mountain pass or prominent stream, but it did command the connecting
highways between the Swatara Creek and the settlements near that stream.
The Indians were obliged to pass through Talihaio Gap to reach any of
the white settlements in that region.
The history of Fort Henry really begins with the attack from ambush made
on a company of six settlers traveling to Deitrick Six’s, Saturday
afternoon, November 15, 1755.
None was killed in the first attack, but as the terrified settlers
hastened toward a watch-house, a half mile distant, they were overtaken
by the savages and three of them killed and scalped, and one Indian was
killed. During the late afternoon three other settlers were killed and
three wounded.
The Indians remained in the neighborhood and the following night killed
a servant of Thomas Bower and set fire to his house and barn.
Conrad Weiser informed Governor Morris of this tragic affair in a long
letter and related this and many other incursions made by the Indians in
the region now embraced by Berks, Lebanon, Dauphin, and part of
Northumberland Counties. Weiser concluded his letter as follows:
“The Fire alarmed a neighbor, who came with two or three more Men; they
fired by the way and made a great noise, scared the Indians away from
Bower’s House, after they had set fire to it, but by Thomas Bower’s
Diligence and Conduct was timely put out again. So, Thos. Bower, with
his Family, went off that night to his Neighbor Daniel Schneider, who
came to his assistance. By 8 of ye Clock Parties came up from
Tulpenhacon & Heidleberg.
“The first Party saw four Indians running off. They had some prisoners,
whom they scalped immediately; three children lay scalped, yet alive,
one died since, the other two are like to do well. Another Party found a
woman just expired, with a Male Child by her side, both killed and
Scalped. The Woman lay upon her Face, my son Frederick turned her about
to see who she might have been and to his and his companions Surprize
they found a Babe of about 14 Days old under her, and life was yet in
it, and recovered again.
“Upon the whole, there is about 15 killed of our People, Including Men,
Women and Children, and the Enemy not beat but scared off. Several
Houses and Barns are Burned; I have no true account how many. We are in
a dismal Situation, some of this Murder has been committed in
Tulpenhacon Township. The People left their Plantation to within 6 or 7
miles of my house (which was located at the present town of Womelsdorf)
against another attack.
“Guns and Ammunition is very much wanted here. My Sons have been obliged
to part with most of what was sent for the use of the Indians. I pray
your Honour will be pleased, if it lies in your Power, to send us up a
Quantity upon any Condition. I must stand my Ground or my Neighbours
will all go away, and leave their Habitations to be destroyed by the
Enemy or our own People. This enough of such melancholy Account for
this.”
Conrad Weiser had been on a mission to the seat of government, to which
place he had escorted a band of friendly Indians, and it was on his
return that he learned of the terrible murders. In fact, the trusted
chief Scarouady, also known as the Half-King, and a company of Delaware
were still with him at his home when his sons recited the melancholy
news.
It is not to be wondered that many of the settlers did not fully
understand the exact position which Colonel Weiser held, both toward the
Provincial Government and towards the Indians. Both had implicit faith
and confidence in him. The angry settlers were so incensed at Weiser
that had not the smoke of fire along the mountain scared them off he
might have paid the price of his friendship toward the Indians with his
own life.
These atrocities decided the position of Fort Henry, and January 25,
1756, Captain Christian Busse, with a company of fifty provincial
soldiers, reported there and began the erection of a fort. Governor
Morris advised Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, and Colonel George
Washington that he had ordered Fort Henry built at this important place.
It was at Fort Henry where Colonel Weiser held his councils with the
officers of the other forts and planned the protection of the farmers
during harvest, etc.
During June, 1756, Fort Henry was honored by a visit from Governor
Morris, which was occasioned by a threatened attack by the French on
Fort Augusta, and at a time when the terms of enlistment of many men had
expired.
The Governor directed the movement of troops to the larger fortresses.
More than fifty of the inhabitants called at Fort Henry and laid their
grievances before the Governor in person.
Soon after this visit the Indians committed many murders. Five children
were carried off in one day and a sick man was slain in his bed. His
daughter, hidden under a bed in the adjoining room, saw her father
killed. Two other families were destroyed.
