Smith, one of the Justices of Cumberland County. They came up with this
pack train at Sideling Hill, about seventeen miles beyond Fort Loudoun,
when sixty-three of the horse loads were burned or pillaged.
A sergeant and twelve men of the Highlanders sent from the fort, went
through the neighborhood, saved the balance of the goods, captured
several persons, five rifles and four smooth bore guns.
The traders, after losing their caravan, went back to the fort and
complained to the commanding officer. It was then that three hundred
riflemen marched to Fort Loudoun and encamped on the hill in sight of
the fort.
James Smith, a relative of Justice Smith, and the captain who served
with Bouquet, appeared in a few days at the head of a large crowd of his
infuriated neighbors, and declared that they would suffer death to the
last man, rather than let the prisoners be put to jail at Carlisle.
Two months later another caravan of horses laden with liquors, etc., for
the troops at Fort Pitt, under a pass from the commander there, arrived
at Fort Loudoun, about May 1, and were relieved of their burden in the
fort. The drivers led their horses out to pasture, when about thirty
men, with their faces painted black, rushed upon them, flogged the
drivers, killed five horses and burned all the saddles. In the battle
which ensued one of the attacking party was wounded.
Again Captain James Smith led his neighbors to the fort. He was
accompanied by three Justices who demanded right to search the goods in
store there, but intended for transportation to Fort Pitt.
Lieutenant Charles Grant, of the Highlanders, commandant of the fort,
explained that the general had committed the goods to his care, but had
ordered an inventory to be taken before a justice of the peace, but this
inventory could not be taken in the presence of a mob.
The vigilance men threw off the restraints of decent appearance by
issuing the following:
“Advertisement. These are to give notice to all our Loyal Volunteers to
those that has not yet inlisted, you are to come to our Town and come to
our Tavern and fill your Belly’s with Liquor and your mouth with
swearing, and you will have your pass, but if not, your Back must be
whipt and mouth gagged. * * * We will have Grant, the officer of
Loudoun, whip’d or hanged. * * * The Governor will pardon our Crimes,
and the Clergy will give-us absolution, and the Country will stand by
us; so we may do what we please. * * * free toleration for drinking,
swearing, sabbath breaking, and any outrage what we have a mind to, to
let those Strangers know their place. * * * We call it Hell’s town, in
Cumberland County, the 25th May, 1765. Peter’s Township.”
The crowning deed was reserved for May 28. Lieutenant Grant, while
riding about a mile from the fort, was fired upon. His horse started
suddenly at the crack of the rifle and he was thrown off. Captain James
Smith and others seized him, carried him six miles distant and kept him
a prisoner all night in the woods. He was there threatened unless he
agreed to give up all the arms taken from the rioters.
Governor Penn and General Gage were humiliated by these insults to the
King’s uniform and their inability to punish the offenders, but the more
serious concern was in the obstruction of the communication for traders
with their goods to reach the Illinois country, where the French across
the Mississippi, were ready to obtain an influence by commerce.
While allegiance of the Indians was thus jeopardized, white men began to
creep over the mountains and encroach upon land not yet sold by the
aborigines. Red Stone settlement was thus made, at the risk of another
war. Gage sent a detachment of Highlanders to this region to compel all
whites west of the Alleghenies to return to their own provinces, but
those who left soon went back again with others.
On June 4, 1765, Governor Penn declared trade with the Indians open from
June 20 to all inhabitants of the Province who should apply for and
obtain his license.
----------
Andrew Lycans Killed in Attack by Indians
in Wiconisco Valley, March 7,1756
The Wiconisco or Lykens Valley includes that section of the “Upper End”
of Dauphin County that is watered by the Wiconisco Creek and its
branches, save where local names have been given to certain portions,
such as Williams Valley, etc.
In 1732 Andrew Lycans settled on the Swartara Creek, where he took up
250 acres of land. In 1740 he removed to the west side of the
Susquehanna, where he settled between Sherman’s Creek and the Juniata,
in then Cumberland County.
This land had not been included in the last Indian purchase and the
Shawnee Indians, who had a few scattered villages on the Juniata,
complained of the encroachments of these settlers and demanded their
removal. To pacify the Indians the provincial authorities sent, in 1748,
the Sheriff of Lancaster County, with three magistrates, accompanied by
Conrad Weiser, to warn the people to leave at once, but they remained,
determined not to be driven away, at least by threats.
