Pittsburg;
the other opposite the mouth of Chartier’s Run, which falls into the
Allegheny in Westmoreland County. Weiser refers to the latter of these.
Chartier was a French-Shawnee half-breed that had much influence with his
tribe. In 1745, he induced most of them to remove to the neighborhood
of Detroit, on the orders of the governor of New France. See Croghan’s
_Journals_, _post_.—ED.
[19] The other edition of the journal adds, that the horses were “all
scalled on their backs.”
The importance of “wampum” in all Indian transactions cannot be
overestimated. It was used for money, as a much-prized ornament, to
enforce a request (as at this time), to accredit a messenger, to ransom
a prisoner, to atone for a crime. No council could be held, no treaty
drawn up, without a liberal use of wampum. It was used also to record
treaties, as the one described by Weiser between the Wyandots, Iroquois,
and governor of New York. Hale—“Indian Wampum Records,” _Popular Science
Monthly_, February, 1897—thinks that it was a comparatively late
invention in Indian development, and took its rise among the Iroquois.
Weiser’s list of the wampum used and received in this journey is to be
found in _Pennsylvania Archives_, ii, p. 17.—ED.
[20] The French had retained the Iroquois deputies in order to secure
from them the French prisoners in their hands. La Galissonière, the
governor wrote to his home government in 1748, that he should persist in
retaining their (the Iroquois) people, until he recovered the French.
The governor of New York demanded the Mohawks, on the ground of their
being British subjects, a claim the French refused to admit. The matter
was finally adjusted without an Indian war, although it caused much
irritation. See O’Callaghan (ed.), _New York Colonial Documents_ (Albany,
1858), x, p. 185.—ED.
[21] Kuskuskis was an important centre for the Delaware Indians, on the
Mahoning Branch of Beaver Creek, in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. It
consisted of separate villages scattered along the creek, one of which,
called “Old Kuskuskis,” was at the forks, where New Castle now stands.
See Post’s _Journal_, _post_.—ED.
[22] The Indian town at the mouth of Beaver Creek, where the town of
Beaver now stands, was known indifferently as King Beaver’s, or Shingas’s
Old Town (from two noted Delaware chiefs), or Sohkon (signifying “at the
mouth of a stream”). This was a noted fur-trading station, and after
the building of Fort Duquesne, the French erected houses here, for the
Indians. It was the starting place for many a border raid, that made
Shingas’s name “a terror to the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania.”
See Post’s experiences at this place in 1758, _post_.—ED.
[23] Andrew Montour was the son of a noted French half-breed, Madame
Montour, who being captured by the Iroquois in her youth married an
Oneida chief and was a firm adherent of the English. Montour’s services
for the English were considerable. He was an expert interpreter, speaking
the languages of the various Ohio Indians, as well as Iroquois. First
mentioned by Weiser in 1744, when he interpreted Delaware for his
Iroquois, he assisted in nearly all the important Indian negotiations
from that time until the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, being employed
in turn by the Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New York governments, and the
Ohio Company. In 1754, he was with Washington at the surrender of Fort
Necessity. Several times he warned the settlements of impending raids,
among other services bringing word of Pontiac’s outbreak. He accompanied
Major Rogers as captain of the Indian forces, when the latter went to
take possession of Detroit; and in 1764 commanded a party against the
recalcitrant Delawares. He received for his services several grants of
land in Western Pennsylvania, as well as money. For a detailed biography
see Darlington’s _Gist_, pp. 159-175.—ED.
[24] Twigtwees was the English name for the Miamis, a large nation of
Algonquian Indians, that were first met by the seventeenth century
explorers in Northern Illinois. But later, they moved eastward into the
present state of Indiana, and settled on the Maumee and Wabash rivers,
also on St. Josephs River in Michigan. The French had had posts among
them for two generations, but from 1723 the English traders had been
seeking a foothold in their midst. Their adherence to the English in 1748
was a blow to the French trade.—ED.
[25] Scarroyahy was an Oneida chief of great influence with the Ohio
Indians, especially at Logstown. He remained firm in the English
interest, and in 1754 moved to Aughwick Creek, to get away from the
French influence, and to protect the settlements. His death the same
year, was imputed by his friends to French witchcraft.—ED.
