derives its name from a large stone standing erect in the river. It is
twenty feet in height, fourteen feet wide and three feet in thickness.
The army was forced to go into camp at Standing Stone on account of the
indisposition of General Sullivan and inability to bring up the boats.
Their next encampment was at Sheshecununk, and on the following day,
August 11, had extreme difficulty fording the river before reaching
Tioga Flats, where Queen Esther’s Town stood, until destroyed by Colonel
Hartley the previous year.
Indians were discovered at Chemung, twelve miles distant, and an
expedition was set in motion to destroy their village. The main army
marched through the night and arrived at daylight, but the Indians,
aware of the advancing army, had evacuated the village, but made a
determined stand at Newtown.
General Sullivan pushed on with great vigor and formed a junction with
General Clinton’s army August 19. On August 29, 1500 Indians, under Joe
Brant and Captain John MacDonald, and the British and Tories, under
Colonel John Butler and the two Johnstons, attacked the Americans near
the scene of the Newtown battle.
The enemy was well entrenched, thinking to destroy our army at a narrow
defile in front of their breastworks. This situation was discovered by
Captain Parr when Colonel Proctor opened a cannon fire on the enemy, who
retreated to a much stronger position, but too closely pursued by Poor’s
troops.
The Americans charged up the hill with bayonets and poured deadly fire
into their ranks, driving them from the field. Nine Indians were killed
and left on the ground to be scalped by the troops.
Every Indian village was burned and the savages were made to understand
that the Americans were their masters.
The return march was made to Wyoming, where the army arrived October 8.
A great feast on venison and wild turkey was had in honor of their
effective service.
The army reached Easton October 15, and Congress set apart October 26,
as a day for a general thanksgiving.
General Sullivan had shattered his constitution by years of constant
exposure in the field and suffered much from an accident received in
this campaign, and he was given a leave “as long as he shall judge it
expedient for the recovery of his health.” He was thanked by Congress
for his services. During the whole campaign his conduct was
distinguished by courage, energy and skill.
General Sullivan could not recover his full vigor and resigned from the
army at the close of 1779, but was convalescing when elected to
Congress. He went to that body with much reluctance, but his services
there were as conspicuous and patriotic as they had been on many a
bloody battlefield. He died January 23, 1795.
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Patriotic Women Feed Soldiers at Cooper
Shop and Union Saloons,
May 27, 1861
During the Civil War Philadelphia lay in the channel of the great stream
of volunteers from New England, New York, New Jersey and part of
Pennsylvania, that commenced flowing early in May, 1861. Working in
grand harmony the national and more extended organizations for the
relief of the soldiers, were houses of refreshment and temporary
hospital accommodations furnished by the citizens of Philadelphia.
The soldiers crossing New Jersey, and the Delaware River at Camden, were
landed at the foot of Washington Avenue, where, weary and hungry, they
often sought in vain for sufficient refreshments in the bakeries and
groceries in the neighborhood before entering the cars for Washington or
other points of rendezvous.
One morning the wife of a mechanic living near, commiserating the
situation of some soldiers who had just arrived, went out with her
coffee-pot and a cup, and distributed its contents among them. That
generous hint was the germ of a wonderful system of relief for the
passing soldiers, which was immediately developed in this patriotic and
historic city.
Soon other benevolent women, living in the vicinity of the landing-place
of the volunteers, imitated their patriotic sister, and a few of them
formed themselves into a committee for the regular distribution of
coffee on the arrival of soldiers. Soon the men in the neighborhood
interested themselves in procuring other supplies.
The women who formed this original committee were Mrs. William M.
Cooper, Mrs. Grace Nickles, Mrs. Sarah Ewing, Mrs. Elizabeth Vansdale,
Mrs. Catherine Vansdale, Mrs. Jane Coward, Mrs. Susan Turner, Mrs. Sarah
Mellen, Mrs. Catherine Alexander, Mrs. Mary Plant, and Mrs. Captain
Watson.
For a few days the refreshments were dispensed under the shade of trees
in front of the cooper shop owned by William M. Cooper and Henry W.