On May 22, 1750, a number of high dignitaries appointed by the
Lieutenant Governor, held a conference at the house of George Croghan,
in Pennsborough Township, Cumberland County. Subsequently, accompanied
by Deputy Sheriff Andrew Work, of that county, they went to the place
where Andrew Lycans and his neighbors lived, took them all into custody
and burned their cabins.
Sheriff Work presented his account for the “removal of trespassers at
Juniata,” in which he asked for ten days’ pay for his “attendance on the
Secretary Magistrates of the County of Cumberland, by his Hon’s. the
Governor’s command to remove sundry persons settled to the northward of
the Kickitania Mountains.” This and the expenses of a messenger sent
from Lancaster amounted to three pounds and seven shillings. Then he
asked for “the Under-Sheriff’s attendance in taking down Andrew Lycan to
prison to Lancaster; other expenses on the journey; two pounds ten
shillings.”
Lycans and his neighbors were subsequently released by order of Governor
Hamilton. Andrew Lycans removed with his family to the east side of the
Susquehanna, beyond the Kittochtinny Mountains, and by permission of the
authorities “settled on a tract of about 200 acres situated on the
northerly side of Whiconesong Creek.” Here he made extensive
improvements.
Until the spring of 1756 these pioneers were not disturbed, but
following the defeat of General Braddock, everywhere along the frontier
the savages began their work of devastation and death.
On March 7, 1756, Andrew Lycans and John Rewalt went out early to feed
their cattle, when they were suddenly startled by the report of two
rifles. Neither of them being harmed, they were able to reach the house,
where they prepared themselves for defense in case of an attack.
The Indians concealed themselves behind a hog-house not far from the
dwelling. John Lycans, a son of Andrew; John Rewalt and Ludwig Shutt, a
neighbor, crept out of the house in an effort to discover the
whereabouts of the savages and get a shot at them, but they were fired
upon by five Indians and each one wounded, Shutt receiving a dangerous
wound in the abdomen.
At this moment Andrew Lycans discovered one of the Indians named Joshua
James near the hog-house and also two white men running away from their
hiding place. Lycans fired and killed James.
Lycans and his party in the house believed this a favorable opportunity
for escape and started from the dwelling, but they were observed and
closely pursued by a score of the enemy.
John Lycans and John Rewalt were too badly wounded to put up much
resistance, but with the aid of a Negro servant they escaped, leaving
Andrew Lycans, Ludwig Shutt and a boy to engage the Indians.
The savages rushed in upon them, and one Indian in the act of striking
the boy with his tomahawk was shot dead by Shutt, while Lycans killed
another and wounded a third Indian.
The Indian killed by Shutt was named Bill Davis. Two others recognized
by Lycans were Tom Hickman and Tom Hayes, all of the Delaware tribe, and
well known in that neighborhood.
This upset in the plan of attack caused the Indians to momentarily cease
their pursuit and Lycans, Shutt and the lad, being exhausted from loss
of blood, sat down on a log to rest themselves, believing they were no
longer in danger. The Indians stood some distance off to keep them in
view, but in spite of this caution, Lycans managed to lead his little
party to a place of safe concealment and later over the mountain into
Hanover Township, where neighbors gave them assistance; but Andrew
Lycans died from his injuries and exposure.
This pioneer martyr left a wife, one son and five daughters. These
returned to their home soon as the danger was over, and on more than one
subsequent occasion were compelled to flee before the marauding savages.
The one attack in which Andrew Lycans was killed is the only occasion
where a life was lost by the Indian incursions in the Wiconisco Valley.
John Lycans, son of Andrew, became an officer in the provincial service,
commissioned July 12, 1762. In June, 1764, he was stationed at Manada
Gap. His mother, Jane Lycans, in February, 1765, had a patent issued to
her for the land on which her husband had located.
The original Lycans cabin stood until about fifty years ago. It was
situated near the present site of Oakdale, a few yards north of the
bridge that crosses the Wiconisco. It was built of hewn logs with
windows about nine inches square, which were also used as port holes.
Andrew Lycans has given his name to the beautiful valley of the
Wiconisco, owing possibly to his fatal encounter with the Indians, March
7, 1756.