[26] The Wyandots, or Tobacco Hurons, or Petuns, were of Iroquois stock,
but nearly destroyed by that nation in the seventeenth century. Fleeing
westward, they placed themselves under French protection, and, after
its founding in 1701, were settled chiefly about Detroit. In the early
eighteenth century they straggled eastward along the south shore of
Lake Erie, and began to open communication with their ancient enemies,
the Iroquois. In 1747, occurred the rebellion of their chief Nicholas,
who built a fort in the marshes of the Sandusky, and defied the French
soldiers. The chiefs whom Weiser met, were deputies from this party of
rebels.
The other edition of Weiser’s journal does not mention the “Wondats”
until September 7; and has the following entry for September 6: “One
canoe with goods arrived, the rest did not come to the river. The Indians
that brought the goods found our casks of whiskey hid by some of the
traders; they had drunk two and brought two to the town. The Indians all
got drunk to-night, and some of the traders along with them. The weather
cleared up.”—ED.
[27] The Tisagechroanu were “a numerous Nation to the North of Lake
Frontenac; they don’t come by Niagara in their way to Oswego, but right
across the Lake.”—_Pennsylvania Colonial Records_, v, p. 85. Probably
they were a party of the Neutral Hurons.
The other edition adds after the Mohawks, “among whom there were 27
French Mohawks.” The Mohicans were a wandering tribe, whose original home
was on the banks of the Hudson, and in the Connecticut Valley. Charlevoix
found them in the far West in 1721. These on the Ohio were called “Loups”
by the French.—ED.
[28] Stroud was a kind of coarse, warm cloth made for the use of the
Indian trade. A match-coat was a large loose coat worn by the Indians,
originally made of skins, later of match-cloth.—ED.
[29] The other edition adds, “coming down the river.”—ED.
[30] His name is given in the other edition as Robert Callender. He
accompanied Croghan and Gist on their journey to the Ohio in 1750-51.—ED.
[31] “Onas” was the Indian term for the governor of Pennsylvania—first
used for Penn in his treaty with the Delawares, in 1682.—ED.
[32] Apparently this was a lad named William Brown, whom Croghan sent to
the settlements, October 20, 1748.—_Pennsylvania Archives_, ii, p. 17.—ED.
[33] The Catawbas were a powerful Indian tribe of South Carolina, thought
by Powell—“Indian Linguistic Families of North America,” in U. S. Bureau
of Ethnology _Report_, 1885-86—to be of Siouan stock. They inhabited
the western portion of the Carolinas, and were traditional enemies of
the Iroquois. The Cherokees were a settled tribe in North Carolina and
Tennessee, and at this time in the English interest.—ED.
[34] “Jonontady Hagas” was the Iroquois phrase for the Wyandot or Huron
Indians.—ED.
[35] “Onontio” was the Indian term for the governor of Canada.—ED.
[36] Olumpias was principal chief of the Delawares. He had formerly lived
in the Schuylkill Valley, and signed the treaty of purchase by which the
Germans came into possession of their lands in that region (1732). He
died in the autumn of 1747, the president and council of Pennsylvania
being asked to name his successor. The Delawares considered themselves
the aborigines of Pennsylvania, and spoke of the Shawnees, whom they had
permitted to come among them, as “grandchildren.”—ED.
[37] These names are given in the other edition as “Shawanapon and
Achamantama.”—ED.
[38] This was Weiser’s Indian name.—ED.
[39] The Virginians were called by the Indians “Long Knives,” or more
literally “Big Knives.” Ash-a-le-co-a is the Indian form of this word,
which Weiser spells phonetically. He means that the present was sent by
both Pennsylvania and Virginia.—ED.
[40] For this proclamation against the sale of liquor to Indians, see
_Pennsylvania Colonial Records_, v, pp. 194-196.—ED.
[41] One of those who accompanied Weiser was William, son of Benjamin
Franklin, who later became governor of New Jersey. See _Pennsylvania
Archives_, ii, p. 15.—ED.
[42] Here occurs the following, in the other edition: “The old Sinicker
Queen from above, already mentioned, came to inform me some time ago
that she had sent a string of wampum of three fathoms to Philadelphia by
James Dunnings, to desire her brethren would send her up a cask of powder
and some small shot to enable her to send out the Indian boys to kill
turkeys and other fowls for her, whilst the men are gone to war against
the French, that they may not be starved. I told her I had heard nothing
of her message, but if she had told me of it before I had parted with
all the powder and lead, I could have let her have some, and promised
I would make inquiry; perhaps her messenger had lost it on the way to
Philadelphia. I gave her a shirt, a Dutch wooden pipe and some tobacco.