Pearce, on Otsego Street near Washington Avenue. Then this shop was
generously offered for the purpose by the proprietors, and immediately
it was equipped with tables and such kitchen arrangements as were
necessary to prepare such foods as was supplied by the voluntary
contributions raised among the citizens of Philadelphia. The young
women, wives and daughters of those resident in the neighborhood waited
upon the soldiers.
The first body of troops fed at the saloon was the Eighth New York
Regiment, called the German Rifles, under Colonel Blenker. There were
780 men who partook of a coffee breakfast there on the morning of May
27, 1861.
The cooper shop was not spacious enough to accommodate the daily
increasing number of soldiers, and another place of refreshment was
opened on the corner of Washington Avenue and Swanson Street, in a
building formerly used as a boathouse and rigger’s loft. Two Volunteer
Refreshment Saloon Committees were formed and known respectively as the
“Cooper Shop” and the “Union.”
Both were in effective working order on May 27. The following were the
principal officers of the two associations, respectively: The Cooper
Shop: President, William M. Cooper; vice president, C. V. Fort;
treasurer, Adam M. Simpson; secretaries, William M. Maull and E. S.
Hall. The Union: Chairman, Arad Barrows; secretary, J. B. Wade;
treasurer, B. S. Brown; steward, J. T. Williams.
These two organizations worked in harmony and generous rivalry all
through the period of the war and rendered wonderful service. Both
saloons were enlarged as necessity required and both had temporary
hospitals attached to them. These were used for such soldiers who were
sick or wounded and who were unable to leave Philadelphia and who
required rest or nursing and medical attendance to restore them to
health and duty.
Cooper Hospital was under the charge of Dr. Andrew Nebinger, assisted by
his brother, Dr. George Nebinger, and Miss Anna M. Ross. After the death
of Miss Ross, Mrs. Abigail Horner became the lady principal of the
“Cooper Shop Hospital.”
Dr. Eliab Ward had charge of the “Union Hospital.” He gave his services
throughout the war free of charge. Nearly 11,000 sick and wounded
soldiers were nursed and received medical attention at this hospital,
and nearly twice that number had their wounds dressed, and more than
40,000 had a night’s lodging.
An accurate record was kept of all the operations of the “Union Saloon,”
which show that 800,000 soldiers were received and 1,025,000 meals were
furnished, and the total amount of money expended being $98,204.34, and
for materials used there was expended $30,000, a grand total of
$128,204.34, all of which was received by voluntary contributions.
The women who devoted themselves to the service of preparing the meals
and waiting upon this vast host deserve the choicest blessings of their
country.
At all hours of the day and night these self-sacrificing heroines, when
a little signal gun employed for the purpose announced the approach of a
train bearing soldiers, would repair to their saloons and cheerfully
dispense their generous bounties.
The little cannon used as a signal had a notable history. It was part of
the ordnance in the army of General Taylor on the Rio Grande in 1846,
where it was captured, only to be recaptured by a United States cruiser.
The last regiment of soldiers fed in either of these saloons was the
104th Pennsylvania, Colonel Kephart, numbering 748 men, on August 28,
1865.
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Colonel William Clapham and Family Murdered
by Indians, May 28, 1763
Colonel William Clapham was an English officer who rendered conspicuous
service on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and who, like many others, paid
the price with his scalp in the uneven warfare waged by the Indians and
their French allies.
William Clapham was born in England July 5, 1722, and after graduating
from college, entered the army as an ensign. He was sent to America
during the French and Indian War. He subsequently resigned his
commission and took up his residence in Philadelphia, where he was
living at the time of Braddock’s defeat.
This disaster to the English arms caused Captain Clapham to again offer
his services, this time to the Province of Pennsylvania. He was
commissioned a captain and sent by Governor Morris into Bucks County to
recruit troops and to muster into the Provincial service the company
recruited by Captain Insley, who were ordered to join the regular troops
then posted at Reading and Easton.
While Captain Clapham was on this tour of duty he journeyed to Fort
Allen to make a visit with some friends. The Assembly at this moment was
pressing Colonel Benjamin Franklin to return to his seat in that body.
The three forts being completed, and the inhabitants willing to remain
on their plantations with soldiers in these garrisons, Colonel Franklin
placed Captain Clapham in full command and departed.