Ludwig Shutt recovered from his serious wounds and lived until 1790, and
left a large family, some of his descendants being present residents of
Lykens Valley. John Rewalt subsequently removed to another part of the
province as did John Lycans, following his tour of duty as an officer in
the provincial service.
----------
Frightful Slaughter of Indians at Gnadenhuetten,
March 8, 1782
In the fall of 1781, Pennsylvania frontiersmen decided that their safety
would no longer permit the residence of the Moravian Indians on the
Muskingum, which was about seventy miles from Fort McIntosh, in the
present State of Ohio. Fort McIntosh was on the right bank of the Ohio
River at the mouth of Beaver River, now Beaver, Pennsylvania.
Colonel David Williamson, one of the battalion commanders of Washington
County, gathered a company of 100 men and on November 5 started for the
Tuscarawa Indians to compel the Moravians either to migrate into the
hostile country or to move in a body to Fort Pitt. They found the
village deserted save by a few Indian men and women. Colonel Williamson
conducted these Indians safely to Fort Pitt.
A small settlement of Delaware had already been established near Fort
Pitt. After Colonel Daniel Brodhead destroyed Coshocton, in the spring
of 1781, Killbuck, the chief sachem of the Delaware, with his immediate
kindred and the families of Big Cat, Nonowland and other chiefs, who
remained friends to the American cause took possession of a small island
at the mouth of the Allegheny River, opposite Fort Pitt, where they
built bark wigwams, planted corn and vegetables and otherwise supported
themselves by hunting and the sale of furs. This place became known as
Killbuck Island, afterwards Smoky Island.
Many of this settlement accompanied military scouting parties, and were
of much service in the defense of the Western frontier. Chief Killbuck,
also known as Gelemend, meaning “leader,” became a soldier and officer
in the United States Army. He died in 1811.
In the spring of 1782, which was unusually early, came the marauding
Indians. The first blow fell February 8, when John Fink was killed near
Buchanan’s Fort, on the upper Monongahela. On Sunday, February 10, a
large body of Indians visited the dwelling of Robert Wallace, on Raccoon
Creek, Beaver County. The head of the family being absent at the time,
the savages killed all his cattle and hogs, plundered the house of its
contents and carried away Mrs. Wallace and her three children.
About February 15, six Indians captured John Carpenter and two of his
horses on the Dutch Fork, of Buffalo Creek. They crossed the Ohio at
Mingo Bottom and made off toward the Tuscarawa villages. Four of these
Indians were Wyandot. Two spoke Dutch, and told Carpenter they were
Moravians. On the morning of the second day, Carpenter was sent to the
woods to get the horses. Finding them some distance from the camp fire,
he mounted one of the horses and dashed for Fort Pitt, where he told his
story to Colonel Gibson.
Gibson mustered 160 young men of Washington County, and placed Colonel
Williamson in command of the expedition, which moved immediately. The
Ohio was at flood height and they effected a crossing Monday, March 4,
and hastened along the beaten trail toward Gnadenhuetten on the
Muskingum. As may well be imagined Robert Wallace was an eager volunteer
in this expedition.
They had not proceeded far until they found the torn corpse of Mrs.
Wallace, impaled on the trunk of a sapling, just off the path. The
mutilated body of her infant lay nearby. The infuriated frontiersmen
remounted their horses, reached the environs of Gnadenhuetten in the
evening of March 6, when their scouts brought back word that the village
was now full of Indians.
Colonel Williamson divided his force into three parties, sending one
command to strike the river below the town, a second to cross the stream
above and cut off retreat in that direction, the third forming the
center to advance upon the place directly.
The attack was begun on the morning of March 7, and not a shot was fired
by the center or left. The presence of women and children warned the
frontiersmen that it was not occupied simply by a war party, and Colonel
Williamson quickly learned the Indians were Moravians. No resistance was
made and soon the frontiersmen were conversing with the Indians who
could speak English. In a council the colonel told them they must go to
Fort Pitt, which the Indians appeared willing to do. The Indians sent
messengers down the river to Salem to tell their people to come to
Gnadenhuetten.
