led by Girty and Captain Henry Bird. Colonel Gibson succeeded in sending
a messenger through the savage lines, who carried the distressing news
to General McIntosh.
On February 23, 1779, a wagon was sent out from the fort under an escort
of eighteen soldiers to haul some firewood which had been cut by the
troops. About a half a mile from the fort the little party passed an
ancient Indian mound behind which a band of Indians lay hidden. The
Indians burst upon them, both front and rear, and every man in the
detail was killed and scalped except two, who were taken prisoners.
The Indians then planned a regular siege upon the fort and endeavored to
starve the garrison into surrender.
Colonel Gibson dispatched another messenger, who eluded the watchful
Indians and reached Fort McCord March 3.
In the interim the condition in the garrison became desperate. A sortie
in force was contemplated but the strength of the savages caused this
plan to be abandoned. The Indians paraded over the crest of the hill
within plain sight, and about 850 warriors were counted. It was
afterward learned that 200 had been marched to make a show, four times
the strength.
Captain Bird after this stratagem, sent in a demand for surrender,
promising safe passage for the soldiers to Fort McIntosh, but Gibson
sternly refused. The Indians then promised to withdraw if Gibson would
furnish them with a barrel of flour and a barrel of meat.
Bird believed the garrison was reduced to its last ration and would, of
necessity, refuse the request, and therefore he felt certain that in a
few days the garrison must surrender.
Gibson had but a few barrels of food, and that in bad condition; but he
quickly complied with the demand, sent out two barrels and said he had
plenty yet inside. They enjoyed a feast on the flour and meat, and on
the following day left that vicinity and returned to their towns in
Northwestern Ohio.
On March 23, General McIntosh appeared with his relieving force of 300
regulars and 200 militia escorting a train of pack horses with
provisions. For more than a week the men had subsisted on roots and soup
made by boiling raw hides.
The famished troops sallied forth, and fired a volley to express their
joy. The shooting frightened the pack horses, causing them to stampede
through the woods, scattering food in every direction. Many of the
horses were never recovered and the food lost.
By the middle of May the garrison was compelled to return to Fort
McIntosh to escape actual starvation. The fort was finally dismantled
and the men returned to Fort Pitt.
----------
General Jacob Brown, Hero of War of 1812,
Died February 24, 1828; Native of
Pennsylvania
When General Jacob Brown died in Washington, D. C., February 24, 1828, a
monument was erected over his remains in the historic Congressional
burial ground, which bore the following inscription:
“Sacred to the memory of General Jacob Brown. He was born in Bucks
County, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of May, 1775, and died in the city of
Washington, commanding-general of the army, on the 24th of February,
1828.
“Let him who e’er in after days
Shall view this monument of praise,
For honor heave the patriot sigh
And for his country learn to die.”
Then this surely was an unusual man and such is the fact.
He was born of Quaker parentage, in the house long since known as the
Warner mansion, about three and a half miles below Morrisville, on the
banks of the Delaware River, where his father lived until the son Jacob
was grown, and they removed to New York toward the close of the century.
From his eighteenth to his twenty-first year Jacob Brown taught school
at Crosswicks, N. J., and passed the next two years in surveying lands
in Ohio.
In 1798 he opened a select school in New York City, and at the same time
studied law.
Some of his newspaper essays attracted the attention of General
Alexander Hamilton, to whom he became secretary while that officer was
acting General-in-Chief of the army raised in anticipation of a war with
France.
When those war clouds disappeared Brown went to northern New York,
purchased lands on the banks of the Black River, not far distant from
Sackett’s Harbor, and founded the flourishing settlement of Brownsville,
where he erected the first building within thirty miles of Lake Ontario.
There Brown became county judge; colonel of the local militia in 1809;
brigadier general in 1810; and, in 1812, received the appointment of
commander of the frontier from Oswego to Lake St. Francis, a line two
hundred miles in extent.
During the War of 1812–14, he performed most conspicuous service,
receiving two severe wounds in battle.
At the second attack upon Sackett’s Harbor, May 27, 1813, when the news
of the approach of the British squadron reached there Colonel Backus was
in command. General Jacob Brown was at his home, a few miles distant. He
was notified and arrived before dawn of the 28th. He sent expresses in
all directions to summon the militia to the field, and fired guns to
arouse the inhabitants.
