upon the retirement of Franklin, he was elected President.
General Mifflin was the president of the convention that framed the
State Constitution of 1790, and he and General Arthur St. Clair were the
two candidates for Governor. Mifflin triumphed and was continued in
office for that and the two succeeding terms.
Governor Mifflin was very efficient in quelling the Whisky Insurrection
of 1794, and personally commanded the troops from Pennsylvania.
His last official communication as Governor was made December 7, 1799.
It contained his farewell sentiments on taking leave of office and was
received with every manifestation of respect by the Assembly.
He was elected to the Assembly and took his seat, but did not long
survive. He died during a session of the House, then sitting in
Lancaster, on January 21, 1800. His decease was noticed with becoming
ceremonies, resolutions being adopted expressive of the high sense
entertained for him as a soldier and statesman, authorizing his
interment at the public expense and providing for the erection of a
monument to his memory.
“Thus ended,” says Dr. Rawle, “the checkered life of Thomas
Mifflin—brilliant in its outset—troubled and perplexed at a period more
advanced—again distinguished, prosperous and happy—finally clouded by
poverty and oppressed by creditors. In patriotic principle never
changing—in public action never faltering—in personal friendship
sincerely warm—in relieving the distressed always active and humane—in
his own affairs improvident—in the business of others scrupulously
just.”
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Story of the Old Log College and the
Reverend Charles Beatty, Born
January 22, 1715
The pioneer seminary for aspirants to the Presbyterian ministry nearly
two hundred years ago, was long known as “The Old Log College.” It stood
at Neshaminy in Warwick Township, Bucks County.
When the celebrated evangelist George Whitefield came to America in
1739, he preached here to three thousand persons.
The deed for the land upon which this early educational institution was
built, was dated 1728, and was given by Hon. James Logan, the secretary
of the Province and one of the most illustrious of the early officials
of Pennsylvania, to his cousin, Reverend William Tennent, an Irish
emigrant, who shortly after his arrival in America renounced his
allegiance to the Church of England and united with the Philadelphia
Presbytery.
The gift consisted of fifty acres of land and the part of it on which
the college stood is believed to have been an ancient Indian burying
ground. The log college, twenty feet by thirty feet in size, was for
many years the only institute south of New England where young men could
be prepared for the ministry.
The Log College flourished under Mr. Tennent for twenty years, when its
place was eminently supplied by kindred institutions thereabouts. From
its walls came many noted preachers of Scotch-Irish descent, among them
four of his own sons. One of the latter, Gilbert Tennent, preached most
eloquently to stir up patriotism during the French and Indian War.
It is said that a carload of these sermons were very opportunely
discovered in an old lumber room of Dr. Benjamin Franklin’s when the
American patriots were hunting for paper to make cartridges, after the
British evacuated Philadelphia, June 17, 1778. The sermons were utilized
as cases for cartridges, and told effectively afterwards on the
retreating British in the battle of Monmouth. Thus these eloquent
sermons served the country in two great wars, more than is usually the
case.
The Reverend Charles Beatty, an Irish Presbyterian, who was chaplain
with Colonel Benjamin Franklin in his army on the Lehigh and later with
Colonel William Clapham in his regiment which marched to Fort Augusta at
the Forks of the Susquehanna, was a student here.
The Rev. Mr. Beatty was the son of an officer in the British Army, and
was born in Ireland, January 22, 1715. He obtained a fairly accurate
classical education in his own country and when he emigrated to America
in 1740, his circumstances being meager, he employed several of the
first years of his residence as a peddler.
He halted one day at the Log College, where he addressed the Reverend
William Tennent familiarly in correct and classical Latin. After some
conversation in which the peddler manifested much piety and considerable
religious zeal, Tennent said, “Go and sell the contents of your pack,
and return immediately and study with me. It will be a sin for you to
continue a peddler, when you can be so much more useful in another
profession.”
Beatty accepted Tennent’s offer, became an eminent preacher, and
succeeded his preceptor, as head of the Log College. He was ordained in
the Presbyterian Ministry, December 1, 1743, and passed most of his life
in charge of “ye congregation of Warwick, in ye forks of the Neshaminy.”