The right wing had a more thrilling experience when they found the
Tuscarawas was in flood and too swift for their horses to swim. A young
man named Sloughter swam across to get a canoe, which proved to be a
maple sugar trough, but he paddled it across the swollen stream. The
others stripped, placed their clothing and rifles in the trough, swam
across, pushing the trough before them.
Advancing down the western shore, a solitary Indian was shot and wounded
in the arm. This act was witnessed by another Indian named Jacob, who
sought escape in a canoe, but was killed.
The company advancing upon the Indians working in the corn field, found
them to be Moravians and led them to the village. Soon the Indians from
Salem arrived to the number of 96, all of whom were confined in a log
church, after being disarmed.
An Indian woman was found to be wearing the dress of Mrs. Wallace. The
garment was identified by the bereaved husband. A search of the cabins
was then made which resulted in finding stolen household effects.
The volunteers could hardly be restrained longer. Colonel Williamson
consulted with his captains, some of whom favored the execution of the
whole band. But during this council many Indians were brought before it,
one at a time, and examined. Not one acknowledged his own guilt, but
some confessed that others had been on the war path. Some were even then
in their war paint. These revelations produced such an effect upon the
borderers that the Colonel could no longer resist their outcry for
vengeance. He put the question to a vote and only eighteen of the entire
body of volunteers voted for mercy.
Friday morning, March 8th, the decree of condemnation was executed. The
Indian men were led, two by two, to the cooper shop and there beaten to
death with mallets and hatchets. Two broke away and ran for the river,
but were shot dead. The women were led to another building and slain
like the men.
Only forty of the volunteers participated in the execution of forty men,
twenty women and thirty-four children. It is probable that even the
frontiersmen who stood aside and looked on did not consider their deed a
crime.
The volunteers then burned the Indian village at Schoenbrun, and before
they departed from Gnadenhuetten they set fire to every building. Salem
was also destroyed.
Two weeks later, on Sunday, March 24, some militiamen attacked the
Indians on Killbuck Island. Several Indians were killed. Killbuck and
most of his band escaped in canoes.
General Irvine returned to Fort Pitt from a visit to Philadelphia and
Carlisle the day after the attack and immediately put a stop to the
raids.
----------
County of Bedford Formed from a Part of
Cumberland, March 9, 1771
The county of Bedford was erected March 9, 1771, by an act of the
General Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania.
The entire territory for the new county was cut from Cumberland County.
The commissioners appointed to “run, mark out, and distinguish the
boundary lines between the said counties of Cumberland and Bedford,”
were Robert McCrea, William Miller, and Robert Moore.
The boundaries of the new county embraced the entire southwestern
portion of the State, from the Tuscarora Mountains westward to the Ohio
and Virginia line.
March 21, 1772, at the time Northumberland County was erected, the
limits of Bedford County were more definitely explained. Northumberland
County was given a part of the original territory of Bedford.
The limits of Bedford were afterward reduced by the erection of
Westmoreland in 1773, Huntingdon in 1787, Somerset in 1795, Cambria in
1804, Blair in 1846, and Fulton in 1850. The territory now wholly or in
part of twenty of the present counties of Pennsylvania was in the
original Bedford County.
The name was taken from the county town, which was selected when the
county was erected. The town was so called from the fort of that name,
which had been given to it by Governor John Penn, when, by his order the
fort at Raystown was built. This was in honor of one of the dukes of the
house of Bedford, in England, during the latter part of the reign of
King George II.
The exact date of the building of Fort Bedford is not certain, but there
is no doubt that the place of defense was celebrated during the French
and Indian Wars. It was one of the earliest settlements west of the
Allegheny Mountains. Mr. Jones in his History of the Juniata Valley
claims that the earliest settlement on the Raystown Branch of the
Juniata was made by a man named Ray in 1751, who built three cabins near
where Bedford now stands. He further says: “In 1755 the province agreed
to open a wagon road from Fort Loudon, in Cumberland County, to the
forks of the Youghiogheny River. For this purpose three hundred men were
sent up, but for some cause or other the project was abandoned.”
This road was completed in 1758, when the allied forces of Virginia,
Maryland, and Pennsylvania marched against Fort Duquesne, under General
John Forbes.
A fort was built at this same time at Raystown, and called Fort Bedford.