As rapidly as the militia came in they were armed and sent to Horse
Island, where it was expected the enemy would attempt to land. On the
appearance of some American gun boats the British squadron went out on
the open lake. But when the enemy discovered the real weakness of the
defenders, the squadron returned on the morning of the 29th and landed a
large force on Horse Island.
The militia had been withdrawn from the island to the mainland, and fled
at the first fire of the invaders.
This disgraceful conduct astonished General Brown, who rallied his
troops, when he discovered the store houses and a ship in flames, set on
fire by Americans who believed their militia was in full retreat. This
caused General Brown to redouble his exertions to rally the militia. He
succeeded, and so turned the fortunes of the day in favor of his
country.
When Sir George Prevost, mounted on a high stump, saw the rallying
militia on his flank and rear, he believed them to be American
reinforcements and sounded a retreat.
For his conduct in the defense of Sackett’s Harbor, Brown was made a
brigadier in the United States Army.
General Brown made the only redeeming movement in Wilkinson’s
disgraceful expedition down the St. Lawrence River against Montreal,
November, 1813. Brown captured and held the post at the foot of the
rapids, which movement permitted the union of the several armies, or the
defeat would have been even more disastrous.
General Brown was severely wounded at the repulse of the British at Fort
Erie, August 15, 1814.
Both parties prepared to renew the contest, and General Brown remained
in command. On September 17, he stormed the attacking forces by a sortie
from the fort, and won a brilliant victory. This saved Fort Erie with
Buffalo, and the stores on the Niagara frontier.
Public honors were bestowed upon Generals Brown, Porter and Ripley.
Congress presented each with a gold medal.
To the chief commander, General Brown, it was said, “no enterprise which
he undertook ever failed,” and the city of New York gave him the freedom
of the city in a beautiful gold box. The Governor of New York presented
him with an elegant sword.
At the function in New York City, held February 4, 1815, Mayor DeWitt
Clinton presided, and the aldermen and principal citizens hailed him as
the hero of Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane.
The citizens of Philadelphia gave him a great public banquet at
Washington Hall, Chief Justice Tilghman presiding, and Major Jackson,
vice president.
The sanguinary battle near the cataract of the Niagara is known in
history as the battle of Lundy’s Lane.
The British had just been defeated (July 5, 1814), at Chippewa, and were
smarting under the disgrace of having their veteran troops defeated by
raw Americans.
General Brown was ably supported by General Scott in this action and
both were severely wounded. The command devolved upon General Ripley who
disobeyed General Brown’s orders, lost the advantage of a brilliant
victory, and was soon replaced by General E. P. Gaines.
At the close of the war, General Brown was retained in command of the
northern division of the army, and was made general-in-chief, March 10,
1821, which exalted position he held with honor and credit till his
death.
----------
Andrew McFarlane Captured by Indians at
Kittanning February 25, 1777
The Indian depredations along the Ohio River in the fall of 1776 began
along its eastern shore, when small parties of the Mingo tribe made
incursions among the settlements, inflicting only slight damage. But in
the spring of 1777, the outrages became general and more destructive.
The first outrage was on the frontier of Westmoreland County when Andrew
McFarlane was captured at an outpost of Kittanning.
McFarlane soon after the close of the French and Indian War, made his
way west to Fort Pitt, where he engaged in the Indian trade with his
brother James. When the territorial dispute with Virginia became acute,
in January, 1774, Andrew McFarlane was appointed a justice of the peace
by Governor Penn and he vigorously upheld the Pennsylvania authority.
Captain John Connolly, at the head of his Virginia militia, interrupted
the sessions of the Pennsylvania court at Hannastown, April, 1774, and
arrested three Pennsylvania justices, who resided in Pittsburgh; Andrew
McFarlane, Devereux Smith and Captain Aeneas Mackay. They were taken as
prisoners to Staunton, Va., and there detained four weeks, until
released by order of Governor Dunmore.
On the evening of his arrest in Pittsburgh, McFarlane managed to send a
letter to Governor Penn, in which he said: “I am taken at a great
inconvenience, as my business is suffering much on account of my
absence, but I am willing to suffer a great deal more rather than bring
a disgrace upon the commission which I bear under your honor.” One
result of his arrest indicates that McFarlane did not really suffer much
during his captivity at Staunton for there he met and married Margaret
Lynn Lewis, daughter of William Lewis, famed in the military history of
Virginia.