This was only a temporary command, but Governor Morris, March 29, 1756,
commissioned him lieutenant-colonel, and assigned him to the Third
Battalion. He also ordered the Colonel to assemble his troops as soon as
possible at Hunter’s Mill, preparatory to marching to Shamokin (now
Sunbury), where he was to build a substantial fort.
Colonel Clapham recruited 400 men for that purpose. He assembled his
force at Fort Hunter, where he began training them. Before they marched
from this encampment Governor Morris paid them an official visit, the
incidents of which are quite entertaining and very interesting.
Colonel Clapham marched his command to Armstrongs, built Fort Halifax,
stationed a garrison there, and finally proceeded up the river to
Shamokin, where he arrived July 1, and immediately set about building
Fort Augusta. This formidable fortress was finished in October.
From the very beginning of this frontier service Colonel Clapham
experienced no end of trouble with his officers. He seems to have been
overbearing and a hard taskmaster. He bore many insults, as he termed
them, from the Assembly. These frequent disputes and misunderstandings
with his officers wore out his patience and he resigned in November,
1756, being succeeded by Major James Burd of Lancaster.
Notwithstanding the confusion and ill-feeling which prevailed among the
officers and men during the building of Fort Augusta, it seems that a
secret directing power had prevented everything from falling into chaos
and much good was accomplished. Had it not been for this unseen power,
the fort would have been captured by the French and Indians and the
whole North and West Branch Valleys would have been overrun and held by
the enemy at this most critical period in the history of the Province.
He was a most conspicuous figure on the early frontiers. Even Colonel
Clapham’s enemies, or those who thought he was not an acceptable
officer, must have been moved to deep and sincere sympathy when they
learned the sad fate which so soon afterward befell him and his family
on the western frontier of Pennsylvania.
He did not long remain out of the service when his resignation as
commander of the garrison at Fort Augusta was accepted. In 1763 he was
an active officer in the expedition of Colonel Henry Bouquet on the
western frontier of the Province.
He was in command of a formidable scouting party when he was murdered on
Sewickley Creek, near where the town of West Newton now stands.
This tragedy occurred on the afternoon of May 28, 1763, and was
committed by The Wolf, Kektuscung and two other Indians, one of whom was
called Butler.
Colonel Clapham had taken his family to this frontier, and was very near
his own home when these Indians shot him from ambush, rushed into his
house, killed and scalped his wife and three children and a woman. The
two women were treated with brutal indecency. They left evidences of the
fact that they were paying an old score with Colonel Clapham, and the
scene was horrible to behold.
At the time of the murder of the Claphams, three men who were working at
some distance from the Clapham house escaped through the woods and
carried the terrible news to the garrison in Fort Pitt.
Two soldiers, who were in Colonel Clapham’s detail, and stationed at a
sawmill near the fort, were killed and scalped by these same Indians.
It seems that there were others slain in this massacre for Colonel Burd
entered in his journal, June 5, 1763, that “John Harris gave me an
account of Colonel Clapham and twelve men being killed near Pittsburgh,
and two Royal Americans being killed at the saw mill.”
Colonel Bouquet in a letter to General Amherst, dated Fort Pitt, May 31,
1763, says: “We have most melancholy reports here * * * the Indians have
broke out in several places, and murdered Colonel Clapham and his
family.”
Judge Jasper Yeates made a visit to Braddock’s battlefield in August,
1776, and then to the site of Fort Pitt. He remarked about seeing the
grave of Colonel Clapham.
It is probable that the family became extinct after the Indians
perpetrated their dastardly crime, and the ashes of the famous commander
and builder of Fort Augusta have long since mingled with the soil.
----------
Free Society of Traders Organized with Aid
of Penn, May 29, 1682
Soon as William Penn received the grant of land in America which is now
Pennsylvania, he immediately issued advertisements in which certain
concessions were offered to settlers. Among those who made application
for large quantities of land were companies organized for colonization
purposes.
One such company was “The Free Society of Traders,” whose plans Penn
favored and whose constitution and charter he helped to draw.
The first general court of this society was held in London May 29, 1682,
at which time the “Articles, Settlement and Offices” of the society were
adopted and the actual operations begun.