An interesting incident is related of his military service. The soldiers
were issued a gill of rum each day in addition to their regular
stipulation, one-half being dealt out in the morning and the balance in
the evening.
Chaplain Beatty complained to Colonel Franklin that the soldiers were
not punctual in attending divine service, when Franklin suggested, “It
is, perhaps, below the dignity of your profession to act as a steward of
the rum, but if you were to distribute it out only just after prayers,
you would have them all about you.”
Mr. Beatty profited by the advice and in the future had no reason to
complain of non-attendance. A few hands regularly measured out the
liquor after prayers.
When Colonel William Clapham was detached from Franklin’s command and
ordered to recruit a regiment to build Fort Augusta, he selected Beatty
as the chaplain of the regiment. He kept an interesting journal of this
tour of duty, of which the following is the first paragraph:
“Having received his honor, the Governor’s commission to be chaplain to
the regiment of foot in the provincial service under the command of
Colonel William Clapham, and having the advice and concurrence of the
Commission of the Synod, who appointed supplies for the congregation in
my absence—set out from home in order to join the regiment at Harris’
Ferry, Monday, May 3, 1756. I was accompanied as far as Schuylkill by my
elders and some other friends, and having stopped at a friend’s house,
not far from the road to refresh myself, reached as far as the Sign of
the Ship on the Lancaster road, at which I lodged. Felt my need of the
Divine Presence to be with me in my dangerous or at least difficult
undertaking.”
He reached Lancaster the following afternoon, where he was met by
Colonel Clapham and Captain Thomas Lloyd, who advised him that Governor
Morris was in town. They called on His Excellency, who received them
very kindly.
They all set out the following morning for Harris’ Ferry, arrived at
Barney Hughes’ hotel in time for dinner and reached Harris’ Ferry in the
evening, when the soldiers were ordered to assemble for prayer and to
meet their distinguished guests.
Just as the assembly call sounded, a fire broke out in John Harris’
house and there were no prayers.
He frequently lamented in his well-kept journal, that some trifling
incident prevented officers or men, or both, from attending prayer.
“Just as service began in the afternoon, had an alarm, but few, alas,
seemed to regret the disappointment. Wickedness seems to increase in the
camp, which gives me a great deal of uneasiness.”
The following Sunday, “One of the bateaux which had on it a cannon was
upset, which occasioned a great deal of labor, and what profane swearing
there was. If I stay in the camp my ears are greeted with profane oaths,
and if I go out to shun it, I am in danger of the enemy—what a dilemma
is this? But my eyes would be toward the Lord.”
In 1766 he was appointed, with the Rev. George Duffield, missionary to
the frontier settlements in the new purchase and to the Indians of the
Ohio River. He died August 12, 1772, at Barbados whither he had gone to
collect money for the New Jersey College, which is now Princeton
University.
The Rev. Philip Fithian, who traveled through Central Pennsylvania in
1775, and who kept such an interesting journal of his experiences, was a
son-in-law of the Rev. Charles Beatty.[1]
Footnote 1:
Reverend Charles Beatty had four sons, all officers in the Continental
Army; John, who rose to the rank of colonel, and after the Revolution
became a brigadier-general in the militia; Charles Clinton, a
lieutenant, who was accidentally killed when another soldier of his
command shot him while carelessly handling a pistol; Reading, a
surgeon; and Eukuries, a lieutenant and paymaster, who continued long
in the military service of his country after the Revolution, and was a
major during the Indian campaign of 1788–1792.
-------
Militia Organized at Provincial Council
Meeting January 23, 1775
A Provincial Convention was held in Philadelphia, January 23, 1775,
which lasted six days. At the organization of the convention, General
Joseph Reed was chosen chairman.
Strong resolutions were adopted, heartily approving the conduct and
proceedings of the Continental Congress; opposing future importation of
slaves into this Province; protecting members of committees of Congress
from embarrassment on account of this service, and one, “That in case
the trade of the city and liberties of Philadelphia shall be suspended
in consequence of the present struggle, it is the opinion of this
convention that the several counties should, and that the members of
this convention will exert themselves to afford the necessary relief and
assistance to the inhabitants of the said city and liberties; who will
be more immediately affected by such an event.”