A French deserter was captured and held at Fort Henry. He was taken to
Weiser’s home, and put through the third degree. He proved to be quite
clever and nothing of value was learned. He was a lad of seventeen and
had been sent from Fort Machault, on the Allegheny River, on a marauding
expedition in command of thirty-three Indians, when he accidentally got
lost in the mountains and he approached the sentry at Fort Henry, as he
had been seven days without food.
June 19, 1757, the Indians carried away the wife of John Frantz and
three of their children, who lived only six miles from Fort Henry.
The actual history of Fort Henry, except for the incidents recorded
here, was one of routine military work, but it remained a garrisoned
fortification for some years, surely until the summer of 1763, for at
that time Governor Hamilton wrote to Colonel John Armstrong about
disposition of troops for Lancaster, Berks and Northampton Counties, and
mentioned Fort Henry as one of the chain of forts then occupied by
provincial troops.
----------
James Trimble, First Deputy Secretary of the
Commonwealth, Public Servant Sixty-seven
Years, Died January 26, 1837
When James Trimble died at his home in Harrisburg, January 26, 1837, he
closed a record of sixty-seven years service as an official of
Pennsylvania, a record which none other has ever approached.
Another unusual feature of this record is the fact that Mr. Trimble was
the first Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth, beginning his service as
such March 6, 1777, and being the only occupant of that important office
until his death, nearly sixty years afterwards.
James Trimble was born in Philadelphia, July 19, 1755. His father,
Alexander Trimble, emigrated from the North of Ireland; was a
Protestant, and soon became a member of the Second Presbyterian Church
of Philadelphia, then under the care of Reverend Gilbert Tennent, of
whom it is believed he was a relative.
Alexander Trimble was married to Eleanor Rogers, of Abington, June 20,
1754. Alexander died about 1769.
James was the eldest of several children, and though only a lad at the
time of his father’s death, he manifested all those qualities of mind
and heart for which he was so justly noted throughout a long life
devoted to the service of his country.
When his mother was left a widow with a store, James assisted her in the
conduct of the business.
One day James Tilghman, Secretary of the Land Office under the
Proprietaries, called at the Trimble store and made some purchases.
Young Trimble, who waited upon him, also made out his bill, and the
great gentleman was so much pleased with his writing and business style
that he at once took measures to secure his services in his department.
Thus James Trimble at the age of fifteen years became an apprenticed
clerk in the Land Office.
The endorsement upon the archives of the Board of War and the Council of
Safety indicates that James Trimble was subordinate clerk in the State
Council as early as 1775, and when Colonel Timothy Matlack became the
first Secretary of the Commonwealth, March 6, 1777, James Trimble became
Deputy Secretary, and so continued down to Thursday, January 14, 1837.
Pending some difficulties with the Supreme Executive Council in regard
to his accounts of his money trust, Colonel Matlack resigned his
position as Secretary, and March 25, 1783, General John Armstrong, Jr.,
was commissioned in his stead.
General Armstrong was elected a member of Congress in 1787, and November
7 of that year Charles Biddle became Secretary. He served in that office
until January 19, 1791, when Alexander James Dallas, Esq., was
commissioned by Governor Thomas Mifflin the first secretary of the
Commonwealth, under the Constitution of 1790.
On March 12, 1791, the very day the Governor approved the Act of
Assembly providing for a Deputy Secretary, Mr. Dallas appointed James
Trimble, who had served continuously under his several predecessors, to
be Deputy Secretary, and the appointment was approved by the Governor.
Secretary Dallas resigned his commission December 2, 1801, when Thomas
McKean Thompson succeeded him. Nathaniel B. Boileau became Secretary of
the Commonwealth, December 20, 1808, and remained through the three
terms of Governor Simon Snyder, when he was succeeded by Thomas
Sergeant, December 16, 1817; he resigned July 6, 1819, when Samuel B.
Ingham was commissioned; Andrew Gregg took up the reins of office
December 19, 1820, serving three years, when Molton C. Rogers became
Secretary; he resigned January 2, 1826, to be succeeded by Isaac G.