She seemed to have taken a little affront because I took not sufficient
notice of her in coming down. I told her she acted very imprudently not
to let me know by some of her friends who she was, as she knew very well
I could not know by myself. She was satisfied, and went away with a deal
of kind expressions. The same day I gave a stroud, a shirt, and a pair
of stockings to the young Shawano, King Capechque, and a pipe and some
tobacco.”—ED.
[43] The following description of the homeward journey is contained in
the other edition:
“The 20th, left a horse behind that we could not find. Came to the river;
had a great rain; the river not rideable [fordable].
“The 21st, sent for a canoe about 6 miles up the river to a Delaware
town. An Indian brought one, we paid him a blanket, got over the river
about 12 o’clock. Crossed Kiskaminity creek, and came that night to the
round hole, about twelve miles from the river.
“The 22d, the weather cleared up; we travelled this day about 35 miles,
came by the place where we had buried the body of John Quen, but found
the bears had pulled him out and left nothing of him but a few naked
bones and some old rags.
“The 23rd, crossed the head of the West Branch of the Susquehanna; about
noon came to the Cheasts [Chest creek, Cambria County]. This night we had
a great frost, our kettle standing about four or five feet from the fire,
was frozen over with ice thicker than a brass penny.
“The 24th, got over Allegheny hill, otherwise called mountains, to
Frankstown, about 20 miles.
“The 25th, came to the Standing Stone; slept three miles at this side;
about 31 miles.
“The 26th, to the forks of the wood about 30 miles; left my man’s horse
behind as he was tired.
“The 27th, it rained very fast; travelled in the rain all day; came about
25 miles.
“The 28th, rain continued; came to a place where white people now begin
to settle, and arrived at George Croghan’s in Pennsbury, about an hour
after dark; came about 35 miles that day, but we left our baggage behind.
“The 29th and 30th, I rested myself at George Croghan’s, in the mean time
our baggage was sent for, which arrived.
“The 1st of October reached the heads of the Tulpenhocken.
“The 2nd I arrived safe at my house.”—ED.
II
A SELECTION OF GEORGE CROGHAN’S LETTERS AND JOURNALS RELATING TO TOURS
INTO THE WESTERN COUNTRY—NOVEMBER 16, 1750-NOVEMBER, 1765.
SOURCES: _Pennsylvania Colonial Records_, v, pp. 496-498, 530-536,
539, 540, 731-735; vi, pp. 642, 643, 781, 782; vii, pp. 267-271.
_Massachusetts Historical Collections_, 4 series, ix, pp. 362-379.
Butler’s _History of Kentucky_ (Cincinnati and Louisville, 1836),
appendix, with variations from other sources. _New York Colonial
Documents_, vii, pp. 781-788.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Next to Sir William Johnson, George Croghan was the most prominent figure
among British Indian agents during the period of the later French wars,
and the conspiracy of Pontiac. A history of his life is therefore an
epitome of Indian relations with the whites, especially on the borders
of Virginia and Pennsylvania and in the Ohio Valley. A pioneer trader
and traveller, and a government agent, no other man of his time better
knew the West and the counter currents that went to make up its history.
Not even the indefatigable Gist, or the self-sacrificing Post, travelled
over so large a portion of the Western country, knew better the different
routes, or was more welcome in the Indian villages. Among his own
class he was the “mere idol of the Irish traders.” Sir William Johnson
appreciated his services, made him his deputy for the Ohio Indians, and
entrusted him with the most delicate and difficult negotiations, such
as those at Fort Pitt and Detroit in 1758-61; and those in the Illinois
(1765) by which Pontiac was brought to terms.
Born in Ireland and educated at Dublin, Croghan emigrated to Pennsylvania
at an early age and settled just west of Harris’s Ferry in the township
of Pennsboro, then on the border of Western settlement. The opportunities
of the Indian trade appealed to his fondness for journeying and sense of
adventure. His daring soon carried him beyond the bounds of the province,
and among the “far Indians” of Sandusky and the Lake Erie region, where
he won adherents for the English among the wavering allies of the
French. His abilities and his influence over the Indians soon attracted
the attention of the hard-headed German, Conrad Weiser, who in 1747
recommended him to the Council of Pennsylvania. In this manner he entered
the public service, and continued therein throughout the active years of
his life.