The charter to the Pennsylvania Company, the Free Society of Traders,
bears date March 24, 1862. The incorporators named in Penn’s deed to
them were “Nicholas More, of London, medical doctor; James Claypoole,
merchant; Philip Ford (Penn’s unworthy steward); William Sherloe, of
London, merchant; Edward Pierce, of London, leather seller; John Symcock
and Thomas Brassey, of Cheshire, yeoman; Thomas Barker, of London, wine
cooper, and Edward Brookes, of London, grocer.”
The deed recites Penn’s authority under his patent, mentions the
conveyance to the company of 20,000 acres in Philadelphia, erects this
tract into the manor of Frank, “in free and common Socage, by such
rents, customs and services, as to them and their successors shall seem
meet, so as to be consistent with said tenure.” It allowed them two
justices’ courts a year and other legal privileges.
In addition to the first 20,000 acres, their appurtenant city lots “was
an entire street, and one side of a street from river to river,”
comprising 100 acres, exclusive of an additional 400 acres owned in the
Liberties. The location of the property was the tract between Spruce and
Pine streets, from the Delaware to the Schuylkill River, 366 feet in
width. Their lands were given the name Society Hill.
The society was empowered to appoint and remove its officers and
servants, to levy taxes, etc. An important privilege was the authority
given to be represented in the Provincial Council by three
representatives of the society.
This society was given title to three-fifths of the products of all
mines and minerals found, free privilege to fish in all waters of the
Province, and to establish fairs, markets, etc., and the books of the
society were to be exempted from all inspection.
May 29, 1682, the general court prepared and published an address, and
mapped out an ambitious program of operations.
The address, which is ingenuous, points to the fact that while it
proposes to employ the principles of the association in order to conduct
a large business, it is no monopoly, but an absolutely free society in a
free country. “It is,” says the prospectus, “an enduring estate, and a
lasting as well as certain credit; a portion and inheritance that is
clear and growing, free from the mischief of frauds and false
securities, supported by the concurrent strength and care of a great and
prudent body, a kind of perpetual trustees, the friends of the widow and
orphan, for it takes no advantages of minority or simplicity.”
In the society votes were to be on a basis of amount of stock held, up
to three votes, which was the limit. No one in England was allowed more
than a single vote, and proxies could be voted. The officers were
president, deputy, treasurer, secretary and twelve committeemen. Five,
with president or deputy a quorum. The officers were to live on the
society’s property.
All the society’s servants were bound to secrecy, and the books were
kept in the society’s house, under three locks, the keys in charge of
the president, treasurer and oldest committeeman, and not to be
entrusted to any persons longer than to transcribe any part in daytime
and in the house, before seven persons appointed by the committee.
The society was to send 200 servants to Pennsylvania the first year, “to
build two or more general factories in Pennsylvania, one upon Chesapeake
Bay, and the other upon Delaware River, or where else the committee
shall see necessary for the more speedy conveyance of goods in the
country and Maryland, but that the government of the whole be in the
Capital City of Pennsylvania.”
The society was to aid Indians in building houses, etc., and to hold
Negroes for fourteen years’ service, when they were to go free “on
giving to the society two-thirds of what they can produce on land
allotted to them by the society, with a stock and tools; if they agree
not to this, to be servants till they do.”
The leading object of the society at the outset seems to have been an
extensive free trade with the Indians, agriculture, establishment of
manufactories, for carrying on the lumber trade and whale fishing. An
agent in London was to sell the goods.
Nicholas More, president of the society and one of Penn’s Judges, was
the first purchaser of land in the province who had a manor granted to
him.
The Free Society of Traders obtained land on the river front south of
Dock Creek. The society built a sawmill and a glasshouse, both in the
same year, 1683. They also established a tannery, which was well
supplied with bark and hides. Leather was in general use for articles of
clothing, such as are now made of other goods. Penn himself wore leather
stockings.
In 1695 the exportation of dressed and undressed deerskins was
prohibited in order to promote their utilization at home.