Andrew and James McFarlane, to escape exactions and persecutions of
Virginia military authority, removed their store, in the autumn of 1774,
to Kittanning, at that time the extreme limit of white settlements
toward the North. Here they prospered.
When the Iroquois tribe began to give concern to the settlers on the
western frontier, after the Revolution opened, the Continental Congress
in July 1776, ordered the raising of a regiment consisting of seven
companies from Westmoreland and one from Bedford, to build and garrison
forts at Kittanning, Le Boeuf and Erie and protect that region from
British and Iroquois.
These troops were promptly raised under command of Colonel Aeneas
Mackay, with George Wilson, lieutenant colonel, and Richard Butler, as
major. This regiment rendezvoused at Kittanning preparatory to an
advance up the Allegheny, to build two other forts.
A call was received for the regiment to march eastward, across the
State, and join the hard-pressed army of General Washington, then near
the Delaware. This regiment obeyed the call, in spite of a storm of
protest on the frontier, and became known as the Eighth Pennsylvania.
The long march began early in January, 1777.
Many settlers believed the western frontier was not in imminent danger
but Andrew McFarlane was not one of these. As soon as Mackay’s regiment
departed Justice McFarlane begged of the Westmoreland Commissioners that
a company of militia be sent to Kittanning. He could hardly restrain his
neighbors from running away, and during the late winter many did flee,
leaving McFarlane and two clerks the only men at the place.
There were many stores left at Kittanning by Colonel Mackay but no
soldiers could be spared to guard them. In this emergency Samuel
Moorhead, who lived at Black Lick Creek, undertook the formation of a
company of volunteer rangers. He chose McFarlane as his lieutenant, and
these two spent much time trying to recruit a small company from the
scattered settlers.
The story of the capture of Andrew McFarlane is preserved in two forms:
One is gathered from letters written at the time, while the other is a
tradition handed down in the Lewis family of Virginia. The Lewis story
is now preserved in a history of Lynchburg, Va., and is in part as
follows:
“When Margaret Lynn Lewis married Mr. McFarlane, of Pittsburgh, and left
the parental roof, she traveled through a wilderness infested with
hostile Indians till she reached that place. Once, when they least
apprehended danger, a war whoop was heard, her husband taken prisoner,
the tomahawk raised and she averted her eyes to avoid witnessing the
fatal stroke.
The river was between them and she, with her infant and maid servant, of
course endeavored to fly, knowing the inevitable consequences of delay.
After starting, the servant reminded Mrs. McFarlane of her husband’s
money and valuable papers, but she desired the girl not to mention
anything of that sort at such a moment; but, regardless of the commands
of her mistress, the servant returned to the dwelling, bringing with her
all of the money and as many of the papers as she could hold in her
apron, overtaking, in a short time, her mistress, as the snow was three
feet deep. On looking back she saw the house in flames, and pursuing
their journey with incredible fatigue, reached the house of Colonel
Crawford, a distance of fourteen miles.
The contemporary account of this event is found in letters from the
frontier, written to the officers of the Pennsylvania Government at
Philadelphia and made public in later years. “Two British subalterns,
two Chippewa and two Iroquois Indians were sent by the commandant of
Fort Niagara, to descend to Allegheny.
“On February 25, 1777, they arrived opposite the little settlement of
Kittanning. Standing on the shore, they shouted toward the far shore,
calling for a canoe. Thinking the Indians had come to trade or to bring
important news McFarlane decided to venture across. The instant he
stepped from his boat he was seized by the savages and told he was their
prisoner. His capture was witnessed by his wife and some men at the
settlement.”
At the time Andrew McFarlane was captured, his brother James was a
lieutenant in the First Pennsylvania of the Continental Line. It was
through his personal efforts that Andrew was exchanged, in the fall of
1780. The released man immediately rejoined his wife and child at
Staunton, and they soon afterward returned to the vicinity of
Pittsburgh. Kittanning being deserted and exposed, Andrew McFarlane
opened a store on Chartier’s Creek, where he lived for many years.
