Westward beyond the valley rises the next ridge pierced by the Juniata
in its outflow, Jack's Mountain, and its gorge is known as "Jack's
Narrows." Here penetrated Captain Jack Armstrong in the early colonial
days, a hunter and Indian trader, whose cabin was burnt and wife and
children massacred, making him always afterwards an avenging Nemesis,
roving along the Juniata Valley and killing Indians indiscriminately.
Jack's Narrows is a pass even more contracted than that below
Lewistown, and a profusion of shingle and broken stone covers its
mountain sides, the deranged limestone strata in places standing
almost upright. Mount Union is in the valley east of this pass, and
beyond it is the chief town of the Juniata, Huntingdon, which has
about eight thousand people. This was the oldest settlement on the
river, ninety-seven miles west of Harrisburg, the ancient "Standing
Stone," where the Indians of the valley for centuries met to hold
their councils. The earliest white settlers came in 1754. The original
Standing Stone of Huntingdon, erected by the Indians, was a granite
column, about fourteen feet high and six inches square, covered with
strange characters, which were the sacred records of the Oneidas. Once
the Tuscaroras stole it, but the Oneidas followed, and, fighting for
their sacred treasure, recaptured it. When the whites came along, the
Oneidas, who had joined the French, went west, carrying the stone with
them. Afterwards, a second stone, much like the first, was set up, and
a fragment of it is now preserved at Huntingdon. Here was built a
large fort anterior to the Revolution, which was a refuge for the
frontier settlers. The "Standing Stone" is engraved as an appropriate
symbol on the city seal of Huntingdon, being surrounded by a
representation of mountains, and the name of "Oneida" (the granite) is
preserved in a township across the river. Selina, the Countess of
Huntingdon, who was a benefactor of the University of Pennsylvania,
had her titled name given the city. The then University Provost, Dr.
William Smith, became owner of the town site, and thus remembered her
generosity. About fifty miles southwest of Huntingdon, amid the
mountains, is Bedford, noted for its chalybeate and sulphur springs,
discovered in 1804, which have long been a favorite resort of
Pennsylvanians on account of their healing waters. The whole country
thereabout is filled with semi-bituminous coal measures, furnishing a
lucrative traffic.
Diminishing in volume, our attractive Juniata flows through a rough
country above Huntingdon, after threading the pass in the lofty
Warrior Ridge. Extending off to the southwestward is Morrison's Cove,
a rich valley under the shadow of the long mountain ridge, which was
settled in 1755 by the Dunkards. These singular people, among whose
cardinal doctrines are peace and non-resistance, were attacked by the
Indians in 1777, who entered the valley and almost exterminated the
settlement. Most of them bowed submissively to the stroke of death,
gently saying "Gottes wille sei gethan" (God's will be done). One,
however, resisted, killed two Indians and escaped; but afterwards
returning, the Dunkard Church tried him for this breach of faith, and
he was excommunicated. In this region is the Sinking Spring, a strange
water course originally appearing in a limestone cave, where it comes
out of an arched opening, with sufficient water to turn a large mill;
but it soon disappears underground, the concealed current being heard
through fissures, bubbling far below. Then it returns to the surface,
flowing some distance, enters another cave, passing under Cave
Mountain, and finally reappears and falls into the Juniata, making, in
its peculiar waywardness, as remarkable a stream as can anywhere be
found. Here our famous Juniata River, dwindled to a little creek,
comes down the mountain side, and we penetrate farther by following up
the Little Juniata. It has brought us, through the great ridges, into
the heart of the Appalachian region, to the eastern base of the main
Allegheny Mountain, on the flanks of which are its sources. It has
displayed to us a noted valley, full of the story of early Colonial
contests, massacres and perils, the scenes of the fearless missionary
labors of Brainerd the Puritan and Loskiel the Moravian. Brainerd
recognized the pagan idolatry of the Indians, and did not hesitate to
take the Bible to their solemn religious festivals and expound its
divine principles, to spoil the incantations and frustrate the charms
of their medicine men. Once a Nanticoke pontiff got into a hot
argument with Brainerd, saying God had taught him religion and he
would never turn from it; that he would not believe in the Devil; and
he added that the souls of the dead passed to the South, where the
good lived in a fair city, while the evil hovered forever in outer
darkness. Many are the romances of the attractive Juniata:
"Gay was the mountain song
Of bright Alfarata,
Where sweep the waters of
The blue Juniata:
'Strong and true my arrows are,
In my painted quiver,
Swift goes my light canoe
Adown the rapid river.'"