Barnhard, who served less than two years, when Calvin Blythe was
commissioned November 28, 1827; Samuel McKean was commissioned December
16, 1829, and was succeeded by James Findley who served until December
15, 1835, when Thomas H. Burrowes became Secretary of the Commonwealth,
and in all this time, and with these fifteen changes in the office of
Secretary, a commission and dedimus issued regularly every three years
to James Trimble as Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth.
His records are models of neatness, his papers elaborately endorsed, and
filed with great care, so that in those days of tallow candles, when he
was wont to enter his office at night, he could, without striking a
light, lay his hands on any paper he wished.
James Trimble was of slight stature, dignified, brisk in his movements
and carefully dressed in solemn black knee pants, queue, long hose, and
buckle shoes.
When he died, Harrisburg lost its last gentleman of the old school for
Alexander Graydon, his peer in dress and address, had gone before.
In the judgment of his contemporaries James Trimble was a faithful
public servant, a man of unimpeachable integrity, and obliging manners,
and respected by the community at large.
On April 22, 1782, he married Clarissa, widow of John Hastings; her
maiden name was Claypoole. She was a descendant of James Claypoole, an
intimate of William Penn, and brother to John Claypoole who married
Elizabeth, daughter of Oliver Cromwell. Mrs. Trimble died at Lancaster,
February 6, 1810. Of their eleven children two only survived them—Dr.
James Trimble, who died in Huntingdon County, in 1838, and Thomas R.,
who died in Chester County in 1868.
James Trimble helped pack and remove the State papers at the time the
British occupied Philadelphia, and again when the seat of government was
removed to Lancaster in 1799, and from Lancaster to Harrisburg in 1812.
After he removed to Harrisburg he was chosen trustee and treasurer of
the Presbyterian Church there, in which capacity he served until his
death.
That he survived his removal from office only eleven days many believed
he died of a broken heart. Truly if such be the case, party spirit must
have been at fever heat to cause the removal of such a public servant,
without some other position for him.
----------
Great Indian Conference Began in Easton
on January 27, 1777
The year 1777 opened for the colonists with much brighter prospects, as
General Washington had defeated the Hessians at Trenton, and close upon
this victory followed the action at Princeton, in which many
Pennsylvania organizations displayed such valor, but in which General
Hugh Mercer and a number of other officers and men fell.
On Monday, January 20, Brigadier General Philemon Dickinson, with about
400 militia, composed of the two Westmoreland independent companies, of
Wyoming, Pa., and New Jersey militia, defeated a foraging party of the
enemy of an equal number, near a bridge at Millstone River, two miles
from Somerset Court House, New Jersey, and took forty wagons and one
hundred horses, a large number of sheep and cattle, and some prisoners.
General Dickinson lost but five men.
To return to internal affairs: early in January, 1777, Continental
Congress received information “that certain tribes of Indians living in
the back parts of the country, near the waters of the Susquehanna within
the Confederacy and under the protection of the Six Nations, the friends
and allies of the United States,” were on their way to Easton for the
purpose of holding a conference or treaty with the General Government.
Congress thereupon appointed a commission, consisting of George Taylor,
of Easton; George Walton and others to purchase suitable presents for
the Indians and conduct a treaty with them. The Assembly of Pennsylvania
named Colonels Lowrey and Cunningham, while the Council of Safety sent
Colonels Dean and Bull. Thomas Paine was appointed secretary to the
commission.
On January 7, a company of Indians arrived at Wilkes-Barre to announce
the coming of the larger body en route to Easton. About January 15 the
main delegation reached Wilkes-Barre. There were seventy men and one
hundred women and children in the party.
Among the chiefs were the following: Taasquah, or “King Charles,” of the
Cayuga; Tawanah, or “The Big Tree,” of the Seneca; Mytakawha, or
“Walking on Foot,” and Kaknah, or “Standing by a Tree,” of the Munsee;
Amatincka, or “Raising Anything” of the Nanticoke; Wilakinko, or “King
Last Night” of the Conoy, and Thomas Green, whose wife was a Mohawk, as
interpreter.
The Indians held an informal conference there and received food from the
Wyoming authorities.