His eldest son, Andrew, doubtless the infant whom Mrs. McFarlane carried
in her arms when she fled from Kittanning, became one of the pioneer
settlers on the Shenango, near the present New Castle, Pa., and his
descendants are numerous in Lawrence County.
----------
Westmoreland County, Last Under Proprietary,
Erected February 26, 1773
The county of Westmoreland was erected by the Assembly of the Province
of Pennsylvania by an act of February 26, 1773. It was the eleventh
county in Pennsylvania and the last erected under the Proprietary
Government. Like all the other counties, except Philadelphia, it
received its name from a county in England.
In 1771 this wide region was included in the county of Bedford, but
settlements grew so rapidly west of the mountains during the year 1772
that a new frontier county was demanded. The evacuation of Fort Pitt by
the British troops in the fall of 1772 also led the frontiersmen to
demand a stronger civil government.
When Westmoreland was erected it included all the Province west of
Laurel Hill, being what is broadly known as Southwestern Pennsylvania
and included what is now Westmoreland, Fayette, Washington, Greene, and
the parts of Allegheny and Beaver Counties south of the Ohio River and
about two-thirds of Indiana and one-third of Armstrong County, a total
area of 4,700 square miles.
While this was the area of Westmoreland County in the intent of the
Provincial Government, it was restricted in fact by Virginia’s seizure
and government of a large portion of the territory.
A general settlement of the country west of the Allegheny Mountains did
not begin until after the land office was opened in April, 1769.
The settlers flocked into this new region from two directions. The Scots
from the Cumberland Valley and other settled posts of the Province made
their way westward along the Forbes military road and planted their
cabins along its course. These men were loyal Pennsylvanians, and they
held their lands under the Provincial Government. Other Scots came from
the South, principally from the Old Dominion; they crossed the mountains
by the Braddock road and occupied the fertile lands along the
Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers and Chartiers Creek. These men were
Virginians and believed their settlements were still within that
territory.
A lively contest was carried on between Pennsylvania and Virginia for
control of this region, and the organization of Westmoreland County had
signal influence in strengthening the Pennsylvania authority, especially
when sixteen magistrates were commissioned to administer justice within
its boundaries.
The county seat was established at Robert Hanna’s little settlement on
Forbes Road, about thirty-five miles east of Fort Pitt, and here at
Hannastown, the first Pennsylvania court, west of the mountains, was
held April 13, 1773. It was a Court of Quarter Sessions and William
Crawford presided. These proceedings stirred up the Virginia
authorities.
The Earl of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, took forcible possession of
the disputed territory. He appointed John Connolly, of Pittsburgh,
“captain commandant of Pittsburgh and its dependencies.”
Connolly mustered the militia under the Virginia law, seized and
garrisoned Fort Pitt, intimidated the Pennsylvania magistrates, marched
some of them off to prison, and established the authority of Virginia
throughout all the region between the Monongahela and the Ohio.
Pennsylvania had no militia law at that time and was powerless to resist
the usurpation.
By this action upon the part of Virginia the territory of Westmoreland
County, during the period of the Revolution, was limited to about half
its actual area. It was not until the summer of 1780 that Virginia
finally agreed to accept the results of a joint survey which would
extend the southern boundary line of Pennsylvania to a distance of 5
degrees of longitude west of the Delaware River.
Ligonier Valley, which extends along the eastern border of the county,
was well settled by 1775, the largest settlement being Ligonier, where
the British had built a fort in 1758. The principal citizen here was
Captain, afterwards General Arthur St. Clair, a Scotchman who served
under Wolfe at Quebec and afterwards became the agent of the Penn family
in Western Pennsylvania.
Settlements also became numerous west of Chestnut Ridge, along the
Loyalhanna and its tributaries, as far as Hannastown on the Forbes Road.
Derry settlement was to the north of the road, between the Loyalhanna
and the Conemaugh. Nearly all the settlers were Scots from Ulster, or
their immediate descendants, with a sprinkling of Irish of Presbyterian
faith. There was another Ulster settlement at the Braddock road crossing
of Big Sewickley Creek, while lower down that stream were cabins and
blockhouses of German emigrants from the Rhine Palatinate.
The Virginia settlers along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny were a
generation or more removed from the old country, but were nearly all of
Scotch stock. The richest of these brought their slaves with them from
Virginia, who were held in bondage long after the Revolution.