Mr. Charles N. Hickok, of Bedford, who has written much of the history
of that county, claims that Rae, as he spells the name, defended his
settlement as early as 1751, almost a decade before the soldiers of
Forbes’ exposition arrived there. The settlement was known as “Camp at
Raystown” before General Forbes was encamped there, and his first
official papers were so dated.
Early in April, 1757, Governor Denny ordered Colonel John Armstrong and
his battalion to encamp at Raystown, “a well chosen situation on this
side of the Allegheny Hills between two Indian roads.”
In June following Captain Hance Hamilton led a scouting party from the
“Fort at Carlisle to Raystown, but encountered no Indians.”
On August 16, 1758, Major Joseph Shippen wrote from the camp at
Raystown: “We have a good stockade fort here, with several convenient
and large store houses. Our camps are all secured with good breast works
and a small ditch on the outside, and everything goes well.”
The “Old Fort House,” which is still standing, was a large and
commodious building for the period in which it was erected. It was used
as the officers’ quarters, and was designated as the “King’s House.”
Fort Bedford was the center of much activity during the latter part of
the French and Indian and the Pontiac Wars. At times more than a
thousand troops were quartered there. There are accounts of mutiny among
the troops and other exciting incidents.
In 1763, Fort Bedford was the principal depot for military stores
between Carlisle and Fort Pitt, and in order to further strengthen it,
the small stockades at Juniata Crossing and Stony Creek were abandoned
and the force concentrated at Fort Bedford.
Indians never made an attack upon the fort, but killed, scalped, or took
prisoner, eighteen persons, in that immediate neighborhood.
The town of Bedford was laid out by Surveyor-General John Lukens, in
1766.
Following the Pontiac War Colonel James Smith, and his celebrated band
of “Black Boys,” were conspicuous for several years and kept the Indians
in check and administered a lasting rebuke to the Proprietary Government
when it attempted to furnish food and clothing to the Indians on the
western frontier.
The history of Fort Bedford was celebrated by the visitations of such
celebrities as Generals Forbes and Washington, Colonels Armstrong,
Bouquet, Burd and others.
The first white child born at Raystown was William Fraser.
The county buildings, court house and prison, were arranged for in the
act which erected the county. The first session of court was held April
16, 1771, before “William Proctor, Jr., Robert Cluggage, Robert Hanna,
George Wilson, William Lochrey, and William McConnell, Esquires,
justices of our Lord the King.” William Proctor was the first sheriff,
and Arthur St. Clair was appointed first prothonotary, recorder, and
clerk of the court.
The first attorney to be sworn was Robert Magraw.
The names recommended to the Governor for license as tavern-keepers were
Margaret Fraser, Jean Woods, Frederic Naugel, George Funk, John
Campbell, Joseph Irwin, John Miller, and Samuel Paxton.
Bedford County became an active unit in the State and when the
Revolution broke out she sent her best men into the State Conventions
and during all that long struggle for independence performed her full
duty to Pennsylvania and the colonies.
Bedford County has had some illustrious sons among whom were Hon. Thomas
Smith, Hon. Jonathan Walker, Hon. Charles Huston, Hon. John Tod, Hon.
Jeremiah S. Black, all members of the Supreme Court, and other high
offices; United States Senator Hon. William Wilkins, and Hon. John S.
Carlisle, who served as United States Senator from West Virginia, and
others
The medicinal springs at Bedford are widely and justly celebrated, and
the town is one of the most attractive resorts in all this country.
----------
Organization of Sixty-seven Counties of
Pennsylvania Began with Philadelphia,
March 10, 1682
The three original counties of Pennsylvania were Philadelphia, Chester
and Bucks. Some authorities claim Philadelphia was the original county
and the others formed soon thereafter. These authorities give the date
of the erection of Philadelphia County as March 10, 1682.
Pennsylvania historians generally agree that the three were originally
erected at the same time by William Penn. Philadelphia extended toward
the northwest, bounded on either side by its neighboring counties, Bucks
and Chester.
Bucks was called Buckingham in a letter written by William Penn to the
Society of Free Traders in 1683. At that time its northern boundary was
the Kittatinny Mountains, or as far as the land might be purchased from
the Indians—a very indeterminate line.
Chester County included what is now Delaware County, and all the
territory, except a small portion now in Philadelphia County southwest
of the Schuykill, to the extreme limits of the Province.