The conference was formally opened at Easton, January 27, in the new
First (German) Reformed Church, on North Third street. It is said that
while the organ played the members of the commission and the Indians
shook hands with each other and drank rum to the health of the Congress
and the Six Nations and their allies before proceeding to business.
It was soon learned that the English, through the influence of Colonel
John Butler, in the King’s service at Niagara, were making a great
effort to turn the Indians against the Americans.
In an official report of the treaty, subsequently made to the Supreme
Executive Council of Pennsylvania, it was stated: “The Indians seem to
be inclined to act the wise part with respect to the present dispute. If
they are to be relied upon, they mean to be neuter. We have already
learnt their good intentions.”
The members of the Supreme Executive Council, chosen under the
Constitution of the State, met for the first time March 4, 1777, and
proceeded to form an organization and the Council of Safety was
dissolved. In joint convention with the Assembly, Thomas Wharton, Jr.,
was elected president, and George Bryan, vice president. To give new
dignity to the executive of the new Government, the inauguration took
place on the following day, March 5.
Thomas Wharton, Jr., was born in Philadelphia in 1735. He was descended
from an ancient English family and was the grandson of Richard Wharton,
who emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1683. His father, Joseph Wharton, of
Walnut Grove, was an aristocrat of the day. Thomas Wharton was twice
married, first to Susan, daughter of Thomas Lloyd, and subsequently to
Elizabeth, daughter of William Fishbourne. He was a warm supporter of
the principles of the Revolution, and on the change of government was
elected to the highest office in the State.
President Wharton died suddenly May 25 of the following year of an
attack of quinsy, at Lancaster. His funeral on the day following was
conducted by the State authorities, and as commander-in-chief of the
forces of the State he was buried with military honors, and at the
request of the vestry was interred within the walls of Trinity Church in
Lancaster. By his decease, the Vice President, George Bryan, assumed the
executive functions.
On March 13 the Supreme Executive Council appointed a navy board,
consisting of Andrew Caldwell, Joseph Blewer, Joseph Marsh, Emmanuel
Eyre, Robert Ritchie, Paul Cox, Samuel Massey, William Bradford, Thomas
Fitzsimmons, Samuel Morris, Jr., and J. Thomas Barclay, to which board
was committed all powers necessary for that service. The board entered
very promptly upon its duties, meeting with many difficulties, boats out
of repair and inefficiently manned, difficulties about rank in the
fleet, all of which it succeeded in overcoming.
The same day a Board of War was appointed consisting of David
Rittenhouse, Owen Biddle, William Moore, Joseph Dean, Samuel Morris,
Sr., Samuel Cadwallader Morris, John Bayard, George Gray and Colonel
John Bull. This board served most capably in assisting to carry out the
provisions of the new militia law.
The Speaker of the House being seriously ill, John Bayard was chosen
Speaker March 17. On the 20th Joseph Reed was appointed Chief Justice of
Pennsylvania, but he declined on account of military engagements and on
July 28 Thomas McKean was named for that office.
On June 13, the Assembly required all white male inhabitants over
eighteen years of age, except in Bedford, Northumberland, and
Westmoreland Counties to take an oath of allegiance before July 1, and
those in said counties before August 1, excepting, however, delegates in
Congress, prisoners of war, officers and soldiers in the Continental
army and merchants and marines in port trading from foreign powers and
not becoming subjects. Any person refusing should be incapable of
holding office, serving on juries, electing or being elected or even
bringing lawsuits, or buying or selling lands and as was perfectly
reasonable, should be disarmed.
Early in June, General Howe, commander of the British forces at New
York, showed a disposition to advance by land across New Jersey, and to
take possession of Philadelphia. On the 14th of that month he actually
made an advance by two columns, which led General Washington to believe
that this was his real intention. General Mifflin again came to
Philadelphia with messages to Congress and the Assembly, and there was
intrusted to him and De Coudray the arrangements of the defense of the
Delaware River.
The same day General Morris appeared before Congress to say that
Philadelphia was in danger.