Croghan was first employed by the province in assisting Weiser to convey
a present to the Ohio, whither he preceded him in the spring of 1748.[1]
The following year he was sent out to report on the French expedition
whose passage down the Ohio had alarmed the Allegheny Indians, and
arrived at Logstown just after Céloron had passed, thus neutralizing the
latter’s influence in that region.[2]
The jealousy of the Indians over the encroachments of the settlers upon
their lands west of the mountains on the Juniata, and in the central
valleys of Pennsylvania, determined the government to expel the settlers
rather than risk a breach with the Indians. In this task, which must have
been uncongenial to him, Croghan, as justice of the peace for Cumberland
County, was employed during the spring of 1750.[3] The autumn of the same
year, found him beginning one of his most extensive journeys throughout
the Ohio Valley, as far as the Miamis and Pickawillany, where he made
an advantageous treaty with new envoys of the Western tribes who sought
his alliance. To Croghan’s annoyance, the Pennsylvania government in an
access of caution repudiated this treaty as having been unauthorized.
In 1751 Croghan was again upon the Allegheny, encouraging the Indians
in their English alliance, and defeating Joncaire, the shrewdest of
the French agents in this region, by means of his own tactics. The
next year, he was pursuing his traffic in furs among the Shawnees, but
without forgetting the public interest;[4] and the following year finds
him assisting the governor and Council at the important negotiations
at Carlisle.[5] This same year (1753) Croghan removed his home some
distance west, and settled on Aughwick Creek upon land granted him by the
Province. His public services were continued early in the next year by
a journey with the official present to the Ohio, where he arrived soon
after Washington had passed upon the return from the famous embassy to
the French officers at Fort Le Bœuf.
The outbreak of the French and Indian War ruined Croghan’s prosperous
trading business, and brought him to the verge of bankruptcy. While at
the same time a large number of Indian refugees, desiring to remain under
British protection, sought his home at Aughwick, where he felt obliged to
provision them, with but meagre assistance from the Province. To add to
his troubles, the Irish traders, because of their Romanist proclivities,
fell under suspicion of acting as French spies, and Croghan was unjustly
eyed askance by many in authority.[6] Although he was granted a captain’s
commission to command the Indian contingent during Braddock’s campaign,
he resigned this office early in 1756, and retired from the Pennsylvania
service.
About this time he paid a visit to New York, where his distant relative,
Sir William Johnson, appreciating his abilities, chose him deputy
Indian agent, and appointed him to manage the Susquehanna and Allegheny
tribes.[7] From this time forward he was engaged in important dealings
with the natives, swaying them to the British interest, making possible
the success of Forbes (1758), and the victory of Prideaux and Johnson
(1759). After the capitulation of Montreal, he accompanied Major Rogers
to Detroit. All of 1761 and 1762 were occupied with Indian conferences
and negotiations, in the course of which he again visited Detroit,
meeting Sir William Johnson en route.[8]
Late in 1763, Croghan went to England on private business, and was
shipwrecked upon the coast of France;[9] but finally reached London,
where he presented to the lords of trade an important memorial on Indian
affairs.[10]
Upon his return to America (1765), he was at once dispatched to the
Illinois. Proceeding by the Ohio River, he was made prisoner near the
mouth of the Wabash, and carried to the Indian towns upon that river,
where he not only secured his own release, but conducted negotiations
which put an end to Pontiac’s War, and opened the Illinois to the British.
A second journey to the Illinois, in the following year, resulted in his
reaching Fort Chartres, and proceeding thence to New Orleans. No journal
of this voyage has to our knowledge been preserved.
Croghan’s part in the treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) was rewarded by
a grant of land in Cherry Valley, New York. Previous to this he had
purchased a tract on the Allegheny about four miles above Pittsburg,
where in 1770 he entertained Washington. At the beginning of the
Revolution he appears to have embarked in the patriot cause,[11]
but later was an object of suspicion; and in 1778 was proclaimed
by Pennsylvania as a public enemy, his place as Indian agent being
conferred upon Colonel George Morgan. He continued, however, to reside in
Pennsylvania, and died at Passyunk in 1782.[12]