This convention also adopted a lengthy resolution which tended toward
the regulation of the supply and consumption of foodstuffs, and the
necessities of life, especially such as had been regulated by laws of
England.
The crisis to which the convention looked forward when framing these
resolutions had arrived. The battle of Lexington had been fought and
submission to the arbitrary acts of Parliament was attempted to be
enforced by the bayonet. Soon as the news of this battle spread
multitudes of men, at the suggestion of the county committees of
observation, entered into an association for defense.
The officers of these organizations were generally men of unusual
military skill, men who were veterans of several campaigns and some of
innumerable Indian incursions. This was not as generally true of the
older portion of the Province. This had been peaceable, and remote from
the frontiers, so the chief officers in these countries were frequently
without military experience, who owed their preferment to political
activity, or social prominence.
Dickinson accepted the colonelcy of the first battalion, while the
others raised in the City of Philadelphia were commanded by Daniel
Roderdeau, merchant and politician; John Cadwallader, a shopkeeper, son
of one of the Governor’s Council; Thomas McKean, lawyer and lately
Speaker of the Delaware Assembly, and Timothy Matlack, politician.
The colonels of the six battalions raised in Philadelphia County, which
then included what is now Montgomery County were: William Hamilton,
Robert Lewis, Thomas Potts, Samuel Miles, a veteran of French and Indian
War, and Hill Tench Francis, brother of Colonel Turbutt Francis, also a
hero of the French and Indian War, sons of the deceased Attorney General
Tench Francis. The colonels from the other counties were:
Bucks County—Joseph Kirkbride, Joseph Hart, Andrew Kachlein and Arthur
Erwin.
Chester County—James Moore, Thomas Hockley, Hugh Lloyd, William
Montgomery and Richard Thomas.
Lancaster—George Ross, Matthias Slough, Curtis Grubb, Thomas Porter,
John Ferree, James Burd, hero of the French and Indian War and of many
other campaigns; Peter Grubb and Bartram Galbraith.
York County—Robert Callender, William Thompson, John Montgomery and
James Wilson.
Berks County—Edward Biddle, Mark Bird, Daniel Brodhead, veteran of the
French and Indian War; Balzer Geehr and Christian Louer.
Northampton County—George Taylor, Henry Geiger, Yost Dreisbach and Jacob
Stroud.
Bedford County—Bernard Dougherty and Samuel Davidson.
Northumberland County—Samuel Hunter, James Potter and William Plunket,
each a hero of the French and Indian War and thoroughly trained as
officers.
Westmoreland County—John Proctor and John Cornahan.
To assist in carrying into effect the many measures passed for the
defense of the province, the Assembly on June 30, appointed a Committee
of Safety, consisting of ten from City of Philadelphia, four from the
county and one from each of the other counties excepting Chester, which
had two members.
Benjamin Franklin was chosen president of the committee at its first
meeting, July 3, 1775; William Garrett was named clerk and Michael
Hillegas treasurer.
The several County Commissioners were asked to purchase a specified
number of guns with bayonets, cartridge boxes with twenty-three rounds
of cartridges and knapsacks.
The Assembly offered £20 for every hundredweight of saltpeter
manufactured in the province within the next three months.
Among the first labors of the Committee of Safety was that of preparing
articles for the government of the military organizations known as
Associators. A set of resolutions to that effect were adopted August 19,
which included every possible phase of a soldier’s life, including his
personal appearance, conduct, sobriety, loyalty, demeanor as an officer,
noncommissioned officer or private, etc.
Many of the citizens refused to subscribe to the regulations, alleging
that numerous persons, rich and able to perform military duty claimed
exemption under pretense of conscientious scruples and asserting that
where liberty of all was at stake, all should aid in its defense, and
that where the cause was common to all, it was inconsistent with justice
and equity that the burden should be partial.
The Friends addressed the Legislature, setting forth their religious
faith and practice with respect to bearing arms, and claiming exemption
from military service by virtue of laws agreed upon in England and the
Charter of William Penn. The Mennonites and German Baptists also
remonstrated, praying exemption, but willing to contribute pecuniary
aid.