----------
Massacre of Settlers Along the Juniata River
Began January 28, 1756
The Delaware Indians, especially those who lived west of the Susquehanna
River, were exceedingly angry because of the sale of the lands along the
Susquehanna and Juniata to the whites, and declared that those coveted
hunting grounds had been given to them (the Delaware) by the Six
Nations, and that therefore the latter had no right to sell them.
The Six Nations admitted that they had given the region to their
cousins, the Delaware, as a hunting ground, yet they did not hesitate to
make the sale to the English in 1754, and to confirm it in 1758.
The Delaware received none of the 400 pounds which had been paid to the
Six Nations, and it is little wonder that they sought an opportunity and
pretext for that revenge against the English which they dared not show
against their ancient conquerors, the Six Nations.
Such an opportunity was presented by General Braddock’s disaster on the
Monongahela, July 9, 1755, immediately after which they, with the
Shawnee, became the active allies of the French.
Within three months their war parties had crossed the Alleghanies
eastward, and had committed atrocities among the frontier settlements.
On October 16 occurred the massacre on Penn’s Creek, in what is now
Snyder County, and on the 25th, John Harris’ party was ambushed at
Mahanoy Creek.
On January 27, 1756, a party of Indians from Shamokin (now Sunbury) made
a foray in the Juniata Valley, first attacking the house of Hugh
Mitcheltree, who was absent at Carlisle, having left his house in the
care of his wife and a young man named Edward Nicholas. Both of these
were killed by the Indians, who then went up the river to the house of
Edward Nicholas, Sr., whom they killed, also his wife, and took seven
prisoners, namely, Joseph, Thomas and Catherine Nicholas, John Wilcox
and the wife and two children of James Armstrong.
The scene of the first of these incursions was on the farm of James
Mitcheltree, who was a warrantee in Delaware Township in 1755, and where
he died in the early part of 1803. This farm then passed into the hands
of John Thompson, and it is still in the hands of his descendants. Hugh
Mitcheltree, who escaped death or capture in this foray, was carried off
by the Indians two months later, March 29, 1756. The Mitcheltree family
lived near the present Thompsontown, Juniata County.
While the Indians were committing the murders at the Mitcheltree and
Nicholas homes, an Indian named James Cotties, who wished to be captain
of the party, but could not be so chosen, took with him a young brave
and went to Sherman’s Creek, where they killed William Sheridan and his
family, thirteen in number. They then went down the creek to the home of
two old men and an elderly woman, named French, whom they killed.
Cotties often boasted afterward that he and the boy took more scalps
than all the others of the party.
James Cotties, in 1757, went to Fort Hunter and killed a young man named
William Martin, while he was busy picking chestnuts. After the war was
over, the same Cotties being again at the same fort was reproached by
another Indian, named Hambus, for the death of young Martin, and a
quarrel ensued in which Hambus killed Cotties.
There are letters extant which give an account of the massacre by the
Indians, on the river between Thompsontown and Mexico. They reveal the
fact that this was the largest butchery of the whites that ever took
place in the east end of Juniata County.
A letter of January 28 proves that Captain James Patterson was with his
company at his fort, on the Juniata, the day of the massacres.
Extract from a letter dated Carlisle January 29, 1756, says:
“This afternoon came to town a man that lived on Juniata, who in his
journey this way called at the house where the woolcombers lived, about
ten miles from this place, and saw at his door a bed-tick, and going
into the house found a child lying dead and scalped. This alarmed us
much and while we were consulting what to do, we received the enclosed,
which puts it past all doubt that the enemy intend to attack Sherman’s
Valley or this place. We thought it necessary to acquaint you as soon as
possible, not only to hurry you home, but, if thought needful, that the
people of York might send over some aid.”
The “enclosed” referred to in the above, was a long letter written by a
soldier in the garrison at “Patterson’s Fort, of Juniata,” dated January
28, 1756, in which the fifteen murders of the Wilcox, Nicholas and
Armstrong families were explained in all their horrible details, the
writer having visited the several places and witnessed for himself the
bodies of the victims.
The letter continues:
“The party that went to bury the dead, found one Sheridan and his wife,
three children and a man-servant, all murdered; also two others in
another house: these within a few miles of Carlisle.