The traders and principal citizens in the vicinity of Fort Pitt were
members of the Church of England; it was from among these that the Tory
sentiment developed during the Revolution. Old Westmoreland was,
however, decidedly a Scotch and Calvinistic settlement.
The Scotch pioneers were bold, stout and industrious men, sharp at
bargains, fond of religious and political controversy and not strongly
attached to government either of the royal or the proprietary brand. In
nearly every cabin could be found three principal articles, the Bible, a
rifle and a whiskey jug. Their hatred of the treacherous Indian was a
strong characteristic.
In 1775 the most prominent representatives of the Pennsylvania
interests, in addition to General Arthur St. Clair, were Colonel John
Proctor and Colonel Archibald Lochry, who lived near the Forbes Road,
west of Chestnut Ridge; Robert Hanna and Michael Huffnagle, of
Hannastown; James Cavet and Christopher Hays, of Sewickley; John Ormsby,
Devereux Smith and Aeneas Mackay, traders and storekeepers at
Pittsburgh; Edward Cook, near Redstone, and George Wilson, whose
plantation was in the very heart of the Virginia sympathizers, on the
Monongahela at the mouth of George’s Creek.
----------
Early Days of Witchcraft in Pennsylvania—Two
Women on Trial February 27, 1683
The most conspicuous of the early provincial tribunals and by far the
best known to the present-day reader was the Provincial Council. Its
duties were at once executive, legislative and judicial.
The judicial functions discharged by the members of the Council were
both interesting and important, and the volume of such business was very
great. Its members were regarded by all classes as the supreme judges of
the land.
The trial of Margaret Mattson, which took place on February 27, 1683,
before William Penn himself, is of great interest, both on account of
the peculiarity of the accusation and the notoriety it has acquired as
illustrating the temper of our ancestors.
The records of the early Provincial Council contain this item:
“1683, 7th, 12th mo., Margaret Mattson and Yethro Hendrickson were
examined and about to be proved witches; whereupon this board ordered
that Neels Mattson should enter into a recognizance of fifty pounds for
his wife’s appearance before this board on the 27th instant. Hendrick
Jacobson doth the same for his wife.”
“27th of the 12th mo. Margaret Mattson’s indictment was read, and she
pleads not guilty, and will be tryed by ye country.”
It is a matter of historical interest that the Council was then composed
of William Penn, Proprietor and Governor, and James Harrison, William
Biles, Lasse Cock, William Haigue, Chris Taylor, William Clayton and
Thomas Holmes.
The Grand Jury was as follows: Robert Euer, foreman; Samuel Carpenter,
Andrew Griscom, Benjamin Whiteman, John Barnes, Samuel Allen, John
Parsons, Richard Orne, John Day, John Fisher, John Barnes, Gunner Rambo,
Enoch Flower, Henry Drystreet, Thomas Mosse, Thomas Duckett, Dennis
Lince, Thomas Phillips, Thomas Millard, John Yattman and Harnaby Wilcox.
The petit jury was composed of John Hastings, foreman; Robert Wade,
William Hewes, John Gibbons, Albortus Hendrickson, Nathaniel Evans,
Jeremiah Collett, Walter Martin, Robert Piles, Edward Carter, John
Kinsman and Edward Bezac.
The evidence adduced against the prisoner was of the most trifling
character, and such as now would be scouted from the witness-box of a
court of justice.
“Henry Drystreet, one of the Grand Jurors attested, saith he was tould
20 years agoe that the prisoner at the Barr was a witch and that
severall cows were bewitcht by her, also that James Sunderling’s mother
tould that she bewitcht her cow but afterwards said it was a mistake and
that her cow should doe well againe for it was not her cow but another
persons that should dye.
“Charles Ashcom attested, saith, that Anthony’s wife being asked why she
sould her cattle was because his mother had bewitcht them having taken
the witchcraft off of Hendricks cattle and put on their oxen, she might
keep but noe other cattle; and also that one night the Daughter of the
Prisoner called him up hastily and when he came she sayd there was a
great Light but just before and an old woman with a knife in her hand at
the Bedd’s feet and therefore shee cryed out and desired Jno. Symcock to
take away his calves or else she would send them to Hell.