Assembly resolved that “all persons between the ages of sixteen and
fifty capable of bearing arms, who do not associate for the defense of
the Province, ought to contribute an equivalent for the time spent by
the associators in acquiring military discipline; ministers of the
gospel of all denominations and servants purchased bona fide for
valuable consideration only excepted.”
Returns were required from the assessors of all persons within military
age, and the captains of the companies of the Associators were directed
to furnish to their colonels and the colonels to the County
Commissioners lists of such persons as had joined the Associators. The
commissioners were empowered to assess those not associated £2 10s
annually, in addition to the ordinary tax.
The Assembly also adopted rules and regulations for the better
government of the military association, the thirty-fifth article of
which provided “that if any associator called into actual service should
leave a family not of ability to maintain themselves in his absence, the
justices of the peace of the proper city or county, with the overseer of
the poor, should make provisions for their maintenance.”
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Captain Thomas McKee, Indian Trader,
Makes Deposition Before Governor
January 24, 1743
Thomas McKee was the most noted of the later Shamokin Traders, and we
have records of his trading expeditions as far west as the Ohio.
His career was highly romantic, and a consideration of the same will
enable us to understand his son, Captain Alexander McKee, who afterwards
became well-known at Fort Pitt, and rendered himself notorious in border
history by deserting to the British during the time of the Revolutionary
War, carrying over to that interest a great many Indians whom he had
befriended during his service as Deputy Indian Agent under the Crown. We
will then know better why he should seek more congenial company among
the Ohio Indians and in the service of the King, than he had found among
the American forces at Fort Pitt, who were enemies of both.
Dr. W. H. Egle has stated that Thomas McKee was a son of Patrick, but it
is quite possible that he was the son of one Alexander McKee who died in
Donegal Township, Lancaster County, in May, 1740, leaving a son, Thomas,
who was the executor of his will.
A contributor to Dr. Egle’s “Notes and Queries” relates a traditionary
account of Thomas McKee’s marriage, which had been told to him in his
boyhood days by his father, a native of the Susquehanna Valley. This
story was to the effect that Thomas McKee, in his early manhood began
trading with the Indians, and after learning the language of the
Delaware, established a trading post among them, in the vicinity of
Shamokin (now Sunbury), at or near the Forks of the Susquehanna.
In the performance of this enterprise while he was on a trading
expedition farther up the West Branch, he ventured into the camp of
strange Indians, who stole his goods, drank his rum, and then becoming
incensed at the resistance he made to their proceedings, bound him as a
captive, and decided to burn him at the stake the following day.
During the night, an Indian maiden came to the wigwam where he lay bound
to a log. She released him, and they fled together, making their escape.
McKee from gratitude, made the girl his squaw and they lived together
during the remainder of their lives as husband and wife.
Edward Shippen, of Lancaster, wrote to Governor Morris April 19, 1756,
after a visit to Captain McKee’s fort, where he found ten Indians, among
them John Shikellamy. He adds; “Shikellamy let me know that he wished
the Indians would be moved down to Barney Hughes, where Captain McKee’s
woman and children live.”
In a conference between Sir William Johnson and Canaghquiesa, an Oneida
chief, the latter reported on his mission to the hostile Shawnee of
Northern Pennsylvania. He advised Sir William that one who lived near
those Indians had applied to the Delaware to accompany them to the
proposed meeting at Onondaga, which they refused to do, saying that “One
Thomas McGee, who lives on the Susquehanna and is married to a Shawnese
squaw, had told them that in ten days’ time an army of the English would
come and destroy them.”
The Moravian Bishop, Cammerhoff, visited Captain Thomas McKee’s trading
post in 1748. In his journal he writes under date of January 13:
“We have before us twenty long miles to Shamokin, also two bad creeks
and the narrowest passes along the river to pass. At 9 o’clock we
reached Thomas McKee’s, the last white settlement on the river, below
Shamokin.”
This trading post was at the site of the present village of Dalmatia,
Northumberland County. His other post at this time was below the mouth
of the Juniata, not far distant from Big (now Haldeman’s) Island. Both
these trading posts are shown on Scull’s map of 1759.