But as the people arrived and settled they probably found they could do
better by themselves than in a company and its schemes were not carried
out. So the Free Society of Traders, from which much had been expected
and which actually yielded so little, came to an end March 2, 1723, when
an act of Assembly placed its property into the hands of trustees for
sale to pay its debts.
The trustees appointed were Charles Reed, Job Goodson, Evan Owen, George
Fitzwater and Joseph Pigeon, merchants of Philadelphia. These soon
disposed of the property.
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Davy, the Lame Indian, Surrenders at Fort
Pitt, May 30, 1783
During the morning of May 30, 1783, an Indian was discovered sitting on
a porch in Pittsburgh, holding in his hand a light pole.
When a girl of the household responded to his alarm he asked her in
broken English for milk. She told members of the family that the Indian
was a mere skeleton and they appeared on the porch and found him so thin
and emaciated that they could scarcely detect any flesh upon his bones.
One of his limbs had been wounded, and the pole had been used as a sort
of crutch.
On being questioned, he appeared too weak to give much of an account of
himself, but drank of the milk. Word was immediately sent to General
William Irvine, commandant of the garrison of Fort Pitt, who sent a
guard and had him taken to the fort.
When questioned, he said that he had been trapping along Beaver River,
and had a difference with a Mingo Indian who shot him in the leg,
because he had said he wished to come to the white people. This story
was not believed, especially by some who thought they recognized him as
an Indian known as Davy. He was told to tell the truth, he would fare
better, and he gave an account of the attack on the Walthour settlement,
April 24, in which the following facts were related:
Five or six men were working in Christopher Walthour’s field, about
eight miles west of the present Greensburg. Among the workers was a
son-in-law, named Willard, whose daughter, sixteen years old, was
carrying water to the men.
The workers were surprised by the appearance of a band of Delaware who
captured the girl. The men reached their guns, which were a short
distance away, and made a running fight as they retired toward the fort.
Old man Walthour and Willard were killed, the latter falling not far
from the stockade. An Indian rushed out of the bushes to scalp Willard,
and was just in the act of twisting his fingers in the white man’s long
hair, when a well-directed rifle shot, fired from the fort, struck the
savage in the leg, who gave a horrid yell and made off toward the woods,
leaving his gun beside his victim.
As soon as a band of frontiersmen could be collected they pursued the
Indians, following their trail as far as the Allegheny River.
Almost two months after the attack the badly decomposed body of the
Willard girl was found in the woods not far from Negley’s Run. Her head
had been crushed in with a tomahawk and her scalp was gone.
The lame Indian after relating many horrid details told that he lay
three days without moving from the first place he threw himself in the
bushes fearing pursuit; then he crawled on hands and one foot until he
found the pole in a marsh, which he used to assist him, and in the
meantime lived on berries and roots. He lay all day on a hill
overlooking a garrison of militiamen, thinking of giving himself up, but
as they were not regulars he did not venture. Driven to desperation by
hunger, he decided to make his way to Fort Pitt, and give himself up to
regular soldiers.
Davy was confined in the guard house in the fort, but the news of his
capture and his identity reached the settlement of Brush Creek and
caused considerable excitement there.
Kindred and friends of the victims were hot for revenge and the chance
presented itself. Mrs. Mary Willard, the widow of the man Davy killed
and mother of the girl killed and scalped by his companions, accompanied
by a deputation of her neighbors, arrived at Fort Pitt and asked General
Irvine to deliver up the prisoner.
At first the request was refused, but when the body of the Willard girl
was afterward found, a mass-meeting was held and a committee chosen to
go to Fort Pitt and renew negotiations with General Irvine for the
surrender of Davy.
After much deliberation, General Irvine yielded to the pleadings of the
committee and surrendered the prisoner. The order of General Irvine to
the frontiersmen was as follows: “You are hereby enjoined and required
to take the Indian delivered into your charge by my order and carry him
safe into the settlement of Brush Creek. You will afterward warn two
justices of the peace and request their attendance at such times as they
shall think proper to appoint, with several other reputable inhabitants.
Until this is done and their advise and direction had in the matter you
are, at your peril, not to hurt him, nor suffer any person to do it.
Given under my hand at Fort Pitt, July 21, 1782.
“WILLIAM IRVINE.”