The bishop further wrote in his journal: “McKee holds a captain’s
commission under the Government, is an extensive Indian trader, bears a
good name among them and drives a brisk trade with the Allegheny
country. His wife, who was brought up among the Indians, speaks but
little English. They received us with much kindness and hospitality.”
Thomas McKee’s “woman,” “squaw” or “wife” as referred to by Edward
Shippen, Chief Canaghquiesa and Bishop Cammerhoff, respectively, may
have been the same who assisted him to escape from the unfriendly party
of Indians in the early winter of 1743. The details of that adventure
are set forth in an affidavit which McKee made before Governor Thomas in
Philadelphia, January 24, 1743.
In this deposition McKee states he had a store near the Big Island, and
that “on the 12th or 13th of this instant, January, about 7 o’clock in
the morning, the Indians of the town came to the deponent’s store and
told him they had heard the Dead Halloa and were much surprised at it.
Whereupon he, with a servant of his, took a canoe and went over to the
island, and in his passage heard the Indians belonging to the town call
over to those on the island. To which they answered that the white men
had killed some of their men. A council was called, and this deponent
attended at the Council House and was admitted.”
At the council the leader of the Iroquois war band informed the Shawnee
of an attack made upon their war expedition in Virginia, in which four
Indians were killed.
McKee addressed the council, reminding them that these disorders had not
happened in Pennsylvania, and urged them to press in their council a
treaty of peace with Pennsylvania. The Shawnee did not receive the
suggestion kindly. A short time after McKee was informed by a white
woman, who had been taken prisoner, that it was left with the Shawnee to
deal with him as they pleased and that they were going to hold a council
concerning him at some distance from the town, and that if he did not
escape he would certainly be cut off.
McKee realized the advice was timely and, with his servant, they
departed, leaving all his goods behind. The two traveled three days and
three nights before they believed themselves out of danger.
Captain Thomas McKee was in command at Fort Hunter in 1756. He died near
McKee’s Half Falls, on the eastern side of the Susquehanna, in 1772,
leaving two sons, Alexander and James. The former was then at Fort Pitt
as an assistant to George Croghan, the deputy Indian agent for the
Crown, and where he owned a large tract of land at the mouth of the
Chartiers Creek, including McKee’s Rock, still a noted landmark on the
Ohio River, just below Pittsburgh. When he deserted from the garrison at
Fort Pitt and joined the British in 1777 his possessions in Pennsylvania
passed to his brother, whose descendants are still living in Allegheny
County.
If the woman Captain Thomas McKee had made his wife was the white
captive of the Shawnee, who had been adopted into their tribe, it is not
hard to understand why her son, Alexander the renegade, should have
inherited a half-savage nature. This would be even more true if his
mother was a Shawnee squaw. His adherence to the British Government when
the Revolution came, a government which had so long been his paymaster,
is less to be wondered at than his temporary defection therefrom during
the first two years of the struggle.
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Work Commenced on Erection of Fort
Henry January 25, 1756
The Provincial authorities in 1755 sent Colonel Benjamin Franklin and
others to erect a chain of forts, about ten or twelve miles apart,
stretching in a line from the Delaware to the Susquehanna River.
The principal fort on the Lehigh River was Fort Allen, where the town of
Weissport, Carbon County, now stands. Fort Swatara was the principal
fort on the end of the chain as it approached the Susquehanna, although
Fort Hunter was situated on the east bank of that river, about six miles
above the present City of Harrisburg.
Fourteen miles east of Fort Swatara was erected Fort Henry, and it soon
became the most important place of defense between the two great rivers
in this chain of forts.
It is sometimes referred to as Busse’s Fort, in honor of Captain
Christian Busse, who commanded the garrison there during its most active
period. It was frequently referred to as the “Fort at Deitrick Six’s,”
because of the Indian atrocities which occurred there and which had much
to do with the decision to erect the fort on part of Six’s farm.
Fort Henry was situated on the main road to Shamokin (now Sunbury),
where Fort Augusta commanded the forks of the Susquehanna, and protected
the settlers resident on both the north and west branches of that river.